Our Living Hope (A Living Hope)

Intro:

In this time of turmoil, trials and many temptations on this world we live in, it seems that we need a kind of hope that will sustain us with God’s strength and survive all these onslaughts. Praise God! Because Jesus is our “Living Hope” Si Hesus and ating Buhay na Pag-Asa. And on this month of April 2022, this will be our theme with a theme verse found in 1 Peter 1:3-4 which will be our text for today’s message.

Did everyone notice that every month our theme includes the word “hope”? Can we have a rundown of monthly themes so we can have a clear view of this month’s theme:

January - A Believing Hope – a faith of the hope we have

February – A Loving Hope – a love that continuously gives us hope

March – A Joyful Hope – the joy of keeping that hope within us

And that summarizes our 1st quarter of monthly themes. And today, God is exhorting us to have a new hope to know, a new hope to discover, when all our hopes are down, we can count on God that He is…

Our Living Hope (Buhay na Pag-Asa)

1 Peter 1:3-7

Where does our living hope come from? Yes, it can only be found in our God. And we have Apostle Peter state that in…

1 Peter 1:3-7 NIV

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

MBB

3 Pasalamatan natin ang Diyos at Ama ng ating Panginoong Jesu-Cristo. Dahil sa laki ng habag niya sa atin, tayo'y binigyan niya ng isang panibagong buhay sa pamamagitan ng muling pagkabuhay ni Jesu-Cristo. Ito ang nagbigay sa atin ng isang buháy na pag-asa 4 na magmamana tayo ng kayamanang di masisira, walang kapintasan, at di kukupas na inihanda ng Diyos sa langit para sa inyo. 5 Sa pamamagitan ng inyong pananampalataya, iniingatan kayo ng kapangyarihan ng Diyos habang hinihintay ninyo ang kaligtasang nakahandang ihayag sa katapusan ng panahon. 6 Ito'y dapat ninyong ikagalak, kahit na maaaring magdanas muna kayo ng iba't ibang pagsubok sa loob ng maikling panahon. 7 Ang ginto, bagama't nasisira, ay pinapadaan sa apoy upang malaman kung talagang dalisay. Gayundin naman, ang inyong pananampalataya, na higit na mahalaga kaysa ginto, ay sinusubok upang malaman kung ito'y talagang tapat. Sa gayon kayo'y papupurihan, dadakilain at pararangalan sa Araw na mahayag si Jesu-Cristo.

Before we go into details of the living hope we have, let us have a quick background of the first letter of Apostle Peter.

First is that the writer is none other than The Apostle Peter himself and it was mentioned in verse 1 of o1 Peter chapter 1 “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ…” This is not the “old Peter” whom formerly named “Simon” the fisherman brother of Andrew. But this is a “renewed” Peter which is now called “Cephas” which is the Aramaic term for Peter which means “the rock” or in Greek “petros”. Here we can notice that Peter here is a matured child of God capable to being a witness of the greatness of God.

Second is that the audience was the Christians that are elected, exiled and exhausted because of the persecutions they suffer in the hands of the Greeks. We can see that on verse 1b to 2 “To God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood:”

This means that the exhortations of Peter were intended for Christians who may be beleaguered, burdened with pain and battered with sufferings. The message of the first letter of the Apostle Peter is all about the kind of encouragement and hope that we especially need today. It is a kind of hope that will sustain us with God’s strength through His promises mentioned through the Apostle Peter. What is this encouraging hope that we need to know?