Hope is a real blessing.

1st Peter 5:1The elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed:

Hope is an eternal reality for those in Christ. Peter mentions it over, and over again. 

Here's a quick list of the times in this letter, where Peter speaks 16 different times of the hope we have in Christ. ( and I think I may have missed a few other times he speaks of hope ) 

Chapter 1:4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 17, 20, 21, 

Chapter 3:15

Chapter 4:5, 7, 13

Chapter 5:1, 4 and 11. 

But, back to 1st Peter 5:1 The elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed:

You notice in this verse, that he mentions he is a partaker of the glory that will be revealed.

What does this mean? It means that Peter and all others in Christ will share in the glory of Jesus Christ when He is revealed to us personally, that is, visibly. When Jesus returns for His church, we will meet Him in the air, we will behold His face, we will see Him face to face, we will know Him as we are known, and we will be given new and glorified bodies. 

And, we will be presented to the Father as the bride of Jesus. We will see the Father, the Holy Spirit, and of course Jesus as mentioned, and we will see all the saints who have ever lived, we will behold the angels in heaven, and the glorious throne of God, etc, etc. 

Revelation tells us that there will be no more sin, sorrow, tears, death, devil and evil in heaven. Only the glory of God. 

The glory of God is the visible manifestation of all that God is within Himself. That is, all that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are, in terms of their nature and so on, are the glory of God. 

All the holiness, purity, truth, light, salvation, mercy, grace, peace, etc, etc, all of those things make up the glory of God. 

And, we will share in them forever, and forever. This is our hope. It's a living hope, and it's the helmet of our salvation. It is by the way what we put on during battle, that hope is part of our spiritual armor against the enemy. 

One last thing about hope. Here's what Paul said in Rom 8.18

Ro 8:18* For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

Paul is saying that while we do suffer down here in this life, in this present time, when we get to heaven, the current sufferings will not  be worthy to compare with the glory that will be revealed in us. 

In other words, if you were to put suffering and glory on one of those old fashioned scales......the glory side of the scale would sink to the bottom, because it's so much more then the suffering part. 

Thank You Father for the hope we have in Christ. 

Next Week, we break into 2nd Peter .....

Pastor Bob Grenier