A “Living” Hope
1 Peter 1:1-12[1]
People sometimes make outrageous claims. Social
media, podcasts, YouTube, and the internet all makes it very easy to put your
message out there, no matter how outrageous it might be. The truth of the
matter is that people have made outrageous claims throughout the ages. In
previous centuries, they did so in published tracts or books. That made the
invention of the printing press a “dangerous” new technology to the
institutions that were in power at the time. It was “dangerous” because eventually,
printed tracts would lead to the reshaping of the church, politics, society,
the family, and our whole view of life. From the invention of the printing
press in the 15th century to the rise of radio and television in the
20th century, the printed word was viewed by some as a dangerous technology
that would undermine the conventional norms and practices of both church and
state, both society and home. It changed everything!
The rise of radio and television in the 20th
century changed everything as well. It created a whole new means of getting the
“word” out. I’m sure there were some who cautioned against the danger they
posed. But at the same time, many embraced the new technology and used it for
good. Some of us remember Walter Cronkite as a voice you could trust. But there
were other voices that made outrageous claims. Of course, the rise of the
internet, email, social media, podcasting, and streaming services has led to
vastly more ways of getting your message out there. Some of it is very helpful.
If you need to fix just about anything, there’s probably a YouTube video for
it. And I subscribe to several YouTube channels for insights into playing
guitar more effectively. But again, there’s a lot of content out there that
continues to be outrageous.
In the days of the first Christians, there
were likely many who would have view Peter’s declaration that believers had
been “born anew into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead” (1 Pet 1:3, CEB) as outrageous. For one thing, most
people in the Greek and Roman world would have scoffed at the mention of
anything like a “resurrection.” They believed that there was no return from
death. Death was final, and that was that. Talk of a resurrection would have
literally sounded like nonsense to them. It would have been outrageous!
More than that, the whole question of the
afterlife was just as confused then as it is now. The prevailing view in those
days was that everyone, both good and bad, died and went to “hades.” It wasn’t
exactly the same idea as the notion of “hell” that has developed over the
centuries. Everyone went there, not just those who “deserved” punishment. It
was just the place of the dead. Good and bad, rich and poor alike, all went
there at death. But it was a place of fires and ash, a kind of perpetual
purgatory where you lived in regret for your mistakes forever. Not something to
look forward to at all!
Into that world came the Christian gospel. As
our lesson from 1 Peter puts it, “you have been born anew into a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3). There
were several aspects of that claim that would have been viewed as outrageous.
First of all, the claim that Jesus had been raised from the dead would have
been rejected outright. Because death was final, there was no returning from
it. At least that was what most people believed. But that’s precisely the point
of the death and resurrection of Jesus in the Christian gospel. As another
Christian teacher put it, by dying and rising again, Jesus freed “those who all
their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death” (Heb 2:15). So it is
that Peter could call the hope that we have through Jesus a “living” one
because it stems from the fact that Jesus is alive to this day. I think the Contemporary
English Version does a good job of bringing out this emphasis when it says,
“by raising Jesus from death, [God] has given us new life and a hope that lives
on” (1 Pet 1:3). Our hope is a “living” one because Jesus “lives on” to this
day.
More than that, the hope that God has given us
through the death and resurrection of Jesus is a “living” one because it points
us to our own future. Peter says that “You have a pure and enduring inheritance
that cannot perish—an inheritance that is presently kept safe in heaven for
you. Through his faithfulness, you are guarded by God’s power so that you can
receive the salvation he is ready to reveal in the last time” (1 Pet 1:4-5, CEB).
I like the way the Good News Translation puts it: Jesus’ death and
resurrection “fills us with a living hope, and so we look forward to possessing
the rich blessings that God keeps for his people. He keeps them for you in
heaven, where they cannot decay or spoil or fade away” (1 Pet 1:3-4, GNT).
The main idea is that the “new life” that we’ve been given through Jesus’ death
and resurrection is one of the “rich blessings” that God is keeping for us for
the future. And there’s nothing and no one powerful enough to take that future
away from us. As Gene Peterson puts it in The Message translation, “God
is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you’ll
have it all—life healed and whole” (1 Pet 1:4, MSG). Our hope is a
“living” one because it points us to our future life in the fullness of God’s
blessings.
There are still a lot of people in our world
who believe that death has the final word. When you die, you just die, and
that’s it. Maybe some of you believe that. But the clear message of the Gospel
is that Jesus died and rose again to give us something more to hope for than
life that ends at death. Jesus died and rose again to give us a “living hope,”
as Peter puts it in our lesson for today. That hope is a “living hope” because
Jesus lives at God’s right hand and in our hearts and lives. It’s a “living hope”
because it points us to the promise of new life with Jesus in the fullness of
God’s presence. And I would add that our hope is a “living” one because it
gives us a reason to live our lives differently. If life definitively ends at
death, there are some who would think you better grab all you can while you’re
here. Not everyone believes that, but some do. But if Jesus’ resurrection from
the dead points us to our new life with him after death, then we have a unique
reason to do all the good we can do while we’re here. At least in part that
means, as Peter says later in this chapter, we’re to “Love each other deeply
with all your heart” (1 Pet 1:22, NLT).
[1] ©
Alan Brehm 2026. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 4/12/2026 for Hickman
Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
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