This morning I want to ask you to think about your favorite Christmas gift ever. Maybe it was a little red wagon or a shiny new bicycle. Maybe it was an article of clothing or the latest video game. Now let me ask you a question. Where is that gift today? Chances are, we have no idea. Toys become broken and are thrown away, Clothes wear out or we outgrow them. Sometimes our interests change and that gift gets put away in the attic or the corner of a closet somewhere.
I know one of my all-time favorite gifts was a wooden rocking chair. I still remember waking up on Christmas Eve night to use the bathroom and seeing my dad putting the last coat of varnish on that chair. And even once I outgrew it, I hung on to that chair and eventually our children used that very same chair. And after they outgrew it, Mary and I still hung on to that chair, hoping that one day our grandchildren would sit in it. But unfortunately one day it fell from the place where it was hanging in our garage and shattered.
But there is one gift that will never wear out, one that we will never outgrow, one that will not go out of fashion, one that cannot be broken. It is the gift that we have been looking at for the last three week now – the one described by Paul with these words:
Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!
2 Corinthians 9:5 (ESV)
Over the past two weeks, we have discovered that this inexpressible gift is a sacrificial gift and a relational gift. It is a sacrificial gift because it required Jesus to sacrifice His position, His privileges and His possessions. It is also a relational gift because Jesus delighted in developing relationships, he designed a plan to make a relationship with Him possible and he demonstrated His love for us by carrying out that plan.
So I’m encouraging all of us to consider those two aspects of Jesus’ gift to us as we give gifts to others this season. Thanks again to those of you who have helped to make these messages very practical with the ideas that you’ve shared over the last couple of weeks on my blog and on the church Facebook page. If you haven’t already had a chance to do so, I encourage you to check these out.
This morning we’ll look at a third aspect of Jesus’ inexpressible gift to us. That gift is also an eternal gift. Once again, there are a number of passages that we could use to illustrate that truth, but we’ll focus on just one. Go ahead and turn in your Bibles to 1 Peter 1 and follow along as I read beginning in verse 3:
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith – more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire – may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
1 Peter 1:3-9 (ESV)
We’re going to focus this morning on one phrase in verse 3 – living hope. If there is one gift that was needed at the time Jesus was born, it was hope. The people were living under the iron fisted rule of Rome, especially those in Palestine who were governed by the cruel King Herod. The economy was struggling and the people were subject to high taxes. In many ways, the conditions then were not all that different than what we face today, are they? The fact is that we need that same gift of hope today. There are signs all around us that people are living without hope. Recent polls show that for the first time in our country’s history people don’t believe that their children will have a better life than they did.
All around us people are trying to find hope in the midst of some very trying times. Some look for hope in their bank accounts or their 401-K plans. But that hasn’t worked out real well recently for most people. Some people look for hope in the government, but with governments at almost every level now being broke, that no longer seems to be a viable option. Some people look for hope in other people, but the problem with that is that fallible, sinful human beings are certain to let us down at some point.
But the good news is that there is a living hope! And that living hope comes in the form of the eternal gift that God provided for us that very first Christmas through the inexpressible gift of His Son, Jesus. And in this passage Peter provides us with some important insight into why we can only find true living hope in this eternal gift.
LIVING HOPE – AN ETERNAL GIFT
• Our hope is provided by an eternal person
Let’s go back and look at verse 3 again:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
It just couldn’t get any clearer than this. Our living hope is not something that we can earn or produce or our own. It is completely based on what God has done for us.
First of all, it is according to God’s great mercy. Because every single one of us is a sinner, we do not deserve to experience hope at all. What we deserve instead is judgment. But because of His love for us God extends His mercy, which, by definition, wouldn’t be mercy if it was something we could earn or deserve. Paul describes this eternal God as one who is rich in mercy:
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us…
Ephesians 2:4 (ESV)
The second thing we notice here is that it is God who caused us to be born again into a living hope. Once again, it is clear that our living hope is completely dependent on what God does and not on what we can do. That is a principle that Paul reminds us of with these familiar words:
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Ephesians 2:8, 9 (ESV)
The entire process of our salvation, by which we obtain this living hope – even the faith by which we receive that salvation – is a gift of God and not a result of anything we can do.
Finally, we see that our living hope is provided to us through the resurrection of Jesus. Again, we see that our living hope is totally and completely the result of what Jesus has done for us and not what we can do.
No person or thing, apart from Jesus, can ever provide us with the eternal gift of living hope because they are all merely temporary. Jesus, who we have seen frequently described in our study of Revelation as the one “who is and who was and who is to come”, on the other hand, is eternal. The writer of Hebrews confirms that fact with these familiar words:
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Hebrews 13:8 (ESV)
Our living hope is an eternal gift because it is provided by an eternal person – Jesus.
• Our hope is proceeding to an eternal possession
This next aspect of our living hope is described in the first part of verse 4:
…to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading…
Every material gift that I have ever received at Christmas has eventually perished, been defiled or faded in some way. That is why I will never find lasting hope in any of those things. As Peter points out in verse 7, even the most highly refined gold will one day pass away. That’s very interesting in light of all the commercials today that are urging people to buy gold in order to secure their future. I’m certainly not going to comment this morning on the wisdom of buying gold, but I can tell you this based on the word of God – no matter how much gold you have and no matter how pure it is, it is not imperishable and it can’t provide you with living hope.
But because, as we saw last week, those of us who have received Jesus by believing in His name have become God’s children, we can look forward to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading.
The reason that our inheritance in Jesus won’t perish, be defiled or fade is that it consists of more than just physical things. To be sure, there is a physical aspect of that inheritance that we’ll learn more about when we get to the end of Revelation and see the new heavens and earth and the New Jerusalem that will be our permanent home. And that new world in which we dwell permanently will not be subject to the destruction and decay that we see in our present world. But even more significant than that is the fact that we will be permanently in the presence of Jesus. We’ll be able to learn directly from Him and worship Him face to face.
But we don’t obtain that inheritance by protecting or hanging on to the things in the physical realm. Peter writes in this passage about the physical trials that his readers are going to experience for the purpose of proving the genuineness of their faith. That is part of the process of our salvation. But as Peter concludes in verse 9, the outcome we are looking forward to is the salvation of our souls, not our physical bodies. It is looking forward to that future eternal inheritance that provides us with the ability to endure the suffering that is inevitable as we live in this fallen worth. Paul makes exactly the same point as he writes to the church in Corinth:
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (ESV)
Our living hope is an eternal gift because it is provided by an eternal person – Jesus. It is also an eternal gift because it is proceeding to an eternal possession – one which is imperishable, undefiled and unfading.
• Our hope is protected by an eternal power
This last aspect of our living hope is described beginning at the end of verse 4:
…kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time…
This is great news! Not only does God provide us with living hope, He protects that eternal gift with His power.
First we notice that this eternal gift is kept for us in heaven. The word “kept” at the end of verse 4 is a hard word to translate into English. When we keep something, it is often just a matter of sticking it away somewhere and not paying any attention to it. But the Greek word Peter uses here means to “keep under guard” or “pay close attention to”. In other words, God is very active in preserving this living hope for His children.
Second, we see that it is God’s power that is guarding us so that we are guaranteed to experience the final manifestation of our salvation.
As we have discussed before, and as we clearly see in this passage, there are three distinct aspects of the process of salvation.
There is the past aspect in which we were made positionally righteous before God through faith in Jesus. We use the term “justification” to describe that aspect of our salvation. That is described here when Peter writes that God caused us – past tense - to be born again into a living hope.
There is the present aspect of our salvation in which we experience the abundant life in Jesus and in which through the process of sanctification we are becoming more and more like Jesus. That aspect is described by Peter when he writes about the trials that prove the genuineness of our faith.
Finally there is the future aspect of our salvation, that final manifestation of our faith in which we spend eternity in the presence of Jesus. That is described here by Peter as the “praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Although it is primarily this last aspect of our salvation, the future aspect, that is kept in heaven and being guarded by God’s power, in a sense God is doing that with all three aspects of our salvation.
Our living hope is an eternal gift because it is provided by an eternal person – Jesus. It is also an eternal gift because it is proceeding to an eternal possession – one which is imperishable, undefiled and unfading. And finally our living hope is an eternal gift because it protected by God’s eternal power.
MY RESPONSE TO THE ETERNAL GIFT OF LIVING HOPE
This morning, God is calling on all of us to do something with this eternal gift of living hope. Let me first address those of you who have not yet received this gift in your own life.
If you have never received the eternal gift of living hope – receive it now
Maybe you’re here this morning and you’ve been searching for hope in your life in all the wrong places. You’ve tried to find hope in some thing – maybe your bank account, your your job or your hobbies, or even in religion. Or possibly you’ve tried to find hope in some person – a political leader, or some well know person, or even your spouse. And inevitably you’ve been disappointed because none of those things or those people are capable of providing living hope on a permanent basis.
But you can have living hope right here and now. You can do that by trusting in the eternal person – Jesus – who has done everything that is needed to make that living hope possible for you. If you are interested in making that decision this morning, then we understand that you may have some more questions about how to do that and all that is involved. Because we want you to fully understand what it means to commit your life to Jesus, we would love to talk to you some more about that and answer any questions you might have.
There are several ways you can let us know you’d like us to help you make an informed decision. You can talk to me or to one of our elders after the service. I’m going to ask our elders to stand right now so that you can see who they are. Or you can fill out the flap on your bulletin, check the box that reads “I would like to learn more about how to have a personal relationship with Jesus.” Then just put that in the offering plate a little later in the service or gift it to one of our elders or greeters. You can even go to our website and there is more detailed information there and a link to contact us if you need more information.
If you have never received the eternal gift of living hope, I’m going to ask Pastor Dana to pray for you right now. Let’s all bow our heads as he prays.
[Prayer]
For those of us who have already received this gift, we also need to take some action this morning:
If you have received the eternal gift of living hope – give it away.
Normally, I’m not a big proponent of re-gifting. But occasionally, with the proper precautions or in the right situation, re-gifting can be well received.
When we lived in Albuquerque, the young married Sunday school class at our church had a Christmas party each year and that party always included a White Elephant gift exchange. I’m not exactly sure when the tradition started – I only know it was before we became part of the group – but there was a pair of ugly ceramic black swans that showed up every single year. And whoever ended up with those swans was obligated to make sure that they came back the following year.
On the other hand, re-gifting can really get you into hot water. Like when you can’t remember who gave you a certain gift and you rewrap it and bring it to the family Christmas gathering where someone exclaims, “Hey isn’t that the same tie I gave to you last year?”
But the great thing about God’s inexpressible gift – His sacrificial, relational, eternal gift – is that we can keep it for ourselves and still give it away at the same time. In fact, not only can we do that, we are commanded to do it.
A little later in 1 Peter, we find these words:
…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, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.
1 Peter 3:15, 16 (ESV)
We are told that we need to be prepared to share the gift of hope with others whenever they ask us about the reason for our hope. When we do that, we don’t lose the hope that we have or in any way diminish its impact on our lives. In fact, I could make a good case that we actually strengthen our hope when we give it away.
The Scripture is filled with examples of those who received the living hope that comes through faith in Jesus and who immediately sought to give that gift to others. Those of you who were with us in “Connections” last week saw that with the woman at the well in John 4. As soon as she finished speaking with Jesus, she was able to have hope in spite of her sinful life. And she immediately went into the village to share that hope with others.
We see another example that is even more directly relevant during this Christmas season since it connected with the incarnation of Jesus.
8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. 17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
Luke 2:8-20 (ESV)
Most of us are quite familiar with this account, but what I want to call your attention to this morning is the reaction of the shepherds. They are just out in the fields, tending their sheep when an angel appears to them to reveal that the Messiah has been born and that they will find him lying in a manger in Bethlehem. Although I doubt that they had a very complete understanding of what they had just heard, they immediately went to see Jesus. And once they had seen Jesus with their own eyes the first thing that they did was to go tell others.
These lowly uneducated shepherds didn’t keep their hope to themselves. They immediately shared it with others. They didn’t wait until they had received evangelism training at their church. They didn’t wait until they got a seminary degree. They didn’t even wait until they understood everything that had been revealed to them. But they were so overjoyed with the gift that they had received that they couldn’t wait to share it with others.
For the last three weeks now we’ve looked at three important aspects of God’s inexpressible gift to us. And my prayer for those of us who have received that gift is that we will use this Christmas season to help others unwrap that gift for themselves. I pray that, like Jesus, we’ll be willing to sacrifice our position, our privileges, our possessions and our pride in order to help others unwrap this gift. I pray that we’ll look for ways to give relational gifts to others this Christmas season for the purpose of helping them develop a relationship with Jesus. And I pray that we’ll focus on the eternal gift of living hope and that we’ll do everything that we can to share that gift with others.
I’m going to ask one of our elders, Steve Ponzo, to come and pray and ask God to help us put these things into practice in our lives.
[Prayer]
We all have a choice to make now that we’ve been exposed to these truths. We can either get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the season. Or we can use what we’ve learned to take advantage of this Christmas season for the purpose of helping others unwrap God’s inexpressible gift? Which road will you choose?
