Title: Hope That Lives
Text: 1 Peter 1:3-13, 18-21
Truth: Believers have a living hope because the death and resurrection of Jesus guarantees their salvation.
Aim: to give people hope based on the certainties of salvation.
INTRODUCTION
Hope is central to our lives. Our life is filled with hope. Most singles hope to be married. The married hope their marriage will be loving and lasting. Children hope to be picked first for the playground team or classroom spelling bee. Michele Bachmann, a former 2012 Republican Presidential candidate, wrote of her hope to be asked to the high school prom her senior year. She went to work after school not having been asked but still held out hope someone would ask her before the prom started that evening. The hope that we can accomplish what we want, find the love we desire, or that our future will be bright fuels our pursuits in life. Dante described hell as having a sign over the entrance that said, “Abandon hope all ye who enter here.” Until then we hope.
One of our favorite hopes is economics. When our hope is in money we see all our human problems as one of economic disadvantage. Some think that if they could just level the playing field or establish the right market conditions everyone would be happy. The problems are the economy is fragile and vulnerable. It moves up and down with the whims of government actions or environmental conditions. Hurricane Sandy overnight impoverished some very well-to-do Americans. Even if they have plenty of money, people still have problems regardless of how much they amass. The jewelry of actress Elizabeth Taylor’s was auctioned last year. It was estimated to be worth $20-50 million. It certainly didn’t help her in her seven marriages or keep her from death. A report said that after most NFL or NBA athletes retire, they are broke within two years!
For some their hope is politics. The “Arab Spring” in the Middle East had been hoped to bring democracy in the place of dictatorship. Many people tied their hopes for our country resolving many of its problems to electing the right man for President. Half the country is discouraged and the other still holds on to hope. Politics is important but we are tying our hopes to people just like you and me. They have the same inner problems, needs, and sins.
Some put their hope in pleasure. Maybe it is great excitement or travel or good food, anything that brings some excitement to what is perceived as a dull, insignificant life. The only problem with our hope being based on pleasure is that it begins to run dry. Sometimes the pleasure backfires and destroys us. So where can we find lasting hope?
We need a hope that is bigger than we are, a hope that is not limited to human boundaries, or flawed by human nature. We need a hope that really delivers on its promises and doesn’t let us down. Only Jesus Christ offers that kind of hope. Jesus promises to forgive our past, give us meaning in the present, and make our future secure no matter what happens on this earth. For 2,000 years millions upon millions of followers of Jesus Christ have found his hope real enough to endure trials and death. I can’t think of anything on this earth that people hope in with that kind of track record. (Stuart McAlister)
What do we mean by “hope?” It contains an element of doubt in the way we use it. I hope we have a good attendance today. Implying I’m uncertain we will. But this is not the way the Bible uses hope. Hope in the Bible means utter certainty. There is anticipation of the future but it is certain of what will take place. What explains the difference? It’s the object of hope. My hope for good attendance depends on our efforts to invite people and people’s willingness to come. But my hope of eternal salvation and heaven does not rest on the feeble efforts of man but on the promises and character of God. The object of hope in the Bible is God, not man. That’s the difference maker.
The initial audience that Peter wrote to was facing some type of persecution. The believers had been converted from their former pagan ways but felt pressure from the culture to conform and participate in their former lifestyle. I’m sure they must have questioned why God was allowing them to suffer. Maybe they were angry with God for the way they were being treated or maybe they were afraid of what would happen to them if they continued to live a committed life for Christ.
Whatever the reason for them to back off from their commitment to Christ, Peter tells them that those who hope and trust in God, and in his future reward, will have the strength to endure whatever comes their way in the present. Therefore, they are to follow Christ’s example of perseverance, knowing that a great reward will be theirs one day. Later in his letter he explains that Christians reveal they are placing their hope in God in that they live holy lives, are good citizens, model slaves, gentle wives, and understanding husbands. This hope, that so dramatically changed there lives and gives them endurance in difficulties, is based on the security of their salvation. He calls that secure salvation a living hope. That is it will not die.
Peter says that living hope is based on the resurrection and crucifixion of Jesus.
I. LIVING HOPE IS BASED ON THE RESURRECTION AND CRUCIFIXION (1 PETER 1:3-5, 18-21)
Peter was not just praising any god, but the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one true God revealed himself and acted to redeem sinners through His Son Jesus. The reason God saved sinners was due to his “great mercy.” He was compassionate with us though we are undeserving. If we received salvation though undeserving, how can we lose it? Our salvation is secure because it is a gift from God. Our hope of salvation is secure.
The experience in life that strengthens our certain hope is the new birth. People need direction for their life because it is easy to be confused about what is important. People need love and joy and peace. But what people most need is to be born again because they are dead to God. The only people who know living hope, a secure salvation, are those who have experienced new life in Christ.
Billy Graham told of a meeting he had with German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, former mayor of Cologne, imprisoned by Hitler for opposing the Nazi regime, and later chancellor of the West German Federal Republic. Adenauer truly deserves the title of "statesman" as he picked up the broken pieces of his country and helped to rebuild it in a fractured world. On this occasion, he looked the evangelist in the eye and said, "Mr. Graham, do you believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead?" Graham, somewhat surprised by his question answered, "Of course I do." Replied Chancellor Adenauer, "Mr. Graham, outside of the resurrection of Jesus, I do not know of any other hope for this world."
Even a skeptic like newsman Peter Jennings had to admit some dramatic change happened to the disciples. The Bible says it was the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is what justifies our confidence for life beyond the grave and makes the living of this life meaningful now.
We have a living hope because Jesus is living. Death could not destroy Jesus. The hope that Jesus gives us cannot be destroyed by the hardships of life. It lives!
The resurrection gives us hope because it guarantees our salvation—v. 4. It can’t perish. If someone tells you they have some tomatoes for you, you can’t wait for long or that gift will perish. This body will perish but not the body waiting for us in heaven. This gift of salvation will last for eternity. God watches or guards this gift. He guarantees your salvation.
Sometimes lost people reject Christ because they say they can’t be good enough. Good News! You don’t earn salvation. It is the gift of God out of sheer mercy toward you. Sometimes people say they are not sure they can last long enough. Good News! God is the one that guarantees your salvation, not you.
In the parking lot there are cars with security systems, many of you have alarm systems at your home like we have at the church, your computer has virus protection software and passcodes. Look at the money we spend to have a small measure of security. And yet, with all the money spent on security, 3,000 people lost their lives on September 11 because of plastic box cutters and domestic airplanes. Is it possible to really be secure?
Yes. Because of Jesus resurrection you are guaranteed to be in the presence of God for eternity. This is the basis of our living hope.
Verses 18-21 stress that the foundation for our living hope is the crucifixion of Jesus. It’s the picture of the Exodus where God delivered his people from the death angel by the substitutionary death of a lamb. It is also the picture of the market where slaves were bought and sold. He redeemed us or paid the price to set us free. Christ’s crucifixion was not an accident or plan B but planned before the world was created. If God is willing to go to that length and pay that price for you, you can be certain of your salvation.
Peter says this living hope, this certainty of salvation, is based on the resurrection and crucifixion of Jesus. Secondly, living hope sustains joy and preserves faith.
II. LIVING HOPE SUSTAINS JOY AND PRESERVES FAITH (1 PETER 1:6-9)
Jesus taught that his followers would be persecuted. Last year a Canadian TV network showed a comedy of the nativity scene with Pamela Anderson playing the role of Mary, the mother of Jesus. She uses profanity as the actors mocked the birth of Christ. This year a Little Rock, Arkansas school can’t show its students “Merry Christmas Charlie Brown” because of the Arkansas Society of Free Thinkers. We’ve lost count of the number of “holiday” trees that will be lit at public parks as opposed to a “Christmas” tree. That’s very mild compared to Coptic Christians in Egypt who were beheaded by Islamic radicals in the unrest in Egypt.
He is not saying we are jumping up and down for joy over our trials. Our joy is based on the certainty of inheriting salvation even though in the interim we experience hardship.
He makes a couple of points about these trials in v. 6. They are for a little while. Even if it is being a quadriplegic like Joni Earkeson Tada, it is very brief compared to what she will know for eternity. That happened when she was a 17 year old girl and now she is in her early 60’s. But most of our trials do not come to stay like that. They are for a little while. Trials are also varied: health, financial, relationships, failure, loneliness, and many more.
He gives two reasons for rejoicing in times of trouble in v. 7. When we respond rightly, trials strengthen and purify our faith. Hard times reveal that our faith was a real saving faith. Holding on to our faith despite the difficulties reveals the worth and importance of Jesus.
In our church we’ve seen our brothers and sisters go through all kinds of hurts and heartaches. We prayed for them and cried with them and sought to help where we could. While you were in Sunday School this morning, my wife and I visited with Frankie. Her 22 year old great granddaughter was killed this weekend in a head on collision. But she still had her faith and it sustained her in deep grief. It strengthens my hope to see her example.
Verse nine points out the reward for holding on to our faith. The end result is we reach the goal of our salvation. The goal of salvation is not to get to heaven but to be like Christ.
Maybe you’ve heard the story of the Jim twins. Jim Springer and Jim Lewis were twin sons of a fourteen-year-old Italian girl. She gave birth to them in a small town in Ohio and then disappeared. They were adopted into two separate loving families, but after 39 years of life had never seen one another. They knew they had a twin somewhere.
Jim Lewis had always been haunted by a desire to find his twin brother. One lived in Lima, Ohio and the other in Dayton. Through the activities of a probate court, they found one another.
Picture the scene in your mind. Lewis drove to Dayton to meet his brother for the first time in 39 years. When he found the house he was so nervous he drove around the block three times. Finally, he stopped, walked up to the house and knocked on the door. All their families were with them. When Jim Springer met his twin brother Jim Lewis for the first time they stood staring at one another, speechless. They said it was like looking in a mirror. They talked, looked, thought, and acted alike. It was almost spooky.
Both men’s first wife was named Linda. Both had divorced and remarried. Both men’s second wife named was Betty. Both had just finished building wood furniture because both had the same hobby of woodworking. Having never seen one another, they were so much alike.
Would it sustain your joy and preserve your faith to know that after the trials of this life when you see Jesus there will be a surprising resemblance to Him? Does it do something for your attitude and response to life to know that these trials can actually result in your being wiser, more peaceful, more full of joy, and cause those watching you to have an improved opinion of Jesus? It is living hope that produces joy and faith.
Peter said that living hope is based on the resurrection and crucifixion of Jesus. Secly, living hope sustains joy and preserves faith. Third, living hope’s confidence rests on the reliability of the Bible.
III. LIVING HOPE’S CONFIDENCE RESTS ON THE RELIABILITY OF THE BIBLE (1 PETER 1:10-12)
The first disciples saw Christ in the Old Testament, which was their Bible before the New Testament was written. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, they believed the prophets of the Old Testament pointed to the death and resurrection of Jesus as a revelation of the saving grace of God for sinners. They used the Old Testament to explain salvation to people who had never seen Jesus. All through the Christmas story you see the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy.
Much of the message of the prophets was related to their own day. They preached judgment on sin and hope for the repentant, but they also pointed to the future when a coming Messiah would be the final revelation of God for the salvation of sinners. They didn’t understand all that their prophecies spoke about, but what they wrote was accurate because it was inspired and guided by the Holy Spirit. This work of salvation is so amazing that it causes the angels to marvel. Have you ever considered all the angels have seen? They saw the announcement to Mary and the shepherds. They saw the birth of the Son of God at Bethlehem and the wise men arriving in Jerusalem. They saw all of that and more, but the things that takes their breath away is the salvation God performed to save sinners!
A week before Princess Diana was killed in Paris, there was a psychic who predicted that she was going to actually marry Dodi Al Fayed. TV has made documentaries about the prophecies of Nostradamus. His prophecies are so complicated there is no way you can get out of them what modern people get out of them. On the other hand, the Bible’s prophecies are so accurate they are mind-boggling. There are over 300 specific prophecies about the birth, preaching, ministry, suffering, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. If you selected eight specific prophecies, the probability of them being fulfilled in the life of one person is 10 to the 17th power. If you took that number of silver dollars you could cover the state of Texas two feet deep. Mark one dollar and toss it out across the state. The probability that you’d reach down and pick that marked silver dollar is ten to the 17th power. History is the chronicle of one skeptic after another casting doubt on the Bible and later being proved wrong by the discovery of science or the archeologist.
If the Bible is not reliable then everything we believe about God, salvation, and morality is to be questioned. Maybe the gay community is right and the Bible is wrong about homosexuality being an acceptable alternative lifestyle. Maybe Hollywood’s morality is an acceptable option for your lifestyle. Maybe there is a heaven, maybe not.
One year a single publisher, Thomas Nelson, used 15 tons of paper, 2 million square inches of gold leaf, 100,000 zippers, and a million square feet of leather to make Bibles. The wonder of the world is the Bible. In nations where it is forbidden it is clutched like a treasure. This Book is a word you can depend on.
Living hope is based on the resurrection and crucifixion of Jesus. Living hope sustains joy and preserves faith. Living hope’s confidence rests on the reliability of the Bible.
IV. LIVING HOPE IS FULL OF HOPE (1 PETER 1:13)
“Therefore” tells us that Peter is drawing a conclusion from all that he has said in the previous twelve verses. This is the first command in 1 Peter. The command is “hope fully.” In light of the fact that your salvation is secured by the death and resurrection of Jesus, that it is preserved in hardship to the praise of God, and is the result of God’s perfect providential planning, therefore hope fully in the grace of God.
Grace is God doing for us what we could never have done for ourselves. It is God providing for us what we could never have provided for ourselves. We could have never lived a perfect life or provided an eternal substitute for the forgiveness of our sin. God did this for us. When we say God did something for us by his grace we mean that God did something for us that we could never have done for ourselves.
The way to live a hope-filled life is to prepare your minds for action and be self-controlled. The next verse gives us an idea of what Peter means by “preparing your minds for action.” Peter says in v. 14 that the reason for our defeat to lusts is because we didn’t know the truth nor seek to actively live it out. We sustain our hope-filled lives by knowing the truth and practicing the truth.
Another action to take to live a hope-filled life is to “be self-controlled.” The KJV uses the word “sober.” Drunkenness desensitizes a person to reality and reduces their ability to think clearly. As a result they lose control. Stay away from people or entertainment or influences that put lies in your mind and diminish your passion for God.
CONCLUSION
The men in my family deer hunt on the old farm of my grandpa and grandma Lawrence. When I was a boy it was a great place of adventure. I swam and fished in the creek. I hunted squirrels and deer in the woods. My grandfather would help me catch the buckskin horse to ride. I remember a barn with a loft and pens for cows and pigs. The old farmhouse has numberless memories for me. I even have memories of the outhouse. But almost all of that has changed.
Bulldozers have rearranged some of the landscape. There’s a new place to cross the creek. The old farmhouse is deteriorating and needs to be torn down.
It’s a picture of life. We live. We work. And God takes us, and all our labors and achievements fade away. If that’s my security, I have no security at all. But God gives me a promise and a certain confidence that my investment of faith in Him and His ways are eternally secure. Our hope is a living hope. Even death can’t kill our confidence of eternity with Jesus. We are hope-filled people.
