Indescribable Joy in the Invisible God (1 Peter 1.8–9)

Christians all over the world are entering into Holy Week, a special week for Christians. The crucifixion of Jesus was not an accident, but a result of His love for us. The Apostle Peter wrote about loving Jesus even though we have not seen Him, and how this love brings us joy and salvation. Our love for Jesus is real and profound, regardless of our physical sight. Our love for Him intensifies our hope of seeing Him one day. Our love for Jesus is the result of our faith in Him. Through our faith, God works in us to love Him. This love brings us inexpressible and glorious joy. Today we are entering into the Holy Week, a very special week for Christians all over the world. It was a day like today when the Lord entered Jerusalem as the King of Israel. However, it would be only five days later that He would be killed in our behalf. But the crucifixion of our Lord was not an accident. He went to the cross willingly, and He did it because He loved us. It was His love for us that resulted in our salvation, and because He loved us first, we are also able to love Him back. This is precisely what the Apostle Peter tells those Christians who are dispersed throughout the Roman Empire. In verses 8 of chapter 1 of the first epistle of Peter, the Apostle writes, "...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." Let me read it again, "...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." This morning, I would like to actually talk about that love that God works in us. A love that we are able to have toward Jesus only because He loved us first. A love that results, as Peter writes, "...in an indescribable and glorious joy." But before we do that, it is only appropriate that we first approach God in prayer, the Holy Spirit also, to ask for His guidance. So let us bow and let us pray. Father, we thank you for this opportunity we have to worship you with our songs and now with the study and meditation of your Word. Father, we thank you and we praise you that we have a relationship with you. We thank you that we have been redeemed by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ and we can come before your throne even in the most difficult situations. Thank you for this opportunity. Lord Jesus, thank you for your sacrifice on the cross. Thank you for your wounds, for the crown of thorns, for the nails that pierce your hands and your feet, for the spear that pierces you through. But above all things, and more importantly, thank you that you bore not only the weight of the sins of the world, but that you suffered the wrath of God in our behalf. Thank you that we will never know what the wrath of God is because we have trusted in the salvation you've given us. Holy Spirit, thank you that you are with us. Thank you that your presence is here filling this body, this church. Thank you that you comfort us, you encourage us, and you convict us of our sins of righteousness, of holiness, or of our legalism and self-righteousness. And thank you that you changed us. You make us holy every day as we submit to your tender voice that speaks to us, as we respond in faith to your word. We pray and we beg you that you would cleanse us one more time, that you would make us holy one more time. And we pray that you would give us attentive ears and open hearts, that we would welcome your word. We pray for these things in your name. Amen. Amen. We've been looking at this chapter and he begins praising God for the salvation he's offered us. Then he tells the believers that they are rejoicing in this salvation, even though they are suffering greatly. And he continues in verses 8. And he brings the topic of love, which we will discuss this morning. Now, everyone here is familiar with the expression, love at first sight. Are you? Probably some of you here may talk about your relationship. Yeah, our love was love at first sight. That doesn't mean I believe you, but you can talk all you want about that. Right? We can say, love at first sight. Now, when somebody sharing their romantic story with you tells you, Oh, our love was love at first sight. You know exactly what they mean. Right? For the most part, anyway. Anyways, the majority of you understand. They're telling you that all that was needed for them to fall in love with each other was that first sight. That time when they saw each other for the very first time. They were enthralled, or you were enthralled, or astounded by the view you had, by the sight. Maybe you regretted it later, but that's a different discussion. Okay? Now, I am not going to question the truthfulness of the expression, love at first sight. You know, I'm not going to debate whether this really happens or not. I do believe there could be a first attraction at first sight. But I think to love deeply somebody, it needs a little more than a sight. You need to get to know them a little bit. See different things. But hey, I've heard this. As a matter of fact, Kelly's grandmother, Grumpy, would brag that it was love at first sight. He saw Grumpy and he knew. And they've been married for quite some time. Grumpy is in the presence of the Lord now. So, I am not going to debate or to question the truthfulness of this expression. I do, however, want to ask you if you think that love with no sight is even possible. In other words, do you think it is possible to love someone you have never seen? Have you ever thought about this? Is it possible to love someone you've never seen? Perhaps you've never pondered on this. After all, you know, we are human beings who need this experience or interaction with somebody, whether it's a marriage relationship or your children or different things, to have this love. And maybe you've never thought about this, love with no sight. To be sure, the expression love with no sight is not part of our vocabulary to describe the deepest emotions that are still within our souls. Nevertheless, Peter will teach us this morning that Christians can indeed love the Lord with the deepest emotions even though we have never seen Him. Hence, for Peter, love with no sight is a very real thing. The closest analogy I could perhaps think to illustrate our love for Christ is that love that a mother or a father has for their unborn child whom they've never seen. Now, the deep emotions a mother feels for his child whom they do not yet see are so strong that in most cases they are willing to give their very lives to protect the child. I have to tell you this story really quick. When Kelly was pregnant with Krista, we were in Peru, living in Peru. She was born in Peru, and we lived in a third floor. So she had to go up through a lot of stairs to get up there, to get up there. It was many steps, actually. And all the steps were pure concrete. In Peru, all the houses are built with concrete. And the floor is very cold because it's concrete and all of that. So she was going up and all of that. And one day she was coming down and she fell. But her first reaction was to put her hands to cover and protect the baby. And she had bruises all over her arm, in her back and different things. She couldn't get up from bed because it was a really bad fall. But Krista is here today and she played the piano and sang with Rose. We're grateful that her mother loved her very, very much. Even though she did not meet her yet. So, though our relationship with Jesus is not exactly the same as the relationship that exists between a mother and an unborn child, Peter tells us in verse 8 of this chapter, that one of the most tangible marks that gives evidence of our relationship with Jesus is our love for Him in spite of the fact that we've never seen the Lord. He writes, Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. In fact, this deep love we have for Christ is the fountain of our joy and happiness. 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. Last week, as we talked about the reality of suffering that we face because of our faith in God, we learned that we are able to live joyful lives because of the hope of our salvation. That is to say that one of the sources of joy in the midst of suffering is the hope we have that one day we will be with Christ and we will spend eternity with Him. And we rejoice on that reality. According to verses 8 and 9, there is a second source, however, there is a second source of joy in the midst of suffering. And that source is our love for Christ, which exists because of our faith in Christ and which in turn results in the salvation of our souls. All of this is intricate, closely related. So, in other words, according to verses 8 and 9 of chapter 1, according to Peter, we greatly rejoice because our souls are saved by the love God works in us through our faith in Him. When you study the grammar of this passage, it becomes evident that our love for Christ is one means or one instrument that God uses to accomplish our salvation. We need love if we are going to be saved. We need to love Christ. We need to treasure Christ. No one who doesn't treasure and love Christ will be in His presence. That's why in these two verses, Peter teaches us that we greatly rejoice because of our salvation, of course, because our souls are saved. But how are they saved? By the love God works in us. But how does He work that love? Through our faith in Him. And that is the thought of today's message, of this passage, as we work through these two verses. As I just said, our love for Christ exists because of our faith in Christ, not because of some physical experience we have. In fact, this is the very first thing Peter makes clear from verse 8. He lets us know that our love for Jesus is not the result of our seeing Him. He writes, 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. In this one verse, I actually could spend much more time in this verse than I will this morning. But in this one verse, Peter makes four assertions. Four assertions about believers. First, he tells us that believers in Christ have not visibly seen Christ. You have not, and I have not. Second, believers in Christ love Christ. That is the second assertion. Third assertion, believers in Christ believe in Christ. And the fourth statement he makes is that believers in Christ are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy. These are the four assertions Peter makes in this one verse. I believe the reason Peter makes these four assertions is because he wants his readers to know what are those things, those marks, those characteristics that define a true Christian. That is why he mentions them. Yes, the four assertions are indeed present realities that the believers whom he writes have. Yes, these believers who are dispersed across the Roman Empire, they have these characteristics. They do love Jesus. They do believe in Jesus. They haven't seen Jesus physically, unlike Peter who did. And they are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy. These are realities in their lives right now as they are suffering persecution. Yes, so it is one of Peter's purposes to let us know what these believers are experiencing right now. However, I also believe that Peter lists these characteristics not only because they are the present experience of his readers, but also because they are the qualities that every believer, not just Peter's readers, but you and I, every believer should have. These are the characteristics that every believer of every age ought to have if they are a disciple of Jesus. So, we will talk about these assertions. We will actually look at the last two assertions in the second point of my sermon. Right now, I would like to briefly comment about the first two assertions in regard to these first two assertions. Namely, when he says that believers in Christ have not visibly seen Christ, first assertion, and that they love Christ, I would like to make two further observations as we look at this passage. First, as we think about these two first assertions, the one thing that becomes very evident and clear is that our love for Jesus is real and profound, irrespective or regardless of our seeing Him. Just as it is true that we have never seen Jesus, it is equally true, at least it should be, that we love Him. Indeed, one of the most tangible characteristics of people who have experienced new birth is that they truly and profoundly love Jesus. Just like a mother longs and deeply cares for her unborn child whom she has never seen yet, so we long and deeply care for our Lord Jesus. We treasure Him, we admire Him, we praise Him, we love Him. Now, since this word, love, has been so bastardized and adulterated, it is important that we explain a little bit what it means. The love Peter is talking about that we have towards Christ, a love which is the deepest expression of the Christian relationship to Christ, goes beyond feeling personal emotional ties. This love expresses a commitment similar to that expressed by the word, belief. But it brings out a belief that is not the warmth of the personal emotion that the believer has for Christ in response to the love which Christ first showed him or her. Yes, you know, sometimes we have this discussion in churches. Baptist people, they are too much of the book, you know. They are all formal in these things. They don't have any emotions attached to that. And then you talk about our Pentecostal brothers and they are all emotional and all of that. Why do we have to have this dichotomy anyway? Where in the world do we see that in the Scripture? We love Jesus and we love Jesus with our minds and with our hearts and with our strength and with our souls. Yes, be passionate about your love for Christ. But it's more than just this emotion. It's this admiration and awe and appreciation. It is this treasuring of Jesus Christ. And it is one of the most tangible qualities of our love, of our identity as Christians. We don't hear these kind of messages too often. We don't love Christ. I don't think the way these believers are loving because we just have it so good. We just have it so good. We do. He is going to talk about his second coming and I'll come to that again. But we don't have the longing that these believers had. Why would we want to go to heaven? It's pretty good here. Why would I want to be with Jesus? That's what we see. Don't forget that these believers are refugees and they are aliens. Not spiritually. We like to spiritualize these words because we're afraid that it might not be politically correct to talk about refugees and all of that. They are refugees. They've gone to a place of aliens and they are being rejected because they are foreign aliens. But above all things, they are being rejected and despised and ostracized because of their faith. Do you think they are not excited to be with Jesus? Do you think they are not excited to see Jesus? Yes, they are. All they have here is hardship. They love Jesus. And this love goes beyond the mere emotion. It does involve their passions, their heart, but they believe, they worship Him, they treasure Him. And this is a mark of a true believer. The second observation about these first two statements, you love Him even though you have not seen Him, is that our love for Jesus intensifies our hope of seeing Him. Please notice how Peter structures his sentence, at least the second statement, when he talks about the fact that we have not seen Jesus. The second time he utters these words, he qualifies them with the adverb, now. Now. He writes, and even though you do not see Him now. Now, if you are a good reader of English, and if you speak better English than I do, because almost most of you will, you will understand that now implies an end to this situation. The implication of these words is that our lack of physically seeing Jesus is only temporary. You do not see Him now. But you will one day. We do not see Him now, but we will see Him one day. In fact, the hope of the believer is to one day see our Lord face to face. Now, this has been suggested in various ways in this one extensive paragraph. In verse 5, Peter wrote that God's providential protection of our souls is until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In verse 7, he wrote that our faith, which is tested by the suffering we experience as we are persecuted for the sake of Christ, may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. And then in verse 13, which we will look at next week as we celebrate Resurrection Sunday, Peter encourages his readers by challenging them to set their hope of the grace to be brought to them when Jesus Christ is revealed at His coming. Have you noticed how many times this word, revealed at His coming, appears in this first chapter? Yes, it is true that we have never seen Jesus, but our love for Jesus is real. And this love for Him is what intensifies, or ought to intensify, our hope of seeing Him soon. Again, like the mother who loves her unborn child and excitedly awaits the coming of her child, so do Christians, because they love Jesus, excitedly await for the coming of our Lord, because they know that this love is the means and an instrument to receive and experience their final salvation. Yes, brothers and sisters, we gratefully rejoice because our souls are saved by the love God works in us through our faith in Him. And like the Christians of old, we join their voices and excitedly cry out, Yes, come Lord Jesus! That is our hope. As I said, and this is the question to you, are you excited about His coming? Are you looking forward to seeing Him face to face? Do you love Him in this manner? Now, it is true that our love for Jesus is not the result of our seeing Him. It is also true, however, that our love for Jesus is the result of our believing in Him. I said that in verse 8 Peter makes four assertions. I'll mention them again. Believers in Christ have not visibly seen Christ. First assertion. Second assertion. Believers in Christ love Christ. Number three. Believers in Christ believe in Christ. And number four. Believers in Christ are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy. We just talked about the first two. In the second part of my sermon, I would like to talk about the last two which relate to our faith and our joy. Let's read verse 8 again. 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. In the first part of verse 8, Peter makes it clear that believers in Christ are characterized by a deep love for Jesus. In the second part of the same verse, Peter makes it clear that our faith in Jesus is what motivates us to love Jesus. Since our love for Jesus is not love at first sight, but love with no sight, one may rightfully ask, how is it possible to love someone whom we have never seen? How? I'll be honest with you. I love my wife, but it would be a little difficult to love her without ever seeing her. You know, I don't believe in love through Skype. Yeah, you can see them through the camera, and that might work through 15 days of vacation or where you have traveled. But love through Skype your spouse for 10 years, and it's going to be a miserable marriage. Of course, here is more than just the physical presence of the Lord. So, we may have a legitimate question. How can someone love Jesus without having never seen Him? And the answer to that question is faith. It's because of faith. Our faith in Jesus is what motivates us to love Jesus. This is the reason why I've been saying that we greatly rejoice, because our souls are saved by the love God works in us through our faith in Him. The love we have for Jesus is God's supernatural work in us, which He accomplishes through our faith in Him. As we hear the gospel, and as we read the scriptures, and as we respond in faith, believing God's Word, our love for Christ grows gradually every day. As we experience the Father's faithful provision, as we experience Christ's priestly ministry in our lives, and as we experience the Holy Spirit's presence and encouragement, our love for Christ, God, and the Spirit, and our commitment to them intensifies. Now, without any desire to be redundant, this is only possible if we respond in faith to God. We must believe the Word of God. We must follow in faith His commandments. We must believe the gospel. We must believe the truths that we hold dear of the apostolic teaching, which we teach and preach in this church. His coming, His first advent, His death and resurrection on the cross, and His second advent. We love Jesus because we believe that He saves our souls, because we believe that He's coming back again. If our faith in Jesus is what motivates us to love Jesus, our love for Jesus is what makes our joy indescribable and glorious. Now, I have to think carefully about that. What does it mean that we have an indescribable and glorious joy? He says, you believe in Him and are filled with an indescribable or inexpressible and glorious joy. This joy, which is inexpressible, indescribable, amazing, great, glorious. This joy that believers have is the consequence and the result of our love for Jesus, which exists through our faith in God. We can rejoice greatly with inexpressible and glorious joy in the midst of suffering, because, yes, of our salvation, but because of our love that God works in us through our faith. That is, that love for Jesus through our faith is what makes our joy indescribable and glorious. But what does it mean that our joy is indescribable and glorious? I have to think a little hard about that. Notice that Peter doesn't say here that we have great joy. He said that before. He doesn't say that our joy is like... He uses two interesting words, indescribable and glorious. So, how does this relate with our love for Jesus? Well, here's a thought. You become, as a person, what you crave. You become what you crave. You see, what gives our joy its quality? What makes our joy indescribable and glorious? When does our joy become glorious? Because I think there could be such a thing as a sinful joy. He doesn't refer to our joy as sinful, but he refers to it as indescribable or inexpressible and glorious. What gives joy its quality? And by that I don't mean merely its intensity, but its moral character. What makes joy ugly or beautiful? Depraved or noble? Dirty or clean? The answer is that the thing in joy gives joy its character. If you enjoy dirty jokes and bathroom language and lose picture, then your heart is dirty and your joy is dirty. If you enjoy cruelty and arrogance and revenge, then your heart and your joy have that character. And the more you get your joy simply for material things, the more your heart and your joy shrivel up like a mere material thing, you become like what you crave. You crave lewd jokes, you become a person characterized by dirty, immoral, ugly joy. Peter says that Christian joy is not dirty, lewd, cheap. He says that Christian joy is inexpressible and glorious. So how does it become like that? It becomes like that because Christian joy is the joy of craving the preciousness of Jesus and the reliability of Jesus. And that's where love and faith come into place. You become like what you crave. Christians crave Christ. That's ought to be. So our joy is inexpressible and glorified. And the character of our joy is unspeakable, amazing, glorious, shiny, wonderful. Why? Because it is a joy in loving Christ and trusting Christ who is inexpressible, amazing, wonderful and glorious. That's why we rejoice with greatly joys. That's why we greatly rejoice because our souls are saved by the love God works in us through our faith in Jesus. Only if you love Jesus in this manner can you greatly rejoice with a joy that is inexpressible and glorious. Even if your life is at stake. For the glories of this world are not worth comparing to the glories that are ready to be revealed. When our Lord Jesus Christ comes back, the Apostle Paul would write to the Romans, I've taken five more minutes than I should and I'm going to take five more to end this sermon. My third point and final, our love for Jesus is the result of His love for us. In verse 9, Peter says, For you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your soul. Isn't it interesting that he doesn't say, for you have received your salvation. Sometimes these kinds of wordings in the Bible makes us a little uncomfortable to those of us who hold to the belief of eternal security. But what are we going to do? It's scripture. That's how he wrote it. And I'm sorry, I have no option but to be compelled to preach it the way it's written, whether you like it or not. So, I apologize for preaching it if it offends you, but I don't apologize for preaching the way it is. I'm sorry if you don't like it, it is what it is. And my job is to preach it as it is. He is speaking of our salvation as something that has not yet been accomplished. And those of you who come to this church, I've talked to you this on several occasions. Sometimes we have a very obtuse understanding of our salvation. We talk in terms of the past. We've been saved. We're eternally secure. And there's no doubt about that. He's taught that. He's told us that our salvation is an inheritance that never perishes or corrupts or spoils. And that it's kept in heaven by God, and that God keeps our own lives secure. Yet, he says, you are receiving the end result of your faith. And what is that end result of your faith? The salvation of your soul. You're still being saved. The reality is that you have not experienced yet the fullness of salvation because you are lacking that glorification aspect. And we need to keep running the race. We need to keep loving Jesus, craving Jesus, become like He is. Become like He is. However, rather than discussing that, I want to think about two implications in those final words. You are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your soul. What is the first implication? The first is that Jesus' love for us is what motivates us to believe in Him. Now, how do I get there? He says, you are receiving the end result of your faith. The implication is that you are receiving your salvation, but how? Through faith. You're having faith. You need faith to be saved. You need faith to receive the final package of the salvation. You need faith at the beginning, you need faith in the middle, you need faith in the end. But what is it that motivates that faith? Well, it's Jesus' love for us. You have faith because He loved you. You are safe because He paid the penalty for your sins on the cross. And it is on the basis of Jesus' work on the cross and His resurrection that you believe. And you respond in faith. The second implication is that His love for us is what causes the salvation of our soul. Not only His love for us creates the faith that we have, the belief, because Christ looks to us trustworthy and because of His love we can trust Him. It's hard to trust somebody who doesn't love you, who hates you. But Jesus loves us deeply and that's why we can trust Him. And that motivates our faith to believe in Him. But His love finally and ultimately causes the salvation of our souls. You would never be in His presence, you would never see Him face-to-face if He didn't extend His arms at Calvary, if He didn't rise from the dead. And that's why we celebrate this special Holy Week and every Sunday we celebrate His resurrection. Because He loved us first, we can love Him. And the love we have for Him, when God works in us, is also the instrument that God uses to save us. And we rejoice in it. As I said, we greatly rejoice because our souls are safe by the love God works in us through our faith in Him.