A Reason For The Hope

 

1 Peter 3:13-22

Bridge Over Troubled Water

When you're down and out

When you're on the street

When evening falls so hard

I will comfort you

I'll take your part

Oh, when darkness comes

And pain is all around

Like a bridge over troubled water

I will lay me down...

Like a bridge over troubled water

I will ease your mind...

Paul Simon

What a tough and challenging passage.  In his commentary on this passage Kistemaker said, “Indeed, this passage is one of the most difficult to interpret.” Also, Martin Luther concludes, “This is a strange text and certainly a more obscure passage than any other passage in the New Testament. I still do not know for sure what the apostle meant.” I’m not sure either, but this I know...no matter what this world throws at us and as tough as it may be, we can be encouraged, more we can be fueled by the gospel so much so that we can share the gospel. We can share the reason for the hope!

Big Idea:

We are born into a broken, filthy, messed up world and as such will face trials, tribulations, division, pandemics, economic stress, inequality, racism…you get the picture…but because ‘Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous’ we have a great and certain and eternal hope.  

And as that hope, as the love and grace of God fills our hearts we are able to persevere, to move forward, to share the good news in kind and gentle and respectful ways.  We can move forward in certainty, trusting and knowing the inheritance that awaits because we know how the story ends.  

We can move forward through the troubling mud of this world, because if God is for us, who can be against us!  And even though in this broken world there will be those that throw that mud on us, it will not stick and they will come to see that they are the ones that need a bath - that are in need of rescue (The Message). And we will be there to help.

Grace and Peace!