Our Living Hope

Easter Sunday
April 4, 2021
Pastor Phil Chorlian

---

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, ⁴ and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, ⁵ 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. ⁶ In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷ These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith — of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire — may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. ⁸ Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, ⁹ for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. – I Peter 1:3-9

---

Qualities of our

Reveal Answer

Hope:

A. It is a

hope.

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. —I Peter 1:13

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 … —I Peter 1:3

“Our hope is anchored in the past: Jesus rose! Our hope remains in the present: Jesus lives! Our hope is anchored in the future: Jesus is coming!” – Edward Clowney

Lowest

resurrection denominators:

1. Jesus
   Reveal Answer
   by crucifixion.
2. Jesus’ tomb was
   Reveal Answer
   .
3. Many people reported meeting the
   Reveal Answer
   Jesus.
4. The early church grew
   Reveal Answer
   after Jesus was crucified.

B. It is a

hope.

In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. —I Peter 1:6

The Stockdale Paradox: You must maintain unwavering faith that you can and will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties, and at the same time, have the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.

C. It is a

hope.

These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith — of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire — may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. —I Peter 1:7

“Jesus said no one can enter heaven except as a child; and nothing is so obvious in a child - not just a conceited child but in a good child - as its great and undisguised pleasure at being praised. Not only in a child, either, even in a dog or a horse. The most childlike pleasure is to be praised by someone superior to ourselves… Glory means brightness, splendor, luminosity. We are going to shine like the sun… We do not merely want to see beauty… we want something else that can hardly be put into words - to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it.” – CS Lewis

Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. —Romans 8:17