When Christ came to this earth as a baby born in Bethlehem, He came to a world that was without hope. But He brought hope.
Hope is a precious commodity in human life. What a contrast of emotions there is between the words, “hopeless” and “hopeful.” The Bible uses both ideas. “Hopeless” describes the terminal condition of the sinner as Paul expresses it in Ephesians 2:12 (NIV) - “having no hope, and without God in the world.” If a person persists in rejecting Christ as his Savior, then he is left to experience this hopelessness through-out all eternity.
“Hopeful,” on the other hand, depicts the repentant sinner who experiences the reality of “Christ in you, the hope of glory” - Colossians 1:27 (NIV). “The hope of the Gospel” - Colossians 1:23 (NIV) assures him of forgiveness and everlasting life. This hope we have in Christ is a confidence concerning God’s presence in our life today and of our being in God’s presence through-out eternity.
Therefore, while the unbeliever will be condemned to spend eternity knowing hopelessness apart from the presence of God, the believer will be blessed to spend eternity knowing a fulfilled hope as they are forever in the wonderful presence of the Lord.
In his first epistle, Peter says a lot about the gift of hope that can be ours because of the gift of God’s Son. He describes hope in four ways:
1. It is a living hope - 1 Peter 1:3
Peter opens his letter by establishing that the Christian’s hope is based on “the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” Because He lives, our future is guaranteed. We have a living Savior, who can be trusted to see us through the difficulties of this life by means of His presence with us and safely, one day, into His presence in glory.
Because we have a living Savior, we have a living hope that sustains us and strengthens us as we pass through life in this world.
“So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.” - Hebrews 4:14-16 (NLT)
It is interesting to note that the word worry comes from the Greek word merimnao, which is a combination of the two words merizo, meaning “to divide,” and nous, meaning “mind.” Hence, worry means “to divide the mind,” or to be double-minded.
This world is a “double-minded” world. James tells us in James 1:8, that “a double-minded man is unstable in all he does.” The Christian, by contrast, can be free from worry and know stability
in this life because of the fact that our Savior is a living Savior that can be trusted with the concerns of this life.
Satan, if he can, will so preoccupy us with worry about the past or the future that he will make us ineffective in the present. But because we have a living Savior, who has provided for forgiveness from sin and victory over sin, and who has promised that by His presence He will see us through whatever life might bring our way so we can avoid being “double-minded” and live life with a sense of stability.
I heard about a man who worried all the time. But then, he came up with a solution. One of his friends noticed a difference in his demeanor and asked him why he wasn’t as worried as he used to be. He explained that he had put an ad in the paper and offered $10,000 a week to anyone who might do his worrying for him. His friend asked, “And how do you think you’ll pay him?” He replied, “I don’t know, that’s his worry!”
Jesus has paid the price at the cross and was raised victoriously from the dead so that you might be for you a living Savior so that you can turn to at any time about anything and be enabled to live worry-free! And we certainly need not worry about the future:
“For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.” - Jeremiah 11:29 (NASB)
This living hope that both strengthens and sustains us is based on the wonderful fact that Jesus has won the complete victory for us by His resurrection from the dead.
“If you are hopeless, there may be many contributors, but two are certain: 1. You have placed your hope in something other than God . . . and it has let you down. 2. You may understand that Jesus conquered death, but you live as though He is still in the grave. All hopelessness is ultimately a denial of the resurrection.” - Ed Welch
2. It is a motivating hope - 1 Peter 1:l3-17
The Christian’s hope is fixed on “the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.” Knowing that we will one day be with the Lord and see Him face to face, motivates us to . . .
A. Be separated from a self-centered way of living - v. 14
B. Be dedicated to a God-centered way of living - vs. 15-16
A man went to work for a bakery. On his first day, the phone rang and one of the ladies answered it. She put down the phone and yelled. “He’s coming!” Everyone put on hair nets, clean aprons and clean caps. The boss told him to sweep the floor and cover all the containers. Suddenly through the front door entered a man with a notepad under his arm. He walked around looking for any health hazards. He was the inspector for the Board of Health. After he left, one of the ladies explained that all the businesses on the street watched out for each other. The first to see the inspector coming would call and warn the others so they might be ready.
Peter is also warns that Jesus is coming again. Every Christian should be looking forward to that day. But when Christ returns we will give an account to Him concerning the lives we lived for Him. The hope of His return should motivate us to live lives dedicated to Him.
“Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself,just as he is pure.” - 1 John 3:3 (NIV)
Thankfully, because our hope is also a living hope, by the power of our risen Lord’s presence, we can live the holy lives He calls us to live.
“May God himself, the God who makes everything holy and whole, make you holy and whole, put you together - spirit, soul, and body - and keep you fit for the coming of our Master, Jesus Christ. The One who called you is completely dependable. If he said it, he’ll do it!” - 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 (The Message)
3. It is a secure hope - 1 Peter 1:21
The Father has shown His complete satisfaction with Christ’s work of atonement by receiving Him back into His presence and crowning Him with glory. Therefore, we who have trusted in Christ’s sacrifice as the means of our being accepted by God are secure in the knowledge that just as the Father accepts the Son and has received Him into His presence, He accepts us and will, one day, receive us into His presence. This secure hope provides two things for me:
A. Assurance of God’s forgiveness when I fail.
Though I may fail in my efforts to live the holy life He has called me to, He will, nevertheless, never abandon me or reject me! I can “come boldly before His throne of grace to find grace and mercy in my time of need” (Hebrews 4:16), finding that when I need forgiveness, it is always available. Though my fellowship with God might be effected by my failures, my relationship with Him will never be changed.
Like the prodigal in Luke 15:11-32, even after, as a result of sin, I have broken fellowship with my Father; because I am secure in my relationship with Him, I can always repent and return, finding forgiveness and restoration of fellowship.
B. Assurance of God’s love when I suffer.
In 1 Thessalonians 4:13, Paul tells us that believers do not need to “grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.” This doesn’t mean we do not grieve, or suffer, or shed tears, but that we know that our suffering does not mean God no longer loves us.
“There is a difference between tears of hopeand tears of hopelessness.” - Erwin Lutzer
Because of the hope we have in Christ, we are assured of His love for us, regardless of what suffering we might endure in this life.
4. It is a convincing hope - 1 Peter 3:15
Peter says that because of the advent of Christ, we can, through faith and trust in Him and His saving work, receive the gift of hope - a confident assurance that we will one day see Him face to face.
This hope should motivate us to live lives that please Him; and because we know that we are secure in Him whenever we fail and that He is always with us to help us succeed, we can live lives that honor Him and that are noticeably different - lives that will make a world that is
without hope sit up and take notice; and want to know, how can they pass from hopelessness to hopefulness!
