LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2004, Page 90

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90

CONVENTION BIBLE STUDIES

word, a message, the answer to the questions, “Why do you
live that way? Why do you have such a hope? What is your
hope?”
In context, then, our key verse says three things to us.
First, by God’s power we are to live our lives well, bearing
fruit, loving others, doing good even when we might suffer
for it. You are not your own; you and I are purchased in
order to bring honor to the Lord who made us His own. Second, every believer is to be ready, ready to say something
when the opportunity presents itself. Third, precisely because we are pilgrims and looking forward to a future, we
are to be ready to speak about the hope. And now we come
down to it. What is the hope of every believer and all believers? What is the hope that can fill our hearts and make
us ready to speak?

II. The Church’s Hope
For what does the church hope? For what, O Exiles of
God, do you hope? Two introductory points need to be clear;
one quickly, and the other more at length. First, the biblical
term hope differs from all normal human use of the term.
In normal speech, hope involves the two qualities of “not
yet” and “maybe.” I hope it doesn’t rain; I hope that I get
that job. It’s up ahead of you . . . but you can’t be sure of it.
In biblical usage, and as I am using it, hope has only one of
those qualities: biblical hope is “not yet,” “up ahead,” “future.” But there is no uncertainty in the way that the Bible
speaks about hope.
Now the second point. Hope is for people who know that
they are pilgrims, people who are not comfortable, people
who know that they have not yet reached their home.
1 Peter 4:3–5 says, “The time that is past suffices for doing
what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions,
drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.
With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join
them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you;
but they will give account to Him who is ready to judge the
living and the dead.”
So before we can speak of the hope of the church, we
have to ask the question. Have we settled down where we
don’t belong? Have we built houses and planted fields when
we need to be living in tents? Have we become accustomed
to this strange land and this strange time, accustomed so
that our hearts are no longer finely tuned to the hope that
God has promised, no longer looking for and longing for the
future of Christ?
Peter warns his first readers about typical deeds and attitudes of unbelievers around them. What about those attitudes around us? What about greed and consumerism that
causes us to expend the vast majority of our resources on
ourselves and our comforts and our whims, while others go
in need and the mission of the church suffers because there
is no money?! What about a culture so oversexed that we
spend all of our time worrying about homosexual sin because we are no longer shocked or bothered by the plague of
heterosexual sin and perversion around us? Have we just
gotten so comfortable with impurity that we don’t even see
it any longer?
And, here in our land, it’s an election year. And in your
minds right now, you don’t know if I’m talking about elec2004 Convention Proceedings

tions in the church or elections in the world, do you? Maybe
it should be a problem that at times, you can’t tell the difference? Half-truths, unkind words, highly organized campaigns as if the hope of the church was to be found in this
candidate or that organization or this list of nominees. Fill
in the blanks, you know them all as well as I do: Christian
First, Jesus News, Con-Star, Day-Sensus. But then, that’s
the problem with the other side, isn’t it? It’s terrible how
they have behaved and spoken, isn’t it? It is terrible. And
if you don’t think that you’re part of the problem, then that
is even more terrible. As far as I can tell, in church politics,
there’s always more than enough sin to go around.
Have we settled for this age? Have we forgotten that we
are exiles? Have we lost our longing for God’s promised
hope? Despite all the rhetoric and all the terrible things
that have actually happened in the last few years, most of
us in the U.S. are safe from any real danger. And most of us
have health insurance, and we, by and large, are all very,
very comfortable. And anyway, we’ve never lived in a world
except one with sickness and the spectre of death—isn’t
that normal? Isn’t death just a part of life? Isn’t it enough
that God loves our souls; let’s just go up to heaven and
leave our bodies behind and the devil can have the rest of
the creation.
What is the church’s hope in 1 Peter 3:15? Our hope is
the same as our faith—Jesus Christ. We are pilgrims, and
we do not belong in this time and we are journeying, journeying to the day that God has appointed for us and for the
whole world in Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:3ff praises God for
what He has already done for us and for the promise of
what He will do: “Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord, Jesus Christ” Why this praise to the Father? “According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born
again.” Yes—baptized and trusting Him—we are dead to
Satan and alive to God. Alive in Christ, we receive His gifts
and live with Him. But where is that life going? Peter goes
on: “According to His great mercy He has caused us to be
born again”—and now come three “unto’s” that I want to
highlight, three Greek phrases that all refer to the same
thing: “caused us to be born again [1] unto a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, [2]
unto an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you who by God’s power are
being guarded through faith, and [3] unto a salvation ready
to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice.” Christ
was raised—and we will rise! We are God’s heirs—and our
inheritance will come when He comes again! We are already saved . . . but we wait for final salvation from the sin
that still so quickly plagues us and our church and our
world—final salvation from the sickness and the death and
decay that is all around us. We wait for the Day of Jesus
Christ when we can stop praying as Jesus taught us: the
Day when God’s name is hallowed on the earth as it is in
heaven, when God’s kingdom comes on the earth as it does
in heaven, when God’s will in Jesus is finally and fully and
perfectly done on the earth as it is in heaven.
Oh, my, 1 Peter does not speak about this great hope
only in the opening verses—oh, no! Like all the NT writers,
Peter has his eye on the goal and he writes so that we will
keep our eye on that destination as well, and he points re-