All Things New: New Hope
The resurrection doesn’t just give birth to new life but to hope as well.
This Easter series “All Things New” is based on the idea that we not only like new, but we also desperately need “new” and that new that we need is available to us through literal new life in Christ – the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus touches the deep longing within our hearts for things to be different than what we see around us.
The longing for hope. The need for joy and peace.
As we conclude our series, we will see that the resurrection of Jesus doesn’t just give birth to new life but to new hope as well. A living hope that is strong and sure – that will never disappoint us.
That’s the new we need. That’s the new life we find in Christ.
1 Peter 1:3-5
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. This inheritance is 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.
We see that Hope is a real thing, given to us by Jesus through our new birth. The Hope of Jesus isn’t an abstract concept that simply produces positive feelings within us.
It is living because it is eternal and placed in Christ and his unchanging character.
That the difference in living and dead hope.
Hope placed in circumstantial things, things of this world, even good things, are dead because they aren’t eternal, they aren’t secure in Christ.
iii.Our hope as Christians is placed in the person of Jesus and his word about the future.
It’s alive, because HE is alive.
1 Peter 1:6-9
In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 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. 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, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
It is within the light of eternity, the promise we have of God’s ultimate renewal that we should frame all of our present sufferings.
Using the imagery of Gold being refined by fire to remove the impurities, he says that the trials we face, through faith in Christ, can serve a redemptive purpose in refining and strengthening us.
How would this New Hope change your perspective on things in your life now? How would new hope change your mission within the world?
in Christ, we are a people rich in Hope and we are called to share that hope with others!
“We are transformed by God to bring Hope to others through Christ.”
Verses for further study/reflection:
Romans 5:1-5
James 1:2-4
Colossians 3:1-4
1 Corinthians 15:12-28
John 3:3
John 3:5
Romans 10:9
2 Corinthians 5:17
Lamentations 3:23