Easter Sunday 2016 | Resurrection Hope

Well, as hopefully you have gathered by now, this is Easter Sunday.

We celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.

We focus on this theme all throughout the year.

It is the central defining foundation of hope in the Christian faith.

That's something we'll come back to in a moment.

And there are a lot of amazing things that we could say about the resurrection.

We've actually looked at this particular account in previous years,

John's account of the resurrection.

It's amazing, for instance, that the disciples had no idea that a resurrection like this was possible.

There was no idea.

It says here in John that they didn't understand the Scriptures sufficiently to even know to expect this.

For them, this was a total shock, and they were terrified.

It's amazing to note that as the Bible gives us witnesses of the resurrection,

seeking to establish the credibility of this story, we see that the first witnesses are women.

This is a culture where women were not even permitted to give legal testimony in court.

Sad to say.

There are all kinds of amazing details that we could focus on, and sometimes it's hard to choose.

But last night, for those of us who were here in the vigil, it was an amazing time.

Every corner of the room was filled, and it was just an extraordinary celebration.

But one of the themes that we really explored together was this idea that we live in a culture that is very deeply conflicted.

On the one hand, for those of you who weren't there, we talked about the fact that on the one hand,

our culture is very much entrenched in a sort of a pure materialistic atheism.

In other words, the idea that there's no gods, no miracles, no magic, no mystery, nothing.

Anything we don't understand now, we will one day understand through science and technology.

And then on the other hand, there is a deep human longing for the transcendent.

And we talked about how these two forces, as we live life buffeted by these forces,

we often feel fragmented and torn apart.

You know, we talked about examples like Maurice Sendak in his interview with Terry Gross saying,

on the one hand, I don't believe in an afterlife, and yet on the other hand,

I firmly believe I will see my deceased brother one day soon.

We're all deeply fragmented on the inside.

And we talked about how as a part of this, there's a tremendous disillusionment in the world.

A tremendous cynicism has set in.

I really, if I can be honest, cannot remember a time,

maybe since the Cold War,

where there has been more of a sense of existential dread

about the future of our country and our way of life.

I say that because I suspect it's not just me.

I hope, anyway, I'm not just being too dramatic or morose.

But I think this is something that we feel.

I mean, between ISIS and the threat of terrorism,

you know, I was going to give the example of Brussels until Lahore happened.

Today.

Today.

You know, dozens killed, hundreds wounded from a bomb blast.

Between the kind of tragicomedy of our current election.

I don't trust myself to say anything more about that.

At least not up here.

The state of the economy.

These are things that are causing an enormous amount of anxiety.

And so now that this Easter Sunday has come in this context,

as I've prayed about this,

I think that we need to look more closely at the hope that the resurrection offers.

Because as we said last night,

we live in a Holy Saturday culture

that is desperately in need of Easter Sunday hope.

And so we want to look at that hope.

And we want to do that by looking at 1 Peter.

The book of 1 Peter is wonderfully appropriate

because Peter wrote this letter to Christians

who are spread out throughout Asia Minor,

and they're living in a hostile culture.

They're living in a culture where there are very few certainties

that they will have any quality of life or life at all.

So if you sort of skip ahead in 1 Peter,

you see in chapter 2 that they're dealing with overbearing,

brutal bosses who are mistreating them.

So in their jobs, they're experiencing hardship.

In chapter 3, you see that many of them are married to unbelieving spouses,

and they're struggling in interfaith marriages.

You see in chapter 4 that they're being mocked

and persecuted by their pagan neighbors and associates.

They're being made fun of and disrespected.

And then in chapter 4, verses 12 to 18,

it looks as though much more violent persecution is imminently on the horizon.

And so all of this is happening,

and Peter's writing this letter,

and Peter begins writing this letter of hope by talking about Easter.

He says the first thing you have to understand if you want to have any hope in this world

is you have to understand Easter and what Easter means.

And so that's what we're going to look at.

We're just going to look at one verse.

We just have time to look at one verse, one aspect of this.

And it's 1 Peter 1, verse 3.

1 Peter 1:3

And we're going to see this under three headers.

We're going to see the foundation of our hope,

the substance of our hope,

and then the reason for our hope.

So let's pray as we prepare to open God's Word together.

Heavenly Father, first and foremost,

we pray for whatever emergency is outside.

We pray for people to be protected and kept safe and restored.

And we also, Lord, as we turn our attention to your Word,

we trust in and pray for your promise to be fulfilled,

that you speak to us through your Word.

So I pray that you would gently but firmly move me out of the way,

that you would dispel any distractions or things that might be nagging at us,

and that you would open us all to hear what you might have to say.

We pray this in your risen Son's name.

Amen.

So first of all, we want to look at the foundation of the hope that we share.

It says in verse 3,

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

according to His great mercy,

He's caused us to be born again to a living hope

through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

So as we said a moment ago,

the resurrection is a fact,

it's an event,

and it forms the foundation of our hope.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15

that Jesus, after His resurrection,

appeared to more than 500 people.

And he's saying this for a reason,

because he's writing 1 Corinthians.

1 Corinthians is the oldest account that we have.

It was written,

it's the oldest book that we have in the New Testament

that was written the closest in proximity to the actual resurrection.

So Paul is writing that letter,

and he's saying this about 500 witnesses,

because many of those people were still alive.

And it's Paul's way of saying,

if you don't believe me,

go ask these people.

They're everywhere.

Go ask them and see what they say.

And in Acts chapter 26,

Acts 26 · chapter mention

you have Paul before King Agrippa,

and again he says about the resurrection of Jesus,

he says to King Agrippa,

you know that these things are true.

You know that these things didn't happen in a closet.

They didn't happen in a corner somewhere.

So the debate then was not whether the resurrection happened.

The debate was only concerning,

how do we make sense of the resurrection?

It's interesting when you have so many people

who are trying to discredit Jesus and the early Christians,

never do they try to discredit the resurrection.

That's something that happened later.

It's because too many people had seen it for themselves.

So you have this public event,

this public historic fact,

and Peter makes it clear that this event

is the whole reason we have hope.

So the first point is this,

is that our foundation

is based on a public event,

a historical fact.

And the reason we're making a point of this,

you may say,

well, okay, well that,

okay, so what?

The reason this matters

is because this is one of the things

that makes Christianity unique.

We talk about,

well, why can we find hope in the Christian faith

that we can't find anywhere?

And here's one of the reasons.

All religions have some element of belief, right?

I mean, you think religion, faith, belief,

they just kind of go together.

But religious belief usually involves

adopting the values and the lifestyle

of the religious founder.

So you read their teachings

or you hear their teachings

and you like what they have to say

and so you believe in them,

meaning you adopt their values

and you begin to live in the way

that they've prescribed.

There are a lot of shoulds in religious belief.

You should be a good person.

You should not be greedy.

You should care about other people.

You should take care of the weak.

All of these things

that many religions in the world agree on

are good things.

But when Christians talk about belief,

we actually mean something different.

Christians don't, by definition,

have religious beliefs.

We have historical beliefs

that have religious implications.

You see the difference?

So this makes a huge difference

when it comes to having real hope

because facts actually offer hope

in ways that values don't.

And I think I've used this example before,

but this is kind of like the difference

between believing in the value of freedom

and believing that slavery is wrong

on the one hand

versus believing that on January 31st, 1865,

the 13th Amendment abolished slavery.

Right?

So one is a value

and one is a historic fact.

And so I'll just ask you,

which one offers more hope to you

if you're a slave?

Right?

If I come and I hear that you're a slave

and I say,

well, I really value freedom

and I really personally hope

that one day you're free

versus, hey, good news.

You're free.

You may not know it.

You may not have ever heard of this amendment.

You may not know how it all works.

But you no longer have to live like this.

You've been set free.

Which is going to offer more hope?

So Peter's not saying,

when he talks about this,

he's not saying,

hey, you should really hear Jesus' teachings.

I think they're pretty good.

And I think that they're going to help you

learn how to live better

and maybe have more success in your job

and have more success in your relationships.

And I think they're going to teach you

how to do better in your love life.

So you should really follow.

He's not saying that.

He's saying, listen, this thing happened.

Jesus rose from death.

And because of that,

he's given us an entirely new life,

an entirely new way of being.

He's ushered in a completely new way

for human beings to exist in the world.

So this is the first thing,

is that the foundation of our hope

is not a set of values or teachings.

It's not a set of principles.

It's actually a person

and an event that surrounds that person,

namely the resurrection from death.

So then what does this actually offer us?

What's the substance of our hope?

Well, again, coming back to the verse,

it says this,

according to his great mercy,

God has caused us to be born again

to a living hope.

So this is the substance.

What do we have?

What does the resurrection mean for you?

It means that you have the opportunity

to be born again to a living hope.

Now, when I say that,

if you're anything like me,

you hear the phrase born again,

and, you know, it's abrasive.

That phrase is a huge turnoff for me

and for most of us,

and it's because of the water we swim in.

Right?

I mean, when we think of the phrase born again,

we think of that as a subset of Christianity.

You know, you have your mainliners

and you have your, you know, blah, blah, blah,

and then you have your born-agains.

I mean, when I lived in Boston,

people don't even say born-again Christian up there.

They just call them born-agains.

You know, you're born-again.

And it's like one word.

And we think of this as a subset of Christianity.

To be born again is a certain kind of Christian.

And among Christians,

we think of people who are born-again

as either, you know,

we think of being born-again

as some kind of resolution we make.

Like, I kind of grew up in the church,

but now I'm getting serious.

I'm a member of a church.

I'm born again.

Or we think of it as some kind

of ecstatic religious experience.

Right?

So if somebody says,

I've been born-again,

you think,

well, that must have been amazing.

What happened?

You know,

the clouds parted

and the light

and the ecstatic vision of Jesus.

You know,

we think Damascus Road experience.

In addition,

people outside the church,

if they hear someone's a born-again,

they think of religious fundamentalism, right?

They think of religious extremism.

They think of right-wing politics.

They think of all the stuff

that goes with that.

But that's much more culture

than it is Scripture.

So how do we think about this

from a scriptural standpoint?

In August of 2010,

there was a woman named Judy Rivers.

And she went to her local bank

to open a bank account.

And as part of that,

she gave her Social Security card over

and told them the number.

And the woman entered some information

and entered more and said,

Ms. Rivers, I'm sorry.

There's been a problem.

I'll be right back.

Eventually, the branch manager comes out

and the branch manager says,

I'm sorry to say this,

there's an issue.

Your Social Security number

was deactivated in 2008

due to death.

It's pretty interesting.

Clerical error.

So it's estimated that every year,

roughly 12,200 people

are declared legally dead

from keystroke error.

So somebody just hits the wrong button

and you have no idea.

You're just going along with your day,

but you're dead.

Isn't that amazing?

Keystroke error, right?

So the Bible says

the same thing is true of us spiritually.

I mean, imagine if you're Judy Rivers

and you're going about your business,

you're living your life,

you have no idea

that anything is amiss,

but in the government's eyes,

you are legally dead.

Right?

The Bible actually says

that the same is true of us spiritually.

That you can be living life,

you can be going about your business,

you can be doing,

everything feels normal.

You may not feel anything.

You may not be aware of anything.

You know, if somebody asks you,

you're like,

my life is pretty great.

Yeah, I feel pretty good.

I feel pretty satisfied at work.

Got good friendships

and like my family

and got enough money

and things are going well.

You don't really feel

like anything is amiss.

And yet spiritually,

you can be legally dead.

This is what happens

when we ignore God

and the world that he's made.

What we're doing is

we're actually cutting ourselves off

from the source of life.

And what that means is

you can go on living physically

for a while,

but you're spiritually dead.

And then eventually,

your body catches up

as entropy sets in

and you break down

and eventually you pass away.

And again,

as we talked about last night,

while you can't feel it

and there's no guarantee

that you will feel it

and there are plenty of people

who are spiritually dead

but have no awareness of it,

I actually think

that there is a level

at which,

as we talked about

at the vigil,

that yearning

is telling us something

about our spiritual state.

There's a great book

of short stories

by a writer

named Douglas Copeland.

It's called Life After God.

And it's fascinating.

And in one place,

he's describing

the life of his friends

who live in Vancouver.

And, you know,

Vancouver's one of those places

if you've ever been there,

it's not just kind of

more of an atheistic era.

It's like a self-consciously

sort of proudly

atheistic culture.

And very secular

in parts.

And it says this.

He says,

Ours was a life

lived in paradise

and thus it rendered

any discussion

of the transcendent

pointless.

Right?

Everything's good.

We're going out at night.

We're partying.

We're having fun.

We have great jobs.

We're going 100 miles an hour.

The world is our oyster.

There's no room

to talk about

or speculate about

things like life after death

or God

or forgiveness

because life is great.

And then you go on

and it says this.

And yet,

I find myself

speaking these words

with a sense of doubt.

I think there was

a trade-off

somewhere along the line.

I think the price

we paid for our golden life

was an inability

to fully believe in love.

He goes on.

Instead,

we gained an irony

that scorched

everything it touched.

So what's he saying?

You know,

life seems great

but then I realized

that one of the things

that is set in

in my heart

is irony.

It's cynicism.

And as we said

last night,

cynicism,

if you're a disillusioned person,

cynicism can be

great insulation

against disillusionment.

You wrap it around yourself

like bubble wrap

and it can really

insulate you

from the full brunt

of a brutal,

godless world.

And yet,

because it's bubble wrap,

it not only insulates you

from the bad stuff,

it insulates you

from the good stuff.

And so what's

what's he saying here?

I can't fully experience

things like love.

I can't experience

things like joy fully

because an irony

is set in

and it scorches

everything it touches.

And he says,

and I wonder

if this irony

is the price

we paid

for the loss of God.

And then there's

a moment of honesty

later in the book.

He says,

now here's my secret.

I tell it to you

with the openness

of heart

that I doubt

I shall ever achieve again.

And so I pray

that you're in a quiet room

as you hear these words.

It's reasonably quiet

in here.

My secret

is that I need God.

I'm sick.

I can no longer

make it alone.

I need God

to help me give

because I no longer

seem to be capable

of giving.

To help me be kind

as I no longer

seem capable

of kindness.

To help me love

as I seem beyond

being able

to love.

You know,

it's interesting.

We can be completely

unaware of our

spiritual poverty

until we begin

to try to do things

like practice kindness

or love

or generosity.

And we can do it

for a time.

But sooner or later

we come face to face

with the reality.

About what?

About us.

And in verses

23 to 25

of 1 Peter chapter 1,

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

it says that we become

born again

when we hear

the good news

of the gospel

and we receive it.

It's what happens

when God opens

our hearts

to the truth

of the gospel.

And that is this,

that Jesus came

and He lived

and then He died

and then He rose

from death

to free us

from sin

and make us

children of God

and give us

the Spirit

which quickens us

to life.

That's an old word,

quickens.

but the Spirit

quickens us to life.

It awakens us.

I remember

when I became

a believer

at age 22

and the years

that followed that.

I remember

actually in the months

that followed

my conversion,

I remember

I would cry

all the time.

I don't think,

this is not true

for different people

who have different experiences.

For me,

I just cried a lot.

I probably cried

more in that first month

than I had cried

in the 10 previous years.

And it would be

at the oddest things.

I would just be

walking along,

walking down the sidewalk

and just break down

into tears

such that I would

have to sit down.

And I had

an older,

wiser friend,

mentor,

and I finally

confessed this

and I said,

am I having

a nervous breakdown?

And he said,

no,

this is your heart

coming to life.

You ever put your arm

over a chair back

and it falls asleep

because of a lack

of circulation

and then you take it off

and as the blood

comes back,

you have that

pens and needles feeling

and it feels

almost like you

can't stand it?

He said,

that's kind of like

what's happening

in your heart right now.

The Spirit of God

quickens us to life

and what this means

is that as verse 4 says,

we gain an inheritance

that is imperishable,

undefiled,

unfading,

kept in heaven for us

who by God's power

are being guarded

through faith

for a salvation

ready to be revealed

in the last time.

In other words,

what is this saying?

Everything we have

in this life,

it's bad news

and good news.

When you're born again,

it means this.

You realize that

everything that we have

in this life,

a lot of this stuff,

a lot of this,

is going to perish.

It's going to wither.

Right?

So in one sense,

a lot of the things

that we can be focused on,

a lot of that

is going to perish

and it's going to wither.

Right?

God's going to remake

and restore the earth.

He's going to remake

all things new,

the physical world,

but that doesn't mean

I'm going to take

my iPhone into that.

In fact,

I think I know

exactly where this belongs.

That's a different sermon.

But what he's saying

is that everything

that we have in this life

will one day be lost,

but everything we gain

through Jesus

will never be lost.

He's saying

there's an eternal inheritance.

It's not hot in here.

I want to show you something.

So imagine this.

Imagine this.

Imagine this not.

This is our life.

Here.

You know,

there's four little rings

in it, right?

This is when I was born.

This is my adolescence.

This is the good,

productive middle years.

This is old age and death.

Right?

Right?

And he's saying

all of this,

all of this,

a lot of what you're

aiming for here,

a lot of what you're

focusing on here,

this is going to fade.

Right?

You know,

you're focusing really,

you know,

working really hard

to get a good education,

right?

So that you can get

a good job,

which is here.

And then you get

that good job

and you hope that

you can build up

enough retirement

so that your life

will be decent here.

And then what?

And he's saying

on the one hand

all this is going to fade.

But on the other hand,

all of this,

all of this is secure.

Saying all of this,

all of this has already

been secured for you.

It's there.

It's waiting for you.

You have to do nothing

to earn it.

You have to do nothing

to preserve it.

It's not going to fade.

It's not going to wither.

It's not going to go away.

It's just there.

And he's saying,

so where should

your priorities be?

What should you be

focusing on?

And so as we consider this,

as we consider

the reality

of this

perspective shift

and what Peter's saying here,

he's saying,

this is the kind of hope

that you have.

If you think

this is all there is,

if you think

that this is it,

if you think

that this

is all you've got

to look forward to,

then listen,

when things get bad

for you

and you're looking

at this

and you're like,

this is all there is,

what's going to happen?

It's going to crush you.

Because you're like,

this is all there is,

this is my whole life.

It better be a good one.

But if

things get good

and you only think

that this is it,

then you'll be prone

to anxiety

because why?

Because

this is all I got

and now it's good

and it better stay good.

So you get so afraid

of protecting it

and preserving it

that you can't really

even enjoy it.

But if your hope

is set on all of this,

instead of this,

then when life is hard,

what happens?

You say,

well, no matter what,

this is nothing.

It's minuscule.

I've got eternity.

And when things are good,

you know that you're

fully free to enjoy them

because you know

as good as this is,

it's nothing compared

to what will come.

And I think

if we think about that

and how it would shape

the way we live,

this is real hope.

So we know

the foundation

of our hope

is the resurrection

and we know

that the substance

of our hope

is that we're born again

to an eternal inheritance.

So the last question

remains is this,

what about

the reason

we have this

to begin with?

How do we get this

from God?

Why does God do this?

Is there anything

that we do

to ensure that God

does this for us?

How do we get

this kind of hope?

The opening of our verse

tells us,

it says,

according to God's mercy

all of this happens.

Now we won't spend

a lot of time on this.

We're running out of time,

just a few minutes left,

but we have to acknowledge

one thing.

Mercy went out of fashion

a long time ago.

Really,

mercy is a very

unpopular idea.

It hasn't been popular

for some time

and here's the reason.

The whole concept

of mercy

implies that I've done

something wrong

and I need mercy.

And that's not

a very popular idea.

Right?

Because here's the way

we think, right?

Ever since the Enlightenment,

really,

we think,

well, if there's a standard

out there

and I'm not meeting

that standard,

then the problem

is clearly

not with me.

The problem

is clearly

with the standard.

And so,

over the last couple

of centuries,

moral relativism

was our cultural attempt

to make mercy

unnecessary.

Right?

So,

we wanted to make

mercy obsolete.

So,

we did away

with any universal

standard whatsoever.

But listen,

all of that

is changing.

I don't know

if you've been reading

the articles

that have been coming out

in places like

American Spectator,

Atlantic,

Jonathan Merritt

had a great piece there,

David Brooks

in the New York Times,

basically saying

that moral relativism

is coming to an end.

It's on the decline.

David Brooks

says this,

he wrote a great article

called The Shame Culture.

He says,

and he's drawing

from Andy Crouch

and other people,

he says that a combination

of us rejecting

absolute moral standards

and the omnipresence

of social media

has led to the rise

of an entirely new

moral system.

See if you resonate

with this.

And it's not a moral system

that's based on

right and wrong.

It's a moral system

based on inclusion

and exclusion.

It's a shame culture.

So you have people

who,

you have a culture

that is in

a perpetual state

of anxiety.

Why?

Because there's

an ever-shifting

set of moral expectations.

It's not fixed,

it's not firm,

and it's determined

by the mob.

It's determined

by the masses.

And so every day

you have new sources

of moral outrage

and indignation

and causes

coming across your feed.

And people are frantically

trying to figure out

what they need to do

and what they need to say

and what they need to not say

and what they need to not do

and what groups

they need to disparage

and what people

they need to sympathize with.

And there's a constant sense of

I need to know

where the locus

of morality is

at, you know,

at 6 o'clock

on this Sunday

because I need to know

because if I fail

in some way

to align myself,

if the cause

comes through my feed

and I jump on

the wrong cause,

well then I will be shamed.

People will say,

how could you possibly

support that cause?

If I'm too slow

to jump on board,

people will say,

how could you possibly

be so apathetic?

Right?

And so there's a constant

sense of

how do I align myself

and it creates

constant anxiety.

People desperately

want to be included

and affirmed

and they desperately

fear being shamed

and shunned

by their online community.

So our culture

may have rejected

the idea of God

as the judge

of right and wrong,

but what happens

when we do that?

We've all become judges.

If you get rid

of one judge,

then you have

an innumerable

array of judges.

And right now,

the internet

is our courtroom

and people are being

sentenced every day.

So human beings

are inescapably moral,

so the real question is,

what is our standard

based on

and what hope is there

for those who fall

short of that standard?

And this is where

the mercy of God shines.

Because in our culture,

there's very little hope

for people who fall

short

of that standard.

If you say the wrong thing

or you do the wrong thing,

you can be publicly shamed

and it will haunt you

for years.

If you don't believe me,

Google the name

Justine Sacco

and read her story.

But if the God of the Bible

is the only judge

in history,

if He's the only real judge,

then that should give us

tremendous hope.

Because the God of the Bible

is the only judge

in history.

He's the only judge

in any religion out there.

He's the only God

that you'll see

anywhere in culture

who not only

establishes the standard,

but He then fulfills it.

He not only establishes

the standard,

but then He fulfills it

on our behalf.

So what this means

is that my hope

is not based on

what I've done.

It's not based on my ability

to know and to keep

that standard.

It's based on the fact

that Jesus came

and lived the life

I should have lived.

Died the death

I should have died.

Overcame death.

Destroyed that sin.

And then offered

to join with me.

And the Bible says

that when we join

with Jesus,

when we become

one with Him,

then all of that stuff

that He did,

all of the ways

that He kept

that standard

get applied to me

as well.

And because when I am in Him

and He is in me,

as the Bible says,

when we are one,

then I enjoy the benefits

of His obedience.

This union with Christ

is the fundamental hope

of Christianity.

Being a Christian

means being so joined

with Jesus

that this becomes true of us.

So our hope and faith

is not based on

what we do for God

but what He has done

for us.

And the more we understand this,

the more it actually

fills us with love

and gratitude

and the kinds of things

that motivate us

to want to live

and become more like Him.

So this is real mercy.

It's God doing

everything necessary

to make us His children

and give us new life,

eternal inheritance,

not because we deserve it

but because He is merciful.

So friends,

this is the good news

of Easter.

This is why we have

real hope.

Because its foundation

isn't our values,

our disposition,

our tendency to be hopeful.

It's based on the fact

of the resurrection

and so it's certain.

The substance of our hope

is the new life,

the new identity,

the eternal inheritance

we have through Jesus

which means everything

that matters

is already ours.

And then lastly,

all of this comes

not because we deserve it

or have earned it

but because of God's mercy.

And the primary symbol

that reassures us

of this when we forget it

is baptism.

And so in a couple of minutes,

in a little while,

we're going to actually

have some baptisms

and that's going to be

a lot of fun.

But for now,

I'm going to pray

and then we're going to

join together

and sing a song of response.

So let's pray together.

Our Father,

we thank You for this hope.

We know that this is not

something that we are

capable of generating.

It's not a force of willpower

that we create.

This hope is something

that comes from You.

So Lord,

we pray that in Your mercy,

in Your love,

You would implant this hope

in our hearts

that it would generate in us

the kind of hope

that would shape how we live

in such an anxious,

disillusioned world

that we might become,

as Your people,

beacons that point to this hope

and lead others to it.

And we pray this

in Your Son's holy name.

Amen.