Resurrection Sunday: Hope is Alive

-1 Peter 1.3-12-

Why do you look for the living among the dead?

THE POWER OF HOPE

While there is life, there is hope. 

-Ancient Roman saying-

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Hope is a pathological (diseased/unhealthy) belief in the occurrence of the impossible.

-H.L. Mencken-

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‘Where There is Christ, There is Hope.’

What life does to us depends on what life finds in us. The future is as bright as the promises of God (and the promises of God are rock solid) so BE HOPEFUL.

-Warren Wiersbe-

[1 PETER 1.1-12] - Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, 2 who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

Praise to God for a Living Hope

3 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 Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 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. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 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, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11 trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. 12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told to you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.

HOPE IS ALIVE because TRUE HOPE (the true source of hope) CAN’T DIE (wouldn’t stay dead)

Trusting God when the miracle does not come, when the urgent prayer gets no answer, when there's only darkness - this is the kind of faith God values perhaps most of all. This is the kind of faith that can be developed and displayed only in the midst of difficult circumstances; this is the kind of faith that cannot be shaken because it is the result of a faith that has been shaken.

-Nancy Guthrie, ‘Holding on to Hope’-

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A. RESURRECTION HOPE IS ANCHORED IN THE PAST

B. RESURRECTION HOPE IS ACTIVE IN THE PRESENT

C. RESURRECTION HOPE ANTICIPATES THE FUTURE

[1 CORINTHIANS 15.16-20a] - 16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. 20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead.

[2 CORINTHIANS 4.16-18] - 16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.