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The King’s Child
Updated: 4 days ago
1 Peter 1:1–12 · Matt Miller · Balkan Baptist Church, Novi Sad
Afraid of being found out
Picture a poor village boy who sneaks into the king’s castle. He has dreamed of it all his life. He washes his face, borrows good clothes, brushes his hair, and learns to talk and walk like the people around him. From the outside, he looks like he belongs.
But every morning he wakes up afraid. What if someone finds out? What if they see who I really am? One mistake, and he is thrown back out of the gate.
Many Christians live before God like that boy: trying hard, behaving well, and quietly afraid of being found out.
Then one day the boy is caught and brought before the king. The king looks into his eyes, and something changes on the king’s face. Years ago the king’s own son was taken from the castle. The boy trying so hard to fit in is not an intruder at all. He is the king’s son.
His life does not stop being careful after that day. He still wants to do what is right. But he is no longer afraid of being thrown out. He finally knows where he belongs.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
— 1 Peter 1:3
Why Peter wrote this letter
Scripture: 1 Peter 1:1; 1 Peter 1:13.
Peter writes “to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.” These believers were spread across many regions and could not easily be together. They were feeling the heat. Because of their faith, some lost work, some were mistrusted by neighbors, and some were treated as outsiders. The pressure to stay quiet, blend in, and stop talking about Christ was very real.
Peter does not write to scold them. He writes to encourage them. In verse 13 he will say, “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind.” “Wherefore” means because of all this. It is the hinge of the chapter. But before Peter tells them what to do, he spends twelve verses reminding them who they are and what they already have.
Peter did not write to convince them what kind of salvation they need. He wrote to remind them what they already have.
Three things Peter wants you to know
1. You are chosen and set apart.
2. You are born again to a lively hope.
3. You can rejoice even in heaviness.
The village boy did not need better clothes. He needed to know whose son he was. So do we.
1. Chosen and set apart
Strangers, but chosen
Scripture: 1 Peter 1:1–2.
Peter calls them “strangers,” people living somewhere temporarily, far from home. Many of us know that feeling. You may be a foreigner where you live. Maybe you have tried to rent an apartment or find a job and felt the door close because of where you come from. In a land of many nations and languages, feeling like you do not quite fit can almost seem normal.
But in the same breath Peter calls them “elect,” chosen. The world may see you as one more face in the crowd. The King has chosen you to be His child.
Known, set apart, and cleansed
Scripture: 1 Peter 1:2.
Verse 2 shows the whole Godhead at work for the believer: “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.”
The Father knows you. The world may not recognize you or care who you are, but the Father does.
The Spirit has set you apart. Many homes keep ordinary cups for every day and a special set of dishes in a cabinet for the moments that matter. If an everyday cup breaks, it is no great loss. The special dishes are kept apart. That is the idea of being sanctified: set apart for God.
The Son’s blood has cleansed you. Those who have obeyed the gospel have been sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ. You are not trying to clean yourself up enough to be accepted. Christ has done it.
The world does not determine your identity. Your circumstances do not determine your identity. God does.
Grace first
Peter’s first words to these hurting believers are “Grace unto you, and peace.” This is not a message that says, You are not doing enough. It says, God wants you. You do not have to prove yourself to Him. We seek to live better because He loves us, not to earn His love.
PAUSE AND REFLECT Where have you let the world, or your circumstances, tell you who you are? |
2. Born again to a lively hope
Abundant mercy, a new birth
Scripture: 1 Peter 1:3; John 3:3.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again.” To be begotten again is to be born again. That is the question that matters most: not Do you go to church? or Have you ever prayed? but Have you been born again?
Notice why it happens: “according to his abundant mercy.” If we were good enough to deserve to be called His children, it would not be mercy. It would be a reward. And a birth happens once. When the king says, You are my son, it never goes back the other way.
Hope with expectation
Scripture: 1 Peter 1:3.
Peter calls it “a lively hope,” a living hope, “by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” What is the difference between hope and a living hope?
Picture a hospital room. The doctor says, “We will try one more thing.” You hope, but you do not know if it will happen. Now picture an airport arrivals gate. Your daughter has been away at school for months. She texted from the plane. The tracker on your phone says the plane has landed. You stand at the gate, watching the doors, expecting her to walk through at any moment. Her little sister is jumping up and down.
A living hope is not “maybe.” It is the joy of waiting at the gate, knowing the plane has landed.
Our hope stands on an empty tomb. Christ is risen, so our hope is alive.
An inheritance with your name on it
Scripture: 1 Peter 1:4–5.
People invest in land, property, or gold, and every investment can fail. Currencies fall. Markets crash. But Peter says our inheritance is “incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you.” It cannot decay, it cannot be stained, and it will never fade. It is reserved, set aside with your name on it. It will not be sold to someone else.
And look who keeps it: “Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” The who is you: the discouraged one, the stressed one, the one who feels like an outsider. There is nothing more powerful than God, and He is the One keeping you.
The inheritance is reserved, and the believer is kept. God Himself is the guardian of both.
PAUSE AND REFLECT Are you living as one who is kept by the power of God, or as one who is afraid of being thrown out? |
3. Rejoicing in heaviness
Joy that is honest
Scripture: 1 Peter 1:6.
“Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.” Peter does not pretend that life is easy. Heaviness is real: the weight of a lost job, of bills, of health, of family trouble, of being hurt by people, even in church. Hurting people often hurt people.
Biblical joy is not pretending everything is fine. Peter acknowledges the pain, and then points them back to what they have.
Christian joy is not the absence of heaviness. It is a hope that heaviness cannot destroy.
More precious than gold
Scripture: 1 Peter 1:7; Acts 16:25.
“That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” We might expect Peter to say our comfort is precious to God. He says our faith is. When God sees faith that keeps trusting Him in the dark, He counts it more precious than gold.
The fire does not create the gold. The fire reveals it and purifies it. Trials show what is real in us and where God still needs to work. Paul and Silas sat in a dark prison at midnight with no promise of rescue, and they sang. Not out of duty, but out of joy.
Joy unspeakable
Scripture: 1 Peter 1:8–9.
“Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” Have you ever come back from a place so beautiful that you could only say, You have to see it for yourself? Or held your newborn child and could not find words? That is unspeakable joy, and it is ours in Christ, whom we love though we have not seen Him.
What prophets and angels longed to see
Scripture: 1 Peter 1:10–12.
The prophets searched diligently, trying to understand “the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.” They were ministering not to themselves but to us. And the gospel preached to you is something “the angels desire to look into.”
What the prophets searched for and the angels long to look into, you possess today in Christ.
PAUSE AND REFLECT What has heaviness been hiding from you that God has already given you? |
CONCLUSION AND APPLICATION
Stir it up
Go back to the village boy in the castle. He spent his days trying to look like he belonged, afraid of being found out. Many of us live the Christian life the same way. Peter writes to say: You are the child of the King. Put down that weight. You belong.
When an iced coffee sits too long, the coffee sinks to the bottom and the top looks like dirty water. You have to put the spoon all the way down and stir. Maybe that is your heart today. The truth is still there: chosen, born again, kept, loved. It has just settled to the bottom. Stir it up.
You do not have to work to become secure. In Christ, you already belong.
Key takeaways
The world and your circumstances do not determine your identity; God does.
The Father knows you, the Spirit has set you apart, and the blood of Christ has cleansed you.
A living hope rests on the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Your inheritance is reserved, and you are kept by the power of God.
Trials do not destroy faith; they reveal it as more precious than gold.
This week: count what you have
Read 1 Peter 1:1–12 slowly, and write down every gift Peter names: chosen, set apart, cleansed, born again, a living hope, an inheritance, kept. Then, on your way to work or on the bus, thank God for each one by name.
And when heaviness comes this week, speak verse 5 out loud: “kept by the power of God.” Let the truth of who you are settle your heart before you decide what to do.
If you have not trusted Christ
Maybe you have been trying to earn your place with God, like the boy in borrowed clothes. You cannot. Christ died for our sins and rose again from the dead. God saves by His abundant mercy, not by our good behavior. Turn from your sin and put your trust in Jesus Christ, and you will be born again into His family, with an inheritance that cannot fade.
You can call on Him right where you are reading this. Tell Him you know you have sinned, that you need His forgiveness, and that you are trusting Jesus, who died for you and rose again.
You do not need better clothes. You need a new birth.
If you belong to Christ
Lift your eyes. You are not a pauper hiding in the castle. You are the King’s child. Let go of the fear, rest in His keeping, and rejoice. Peter has much more to say about how to live, but it all begins here: knowing whose you are.
Our prayer
Father, thank You for all You have given us. Thank You that Christ died for us and rose again, and that You have given us what the prophets searched for and the angels desire to look into. When the world does not know us, remind us that You do. Keep us by Your power, lift our heaviness, and fill us with a living hope. Help us to live as sons and daughters of the King. In Jesus’ name, amen.
QUESTIONS ABOUT OUR IDENTITY IN CHRIST
1. What does “elect according to the foreknowledge of God” mean in this passage?
Peter uses it to comfort believers who felt like outsiders: God the Father knew them and chose them as His own. Peter’s purpose here is not to settle debates, but to assure them of what they already have.
Scripture: 1 Peter 1:2; Ephesians 1:4
2. What is the difference between hope and a “lively hope”?
Ordinary hope says “maybe.” A living hope rests on something that has already happened, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and so it waits with confident expectation.
Scripture: 1 Peter 1:3; 1 Corinthians 15:20
3. Can a born-again believer lose the inheritance?
Peter says the inheritance is “reserved in heaven for you” and believers are “kept by the power of God.” Our security rests on God’s power, not on our strength.
Scripture: 1 Peter 1:4–5; John 10:28–29
4. If I am a child of God, why am I still going through trials?
Peter says trials come “for a season, if need be.” They test and purify our faith, which God counts more precious than gold, and they will end in praise and glory when Jesus Christ appears.
Scripture: 1 Peter 1:6–7; James 1:2–4
5. What is the next step after knowing who I am?
Peter answers in verse 13: “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind.” Because you belong to the King, you are called to live like it.
Scripture: 1 Peter 1:13–16
ABOUT THIS STUDY This study is part of our Sunday morning series through 1 Peter at Balkan Baptist Church, Novi Sad. If it encouraged you, share it with someone who needs to hear about the hope we have in Christ. |
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