MPC
26th April 2020.April 26 - 1 Peter 1:1-12 - "Hope Beyond"
MPC
26th April 2020.
Phil Campbell
When my friend Dave McDonald was diagnosed with cancer eight years ago, in the midst of his gruelling chemotherapy, he sat down to write a book. As you do. A book he called Hope Beyond Cure. It's a great title isn't it? Because when you play the words over in your mind a few times, it's got a few angles.
So because we've got the technology, I've asked Dave to join us this morning. From just south of sunny Port Macquarie.
"Hey Dave, it's a catchy book title and you were telling me the other day it's even become a bit of a meme; but can you tell me what you actually meant by it when you came up with the title?" [Dave replies]
Now I hope you picked up what Dave's saying. That while we were all hoping and praying for a cure for his cancer, that's not the main thing. And the hope he was talking about was something even bigger than that. Not a hope of a cure. But a hope beyond. A hope over and above a medical breakthrough. Or a new drug. A hope beyond a clear scan.
So I want to ask you this morning; in our circumstances... are you at this point looking for a hope beyond corona? Or is that the limit of your vision? a vaccine. And an economic recovery.
I mean it's obvious we all want to be able to go on holidays and meet in our favourite cafe. But I'm asking are you interested in finding and focusing your attention on a hope that's more lasting.
I wonder if we've learned from the last few months... that even our best investments can turn to dust overnight. Brought down by a tiny bug. Who'd have thought. Oil Prices down to minus 40 dollars a barrel. They've got nowhere to keep all the oil. And so they'll pay you to take it away.
I mean I see the signs and I want to buy some - but I don't need it because there's nowhere to go. Who'd have thought. Toilet paper... worth more than a barrel of oil.
The point is, everything. Everything we set out hopes on. In the end, will perish. spoil. Or fade.
My 2010 Volkswagen EOS is the most fun car Lou has ever let me buy. And look, it was just about worn out when I got it. But even more so now two years later. And so the other day I noticed the rubber seals have perished around the driver's door. I got a quote to fix it. And for a new piece of rubber... you don't want to know. And yet I need it. Because it's perished. It's spoiled. Like everything else we ever treasure, it's fading away.
But in Peter's first letter to these Jewish Christians who historically were scattered all around Assyria and Asia minor, to these scattered people who were once the people of God; and then got smashed and exiled and not a people, have a look at what Peter has to say to them about a living hope. Verse 3. He says,
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.
He's talking about a hope that's way beyond just a cure for exile or for cancer or corona virus or anything else. Not a political hope. Or a medical hope.
This is a hope that won't spoil or go stale. That won't fade or rust or age or wrinkle or get infected and sick. This is a hope which has come, you'll see he says, by the mercy of God.
Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Which to Peter, like the other apostles who were with Jesus first hand... is the one concrete fact that changes everything.
This is the same Peter who we just saw at Easter trembling in the courtyard too scared to even admit to a slave girl that he'd been hanging around with Jesus. The Peter who says "I don't even know him."
Well, he's changed his tune now, hasn't he? Because the resurrection changes everything. Why not be bold if Jesus really has risen?
The psychologist Martin Seligmann wrote the famous book learned optimism; he says, it's good for us to be optimistic. But then on almost the last page of the book he admits what some of us suspected. The trouble is, he says, the pessimists are almost always right.
Except if you've seen what Peter saw. That flips if Jesus really has risen. Then you've got every right to be bold, you've got every right to be positive, you've got every right to be the ultimate optimist. In the face of anything.
I was chatting to Gordon Beljin the other day. Gordon's mum's passed away on Good Friday back home in England; and sadly, there's no way he can get there to be with the family. And Gordon was saying he was chatting to his dad and they were saying it's hard, isn't it, to keep trusting God. Hard to hold on to the prospect of hope. You've probably felt the same sometimes.
Is it real or not? Is there anything beyond? Any room for optimism at all?
And I said to Gordon, remind your dad. It all hinges on the reality of the resurrection of Jesus. Did he rise? Or didn't he?
And the answer for Peter is, yes he did, and because of that we have a living hope that changes everything.
That shapes our attitudes and our behaviours.
That changes our living.
That changes how we live with injustice.
That changes how we live with suffering.
That changes how we live in our marriages. As we'll see over the next few weeks... because we're hoping beyond... a living hope. That changes our living.
I wonder. When things are tough. Like at the moment. Does isolation make you more selfish? Or the opposite?
Maybe you're the one who bought all the toilet paper and all the baked beans at Coles because at a time like this, it's every man for himself.
See it's interesting in previous epidemics through the last two thousand years; through the plagues. Christians were the ones who actually cared. Who were selfless in the face of personal danger. It was notable. We were the ones who gave without taking. At huge cost. And it's because ... we were the ones who believed in the resurrection of Jesus.
And that gives us a living hope. That lies beyond cure in the here and now. And we have a living Lord and Master. Who shapes our lives and attitudes.
I want to just take a minute with you look at the source of that hope.
Just picking up highlights from a few key verses. It's a hope first of all from verses 1 and 2 that comes from being chosen by God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and be sprinkled by his blood.
Now there are always people around who say the New Testament never talks specifically about the doctrine of the Trinity. Which is true in the sense that the New Testament never uses the term. And it's just the term they came up with after trying to figure it out for two or three hundred years.
But verses like that are just loaded, aren't they, with the idea that God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are all involved. In this new birth to a living hope we've already seen in verse 3.
The Father who initiates. The Spirit who remoulds desires and reshapes us into people of God. And Jesus Christ. Whose death works the same way as the Old Testament sacrifice did. Sins laid symbolically on the head of the lamb. The lamb dies for the sin. And the blood of the lamb sprinkled on the altar of the temple. Sins forgiven.
Jesus. Is the better version of that.
Which means among things my hope is not because of my own efforts. It's not I hope I've been good enough. It's a hope that is sourced in God's choice to forgive me. And renovate me by His Spirit.
For a life of obedience to Jesus Christ as Lord. Who was raised from the dead.
And so we have a living faith. A life lived as a consequence of our hope. Not a hope as a consequence of our life.
And this un-spoiling inheritance we're looking forward to, unlike the inheritance my kids were looking forward to. Is an inheritance shielded; guaranteed; in verse 5; by God's power. Just keep trusting. And he'll keep shielding. Until the day finally comes.
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.
Now can you see, this kind of hope, it really is a Hope Beyond Cure. It's way bigger than a fix for COVID. Or job security.
In fact, it's the reason you'll notice Christians so often have a kind of illogical joy about them. A sense of deep satisfaction in the face of terrible times.
We've lived, I think; and I suspect we still are. In an enjoy now, pay later culture. And we thought we could put off paying forever.
Peter wants us to be the opposite of that. As we'll see right through the letter. Peter wants us to adjust our expectations of life. So that the hope we have... keeps us going to the very end. Without expecting everything to be easy now.
For his first readers, it's very much persecution for their faith. As it is for Christians all round the world today.
You might have had a small taste of that yourself. But Peter says on top of that there are all kinds of trials that bring us grief. You might be one of the 130 thousand Queenslanders who lost your job in the last month or so. Everything you worked for coming undone.
You might. Be subject to all kinds of worries or sadness. Not able to be there for the arrival of a grandchild. Not able to celebrate a family wedding that you've looked forward to for so long. Like Gordon losing his mum in England. Christina losing her dad in America. Not able to be there when it counts. Not able to go ahead with our new church building.
Peter says, for us. No matter what the disappointment now. The best is up ahead. And so he says...
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 honour 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.
And so be assured. It's worth it. In this case in verse 7 I think he's saying it's you. Who'll get the praise and honour and glory when Jesus comes. Well done! You kept trusting to the end.
Which is why. While your faith might be getting knocked around and tested... it's worth standing firm.
Which is why. You'll still meet Christians who have an inexpressible and glorious joy even when they're knocked around by circumstances.
Because faith like that, see, it's worth over $2680 a kilo. Which is the going price of gold. And that maybe means in these hard times you're richer than you've ever been.
And the model for that... is Jesus.
Faith that keeps you going you through suffering now. To glory later.
That's what the prophets foresaw. Though not as clearly as they'd like. But all along, verse 11, the Spirit was pointing to the sufferings of the Messiah, and the glory that would follow.
Because that's how it goes. suffering now. Glory later. Sustained by our hope. Which is a hope beyond. A hope beyond cure. A hope beyond our grief and all kinds of trials. A concrete hope that has the end result of the salvation of our souls, in a way that can never spoil or perish or fade. Even when our gold does.
I want to ask you this morning, how are you going with that? Friends, that's the hope that we're called to. That's the source of our joy. All because of the risen Lord Jesus.
If that's where your hope is, good on you. Keep it there. If you're a Christian already and you're struggling with that, why not chat to another Christian friend. Chances are at a time like this they're struggling too. And the very best thing we can be doing is struggling together. Instead of pretending we're swimming while we're drowning.
And finally, if none of this stuff makes any sense to you and that sort of hope just sounds like crazy wishful thinking, if you're struggling to join all the dots, let me invite you again to sign up and Zoom in for our Christianity Explored course with Dan; what better way to spend a few Thursday nights in lock-down. We'd love you to join in.