Living Hope
Notes
Transcript
I
Each spring in our backyard, our camellia blooms.
I have no green thumb and don’t ask me to name other plants in our yard but this one is special.
If you can’t picture a camellia, ours is in the back left corner of your yard as you look out our sliding glass door. It stands out with it’s rich deep green leaves and right now it has dozens of red blooms. They’re massive, maybe six inches across. The camellia is about six feet tall and pretty son she’ll be towering over our fence, a fence that is old and tottering. It’s on our list of yard to-do’s I’m sure many of you have your list as well.
WE
Spring is something, isn’t it?
Our false spring a couple weeks ago was like a dream. Things popped out of the ground and shined at us and our camellia was blooming overnight. We celebrated Opening Day for baseball.
You don’t have to follow Jesus to enjoy spring.
We all get to revel in spring - the flowers, the baby birds being born, a new sports season. Spring gives us al hope. Hope from the big dark. Hope for sunshine. Hope for trips to the beach in the summer.
You don’t have to worship Jesus to be filled with hope in springtime, so…what makes Christian hope different?
Or is it just one of many ways to experience the same hope?
What’s patently unique about hope in Jesus?
Other religions talk about the afterlife in some form or fashion, so is Christianity just another religion from which to choose?
We all need hope to survive, so is putting your hope in Jesus just another way to make it through the struggles of daily life?
GOD
We’ve been going through 1 Peter as a church and 1 Peter is a letter all about hope.
It’s like that text you get from a friend when you’re in the dumps that just every word is gold and it gives you exactly what you needed.
Peter - a man with a uniquely intimate relationship with Jesus - writes to Christians struggling to find hope and wondering if they should try and find hope elsewhere.
And he says in 1 Peter 1:3 which is our verse this morning - don’t forget you have a LIVING HOPE.
A LIVING HOPE.
What does he mean by a living hope? What’s different about this living hope than other hopes?
This morning we’ll look at 1 Pet. 1:3 and I’ll invite you to consider three things that make a living hope unique.
THE FIRST…
Living hope is hope in the living God.
Living hope is hope in the living God.
Peter begins…
1 Peter 1:3 (ESV)
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
Peter’s letter begins in verses 1 and 2 with a greeting in which he addresses Christians across Asia Minor - which is now Modern Day Turkey - roughly the size of the PNW as chosen exiles.
Honored by God but rejected by the world.
These Christians are undergoing a fiery trial he will go on to say, and are being reviled, slandered, accused of being criminals, and in certain circumstances are under threat of physical violence all because they’ve chosen to follow Jesus.
And so in an honor/shame society they are wondering, did we put our hope in the wrong person? I thought my life would get BETTER after I started following Jesus, not worse!
And Peter says - don’t forget who you are - chosen exiles - Just like Jesus who was chosen by God and rejected by the world.
And here in verse 3 he gives praise and honor through blessing to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Peter sets apart Jesus from all others by calling him Lord. He sets him above all others by calling him Christ - not Jesus’ last name but a title namely the Messiah - the chosen King who was promised to come and make everything new.
But along with Jesus there is this God the Father.
A divine being who also is referred to in an intimate way as Father.
Who is this God and Father?
Elsewhere in the NT,
in a famous passage in Matt. 16 Peter referred to this God and Father as the living God.
You’re possibly familiar with the story, Jesus takes the disciples out on a wilderness retreat and asks, “Who do you think I am?”
16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Why the living God?
In Matthew 16 it’s in reference to the powers of darkness that are dead in comparison with God’s power.
He’s the living God because he is the source of all life. The one who in Genesis 1 it says in the beginning, GOD…even before time, before the sun, and kids before the iPhone…God was there.
Not only that but Jesus said that knowing this God - having a deep knowledge of him, an understanding, a relationship with him IS life itself.
3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
And so in 1 Pet. 1:3 we see that this God was Jesus’ God and Father.
And Jesus - although he IS God himself - is also our example of how to put our hope in the living God. We read in 1 Peter…
21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
Living hope is different because it’s hope in the living God.
What is hope?
Hope is an expectation, a wish, a desire, something we trust or want to happen.
Spring gives us hope because we expect the sun to be out more…eventually.
Opening Day gives us hope because we desire the Mariners to win the World Series…one day.
We all need hope and we can put our hope in different things.
We can put our hope in money.
Because, as they say, money makes the world go around. It is good to save and be wise, but what happens when you find out you didn’t save enough? Is there ever truly enough money or don’t we always need a little more?
We can put our hope in family.
There’s not much better in life than family. And yet, families can hurt and disappoint us and let us down more than anything on earth. Family members are born - beautiful, bright, lovely little human beings that fill our lives with hope and joy! And some of you have children who’ve passed away before you.
We can put our hope in ourselves.
I can put my hope in myself.
We listen to a lot of Disney in our home. The great theologian Queen Elsa says in 2nd Frozen chapter 5 - “I am the one I’ve been waiting for all of my liiiiiiife!”
And in one sense - I think it’s awesome to teach kids that they are beautiful, powerful, strong, and capable of so much good in the world - AND, you’re going to disappoint yourself. I disappoint myself.
Having money to support you when things go wrong is important, family is one of the greatest joys of life, and even us as individuals are the greatest creations in the history of the world
and these hopes are not the ultimate hope. It’s like putting your easter eggs in a basket made of wet paper towels. They won’t hold up.
Where is your hope? Jesus put his hope in the living God, and he was raised from the dead. If you put your hope in him, you have the same future, too.
living hope is hope in the living God, the second thing for us to consider is…
Living hope is hope in a whole new kind of life.
Living hope is hope in a whole new kind of life.
1 Peter 1:3 (ESV)
According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again…
Grace is when you get what you don’t deserve, mercy is when you don’t get what you deserve.
This living God is great in mercy, compassion, even in PITY as it can also be translated.
This is harkening back to the most quoted verse of the Bible by the Bible Exodus 34:6-7 in which God says he is merciful and gracious.
And born again is a word which only appears in this form twice in the whole NT and it’s in 1 Peter.
It appears later in chapter 1 when he says
23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;
This is a huge theme of 1 Peter where he wants believers to live differently in the world because they are quite literally entirely new people!
What comes to mind when you hear the phrase born again? Born again Christian?
You might think of a brand of fundamentalist Christianity, a political agenda, or maybe someone who came back from a Billy Graham crusade in the 60’s.
Peter didn’t have those things in mind, he might have had a story in mind when Jesus had a late night meeting with Nicodemus - a famous Bible teacher.
3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Jesus is saying to be with God, to be in relationship with Him, you need to be rebirthed.
And Nicodemus will go on to say - what? You mean I have to fit into my mom’s womb again? That’s absurd.
What does Jesus mean?
Let’s ask this…why does Peter connect God’s mercy with being born again?
Scripture teaches that the reason the world is full of death and decay and disease is because of sin.
We’ve all tasted this reality of daily life - depression, anxiety, hatred, racism, war, injustice, Alzheimers, the difficulties of raising a family, the grind of a career.
These things are hard, broken, and painful because of sin.
And sin is not just an action - it’s a relational disconnect from the living God. And the disconnect is so vast, and the sickness of sin has spread so pervasively that to say we could fix it ourselves would be like asking a cancer patient to just reach in and remove their cancer with their hands.
And if God were to rid the world of sin, he would rid the world of us.
The story goes that GK Chesterton - a famous writer in the 20th century - wrote in to respond to a newspaper article which was titled, “What’s wrong with the world?” And Chesterton’s short reply was, “Dear Sir, I am. GK”
Can’t we say the same about ourselves?
The darkness of our thoughts, even our good actions have mixed motives, our ability to hold a grudge, bear resentment with a smile.
What’s wrong with the world? I am.
And so in such a predicament, how much can money do to solve this issue?
What can our family members do, when they’re part of the problem, too? What can I do, when we can be our own worst enemy? Can a new strategy, more discipline, better education, equality of wealth, more affordable housing - all good things - can ever fix the human condition?
Our only hope is in his great mercy for us to be born again.
3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. 4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,
That’s being born again.
The washing and regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
The loving kindness of God appeared in Jesus, performed spiritual surgery to extract our sin and place it upon Himself, eradicating it’s poison once and for all, and according to his mercy - when we put our hope and joy in Him he makes us new people by giving us the Holy Spirit!
Has this happened to you?
Maybe today is today, maybe this conversation is putting you on a track to be there soon. To be ready. And when the time is right and you say YES to Jesus, the response is baptism! It’s an outward symbol of the inward washing of the Holy Spirit that you have a new kind of life.
And maybe you’re like me and you’ve hoping in Jesus for a long time, but you find yourself often putting your hope in other things. We can be reminded today that our hope is in a new kind of life that we could never produce on our own. Easter reminds us that I don’t have to manage my life. God in his great mercy has given me a whole new kind of life.
Living hope is hope in the living God, it’s hope in a new kind of life, and
Living hope is alive because Jesus is alive.
Living hope is alive because Jesus is alive.
1 Peter 1:3 (ESV)
…to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
A living hope - it’s a lively hope, one that has come alive.
How has it come alive?
Through - the resurrection of Jesus the Christ from the dead.
A resurrection presupposes death.
You can’t be raised to life without dying.
And this is the core argument of 1 Peter. Even though it feels like you’re dying, you are going through suffering, you’re going through a fiery trial, Jesus actually died and that was the path to resurrection! So if you’re dying with Him now, you’ll live with Him very soon.
What makes Christian hope truly unique is that it’s hope in Jesus who is truly alive.
Jesus’ death on the cross is one of the most well-known stories in the world. Jesus physically died. It may have been 2,000 years ago but they knew what a dead person looked like. More than that Jesus’ side was pierced on the cross and blood and water came out of him which only happens when circulation stops. The Romans had perfected execution. They knew he was dead.
So on that Sunday morning, when Jesus appeared to Mary and the other women and then the other disciples, it’s no wonder that they were surprised!
Jesus. It’s you!
Some of them thought he was a ghost!
But he consumed food with them, showing off his functioning digestive system and resurrected saliva.
He had Thomas touch his scars and feel his new body which somehow was alive and yet maintained the wounds from the cross.
Jesus was physically dead and through the power of God became physically alive.
This is not resuscitation like he had a near death experience. This is not a miracle like Lazarus who was dead for a few days and would die for good many years later. This is the resurrection of the Son of God who died for sins once and for all and was raised to new life never to die again!
And if Jesus is alive then our hope is alive, too.
Christian hope is not just alive it is audacious.
Jesus is the first born from the dead and the first of a new creation.
If you follow Jesus you are a walking talking example of a world that has already come but still hasn’t fully arrived yet.
Christian hope means that everything sad will one day become untrue.
When Jesus returns we will receive a body like his that will be immune to breast cancer. You’ll never have to check it for signs of a stroke. It won’t get pink eye. It will have no reason to be sad, anxious, depressed, have panic attacks, feel shame. It will somehow be like Jesus’ body and be unstopped by things like walls.
But Christian hope also means that everything good about the world that God has made will be even better.
A guitar solo will be somehow even more powerful.
Fish tacos will taste even more satisfying.
Cities will be more majestic than Seattle on a sunny day and there won’t be any threats or fears on a single street corner.
Farmers will grow food bigger and richer than anything GMO’s can produce.
There won’t be tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes to fear. There won’t even be night because we’ll have the light of Christ to see!
Relationships will be sweeter, laughter will be deeper, we’ll have fun and purpose and joy like we experience now but better.
All this because Jesus beat death and still has a beating heart as I speak.
Do you believe that?
Consider listening to God’s voice today saying that there is hope. And it’s not in anything you can make happen or manage or produce. And if you release control to Him, he wants to heal you.
Trust him.
Living hope is hope in the living God. He has been, is, and will be forever, and all other hopes fade away in time but he endures.
Living hope is hope in a whole new way of life, it’s not hope in getting your act together but in receiving a new kind of life from the Holy Spirit.
Living hope is alive because Jesus is really alive. It’s not just hope that you’ll go to heaven when you die - and you will be with him when you die if you trust him - but it’s hope in a new resurrected world. It’s an audacious hope.
Every year in our backyard, our camellia blooms.
And in our family, we’re reminded of living hope.
We planted the camellia back in 2019 when we lost our first baby. It reminds us that there is more to the story than death.
The camellia is actually called a “Bob Hope Camellia.”
It’s a reminder that everything sad will come untrue and
Hope is blooming.