Our Anchor Of Hope

One of Mr. Hansel mentioned, Mr. Neu mentioned in her sermonette about having the love of God. And I know that I have always appreciated what we read in 1 Corinthians 13, which of course is called the love chapter. And it describes the love that God has for all of us. And actually trying to think through it, trying to be reminded of all of the things that are described about how love is from God's standpoint, how God wants us.

And of course, Paul is writing that and he is saying that love is really more important. It's more significant. And I believe there's a very good reason for that, because that's certainly a one-word description for God, for the way God is, for the way the Father and the Son exist and have always existed, for the way that he wants the children of God to be.

In the end of this chapter, most of you probably can quote what it says, whether you can quote the entirety of that chapter or not. 1 Corinthians 13 talks about the love of God and all of the different specifics about it. But after it finishes describing how complete and how permanent and how superior the love of God is, it mentions in verse 13 a statement that I want us to think about. It says, and now, in verse 13 of 1 Corinthians 13, and now faith and hope and love abide.

These three, and the greatest of these, is love. And so it points out how that, you know, certainly, you know, this does tell us that love is greater. It is important and very significant in learning to be like God is. It also points out that faith is important. So, we're to grow in the love of God. We are to live by faith throughout our lives, whatever, you know, the ups and downs, the difficulties, the rejoicing.

You know, we need to live by faith. But it also mentions that these three, faith, love, and hope, you know, they continually abide. See, those are, it's important for us to think about all three of those qualities that we should be seeking. And it's clear why we should seek love, and I think it's pretty obvious you have other chapters entirely that talk about faith. And we have Hebrews 11 that deals with the examples of faith that we read out of the Old Testament.

But what is it about hope? What is it about hope that abides, that endures, that is needed for all of us? See, I think we could say, and we're going to go to several verses here in different parts of the Bible today, that'll talk about hope from God. And I hope to point out how important that is, especially, you know, when we may be discouraged, we may be down, we may not be as excited about things as we would like, but we still need to have the qualities that are described here, these attributes of God, faith and hope and love.

Now, we see hope described as an anchor, an anchor to our soul. And that's certainly an important concept to think about. You know, why is it? We know we're to be loving, we know we're to live by faith, but why is it that hope is called an anchor, an anchor to our soul? You know what an anchor does, of course. An anchor carried on a big ship or any size ship.

You throw the anchor down and that anchor hooks onto the bottom of the lake or the ocean or the sea, wherever you are, and it holds the ship from floating away. It keeps you stable, it keeps you constant. And of course, that's certainly an important part of the Christian life that we want to develop and to grow in. Now, when I talk about hope and when I read about it in the Bible, I'm going to say that this is actually far more, far more than just what you might say or personality traits that people have. You tend to find some people who are more positive and some who might be more negative.

You have people who are optimist, are very optimistic, and sometimes you see pessimistic people. And often with those characteristic traits, we struggle with those. You know, we try to maybe get in the middle or try to be more optimistic. And yet, when you see the topic of hope described in the Bible, it points out that it's an obtainable goal. It's an obtainable goal because it's a gift from God. And it's clearly written about in very glowing terms. In our world today, and we can think about any type of news report we get, certainly right now the Middle East is inflamed.

You know, there is more, there is a lot of difficulty that, you know, we don't know exactly what's going to happen in the Middle East. We know it's always going to be a tinderbox. It's always going to be a difficult place to manage. But, you know, from our own standpoint, here in the United States, we have conflict among the entirety of nations. You have disputes with China.

You have disputes with North Korea. You have other nations around the world struggling. There's a lot of hopelessness, a lot of distrust, and a lot of unrest. And yet, I want to show you, at least with a couple of verses here, how that the Bible describes individuals who do not have an understanding of God, and do not have a knowledge of the truth of God as being without hope. And this is talking about something that God makes available to us. Let's take a look here in Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2 is a very important description that Paul gives. In this epistle, he's actually writing about the incredible blessing that God has given us of coming to know the truth, coming to have an awareness of what he's doing, coming to be converted and actually resisting and rejecting the prince of the power of the air that's described here in the first part of Ephesians 2.

But if we drop down to verse 8, it says, by grace, you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it's the gift of God. And it's not because of works, a result of works, so that no one of us can boast. We have an awareness of God, of his kingdom, of his plan, of his purpose, of what it is that he is doing in our lives, not because of ourselves, but because of God, extending that as a gift.

And then to drop down to verse 11, he says, so then remember that at one time you Gentiles, and here in this congregation, he was talking to some who had a Jewish background, some who were not. They did not have that, and they were a category that you would describe as Gentiles. Remember that one time you Gentiles by birth that are called the uncircumcision, by those who are called the circumcision, a physical circumcision made in the flesh by human hands.

Remember, so he contrasts the two different groupings of people he had in this congregation, remember that you were, at verse 12, at that time, without Christ, you were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope and being without God in the world.

And so you could say, you know, God is describing that, well, he's the one who's going to give us hope. He's the one who's going to give us a quality and an attribute that he says he is the God of hope. He's the God, he's very optimistic. He's very positive. He's very encouraging when it comes to each and every one of us.

Now, we may not be too encouraging about ourselves sometimes. We may feel down. We may be discouraged. We may be depressed. But is God depressed over me or over you? Is he depressed with the conditions, even what we see in the world?

Well, maybe he's not entirely pleased to see man sinning in the way that he is. But see, God went through a flood. You know, there was quite a corruption on the earth here 4,500 years ago. And so this is not new to God. He's fully aware that, well, I'm dealing with my children in the way that I'm choosing to do so. And I understand that everybody doesn't have the hope that I have. And see, this is what Paul was telling the congregation there. You were in the past before God started dealing with you and before he brought you to an awareness of the truth and to an acceptance of Jesus Christ as your Savior and to be able to live with the help of the Spirit of God. You actually were without God.

And you were without hope. If we jump over to 1 Thessalonians, you know, you even see this directed to the congregation there. And this was in connection to the fact that some of the people were dying. And we often read this. We did the other day at Paul's funeral. We almost every time will read this section. Any kind of a funeral that we might be attending, you probably would hear it. But here you see, you know, describing the fact that there is hope in the resurrection. The hope of that resurrection is absolutely sure. But here, I want to use verse 13 as, again, a description of the world in general, without the help of God, without the intervention of God. Here he says in verse, this is 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 13, we don't want you to be ignorant or uninformed brethren about those who have not. So Paul makes it pretty clear, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. Now, we have covered this, that, well, we want to grieve. And we do its right to grieve and its right to miss and to feel a sense of loss when members die, people that we're close to.

But we want to have hope. We want to see beyond. And clearly, that's an important part of the attributes of God. He sees beyond. He knows what's going to happen. He knows what the solution is.

And yet here again, you know, Paul describes people without an awareness of the plan of God as having no hope. And so, I want us to, he was directing this entirely to, you know, the congregation there. He wanted all of them to have hope. He wanted them to realize that, well, Christ is going to return. The kingdom will be set up. The resurrection will occur.

The resurrection is a solution to people having died. I'd like for us also to look, again, to apply this to maybe our day-to-day lives. In Psalm 42, you see a beautiful Psalm, one that we have in our hymnal. I think it's page 121, if I'm correct. It's a gorgeous hymn.

It's a wonderful hymn to be able to sing. And yet, in Psalm 42, at least the beginning of this, it actually repeats a couple of times in Psalm 42, and then again in Psalm 43. So, it all seems to kind of go together. I think they may have been at one time. And yet, we know this is Psalm 42, and it says in verse 1, as a deer, longs for flowing stream, so my soul longs for you, O God, my soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God? My tears have been my food day and night, while other people say to me continually, Where is your God?

These things, then I remember as I pour out my soul, how I went with the throng and led them in the procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival. So, this is describing someone who feels, the first couple of verses there, verse 1 and 2 and 3, someone who is crying, someone who is distressed, disappointed, maybe feels rejected, discouraged, certainly. And yet in verse 4, then they say, then I remember what it is you want me to know, what you want me to keep in mind. And in verse 5, he poses a question. He asks, well, why am I cast down? Why are you cast down, O my soul? Why are you disquieted within me?

See, that's really the tone of what's being described. Why are you feeling so bad?

And then he answers that question. Hope in God, because you will yet again, I shall again, praise Him, my help and my God. He kind of repeats that refrain two or three times here in chapter 42 and 43. But I point out that even though there was despair and even though there was discouragement, it was not said, well, you know, just endure that. It says, think on the things. In verse 4, I remember the things as I pour out my soul, how I used to be happy in worshiping God, in honoring God, in praising God, in coming together with others to praise God. And so, he then asked the question, why should I be cast down if I hope in God? See, that's a part of why it is that hope is described as one of the three connected with love and faith, clearly very important qualities, but hope is just as important. Or at least it's certainly very important. It says that love is greater, but we clearly want to have hope. And so I ask us today, are we like many in the world who would appear to be hopeless, or are we full, full of hope?

See, that's really something to think about. Are we hopeless, or are we full of hope? See, actually, I think we should consider whether we can grow in this attribute of God.

See, God clearly is going to show, from the verses that we're going to go to today, He's going to show that this is one of God's attributes. This is an attribute He wants in His children. This is an attribute He wants us to rejoice in and to be grateful for. And I will point out that because God is faithful, because God is faithful, He can be completely relied on, and He is very dependable, far more dependable than any of us. You know, we like to be and want to be. We try to be dependable. God really is. He can always be relied on.

Because He is faithful, we can be filled with hope. And hope, not only in the future, but hope even now. Hope in this life. Hope in the time frame that we have between now and Christ's return. We can have hope now because it's a part of the characteristics of God and because you know, we also have hope beyond that. We have hope beyond the grave, and which again is an important type of hope that we'll discuss a little bit later.

In the Old Testament, when you read through the verses that seem to refer to hope, at least one of them that I will look up regarding hope is in Psalm 16. So, to back up a few pages here from where we are in Psalm 16, David is writing, and he says in verse 7, I bless the Lord who gives me counsel in the night also. My heart instructs me, I keep the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand and I shall not be moved.

And so, you know, David was reminded. He talked about in other Psalms about laying awake at night and, you know, not being able to sleep at times because he was suffering from different things. But he says in verse 8, I keep the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand. I shall not be moved. Therefore, in verse 9, my heart is glad and my soul rejoices. My body also rests secure. It rests in hope. You know, what is David talking about? Why, how does his soul, his body, his whole being, how does it rest in hope? Well, again, you know, the description here seems that he is saying that, well, when I'm looking to God, when I'm trusting God, when I'm close to God, when I'm thankful for what God has given, then I can feel secure. I can feel very safe. I can be very confident. And I will say, I look this up to see, and, you know, this particular, the Hebrew word that is described here as as hope, it's described as hope here in this particular verse, and yet in many other of the references in the Old Testament, it's described as safety.

Being secure, having a stability and a security that only comes from a connection with God.

You can't get that anywhere else. That's not a physical thing. It is a spiritual dimension of being close to God, of having assurance, of having security that God describes as hope.

Let's go back to Hebrews 6, because this is a section where you see hope described as a real security, a real anchor. Here in Hebrews chapter 6, we see a section describing a need to be close to God, you know, not to give up on the blessing that God has given us of drawing us to understand Him. It says in verse 9, it gives us, in a sense, a warning, you know, don't be neglectful. But in verse 9, even though we speak in this way, beloved, we are confident of better things in your case, things that belong to salvation. For God in verse 10 is not unjust. He will not overlook your work and the love that you show for His sake in serving the saints as you do. And we want each one of you to show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope to the very end so that you may not become sluggish but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

See, now, He speaks in a way that's kind of elaborate, and yet He's describing He's describing the confidence that Christians can have when they rely on God and when they ask God even to give them the quality of hope that enables them to have a security, a safety, and an assurance that there's no other way of having. He goes on to describe, and in this case, He's describing how it is that God dealt with Abraham. In verse 13, verse 13, it says, God made a promise to Abraham, and when He made that promise, He swore by Himself, because obviously that was the greatest power available. He also points out in verse 17, in the same way, when God desired to show even more clearly the heirs of the promise, the unchangeable character of His purpose, He guaranteed it by an oath so that through that oath and through the fact that God cannot lie. We who have taken refuge in verse 18 might be strongly encouraged to seize the hope set before us. See, He wants us because God is faithful and because He will help us, and God is not down on us. We get down on ourselves sometimes. We get discouraged. We get depressed. And whenever things don't go so well, you know, that's kind of what we even read in Psalm 42. That was what the description there of that author describing being down, being discouraged, and yet he says, why should I be cast down? Why should I be down in this way?

I just need to have hope in God. And to come back to this, in Hebrews 6, he encourages us in verse 18 to seize the hope that set before us. In verse 19, we have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of our soul, a hope that enters the inner shrine behind the curtain where Jesus as a forerunner on our behalf has entered, having become a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek. Now, he was clearly focusing on the role that Jesus has as our high priest and the one who has incredible power, incredible authority, but he says we have hope that should be an anchor, an anchor for our soul.

Now, when Jesus described in Matthew 7 the type of house that he thinks we should build, or at least the foundation that we should build our house on, what does he say here in Matthew 7 verse 24? Matthew 7 verse 24, he says, everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who builds his house on a rock. Now, he's going to make a description.

He's going to compare this with what we read in verse 26 about the foolish man who builds his house on sand, not having the right foundation, not having the stability, not having the strength that the rock would provide. To go back to verse 24, those who hear and do what I say, these wise men will build their house on a rock. And in verse 25 it says, whenever difficulty comes, it doesn't say if you build your house on a rock, and in that rock being Jesus Christ, being the one who is able to help us and the one who is our hope, as we will see in a little bit, if we build our house on that foundation, that solid foundation, well then, does that make all the problems go away? No. In verse 24 and 25 it says, the rain still falls, the floods still come, the winds still blow, and those winds beat on the house.

But because it's built on the rock, it doesn't fall. It's founded on a solid foundation.

See, that's how hope is described as an anchor for our soul. Of course, he goes ahead to say the foolish man who hears but then doesn't do, the rains will fall. In verse 27, the floods come, the winds blow, beat against the house, and it fell, and great was that fall. See, that description tells us that, you know, we obviously need to seek hope. We need to seize, as we see back there in Hebrews 6, we need to seize hope and realize that that is a stabilizing factor for our lives. So I'd like for us to go back and again in Romans 4, you see Abraham referenced here. Romans chapter 4, you see Abraham referenced, and the connection between hope and faith in God is very clear. You know, with Abraham, hope was very tied together, closely tied together, you know, to his faith in God. Now, undoubtedly, you could say that Abraham was, you know, a paragon of faith. He was one of the patriarchs listed as the people of faith, and as you look at the entirety of the Bible, Abraham is a primary figure. He's, you know, a significant figure of the Old Testament and clearly the one through whom God was going to use and work in developing the people of Israel. But here in Romans 4, you see a description of this, how that, you know, God had promised what he was going to do through Abraham. He told him, you are going to have, you are going to have an incredible number of people that will be your descendants. And at that point, he didn't have a son through whom that was going to happen.

But it says here in verse 17, as it is written, I have made you the father of many nations, in the presence of the God in whom he believed who gave life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. In verse 18, hoping against hope. He believed against hope. He believed in hope. So hoping against hope, he believed that he would become the father of many nations according to all that was said, so numerous shall your descendants be. See, this didn't weaken his faith. Even though it didn't appear to be possible, he's going to go ahead and describe this. No distrust in verse 20 made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. Therefore, his faith was reckoned to him as righteousness. Now, the words were reckoned to him are written for his sake alone, but also for ours. See, he wants, God wants all of us to be growing in faith. He wants us to grow in hope, in equality and attribute, that he clearly has and that he desires to give to his children.

You see, in other areas of the New Testament, how that, because God is faithful. He's the one who can bring to pass all of the things that we need, all of the things that we may ask for. He may give those to us if they're according to his will, and yet, because he's faithful, then we can have hope. I want to break the rest of the sermon down here into just a couple of different areas.

One of them is the fact that we can have hope in our lives today. We can have hope in our lives today. And then the second one, that we can have hope beyond the grave, because all of that is clearly written about here, particularly in the New Testament. So, let's take a look for Christians today, for all of us who strive to be followers of Jesus Christ. Hope has these two primary applications, one of them in our lives today and the second one beyond the grave.

So, regarding the first one, you know, how is it? See, I describe to you how that the Bible says that before God started working with us, we were actually in the category that he says is without hope, without God, without an awareness of his purpose for us, without an awareness of his desire for us to succeed. Now, we may have been going wherever, you know, we were following the course of the world. We were following what seemed right to us. We were following what we thought we should do. And yet, God says, well, in a sense, you were without my hope. You were without the hope that I give. And then he began to extend that through what? Well, through the proclamation of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. See, I want us to look at Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1 again is an incredible chapter. You know, all of these books that Paul wrote to the congregations that he served. Now, they have a lot of different sections to them. And this latter part of Colossians chapter 1 is one that we often read. But I want to read part of this in verse 21.

Or, excuse me, let me drop down to verse 23. Colossians chapter 1, starting in verse 23, says, provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith.

And so he's saying, if you continue to be grounded, if you continue to be settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel. See, now, here's a reference to, you know, how is it that God is going to extend hope? How is it that he is going to provide hope that is beyond just human capacity? Well, he does that through providing the good news, providing the Gospel. If you continue in the faith grounded and settled and not moved away from the hope of the Gospel, which you have heard and which was preached to every creature under heaven, where have I Paul am a minister? See, here's the description that he gives to the hope that comes through the Gospel, comes through the message of the kingdom of God and of Jesus Christ as the king of that kingdom. See, that's a part of what God has offered to all of us.

Now, we should not take that for granted. For some of us, that's been more recent.

For many of us, that's been through much of our lifetime and for even some of us old-timers. That's a long time ago that God started granting us an understanding and giving us hope through the message of the Gospel of the kingdom of God. But that's what he shows us, that he begins that process. I want us to back up a few pages to Ephesus, to the Ephesian book.

Again in chapter one, he describes our attention being gotten by the Gospel, and then God calling us in hope. Here in Ephesians 1, he says in verse 15, I've heard of your faith in the Lord, your love toward the saints for this reason. I don't cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers, and I pray for you. I pray that God will give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation. Verse 18, so that the eyes of your understanding having now been enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling. He's now mentioned the hope of the Gospel, the hope of the calling that God extends where he draws us to Jesus Christ, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints will be. See, he's describing how that hope is maybe far more, far more of an attribute of God than we might ever have known. We see in 1 Timothy chapter 1, and this is clearly a theme that Paul writes about in numerous different books. It tells us that our hope and the hope of all of mankind, the hope of all of humanity, is actually Jesus Christ.

1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 1, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the command of God, our Savior, and of Jesus Christ, our hope. He's the one who gives us hope. He's the one who enables us to have hope now and even into the future. He goes ahead and, of course, writing that. He's just using that as an introduction to this book, but he's talking about how that coming to know Jesus Christ, not just to know the name, not just to know the words, but really coming to know Jesus Christ gives us hope. It gives us more hope than we could ever have in anything we could physically do.

You know, you think about the descriptions that Paul gives of the things that he endured, the things that he lived through. We could back up here to 2 Corinthians 12 and read a few of these.

2 Corinthians chapter 12 or must be 1 Corinthians because it's not there. 1 Corinthians, no, it is 2 Corinthians, but it's chapter 11. Well, over 3 there. 2 Corinthians chapter 11.

Paul is having to verify his authority to speak in the church. Now, that seems kind of ridiculous, and yet that's clearly what he was battling at times. And here in chapter 11, he's actually made quite a description of how that there at that time were even false ministers who were not teaching the truth of God and who were false apostles, he called them. And so he said, he was talking about how he had suffered as an apostle. And he says in verse 23, are they ministers of Christ? Well, I am talking like a madman. I'm even better. I'm a better one with far greater labor and far more imprisonments with countless floggings and near death. In verse 24, five times I received from the Jews 40 lashes minus one, being 39 lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked for a night and a day of drift in the sea.

And also on frequent journeys and in danger with rivers and danger from bandits.

Dangers from my own people. Dangers from the Gentiles. Dangers in the city and the wilderness.

Danger at sea. Danger with false brethren. In toil and hardship through many a sleepless night. Hunger in thirst without food. Cold and naked. And besides these things, I'm under the daily pressure because of the care of all the churches. Now, Paul makes a case for, you know, the fact that God was using him in an incredibly powerful way. And he actually allowed him to go through a lot. What you could see is described here as suffering, of distress, of turmoil, of reason to be discouraged. Reason to be dis...he was in jail several times. He was imprisoned. He even used that or wrote about that to say, well, don't let that bother you. I'm in here for the right reason. I'm in here for preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. I'm here for the sake of Jesus Christ.

And so that doesn't bother me and it shouldn't bother you. That's what he was saying. And yet, you see his description. Wouldn't he have reason to be discouraged? You know, anytime we run into difficulties, you know, we have a tendency to be discouraged. But what did Paul say here in Philippians chapter 4? Philippians chapter 4, of course, the whole book of Philippians is a very positive chapter or actually book. It's a very uplifting book. And yet here in chapter 4, he points out in verse 10, Philippians 4 verse 10, I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at last you have received your concern from me or revived your concern for me.

Indeed, you have concerned for me and you had no opportunity to show it. Not that I'm referring to being in need, for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. You know, Paul was telling him, you've been very helpful to me in the past and you haven't always had opportunity to help me and I'm not asking you to help me because I have learned. This seems just to be in congruent with what he's writing about all this suffering and distress and the pressure of caring for the churches, some of whom didn't even seem to like it. Didn't even want him to come see him. He would often send Timothy or Titus or somebody else, but he says I'm still concerned about them. I'm still concerned that they are growing in the nature of God because, of course, he's going to write about that a lot too. But here he's going to describe, I have learned in verse 11 to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little. I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances, I have learned the secret of being well fed and of being hungry, of having plenty and being in need. It's almost like, well, Paul didn't care. Well, no, he did care.

He was concerned about the physical needs that he had and the spiritual needs of everybody else.

But he goes on to say, you know, I have an understanding of the secret of how it is to be content and then he reveals that in verse 13. He says I can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens me. He says regardless of the physical circumstances that I'm facing, sometimes it's going to be wonderfully good and sometimes it's terribly bad.

Sometimes I'm suffering and struggling and other times I'm shipwrecked and wondering whether I will be rescued. He even describes one of his shipwrecks as well. We were pretty much without hope. At least rescue was not imminent. And yet when he says in verse 13, and this is a memory verse I'm sure many of you have memorized, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, through him who strengthens me. Where did he get his faith? Where did he get the hope that he had to live with? Well, he got that through Jesus Christ being the one who is his hope. Let's take a look at what we read about here in 1 Peter chapter 1.

To God is, as I said, he's brought us to an understanding of hope, an understanding of a positive view of what God is doing, of the incredible power that he has to bring that about. And in 1 Peter chapter 1, we see that God has begotten us to a living hope, a lively hope.

It's not to just be dull and dead and just trying to survive from one week to the next.

That's not where to do. He says, again he opens this book, for Peter does in this case, 1 Peter 1, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the exiles scattered all over the area who are chosen by God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ and to be sprinkled with his blood. That's a little more elaborate description of the church members that he describes, but he says about these church members in verse 3, blessed, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, because by his great mercy, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a lively hope, hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

See, was the resurrection of Jesus just something that had to happen?

Was that just a part of the plan? It had to occur? Well, it did just occur in the way that God predicted. But see, what was the outcome? How much excitement? How much joy? How much exhilaration? How much zeal? How much hope did the resurrection of Jesus Christ have and extend to the disciples? See, to begin with, they were scared. They didn't know exactly what was going to happen. But when they would later see him appear and knowing that he had been resurrected from the dead, they became firmly convicted, that they needed to live their lives committed to Jesus Christ, committed to the gospel of the kingdom, and committed to whatever God would allow to happen. They were given incredible hope. And it says, and as Peter writes about this, he's begotten us again. We've been born from above. We've been given the beginning of a spirit existence that has to grow and develop and mature.

We're not there yet. None of us are spirit beings yet. We want to be, eventually, begive a spirit body. But he's begun that process by begetting us to a living hope, a lively hope. And of course, because of that, why is it here in chapter 3 talks about how that we should be prepared. We should be prepared in this life to teach and preach the kingdom of God to others here in 1 Peter 3. Again, another verse that I know you're familiar with.

1 Peter 3 verse 15. Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks. Now, that doesn't mean try to beat it into somebody's head. That doesn't mean to talk to you or try to talk to people who don't want to know what God has provided for you.

But he says, sanctify the Lord God in your heart and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of what? The hope that is in you and do it with meekness and fear.

That's what he tells us that we are to be doing the work that God has given us in this life with hope of the future, with hope of what we know God is going to bring about because God is faithful and he will bring what he is saying. You know, we have known and we have waited for the coming of Jesus Christ for decades. That doesn't change anything about it going to happen.

It's going to happen. It's just a matter of when God determines for that to happen.

And we look forward to that time and we love that appearing. And yet what we are to do, as it says here in 1 Peter 3, 15, is we should be able to give an answer if someone asks, if they really want to know why is it that you do the things you do or why is it that you have an ability to be content even in distressing situations? Well, you want to be able to give an answer of the hope that is in you and then do that in a way that is acceptable and not offensive.

See, that's maybe harder than we might think. But clearly it is the hope that God has given us and we proclaim that. We're told to rejoice in hope. Those are all things that would be applicable to what I mentioned about the first aspect of a Christian life dealing with hope. We have hope in this life and we need to live with that hope. And then the second part of that is we have hope beyond the grave. See, once we die, if we die in this age and Christ does not yet come, the next thing we would like to hear would be a trumpet. The next thing we would like to hear would be the coming of Jesus Christ, any resurrection from the dead and a change to an immortal life. That's what we'd like to hear. That's what we look forward to. How do you know that's going to happen? How do we know that's what's going to happen? You don't know anybody that that's ever happened to.

You don't know anybody that's ever written from the dead. I mean, how do we know that that's going to happen? Well, we know because the word of God is absolutely sure. It's absolutely true.

We fully believe the word of God. We have faith in what God is saying and doing.

And so we know that we have life beyond the grave. We have a resurrection that we appreciate and look forward to because God is faithful. God will not lie. He tells the truth. Unlike Satan, Satan spreads all kinds of lies, misinformation, confusion, distress, but God is absolutely true.

Jesus says, I'm the truth. I'm the way, the truth, the life. We can be banking our lives and even our eternal lives on what Jesus has done for us and what he says. Here in 1 Thessalonians 5, 1 Thessalonians 5, in a kind of a concluding statement to this book, Paul writes about, 1 Thessalonians 5, he says in verse 6, don't fall asleep, keep awake, be sober.

Verse 7, those who sleep, sleep at night, those who are drunk, get drunk at night.

But since we belong to the dead, in verse 8, let us be sober and put on the breastplate of faith and love and for a helmet. What we keep in our head, what we keep in our mind for a helmet, the hope of salvation, the hope of life beyond the grave, the hope of life beyond today. That's what we have in our mind.

You see Paul even saying in Acts 23, Paul, of course, at times had to recount what it was that he had lived through in his lifetime, and he had several opportunities to present that information, and he was able to do it with joy and with clarity.

And yet here in Acts 23, you see him before the council, and you see him having to make a description of how it was or why it was he was doing what he did.

And yet I want us to focus on verse 6. Acts 23 verse 6, and this is again perhaps just a sidelight of what he was explaining, how that he had been drawn into the Church of God by God, how that he had persecuted the Church, and how that he was now not only a supporter, but he was one of the leaders of the New Testament Church. And yet he says in verse 6 when Paul noticed that some of them were Sadducees and others Pharisees, he called out to the council, he says, Brethren, I'm a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee, I'm on trial concerning what?

The hope of the resurrection, the hope of the resurrection of the dead.

And of course, whenever he said that, that created a lot of confusion among the crowd, and they began to take sides, and of course it'll eventually quit focusing on him. But he said, part of what I teach is that we have hope that there is a resurrection of the dead, absolute certainty that the resurrection will occur after we die. Now, of course, as we read the book of Revelation, we realize that there's more than one resurrection described, and we clearly want to be in the resurrection that applies to the Christians of this age, the first resurrection as it would be described in Revelation 20. Let's go back to Colossians chapter 1. See, this is laced all through Paul's writings. He mentions it over and over again, the hope that Christians have, and the fact that, you know, all of us can grow in that hope. In Colossians 1, we read a part of this in verse 23 earlier, but he says in verse 24, I'm now rejoicing in my suffering, and in my flesh I'm completing what is lacking in Christ's affliction. For the sake of his body, the church, I have become its servant. And he says in verse 26, the mystery of the ages, the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations has now been revealed to the saints, to the church.

And in verse 27, it says, to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. To here, he describes mystery of the ages, which obviously we should focus on and should understand that clearly, but he describes that as, you know, the hope that we have, the hope of Jesus Christ living in us, and beyond that, the hope of being glorified as God says he will bring sons and daughters to glory.

This is the way he describes it in different settings and to different groupings of the church.

And if we take one other verse here out of John, 1 John, 1 John chapter 3, let's see how John describes it here. Again, this is all describing the resurrection of the dead.

The fact that we can be assured of that resurrection occurring because the Word of God is sure and God is faithful. But here in 1 John 3 verse 1, see what love the Father has given us that we should be called the children of God. How incredible that he would choose to begin a process of allowing us to be the children of God. And that is what we are. The reason the world doesn't know it is they don't know him. Well, that's pretty plain. That's plain. If people don't understand God, if they don't have a comprehension of what God is doing, well, then they wouldn't understand that they're going to be the children of God. But he goes ahead in verse 2, beloved, we are God's children now and we have not yet seen what we will be has not yet been revealed. But what we do know is that when he is revealed, we will be like him for we will see him as he is.

And all in verse 3, who have this hope, all who have this hope in him will be purifying themselves just as he is pure. See, we have a hope of eternal life, the hope of the resurrection, the hope of Christ, not only living in us, but of giving us the eternal life that God promises.

So, brethren, we have plenty of reasons throughout the New Testament and certainly in the old to grow in hope. It shouldn't just be something that we never think about. I think it should be something we should ask that God would increase our hope. There is a verse that says increase our faith. I think we could also increase our hope of what God is doing, not only now, but in the future.

I want to read a couple of other verses here in conclusion. The book of Romans.

See, this is a concluding statement that Paul makes in this book. In chapter 15, he's talking about his contact with people there. He's giving them encouragement and exhortation. He's already explained the need to grow in the nature of God, to allow the Spirit of God to cause that to be.

He says in verse 7, welcome one another just as Christ welcomed you for the glory of God.

And then he quotes several verses out of the Old Testament in verse 9 and 10, 11, and 12, but verse 13. Romans 15, 13 is a verse I want to focus on. May the God of hope.

How much more clear can that be that there is a source of hope, there is a God of hope.

He is the God who is extending his nature to us. He has begotten us to a lively hope.

He's the one who wants us to be optimistic and be hopeful, to believe that he will exactly do what he has said he will do. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. See, that's pretty much a summary verse. Perhaps I should stop there, because that's exactly what I've been talking about here for the last hour. How that hope is equality and attribute of God. Equality that he wants us to have, equality that he wants us to ask for, equality that he empowers us to be stabilized with. He calls it an anchor of our soul, and yet it's equality that might be overlooked. It might be misunderstood, but he tells us, may the God of hope fill you with the joy and peace and believing so that you may abound in hope by the power of God's Holy Spirit. I hope that all of us can appreciate what it is that God has done with us and how it is that he wants us. He wants us to be fully convicted. He wants us to be encouraged. He wants us to be uplifted. He wants us to be inspired, but he wants us to grow in love and faith and hope.