"Living Hope"

Introduction: Defining hope. I have hope every season that one of the teams I root for is going to win the championship, yet as years go on and the drought lives on, that hope becomes much more faded and is often dead pretty early on in the season. We have hope that our 401ks and IRAs will gain over the years so that we can retire comfortably, yet we are never assured or promised that will happen. But what if I told you of a hope, a hope that is living, that doesn’t die or doesn’t cause worry. It is an emphatic one hundred percent assured that it is received. 1 Peter 1:3-5 tells us of this hope.

CTS: Our living hope is Jesus!

Praise be to God for the hope that He has given us in Jesus. We first recognize that God gets the praise for this living hope. It reminds us that hope is centered on Him and from Him.

I. The Foundation of Living Hope (3)

The foundation of our living hope is summarized in this verse. That summarization is best described as the Gospel.

According to Great mercy: This first reveals that we need mercy in the first place. Why? The Good News of living hope reveals that bad news that we are in. Hope assumes that something is broken. That brokenness is rooted in us, in humanity. Sin is the issue. All of us have sinned. We are all broken, and we know this to be true because of the state of things around us. Mercy is the idea of compassion, a benefit. We deserve hell, yet God in his mercy provides the benefit of hope itself.

Ephesians 2:4–5 ESV

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

God is the cause of this mercy, this living hope: We recognize again God is the beginning. That reminds us that salvation is all of him. No one seeks God naturally. God must intervene. It’s amazing to think that God, the offended party, brings mercy and hope to us who broke His law and rebelled against Him, our Creator.

Born again to living hope: The necessity of new life. In order for us to truly have this living hope, we must be born anew. Jesus himself made this clear in John 3:3.

John 3:3 ESV

3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

What does this mean, to be born again? Later on in the chapter of Jesus’ teaching, he makes it clear that Jesus the Son must be lifted up (the cross) and that those that believe in Him have eternal life. This is based on God’s gracious love of Him sending His Son to the world. John 3:16. To believe and trust in the Son as Savior and Lord brings eternal life. He is our living hope. New life. From once dead, we are then made alive by Christ. New birth. New creatures. Our old sinful ways made old, our identity and lives our changed by this new hope in Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Made possible by the resurrection: The reason why we have this living hope is that Christ Jesus, the Son of God, was put to death on a cross. Sinless and perfect, completely obedient to the Father, bore the wrath that we deserved for sin. He died by putting on sin for us. But he didn’t stay dead. That is what we celebrate today! The resurrection of Jesus is the emphatic affirmation that we have a living hope. Not hoping against hope. Not a maybe this will happen. The resurrection secures perfectly that eternal life is possible for those that trust in the finished work of Jesus and His resurrection! Without the resurrection, there is no hope!

APPLICATION: This is the foundation of our living hope. This is the Gospel message that is simply proclaimed. You must know this, believe this, and trust in Jesus for this to be applied to your life, to be born again. It’s only God. It’s only His mercy. It’s not yourself that saves you, not your own goodness, not anything that we can muster up. It’s only Jesus. He is the foundation of our living hope. He is the mercy of the Father sent to us, to save us from sin. To save us from ourselves and give us RESURRECTION LIFE.

But what is the resurrection life like? What does it mean for us?

II. The Inheritance of Living Hope (4)

First, it means that you have recieved an inheritance. Some people get an inheritance if their family was wealthy enough to leave one. Some people get a small one. Some people don’t get one at all. But an inheritance is transferred to someone. In the very same way, those that trust in Jesus as their living hope, their Lord and Savior, receive an inheritance just as though they are part of the family of God. By virtue of your new birth, because of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, you are made sons and daughters of God. This means you receive the greatest inheritance, ETERNAL LIFE AND SALVATION.

Imperishable: It can never be destroyed. Unlike the Promised Land of the Israelites that was often ravaged and conquered, this inheritance of God that we receive and are promised will never be destroyed. Heaven is untouched. Salvation and eternal life will be ours and can never be taken away or broken down. Unlike our cars, our homes, and everything else in life, our inheritance can never be shaken or ever perish.

Undefiled: It can never be spoiled. It is pure and will always be pure, for it is the kingdom of God. Sin will not ravage this coming inheritance. Death will not touch it. It will be a holy place without brokenness and sin. Do you look forward to that one day? That is our hope! It should give us confidence, especially when we live in a days such as these. We have something much better on the horizon. Or, you can have something much better than this.

Unfading: It is eternal. It won’t fade away. The writing and it’s glory will never get tiresome. This salvation won’t become like that new car where the smell fades and it’s once exciting newness wears off. Our salvation is eternal and perfect. When everything else becomes boring and tiresome, our salvation, our inheritance of the living hope we have in Jesus never will. We can never tire of Jesus here, and we will never tire of Jesus in eternity!

Kept in heaven for us: It is secured by God himself. He is preparing this city, this country that is our citizenship. It is guarded by Him. No one can conquer it, for He is God! No one can defeat Him or take what is rightly His that has been given us to us.

Hebrews 11:13–16 ESV

13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

Application: Though we die and suffer in this world that seems hopeless, we are promised an imperishable, undefiled, and unfading inheritance. This world is not ultimately our home. This world will be restored to its original intent when Jesus comes again. He will redeem it. But until then, it is not our home. But have a homeland. We have a better country. As much as I love this country, it pales in comparison to the country that is promised for me. God’s country. A heavenly country. God is not ashamed of us and He prepares for us this city. What great hope!

III. The Protection of Living Hope (5)

And we can be assured of this promise if we believe and trust in Christ by faith. We will be kept by God’s power until the end. This is this beautiful doctrine of the Bible that tells us that those that have truly believed will believe until the end.

1 Thessalonians 5:9 ESV

9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

God’s power saves us. God’s power sanctifies us as well. We are reminded that the Gospel doesn’t just save us, and then we are left to our own devices, but we are continually being changed and made more like Jesus. Those that truly believe will continue to be made more like Jesus. But that doesn’t leave us without responsibility. God has ordained certain means by which believers are sanctified. He ordains the Bible as His Word to us, to know Him and to grow in our knowledge of Him. We are to grow in prayer, the way we communicate with our Father. We grow through the church. The church is God’s means of community and the means by which He spreads the Gospel. A believer grows in the context of the church and being a part of it faithfully.

Application: It is in the power of the Holy Spirit that this is made possible. The means by which God commands us is also made possible by the Holy Spirit to live out this new life. We are imperfect. We are still growing in repentance and being made more like Jesus everyday. But we are being kept in power of God until the end. You can rest that God will not leave you or fail you. And if you truly believe, you cannot lose the love of God. You are His, no matter how bad we mess up. Does that give us an excuse to sin? No. But it reminds us that grace is applied for salvation throughout our whole lives.

Conclusion: That’s hope! God promises to powerfully keep us until salvation fully appears. That will come when Jesus comes and rules and reigns as King over the new heavens and the new earth in full. Do you have this living hope? Are looking for hope? There is none greater than this Good News today. Trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior. Realize your sin, your need for grace and mercy, that God has given it to you through His Son Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. Repent and believe! And this hope will bring you eternal life, salvation that will never perish, be defiled, or fade away, kept for you and God keeps you in His power to attain it in full one day. Until that day, we live in this eternal life, living for the glory of the one King Jesus, who died and rose again for our salvation!