Easter
1 Peter1:3-4
April 5, 2015
How would you answer this question? Who was the most successful defense attorney in the world? F. Lee Bailey? Well, he was disbarred. How about the famous, Johnnie Cochran? Nope! Believe it or not, there’s an authoritative source on this: the Guiness Book of World Records. The Guiness Book states the most successful lawyer was ~
Sir Lionel Luckhoo. According to Guiness, Luckhoo, had 245 consecutive murder acquittals.
That’s an astonishing feat that nobody in the world has come close to duplicating -- 245 murder trials in a row, either won before a jury or on appeal. He's a real life Perry Mason! He was so good that he was knighted twice by Queen Elizabeth.
He would have to be a very intelligent man with great analytical skills. He'd have to be a world class expert on what constitutes reliable, admissible, and persuasive evidence. Luckhoo was a nominal Christian for most of his life. When he was 64, he embraced a relationship with Jesus as his Lord and Savior.
During his own spiritual journey Luckhoo took his expertise in law and combed through the evidence to see if the resurrection of Jesus stood the test of legal evidence. This was his conclusion: “I have spent more than 42 years as a defense trial lawyer appearing in many parts of the world. I have been fortunate to secure a number of successes in jury trials and I say unequivocally the evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is so overwhelming that it compels acceptance by proof which leaves absolutely no room for doubt.”
That’s an amazing conclusion. Of course our everyday experience tells us that pigs don’t talk, regardless of the movie Babe; dogs don’t play soccer and baseball and basketball, like the Air Bud movies; and dead people don’t spring back to life. And yet here’s the most successful attorney in the world using evidence to the case of the resurrection and concluding with absolute confidence that the resurrection is reality. Then Luckhoo did the most logical thing he could do: he gave his life to Christ.
No writer in the New Testament captures so fully, in one short sentence, the hope of Easter than the Apostle Peter. In 1 Peter 1:3-4, he wrote ~
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,
Peter starts with praise. He's praising God because we have “a living hope.” Peter had experienced that in his own life. The death of Jesus had to be agonizing for Peter. He boasted he wouldn't leave or abandon Jesus. He meant well, but he failed miserably. When the moment came, a little girl's question melted all his bravado, and he denied Jesus. The hope of the apostles was destroyed by the death of Jesus, and in Peter's case – there was the added shame and disgrace of his own denial.
I’m sure there are some here who feel like Peter. Your hopes have been crushed. Maybe you had vivid dreams of what you'd like to be – or do –and now they've collapsed. Maybe you had a set of ideals you meant to live by, but you've failed miserably. It's hard to admit. You meant to do well, but you ended up wrong. Maybe it was a failed marriage, or a failure in your career, or a broken relationship with a child. Maybe you're in a job that's beating you up and there's no way out. Or you’d love to find a job. Or it could be you've experienced the loss of a loved one and it's devastated you.
Yet, it’s within these moments that the Resurrection is designed to give us hope. I'm sure Peter had that in mind when he talked about this "living hope." After the Resurrection, there's a powerful scene by the shores of Galilee where Jesus appears to His disciples and prepares a meal for them. Jesus spoke to Peter and asked him 3 times, "Do you love me?"
Three times Peter said, ‘yes, you know I do, Lord.’ And 3 times Jesus proclaimed to Peter to feed his sheep. From that point on, Peter knew that no situation was hopeless. Do you know that? Do you believe that? If Jesus is alive, if He really conquered death, there's nothing you face that He can't overcome. If He has power over death, He has power over anything that comes against you.
That’s great news this Easter morning, because we are all going to go through the difficult times in life. We don’t have to give in and accept defeat. Because we have the One who defeated death. We have the One, who gave us the Holy Spirit, so that we could always know He is with us. We have the One who promised us we would never be forsaken by God. We have the One who gives us more power and strength than we can ever imagine.
You see, it’s all there. We have to believe it’s there. It’s not a matter – if you’ve been naughty or nice this past year. That’s not how Christ works. His love, His grace, His power, His strength and His courage are always real and accessible. . . if we’re willing.
In verse 3 We are told, 3 . . . according to God’s great mercy, we have been born again to a living hope.
You see, God looked at us and pitied us. When God extended His mercy to us, it means SLIDEGod did not give us what we deserve. Because of our sin, we deserve death, but God said, NO! I will sacrifice my son, I will lose the One who is most precious to me, so that you will never have to experience what you deserve. That was and is God’s awesome plan for us.
Our being born again goes back to the conversation Jesus had with Nicodemus where Jesus told him you must be born again. This simply means that we have salvation in Christ. We have a new life, we become a new creature, we change the way we’ve always been. We put off the old person, and accept and embrace a new life in Christ. You see, our new birth is not the first message of the resurrection – it is a fact of the resurrection. When Christ rose from the grave, He secured our salvation. So, in giving life to Christ, God also gave life to all those who have faith in Christ.
It means we may not be as popular as we once were. It means we may have to look deep into our heart and give up the arrogance, conceit, gossip, backstabbing, bitterness, swearing, drinking, drugs, and more. And these are the ones which society pretty readily accepts. When we are born again, it means we have accepted Jesus for who He says He is. It means we agree with Sir Lionel that Jesus is Lord of my life.
Because us this we have a hope that never ends. Sometimes we hope for something to happen, but we know the odds are against us. We sometimes say we “hope against hope” that someone will get better — or we hope against hope that someone will return my lost wallet. We’re not expecting it, yet we’re hoping anyways.
With Christ, we have something so much more than hoping against hope. We have a hope which is a realized hope. Our living hope comes through the resurrection of Jesus. It’s a fact, it’s not a maybe or what if. It’s held onto with question. Jesus rose from the dead, and our hope can never die. It’s not hope against hope, it’s a very real hope.
And this leads to an inheritance. Now in this world we may be a little envious of those who have an inheritance already prepared for them when they are born. That comes through a wealthy family. Their future, their college, their vacations . . . it’s all secure.
But you know what? One bad move, a really bad market, a really bad business decision, it can all change . . . and quickly. Peter wants us to understand our inheritance has something that all the world doesn’t have . . . our inheritance is ~
imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,
Those words almost sound similar. But this is what Peter was getting at.
IMPERISHABLE means something that is incorruptible. It is indestructible. This means our inheritance which is imperishable will be immortal. It will never decay and it will last forever. I like that. I like that hope. My inheritance will last forever. It won’t break down or decay.
Think about that new car you bought. It looks great and shiny now, but, the day will come when it looks like this. That’s what Peter means when he talks about imperishable.
Now, Peter goes on to say, my inheritance is also ~
UNDEFILED. This means our inheritance is unstained. It is free from contamination. You know what’s worst than anything? When you’re really hungry for some healthy food.
You open the refrigerator and want to make a fruit salad. And this is what you see. Not very appetizing. This is what Peter means that your inheritance will be undefiled. When I want a fruit salad, this is what I want.
Finally, Peter tells us our inheritance is unfading. That’s pretty straight forward.
You know what it’s like when you take out that great looking blue shirt, and you realize it’s faded. It’s frustrating! Peter wants us to grasp that when we think about our inheritance. It’s never going to fade or wither away.
Everything in life will ultimately perish and spoil and fade. Our bodies get older and we can’t do what we once were able to do. But when it comes to our inheritance . . . eternal life, the great hope which is promised — — Peter tells us that it’s never, never, never going to fail us. Our inheritance is guaranteed for those who have embraced Jesus as Lord and Savior.
That inheritance is kept in heaven for you and me. It’s there, because heaven is a place of perfection. Nothing there will perish. Nothing will fade away. Nothing will spoil. It is imperishable, undefiled and unfading.
It’s kept in heaven for you!
As Paul wrote about the resurrection of the dead, he tells the people of Corinth ~
42 The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable;
43 it is raised in glory; it is raised in power; 44 it is raised a spiritual body.
Paul concludes with these great words ~
51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed —
52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
54 When that happens, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
55 “Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”
57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
To receive this gift which will never spoil, fade, rust, wither or perish . . . you must say yes to Jesus. So, very simply, today, my question as we close is this . . .
Do you know Jesus? If you do, then what we’ve been talking about today should only reinforce the great gift God has given you.
If you don’t know Jesus, let Easter 2015 be the day you change your life. You give your life to Jesus and you become a new person. That’s a gift, when taken seriously, will never leave you.
