3/30/08 - Easter 2 - 1 Peter 1:3-9

WE HAVE A HOPE THAT LIVES
- Through the resurrection of Christ
- For an everlasting inheritance

Doesn’t it seem like we celebrated Easter a long time ago? It was only last week! It was only 7 days ago that we celebrated Jesus’ resurrection from the dead! But it seems more like a month has gone by, doesn’t it? I guess that’s normal in the aftermath of any big holiday. Especially Easter. Because we just had 6 weeks worth of Lent, with midweek services in between, leading up to last Sunday. And during Holy Week we met together on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, we came here early for an Easter breakfast on Sunday morning and then had that great service at 9 AM. It was a long and exciting build up to that a day. But then, after a month and a half of special services, after a month and a half of decorations and candy and commercials, just like that, it was over. Then Monday morning rolled around and things got back to normal. You got back into your routines, you went about your every day tasks, you got on with what you had been doing before this whole thing started and you left Easter behind you.
Don’t let that happen. And if it already has, stop! Don’t leave Easter behind you. Because Easter isn’t just another holiday. Easter is not like a birthday or a national festival, it’s not just an annual event at which we commemorate whatever we are commemorating and then come back to it at the same time next year. Easter Sunday is much more than that! It is a one day reminder about what motivates us every day. Easter moves us! Easter is the reason we are Christians! Easter shows us our living Savior and gives us a living hope! Peter, a man who was there on that first Easter Sunday, a man who physically went into that empty tomb and saw the emptiness, says to us this morning, “In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” We have a living hope in our resurrection from the dead because of Christ’s resurrection from the dead. A living hope. That means it’s real, it’s alive. It’s not an imaginary hope or a fake hope or a probable hope or a wished for hope. It’s a sure hope. And our sure, vibrant, and living hope is in the resurrection of our bodies from the dead on the Last Day. And Christ’s resurrection on Easter morning is what gives us that hope. It’s what stimulates and encourages our thoughts and words and actions as Christians. Easter is why we are here today. It’s the reason every day of our lives on this earth is worth living.
But I see it happen every year, especially in my own life: that the events of Easter and the hope that it produces that give us the very reason to live, the events that have revitalized and reenergized our living hope, lose some of their vibrancy and vitality almost instantly, don’t it? Even after only seven days, and sometimes even only a day after Easter comes and goes, Easter and the living hope that it brings aren’t so new or fresh anymore. And after a week or two go past that living hope is more like a dormant hope. And what I mean by that is a dormant hope may still be “alive” in a sense - we have that hope of the resurrection in our hearts, we believe it, we know it’s true - but it’s not really living and energetic and active in our hearts. That hope is resting somewhere in the backs of our minds. It’s taking some time off after the overload of the Lent and Easter seasons. It’s there, but it’s dormant. Doesn’t that happen to you? Hasn’t that happened already? The living hope in our resurrection brought about by the resurrection of our living Savior doesn’t play a huge part in our lives after Holy Week is done with. It’s placed in the files of our minds like any other holiday and taken out again when the season calls for it. Could we be any more insulting to the Lord? Could we insult our God any more severely than to take the climax of our salvation of Easter Sunday - and pack it away, store it so that it’s within reach, but never really thinking about it much on a day to day basis? And doing that, putting Easter away, only a few days removed from praising the Lord so mightily and enthusiastically for doing those very things essential to our salvation: suffering and dying and rising again! What an ugly insult it is to the Lord when we act like we are done with what he has accomplished, like we don’t really need Easter until next year.
If you have unknowingly packed Easter away already this year, take it back out. Ask your Lord for forgiveness and take a look again inside the empty tomb. Because before that tomb was empty, don’t forget your Lord was lying inside that cave as a corpse. Your Savior was dead. Jesus was lying there with no life so that you could have a new life. Remember what Peter said, “In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” Christ’s resurrection has given you a new birth. Your life cannot go on without his resurrection. You cannot afford to put Easter behind you, because your life as a Christian is vitally connected with Christ’s resurrection. Through it he has given you a life that is not under the control of sin. A life that does not have to try to survive without knowing what’s to come. Because you know what’s to come! You have a living hope in your resurrection to come. A resurrection based on Christ’s resurrection. A resurrection made possible by the forgiveness he earned. A resurrection that will lead to the inheritance that only those who believe in Christ’s resurrection will receive. The inheritance. That’s what our living hope hopes for. That’s the “goal of our faith,” Peter says here. And that goal, that inheritance is life forever with our Savior. “An inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade - kept in heaven for you.”
Those are three interesting ways of describing our inheritance. Because those are three characteristics that can’t be said for any treasure here on this earth. It will be nothing like we have ever experienced before. Because first of all, our inheritance, eternal life with our Savior, will never perish. It can never be used up and it cannot be affected by our deaths. In fact, it is ours when we die. Normally, once a person dies, any money they had earned, any toys that they had collected, any inheritance that they previously had, obviously no longer does them any good. All those things pass on to someone else. Not so with this inheritance. It will never perish. It will never be used up. It was always be yours because this inheritance cannot be touched by death.
Nor can it be spoiled, Peter says. Our inheritance cannot be contaminated with anything in any way. Not even with your sins! No matter how many sins you’ve committed, no matter how many sins you will commit, and no matter how dirty and disgusting they may be, they cannot spoil the inheritance waiting for you in heaven. Your sins have nothing to do with heaven. Please understand that. Your sins have nothing to do with heaven. That’s what Jesus’ death and resurrection is all about. He died to make sure that your sins would not keep you from the inheritance and he rose to prove that what he did on the cross worked. Sin will not negate you from that inheritance, it will not spoil it. It will be the same glorious inheritance for all believers, despite their sins. It will be unspoiled despite the patriarch Jacob’s deceit, despite King David’s adultery, despite the apostle Paul’s murder, and despite whatever you have thrown into the mix.
But the most interesting description of this inheritance to me is that it will never fade away. Everything fades away in this life. Over time, nothing really lasts. A reputation, regardless of how famous a person might be, eventually is forgotten. Any man-made structure on this earth falls and crumbles and wears away. Paintings, sculptures, and even the most beautiful formations of nature itself do not stay the same. Anything physical in this life fades away after enough time passes. But this inheritance will never fade away because this inheritance isn’t controlled by time. It’s an eternal life with the Lord. That means time has no place in heaven. You will never get bored because it’ll be as if no time has passed - and it never will. You will never get tired because it’ll be as if no time has passed - and it never will. You will never lose the joy and the happiness of being with your Savior because it’ll be as if that moment of pure excitement will never end - and it never will. The second you get there will be the greatest moment you will ever experience and that moment will never end. This is the type of inheritance you will receive: an inheritance that will never perish, spoil, or fade. And this inheritance is yours because of Easter.
Is your hope in that inheritance living now? Has the joy of Easter and a picture of what’s to come revitalized and energized your hope for that inheritance? Sometimes we just need a kick in the pants or a slap in the face to remind us of how important Easter really is for every day of our lives. I often wonder what people do without Christ. How can they survive? How can they deal with problems? How can they find the motivation to get out of bed in the morning? How can they live this life without a living hope for the future? I can’t even imagine it. I can’t fathom trying to function without that living hope because of Christ’s resurrection. And I know that you can’t imagine a life without the living hope of Easter either. So don’t pack it away! Don’t throw it in a mental box and take it out again for the first time next April. It’s not only sinful to do that, you’re also robbing yourself of the only true comfort and joy there is in this life. Keep that glorious victory over death that Jesus accomplished on that Sunday morning at the forefront of your mind. Think about it often, read about it on a regular basis, and thank the Lord for it every day. Because Easter is not over. Easter will never end.
Amen.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” - 1 Peter 1:3