The Lord’s Day Morning
I Peter 1:3-5
“Easter Life”
Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III
If you have your Bibles, I’d invite you to turn with me to I Peter 1:3-5.
Over the last few years on Easter Sunday morning we have spent time looking at the New Testament testimony to the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We have contemplated the importance of the resurrection of Christ…the significance of the resurrection of Christ, both with regard to the finished redeeming work of the Lord Jesus Christ and for the ongoing encouragement of believers. But today I want to focus our attention on the new life that comes to all who trust in Jesus Christ by virtue of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In I Peter 1:3-5, the Apostle Peter tells us that by God’s mercy all those who are in Christ have been born again to a new life, an “Easter life”, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and I want to explore that with you today because it is a life-transforming truth.
Today, no doubt there are many here that are searching for joy. There will be basically three groups of you. Some of you will have been searching for joy, for satisfaction, for life, for fulfillment, in the best things that this life has to offer, and you will have in some measure found that joy and satisfaction and contentment. Perhaps you have an excellent marriage, wonderful children, a great relationship with your parents. You’ve been relatively successful in the financial world. You’re popular.
There will be others of you, however, who have been impressed by the tragedy and the shortfall of this life. You will have searched for your essential joy and satisfaction and fulfillment in this life, and you will have found it eluding you—or at least, perhaps eluding you recently. It might be a marriage that has gone bad. It might be a vocational disaster. It might be relationships with family that have gone sour or awry. But you’ve been struck by the emptiness of this life when the things that were you joys were taken from you.
There will be still yet a third group, who takes great joy in these things…that appreciates marriage, husband, wife, children, parents, family, job, influence—blessings that come to us in this life…appreciates all these things as gifts from God, but does not appreciate them as the best things in this life, but have instead set your hope on loftier things and places.
Now it’s important that we recognize which camp we’re in, because Peter is speaking to all of us in this passage. You remember Jesus Himself said in John 10:10 to His disciples, “I have come that you may have life, and have it more abundantly.” Well, there are plenty of people who want an abundant life, but they find the source of their joy in things in this world…in this life. And if they find their source of joy in this life, even the best and purest and greatest of its blessings, they will be disappointed. Some of them will get the things that they long for and find out that those things in and of themselves cannot fulfill. Some of them will find those things that they treasure most taken from them, and thus will experience a lack of joy in this life.
Jesus, however, comes to give life – abundant life – and only He is able to deliver that life – and He does it in at least two ways. Not only does He do it through His reconciling death, wherein He stands in our place and receives the just judgment for our sin; whereby He receives the guilt and punishment that ought to have been that of all those who trust in Him, so that we are reconciled to God, but He also works for our joy, by changing our hearts so that the focus of our hope, the focus of our desires, the deepest longings of our heart and soul, are moved to a better, more secure, more lasting place.
This new life that is given by Jesus is a result of His resurrection. This Easter life is the present possession of all who trust in Christ. If you are here today trusting in Jesus Christ, this new life that God in His mercy gives through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is yours. However, you may not have realized all that God has given to you in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In that resurrection, Christ has given us a new life that involves three things: a new hope; a new inheritance; and a new security. The new hope that He gives us is not like hope in this world. It is a new hope. It’s a living hope. The inheritance that He gives us is not like any inheritance that you can receive in this life, the best of which will fade away. It is a new inheritance, an unfading inheritance. And the security that He offers is not the kind of security that is offered in this life, it is a security that is protected by God Himself. And I want us to look at those realities today.
Before we read God’s word, let’s pray and ask for His blessing on this, the word of the living God.
Heavenly Father, thank You for Your word. Bless it to us, we pray. Help us to hear it for Christ’s sake. Amen.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
Amen. And thus ends this reading of God’s holy, inspired, and inerrant word. May He write its eternal truth upon our hearts.
I. The grand gift of God’s mercy, by Jesus’ resurrection, is regeneration/new life, Easter Life.
Peter in this passage is telling us that Jesus’ resurrection is the basis of a new life that belongs to all who trust in Jesus Christ. If you are here today trusting in Jesus Christ, embracing the gospel; accepting Him for who He is, who He claims to be, the Son of God and Savior of sinners; receiving Him as your Savior, the one who died in your place that all your sins would be pardoned and you would be accepted, declared righteous for His sake, not because of your good works, not because of your deserving, not because of anything that you have earned, but because of His person and work, because of His perfect obedience and full satisfaction alone; if you are resting and trusting in Jesus Christ today like that, the Apostle Peter says it’s so important for you to understand that because of Jesus’ resurrection, you have a new life with a living hope, an unfading inheritance, and a protected salvation. I want to explore that with you today.
The Apostle Peter was writing to Christians in Asia Minor who were facing enormous obstacles in their own experience. They were considered third class citizens by their neighbors. They were literally resident aliens. You see Peter use that terminology. Peter tells us in this letter that some of them were being ridiculed by their neighbors, others were being oppressed by those for whom they worked, some were facing opposition from their unbelieving spouses, and all of them were going to be going through persecution perhaps just a few months after they received this letter.
What would a pastor on an Easter Sunday morning tell a congregation of Christians facing those kinds of troubles in this world?
Well, it’s shocking, isn’t it? If you look at verse 3 you see exactly what a pastor would tell a congregation of people facing such troubles. He says, ‘Come, bless God with me. Let’s praise the Lord together. Let’s sing a doxology to our God.’ Now you’ve got to ask the question, “Why in the world is Peter saying that to these poor beleaguered Christians who were about to become beleaguered and persecuted Christians? How is it that they can praise God in the face of troubles?”
Because, Peter says, through the mercy of God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ they have received from God a new life with a living hope, an unfading inheritance, and a protected – a secure – salvation. And if that was an encouraging word for them, that’s an important and encouraging word for us as well.
Look with me at verse 3 and see how this grand gift of God’s mercy is depicted. By Jesus’ resurrection, Peter says, we have new life – an Easter life – a dramatically transformed life. According to God’s great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Now, you see that by emphasizing that this new life comes from God and that it is accomplished by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Peter is making clear to us that this is not a process of self-help. The new life the Christian has is not something that happens first and foremost within him…with us changing our mind about the world. All around us there are people that are trying to sell us this bill of goods: “The problem is out there; the solution is in here. If you will just change the way you think, if you will think more positively about the world, if you’ll think more positively about yourself, all the blessings of this life will come to you.”
Christianity says that is completely wrong. If you’ve been watching perhaps this fad that has been promoted very recently through the Oprah Winfrey program in the book The Secret, this is precisely the message of that book. And let me just tell you what the “secret” is. The “secret” is basically that everything in the universe has vibrations, and if you can just get on the same wavelength, you can make everything you want come to you, because the whole universe is here for you. You are the center of the universe. You are God, you are everything. If you would just understand this secret, life will get good.
Well, Christianity says no. The problem is not out there and the solution in here; the problem is in here and the solution is out there. And notice how Peter stresses that. What do we need in order to experience new life? We need God giving a gift of mercy. That’s something outside of us. We need Christ being raised from the dead. That’s something outside of us. Now, it has an impact inside of us. It transforms us, to be sure, inside and out; but it’s not us becoming more positive in the way we view life. Christianity is not a self-help project. Christianity is not making a new start in life. It’s not turning over a new leaf. No. Christianity is not on our own trying to make a new start in life, it’s receiving from God a new life to start with. God in His grace gives to us a new life in Christ Jesus. That’s what Peter is saying, and it’s vital for us to understand this. This is the present possession of all who trust in Jesus Christ: a dramatically new life—a new life with a new hope, a new life with a new inheritance, a new life with a new security. That’s Easter life, and we ought to understand it. Let’s look at each of the three parts of this Easter life.
II. Three blessings that
accompany this new life….and keep on giving.
A living hope. Let’s look first of all at verse 3. This new
life which we have has with it a living hope. Now that living hope is not like
hope as we often conceive it. Very often we think of hope as something that we
wish would happen. It may even be something that we really, really want to
happen, or that we have an expectation to happen. And very often we think if we
just believe hard enough what we hope will happen, will happen. That is not the
kind of hope that is being talked about here. This is not a wish that we have
some expectation will come true, a wish that we have some desire to come true:
this is a sure and certain and fixed hope. This is a reality which is more real
than the chairs that you’re sitting in, more real than the building that we’re
in now. This is a fixed and certain hope which is granted to us by the
resurrection of Jesus Christ, not the result of wish-fulfillment, not a dream
that we want to happen.
Over twenty years ago…football fans in my part of the country will never ever forget this. It’s one of the most dramatic events in the history of our neck of the woods. Florida State was playing Clemson in a football game, and the score was 21-21. There were about 50 seconds to go in the game. Florida State was backed up to their own four yard line, and they had a fourth and twenty-eight. Now Clemson had a place kicker that could kick the ball accurately, and so everybody in the stands knew exactly what was going to happen. Clemson was going to stop Florida State. (Florida State was ranked No. 1…Clemson was not!) They were going to stop Florida State. They were going to get the punt, they were going to run it back, run a couple of plays, kick a field goal, win the game, and on to glory they would go.
Well, on fourth and twenty-eight, from his four yard line, Bobby Bowden went for it. He didn’t punt. He passed the ball. (Now he didn’t tell Clemson that he was going to do this!) He lined up like he was going to punt, and then he threw a little pass to a wide-out that nobody was paying attention to, who promptly ran 94 yards to the Clemson two-yard line. Now while all this was happening, everyone in the stands—all 100,000 people there—knew exactly what was going to happen. Clemson was going to get the ball back, they were going to kick a field goal...they were going to win the game. And so up on the giant screen was flashing the words, “You gotta believe…you gotta believe…you gotta believe!” And in the eerie silence that covered the stadium after that 94-yard pass reception, the sign was still blinking, “You gotta believe…you gotta believe…you gotta believe!” That is not the kind of hope I’m talking about, folks! That is not the kind of hope that I’m talking about! But that’s what we often think of when we think of hope.
This is a sure and certain hope. What kind of hope? This is the knowledge that Jesus is coming again to reign, that this world which is my Father’s world now will be seen by everyone to be my Father’s world, that His kingdom will be established and He shall reign forever and ever, and Peter is saying to these Christians, ‘You understand that your knowledge that this world is your Father’s world, that Christ is going to come and reign forever and ever…this changes everything. Because no matter what you’re going through now, no matter what troubles you’re going through now, there is this fixed and certain future hope that will come to pass that changes the way that you look at every reality; so that no matter what joy you experience in this life, if that joy is not seen as a direct result of and connected to and blessing from that ultimate future hope of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, your hope is going to pass away completely.
But on the other hand, every trouble in this life is going to disappear in His coming, and it changes the way that a believer looks at this world. Instead of putting our hope on something in this world, no matter how good, that is going to pass away, the believer’s hope is changed, and it’s fixed on something to come – the new heavens and the new earth…kingdom come, the hope of heaven…call it what you will…the Bible calls it lots of different things. So it means that those who in this life are putting all their hope in their marriage, their children, or their job, or their influence, or their money, have no fixed and certain hope. It can all change in a nanosecond. But not that hope. Nothing in this world can thwart that hope. (By the way, we’re going to sing about that truth that absolutely nothing in this world can thwart the hope of the kingdom to come and the reign of Jesus Christ. Just as the stone could not thwart the resurrection of Christ, just as the machinations of the Jews could not thwart the resurrection of Christ, nothing can thwart His coming. And the believer’s hope because of His resurrection is certain and sure, and therefore it makes the joys of this life more sweet, because they’re not the greatest hope.
Isn’t it ironic that it’s not until we realize that the best joys of this life are not the best joy that we can experience that we can really savor those joys for what they are? Those who think that the gifts of marriage, husband, wife, children, grandchildren, job, money, influence…those who think that those are the best things in this life can never truly appreciate them. Only those who understand that those are second-best to God, to Christ, to His kingdom, His promises, to the future grace which He gives us…only those whose hope are in those things can truly appreciate the second-best things of this life. And the loss of those second-best gifts and the joy of those second-best gifts cannot thwart the joy of the believer in that living hope, because nothing can take that away from us.
The best gifts of this life can be taken away. You could have come here today with the best marriage in Mississippi, and by nightfall it could be gone. One run red light, and it could be gone. But nothing can take this living hope from you. No one can take this living hope from you in this world.
An unfading inheritance.There’s a second thing that Peter tells us here. We have not only a living hope, we have an unfading inheritance. You know in this life you can receive an inheritance, and you can squander it away. In this life an inheritance can sometimes divide a family. Or, an inheritance can be invested wisely and still all of it lost in one day on the market. Or, an inheritance can grow and grow, and yet not fill and satisfy the heart. But Peter says that in the resurrection of Christ, every believer has an inheritance that will not fade away, that will not be defiled – an inheritance that will never perish. And he says that changes everything, because if your hope is on an inheritance in this life, then that inheritance, whether by moth or rust or thief, can be lost. But not the inheritance that God gives us in the Lord Jesus Christ. And if our hope is on that inheritance, our enjoyments of present inheritances are greater because we know that they are not the greatest, and our ability to cope with the loss of those present inheritances is increased because we know that they are not the things that ultimately matter.
How life-reorienting this truth of Peter’s is! If we understand that as believers we have been given a new life, an Easter life, a resurrection life, in the life of Jesus Christ, our hope is focused on a new place, and it’s a living hope. Our inheritance is found in a new place.
Protected future salvation. And finally, we have a secured, a protected, future salvation. Don’t you love the way he puts it? We “…are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed at the last time.” Peter is just saying this: Nothing can snatch you away from God. If you’re resting and trusting on Jesus Christ, if you’ve been united to Jesus Christ by faith, by the work of the Holy Spirit, nothing, no one, can touch you. That’s why you can sing:
“Let goods and kindred go;
This mortal life, also.
The body they may kill:
God’s truth abideth still.
His kingdom is forever.”
You see how life-transforming a truth that is for Christians in Asia Minor about to lose everything? Or for Christians in Jackson…or non-Christians in Jackson who may seem to have so much, and yet feel so empty?
The tragedy, my friend, is that so many Christians don’t realize this gift of Easter life that has been given to them in Jesus Christ.
A few weeks ago I was traveling to California to speak at a conference, and I wanted to work all the way on the airplane. And I had my little laptop charged up, and I was ready to go. The problem was the flight was about four and a half hours, and my laptop battery, when I’m doing all the things that I’m normally doing on it, lasts about two hours and fifteen minutes. (Of course, even though the manufacturer says it will last eight hours…sure!) So, I get on the plane, and there’s about fifteen minutes before the boarding door closes. And I notice that I’m sitting in one of those rare and coveted seats that has the little power plug in it, and I think, “You know, if I only had one of those gizmos that you plug into that power plug, I could plug my laptop up and work the whole way.” So I say to the flight attendant, “Could I go back? I passed a gizmo shop on the concourse…could I go back and buy one of those gizmos and then come back?” And she said, “Well, you’re not supposed to, but I’ll let you do it. Make sure you’re back.” So I left all my bags on the plane, I went sprinting down the concourse, I got to the gizmo shop, I bought the gizmo, I came sprinting back down the concourse…right as the door was closing I got onto the flight gateway, got on the plane, sat down perspiring with my gizmo, and discovered…that it wasn’t the right gizmo. A hundred and seventy-five bucks later, I discovered that it was not the right gizmo. So I worked my two hours and fifteen minutes on my laptop, and then it died out and I closed it up and put it away, and twiddled my thumbs trying to find something to occupy my time on the rest of the trip.
After that trip, when I got back to Atlanta (because you know when you go to the west coast from Jackson you’ve got to go to Atlanta first and then go to the west coast)…when I got back to Atlanta, I started thinking. You know, I had an old gizmo that I’d had for about three years. I wonder…I wonder…if that gizmo has the plug that works in that particular power plug on the airplane seat I’m sitting in. And sure enough, it did. I had it in my bag the whole time. I’d owned the gizmo for three years. I’d carried it around with me everywhere for three years. I already had what I needed to work all the way. It was in my bag on the plane. Not under the plane, on the plane two feet from me. But I didn’t know I had it.
And that’s like some Christians, isn’t it? They don’t realize that in the resurrection of Jesus Christ they’ve been given a new hope, they’ve been given an unfading inheritance, they’ve been given a secured salvation. And consequently they do not live this life with the kind of consolation and comfort and security and boldness that they could have, if they only realized what God has already given to them in Jesus Christ.
And then, my friends, there are some of you here today whose joy really is in this life. The satisfaction that you’re looking for is not satisfaction in God through Christ. Your hope is not in Jesus Christ, who was raised from the dead and who is coming again. Your hope is in something else. It may be money; it may be sex; it may be power; it may be a husband; it may be a wife; it may be being able to have children. I don’t know what it is. Fill in the blank. But you’re looking for joy and life and satisfaction in that thing. Let me tell you what the Apostle Paul says about you. The Apostle Paul says that you are without hope and without God in this world.
Now, he doesn’t say that to you because he doesn’t love you. He says that because he does love you, because he knows that God has made us for Himself and we will never find hope, we will never find joy, we will never find life until we find it in Him through Jesus Christ; but that when we find it in Him, then no loss in this life and no gain, no disaster in this life and no blessing can ever match the joy and the life and the hope and the inheritance and the security that we find in Him.
So, dear friend, if you are not trusting in Him today, do so. Seek Him, and you will surely find Him. Let’s pray.
Lord God, by Your Spirit show us what this new life is, and make it so that we will accept no substitute for Your glory. And for Christ’s sake we ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.
[Congregational hymn: Worship Christ, the Risen King!]
Grace, mercy, and peace to you, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. He is risen; He is risen indeed.
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