Easter 2019: A Living Hope

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Dealing with born again: Looked to my left and there were butterflies sucking the pollen from a hot pink zelia bush. Working tremendously hard to get that nectar and to go out. Feast on God’s word and leaves with God’s Word.

“Believers have an unshakable hope for the future, for Christ’s resurrection is a pledge of their own future resurrection.”

Born Again= Begot “Father’s role in giving birth”

“

Dealing with born again: Looked to my left and there were butterflies sucking the pollen from a hot pink zelia bush. Working tremendously hard to get that nector and to go out. Feast on God’s word and leaves with God’s Word.

“The resurrection of Christ from the dead secures for his people both new resurrection bodies and new spiritual life.”

Cause us to be born again

INTO a living hope

THROUGH the resurrection of Jesus

INTO an inheritance (imperishable, undefiled, and unfading)

kept in heaven- “partial present enjoyment” but also actively reserved in heaven.

guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

Guarded= ‘kept from escaping’ and ‘protected from attack’

Ke

Continually being guarded

Living Hope:

An inheritance

Kept

Guarded

What do you hope for? What we hope for is what we plan for, invest in, and steer towards.

In short, hope is the anticipation of something desired. Psychology Today

Pandora’s Box=Pandora’s Jar

Pan-All, Dora= Gifts

Pandora’s Jar was filled with ‘beautiful evils’

Pandora’s curiosity caused her to open the jar and out came all the beautiful evils that spread over the world. Sort of like the effects of the Fall.

But one beautiful ‘evil’ stayed in the box: Hope.

If it’s true, it’s the greatest truth

If it’s not true, hope is the greatest evil against humanity!

What is the significance of hope staying in the jar?

Neil Burton’s (Oxford Professor in Psychology) interpretation of Myth:

Hope is kept safe so that suffering becomes more bearable

Hope is denied humanity, making our current reality worse.

Hope is just another beautiful evil: like an make-belief dangling carrot for us to chase:

“Hope is the most evil of evils because it prolongs man's torment.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

What is Christian hope?

Christian hope does more than get us through tough times.

Christian hope isn’t some existential carrot we are chasing. Right?

What is Christian hope? What makes our hope living?

We have to examine what kind of hope that bring us together to an Easter service like this. We need to take a good hard look at what gives us motivation. What gives us direction. Like, what’s the end game of Christianity.

Christianity is more than ‘let’s play for fun’.

As a kid: “Let’s just play for fun.”

Christian Hope= Confident Certainty

Living Hope is a place God brought us to TODAY

Because of God’s mercy, he brought us- through rebirth- INTO a living hope

The Christian has hope because God brought us here

Jesus: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” ()

God provided the cocoon?

Modern Day pressure to be born again

Lot of pressure to be born again, but it’s something God has caused.

What did you do to cause your birth?

Nothing! In fact, babies cry when they’re born because it cold out here!

Projection of our own wishes

Coat-Tail Faith

Performance Faith: You don’t need to chase it. You don’t need to feel like you need to feel something or accomplish something. Hope is a gift of grace something to be received. Hope/faith interconnected.

You existed.

Born again INTO/WITHIN a living Hope. We reside ‘within’ this hope. Just like we are all within this pavilion, the Christian resides within an ALIVE hope.

This living hope isn’t something we:

Great comfort knowing that our hope isn’t a projection of stuff we want or think is good for us. We have a caring father who brings us to a living hope through rebirth.

Coat-Tail Faith

Performance Faith: You don’t need to chase it. You don’t need to feel like you need to feel something or accomplish something. Hope is a gift of grace something to be received. Hope/faith interconnected.

To be a Christian is to have living hope. To be born again means you are brought into a new reality called ‘Living hope’.

Niccademus: Asks the very silly question:

God provided the cacoon?

You don’t need to chase it. You don’t need to feel like you need to feel something or accmplish something. Hope is a gift of grace something to be received. Hope/faith interconnected.

“Does it imply that hope is preserved for men, making their torments more bearable?” In other words, although humanity will suffer, they will live with some form of optimism.

“Or, to the contrary, that hope is denied them, making their lives even more miserable?” Humanity will suffer, but without any hope of escaping.

OR, “a third possibility is that hope was simply another evil in the jar, either a mechanism for tormenting men anew or the kind of false hope that is empty and corrupting.”

We have living hope because God caused us to be born again: Present reality

Our living hope looks back at Christ’s resurrection.

Not just a memory. It’s how the past gives shape to our present. We have a living hope today for the future, because of what Jesus did for us in the past.

We are born again through the resurrection. His resurrection makes our rebirth certain. United to Christ. Because Jesus resurrected, we can experience rebirth to a living hope.

His resurrection makes our rebirth possible. United to Christ. Somehow his resurrection

Living Hope for the future comes through an event that happened 2,000 years ago.

Our Living Hop

What do you fear? Death! In the face of our greatest fears, we have a living hope.

Opposite of living hope is dying fear

Rebirthed by dying and rising with Christ

Opposite of living hope is dying fear

Good Friday-Easter Experience

Giving up of your own control, ability, pride, know-how,

Rising with Christ:

Victory over sin and Satan

Adopted into his Family

Desiring to follow Christ’s example

That experience makes you a Christian

Living Hope is more than optimism. It’s more than knowledge.

It’s a firm trust in your future resurrection because of Christ’s resurrection.

Living hope is ours today because resurrection has already happened to us!

Defining what this living hope is all about:

Future inheritance

Complete Salvation

Eternal life in the Kingdom of God

Imperishable, undefiled, and unfading

Doubly protected:

Kept in heaven and Guarded by God’s power

Conclusion:

The NIV Application Commentary: 1 Peter Original Meaning

the new birth gives rise to a living hope that is defined as an inheritance that is guarded by faith in that final salvation.

Can I lose my salvation?

Is it a silly question?

Existentialists

Hope within struggle

Hope vs.

We have hope in an inheritance (kept and guarded by God)

Not silly at all! It’s actually really important.

According to this passage, you can’t. God’s given you eternal security. No one can snatch this eternal gift waiting for you.

Extreme Reactions:

Doubt: Work towards faith

Apathy: Take advantage of faith

Fear: Feeling your not worthy of faith

So we go back to that earlier question: Are you a Christian?

If you doubt your salvation, think about what makes you a Christian.

If you think you’re unloveable, think about what makes you a Christian.

Pandora’s Box:

Beautiful graces

Security- church plant security

If you say you’re a Christian, what do we do with what we feel about ourselves?

What do we do with how we can behave? Apathy.

Conclusion: Pandora: All gifts= We introduces to the world the things contained in pandora’s box, but God offers us a gift that redeems us from all of it.

Beautiful evil?

Coat-Tail Faith

Performance Faith: You don’t need to chase it. You don’t need to feel like you need to feel something or accomplish something. Hope is a gift of grace something to be received. Hope/faith interconnected.

Easter 2019: A Living Hope

A Living Hope

Introduction:

Living Hope is a place God brought us to

What did you accomplish in your birth?

Living Hope Came through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

How do I become a Christian?

Living Hope is an (imperishable, undefiled, and unfading) inheritance

Can I lose my salvation?