New Hope

Maybe you've heard one of these stories in the past that might reflect your own life.

stories about people who made bad decisions in the present because they had misjudged the future.

! Stories like the late actor Gary Cooper, who turned down the role of Rhett Butler in the movie Gone

with the Wind because he thought, to quote, it would be a flop as a movie. For those of you not familiar

with Gone with the Wind, adjusted with inflation, it is the highest grossing movie of all time by

over a billion dollars in terms of its gross. All Decker Record Company refused to sign a recording

contract with the Beatles because they thought that guitar music was going out of fashion.

And of course, those who know the Beatles, it's the, again, the most successful band of all time with

somewhere between 600 million and 1 billion album sales. Warner from Warner Brothers fame, who rejected

the idea of adding sound to silent movies because, in his opinion, who the hell wants to hear actors talk?

Bad decisions in the moment are the cause of a miscalculation of the future and what the future holds.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. For instance, if you knew that somewhere in the back box of Chatswood right now,

there was a small little internet company, let's call it Amazon, was working out of its garage.

And if you knew, for instance, that it would be in 20 years' time, as big as Amazon is now,

what have you done 20 years ago, invested $1,000 into that company 20 years ago, knowing what the future

would be for that company now? Or electric cars, I mean, who would have thought 30 years ago?

Hindsight's a wonderful thing. It's hard to know what the future actually holds, and yet,

every single person operates day by day, makes the decisions they make on what they perceive the future to be.

That is, humanity, people, us, we are hope-driven. We cannot live without hope.

What we think the future is determines the decisions we make now and how we live right now.

In his 2017 best-selling book, Homo Deus, A Brief History of Tomorrow,

Yuval Noah Harari argues that in ancient times, human beings turned to God or to the gods or to the divine

in some shape or form only in order for their hope, only because they didn't have control of their world.

They were very conscious that they weren't in control of their world and they weren't in control of their future.

And he concludes in the book that with the progress of science and reason and technology,

we no longer need, humanity no longer needs the divine, it no longer needs God.

Humanity, and this is the conclusion of the book, humanity is its own hope.

People can solve all the world's problems.

Within ourselves, all that we need in order to produce a bright and prosperous and flourishing future.

And therefore, the title of the book, which in its Latin, Homo Deus, which is in English, human God.

And so Harari's thinking there is not some new idea that he's come up with, you know, just recently.

It has its origins in what is known as the Age of the Enlightenment.

The Enlightenment Age was an intellectual and a philosophical movement that sort of began in the late 17th century in Europe

and basically to the early 19th century.

It particularly valued reason and scientific fact while questioning every other source of authority

and especially any form of religious authority.

And as a movement, it started to dwindle around the early stage of the 19th century

because it was hard to argue for the supremacy of humanity over all things

and the progress of human history in everything on the back of two world wars,

the Spanish flu pandemic, the Great Depression, and the beginning of the nuclear arms race.

That is, it's hard to argue for the progress of history when you've got that in history.

But at the end of the Cold War in 1989, the idea started to come back into popularity again.

And some declared, in fact, that at the end of 1989, that the Age of Anxiety was now over

and the future of the world was once again in progress

and it will be, we will achieve all that the Enlightenment sought to achieve.

In fact, in the age of when that happened, the end of the Cold War,

more than half of people in the Western world were convinced

that the future for their children and the children that followed them

was going to be much brighter than their own.

More than half of people were totally convinced each generation

will just get better and better and better.

In fact, even in our own history in this country, a former Prime Minister,

by 1990, no Australian children will be living in poverty.

That's the Age of Enlightenment.

And yet, according to a recent Australian National University research survey thing,

Australians are now increasingly pessimistic about the future

and life satisfaction has dropped to its lowest levels since COVID-19 lockdowns.

Lowest levels.

Most Australians now think that the lives of children in 50 years

is going to be worse off than the current generation.

Only one in five Australians think that their life has, in fact,

improved measurably in the last year.

You see, as a sense of uncertainty about the future rises,

and if you're an investor on the stock market,

that uncertainty was certainly there this week.

As that uncertainty about the future rises,

hope decreases, and so does life satisfaction.

And we are hope-driven people.

We need hope to live and to live well.

And so the thing for the next three weeks,

as we have Easter in the middle of it, is hope.

Christian hope is not one of those uncertain,

wishful thinking about the future kind of hopes.

The word that the Bible uses for hope is a word that in its original language

means profound certainty.

Profound certainty.

And this hope of the Christian life centres on the explosive events

of one weekend just 2,000 years ago

in the death and resurrection of Jesus.

The hope, Christian hope,

which has permeated virtually every culture

in the last 2,000 years

all centres on one weekend.

And so I'd invite you to give me one weekend next weekend

and to find out about this profound certainty.

We're going to touch on it a bit today.

That's where we're heading in the next three weekends

to exploring this hope

and how we live in light of it.

So if you've got the St Paul's app,

I've got four points today

as we briefly get introduced into that hope.

First one, new hope.

The foundation of the Christian hope

is the mercy of God

in giving us new birth, new life.

So 1 Peter 1.3 that Anne just read out,

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ

in his great mercy.

He's given us new birth into a living hope

through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

and into an inheritance

that can never perish, spoil or fade.

And this inheritance is kept in heaven for you.

All Christians,

that is everyone who puts their hope in Jesus Christ

are described here as being given a new birth.

That is all are born again.

Not just a certain type of Christian is born again.

Everyone who is a Christian is born again.

We are not told much here

about what the new birth is

that the Christian has received.

We know from other parts of the Bible

that the new birth is a new life.

It's an entire new life.

It's an entire new existence.

It's a new vitality in life.

When a person is born again,

they experience new life.

That is, spiritual life comes into you

and God puts his very life in us.

The life that Jesus now lives is in us.

Now this new birth comes to us in different ways.

There's no type of experience that everyone must have.

And even though it comes to us in different ways,

and it might even be subtle for some,

it is nevertheless astounding, this new birth.

The original New Testament word for it is palagenesia,

which means regeneration.

The book of Titus tells us that when we are born again,

we experience regeneration.

Titus uses that word palagenesia.

In Matthew 19, verse 28, Jesus says this,

Matthew 19:28

Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things,

when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne,

which he's talking about the end of all things,

Jesus is referring to the end of all things,

when all things are made new,

the goal of all of his work in history.

He says God's power will come down into this world

and he will renew it, he will make it right.

Everything that is wrong, everything that is stained,

everything that is evil,

everything that's deformed, broken in this world,

death and evil and suffering will be gone.

All tears, all sadness, all anxiety will be wiped away.

Despite all the superpowers of this world

and the wealth and the technology of this world,

none of that is enough to bring about this kind of total renewal change.

That is what is required to bring about this kind of change,

that kind of power.

And Jesus describes there that this time of renewal

in Matthew 19 as the palagenesia.

And so the Apostle Paul has the audacity to use the same word

to describe the new birth of the Christian.

An entire renewal of an individual.

The tremendous power that renews all things

that will bring an end to all suffering and evil

and make every wrong right,

that tremendous power comes into the life of the Christian now

through faith in Jesus Christ.

And that means on the very surface level,

very quickly,

it means that every single Christian

puts up with stuff in their life that they don't need to.

The potential for change in your life right now

is absolutely astounding.

Just go back to our vision series

and the rhythms of grace.

The power to put those into effect

is yours already in Christ.

So when we are born,

newborn, new birth,

new hope,

we also are given this hope that we have

is a living hope.

It's a hope that's alive.

When we are born,

like in a natural birth,

we are all identified genetically

as we share the genetic makeup

of our biological parents.

We also inherit an ethnic makeup,

if you like,

depending on where we're born,

also likely to have some kind of a national identity as well.

And certainly for the early years of our lives,

we also share the socioeconomic identity of our parents.

That is,

our birth identifies us in some measure.

When a person becomes a Christian,

they receive the new birth,

it becomes their greatest identity marker.

It doesn't change who we are in all our ethnic,

national, genetic, socioeconomic markers,

but it does change our lives

in such a way

that we are fundamentally different people.

The reason the new birth

changes us so much

is because it changes our hope.

It's a new hope.

It's a living hope,

a certain hope,

a very different hope.

You see,

if you change a person's hope,

you change their lives.

Back to verse 3 again.

Praise be the God and Father

of our Lord Jesus Christ

and his great mercy

has given us a new birth

into a living hope

through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

and into an inheritance

that can never perish,

spoil,

or fade.

No hacker can come into your super account

and remove it.

This inheritance is kept in heaven for you.

The direction of every person's life

is set by what they hope in the most.

So if you can offer a person

a life-giving,

imperishable hope,

then their life is changed forever.

Now, all of us have certain desires,

hopes, expectations.

There are desires like meaning

and significance

and security and purpose,

and then you work out

how you're going to fulfill

those particular desires

that you have.

And whatever we believe in

to fulfill those desires

is what it is

that we set our hearts on.

Which is another way of saying

it's

what we put our hope in.

Our hearts, for instance,

might set on

a career,

on money,

on accomplishment,

on status,

on love,

on romance,

on beauty,

on family,

on political or social causes,

or a whole range of things.

Everyone chooses something

to believe in

that will

fulfill their hopes.

We are

unavoidably

hope-based

creatures.

Proverbs 13,

12 in the Old Testament

tells us that

hope deferred

makes the heart sick.

That is,

it

destroys

our inner self.

We experience

our

present

in radically

different ways

depending

on our future

hope.

We've got a lot of

grass

around here

at church.

So imagine

I gave

two of you

a pair of scissors,

a blunt pair of scissors,

and said to you

that your task

was to cut the grass

at St Paul's.

And

your

experience

of that

task

would be

entirely

different

if I

pulled one

of you

aside

and said

at the

end of the

job

and it's

all finished

I'm going

to give

you $20.

And the

other one

I pulled

you aside

and I

said to you

at the

end of the

job

I'm going

to give

you $200,000.

Both

are going

to have

a very

different

experience

of cutting

the grass

at that

moment.

hope

makes

all

the

difference

to

the

experience.

We are

hope

driven

and the

new

birth

changes

our

hopes

because

it is

a

living

hope.

It is

alive

in us.

So how

do we

raise

hope?

How

do we

if you

like wrench

our hearts

away from

the

fragile

hopes

that

fade

and

that

perish

and

that

spoil

and

put

it

into

a

hope

that

will

never

perish

fade

or

disappoint.

Now the

main

way

and this

is what

makes

the

Christian

hope

so

unique.

The

main

way

that

1 Peter

talks

about

growing

in

our

new

life

our

new

hope

is

through

suffering.

Look

verse 6

in all

this

you

greatly

rejoice

though

now

for a

little

while

you

may

have

had

to

suffer

grief

of

all

kinds

of

trials.

These

have

come

so

that

the

proven

genuineness

of your

faith

of greater

worth

than

gold

which

perishes

!

even

though

refined

by fire

may

result

in

praise

glory

and

honour

when

Jesus

Christ

is

revealed.

So the

first

words

of

verse

6

say

that

the

Christian

rejoices

in

their

hope

it's

a

present

tense

the word

is a

present

tense

we rejoice

!

in our

hope

what

makes

it

so

remarkable

is

that

the

words

suffer

grief

actually

mean

being

in

agony

it

actually

means

being

in

lots

of

pain

and

it

doesn't

say

you

used

to

rejoice

but

now

you're

in

agony

and

you're

in

pain

nor

does

it

say

that

because

you've

got

lots

to

rejoice

about

you're

not

actually

really

in

pain

just

get

over

your

difficulty

both

the

feeling

of

agony

and

the

rejoicing

both

of

them

are

present

tense

both

are

present

tense

they

are

concurrent

activities

when

we

do

both

of

these

things

at

the

same

time

it's

like

putting

gold

into

a

furnace

it

refines

us

it

grows

us

as

the

suffering

drives

us

towards

our

real

living

hope

rather

than

anchoring

ourselves

to

a

hope

that

fades

and

perishes

that

is

very

rarely

a

view

of

suffering

in

our

day

and

age

it's

what

makes

the

Christian

idea

of

hope

so

unique

in

a

day

in

culture

that

suggests

our

personal

happiness

is

of the

highest

importance

anything

that's

hard

anything

that's

difficult

or

unpleasant

is

considered

bad

wrong

or

evil

to

quote

the

great

philosopher

Homer

Simpson

son

if

something's

too

hard

to

do

it

clearly

can't

be

worth

doing

that's

the

day

of

that's

the day

which

we

exist

and

we

also

exist

in

a

day

and

age

where

we

cannot

possibly

imagine

therefore

why

God

would

in

fact

allow

suffering

and

hardship

why

would

he

allow

it

then

it's

one

of

the

big

reasons

that

people

reject

the

Christian

faith

why

would

God

allow

it

well

imagine

a

forestry

worker

or if

you're

in

Canada

a

lumberjack

they've

marked

a bunch

of

trees

in the

forest

to cut

down

to

send

off

for

milling

and

as

they

start

their

chainsaw

and

about

to

cut

they

look

up

and

they

notice

that

at

the

top

of

the

tree

there's

this

bird

that's

just

starting

to

build

a

nest

and

so

they

think

being

the

environmentalist

that they

are

they

whack

on

the

tree

to

scare

the

bird

away

make

lots

of

noise

and

eventually

the

bird

moves

from

that

tree

and

goes

to

another

tree

but

that

tree

also

has

a

little

pink

ribbon

around

it

and

it's

going

to

be

felled

and

so

the

forestry

worker

goes

over

to

that

tree

and

whacks

on

the

tree

and

whacks

on

the

tree

and

makes

all

the

noise

and

the

bird

just

moves

through

the

next

tree

and

it

does

it

again

and

again

the

forestry

worker

is

following

it

through

the

forest

and

the

bird

!

right

moves

over

to

a

rocky

cliff

and

starts

building

its

nest

there

and

the

forestry

worker

goes

back to

its

work

and

starts

cutting

the

forest

down

I'd

like

to

think

that

the

older

we

get

we

realise

that

every

tree

every

hope

that

we

build

our

lives

on

will

ultimately

come

down

in one

way

or

another

it's

almost

impossible

to believe

it

when

you're

young

every

generation

thinks

that

they'll

be

able

to

pin

their

hopes

onto

something

and

it'll

be

fully

realised

you

see

our

hearts

are

not

designed

to be

completely

fulfilled

by

anything

or

everything

in

this

life

we

simply

don't

realise

the

greatness

of our

souls

and the

depths

of our

desires

and our

hopes

and so

the best

thing

God

can do

for us

is bang

again

and again

and again

on the

trees

of our

lives

in order

to move

us to

assure a

foundation

into a

greater

hope

one that

will never

perish

spoil

or fade

an

imperishable

hope

and the

worst

thing

that can

happen

to us

is for

us to

be left

to our

own

devices

to build

our nests

on the

trees

that we

choose

only for

those

trees

to come

crashing

down

in the

end

Christian

hope

does

not

fade

in the

face

of

difficulty

like

every

other

hope

you

see

one of

the

reasons

for

the

absolutely

remarkable

rise

of the

Christianity

in the

early

centuries

was that

the

Christian

hope

offered

resources

for hope

in the

face

of

a

empire

wide

Roman

empire

wide

pandemic

as well

as

persecution

of

Christians

in that

time

you see

Christians

orientated

their life

towards a

larger

story

a cosmic

story

the story

of

eternity

and they

saw the

story of

their lives

for the

first time

with all

its hardships

and its

love

as just

a small

part of

a much

bigger

story

that they

were in

fact part

of

and a

story

that would

end

incredibly

well for

them

you see

and from

those very

early days

Christians

view even

the hardest

circumstances

as part

of a

history

guided

by God

at every

turn

towards

not merely

some kind

of

afterlife

but

towards

the

resurrection

of our

souls

and bodies

into a

new

remade

heavens

and

earth

that's

the

Christian

hope

and it's

logical

and it's

plausible

and it's

reasonable

as we

will unpack

in the next

couple of

in fact

next weekend

mainly

so how

do we

get it

how do

we get

that hope

how can

Peter

so

confidently

suggest

such a

thing

when we

ourselves

are

constantly

failing

we

fail

ourselves

we fail

each other

and we

fail God

how can we

be so

confident

that he's

in fact

going to

be on

our

side

especially

how can

you be

totally

confident

of that

when

if this

God

does

exist

he

does

allow

hardship

to come

into

our

lives

how can

we

know

that

he's

on

our

side

and

therefore

going to

guarantee

that

hope

verse 10

concerning

this salvation

the prophets

who spoke

of the

grace

that was

to come

to you

searched

intently

and with

the greatest

care

trying to

find out

the time

the circumstances

of which

the spirit

of Christ

in them

was pointing

when he

predicted

the suffering

of the

Messiah

and the

glories

that would

follow

it was

revealed

to them

that they

were not

serving

themselves

but you

when they

spoke of

the things

that have

now been

told to

you by

those who

have preached

the gospel

to you

by the

Holy Spirit

sent from

heaven

even angels

long to

look into

these things

so what

is the

gospel

that the

if you

hear last

week the

good news

of Jesus

Christ

what is

it the

prophets

revealed

and the

apostles

preached

it is

that

Jesus

Christ

the

son of

God

himself

suffered

that's

what was

preached

he

suffered

the

son of

God

the

creator

of

all

things

came

into

came

into

his

world

as part

of

his

story

rescuing

he

became

as the

rescuer

and the

ruler

of

humanity

in

weakness

not in

triumph

he

came

into

that

Roman

empire

he

died

on

a

Roman

cross

for

the

sin

and

the

failure

of

humanity

our

failure

for

putting

all

of

our

hopes

into

everything

else

but

him

and

so

he

died

the

death

that

we

should

die

we

the

weak

and

the

perishing

have a

glorious

and

imperishable

hope

because

Jesus

Christ

the

glorious

and

eternal

one

perished

in

shame

for

us

and

conquered

shame

and

death

by

raising

again

from

death

the

glorious

hope

on

offer

to

all

is

not

based

on

our

performance

it's

not

based

on

the

strength

of

our

will

or

how

good

of

a

life

or

our

moral

performance

it's

based

on

the

performance

of the

imperishable

one

our

imperishable

hope

is attached

to the

imperishable

one

the

crucifixion

of Jesus

alone

saves us

and his

resurrection

guarantees

that it is

effective

and confirms

that Jesus

is God

and that

all of his

promises

are true

the

Christians

future

glory

is

assured

because

God

the

son

emptied

himself

of

his

glory

that's

Easter

in the

next

couple

of

weeks

the

new

birth

gives

us

a

new

hope

that

is

not

just

imperishable

it's

not

just

a

wishful

thinking

that I

hope

it gets

well

out

there

and if

you

can

just

get

your

minds

around

God

and

understand

him

it'll

be

good

for

you

it is

a

living

hope

did you

see

that

there

it's

a

living

hope

it's

a

hope

that

changes

our

lives

now

you see

the

death

and

resurrection

of

Jesus

doesn't

just

give us

hope

for

the

future

it's

a

hope

that

actually

transports

from

the

future

into

our

lives

right

now

Philippians

3

10

tells

us

that

to be

a

Christian

is

to

know

now

the

power

of

the

resurrection

the

palogenesia

the

renewal

of the

resurrection

now

Paul

says

this

in

Ephesians

1

13

14

you

also

were

included

in

Christ

when

you

heard

the

message

of

truth

the

gospel

of

your

salvation

and

when

you

believed

you

were

marked

in

him

with

a

seal

the

promised

Holy

Spirit

who

is

a

deposit

guaranteeing

our

inheritance

until

the

redemption

of those

who are

God's

possession!

In

the

gospel

of

Jesus

Christ

we

have

now

the

presence

of the

future

not

fully

but

certainly

substantially

that's

what the

deposit

is

guaranteeing

our

inheritance

You see

the

Holy

Spirit

God

himself

comes

Jesus

didn't

just

ascend

to

heaven

and

leave

us

he

comes

to

us

with

the

finished

work

of

Jesus

he

comes

into

our

hearts

as

a

down

payment

guaranteeing

our

future

and

gives

us

a

taste

of

it

right

now

in

such

a

way

that

we

start

living

for

it

right

now

if

our

main

hope

is

in

the

good

news

of

Jesus

Christ

that

hope

is

like

a

mountain

that

cannot

be

shaken

despite

how weary

and

wondering

we might

be

in

the

present

1951

Florence

Chadwick

became

the

first

woman

to

swim

the

English

Channel

in

both

directions

not

content

just

with

that

challenge

she

then

decided

the

next

year

to

swim

from

Catalina

Island

to

mainland

California

about

34

kilometres

something

like

that

after

swimming

this

1951

after

swimming

this

is

the

one

who

swum

the

English

Channel

both

directions

she

had

swum

only

for

15

hours

that's

all

I mean

I'm

sorry

I'm

not

saying

only

for

15

hours

like

I

can

do

that

but

compared

to

the

English

Channel

she

only

swum

for

15

hours

she

only

swum

about

30

kilometres

at

this

point

right

swum

for

15

hours

she

was

pulled

out

of