Hope For Today – Easter Message

There’s a crisis of hope today, all around us is despair about the future, the economy, the planet, racism etc. There’s a fog of despair that lingers over us, the world is struggling to breathe due to lack of hope.

1 Peter 1:3

1 Corinthians 14:15

1 Corinthians 15:3-7

  1. We can hope for today because of the hope we have in the evidence of the resurrection
    • Two hard to refute pieces of evidence for the resurrection:
    • The empty tomb; The fact of the empty tomb is accepted by most scholars, producing the body would completely destroy Christianity but no one has ever claimed to have the body of Christ.
    • Many eye witnesses; Over 500 people saw Jesus at different times and in different circumstances and when 1 Corinthians was written most of these witnesses were still alive.
    • This evidence brings hope and changes lives.
    • 1 Corinthians 15:9-10
    • It was the grace of God that changed Paul, the resurrection of Jesus is intellectual credible and the evidence is strong. This should give us hope for today.
  1. We can have hope for today because there is hope in transformed lives
    • Mary:
    • John 20:11-18
    • Mary didn’t realise she was looking at Jesus and she represents the human race, because humans are blind to Jesus. Mary’s ideas of what would happen that day
    • Mary’s ideas of what would happen that day did not allow for Jesus to be stood there, resurrected from the dead. Jesus will never fit in with our human categories or preconceptions.
    • Mary wouldn’t have figured out who Jesus was unless he spoke her name. Jesus said her name first, Jesus always takes the initiative, it’s a picture of his grace and Jesus calls us by our name, will we respond like Mary?
    • Peter:
    • He was one of Jesus’ right hand men and a bold defender of Jesus, but right at the end, Peter let’s Jesus down by denying him 3 times.
    • John 21:4-8
    • When Peter realises it’s Jesus he rushes towards him and it’s the same for us, we never have anything to fear in Jesus, whatever we’ve done we can still run to him.
    • John 21:15-17
    • Jesus buries the dead yesterdays of Peter’s life. This happens at dawn, around a fire and Jesus asks Peter 3 times if he loves him, all the same as when Peter denied Jesus.
    • This gives us great hope for today.