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Join Peter Englert, a pastor, and Dr. Ron Hall, professor and pastor, as they delve into the book of 1 Peter. This book helps readers cope with suffering in an antagonistic world by offering hope in Jesus. Whether you're exploring faith or a long-time follower of Jesus, read through the book of 1 Peter on your own or with a group of friends with insights to better understand this book of the Bible.
Reading 1 Peter / 1:3-12
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Peter Englert: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Reading First Peter podcast. I am your host, Peter Engler, and I am here with my friend, pastor, professor Ron Hall. How are you, Ron,
Ron Hall: Good. Looking forward to digging into first Peter
Peter Englert: before we get started On First Peter one, three to 12. Why? Why did you never teach a class on first Peter, in all of your years of being a professor? Why do you think that is?
Ron Hall: Well, I
Peter Englert: Well.
Ron Hall: New Testament survey, so for multiple semesters, for years I taught, uh, in the fall and the spring semester, it's just never been, this would fall in what's called the general letters. And so I never had a specialized class to deal with the general letters. And uh, so it was different with Hebrews, I did as a standalone class. The prison letters, prison epistles, those were [00:01:00] standalone, but never with one Peter. We never had something that narrow.
Peter Englert: Mm. Okay. Well that's a good way, good segue in there. Um, let's get started. So I wanna read to you, uh, first Peter one, three to 12. We're reading from the NIV. Um, we don't have time to talk about the different translations and paraphrases, so we're just gonna go neutral with NIV and then we're gonna impact some of this.
So it says, this, praise be to 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 from the dead, and into an inheritance that never perish. Spoiler fate. The 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.
In all 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 the proven [00:02:00] genuineness of your faith of greater worth than gold, which perishes, even though refined by the fire, may result in praise. Glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed through you have not, 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 end result of your faith. The salvation of your souls concerning the salvation. The prophets who spoke of the grace that was to come searched intently 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 you when they spoke of the things that have been told. Told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into those things.
Now [00:03:00] Ron, one of the things I wanna do as we get started is we're trying to help people read one Peter better. And so as you hear that passage, and if you were having coffee or talking one-on-one with someone reading this for the first time, what is the biggest thing that you want them to see in this passage?
Ron Hall: Well just, uh, just roll back just a moment. Remember, the overall theme is a letter to a suffering church, suffering is mentioned 11 times just in this letter. when someone's reading it, I want them to be able to find hope and encouragement in the midst of their suffering. That includes what's going on around us in the world.
We live in a very antagonistic world, that's why it's living out your Christian life and an antagonistic world fits so well. So I'd want someone to have that mindset. How do I live out my Christian life in this world of suffering?
Peter Englert: Mm. Okay. Well, let's, let's dive [00:04:00] into this specific passage. How do you see that theme rolling out in these, uh, nine verses?
Ron Hall: Well, first of all, in verse six, you have facing trials of all different kinds, but you have to frame it in verse three, that is the key verse of the entire letter, so that in his great mercies caused us to, uh, experience this new birth into a living hope. We talk about the term being born again over and over again in evangelical circles. interesting is it is not mentioned very often in scripture. It's found in the gospel of John chapter three with the exchange with Nicodemus. It is mentioned in one John, and then here we have it in one peter the idea of a new birth. It's described in different ways with being a new creation in other letters, but it zeroes in on saying there's a life that we have in the Lord. That is rock [00:05:00] solid. It is secure and it's rooted in a living hope. Now, I'm not sure how people view hope. Biblical hope is not wishful thinking, not fanciful thinking. It's not be lucky. Biblical hope is rooted in the person of Jesus Christ. And Peter drives this home in that third verse, and it's making sure you take time to go over that again and again to get that rooted within you. It's that living hope. With this concept of a new birth, so
Peter Englert: I wanna back up 'cause I think that that's really important. Some of these. Ideas that you're talking about, they can seem very intangible to my Monday through Saturday life. And I see a lot of the word gospel here. Um, so one to three, I mean, that's literally, it's Jesus's death of re resurrection, this living hope.
So in this first passage, what difference does this make [00:06:00] to my Tuesday afternoon at 2:17 PM.
Ron Hall: Because no matter how barren of a struggle you're going through in your world, you have that security of a relationship with the Lord. You have this new birth that dwells within you. That's the The Living hope. Remember in one Corinthians 13, 13, now abides faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. We have the reinforcement of the Blessed Hope in Titus chapter two. So what does it do for us? It's something that enables us to live in the reality of Christ on a daily basis. So I'm going about my day. I'm facing my struggles. I'm dealing with suffering. I'm having a difficult time at work. Rooted in the core of our being is the fact we have a relationship with the Lord, a living hope rooted in a person.
That should make all of the difference because the world doesn't have that kind of hope. And Paul [00:07:00] reinforced that in one Thessalonians four, we're not as those who have no hope, we have the assurance of the return of Christ that's rock locked within us.
Peter Englert: So, something I want you to talk about is sometimes people forget that the New Testament and Old Testament go together as if, um, they forget that there's a line there and I, I wanna focus in on, I. You know, Peter says, concerning the salvation, the prophets who spoke of the grace to come, there's a lot of people that read the prophets in, um, the Old Testament and they're like, man, these, these prophets are angry.
They're calling judgment on God. How is first Peter maybe framing the way that we read the Old Testament?
Ron Hall: Well, it's got all kinds of Jewish language within the letter and it has as a backdrop and understanding [00:08:00] of the children of Christianity being birthed out of those from this, the Old Testament. when you're, you, you, we moved into the verses 10 down through 13 in order to frame it through 12. When you look at those verses you realize. We have roots and ties to the Old Testament that our salvation is not something that all of a sudden appeared when Christ appeared. It was the roots of that backdrop. And, um, you know, and you're picking up on the, uh, the prophets looking to understand those times. There are many Old Testament passages that give us that picture. Isaiah 53, about a suffering Messiah. Uh, Isaiah chapter 11 with the idea of the root of Jesse that would grow up, that would bring about a salvation for people. So it's clearly rooted in the Old Testament. You can't read this letter and isolate it from the Old Testament.
Peter Englert: What do I [00:09:00] miss if I don't read the Old Testament in this passage besides the verses that I've mentioned?
Ron Hall: Well, there, there's an old saying that the New Testament is contained within the Old Testament. And that the Old Testament is revealed in the New Testament, so you can't read it. We, we separate it out as Old and New Testament, but it all runs together. There was a book some years ago that a person wanted to unhitch us from the Old Testament saying we didn't need it, but we come to find out the story of the New Testament is rooted.
It is the outgrowth. So in many ways we shouldn't see it as something separated. We should see it. Uh, United, and this will be very clear when we get into chapter two, and also it'll
Peter Englert: also
Ron Hall: later on in this first
Peter Englert: this first chapter. Mm-hmm. So let me get a little personal with you. Um, you know, I, I think we shared this maybe in the first podcast. I've interviewed you on other podcasts before, but, [00:10:00] um, I. You had a very freak accident, um, in California. Um, you are, um, you know, in a wheelchair and, um, just your life completely changed as you reread this passage and kind of reflect on it, how are you reflecting on it for yourself?
Ron Hall: Well, I think it's the assurance of that we have. And in a previous podcast we did, I referred to two Timothy, uh four, where Paul said, I've fought a good fight. I've kept the faith, I've finished the course, and we each make decisions as to whether or not. We're going to stay the course in the midst of suffering. Now, if we were facing the suffering like these people were in this first century church, and the attacks from the government, the attacks from religious leaders, we could have a feeling like we wanna give up. [00:11:00] But that was not what Peter wanted these people to do, nor was he one to give up. So I think in the midst of my suffering, having a serious spinal cord injury and, and what's called a tetraplegic 'cause of paralysis, that works its way out in different parts of my body. It is one of those things that you decide if you're gonna stay the course. Am I going to let the suffering that I am experiencing, uh, shipwreck me for a future with the Lord? I was recently listening to a. Uh, Johnny Erickson give a, uh, presentation. She's been a quadriplegic since the age of 17 and she's now 75. She's defied all odds because normally quadriplegic, she severed her. I'm an incomplete spinal cord injury. She's the complete, normally they do not survive this long. figure a 15 to 20 years is really maximum, know, but she here [00:12:00] from the age of 17 now, 75. How does she deal with that suffering? How does she respond? many times the anguish is so great, she doesn't know at night how she's gonna be able to face the morning, and then she gets up and she does it again, and she dealt with it in the faithfulness of the Lord. And I've seen that. So when I read a book about a suffering church and realize the suffering I'm facing, it's nothing compared to the glory that's going to be revealed in us.
I don't wanna get off in too many other letters, but Romans chapter eight in verse 18, we, Paul said, I reckon the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed in us.
Peter Englert: Mm. There's a lot of directions we can go and this passage is so rich. I, I want to come back to, um, 'cause you've mentioned it, the genuineness of our faith of greater worth than gold. I, I think there's two [00:13:00] ideas that, that stick out. First of all, um. There's a level of Christians that we're all hypocrites.
Like we, we just can't live up to the standards of the gospel. We need Jesus. But then there's another level of Christianity. Has a unique perspective that you are supposed to suffer. We live in a broken and sinful world. As you think about those two thoughts and even the reality that Peter has, what is he trying to say of the genuineness of our faith and the greater worth than gold to this suffering, uh, community.
Ron Hall: Well, we have, we have this hope that we talked about that we can experience. So while the world is going through their suffering and their anguish. We have the strength of the Lord to maintain us. So in those verses, he talks about the trials we go through, that we can rejoice in them, knowing that there is a [00:14:00] purpose to be fulfilled in the development of our lives. And this theme is repeated over and over again in James chapter one. And it, it's, it's reinforced of how, in Romans chapter five, the idea of tribulation works with us, perseverance, and it develops character within us. So as the believer, we see there's a purpose that God is working within us. But for the nonbeliever, you know, they can be bitter against God.
They can throw up their arms and say God doesn't exist, and, uh, do everything they can to run from him. But these things for the believer drives us to him rather than away from him. And it's a, it's a hard concept to grasp of the idea that these things are worthwhile in our lives. And we don't always understand it now, but God is working out a greater purpose within us.
Peter Englert: Mm. So I, I, I want to come back to this idea, 'cause when I was in your class, we talked about Ephesians one to three. [00:15:00] And some people will say that that is like solely theological, but it's not applicable. Um, and you are not one of those individuals. Does First Peter one, three to 12 fall into that? That it's not just.
A theological treaty that doesn't have application. And if that's true, you know, what are some subtle ways, maybe even the way that we pray, the way that we live, the way that we interact with others, I know it's gonna unpack that more specifically, but how is this passage in this time, in this moment, applicable?
And maybe you disagree with me with that, but.
Ron Hall: I, I don't disagree with you. I think it's a melding together of deep, deep theology. With practical daily living because the first Peter is a practitioner's guide. It's what can we do to live out the Christian life? And remember, I've been framing it, living the Christian life in an antagonistic world. with [00:16:00] all the antagonism, all the tension, all the conflicts around us is being able to hold steady. So I see it as a practical application that when I wake up this morning. What am I gonna do? Am I going to face the Lord? The pastor of the church we attend talks about whether we wake up with the word or do we wake up with the world. And how we start our day impacts how we end our day. the idea is, if I'm going to wake up as a believer, I have an antagonistic world out there. Am I going to let the message and the noises the sounds, the draw of the world? Be what takes me away from the hope and promise we have in these verses, uh, being born again, being made new by this living hope that we have in Christ. And, and, and it's so Peter, it's so important that we focus that because there's so much volume for our retention. As I and [00:17:00] you listen to commercials that are going on, you're listening to something on the radio. We all experience it. If we do anything with YouTube that you have to be ready to hit the skip button because there's a constant bombardment. We want you buy our goods. You need, you need, you need that idea. And instead this passage comes along and this passage says you already have this in Christ. The Christ is working out the greater good, that we don't need more things of the world to bring us fulfillment. But we need the reality of that which is going to be refined like precious gold.
Peter Englert: So I think what I'm hearing you say, like a very, very clear application is. You know, where does your mind go? What is filling your mind? Um, and you know, whether you wake up, whether you go to bed, what you know. Is it the podcast that you're listening to, even Christian Theological [00:18:00] Podcast, you know, or are you going directly to God's Word?
And that's shaping how you're seeing everything else. Is that shaping how you're engaging people? Would you sum it up the same way or maybe a little bit different?
Ron Hall: no, that's a way of putting it. And that's along the lines of what I'm saying. What is going to influence us? Am I going to see what I'm facing, uh, as God working out a greater good? I gonna take what I'm facing and make me feel like I've been given a raw deal in life? You know, I've been wrapped upside at the head and I can't, you know, carry on.
And that's not. Peter's attitude here. He's saying all kinds of trials that you're facing are working out a greater good. And again, this would be replete in scripture. It would be reinforced Paul in uh, two Corinthians chapter 12 all the hardship that he went through, but nevertheless perfect in his [00:19:00] weakness. we can't let what's going on in the world. Dictate what's taking place within us in intern internally. And that's back to what I was saying, where all of these things are calling for our attention. It's paying attention to, oh, another commercial, another that you need, you need, and these things are gonna bring fulfillment.
And Peter said, no, no, no. Here's where your fulfillment is. It's going to come in Christ.
Peter Englert: That's a great place to close. Um, we're looking forward to the next passage. Start picking up with one Peter one 13. So why don't we do this, uh, Ron, why don't you, uh, just close in prayer for our listeners.
Ron Hall: Oh Lord, we thank you for the hope that you give us. thank you that it's a living hope rooted in grounded in Christ and that assurance that we do not have to live in fear and anguish. We don't have to view the trials that we're going through as something to sideline us, but rather those trials can be [00:20:00] used by you to perfect and refine us for your glory. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.
Peter Englert: Thank you so much for joining us today.