Our Living Hope

I'm going to ask you to stand. We're going to read our passage, which is 1 Peter, three verses. 1 Peter 1, verses 3, 4, and 5.

So read it with me and read it thoughtfully. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He's 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, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Amen. You got your Bible turned there. You say, well, why should I follow my Bible?

Many reasons. One is to make sure that what I'm saying is rooted in Scripture. Also we want you to understand the Bible, to be familiar with the Bible, and to do that you've got to get your Bible and to read it. If you're new, you don't have a Bible, there's one in the pew, and you can turn there. If you don't know where 1 Peter is, there's a table of contents at the beginning.

Also if you like to buy a Bible, we have ones in the word room, and we read there from the English Standard Version, our living hope. The person who is unemployed hopes for a better future. The individual who has been rejected by someone hopes for a better relationship in the future.

The patient diagnosed with an illness hopes for better health. The athlete who is cut from the team hopes for a better opportunity. Hope gives us strength. Hope gives us courage. Hope lifts our spirits. Hope changes our perspective.

However difficult the circumstances, however tough the way, hope keeps us going. Without hope, we die. Many people have no hope. Paul writes of those who have no hope in the world. Those who have no hope experience depression, feelings of meaninglessness, feelings of darkness, and often in an attempt to make themselves feel better about themselves, they may pursue self-destructive activities.

Why? They have no hope. What is to sustain us, the people of God, in difficult times? What is to give us a perspective above and beyond the difficulties of life? Well, the Apostle Paul writes of faith. The Apostle John writes of love. Peter writes of hope, as we just read. Hope for suffering saints, those that we have learned over the last couple of weeks who are described as exiled, persecuted for their commitment to Jesus Christ, and in the midst of their suffering, tribulation and persecution, Peter shines this brilliant light, a living hope. Yes, the Christian, the authentic Christian has a magnificent and glorious hope, which is independent of our present circumstances.

I want you to get that. The Christian has a wonderful, glorious hope, which is independent of our present circumstances. Our hope is greater than our trials. We are people not of despair, not of pessimism, not of negativity. We are people of hope.

We are people of a living hope. Now, verses 3 through 12 of 1 Peter are foundational, because we're learning that Peter is telling us first who we are in Christ. Before he tells us what to do, as it were, we must understand our identity.

We must have a sense of our security in Christ. We must understand the so great salvation, which Peter is brilliantly presenting. He's describing, did you notice it in verse 3? He's describing all of our blessings to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Do you think of God like that? Blessed, he says, verse 3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. All of the blessings that we have come from our gracious God as we're learning. Now let's reflect on this Christian hope, the hope of the gospel, this living hope. First of all, our living hope has a beginning, Peter is telling us, and our living hope begins not with some psychological trickery, but with our new birth. We are born again. Notice verse 3, 1 Peter 1, verse 3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

According 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. Our new hope begins with being born again. Do you think Peter heard the teaching of Jesus about the new birth? Remember that wonderful chapter John 3, where there's a conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus?

Probably it was just the two of them, but I'm sure as Peter followed Jesus for three years, he would have heard the Lord's teaching on this magnificent subject of the new birth, where Jesus says to Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, a man who was steeped in the Old Testament Scripture, Nicodemus, you must be born again. Unless you're born again, you will not see, you will not enter the kingdom of God. We must be born again. And Peter is saying, and saying so rightly based on the teaching of his master, that this living hope that we have begins with being born again. Born again, he says, to or into a living hope. Why must we be born again?

What is this all about? The theological word is regeneration. We are to be regenerated, which means we are to receive new life.

Where does this new life come from? Why do we need it? Well, we need it because we're spiritually dead in our trespasses and sins. By ourselves, we're away from God.

We are not following God. We're living for ourselves. Spiritually speaking, we're dead.

What does a dead person need? New life. Life not self-perpetuated, but life which comes from God. Here is the new beginning for the Christian. A fresh start in Jesus Christ. A living hope. Yes, a sharing in the very life of God. The life of God in the soul of men and women.

Isn't that marvelous? That whoever we are, whatever our past, however wretched it was, however our failures hurt, however sinful and absolutely mean and rotten we have been, that for every single individual, there is this opportunity to be born again. A fresh start.

Wouldn't you like to all the past to be gone and to begin again and to get it right? Yes, we say, that is found in Jesus Christ. The life of God, we must be born again. So it begins this living hope with being born again. But our new birth is, again verse three, it's according to His, God the Father's, great mercy.

We sang about that, didn't we? God's great mercy. According to His great mercy.

Not just mercy, but His great mercy. That emphasizes that we are miserable. It emphasizes that left to ourselves, we're in a helpless condition. Left to ourselves, we are unable to change our spiritual condition.

And just as a baby contributes nothing to his or her birth, so we contribute nothing to our spiritual birth. Do you understand that? You feel you want to do something? You want to repackage yourself? A new beginning? A makeover?

Well, the cosmetic surgeon can give you a makeover externally, but no one can give a makeover of your heart, of your soul. That is found according to God's great mercy. We're totally dependent upon His mercy. That's why humility is key in the Christian faith.

Paul says the same in Ephesians chapter two. Listen, verse four, he says, but God being rich in mercy. It's not just a little bit of mercy. We need a lot of mercy. And that's what God gives us, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. There is the regeneration. There is the new birth. There is the supernatural event in someone who is spiritually dead, now is spiritually alive, and it is all based not on their endeavors. One of the fathers dedicating his child read Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, that it is by grace that we're saved through faith, and that not of ourselves.

It's not of our doing. It's entirely through the mercy of God. So we who are followers of Jesus Christ are people who know about mercy. Look at 1 Peter 2 verse 10, where Peter spells this out. He says, once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Some of them were Gentiles, some of them were Jews, some of them were far, far away from God. But now, says Peter, through this regeneration, through being born again, you have this living hope which began at your new birth and was all according to God's great mercy. Furthermore, it's clear that this new birth flows from the resurrection of Jesus. Again, verse 3, according to the great mercy He has caused us. God does it, not you. He's caused us to be born again to a living hope.

How does this come about? Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Our living hope is grounded in and guaranteed by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If our Lord Jesus did not rise from the dead, we have no hope. This hope that we've been singing about, this hope which we believe about, this hope which is so wonderful, comes through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Paul in a great chapter on resurrection, 1 Corinthians 15, spells it out. He says, if Christ had not been raised, your faith is futile and you're still in your sins. If we had hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men must be pitied. If Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead, we have no hope.

Why is it that we have hope? Because it comes to us through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Once we're spiritually dead, but our Lord Jesus, God-man, we thought about that last week as we thought of the Trinity, that the Son of God died for our sins, was buried, and He rose again on the third day.

He shattered the gates of death, and He's alive. And He says to His disciples in John chapter 14, because I live, you shall live also. That the Christian's life is indissolubly bound to the life of Christ.

And here's the miracle of salvation, the miracle of the new birth. That when we're born again, we immediately receive this new life, this eternal life. We have a living hope which will never die. We will have a — we have a living hope which will never end.

Why? Because Jesus says, I am the resurrection of the life. He who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. That is our living hope isn't wishful thinking.

It's not playing a trick on ourselves. It is based on the historical reality of the resurrection from Jesus Christ from the dead. And when we talk to people about heaven, we were singing about it, and perhaps some of you are in this category. You say, well, John, I hope to be in heaven.

But that hope is not a strong hope. It's more like a wish. And if we press them a little further and say, well, you're saying you hope to be in heaven, what's that based on? It comes down to it, isn't it? It's based on what they have done.

It's based on what they will do. It's based on the idea that God is loving, and I think I'm going to make it, and I just hope I will get there. No. The Christian hope, the living hope for the authentic believer in Jesus Christ is a living hope that we have now, presently. No, this is not wishful thinking. This is not hoping that we're good enough, that we've done enough to get into heaven. No, this hope, this living hope is a sure and certain assurance of eternal life. That's why Peter calls it a living hope, not wishful thinking, not a dead hope, not a stale hope, but a living dynamic and growing hope.

Why? It is united to the promises of the living God. So I ask you, have you been born again? This living hope has a beginning, and it begins with a new birth. It begins by claiming the promises of God, that whoever believes in the Son has life, whoever does not believe in the Son shall not see life. So this living hope first begins with the new birth, but this living hope is a future obviously. Verse four, a perfect inheritance. So read with me in verse four. For the sake of connection, let me read again verse three, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He's caused us to be born again to or into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to or into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.

Isn't that magnificent? That the object of our hope is a future inheritance. We are born again into a living hope. We're born again into an inheritance. What a powerful encouragement that must have been to these readers in the first century, these exiles of the dispersion.

Those who had been scattered in these five Roman provinces in present day Turkey. What a wonderful encouragement for them to hear that they have a future inheritance. Now what's an inheritance? Some of the children may not know. Well, an inheritance is something that you inherit.

You may have, some of you have experienced this. You've received an inheritance from a parent who's died, a grandparent, a rich uncle, someone who has died and has left you money or left you some property and you inherit it. Some of you are sitting here and you're expecting a future inheritance. Not that you would say you want the person dead, but you're planning on that future inheritance. We used to say as lawyers where there's a will, there's a relative. And some of you have got your eye on someone's will.

Well, be careful. Wills can be changed. But an inheritance, inheritances are generally based not on what the person has done, but is based on relationship. You leave in your will, you leave your inheritance, perhaps not entirely, normally to your family, to your children, to your grandchildren, to your wife, to your sister. And it's not based on what they have done, but it's based on who they are.

It's based generally on relationships. Obviously, there's acceptance to this. But our salvation, our hope, our spiritual inheritance are gifts which we do not deserve and which we do not work for. Peter has told us it's all according to God's grace. Mercy, you do not deserve.

I don't deserve this future inheritance. Isn't that wonderful? That when God in His grace saves us, not only does He wipe out all of our sins so that they're remembered no more, He graciously, grace upon grace upon grace, He gives us this living hope of a future inheritance. And this living hope goes beyond death.

Why? Because our trust is in the living Christ who has conquered death and who is alive. It is living.

It's powerful. We presently inherited, as it were, although it is future. Notice what he says here in verse four, this perfect inheritance is kept in heaven for you.

Now for those grammarians, the word kept here, or reserved, is a perfect passive participle meaning that the inheritance is there at the moment and will continue to be. There's been a person who in their will has left something to a son or a daughter and has changed their will, has fallen out with a person. Said, no, I'm not going to leave my inheritance to my son, and he changes the world. That will never happen with God, does it? He gives us a living inheritance and says, Peter, it is kept in heaven for you. If you're born again, your name is already on your inheritance. It's kept, take it personally, it's kept in heaven for you. I have an inheritance in heaven which is kept for me. It's reserved for me. You ever gone into a plane, you get the boarding card, you get the seat number, and you go and there's someone else sitting in the seat?

It's always an interesting conversation. Usually, they're sitting in the wrong seat, but sometimes it's been known that the same seat has been allocated to two people. That never happens with God, does it? You're not going to get into heaven and it's saying, I'm sorry, that seat is taken. No. It is reserved in heaven for you.

Why? Peter's going to tell us later in the chapter, it's been purchased by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He loves me. He died for me. In His grace, I've been born again.

He's giving me eternal life, and we have this wonderful hope which is based on the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, based on the reality that God always keeps His promises and that it is kept not by me, but is kept by God in heaven. And this future inheritance, Peter takes a little time to describe it, is a perfect inheritance. Here's what he says first, to an inheritance that is imperishable, imperishable. Earthly inheritance sometimes decrease in value, they perish. Property deteriorates.

Stock values decline. Heirlooms are lost. I remember when I was practicing law, one of our clients was inherited from his great uncle an island, a small island in Scotland, with a castle on it. That's very exciting, isn't it? You would be excited. I would be very excited. And there was not many people on the island.

That would make me even more excited. And so, there I go. But the problem was, when he actually saw it, it was in a state of tremendous disrepair. Once it had been a beautiful castle, but it had been neglected because his great uncle hadn't lived in it, had been living in England, but in his will, he bequeathed it to his great nephew, and his nephew comes to claim the inheritance, and it has perished.

He did some repairs, a couple of times invited Gudney and me for dinner there, and I thought, you know, this is a great location, but it's a really lousy place to live in. It had perished. Our inheritance says Peter is imperishable.

Secondly, he says it is undefiled. Early inheritance sometimes can be defiled. Money left to someone in inheritance may be made by corrupt means, may have — someone may have made money because of illegal practices, and the inheritance is defiled. No, this inheritance in heaven, which is reserved for you, is free from moral pollution. It's unstained by evil. It's not subject to corruption. Third, says Peter, it is unfading.

Oh, I like that, don't you? Earthly inheritance often fade, don't they? The age, something which once was very desirable, now it's faded, it's worthless.

By the time it's inherited, it's not worth anything at all. But our inheritance, this inheritance which is kept for us in heaven, is unfading in its timeless, eternal beauty. One commentator writes, he says this inheritance is untouched by death, unstained by evil, unimpaired by time.

Did you get that? Untouched by death, unstained by evil, unimpaired by time. This is our glorious, living hope. Our future inheritance, our perfect future inheritance reserved in heaven.

I go to prepare a place for you, and when I come, says Jesus, I will receive you unto myself that where I am, there you may be also. This is our glorious, living hope, brother sister. Our perfect, future inheritance is reserved in heaven. As I say, what an encouragement that must have been to exiles who are banded by the culture, who are isolated, who may be driven from their homes, lose their jobs.

What an encouragement to them. We sang in that song, Ancient Gates, that we're going to a place where every tear is wiped away, and we will know no sorrow. Christian friend, there's nothing to fear in death. Don't fear death. I know you think well, going from time to eternity might be difficult, and I realize sometimes it is.

Sometimes people are ill for a long time. Sometimes we die suddenly. Of course, we're all praying that the Lord will come and take us all to be with Him without going through death.

But do not fear death. In God's grace, that living hope which was begun by the new birth is a future inheritance, and it is perfect. And notice what he says now, thirdly, while our living hope has a past, the new birth, while we look forward to a future inheritance, what about the present? Verse 5, who, this is incredible, isn't it? Who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Let me read the three verses again for the power of the statement. Verse 3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He's caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Not bad for a fisherman from Galilee. What a statement by Peter, Apostle, riding under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to elect exiles of the dispersion, and so on. Our living hope has a present guarded by the power of God. We, as we live our lives, are presently guarded by the power of God.

Our inheritance is not only kept in heaven for us, that's suture, we are presently protected by the power of God. We are shielded by the power of God. As we live our lives, God has a shield around us, a protection around us, and this power which raised Jesus Christ from the dead is the same power which keeps us safe. This word guarded, verse 5, who by God's power are being guarded through faith is a military term. The picture is of soldiers guarding, protecting the garrison. We are being guarded, not by soldiers, we are being guarded by God's power.

You say, why do we need that? Then you'll notice that as I, as I dedicated these children, we prayed for protection on their home, protection for these children. We recognize that there are evil forces out there, aren't there? Forces which try to destroy marriages, forces which try to destroy homes, forces which try to have children as they, as they grow up to rebel against their parents. We live in a world which increasingly is anti-Christian, anti the Word of God. And so, we understand, we are to understand that there are forces, spiritual forces out there trying to destroy us, trying to take our inheritance, trying to rob us of our living hope, trying to get us to be depressed and discouraged and to deny our faith. But we bless the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who is guarding us in the middle of hostile territory. God is holding you. God is protecting you through faith.

Trust Him. This is the power I say which raised Jesus Christ from the dead. What an incredible security system, unbreakable as it is guarded by God Himself. Left to ourselves, all of us would fall away.

I think we know that. We're weak. We're inconsistent. There's temptations, there's discouragements, there's difficulties in life and we may think, how did this happen as I try to follow Jesus Christ? This is so unfair and we may fall away. But if God is for us, who can stand against us? We're guarded by God's power. This is the living hope of our so great salvation and we are to remind ourselves of this because this is entered into through faith. I am to remind myself in times of difficulty, in times of hostility, in times of temptation, in times when God acts in ways I don't understand, I'm to remind myself that I have this future inheritance and I am presently being guarded by the power of God. I am to a fresh trust God.

He will not let me go. There is no force in the whole universe which can separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus my Lord. Yes, I may be battered by the world, but no one and nothing can take away this living hope, this inheritance, all of the forces of hell, all of the demons against us, all of these forces, wicked forces that Paul talks about in Ephesians 6. Even if they were all to come against us, we would stand.

Why? Because of the protection of the power of God. Those who are truly born again will never ever be lost. Your inheritance in heaven is totally secure, not because we're good people, not because we come to Calvary Church, not because I'm a pastor, but entirely through God's great mercy revealed in Jesus Christ and that I am kept by that magnificent power. Think of the security that must have given to these believers. Think of the power of Rome.

Think of its army. Think of its legal force, the mighty power of Rome, the power of the emperor, but Peter is reminding them, listen, you've got this future inheritance and who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. The last time is about to come and that wonderful day will come in that full revelation and power and magnificent, glorious manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is our living hope. The early Christians used the symbol of the dove, the symbol of the fish, and the symbol of the anchor. The dove symbolized the Holy Spirit.

The letters of the, of the Greek word for fish, ikthos, spells out Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior. The dove, the fish, but also the anchor. The anchor assures the Christians and assures us that when going through difficult times and stormy waters, this living hope in Jesus Christ anchors our souls. The old hymn says, we have an anchor which keeps the soul steadfast and sure while the billows roll, fastened to the rock which cannot move, grounded firm and deep in our Savior's love.

That's it. The anchor of our soul, this living faith, this living faith rejoices our hearts as we consider our past salvation. This living hope stabilizes and strengthens us in the present. This living hope inspires us for the future and is all according, please remember, all according to God's great mercy. What's your response to this living hope? Have you been born again?

If not, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, rejoice that we have this future inheritance which is imperishable, which is undefiled, which is unfading, which is kept in heaven for us. This is our living hope, which transforms the past, the present, and the future, all according to God's great mercy. You bow in prayer, and if you have never yet been born again, cry out to the Lord because the one who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, will you rejoice?

Rejoice in this future inheritance. Rejoice that you're kept by God's power and live a life not of despondency, not of despair, not of self-pity, but a life of strength, demonstrating the security we have in our Lord Jesus Christ, all through the great mercy of our Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. Our God and our Father, we humble ourselves before You. Thank You for this magnificent passage of Scripture. Give us understanding through Your Spirit, may it transform our lives. Some here are discouraged. Some here have gone through very difficult circumstances.

Work in their hearts. Father, bring them comfort. May we look up to this wonderful future inheritance, and it's kept in heaven. It's reserved in heaven for us. Thank You for Your great mercy, and may we by our lives demonstrate that all that we are and have is because of Your great mercy. And have mercy upon us, our homes, our families. Calvary Church, we pray in Christ's name. Amen.