1 Pet 1:1,2 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God's elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood:

So this is a letter from the great apostle Peter, the apostle who is a fisherman, the apostle who keeps on putting his foot in his mouth. No it's not! Well it is, but he's clearly no longer a fisherman and he's clearly someone who has something to say that isn't a rash comment. This is a letter from a mature apostle. This man has changed since we first met him in the Gospels. Certainly he has help in writing this letter (See 5:12) but this is the letter of a man who has been transformed by the Gospel, transformed by meeting Jesus, transformed by the work of circumstances and transformed by the work of the Holy Spirit. He is also a man who is not afraid to speak to the Church at large, specifically here to the area that today we call Turkey.

To whom does he speak? Some say it is primarily the Jews but “God's elect, strangers in the world, scattered….” could equally be a description of all Christians, Jew and Gentile. They are the ‘elect' because they have been chosen by God, as we'll see in a moment. They are ‘strangers in the world' because they have been set apart, again as we'll soon see. And they are scattered throughout the area we call modern Turkey, a minority of believers. Peter will speak about suffering and persecution and therefore the reason for the recipients of this letter being scattered is almost certainly persecution.

But look at the wonderful threefold descriptions of the believers to whom he is writing. First of all they are those “who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.” This is similar to Paul's language: “he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.” (Eph 1:4) Peter himself, when preaching on the day of Pentecost, spoke of Jesus: “This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge ; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.” (Acts 2:23 ) Those are the only two times that the word ‘foreknowledge' is used in the Bible, both by Peter.

But again the sense is common in Paul's writings, for instance, “God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son.” (Rom 8:28 ,29) and “God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew.” (Rom 11:2) Later on, speaking about Jesus, Peter writes, “He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.” (1 Pet 1:20) reminding us that it was before God created anything that He looked into the future, of what would be, and saw that Jesus would have to come and saw who would respond to him. This same sense of destiny established, even before God made the world, comes through in John's revelation: “The inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the creation of the world will be astonished.” (Rev 17:8). Yes, here in this first phrase we catch a sense of the Father's sovereign will and His total knowledge.

Let's consider the second expression: “through the sanctifying work of the Spirit.” The Holy Spirit has sometimes been referred to as the executive arm of the Trinity, the One who administers the will of the godhead here on earth. So, yes, we are chosen before the world came into being in that the Father decreed the means by which people would be assessed (their response to Jesus), but now, today, it is the work of the Holy Spirit to convict us of sin, to draw us to God and then when we make that act of surrender, to come into us and set us apart as new creations, people who are actually different from anyone else, because He lives and work within us. Sanctifying here simply means to set us apart to God so that He can carry out that work of changing us into the likeness of Jesus (see 2 Cor 3:18). We noted from the outset that Peter has been changed from that rough fisherman who was originally called by Jesus. The Holy Spirit has done much to change him – as he does us!

But then there is the third phrase: “for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood.” There is a twofold aspect to this, first the overall intention and then the means by which it comes about. The overall intention of God's plan of salvation is that we will each one submit to His Son Jesus Christ who now sits at the Father's right hand in heaven, ruling. It is only by us submitting to the Son that the Holy Spirit is able to work in us. If we don't submit to Jesus then the Holy Spirit obviously can't lead, guide, direct and teach us. The way that this comes about is by us receiving Jesus' work on the Cross which cleanses us of all sin and makes the way open for us to receive God's forgiveness.

There is a reflection in these verses of what happened at the inauguration of the first covenant: “Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, "We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey." Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, "This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words." (Ex 24:7,8) Note the two things: Obedience to God's will (the Law) and then sprinkling with blood (a life given) brought about the covenant relationship. That is what happened then and that is what happens now, except the Lamb used is Jesus. We will see more of this as we work through this letter.

1 Pet 1:2 Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

It is so easy to miss simply phrases in the Bible and thus miss a treasure trove. Every single one of the apostle Paul's letters and both the apostle Peter's letters have this greeting in them. It is almost as if these words were a fundamental declaration of need in the early church. They come as an apostolic blessing, a desire for the recipients of the various letters, may you know God's grace and peace. In this letter Peter assumes the God element (there is so much about God in the verses before and after it, it has to be God focussed). In his second letter he asks for the same thing but adds, “through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord”. Here's the first clue: grace and peace come through knowing God and Jesus. Paul said the same thing to the Romans and in fact to all the churches to whom he wrote. The message comes through loud and clear: grace and peace come through knowing God.

So what is grace? Sunday school teachers use the expression “God's riches at Christ's e xpense” which is an information filled description which is true. It is indeed all of God's goodness which comes to us as a result of what Jesus has done on the Cross. I would simply summarise it by saying that grace speaks of all of God's resources that are available to us, to help us to live, to help us cope and to help us serve in His name. These ‘resources' are what enable us to live as His children in this Fallen World. Ultimately they are the outworking of the Holy Spirit's presence within us. He is the author of all we need, he it is who provides the energy, the wisdom, the goodness, the ‘whatever' we need to live out the Christian life.

But when we think of ‘grace', to speak of it as ‘resources' doesn't do it justice for there are always within it the sense of loving kindness and goodness, characteristics of the Lord Himself. This energy, this ability, this resource, always comes accompanied by the characteristics of loving kindness and goodness, and enables us to express ourselves with these characteristics. We don't just live holy lives in a grey sort of way. What we do and the way we do it comes with this sense and expression of loving kindness and goodness to add colour or life to what we say or do. Grace is the way God blesses us and it leaves is feeling good and it should also leave others who encounter us feeling good.

The psalmist wrote of a king (?possibly David or Solomon?) “You are the most excellent of men and your lips have been anointed with grace.” (Psa 45:2) and so immediately we know that what comes from the lips of this person will be good and worth hearing. In Acts, speaking of Barnabas, we find, “When he arrived and saw the evidence of the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts.” (Acts 11:23 ). Barnabas came to the church in Antioch and saw the quality of the lives of the Christians there and was able to see clearly that they were the product of the working of the presence of God in them. The resources of God, the energy of the Lord, this ability to live out Christ-like lives, were very obvious. Is it any wonder that the apostles saw this as a key requirement for the people of God?

But there was always another element of this blessing – peace! Peace is the absence of strife or anxiety or worry or upset. In the early days of the church especially, as persecutions so often raged against the church, the apostles knew that this was also something that the people of God needed. It isn't necessarily the taking away of the cause of strife or anxiety or worry or upset, but it is the ability to be at rest even the face of it or in the midst of it. When others raise unjust or unkind words against us, it is natural to be upset, but the apostles want us to be at peace, even in the face of such words. When employment suddenly vanishes with downsizing, or illness attacks a loved one, or whatever other naturally upsetting thing comes, the apostles want us to have peace even in the face of it. They want us to stand facing the tidal wave of upset that is coming and to be calm and at rest. How can such a thing be?

It has to be as we go back to the beginning where we reminded ourselves that these things come out of a relationship with the Lord. But is has got to be a real relationship, we have got to know the reality of the Lord's presence when we are confronted with a giant that would seek to bring us down. Easy to say, not so easy to experience! It may mean we need to pray and seek to know the Lord's presence as a living reality, because it is only in that knowledge that we can be at peace. When we have the knowledge of His presence, we realise that He is sovereign, almighty God who is all-powerful, all-knowing and all-wise – and He's there for us! That is the truth that the Bible and the Holy Spirit convey: He is there for us! We may have to face and go through death brought apparently by the enemy (but only by the Lord's permission) as did many of the early apostles, but if we know we are walking God's plan for us and we know we have an eternal destiny with Him and we know He is there alongside us as we walk this path, we can know peace.

Other times we may go through trying times and the Lord will bring us out the other side of them still on this earth. Do we only have to wait for peace to arrive once we are out the other side? No! “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 4:6,7) No, these things, these times, may be a natural cause for anxiety but we are exhorted, as we realise their coming, to bring them to the Lord in prayer, with thanks that He is in control, and as we do that a peace which passes human understanding will descend on us. It will be the fresh knowledge that He knows, He is in control and He is there with us in it with all of the resources we need to cope with it. Hallelujah!

1 Pet 1:3 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

Peter bursts into praise. It is praise to God who is also the Father of Jesus. But Peter doesn't speak casually about Jesus as he might have done years previously while Jesus walked on the earth and Peter walked alongside him. Then he probably would have referred to ‘the Master', the rabbi who taught them to become fishers of men. But much has happened since those days. His master had been arrested and crucified and then he had come back from the dead and then he had ascended to heaven. Oh yes, he was no longer merely ‘the Master' for they now recognised him for who he was – their Lord. We take this word ‘Lord' for granted when it is used in respect of Jesus but it means he is our ruler, our owner, the one who has rights over us, our king! This is who Peter now knows Jesus to be, but it isn't Jesus he focuses on, it is God the Father, the Supreme Ruler, the Almighty One, the One who has a plan that He is working out in the earth that involves eternity. All of these descriptions will come out in this letter. This is the One who is worthy of our praise.

When you ‘worship' someone you bow down before them acknowledging their great superiority over you. When you ‘thank' someone you express your gratefulness for what they have done for you or given you. When you ‘praise' someone you extol them for what they have achieved. That brings us to the heart of this verse, Peter's praise of the Father for what he has achieved. If we are Christians who have known the Lord a long time we may have come to take these things for granted and so we need to ask Him to bring them alive to us again. There are wonderful things being written about here!

Because of the nature or character of God He has done something wonderful. He has given us ‘new birth', He has given us a new life; He has made us anew. We talk about it and preach about it so easily but it is truly a wonderful thing, that God has come to us and re-energised us by the power of His Holy Spirit and given us the ability to be different people, godly people, people in a living relationship with Him, receiving His guidance and direction and wisdom and enabling to be good! The concept of being born again was brought to us by the apostle John in his Gospel (Jn 3:3) as he reported the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus. He had already referred to it in his opening chapter: “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-- children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.” (Jn 1:12,13) but it is clearly a teaching of the early church for Peter is saying the same thing: God has made it possible for us to start life again on a completely different basis and with a completely different power and motivation.

What was so incredible about this was that we didn't deserve it. In fact there was nothing in us that merited this; it was a pure act of mercy on God's part. Mercy is kindness or forbearance that is not deserved. Perhaps we've never seen it like this but mercy is an expression of love. John tells us that “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8,16). Now love is benevolence or strong benign feelings for another and everything about God is this, we are told. For this reason (which we are unable to explain any further than John says) God expresses mercy to whoever will receive it. It is a benign or benevolent attitude which is expressed in benign or benevolent actions. Thus God did not condemn us but drew us to Himself and poured out His love on us in the form of forgiveness and adoption and empowering with the Holy Spirit and thus we were ‘born again'. All it required of us was to believe in Jesus, that he is the Son of God who died on the Cross for us, attested to by his resurrection from the dead. That confirmed who he was and what he had done.

But there is yet something more to consider. This new life, having been ‘born again', is described by Peter as “a living hope.” In the world hope is a very vague thing. “I hope it won't rain tomorrow.” or “I hope I'll get a pay rise next month.” Mostly these are vague wishes, things we'd like to happen. However, when we come to Scripture ‘hope' is a very strong thing, a certainty based upon God's promises. Hope is always about tomorrow, about what is yet to come. In the Christian walk we have a number of such things. For example whatever goes on in life, God will always be there working to bring good out of it for us (Rom 8:28 ). We also know that in the walk we have today and tomorrow He will always be with us (Heb 13:5b). Moreover, this walk will not end with death for we have been promised eternal life (Jn 3:15,16), a life that will never end.

In fact as we go through the New Testament we find it is filled with such promises, such declarations from God that say “Tomorrow will be a good day because God has said He will do this and carry on doing it.” This hope is not just academic based on things God has said (although that is true), but it is living in the sense that it is verified by the living presence of God within us, His Holy Spirit. It is an ongoing, daily experience, Him in me, teaching, convicting, correcting, guiding and empowering for change. I know this will be like that tomorrow because it is like it today and it was like it yesterday. Some days we are very much aware of it, others not, but it is true. This is the wonder of the life that God has brought us into! Hallelujah!

1 Pet 1:3-5 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--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.

For most people, life on this earth is all there is and perhaps because of that belief, the thought of death is something terrible. We live in a world of change. On one hand we are trying to keep people alive for as long as possible (although we don't always do very well maintaining a good quality of life), while on the other there are moves to encourage voluntary euthanasia, to hasten death for those who are suffering badly. In the previous meditation we arrived at the point in these verses of thinking about the living hope that we have. Within that we briefly mentioned, almost in passing, the reality that we now receive eternal life and so death is not the end.

But Peter won't leave us to think on eternity merely in passing; he brings it to the fore when he writes of “ an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade--kept in heaven for you.” It is the latter words, “kept in heaven for you” that press us to think about eternity. An inheritance is usually something you receive when someone else dies. Here the inheritance which is ours, we receive when we die. Inheritance speaks of a future blessing, something to be received in the distant future when a death occurs. So here we are, wanting to keep death at bay for as long as possible, and yet we have a glorious inheritance waiting for us. It doesn't matter how long our life turns out to be, this inheritance is not going to “perish, spoil or fade,” because it is in heaven and in heaven everything is unchanging.

If only we could grasp the wonder of this we would not be so distressed when a loved one passes away. So often, when it is the very old, death is a release from a physical trial, a severe pressure for many. Declining physical abilities accompanied by an increase in aches and pains, makes old age difficult, and yet we cling on to it and anguish when we see it taken from a loved one. Yet they then go to receive this glorious inheritance that has been waiting for us. Whether there are stages of transition between life now and what we eventually receive is not totally clear in Scripture, but at the end of the book of revelation we read of a time that will be ours where “ there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain.” (Rev 21:4) That will be a good time! That is our inheritance, enjoying the presence of God and having a new spiritual body (see 1 Cor 15:44 ) that knows no pain and the life knows no tears. This is our eternal destiny.

Peter also refers to this inheritance as, “the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. ” Have you ever heard that picture of salvation that is portrayed as rescue from a sinking ship? We were all on a sinking ship and then that lifeboat came out to us and we were lifted on to the lifeboat. We were saved. Then the lifeboat turned round and slowly made its way back through the ways and we were being saved. Then it arrived back in harbour and we stepped off onto dry land and we were well and truly saved. The journey back in the lifeboat is the life we now have. The landing on the land is the arrival in heaven, our true home, our true destination.

There appears a sense in Scripture that God will eventually wind up everything that exists at the present in ‘the last Day' and make everything anew for us to enjoy, but for us as individuals ‘the last day' may be the last day of our individual lives here on earth. There are lots of disputes about whether we instantly enter into our inheritance the moment we die or whether we sleep and are awakened to a final day. I lean towards the former.

But there is still a phrase yet to be considered: “kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power.” The ones who receive this inheritance are people of faith, people who have believed God about Jesus and who now have entered into a life where God's power holds, keeps and shields them until the time when they leave to receive their inheritance. It is a life we receive because of our faith. When we said, “I believe, please forgive me, please be Lord of my life” that was an act of faith, and when God heard that and saw it was sincere, He brought His Spirit into our lives. It is the Spirit who keeps us and leads us and is our shield to bring us safely through to the place and time of receiving our inheritance. The body may be killed but the real ‘me' will never die for He who is eternal has now brought eternal life to my soul and I live for ever. After this earth, all there is, is my inheritance to be received. Hallelujah!

1 Pet 1:6,7 In 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 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.

The changes that have taken place in the West especially, in the past fifty years, have brought new pressures to Christians. Possibly the biggest pressure has come through the philosophy of materialism which has been bolstered because we have gone through a time of unparalleled affluence and technological change. This has had a number of effects but one of them is that we have entered into a new level of peace and comfort, which we have almost come to believe is our natural right. The only trouble is that we still live in a Fallen World and don't seem to cope so well when things don't go well.

Peter, like James in his letter, brings us right down to earth in terms of practical faith. He has just be saying how wonderful it is that we have this inheritance stored up for us once we leave this planet. That is why he starts here with, “In this you greatly rejoice”. It is really wonderful that we have this assured future. But then we stop looking up, and we look around us and we realise that all is not quite so wonderful here today! Oh no, Peter is very realistic when he speaks of us having to suffer “grief in all kinds of trials.” That paints the picture with big bold black strokes! You are going to have grief! Why? Because in this Fallen World we are going to experience things going wrong, which Peter refers to as ‘trials'.

James, in his letter, had exactly the same understanding: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds , because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.” (Jas 1:2,3). Do you see the language used by both of them: “grief in all kinds of trials” and “trials of many kinds .” It's not just the odd, occasional thing going wrong; it's a world that is Fallen and where things go wrong all the time!!!! Be realistic! We get sick, we have accidents, we do things wrong or badly or not as well as we could, and that has consequences; other people are nasty and say or do bad things, and so it goes on. If that seems a black picture of the world, it is, but the truth also is that the Lord is with us in it and, as we've recently noted, His power and wisdom is available for us so we don't have to feel bad about it all.

There are two ways we can respond when ‘things go wrong'. The first is to sag and get full of gloom and doom and be negative. When this happens we also tend to be in a place of generally weak faith. We become anaesthetised and spiritually weak at the knees, and fruitful is the last way we could describe ourselves. In other words we just go down under whatever it is.

The second way we can respond is to view whatever it is as a test or a trial of your faith, knowing that God has equipped you to cope with just such things. That is the positive approach in line with what the Bible teaches. This is what Peter says is going on when you suffer grief from the many and varied trials that come along. He says that it is so that, “your faith-- may be proved genuine.” You think you have faith, you say you have faith, but how do you know that you really do have faith? The answer has to be only when it is tested and shown, and that happens when things happen that require us to rely upon what God has told us. So often in these meditations we have noted that faith comes by hearing what God says and faith is responding to what He has said. So when the trial comes along, do we believe what He has said, that His grace is sufficient for us (2 Cor 12:9), and it is all sufficient for all we need (2 Cor 9:8) and that He will meet all our needs through Christ (Phil 4:19), so that we can do anything He puts before us (Phil 4:13)?

This faith, says Peter is “of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire.” What a comparison! Gold is of immense wealth and value, but gold when it is refined by fire can actually be destroyed, whereas our faith when it is refined by difficult circumstances becomes stronger.

But there is more. When we come through our trial and our faith is proved genuine, we see that it “may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. ” Our faith can bring glory to God. Jesus taught that: “let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” (Mt 5:16) i.e. the way we live our lives can point people to God and bring glory to Him. This is what Peter is saying as well. Your real faith will reveal Jesus to the people around you. That is the possibility for your life and mine. As we respond to what the Father has said, and continues to say, and our faith is shown to be real and based upon Him, others can see and understand and realise that He is real and we are what we are because of Him. May that be so!

1 Pet 1:8,9 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 goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Now I have to confess that these two verses have a very special place in my life. In the early months of my Christian life I was working with a youth evangelism team and one Saturday evening was having a good conversation with a non-believer, and prayed and prayed for him to respond positively to the Lord. He didn't and, in my immaturity, I went home that night muttering to the Lord, how can I believe in you if you won't turn up and answer simple prayers? The next morning I went to church and the preacher spoke on these two verses. I took note. In the afternoon I attended a young people's organisation where I regularly taught Bible (yes, within my first year as a Christian) and it was their birthday and there was a visiting speaker – who spoke on these two verses. I sat up and took notice. Twice in one day! In the evening I went to a little mission hall where the youth evangelism team took Sunday evening services and the group leader spoke on these two verses. Three times in one day! I took serious note!

Verse 8 challenges the very core of faith. It is about believing in a God who you cannot see and often cannot hear, yet His word has come to us and convicted us and we now live in response to it and to what His Spirit says today. This is the hardest thing about the Christian faith – you cannot see God! Peter was writing to believers in Asia Minor who had come to the Lord after Jesus had ascended to heaven. They had never seen him. They had heard about him as the Gospel was preached and so now they were in the same position that we are: they believed in one who they had never seen. The writer to the Hebrews started out his famous chapter on faith with these words: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” (Heb 11:1).

This is the reality of the spiritual life; we believe in a spiritual dimension and a spiritual God and a spiritual heaven – all of which exist just as much as anything else exists – yet we cannot see them with our physical eyes; we only discern them in our spirit, and that is a faith issue. When Jesus had been on the earth, the apostle John had been able to write, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched.” (1 Jn 1:1). That was true for those earliest believers and so today we believe in their testimony, today we live a life of love for the unseen One who died for us and who is now seated at his Father's right hand in heaven ruling. But it is all faith because we do not actually see him. This is what I had to learn as a very young Christian and I am naïve enough to believe the Lord prompted three preachers on the same day to preach this message – purely for me (and no doubt for a number of others as well!!)

Now you may have known the Lord for a long time and so perhaps I need to remind you what it was like in those early moments, those early days, those early months. There was this inexpressible and glorious joy that you felt as a witness to something wonderful that had happened to you. In the passing of the years it tends to become a more deep-seated joy that is more there in the background but it is still there. It is the reminder and recognition of the wonderful thing that has taken place and continues to take place - the establishing of a relationship with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords whereby He grants us forgiveness and cleansing and Sonship and eternal life with the presence of His own Holy Spirit.

This, says Peter, is us receiving the goal of our faith. It is both the reason why we have faith and it is also the outworking of our faith. As we've noted previously, it all comes from us believing God when He has shared the Gospel with us as He convicted us of our need by His Spirit. We believed he came to give us a new life and we grabbed it like a drowning man grabbing at a straw, and we found that it was real, it was true, and we were saved. This we came to realise was what salvation was all about, about Him saving us from our sins and from death so that we could live with Him for the remaining years on this earth and into eternity. Oh what a glorious thing it was! What joy!

1 Pet 1:10,11 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 to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.

The previous section had come to an end with Peter declaring, “for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (v.9). It is natural for him now to say something more about this salvation: “Concerning this salvation…” Now I'm going to consider these verses above in reverse order.

“When he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow” Who is the ‘he' here? It was the “Spirit of Christ in them” and the ‘them' were the Old Testament prophets. So he reminding us of a strange feature of the Old Testament that perhaps we take for granted. It is said that there are over 300 prophecies in the Old Testament that Christ fulfilled, i.e. 300 that pointed to Christ, and some of them speak about his sufferings. Now the Old Testament period teachers really struggled with all of this for some prophecies also spoke about a coming One who would be a ruler. We'll stick to prophecies from Isaiah for this comparison purpose.

As to a ruler: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.” (Isa 9:6,7) Note the ‘ruling language' there.

Yet when we go into a later part of Isaiah we get pictures of a suffering servant: “See, my servant will prosper; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.” (Isa 52:13) Oh that's confusing, it starts out speaking of his success! But watch how it continues: “there were many who were appalled at him-- his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness.” (Isa 52:14) That doesn't sound very good! “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” (Isa 53:2,3)

This successful servant is not going to be a handsome hero and in fact he's going to be despised and rejected!!!! “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” (Isa 53:5) It continues: “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the LORD 's will to crush him and cause him to suffer (Isa 63:7-10) All of this speaks of the work of the Redeemer, the Messiah, the Christ.

All of this, God knew because it had been planned within the Godhead from before the foundation of the world. This is what the Spirit of God was communicating through many prophecies throughout the Old Testament period. Thus there were a number of prophets who found themselves speaking out these things and who were left wondering, “What does this mean? When will this happen?” Surely some times there was a double fulfilment in respect of what was spoken, a fulfilment within years and then centuries later through Jesus Christ, but even so the prophets were left wondering, and the teachers were left wondering, what form of person does this refer to? How can opposite pictures we true? These things seem contradictory! On one hand a victorious and glorious king, but on the other hand an oppressed and crushed servant! How can these things be? Is it any wonder they had lots of questions.

No wonder the apostle Paul spoke of “the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings.” (Rom 16:25,26) and “he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment--to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.” (Eph 1:9,10) and “the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints.” ( Col 1:26).

What does all this say? It says that this glorious gospel was not some last minute strategy from God to dig the earth out of a hole; it was a plan that had been on God's heart from the beginning of time and which came at exactly the right time in human history. Hallelujah!

1 Pet 1:12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.

I have to confess to not liking secrets, they smell of division, and yet I recognise that sometimes secrets are quite valid. You keep secret the presents you have bought for a birthday or at Christmas. You keep secret difficult times you may be going through from your young children who could not handle the worry. If you are working on an invention it is legitimate to keep it a secret until you have patented it. If you are planning changes in business or war, it is legitimate to keep the plans secret until they have been finalised and thought through properly. In Britain we struggle with a ‘Freedom of Information' Act which is sometimes abused so that people are required to relinquish information prematurely. We also live in an age when ‘leaks' appear common and someone ‘spills the beans' before the information is ready to be released.

The prophecies about the Gospel in the Old Testament are God's ‘leaks'. It was like He was so excited about what the Godhead had planned, that He couldn't help sharing bits of it with His prophets. But why keep it a secret? Why not come out with it to Abram, say? “In many centuries I am going to send my Son from heaven to reveal my love on the earth and then to die for the sins of the world.” Why didn't God say that? Well, I suspect the answer has got to be that it wouldn't have helped us. We wouldn't have understood it and we'd still have been sceptical of Jesus when he came and threatened our religiosity.

As Peter continues to talk about the prophets who received the revelations in the Old Testament period he says, “ It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you.” Now I confess to finding that strange, I'm not sure I understand it, and I haven't found a commentator who explains it satisfactorily, because he is basically saying that they were told by God that this was for a future generation but in reality they could not have known which generation would enjoy the fulfilment of their words. It has, therefore, to be a general sense that is being referred to, the sense that this is going to happen at some future date.

Possibly an example of this was Balaam who eventually brought a word that is usually taken to refer to Jesus: “I see him, but not now ; I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel .” (Num 24:17) and then, “A ruler will come out of Jacob.” (v.19) It is a word that is also so dressed up with references to other nations being subjugated that it has to be very much spiritualised to be applied, yet the point is that he does know that it is yet for some time in the future.

These things have now been brought right into the present by the preaching of the Gospel says Peter: “when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel.” On the day of Pentecost Peter started his message by a long reference to Joel (Acts 2:17-21), explaining how what was happening was a direct fulfilment of his prophecy. He then cited David's psalm writing (Acts 2:25-28) that indirectly pointed out the fact of the resurrection, and then about Jesus ascending back to heaven (Acts 2:34,35).

After the healing at the gate called Beautiful, Peter taking the opportunity to preach again declares, “this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Christ would suffer.” (Acts 3:18) and “He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets. For Moses said, `The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you.” (Acts 3:21,22) and, “Indeed, all the prophets from Samuel on , as many as have spoken, have foretold these days. And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, `Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.' When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.” (Acts 3:24-26). In each case the general teaching followed by a specific example.

Of course Jesus himself on the road to Emmaus said to the two disciples, “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” (Lk 24:25-27)

The message is very clear: the Old Testament prophecies clearly pointed to Jesus and Jesus and his apostles used that to verify all that had taken place and which we now call part of the Gospel. The angels in heaven were likewise kept in suspense as they looked on and saw what was happening on earth yet the revelation was not given to them but to prophets and then apostles. It's a Gospel for mankind and it was to mankind that it was shared. Hallelujah!

1 Pet 1:13 Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.

I don't know if you've ever seen old war films, especially ones at sea. The ship is cruising quietly, then the lookouts spot enemy aircraft approaching and suddenly ‘Action Stations' is sounded. Instantly the ship is transformed. One minute is was quiet and at ease and the next people are rushing to their places ready for battle.

Our verse above starts with a ‘ Therefore ' indicating that what he now says is a response to what has gone before.

In verses 10-12 he had spoken about how our present salvation was been hinted at throughout the Old Testament. Prior to that he had spoken about our invisible faith which was yet so real and had concluded, “for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (v.9) Did you note the word, ‘receiving' which speaks of action or an ongoing activity. We tend to tend think that salvation is all about what happened on the day when we came to Christ and were converted (Acts 15:3, Rom 16:5) but Peter here said we “are receiving ” our salvation which is in the present but ongoing. Day by day we receive what God has got for us and this is our salvation.

You may have heard the old illustration about people being shipwrecked at sea. The lifeboat goes out and winches them off the boat. They are saved! As the lifeboat makes its way back to the shore they are being saved. When it arrives back in the harbour and they get off onto dry land, they are well and truly saved! Those three stages correspond to our lives. When we came to Christ we were saved. Today we are being saved, and when we go to heaven we will be well and truly saved!

So Peter said we are receiving our salvation, it's coming to us from God, but now he's saying “prepare your minds for action.” Now that could be taken two ways. Get ready to use your minds, or get your minds ready to cope with the action that is coming. Both are right!

Christians ARE people who should be using their minds. In some quarters there has been the idea that once you move into the area of faith you switch off you mind. Is it a coincidence that God chose a very bright intelligent guy called Paul to take the Gospel across Asia Minor? Was it a coincidence that God chose an educated doctor to write one of the gospels and the Acts of the apostles? If you have a mind – use it! But hold on, some of us say, I'm not clever. No, it's OK two of the other gospel writers started out as uneducated fishermen. Perhaps there is more in your head than you realise. Every time we teach, we are asking you to use your mind. When Paul challenged the local elders of churches to be prepared to counter the heresies of the day, they did it with their minds!

But it is ALSO about getting your minds ready to cope with the action that is coming as an expression of your salvation. In the crisis that brought us to Christ we may have come to the place where we recognised our failure and our need of saving – in fact if we didn't we probably haven't been saved! At that point we died to our old lives, we gave up on them, but then we had to learn that the Christian life is a life of resurrection, of God imparting new life to us so that we live new righteous lives. Then we hear that God wants to take and use our lives to bless His world. When we hear both these things, our natural way of thinking says I can't do that, I can't be a new righteous person, I can't be used of God. We have to learn to believe God and not our own inadequacies.

We have to learn that as God empowers and directs us, we can now take control of our lives. No longer do we let ourselves get swept along by our emotions, or by things people say to us, or even the things going wrong around us. That is why Peter says, “be self controlled.” Part of this salvation that we are receiving means that we learn to resist the devil, resist sin and purposefully live for God. Those are all choices we make and actions we take.

But there is something more: “set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.” When is Jesus Christ revealed? As he speaks and acts today and when he returns on the last day! To “ set your hope” simply means to think rightly and with assurance about tomorrow and realise there is more to come. What you have is not all of it. God's grace is God provision of ability and it comes as Jesus draws near and imparts his ability to you. Yet there is the distance (eternity) element to it, but we don't have to wait until eternity to receive God's grace, because receiving this salvation is all about receiving God's grace.

1 Pet 1:14 -16 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy.”

Sometimes people have suggested that the call to the Christian life is not very clear, and yet the more I read the New Testament, the more I conclude the exact opposite: it is very clear! The first distinction that is made is the ‘before and after'. Being a Christian is something distinct. It is not trying to be good or trying to be religious, or belonging to a religious club.

It is all about being a completely different person from who and what you were before your met Christ. Jesus spoke about it as being “born again” (Jn 3:3,7,8) or being born of the Spirit. Later in this chapter, Peter is going to use exactly the same language. John in his Gospel said: “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-- children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.” (Jn 1:12,13) There is a distinct ‘God-change' brought about in us when we come to Him.

There are often references to what we once were: “formerly you …. were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.” (Eph 2:11-13) and “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.” ( Col 1:13). There were major changes brought about when we came to Christ. It is all about change or transformation.

Now Peter speaks about, “the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.” Before we came to Christ we were ignorant about God's design for our lives and did not realise our state until the Holy Spirit convicted us. We were living in ignorance. But at that time all of our desires were godless and self-pleasing and were wrong. We didn't realise it at the time but they were. That's what we HAD been, but all that has changed when we came to Christ!

Now we have become children of God, as we saw above in John's Gospel. Indeed John reiterates in his first letter: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 Jn 3:1). The reason for this new designation is twofold: first because that is how God now designates us, adopted children but, second, because He has put the Spirit of Jesus in us, the Holy Spirit, and so we are made like Him by His very presence within us. We are actually different from what we were before because now we are temples or dwelling places of God: “In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” (Eph 2:21 ,22) and “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” (1 Cor 6:19 )

It is because of this that we find Peter giving us two charges. The first is the negative leaving the past behind: “ do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance,” and the second is the call to be holy: “be holy in all you do.” and the latter charge is because God is holy and it is because He lives in us that we ARE holy.

To be holy means to be set apart and completely distinct and this is in respect of who we are and therefore how we live. The son of rich millionaire does not live the life of a scruffy beggar. A prince does not (generally) live the life of a pauper. They are what they are because of their father. We are what we are because of our Father. Because He has put some of Himself into us, we now take on His characteristics. In fact Paul tells us that His goal is to change us into the likeness of His Son, Jesus: “we… are being transformed into his (Jesus') likeness.” (2 Cor 3:18 ).

Thus this salvation that we are receiving is all about changing us into God's likeness by the work of Jesus on the Cross (making it possible) and the Holy Spirit within us (bringing it about). The call upon us is to be utterly different because that IS what we are, yet the wonder of it is that God still gives is choice and so we choose to let Him bring about the reality of our salvation – or not! There are Christians who appear to change very little after the initial conversion, yet God's desire is to bring continual change to us. He has got something better for us than we have at this present moment. He will keep changing us for however long we remain on this earth, and then will come the ultimate change when we are granted new spiritual bodies (1 Cor 15:44) in heaven.

So there is the challenge, will we let Him bring our salvation which means gradual but constant change in us? That is His goal; is it ours?