Sermon Text: 1 Peter 1:3-9
Date: April 12, 2026
Event: The Second Sunday of Easter, Year A

1 Peter 1:3-9 (EHV)

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he gave us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4into an inheritance that is undying, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. 5Through faith you are being protected by God’s power for the salvation that is ready to be revealed at the end of time.

6Because of this you rejoice very much, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various kinds of trials 7so that the proven character of your faith—which is more valuable than gold, which passes away even though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

8Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not see him now, yet by believing in him, you are filled with a joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9because you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

You Are Receiving the Goal of Your Faith

Losing track of the goal can make any difficult time seem even more unbearable. If you’re wrestling with difficult classes in school and you lose track that it will be over and graduation is eventually coming, you can feel trapped in a never-ending cycle. If you’re feeling stuck in some phase of parenting and lose track of the goal of sending your child out into the world as a knowledgeable adult who knows they are loved and supported, it can make the day-to-day parenting grind seem impossible. If you lose track of the completion of that project or the rest of time off coming up, it can make your work feel overwhelming.

Jesus had to keep the goal in front of him. His tortured prayer in Gethsemane, pleading with the Father to take this cup away from him, still kept the goal at the forefront. He desperately wanted another way to accomplish the goal, but if the only way was his death for the world’s sins, then so be it. “Not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42).

If we lose track of the goal of our faith—eternal life—things go from bad to worse. If we lose track of the fact that we are destined not for peace and prosperity in this life but in the one to come, enduring the hardships here can feel like a special kind of hell—an existence that seems to have no hope.

In his New Testament letters, Peter is writing to Christians in turmoil. The heat was being turned up on the whole Christian community as fresh persecutions were rolling down from Rome and the off-his-rocker-emperor, Nero. Being a Christian quickly changed from being a quirky thing that confused most other people to a real liability and threat to your wellbeing and even your very life. Peter himself will lose his life later in this persecution that is rolling out.

And so, with that context in mind, Peter has a goal to focus this first generation of Christians on what was truly important—to keep track of the goal of what was coming. The goal wasn’t escaping a martyr’s death; the goal was eternal life with their Creator and Savior.

To begin this letter and to meet these goals, Peter starts his readers (and us along with them) at Easter: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he gave us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, into an inheritance that is undying, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. The living hope that we have comes as a result of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. That living hope is an inheritance that is safe and protected from all rot and decay in eternal life, just waiting for us to get through the mess of this life. Through faith you are being protected by God’s power for the salvation that is ready to be revealed at the end of time.

Last week, on Easter, we heard Paul assure us that Jesus’ death and resurrection are of first importance over all things. And Peter here lays out what prioritizing that correctly—making it the most important—does for us. Because of this you rejoice very much, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various kinds of trials so that the proven character of your faith—which is more valuable than gold, which passes away even though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Can you even fathom that? Rejoicing very much even while being grieved by various kinds of trials? And you know what these trials were. It wasn’t stubbing your toe or losing your wallet. These trials, which Peter mentions here, threatened their very lives.

And what would have been the temptation for these Christians? Well, prioritizing safety in the here and now above the eternal. That would mean taking your eyes off the goal for eternity, yes, but it would mean also being safe now. Peter compares these trials to refining precious metals. You refine gold by heating it to unthinkable temperatures. The gold itself melts and becomes momentarily unrecognizable, while the impurities burn up, leaving the gold better and purer than when it started, even though it had to go through that difficult process.

If the gold could speak, I would imagine it would choose not to go through that fire. Sure, things might be better on the other side, but at what cost? Was it worth it?

For us, the eternal life that is coming is absolutely worth it, so Jesus wants us to focus on what is to come. It’s the reason he spent so much time with the disciples in the 40 days after his resurrection to prove that he really had risen from the dead. This was important because it proved that the forgiveness of sins had actually been accomplished, that he had succeeded, that he was indeed the firstfruits of all who died, that we all will follow his pattern in rising from the dead. So it is that Jesus’ resurrection is the key component of the living hope that Peter keeps before our eyes.

Peter had the extreme benefit of being one of those who saw Jesus after his resurrection. We know that Jesus appeared individually to Peter at some point on Easter Sunday, and then Peter would have been included in Jesus’ appearances to the disciples. He would have that special restoration conversation with Jesus at breakfast on the beach in Galilee.

But most of Peter’s first audience would have been in the same boat as you and I are in today. These Christians would have come to faith long after Jesus had ascended into heaven. They would never have seen Jesus with their physical eyes; they would have only the testimony of what he did from those whom he sent with the message, as you and I have only the testimony from God’s inspired Word. And Peter acknowledges that difference while at the same time noting that their faith is no less potent than his, that the sharing of God’s Word after the fact is no less effective than Jesus’ direction to put fingers in the nail marks on his hands: Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not see him now, yet by believing in him, you are filled with a joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, because you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Peter confirms our lived experience: never seeing Jesus, yet loving him, joy and glory through faith in his work and promises. Because without ever seeing him, without being at the foot of the cross, without seeing the strips of linen in the tomb, without putting our hand where the spear pierced him, we know and believe what God has done here. We know and believe because the Holy Spirit has told us, shown us, and created the faith to believe it all.

In the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, we have the fulfillment of God’s saving promises. Our sins that should have made eternity far worse than our worst day in this life are gone. And that means that even our best day here won’t even hold a candle to any moment in eternity where we will then see Jesus face to face, not just for a few moments, not just for a brief conversation, but forever.

Next week, we will journey with the disciples on the road to Emmaus on Easter evening. We’ll get to listen in on the teaching Jesus will give them while hiding his identity, and he will point them to the goal of their faith, centered on the Messiah’s death and resurrection. We want to work to not get distracted by the good or bad, the big or little things of this life that can so efficiently pull us away from God’s eternal perspective. Instead, seek to know nothing but Jesus crucified and risen because there is the salvation of your soul, there is eternal life, there is the solution to every bad day, every difficult conversation, every broken heart, and every pang of guilt and failure. Jesus paid for the sins you committed and for the sins that caused those difficult times. And the salvation of your soul will mean saying goodbye to all of those griefs forever.

Don’t lose track of what is coming. Don’t lose track of what you have right now. Through faith in Jesus, raised from the dead, you have forgiveness for every sin, salvation from death and hell, and the certainty of eternal life. Though you can’t see him right now, you love him, and you will see him when he brings you home. Stay focused on the goal; stay focused on your Savior. You are, indeed, receiving the goal of your faith as we speak.

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria