Living Hope

Introduction

So, this is a really old photo of my wife Emily and I, and actually this was pretty much the first photo taken of us as a married couple. And believe it or not, this was on our honeymoon.

Why are we sitting at a Bridgestone mechanic shop on our honeymoon, you ask? Well, that’s because my 2005 Nissan Altima decided to break down on the way to Gulf Shores, Alabama. Let me quickly run you through this 2 day stretch.

Right after Emily and I ended our reception, we took off and wanted to get a few hours into the drive so we could get to the beach as soon as possible the next day when our condo rental was available.

And, as it turns out, you essentially have no time to eat your own wedding food, so naturally we had to make a pit stop at Arby’s before embarking on the journey. This was the start of the first car problem, because as we were going through the drive through, I turned on the air conditioning only to be met with a smell that I can only describe as death. It was the most rancid smell I think I’ve ever experienced. Great, this is gonna smell awesome in the Alabama heat.

Fast forward to the next day, we get a few hours down the road, we pull over to get some gas, and when we tried to pull out, there was literally zero power when we pushed the gas pedal.

Lucky for us, our alternator went out. And it was Sunday, around 4pm on labor day weekend. I had no tools, nor knowledge of what an alternator even was, which turned out to be a bigger problem than not having tools.

So I called a tow truck, and he was able to find one shop open with people still there, and they ended up taking great care of us, but the Lord must have really been testing us literally hours after saying our vows.

Should we have turned around and headed back to Indiana? Maybe, probably. But, the only thing I could think of was the beach. I knew the ocean was just an 11 & 1/2 hour drive straight south, and if I just kept driving, I would eventually run into the water.

At the end of the journey, I could sit with my new wife on the beach, and although I would end up getting 3 different shades of sunburn that week, the reward of the disastrous drive was enough to make it through.

Sometimes our lives feel the same way as my trip to Gulf Shores. One thing after another, another breakdown, another bad thing, another illness, another loss. If you sit there and reflect on 2024 I’m sure it’s easy to come up with multiple situations and circumstances you never asked for or wanted.

And this feeling isn’t unique to Christians today. In our passage today, 1 Peter 1:3-9, Peter is writing to first century Christians, encouraging them in the midst of persecution and suffering. Their lives didn’t get easier when they started following Jesus, and in fact, they got much worse.

They were lost and wondering where God was.

I would like to go ahead and invite our reader up (Lauren, Bryar) to read our passage today which again is 1 Peter 1:3-9. That’s page 1075 in the black seat back Bibles, and if you are physically able, could you please stand for the reading of the Scriptures.

Sermon Body

Now, verses 3-12 of this chapter is one giant run on sentence in the original Greek. And that’s important because this is all one, cohesive idea that we need to trace.

Peter was again writing to followers of Christ who were suffering under persecution. We see just a few verses above that they’re considered “exiles”, and they don’t fit into the culture of the day because of their status as Christians.

And this letter was dispersed in an area called Asia minor, which is modern day Turkey. In case you didn’t memorize a map of the Mediterranean area, this is just west of Greece, which is just west of Italy and Rome.

This is an important detail because Asia minor was such a mixture of people. On one hand, you have Greek culture and their gods, temples, and way of life to contend with that totally opposed the Christian God.

On the other hand, you had an area that was under Roman governmental authority, a whole other set of gods, taxation, military presence, and an emperor named Nero who hated Christianity and used the disciples as scapegoats to explain a bunch of bad things that Nero himself ordered.

Nero was actually said to have used Christians as “human candles” to light his courtyard at night by burning them alive.

Needless to say, it was different world than the US today. There were no rights, no freedom, and definitely no justice for wrongdoing toward Christians. If you claimed Jesus, you were essentially hated and targeted.

It wasn’t just uncomfortable or embarrassing to follow Christ. By making that decision, and even being publicly baptized, you were signing your own death warrant.

So, let’s trace Peters argument in verses 3-9 in light of his audience. A lot of this stems from the first two verses here.

1 Peter 1:3–4 CSB

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead 4 and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.

Forgive me for trying to fit this entire section into one sermon, because I could honestly meditate on just these two verses for a lifetime and still never fully comprehend the gravity of the message.

First, Peter affirms the status of God. Here, he’s writing about God the Father, who’s Son is Jesus, and Jesus Christ is Lord. Those are significant, especially to defend the apostles view of the trinity, but there something else that catches my eye.

It’s the simple phrase “because of his great mercy”.

Because of His Great Mercy

This is critical to our faith, that we have a merciful God. No other religion can claim their god is merciful, at least not to the degree of Yahweh.

Often times I think we separate the God of the Old Testament, who we think is vengeful and hateful, from Jesus and the God of the New Testament, who is loving and nice. But that’s incorrect, and Jesus makes this clear in Matthew’s Gospel.

After Jesus calls Matthew the tax collector to follow him in chapter 9, Jesus sits down with a bunch “tax collectors and sinners” for a meal.

Now, the pharisees didn’t like this. In that day, who you shred your table with was viewed as being accepted by you. It could either bolster your reputation, or tarnish it. And to eat with tax collectors, the scum of the earth, was a huge red flag.

So the Pharisees turn to Jesus’s disciples (which I love, they rarely confront Jesus himself) and they ask what in the world Jesus is doing. He’s a reputable Rabbi after all, why is he associating with the rejects?

And this is what Jesus says:

Matthew 9:13 CSB

13 Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice. For I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

And in normal fashion, Jesus is quoting Scripture to the Pharisees, just to prove that they’ve completley missed the point of their constant studies of religious text.

What Jesus is quoting here is Hosea 6:6

Hosea 6:6 CSB

6 For I desire faithful love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

I know what you’re thinking, if Jesus quoted this verse He didn’t do a very good job. But, the idea hinges around that central word, mercy. It’s translated as “faithful love” in Hosea.

And let me tell you, I did way too deep a dive into this word, because I just didn’t understand what Jesus meant. Here’s what I found.

In the Hebrew, “faithful love” comes from the word “hesed”. As it turns out, we don’t have an English word for this, and it’s really difficult to translate. Someone actually had to create an English word that you may be familiar with, lovingkindness.

To give a more well-rounded definition, “hesed” has been translated as the following:

Love

Loyalty

Mercy

Kindness

Grace

Covenant faithfulness

Long-suffering love

Steadfast love

So, when Jesus says “I desire mercy”, this is what He means. This is what Israel forgot during the time of Hosea, and what the Pharisees forgot in the time of Jesus.

God desires our covenant faithfulness. He desires our mercy, our steadfast love.

God desires us.

And this is where my study of the word and translation fell flat. Because I couldn’t understand any more. No matter how many times I read and reread different takes and interpretations and commentaries, it still doesn’t make sense.

Because now Peter, arguably Jesus’s closest earthly friend, says because of God’s great mercy, the same exact word Jesus uses in Matthew.

God has mercy toward me? Covenant loyalty toward us? Long-suffering love and steadfast love toward these screwed up humans?

That, my friends, is far beyond my understanding.

No wonder there’s no good English word for it, how do you wrap that idea up in one word?

And not only is Peter arguing for God’s mercy, he’s letting us know what God is giving us because of His mercy, which is new birth into a living hope

New Birth, Living Hope

Again, let’s trace Peter’s main point here.

God, through His mercy, has given us new birth. New birth means a new identity, and a new new nature that is in line with God’s will.

And that new birth, that new identity is into two things: a living hope, and an inheritance.

This new birth is another of Jesus’s core teachings. If you remember the story of Jesus telling Nicodemus that he needs to be born again, this is what Jesus says:

John 3:6 CSB

6 Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit.

So, followers of Jesus are reborn of the Spirit, which means we’re part of God’s family rather than the world.

And it’s important to note that this isn’t some kind of change, or enlightenment, or “now I’m a better person” type of thing. It’s a complete change of identity and nature.

It’s a death of flesh and a second birth, the Holy Spirit is forming an entirely different person. Our flesh, or the world, is beyond repair, and we’re called to put our own desires to death.

This is why baptism is such a beautiful thing. We’re putting our previous identity to death in the water, and raising up a totally new person in Christ.

That new person with a new nature, then, is given a living hope through Jesus’s resurrection. This is absolutely central to every apostle’s teaching, that Jesus is alive today. He raised from the dead.

We don’t have a dead hope, or a passive hope, we have a living hope that is present right now, even in our earthly state.

That living hope dwells in our inheritance, which Peter writes is kept in heaven for us. And that inheritance is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. The NIV translates this as an inheritance that can never perish, spoil of fade.

Our inheritance, the new creation where we will dwell perfectly with God, can’t be touched. It’s never going away, not matter what happens here in the earth. No matter who rebels, and no matter what happens to you.

So, in the meantime, while we wait for this inheritance, we are being guarded by God’s power, through faith.

Faith

Faith is something that is woven throughout the fabric of God’s story, through the Biblical narrative. This is yet another idea that all the Biblical writers mention, that faith must be present for salvation.

But what is faith, really? Is it belief? Is it blindly following something you don’t understand?

Well, faith, from a Biblical perspective, is simply trusting God is who He says He is. It’s trusting God to come through on His promises. If we don’t trust that God has given us a new birth into a living hope and into an eternal inheritance, we don’t really have anything.

And just so you know, this isn’t my definition. This is what the writer of Hebrews has to say:

Hebrews 11:1–3 CSB

1 Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen. 2 For by this our ancestors were approved. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.

He then goes on to write what we call today “the hall of faith”. He writes about Abel offering God a sacrifice through faith, Noah standing up against the world because he had faith in God’s warning. Abraham leaving his home through faith to follow God and his covenant. Sarah faithfully waiting for a child in her old age.

Yet about all these faithful people, Hebrews says this:

Hebrews 11:13 CSB

13 These all died in faith, although they had not received the things that were promised. But they saw them from a distance, greeted them, and confessed that they were foreigners and temporary residents on the earth.

None of these faithful servants of God actually saw the final promise they were told. Yet they still waited and acted in faith.

Peter goes on to say a similar idea for his audience, the Christians in persecution.

Read vv 6-9

See, the big rub with all of this faith, Christianity, Jesus stuff is it rarely fixes what we want it to fix.

When we first start following Christ, it’s really exciting. We get baptized, everyone promises that our lives will get better. We get told were a new person, “we’re on fire for the Lord” as they say. We’re supposed to feel joy, we’re supposed to be free of anxiety. Promises of happiness and comfort are thrown our way.

But we start on our journey of faith, and things are going great, and then something bad happens. “No problem” we think, Jesus has it. He’ll deliver me, He’ll make everything right.

Then something else happens. Then another thing. Before long, you’re left questioning why you’re suffering. I gave my life to Christ, why is he abandoning me. Bad things aren’t supposed to happen anymore.

My friends, this is the evil that Satan wants us to believe. And this is the extreme danger of living using your present circumstances as the marker of your faith. Because let me tell you, your current circumstance is not an indicator of your future reality.

You can have all the faith in the world, your can follow Christ with all your heart, share the gospel with everyone you meet, but what happens when you’re friend is diagnosed with cancer for the fourth time in their short life?

What happens when you pray for healing and nothing happens? What do you do when your family member decides that life isn’t worth living anymore?

What happens when you have to plan and attend a funeral where the casket is so small it doesn’t make sense.

What happens when you go through so much grief that you’re not sure your physical body can handle it?

And in the midst of that suffering, how do you handle walking through these double doors with a heart that doesn’t want to worship by joyfully singing. When you don’t really want to talk to anyone else. When the sermon falls flat to you.

When you go home, and you don’t want to pray, let alone read your Bible.

And church, I’ll be honest this morning, I don’t have a great, feel-good, 10 step answer for you. Because bad things happen, and you will suffer, and your heart will hurt.

Because that’s the problem - our world is corrupt, evil runs free, and death still exists.

But the promise, oh boy, let me tell you about the promise, because it’s so much better.

Even though evil still exists, God isn’t worried. You know how I know that?

Because He sent the promise as a weak, human baby. And that baby was born to a regular couple who couldn’t even find a room in the inn.

God gave Satan every opportunity to win, He turned his cheek to evil and said “hit me as hard as you can”. God wasn’t threatened, no one defeated Him, Jesus gave up his life on his timeline, to save humanity.

That’s why in the midst of suffering, the promise hold strong. Because Satan would love for us to use suffering as something against God. Satan would love nothing more that for us to shake our fist at God.

But Satan lost, he doesn’t have that power, because this is our promise:

Romans 8:38–39 CSB

38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

That is what our faith is placed in, that we have a creator that will never abandon us, no matter how we screw up, no matter what suffering we’re going through.

Any other answer to suffering in this world falls flat.

So, in the meantime, while we wait for Jesus’s return and our unspoiled inheritance to come to fruition…

My encouragement to you today is to just hold on.

Just Hold On

Just hold on a little longer.

I know you’re sad. I know you’re angry. I know joy is sometimes lost, and it seems hopeless.

And I’m here to say thats okay. It’s okay to feel how you feel. Because I’m sure Sarah, waiting on the child she was promised, she felt disappointment. I guarantee Noah felt fear standing up to those worshipping false gods. I’m sure Abraham was scared leaving his home.

But just hold on, because:

Romans 13:12 CSB

12 The night is nearly over, and the day is near; so let us discard the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.

Morning is just around the corner.

Feel all those human emotions, but have faith anyway. Trust God anyway.

What we need to do is constantly remind ourselves of God’s promise. Even through we can’t always see it, or feel it, He’s there. He has a plan. He’s got you.

Well continue, as the bride of Christ, as the Church, to fight, and support one another.

Romans 12:15 CSB

15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.

Romans 12:21 CSB

21 Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good.

I love you all, let’s hold on together.

Let’s pray.