Jesus, our Hope: 1 Peter 1:13-25 (1)

1. Easter's around the corner. Today is Palm Sunday, the day Jesus entered Jerusalem, and the people shouted his name, calling it the entrance of the Messiah. "Hosanna, Hosanna!" which means “Save us, My King and Lord!” Palm Sunday is an important day for Christians because it marks the beginning of the final part of the fulfillment of why Jesus came to earth. It marks the beginning of the final piece of the puzzle of the fulfillment of God's covenant through Jesus, and it marks the hope that is given to us through Jesus' sacrifice. So Palm Sunday and Easter are inseparable, and together they point us to the hope that God has for us. Do you ever wonder why Easter is such a big deal for Christians, like Christmas? Well, to us, Easter is all about hope. See, through Jesus Christ, we believe that even though we were once lost and dead in our sins, we've been brought back to life again. Jesus sacrificed himself out of love for us, and that act of love is what saves us. Because of that, we can live our lives in a whole new way. It's like a fresh start. So, when we celebrate Easter, we're celebrating the fact that Jesus rose from the dead, and that his resurrection gives us hope for a new life with him. Let's take a moment to think about that. Are we living our lives in a way that honors Jesus and remembers what he did for us? Or are we just going through the motions? Jesus should be at the center of our lives, and he's the source of our hope. So let's take a moment to reflect on that, and let's ask for his help and guidance as we go forward.

2. Over the past few weeks, we've been studying 1 Peter and talking about how Christians should approach salvation. To me, being a Christian is about more than just changing how we act on the outside - it's about having our whole mindset and perspective transformed by Jesus Christ, so that we can truly live the way God intends us to. If we only focus on changing our behavior without addressing what's going on inside us, we'll never fully grasp the meaning of God's Word. So, as we dive into 1 Peter, I want us to focus on renewing our hearts and attitudes, not just our outward actions. Now, let us read 1 Peter 1:13-21.

1 Peter 1:13–16 NKJV

Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”

1 Peter 1:17–19 NKJV

And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

1 Peter 1:20–21 NKJV

He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

3. So in 1 Peter, after talking about salvation, Peter starts to focus on how those who are saved should live. He emphasizes the importance of holiness - not just in our actions, but in our attitude and mindset. According to Peter, holiness is about becoming more like God, through our connection with Jesus Christ. It's not just about trying to change our behavior on our own - it's about letting God shape us and transform us from the inside out. Peter's saying that if we want to be holy, we have to let God conform us to the character of Jesus Christ. It's not something we can do on our own. In 1 Peter 1:13-25, Peter talks about the attitude of the Christian life.

1. The Christian hope (1:13)

2. Christian holiness (1:14-16)

3. the fear of God (1:17-21)

4. loving one another (1:22-25)

4. The first thing to note is the hope that Christians should have. A literal translation of chapter 1:13 reads, "Therefore, gird up your loins, sober up your minds, and set your hope fully on the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." The "gird up your loins" part of the phrase is the same as a general going to war, or soldiers being told to gird up their loins and get ready for battle. I spent two years serving in the army, which is something that all men in Korea have to do. My job was to be an artillery observer, keeping an eye on what the North Korean army was up to. Every month, we had this thing called a five-minute standby, where we had to be ready for deployment 24/7. And I mean ready - even when I was sleeping, I couldn't take off my combat boots or wash them properly. I had to be ready for battle at all times. If we got the order to go, we had to go. It was intense, but looking back, it taught me a lot about discipline and preparedness.

5. The nuance when Peter says gird your loins is this: to be ready at any moment. The word can also mean to be ready to rekindle the fire of your heart. So the NLT is the nuanced translation of this sentence.

1 Peter 1:13 NLT

So prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world.

6. When Peter speaks of the hope of believers, he exhorts them to prepare their hearts. Now, what is the hope that Peter is talking about? It's the hope that Jesus Christ will return. According to Peter, faith is not about the good life that will be given to me, or that my prayers will be answered, but it is about the expectation that Jesus Christ, the promise of God, the one who has given me salvation, will return, after his resurrection, and that is what faith is, and that is the hope that believers look to by faith. For this hope of the return of Jesus Christ, Peter exhorts us to prepare our hearts. Peter's exhortation is the same as the teachings of Paul and Jesus in the New Testament, which speak of preparing our lives for the return of Jesus Christ.

1 Thessalonians 5:6–8 NIV

So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.

Matthew 25:1–5 (NKJV)

Matthew 25:1–5 NKJV

“Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.

Matthew 25:6–10 NKJV

“And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’ Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut.

Matthew 25:11–12 NKJV

“Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’

7. When it comes to salvation, Jesus doesn't give us a specific date or time for when it will happen or when he will return, but he does tell us to always be ready for it. And Paul agrees: when the time for salvation comes, it's all about the attitude of our hearts. We need to keep our minds focused and alert so that we don't miss the salvation that Jesus has given us and so that we're prepared for his return. And we do that through our actions - by living with hope and keeping our minds set on the salvation that's already been granted to us.

8. When we look at the Bible, and when we look at these times, we can see that this is definitely the time for Jesus to return. The world is certainly filled with evidence of the end times, as the Bible shows us, but as we approach the return of Jesus and the evidence of the end times, what we must not lose sight of is hope. The New Testament was written in the first century Roman era. If we look at the Study Bible, most of the 27 books of the New Testament were written between 37 and 100 A.D. The epistles, in particular, are mostly written between 66 and 85 A.D. That's because that's when the greatest persecution occurred. And the epistles, with some variation, all talk about the persecution of the believers. And what they don't talk about is the fear of the last days but salvation that was offered to them, the return of Jesus Christ. It's the hope of the second coming of Jesus, so that through the signs of the second coming, the first century Christians were not afraid of persecution, they were not afraid of the apocalypse, but they were hopeful that they would be the bride of Jesus Christ, that they would be with him at his return, that they would rejoice in his return, that they would be fully abiding in his love, that they would be fully worshipping him. That was the purpose of the epistles and the book of Revelation, to encourage one another and to keep the faith.

9. I went through several periods of depression in my life. The first one was when I was 14, the second when I was 16, and the most severe was in 1996, my senior year in high school. I felt lost, unsure of where my life was headed. I remember wishing for the end of the world, like the pastors talked about in church. I thought if Jesus came back, I wouldn't have to worry about college or my future job, and that my parents would reconcile. It was then, in 1997, after graduating from high school, that a friend invited me to a three-day prayer meeting, which was a turning point in my life. Jesus became my hope and made me look to Him. It wasn't a hope for my life to go well, but for the love that Jesus gave me to be fully revealed through my life, and for me to witness and spread the salvation that he gave me. I still remember the song we sang then. A song of hope in Jesus, a song of wanting to know Him alone.

• All I once held dear, built my life upon
All this world reveres and wants to own
All I once thought gain, I have counted loss
Spent and worthless now, compared to this

• Knowing You, Jesus, knowing You
There is no greater thing
You're my all, You're the best
You're my joy, my righteousness
And I love You, Lord

• Now my heart's desire is to know You more
To be found in You and known as Yours
To possess by faith what I could not earn
All-surpassing gift of righteousness

• Knowing You, Jesus, knowing You
There is no greater thing
You're my all, You're the best
You're my joy, my righteousness
And I love You, Lord

10. What do we hope for? What is important in our lives? Is it our success? Do we want to be better off, to have more of what we have? Our hope is not about what we have. It is about the salvation that Jesus Christ has given us. It is about the salvation that God has made through Jesus Christ that will not be revoked, not in tribulation, not in persecution, not under any circumstances. It is about Jesus Christ himself.

John 16:33 NKJV

These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

Romans 5:1–2 M:BCL

By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that’s not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.

Romans 8:37–39 KJV 1900

Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

11. Jesus is our living hope. By faith, we can look forward to Jesus' return. We can wait for his return. What do you want to hope for? Let's hope for Jesus. Let's look forward to Jesus to make us whole, to lead us, and to live our lives by the Holy Spirit he sends, for he alone is our everything, builds us up, and sanctifies us.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 12:08 PM April 4, 2023.