Monday, April 1, 2024

The Light of our Priest


Hope is hard to come by in our present day. In fact, I would say that we are a post-hope society. I say that because at one time, our culture was full of hope. From the 1940s to the 1960s, there was great hope in individual freedom, the spread of democracy, and the advancements of science. Women gained voting rights and entered the workforce. African Americans won civil freedoms. The US economy was booming and proving to the soviets that democracy and capitalism were better than communism. New discoveries and technologies were born every day, from the television to the jet plane to the space rocket.

Yet, in the late 60s and 70s that hope began to fade. The celebration of individual freedoms slowly turned, over the next 50 years, into an atomistic worship of the self, so that now basic definitions of sexuality, gender, and the family are undefinable. And with that radical individualism has come a rise in depression and suicide, as young people have no connection to community and culture beyond the screens they carry. Hope in democracy and capitalism has faded as well, as the fall of dictators in the USSR, Iran, Iraq, Libya, and Egypt didn’t give birth to the love for Western democracy we had hoped for, but only more splintering authoritarianism. Even in our own country people feel disaffected and disenfranchised by a democratic system that seems manipulated and contrived by the major political parties, the news media, and big corporations. Our hope for science and progress has also dimmed, as exciting advancements in technology have only caused further human isolation and division. The medicines we hoped would extend life may well do so, but at a cost, both in terms of money and side-effects, that many cannot bear.

So, where is hope in this world, if not in the great institutions of man? If we cannot all work together to build a better world, if we are just doomed to class division, war, and strife, then what could possibly be our hope? Should we just, instead, turn to nihilism, believing that nothing means anything, it is all absurd, and each man should strive to make the best of the few fleeting years that he might have? On this resurrection Sunday, I have good news in such bleak times. There is hope, but it is not found in anything that man can do. The hope we have is found in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. To see that, read 1 Pet. 1:3-9 with me. From this passage I want you to see three blessings of the resurrection: the blessings of hope, heritage, and happiness.

First, in verse 3, see that the resurrection of Jesus Christ brings us hope. Peter says that, by God’s grace, we have been born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I want you to notice two things about this hope that we have been blessed with. First, our hope is not wishful thinking. There are many skeptics today who would mock the Christian’s faith as wish-casting. They would say, oh, sure, you wish salvation and eternal life to be true, and so that’s why you believe it. But, that is not the meaning of Peter’s word here at all. The Greek means “expectation or confidence.” In other words, our faith is not groundless or wishful. It is rooted in something. But what? Peter gives that answer – we hope THROUGH the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We hope for our own salvation because Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus’ resurrection proves that he is the Messiah. It proves that his word is true. And, it proves that our sins are forgiven. So, we hope because the tomb is empty and Christ is lives forevermore.

Our hope is also alive. In other words, we don’t hope for our salvation like someone hopes in winning the lottery. When someone buys a lottery ticket, they probably don’t think about it at all until the numbers are called, and then, they get a faint, momentary hope that they might get rich. That kind of hope is powerless and fleeting. But, the hope of the Christian is alive – it is ever present. It is a source of power and strength to endure suffering. It is the chief motivation for how we live.

Second, see the blessing of heritage in verse 4. Peter says that through the resurrection of Jesus Christ we have an inheritance in heaven. There are two properties of this inheritance that I want you to notice. First of all, this inheritance is indestructible. Peter uses three words to describe this indestructibility: imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. What humanity builds is perishable and incomplete, but what God builds is perfect, holy, and eternal. Also, this inheritance is guarded through faith. In other words, we do not lose this inheritance through our failures because we did not obtain it by our good works. We gained this inheritance through faith in Christ, and it is kept through faith, too. The temptations of this world may cause us to feel unworthy. Our struggles with ailment and sin and usefulness may make us feel helpless before God. But praise be to God, our inheritance does not depend on any of that. It is guarded through faith, and nothing else.

Finally, see the blessing of happiness in verses 6-9. Peter says that we rejoice in our salvation, even in the face of suffering. It is the obsession of our society that we should find happiness at any cost. So, we flit from one relationship to the next hoping that we can find it in sexual fulfillment. Or, we amass wealth, thinking that things will delight our soul. Or, we pursue knowledge, thinking that it will unlock the secrets of life for us. In the end, they all fall short. In the end, age and ailment strain that relationship. In the end, shifting markets, wars, and decay destroy our wealth. In the end, knowledge will not deliver you from death. Suffering is the way of this life. I have a standard response when someone expresses jealousy over the ease of life that another person has. They might say, “Boy, I wish I could be him with all that time, leisure, and health.” My response is simply this, “No one is getting out of this alive.” Everyone faces suffering at some point. You may suffer from a chronic condition your whole life and look at the person in seemingly perfect health and think, “why couldn’t I be him?” But know, that person will suffer soon enough. So, if suffering is the way of this life, how can we ever find true happiness. As Peter says, true happiness is only found through faith in Christ. He even says that we can rejoice in suffering because we know that our eternal inheritance is secure. How do we know this? Because Christ has risen!

So, this morning, I call you to that hope. Friend, if you have never trusted in Christ, you can know the blessing of this hope through faith in him. Brothers and sisters, on this Easter Sunday, we have hope, a heritage, and happiness only in Christ. May we persevere in faith as we wait on the completion of our salvation.

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