Jesus, Our Living Hope

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0:01Well, thank you, Pastor Joel, for the introduction. I'm grateful to be here today to be sharing with you what the Lord has laid in my heart to share with you this morning. And so our text comes to us today from 1 Peter. I think it's in your bulletin, but also if you have a Bible, you can turn there with me.

0:331 Peter 1, verses 3 to 12. And I would like to read it from, it's a lengthy text, and we're not going to go through it text by text, but I think we're just going to read it, and I'm just going to draw some, really some application from it, and then at the end, I'll have some, like, kind of one thing for us to do this week in light of what we, in light of the reading, in light of what the Lord has for us this morning. So I'm going to read it, I'm going to start reading from verse 1 to 12.

1:17So this is the Word of God, and we should hear it and listen to it as such this morning. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiled of the Diasporan in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ, and for sprinkling with his blood, may grace and peace be multiplied to you. Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1:48According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again, to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, whom by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this, you rejoice, though now, for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

2:32Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him, and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible, filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your soul. Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours, search, inquire carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the suffering of Christ and the subsequent glories.

3:09It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you, in the things that now have been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. Things into which angels long to look. Lord, we thank you that you give us your word. We thank you that your word is light to our feet. Your word, Lord God, is powerful. Lord God, your word never goes back to your void.

3:44We pray that your word, Lord God, speak to us this morning, and that, Lord God, we pray that you give us the strength to do what you call us to do. Because without you, we cannot do anything, Lord God. Without you, your word said that we are nothing. And so we pray today that you give us the strength, the power, and the ability to do what you call us to do. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. It is really an honor to be here today to speak to you and to just preach, and I'm grateful for the opportunity.

4:15I bring greetings. This is culturally. I come from South Sudan, from Africa. And every time you go somewhere, you bring greetings. These days, I don't know how you send greetings. It used to be that people write letters. But I bring greetings from my family, from my wife, Medben. We have been married for a long time, 20 years. And God has been faithful. God has blessed us with four wonderful children, three girls, and one boy. The boy is the youngest, I guess.

4:52You guessed that right. The boy is the youngest. And so we are grateful that God has blessed us so much. And I bring greetings from them this morning to you. Our oldest is at JMU, and so we are also thankful that God has made that possible for her to be attending JMU. So greetings. They said to greet you in Jesus' name. And now it's my turn also for you to tell me, greet her back. All right, so I'll take greetings from new creation to my family. And so the text before us today is very important.

5:35It's very encouraging to my heart. And I just want to highlight some of the things that the text kind of bring to us today. And if you forget anything, we are talking about Jesus, the living hope. For those of you who want to, who write down what is the topic, the topic is Jesus. Jesus, he is our living hope. And that's what Peter is trying to communicate today to these churches. And he's writing from Rome to the churches that he calls of Diaspora in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.

6:17These churches were Gentiles believers. And Peter writing to them because they were dealing with so much things that was tempting to quench their hope. Tempting to steal their hope. Tempting to destroy their hope. And Peter heard this and he is writing to them to encourage them to believe. To encourage them to continue to have that faith that they once really knew. And so as you can see from, you know, I hope that I had some time so that we can talk about verse 1 and 2.

6:52Because that is very important. And it gets at the heart of what Peter actually was trying to communicate. And why he wanted to write to them. So you can see from the very beginning, Peter greeted them with a blessing. He said, grace and peace to you. He greeted them with a blessing because he knows that they need to hear that they are blessed beyond measures. That they have the grace of the living God. That they have the peace of the living God.

7:21So he greeted them with blessing. But notice also that he greeted them as aliens. That word means stranger. That word means sojourner. That word means that they don't belong here. He greeted them as exile. But not only as a stranger and alien as a stranger. But he said that they are aliens chosen by God. You know, they are not just only those people who are out there that are nobody knows or sees or aware or is concerned for who they are. They are chosen by God.

8:03They are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. Sanctified by the Spirit for the obedience of Jesus Christ. Do you see how great that the Lord, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit is active in choosing them. That's powerful. But also he said that they are in diaspora. They are where they are physically. Saying that they are in the world. But what? Not of the world. You see that, you know, this new creation, this church is in this physical location.

8:43Right? In this geographical location. But guess what? We are sojourners. This is not our home. Even though we live in this Chester, we are chosen by God. And we belong to him. And that's why I'm really grateful to see in this, in your mission, that new creation, mission is to cultivate a hopeful community shaped by the grace and the truth to nourish new life in Jesus Christ. The church of God, everywhere that the church of God might be found, is put there for the glory and for the purpose of extending the kingdom of God.

9:26The church of God, everywhere that might be found, is there so that we show the light that Jesus is talking about. To be the salt that Jesus has talked about. That the church is salt, the church is light, where she might be found. And may I say that new creation is light and salt in Chester. And so Peter writes to us, and because he knows how important for the people of God to know that the hope that they have in Jesus Christ is real. Right? Because sometimes we lose hope.

10:03Sometimes we lose sight of that. So, this morning, Jesus is our living hope. And Peter goes on to say, from verse 3 to 12, I'm just going to touch a little bit in this. In verse 3, he says that we should have this hope because, first, our hope is born of God. Second, he said that not only our hope is born of God, but our hope is kept by God. And the third thing that he wants to talk to us is that our hope glorifies God. So, these are the three things that I want to talk about.

10:40Look with me in verse 3. He said, Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he allows us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Why does this matter that we are born again to a living hope? Why is it important for us?

11:05This is actually speaking personally. This is important for me because when I suffer, a couple of things happen to me. When I suffer, I tend to be hardened by my suffering, or my sufferings tend to soften me. I don't know where you are. And some of you might, we might have both. But suffering oftentimes tend to blind me of who God is. Are you with me? It tends to blind me of what God has done. It tends to blind me of what God has called me to be.

11:38Right? And so, he talks to them about that. Look, your hope is born of God. And a time will come where that will be challenged. And you will lose sight of where God is in the midst of the thing that you're going through. Right? More often, and also, suffering reminds me something very important. I mean, if you turn on the news today, you'll see that many things have happened in our world. And that should do something to us. That should cause us to long for the coming of the kingdom of God.

12:12Because suffering reminds us that this is not where it's at. It reminds us that this is not our home. That we are here, we are sojourned, and we are destined to a place where there will be no more pain, where there will be no more suffering, where there will be no more death. And so, suffering reminds us of a longing that there is a home for us somewhere. And that God is preparing that place for us. And finally, suffering sometimes, saints, tend to really harden me, you know, tend to make me angry, frustrated.

12:50I mean, I don't know about you. I mean, it's just really hard. I grow weary, I grow hungry, actually, angry, and hungry. But actually, you can see the how, I don't know, it's just, yeah, frustrated of the thing that I'm facing. So, that's very important for us today at the Church of God. So, this letter reminds us. So, let me say this. Is there anyone among us today that is weary? Is there anyone among us today that need to know the rest that Peter is speaking about?

13:29They need to know that this rest, that this hope that we have, and this rest that we have in Jesus Christ, is speak louder than our suffering. Is speak louder than the thing that we face in this world, right? And it reminds me to really hope in this. That Jesus says in Hebrew that he is today, well, he is yesterday, today, and forevermore. And oh boy, I just really sometimes don't believe that Jesus is that. That he is yesterday, and he is today, and he is forevermore.

14:05So, Peter says that our hope is born of God. God bring by telling us and saying, blessed. This word, blessed, is an Old Testament word that actually means praise, right? And when you hear this word, blessed, when you hear this word, praise, you know, we should be jumping up, we should be shouting and saying, yes, praise the Lord. Because, you know, it calls us to praise him for who he is. It calls us to praise him for what he has done. What did God do in our lives?

14:39And Peter here reminds us to give praise to God. I think I saw something that on New Creation Facebook, that this is first year anniversary? First year, last week. Awesome. And actually, I read this. I think I don't know who put it up there. He said, we have every reason to hope. Why? Because God is faithful, strong, and kind. To him be all the glory. We have hope, we have reason to praise God. And Peter is saying, you have every reason to praise God.

15:17Because you have a hope that is born of God, according to the mercy of God. What does that mean, according to Peter? It's just something that we have hope that is born of God. That means God is the author, God is the founder, God is the establisher of the hope that we have in Jesus Christ. Are we together? So we have a reason to praise God. I became a believer in Jesus Christ in 1992. That was back in Sudan. And that was a long time ago. And so I can say today, as I stand before you, none of us, not me, or none of us has come to faith.

15:58Because we have done something or earned something. We came to faith because at some point, somehow, somewhere in the past, God has opened our eyes to see Jesus for who he is. To see our sin for what it is. And to come to the end of our sin and say, Lord, unless you do something, I cannot be saved. And that, by the mercy of God, solely by the mercy of God that we are here today, church, is by the mercy of God that we are where we are. We have, and we didn't even do anything.

16:29We didn't earn it. God opened our eyes. And so it was a time where I had just left home at age seven. My father has sent me to live with my uncle's family in Khartoum because of war, because they wanted me to go to school. At that time, I was struggling with my identity. Who am I? And why did my father have sent me away at this age? I struggled with that identity. I struggled to fit in. I struggled to really know who I am. Until one day, at a vigil night, where a pastor was speaking about the love of God and how much that God loves us and that much God cares for us and how much that God sees us.

17:08And that really struck a chord with me. And I found myself, when they did the altar chord, I found myself coming forward and I didn't know. And the pastor said, what do you want? I said, I just want to believe that. I want to accept that. I want to receive that. I want to know that God really loved me. God really loved me. And he prayed for me. And that was it. Nothing magically happened. I went home. But over time, I realized that God has done something that day.

17:38That God has changed me. He has changed me. And from ever since that time, I continued to come to church, grow in my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And church, I did not do anything. God opened my eyes to see my need of him. The same thing for us and for you today. God opened your eyes to see your need of him. And by his grace, he has called you to embrace Jesus and to rest on him alone for salvation as he is offered to us in his word. Right? By grace, by his mercy, we are where we are today.

18:12And so as we grow in our knowledge with God, as we grow in our walk with the Lord, you see, something needs to happen in us. You know, the cross must become bigger and bigger. And the things of this world might become smaller and smaller. Right? And so this longing that we have, this growing longing for the coming of the Lord, this growing longing is rooted, as Peter says here, in the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. How big is the cross today for us?

18:45How big is the cross? Is the cross bigger than our problems? Is the cross bigger than our struggle? Is the cross of Jesus Christ? Is his resurrection bigger than the things that we face every day? I want to believe that. I want to believe that that is true. That whatever comes our way, that through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are born again to this living hope. And as we mature in our faith, we begin to see this cross magnified before our eyes.

19:20You see, the Bible tells us that even when we were dead in our sin and trespass, God made us alive with Jesus Christ. Not only made us alive, but made us seated in heavenly with Christ. Oh, how deep that is. We are sitting here, but the Bible said that we are even now seated with Christ in heaven.

19:44I mean, I can't even begin to understand what that means. This is too big for us to understand. That's how strong the salvation, the hope that we have in Christ, right? That we are raised with him and seated with him. God's chosen people have a hope that is born of God, the God of mercy, the living God, the God of the cross. In Christ, the Father has not only made salvation possible, he has secured our hope. And that's the second point I want to talk about, that God secured our hope, right?

20:25That hope that we have in him because of his great mercy. Friends, our hope is born of God. And because our hope is born of God, God will keep our hope. See with me, look with me at verse 4 and 3 here, verse 4 and 5. Now let me ask you this, if we have a hope that is born of God, what is the point of this hope if we will end up losing it?

21:08There is no point in a hope that actually we're going to lose. There's no point at all. Well, the good news for us today is that our living hope as an object that cannot and will not be lost or be lost. And he talks about inheritance, right? He talks about that there's an object of this hope and that is an inheritance. I don't know about you, but the issue of inheritance, I mean, I don't know how you think about it and how you really look at it. But the Bible is clear by saying that we have an inheritance, right?

21:47We have an inheritance. My father did not leave us an inheritance, so I don't know what inheritance feels like. But I know that my heavenly father has an inheritance for me. And oh boy, I wait and I long for that. And so when the Old Testament talk about the inheritance, they talk about the promised land, right? In the Old Testament, they talk about the promised land. Go and this is the inheritance I will give you, this land that I will give you.

22:15But in the New Testament, praise God, we have an inheritance that Jesus and the gospel talks about. Unlike earthly inheritance that the Old Testament spoke about, this inheritance that we have in Christ Jesus because of the death and the resurrection and the coming of Jesus Christ, this inheritance is no, nothing like this earthly inheritance. Nothing like this earthly inheritance. And look at the word that Peter described, this inheritance. He says that it's imperishable.

22:48To be imperishable meaning that it is an inheritance that does not decay. Unabled to wear out by the passage of time. And also not only that, but it's an inheritance that is undefiled. Undefiled by what? Undefiled by sin. Undefiled by this world of corruption. Undefiled is kept for us in heaven. So unlike this earthly inheritance that we have, this inheritance that we have in Christ Jesus is cannot and will never be polluted by sin because it's kept to us and by God himself.

23:26Our inheritance also is unfading. Unlike earthly inheritance, this will never wither, grow dim, lucid beauty, or glory. And our inheritance is kept in heaven. But notice what Peter said, kept in heaven. Look for whom it is kept in heaven. For you. Well, that's encouraging for me because not only that we have the inheritance. And you can think about inheritance as much as you want, as the fruit of the Spirit, as the joy of the Holy Spirit, as the thing that we have because of what Jesus has done for us.

24:03The community that we have the community that we have here, the fellowship that we have here, his word, his Holy Spirit. You know, we can think about it as these things, which is really great. But the Bible talks about God himself in Deuteronomy being the inheritance of his people. Did you hear that? God himself is our inheritance. But not only that, Peter said, it's kept for you. That means you and I are the inheritance of God.

24:37You and I are inheritance of God, kept in heaven for us. Now, Deuteronomy says this, but the Lord portion is his people. Jacob has allowed it in heritage. We read also in Micah about this as well. We too are kept by God. Church, you know, there is nothing, absolutely nothing, as Paul says in Romans, can separate us from the love of God, which is ours in Christ Jesus. There's nothing. Therefore, we are kept for that day when we will enjoy God forever.

25:19God is our inheritance. We are God's inheritance. Therefore, he will keep us. God will keep us from our enemies. You think about our enemies. What is our enemies? You know, the world, the flesh, the devil. God will keep us from all our enemies. There is no power. There is nothing too powerful that God will not keep us safe until that day when he will present us before. Before the heavens, before the angels of God. That's why we have a reason to rejoice now, church.

25:57We have a reason to praise God now. The shorter category will say that what is, what is the sheave end of man? Is it not to glorify God and enjoy him forever? It is. It is. To glorify God and to enjoy him forever. So, our hope is born of God and is kept by God. But more than that, our hope brings glory to God. Look at what Peter says here in verses 6 and 9. He says, The reason that our hope brings glory to God is because, because we, our hope is, we believe in Jesus, right?

27:11Our hope believes in Jesus. Jesus is what keeps us going every day. Jesus is the one that is gone before us. Jesus is the one that paved the way for us. But more than that, our hope brings glory to God as well because, through trials, we rejoice in what Jesus has done, what he has accomplished for us on the cross. Let me share this with you. My brother, my younger brother, called me this week and said that they had a new baby, which is good. I'm an uncle, which is awesome, great news.

27:48But the baby was born in the refugee camp. If you know, Sudan has been going through war and my family now are living in a refugee camp. And this beautiful young lady, new life, has been born in a place like that, right? And so my brother, I felt sorry for my brother. He's talking to me and excited about being a father, excited about bringing this new life into this world. And I was like, are you not concerned? He's like, well, God has been good.

28:16God is faithful. I mean, I was shocked. I mean, I was really encouraged at the same time. It's like, how can you believe? And it's like, I've got to believe that God is good. He's given us this baby in this difficult situation in which we are in. And we have a reason to praise God. We have a reason to give God glory. Their faith in Jesus Christ is real. Their hope in Jesus Christ is real. And it just put me to shame. And I just turned around and said, Lord, forgive me.

28:52Forgive me because I don't know and I cannot even begin to think about how to bring a child in the world in such a situation. But this is what Peter is talking about here, that there are these things that happen to us. And our hope is not found in the things of this world, but it's found in this person, Jesus Christ. Is Jesus real for us in time of situations such as this? Is Jesus stronger than this situation? And the answer is, he is. He is. He is stronger.

29:24And so, therefore, our hope really glorify God because God is the one that's working in us, the faith. God is the one that encourages us. God is the one that strengthens us because of what Jesus has done on the cross on our behalf. And I want to bring this to an end by saying this. Since our hope is rooted in God, kept by God, and bring glory to God, it cannot be destroyed. It cannot be destroyed. Indestructible. It is indestructible. Believe it, church.

29:58It is indestructible because it is alive. After all, Jesus said that our God is the God of the living. He is not the God of the dead. He is the God of the living. Right? And so, Peter brings this to an end and to talk about our hope actually is alive. Because the prophets prophesy about this person, Jesus Christ, who would come to take the sin of the world, who would come to redeem his people. And indeed, the vision of the prophet does not end with the vision of the dry bones in the valley.

30:35It ends, right, with Jesus Christ and him raised, with Jesus Christ and him raised from the dead. And we are hoping that one day, this person that the prophet prophesied about will come back again and take us to be with him forever. You see, Peter, when Jesus was transfigured before him, he said, God, Jesus is good for us to be here. Because he has got the glimpse of the glory of God. Let's build you a tent here. Think about that. That's the glimpse.

31:09You know, the thing that we enjoy today in our fellowship, in our worship, does not compare to the glory that awaits us. To the glory that is coming and that we are waiting to be revealed at the last day. So, church, our hope is alive. If you are tempted, if I'm tempted this week to believe otherwise, let me tell you this. Just look to Jesus. Look to Jesus. And say, Lord, give me what I need today to believe that you are alive in the midst of the things that I'm going through today.

31:49Let's pray. Father, thank you so much that you are good and that you are faithful. Lord, it's hard for us to believe. And sometimes it's hard for us to really wrap our mind around the hope that you're talking about. But I thank you for my friends and this church today. Lord, help us believe. Help us look to you, Lord God, in hope and in joy that we have in Christ Jesus. May we continue to praise you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.