A Living Hope For Our Future

A Living Hope for Our Future

1 Peter 1:3-5

Rev. Dr. Michael H. Koplitz

Peter's letter starts with a doxology. A doxology is a short hymn to praise God. Imagine if we began all of our conversations, whether written, oral, or electronic, with praise to our God? We would be invoking the Holy Spirit into our daily conversations. By doing this, we would create an environment of love and grace. It would be easier to get our messages across to each other if we did this. So, the question is, why are we not doing it? The writers of the letters in the New Testament did this. The early Bishops of the church wrote letters this way. Somewhere between the apostles and us, we lost that methodology.

The authors of the New Testament letters burst out into praise the moment they mentioned the name of our Lord and Savior. Opposed to today, where the name of our Lord and Savior is used as a swear word. We should stop here for a moment and offer a doxology. Blessed be the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who graces us today and every day with an abundance of mercy and love. Amen.

The early Christian church was characterized by praise to God and a sense of joy and expectation. They wanted to be blessed by God, and they told God that every moment that they could. It may be difficult for us to imagine today offering praises to God all day long. When you get up in the morning, do you praise God? Do you praise God during the day? How about when you retire to sleep?

Today it seems the church comes together for resounding praise to God when revival worship occurs. We seem to connect praising God with song, dance, and as good United Methodists, food, and a lot of it. There is nothing wrong with revival events. They are an excellent opportunity to express our love for God. Revival should be in our hearts daily. Praising God is a response to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was meant to become an intrinsic part of our lives as Christians. Jesus is found offering a lot of praise to His Father through the Gospels. If we want to emulate Christ's behavior, then we need more praising of God in our lives.

We come to church every Sunday to claim our belief in the wondrous event of the resurrection of the Son of God. We do this in several ways in our worship celebrations. Why are you here today? I pray your answer is to join your sisters and brothers in your Christian family to offer praise to God for Jesus' resurrection that gives us a living hope for the future. It is an astonishing fact that Peter tells us about. The resurrection of Jesus Christ offers us a living hope. Our future is secure as we are secure in our discipleship to Jesus Christ.

The resurrection event is the cornerstone of our belief. Without the resurrection of Jesus, there is no Christianity. It is the ultimate vital event that holds together everything the theologians have told us for two centuries. Without the resurrection, the apostles would have returned to their lives before meeting Jesus, and we would not know anything about Him. Think about Peter for a minute. He denied his knowledge of Jesus three times before the resurrection. When Friday was over, and Jesus was in the grave, he threw in the towel. He figured it was over. The master was dead, and with his death, all the promises made by Jesus seemed lost. He was ready to return home and go back to fishing in the Sea of Galilee. What turned Peter around to wanting to tell the world about the Gospel? It was the resurrection. He and his fellow apostles saw and talked with Jesus three days after His death. They did not just sense His presence. They saw Him alive and well. The message in the book of Acts is about Jesus and His resurrection.

We derive lots of different things from the resurrection. The one Peter talks about in this letter, the first chapter, is a living hope. There is a lot of definitions of Christian hope today. They are wonderful things, for the most part. That hope is different than the living hope that we receive from the resurrection. It is one of the most important meanings of that first Easter morning. It is something substantial, something specific, and something vibrant. It has power and life associated with it.

The New Testament is a practical document. It tells us about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah from God. It contains the actual facts about how God sent His Son to die on a cross for our sins. It is not a fairy tale or some made-up story by some obscure storyteller. The New Testament is accurate. It tells us the truths about God's laws and ways. It tells us that no matter how dark the world becomes, those who believe in Jesus Christ have a living hope for our future. We can hold on to this gift. Living hope can see you through any difficulty that you may have in your life.