Chain Reaction of Praise

As believers in Jesus Christ, you and I enjoy the hope of eternal life. Our hope is certain. Our hope isn't dependent on positive thinking. Our hope, he writes, is grounded in truth.

Did you notice? Our hope is tied to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Let me put it this way. Our hope is not dead because Jesus is not dead. Our hope is not empty because the tomb is. Biblically speaking, hope is not the same as a wish.

The reason that's true is because of what Stephen said a moment ago. Our hope is based in the completed work of Jesus Christ and that certainty changes everything. In today's passage, Peter tells us that we can be certain of what awaits us in heaven. Christ is reserving for us an eternal inheritance.

That truth should change our attitude. Today, Stephen Davey has a message for you called A Chain Reaction of Praise. Jay Allen Blair, a former pastor and author in the early to mid-1900s on the radio for decades and well-known.

I have all of his books. I had the privilege of preaching his funeral. And he told the story of a pastor he knew who always seemed to be overflowing in gratitude for something. He pastored a little church and a farming community and everyone knew him for his thankful spirit. And every time the congregation met, they knew there was this traditional pastoral prayer and they knew their pastor would thank God for something. And he rarely repeated himself. No matter what the circumstances, he found something for which to give God thanks.

One particular Sunday, Blair writes, an unexpected snowstorm along with sharp, bitter winds that blew in from the north. As the little flock rode their horse-drawn carts to church, Blair writes, they wondered what in the world could the pastor possibly be thankful for on such a day. As the service opened, he stood to pray. They couldn't help but smile when they heard him pray, Heavenly Father, we thank you that not every day is as bad as this one. Well, maybe that's your prayer today.

Every day is not as bad as this one. Well, Peter is writing a letter to people in the first century who couldn't imagine anything really to be thankful for. They're facing a snowstorm of doubt and trouble, suffering. These snowdrifts of trials have just sort of mounted up before them.

They're scattered throughout Pontius and Galatia and Cappadocia and Asia and Bithynia. They're sort of trudging through life against these bitter winds of growing sorrow and persecution. This is not what they had expected. Peter picks up his quill, and after some opening comments that we've looked at in these last few weeks, he begins to remind them of things for which they can give God thanks. It's so profound, especially as you consider their situation. In fact, his opening statement in verse 3, let's go there, chapter 1 of 1 Peter and verse 3.

It's really nothing less than a doxology. Notice, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, blessed be God. You can actually get rid of the word be.

That's implied. Blessed God. Blessed is God. Blessed be God is the idea. You could well read this as an exclamation that simply says, thank God.

Even if it's something like, Lord, I'm glad every season of life is not as bad as this one. What Peter does following this statement is he basically sets off a chain of events, a chain of things or issues here that sort of trip over each other. But before we do, let me just quickly address one particular issue that might trouble you when you read that opening statement. It's this reference to God the Father as Jesus is God. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

If Jesus has a God, then he obviously isn't one, right? Well, whenever you see this kind of phrase, the apostles are providing both a human perspective and a divine perspective of Jesus Christ. From the Lord's human nature or perspective, God the Father is his God. From the Lord's divine perspective as God the Son, God is his Father. That is, he has the very divine nature of the Father. That's why he could say, if you see the Father, you see me.

If you see me, you see the Father. I come and I express the glory of the Father, he says. So the word God here expresses the Lord's relationship as the Son of Man.

The word Father expresses the Lord's relationship as the Son of God. So both the Lord's humanity and his deity are carried forward in this statement. And listen, without being both true, without both of them being true, our salvation would be impossible.

There's really nothing to thank God about or nothing to trust in Christ. He had to be man in order to die, but he had to be God in order to die for us. God's great mercy gives us new life. Notice verse 3 again. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born.

Again, let's stop there for a moment. His great mercy saved us. His great mercy gave us life. We're saved because God is not going to give us what we deserve. We deserve his judgment, we deserve hell, we deserve punishment.

None of us, and we would readily say it, who are truly converted would ever say, oh, I deserve heaven. Oh, I deserve God's forgiveness. Oh, I deserve everything he's planned for me.

No, we don't deserve any of it. In fact, the older I grow in the Lord, the more aware I am of what I really don't deserve about what God is and what God has done and what God gives me. I certainly didn't deserve to be born again. I certainly didn't deserve new life. I certainly didn't deserve to have a fresh start every single day with a promise that even now the blood of Jesus Christ is cleansing me from every sin because I keep sinning. 1 John 1-7. But God continues to show you and me his great mercy.

His great mercy. Max Lucado wrote a story, a true story, he retold it about something that happened in a small, poor village in Brazil, a little hut with a dirt floor, a little red tile roof. There lived Maria, the widow, and her daughter, Christina. Maria's husband had died when Christina was just an infant and she'd done her best to raise her daughter. Now Christina was an older, pretty teenage girl. The time came for her to seek out employment to help Maria's job, add to the income. Maria was a custodian. It was just enough to get food and clothing and shelter, but they eked out this very simple existence and it was now time for Christina to find a job.

Christina had, Lucado writes, a streak of independence and she was above being a cleaner. She wanted more out of life. And she often said, I'm going to leave all this behind and go to Rio de Janeiro and the exciting city life there. Her mother would always react in fear and warn her daughter, saying the streets are cruel in that city for a young girl.

Her mother was fully aware that if her daughter ever went there on her own, she'd not be able to support herself. Maria knew where her daughter might end up in order to survive, which is why the morning when Maria found her daughter's pallet empty without a note written, her heart filled with fear for what it might mean. After some time, Lucado writes, when it was clear Christina was no longer anywhere in the village, Maria packed her old suitcase and headed for the bus depot. She stopped first on her way at a little drugstore where she took all the money she could possibly spare, closed the curtain and took all the pictures that she could afford. Then armed with her bag of clothing and a purse full of little black and white photographs, she headed for Rio de Janeiro. When she arrived, she looked at all the public places, restaurants and malls and even some bars.

Maria was nowhere to be found. She looked for days that turned into weeks. She eventually found out some of the parts of the city where there was a reputation for prostitutes.

She knew that Christina had no way of earning money legitimately. When hunger and pride combined, she knew her daughter was stubborn, she'd do anything but return home. So Maria began to comb through the hotels and nightclubs. Wherever she went, she would tape her picture to a wall or to some kind of bulletin board. And on the back of each photograph, she had written the same message. Finally out of money, out of photographs, tired, broken hearted, Maria went home.

Sometime later, Christina, months later, descended the steps of a hotel. She looked across the lobby and saw a familiar face taped to a mirror. She recognized the picture and her eyes filling with tears and her throat burning, she ran across the lobby floor. She pulled the picture off and sure enough, it was a picture of her mother. She touched it and she wept and then happened to turn it over and when she did, she read the note on the back of the photograph her mother had written that read, Wherever you are, whatever you have become, it doesn't matter, come home.

And she did. This is the mercy of God who offers to us who are wandering and pitiful and miserable. We have nothing whatsoever to offer him and he offers us life and home. The second truth that leads us to thank God is not only for our new life, notice, but our living hope, verse three, according to his great mercy, God has caused us to be born again. Notice, to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. In other words, we have a hope that is alive because Jesus Christ is alive. Now understand that hope in the Bible is more than a vague wish.

You know, like I hope we have pizza for lunch. A vague wish is not biblical hope. Let me add to that, hope in the Bible is more than positive thinking. You don't look in the mirror and say, okay, hey, today's going to be great. You know, that's the sum of it.

Like that book you read in the elementary school about the little engine, you know, who was going up that little hill and he's saying, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can, and you turn the pages as quickly as you could as I did to find out if he made it and he made it. That's great. Hope isn't vague wishes. Hope is not positive thinking. Hope in the Bible is defined as certain expectation. And it has with it this sense of anticipation. Our hope isn't dependent on positive thinking or, you know, a lot of pizza or certain football teams experiencing the wrath of God.

Whatever. No, that isn't it. Our hope, he writes, is grounded in truth.

Did you notice? It's tied to what? Our hope is tied to the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Let me put it this way. Our hope is not dead because Jesus is not dead. Our hope is not empty because the tomb is empty. So our hope is a living hope, Peter writes, because we have a living Lord. The third truth that leads us to thanksgiving here is, in this text, our eternal inheritance. To obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.

Wow. In other words, you don't just have a certain expectation. You have an eternal inheritance. Now, throughout the New Testament, if you're older in the faith, you probably know the believer is called a joint heir or an heir with Christ.

In Acts chapter 20 and Galatians chapter 3 and Ephesians chapter 3, the idea of the believer inheriting some inheritance as a joint heir of Christ. Now, in the Old Testament, this idea to the Jewish follower of God, they expected to inherit and their inheritance was the promised land. And we call it the promised land because the land was promised to them as their inheritance. And the New Testament clearly declares that Israel, Paul says, that they will one day be repentant and restored and reconstituted as a nation as Jesus descends to set up the kingdom. The land will be their inheritance.

It isn't going to be taken away, they're going to get it. Again, this could be a sermon, but we're told, and I'll do it fairly rapidly, that our inheritance includes eternal life, Titus 3.7. Our inheritance includes the kingdom of God, Matthew 25, verse 34. Our inheritance includes the sealing by means of the Spirit of God, who's our guarantee, Ephesians 1.14. We're told that our inheritance includes rewards, Colossians 3.24. Salvation is referred to as our inheritance. That will never be taken away, Hebrews 1.14. In fact, in a moment, we'll look at this future aspect of salvation. We're even told that we're going to inherit the earth, Matthew 5, verse 5. It's intriguing to me. All the liberals and all the atheists and all the evolutions and all those who deny are creator God who are scrambling to save the earth.

Guess what? They're not going to save the earth. God is actually saving it for you. He will recreate it, Peter will tell us later, Hebrew, so the earth never really did belong to them, but one day it will belong to you. This is yours.

Enjoy it. It's your inheritance. Now, Peter describes our inheritance, notice, with some interesting words and phrases. He first says it's imperishable.

That means pretty much what it says. It's just impossible to experience decay. It isn't going to perish. It isn't going to pass away. You can understand this to mean it isn't going to come to ruin.

It is indestructible. The word also carries the idea of an invading army leaving destruction in its wake. And I couldn't help but apply it, of course, to these believers. In their context, the scattered believers are surrounded by enemies. Their lives have been invaded. Their lives have been disrupted.

Their homes and their lands have been taken away from them. Imagine how encouraging it is to be reminded, as they read here, that their inheritance will never be invaded. It will never be destroyed.

It will never be taken away from them. Peter also calls our inheritance, notice, undefiled, unstained, unpolluted. It speaks of a coming life that will never be stained by pollution.

Imagine the pristine air and the crystal clear water of your newly created planet, have I mentioned, that belongs to you. The word also speaks of life without the stain of sin. It could also be understood as life without crime, without fear. Imagine a life without locks and alarms. Keys are no longer necessary.

Wouldn't it be great, you never have to ask, where did I put my keys? Where did I put my glasses? None of that's going to be, I'm going to have so much more time on my hands because I'm not looking for my keys or my glasses. And I am getting old. I know it doesn't look like it.

I looked for my glasses the other day and my wife said, honey, they're on your head. There will be no prisons in heaven, no police, and no radar guns. Peter is informing these scattered believers and us that our inheritance will be without any stain, without any blemish. Our bodies, certainly, but imagine no stain or blemish on our hearts, our minds, no regrets. Everything about us, as well as our inheritance, will be undefiled. Peter adds, notice, it'll not fade away.

Now, that's interesting to me. You can render it, it'll not grow dim. I was actually used, in classical Greek, to refer to the fading beauty of flowers. Part of our fallen nature, beloved, is that we get used to stuff, right? We get used to people. We get used to special blessings. We get used to things. The first time down the roller coaster was the scariest.

The first time you went off the high dive was the most thrilling. And you get used to it. You ever wonder if you'll get tired of gold pavement? You ever wonder if, you know, yeah, the Father's house, wow, those gems, they're big.

I've seen them. You ever wonder if you're not going to be as excited about your heavenly estate, that God has prepared for you in the Father's house? You know, after a million years, man alive, I need to hang some pictures or something.

I need a fresh look. You ever wonder, of course you don't, I do, but maybe you don't. You wonder if the flowers and the orchard along the river will lose its vibrancy to you, and you'll just get used to it.

Think about it. The new earth, the new heavens, the universe, the Father's house, that glittering gold home where we have our residence and then we just skirt about the universe doing this bidding, it'll never lose its wonder. The glory of God and the throne of Christ and the royalty of the saints and your clothing of the beloved, and even the gems in the Father's house and those gold paved streets, none of that will ever fade away, but it'll never diminish in its freshness to us.

It's wonderful. We will never get used to it, is what he's saying, and we will never get over it. Peter writes at the end of verse 4, This inheritance is reserved in heaven for you. By the way, heaven is the safest place you could ever have anything reserved, right? Chuck Swindoll writes in his commentary on this text and says, After you arrive, some celestial receptionist isn't going to look at you and say, Now, what was your last name again? Can I see your credit card just one more time? No, he writes, After your long journey through life, the living God will welcome you home without one inch of red tape.

Your reservation will never get lost. When you think about our inheritance, it's staggering. I dug around this week to find some interesting stories of inheritances left by some wealthy people. Two homeless brothers, I found this story. These are true. In Eastern Europe, they're basically homeless, living together, and they inherited more than $1 billion from a grandmother they never knew.

They had to track these guys down. I found the rather tragic story of one of the richest women in Asia leaving her vast fortune to her mystic guru because he promised her that he could guarantee her eternal life. Listen, the only person who can guarantee you eternal life is someone who is eternal. That's exactly what Peter wants us to thank God about in this fourth and final truth that leads us to praise God. Not only can we praise God for our new life, our living hope, our eternal inheritance, but fourthly, God's personal guarantee. He writes in verse 5, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed at the last time. Not only is our inheritance reserved for us in heaven, Peter tells us we are protected by the power of God for this future aspect of salvation which he's going to roll out at the last time.

That's the final day of consummation when God ushers us into that new heaven and new earth. Now, very quickly, salvation in the Bible, the New Testament has three aspects to it. There's a past tense aspect. There's a present tense aspect. And there is a future aspect to your salvation where in heaven you'll be delivered from the very presence of sin. Now, how can you be sure you're going to make it all the way from justification to glorification, especially if there's a lot of turbulence, you know, in the middle in sanctification, right?

How do you know? You have God's guarantee. Peter writes that you are even now, present tense, you are even now being protected by the power of God. You're being protected. It's a military word for being shielded, for being guarded, for setting a guard to watch over something important or valuable. So who's doing the guarding here? Who is guarding your inheritance? Who is guarding you?

God. You have this personal guarantee. And your inheritance, Peter writes, is coming. It's coming. In fact, everything's ready. Ready to be revealed at the last time, literally the appropriate time. And listen, if everything was ready 1900 years ago, it's really ready now.

And you'd better be ready. And you're ready when you accept Christ as your Lord and Savior. Here's the message of God through the inspired pen of Peter. Scattered people who wondered if God had lost interest in them.

They have no market value. They are scorned by their world. They certainly know they're sinners, but they are sinners who believe in the personal resurrected Savior. So God is telling them and us through Peter this. You are ever wandering and you are ever sinful, but I am great with mercy. You don't deserve to live, but I have given you a new life and every day a fresh start. You are bankrupt and penniless, but I have given you an incredible inheritance.

You're homeless, you're wandering, you're scattered throughout the kingdom's birth. But I'm guaranteeing that I will bring you home. I like to think of this text as a photograph of God himself here.

And he's written on the back of the photograph to those who will believe. Here's what it says, it doesn't matter where you are, it doesn't matter what you've done. Because of my great mercy, I've given you life and I will bring you home.

You belong to me. I sure hope this lesson from God's Word was an encouragement to you today. This is Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davey. Stephen has appropriately named the message you just heard a chain reaction of praise. We'll bring you the next message in this series tomorrow.

But in the meantime, we'd enjoy hearing from you. We received this note a few days ago. My 12-year-old granddaughter was struggling with doubting her faith and salvation. My son gave her Pastor Davey's booklet on whether a Christian can lose their salvation entitled Blessed Assurance. Her father, my son, called and thanked me for giving him that booklet over a year ago. Because it resulted in my granddaughter choosing faith instead of doubt.

That was from Theresa in Florida. It's so encouraging to learn how our resources are blessing people. Write to us at info at wisdomonline.org and share your story. Again, that's info at wisdomonline.org. And then join us next time as Stephen Davey brings you more wisdom for the hearts. Thanks for watching!