The Resurrection: Our Living Hope

It is on the Resurrection of Jesus Christ our entire Christian hope is based. Paul tells us:

1 Corinthians 15:20–22 But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. 21 For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.

It is the resurrection that make the difference. Christ’s death atoned for our sins. We may be forgiven, but without the resurrection we would be still in the grave. We would be forgiven corpses. It is the resurrection that gives us hope for eternal life for those who are in Christ. The key world in experiencing this enteral life is “in Christ.” Are you “in Christ?” For those who are “in Christ,” who know Him personally and placed their trust in him (not a mere belief about Jesus), we have an eternal and living hope to be revealed at some point in our future.

Our reference today is from 1st Peter. Peter writes this letter to persecuted Christians and in these opening lines explains the reason they need to be joyful despite their sufferings.

1 Peter 1:3–9

Ill: Three years ago (March 30, 2018), George Weigel wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal, where he talks about the profound impact that hope had on the ancient world. He writes:

There is no accounting for the rise of Christianity without weighing the revolutionary effect on those nobodies of what they called “the Resurrection.” They encountered one whom they embraced as the Risen Lord, whom they first knew as the itinerant Jewish rabbi, Jesus of Nazareth, and who died an agonizing and shameful death on a Roman cross outside Jerusalem.

That first generation answered the question of why they were Christians with a straightforward answer: because Jesus was raised from the dead… As they worked that out, their thinking about a lot of things changed profoundly.

The article mentions some of the positive outcomes brought to the ancient world through Christianity:

• A new dignity given to woman in contrast to the classical culture.

• A self-denying healthcare provided to plague sufferers.

• A focus on family health and growth.

• A remarkable change in worship from the Sabbath to Sunday

• A willingness to embrace death as martyrs—because they knew that death did not have the final word in the human story. And

• Living as if they knew the outcome of history itself.

Weigel suggests that it's only through, what he calls “the Easter Effect,” that these changes make sense. The social changes that followed Good Friday occur only if they actually believed in the resurrection of Jesus. [1]

It made a difference then and we see around the world it is making a difference today. Isn’t interesting that church is growing in the areas of the world where persecution exist? Yet, the church is shrinking here in America.

1 Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

Other translation have “Praise be to God” (NIV, HCSB). The word we have as "blessed" means worthy of praise. Why? Because of "His great mercy" - unmerited favor toward us, sinners who have fallen short of the glory of God, we, in our helpless condition, when we could not save ourselves.

We need to be reminded that salvation did not come to us because of what we are or for what we may had done or accomplished, not because of who we are, but because of who God is. Salvation came only because of His great mercy. And His mercy "has caused us to be born again" – We became new creation, the old things have passed away and behold, all things become new (2 Cor 5:17).

And now as a new creation in Christ, we now have a living hope, not a dead hope but a hope that is alive because of resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Jesus ‘ resurrection is everything. We have a living hope, as Peter calls as our inheritance:

1 Peter 1:4 to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,

This inheritance is in heaven. It is being preserved and reserved for us, we who are in Christ. Peter tells us it is “imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away.” The NIV says it will "never perish, spoil, or fade." No one can steal it, break it, or take away its purity, defiled it. Jesus tell us where our treasures should be: