6-15-16

Good Morning All!!   

             1 Peter 1:3; “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 through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead”

    Boy, watching the news these past few weeks has been very depressing.  There has been very little in the way of good news.  We hear of wars in the Middle East (still).  We hear about sending more troops to the Middle East to help in the fight (again?).  We hear of violence at home, hatred being the normal response to anything said or done.  Any little event and someone somewhere is “offended” and the lawsuits fly.  The agitators agitate, the complainers complain, the haters hate and you and I are left with a headache.

    It is for times like these, and worse (yes, it can get worse) that the Apostle Peter writes.  It is always interesting to look at the three primary writers of the epistles.  Paul wrote 13 epistles, John wrote three and Peter wrote two.  Paul is the apostle of faith; the desire to trust God and his promises.  John is the apostle of love; the self-sacrificing desire to serve God by serving our neighbor.  Peter is the apostle of hope; the certain knowledge that the promise of God, life eternal in paradise with him, is true and gives us comfort in times like these and Peter knew about worse times than these.  Peter wrote his letters to Christians throughout the Roman Empire who were being persecuted for their faith.  Many had loved ones either jailed or killed for their faith.

    Peter’s message is that we should try not to look at the world today but to look forward to what the world will be when Jesus returns.  We know that a far better day awaits us.  We know that Jesus will return to finish the restoration of his eternal kingdom of love and redemption.  He will end every tyranny, crush every evil, dry every tear and bring comfort to every heart.  We are born again to a living hope (as the ESV says) or to a lively hope (as the NASB says).  Either translation means that we have a hope that will sustain us.  It is alive and is very alive, reigning in heaven putting every unruly power under his feet.  This is occurring right now, even as you read this message; God is giving you hope.

    Many years ago, a man who was a public speaker for a living kept using the phrase, “the good thing to remember about times like these is that there have always been times like these.”  There is nothing new under the sun and we can know that as a certainty.  An even greater certainty is that Jesus died that you might have life.  He rose again from the dead so you could see his proof.  He rose again to show us the victory abundantly poured out for us.  We have that hope; we have that certainty of God’s great love and mercy covering us as a shield from all the events in times like these.  We are a people of hope; don’t lose that hope that was given to us to sustain us in times like these.

Father, through your grace we have hope. Pour your Spirit upon us that we may never lose hope.  Protect us from all pain and evil.  Be with those who are suffering now both physical and emotional.  Give them your comfort and hope.  In the Name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret