April 26, 2014

Christ’s Resurrection Is Your Daily Hope!

2nd Sunday of Easter, 4/27/14
1 Peter 1:3-9


Christ’s Resurrection Is Your Daily Hope!
I. Hope for real life
II. Hope in the face of life’s troubles


How do you move from one day to the next? Perhaps you’ve never really thought about it. So let me ask you again. How do you move from one day to the next?

Is there a spring in your step? Do you wake up singing your “good mornings” to anyone and everyone you meet? And while you might dial down your optimism a notch as the day progresses, do you end your day looking forward to the next? Do you fall asleep excited to meet tomorrow’s opportunities?

Or, do you plod along from one day to the next? Or worse yet, drag yourself out of one day and into the next? Was today so taxing on you physically, mentally and emotionally, that you have no idea how you can take another day like this one? Do you dread what you’ll face tomorrow? Is it tempting to pull your bed’s covers over your face and deny the reality of a new day?

I’ll admit I have too few of the former type of days and too many of the latter, and it seems to have something to do with getting older. Maybe it’s just because I no longer have the energy of a 20-year-old. Maybe it’s also because I’ve experienced enough of the reality of life. Life is not always enjoyable. At times it’s tough and painful and unrewarding.

So why look forward to another day? Why look to the future at all?

Because of Easter. More specifically, because of Christ’s resurrection from the dead. The resurrection of Jesus gives us hope. And when we use that word “hope” in a Christian sense, we mean a certain hope, not a wish. We are confident about today, tomorrow and forever because Jesus rose from the dead.

That’s our Lord’s encouragement for us this morning in these words from his Apostle Peter. Christ’s resurrection is your daily hope! May the risen Jesus fill us with his hope this morning!

Part I.

I’m always intrigued by the accounts of people living double lives. I realize such a situation always brings deep pain to the people in their lives, but I’m intrigued to read and hear about how they carried out this double life, especially if it lasted for some time. How do you convince others that this life is real, when it isn’t? How do you keep that life from the people who know your other life? Is the payoff really worth the tremendous effort, worth hurting so many people?

And then there are those who are only living one life, but that one life isn’t real either. They think they’re living, but they’re actually dead, spiritually dead. You know them. They are the people who have some quest in life, some goal in life. They want to live life to the fullest and enjoy whatever good things they can. They might even strive to be good, decent, caring people. They even give of themselves to make the lives of others better. But one thing is missing. They have no relationship with the God of their salvation. Jesus is not a part of their lives. Either consciously or unconsciously, they have decided to live life apart from him.

But thanks be to God, by his grace that’s not you! You have life, real life. You have life with the God of your salvation by faith in Jesus. Peter states that very thing in the opening words of our text, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth.” When you came to faith in Jesus as your Savior just as Eric did in his baptism today, your God gave you a new life. He brought you to life spiritually. He made you a new person—a child of God. How can God’s word attached to a little water do that? By the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

And along with that new life, Peter states you have “a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and…an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you.” You might hope you have a good time with your family the next time you get together. But you can’t be sure. Someone could say or do something to ruin it all. And even if you have a wonderful time together, too soon it will end and, as time stagers on, the good memories will fade. Not so with the hope that Jesus gives you. It never dies. It lives, because Jesus lives. And it never spoils or fades away either. It’s peace and joy eternally.

So now we wait for the culmination of our hope. We don’t have to wish that it will happen; it certainly will. And Peter tells us when it will happen. “[You] through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.” He’s referring to the next great day in all of history—the Last Day. That’s the day that our risen Lord Jesus appears in all his glory with all his angels. He’s coming back to raise us from the dead, glorify our bodies, and take us to be with him forever. But is life so tough for you now, that you wonder if you’ll make it to the Last Day? Listen again to what Jesus said. We are “shielded” by faith. Jesus guards and keeps us in our faith through his word and sacrament. Those are his powerful means to get us to the hope he has in store for us, a hope that is certain because he rose from the dead and lives eternally. That hope gives us real living.

Christ’s resurrection is your daily hope—hope for real life.

I’m sure that without exception you and I work hard to make things better, to live better lives. Most days we’re consumed with it. We fall asleep exhausted only to wake up the next day and do it all over again. But as hard as we work at it, there are times when we feel as if we aren’t getting anywhere. We’re not making any progress. We’re not achieving what we set out to accomplish. But that’s life. This life. But that’s not the life the Lord calls for us to focus on here in his word. That’s looking at this life and the stuff in it as real life, when it’s not. Sooner or later we won’t be here any more to enjoy what we work so hard for. And in the end, it all gets destroyed anyway. Shame on us for thinking differently! We need our Lord’s reminder that we already have the only life that’s real—life with him through faith in Jesus. His resurrection from the dead seals our forgiveness and assures us of life with him now and forever. Nothing can change his eternal plans for us. Now that’s hope. That’s real life!


Part II.

There are some activities that just seem out of place with your surroundings or your current situation. For instance, you don’t whistle happy tunes while undergoing chemotherapy. I have yet to meet the person who sings about how happy they are while they’re getting squeezed financially. I have yet to watch a person afflicted with chronic pain hop, skip and jump their way from place to place. We just don’t do those things.

But in a way, the people to whom Peter originally wrote these words did. They lived in what is now the area of Turkey and life was tough for them. They were suffering because of their faith in Jesus. And it wasn’t limited to suffering emotionally and psychologically; it was physical as well. It’s likely they were losing their money, their property, their homes.

But listen to their reaction. Peter states, “In this [hope] you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.” Peter states they were rejoicing in the face of sufferings?! Why would a Christian do that?

Because our God blesses us even in our sufferings. Peter lists some of those blessings. “These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire.” I’m told that gold is refined at 1100 degrees. The heat of suffering also refines our faith. It causes us to hold on more tightly to our God and his promises. Like a muscle, when you exercise your faith it gets stronger.

Peter states that such a faith will “result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” A faith that lasts to the end isn’t to our praise and glory; it’s to the praise and glory of the God who gave us our faith and sustained us in it even through suffering and persecution for it.

This is the kind of faith God is looking for: “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him.” Have you seen Jesus? Not with the eyes on each side of your nose, but you have with the eyes of faith. And that’s a faith that receives God’s approval and blessings. Jesus told Thomas in today’s gospel, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (Jn. 20:29).

Such a faith isn’t a crutch for weak human beings. It actually receives what the almighty and risen Savior has in store for us. That’s what Peter meant when he wrote, “For you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” Even though you face troubles in life, you’re reaching God’s goal for you—eternal salvation. That’s our certainty because Jesus rose from the dead.

Christ’s resurrection is your daily hope—hope in the face of life’s troubles.

I know it isn’t easy. Life’s troubles have a way of wearing us down and deflating our spirits. But our risen Savior knows that. And his resurrection from the dead means that he even uses life’s troubles in his grand plan to bring us to eternal glory with him. He uses the crosses of our lives to bring us the crown of glory. Now there’s hope for daily living! It’s in the resurrection of Jesus. Live in resurrection hope! Amen.