A Living Hope in a New Year

Men and women are creatures of hope. We are naturally drawn to stories that pick us up when we are down. We are drawn to stories that defy the odds of what we think people are capable of. Just think of Star Wars. How much of that series is built around the theme of hope? Pretty much all of it! One of the most popular quotes in the entire series comes from Princess Leia as she has R2-D2 deliver a message to Obi-Wan Kenobi: “Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope.” She doesn’t say, “Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only rescuer” Or “Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only friend.” No she sees the old Jedi as the only person that she can put her hope in, he is the only person that can get the Death Star plans to where they need to go and the only person that can save the galaxy from the evil Empire. We need hope, we need something to grab hold of in good times and bad times. Any time that we come to a new year, I think we have the tendency to assume that this is our year. This new year is going to be better than the one that came before it. New year, new me. But the problem is we don’t know that for sure. 2025 could be substantially better than 2024 but it could also be substantially worse than 2024. We have no way of knowing but instead we project a desire that something will be better as we go from one calendar to the next. As much as we love the holidays, as much as we love celebrating a new year, I know that there is a lot of anxiety and a lot of hopelessness that often comes with the holidays. I have said in the past that one of the biggest liars in the world was the guy that decided to write of the holiday season: “It’s the most wonderful time of the year, it’s the hap-happiest season of all.” That man was either greatly deceived or lived under a rock because that is not the common consensus that I have come across when I talk to people about the holidays. Don’t get me wrong we do need hope. We desperately need something to hope in but in order for it to be a lasting hope it needs to be in something that cannot change or be taken away and that is why we are looking at 1 Peter 1:3-9 this morning. In these verses we see a hope that is far different and far greater than any hope that can be found in the material things of this world, far greater than any hope that Star Wars can offer, and it is a hope that doesn’t just carry us through hard times; it is so certain that we can even find reasons to rejoice as we go through those hard times. Hope, Christ-centered hope, is something that we need to know not just at the start of a new year but it is something that we must constantly be coming back to throughout the years that the Lord is giving us. This morning I want us to look at hope in 3 ways: 1. How Do We Get it? 2. What is Distinct About it? 3. How do we use it? Let’s pray and then let’s look again at 1 Peter 1:3-9

1 Peter 1:3–9 NASB95

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, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.

Christian Hope: How Do We Get It?

Christian hope: How do we get it? Is it something that we just muster inside of us? Is it something that we say, “I’ll pull myself up by my bootstraps and I’ll just work harder and live better?” No, what we see in these verses and throughout the entire Bible is that in order for Christian hope to be Christian hope, it has to be given before it is gotten. If we look at 1 Peter 1:3 -5 we see the cause and the effects of Christian hope. Not only do we see the cause we see the cause Causer if that makes sense. What causes the cause? Well Peter says “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.” We see who and we see why. Who is it that initiates? Who is it that gives life and gives it abundantly? God the Father. Why does He do it? Because of His great mercy. No one is entitled to the hope that is offered in the Gospel. No one has earned the hope that comes from the Gospel. No, it is entirely a gift of mercy. Why does God do what He does? Because He’s merciful. Because He’s caring. Because He’s good. We deserve nothing good, we deserve no mercy. All we do is take, take, take. All we do is sin and spit in His face and spite the good gifts that He gives us. We do not deserve the mercy that He offers. You and I don’t deserve the grace that He offers. You see the Christian life is a life of perspective. Until you actually take an honest look at yourself, you will never see the heights and the depths of the glories of the Gospel and just how far removed you are from God. Until you are honest with your present situation, until you understand your desperation before God, you will never truly appreciate or understand what Jesus Christ accomplished and offered. Every person needs to come not in a boastful arrogance but come as a beggar to find bread. Understand, your sin is responsible for the death of the Son of God. His death should be your death, His condemnation on the cross should be your condemnation, His crushing should be your crushing, His forsakennes should be your forsakennes, His abandonment should be your abandonment, your unrighteousness should continue to be your unrighteousness and His righteousness should continue to be His righteousness but at the cross it isn’t. There’s our perspective. Everything that fell upon the perfect, sinless Son of God should have fallen squarely on you. It should have fallen squarely upon me. But it didn’t why? Because according to God’s great mercy He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Do you see how you can have a living hope? It’s only through a merciful God and a living Savior. What is our living hope? It is our being born again to salvation in Jesus Christ. Adrian Rodgers said, “Salvation is not your merit, it’s in God’s mercy and that which is the gift of mercy can never be withdrawn from the lack of merit. How do you keep your salvation? You keep your salvation exactly the same way you got it. How did you get it? By the mercy of God. How do you keep it? By the mercy God.” Do you remember what Paul talks about in Ephesians 2? It’s very similar to what we read here in 1 Peter 1. In Ephesians 2 Paul is writing to Christians and he takes them back to who they were before they became Christians. Paul is brutally honest in his assessment. He doesn’t say, “Look you had a few rough spots here and there, you missed out on a few things you shouldn’t have missed out on, but try better and these things will work themselves out.” No, he says in Ephesians 2:1-3

Ephesians 2:1–3 NASB95

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

Paul says it isn’t just you, it’s me too. Every single person on the face of the earth is by nature a child of wrath. While everyone can claim God as their creator, not everyone can claim God as their Father. But Paul does not stop in verse 3, God does not stop in verse 3. Paul says in Ephesians 2:4—9

Ephesians 2:4–9 NASB95

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones used to say, “Thank God for the ‘buts’ of the Bible.” Right there at the beginning of verse 4 we see that call to mercy, a richness of mercy, just like we see in 1 Peter 1. God is the cause, God is the giver of life, He is the One that raises us, seats us with Christ, and gives us a living hope. Christ’s resurrection is the guarantee of the believer’s own resurrection. Edmund Clowney writes, “By the resurrection of Christ, God has given life, not only to Him, but to us. We are given new birth by God; He fathers us by the resurrection of His Son. In Christ’s triumph God makes all things new, beginning with us.” How do we get this Christian hope? Solely through what God the Father and Christ the Son have done and just as Christ lives, our hope is a living hope. Because He lives, not only can we face tomorrow, not only can we face the new year, we can face eternity with confidence, not in ourselves but from what our Merciful God and Savior has done. So that is how we get the Christian hope but what is distinct about it?

Christian Hope: What is Distinct About it?

Why is Christian hope different from non-Christian hope? Well look first at how Peter describes the hope that the Christian is born into. It isn’t a dead hope. It isn’t an overly optimistic hope. It’s a living hope. What makes it a living hope? Why does Peter use that word? Well it’s connected to the resurrection of Jesus. Because Jesus is alive and because Jesus is the surety of our salvation, our hope is a living hope as He is a living Savior. What makes the Christian hope so fundamentally different than an unbeliever’s hope is that our hope is certain. If I say, “I hope you have a happy New Year” I can have absolutely great intentions in saying that but that doesn’t mean that you will beyond a shadow of a doubt have a happy New Year. Our hope is sure because Christ’s resurrection is sure. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 that if Christ is not raised from the dead, we are still in our sins and are of all people most to be pitied. Everything hinges on Christ’s resurrection. If Christ is not raised, there is no hope. Christ is raised, so we have great assurance and reason to hope. We read in 1 Corinthians 15:20 “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.” Because Jesus is raised and seated upon the throne, all of our confidence stems from that reality. That is our hope in this life and in the next. Every other hope is nothing more than wishful thinking. Matthew Henry writes, “Every unconverted person is a hopeless creature; whatever he pretends to of that kind is all confidence and presumption…the hope of a Christian has this excellency: it is a living hope. The hope of eternal life in a true Christian is a hope that keeps him alive, quickens him, supports him, and conducts him to Heaven. Hope invigorates and spirits up the soul to action, to patience, to fortitude, and perseverance to the end.” Something else that is distinct about the Christian hope is that it is protected. In verses 4-5 we see that the Christian is “to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” The reward of the Christian is an eternal reward. The inheritance of the Christian is something that cannot be destroyed, polluted, or taken away and on top of all of that it is reserved for us in Heaven. God Himself is seeing to it that our inheritance is secured and not only does He secure the inheritance, He secures the ones that the inheritance is given to. Do you understand that as a Christian that neither life nor death nor anything else in all creation can separate you from Christ? Nothing in heaven or on earth or under the earth can take away your inheritance because those whom Christ has died to save have been saved to the uttermost. An unbelievers hope can be taken away but the Christian’s hope can never be taken away. It is eternal. This means that we can live bold lives for the Gospel. This means that we can face a New Year with the confidence that the fullness of our salvation is closer to us now than when we first believed. We can face this year and any other year with the certainty that Jesus Christ is our supreme reward and where He is we too shall be. It is waiting for us, it is reserved for us, it is ready for us. It’s yours so go and take it!

Christian Hope: How Do We Use It?

Finally when it comes to Christian hope, how do we use it? How do we make the most of it? Well it would be a lie to say that the Christian life is easy. Far too many people seem to think that if you are a Christian that your life becomes all sunshine and rainbows and nothing bad will ever happen to you. Where do people get that idea from? I’ve seen this especially in teenagers that are new in the faith where they become a Christian or start to buy into the idea of Christianity only for something to happen in their lives, maybe like a grandparent passing away or a dog running away and the first thing they do is say, “God why did this happen to me? Why did you let this happen to me? I thought you loved me!” Nowhere in Scripture do we see anything that comes close to the idea that once we become a Christian that nothing bad or hard will ever happen to us. In fact if you look at the life of Jesus who let’s be honest really personified what it means to be a Christian, you’ll see that not only did bad things happen to Him, the worst thing that could ever happen to anyone happened. If anyone ever did not deserve to go through trials or suffering it was Jesus. Jesus was rejected by His own people, He was rejected by His own family, He had no possessions, He was abandoned by His closest friends, He was hated and arrested by the Jews and condemned by the Gentiles, He was abused and slaughtered on a cross and on top of all of that He was abandoned by His Heavenly Father on the cross as He absorbed the full weight of God’s wrath towards your sin and my sin. If anyone ever should have gotten off easy it was Him that created all things and had no drop of sin on His person. If Jesus suffered, if Jesus was tried and tested, why would we think that we should not be made like our Master? Peter mentions in verses 6-7 that the believers that he was writing to greatly rejoiced in their security and salvation, “even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” There were believers in Peter’s day that were going through unheard of sufferings. That word that Peter uses, “distressed” in the Greek one of the only times that we see it is when Jesus is praying in the Garden of Gethsemane in Matthew 26 where Matthew says that Jesus began to be grieved and distressed. You are likely aware of the battle that Christ faced in the garden. Peter is saying that the things that they are going through aren’t things where they can just go, “Welp it’s just another case of the Mondays. Put on a happy face! Work for the weekend!” No, these are real trials with real pain and suffering. Look, one of the most beautiful aspects of Christianity is that we serve a God that not only cares about our suffering, but He suffered for us. Jesus never asks us to go anywhere that He Himself was not willing to go. Peter reminds us that trials in our lives are always used by God for our greater good. If we suffer now it is only to keep us from a greater suffering that is to come. What Peter wants us to know is that if God holds our salvation, our souls, our reward in Heaven forever and the receipt of that purchase is Christ’s blood, then we can go through absolutely anything with rejoicing. This doesn’t mean that we are never upset or that it is wrong to grieve, it just means that now we can go through those things with the full confidence that God has not left us and He has certainly not abandoned us. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4:13 that we as believers are not to grieve as those who have no hope. Why not? Because Jesus died and rose again and just as He rose, all believers will rise. What does all of this look like in action then? Well I think that you could turn to practically any of the Psalms of lament and see what this may look like. One example that I thought of and I almost made the whole sermon this is Psalm 13. Psalm 13 is a Psalm of David and in it we read:

Psalm 13 (NASB95)

How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever?

How long will You hide Your face from me?

How long shall I take counsel in my soul,

Having sorrow in my heart all the day?

How long will my enemy be exalted over me?

Consider and answer me, O Lord my God;

Enlighten my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death,

And my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”

And my adversaries will rejoice when I am shaken.

But I have trusted in Your lovingkindness;

My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation.

I will sing to the Lord,

Because He has dealt bountifully with me.

Notice those first four verses. David brings up sorrow after sorrow, worry after worry, trial after trial. He’s calling out that God would rescue Him and that He would respond to him. David knows that there are enemies all around him, that people want to take his life, and on top of all of this, he feels for a moment as if God has left him. Do you feel like that sometimes? 4 times David cries out, “How long O Lord!” It almost seems as if David is angry at God and is totally depressed. What’s the answer then? It’s in the last 2 verses: “But I have trusted in Your lovingkindness; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because He has dealt bountifully with me.” What is it that David goes back to? It’s God’s past faithfulness. It’s God’s past lovingkindness. David is saying, “God in the past you have been faithful and because your track record is perfect, I will sing to the Lord now!” What does Christian hope look like in action? We see it here in David. We acknowledge the trial, we call out to God for help, and we trust His past faithfulness. God is good all the time and all the time God is good. Look if God did not abandon you at the death of His only Son, He certainly will not abandon you now that you have been made new in the image of His Son. We push ahead through various trials with the ability to rejoice because we know that aven though we do not see Him, we love Him and though we do not see Him now, we believe in Him and greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, as we obtain the outcome of our faith the salvation of our souls. We don’t know what the next year has for us. It may be a year of success or it may be a year of suffering. It may be different for each person in here but there is one thing that we do know: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever and where He is, we shall be too. There is our ground of assurance, there is our ground for hope, there is our driving force into not just a new year but every year. Without Him, you are only living a partial life, an unfulfilled life, a life where it is always Winter but never Christmas. Do you possess that which is forever? Do you have a hope that the world cannot explain? Do you know the God that has an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and will never fade away that He is willing to give to all that come to Him? Don’t wait until the New Year, come take it now. Let’s pray.

(mention ill be in back to greet/offering plates after last song)