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“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.” (1 Peter 1:3 ESV) He is Risen! He is Risen indeed! Alleluia! Easter is not a one-day event, but rather one event that changes every day! Today at International Lutheran Church, we begin a new sermon series entitleD “Our Living Hope.” We will be reading the first letter of the Apostle Peter over the next several weeks and unpacking the meaning and significance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ for our everyday lives. Peter, who was “sifted like wheat,” points to the benefits of the resurrection as he strengthens Christians everywhere who are undergoing various trials and tests.

In general, we don’t usually like tests. Even when we know that they bring a positive result, we try to avoid them. Perhaps as kids and later as young adults we dreaded “test day,” “mid-terms” or “finals” and the pressure we felt on us to perform. The idea of getting anything but top marks seemed to loom as a hidden expectation. Perhaps even as adults in the working world we stress over giving or receiving an annual evaluation. The negative feelings created even at the suggestion of “areas for improvement” during a review, seem to be counterproductive. Yet, tests and trials are the only way something can be proven to be genuine, true and beneficial.

In fact, the Apostle Peter begins his letter with a strong and bold embrace of the various tests and trials that our faith goes through. His ministry to “strengthen the brethren” after he had been “sifted as wheat” (Luke 22:31-34), speaks to how trials can prove our faith to be genuine and true. But our ability to believe or our ability to maintain our faith is not the focus of these trials. Instead, the focus is the object of our faith – the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Jesus, Peter declares, God has “caused us to be born again … through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3). This is not because of us or our faith but all out of His great and abundant mercy. Peter unpacks for us the benefits of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead in a threefold outline with the simple word “to” or “for.”

First on his list is the impact it makes on our current situation as we are brought into a “living hope” (v.3). Jesus’ resurrection creates the faith that holds on to God in His mercy that He has forgiven our sins and restored us to a right relationship with Him. Peter had denied his Savior and yet God had forgiven him. This faith, this “birth,” this “new start,” that Peter is given emboldens him to confess his Savior even in the face of opposition and threat of punishment as we read in Acts 5:29.

The second benefit is the sure and certain treasure, the “inheritance” (v.4) that is now ours through Jesus’ resurrection. At His death, all that was His became ours as a gift. We are thus stored away in Him and preserved as His priceless treasure, guarded and kept until that last day.

The third benefit is then this very “salvation” (v.5) that is to be revealed and at the same time is being produced in our very lives and souls even now. While we don’t see, we still believe. While we are under many trials, we still love as He has loved us.

Each Lord’s Day we celebrate the Living Hope we have in Him as the benefits of His resurrection are made manifest in our very lives in and through the trails and tests we face. God strengthen you and remind you today that He is working in you to the glory and praise of His name. He is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Pastor Carl