Introduction
Hope is such a powerful emotion. When hopes are realised, our joy can be monumental. I remember the day of our wedding, my wife was walking down the aisle and at that moment I was overwhelmed with joy and began to cry. Friends, they were tears of great joy, for my hopes for the two of us had been realised. We were about to be husband and wife. Just to be clear the photo on the screen is from our 27th Wedding Anniversary last year. There is also the other end of the spectrum when our hopes are crushed. That can be in relationships, work, home or school. What we hope for matters. For those of us here this morning who confidently cry out. He is risen, he is risen indeed. These words are not just an Easter Sunday ritual. For Christians we are joyfully speaking the truth about the greatest day that the world has ever seen. On the first Easter Sunday Jesus’ work on the cross was completely validated as he rose from the dead. Easter Sunday is the victory cry. We just like to join in. It is the ultimate hope realised. It is the hope of all hopes.
So why am I preaching today from Peter’s first letter to the Christians living in the northwest region of Asia minor. Well because today we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection. His conquering death and the grave and being the first fruit of all who will be raised. And Peter explains so well what it means that Jesus is alive. The three points for this morning are: Because he lives we have a living hope. Because he lives, we too can live eternal lives starting today and lasting forever. Because he lives whatever we face we can know that God is with us and we can be joyful.
My question for everyone here this morning is where is your hope?
Point #1 – Living Hope (1 Peter 1:1-3)
God raising Jesus from the dead means that we can have a living hope. Because he lives, we can live. Read with me verses 1 to 3.
1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, 2 who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood:
Grace and peace be yours in abundance.
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
In verse 3 we see three things that happen. The resurrection of Jesus means that he has defeated death. The resurrection of Jesus also means that he is our living hope, our hope is valid, because he rose we can become children of God, new birth, born again. This new birth is described by John in this way In John 1:12 & 13
12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
If we accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour. That he died so that our sins are forgiven and was raised for our justification. Then we are God’s children. Jesus is alive, we are children with a living hope. We live and have hope because Jesus lives. Because he lives, our hope lives.
Living hope is such a great picture. It is a hope that is alive. A living hope is a certain hope. So many of our hopes and dreams in life are not certain, they could be nice if they came about. But because Jesus rose from the dead, our hope in him is certain.
Point #2 – Eternal Hope (1 Peter 1:3-7)
It is not just a momentary hope. It is an inheritance. It can never perish, spoil or fade. That is not how hope works for everything else in the world. As good as your hopes for your life may be, they are limited to your lifetime. My grandparents had the most amazing marriage, they were married for 76 years. I reckon that is about as good as it gets. Yet, that hope isn’t eternal. For death brought their incredible union to an end. The hope that Jesus’ resurrection brings for the Christian though has no end. God has set eternity in the human heart. In fact, this hope, this inheritance is not confined to Sydney, or even this world. Look at what Peter says.
4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you,
Our inheritance is kept in heaven. Jesus rose from the grave. For forty days friends Jesus showed himself to over 500 people before returning to the Father’s side in heaven. Look at ACTS 1
3 After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. 4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.
Jesus rose from the dead. And in so doing he defeated death, meaning that eternal life with him was now a gift of God for all who believe. Romans 6:23
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Our hope is not in this world. Our hope, our inheritance is with God in heaven. And he will keep us, he will look after us until Jesus returns and we go to be with him. Look at the promise we have in verses 5-7
5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
Because Jesus rose we trust in God completely and know that as Peter says here we are shielded by God’s power from anything that the world can throw at us. It doesn’t mean times won’t be hard. But, this same power that raised Jesus from the dead will shield us, will keep us until salvation is complete and we are with Jesus. This is our eternal hope.
Point #3 – Joyful Hope (1 Peter 1:8-12)
Friends, because Jesus rose from the dead, we can have complete faith in Jesus, and this gives us joyful hope. Look at Peter’s words in this last section of today’s passage to the Northwest region of Asia minor and us here at Chatswood Baptist Church today.
8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11 trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. 12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.
When you put your trust in Jesus it is not by sight. It is by faith. I haven’t seen Jesus, yet I love him more than I can explain. And my faith in him fills me with peace and joy that is beyond words, because he is my living hope and salvation. My salvation is found in Christ alone, through faith alone.
In verses 10-12 we see that God’s plan spoken by the prophets hundreds of years before Jesus was born, came to us without fault because of God’s perfect grace. Salvation is a gift from God that we don’t deserve. Our salvation is based on the preaching of the gospel through God’s word by the Holy Spirit. And this Gospel, this good news is the death and resurrection of Jesus. Or as verse 11 says the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. The glories being his resurrection, his ascension and his exaltation to God’s right hand side.
We can trust God’s promises because he never fails. As proverbs 30:5 says
“Every word of God is flawless;
he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
Jesus told his disciples exactly what would happen. He shared God’s plan with them on multiple occasions. In fact in Matthew 16:21, Matthew 17:22-23 & Matthew 20:17-19 we have three specific, recorded times that Jesus shared the facts of God’s plan with his nearest and dearest. And friends these three occasions were recorded in all three synoptic Gospels – Matthew, Mark & Luke. From Matthew’s Gospel we read:
21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
And it happened just as Jesus had predicted. Jesus died on the cross for our sins and he was raised on the third day. The disciples didn’t believe that Jesus would be raised. The disciples thought that their hopes had been crushed. They had followed Jesus for three years. They had seen and heard incredible things and as we read in the Gospels they believed that Jesus was the messiah, the Son of God. Yet their hope wasn’t in Jesus being raised again. For if that had been their hope they would have been waiting for it to happen, but instead they were hiding in an upstairs room worried that they might be arrested.
It all changed though when Jesus was raised. Hope was perfected. Hope was guaranteed. Jesus was alive. This changed everything for the disciples. This passage that we have been looking at today was written by the Apostle Peter. The same Peter who ran to the empty tomb after Mary had told him that they had taken Jesus and the tomb was empty. Read with me Luke 24:12
“Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.”
Try to imagine what was going through Peter’s mind at the time. They had been locked in an upstairs room thinking that all hope had gone. The Messiah who they had followed for three years was dead and they didn’t know what to do. They had heard his words, yet not understood them. Suddenly, there was an empty tomb. We know Peter saw it, but he still didn’t understand what was happening. And then friends we read that Jesus came to the disciples and showed them his hands and his feet where the nails had gone through, and he said to them touch me, for he was real. Then in verse 45 of Luke 24 and reading on we see:
45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46 He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
50 When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. 51 While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. 52 Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. 53 And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God.
Do you see the Joy in verse 53. They were continually praising God. Their joyful hope was realised in the death and resurrection of Jesus. They were now through faith, forgiven and right with God.
Some 25 – 30 years later Peter writes the words that we have read this morning. Peter who has spent these years sharing the hope of Jesus with 1000’s of people. The living, eternal and joyful hope that is only found in Jesus.
Friends, I don’t know what you put your hope in. What I do know, what the Bible makes clear is that hope in anything apart from Jesus will fail. It will not last, it is not an inheritance kept in heaven for you. The Christian confidence is in the fact that God will do what He has promised. Jesus raised from the dead is the proof of all that God has done.
On Easter Sunday we celebrate the greatest day in history. For without Easter Sunday we have no hope. Yet because of Easter Sunday we don’t just have hope we have a sure and certain hope. Jesus died for our sins and rose for our justification. Trusting in Jesus is the only sure and certain hope that we can have.
Let’s pray
