Date: 8 December 2024, 9.30 am
Speaker: Dn Tan Jiayi Sermon Text: 1 Peter 1:3-7
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TRANSCRIPT
I know it may be hard to believe, but it has been about 18 years since I graduated from secondary school. Truth be told, I probably can’t remember most of what I’ve learnt back then, as I am sure that many of you can relate to as well.
One thing I remember though, is the national pledge, which we had to recite every single day during the morning school assembly. Till today, I can recite it by heart, even in mandarin, as broken as it may be. So in case some of you may have forgetten, this is how it goes (and I will spare you the torture of hearing the mandarin version):
We, the citizens of Singapore, pledge ourselves as one united people, regardless of race, language or religion, to build a democratic society, based on justice and equality, so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and progress for our nation.
In essence, the national pledge, is a commitment for every Singaporean to collectively work or progress towards a vision of a society that our forefathers had hoped Singapore could become. An inclusive society where there is no social, gender or racial injustice or inequality, and a society where its people are happy and can prosper. A society worth living in.
And it is this vision and hope that has inspired Singaporeans to act. We have the Singapore Kindness Movement, the SG Cares Movement, and most recently the Mental Health wellness movement, which our new prime minister has prioritised in the national agenda. All these are just some examples of Singaporeans’ pursuit for a more caring and inclusive society.
Of course, this is not unique to Singapore, and just a quick Google or ChatGPT search would see many similar national and even global movements, all to create a better world, not only for ourselves, but for our future generations as well. And it is this hope that drives us towards collective action and to achieve the nobler aspirations of justice, equality, happiness and prosperity, just like in our national pledge.
On a personal level, we are sold the idea of hope every day as well. From material goods to comfortable lifestyles to perfect partners, to academic or workplace success, this is the repeated message of hope that we receive from the world everyday, the hope of a happy and meaningful life if only we attain such things.
For we cannot deny that we are ultimately hope-oriented beings and creatures. Our lives are filled with it. Hope is weaved into the very fabric of human nature. It sustains us and gives us purpose. It allows us to endure and press on through difficult times. It determines how we process, handle and even respond to the circumstances we face.
And so, we hope. We hope for love, hope for peace, hope for security, hope for good health. And we strive and work hard towards the hope that we seek, so that the hope doesn’t just remain as wishful optimism, but is able to become reality. For in the absence of hope lies despair, inaction and even self-destruction.
A recent article from the American Psychological Association (APA) is titled “Hope as the antidote” and suggests that “hope may be the antidote in today’s chaotic world” and the paper shares steps on how we can cultivate hope amidst the struggles we face today. In the article, the ex-president of APA, Thema Bryant, remarked “Hope isn’t a denial of what is, but a belief that the current situation is not all that can be. You can recognize something’s wrong, but also that it’s not the end of the story.”
Today, my hope for us is to learn - in summary - what the Christian hope is about. And I am not talking about any type of hope like how we hope that more church members might attend CGs or Bible studies, or that discipleship might thrive within our church. The hope I would like to introduce today is the future hope that Christians have in Jesus Christ.
Well, Christians believe in the God of the Bible and in this Bible, it tells us what went wrong with the world. Everything was perfect until sin entered the world. In the Bible, sin is defined as the turning away and disobedience towards a good God who wants what is best for us – much like the relationship between a child and a parent. Sin is in all of us today – every hurtful word we have ever said, every selfish action we have ever taken, or every impure thought we ever had – we are all guilty of it. And because of sin, the world is broken, chaotic, and messy. And the Bible tells us that the consequence of sin is death. It is not just an earthly death, but an eternal one. And so we ask the big question: Is there any hope? That is to say, we can all recognise that something’s wrong, and also believe that this isn’t the end of the story.
If you look throughout history, there has been no shortage of efforts from humanity to try to fix this broken world. Yet despite our efforts towards peace, we have war. In place of justice, we often see and experience injustice first-hand. Or despite our best efforts to spread love, we have bigotry and racial tensions. The list goes on. You might say: Jiayi, surely there has been some successes in parts of the world and society. And I would say, yes you are right. But nothing that lasts. Nothing that is perfect. No universal magic formula that has given humanity a 100% success rate. And you might argue: Jiayi, you demand too much. Don’t be such an idealist, for such a utopian world only exists in the fairytales of books and movies.
But what if such a hope exists? What if this hope not only promises but guarantees a world free of pain and suffering. A world beyond our wildest dreams. A world full of joy and love together with our Creator God for all eternity. For this is what God designed the world to be, before we turned our backs on Him and decided to go our own way. The Bible talks about such a future hope, where everything on earth is restored as it should be, a hope of eternal life with God after our earthly death.
And this hope is found in the person of Jesus Christ - who is God made flesh and came to earth to die for our sins some 2000 years ago. But Jesus did not stay dead. The Bible said He was raised back to life and conquered death, and because of His resurrection, we can have a living hope. Hope because his death and resurrection means that the debt of our sins have been fully paid for, in that he took the punishment of sin for us, and we can now find forgiveness before a just and holy God.
There is so much to unpack about this future hope that Christians have but allow me to just share 3 elements of this hope with us this morning.
Firstly, the Christian hope is one that is secure. And because it is secure, the Christian hope is one that sustains. And finally, because this hope is both secure and sustaining, it is hope worth rejoicing over.
A hope that is secure
Let me begin with my first point: A hope that is secure. We all like a safe bet, don’t we. And that is usually how we decide where to divert our resources towards. Like our time, energy or finances.
I remember when I was 13 years old and I just entered secondary school. And one of the first things you had to do as a secondary one student was to choose a co-curriculum activity (aka CCA) to join. So I attended this this huge CCA open house where all the new students could try out for the different CCAs. As many of you know, I love to play football and so of course I went for the football tryouts. There were a lot of applicants as you would expect and because they had limited spots, all the applicants had the opportunity to prove their quality and potential through a kick-about trial, and long story short, I managed to make the cut to join the team. Which was pretty awesome and exciting for me at the time. But then, my elder brother who was attending the same school came to me and said – Eh don’t join the football team. They cannot make it one. Go join the volleyball team instead. They are the niche sport in our school and will surely win you some CCA points.
You see, the reason why success in CCAs is so important, is because it will earn you CCA points, which is able to improve the overall grade of your O levels, and this would then improve your chances to enter a college of your choice after graduating secondary school. And so, I agreed with my brother’s reasoning and joined the volleyball team, because it seemed like the safe bet. Sure win. Plus, people around me were telling me how training in volleyball would somehow make you taller? For most cases at least. Killing two birds with one stone, so I thought.
But as it turned out, things didn’t really panned out the way that I had hoped. Even though I did get the CCA points in the end, my overall O levels score was still not good enough for me to enter the college I wanted. And as for growing taller, let's just say that I guess I am not part of the “most cases” that I was hearing about.
Typically, when we express hope, what we are really doing is expressing uncertainty. And that is why the saying goes “hope for the best, prepare for the worst”. Because the outcome is always uncertain. We do our best to study hard and smart for our exams, or prepare for an interview, but all we can do really, is hope that we can achieve the grades we feel we deserve or that job that we want. Yes, we can increase our chances of success with better preparation but there is never any certainty of it no matter how much effort we put in.
But the Bible’s definition of the Christian hope is distinctly different from the english definition of the word hope. While both can be said to be future oriented, the greek term for “hope” that we see being used in 1 Peter refers to a confident certain expectation of the future.
But what is this certainty based on? Is it based on something we have done before or something we have to do? Not at all! The text tells us that we have a living hope because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The Christian hope is certain and has already been secured, because it is grounded in the reality of Jesus’ resurrection. This means that the Hope I’m speaking of this morning transcends the grave, it expands our earthly horizons and looks towards an eternal life after death. It is about a heavenly Hope.
You see, when Jesus died and rose again, His victory over the powers of sin and death was sealed. And because of this, all who put their faith in Him would share in this certain victory as well. It is not just a safe bet, but a 100% guarantee. And the apostle Peter describes the gift of this hope as a new birth. The best example I can think of to illustrate this for us to picture a death-row inmate being acquitted and granted freedom. What was once death he faced, is now life eternal – It is a new birth, a new life. And not only are we saved from death which we deserve because of our sin, but through our faith in Jesus Christ, we now have an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade away, and is kept in heaven and guarded by God’s power.
How amazing is that? And how liberating is that as well, that we don’t have to worry whether our failures will exclude us from this hope, because it has already been secured in Christ.
And that is the first point: The Christian hope is a hope of a new, eternal life that is secured in Christ and His resurrection.
A hope that sustains
And because the Christian hope is secure, it can be a hope that sustains.
Christians are not untethered to the daily struggles of life. We experience painful and trying situations that can cause our faith and our hope to waver. In fact, the Bible makes it known in no uncertain terms that suffering as a follower of Christ is to be expected. And the apostle Peter, in this passage of the Bible, frames the Christian hope, within the context of suffering.
Now there are 2 key things that I would point out here. The centrality of faith, and the temporality of suffering.
And I’ll begin with the centrality of faith. Let us look at the passage again:
“(3) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, (4) to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, (5) who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
The apostle Peter goes on to say in verses 6 and 7 - (6) In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, (7) so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
In other words, faith itself is the way that God will guard and keep us. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in all Christians, as we maintain our faith in Him. Faith that in Christ, we can find forgiveness for our sins, and salvation before a righteous judge. Faith that when Christ comes again, justice will prevail and God’s kingdom will be established, a place where peace and righteousness will reign. And this faith in Him will be tested, through the trials and sufferings we go through on earth.
And this brings me to my second point, which is the temporal and transient nature of this suffering. Would you consider the span of 10 years a long time? Maybe not. I have gone through 3 and a half cycles of that already. How about 40 years? Now that does sounds pretty long, especially when you compare it against the regular lifespan of a human life. But what if you compare it against eternity? From that perspective, even a hundred years might feel like “a little while”.
But don’t get me wrong. I am certainly not dismissing or making light of any form of suffering that we might have gone through or are still currently facing today. Far from it. But as we maintain faith and trust in Christ, as we live with eternity in mind and fix our eyes on our glorious eternity with our Creator God, we can persevere in hope. A hope that is greater and far outweighs our momentary afflictions, and a hope that makes it all worthwhile.
And this hope is able to change our perspective and sustain us through the various circumstances we face. Here, I would like to reuse an analogy that I heard from the late Ps Timothy Keller who captured this point really well.
Now imagine together with me two individuals working the same mundane menial job at a factory. They are in the exact same situation and circumstance. For one of them, he is promised 15 million dollars a year for doing this job, but for the other, he is only promised 15 thousand dollars a year. What do you think will happen? The first guy would come to work everyday with such joy, probably even whistling while he does his tasks, looking forward to the reward that awaits him. For the second guy, he would probably dread every day of his work.
And that is my second point: The Christian hope is a hope that sustains us by faith through the temporary sufferings on earth.
A hope worth rejoicing
My final point: a hope worth rejoicing. This is the response to the hope that we have.
Like new parents waiting for the birth of their first child, Christians wait in joyful anticipation, looking forward towards this certain hope in Christ, to a glorious future where there is no more pain or suffering or death, where there will be peace and justice, where God and man will dwell together forever.
This is the reason why Christians can always rejoice, even through suffering. Because of Christ who sustains us. And because as we look to the hope that we have, when we measure the glorious eternity of enjoyment with Christ in the scales of our lives, all our problems and sufferings will just seem so light and small.
And there is one key aspect of the Christian hope that makes it especially joyous, and which the Bible says is central to this joy. And the answer is one that you might not expect, because it has nothing to do with us, but everything to do with God and His glory. As our faith is tested through trials and tribulations, the apostle Peter says that it is ultimately to result in the praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ – the one who is our hope and salvation.
At the start of the sermon, I shared about the brokenness of the world because of sin. But the good news is that it will one day be restored. In the last book of the Bible, it talks about a new heavens and new earth, the restoration of this broken world. It paints a glorious, glorious image for us, one that is like a wedding between the church (that is the people of God) and Christ –
Most of us have been to weddings before, haven’t we. The groom looking super fly in his tailored suit, the bride adorned in the most beautiful gown – much like Philip and Kat yesterday morning. You have flowers and decoration, everyone is in their best attire and all eyes are fixed on the wedding couple. Well, the image that the Bible paints for us is something like that, but it is far, far grander and glorious that we can ever imagine.
In Revelations 21:1-4, it reads:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
This is why Christians can face death and the pain of loss and still rejoice. Because we believe that death on earth is not the end. For it is the moment where we can finally behold the face of God in all its glory and splendour. Yes, we will still grieve and mourn, and yes there will sadness, on this side of reality. But there will also be joy! The joy of a glorious future of eternity with God and the church.
And this is my final point: The Christian hope is a hope that is worth rejoicing because of the glorious future of eternity that awaits us.
So, to summarise the three points of the Christian hope. The Christian hope is a:
1. Hope of a new, eternal life that is secured in Christ and His resurrection.
2. Hope that sustains us by faith through the temporary sufferings on earth.
3. Hope that is worth rejoicing because of the glorious future of eternity that awaits us.
Who is it for?
Now at this point, you may be thinking – Yes Jiayi, thanks for sharing with us this great hope that you have been talking about for the past 20 mins. But who is it for?
Well, I am glad that you asked. And have I got good news for you! If you have not guessed it already, it has something (if not, everything) to do with the person of Jesus Christ.
The Bible in John 3:16-17 writes:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Do you see? It was the love of God that gave us Jesus Christ. And it was Jesus Christ who willingly gave his life to die on the cross and paid the penalty of our sins, that we might be saved through Him. So then, who is the Christian hope for? The promise and hope of Christ is for anyone who would come to Him in repentance and place their faith in Him.
If you are with us this morning and you are not a Christian, would you consider placing your faith in the person of Jesus Christ, and share in this glorious hope that lies beyond this earthly life? Would you consider to find out more about the person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God who laid his life down for your sake? If you do, I would encourage you to come to me or any of the leaders or even the friend who brought you here, and we would be glad to share more with you.
And it is my prayer, that you too, would come to know and trust in Jesus Christ, and experience the glorious hope that can only be found in His name.
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