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[0:00] All right, well, as I mentioned, it's good to see everyone back in this room together after the new year. I hope you had a good Christmas, and in light of Christmas, we're going to talk about suffering, which may be fitting depending on who your family is.

[0:15] But we're going to be going through 1 Peter, which talks a lot about suffering. And so our title, if you could call it that, for the book of 1 Peter is Suffering Yet Joyful.

[0:30] And so that's really the theme of 1 Peter. He's writing to people who are suffering immensely and calling them to be joyful and to rejoice in the midst of that suffering.

[0:42] So first I want to ask a question, though. What is your reaction to suffering? So you can talk to your neighbor. How do you usually handle suffering?

[0:52] Not necessarily like serious suffering, but just anything that goes wrong. How do you usually handle it? Go. Go. Go.

[1:10] Acceptable. Can I say it? No. All right.

[1:21] So a couple of different options. You know, maybe you lash out. Maybe you just get frustrated. Maybe you totally shut down and like isolate yourself. So how do you guys usually handle suffering?

[1:32] Let's hear from you. You can say your answer if you're. Yep. Do what? Depression. Okay. Put the AirPods in and blast the music.

[1:43] Okay. Okay. So put the hoodie on. Just cry. Yep. Just wait it out.

[1:54] Wait till it's over. Nice. All right. Yes. You cry. Okay. Yep. Try to find your cat. The cat cheers you up.

[2:04] All right. You either cry or hurt people. That's a man. Man. I'll need to keep that in mind. I need to watch out for you.

[2:16] All right. Yes. Last one. Go for a run. Nice. Just, you can't just keep running away from your problems, Miles. Yeah. So that's, that's good.

[2:27] So we, we all respond to suffering different ways and that kind of depends on what kind of suffering we're talking about. But just a few nights ago, our son, Charlie woke up a couple of times, which thankfully is unusual on the whole, but woke up at like two and four.

[2:43] Well, I went to get him both times. He was crying for me. And the first time I like walk out in the hallway, I open our door and immediately just kick the fire out of his scooter.

[2:53] That's randomly in the hallway straight to the pinky toe. And I'm like, oh man, trying to be quiet. Like don't want to wake the kids up. Well, it's a couple hours later. He cries out again. I do the exact same thing on my pink.

[3:06] My pinky toe is black right now. And I was like, ah, and so anyway, didn't handle that suffering super well, but my pinky toenail will hopefully grow back.

[3:16] Um, so do you find it difficult to be joyful and hopeful in suffering? Okay. So immediately when I say, how do you handle suffering?

[3:28] No one's like, I thank God. Like it's, it's, it's not a natural response to suffering. So how is it that Peter can call us to be joyful even in the midst of suffering?

[3:42] Those two things seem like opposites and yet Peter is calling these persecuted Christians to just that. So if you haven't yet, open with me to first Peter, sort of the end of your new Testament, a little bit tricky to find because it's one of the smaller ones.

[3:58] But he's writing to suffering people. And these people are truly suffering for Christ. Not just like kicking your son's scooter in the middle of the night multiple times, but they're being persecuted for their faith in Christ because they're Christians.

[4:16] They're outside the life of their society, their culture, their world considers them to be outside of what is acceptable.

[4:28] And so because of that, Christians are being put to death shortly after this letter is written. We don't know exactly when it was written, but shortly after it was written, empire wide persecution would break out against Christians.

[4:41] And if the government found out you were a Christian, or if someone around you found out you were a Christian, you were liable to be enslaved for the rest of your life, or put into the Colosseum to fight as a gladiator, they were persecuted severely.

[4:57] And yet Peter, even in the midst of that suffering, is wanting them to be joyful. And so this letter is really revolving around those two themes, suffering and joy.

[5:10] He is writing to these believers to encourage them to hold on to Christ, to stay faithful to Christ, and to rejoice in the midst of their suffering, not because suffering is fun, but because their suffering is doing something for them.

[5:25] Their suffering is benefiting them. And so we'll cover the first half of chapter 1 tonight. So verses 1 through 12 is hopefully what we'll get through.

[5:36] Our title tonight is Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow. And so Peter, in this passage, is calling them to take courage, to be strong, and to know who their God is and what he has done for them.

[5:52] And so we'll go through this. We just have two points. It's really two main sections. The first one is verses 1 and 2, and we just have the greeting. And he says, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, and the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ, and for sprinkling with his blood, may grace and peace be multiplied to you.

[6:23] So this letter, as it claims, was written by the apostle Peter. And you may know something about the apostle Peter. What is Peter famous for? What are some things he did?

[6:34] You can talk back to me. Yep. Accidentally cut off a guy's ear. Legendary. Not really. Don't do that. Yes. Denied God three times.

[6:45] Yeah, he denied Christ three times. Okay, so those are probably the two most popular things that he's known for, right? He's the apostle that denied Jesus. And so all along the time you're reading in the Gospels and Peter shows up, he's doing something silly.

[7:00] He's talking too fast. He's being arrogant. He's being kind of aggressive, even towards Jesus sometimes. He always seems to be into trouble, doing something wrong.

[7:11] But he's also doing some great things. He's also leading this group of disciples. But he most famously denied Jesus, but was restored by him. And the apostle that we see writing this book seems to be a much more mature man than he was when he was following Jesus.

[7:28] He's learned the lesson of humility. He's learned what it's like to be rebuked by Jesus. And he's seeking to comfort and encourage these broken and hurting Christians.

[7:40] And he was an apostle. That means a sent one of Jesus Christ or by Jesus Christ. So Jesus commissioned him to go out and take this message to the ends of the earth. Now, Peter primarily preached to the Jews and Paul primarily preached to the Gentiles.

[7:55] But here their roles seem to be kind of flipped because who he's writing to are people all throughout Asia Minor, which are Gentile regions. And so he's writing, picking up after the next phrase, to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion.

[8:11] Now, the word elect means chosen. The word exile really means rejected. And so is this a contradiction here? Peter is saying, you guys are chosen and rejected.

[8:23] How can both of these things be true? Well, they're chosen by God, but they're rejected by their countrymen. They're chosen by God for salvation, but they're rejected by those around them because of their faith in Christ.

[8:39] Christ. And now these two terms would actually be used to describe Jesus in chapter two. He was chosen and precious in the sight of God, but rejected by men and crucified.

[8:50] And so they are sharing in the identity of who Jesus is by being called elect exiles. Now, election can kind of be a scary topic.

[9:02] It's divisive. It can be in churches and in Christianity throughout the world, but Peter leads with it. He starts his letter with it to encourage them.

[9:13] And so what does it mean to be chosen by God? What is election? Well, it means by definition God's choosing of his people. God chooses his people.

[9:27] And that's maybe not controversial, but when does this happen? When did he choose his people? Why did he choose his people?

[9:38] When did he choose us? And why did he choose us? And this is where it can get controversial. The Bible, the New Testament, tells us he chose his people. He chose who would be saved before the foundation of the world.

[9:51] Before anything was created, before anything came into existence, Ephesians 1.4 says he chose us in him before the foundation of the world. And then why did he do this?

[10:03] So if you're a Christian, it's because of this truth. So why did he choose you? Why did he choose anyone? Because of his sheer mercy and grace.

[10:15] There's nothing you could do to earn this. There's nothing you can do to apply for this. Some of you have gone through job interviews and put together a resume. None of that happened for salvation.

[10:28] It was by God's sheer mercy and grace. And so he calls them chosen exiles or elect exiles. And it's God's choice of them, God's salvation of them, that makes them exiles in their cities.

[10:43] They were chosen out of the world by God. And so now don't really belong to the world any longer. These Christians were hated for their faith and their way of life.

[10:57] Their beliefs were not welcome in public. And maybe you've gotten a sense of this. I think our world and our nation is hostile to Christianity. Obviously, we're not being put to death for our faith.

[11:09] But maybe you've been in class or been with your family and they say something that's like blasphemous. They mock Christianity. They mock the Bible.

[11:19] And you're like, I really should say something. But you kind of feel this baseline fear. Anyone been there before? You're like, ah, you get real nervous. Your palms are sweaty. That's pressure you're feeling because of what you believe.

[11:35] And this wasn't just pressure they were feeling. Their lives were being put on the line for what they believed. And so it's easy in that situation for them to stay quiet and say, we'll just stick together and not really talk about our faith.

[11:52] But Peter's calling them to be joyful and to suffer well. The idea of them being exiles is that heaven is their true homeland. And they're just journeying on their way to that place.

[12:07] And so Christians, whether they're in first century Asia Minor, which is modern day Turkey, or in 21st century America, this is true of us. We don't truly and ultimately belong to this world.

[12:21] And so are you too comfortable here? Or are you trying to be too comfortable here? Because it's possible for us as Christians just to kind of out of fear of others to try to just fly under the radar all the time, never really talk to anyone about Christ, and just try to get by, try to live a comfortable life.

[12:39] Is that true of you? And if it is, and at true it's certainly been times of me, sorry, at times it's certainly been true of me. Goodness, did I just have a stroke? What happened? If that's true of us, we're not living in accordance with our identity.

[12:56] We don't truly belong here, and so there should be some uncomfortableness we just have by nature of following Christ. And he calls them, they're exiles of the dispersion.

[13:09] And so these are Christians that are spread far throughout modern day Turkey, what was formerly called Asia Minor. And he lists these regions of that place, and likely this letter would have circulated to all of those places, so maybe this was an ancient mailing route that it would have gone to these cities in order, we don't know exactly.

[13:27] But Peter would have intended this letter to go to Christians in all of these cities as they gather together for church. So now, why are they elect exiles?

[13:37] Well, he describes it to us in verse 2. According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus, and for sprinkling with His blood.

[13:53] According to the foreknowledge of God the Father. What is foreknowledge? Well, it's tempting just to say, okay, He knew it beforehand. He looked forward in time, saw something, and so He knew it before it happened.

[14:06] But the way the Bible uses this word is, it's not just He's looking into the future to learn something, because He knows all things. So His foreknowledge is because of His sovereign control and plan.

[14:20] And so these people are chosen, and these people are even suffering because of God's sovereign care over them. They were chosen, they were saved, the gospel went to them according to God's sovereign and saving intention.

[14:38] And it's in the sanctification of the Spirit, and so they were set apart by the Spirit when they heard the gospel, they were saved by Him, they were cleansed by Him, and all of this is for the purpose of obedience to Jesus Christ.

[14:53] And so when we think about obedience, can you obey your way into heaven? Can you obey your way into salvation? No. But obedience is salvation in action.

[15:07] Obedience is faith with feet. Obedience is faith being put into real life situations in obeying Jesus. And Peter also will likewise go on to describe unbelievers by the fact that they disobey God.

[15:24] They disobey the Word. And so obedience is faith in action. And he says, may grace and peace be multiplied to you.

[15:39] And they're also set apart for the sprinkling with His blood, we're cleansed through the sacrifice of Christ. And Peter's prayer is that they would experience the fullness of grace and peace as God gives it to them.

[15:52] And if you notice here, Peter opens this letter with some pretty deep theology. He talks about election and God's foreknowledge, but he also invokes the entire Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit.

[16:04] The foreknowledge of God the Father, sanctification of the Spirit, obedience to Jesus, and sprinkling with His blood. And as you read the Bible, you'll pick up on certain roles that each member of the Trinity has.

[16:18] So the Father is the Creator, Son is the Redeemer, and the Spirit is the Sanctifier, or the Lifebringer, the Lifegiver. Okay, so that's the greeting.

[16:29] And secondly, we'll see in verses 3-12, Blessed be God. Blessed be God. In verse 3, the first little phrase is the main point of this entire section.

[16:45] Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He should be honored by us, He should be praised by us, and for the rest of this section, Peter's going to be unpacking that.

[16:57] Why should He be blessed? Why should we praise Him? And it's because of who He is and what He's done. And Peter's going to keep coming back to those things over and over again. As you look at verses 3-12, this was originally written in Greek, that's all one sentence.

[17:14] Okay, so if you turn in a paper to your teacher with a sentence like that, I hope they fail you. In English, that's not good grammar. But in Greek, it has capacity for these big, massive sentences.

[17:27] So this is just one big thought that Peter's giving us here. And he says, Blessed be God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And here's why.

[17:40] According to His great mercy, He's caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

[17:51] And so we should praise God, firstly, for His salvation. He's caused us to be born again to a living hope. This is something that God does.

[18:02] This is not something we can work for. This is something that He alone accomplishes. He caused us to be born again. And so He is called Father because He has sons and daughters. He's called Father because He gives new life.

[18:14] He causes people to be born again. And how is it that He does this? It's through His Word. And so if you look down at verse 23, Since you've been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and abiding Word of God.

[18:34] So He has caused us to be born again for what? Well, it's to a living hope. Now, hope in the Bible is not just this uncertain kind of wishing, like, I hope this happens, maybe this will happen, but it's a complete confidence that's based on who God is and what He has said.

[18:53] So I was talking to Sam, number one. Where is she? Sam Largent? Oh, there she is over there. Change seats. She was like, I hope school gets canceled tomorrow. Anyone else there now?

[19:04] You're like, yeah, ready to be done with school. One of the snow days. Is that the same thing as biblical hope? No. No.

[19:14] Unfortunately not. But so, hoping or wishing that school will get canceled, sorry, Sam, hoping or wishing that school will get canceled tomorrow, it may be a good thing, but that's not what hope means in the Bible. This living hope is a thing you can rest your soul on, a thing you can rest your entire life on.

[19:30] It's a confidence that God will keep His Word. And how do we know that? Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. A living Savior gives us a living hope.

[19:43] If Jesus was still dead, He's not worthy of being worshiped. If Jesus is still dead, we shouldn't waste our time studying the Bible. But because Jesus rose again, everything God says to us through Him is worthy of our attention, and it gives us hope.

[19:59] And we're born again to, verse 4, an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. And as we work through, we'll see that Peter is really borrowing a lot from the Old Testament.

[20:12] Sometimes he just borrows it without citing it. Sometimes he quotes it directly, and he gives us a heads up. And this is one of those cases where he's just kind of referring to it and expecting us to pick up on it. So if you read the Old Testament and it talks about an inheritance, usually that's describing land that the Israelites will inherit.

[20:29] But in the New Testament, this inheritance is being with God in fullness, seeing Jesus face to face. And that will include physical blessing in the next age as we get to live in the new heavens and the new earth, and we inherit that.

[20:46] But here it's given its fullest meaning that this inheritance will be face to face fellowship, life with Jesus. And he describes this inheritance as being imperishable.

[20:59] It means it cannot die or pass away. It's undefiled and unfading, and it's kept in heaven for you. And so many inheritances vanish away before they're actually given, before they're actually obtained.

[21:16] My friend, Garrett Goebel, many of you know him, is a police officer. And there was one call he responded to where there was a lady who had gotten scammed. Has anyone gotten scammed before?

[21:28] Okay, yeah, maybe. So she had gotten scammed, not out of a few dollars, but out of her and her husband's life savings. And so, but it was her fault, and there was nothing they could do to recover it.

[21:39] So some guy had called her, said he needed money, was pretending to be a family member, and she gave it to him, and it was gone. And so that's an example of an inheritance that will never be passed down.

[21:51] That's an example of inheritance that fades away, that's perishable. But we in Christ have an inheritance that will not go anywhere. It will never fade away. It will not lose its shine.

[22:04] And speaking of shine, Lacey, a few years ago, we were dropping the kids off at PDO, which is the church's daycare that we make use of on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and she just looks down and was like, my diamond is gone.

[22:16] So she had her ring on, one of the little prongs was loose, and the diamond was just out of her ring. And so is the ring worth much at that point? No, not really. So thankfully we found the diamond.

[22:27] It was a stressful few minutes, but found it in the hallway. Praise God. But that is something that could pass away. That's something that could leave us. That's something that could disappear.

[22:38] But this inheritance that the Father gives us in Christ, that's kept in heaven for us, will not leave us. It's kept in heaven for you.

[22:51] And so God, it's kept by God. He's the one who ensures that we will have this inheritance in the end, but how do we know that we'll make it there? How do we know that we will stay faithful? How do we know that we will make it to heaven to receive this inheritance?

[23:08] Well, verse 5, And so our only confidence of actually making it to heaven isn't in our ability to stay faithful.

[23:28] Our only hope is in what God has already done through Christ and in Him keeping us faithful until the end. He has promised to hold on to us.

[23:38] He is the good shepherd, and He will not lose any of His sheep. And this protection of the inheritance and this protection of us in this life doesn't guarantee that we won't have troubles.

[23:51] We will suffer. We will go through difficult times. But what it does guarantee is that God will use those difficult times to keep us faithful until the end.

[24:02] One of my favorite hymns is called He Will Hold Me Fast. And it says, When I fear my faith will fail, Christ will hold me fast.

[24:13] When the tempter would prevail, He will hold me fast. I could never keep my hold through life's fearful path, for my love is often cold.

[24:24] He must hold me fast. He must hold me fast. Now, we need to ask the question like, when do we experience the blessings of salvation?

[24:36] When do we experience the benefits that God brings us in salvation? Do we experience them now, or is it all reserved for the future? And the answer is, it's a little bit of both.

[24:47] We experience benefits now. We have fellowship with God. We understand His Word through the Spirit's work. There's also a lot of benefits that won't be revealed to us until the end of time.

[24:58] And some of those benefits are being able to see Jesus face to face. That's not a privilege we have right now, but one day, it will be at the end of time, like the end of verse 5 says.

[25:10] And then a second reason God is blessed is because the salvation that He's given us helps us rejoice in trials. Verse 6, What is it that fuels our praise of God?

[25:34] What gives us fuel to rejoice in this life? It's the salvation that He offers us. And I think we can usually forget just how crazy it is that God actually forgives us, that God actually saves us.

[25:53] We can lose sight of how holy God is. We can lose sight of how sinful we are. And if we do either of those things, we don't praise God like we should.

[26:04] We don't rejoice in Him like we should. And Peter says, you should rejoice in this salvation that He's brought to you. And he says, you should rejoice even though for a little while, if necessary, you've been grieved by various trials.

[26:20] Now he calls these trials a little while. Does that mean our suffering is short in this life? Not necessarily. Does that mean it feels brief to us? No, it doesn't.

[26:32] So what is Peter saying by a little while? Well, our suffering is short and momentary. Our suffering doesn't seem like much at all when we compare it to eternity spent with Christ.

[26:46] And so we can rejoice through our suffering because we know it's temporary. We know it's coming to an end. We know this isn't how God created the world. And we know that world He's going to make in the future won't have any suffering in it.

[27:00] And so when we compare our trials here and now to that glory that awaits, our sufferings are very brief.

[27:11] Our sufferings do only last a little while. He's not saying suffering itself is brief, but when it's compared to the eternal glory, it is incredibly short compared to the glory we have with Christ in heaven.

[27:28] And so we need to think about heaven to have a proper perspective on our lives. If we fail to think about heaven, we'll get so caught up in the difficulties of life that we'll lose our hope.

[27:44] We'll lose motivation to live faithfully through the difficulties. My wife Lacey showed me a short or something the other day that was like, how often do you think about the Roman Empire?

[27:56] Have you guys seen that? And it's like, guys think about it like every day because we're cool and girls never do because they drool. But it's a thanks look, appreciate it.

[28:09] But it is interesting like how many guys think about the Roman Empire. And I was thinking, I was like, I think I think about the Roman Empire every day. Like this is kind of disturbing to me. But how often do we think about heaven?

[28:21] Peter was calling these Christians to let this be the consuming focus of their minds. And in comparison to that, their suffering would seem brief.

[28:33] Their suffering would seem short in comparison. And he says, if necessary. And so we know that any suffering we experience in this life, whether it's health issues, or friend or family issues, we know that these only come our way according to God's will.

[28:54] God is the one who determines what we face in life. And so we know that he's the one who's guarding us. He's the one who's bringing us through our life. He's the one causing things to happen in our life.

[29:06] And so is our suffering doing anything? If God's the one who wills it, if God's the one who calls us to endure it and to rejoice through it, is there a purpose in it?

[29:21] And yes, there is. The purpose in verse 7 is 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.

[29:38] Peter here says the purpose of God sending trials in our lives is to test our faith. And it's not so that God can find out what we're made of.

[29:50] He knows us. But as we go through trials, our faith is purified. Our faith is refined. Our faith is made stronger as we walk through difficult and challenging days.

[30:04] Trials are necessary to grow us. And you can see this all the time in athletics or whatever you're involved in, school or any other extracurricular activities like band or choir.

[30:17] You grow the most when you're stretched. You grow the most when you get into a difficult place, when you feel like you can't achieve your goals. And it's good for us to go to places like that because we see some of our own inadequacies.

[30:30] We see where we fall short, but it also grows us. It also strengthens us. And Peter is saying the same is true of our faith. This faith will be proved.

[30:41] This faith will be purified through these trials. And it will result for us in praise and glory and honor when Christ is revealed to us.

[30:53] Suffering is the road we must travel to enter heaven. And verse 8 says, Though you have not seen him, that's Jesus, you love him.

[31:05] And so these Christians that he's writing to did not see Jesus face to face. They were never in Jerusalem when Jesus was there. And so Peter's writing to them saying, You haven't seen him, but even in spite of that, you love him.

[31:17] And though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. They had not seen Jesus face to face.

[31:29] They hadn't seen Jesus with their eyes. And the same is true of us, but this is true faith. Faith trusts not in what is seen, but in what the truth is. They had not seen Jesus, but they believe in him.

[31:40] And even in their trials, they rejoice with joy that is inexpressible or unspeakable and so filled with glory. And they obtain the outcome of your faith.

[31:52] Verse 9, the salvation of your souls. This is thinking about the future aspect of salvation. When they see Jesus, they'll attain this through faith.

[32:05] And in verses 10 through 12, it talks about some interesting things. It talks about prophets, angels, and our salvation. And so I'll just read verses 10 through 12 for us. Concerning this salvation, the salvation that was purchased through Christ, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours and inquired carefully, they 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.

[32:37] It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you in 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 into which angels long to look.

[32:54] And so this salvation that we experience now is the fulfillment of prophecy given in the past. And it's something that angels long to look into.

[33:07] It's something that angels desire to know more about. And so it's concerning this salvation that the prophets prophesied, and it says about the grace that was to be yours.

[33:18] And so when you think about the Old Testament, it's a successive line of prophets who received revelation from God, predicting the future about who the Messiah would be, what he would do, what he would accomplish for his people.

[33:32] And it says they searched and inquired carefully. What is it they were searching? They were asking what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.

[33:48] And so they knew what they were writing about. They knew they were writing about Jesus. They didn't know him by name. They didn't know when he would appear, but they knew he would suffer, and they knew he would conquer.

[34:00] They knew he would be glorified next to the Father. They knew certain things about him, but they had no idea when these things would happen. And so they were searching diligently.

[34:11] They were studying their own writings, trying to figure out when will this take place? Will I get to see my Redeemer in my lifetime? And it says, based on the revelation they were studying, verse 12, it was revealed to them.

[34:26] So this is a revelation about the revelation, that they weren't serving themselves, but you. And so what Peter is saying is that the prophecies of the Old Testament aren't just fulfilled for us.

[34:45] The prophecies in the Old Testament are actually for us. The prophets recognized they were not serving themselves or their generation.

[34:56] They were serving a future generation of believers who would get to see all of these pieces put together. They would get to look back and see how Christ fulfilled what they wrote about thousands of years before he even showed up.

[35:11] And so the prophets recognized they weren't writing for themselves, they were writing for us, for the church, to recognize who Christ is and what he's done. It was about the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.

[35:28] And Peter will make a connection with this verse later in the letter and saying, just as Jesus suffered and then was exalted, so it'll be of his followers.

[35:41] If you suffer for Jesus, if you suffer with Jesus, you'll be exalted with him too. And it doesn't mean we'll become the Son of God, it doesn't mean we'll become divine, but it does mean we share the same trajectory of life as he did.

[35:55] If we are willing to suffer for him in this life, if we're willing to be faithful to him whatever it costs, we will share in this glory that is now his at the Father's right hand as well.

[36:07] And it says that these things, this salvation, are things into which angels long to look.

[36:20] And the idea here is angels are kind of crouching down, trying to look down into what the details of this salvation are. And we might ask, why are the angels that curious?

[36:31] Don't they have a front row seat to what's happening? Don't they see God? Don't they talk with him? Don't they have a front row seat to everything he's doing? And certainly, yes, they've seen things that we can only dream about right now.

[36:45] But they themselves have never experienced salvation. What angel has God ever saved? Angels are created beings to serve him. Some of them rebelled.

[36:56] And God offered them not salvation, but condemnation. And so those are now fallen angels or demons. And so these angels have heard about salvation. These angels, have seen some of the details of what God is working out, but they're eagerly looking into, they're strongly desiring to know more about what this salvation is.

[37:13] They've never experienced it firsthand, and so they are curious about what God has made known to us. They're curious about what it's like to experience a relationship with God as Father, as to Jesus, as the Savior.

[37:30] And if angels are this curious about it, if prophets studied it this seriously, if Peter is calling his audience to be joyful in the midst of death surrounding them, how joyful should we be that this is ours?

[37:46] This gift of salvation belongs to us who are in Christ. We should be just as curious about it. We should seek just as diligently to study God's word as the prophets did, because this was for us.

[37:59] This salvation where Christ paid for our sins in our place, he did that for us, causing us to be born again to a living hope.

[38:11] The prophets saw our salvation from a distance and praised God. The angels in heaven desire to look into our salvation and they praise God.

[38:24] But we have the privilege of actually experiencing this knowledge of Christ through his word. And so, let us praise God, the one from whom all blessings flow.

[38:37] Let's bless his name. Let's praise him for what he's done. And are you suffering? Have you gone through difficulties in your life?

[38:48] I know many of you have. Believe the truth here that suffering refined your faith, that suffering actually is a benefit to your soul because it's leading you to an inheritance that will never pass away.

[39:13] It's leading you to a reward that cannot be taken away from you. It's leading you to Jesus. us. And so, hold on to Jesus.

[39:25] Cling to this living hope we have in him through his death and resurrection. Let me pray for us. Our God and Father, we praise you for revealing yourself to us through your word.

[39:41] I pray that as students go to small groups that this time would be beneficial to them as they think back on this text and talk about what the Lord's doing in their lives through it.

[39:52] I pray as we embark on this journey of 1 Peter that its message would speak clearly to us and compel us to this supernatural joy that's only experienced through your son.

[40:03] I pray for any students here who are outside of those promises who don't yet believe that, that you'd open their hearts and their minds to that truth. And for the glory of Christ we pray. Amen.

[40:18]  Amen.