Introduction

We have all heard people say, I sure hope I can go on vacation this year?  I sure hope this work week goes fast so we can get to next weekend?  I hope I have time to go shopping for a whole day?  Unfortunately, our hopes have changed of late.  I sure hope this pandemic and quarantine ends soon.  I sure hope I don’t get sick.  I really hope my grandparents don’t get this thing.

Wishful Thinking

When we make statements like that it is like we are expressing a wish, a dream, an aspiration.  That kind of wishful thinking makes us more helpless than hopeful because we can’t make any of these things come true on our own.  Our pride is hurt when we have to admit that we are quite helpless in this old world.

Hope from God is Different

When God talks about hope in His Word it is entirely different.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope.”  (v. 3)

This living hope is quite different than our hopes and dreams.  For this hope is from God and based on what God does.  For this hope comes from,

“the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading kept in heaven for you who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for salvation…”.  (vv. 3-5)

Hope is a Gift from God

This is a living hope because Jesus Christ has been raised from death.  He has conquered for us.  He not only conquered death, but He conquered all our enemies including sin, death, hell, and suffering.  The important thing here is that hope is a gift from God.

God’s Hope is Certain Victory

God is never helpless.  He can always bring about and work in this world what He promises us.  The hope that God gives is not a wish or dream, but certain and sure.  It is victory over all evil.  His Son brought this to us as a gift by His death and resurrection on the cross.

God’s Hope Makes Us Victors

We are the victors.  We have the victory over sin, death and Satan.  Yes, we have the victory over all evil in this world even illness and death.

We Don’t Feel Like Victors

Today as we sit here, we don’t feel like victors.  Confined to our homes, bored, unable to go and do what we would like because of coronavirus.  We are afraid to go out.  Will we get sick?  Will our loved ones get sick?  Might we even die?  How long will this last?  Why can’t someone figure out a treatment now?  What about our homes, jobs, our financial security?  How will we pay our bills? Victors?  Conquerors?  We don’t feel like that today.

Let’s look back at God’s Word for a moment.  He also tells us,

“In this you rejoice (referring to God giving us hope but then He says), though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith-more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ!” (vv. 6-7)

There’s Only One Place to Go-To

Trials are going to come. This time they have come not just to us, but to everybody.  Trials are meant to strengthen our faith.  But we feel so helpless and without hope.  We can’t do anything to change this ourselves.  No, we can’t.  And when we can’t, what do we do?  Well, usually we worry and fret.  We are afraid. We can’t sleep.  We watch more news hoping some human being will give us a little something to hang on to.  What do we really need?  We have only one place to go-to God, the God of hope.

One Substitute for Hopelessness, Sin and Death

He is here today for us—His people.  He gives us a living hope because Jesus Christ is a living Savior.  We celebrate His resurrection this Easter Season.  This day you do not sit there as people who are without hope even in this time if trial.  We are people of hope because of our God.  He knew our helplessness and hopelessness at the hands of the evil of this world, yes, the sin, the death, the sickness that brings death.  So, He sent His Son to take our sin-our doubts-our fears and worries upon Himself.  He came to suffer Himself.  He came to die for us to suffer death itself and to conquer all this for us.  He became our substitute to take sin, death and suffering and nail them to the cross.  When He rose again the third day God accepted His sacrifice for us.  God declared us forgiven and alive forever.

Nothing Can Steal Our “Living Hope”

As Jesus Christ suffered in this world, so do we.  Only here is the difference.  We are guaranteed the victory.  We will conquer in Jesus Christ. God is with us if we get sick or a loved one does.  He is with His children in their time of suffering.  Even if the sickness brings an end to our lives in this world, we are still the victors because an inheritance awaits us imperishable, undefiled, unfading.  Nothing on this earth can destroy the hope God gives us in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  To destroy our hope, you would have had to kill Jesus and Christ and keep Him in the tomb.  But God raised Him from the dead and therefore nothing can steal our living hope away from us.

No Human Being is Really in Control

Our hope is found in our God.  There is no hope on the news, from any elected official, from any doctor or any statistic.  For the things of this world change.  No human being is really in control of anything.  Human beings are powerless even though we hate to admit it.

Hope Believes God has All Power

Our God has all power.  Our God can work good in the face of evil.  Our God raised His Son from death for you and me.  He loves us and will strengthen us in times of trial.  We were baptized, born again, to a living hope.  The hope we have in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Our Hope is Eternal

Today, we sit in our homes and we know our God of hope is with us.  We know and believe that in Jesus Christ we have the victory over all enemies.  We know a glorious inheritance awaits us no matter what happens in this world.

Jesus is... Our Hope for Years to Come

We of all people can have hope.  God has revealed it to us.  He is our hope always.  As the hymn says, “O God our help in ages past, Our hope for years to come, Our shelter from the stormy blast, And our eternal home.”

And all God’s people say, “Amen.”