Sunday, March 27, 2016

A Living Hope! I Peter 1:3-5

A Living Hope!
I Peter 1:3-5
Introduction: “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!” My father-in-law was born to Russian immigrant parents and he held on to aspects of their traditions. At Easter, it was customary to greet one another with a standard greeting, in Russian, “Christ is risen!” The reply, which always seemed more difficult to pronounce, was “He is risen indeed!”  We always tried to speak first so we would get the easier part!  What I like about that greeting is that it immediately shifts the focus, this Resurrection Sunday, to where it belongs, and away from rabbits and colored eggs and candy, to the empty tomb.  When Paul was summarizing the gospel that he preached at the beginning of I Corinthians 15 he pointed to an unfolding drama of history:
1Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you- unless you believed in vain.  3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,  4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures...
After pointing out the historical events that formed the foundation of the Good News he preached, Paul underscores the historicity of what happened, it was not only a story, it is history...
  5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.  6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.  7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.  8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
Later in that chapter Paul makes the point that Christianity rises or falls on the truth of the resurrection, if it is not true, if it did not happen, it is empty, a waste of time. But it did happen! The historical evidence is so compelling that there can be no reasonable doubt. And his victory over death means he is who he claimed to be and that we will live also if our trust is in Him. Dr. Ed Clowney was referring to the opening of another letter written by a different apostle when he said: “Our hope is anchored in the past: Jesus rose! Our hope remains in the present: Jesus lives! Our hope will be completed in the future: Jesus is coming (I Peter 1:5,7,14)!”  Our message today is entitled, “A Living Hope!” And we have a “living hope” because we have a living Savior!
The Maine Idea: The resurrection means that Jesus is who He claimed to be and our hope is sure if our trust is in Him.
I. We have hope if we worship the God who is – it matters what (and who) we believe! That is where Peter starts in I Peter 1:3,
                          “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ...”
       As Peter begins this letter, he speaks words of blessing and worship to God.  Notice that he is being very specific, some might say, very exclusive, in terms of who he is speaking.  Today we have a lot of encouragement to be “inclusive” in our language.  In certain cases that is probably a good idea, especially if people might misunderstand what is being said.  Personally, I don’t mind saying “humankind” instead of “mankind,” or “brothers and sisters” instead of “brethren.” We want to be clear, as precise as we can be in expressing what the Bible is really saying.  However we don’t want to change what the Bible actually teaches. Some would suggest that “it doesn’t really matter what you believe, as long as you believe it.” And that “we all really worship the same God, we might just call Him (or her!) by different names.”  Well there is only one true God.  He is the God who is, the God who exists.  He has revealed himself in human history and he has spoken to us in this book (the Bible).  And He has revealed himself in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 
      Peter was a Jew, and his Bible, which was now being interpreted in the light of the coming of Jesus, was what we call the Old Testament.  The apostles were present, bringing the revelation of Jesus to the church, and writing the documents that would eventually become the New Testament.  The phrase that we see here in I Peter reflects on what appears in the Hebrew Scriptures, “blessed be God...” (Gen 14:20; Ps 18:46; 66:20; 68:35; Dan 3:28; cf. 2 Cor 1:3; Eph 1:3; I Pet 1:3).  Read a few examples from the Law, the writings, and the prophets...
Genesis 14:18-20   18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.)  19 And he blessed him and said, "Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth;  20 and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!" And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.
Psalm 18:46 - The LORD lives, and blessed be my rock, and exalted be the God of my salvation!
Psalm 66:20 Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me!
Psalm 68:35 Awesome is God from his sanctuary; the God of Israel- he is the one who gives power and strength to his people. Blessed be God!
Daniel 3:28  28 Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, "Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him, and set aside the king's command...
Do you see what is going on? In each case, as the Old Testament character reflects on God’s presence, His intervention in human history, His faithful love toward His people, and then he responds with worship to God.  God gets the glory! Worship is the response of the heart to the God who is real and present and who acts in history.  Three times in the New Testament the exact phrase that we have in I Peter 1:3 occurs also in two letters of PaulOnce we see it in Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians,
2 Corinthians 1:3-4   3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,  4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
Ephesians 1:3  3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places...
Peter uses the same language, word for word, here at the beginning of I Peter. The apostles have taken up the language of the Old Testament and filled out a little the fuller significance. The God of the Old Testament, the God who is real and who is present, who made promises to His people and demonstrated His faithfulness in history, is God, the Father of Jesus. So the apostles offer him praise. Of course the greatest intervention in history was when God did for us what we could not do for ourselves.  He sent the sinless, perfect Son into the world to suffer rejection and torture, and ultimately death, so that sinful humans like us could be reconciled to God.  That is a message worth believing! C.S. Lewis said, “Christianity is only worth believing if it is true...
       If I told you that I saw a pink elephant this morning, would you believe me?  That might worry you, or you might think about some stuffed animal Mary Ann might have at home for the grandchildren’s visits... Or you might think that some professional help would be in order!  But if I explained, and gave more detail, or even showed you a video I had seen... of a baby albino elephant that was recently born on a reserve in Africa, that might be different!  Disbelieving doesn’t make it untrue!
       In this case, believing me or not would not be of great consequence. But when we are talking about forgiveness and reconciliation with God, or a new, abundant life here on earth and eternal life with God in the new heaven and new earth it makes all the difference in the world if what we are claiming is true!  C.S. Lewis is correct, “Christianity is only worth believing if it is true.” After all Paul said in I Corinthians 15, if we have hope in this life only, in other words, if the resurrection is not true and there is nothing beyond this life, then we are of all people most to be pitied!  But, as Paul said and as Peter affirms, God is real, and He loves us, and he sent the Son so that sinful humans could have a way to be reconciled to Him. Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, He was buried, and He was raised again the third day according to the Scriptures. The resurrection means that Jesus is who He claimed to be and our hope is sure if our trust is in Him.

II. We have hope because God’s mercy, not our effort is the basis of a new life!    We can’t save ourselves any more than we could choose to be born!   I Peter 1:3 says,
According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again...
     “Mercy” and “grace” are closely related ideas in the Bible. “Grace” talks about receiving blessings that we don’t deserve. God’s unmerited favor.  “Mercy” refers to not receiving what we do deserve, that is to be judged for our sins.  We all need God’s mercy, because we are guilty (Eph 2:1-5; Rom 3:10,23).
1  And you were dead in the trespasses and sins  2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-  3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.  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…
     In his mercy He intervened, we see divine initiative, “...he caused us to be born again...”, or as Paul said, He “...made us alive together with Christ...”
     “...to be born again...”  This isn’t reformation, it is transformation. It isn’t turning over a new leaf, it is receiving a new life.  The prophets anticipated this day, when a New Covenant would come that would be bring a new life. Ezekiel for example said,
26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
One of the most direct conversations we see in the Gospels about this idea of a new birth came, in the dark of the night, between Jesus and a religious leader named Nicodemus. We read it in John 3:1ff.,
1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.  2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him."  3 Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."  4 Nicodemus said to him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?"  5 Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.  6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.  7 Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'  8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."  9 Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" 
Not only can these things be, this is our only hope! As we see our helpless situation and turn to God, putting our trust in Him, He is working in us and giving us a new life.  We were dead in our trespasses and sins, but He made us alive, by grace through faith we are saved. The basis for such mercy is that Jesus took the penalty for us, and was raised again the third day. He lives, so we have hope!  We don’t get our life right and then come to God. There are no perfect people in church! We come as we are, and He begins to change us from the inside out. The resurrection means that Jesus is who He claimed to be and our hope is sure if our trust is in Him.
III. We have hope because Jesus proved he is the Son of God in the resurrection (See Rom 1:1-3; I Cor 15:1-3)!   Peter says in 1:3 that we have been born again...
“...to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead...”
     Earlier this year we spent about six weeks going through I Corinthians 15. That chapter starts off, in 1-11, talking about some of the evidence for the resurrection, specifically the eyewitnesses. As Paul wrote he was essentially inviting his readers, if they had any doubts, to investigate and to ask questions of those who had seen Him. There could be no doubt!  I would also point to the transformed lives of those witnesses.  How did a fearful band of disciples become courageous proclaimers of the Gospel? They knew that Jesus had defeated death, so their future was sure!  This is not the popular idea of hope, which amounts to basically wishful thinking. Like the little boy who said, “Hope is wishing for something you know ain’t gonna happen!”  That isn’t biblical hope. We have a living hope, a confident expectation about the future, because the tomb is empty! Christ is risen!   The resurrection means that Jesus is who He claimed to be and our hope is sure if our trust is in Him.

IV. We have hope because God has promised us an inheritance that will not perish or fade (4)! An inheritance undefiled, not fading...
“...to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you...”  (I Peter 1:4).
Another translation of the word Greek word diatheke, “covenant,” is “testament.” It is sometimes used that way in the New Testament. The death of one brings forth the passing of an inheritance on to His heirs. The document, a “last will and testament,” might guarantee a future “inheritance.” That is if it is still there when then testator dies! Peter is talking about an imperishable and unfading inheritance for believers in Jesus, under guard in heaven itself.  Peter had heard Jesus teach about earthly and heavenly treasures in the Sermon on the Mount,
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...” (Matthew 6:19-21).
Peter is not just talking about treasures in Heaven, but an eternal, unfading inheritance. Think of what that implies: Heirs receive the inheritance. We are heirs because He has made us His children in the new birth (see I John 3:1)! His resurrection means that Jesus is who He claimed to be and that our hope is sure if our trust is in Him.
V. We have hope because God promises to keep (guard) those who believe!
“...who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time (I Peter 1:5).
       If you have put your trust in Jesus as the one who died for your sins on the cross, how do you know you won’t fall away?  Notice v.5, “...who by God’s power are being guarded...” I’ve mentioned before the two dogs one of our neighbors had, Mary Ann and I called them “tiny” and “Hercules.” Tiny was a Great Dane that had a deep, powerful bark that guaranteed no intruder would try to enter that yard. And “Hercules” was a little Shitzu or something that would stand underneath the big dog, yapping away at passersby!  He might have thought the security of the house was his responsibility, but “Tiny,” the Great Dane, is the one who kept the place safe. Jesus said, “No one can snatch you out of my Father’s hand. “ That is a promise. We have a sure hope, because it doesn’t depend on us. God is the one who keeps us.
       N.B. “...in the last time...”  As surely as the resurrection was a historical event, so will be His return...  Now is the acceptable time, today is the day of salvation!
What is God saying to me in this passage? The resurrection means that Jesus is who He claimed to be and our hope is sure if our trust is in Him.
What would God have me to do in response to this passage? It may be that you are reading this, and you feel a little like Nicodemus, “How can these things be?” The invitation to you is to come, there is hope in Jesus. He defeated the greatest enemy, death, and He has purchased eternal life and forgiveness for all who will believe. Will you put your trust in Him as your savior and Lord?

       Perhaps you have believed in Jesus at a time in the past, but circumstances in life caused you to drift away, to push Him back into a corner of your life.  Maybe you are asking questions, wondering if this is true. But here you are. That is not by chance. God planned this moment in your life. He wants you to know, grace is inexhaustible. His mercies are new every morning. You know the truth. Confess your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. There is no need to feel hopeless. There is no reason to lose hope. Christ is risen! Easter means a living hope for all who will trust Him!

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