LIVING IN THE HOPE OF THE CHRIST’S RESURRECTION 1 Peter 1:3-9
Pastor Dennis Bone
4-8-18
Last week we celebrated one of the greatest, if not greatest, historical and redemptive event in all creation: the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The resurrection of Christ makes possible our worship, so together we can sing to God, pray to God and listen to God, as we rejoice together as Christians in Christ’s resurrection and praise God for it. The resurrection of Christ makes our faith possible because through the power of the gospel message God changes sinners to saints; and unbelievers to believers. The resurrection of Christ gives us hope – hope for our present lives; and hope for a future eternal life – because Christ sits at the right hand of God the Father as our Living Savior and the Exalted King.
So this morning I want us to look at how this great and glorious doctrinal truth of Christ’s resurrection, based upon God’s actions for us in Christ, leads to our practical application of this truth in our daily lives as Christians. Practical Christian living is grounded in concrete and definitive Christian truth. All of the New Testament writers teach us this, and this morning I want us to see how Peter teaches us this specifically in terms of Christ’s resurrection, and how as Christians we should be living in the hope of Christ’s resurrection each and every day. So the passage I want us to look at this morning is I Peter 1:3 – 9; and I will begin by reading the first section of the passage – verses 3 – 5: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of the Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
In this passage Peter lays out for us the reasons for Christian hope in verses 3 – 5; we have a sure and living hope because of God’s actions towards us based upon Christ’s resurrection. And then in verses 6 – 9, which we will look at second, Peter lays out the implications of our Christian hope. He teaches us about our application of God’s actions towards us based upon Christ’s resurrection. Our response to God in the Christian life is always to be in response to God’s actions towards us in Christ. We can respond in obedience to God because He has acted for us; and because He has acted for us He will then act in us, so that our actions will honor and glorify Him. So let’s first look at God’s actions towards us based upon Christ’s resurrection.
In verse 3 Peter writes: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of the Jesus Christ from the dead.” God has acted on our behalf, and as a result He has given us a living hope. As Christians we have a living hope because God gives spiritual life to spiritually dead people (“new birth”); and true hope to the hopeless (“living hope”). Because of the resurrection, God changes our status before Him from spiritually dead in sin, to spiritually alive in Christ; and from having no hope to having a living hope.
Paul says in Ephesians 2: “Once you were dead in your trespasses and sins, but now you are alive in Christ.” You were without hope and without God in the world, but now in Christ you have peace with God. This is true because, as Peter tell us in our passage, we now have a living hope. So what is this living hope we have as Christians? How do we define this hope? Biblical hope is the confidence or assurance that God will do good for us in the future.
It’s not simply a “wish” or a “maybe” in terms of what might happen or what we want to happen, but it’s a certain and sure expectation based upon God’s actions in the past. Christian hope latches on to the certainty of promises for the future that God has made; and it holds on tight as we live in the present. This is why we read in Hebrews 6 that hope is the anchor of our soul. It keeps us grounded in the promises of God to us in Christ. When your hope is grounded in Christ, and you are sure that God has your best interests in mind, you will be able to live in this hope.
So as we look back at the text we see first the source of living hope. The source of this hope is in God’s mercy and grace. True hope does not come from inside you; it doesn’t come from circumstances or people; and it doesn’t come from your achievements. These things may inspire you or disappoint you in life but true hope that never disappoints you and will always inspire you comes for God. And this hope comes to us, and always comes to us because of God’s gracious mercy to us in Jesus Christ our Savior. Peter says that God’s mercy is “great” or abundant, thus it never runs out, so our hope is always certain.
Second, we see the significance of living hope. The significance or importance of God’s action of mercy towards us is God’s gift of new life. Literally in the Greek Peter writes: “In his mercy he (God) has caused us to be born again into a living hope.” This refers to regeneration and is the same imagery Jesus uses in John 3. This hope is life changing and transnational because God has caused it to happen. He makes it happen through His Word, as Peter says in verse 23: “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.”
Our living hope comes as a result of God’s living Word and the work of God’s Spirit in our hearts. Thus the source of our hope is God’s mercy and the significance of this hope is a new life. We see third, the splendor of living hope. Our hope is impressive and magnificent because it rests upon God’s promise of a glorious inheritance, verse 4: “And into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you.”
Once again, our living hope does not rest upon our actions but solely on God’s actions for us and His promises to us. This is not only true for the present but also for the future. Christ’s resurrection has changed everything for us who believe; and the fact that He now is in heaven as our Risen Savior is what gives us an inheritance and a glorious future to look forward to. This reminds us of what Paul tells us in Titus 3: “God saved us through the washing of new birth (regeneration) and renewal of the Holy Spirit, through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that having been justified by His grace; we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.” Jesus’ resurrection to the right hand of God as our Savior and great high priest is what points us to the splendor of our living hope and the guarantee of a glorious inheritance in Him.
And then fourth we see the security of our living hope. Our hope is secure and safe in God’s power of protection. In verse 5 we read: “Through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.” In other words God is guarding this hope for us, so it can never be taken away.
No person or circumstance in this life can increase it or diminish it, because through faith in Jesus Christ God’s power protects our hope in this life until our salvation is fully revealed at the final coming of Christ. So we are kept secure by the power of God in this life as Christians, and His power safeguards and assures our transition or resurrection into the next life, by virtue or because of Christ’s resurrection. As Christians we know the source, the significance, the splendor and the security of a living hope all because of God’s actions towards us based upon the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the salvation He has accomplished for us.
Once we know what God has done for us, and continues to do for us through Jesus Christ, we can then know how we should apply these great truths to our lives in the present. Thus in verses 6 – 9 Peter teaches us about our application of God’s actions based upon Christ’s resurrection. He tells us that this living hope is practical, not just theoretical; it’s speaks to your present situation, not just to your future. In other words, how do we as Christians apply or live out this living hope in a world of sin, where we often experience disappointments, grief, doubt, fear, sadness and frustration; all of which seek to dampen or diminish or hope? How many of you experience any of these things this week?
Every day there are people, events that take place, circumstances that occur that threaten to yank or pull our anchor of hope out of the ground; and when that happens, our life, like a boat without an anchor, tends to float off course and get us to places we should not be. Peter understands the reality of this and speaks to it in verses 6 – 9: In this (that is this living hope you now have because of God’s actions towards you in Christ) you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.
These have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Peter is teaching us that not only has God given us spiritual life in Christ, but He has given us spiritual ability to live in this world as His redeemed people, so that we (you and I as Christians) can praise, honor and glorify Him. Our living hope doesn’t just teach us about what we have in the future, but it’s designed to teach us how we should live in the present. John Piper, pastor and author said this: “I love the resurrection of Christ not because it turns my life into a string of successes, but because it keeps me from collapsing under a string of failures.” In other words it gives us hope when we fail and other fail us; it gives us hope in times of disappointment and difficulty; and it’s a hope that brings us joy because it points us to Christ.
So first, Peter gives us the spiritual perspective in temptation. In verse 6 Peter tells us that even though we rejoice greatly in this living hope, we now for a while have to live in the grief of trials and temptations. The Greek word used here can be translated either way because it refers to both. Peter’s point, just like James who uses the same word in James 1 when he writes: “consider it all joy when you face trials of many kinds,” is to remind us that Satan uses grief of trials to tempt us to sin and to keep us from rejoicing in the hope we have in Christ. And so we need to see this spiritual perspective in all the trials we go through and find peace by seeking God’s presence.
We need to be aware that trials disrupt our lives; and they come in all shapes and sizes and at any time. They pose the perfect opportunity for temptation to make us anxious not peaceful, and to diminish our hope because our focus turns to circumstances that lead us to anger, frustration and fear. This is why Peter warns us about it and then reminds us of why God allows these things to come our way and how we can overcome them as Christians. Thus second we see the spiritual potential in trials. The potential is growth in God’s promises. In verse 7 Peter writes: “These have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
Instead of seeing difficult trials as the world sees them, which is a selfish, unbelieving and hopeless perspective, we are to see them as God sees them, which is for our spiritual growth. God uses them to refine our faith so that we might better praise our Savior. We have this potential as Christians when we see both trials and temptations from the right perspective. As Peter says later in chapter 4: “Do not be surprised when you suffer trials, but rejoice that you can participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed.” In other words, we are to see these trials as a part of the Christian life; and as the way that we demonstrate our living hope and testify to the resurrection of Christ.
Yet in order to do this we need to understand that trials are a part of the process of the Christian life; and it’s because we have been given a living hope that we have the ability to work through this process. Thus third, we need the spiritual patience of faith.
God is refining our faith; and He does it in many different ways, but the goal is always to make us spiritually stronger and spiritually healthier, so that we can gain maturity in trusting God’s Word. A living hope is one that is certain, but it’s also one that is growing in relationship with Christ, who is our hope. Thus as we grow in God’s Word, Christ is honored and glorified. As this happens our living hope as Christians becomes a greater testimony to truth of Christ’s resurrection, not only in our own lives but as a witness to the lives around us.
And then fourth, Peter speaks to us about the spiritual power of love. Peter writes in verse 8: “Though you have not seen him you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.” Our hope is personal; it’s linked to our personal faith and love for our Savior. Our hope is certain because it’s grounded in our faith in Christ. We don’t see Him physically but we love Him, because we know and believe that He died for our sins and rose from the dead for our salvation. This is what gives us inexpressible and glorious joy; not the trials of this life although necessary, but the one who leads us through this life. It’s Christ’s love for us, and the power of His love that makes us joyful in God’s comfort and assurance as we live the Christian life.
It’s because we have this living hope that we are comforted by the promises of God’s Word to us in our Christian life; and are moved by the love of Christ to apply this living hope, that we have been given by God’s grace through Christ’s work, to the way we live our lives as God’s people. This is what Peter calls us to do as our passage concludes with verse 9: “For you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
God has put us on an amazing spiritual journey; and we can only imagine what the end will look like, but we can be certain about it because of Christ’s resurrection. And because we have this living hope that gives us a certain future, we are to be applying this living hope in the way we live our lives now, so that the one who achieved it for us will receive praise, glory and honor as our Risen Savior.
©You’re welcome to recycle these resources for your church free of charge. However, if you find them useful, please consider making a donation to the ministry of GCC.
Pastor Dennis Bone
4-8-18
Last week we celebrated one of the greatest, if not greatest, historical and redemptive event in all creation: the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The resurrection of Christ makes possible our worship, so together we can sing to God, pray to God and listen to God, as we rejoice together as Christians in Christ’s resurrection and praise God for it. The resurrection of Christ makes our faith possible because through the power of the gospel message God changes sinners to saints; and unbelievers to believers. The resurrection of Christ gives us hope – hope for our present lives; and hope for a future eternal life – because Christ sits at the right hand of God the Father as our Living Savior and the Exalted King.
So this morning I want us to look at how this great and glorious doctrinal truth of Christ’s resurrection, based upon God’s actions for us in Christ, leads to our practical application of this truth in our daily lives as Christians. Practical Christian living is grounded in concrete and definitive Christian truth. All of the New Testament writers teach us this, and this morning I want us to see how Peter teaches us this specifically in terms of Christ’s resurrection, and how as Christians we should be living in the hope of Christ’s resurrection each and every day. So the passage I want us to look at this morning is I Peter 1:3 – 9; and I will begin by reading the first section of the passage – verses 3 – 5: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of the Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
In this passage Peter lays out for us the reasons for Christian hope in verses 3 – 5; we have a sure and living hope because of God’s actions towards us based upon Christ’s resurrection. And then in verses 6 – 9, which we will look at second, Peter lays out the implications of our Christian hope. He teaches us about our application of God’s actions towards us based upon Christ’s resurrection. Our response to God in the Christian life is always to be in response to God’s actions towards us in Christ. We can respond in obedience to God because He has acted for us; and because He has acted for us He will then act in us, so that our actions will honor and glorify Him. So let’s first look at God’s actions towards us based upon Christ’s resurrection.
In verse 3 Peter writes: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of the Jesus Christ from the dead.” God has acted on our behalf, and as a result He has given us a living hope. As Christians we have a living hope because God gives spiritual life to spiritually dead people (“new birth”); and true hope to the hopeless (“living hope”). Because of the resurrection, God changes our status before Him from spiritually dead in sin, to spiritually alive in Christ; and from having no hope to having a living hope.
Paul says in Ephesians 2: “Once you were dead in your trespasses and sins, but now you are alive in Christ.” You were without hope and without God in the world, but now in Christ you have peace with God. This is true because, as Peter tell us in our passage, we now have a living hope. So what is this living hope we have as Christians? How do we define this hope? Biblical hope is the confidence or assurance that God will do good for us in the future.
It’s not simply a “wish” or a “maybe” in terms of what might happen or what we want to happen, but it’s a certain and sure expectation based upon God’s actions in the past. Christian hope latches on to the certainty of promises for the future that God has made; and it holds on tight as we live in the present. This is why we read in Hebrews 6 that hope is the anchor of our soul. It keeps us grounded in the promises of God to us in Christ. When your hope is grounded in Christ, and you are sure that God has your best interests in mind, you will be able to live in this hope.
So as we look back at the text we see first the source of living hope. The source of this hope is in God’s mercy and grace. True hope does not come from inside you; it doesn’t come from circumstances or people; and it doesn’t come from your achievements. These things may inspire you or disappoint you in life but true hope that never disappoints you and will always inspire you comes for God. And this hope comes to us, and always comes to us because of God’s gracious mercy to us in Jesus Christ our Savior. Peter says that God’s mercy is “great” or abundant, thus it never runs out, so our hope is always certain.
Second, we see the significance of living hope. The significance or importance of God’s action of mercy towards us is God’s gift of new life. Literally in the Greek Peter writes: “In his mercy he (God) has caused us to be born again into a living hope.” This refers to regeneration and is the same imagery Jesus uses in John 3. This hope is life changing and transnational because God has caused it to happen. He makes it happen through His Word, as Peter says in verse 23: “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.”
Our living hope comes as a result of God’s living Word and the work of God’s Spirit in our hearts. Thus the source of our hope is God’s mercy and the significance of this hope is a new life. We see third, the splendor of living hope. Our hope is impressive and magnificent because it rests upon God’s promise of a glorious inheritance, verse 4: “And into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you.”
Once again, our living hope does not rest upon our actions but solely on God’s actions for us and His promises to us. This is not only true for the present but also for the future. Christ’s resurrection has changed everything for us who believe; and the fact that He now is in heaven as our Risen Savior is what gives us an inheritance and a glorious future to look forward to. This reminds us of what Paul tells us in Titus 3: “God saved us through the washing of new birth (regeneration) and renewal of the Holy Spirit, through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that having been justified by His grace; we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.” Jesus’ resurrection to the right hand of God as our Savior and great high priest is what points us to the splendor of our living hope and the guarantee of a glorious inheritance in Him.
And then fourth we see the security of our living hope. Our hope is secure and safe in God’s power of protection. In verse 5 we read: “Through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.” In other words God is guarding this hope for us, so it can never be taken away.
No person or circumstance in this life can increase it or diminish it, because through faith in Jesus Christ God’s power protects our hope in this life until our salvation is fully revealed at the final coming of Christ. So we are kept secure by the power of God in this life as Christians, and His power safeguards and assures our transition or resurrection into the next life, by virtue or because of Christ’s resurrection. As Christians we know the source, the significance, the splendor and the security of a living hope all because of God’s actions towards us based upon the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the salvation He has accomplished for us.
Once we know what God has done for us, and continues to do for us through Jesus Christ, we can then know how we should apply these great truths to our lives in the present. Thus in verses 6 – 9 Peter teaches us about our application of God’s actions based upon Christ’s resurrection. He tells us that this living hope is practical, not just theoretical; it’s speaks to your present situation, not just to your future. In other words, how do we as Christians apply or live out this living hope in a world of sin, where we often experience disappointments, grief, doubt, fear, sadness and frustration; all of which seek to dampen or diminish or hope? How many of you experience any of these things this week?
Every day there are people, events that take place, circumstances that occur that threaten to yank or pull our anchor of hope out of the ground; and when that happens, our life, like a boat without an anchor, tends to float off course and get us to places we should not be. Peter understands the reality of this and speaks to it in verses 6 – 9: In this (that is this living hope you now have because of God’s actions towards you in Christ) you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.
These have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Peter is teaching us that not only has God given us spiritual life in Christ, but He has given us spiritual ability to live in this world as His redeemed people, so that we (you and I as Christians) can praise, honor and glorify Him. Our living hope doesn’t just teach us about what we have in the future, but it’s designed to teach us how we should live in the present. John Piper, pastor and author said this: “I love the resurrection of Christ not because it turns my life into a string of successes, but because it keeps me from collapsing under a string of failures.” In other words it gives us hope when we fail and other fail us; it gives us hope in times of disappointment and difficulty; and it’s a hope that brings us joy because it points us to Christ.
So first, Peter gives us the spiritual perspective in temptation. In verse 6 Peter tells us that even though we rejoice greatly in this living hope, we now for a while have to live in the grief of trials and temptations. The Greek word used here can be translated either way because it refers to both. Peter’s point, just like James who uses the same word in James 1 when he writes: “consider it all joy when you face trials of many kinds,” is to remind us that Satan uses grief of trials to tempt us to sin and to keep us from rejoicing in the hope we have in Christ. And so we need to see this spiritual perspective in all the trials we go through and find peace by seeking God’s presence.
We need to be aware that trials disrupt our lives; and they come in all shapes and sizes and at any time. They pose the perfect opportunity for temptation to make us anxious not peaceful, and to diminish our hope because our focus turns to circumstances that lead us to anger, frustration and fear. This is why Peter warns us about it and then reminds us of why God allows these things to come our way and how we can overcome them as Christians. Thus second we see the spiritual potential in trials. The potential is growth in God’s promises. In verse 7 Peter writes: “These have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
Instead of seeing difficult trials as the world sees them, which is a selfish, unbelieving and hopeless perspective, we are to see them as God sees them, which is for our spiritual growth. God uses them to refine our faith so that we might better praise our Savior. We have this potential as Christians when we see both trials and temptations from the right perspective. As Peter says later in chapter 4: “Do not be surprised when you suffer trials, but rejoice that you can participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed.” In other words, we are to see these trials as a part of the Christian life; and as the way that we demonstrate our living hope and testify to the resurrection of Christ.
Yet in order to do this we need to understand that trials are a part of the process of the Christian life; and it’s because we have been given a living hope that we have the ability to work through this process. Thus third, we need the spiritual patience of faith.
God is refining our faith; and He does it in many different ways, but the goal is always to make us spiritually stronger and spiritually healthier, so that we can gain maturity in trusting God’s Word. A living hope is one that is certain, but it’s also one that is growing in relationship with Christ, who is our hope. Thus as we grow in God’s Word, Christ is honored and glorified. As this happens our living hope as Christians becomes a greater testimony to truth of Christ’s resurrection, not only in our own lives but as a witness to the lives around us.
And then fourth, Peter speaks to us about the spiritual power of love. Peter writes in verse 8: “Though you have not seen him you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.” Our hope is personal; it’s linked to our personal faith and love for our Savior. Our hope is certain because it’s grounded in our faith in Christ. We don’t see Him physically but we love Him, because we know and believe that He died for our sins and rose from the dead for our salvation. This is what gives us inexpressible and glorious joy; not the trials of this life although necessary, but the one who leads us through this life. It’s Christ’s love for us, and the power of His love that makes us joyful in God’s comfort and assurance as we live the Christian life.
It’s because we have this living hope that we are comforted by the promises of God’s Word to us in our Christian life; and are moved by the love of Christ to apply this living hope, that we have been given by God’s grace through Christ’s work, to the way we live our lives as God’s people. This is what Peter calls us to do as our passage concludes with verse 9: “For you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
God has put us on an amazing spiritual journey; and we can only imagine what the end will look like, but we can be certain about it because of Christ’s resurrection. And because we have this living hope that gives us a certain future, we are to be applying this living hope in the way we live our lives now, so that the one who achieved it for us will receive praise, glory and honor as our Risen Savior.
©You’re welcome to recycle these resources for your church free of charge. However, if you find them useful, please consider making a donation to the ministry of GCC.
