"The Difference Hope Makes to Here and Now"

It's time for our Bible reading today, and it's again 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 3 to 9, and it's on 1 2 1 7 of the bibles on the seats. 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 genuineness of your faith of greater worth than gold, which perishes 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 do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy. For you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of yourselves.

Great. Well, please keep the passage open in front of you. If you've got a Bible near you, and you can grab it, do pick up, pick it up and turn to 1 Peter chapter 1. Alex, can I just ask you, can you just pour me a glass of water? Just half a glass of cup of water.

Sorry. Thank you. Sorry. I should have grabbed 1 beforehand. But please keep the passage open in front of you.

You should be familiar with that reading by now. We've had it every week for the past few weeks, and it's good to come back to it again for 1 last time. So as we've been launching Hopechurch, we've been thinking about the hope that we have in Jesus, the Christian hope, and how it is far better than any hope that the world offers us. It is a living hope And so we've been focusing on this passage in 1 Peter, and we've seen the first week, we saw that it is based on a historical event. We saw the basis of the hope.

Then second week, last week, we thought about the glorious future. And now this week, the difference that Hope makes to the here and now. This week, we focus more on present experience, the present Christian experience. What is that experience? Well, in terms of a historical timeline, we are between Jesus's death and resurrection and that glorious future.

The past event of Jesus's death and resurrection and the glorious future, the inheritance that we look forward to. But what about now? What do we expect should our lives be trouble free? Should we expect that there should be no bumps on the road, no tragedies, After all, we've become children of god. If we're if we're Christians, shouldn't we expect that, therefore, he's on our side, and therefore, well, there shouldn't be any trials.

Just triumph. Should it be, as some have called it, just the victorious Christian life? Like, you know, those perfume adverts, maybe you've seen on TV. There've been plenty of them recently. There's 1, you know, some woman walking through just fields of flowers, you know, and just and life is just all 1 glorious thing.

You buy that perfume, and that's what you're going to experience. Just life walking through fields of flowers. Is that what the Christian life is like? Better than the Johnny Depp 1 where you're just alone in a wilderness with some wolves or something like that. You don't you don't want that life experience, but is that what life is gonna be?

Just sort of walking through meadows of flowers. What should we expect? Well, let's look again at 1 Peter and see what Peter's readers were experiencing, and therefore what we should expect. Have a look at verse 6, would you? Chapter 1 verse 6.

In all this, you greatly rejoice. They now, for a little while, you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. What's the Christian experience? Well, it is, joy and grief. That's what you get in that verse, isn't it?

There's joy and there is grief. Now that presents a kind of paradox, a seeming contradiction. How can you have joy and grief? But that's what Peter's saying. There's joy.

So he says verse 6, in all this, you greatly rejoice. In other words, he's saying, as as you think back to all that we've learned, all that he's talked about, that is what gives you joy as Christians. It's because you have this living hope. Based on Jesus' resurrection from the dead and on god's mercy. And because you have that inheritance in the future, therefore, you have joy now.

We greatly rejoice in that hope. The Christian is someone who has joy. Sometimes we need to pause and remember that because sometimes the the difficulties just fill our vision, don't they? They just fill everything that that that we see. It it feels like they're oppressive.

It just sort of everything you see is just difficulties. And sometimes we need to lift our eyes, be lifted up and go remember the hope that you have based on Jesus' resurrection from the dead, that he actually rose to life again. And therefore, you are looking forward to glory to come. Remember that. That is the hope you have.

And rejoice in it, we greatly rejoice. So there's joy. But there's grief as well. That's what Peter's saying, isn't he says, in all this, you greatly rejoice. Though now for a little while, you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.

Now we've seen before the Christian's Peter is writing to our suffering. We we looked in chapter 4, we've seen a verse a few times, we've come back to it a couple of times over the last couple of weeks, where Peter says, do not be surprised by the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you as though something strange were happening to you. Peter's saying, look, this is normal. The normal Christian experience is suffering. He says, don't be surprised by it that you're going through these difficulties.

It's normal. But that can be not what we're expecting as Christians, particularly if you're a younger Christian, maybe you're new to the Christian faith or newer to it, or maybe you're just exploring Christian things, and you're thinking, well, what is it that Christian life surely you become a Christian, and it should be, as we said before, it should be walking in meadows with flowers. People can think that god is gonna be like the genie from Aladdin, where Aladdin is told by him All you've gotta do is rub the lamp. And the genie says, and I'll say mister Aladdin, sir, what will your pleasure be? Let me take your order.

Let me jot it down. You ain't never had a friend like me. Life is your restaurant, and I'm your maitre d. Come on whisper what it is you want. You ain't never had a friend like me.

Okay. Is that what god promises? That when you become a Christian, that's what you gotta do. Just tell him, and that's what you get. No.

God doesn't promise that. But therefore, if you're younger in the faith, or maybe not a Christian looking at Christians, you can think, well, surely when when difficulties hit, god should sort them out for the But he doesn't promise that. The normal Christian life includes trials. In fact, Peter says did you notice he says, to his readers, you are experiencing grief in many kinds of trials. More literally, that is you have multicolored trials, which is a nice way of saying something that's not very nice, isn't it?

Multicolored trials. In other words, trials have all sorts of different kinds. In the book, in in, 1 Peter, the the main thing that's in view is trials because you're a Christian, because you're following Jesus and therefore people don't like you. And we do see that in the world around us, and maybe that's your experience too. In this last week, even on in the news, the footballer Mark Gary wrote on his armband.

Jesus loves you. And got into trouble for it. Well, it may seem like a fairly small thing, but, actually, it is difficult for people who are Christians, isn't it? Whatever. Your line of work, it's harder now than it used to be to be someone who follows Jesus.

People don't like it. I read in the news this morning that there's someone working for a a a Catholic school who, for their Christian faith, has been sacked. I don't know all the details of it. Maybe they weren't wise in what they did. I don't know, but that's how it's presented that because they actually believe what the Bible teaches they were saying, even though it was a Catholic school.

It's harder to be a Christian now. It's harder for children to be Christians at school. You stand out. You're different. And we need to get our children ready for that, that it's not easy, being a Christian in school.

But the trials are multicolored. Yeah. That's 1 kind of trial that people will go through, but I know in this room, there are multicolored trials in front of me. People going through all kinds of different things. Long term illnesses?

The loss of loved ones? No. The list can go on, can't it? It's multicolored. It's all kinds of things.

And Peter says, the normal experience of that, what's the word he uses? He says you're experiencing grief through those trials, it's perfectly normal to be grieved. The normal response is tears. Now don't be surprised by that, as if something strange is happening. No.

This is normal. And as you go through 1 Peter, you see he he says that we follow a pattern. And the pattern is that of the lord Jesus. So have a look down at verse 11. Where Peter says, now you're breaking halfway through a sentence here, but he's talking about the prophets, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow.

Suffering, followed by glory. Peter's saying that's the normal that was the experience of Jesus. And therefore, that's the experience that we should expect. We know Jesus suffered. He is described in the prophets as a man of suffering and familiar with pain.

That was Jesus's life. And he died the death of a criminal before rising and ascending to glory. That's the pattern, suffering glory. And what was true of Jesus is true for his followers? Jesus tells us that's our pattern.

He said, didn't he? When when Peter in Mark chapter 8, when Peter declared that Jesus is the Christ Peter then talk Jesus then talks about his own suffering, and then says, and if anyone would follow me, he must take up his cross. That's the normal experience. We will face grief in trials of many kinds. Not all the time, and not expecting it to be all the time, not always as bad as any other time.

You know, it's not always gonna be as intense as they possibly could be, thankfully. And there is the reassurance in the verse. It says in all this, you greatly rejoice though now for a little while. Try our trials are a limited period, and this is in the context of eternity to say yeah, the struggles in this life, even if they're lifelong, are nevertheless short in comparison with eternity. Now I don't encourage you to take that verse to someone who is going through intense suffering.

It's not actually helpful necessarily to say, well, don't worry. It's only for a short time. We've got to be sensitive in which truths we bring out when, don't we? But it is nevertheless true. In the context of eternity, our current trials are short.

So what we experience in this life is joy and grief. And being at Hope Church, therefore, what do we expect? Well, we expect that there will be days when people come in tears. Because there's grief. And that's okay.

But how do we respond to that by getting alongside 1 another? Paul tells us to mourn with those who mourn. It's alright. We just get alongside 1 another. To comfort 1 another.

And yet there's also joy as well. And so we will sing god's praises. And sometimes it will feel a bit odd. This sort of juxtaposition of these 2 things, the joy and the grief. But that's the normal Christian experience.

Now you might think, well, we're talking about hope here. What's this hope all you've just said is expect grief. Doesn't sound great, does it? It's true, though. But yet Peter talks more about both the trials and the joints.

And so we come to our second point, which is the trials have a purpose. So he talks more about the trials, and he says there's meaning to them verse 7. He says these have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. I think the words so that in there are a great encouragement. These trials have come so that there is a purpose to them.

And it's important for us to realize what that purpose is in trials. If we assume god's purpose is that we walk through meadows of flowers, we're gonna be very shocked in this life. Very disappointed. We may give up. What's god's purpose in the trials?

Well, there is something about you that is more valuable than anything else. Anything else you possess? What's the most valuable thing that you have? It's there in verse 7. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith of greater worth than gold.

The most valuable thing you have is faith in Jesus. That is more valuable than anything else you possess. I wonder if you've been to areas or parts of London, maybe where where the rich people live. Have you been to parts where the, you know, the big houses? You look at them and you go, oh, that lifestyle looks alright, doesn't it?

We won we've been a couple of times when we were on holiday, once in Spain, to a bit of Marbella. There's a bit of Marbella where, you get on the, where you get all the yachts moored up, the big yachts, and they are really impressive. And there's a there's a streets around it. It just seems like people with the fancy cars, all they do is just drive round and round and round. It's true.

That's just what they do. They just you see them going past. You go, why are you doing that? It's because they're just showing off their fancy cars. And it's really impressive And you walk past them the parked cars as well, and you go, oh, low.

It's that kind of car. And if you knew about cars, you'd be really impressed with it. And you can be envious of it. You go, if only I could have that. But we need god's valuation of things.

He looks at those things and said, you know, all of those yachts, all of the houses, all of the cars put together are not as valuable as your faith in Jesus. Faith in Jesus is of far greater value, more valuable than gold. And what's god doing in the trials? Well, he is refining that faith. Peter says, just as gold is refined, so he says verse 7, these things have come so that the proven genueness of your faith of greater worth than gold, which perishes, even though refined by fire.

So he's saying, what happens to the gold happens to your faith? The the gold is put into fire and refined. In other words, the rubbish is burnt off so that you end up with purer gold. That's what he's saying. And he's saying that's what happens to your faith as it goes through trials.

Because the word for refining, when he talks about the gold, is the same word as he's used earlier, actually, although you can't see that in this translation, but it's the same word as is used for proven genuineness of your faith. It's the same thing going on. He's saying, what happens to the gold is what happens to your faith as you go through trials. This is god's purpose. As you go through trials, trials of many colors, they come so your faith may be refined.

Now that doesn't make the trials any less painful, but it is helpful to know there is purpose to them. And that purpose is to refine your faith and god does refine faith through trials. I wonder if you've experienced that. I know there are plenty in this room who have. Have you gone through trials?

Yeah. Lots. Yeah. Maybe actually, there is some here who would go, no, I don't think I have really. Maybe that's probably because you're a bit younger.

You just gotta wait a bit, and they'll come. But I want to encourage you, actually, talk to older Christians, maybe after the service, Go to some of the older Christians. I mean, don't give away that you're saying you're old, but go to them and say, how have you experienced it? Just talk to 1 another and say, how have you experienced god refining your faith through trials? Because he does.

It's painful, but it's valuable. And what you find is because I've talked to people, many people about this kind of thing before. What you find is those who've gone through, trials, even smaller trials, but especially where they're bigger trials, I mean, seriously big things that people will normally say, I would never want to go through that again. It was awful. But I would not want to exchange what I learned about God, the closeness that I experienced with him.

I would not want to exchange that for anything. Isn't that incredible? That is god refining faith through trials. That's what he does. What's the hope that we have?

The hope is not flowers in meadows, it is in our present experience, gold in the fire, that we will be refined, and that god uses trials for that. Yes, the hope is future glory, but it's also that god will use the experiences now. And where does that leave us? That leaves us actually with greater confidence for the weaker head. Doesn't it?

Maybe there are things coming up this week that you're dreading. If you're a Christian, you can go into this week with a confidence to say even if this is really hard. Even the worst that can happen, god will use it to refine my faith. And that shapes how we pray for 1 another as well, doesn't it? How do we pray for 1 another when we're going through difficulties?

How do you pray for Joyce? This last week, we heard Joyce in hospital. How have you been praying for her? It's easy, isn't it? We often pray, lord, get her through the difficulty, get her out of hospital, get her back home, please, lord, would you do that?

Good things to pray, not bad things to pray. But we should also pray that the lord would use this trial to refine her faith, that she would come out of hospital knowing Jesus' love all the more and trusting him all the more. Let's pray those things for 1 another when we're going through difficulties. Now we're not quite done with the purpose of the trials. We've got just a little bit more on it.

Okay? So there's a bit more in the verse, isn't there? Can you spot it? Let's have a little look down. Verse 7.

These have come so that the proven genueness of your faith of greater worth than gold, which perishes, even though refined by fire, may result in praise glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. So there's a further purpose there. The big purpose, the big result is praise glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Now it's a little bit unclear in the verse, who's praised glory and honor. Is it god's praise glory and honor or our praise glory and honor?

And the answer is actually it's ambiguous, and different people go different ways on it. Now, I do know that the Bible tells us elsewhere that Christians will be glorified in the future. So I have no doubt that we will experience praise glory and honor, undeserved lavishly poured out on us that we will experience that. But I think this is probably more likely to be god's praise, glory, and honor. Why?

Because it is god doing the action in the previous verses. It is he who is using the trials for our good. It is he who will refine our faith. And it will be seen in the future that it is god who has guarded us, shielded us, and has got us to the inheritance, even through the trials. That's what verse 5 is saying.

So would you have a look back at verse 5? I'll just go back a few few words just at the beginning of the sentence. 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. So who is it that gets you through the trials to the inheritance? Is it you No.

It is god who does that. He shields you. But what we've seen here is he shields you to get there, not by taking you out of trials, nor even shielding you through the trials so that the flames don't touch you, but shields you taking you through the trials, through the flames so that they refine your faith and gets you to the inheritance. But it is god's work to get you there. Do you see?

And therefore, it will be god who gets the praise glory and honor that when we gather before Jesus, praising him, that we will look around and not go, wow, you made it. You got through really tough times. You got here, but rather lord god, Jesus, you got us through. Jesus, you're the 1 who shielded us. You're the 1 who's brought us to this inheritance.

It's you that did it. Praise, glory, and honor to Jesus. Now I find that again really encouraging that it is god who will get us through to that inheritance. After all, how do you react when you hear of Christians who are suffering? Maybe Christians suffering in extreme ways.

So we heard at the prayer meeting last Wednesday about, Christian suffering in North Korea. Terrible suffering that they're going through torture, and being killed for being Christians. And don't you think at that point, I mean, you're full of admiration for those Christians standing firm in their faith to the end. Aren't you also tempted to think? I'm not sure whether I could do that.

I don't know how I would respond in their situation. Would I stay true? Would I manage it? Which shows that we've not really grasped what this is saying. You see, when you hear of Christians suffering and staying true to the end, you shouldn't think, wow, they're amazing.

They did that. They're getting through. They're staying faithful. What we should think is god is amazing. He shielded them and held on to them and kept them faithful to the end And if god can do that for them, he can do that in me too.

Not because I'm special, but because he is great. He is powerful, he shields people, he refines people through the fire and gets them to the inheritance. It is god who will preserve us and keep us going. Therefore, We don't know what the future will bring, what the fires will be. But we can trust him that he can get us through.

He's done it with Christians throughout the world and throughout history. When you hear of Christians in history, who've stayed true to the end, burnt at the stake, beheaded were all sorts of things. You should go, god. He's great. He kept them to the end.

He can do that for you too. He will see us through. And therefore, the result will be praise and glory and honor to Jesus that he gets us through. That's the purpose of the trials. They refine faith, and they result in praise glory and honor to god.

Now we're going to just think about the inexpressible joy as well. Now, this is briefer, and you might say, well, it has to be. It's inexpressible. So therefore, how are you gonna deal with this preacher? Yeah, tricky, isn't it?

Verse 8. Let's just think about the joy a little bit, before we finish. Verse 8. Though you have not seen him, you love him. And even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.

Okay. Here's the other part of the Christian experience. It's joy. This was their experience and it's ours. They, that we love Jesus, even though we've not seen him.

Of course, you've not seen him. He was around 2000 years ago walking on earth before his death, resurrection, and ascension, you've not seen him. And neither have I and yet the Christian experience is, but we love him. We love Jesus. Of course, we do.

That he would come to this world, as we're gonna remember at Christmas, so that he came to this world for us, to suffer and die for us. That moves our hearts. When we take communion, I'm so looking forward to taking communion, together, our first time taking communion as we do so, our hearts should be moved by what Jesus did for us as we remember that. And it says though you do not see him. You believe in him.

Yes. We trust in him. Commit ourselves to him. And therefore, we're filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy. Why?

Again, verse 9, for you are receiving the end results of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Now I think the tenths of that is interesting. Okay. You've done well. You've concentrated well.

Just concentrate a little bit longer on this bit. Alright? The tense of this is interesting, that it's present tense, isn't it? For you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. So far, salvation in 1 Peter has been future.

Salvation is what you're looking forward to. It's glory yet to come. It's the inheritance that will never perish spoil or fade. It's future. But now he says, you are receiving the sal the goal of your, sorry.

You are receiving the end result of your faith. The salvation of your souls. There is a present reality to salvation as well. It is the combination people often talk about of the now and the not yet. Is the Christian saved now?

Yes. Wonderful. Save now. Born again into this living hope. You can say, yes, I am saved now.

Will the Christian be saved in the future? Yes. We look forward to the glorious inheritance, the life forever with Jesus. That is salvation as well. And therefore, salvation is both a present reality and a future glory.

It is both and. And that is what we were rejoicing. It's like the holiday. Maybe you look forward to holiday in the sunshine. You've bought it.

You know you've got it, but you've not experienced it yet. So too with this, salvation is something we have, if we're Christians, through Christ's death for us, through trust in him, but we haven't experienced it all yet. We look forward to that future glory. So we rejoice. So this is the hope that we have as Christians.

The hope of life, life forever. We've thought about it these last 3 weeks. It is the hope that we want to proclaim to friends and family to the sunray estate, to the signal park towers, to tollworth, to anyone who will listen, we wanna proclaim this hope, the hope that we've been thinking about. A hope which is based on Jesus' death and resurrection. And on god's mercy to us.

That's the basis of it. It is future focused. It is about a glorious future. We long for it. We look forward to it.

And it is a present experience which is, yes, grief, but also joy. We experience the joys of that hope of salvation. And there is the grief as well that we will go through, but even in the grief, God is refining faith. This is the Christian hope. This is what we want to proclaim to people to people who don't know it.

People living in darkness. There is a lot of hopelessness around. We had some people rammed yesterday morning for coffee and mince pies, some of our neighbors. It was a lovely time, and the conversation got round to assisted dying, and all that in the news. It it created something of a downer at that point.

But is what people are thinking about? And what's the hope that the world has? Well, it's not much, is it? That less life is all there is. And if it becomes too unbearable, we could cut it short.

It's pretty bleak. We have hope, this living hope, hope of a life forever. We want to hold it out to people. We want to sing about it this afternoon if we can. We might not be able to.

But even if we can just put fliers around, pray for people that people will come and hear of this hope and come to Jesus. Let's pray. Heavenly father, we thank you for the hope that we have, hope in Jesus, hope of life. And we praise you that our present experience is 1 of joy, inexpressible and glorious. Because of the salvation that we have through Jesus and the glory that awaits.

But thank you father that even in the trials that we expect and the grief that we face, you will be refining our faith, and the end result will be praise and glory and honor to Jesus. Amen.