Born Again for Heaven
Download MP3In God's great mercy, he has caused us to be born again, giving us a living hope, a heavenly inheritance, and a powerful guarding until we reach our eternal home.
00:27 | Introduction and Context
- 00:27 | Review of 1 Peter 1:1-2: Our identity as elect exiles is wrapped up in the salvation provided by the Triune God (Father, Son, and Spirit).
- 01:01 | The opening section (verses 3-12) contains rich Trinitarian theology, focusing on the Father's work in verses 3-5, the Son in verses 6-9, and the Holy Spirit in verses 10-12.
- 02:27 | The Father's life-giving work in causing us to be born again (verses 3–5) serves as the foundation for our faithfulness in suffering.
- 03:25 | Big Idea of the Text: In God's great mercy, he has caused us to be born again, giving us a living hope, a heavenly inheritance, and a powerful guarding until we reach our eternal home.
I. 03:41 | God's Merciful Work in the New Birth
- 04:03 | The blessings that follow are founded upon the fact that God causes us to be born again.
- 04:45 | Defining the New Birth: Outside of Christ, we are 100% spiritually dead (Ephesians 2) and spiritually bankrupt. We are like Lazarus in the tomb—we need spiritual resurrection, not just moral reformation or new information.
- 06:47 | The New Birth is to be given spiritual life by the divine summons and powerful call of God, moving from spiritual death to life by the Holy Spirit, mercy, and power of God.
- 07:15 | Crucial Theological Truth: No one comes to Christ apart from the sovereign initiative of God the Father, who regenerates the sinner by the Spirit and draws the sinner to the Son through the word. The new birth is entirely God's mercy.
Application Points from the New Birth:
- 09:25 | 1. The religion of human achievement is eliminated. We cannot contribute anything to our salvation; the only thing we contribute is the sin that made it necessary.
- 11:24 | 2. All pride should be eradicated. The only difference between a Christian and an unbeliever is the mercy, pity, and compassion of God, leading to humility.
II. 13:53 | God's Heavenly Blessings in the New Birth
- This new life leads to three blessings.
14:04 | 1. A Living Hope
- 14:04 | When God causes us to come to life, we move from having no hope (Ephesians 2:12) to having a living hope.
- 15:06 | The Christian hope is not uncertain or wishful thinking; it is a future reality that is certain, but not yet fully realized, and gives confident expectation in the present.
- 16:54 | This hope is "living" because it is rooted "through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead". Jesus Christ is the living hope.
- 20:09 | Application: Do not fix your hope on futile, vain earthly things (career, popularity, achievements), which will be taken away. Aim for the living hope, Jesus Christ.
23:00 | 2. An Eternal Inheritance
- 24:57 | Descriptions of the Inheritance:
- Imperishable: Untouched by death; cannot decay or be destroyed.
- Undefiled: Unstained by sin; morally pure; untouched by corruption.
- Unfading: Untouched by time or decay; remains eternally vibrant.
- 27:15 | The Supreme Blessing: Not chiefly that we receive the entire cosmos, but that we receive God Himself as our very great reward.
- 28:24 | The inheritance is secure because it is "kept in heaven for you" by God.
29:01 | 3. A Powerful Guarding
- 29:01 | God provides a powerful guarding for the recipients of the inheritance.
- 30:45 | This provides a double guarantee: God keeps the inheritance, and God promises to keep us until we receive that inheritance, illustrating the glorious doctrine of divine preservation (Philippians 1:6).
- 32:58 | We are guarded through faith, meaning that while God preserves, believers are called to persevere by clinging to the Savior. We will one day reach our celestial city, and salvation will be revealed in its fullness.
35:24 | Conclusion and Applications
- 35:33 | Application 1: Be heavenly minded in all things. We must maintain a loose grip on this world and a tight grip on the world to come. Those who are most heavenly minded are the most "earthly good," driven to do all things with excellence for the glory of God.
- 37:47 | Application 2: Be heavenly resilient in the context of suffering. Because Christians have a living hope and an eternal inheritance that death cannot take away, we can walk through any trial with confidence and boldness, knowing that death has lost its sting.
- 43:24 | Our hope is alive, our inheritance is secure, and our God is faithful to bring us home. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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