A little over a month before he died, the famous atheist Jean-Paul Sartre declared that he so strongly resisted feelings of despair that he would say to himself, “I know I shall die in hope.” Then in profound sadness, he would add, “But hope needs a foundation.”

1 Peter 1:1–12

1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: 7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: 8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: 9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.10 Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: 11 Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. 12 Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.

Viktor Frankl, the Austrian psychiatrist who was himself incarcerated for a large part of World War II in one of the Nazi camps, wrote afterwards,

“The prisoner who had lost faith in his future was doomed. With his loss of belief in the future he also lost his spiritual hold. He let himself decline and became subject to mental and physical decay. Usually this happened quite suddenly in the form of a crisis, the symptoms of which were familiar to the experienced camp inmate.

Usually it began with the prisoner refusing one morning to get dressed and work or to go out onto the parade grounds. No entreaties, no blows, no threats had any effect. He just lay there, hardly moving. If this crisis was brought about by an illness, he refused to be taken to the sick bay or to do anything to help himself. He simply gave up. There he remained lying in his own excrete and nothing bothered him anymore.”

For human beings, hope is something necessary for well-being. What happens when hopes die? For most of us, when specific hopes die, other hopes replace them eventually, but suppose there is no hope. When someone really is giving up, we say, “They have lost all hope,” and they roll over and die.

Hope looks into the future. It gives a reason for living. It makes actions and choices significant. It adds zest and focus. It provides a moral compass. This is true even when the hope is not realized, for as long as this forward-looking anticipation exists there seems to be a reason for living even when that reason does not, finally, prove to be well-founded.

Hell is where there is no more hope. Dante’s picture is exactly right.
“Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.”

The New Testament habitually speaks of hope in a slightly different sense.

Hope in the Bible embraces this forward-looking anticipation intrinsic to all hope without hinting at any implied suspicions that the whole thing might come crashing down and that it might not happen.

The Bible can speak of our certain hope. In modern English, that’s almost a contradiction in terms. Hope is not certain, but in the Bible, hope is forward-looking, and whether it is certain or not depends on the ground of the promise, and if it’s God’s promise, it’s certain.

Peter speaks of these Gentiles becoming obedient to Christ through the new covenant in Christ’s blood.

He addresses them as Christians who still live in the world, and that world can be a hard place. He writes, “To God’s elect, strangers in the world …” Aliens, if you like. “… scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia

First under the Assyrians, the northern tribes were taken away. At least their leaders and many of their middle-class people were taken away. The final tribes were removed by the Babylonians in 587 BC.

That’s what Peter says with respect to these Christians. They are strangers in the world.

There is a sense in which Christians remain in a perennial tension. We may be citizens of the USA or some other country, but it’s not our ultimate citizenship. In some ways we just don’t fit.

We Have a Hope that God establishes and verifies by the Resurrection of Jesus.

1 Peter 1:3 he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

Here, indeed, in his great mercy, God has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Messiah from the dead.

It is not something we hope for in the modern sense, but it might not come off. This hope is as secure as the facticity of Jesus’ resurrection. Of course, even at the existential level, Peter’s own experience testifies to this hope.

When Jesus died on the cross, where was Peter emotionally? He was a man without hope. He was full of bitter sorrow, the memory of his own short comings.

There was the restoration to service described in John 21. By this point, Peter has the implications of this together. He knows with the death and resurrection of Jesus there is God’s final provision for the forgiveness of sins, and his sin.

So we live in hope, because Christ’s resurrection is the down payment of the fullness of what will one day be ours. Already we participate in this by the new birth. That’s why the new birth theme recurs at the end of the chapter.

The hope that God sustains, is tied to faith.

There is a parallel between new birth into a living hope and new birth 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.”

Peter surely recalled Jesus’ teaching about treasure laid up in heaven. Matthew 6:19

But the focus is not quite on treasure so much as on inheritance. It is tied to them being strangers and the promise land.

The Old Testament people of God were aliens and pilgrims until they entered the Promised Land and received their inheritance. Abraham was just a stranger. Then the people were slaves in Egypt. Then they were in the wilderness for years and years. Pilgrims waiting to get their inheritance, the inheritance of the Promised Land.

The physical promise land could, in one sense, fade by drought and the like, but our inheritance is salvation consummated in the new heaven and the new earth where there will never, ever be any sort of drought again.

God keeps our inheritance for us. That is why Christian hope can be certain.

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.” While God keeps the inheritance for us, he keeps us for the inheritance, shielded by God’s power. We are shielded by God’s power through faith.

verse 21, “Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.” Here, then, is hope that God sustains.

It’s an inheritance, kept in heaven for us, while we are kept for it. We are shielded, we’re told, by God’s power, until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

God prepares this inheritance and shields us, that we exercise our faith in his Word, in his promise, and so we persevere, as it were, in hope, because we believe that is coming.

The prospect of what is coming helps us to persevere in faith now, and in hope, right through the difficulties in our lives. We have faith that the same God who raised Jesus from the dead will also bring us with him on the last day.

This hope God sustains (by trails) building our faith until the consummation.

Peter places hope in in the context of suffering. “In all this …” In the prospect of Christ’s return. 1 Peter 1:6

The object of this hope has only been introduced, but so much more is coming. Though you have not seen him yet, you love him and he is coming.

Peter provides several reasons why Christians actually rejoice in this hope that God has introduced to them, even though they find themselves facing grief and trials of various kinds.

The suffering is temporary verse 6, a little while

There is a long list of beatings and sufferings given in 2 Corinthians 11, and in 2 Corinthians 4

2Corinthians 4:17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

We can rejoice in the trials because that is what strengthens our faith.

It is a fairly common theme in a lot of New Testament writings. In James 1:2, for example, we read, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds . Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

As Christians, we can rejoice when we face temptations is because God can use it to build our faith. We can look at trials in a different way precisely because we have this Christian hope.

We can rejoice for the praise that it will bring to Jesus.

1 Peter 1:7 “These trials have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine …and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” praise, and honor for Christ himself.

2 Thessalonians 1:9-10.

What happens when Jesus comes back? He’ll be marveled at. He will receive praise and glory. One of the things that will bring praise and glory to God on the last day is our enduring hope, grounded in faith, which shields us and makes us press on and prove faithful.

We are building up glory for God through Jesus Christ on the last day as, by our faith we continue to have Hope

This Hope Is God’s Plan for Us

Peter does not want us to think this wonderful salvation was some last-minute thought. It had been predicted by God through the Old Testament prophets.

The Old Testament prophets did not always grasp very clearly the facts or the time of all that God was doing. First the sufferings and then the glory that would follow. If we suffer with him, we will reign with him.

The Old Testament prophets did not always grasp this sequence, of suffering and hope, but we being on this side of all that God has done, we are without excuse. We have more reason to hope than anyone.

We have been blessed in a way not even the angels have.

“Even angels long to look into these things,” Do we really understand there has arisen a Redeemer for fallen human beings but not for fallen angels? Angels look at the salvation that we’ve received and marvel, and wonder. It is not surprising that the Old Testament prophets had a hard job sorting it all out.

It was hard for them to see the sufferings of the Messiah then the glories that would follow.

verses 10 and 11. “Concerning this salvation …” That is, the salvation of our souls mentioned in verse 9. “Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances [what was going on] to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.”

God has provided for every aspect for the Hope that we can have now in this life, and in the life yet to come.

We can walk by faith, and live in hope. Hope not for an easy life but hope for eternity, hope anchored in Jesus Christ whom we have not seen yet love, and even though we do not see him now, we believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for we are receiving the goal of our faith, the salvation of our souls. Let us pray.

Lord please help us, we who live in a world that is so consumed with plastic, all the stuff that does not last, help us to live hungry above all for the glory of God, for the praise of his Son. Help us to remain faithful to the Hope only you can give, especially in the difficult days we are in.