We Are Hopeful

Reading: 1 Peter 1:13

1 Peter 1:13 ESV

13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Pray

We wish to find the truth

Veritas Serum

If you put these “truth tests” on someone and asked “where is your hope,” you’re sure to find a lot of different answers. But no one would tell you “I don’t put my hope in anything.”

Men are made to worship something, and left to ourselves, we choose terrible objects of worship. Calvin famously said in his Institutes that “man’s nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols.” The fact that Peter has to tell us to set our hopes on God’s grace means that we tend to put our hope in other things. So perhaps we need to start where we often are: diagnosing what we put our hope in and how. Then we can look at how to put our hope in the right thing.

People Will Always Put Their Hope in Something

Your Hope Lies with Your Treasure

Matthew 6:19–21 ESV

19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Luke 12:32–34 ESV

32 “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

1 Timothy 6:9–10 ESV

9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

Your Hope Lies with Your Focus

This flows from the last point - so much in fact that right after Matthew 6:21 where Jesus says our heart is with our treasure, the very next sentence Jesus says “do not be anxious about your life.” When we hope in the physical, temporal things, we constantly obsess about them. The things we focus on become the things we trust in - that’s why the author of Hebrews directs us in 12:2:

Hebrews 12:1–2 ESV

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

He’s telling us to lose the distractions and focus on Jesus. When Christ is our focus, he becomes the thing we rely on, trust in, and become like.

So a quick acid test: how do we know where we are putting our hope? Whatever we treasure and whatever we focus on - that’s where our hope lies. Do you value Christ’s redeeming work, or is something else “more valuable” in your eyes? Do you focus on Jesus or on someone or something else? In the words of Ross King, in his song “Clear the Stage,”

Anything I put before my God is an idol

Anything I want will all my heart is an idol

Anything I can’t stop thinking of is an idol

Anything that I give all my love is an idol

We must not worship something that’s not even worth it

Clear the stage, make some space, for the one who deserves it

As Believers, We Must Put Our Hope in God’s Grace

We Must Be Ready to Act on True Hope

1 Peter 1:13 ESV

13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

EXP: the word used here refers to a soldier grabbing the robes and tucking them in his belt so that he has the freedom to move around in battle.

We Must Be Awake to the Dangers of False Hopes

1 Peter 1:13 ESV

13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

We Can Look Forward to the Outcome of Hope with Certainty

1 Peter 1:13 ESV

13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.