Well, let me ask you a question: what is it that you are hoping for? What do you look forward to? What is the light at the end of the tunnel that keeps you going when life is tough?
Some people would say, perhaps, that they have no hope. They've lost all hope. It just feels that darkness is closing in. Some people—some of us—go through seasons of life when it feels like that. It's a tough place to be.
During lockdown, especially in the early days, I know a lot of people felt very caged in and felt that there was no light at the end of the tunnel. Things were never going to get better. We would never get back to normal.
Other people—perhaps you're not hoping for anything, not because things are so bad, but because things are so good. Your life is pretty good. You like the way things are at the moment. You like your job. You love your home, your family, your little circle of friends, your holidays, the ways you spend your time. Things are good, and actually, there isn't an awful lot you would change. And so your single biggest hope is: please, would nothing happen to mess up what is actually a pretty nice life?
But assuming that you have aspirations—and most of us do—what is it you're hoping for? What is it that you're looking forward to? What's on your horizon as the thing that you're travelling towards?
School teachers or students at school, in your GCSE or A-Level years, it's really tiring. It's hard work being at school. But you know that come the middle of July, you're going to get six weeks off. So you're just heading for that six-week summer holiday when suddenly you can decompress.
Or it's forecast—we got a weather warning for rain today. Did you know that? So we all got here in the dry, but we're going to get soaked going back to our cars to go home. But you kind of know, this time of year the nights are drawing in, it's getting cold, it's getting damp. But you know that in March the clocks will go forwards again, the warm weather will return, and things will get bright, and you just keep your eyes on that.
Or there's a holiday to America that you've had to put off for two summers running because of Covid, but now—well, you're counting down. It's eight and a half months, and then you're going to be able to go to Disneyland and go to Florida. Finally, you're actually going to do that trip of a lifetime that you've planned.
Or the relatives, the friends—you've not seen them for years, but there's a weekend coming when you're going to catch up with everybody, and it's going to be just brilliant.
What is it that you are living for?
Christian Hope
Verse 13 tells us the amazing thing that Christians have to look forward to. It tells us the thing that should fill our horizons, the thing that should keep us going. Here's verse 13:
"Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming."
Fully sober, set your hope. Or maybe: sober, fully set your hope. Our hope is all tied up in the day when Jesus comes back.
So Jesus consistently taught this—you may or may not be aware. He was born in Bethlehem as a baby 2,000 years ago, but he consistently taught that one day he would come back to this world in dazzling splendour.
We often speak of that day as Judgement Day, because that's the day when Jesus will come back and will judge every human being for every thought, word, and deed we've ever done. And it is that. But that's not the language that Peter uses. For Peter, the return of Jesus isn't Judgement Day—it's Revelation Day.
So, we can't see Jesus. I've never seen Jesus—not physically, in the flesh. The Christians that Peter writes to—that was in last week's reading—"Though you have not seen him." They've never seen him. But even the people who did get to see him when Jesus was on earth—he was frequently misunderstood, misidentified. He just looked to most people like an ordinary Jewish rabbi. And that's if you're being polite. Ask some people—they'd say he looked like a complete lunatic. But very few people really saw him for who he was.
But the day when Jesus comes back to this earth will be the big reveal. Then you will see who he is.
Apparently, there's a programme on TV—I've never watched it, tell me later if it's any good and we'll watch it on catch-up—a reality programme called Undercover Boss. You know, watched that one?
So basically the idea is, someone at the top of a really large company spends a week doing the kind of lowest-paid, most rank-and-file job that is done in their company. And they just get to find out: what's the gossip on the shop floor? What do people moan about? What do they like? What’s life like?
No one has a clue that they're talking to the person right at the top of the company. Until at the end of the week, all is revealed, and they discover that this is what has been happening.
Well, Jesus on earth 2,000 years ago was a bit like the undercover boss. You could mingle with him and have no idea who he was. But the day he comes back will be that big reveal, when we can see once and for all who he is.
He will be in all his splendour. He will be dazzlingly bright. He will look like a king. Philippians 2 tells us that on that day, every single human being will fall to their knees. There'll be this kind of cascade outwards of people realising everybody else is bowing—and down they go. In awesome splendour, you will see that he's God. And it will be awesome. And if you know him now, it will be wonderful.
And that day, when Jesus is revealed, will be the day when we receive God’s grace at full volume.
"Set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming."
So we already experience God’s grace—his kindness—now. But when he comes back, what other texts from the Bible would fill in what will happen?
Our bodies will be transformed to be perfect bodies. We'll have perfect health. There’ll be no more sickness. Covid-19 will be eradicated. So will cancer. So will Alzheimer’s. It’ll be the end of all suffering. The end of sadness. The end of sin.
We'll be with each other—but we will never, ever, ever let each other down. Satan himself will be destroyed. There will be the best food that you could imagine. We will be with each other. Most wonderfully, we will be with God. We will see God’s face.
That is the future. That’s what we need to set our hope on. That’s what we need to set our hope on fully. Live for that, says Peter.
Now, you’re probably asking two questions at this point. First one is: how can I do that? It just doesn’t feel very real. It almost feels otherworldly. The things that are more in front of me—whether it’s the cancer and the Alzheimer’s or the holiday to Florida—they just feel more real. And this just... it’s too far away. Much easier to set my hope on things that are more in front of me.
How can I keep my hope on something as distant and as big as that?
Second question: what does it look like in practice? What does it mean, day to day, to set our hope on this?
And we’re going to look at those two big questions in turn by looking at the two paragraphs of our reading. So firstly, we’ll look at verses 10 to 12. That will answer: how can I actually do this? And then secondly—but much more briefly—we’ll look at 13 to 16: what does it look like in practice?
And in both cases, Peter points to the Old Testament. He says: you want to know how to do it in practice? You want to know how you can manage this? Look at the Old Testament—half of your Bible.
So firstly then, verses 10 to 12: be sure of God’s plan.
Be sure of God’s plan.
Here’s the challenge these Christians face: they had put their hope in God’s plan to rescue them. But as the plan unfolds, it doesn’t look like the plan is working.
God’s promised a future that is free of suffering. But in the church he’s writing to, his uncle has just died of cancer. Her brother was arrested for being a Christian. And he’s just lost his job.
Is this really the plan? Really? It doesn’t feel like it.
This is why Peter wrote his letter.
If you want to know what a New Testament letter is all about, one really good trick—Lee won't mind me sharing you this kind of little trick of the trade—okay, look at the back of the book. Look at the end, how the letter ends. That'll tell you why they wrote it.
So I'm going to read—you might want to turn there, you might not—chapter 5, verse 12:
"With the help of Silas, whom I regard as a faithful brother, I have written to you briefly, encouraging you and testifying that this is the true grace of God. This is the plan; stand fast in it."
Peter wants to reassure these Christians—and us—that things are going according to plan. So he tells them the plan, and here's the plan.
Verse 10:
"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 the Messiah and the glories that would follow."
So the Old Testament prophets—okay, people like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel—they did many things. Mainly, they called people back to God when they drifted and wandered away. But one other thing that they did do was that they predicted that God would send a king and a rescuer, and they talked about that a lot.
So, for example, here's Isaiah chapter 53. These will be familiar words to some of us—Isaiah 53, verses 7 to 9:
"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 its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgement he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished. 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."
The prophets spoke of a king who would ride on a donkey into Jerusalem, who would be killed alongside criminals, who would be offered vinegar to drink before having a spear stuck into his side, who would be buried in a tomb borrowed from a rich man, who would rise from the dead on the third day only to see the people that the death had saved.
The prophets wrote this stuff. God gave them the words to say. But having written it down, they would read it again and again. Peter says they combed through it, going, "Who is this talking about? What is this thing I've just written about?" And the answer they got was, "You weren't writing for you or for people of your day. God gave you these words for the people who would live at the time when these things had come true." They were writing their prophecies for the people of Peter's day. They were writing their prophecies for us.
So here's verse 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 preach the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things."
There's God's plan: suffering, then glory. It happened to Jesus, as the prophets foretold. He suffered, and then glory. The plan is on track. And it's the same plan for us. Suffer—which Peter says is for a little while (okay, he thinks 80–90 years is a little while)—and then glory, for hundreds, thousands, millions of years. Suffering, then glory.
That's the plan that God revealed to the Old Testament prophets—for you, and for me to know.
I spent part of yesterday building a piece of flat-pack furniture—a job that comes around from time to time. What I was building yesterday was actually a fairly routine, straightforward simple cabinet, that actually, by step three, you can see it taking shape. But I've built quite complicated pieces of flat-pack furniture. And you know how it is—you get to kind of step 8 of 53, and by step 8 of 53, on the carpet, you have various bits of wood that you've screwed together according to the instructions, and they bear absolutely no resemblance that you can see to the finished article that you're trying to build. It just doesn't look anything like it.
And you think, "Well, the people who make this know that I'm not very good at putting this stuff together, and the joke's on me." They've deliberately made sure that a quarter of the way in, what you've got does not look anything like what I'm expecting—just to test my nerve, to see whether I'm going to keep building. And actually, I'm not convinced. I think I'm going to get to step 53 and I'm still going to have a random assortment of bits of wood bolted together. I'm not going to get that bit of furniture that I think I'm building. It's not going to work.
But if—and some manufacturers do this, some don't—if, as they go, they show you pictures of, "Having followed the instructions this far, here's what it should look like now," isn't that helpful? Not just "Screw this in here," but "Screw this in here, and the result will be this," because then you go, "Ah! Well, I can't see how this is ever going to get to be that bit of furniture, but at least it looks like it's supposed to look at this point."
For Peter's Christians—for us—it's like living in step 8 of 53 for the flat-pack furniture. You look at your life and stuff is a mess. Stuff hurts. Things fall apart. And frequently you look at it and you go, "Is this ever going to get to that plan that God promised all those years ago?" But if only God had showed you what it should look like at this point, it would be so much easier to believe you're on track.
That is what the Old Testament prophets are for. They are there to tell you not only, "Here's the end product—a life free of pain, living with God forever," but also, "Here's what it will look like halfway there: suffering, then glory." And with their book in your hands, you can be reassured that things have not gone wrong, but you are exactly on track.
Now, all of this completely changes the way you read the Old Testament. I don't know how often you read the Old Testament. If you sit down and think to yourself, "I fancy reading a bit of the Bible this morning, just for my general Christian education, upbringing, to hear the voice of God—let's read a bit of the Bible"—how likely are you to turn to the Old Testament?
I don't know. A lot of us think of the Old Testament as an ancient book, written by people long ago for people long ago. But if you try really hard, there is some stuff in there that's still relevant today. Peter's saying, "No. We are the intended audience of the Old Testament. It was written for us." Peter says Isaiah was ministering to these Christians he's writing to.
So do you see?
"It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves..."
They weren't ministering to people of their day. They were ministering to the church that Peter's writing to.
Now, you have to read it remembering it was, in the first place, written for a different audience—and not forget that. If you forget that Isaiah was originally written in the eighth century BC, you'll probably misunderstand him. But it was—the Holy Spirit caused Isaiah to be written for you. That's why it's there. The Holy Spirit inspired the prophet Isaiah to write a book because of the things that God the Holy Spirit wanted to say to a bunch of Christians in the year AD 62 in Turkey. And to speak to the Christians in the year AD 62 in Turkey, he made the prophet Isaiah write a book 800 years earlier.
The Spirit of God wants you to know the gospel. And so he spoke to some prophets 3,000 years ago to make sure that you, today, could hear the voice of God talking to you, just what you need to hear.
This, when you try and think about it—it just blows your mind. It blew my mind thinking about it this week, preparing this—to realise that God the Holy Spirit had in mind Trinity Church Scarborough on the 19th of September 2021 when Isaiah wrote chapter 53 in one piece, and Peter wrote 1 Peter chapter 1. He—the Holy Spirit—had in mind us, here today, when he did that.
Isn't that just extraordinary?
Let me read these verses again, and I'm going to substitute the word "you," okay?
"Concerning this salvation, the prophets who spoke of the grace that was to come to Trinity Church Scarborough 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 the Messiah and the glories that would follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but Trinity Church Scarborough, when they spoke of the things that have now been told to Trinity Church Scarborough by those who preach the gospel to Trinity Church Scarborough by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven."
Isn't that extraordinary?
The Old Testament was written so that when life is tough, and you wonder if being a Christian is really God's plan to rescue, you can read it and be sure. You can be sure that all the stuff that God has planned that hasn't yet happened will happen. You can be sure that God's plan for you—if you know Jesus—is: suffering, then glory.
Now, we need to just talk really briefly about the angels before we move on to the second paragraph.
"Even angels long to look into these things"—that's not them scratching their heads going, "What's Isaiah 53 about? I don't get it." No, the angels know what Isaiah 53 is all about. They know it's about Jesus. It's just that they love looking at it. They can't—they can't turn away. They're loving every minute of watching it unfold. They're watching God's plan to save the world unfold. They're looking at us this morning going, "Oh, this is brilliant! I'm loving this—Scarborough, with all the people in it who are rejoicing and hurting in equal measure. This is great. This is that plan coming about. We love it."
The angels are like James Bond fans, okay, who have bought a ticket for the opening night of No Time to Die and will then go and watch it every single night for the next ten days until their party piece down the pub is reciting the film script from memory in its entirety. They're just— they're there every night watching it. They love it. They can't get enough of God's plan. And that's the plan that we are part of, however fragile at times we feel. Be sure of God's plan.
Well, much more briefly, let's turn to that second question.
What does it look like in practice?
And the heading for that, from verses 13 to 16: Be shaped by God's paternal perfection. Be shaped by God's paternal perfection.
What does it look like in practice to set your hope on Jesus coming back? Does it mean that you, when life is tough, scrunch up your eyes really tight, tap your heels together three times and say, "There's no place like home. There's no place like home. There's no place like home," and suddenly you're in Kansas? Is that what it means?
No. It means verses 13 to 16:
"Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. 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.'"
In practice, hoping for Jesus to come back means: get your thinking straight and get your behaviour straight. Get your mind straight, he says—"with minds that are alert and fully sober." You could translate that: roll up the sleeves of your minds, so that you're ready.
"I'm going home. I'm going to be with Jesus." How does that affect me? What are my priorities to be? What do I need to change in my life? How do I live along the way?
Get my mind in gear, he's saying. You won't drift into a lifestyle that is consistent with someone waiting for Jesus to come back. You won't sleepwalk your way into a lifestyle consistent with someone waiting for Jesus to come back. No—get your mind in gear. Work it out. It needs thought and planning.
And then, get your behaviour straight. "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, be holy in all you do."
So this is about: which mould do you come out of? That's why I say: be shaped by God's paternal perfection.
So, if you're making jelly, the jelly goes in a mould. And you could make a round jelly, or you can make a really fancy-shaped jelly. It all depends on the shape of the mould. If you're making a cake—you want to make a child's birthday cake—some of you are really good at that. I wouldn't have a clue where to start. But you could just make a big block of sponge cake, and then like a sculptor, cut it up, and there's a steam train. Or you could cheat and buy a mould that has a funnel, and some wheels, and a carriage, and a tender. And out comes the cake—and there it is. It's a steam train cake.
Or, if you're more industrial than cake-making—if you're moulding bits of steel—you pour molten steel into a mould, and the shape of the mould determines the shape of the steel that comes out.
He says, what mould is your lifestyle from?
You see, if you don't know Jesus—if you don't know that history is heading to his return—then Peter says you're ignorant. "You lived in ignorance"—verse 14. And that means you conform to the mould. Your life is shaped by your desires. You're a Nike person, okay? Your life's motto is: Just do it.
Or, if your life is heading towards the return of Jesus, then he says, well—God is your mould. You're an obedient child. God is your Father. And God is a holy God. "Just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do." You bear the family likeness.
And, as I say, he says look at the Old Testament. He quotes Leviticus in verse 16: "Be holy, because I am holy."
So, people think of Leviticus as a boring, dusty set of rules that don't apply any more. Actually, if you read Leviticus, you say, "Which verse is he quoting?"—it's punctuated all the way through. God reminds them: these rules are not arbitrary. The rules he gave his people way back in Leviticus were to say: be like me. Be like God. "I'm holy," says God, "and I want you to be like me in all the areas of your lives."
And sure, it looks different today from in the time of Leviticus, for loads of reasons—we'll talk about that another time. But it's all about being like God, your heavenly Father—holy, like he is holy.
Now, this is radical stuff. And I'm not going to—if you want me to drill into details and say, "What does it look like for your money? To your relationships? To your work?"—I'm not going to do that. Because Peter wrote the rest of his letter to do exactly that. Just keep coming back week after week, and Peter will tell us, as we unfold 1 Peter, what it looks like in every area of life to be holy like God is holy.
It's radical. It touches every area of life. The point for today is that having your hope set on Jesus is not retreating into a daydream, hoping that things will get better if I just kind of look forward to it and then I can try again. It's about getting your mind and your actions in gear, and letting God, our heavenly Father, transform us in every area of life to be like him in all we do.
Conclusion
So let me ask you again: what are you looking for? What are you looking forward to?
Peter says: the return of Jesus is God's plan. Provided you continue to trust him, you will see him. It will be glorious. And you will love what God has got in store for you on that day.
If you're here this morning as someone still looking into the person of Jesus, let me encourage you—keep doing that. Keep looking into him. Follow him when you reach the point where you can see that's the right thing to do.
At times, following Jesus might seem like a really weird course to take through your life. That's okay, because you can be sure that actually it's meant to feel a bit weird at this point.
But those of us who are Christians—set all your hope on Jesus coming back. Make that the thing that your life is all about. You're heading that way. And then focus. Concentrate. And live today like somebody who is heading to that.