Title: Pass It On-Hope
Place: BLCC
Date: 7/20/14
Text: 1 Peter.3.13-16
CT: May we share the hope of Christ with all who come behind us.
FAS: Forty-three states, along with the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands, run lotteries [as of January 2014] …. According to a CNN article, "More than half of us have played the lottery in the last year, although 20 percent of customers buy the majority of the tickets." In fiscal 2012, Americans spent around $78 billion playing lotteries. Since 1964, when New Hampshire launched the first modern state lottery, ticket sales have gone up every year, even during the Great Recession, when the sale of most other items declined.
What drives the popularity of lotteries? Not the incredible odds. You're more likely to be attacked by a shark (one in 11.5 million)
or die in a lightning strike (one in three million)
than you are to win Powerball's grand prize (one in over 175 million). You'd have to buy 86 million tickets to reach even a fifty-fifty chance of winning.
Although the chances of winning Powerball is less than having a meteor crash into your house (one in 182 trillion).
So why do we people keep playing the lottery? Maybe because it lets us live in a fantasy world. "For $2 you can spend the day dreaming about what you would do with half a billion dollars—half a billion dollars!" Maybe the lottery appeals because "it lets you believe in magic: that you will be the one who spent a little and got a lot" and that the money "will give you a respite from the conflict, complexity, and angst of everyday life."
Journalist Adam Piore writes, "[The lottery] is a game where reason and logic are rendered obsolete, and hope and dreams are on sale."
LS: For the Christian hope is not equated with "I hope I win the lottery." Hope is solid assurance that God's promises are true. Hope is not something that can be purchased. It is not a wish.
I.A I developed this series to encourage us as Christians to pass the baton of faith to all those who follow us. I pray it has encouraged, challenged and maybe even stepped on some toes. I know it has for me. We have looked at examples from the Word to better understand how God views his ideal on these aspects of our faith. Today I want to present something we must pass on to those coming behind us. [Screen 6] HOPE.
B. Hope is mentioned a lot in the Bible.
Ps.42.5 Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
Ps.62.5 Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him.
Prv. 23.18 There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.
Isaiah 40.31 but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
Jer. 29.11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Lam. 3.21-26 21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: 22 Because of the Lord ’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” 25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him26 it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
Romans 8.25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
1 Thess. 5.8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.
Hebrews 6.19 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
C. What is this hope? In the dictionary I read, the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best.
And here is the text I want to unpack today. This text encourages us to pass this hope on to others.
1 Peter 3.13-16, Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? 14 But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.” 15 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,
II. Unpack: A. 13 Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? 14 But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.”
Good behavior will ultimately lead to victory! Victory is found in Jesus. Our hope is found in living like Jesus in spite of any persecution.
God will eventually (even if not now) establish complete justice. Peter is not being naïve here in thinking no harm will come to those who follow Christ. His assurance in this text comes from being grounded in his final hope. Peter knew Jesus’ teaching.
Jesus makes it clear that there will be persecution and suffering for his followers.
Matthew 5.10-12, Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Matthew 10.26-33, 26 “So do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. 27 What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. 28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
THERE will be tough times if you are a Christian. How do we keep our hope secure.
B. 1 Peter 3.15 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,
Regardless of what is going on in our lives, we must be ready to give the reason for our hope. This means we must prepare. Instead of fear of persecution, we are to be ready to speak boldly about our HOPE. This implies a constant willingness to speak up for Christ, to confess our allegiance to him and to witness fearlessly to his saving grace through the cross. To step out on faith at the risk of being called a fool for the hope you have. The cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but salvation to those who believe.
We are to be prepared to speak at any moment about God’s salvation of his people through Jesus Christ and how salvation will come to be at the end of history. This hope we proclaim will sustain us through persecution and give us the strength to carry on even when everything looks dismal.
This is some bold talk and can come off as defensive and triumphal in nature if said without “gentleness and respect”. Peter is telling us to be humble and respectful of others instead of pushy and demanding. God does not force himself on us. This approach will lead to more people accepting Christ and diminishes the chance for rejection or more severe persecution. This does not mean with less conviction or timidity. Fine line we walk here.
C. Just as Jesus suffered as a righteous man and was vindicated, so too will we be vindicated if we live as Peter teaches here.
III. We have the hope of vindication just as Christ received it.
A. We must believe in final justice and live in light of that justice to maintain our hope.
Maybe you are worn down by the seeming lack of justice in our world.
Maybe you have begun to not care about justice, especially final justice.
Murderers who get off with no punishment.
Criminals getting away with crimes and laughing about it, non-repentant. That is not the same thing. We can begin to doubt and believe that ultimate justice is a far off dream.
How can we still have hope in this type of society? How can we still hope for justice?
We must move from trusting in government, laws and TV news anchors to trusting in God!
We can easily get discouraged when evil gets off because of some technicality.
Good people are fired because they were honest.
People whose children are ostracized because their family tries to be weird and live for God’s ideal.
People who won’t play with dirty ethics and lose business deals.
There is persecution for Christians in all walks of life. Those folks find the message of hope Peter speaks of as applicable to their own lives and find solace in the ultimate vindication of God. I pray it strengthens you today as well.
Imagine you are a teenager where the majority of the high schoolers you are around drink to the point of drunkenness, where many smoke pot or worse, where many casually sleep around, and where that same teen society knows who does and does not do these things. Then imagine that you will not be accepted by your peers if you don’t do these things. Peter’s message of hope speaks to you. He knows how difficult it is to fight off pressures for acceptance and conformity, he knows Christians are to seek to live according to God’s ideal and refrain from sinful behaviors and he especially knows you will need to have special faith and courage to endure.
Peter is calling us to focus on the ultimate hope we have in Christ. Only with this hope can we:
1. Not conform to the sinful habits we are being drawn to by our peers.
2. Live faithfully and obediently to Jesus’ teaching
3. Find friends in those who seek God’s ideal with me.
4. Look to the day when God ultimate vindication is fulfilled for his people.
CT: May we share the hope of Christ with all who come behind us.
Conclusion: As we continue series this I pray we as adults do all we can to encourage and help our young people in this church and in our community. They face a lot of tough challenges. The thing is the problems they face are problems we all face even as adults. Only with a hope in Christ of a positive outcome no matter what this world throws at us can we carry on. God is our hope. He gives us a future we don’t have to purchase. There is no lottery ticket you need to buy Your chances of winning are 100%. It is free if we only identify with his Son and submit to him through baptism and obedience. Won’t you take hold of this hope that will carry through any situation this world brings.
