Because He Lives

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I’m going to ask you to take out your Bibles this morning. Go ahead and take out your Bibles if you’ve got them and turn with me to the book of 1 Peter. 1 Peter.

You’ll find that in the New Testament toward the back of your Bible, right after James and right before 2 Peter. 1 Peter. You know, this has been a time of hardship.

It’s been a time of uncertainty. It’s even been a time of suffering for some, even some in our midst. It’s been a difficult time. And this is not the only difficult time that any of us have ever gone through.

And I hate to break it to you, but it’s not the last difficult time that we’ll all go through. Those things are part of life. And when we begin to look at it like that’s all there is, and we can’t see anything beyond that suffering, we start to despair.

And I’ve used the illustration before many times that when you’re standing in the middle of a storm, and you look around you because you’re in the middle of it, you can look around you 360 degrees, and all you see is that storm. It looks like the whole world is a storm. In reality, it may be a very small storm system.

And certainly in comparison to the size of the whole planet, it’s a small storm. But at that moment, when you’re in the middle of it, it looks like the whole world is the storm, when you can’t see anything beyond it. And it’s easy in those moments to despair.

I know that my wife and I have had numerous conversations about this kind of thing, where one or the other of us will feel overwhelmed. Thank God we never both feel that way at the same time or we’d be in trouble. But one or the other of us will feel overwhelmed about a problem.

And we both have said this to each other just in the last couple months. I can’t do this for the rest of my life. And it may have been something as mundane as feeling overwhelmed with a behavior problem with one of the children.

But you get in that moment and all you can see on the horizon anywhere you look is that problem. and you can’t see anything past it, and it starts to overwhelm you. And usually what the other one of us will do is talk to the other one about, you know, reassure them.

This is just a temporary thing, because when you’re standing outside the storm, you know, say if you were up there in a weather satellite, I know we can’t ride around in satellites, but if you’re seeing the picture from a weather satellite, that storm looks really small. And when you’re standing back, you’re not engulfed in it, you can see that it’s just a small storm. And so we’ll try to reassure one another that this problem you’re dealing with, it doesn’t last forever.

It feels like you’re engulfed in this right now. But give it time. There’s something beyond it.

And that usually has the effect of reassuring us and helping the other one to calm down. And when we get in those storms in life, when we get in these times of difficulty, we need to know that there’s hope beyond. There’s something beyond this current struggle.

For us in this coronavirus situation, there’s going to be life on the other side of it. There’s something beyond this to look forward to. Maybe you’re struggling with a family situation.

You need to know that there is hope beyond this current struggle. Maybe you’re dealing with a financial situation. I know a lot of people are right now.

There’s hope beyond this current struggle. And that was true in the day when Peter wrote this letter, when he wrote 1 Peter. He was writing to a group of people who really understood the idea of struggle and hardship.

I want to read to you the first five verses of this. I’m going to start a new series this morning that will go for just a few weeks, looking at chapter 1 of 1 Peter and seeing this idea of hope, And more specifically, our living hope that we have in Jesus Christ. But I want to read to you these first five verses this morning and kind of set the stage for you for us to understand who these people were that he was writing to, what they were dealing with, how Jesus Christ offered them hope, and what we can learn from their circumstances. So it says, starting in verse 1, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the pilgrims of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father in sanctification of the Spirit for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace be multiplied.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. Now, we need to understand who he was writing to as he writes about this hope that we have. The believers that Peter was writing to were refugees.

Now, he uses the word dispersion. Some translations use the word diaspora, which means a scattering of people. We may not immediately identify with those terms, but we know what refugees are because we see them on the news.

That’s been a term that’s been thrown around and discussed and debated in our country for a few years now, this idea of refugees. But we kind of understand, even if we don’t understand it experientially, because most of us have never been in that situation. We at least have some idea of what these refugees are, what their lives are about.

These are people who have been uprooted from their homes by war or famine or some other issue. Those of you who were here, we saw a video a few months ago about one of our missions offerings. people in Venezuela who were fleeing from violence and the fact that there was economic upheaval in their country.

We’ve seen refugees appear on our border from places in Central America. There’s been the discussion of refugees from Syria, people whose lives were uprooted by war. And these people end up fleeing to another place, trying to find a better life, trying to escape what life has thrown at them.

And in some cases, they end up in situations that are just as bad. Peter was writing to people like that. These believers were refugees.

And so he’s writing to the pilgrims. Pilgrims were people that traveled. They traveled for religious purposes. And so he’s writing to these people, these Christians, who were now scattered and had become refugees in Pontus and Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia.

That’s basically the area that the Bible calls Asia Minor, what we know today as Turkey. And they were scattered through that area, and they were scattered there because of persecution. The Romans at that point had really, it’s one of the times that they had really pressed down on the Christians, that they were persecuting the Christians hard.

And so these believers had been scattered. They had become refugees. and they were looking at their lives and seeing this real storm, not a literal storm, but a real storm.

And they were seeing it, and it would be easy to feel engulfed in that and feel like there’s no hope. When your life has been so uprooted that your basic concerns at that point are not, oh, what am I going to do today? Your agenda is set for you when you get up.

You’re trying to escape being murdered or your family being murdered. You’re trying to find a safe place to hide, a safe place to sleep, You’re trying to figure out where your next meal is going to come from, how you’re going to provide for your family. You end up with this very short list of priorities.

And every bit of that is a struggle. All these things that we take for granted, they’ve become a struggle. It’s easy to see how hopeless a situation that would be.

And how it would be easy for these people to fall into despair thinking that’s all there is. But it’s interesting Peter refers to them as pilgrims. That’s a reminder that they were traveling for spiritual reasons. Yes, to them it looked like it was this very practical concern of having to flee for their lives, but Peter was pointing out to them there that this was all according to God’s plan.

Now, was God thrilled that his people were being mistreated? I don’t believe that’s the case. But I do believe God knew ahead of time that the Romans were going to persecute them, and rather than step in and stop it, God decided to use it for his purposes.

And every time we see the early church being persecuted, we see a massive spread of the gospel as a result. Because as people were forced out of Jerusalem in the book of Acts, as Christians were forced out of Jerusalem, they carried the gospel with them in every direction as they traveled. And every time throughout history that the church has been persecuted, every time the church has been persecuted, they’ve gone out and they’ve spread the gospel.

the harder this world tries to stamp out the message of Jesus Christ, the more they spread it. Sort of like my children with these dandelions. Now, they think they’re fun.

They grow all over the yard. They think they’re fun. They know I don’t like them.

So I think in their minds, at least I’ve chosen to believe this, they’re trying to help. But they’ll go pick the dandelions, and they’ll blow the little things, whatever you call those, I forget. Y’all know what they are.

They’ll blow those things, and I just have to tell myself, in their mind, they’re helping because they think, oh, no more dandelion. But what they’ve actually done is spread it. That’s the same thing.

When the authorities tried to stamp out the gospel every time, doesn’t matter whether it’s the Romans, whether it’s the Chinese Communist Party trying to do it today, every time they try to stamp out the gospel, they end up spreading it more. So these people were refugees. They’d been dispersed because of persecution.

And yet Peter was reminding them that God was at work in their lives, no matter how much their lives had been turned upside down. And I think that’s a message we need to reflect on these days, because certainly we don’t want to make light of their suffering. We haven’t been through anything.

Let’s get real. Let’s honest talk right now. Our lives have not been anything like theirs were. We have not been to that level of suffering as a society or as a church.

We certainly don’t want to make light of what they went through. It’s been so hard, we’ve had to stay home. I know it’s been a struggle, but we can take solace in the fact that the same God who was at work in their lives, no matter how much they were turned upside down, is the same God who is constantly at work in our lives, no matter how much our lives get turned upside down.

And he points out that God is intimately involved here. God is incredibly active in their lives. As a matter of fact, he points out how all three persons of the Trinity were playing a role here.

He says in verse 2, he calls them the elect or chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. Now, again, I’ve talked to you about that before. I know some people will disagree with me.

I don’t think that that means God said, God chose, oh, you get to be saved and you get to be saved. No, I’m not going to let you be saved. I do believe that God knew who was going to trust Christ for their salvation.

But I believe a lot of times when the Bible refers to election, it’s saying the fact that God chose to have anything to do with us at all. Not that God chose who was going to be on the team, but that God chose to have a team to begin with because God didn’t owe any of us salvation. And we could get off in the weeds about that this morning.

I just want you to understand he’s saying that we were elect according to the foreknowledge of God, that God did know, he knew us before we were born, And he chose to save us in Jesus Christ. So there’s God seeing and knowing and choosing, the Father seeing and knowing and choosing. There’s the Spirit sanctifying, and there’s the Son who’s cleansing us with his blood. And Peter was reminding them that the Father had known them and had had plans for them.

The Son had saved them, and the Spirit was actively at work changing them. And so that combined with the fact that they were pilgrims, they’re not just refugees. They’re actually on a mission from God.

It’s a reminder to them that God was at work in their lives, no matter how much they’d been turned upside down. And he goes on to explain to them that amid their hopeless situation, their real hope was in Jesus Christ. Their real hope was not in the fact that, you know, one day the Romans will lay off. Their real hope wasn’t, oh, one day they’ll forget about us or we’ll get to a safe spot and we’ll have a safe place to sleep and food to eat.

That was hopeful. That was something they definitely wanted. But that wasn’t the real source of their hope, this wishful thinking about something that might come.

Their real hope was in Jesus Christ, and this whole section of text pointed them to the reality of that hope as we get into verses 3, 4, and 5. Now, we need to be careful about how we understand this hope, because as we apply it to our lives, we don’t want to say, well, we can have hope in Christ, and that means that the coronavirus is eventually going to go away. Yay.

No, it does not mean, it did not mean for them that every circumstance was going to turn out to their liking. For some of these people, for some of these people, they would not see the end of the persecution, because some of them were going to be killed in the persecution. And as a society, we may never see an end to coronavirus.

It may come back around seasonally like the flu. We want to hang our hats. When we’re talking about hope, we want to hang our hats on something more secure than just, oh, things will get better.

Things may get better in this situation, but do any of us believe there’s not going to be another situation down the road where we’re going to struggle and suffer? In life, we typically get through one time of trouble and there’s another one. That’s just part of the world.

This idea of hope didn’t mean that every circumstance was going to turn out to their liking. It meant that they could be confident of something better beyond the trials. Not that trials would ever stop coming, but that there would be something better.

And God promised them a living hope because of Jesus. You see the difference there. Hope is not that our circumstances will get better.

Hope is something better beyond the circumstances and something that transcends the circumstances. We get into verse 3. He says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

So he points them to this living hope in Jesus Christ. That’s where we find true hope is in Jesus Christ and the fact that He rose again from the dead. And we have a living hope because of Jesus. No matter what happens, we can turn to Him.

Because we’re not just looking for guidance from a dead religious leader. We are looking for actual hope and actual help from someone who conquered death. From God the Son who conquered death and rose again.

No matter what happens, we can turn to Jesus. No matter how we start to despair, no matter how big our trials get here, we know that our eternity is secure in Him. You know, there are some things on this earth that are just going to be a constant source of trouble.

There are some things on this earth that we’ll never be secure in. But we have a hope in heaven with Jesus Christ that no circumstance, no persecution, no trouble or trial, no suffering, no nothing can ever take away because it’s secure in Him. And this is not a fragile hope that He offers us.

It’s sort of, well, I hope we’ll get to be back together on May 3rd. I hope, but I really have no assurance of that. It’s not a fragile hope.

It’s not a dead hope. It’s not something in the past. It’s not wishful thinking. Folks, we need to understand that our hope is alive and it’s vibrant because Jesus is alive.

Our hope is not in any set of circumstances. Our hope is in the person of Jesus Christ who died for us and rose again three days later. Our hope today is in the salvation that Jesus offers us.

If you’re looking for hope this morning, you can find bits and pieces of hope here and there. You can find good news to cling to amid the bad, but what happens when the next calamity comes and you’re sent scrambling looking for hope again? There are hopeful things, hopeful things that we can look to.

But if you want actual hope that can’t be changed by our circumstances, can’t be diminished by our circumstances, can’t be taken away by our circumstances, then the only place to find that hope is in the salvation that Jesus offers us. And that salvation is based on God’s mercy, as we see in verse 3. He said that it was according to His, Peter said this was according to His abundant mercy, God’s abundant mercy.

It’s based on God’s mercy instead of what we earn or deserve. God didn’t owe us salvation. God didn’t owe us eternal life.

He didn’t owe us a place in heaven. He didn’t owe us any of it. He was not obligated to us for any of that.

When we sinned against God, and that sin separated us from Him, if God had looked at us and said, you know what, if that’s what you want, fine. You want to be without me? That’s fine.

Enjoy. God could have sent us to hell without ever giving it a second thought, and He would have been fine. And you know what?

He would have been totally just in reacting that way. He would have been totally justified in that decision. He didn’t owe us anything.

But because He’s merciful, because He’s loving, because He’s just, He offers salvation through His mercy, through His abundant mercy. He doesn’t give it to us stingily. His abundant mercy He gives to us in excess, in abundance.

And our salvation is based on that mercy rather than anything we earn or deserve or anything that God owes us. It’s just because He is good and He’s merciful. That salvation is based on God’s mercy.

That salvation is also because Jesus died and rose again. It has nothing to do with anything we do. He says, in verse 3, according to His abundant mercy, has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Because Jesus rose again. You and I didn’t do anything to deserve salvation. We can’t do anything to earn or deserve salvation.

It’s there for us because God is merciful and because Jesus Christ died to pay for it and rose again to prove it. And so because Jesus died and rose again, this salvation is available to us if we’ll receive it and receive him. And the salvation that he offers, it means that we’re born again, that we’re begotten into new life in Christ. He says that the Father has begotten us.

According to His abundant mercy, He has begotten us to a living hope. That word begotten is the same word that’s used for His relationship to the Son. Now, in our case, we were begotten into hope, and that means that we were adopted as His children.

We are born again into new life in Jesus Christ. People get it backwards all the time. They say, well, I’ll come to Christ. I’ll get saved when I get my life cleaned up. Now, if you could get your life cleaned up enough to come to God, you wouldn’t need salvation.

And so the idea that I’ll get saved after I get my life cleaned up is backwards. No, no. We come to Him and we get saved. We trust in Him for salvation, and then He cleans our life up.

We are born again into new life in Christ. We can’t give ourselves that new life by trying harder. Salvation means we’re born again to new life in Christ. It means we receive an inheritance that can never, ever be taken away. Because he says in verse 4 that we are brought to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that does not fade away.

That means it can’t be diminished. It can’t be stolen. It can’t be taken from us.

It can’t become worthless. That God offers us this inheritance in Jesus Christ that’s ours. And it’s ours permanently.

It’s ours forever because Jesus Christ paid for it. So this salvation means we’re born to this new life. It means we receive an inheritance.

Your place in heaven cannot be taken from you. But it also means that we’re held secure by the power of God until all of these promises are fully realized. He said this inheritance, it’s incorruptible, it’s undefiled, it does not fade away, but he says here at the end of verse 4 and starting verse 5, it’s reserved in heaven for you.

It’s reserved for you. We don’t reserve it ourselves. He reserves it for us who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.

So our place in heaven is reserved by God for us, and we are held secure. Not only is our salvation held secure, but we are held secure in that salvation all by God, all by the power of God, ready to be revealed in the last time. So until all of those promises of salvation are fully realized, we’re held secure by God.

We don’t earn our salvation, and we don’t hold on to our salvation. He does every bit of it. And that’s why we’re able to have hope, because my place with God does not depend on my performance.

A place in heaven does not depend on me being good enough to earn it, because I know me, and I know what’s in my heart. I know I can never be good enough to earn it. But not only that, it doesn’t depend on me being strong enough or spiritual enough to keep it.

It’s entirely dependent on what Jesus Christ has done for me. And so as a result, we have this offer of this living hope, and God calls us today to trust in Jesus Christ for that hope. Now, some of you who are listening to me this morning are believers, and you’ve already trusted in Jesus Christ for your salvation.

I want to tell you, just like these believers that Peter originally wrote to, that if your hope is in Jesus Christ for eternal life, you can trust Him in this life. If you can trust Jesus Christ with your salvation, you can trust Him with your circumstances. And what that means is when we get in these times of difficulty and these times of struggle, these times where we are tempted to despair because of our circumstances, we need to realize that our hope is not dependent on those circumstances.

our hope is in Jesus Christ who never changes. Circumstances will change. They’ll be good one day, they’ll be bad the next, go back to good and bad.

They’ll flip-flop back and forth. Jesus Christ never changes. And if your hope as a Christian, if your focus of your hope this morning is on the fact that, well, these circumstances will get better, we’ll go back to church, coronavirus will be over, people will start making money again, and everything will be fine.

If that’s the focus of your hope this morning. I mean, that’s great to be hopeful about that, but if that’s the focus of your hope, your focus is in the wrong place because those hopes can be dashed in a moment. As Christians, the focus of our hope is in Jesus Christ who’s given us a salvation, a hope, a place in heaven that can never be taken away.

If you’re a Christian this morning, the focus of your hope needs to be in Jesus Christ. And to those who are listening to me this morning who may not yet be believers. What I mean by that is I’m not saying you don’t believe in God. I’m not saying you don’t believe in Jesus.

When I say you’re not yet a believer, I mean you’ve never trusted in Christ for your salvation. You’ve never believed and received that offer of salvation in the gospel. The most important hope that you can have this morning is not the chance that your circumstances might improve.

That’s not the hope you need this morning, the chance that your circumstances might improve. The hope you need is the certainty that there’s something better throughout your circumstances and beyond your circumstances. You need hope that is bigger than just a change in your circumstances.

You need a hope that you can cling to through all the circumstances of life, and a hope that will lead you to peace with God, and a relationship with Him, and eternal life with Him in heaven. You need Jesus Christ for your salvation. And so if you’ve never trusted in Christ as your Savior, I’d invite you to do so today.

It’s as simple as recognizing that you’ve sinned against God, acknowledging that you believe you can’t earn or deserve or do enough good for God to forgive you, but realize that Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay for every bit of your sin, and He rose again to prove it. And if you believe that, if you believe that you’ve sinned against God and your sin separated you from Him, and you believe that Jesus Christ is your one and only Savior who bled and died for your sins and rose again to prove it, then this morning you can acknowledge that to God. You can ask His forgiveness, and you can be saved.

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