Living Hope! Easter 2022 | Brian & Mandy Lucas – PAX Church (The LORD is Salvation | 04/17/22)

Get the notes for this message here: https://bible.com/events/48875287
Find out more about PAX: http://paxchristian.church

What is Hope?
Where are you at on the hope scale this morning?

1 Peter 1:3-4 NIV
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you,

We have been given living hope!
What is living hope?

THE RISEN JESUS IS OUR LIVING HOPE.

The resurrection is the peak of our faith! It’s the ultimate moment! It’s the biggest promise of all! It’s the guarantee that His other promises will come true as well.
The whole bible, the whole of human history is full of God’s promises to bring restoration and healing to a broken world, and our broken relationship with him.

Isaiah 43:1 NIV

1 But now, this is what the Lord says—he who created you, Jacob,he who formed you, Israel:“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;I have summoned you by name; you are mine.

God created us for relationship with him.
Our sin seperates us from him.
God had a plan from the beginning to work all things together…So that:

THE RISEN JESUS IS OUR LIVING HOPE

Isaiah 43:5-7 NIV

5 Do not be afraid, for I am with you;
I will bring your children from the east
and gather you from the west. 
6 I will say to the north,
‘Give them up!’
and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’
Bring my sons from afar
and my daughters from the ends of the earth— 
7 everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made.”

God has desired to bring us back to him since the beginning of creation.

THE RISEN JESUS IS OUR LIVING HOPE.

Isaiah 53:5-6 NIV

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed. 
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

This prophecy was fulfilled in the death of Jesus.
While it may not have seemed like it at the time, Jesus was becoming our living hope…

2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV

21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

The bible tells us that all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God. (Rom.3.23)
It also says that this sacrifice was made once for all: for all people, for all time, and for all sin. (Heb.10)
Our hope is that one day we will walk with God, that the circumstances of this life are temporary, that we have a God who is trustworthy and works all things together to draw us near to him.
But Jesus isn’t just our hope…

THE RISEN JESUS IS OUR LIVING HOPE.

1 Corinthians 15:1-8 NIV

1 Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. 3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

Where are you with Jesus today?
Who is Jesus to you?

1 Corinthians 15:58 NIV

58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.