Where can real hope be found?

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of 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 is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. 5 You are being guarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

1 Peter 1:3-5

Introduction

Shall we bow in a moment of prayer before we come to God’s Word?

*Our gracious Father, as we look into the Scriptures now, Your Word is powerful, sharper than any two‑edged sword. It cuts deep, deeper than any sin can dwell. And so my prayer, Lord, this morning is that You would speak to us through Your Word. That by Your Spirit, Your Word would come alive in our hearts today. That You would do whatever You please to do within our hearts. All of us here today are different in some way or the other. But Your Word is constant. Your Word is the same today, yesterday, and forever. And so we just ask that You’ll bless Your Word to us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.*

This time I remembered that my glasses are not on my head. They were in my pocket.

Andre and Mark have preached on 1 Peter in some way or the other. I know it’s one of your favorites, Andre. And Mark last week gave the benediction from the passage that we’ll be looking at this morning. So we had Andre preaching on 1 Peter, we had Mark reading the benediction from 1 Peter, and then Cindy told me that the ladies were studying 1 Peter.

But about two weeks ago, Mark set out the preaching schedule and he asked me to preach. I prayed about it, looked through Scriptures and I settled on 1 Peter, but I didn’t realize that Andre was going to speak on 1 Peter and Mark was going to bring the benediction from 1 Peter. So, well, eventually I decided, no, this is what the Lord has given me to preach on. So I’m going to preach on 1 Peter, and it’s just going to be three verses.

I’m not going to even ask you to stand as is our normal tradition; you can just remain seated. But you can turn in your Bibles to 1 Peter chapter 1. I’m going to read verses 3–5 because that’ll be the focus of my attention this morning. I’ll be reading from the NIV translation, the 1984 edition. Look, I’ve got both—got the Christian Standard Bible, got the NIV—and I’ve looked at them both in this passage, and they’re just about the same. Just the beginning part is a little bit different.

*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, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, 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.*

Background: Persecution and Hopelessness

Now the background or the thinking behind these words is that Christians were being persecuted. Peter himself was in Rome at this point in time, but Christians were facing tremendous persecution, and the persecution was going to become even worse. So Peter writes this letter.

We live in a world where hope for a better world, hope for a better life, hope for a better future has all but disappeared. It’s very difficult to have a chat with somebody these days without a note of hopelessness creeping into the conversation. Multitudes of people are actually living without hope. In fact, someone once said that most people lead lives of quiet desperation. I think that’s true.

And it’s not just those who beg on the street corners. It’s not just those who scavenge on the rubbish dumps of our cities, scavenging like wild animals trying to survive for one more day. It’s not just those who roam the dark alleyways looking for their next fix. It’s not just the poor and destitute that are without hope. It’s every strata of society that lives without hope today. Even the very wealthy realize that at some stage money cannot buy a better future. They may not admit it, but the only thing that is certain—and there’s a bumper sticker that says it—the only thing that’s certain is death and taxes.

I really feel for the children of our world today. When I think about my own grandchildren, they are fed on a diet of fantasy. Why does secular society feed them on this diet of fantasy? Because the real world is so harsh. The real world is so difficult. It’s so full of pain and hopelessness. So they escape into a fantasy world.

My two little granddaughters from when they were small always used to ask me, “Grandpa, do you believe in Father Christmas?” Then I would say to them, “No.” Then they would say to me, “No, that he is real?” You see. “Do you believe in fairies?” I would say no. They would say, “You’re wrong because they are fairies.” They needed to escape into their fantasy world because it protected them from the harshness and hopelessness of the world we live in.

The Attack on Faith Today

Now, Peter writes this letter to Christians who were experiencing persecution for their faith. And he was writing it so that they would persevere and not lose hope in a world which was increasingly hostile towards Christian people. In Peter’s day, martyrdom was common, and it continued on throughout the centuries. And even today people are martyred for their faith in Christ, and it will continue on until Jesus returns.

I don’t know if you know, but there are buildings in various parts of the world—church buildings—that have been violently destroyed, and many believers are being killed in the name of God by religious fanatics all over the world. It’s happening to our Christian brothers and sisters even as we sit here in our comfortable church.

Benoni Baptists, don’t be fooled. Don’t be fooled into a false sense of security. We may not be experiencing much physical persecution yet, but I think that in some ways, even worse than the physical persecution is the subtle attack on our faith today. And you know how it comes to us? Primarily through social media, through radio and television, and so on.

Let me just give you a few examples. Secular society says yes to evolution and no to a majestic Creator God. That’s persecution. They say yes to living together and no to marriage. They say yes to gay rights and no to God’s design of male and female. They say yes to human rights and no to human responsibility. They say yes to responsible gambling and no to being contented with what we have. They say yes to pornography and no to purity. They say yes to the worship of celebrities and no to the worship of God. And so the list goes on and on.

Every time we switch on the television or listen to our car radios or use social media, whether we realize it or not, our faith is being attacked. Do you know what’s happening? The world is trying to conform us to its image. They are trying to conform the Christian to the image of the world.

So don’t think that we’re not being persecuted. We are. It’s just more subtle and more invasive than physical persecution. We can be sure of one thing today. The devil is not finished with us yet. He’s going to continue to do everything he can to destroy the church by conforming us to his image.

And then in addition to all of this blatant assault on the church, we also have the daily struggles of living in a fallen world. Health and financial challenges, family tensions, mental and emotional issues, and hardest of all, spiritual struggles. That’s what we face as the church. That’s what’s happening to us as Christians.

So you add up all of these things and what happens is that hope is fading even in the church. But it’s into this seemingly hopeless situation that Peter—who would himself soon be martyred—brings these words of encouragement to us.

A Living Hope

*“Praise be or blessed be 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.”*

Do you see what Peter is saying here? As Christian people, we have a tremendous hope, a living hope, a hope that is alive and well and absolutely certain. This is not the kind of hope that the non‑Christian has.

Let me give you a few brief examples of the non‑Christian hope: “I hope the economy improves.” “I hope I win the lotto.” “I hope there’s no more load shedding.” “I hope I get an increase in my salary this year.” “I hope the Springboks beat the All Blacks.” “I hope the pothole outside my street is filled when I get home.”

Do you know what’s wrong with this kind of hope? There’s no way to know for sure whether any of these things will actually happen. They are uncertain. That’s why it’s called hope—because it may never happen. It’s dependent actually on the roll of the dice, so to speak. It’s a dead hope. It’s a hope without substance. Actually, it’s no hope at all.

But Peter tells us that the Christian hope, our hope, your hope and mine, is very different. Why? Firstly, because it’s a living hope. It’s a hope that is vibrant and alive and absolutely certain. And what makes the Christian hope so alive and so certain? Exactly what we celebrated last weekend: the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Without Jesus’ resurrection, there is no hope. There’s no hope for mankind. Life will be meaningless and hopeless. All mankind would be lost in sin with no hope for a better future. Satan and sin and death would be the winners were it not for the resurrection. But because of His great mercy, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ raises Him from the dead. And in so doing, a living hope is born. That’s why we have a living hope. It’s based firmly and squarely on a merciful God, not on anything that we can do.

But there’s another critical element that’s revealed here. The living hope is also a result of the new birth, which is a result of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. In other words, no resurrection, no new birth, no living hope.

So the mercy of God, the new birth, the resurrection of Jesus, the living hope are all linked together like an old song. I think Marian, you’ll probably remember—you know us, the older ones, the gray hairs—you can’t have one without the other. I can’t remember what that song was. Yes. *Love and marriage*. Thank you. All of those things are linked together. You cannot have one without the other.

All of this results in a hope that is alive and well and certain, because the same God who raised Jesus from the dead also raises us who believe, and He raises us to newness of life through the new birth. This is totally and fully a work of God. And because it is a work of God, that makes it secure and unchangeable and not dependent on anything that we can do.

So it’s no wonder that Peter says, “Praise be to God, to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Because Jesus rose from the dead, we can live confidently in our faith no matter what faces us, trusting God in every area of our lives because He has given us a living hope.

Now, please remember that the only reason the word *hope* is used here in this passage is because our salvation will only come to its fullest realization—its consummation—when Jesus returns to finally gather us as His followers to Himself. So whenever we read the word *hope* in the Scriptures, we should understand it as a confident expectation. It’s something we’re expecting, but we’re confident in that expectation. It’s an intense anticipation, a longing or aspiration of the heart. There’s absolutely no doubt involved in the Christian hope. It is a certainty because it’s wholly based on the mercy of God demonstrated in raising Jesus from the dead and giving us new birth by the Holy Spirit.

An Inheritance That Never Perishes

But that’s not all that Peter tells us here. Not only do we have a living hope, but secondly, we have the promise of *an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade, kept in heaven for you*.

I find this absolutely amazing. As if God has not already done enough for us. As if it’s not enough that He has had mercy on us who deserve nothing but punishment. As if it’s not enough that He should give us His only Son to die for us. As if it’s not enough that He should forgive us for our sins. As if it’s not enough that He should give us His Holy Spirit to live within us. As if it’s not enough that He should give us eternal life. As if that’s not enough, He then tells us that we as believers in Jesus have an inheritance prepared for us.

Doesn’t that just astound you? God has done more for us than we could ever imagine. And yet He still promises us an inheritance just because we have placed our faith and our trust in His Son. To me that is absolutely incredible.

What Is This Inheritance?

So what is this inheritance? Let me just mention a few things that the Bible tells us about this inheritance. Everyone that’s placed their faith and trust in Christ, been born anew—this is their inheritance.

– Hebrews 9:15 talks about an eternal inheritance—eternal life. That’s what we inherit.
– Philippians 3:21 talks about new bodies. There’s a lot of us with gray hair that are looking forward to new bodies. The bodies we have at the moment creak and whatever when we get up in the morning. That’s part of our inheritance as believers—new bodies.
– 2 Peter 3:13 talks about a new heaven and a new earth. Aren’t you looking forward to that? The home of righteousness where there’s no evil or wickedness anymore. No wars, no famine, no tsunamis. A new heaven and a new earth—our inheritance.
– Matthew 25:31–35 talks about inheriting a kingdom.
– And in 1 Corinthians 2:9, we are told that *no eye has seen, no ear has heard, nor can the mind possibly conceive what God has prepared for those who love Him*. It’s beyond imagination.
– And then, of course, being with the Lord Jesus Himself is the best inheritance we could ever receive.

So our inheritance is actually much more than we can ever imagine.

And do you know what’s really fantastic about this promised inheritance? Peter goes on to say that it *can never perish, spoil or fade*. Why? Because it’s *kept in heaven for us*.

I’ve heard lots of stories about people who have lost inheritances because of unscrupulous lawyers or family members or whatever the case may be. But for us as believers, nothing can stop us from receiving our inheritance because it is promised and kept for us by the Lord Jesus Himself.

Just imagine for a moment that someone here asks me to keep a diamond—a very expensive diamond—for them just for a few weeks while they’re on holiday. My question is: can they fully trust me? Now just look at this face. Doesn’t this look like the face of a trustworthy person? But can they fully trust me? No, they can’t. It’s not because I’m not trustworthy. It’s because a thief might come and break into my house and steal the thing. I don’t have the power to control certain things. That’s why I can’t be fully trusted.

But with God, there is nothing in the entire universe that is beyond His power to control. So we can trust Him. We can trust Him with everything that we are. We can trust Him fully.

Shielded by God’s Power

Now, as if to emphasize this point, Peter tells us thirdly, lastly, in verse 5: *we are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.*

The Americans built the shuttle aircraft that went into outer space. In fact, many years ago, I was in Orlando, Florida, and I went to the Kennedy Space Center, and there was a shuttle aircraft getting ready to be sent out into outer space. Now, one of the important things with these shuttle aircraft was they had to be covered in heat‑resistant tiles—heat shields—because of the extreme temperatures that the shuttle would go through on re‑entry into the earth’s atmosphere. Without these heat shields, those shuttles would break up on entry into the earth’s atmosphere. And in fact, tragically, some of them did. I know that in 2003 the space shuttle Columbia broke up on re‑entry, and of course there were seven astronauts that were killed immediately. I mean, you’re talking about temperatures that you can’t believe.

Now, the spiritual battle that we are in is intense, and the evil one is turning up the heat. He’s turning up the heat against us in these days. But thankfully, we as Christians have the perfect heat shield—not made of human hands. We have the power of God that will protect our faith and our hope until our salvation is fully realized when Jesus returns with all of the saints to establish His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

It’s no wonder that Paul could say in Romans 8:35–39:

*“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”*

You see, as Christian people, we are very different from the non‑Christian people of our world who live without hope. Why? Because we have a living hope and a glorious inheritance which can never perish, spoil or fade, which is kept in heaven for us, as we are shielded by the power of Almighty God Himself until the day when our salvation will be completed.

What an incredible hope we have as Christian people. It’s actually mind‑boggling what God has done for us and is doing for us and will do for us. So there’s no need to be fearful of what the future may hold in terms of trouble or persecution or even death.

Hope in the Wrong Places

Do you know what I find really sad today? That people are looking for hope in the wrong places. For example, people seem to be fixated on space travel. What’s that young man’s name from America? Elon Musk. I think they must change his name. But anyway, they think that they will find some super‑intelligent little green men on a planet far away who will sort out all of mankind’s problems. They’re placing their hope on little green men.

Well, I’ve got news for them. There are no little green men out there. There’s nobody out there that can give them hope. But there is a triune God who transcends the universe and who loves us and gave His life for us, that we may experience eternal life with Him through repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Therein lies the only hope for humanity.

Application

So, what do we take away from this passage this morning? There’s a lot, but I’ll just give you a few things.

1. **Cherish the Christian hope.** Someone once said that earthly hopes are but castles in the air, delusive and unsubstantial, but the living hope abides. Cherish the Christian hope. Hold it close to your hearts today.

2. **Thank God for the certain hope of salvation.** It comes only from His mercy, and it lifts us up in times of trouble and especially as persecution or even death approaches. Thank God for the hope of glory—our eternal salvation purchased for us on Calvary’s cross.

3. **Rejoice in the heavenly inheritance** which God is keeping for us, because it’s secure and unchangeable.

4. **Have a continual determination to stay on the path of holiness.** In other words, follow God’s way and not the ways of our sinful world.

Closing Invitation

There’s a beautiful old hymn that expresses our hope so well. And I’d like us to sing this hymn together this morning as we close the service. So I’m going to ask the musicians and the singers if they’d come forward.

But just before we sing, if there’s anybody here who has never experienced the new birth, if there’s anybody here who does not have this living hope in them, if there’s anybody here that wants change, that wants this newness of life, who’s tired with the castles in the air, but wants this glorious new future, to be part of that glorious new future—while we are singing this last song, if that’s what’s in your heart today, don’t delay. Come forward during the singing of the song, right here during the singing of the song or after the singing of the song, and Mark and I and Dave will be happy to pray with you to make this a glorious new day for you.

So let’s stand as we sing.