Merciful Hope

Scripture Reading

Titus 2:11–14 ESV

11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

Titus 2

Introduction

Good morning.

After she woke up, she confided to Clayton, her husband, 'I just dreamed that you gave me a diamond ring for a New Year's present. What do you think it all means?'

Welcome to the year 2020! I hope you enjoyed your ride here in your flying cars and that the robots in the foyer were friendly to you as you came in this morning. Everyone seems pretty upset that we don’t have flying cars, but I’m just bummed that we don’t have machines that fold and put away laundry yet, give me that over a flying car any day. How many of you could have predicted what life would look like in 2020 way back when we were worried about our computers crashing in the year 2000? Isn’t it amazing how things have changed? And also how things have stayed the same?

This morning we are going to talk about one of those things that will always stay the same when it comes to humanity. Because no matter how much technology advances and no matter how much easier our lives might become, we as humans are always going to need HOPE.

'Wow, let me just say, you'll know tonight,' Clayton answered with a big smile.

From the time that I was old enough to tag along with my dad I’ve greatly enjoyed hunting and fishing. Now for all the times I have gotten up 3 hours before sunlight to make sure that I was in the woods before sunrise, for all the money and time that I’ve invested in fishing supplies, boats, and gasoline, I can only recall a handful of moments in all my years that amounted to an incredible fishing or hunting trip. In fact, I’d say that those incredible moments only happen 2 out of 10 trips on average. I guess that’s why my dad used to say after a fishing or hunting trip that was a bust, “That’s why they call it fishing and not catching!” or “That’s why they call it hunting and not shooting!”

At midnight, as the New Year was chiming in, and people left and right were kissing their sweethearts, Clayton approached Jennifer, kissed her while holding her a long time, then he handed her a small package.

Ecstatic and delighted, she opened it quickly.

So why do I continue to desire to head to the lake or to the woods after so much disappointment? Hope. There’s always the hope that today will be the day that something special happens. That the everything happens just right and you have one of those 20 percent days. Because all it takes is for one of those days to occur and it makes all of the early alarm clocks, all of the money, all of the time invested, it makes all of it worth it.

There in her hand rested a bible, when she opened it to the bookmarked page she saw that and verse 8 was highlighted which read, “Only God knows the meaning of dreams.”

It’s hard to believe that we’ve came to the end of another year, and I would like to ask you with 3 days left in the year, if you made New Years resolutions for yourself at the beginning of the year, how did you do?Did you accomplish any of the goals that you set for yourself?I hope that you did. And if you did congratulations! It’s great to celebrate your accomplishments and I hope your goals moved you closer to God.Or maybe the year has thrown you so many twists and turns that you can’t even remember the goals that you set for yourself last year and you find yourself limping to the finish line here in December.And if that is you this morning let me tell you that you are not at all alone. Sometimes just getting through the year in one piece makes for a successful year.As I stand here today, I can honestly tell you that I cannot recall my resolutions from last year. I know I have them written down somewhere, and that I could go back and look at them, but at this point I know that I’ve failed some if not most of them. That’s not to say that I didn’t have a great year, a productive year, in fact in may ways I think that I’ve had a better year than I would have if I had stuck to every single one of my goals. See the problem with resolutions is that you never know what life will bring. God might put something or someone in your life that is far more important than any of our goals. So while I’m certainly going to make some goals for myself, I’ve decided that I’m going to set one scripture as my most guiding resolution for the year. In fact the verse we are going to discuss this morning would make an excellent theme for the year. So I would like for you to join me this year in framing in your mind for the next 12 months .

I’ve come to learn that hope is an incredibly powerful thing. And it’s something that we as humans must have in order to have a joyful and meaningful life.

​ ESV20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

In fact, so much of our life is lived jumping from hope to hope.

This verse presents three aspects to the Christian life that we would do well to remember every day when our feet hit the floor every morning.

Kids -> adulthood

Kids -> Christmas break

Adults -> weekend

Adults -> vacation

So over the next few weeks we are going to be studying the Hope that the Bible tells us that we ought to have, and we’ll be doing that by going through the book of 1 Peter.

Background

Written by the apostle Peter somewhere in the mid 60’s AD some 30 years after the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.

And he’s writing to, if you notice in v. 1, those christians who are exiles in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia And he’s writing to them in order to exhort them, to strengthen them in the face of some pretty terrible persecution that they were going through.

During this time they would have been facing attacks from the Jews wherever they went, they also would have been under attack from the Roman Government. In the year 64 AD a great fire broke out in Rome and it wiped out a huge portion of the city. Nero most likely set the fire himself in order to get the glory for rebuilding the city, but he laid blame at the feet of a relatively new minority, the Christians. In the years following, Christians were treated with utter contempt by most Romans. They were beaten, cheated, mobbed, murdered, and forced to meet literally underground.

It is to these Christians who were enduring such hardships that Peter writes this letter of encouragement. And the message that it contains is one that is anchored in one word. HOPE.

Text

“I have been crucified with Christ”

Explanation

​ ESV6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—

This different gospel was apparently one that combined Christianity with Judaism, those that said true Christians would be circumcised and follow the works of the Law. But Paul says that wasn’t the Gospel that he preached to them. and in fact is so confident in the Gospel that he recieved from Christ that he says to them

​ ESV8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

Now that’s a pretty bold statement! It seems to me that Paul was absolutely, 100 percent convinced that what he had recieved was from God.But lest you still didn’t believe him, Paul is going to spend v.11 - 2:21 defending his apostleship and stance that what he teaches is the true Gospel, and that even though he had great prestige and power as he advanced in Judaism, that he gave all of that up for the sake of the Gospel which God had given him. In fact in his letter to the Philippians he makes plain that whatever greatness he may have had as a Jew, he counted it as rubbish in comparison to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus.When we pick back up in , we see that Paul is telling us that a Christian life is a relinquished life, it’s a life that we’ve given up.

​ ESV15 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. 17 But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! 18 For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. 19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Paul says whatever came before, whether good or bad, there is nothing there worth keeping you from knowing God, from living to God.After all is that not what Christ said? Is he not recorded as saying in

​ ESV23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?

In receiving Christ, it’s not enough that we are thankful for what he did for us by enduring the shame of the cross.It isn’t enough that we look upon him as he’s humiliated, scourged and beaten and nailed to the cross and grieve for his pain and sorrow. That’s surely the reaction that most rational humans would have. What Christ has asked from us is that we follow him to the cross.Now that doesn’t mean that every one of us will be subjected to Crucifixion, but it better mean that all of us who are Christians die to ourselves and to our sin. We better die to the world, the flesh, and the devil, and we better find a new identity that is rooted in the cross of Christ.

Illustration

Application

​ ESV28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Church, imagine what we could accomplish if we lived each day like that! If we stopped worrying about what our neighbors would think, if we stopped being afraid to speak about Christ in public, if we understood that we. are. dead to what we want. That we have died to our desires, our sins, our social standing, our bank accounts?Dead people don’t fear death. They don’t fear being embarrassed. They don’t fear anything.But that’s not the whole story, and that’s not the whole text this morning. You might have realized that you aren’t physically dead just yet. That this morning you have been blessed with the soundness of body and mind to be here gathered with the saints.But if you are a Christian this morning, you shouldn’t be here as the same person that you where when you went into that watery grave of baptism. Instead you were raised to walk in newness of life. Not the same man, but a renewed man, one dead to sin and alive in Christ.That is what Paul continues to say in when he says...

Born Again to a living hope

Text

1 Peter 1:

1 Peter 1:3 ESV

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,

“It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”

Explanation

If you’ll recall, last Sunday morning we discussed “dying for a new beginning” from and I encouraged us to make that our scriptural resolution for this year.

Galatians 2:20 ESV

20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

And we talked about that great renewal and transformation that takes place when we obey the Gospel through baptism in that we bury that old man of sin and we rise to walk in newness of life, that we are born again, that we are a new creation in Christ Jesus, and that He now lives in us.

And that is great and wonderful news! God’s mercy and grace allows us to become His children and to be made alive with Christ! That is great news! But would it continue to be great news if we had to rely on ourselves to keep ourselves right in the eyes of God? Tell me, how quickly would we lose hope if after our baptism it was up to us and us alone to remain sinless? It would be a great act of mercy would it not for God to allow us a fresh start? Any opportunity to start again is merciful by God because we who have sinned, which is everyone capable of doing so, were condemned to die spiritually, and any second chance would be merciful, but how long would we last?

But thanks be to God, that is not where His mercy ends! Because God hasn’t just given us the mercy of forgiveness once and left us on our own, No, Peter says that according to His great mercy, he not only caused us to be born again, but to be born again to a LIVING HOPE through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead!

Illustration

Lottery Winners -> Wish they had never won.

IF TIME -> VW Bug

Application

An Endless Hope

Text

1 Peter 1:4–5 ESV

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.

1 Peter 1:

“And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Explanation

Now you may be thinking, that’s too much. I can’t put that kind of pressure on myself! There’s no way I can live the kind of life that Jesus would live! Remember that God isn’t requiring perfection. He knows that we cannot do this perfectly, but he is asking us to live by faith and by that faith we shall be victorious.

​ ESV4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.

“This is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith” ().

​ ESV17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

tells us that the Christian life is one of faith from first to last, for the just shall live by faith.

​ ESV3 You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. 4 Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.

says, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart.”We don’t live this Christian life under our own power, but we allow God to work through us by faith.

Illustration

Church a fulfillment

Application

A Tested Anchor

Text

1 Peter 1:6–9 ESV

6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

1 Peter 1:

Explanation

Illustration

Rock Climbing Anchor - Someone has gone on before and placed it there.

Application

Conclusion

Hebrews 11:1 ESV

1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Proverbs 13:12 ESV

12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.

Hebrews 6:19 ESV

19 We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain,