Please remain standing for the reading for our preaching this morning. We're reading out of 1 Peter. It says this, '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, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power and who by by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials so that the the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold, that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Please take your seats. Let's pray. God in heaven, we thank you for this day. We ask you to speak to us today on this this Resurrection Sunday, the day that we come before you to know you, to trust you, to be called, to walk according to your ways in all that we do, Lord.

We ask you to bless this time now. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Well, good morning, church. This morning, we have the privilege of hearing from the apostle Peter, a man who on the night that Christ was betrayed, he he looked into the eyes of his master, his Lord, and people asked him if they knew him, and he denied even knowing his master and his Lord on the night he was betrayed. Those same eyes, he looked into the eyes of his master and betrayed his master on the night he was betrayed. Then three days later to have the same moment to look into the eyes of the resurrected Christ and to be offered grace, to be offered mercy, to be offered forgiveness as Jesus looked at him and said, Feed my sheep, and restored him to a life, to a hope, to an inheritance. That apostle Peter is the one we get to listen to this morning. He speaks through this letter to a people who are struggling, a people who have been persecuted, people who are burdened, people who are confused. And he has a word for them. And the first word he has for them is about the resurrected Christ.

So this morning, we come to this word from Peter about the resurrected Christ, and we receive the same encouragement he had for them. And that encouragement is twofold. First, The resurrection of Jesus Christ gives you a living hope. He encourage you. The second is that the resurrection of Jesus Christ gives you an inheritance. An inheritance that's kept for you in heaven. Let's look at this living that Christ has for us through the resurrection. It says here in the beginning of our passage, 'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. ' He bursts forward with praise and blessings to our God and our Father, the Lord Jesus Christ. All throughout the Old Testament, there are times, about 27 times, where this blessing to God springs forth. Barak Adani is what it says. Bursting forth to bless God. But this is different. This is a blessing to God in the name of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the God of Israel, but this is the God of Jesus, our savior, who comes, who is blessed, who we receive the benefits of the resurrection from. Blessing, blessing, praises to him, Peter starts with.

And then now he is going to go into all the things that God gives to us through this blessed God and Father. He starts with, 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. So first we have this great mercy. What is this great mercy? This great mercy. Over the last few weeks and even month, we've been studying Isaiah 53. In Isaiah 53, we heard that there was this Messiah coming through the prophet Isaiah. And this Messiah who was coming would be the one who would take all of the burden, all of the wrath, all the sins that would fall on him. In fact, the passage says, we, his people, God's people, we are like sheep who've gone astray. We've gone our own way. And God caused our sins, our iniquities, our transgressions to fall on him, the Messiah. This is that great mercy. That our sin, otherwise God set a mark and we kept missing it. God, in our transgression, set a line and we kept stepping over it. God had a desire for us to be righteous, and we kept deceiving.

Our sins, our iniquities, our transgressions, all of those things, all of those sins, fell on Jesus and not on us. This is God's great mercy that all the things you've done wrong fell on Christ. This is great mercy. You see, grace, we hear this word often. Grace is favor we do not deserve given to us. But mercy is God holding back the wrath that we deserve that should fall on us. Now, as a parent, I know mercy. I want to know mercy. When your kids disobey you, I grew up in a home where we received spankings in my home. Okay. That's the girl home I grew up in. On some occasions, you might not get a spanking, but you get sent to your room. So either way, you still have punishment that you have to pay. That's not how God does this, though. Not only does he hold back the spanking, he doesn't send you to your room. There's no punishment. All of the punishment that you deserve falls on Christ. There's no more pain for what you deserve because of Christ. This is the mercy that he gives to us. So it's great mercy.

This is why it's great, because it's more than you can offer. You don't know this mercy, but God does. Because he gives it to you. So it's great mercy. But then he also, he says this statement, and it's, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. So what is this 'born again'? This 'born again', we hear this often. Maybe it's two different types of Christians. We're not sure, but this 'born again' seems to be important. I don't know what this thing is, but Peter's pointing right to it because God's caused it. So what is it? Well, a verse over, he says this in chapter 1:23, he says, Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through a living or through the living and abiding word of God. All flesh is like grass. All of its glory is like the flower of grass. The grass withers, the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you. So it's born again in this word that comes.

But then the apostle John tells us exactly what it is. Here's what he says. The apostle John, the disciple that Jesus loved, says it like this. When he was talking to Nicodemius, Jesus says this to Nicodemius. He says, Truly, truly, I say to you, Nicodemus, unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. He goes on to say, Do not marvel that I said this to you. You must be be born again. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear it sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit. God's word comes about in our lives, and the spirit of God works. It's like the wind. We can't control it. We can't channel it. We can't stop it. We can't shape it. It just moves. And when it comes, it comes on a person's their life, and it births something new in their life. He also says this in chapter one about being born again. But to all who did receive him, Jesus, who believed in his name, God, he gave the right to become children of God who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but they were born of God.

Born again. They're born again by God, not by my power, not by your power, not by the smartest guy or the brightest woman, no one can bring about a new birth in your life besides God. And God has caused this new birth, according to Peter. The this new birth. And this new birth is powerful, and it comes to all of those who believe. I think about this new birth, and I wonder, What are the signs of life for this new birth? I have four kids, so I know the signs of life for a new baby. What happens when a baby is born? They cry. You hear it. You hear it ring out in the birth room or if you have a home birth, the baby cries of this new birth. But this is different for the spiritual birth. For the spiritual birth, we don't have crying. Maybe in some cases, we might have crying. If it was me, I might be crying. But the new birth, there's something different that bursts forward from this new believer, this new spiritual being that's following God. What happens? They begin to birth out a living A living hope.

A living hope begins to emanate from their lives. They want what God wants. They hope for what God hopes. They dream of what God dreams. All the things that God has for them, they want for their lives because they're in God's grip. Because they're birthed by God, and they want what he wants, and they hope for what he hopes. It's a new hope, a living hope. The baby's born, the baby doesn't cry. It's not alive. When the new birth happens, if the Christian is not hoping, can they be alive? There's a hoping we have in this living hope. And this living hope comes to us through the resurrected Christ. He's the grounding for our new hope. He's the grounding for our lives. It's all grounded in this Christ who's resurrected from the grave. It's the roots. When life sways, the roots point back to this fact that we believe that Christ rose from the grave 2,000 years ago. We have eyewitness, and we have all these things that have happened to point back to the fact that there's a down payment that was given to us through Christ in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He is our living hope.

Our living hope is birth through him and through his life. This is the life we have through Christ. So similar to Peter, as he's writing this to these people, they have burdens, they have struggles, they have needs, and they need this encouraging word about a living hope, because sometimes life gets so hard that we could start to believe that you are your life and there's nothing else. There is no hope for you. Life gets hard and you could start to I believe that. Back in 1940, there was a man named Jean-Paul Sartre. He was a philosopher, and he's a philosopher in French, in France. He had a one-act play that he put together. It was called No Exit. It was his vision of what hell would be like. What he had is he had this room that was this ornate room, and there were three couches in this room, and then three people ushered into this room. The rules of this space were that you could never sleep. Your eyes were always open, and it was bright. In this one room, they could never leave. They had to be forced into this intimacy of talking.

They all came into the room with their pretense of who they were, their best person. The one man, his name was Garcine. He showed up as a strong hero that was a journalist for the military. The one woman showed up as a faithful mother, but she died in untimely death. Then the other woman showed up as a woman who lived a wonderful life and enjoyed her life. They had this picture of who they were that they wanted people to see. But then after a short while in this hell that Jean Paul Sartre Gary puts together, their hypocrisy is unraveled. All their secrets are laid bare. All their lies are opened up. All their failures are exposed. Before you know, we learn that Garcine is actually a liar. Who was a traitor. He was a coward, and he ran, and he was killed. We learned that the woman who said she was a great mother actually killed her own child. We learned that the woman that was also out running the streets and being what she thought was a nice person, she actually was mistress, and she was killed by the spouse of her mistress. All their secrets came out.

They were exposed. In the statement that one of the ladies named Estelle says at the height of this story, she says to the other group, she says, You are your life and nothing else. This is the height of hell for this philosopher. You are your life and nothing else. Brothers and sisters, I want you to think about your life. Imagine if you were your life and nothing else. Imagine if you were your life and nothing else to stand before a Holy God to present your life All the things you've done, how great you are to a Holy God, you'd have no hope. You'd have no chance. But God, But Christ, the resurrected one, you have hope. You have a chance. Colossians 3:3 says, For you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. We think about a living hope. We have a living hope because there is no hope for our life in God without Christ and the resurrection he offers. This is our life, and it's not all there is. It is him. That's a living hope that he offers to us. He also offers us an inheritance, an inheritance. This is beautiful, this inheritance he offers to us.

He starts off with this language here. He says, To an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. I like this language, and it's an important language. We have God as Father, we have Jesus Christ as Son, and we have us being children who are born of the spirit of God. This is familial language. And this familial language, I think it's natural and normal for every parent that wants to be a great parent, wants to leave an inheritance of their kids. Hopefully, they leave more than just a good name. First of all, a good name is worth more than silver or gold. A good name is good. But I would imagine a lot of parents want to leave a good name, and they want to leave blessing and maybe a home, maybe some land, maybe traditions. They want to leave all this inheritance to their kids. This is natural and normal that we would see things this way and want this for us. And guess where we learned it? We learned it from God because he's always promised us an inheritance.

If we were the nation of Israel, the inheritance was the land that flows with milk and honey called Israel, the land and the promise of God. But for us, we look forward as Christians, our inheritance is beyond the land of Israel. Our inheritance is something that God offers to us. Now, what are these words that God uses to explain this inheritance that's so important that he's offering to his children? Well, first, it's imperishable. Emperishable, otherwise, it is everlasting, never to break down. It's also undefiled. Everything in the world seems to have some cracks in it if you look close enough. Everything in the world has a little bit of tainting. If you get a little more comfortable with it, it begins to taint. Even the great people that you maybe admire, there's some tainting when you get closer. Well, this inheritance is undefiled. No taint. There's this virtue, there's goodness, there's beauty to it. There's a sense of even a wholeness to this. Then Also, there's an unfading. I mean, who wants an inheritance that's everlasting, that when you get there, it's dilapidated? This inheritance is a type of inheritance where It's not only in heaven waiting for you, but it's durable, it's bright, it's shining, it's glorious.

And most importantly, it's kept in heaven for you. I love the way Pastor John ended our Good Friday service. He looked at the students, the children in the room, and he says, Students, look at me. That goes to all of you now. Students, look at me. The promises God has are for you. Of course, adults, they're for you. All the things that God has in that inheritance kept in heaven is for you. It's for you. And so this you and the next word are connected, the you and the who. So it's not only that it's guarded in heaven for you, but the who, you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. So it's kept in heaven for you, and then it's being guarded, and better yet, you're being guarded until you get there. You see that? It's kept for you, but then it's being guarded. You're being guarded until you get to heaven. It's being guarded for you. It's being guarded for you. I think about being guarded. The day the President is inaugurated, he gets the secret service. The secret service, they're around him all the time.

They're guarding him at every door, every Every opening, every spot. In fact, we have a gentleman in our church who is guarding our church. Jason Meyer is always guarding, thinking about how he can protect our church in the same way the President has this guard around them, watching, guarding, protecting, planning ahead. That's what's happening. This is what they do for the president. Well, take these mere men and let's ratchet up to God guarding you. God is guarding you from now until you receive the inheritance that's kept for you. I don't know about you, but I struggle sometimes. Do you ever struggle? Do you ever struggle? I mean, I struggle. I often wonder, will I make it to that gift that's kept for me? I know he's guarding it, but will I be able to hold on? I wonder. I want to say there's really good news to this because the wonder of our hope is that the same power of God that keeps our inheritance also keeps us. It's not that we have to hold on to what he's guarding in that sense, that we're holding the guarding until it gets there. It's That by faith, we hope in the fact that he's the one who guards it, not us.

He's doing the guarding. We just trust that he's going to guard it until that day. That's where our faith is. We don't have to will it. We just trust that he's going to do it. I'll say it again. The wonder of our hope is that the same power of God that keeps our inheritance also keeps us. We have this inheritance that God gives to us, and now he continues to shower on this. Then we have to face the realities of life along with this. It says this next verse here, In this, you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials. When I read this now for a little while, I almost want to say that's life. A little while, I mean, Lord, I mean, wow, a little while? How long is a little while going to last? It's hard sometimes. Peter even says it. But he says, In this, you rejoiced that the inheritance is here, but then you're also going to be grieved. How are you grieved and joyful at the same time? That's a tension to manage for a little while. Well, I love the way that 1 Corinthians says this.

Actually, 2 Corinthians 6:10 says it like this. This is the Apostles talking about the way they live their lives. They said, As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. This tension they manage about this life between this life where they get to faith and trust in this inheritance that God gives them through this resurrection. They are sorerful, yet always rejoicing. They actually go on to say a number of amazing things about this life they live as they trust and have faith in Christ. And so as we look at our passage here, In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, and if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so the tested genuance of your faith, more precious than gold, that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in the praise and glory and at the revelation of Jesus Christ. We have rejoicing, we have this grieving, we have this now for a little while, struggle. We have trials, and I think we all can name different trials that we face in life, whether it's relationship or different struggles. Maybe you might have lost a job, or it might be a health diagnosis.

Might be a financial struggle. The grief trials come to us. But there's this if necessary word in here that's important. In this, if necessary, is God's way of saying that he's a part of using your struggles, using your challenges to refine in you what he's trying to build. God sees you as a child, that he's growing up until the day of your resurrection. We know that our hope is this living hope that Christ has been resurrected from the grave, therefore we will be resurrected. But until that day, he's maturing you through the challenges, through the struggles, through the burdens. This encouragement that Peter has for us is that if necessary, God is going to apply and going to allow hardships in your life. It's like a father who disciplines. Hebrews talks about a father who disciplines as God disciplines his children. I think about for us, there's I know this makes sense for most of us. We had parents who use challenges for us to help us to mature. In the back of my mind, I always hold two examples of how my parents challenged me to grow and to become mature, to become a man of God.

One is my mother, where whenever I saw her going through challenges, she would always say the words, God will not forsake the righteous. I would see that, and that would be God's way of working in me by watching her in the trials that our family might face. Then on the different side, I work with my father. Back in 2005, we started a truck wash business. Through that truck I'm not a truckwash business. I wash business, I washed trucks for five years. Trash trucks. Trash trucks. And through washing those trash trucks, I had to learn something about endurance and hard work to become the man that will do the things that God is calling me to do no matter what. All these small things that you might seem to be meaningless, God is using, if necessary, to train you up, to mature you. Some are harder, harsher challenges. Some are small things that God is working in you. Peter knew this. He offers it to us because here's the point. The whole nature of suffering is changed for the Christian when he or she realizes that our struggles bring honor to Christ. The struggles that we face all the way until the day of resurrection are an opportunity of glory and honor to Christ.

No matter how hard it gets, we remember the hope we have, the living hope we have in Christ, who gave us the down payment of our faith in the resurrected Christ. We come to a night like Good Friday, we remember the fact that the God of the universe died for us, and it seemed so hopeless, so dark. But then we come to a morning like this where we point to the fact that Christ rose from the grave and it's bright again. All of your hopes renewed, all of your struggles overcome because of Jesus. He brings us into a living hope. He offers us an inheritance inheritance, and that inheritance is guarded by him, and we, by faith, trust him, and he brings us through all the trials that we face in our lives. So on our worst day, we can rejoice because we know there's more for us. On our worst day, we can rejoice because we know there is more for us in that living hope, our salvation, the salvation of our souls. I want to close this with the last words that Peter says here. He says, Though you have not seen him, this is verse 8, Though you have not seen him, you love him.

Though you do not know him, you see him. You believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressable and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Peter's hope and Christ's hope is that we may be found a people who at the end of our lives will stand when God calls us to our resurrection, we'll be able to give what the passage says, praise and glory and honor to God, because he's done it all. He caused it, he's keeping it, and he's bringing it to completion. Let's pray. God in heaven, we thank you for this day. We praise you for the life you give us. This hope you pour out on us. I pray that you'd help every every woman, every child, every man in this room, receive the words that have been preached today, that there's a living hope we have through Christ, and that all can come to him, and that our life is not merely our life, but that our life is hidden with God in Christ, that Christ is our life. What we ask you now to bless us and strengthen us and help us to remember and be fortified by the resurrection of Christ that has passed and to look toward the resurrection of our bodies, our souls in the future to come.

We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.