Word of Salvation – September 2026
What Jesus Got Us
Sermon by Rev Jesse Gollan
Series: Easter 2026
Passage: 1 Peter 1:1-12
Introduction: The Resurrection of Jesus
Today is Easter Sunday. And so today, we’re going to spend the majority of our time thinking about the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. In particular, we are looking at what the resurrection of Jesus means for followers of Jesus. We are looking at what the resurrection of Jesus means if you are a true Christian.
This is also the first week that we are spending in the book of 1 Peter. And if you’re not very familiar with the Bible, then the book of 1 Peter, along with a number of other letters, were written to Christians in the first churches in the ancient world. In the years after Jesus was killed, churches popped up all over the former Roman Empire. And there were letters written to them by various leaders in the early church.
This is one of those letters that was written in particular to believers in different provinces in modern-day Turkey, which at that time was part of the Roman Empire. And it’s helpful for you to know that the book of 1 Peter is largely about how to follow Jesus and how to hold on to Jesus when you are suffering or going through a hard time. So with that as a bit of background, let’s get into our sermon.
Four Movements in Our Passage
There are four movements in our passage:
- Verses 1 to 2 are about the elect exiles, and we’ll talk about that in a minute.
- Verses 3 to 5 are about the fact that we gain all kinds of things by the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
- Verses 6 to 9 give us a practical application for today that comes from the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
- Verses 10 to 12 give us confidence that it’s not just a nice story to make us feel a little bit better, but is actually fundamentally true.
Movement 1: The Elect Exiles
So we’re going to first look at verses 1 and 2. Let me read them for us.
“1 Peter 1:1-2: Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.”
Peter is doing something interesting here. He’s writing to mostly Gentile churches. Gentile means non-Jewish churches.
But he calls them the elect, which means chosen by God. He calls them exiles, which is an old way of referring to a refugee. And he calls them the Dispersion, which was actually a term that referred to Jewish people who were forced out of Israel.
Right at the beginning of his letter, Peter is reminding those Christians—and it’s just as true of us—that they were chosen by God, even though they are exiles in the Dispersion. In other words, they are suffering and they are a minority. They are not ruling in power and glory, even though they serve the Emperor of the universe.
So he’s recognising that life is hard for them, but he’s also confirming to them that they were chosen by God. That word “elect” means chosen. And there’s all kinds of wonderful things in that.
We are chosen according to the foreknowledge of the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for something good: for obedience to Jesus Christ. And we’re chosen for sprinkling with his blood, which is a way of saying we were chosen by God to be washed with his blood. To be forgiven, in other words, is what we’ve celebrated on Good Friday.
On Good Friday, we celebrated the death of Jesus and that our sins are forgiven because of his death. And on Easter Sunday, we usually celebrate the resurrection and everything that has been gained for us through that. Before we go on, I just want to briefly notice, enjoy, and appreciate what this passage is saying. This passage is saying that if you are a Christian, that is because you were chosen by God. And this, friends, is intended to be a great comfort to you and to me.
If we are chosen by God, then it is not because of our wisdom, our good works, our looks, or our riches. Because then it wouldn’t be to do with choosing; that would be to do with our own merit.
But if we are chosen by God, that means that even if we look at ourselves and we see a poor person, an ugly person, or a person who’s not very wise, we can have confidence that we are valuable to God. And our salvation is not in doubt. It’s a wonderful thing.
It highlights the love of God. It’s given, not earned. And when it talks there about being chosen by God, what that means is that the Lord chooses to do an amazing work so that our heart and mind might be open to hearing and responding to the good news of Jesus.
Unless he does that work and brings it about, none of us would come to him. We have to keep going, as there are probably three or four sermons just in that!
Movement 2: Gaining Eternal Life
I’m going to read verses 3 to 5 now.
“1 Peter 1:3-5: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…”
We’re going to pause there before we keep reading. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, because according to his great mercy—another way of thinking about mercy is undeserved kindness—he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It’s interesting that Peter focuses here. He’s just talked about the cross and the fact that we are forgiven. But he now talks about the fact that we gain something through the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is something that we would not otherwise have if the Lord Jesus wasn’t resurrected. I’m going to read verses 4 and 5.
“1 Peter 1:4-5: …to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
In other words, according to this scripture right here, if the Lord Jesus was not raised to life, we would not gain an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for us, ready to be revealed at the last time. The cross means that we are forgiven of our sins. The resurrection means that we gain eternal life. They’re deeply connected, and to try and pull them apart feels a little bit awkward, but that’s basically what this passage is saying.
I tried to think of an example this week. Imagine that I was sixteen, and I crashed my dad’s car and totaled it… and I was punished for that by the government; I got a fine and a licence suspension and whatever else.
The price has been paid, and I’ve been forgiven. But we would still be without a car. Well, in my example, the situation would not be fully whole until or unless another car was gained.
It would have to be a car of the same or better quality as the first car. Well, the resurrection of Jesus means that we gain eternal life.
The cross means that we’re forgiven.
The resurrection means we gain eternal life.
Through our union with Christ, what he gains we gain; he was resurrected, so we will be resurrected as his people.
And the new life that we gain through Christ is even better than the life that Adam and Eve had in the Garden of Eden. The Scriptures make that clear. We are chosen by God for extreme generosity.
In verse 4 it talks about an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading kept in heaven for us. But that inheritance is not our inheritance. It’s not something that we deserve to gain, but it is something that Christ has gained.
He shares it with us; our union with Christ means that we share in the resurrection from the dead.
Movement 3: Joy in Suffering
In verses 6 to 9, Peter does a kind of application of this truth. There are lots of wonderful, amazing, and encouraging applications. But remember, Peter is writing to people who are going through extreme suffering.
Historians think that the Roman emperor at the time Peter was writing this letter was Emperor Nero. He was just, for a laugh, burning Christians alive in his garden parties. So Peter explains to us how the resurrection is intended to give us comfort in the midst of troubles. He recognises and is real about the fact that following Jesus doesn’t mean that we won’t have troubles. Let me read from verses 6 to 9.
“1 Peter 1:6-9: In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—
may be found to result in praise and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him
and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
That’s a lot of words, but let me summarise that for us. At Easter time, we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. But the resurrection of Jesus is good news for us because it means that we will also be resurrected.
We aren’t just celebrating that a sad thing was undone thousands of years ago. We are celebrating that through Jesus, you and me—if you are a repentant, believing follower of Jesus—have gained eternal life through our union with the Lord Jesus Christ. And Peter says that when we are suffering, when we are going through real troubles as believers, the hope of the inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading is meant to be a great comfort to us. If you are doing it tough financially right now, there are a lot of people in our church who look forward to the resurrection. Look forward to the eternal life in paradise that the Lord Jesus Christ has gained for you.
If you are mourning the death of someone you love, look forward to the eternal life that Jesus has gained for you. If you are feeling the aches and the pains and the brokenness of the world playing out in your body, rejoice in the eternal life that the Lord Jesus has gained for you through his resurrection.
If you are feeling depressed for no particular reason, rejoice in the paradise that the Lord Jesus has gained for you. If you’re feeling sad because you don’t have a spouse, because you don’t have a close relationship with your earthly family, or because your career hasn’t worked out the way you were hoping, rejoice. It says in verse 8, rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. The hope of what is to come for believers means that we can go through really hard, troubling times and have joy. ~~SLIDE~~
In Ukraine, the place where we lived, we sometimes had trouble with the sewage. More than once, I would get my hands dirty with the sewage, helping dad try to fix it. Now, it was a really unpleasant job.
But if I knew that I was a billion dollars that I could spend afterwards, that would have been the best job and in the world. I would have been singing and dancing as I did it.
Friends… the hard times are real. God doesn’t promise us an easy life… but he does explain to us how we can go through them with joy.
We can go through hard times with joy because of the hope that the Lord has set before us, because of what the Lord has promised us.
We can have joy in the midst of the suffering by remembering and keeping our eyes fixed on what Jesus has won for us.
Movement 4: Confirmed by the Prophets
In the last three verses, it’s almost as if Peter is recognising that what he’s saying sounds too good to be true. If he’s not careful, people will write off what he’s saying as empty, encouraging words. They might sound like words that are nice but have no truth to them.
And so listen to what he says concerning this salvation.
“1 Peter 1:10-12: Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.”
Okay, so this is Peter saying that even the angels are astounded at the goodness of God towards us. But the main thing he’s saying is that we don’t need to trust him. He’s saying that the salvation and the resurrection about which he’s speaking is all through the Old Testament for anyone that cares to study it and see.
This is Peter’s way of saying that even though it sounds too good to be true, it is true because it is predicted in the Scriptures. The claims that Christianity makes are such outrageously good news that many people say it’s too good to be true.
People think someone just invented it. And Peter is answering that objection by saying that the Lord has been foreshadowing, prophesying, and predicting this outrageous generosity all the way through the Scriptures. His words are designed to shore up our faith so that we might truly believe that God will do everything that he has promised he will do.
Conclusion & Invitation
Just in closing, I’d like to read two verses. The first is from Romans chapter 6, verse 5.
“Romans 6:5: For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”
Our union with Christ means that his death is credited to our account, and his resurrection means that we will also be resurrected. Then Romans chapter 5, verse 10 says this:
“Romans 5:10: For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.”
The death of Jesus restores our relationship to the Father, reconciles us with him, and brings about peace. The resurrection of Jesus means our eternal life in paradise with him.
Friends, if you’re sitting here in this room, maybe you’re visiting us because it’s Easter, and you know that you are not reconciled with God right now. You might be sitting here, and you know that if you were to die, you would go to the place of eternal judgement instead of into the eternal life prepared by God for His adopted children. The Lord is holding out his hand to you this morning. He is offering you forgiveness for your sins, peace with him, and life everlasting. All of this is gained through repentance of your sins and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.1121212
I’m not trying to pressure you into making a quick decision. But if you’d like to speak to me, or one of the elders of this church after the service or in the coming weeks, we would be so delighted to speak with you about how you can gain everything through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let’s pray together.