RESURRECTING HOPE: ARMING HOPE

We continue toward Resurrecting Hope at St. Johns. In this series, hope is not a passive reality, but a force unleashed at the moment of the resurrection of Jesus. God’s people have always had access to a living hope because they knew a living God. However, at the moment of resurrection, we gained a clarity of the power of hope. Our scripture this week is 1 Peter 1:13-25.  Last week, in the first part of this chapter we learned of the living hope that brought Jesus out of the tomb, but Peter continues to unleash the power of hope through the latter part of this first chapter. The title of this week’s sermon is Arming Hope. This is an aggressive hope that becomes our defender and our strength. It is the hope that breaks the chains of sin and resurrects our hearts from the power of darkness. However, Peter wants us to recognize that we have to be alert. God can do so much in us if we are alert and alive to the things that will enable this hope. This is not a hope that exhausts our spirits by engaging in wishful thinking, but it is the ministry of the Good News that leads us to new birth! Where is your hope! As you read 1 Peter 1:13-25, we pray that you will sense this aggressive, empowering hope lifting your life into the new life in Jesus Christ.  

1 Peter 1:13-25: Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.  ¹⁴ As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. ¹⁵ But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; ¹⁶ for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” ¹⁷ Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. ¹⁸ For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, ¹⁹ but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. ²⁰ He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. ²¹ Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God. ²² Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart.  ²³ For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. ²⁴ For, “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, ²⁵ but the word of the Lord endures forever.” And this is the word that was preached to you. (NIV)