The title of my message today is going to be our hope as exiles. Hope for exiles. And so today we're going to look at verses 3 through 12. So let us give attention to the reading of God's word. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again, to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials. So that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you, and the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things which angels long to look. This is God's holy and inspired word. May he add his blessing to it. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word, and we thank you that in it you give us a great hope. You show us your plan of salvation that it is through Jesus Christ by faith. And you show us that while we are exiles here in this world, this is not our home, our true home being of heaven, that we can persevere and endure suffering because we have a living hope. a great inheritance that awaits us. Lord, help us to see that great inheritance, to keep our eyes fixed on Christ as we seek to live in this world and love you as best we can. We pray this in Christ's holy name. Amen. As people, we are all wired to hope in things. And hope helps us to actually endure certain trials and suffering. And if I were to ask you, what are some of the things you hope in today? What are some of those things that maybe you place your hope in? Everybody hopes in something. Maybe it's your job. Maybe it's your kids. Maybe it's the retirement fund that you're saving. What are the things that you hope in? And when you go into trials, the word tells us that when you face trials, trials are guaranteed, they will come if you are a believer, will that hope help you persevere through those trials? What is your hope here today? So today we're gonna talk about the Christian hope, and we're talking about the hope as exiles, and next time we're gonna talk about the hope as sinners. Hope helps us to endure. When I was in Nebraska, I had to endure the cold winters. And one thing that kept my hope alive that helped me to endure that was the hope that spring was coming. It would be warm. I would be able to thaw out and enjoy the warmth. And as I was a storm chaser back in the day, I enjoyed spring. And so I looked forward to endure the torment of winter for me by looking forward to spring. Now, Peter actually is writing to Christians who are facing their own persecution and trials and suffering. If you look at verse one, he calls them elect exiles. So these are Christians who, because of their faith, they have endured persecution, trials, and suffering. And because of that, they've had to disperse. And so Peter writes to them to encourage them in the faith. And if you remember Peter, He was one who would say, Lord, I'll never deny you. And when he failed, what happened to Peter? He denied the Lord three times. But then how did Jesus restore him? He said, feed my sheep, shepherd my sheep. And now this is Peter, he is writing, and he wants to shepherd the people. He wants to guide them to be able to endure through suffering. And so we see that here in our passage today. And so what we're going to see here is that because we have a living hope through the work of Christ, we can persevere and rejoice even in the midst of suffering. So that's the big idea for today. We're going to see that in three points. First, we're going to see we can rejoice because we have a living hope. Second, we can rejoice knowing what trials produce. And third, we can rejoice in our privileged position. I know this is a big chunk of scripture. Bear with me, we're going to go through it. Daniel encouraged me, no one's going to stop me from the timing, so we'll see if that happens. But, well, let's dive right in. So first, let's consider the encouragement that Peter gives. We can rejoice because of our living hope. Look with me at verse 3. So notice what Peter starts off with. He starts off saying, blessed be God. He starts off with praise. Now you would think if you're receiving this letter, you're in persecution, that the first thing someone who's sending you a letter would be, would be like, I'm sorry you're going through this. Man, that stinks, you have to go through this trial. That stinks that you have to go through all these hard times. Man, I'm sorry about that. But that's not what Peter does here. In fact, as he's thinking about this, he wants to rejoice. He wants to bless God in the process of this. And he wants to remind these Christians who are exiles to also remember the great salvation they have in Christ. Because it's remembering who they are in Christ, remembering the great hope they have, that's gonna help them endure. So he directs their focus not to their circumstances, but to the hope they have in their salvation in God. So he says, blessed be God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is what we call a praise formula. In the Old Testament, if you're familiar with the Old Testament and many of the Psalms, they give this praise formula. First, they identify who they're praising, who they're giving the blessing to, and then they give a reason why. So consider Psalm 66, 33. So he identifies who he's blessing, God, and then he gives the reason. And Peter is doing something very similar here. In fact, what he's doing is he's actually not just doing an Old Testament formula, but a very, or a Jewish formula. He's doing a Christian formula. Look at the text again. He says, blessed be God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So A identifies who is receiving the blessing. It's God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And why? Because he's caused us to be born again. So he directs his praise to God. He directs it in a Christian way, the Lord Jesus Christ. And now he gives the reason. According to his great mercy, he's caused us to be born again. Notice he says according to mercy. What is mercy? Mercy is getting what you don't deserve. And Paul is remembering who he was, his past circumstances, and we'll discuss that more tomorrow morning. But he's remembering who he used to be, a persecutor of the church, one who actually hunted down Christians to kill them and put them in jail, to separate families because of their faith. He remembers who he was, but what he does is he says, I obtained mercy, and for this reason, For this reason, we can praise God. Peter also obtained mercy. As he denied Christ three times, God gave him much mercy, restoring him to a ministry. And so Peter as well can praise. And so he says, he has caused us to be born again. This is the mercy he shows. He's caused us. This is a great mercy. Notice who's the actor here. It's God. God's the actor here. He's the one who causes you to be born again. And Peter's blessing God because of that. He realizes that it's not because he made a right choice. It's not because he was presented with a set of circumstances that aroused his excitement. He didn't hear some good music that made him decide. He didn't hear music or this fancy kind of smoke fog that manipulated him to make a decision. No, he realizes that it's God who's the source. He caused us to be born again. In a similar way, with our regular birth, we didn't have a choice, right? We didn't have a choice to decide when we would be born, where we would be born, which parents we would have. And in a similar way, spiritually, God makes us born again by His Spirit. He's the actor here. He's the cause. And it's nothing we deserved. It's not because we did such good deeds that God causes us to be born again. But it's because of God. And so Peter here is praising God because of it. But why do we need to be born again? Why is that important? Why should we be praising God because of that? Daniel, is it all right if I move this? I'm a walker, so I... All right, cool. So why do we need to be born again? Consider our present circumstance when we enter into this world. I used to run nursery at a church in Omaha. And one of the things we realize is when you're with babies, sometimes you think, oh, they're cute, cuddly, and innocent. But if you're around babies long enough, you realize that's not the case. It's been said that they're vipers and diapers. And you don't have to teach them how to sin. You don't have to teach them how to be selfish and to grab a toy from another person. In fact, it's their nature. And we need to be born again because we have a sinful nature that we acquired from our father, Adam. Consider Romans 5. In Romans 5, Adam ushers in the human race into sin. God says, do this and live. If you do this, you'll earn blessing and life for your posterity, but if you fail, there'll be death. And as we know, Adam failed. He ushered in the human race into sin, and because of that, we have a sinful nature. So we need to be born again. We need a new nature. But in Christ, when we come to faith in him, we are given a new nature by the Spirit. We're regenerated, we're born again, and we're given a new nature. And notice it's mercy, it's something we don't deserve. And this is a great mercy. So in the midst of suffering, in the midst of persecution and trials, Peter wants to remind us that you have been born again, you have obtained mercy, you have a great salvation that you do not deserve. And because of that, praise God. Praise God even in the midst of your affliction. Now notice what else he says, to a living hope. We're made alive not just to be made alive, but we're given a living hope. A living hope. Notice it's living. It's not a hope that is dead. It's a living hope. A hope that does not die. Now it's not like earthly hopes. It's not like where you just hope in something, it's wishful thinking. If you're following the College World Series, I hope that Texas Tech, my alumni, will win it all. That's just wishful thinking. That's not what he's talking about here. He's talking about a certain hope, a hope that is guaranteed. So he's not talking about wishful thinking how we define it as, how we define hope as. Peter's talking about a certain hope, a secure hope. And he wants to point the Christian to that. Notice where this hope comes from. It's through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. We have a living hope that is certain because of the certainty of the resurrection. Because of the certainty of the resurrection. This is a fact. It actually happened. And because of that, the victory's been won. Death has been conquered. Oh, death, where is your sting? God sent his son, he gave us great mercy, and Jesus came, he paid for our sins, he lived a perfect life, but as you know, he went to the cross, he died, but it didn't end there. Our hope just didn't die there. But he was raised from the dead, he ascended to the right hand of the Father, and there, our hope is living even now. It's the resurrection that crowned the victory of Jesus, the greatest enemy of death has been defeated. So Peter reminds us in the midst of persecution, trials, hardships, that our redemption has fully been accomplished. The resurrection was the capstone of that, that guaranteed it. Romans 8, 11 says, So as sure as Christ was raised, so sure is the hope in Christ that he secured your salvation. And this provokes praise. Now notice what this living hope is to. Verse 4, look at the text. He says, Notice the phrase inheritance. Now if you remember your Old Testament, you know that this is a phrase that has great significance. The Jews were going through the wilderness with the goal of the inheritance that awaited them. They spent 40 years in the wilderness going through it with the hope that they would obtain the inheritance promised to them. And so, in a similar way, just as the Jews wandered through the wilderness, they were sustained by the promise of the inheritance. In the same way, we are pilgrims in this world. This is not our home. We are exiles. This is not our true home. But we are sustained by the inheritance that awaits us, that is guaranteed to us. And as Christians, that should give us a great hope. Because we've been born into God's family, we have been adopted into his family through faith in Christ. We obtain all the blessings and privileges as sons. We get an inheritance. It's an inheritance Christ earned by his obedience. And by being made alive, by being united to Christ, we partake in that. And in the midst of suffering, Peter points to the inheritance that awaits us. Hey, here's the end goal. Here's what awaits. You can endure the hardships that you face now. So Peter wants to encourage them in the midst of their troubles. He wants to remind them, hey, this is just momentary. There's a great inheritance that awaits for you. Now notice these words here. It is imperishable. That means it doesn't decay. It is undefiled. It cannot be corrupted by sin or death. It doesn't fade. Now there's so many things in this world that does fade. Beauty fades, right? Look at verse 24. He says another thing that fades. The flower fades. It's here today, gone tomorrow. But that's not what this hope is. And then at the end of the verse it says, it is reserved. It's reserved. This means it's secure. It can't be lost. It's guaranteed. I have a new appreciation for this word. A couple years ago I traveled to Texas to do an internship. And I had to drive from San Diego all the way to Texas. And in the meantime, I drove late at night. And I was scheduled to get in around 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning. And so a couple of days ahead of time, I reserved a hotel. I paid for it and everything. And I pull in around 1.30, 2-ish in the morning, and I'm exhausted. What kept me going through the night was the hope that I would have rest, the hope that I could sleep and I can recharge. But I get there, and I have to ring the doorbell because the guy's asleep. And I ring the doorbell, and I'm ready to get my room. And he looks at my ID, and he says, you don't have a reservation. I was like, what are you talking about? I paid for it and everything. It's like, yeah, you're not here. Sorry. We're full. It's like, are you kidding me? What do I do now? And I wasn't able to sleep there because my reservation was given away. It wasn't secure. It wasn't guaranteed. Even though the payment has been made, it was given to someone else. And thankfully, I was able to find another hotel in town and got some sleep and eventually made it to Texas. But Peter is saying, look, this guaranteed reservation for you is not like that, that can be given away. It cannot just be given to the next person simply because you didn't show up in time. In fact, it's something that's secure. It's something that is guaranteed. And for that, it should give us great hope. It's good to know our inheritance is secure. It's awaiting us, and it'll be there. So that's good to know, but look at verse five. Peter talks about that this inheritance that we have, it's secure, it's not gonna fade, it's not corrupted, but what about us? You know, the inheritance is secure, but I could fail, Peter. I'm a sinner. I could fail. Can I lose this? Will I make it to the end? Look at verse five. Who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed and the last time. So not only is our inheritance secure, but God secures us. He secures your faith. You cannot lose your salvation that we've been given. This is why we hold to the perseverance of the saints. It's because it's not dependent on us, it's dependent on God. Not only is the reservation guarded, but we are guarded too. We are guarded by the power of God. This is huge, this is encouraging. If you're a suffering believer in the midst of trials, you're not sure what's gonna happen, you know that your faith will be guarded, that it'll be secure, that God's gonna uphold it. This idea of being guarded is the idea of being kept in a fortress. It was a word used that was to describe a city that's becoming under siege, and they would stand and guard it and protect it. But our guarding isn't by mere man, who can lose energy, who can die. Our guarding is by God himself. This is a great protection. God keeps us through faith. So in the midst of trials, Peter goes, God perseveres your faith in Christ. He will help you to continually trust in him. He will strengthen your faith. He will help you persevere. And that is a great hope for the believer. And then look at the rest of the verse. He says, for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. What does that mean? Don't we already have salvation? Salvation means to be saved, to be delivered from punishment, to be rescued from sin and death. And it's given us a blessing of eternal life. It's being rescued. So why does he say it's ready to be revealed in the last time? Don't we have it already? We have faith in Christ? Scripture speaks of salvation in three ways, in a past, present, and future. future aspect past we've been saved we've been justified by faith we've been declared righteous right we are being saved in other words we're being sanctified we're gradually being made more and more to the image of Christ And then we will be saved. Scripture speaks of that as glorification. When Christ returns, we will have new bodies. We will be with him. This is why in Romans 13, 11, Paul says, salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. It's becoming closer and closer. It has been ready. It's prepared. So God before time has prepared, has ordained that this is gonna happen. So all our hurt, suffering, sorrows in this life, they're gonna end, we're gonna receive our glorified body in the last time when Christ returns. And so he's speaking about that in the last day. We will have that. And even so we say, come quickly, Lord Jesus. So as sure and certain as the resurrection victory, so is our inheritance that awaits us. It will help us to persevere by God's power. He will guard us through faith. We'll experience completely salvation that is ours in Christ in the last time. So as many get caught up in worldly inheritances, it's easy to forget this truth. Maybe you're here today and you think, well, there's no meaning to life. I'm just going on. What's the point? Why would God allow this to happen to me? Maybe the sickness or the diagnosis feels too much to bear. Maybe the job or the security seems in doubt. Maybe the finances are struggling and you're not sure how you will be able to carry on. Or maybe you're trying to live a Christian life in the midst of an ungodly world and you're persecuted for your faith. Maybe your friends make fun of you because you're not participating in things that you know are contrary to God's Word. What do we need in this time? What do we need when we're going through those things? Well, remember you have your greatest need met in Christ. You have been born again. You have a great inheritance. That is secure. That is guaranteed. Your faith will be guarded. And as we remember who we are in Christ, the hope we have in him, we're able to endure and persevere in the midst of any trials or hardships. And this, we should be driven along with Peter to rejoice and say, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So this is the first encouragement we've seen for suffering exiles. We rejoice in our living hope. Second, let's consider we can rejoice because we know what trials produce. Look with me at verse 6. He says, at the revelation of Jesus Christ. So he goes, this salvation that we've just talked about in verse three and five, in light of the mercy you've been shown, in light of the new birth you've been given, in light of looking forward to the certain inheritance that is guaranteed that awaits you, and knowing that God guards you and protects you and strengthens your faith, in light of all this, he says you rejoice. You rejoice. Even in the midst of trials, you can rejoice because of this hope you have. Notice he says, So he goes, you can rejoice because one, it's for a little while. In the midst of eternity, with that view in stake, this is only momentary. The trials you're facing now, that might seem overbearing, but it's only for a little while. There's no comparison at all to what we're experiencing now to the great inheritance we have that awaits us. Trials will not last forever in the light of eternity. And if you're a believer, there's an end in sight. And for that, we can persevere, we can rejoice. And then notice he says, if necessary, you've been grieved by various trials. So no one suffers unnecessarily. There's a purpose in mind. We may not understand what that is in the midst of it. We may not see how this is helpful to us. But Peter says God saw it necessary to help you grow, to help you be and shape you as the person he wants you to be. James 1, 2 through 4 says, he knew that there was a purpose. He says, count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. So the Christian never suffers meaninglessly. There's a purpose to it, and it's to build up your faith, to make you more into the image of Christ. And who's our perfect example of that? Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is our perfect example, right? Consider Hebrews 12. So Jesus went through the greatest trial, the greatest suffering, the greatest persecution. His family despised him. Even the Jews wanted to persecute him and kill him. He was misrepresented. And yet, he endured for the joy that was set before him. He knew what awaited him in the end. And he was able to endure the greatest trials of all, that anyone would suffer. And he did it because of the joy that was before him. And so Peter wants to fix us, fix our eyes, to calibrate us, to understand the joy that awaits us. So we can endure as well. And it's because of his suffering, ultimately, that we can ultimately have true joy, right? His suffering gives us true joy. In the greatest act of suffering, great joy comes from it. And then he says this, notice he says, you've been grieved by various trials. So he acknowledges that sometimes it's okay to grieve. You don't have to just force a smile on your face and say, oh, everything's all right. He says, you grieve, you can grieve. But in the midst of that, you can rejoice because you know what they're producing in the end. It's kind of like a hot and sour sauce at the Chinese restaurant. You're not sure how those go together, but in the end, they're sweet and it's good. In the same way, you can have suffering, you can have grieving, but you can also rejoice and it's a beautiful thing. And we have someone who went through all this, who we can turn to, Hebrews 2.18 says, since he himself was tempted in that which he has suffered, he is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted. So we can pray to God, we can pray to Christ, we can look to him as our perfect representative. You have a Savior who sympathizes with you, who also went through suffering, but was able to endure. We as Christians, as little Christ, we also should be able to endure for the hope that is set before us. And then look at verse 7, he says, So God's gonna do what's necessary to sanctify you, to continue to grow your faith. He's more committed to growing your faith than growing your comfort. Do you believe that? Our faith and joy is strengthened through suffering as we endure. And he gives this illustration of gold here. So that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than that of gold, though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. So have you ever found gold before? Probably no, but just so you understand, it's not, when you're out in the wild, if you will, I used to be a geologist and went to go look at rocks. But one thing is whenever you find gold, it's not what you look at in a ring. It doesn't look like that. It's actually filled with impurities. And so you need to remove the impurities in order to have the valuable gold. And how you do that, there's a process where you put it in a flame, you heat it up, you melt off the impurities, and in the end, you have the pure gold. And he says, in a similar way, when you're going through trials, the fire of trials, if you will, it's removing the impurities of the self-centeredness, of the pride, of all the things that might be hindering you from Christ's likeness. And if we do that with gold, how much more will God do that with faith? Sometimes we need to go through the fiery trials to eliminate our self-dependence, to help us rely more on God. It's a testing of faith that makes us stronger, that reveals what is truly valuable. In the end, you don't want to have everything just melt away. You want the real faith. So he says, you rejoice even though you're going through these trials because you know, one, it won't last forever, but two, you know what the trials are producing. You can endure through the midst of that. It shows, one, that your faith is real. It produces joy in your heart that is better than gold because you know you're a true child of God. You are able to endure. And your present suffering will also produce future benefits. like a muscle that must go through pain in order to strengthen and grow. So our faith must go through the painful process of trials and pruning to strengthen our faith. It's only going by those trials that your faith will grow. And in this, we can rejoice in the midst of it. It's kind of like when you go and you work out, you know that, you know, it's painful. But I'm going to keep doing it, I'm going to keep going through it, because I know in the end, there's a good result. I look at Daniel's photos sometimes, and I see him running through mud, and what do you call it, a Spartan race? Yeah, I know probably a couple of the other men here do that, and for me, I'm thinking, why would anyone want to do something like that, and torture their bodies? You know, there's a future benefit. You're stronger. You grow. You're able to know what you can endure and how you can endure something greater in the end. And there's a prize at the end, too. Have you experienced that? No? Okay. But in the end, we know that we're willing to go through it because there's a benefit to it. So he says. Consider Abraham. Father Abraham, right? We all know him. Genesis 15. He faced many trials, right? He faced trials. Consider him in his old age. He's close to 100. The Bible says he was basically as good as dead. And God comes and says, you're going to have a son. And this son, I'm going to bless all the nations through your son. And Abraham's like, are you kidding me? Do you realize how old I am? Do you realize my wife? We can't have a son. And so in that midst of that trial, you know, 10 years passed and still there's nothing. And he's struggling. And so he decides, oh, you know, I'll take matters into my own hands. He gets a concubine. That doesn't work out so well. And so God then does come, and as we know, gives Abraham a son, right? From a dead womb, God produces life. And that was a trial for Abraham. He had to learn, he had to grow, and he struggled through it. But it was preparing him and growing him for the greater trial that would await him later. What is that? Fast forward to Genesis 22. What happens there? the sacrifice of Isaac. And how does Abraham react then? God says, Abraham, take your son, whom you love, your only son, and go and sacrifice him on the mountain. And how does Abraham react? Well, God, are you kidding me? That's my only son, are you gonna give me another one? No, he says, all right, son, let's wake up early in the morning and let's go to the mountain. And he continues up the mountain and he goes up there all the way to the point of stabbing his son and launching it into his son to kill him. He had faith that God's gonna be faithful to his promises. Even though he might have to go through this hard trial, because he endured another trial that helped him grow his faith, he was able to endure that trial. And ultimately, we know God provided. He didn't have to sacrifice his son. God was testing him. And ultimately, it was pointing us forward to a greater sacrifice who would come, right? Jesus Christ, he who did not spare his own son, but freely gave him up for us all, how will he not freely give us all things? Christ came as God's son, and God did not spare his son. But as we see that, the trial that Abraham went through was able to strengthen his faith so he can endure greater trials. And in a similar way, sometimes we go through suffering, sometimes we go through trials to strengthen our faith, to prepare us for something greater. even maybe even to help others who are going through similar trials. And so, Peter says, consider what these trials produce. And then verse eight, he says, Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. So he was in the midst of this suffering Christ. Continue looking to him. Peter saw him. He touched him. He walked with him. But Peter says, though you have not seen him, trust in him. Look to him. Love him. Believe in him. Rejoice in him. And this will give you great joy. Obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. So he says, rejoice in these things. Rejoice. So we've seen the first encouragement, suffering for exiles, the hope. We can rejoice because we have a living hope. Second, we've seen we can rejoice knowing what trials produce in us. Third and finally and more briefly, let's consider we can rejoice in our privileged position. Look with me at verse 10. He says, through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things which angels long to look." So Peter wants to encourage them again. He wants to shepherd the sheep who have been dispersed, and he wants to fix their eyes on Christ. And they might be saying, well Peter, we're not like you. We didn't get to walk with Jesus. We didn't get to see the miracles. How can we have a faith like you, Peter? He goes, consider your privileged position, where you are in redemptive history, and you can rejoice in that. First, he mentions the Old Testament prophets. He says, He says, consider your perspective or where you are from the perspective of the prophets. They were writing about these things. They wrote about the Messiah who was to come. Consider Isaiah 53. You can think of that. The suffering servant. And they're thinking, who is this going to be? When is he going to come? When is this going to happen? And he says, they longed to search these things. They searched and inquired carefully, verse 11, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories that would follow. So they predicted the sufferings. They predicted the glories that would follow. What's that? The resurrection, the ascension. They wrote about these things, but they searched the scriptures trying to understand, when were these going to happen? Who is this going to be? They longed to know these things. He goes, they were ultimately not writing for themselves, but for you. They searched their writings because they wanted to figure it out. They wanted to know how he was going to suffer, how he was going to reign. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was a chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. But it says, verse 12, it was revealed to them they were serving not themselves, but you. He goes, they were writing for the purpose so you would know who the Christ is. They never got to see him. They never got to understand the rest of the scriptures that followed, but you have the fullness of scripture. You know what the scriptures testify of. You know how he fulfilled the prophecies. Consider John the Baptist, the last of the Old Testament prophets. He came and he, Jesus says, was the greatest. Right? Why was he the greatest? And then Jesus says this peculiar statement afterwards, but you, who are at least in the kingdom of heaven, is greater than John. How can that be? He's talking about the privileged position. He's saying, consider John. John the Baptist came, all these prophets ahead of him, they pointed forward to him, they talked about him, they said Christ was going to come, he was going to suffer, he was going to die, he was going to be raised and glorified, but they never got to see him, they never got to see who he was. And here comes John the Baptist, behold, here's the lamb who takes away the sin of the world. John the Baptist got to see him, he got to point forward to him, but even him, He doubted at times. Remember, he's in jail and he sends his disciples and he says, are you really the one? Did I just waste my life pointing to you as the Christ, but you're really not? What does Jesus say to him? He says to his disciples, he says, you go back and tell John what you see. The deaf hear, the blind see, the dead are raised. All that the prophets prophesied the Messiah would do, Jesus says, I'm doing these things. and John got to see him. But you, who are least in the kingdom of heaven, you have the fullness of revelation. You know that this Christ came. He died on the cross. He lived a perfect life. He was raised. He ascended. You have the fullness of revelation. You have the full story. The prophets didn't. They looked and searched for these things. Consider your privileged position. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you. And then it says this, Hebrews 11.13 says, These died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. So this is what the prophets longed to know. They longed to see this Christ. And so he says, consider your privileged position. And then he says this, and the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. So he says, consider your privileged position. You have pastors who are going to you, and they're teaching these things. They're preaching these things. And they're showing you Christ. These things that the prophets longed to know are now being announced to you. Consider your privileged position. God has sent messengers to proclaim the good news. And then he says this last statement here at the end. Things which angels long to look. Things which angels long to look. So he says, consider one more perspective. Consider your salvation, your place in history from the perspective of the angels. The angels long to look about this salvation, and they were in awe. This idea of longing to look means to strongly desire to look upon. And so they haven't experienced this salvation like us, but they long to look. They were in awe to understand these things. They ministered along the way, but they didn't experience a salvation like us. So as we conclude, do you cherish your salvation like this? In the midst of trials and suffering, are you reminded of the great salvation that you have? And then, in the midst of trials and suffering, do you cherish the Word? Do you go to the Word to help you calibrate your hope? To help you fix your eyes back on Christ? Do you consider your privileged position and see that you have the fullness of revelation and desire to know it as a prophet's long to look ahead? So Peter wants the suffering believers to see this great hope they have. He wants them to see the treasure they've been given, and to realize the fullness of the gospel that they have presented. So he wants them to know, because we have a living hope in Christ, we can persevere and rejoice even in the midst of trials. And remember the three encouragements. We can rejoice because of our living hope. We can rejoice knowing what trials produce. And we can rejoice in our privileged position. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for these things that we saw in your text. We thank you for The privileged position we have in light of redemptive history, we have the fullness of your word. We know the story. We know what Christ has done. Lord, help us to cherish these things, and in the midst of persecution, hardships, and trials, to be able to endure. We know you give us the strength. We know you help us, that you give us a living hope, that you give us strength by the power of your Spirit. Help us to fix our eyes. Help us to be able to endure. as we face hardships, trials, any kind of suffering that we may face. Help us to see what these trials produce. Help us to zoom out from our immediate circumstances to see your big plan at work. Help us to trust in you and to be faithful in you despite whatever circumstance we find ourselves in. Lord, help us also to have a passion for your word, to love your word as the prophets long to search. Help us to see Christ in the scriptures. We thank you for the preachers you send us to proclaim the good news. Lord, we pray that you would help us by the power of your spirit to endure and to honor Christ in all we say and do. In his holy name, amen.