"The Glorious Future"

Let's come to God's word together. And if you've got a church bible, it's, page 1 2 1 7. And it's, 1 Peter chapter 1. Versus 3 to 9. That's page 1 2 1 7 in the Church Bibles.

Praise be to the god and father of our lord, Jesus Christ. In his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by god's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this, you greatly rejoice. Though now for a little while, you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.

These have come so that the proven genueness of your faith of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though even though refined by fire may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him. And even though you did not see him now, you believe in him are now filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy. For you are receiving the end results of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Thank you for reading that for us, Abre.

Please keep the passage open in front of you. So 1 Peter chapter 1, verses 3 onwards. Why is it? Why is it so hard for us to be satisfied? Why is it so hard for us to be satisfied?

That's what Paul Tripp asks at the start of his book forever. He asks a few more questions. Why does so many of our marriages struggle over the long run? Why do we have such a hard time getting along with family and friends? Why do we stand in front of full wardrobes and say we have nothing to wear?

Why do we look into fully stocked refrigerators and say we have nothing to eat? Why do so many of us consistently spend more than we earn? Why does our culture tend to be over drugged and over sex? Why do we spend so much on making sure we are incessantly entertained. Why do our trials paralyze us so easily?

Why does life in the here and now, never seem to deliver what we hoped it would deliver. Well, Paul trips, right, I think. We are permanently dissatisfied with what we have. We long for something. We long for something more.

Always something more. And often, we assume we can scratch that itch. We can make that desire. It's out there. We just need to find it.

But Paul Tripp says in his book, the reason why we're so dissatisfied is because we are eternity amnesiacs. We forget that this life is not all there is. That there is eternity beyond this life. For those who follow Jesus, that's what we are given. Through trusting in Christ, we have eternal life.

That is the hope of Christianity. We've said, we are called Hope Church because Christianity holds out hope. That's what we started thinking about last week. To all who come to Jesus, there is hope. We heard last week it is a living hope.

That is the hope of life forever. Life beyond this life. And last week, we thought about the basis for that hope. That it is based on a historical event and based on god's mercy. And that makes it a far superior hope to all other hopes the world can offer or any other religion can offer.

You see, it isn't based on wishful thinking. It's based on a historical event. So last time we thought about the basis for that hope. This week, we're thinking about the glorious future. And then next week, we think about the difference this hope makes to the here and now.

Now you will spot as we go through this sermon there are quite a few things that we're gonna say, how the glorious future impacts now. So it's not sort of cut and fast, but that's roughly where we go. Okay? So this week, the glorious future. Next week, what difference it makes to the here and now.

So this week, the glorious future. And again, we turn back to 1 Peter chapter 1. Last week, we we really focused in on verse 3. That's as far as we got. This week, we're gonna go a little bit further, and we'll go to the end of verse 5.

Now Peter said in verse 3, if you look down, in his mercy, he, that's God, has given us new birth into And actually Peter says there are 2 things that we've been given new birth into, if you're a Christian. The first is a living hope. So he says, he's been has given us new birth into a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance. It's actually 2 things, living hope, and an inheritance. Now we're just gonna pause on that for a moment.

We have an inheritance. It doesn't just say that the hope is for life, although it is. But he talks about an inheritance that we have. What does he mean by that? Some here will have inherited things from people.

When someone dies, you you might have inherited something, maybe you've inherited money, maybe it's possessions, maybe you've inherited family heirlooms. We've got, 1 on on my mother's side of the family. It it's a a clock, a grandmother clock. It's not a grandfather clock. It's a grandmother clock.

So I I think that's what it is at anyway. It it's smaller than a grandfather clock, and it you put it on the wall. So I I I think that's it. I might have got that wrong. Correct me afterwards if I've got that wrong.

But anyway, and and but I'm very thankful that I'm, the youngest brother. It does not come to us. It's gone to my eldest brother. I'm not sure why it's gone to my eldest brother yet because my mother is still alive. Obviously, she didn't want it either.

But anyway, he's got it, and I'm thankfully does. Now what is it? So this inheritance that god has for for us? What is, is it, a clock? Is it, you know, what what is this inheritance?

For us to understand that, we need to go back actually to see what does the Bible mean by inheritance? What does the old testament talk about when it talks about an inheritance? Because throughout the letter of 1 Peter, Peter is constantly referring back to Old Testament and to the fulfillment of the Old Testament, in Christ and in the church. So we need to think back what's the inheritance in the old testament? Well, the old testament inheritance was the land, the land of Israel.

God chose a people, right at the beginning in in Genesis. God chose a people. He chose Abraham and his descendants. And he made a promise to Abraham that he would give his descendants a particular land. He showed it to Abraham.

So this is gonna be the land. But generations came and went and the they still weren't in the land. Abraham died, his son died, his son died, and so on until we get to the time when Abraham's descendants were numerous, but were in slavery in Egypt. Still not in the land. And god raised up Moses.

If you if you know your old testament, you know god raised up Moses to lead his people out of Egypt, out of slavery to the land. They went through the wilderness. It was a bit of a roundabout way, but they went through the wilderness. To the land. And eventually they entered the land in the time of Joshua.

And the land was divided up amongst the Israelites, and the land was their inheritance. Psalm a hundred and 5 talks about it. It says To you, I will give the land of Canon as the portion you will inherit. That was their inheritance. It was hugely significant for them.

The land had been given to them. It was the land of promise, the place where they could live together and worship the lord. Now Peter says, Christian, you have an inheritance, not just the promise of life, but the promise of a place, not the land of Israel, better than that. But nevertheless a place, a place where you will live with god, and he will live with you. But you aren't there yet.

In fact, you're a lot like those Israelites in the wilderness on the way to the inheritance. The inheritance is there, but you're not in it yet. And you see it in Peter, cast your eyes down again to 1 Peter and just have a little look with you. How does Peter describe the Christians at the moment? Just we're gonna look at 3 places in 1 Peter.

So if you haven't looked, verse 1 of chapter 1, says Peter and apostle of Jesus Christ to god's elect, chosen by god, exiles. Scattered throughout the provinces of and so on. He's saying they're exiles. That's what Christians are. And then for 17 of chapter 1 to cast your eyes over the over onto the next column, He says, since you call on a father who judges each person's working partially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear.

So they're exiles and they're to be as foreigners. And then can't go over the page if you've got a paper bible in front of you or scroll if you're on a device, go to chapter 2 verse 11, where it says, dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and exiles to abstain from sinful desires which wage war against your soul. So how does Peter characterize Christians? He says, you're foreigners. Your exile.

That's what you are in this world. And what is a foreigner an exile? It's someone who's not at home. Someone who's not in their own country. And that's true of you, if you're a Christian.

In this world, you're not at home And if you've ever lived in, another country for a period of time, maybe you've lived abroad. Maybe you're from abroad, and you would say home is abroad and you're here. If you know what that's like to live in a different country, and many here do You know, it can be it can be tiring, can't it? Because the customs are different. People are just a bit different.

They may be lovely, but they're a bit different. They speak a different language, and they do things differently, and the food's different. And there are times where you just want you just want a bit of home. And Peter says, Christian, you're a foreigner. You're an exile.

But home is ahead. The inheritance is there. Now we need to take on board the fact that, therefore, this world is not the destination. This world is not the destination. This world is the journey to the destination.

When you're planning a holiday, if you've got to travel somewhere to get get somewhere, I know there can be exceptions to this. But generally, you don't spend a lot of time thinking about the service station on the way. To your holiday. You don't put a lot of preparation time into that stopping on the journey because it's only the journey. It's not the destination.

It'd be weird, wouldn't it if you were at a service station, and you found there a family who were making a big deal of the service station. You know, they're making a big deal of the lunch. How fantastic it is or how disappointing it is, you know, taking photos of each other by the petrol pumps or, you know, that kind of thing. That'd be weird, wouldn't it? Don't do that.

Because it's only the journey. It's not the destination. This life is not the destination. We have an inheritance we're looking forward to, and it is the destination, which maybe changes the way you view this life and the life to come. Paul Tripp again, in his book says, 1 of the symptoms of eternity amnesia is living with unrealistic expectations of this life.

Why? Because he says, a quote for you, Because in our eternity amnesia, we are asking this present world to be what it is simply never will be. What it simply never will be. We want the here and now to behave as if it is our destination. When actually all that we are experiencing in the here and now prepares us for the destination that is to come.

Now, of course, he isn't saying that this life doesn't matter. That women's conference sounds great. To say actually we're not we're not just waiting. You know, what we do here does matter. But Paul Tripp is rightly saying, and what we see here in 1 Peter is to say, this is not the destination.

This world will never fulfill us in the way we want it to. And if we expect it to, we will be permanently disappointed. Okay. So what's so good about this future inheritance? How does Paul describe it?

Have a look again. Verse 4 of chapter 1. It says, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade. Okay. We're gonna think about those things.

The inheritance can never 3 things there. What can it never do? First off, it can never perish. Which means it isn't vulnerable to death. Or to end in.

It won't come to an end. There's no death in the new in the inheritance, so nobody in it will die, and it itself will never come to an end. It itself will never die. Now that is in short sharp contrast to many of the joys and pleasures that we have in this life. Because pretty much all of it no, all of them come to an end.

People say, we even have an expression, don't we? All good things come to an end. Now after today, you can if someone says that to you, you can say, no, they don't. I have an inheritance, and then you'd gonna have to explain the whole sum. We even have to train ourselves to be in the moment, don't we?

Because we know that our pleasures come to an end. And our temptation is even as we're going through things that we enjoy to think, yeah, but this is coming to an end. You're on holiday. You're having a great time and you think, yeah, but this time next week. The football match lasts 90 minutes.

Or hundred and 20 minutes or whatever it is these days. The TV program lasts Sony a short time, then you gotta think, what am I gonna watch next? Family Times come to an end. And sadly, ultimately, it will all end in death. But not this inheritance.

It will never perish. It will never come to an end. As the hymn goes, when we've been there 10000 years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing god's praise. Than when we first begun. It cannot perish.

It cannot spoil. And the word there for spoil is to be spoiled by moral impurity. By sin, in other words, by the things that we do wrong, because we do have a tendency to wreck things, don't we? I don't know if you watch any reality TV things, we quite like watching. We we've not been quite so into it this year, but I'm a celebrity get me out of here.

Some of you nodding, some of you tutting. It is quite fun. And the pattern is pretty much the same every every year. That they begin nice, friendly. Everyone's putting up a nice front, being really nice to 1 another.

But it isn't long, few days into it before things just start going a bit wrong, don't they? Because people just start being a bit self centered. And they start, you know, someone's slacking off, not doing all that they should be. And then people start talking to 1 another, and, you know, you're just talking behind people's backs. And what started off nice just starts to tail off, doesn't it?

And sometimes it can go horribly horribly wrong. But actually, what's true of them is true in families, isn't it? And true in workplaces and true with friendships that our sin spoils things. Our self centeredness spoils things, our sin damages. How many relationships do you have where you have felt, where you've thought to yourself, I just wish I'd never said that.

But this inheritance will never spoil. It will never be spoiled by sin or impurity. What would it be like to be in a place? What would it be like to be in a world to be in a place where there just isn't that sin, where there isn't a self centeredness, where there isn't the envy, the bitterness, anger, the fear, the anxiety, that we all struggle at? What would it be like?

Can you imagine it? Sounds incredible, doesn't it? We're so used to those things. We can't imagine what a world would be like without And you might wonder, well, how could I be in that place? After all, I I'm full of those things.

I'd bring all that lot to it. The answer is we need to come back to the fact it is through god's mercy. That we can be there through Jesus' death, that he can pay the penalty for us, and he, through his death, can wash us clean. And through him, if we're trusting in him, we can be in that inheritance. And when we're there, we will be transformed.

It cannot spoil. And the third 1, it cannot fade which means time will not diminish it, which again is often our experience, isn't it? That the enjoyment, the sparkle just sort of fades. Some of you are looking a bit faded. Oh, no.

Sorry. That shouldn't have said that out loud. That wasn't in my notes. But come on. Adults are a bit boring.

Compared to children, I mean, children can be thrilled by the smallest of things. This Christmas. I mean, Christmas presents for a 5 year old are just I mean, it's it's amazing to see that they're so gripped by it. So so excited by it. And the adults around the room are just watching on, just looking at the children in their excitement and thinking, yeah, I don't get that.

Because all they're opening is just plastic in different forms. And they're thrilled by it. But for us, adults, we're just boring, aren't we? We grow up. We get older.

We get dull. And the reality is for some here, It's not just that you're not excited by Christmas. You're really not looking forward to it at all. It's faded. I know plenty of adults get excited about Christmas, but things fade.

But not this inheritance. It will never fade. There will never be a time in that inheritance where you look back And you go, oh, I remember the good old days of the inheritance. Do you remember the good old days? There will never be that because it will never fade.

It will always be glorious. Permanently forever. It will never lose its sparkle. Now, that's an incredible promise, isn't it? A future inheritance a place where we belong, a place where which will never perish, spoil, or fade.

That's the destination we're heading towards. If you're a Christian, that's what you're heading towards. That's a now we don't know exactly what it'll be like. The new testament is teasing on this. It gives us something, but it doesn't give us everything about what it'll be like in that inheritance.

We know that it will be We're looking forward to a physical new creation. If you wanna talk to me about that afterwards, I'm very happy to talk about that. A physical new creation with resurrection bodies and all that kind of it's gonna be great. It's gonna be wonderful. The Bible doesn't give us a kind of day by day, you know, dao by hour.

This is what it'll be like. But it does tease us with it. See, this is gonna be glorious. This is gonna be wonderful. And as Peter says, it it will never perish.

It will never spoil. It will never fade. You won't be disappointed with it. Why do we struggle with this world? Because it does perish spoil and fade, but then you weren't made for this world.

You were made for the inheritance. And those who've been born again, those who have received and put their trust in Jesus through God's mercy have that inheritance lined up. And notice the next bit. Verse 4. Back into verse 4, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade.

This inheritance is kept in heaven for you. That's our third point. The inheritance is kept in heaven for you. God is telling us here, this inheritance, this wonderful eternal inheritance is kept for you. It is ready Do you notice that verse 5 when it was read?

It says who through faith are shielded by god's power. We'll come back to that in a moment until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed. In the last time. It's ready. They like love that.

It's like god is saying. I've I've got it. I've kept it for you. It's ready. It's all there ready just to be revealed.

I've done all that's necessary for it. It's just there ready for you. There used to be, TV program, Extreme Makeover's home edition, Did you, yeah, okay, some people, yeah? Where I mean, it was in America. You know, in this country, we did changing rooms where you just change a room and, you know, America did the whole house, which is just the way they do it.

And they would change the house, you know, and the family would then be ready to see the house, and they'd have the bus in the way. And, just so the house is all changed. Family ready to see it. They've not seen what it's like, and the bus is in the way in there. Move the bus would be the, I think, I didn't really it.

I so I've got any details, right, wrong. Just forget it. But that's where you've got the house ready, the family, the bus in the way, and move the bus, and they move the bus, and the family would be It's like god is saying to to us here. It's all ready for you. I've done everything necessary.

I've kept it there. It's ready. Ready to be revealed. We just gotta move the bus. It's right there.

So look forward to it. We aren't there yet. We're on the road to the inheritance, but we aren't there yet. We still live in this fallen world with its frustrations with death and sin and decay. And be patient with 1 another.

I mean, Paul Trips says 1 of the other symptoms of eternity, amnesia is expecting too much of people. Because in our hearts, we need paradise. We we we want that. And so we demand it from 1 another. We expect our spouse or our children to fulfill our deepest desires, our deepest needs.

But they can't. So we get frustrated with them. We get angry with them. But they aren't able to fill that gap. They're not able to do it.

They can't fulfill us and nothing in this world will. Family can't work can't. Actually church can't either. We expect, you know, we'll have good times together and learn from god's word and sit under god's word and get to know Jesus better, but we can't fulfill 1 another's desires for paradise. Maybe you came along hoping that would be the case.

Probably not. But maybe you were thinking that Hope church might do that a new church Maybe at long last, we'll get it right as a church. Well, I'm gonna disappoint you on that. We're not gonna satisfy each other's desires. We will let 1 another down.

It's gonna happen. This world won't fulfill, and now you might think surely Jesus promised that if we come to him, he will fulfill us after all he promised in John chapter 4 that he could give us living water, which will quench our thirst. And that is absolutely true. He does. He does quench our thirst when we come to him.

But there's still, even with Jesus, there's a now and are not yet. We know him, but we don't know him as we will know him. In that inheritance. And actually, the thing that will make the inheritance totally satisfying is Jesus himself and being with him. So even with Jesus, there's a sort of now and not yet.

He is satisfying. Totally satisfying. Yeah. We've not got him fully yet. So it is kept for you.

It's ready. And last thing, and this is really going to tee us up for next week. So we're almost done. You are kept for it. The image is that of the Israelites on the way to the promised land the destination ahead of us, the inheritance is in the future, ready to be revealed.

So what about now? What about here and now? What do we expect? Well, we'll come onto this more next week, but notice Peter says in verse 5, who through faith are shielded by god's power until the coming of the salvation. We are shielded along the way.

God is protecting us. When the Israelites were going through the wilderness on the way to the promised land, actually, while they were still at Mount Sinai, god said to them before they headed out into the wilderness, he said, see, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I've prepared. Promise is similar here. God is saying he is currently shielding you and me along the way preserving and protecting us. But you'll remember if you were here last week, you might not.

But hopefully you'll remember Peter says to these Christians, I know you're going through a fiery ordeal. Well, there's there suffering at the moment. Now, how does that fit together? They're suffering, but god is saying, look, I'm protecting you on the on the road. To that new creation.

How do those 2 things go together? Come back next week, and we will think more about that. For now, be reassured. God is protecting us along the way. He's with us on the journey, shielding us, protecting us.

So for today, the inheritance, this glorious future, this inheritance is what we are looking forward to. A place to be with god. It cannot perish, spoil, or fade, and it is kept in heaven for you. Heavenly father, we, praise you for this promise. As we look to the future, father, we are so tempted.

We confess you we are so tempted to make this world the destination. But thank you that this isn't the destination. The inheritance is ahead of us. Thank you that Jesus has done everything needed for us to be there. Thank you.

It is kept and ready for us who have trusted in Christ. Thank you that it will never perish, spoil, or fade. And so help us father to set our hopes and our desires on that inheritance, not on this world. Father, thank you. It is kept for us, and thank you in your goodness.

You are keeping us for it.