Text: 1 Peter 1:3-9 | Listen to Message
Hope For The Future
If Jesus died and stayed dead, what would that say to you about your trials? What would it say to you about your own eventual death? What hope would a dead Jesus give you that maybe there’s an ultimate purpose to the sufferings you’ve gone through? What hope would a dead Jesus give you of eternal life?
The obvious answer to all of these questions is that you can’t find hope in a dead Jesus. If the One who promised to conquer death died and stayed dead, you’re hopeless if he’s your only hope.
But Jesus did rise. And this is why 1 Peter 1:3 says our “living hope [comes] through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
Why should anyone believe that his or her trials have a purpose, a goal, that transcends the pain and frustration they cause? Why should anyone believe that there’s life after death, and that it’s a life worth losing everything in order to gain? Because Jesus got up and walked out of his own tomb on Easter morning, that’s why.
See, if Jesus is alive – and seated at the right hand of God – then the trials of this life are neither destructive nor pointless. They are painful, yes, but they are purifying. And they’re purposeful. Like sore muscles from a workout or like birth pangs, the living Savior is faithfully working through the pains of this life to bring you greater endurance and fuller joy!
And if Jesus is alive – seated at the right hand of God – then it is not death to die in him. Right now, he is guarding for you “an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading” (1 Peter 1:4-5). And because he’s alive, “the outcome of your faith [is] that salvation of your soul” (1 Peter 1:9).
So do not despair about your trials and do not doubt about your future. In the resurrection of Jesus you have the confident expectation of grace!
Sermon Notes & Application Questions