Living Hope
I Peter 1:3-9
Jim Springer and Jim Lewis were twin sons born to a fourteen-year-old girl in a small town in Ohio. After they were born, she immediately disappeared. These two boys were adopted into two different loving families and for 39 years they never met each other. But their adoptive families eventually told them they had a twin sibling somewhere.
Jim Lewis had always had a strong hope that he would someday find his twin brother. One lived in Lima, Ohio and the other in Dayton. Through the probate court, they found each other.
Try to imagine the scene. Jim Lewis drove to Dayton to meet his brother for the first time. He found the address, but he was so nervous he drove around the block three times. Finally, he stopped, walked up to the house, and knocked on the door. When Jim Springer met Jim Lewis for the first time, they just stood there staring at each other, speechless. They said it was like looking in a mirror. They looked alike, they talked alike, they discovered that they even thought and acted alike. They had never seen each other, yet they were so much alike. It was uncanny. Jim Lewis’ hope had been finally realized.
Would it sustain your hope and preserve your faith to know that after the trials of this life when you see Jesus you will have a surprising resemblance to Him? If you knew that the trials and hard things you experience could actually make you wiser, more peaceful, and more joyful, would that affect your response to those experiences? Do your responses to life’s troubles cause those watching you to have an improved opinion of Jesus? If they do, it’s because living hope produces that kind of joy and faith.
It’s this message of living hope through Jesus Christ that we proclaim at Heralds of Hope. It’s this living hope that anchors our vision to use media to make disciples of Jesus Christ to accomplish the Great Commission in our lifetime.
Turn in your copies of the Scripture to the book of First Peter and let’s think together about several ASPECTS of this living hope from First Peter 1:3 to 9.
The First ASPECT is,
The resurrection of Jesus is the source of our living hope. How important is hope in your life? We have a saying, “as long as there’s life, there’s hope.” The founder of Heralds of Hope, J. Otis Yoder, told me about a time when he was visiting Israel. He was have a conversation with a Jewish man and he mentioned this saying about hope. In response, the Jewish man said, “we Jews turn that saying around. We say, ‘as long as there’s hope, there’s life.’” I think he’s on to something. Without hope, life isn’t worth living! And this hope you and I have isn’t a “hope so” hope. No, according to Romans 5:5, it’s a settled assurance. It’s a hope that will not disappoint us in the long run! The writers of Scripture talk about this hope as though it has already been realized! It’s that sure; you can count on it.
Remember what the apostle Paul said in First Corinthians 15 in the context of his teaching about the resurrection? “Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable [the most miserable].” He went on to say, “But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.”
What’s the reason for all the darkness and despair in our world, why are peo...
