Hope? So What?
Notes
Transcript
Thank you ladies… and thank you Garry for being faithful in leading us to worship God through song. While music is not the most important part of a worship gathering… the sharing of the Word of God is… right? But while music is not the most important part… it is a very integral part. I mean… music just kind of gets down into the trenches of our souls… doesn’t it? For most people it does anyway.
For example… how many of you have specific memories attached to specific songs? You know… you hear a song and it brings back a memory of something that happened when you were a kid? Or a song would remind you of a past relationship?
When Levi was just a baby… you know… like all babies do, he would occasionally throw these little fits. He’d be in the back seat of the car… facing the back of the car… not able to see us in the front seat… and I don’t know… maybe he’d get lonely or whatever back there. And we’d start talking to him… singing to him… whatever, you know, to try and get him to calm down… but nothing really seemed to work.
Well one day… and I’m not even sure how we figured this out… but we figured out that if we would turn on the song… Cotton Eyed Joe… Levi would almost INSTANTLY stop crying… and he would just listen! He still loves that song to this day! But now… for me… that song will forever be connected to those emotions of getting Levi to calm down while in the car… the contentment and the satisfaction on that little baby’s face when that song was played.
Music just gets into the trenches of our lives. It has a way of reviving our hearts and encouraging us. One more very quick story. Many of you know that my dad died of colorectal cancer back in 2007. Before he died, the cancer had damaged his body so badly… and caused him to so much pain… that the last 2 or 3 days of his life he would lay in bed… unable to communicate with us… and his body would just shake uncontrollably. And so… we would take turns just kind of sitting with him… and talking to him for comfort.
Well one of those times… it was just me and him… I took a guitar into his room… and I just started softly playing and singing some old hymns to him. Music had always been such a huge part of his life… and I thought he might appreciate that. Well… Amazingly… when I started, his body almost completely stopped shaking. There just seemed to be a calm that came over him. Music just has that effect on us… it gets down deep… it’s reviving and encouraging to us.
Hope is like that. Hope has a way of getting down into the trenches of our life. 2 weeks ago, last week we hosted the Bailey’s… but 2 weeks ago, we talked about that hope that we have in Christ that Peter outlines in 1st Peter chapter 1. But I wonder how many, after hearing that sermon, said to themselves… Ok… We have hope… so what? What difference does that hope make in my life? As we finish up chapter 1 this morning, Peter helps us see the effects of that hope that we have in Christ. How hope gets down into the trenches of life with us.
If you have your Bible, and I hope that you do, turn with me to 1st Peter chapter 1. In this passage, Peter is going to explain to us that this hope we have is not just some abstract theological idea for the pulpit… it really does make a difference.
It makes a difference for the parents that spend their nights covered in spit-up, or going from baseball practice to volleyball practice to soccer practice and trying to figure out how to feed their kids in-between. It matters to the adult who feels the pressure of not having enough time at work to get to everything they have to do… and then come home knowing the yard needs mowing, the laundry needs done, and the house needs cleaned. It matters to the adult who’s taking care of aging parents… to the teenager that feels the pressures of schooling. Hope matters.
So Peter encourages us by saying in our text today… Set your eyes on hope… And that hope will help you live a holy life… and that hope will help you love deeply. This is how Peter says this hope matters in the trenches of life.
So let’s read together… beginning with verse 13. This is where Peter is going to say… Set your eyes on this hope we have in Christ. Peter says… hope in the hope you have. Verse 13…
Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.
Set your hope on the hope that you have. The image of the text here is drawing from the book of Exodus. He says… with minds that are alert… the literal rendering of the text is… gird up the loins of your mind.
Do you remember in Exodus? God is getting ready to provide a way of escape from slavery in Egypt for Israel… what does God tell the people of Israel? Get ready to go! When you prepare the Passover meal… don’t put yeast in the bread so it’ll cook quickly… eat with your shoes on and with your cloaks tucked into your belt. In other words… at a moment’s notice… be ready to jump up and be out the door. That’s the image that Peter wants us to see.
So this idea of tucking the cloak of our mind in… means that our minds are ready for Christ’s second coming. That there is a alertness… a sharpness… a readiness for the coming salvation that we’ve been promised… and that that hope permeates into who we are and how we live.
Peter also says… our minds are to be fully sober. Now… this isn’t a reference to alcohol… this is a reference to being vigilant. In other words… Peter is saying… do not allow the things of this life… your desires… your discouragements… don’t let anything distract you from this readiness that we’re supposed to have. So… with vigilantly alert minds… set your hope on the hope we have… on the expectation of the coming of Christ.
Think back to being in high school… there were all these expectations on you… homework… pressures to look a certain way… to get a certain grade… to get enough scholarships… pressures to fit in. This is Peter’s way of saying… listen… I know there’s a ton of pressure on you… I know there’s a million little things that could easily distract you… but don’t lose your focus in those moments… don’t miss out on what God has done… and what He’s going to do one day.
Practical ideas? Night. Reminders. Music. With Other Believers. Etc…
Now… If you’ve ever been to the airport and saw or been on one of those moving walkways… they’re designed to get you somewhere quickly… that’s what verse 13 does for us… it delivers us to Peter’s next two thoughts. Verse 14 tells us that our hope will help us live holy lives. Look at it with me…
As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear.
Peter uses the Father / Child image here. He says we are to be a different kind of people… a set apart kind of people… a people that go against the stream of culture… a people that go against our natural desires. He talks about how we used to live this empty way of life… that we used to live in ignorance… but now… we’ve been brought into this family… and we have a Father that is holy… so we are to be holy.
The concept here is adoption. Imagine a child who is in a terrible, desperate situation… and you have compassion on that child… so you adopt them and bring them into your family. You rescue them from the terrible, desperate situation that he or she is in. What do you do?
The families that I know, and have talked to that have adopted, all say the same thing. They have this moment where they sit down with the child… and say something like this… “We love you… and we want to always take care of you. Everything we have is yours… this is YOUR family now. And our family has a way of life that we want you to live in. You show respect to everyone… you go to bed at night… you don’t stay up all night playing video games… we eat together as a family… we don’t lie… we look out for one another… and so on… and so forth.
That’s the image that Peter wants us to see. We have this holy Father in heaven… he has adopted us into His family… and He says everything I have is yours… I’m giving you hope for now, and hope for the future. And as your Father… I want you to be obedient… imitate me. I am holy… you be holy.
And then Peter talks about reverent fear… which is also the picture of a Parent / Child. It’s the picture of a parent that disciplines their kids when they’re going down the wrong path. There’s this sense of fear that dad or mom is going to discipline them when they live in disobedience. Of course… a GOOD dad or mom disciplines out of love… to steer the child in the right path. Peter wants us to think about our Father lovingly disciplining us… setting this high standard of holiness. And it all comes back to the hope that we have. We live this way because of the hope we have. This is hope in the trenches helping us be who God wants us to be.
I think Peter recognizes that perhaps we don’t really like this idea of discipline… so he pauses for a moment to remind us of the love that God has for us… Look at verse 18…
For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.
This hope that helps us be holy… it’s because God chose to send Jesus to this Earth… to send Jesus to his death to pay for our sin… it’s because God chose to raise Jesus from the dead and to glorify him. That’s why we choose to follow God… that’s why we choose to live holy. It’s because Jesus gives us hope. He gives hope to those like us who otherwise have no hope. And then 3rd… Peter says this hope we have helps us to love deeply. Look at verse 22…
Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For,
“All people are like grass,
and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
but the word of the Lord endures forever.”
And this is the word that was preached to you.
Peter conveys this message to us that we are part of a family… a forever family… the forever family of God. And because of that… we should love deeply.
He points to our baptism… when we are brought into the family… and he points to this idea that people are like grass… they die… but, he says, we were born with an imperishable seed that will never die. He’s making a contrast to make the point… you’re in a forever family… you have this hope… so… love deeply.
Loving deeply is when we move into our brothers and sisters lives to help and bless their souls.
We’re so darn self-sufficient though… or at least… we think we are… and we put on airs that we are… we act like we don’t need other people… we don’t need the church. Can I tell you… you do. I’m not just talking about attending on Sunday Mornings… we need that connection to one another that is deeper than just a “hey, how are you” on Sundays.
And listen… as times get worse… that need the love others deeply… and to be loved deeply will grow. I desperately believe that by the time our younglings are adults… they will desperately need it… there won’t be any pretending for them. So train them up to have those connections in the church… to love deeply… and to be loved deeply.
Peter says… set your hope on the hope that you have… and since you have this hope, be obedient children… be holy. And since you have this hope… you’ve been brought into this forever family… then love deeply.
Here’s the gist of what Peter is saying. Because of what God has done, through Jesus Christ, this is who you are. You are a person of hope… You are a person covered by the righteousness of Christ… You are a person that possess the love of God… now live that out. This is who are now because of Christ… so live it out!
Imagine the people of that time… the original recipients of Peter’s letter. They were outsiders… they were social outsiders in that they had run from their homelands and have been scattered across Asia Minor… they were probably economic outsiders… they probably had hard times finding work… and they were outsiders in their culture because they were Christians. Imagine the discouragement in their lives. The persecution… getting fired because of their faith. Imagine one of those people looking at you and saying… I just can’t do this anymore.
It’s into that that Peter says… set your hope on the hope you have… and that hope will help you live holy lives… and that hope will help you love deeply and receive it back because you are part of this forever family. This is who you are… now live it out.