When Christians in the first century began to despair because of the many trials they were facing, the Apostle Peter wrote to assure them of the hope that's unique to believers. What makes a Christian's hope different from the wishful thinking of the rest of the world?
Alistair Begg explores the answer to that today on Truth for Life. When we looked last Sunday morning at the opening two verses of this five-chapter letter, we discovered that there are three things which Peter tells us are true of every Christian, three things which are true of every genuine believer. And they're these—you'll find them in the second verse—that the genuine believer has been chosen by God the Father, has been cleansed by the blood of the Lord Jesus, and is sanctified by the power of the Holy Spirit. And it is with this great and overarching theme of the nature of salvation that Peter is concerned in these opening verses. Indeed, it would be true to say that it is the nature of what it means to be saved that is the consuming passion of Peter's mind as he writes to these individuals, lest there should be those to whom he communicates who have got some strange and spurious notion of the nature of faith.
And so he writes to bring clarity. And as he begins, he wants no one to be in any doubt that when it comes to knowing God, these facts are true—that when a person comes to express faith in Jesus, and as they look back on that experience from the vantage point of time, they're going to be able to say this, God the Father planned it, God the Son procured it or achieved it, and God the Spirit applied it to my life. And when Peter ponders this and as he writes about it and reaches the end of verse 2, the effect that it has upon him is to create a great outburst of praise. And it is with that word that the third verse begins, you will notice. He immediately begins, Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, in much the same way that we find in much of our hymnody.
Certainly as we sing, I hope that we do so with our minds engaged, lest we fall foul of the notion that it is simply that we're led along by the melody. And when we think of great hymns such as Praise my soul, the King of heaven, we come to those tremendous lines which read of the believer, Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven. And then presumably the writer stopped and pondered the wonder of that and then immediately takes his pen and writes, Who like thee his praise should sing?
Now, don't ever forget as we read this that we're dealing with a real man. We're dealing with Peter, Peter whom we had described for us last time, Peter who knew what it was to be a dreadful failure, Peter it was who got it right a measure of the time and got it wrong an equal amount of the time. And so as he thinks of the wonder of what it means to be in Christ, it's hardly surprising that he expresses it in this tremendous praise. Now, what then follows is theology. It is a knowledge of God. And as it is penned for us here and as our hearts are open to it this morning, it's important for us to realize and to reaffirm this fact that theological truth is not some rarefied concern akin to an interest in some obscure painter or some obscure composer. But theological truth is the melody line of the Christian's life. It is the very foundation. It is the score.
It is what allows us to play out, as it were, in the musical expression of our days. And you will notice that here his conviction is that the praise goes not to a God. Well, you notice that. He doesn't say, Praise be to a God. He says, Praise be to the God. And who is the God? He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, we might be tempted just to skim over that—familiarity with it, perhaps—but let us not miss the point. There are many today in our nation who believe in God—God with a small g, who believe in a God with a small g. But they have no knowledge of, no interest in, no acquaintance with, the one true God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That, of course, was the issue that Jesus confronted and eventually, on one level, led to his crucifixion. If you have a Bible, you might like to turn for a moment and listen to Jesus speak concerning this in John chapter 5, where in verse 36 he says this, I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the very work that the Father has given me to finish, and which I am doing, testifies that the Father has sent me.
And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, nor does his Word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. You see, it is not enough this morning that we go out and find out if people believe in God.
The issue is, what God do you believe in? And Jesus says categorically, you have never heard his voice, you have never seen his form, his Word doesn't dwell in you. The reason is not that you don't believe in God, because the Jews believed in God. They were monotheists.
They believed in God big time. But Jesus says, no, you've got it wrong, because you do not believe the one he sent. Listen to this, you diligently study the Scriptures.
That's a good thing to do, because you think that by them you possess eternal life, and you may. But, says Jesus, these are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life. And then he asks this question, how can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God? How can men and women, consumed with the accolades of those around them, ever truly believe in the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ unless they come to him in the name and in the person of his Son? It is vital living in the New Age environment in which we do, in which men and women are saying, of course we believe in God. Everyone is God, and you are God, and I am God, and we're all just a little bit of God. We all have the seeds of God in us.
If we can just plug in somehow. Now, you as believers this morning are going to go back into that environment tomorrow. What are you going to say to those people?
Are you just going to cough over your coffee? Are you just going to say, oh yes, that's interesting? No, you see, you must be into your Bible. You must be saying, well, you know, I'd love to talk with you about that, because just yesterday morning we were discovering what Jesus had to say concerning that. I wonder, have you ever read John's Gospel?
For what we do on these days—and this is on my heart so heavily at the moment—what we're doing in the moment as we gather is not for the benefit of us. It is for the benefit of those who don't know. It is for the benefit of those who have never believed.
It is for the opening of the eyes of those who have never conceived of Christ. Now, there are three things that I was going to deal with, and I'm going to only deal with one of them, I would imagine, which will be a great encouragement to all. But there are three things in verses 3, 4, and 5 that we're going to pay attention to as we go through it. First of all, Peter tells us what we've been given. Then he tells us what we're guaranteed. And then he tells us how we're guarded.
First of all, what we've been given. This is in the third verse. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his great mercy he has given us. Now, let's just pause for a moment on that first phrase, in his great mercy.
The word mercy describes pity and compassion towards the miserable. It describes the gracious activity of someone towards an undeserving party. Now, we're all familiar with those people who get prizes for running the fastest, or for jumping the highest, or for talking the loudest, or for writing the clearest, or whatever it might be. You do this, you get that.
You perform, and you receive the award. But Peter is not speaking in these terms. He says, no, it is because of God's mercy that we discover this. And the word assumes only two things.
It assumes need on the part of the recipient and adequate provision on the part of the donor. And when Peter uses this phrase, in his great mercy, it is in his heart. The word for mercy, elios. The word for much, pollu.
Pollu, autu, elios. Much, much mercy, he says. The same word that Paul uses in Ephesians 2. Those of you who've gone to the photographer and had to sit for something, perhaps somebody told you that you needed a photograph because you were going to do something, and so you went and had your photographs taken. And you thought, as you woke up in the morning and looked in the mirror, that you didn't just look your best.
And I can speak from personal experience, and I'm not going to embarrass anyone in the congregation by naming them, but nevertheless, in recent months I've been in this predicament. And sitting there, under the invasive gaze of this lens, you might be tempted to say to the photographer, now, I would very much like for this portrait to do me justice. And the photographer may well be ready to respond, Alistair, what you require is not justice.
Right? It is mercy. Mercy. There's only so much you can do with a face like that.
If your mother hadn't lifted you out of the crib by your ears as much, we could have done better. No, you don't require justice, you require mercy. And yet, you know, it's hard to go through a week without somebody in your office or in your faculty in the university saying to you, oh, you know, I don't think it's fair. I don't think it's right. I deserve better than this, you know. I should have something more.
This shouldn't happen to me. Listen, loved ones, we need to understand this, that it is in God's great mercy that he gives us anything at all. It is by his mercy that we have breath to breathe in this morning hour. It is by his grace and his mercy that he allowed us to dress and have the faculty of our thinking both to speak and to listen. And in his great mercy that he has given us new birth, says Peter, according to the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The word that he uses here, the verb that he uses here for new birth, anagenale, is a distinct and singular usage.
It's an exclusive term, and it is a descriptive term. Many people today say, oh, you're not one of those born-again people, are you? Every so often I'm involved in a conversation somewhere, and they will say that to me. And I said to them, yes, I am. And they will then say, well, what have you been listening to? Religious television or something?
Isn't this a 20th century phenomenon? And they say, no, no, let me tell you, let me show you. Go in and get your New Testament, just turn to John 3, and just say, listen, this was Jesus with a religious guy, thought I had it down, and this is what Jesus said to him. He said, hey, Nicodemus, unless you're born again, you'll never see the kingdom of God. Unless you're born again, Nicodemus, you'll never enter the kingdom of God. And Nicodemus said, what?
Can I, a grown man, enter a second time into my mother's womb and be born? Jesus must have scratched his head and said, man, I thought you were brighter than that, Nicodemus. I mean, don't be ridiculous. We're talking spiritual terms. And Peter had understood that.
That had taken place in Peter's life. And he says, this is marvelous. It's because of his mercy that he has given us something. We didn't earn it. He gave it to us. And what did he give us? He gave us new birth. Why would you ever need birth? Why would you ever need life?
Unless, of course, you were dead. And the message of the gospel this morning is not for us to go out and say to men and women, you know, you are lost and you need direction. They are. It is not to say to them, you're unhappy and you need joy.
They do. It is not to say you're confused and you need an explanation. That's true. It's not to say you're weak and you need strength. It is to say this. The Bible says, face the real facts.
You're dead, and you need to be alive. And when Paul writes concerning it in Ephesians 2—and you can turn to this if you have your Bible again—Ephesians 2 and verse 4, look at what he says. Because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy, palú, elios.
What did he do? He made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in our transgressions and in our sins. Now, there's an interesting thing about this verb anagoneo, because by the second century, this word started to be used for baptism. And that has led to much of the confusion in the subsequent years and the preoccupation with baptism as a means of salvation. That is why many people today believe that if you're baptized, either as an adult or a child, somehow that confers salvation upon you.
But in actual fact, what the New Testament teaches is that while baptism pictures salvation, it doesn't perform salvation. And it is a word that is descriptive of a life-changing event. Now, you will notice that it is his mercy that is the ground of this, that he has given us new birth. This means a change of status, it means a change of nature, and it means a change of prospect.
What has he done? He's given us new birth, which has led us into something, into a living hope. A living hope. The reason the hope is living is because Jesus is living. That's what the next phrase means. A living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
In other words, if Jesus Christ is not alive, then the whole thing's finished. But, says Peter, I know he's alive, because I saw him, and I talked with him, and he came to me and met me on the shore. And he said to me, Peter, do you still love me?
And I said, yeah, I do. And he said, feed my sheep. And that's why I'm writing you this letter in obedience to the risen Lord Jesus. And he says to the scattered Christians persecuted by those around him, he says, I want you to know that in your hearts he has transferred you from the realm of the hopeless into the realm of the hopeful. Now, the word hope here doesn't simply describe an objective prospect. It's not something simply that is out there towards which we look.
But the word describes a subjective reality. It is something in here which we experience. We have been delivered from the realm of hopelessness. I think that sometimes we are preoccupied with the symptoms of hopelessness. You see, we think that somehow hopeless people are those who are maybe not as fortunate physically or mentally or materially as we might be. But the fact of the matter is this morning, dear ones, that the happy, fulfilled, suburban pagan is just as lost and just as hopeless.
The only difference is that he has built more walls, accumulated more toys, found more securities to stave off that notion that maybe in actuality he lives in a realm of hopelessness. And the believer has been delivered out of that into a living hope. Do you remember reading Hamlet at school? Do you remember those opening scenes? You'll find it in Act 1, Scene 2, actually.
I know, because I went to check, just to be sure. The tragic description of the events that Hamlet regards as quite devastating in the loss of his father, the remarriage of his mother to his uncle. And the king comes to him.
That is his uncle. And he says to him, How is it that the clouds still hang on you? Some of you are here this morning, and that is a very apropos question.
You're going to walk out the door and get into your comfortable car and drive for a comfortable lunch in your comfortable home. But I want to ask you a question. How is it that the clouds still hang on you? And Hamlet, in that first soliloquy, says, O how weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world! But for the believer, transferred from the realm of hopelessness, in by the great mercy of God, by the giving of a gift—not by the earning of a salvation, by the giving of a gift—into a living hope, because this Jesus is alive today. That answers the first question that many people have concerning faith, and that is simply this. I don't think I could ever be good enough to join, as it were, that Christian club.
Listen, you're dead right you never could, and neither could I, and we don't need to be. All we need to be is humble enough to acknowledge our need, and open-handed enough to receive his grace. And the great transfer takes place.
Well, then somebody says, But if I were to do that, how would I ever be able to keep going? Well, that's the second thing that he addresses. That's the guarantee. And that, all being well, will be the focus of our study. Shall we bow together in prayer? Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his great mercy, has given his new birth into a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Thank you this morning, gracious God, that Jesus is alive from the dead. Thank you that you have so ordered things that you look into our hearts to see whether we would have the faith as of a little child to realize that we are great sinners, but that Christ is a great Savior, and to come with the clouds hanging on us to receive all the joy and peace that he offers. I pray that you will take us as a congregation and make us not arrogant but sincere. Make us diligent, Lord, and genuinely concerned. Grant that we might be gracious in the days of this week, that having pondered again these truths, having had it illustrated for us so graphically in the testimony that we've heard, may our hearts be stirred within us.
May our lives tell out your greatness. And may the love of the Lord Jesus draw us to himself. May the joy of the Lord Jesus give us strength. May the hope of the Lord Jesus fill our hearts and overspill to those around us. For we pray in Christ's great name.
Amen. You're listening to Truth for Life. That is Alistair Begg with a message he's titled, A Living Hope.
We'll hear more from Alistair on this tomorrow. In this study in the book of 1 Peter, the Apostle instructs us to trust entirely in the saving work of Christ and to be transformed into his likeness. With that in mind, we want to recommend to you a book titled, The Glorious Christ. This is a collection of deeply profound meditations on the eternal majesty and power and redemptive purpose of the Lord Jesus. The book has been drawn from the rich insights of the Puritan theologian John Owen. The author, Chris Lundgaard, a longtime student of John Owen's work, has compiled these readings to give us an intimate and personal encounter with the Savior. No matter how long you have been a believer, each of the selections in this book will compel you to read them again slowly so you can take your time and process the substantive truths about the person and work of Christ.
These meditations offer tremendous insight into Jesus' relationship with his Father and how he is the very reflection of the glory of God. The Glorious Christ is yours today when you donate to Truth for Life using the mobile app or online at truthforlife.org slash donate. And if you'd prefer, you can call us.
The number is 888-588-7884. I'm Bob Lapine. All of us have heard stories of extraordinary inheritances. Tomorrow we'll learn why nothing compares to what God has set aside for each of his children. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.
