A Reason For Hope Series

A Reason for Hope

A study through Peter July 23rd 2023

If someone were to ask you, 'Where do you find hope in life?' what would your answer be? Is your hope for today and the future (because we cannot hope for the past) found in your investments (I hope my stocks are up!), the lottery (I hope my numbers came up), the government (they’ll look after me, right?), your family (surely they will look after me), social media (I hope my tiktok video got lots of likes!).

Perhaps our hope is in ourselves as people; our knowledge and growth as humanity clearly shows how well we are doing (haha… ?) Perhaps our hope is found in myself; as I look in the mirror and am so confident in the person I am, or am striving to be? After all the self-help books I have read, surely I can hope in myself – or maybe not?

Or maybe hope is found in the great nothingness that we are all part of, which is to say that a person’s hope is – nothing.

Do we even HAVE hope?

As followers of Jesus, we sure do! As believers in His Name and His Word and His promises, we should have hope, lots of hope – and we as Christians should be able to reasonably explain that hope to others who may not yet have accepted Jesus as their hope for today, for tomorrow, for eternity…

We’re continuing a journey through the book of Peter, and we are now in chapter 3 in the 6th part of this series which will continue through the summer.

Turn in your Bible with me to 1 Peter 3:8-17. (I’m reading the ESV)

8 Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. 9 Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. 10 For

“Whoever desires to love life

and see good days,

let him keep his tongue from evil

and his lips from speaking deceit;

11 let him turn away from evil and do good;

let him seek peace and pursue it.

12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,

and his ears are open to their prayer.

But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

13 Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, 15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, 16 having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. 17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil.

Don’t you love the part of a sermon when the speaker says something like, “and finally I will conclude with this…’ and you know its going to be another 30 minutes before they actually finish? Well, guess what, Peter says, ‘Finally, all of you…’ so we’re going to be a little while before we actually finish today…

Peter has been addressing a few specific groups of people in the previous portions, servants, wives, husbands… Now he is talking to everyone – so lets ALL pay attention!

A list of things that all Christians should have as part of their character is here for us to think about. Five attributes that are almost obvious qualities that people should see in the way followers of Jesus live in this world.

Unity of mind – We should all think the same way, and that doesn’t mean that others need to think like you or else you have nothing to do with them. It doesn’t mean we all think that watching Nascar is a great way to spend your Sunday afternoon. It doesn’t mean thinking that some other church might be a better place to worship like I want to…

What it does mean is that we have unity of mind, we think alike, we think about what is important to think about. Paul wrote to the Corinthians that we have the mind of Christ – we are to THINK like Him, not think we know better than Him, or anyone else. We think like Jesus, about Jesus, how Jesus would react in any situation. We think; we USE the mind God gave us and we do so together.