Judy Packard of Lake Leelanau, Michigan, talks about the time her neighbor, visiting the Holy Land, sent a letter describing the beautiful gardens.
Her 6-year-old mused, “I wonder if he saw the rose.”
“What rose?” Judy asked.
“You know,” said her child, “like the Bible women saw. They went to that garden where Jesus was buried and they saw Christ had a rose!” (Judy Packard, “Kids of the Kingdom,” Christian Reader, www.PreachingToday.com)
Bad joke, I know, but when Jesus came out of the grave he had not a rose, but so much more for those of us who believe in Him. If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to 1 Peter 1, 1 Peter 1, where we see how Christ’s resurrection benefits us today.
1 Peter 1:1-2 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you. (ESV)
The Apostle Peter is writing to a group of believers who found themselves to be “exiles of the Dispersion.” That is, they were scattered throughout all of Asia Minor, in what is now Northern Turkey.
The Greek word for “dispersion (in verse 1) was used in Bible days of the Jews who were separated from their homeland. Here, Peter uses it of Christians who found themselves dispersed (or scattered) from their own homes in places that were strange to them. You see, the Roman government under Nero had just started to persecute Christians, and many of them had fled for their lives.
Even so, there is hope for them, AND there is hope for us who sometimes feel like strangers in a world hell-bent for self-destruction.
1 Peter 1:3 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… (ESV)
The resurrection of Christ gives us a “living hope” in the midst of difficult times. That means it is a sure hope, a certain hope, not a dead hope.
George Dixon was a lieutenant in the Confederate Army, who carried around a $20 gold piece that his fiancée had given him in the early days of the war. During the battle of Shiloh, a union musket ball struck him—actually it struck the gold coin, which saved his life. From then on, that dented, gold coin went with him wherever he went. It was his good luck piece, which he was often seen kneading with his fingers.
Eventually, Lt. Dixon took the coin onto the C.S.S. Hunley, a confederate submarine he staunchly believed could break the Union blockade. After sinking the U.S.S. Housatonic, the Hunley herself sank, taking Lt. Dixon and his crew to their deaths. Recently the coin was found when the submarine was raised, a silent testimony to the fact that his golden, good-luck piece could not save him. (Scientists Find Gold Coin in Confederate Sub, www.CNN.com; www.PreachingToday.com)
It was a false hope, a dead hope; but in the resurrected Lord, Jesus Christ, we have a living hope, a sure and certain hope.
One pastor put it this way: “The world offers promises full of emptiness, but Easter offers emptiness full of promise. Empty cross, empty tomb, empty grave-clothes … all full of promise.” (Carolyn Arends, What's So Good About Good Friday? Kyria.com, 4-10-09; www.PreachingToday.com)
Jesus rose from the dead, so we have a living hope. That means we can live our lives with confidence.
So be sure. Be certain of a glorious future no matter how bad things get today.
The resurrection of Christ is a sure and certain fact of history. His empty tomb and his post resurrection appearances together form two irrefutable pieces of evidence for the resurrection of Christ.
If the disciples stole Jesus’ body, as the Jewish leaders first claimed, then there is no way to explain His appearances to hundreds of people over a 40-day period after He died, many of which refused to give up their faith in the resurrection even in the face of persecution and death.
On the other hand, if Jesus’ followers were hallucinating when they claimed to have seen Him, then all somebody had to do was go to the tomb and show them Jesus’ body. The only explanation that fits both pieces of evidence is the fact that Jesus did indeed rise from the dead. It is an irrefutable fact of history.
I like the way Peter Larson once put it. He said, “Despite our efforts to keep him out, God intrudes. The life of Jesus is bracketed by two impossibilities: a virgin's womb and an empty tomb. Jesus entered our world through a door marked ‘No Entrance’ and left through a door marked ‘No Exit.’” (Peter Larson, Prism, Jan/Feb 2001; www.PreachingToday.com)
Think about it. People say that a virgin birth is impossible. There is no possible way to enter into life that way, and yet that’s how Jesus came into this world. In the same way, people say there is no exit from the grave, and yet Jesus literally walked through that door as well.
Dear friends, sometimes it seems that there is no exit from our problems, but if Jesus found an exit from death, then He can certainly help us find an exit from whatever problems we are facing today. As the songwriter put it, “Because He lives, I CAN face tomorrow…” So put your faith in Christ and…
BE SURE.
Be certain of a glorious future no matter how bad things are today.
Specifically, be sure of your permanent possession in heaven. Through faith in Christ, God has given us new birth into “a living hope…”
1 Peter 1:4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you… (ESV)
Notice, our inheritance imperishable – It lasts forever. It is undefiled – lit., it is pure or untainted. And it is unfading – Its beauty will never be diminished.
How many of you can remember your first automobile? I remember mine. It was a brand new, blue Toyota Corolla, deluxe model, with stripes down the side and air conditioning on the inside. Now, back in those days, air-conditioning was special – it didn’t come with most cars, but my car had it! My parents gave the car to me as a gift when I was getting ready to graduate from college. Do you know: I washed that thing every week? It was a beautiful car.
Then came 12 years of use and half a dozen accidents in those 12 years. By the time I traded it in, there were scratches in the paint, the door on the driver’s side was rusting out, there was a big dent in the hood, and the right fender was bashed in. My beautiful car was turning into a pile of junk.
And that’s the way it is with all of our earthly possessions. They don’t last; they get spoiled; and their beauty fades. But that will never happen with our heavenly possession. It is an indestructible inheritance.
Christ rose from the dead, so be sure of your permanent possession in heaven.
More than that, be sure of your secure salvation. Be certain that God will protect your soul from now until eternity.
1 Peter 1:5 …who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (ESV)
The word for “guarded” is a military term, which refers to a garrison of soldiers designed to protect a city from enemy forces. You see, when we put our trust in Christ, God puts up a garrison or a stronghold of power within to protect our souls until our ultimate salvation is revealed.
Nothing can get through that garrison to take us away from God’s love. Nothing can get through that garrison to take our salvation away – not Satan, not demons, not sickness, not even death! We are protected by God’s power, not our own. For if it was up to us to keep our own salvation, then we would lose it every time, because we are just not strong enough.
Peter, the man who wrote these very words, understood his need for God’s power to protect him. On the eve before Jesus’ crucifixion, Peter had boasted that he would never forsake or deny his Lord. He was strong. He was able to follow the Lord to death, or so he thought. But that very night, when a little servant girl suspected that he was one of Jesus’ followers, he denied knowing Jesus, not once, not twice, but three times. His own strength had failed him, but not God’s. The resurrected Christ restored Peter to service, and Peter went on to boldly lead the church in God’s power.
Peter was guarded by God’s power, not his own, and that’s the only way any of us keep our salvation.
Just few years ago (October 19, 2010), researchers conducted a test at the Institute for Business and Home Safety in Richburg, South Carolina. They constructed two 1,300-square-foot houses inside a $40 million laboratory and then observed how a simulated hurricane would impact the homes.
The first home was built according to conventional standards. The second home included reinforcement straps that connected every level of the building, from the foundation all the way to the roof. Then the researchers turned on giant fans, creating gusts of wind up to 110 miles per hour (equal to a category 3 hurricane).
In the first two experiments, which lasted under ten minutes, both homes survived the intense winds. But when they tried a third experiment, turning on the fans for more than ten minutes, the conventional home began to shake and then collapsed. In contrast, the home with the floors and roof reinforced to the foundation sustained only cosmetic damage. (“US researchers create hurricane to test houses,” BBC News, 10-19-10; www. PreachingToday.com)
That’s the way it is with those of us who are connected to Jesus Christ, the only firm foundation there is. The winds of adversity may blow, and we might receive some cosmetic damage, but we remain standing, reinforced by the power of God Himself.
So get connected to Jesus, who died for you and rose again. Trust Him with your life. Call upon Him and ask Him to save you from your sins. Then you too can have the same assurance we have.
Jesus is risen from the dead! That gives us a living hope, a sure and certain hope. So dear friends, BE SURE of your salvation today. BE SURE of a glorious future with Him. Then…
BE GLAD even during the hard times.
Rejoice even in times of pain. Celebrate even in times of grief.
1 Peter 1:6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials… (ESV)
Since you have the living hope of a glorious future, you rejoice even though you are grieved by all kinds of trials.
Tim Keller asks us to imagine two women of the same age, the same socioeconomic status, the same educational level, and even the same temperament. You hire both of them and say to each, “You are part of an assembly line, and I want you to put part A into slot B and then hand what you have assembled to someone else. I want you to do that over and over for eight hours a day.” You put them in identical rooms with identical lighting, temperature, and ventilation. You give them the very same number of breaks in a day. It is very boring work. Their conditions are the same in every way—except for one difference. You tell the first woman that at the end of the year you will pay her thirty thousand dollars, and you tell the second woman that at the end of the year you will pay her thirty million.
After a couple of weeks the first woman will be saying, “Isn't this tedious? Isn't it driving you insane? Aren't you thinking about quitting?” And the second woman will say. “No. This is perfectly acceptable. In fact, I whistle while I work.” What is going on? You have two human beings who are experiencing identical circumstances in radically different ways. What makes the difference? It is their expectation of the future. What you believe about our future completely controls how you experiencing your present. (Tim Keller, Making Sense of God, Viking, 2016, page 153; www.PreachingToday.com)
When our hope is in the Lord, we can rejoice no matter what life throws our way. In fact, we can GREATLY rejoice just like someone anticipating 30 million dollars. Jesus is risen, so be glad even in times of pain.
Then be glad, because of the PRAISE that will come. Rejoice, because of the glory our refined faith will produce. That’s the promise in verse 7. Look at it.
1 Peter 1:7 …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. (ESV)
Trials come only to test our faith, literally to prove it genuine, so much so that in the end we will praise our Lord for what He has done in our lives through those trials.
In his book, Life before Death, Ian Leitch, a Scottish preacher, talks about three luxury ocean liners, the Queen Mary, the Queen Elizabeth, and the QE2. He says, “When they built [these ocean liners], they did not test them in dry dock. They didn't leave them in dry dock and get big hoses on them to see if they would leak. They got those ships out into the open ocean to put them through sea trials. These trials were not intended to sink the ship. These trials were to prove that the ship was seaworthy. (Ian Leitch, Life Before Death! A Restored, Regenerated, and Renewed Life, Green Acres Press, 2007; www.PreachingToday.com)
In the same way, God sends trials our way, not to sink us, but to prove that our faith is real! Then, when it is all said and done, we will give Him the praise, the glory and the honor for the great things He will have done.
Warren Wiersbe put it this way: A realist is an idealist who has gone through the fire and been purified. A skeptic is an idealist who has gone through the fire and been burned. (CT Classics, www.christianitytoday.com, 10-26-06)
If your faith is in anything else but Christ, you will be burned by your trials. But if your faith is in Christ, those trials will only purify your faith. So be glad even in times of pain. Be glad because of the praise that will come.
And be glad because the purpose of your faith is being realized. Rejoice because your trials are right now bringing you to the goal of your faith, which is your ultimate salvation.
1 Peter 1:8-9 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, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. (ESV)
Hebrews 11:1 says, “Faith is the conviction of things not seen.” We don’t see Jesus, but we love Him and we are extremely joyful. That’s true faith, my friends; and because of that faith, we are right now in the process of obtaining the goal of our faith. The verb in verse 9 is in the present tense. That means it is a present, continuous reality in the life of every believer. We are right now in the process of obtaining the goal of our faith, which is total and complete deliverance from all sin.
Dr. David Osborn at Denver Seminary says, “Too often we try to use God to change our circumstances, while He is using our circumstances to change us” (Compass, April 2003; www.PreachingToda.com). You see, God is right now in the process of making us like Christ.
Think of the process of refining maple syrup. Maple trees are tapped with buckets hung under the taps, and out drips a sap which is thin and clear, like water. On a good day, 50 trees will yield 30 - 40 gallons of sap, but it is essentially useless at this point with only a hint of sweetness.
But as the buckets fill, they are emptied into large bins that sit over an open fire. The sap comes to a slow boil; and as it boils, its water content is reduced and its sugars are concentrated. Hours later, it has developed a rich flavor and golden-brown color, but it must be strained several times to remove impurities before being reheated, bottled, and graded for quality. In the end, those 30-40 gallons of sap are reduced to one gallon of pure, delicious maple syrup, which is far better than the cheap, imitation, colored sugar-water that passes for maple syrup in the grocery store.
So it is when we come to faith in Christ. We start like raw, unfinished sap, which could have been tossed aside as worthless. But God knew what he could make of us. He sought and found us, and his skillful hands are transforming us into something precious, sweet and useful. The long and often painful refining process brings forth a pure, genuine disciple easily distinguished from cheap imitations. (Michele Straubel, Red Lake, Minnesota; www.PreachingToday.com)
So be glad even in times of pain. Be glad because of the praise that will come. Be glad because the purpose of your faith is being realized.
And be glad because of the privilege that is yours through faith in Christ. Rejoice because of the grace you have received in Him.
1 Peter 1:10-12 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. (ESV)
In essence these verses are saying, “We have it better than the prophets and the angels.” They longed to see and experience the grace we are experiencing today as believers in the resurrected Christ.
Jesus is alive, my friends, so be sure and be glad today. Be sure of a glorious future, and be glad even in times of grief today.
Because He lives I can face tomorrow,
Because He lives all fear is gone;
Because I know He holds the future.
And life is worth the living just because He lives. (Gloria and William J. Gaither)
