The Healing Word

Pastor Jack Morris: You see, in Jesus, the resurrected Jesus is restoring hope to those who may have lost hope, and so many people have lost their hope.

Guest (Male): Welcome once again to The Healing Word. And today, Pastor Jack Morris is here. He's going to continue the theme of hope, what Christ can do in our lives that brings true joy and confidence.

Pastor Jack Morris: Now, if you have your Bibles, you're going to be able to follow along. Everything's not going to be on the screen that I'm going to refer to, but if you have your Bible with you, you'll be able to follow along. A living hope. Can you say those words? A living hope.

A living hope. A living hope is a hope that holds the future in the present. Tomorrow is here now. It's in us as far as the word of God makes promises to us. It is the future held in the present. Now, this book of First Peter and Second Peter is a letter that Peter wrote to believers, to Christians.

He didn't specify a church in Galatia, a church in Corinth, a church in Thessalonica. He didn't specify any church. He just specified the church. That's us, you and me. We are the church, and he writes this book of hope. It is a book of hope to us, and we're going to open our hearts today and the Holy Spirit is going to bring this hope into us, a book of hope.

Now, notice, you read it just a moment ago, Minister Hooper. It is written not to a particular church, but to the elect, to strangers, elect by God's foreknowledge. You see, God knew you were going to be born into this world and you were going to be the son or the daughter of your parents. He knew what your name would be, your birthday, he knew all about it.

So the future was in the present with God, and now he comes to us to give us a future and a hope, but to bring it to us now. We've been waiting, we've been looking, we've been trusting and believing, but today is the day of salvation. Now is the accepted time. Jesus is here. Jesus is here, giving us this living hope.

There's nothing in the Bible quite like the verses that you just heard. If you look at this closely—I mean, sit down with your pencil and paper and look at it closely—God, through Peter, begins to enumerate things that God has planned for each of us. And the only thing I can think of is like a string of pearls. A pearl put on, another pearl put on, and pretty soon it becomes a beautiful necklace.

You've already read it. I told you in the Constant Contact letter that it was coming, and this is the day the Lord has made. It's here now, and I'm so thankful that you're here to receive what God has done. Now notice, I'm just going to go through this very quickly. This book was written by Peter. It starts out with his name. His name was Simon. Jesus born him again and gave him a new name, Peter.

An apostle. An apostle is somebody who has seen visibly, not a vision of the resurrected Jesus, but saw him in the flesh. I see churches today with names of preachers, Apostle Jones, Apostle Smith. An apostle, according to the Apostle Paul, had to see Jesus, had to experience the resurrected Christ in the flesh. Now, you and I are experiencing Jesus by faith, by the spirit, but to have seen him in the flesh, and the Apostle Peter was one.

Now notice in verse one, it begins with "to God's elect." That's you. Long before you were born, God knew you were coming and God says, "I elect her to salvation, I elect her to go to heaven, I elect her to live in victory." God's elect. And then he goes on and the next word says "strangers," to God's elect, strangers in the world. Friend, don't get too comfortable here. We're passing through.

This is not our home. Our citizenship is in heaven. We're just passing through and the Lord is with us, the Holy Spirit's power to help us pass through in victory. All of this, it says he elected us and he chose us. Oh, you thought you chose him, didn't you? "I accepted Jesus. Isn't he lucky? I accepted him." Just like we accepted a new secretary. No, he sent us his resume and we accepted him.

Not at all. He chose us, he elected us according to his foreknowledge, meaning he knows everything now and everything that is to come. And everything that is to come is right now in the present with him. He knows what's going on. Now, notice verse three, here it goes. We're going to string the pearls now. It begins with the word, "what?" What is that word? "Praise." Can you say, "Praise the Lord?"

Praise be to the Lord, praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Jesus taught us to call God Father. Every prayer Jesus prayed, he always addressed God as Father. And then he said, "You can pray that way too. I ascend to my God and your God, to my Father and your Father." So we have a Father. His name is God.

It says, "in his great mercy." Great mercy, meaning you can't measure it, you can't weigh it. How can you describe the mercy of God? But so the Holy Spirit gave him the word "great." Just call it great mercy, and that'll cover it. It's abundant, it's beyond anything we can imagine or think. Friend, I don't know that you know who you are. Really, I don't know that we know who we really are, what this great mercy has done for us, what it has saved us from and saved us to.

This is what the Lord has done. The next, it calls it "chosen." We have been chosen. When Jesus left the carpentry shop in Nazareth at age approximately 30, he hangs up his carpenter apron for the last time. He knew it was now time to go. He only had about three or three and a half years to get it done, and he goes to Jordan. He's baptized, and he goes down into the water identifying with you and me who were sinners and are sinners delivered from bondage, delivered from eternal punishment.

He identified with us at that time. And then when he comes out of the water, he's walking down the seashore of Galilee and he sees Peter and John out in a boat, not too far from the land—couldn't be too far—they were casting a net and he called to them, "Peter, John, come follow me." Those fellows rowed that boat into shore and got out of it and started following Jesus.

Now, that was their livelihood. That was their boat. That's how they supported their family. But when Jesus called them, he—listen—he immediately called them and they immediately followed him. They didn't say, "Well, let me go home and tell my wife and my kids." I don't know what they said or what they thought. All I know is that they immediately followed the Lord.

They didn't say, "Well, let me pray about it for a while and see." No, they got out of that boat and followed the Lord. So here is Jesus, now he's got two of them following him. He goes a little further down the beach and he sees the sons of Zebedee, John and James. They too were fishermen. They were in their boat. They were mending their net and Jesus called to them, "Follow me."

They left Zebedee, got out of the boat and followed Jesus. Friend, we need to make up our mind that we are disciples of Jesus Christ, called—I could just almost picture Jesus walking through the congregation today and pointing, "Follow me. Follow me. Follow me." Friend, we don't have to wait and make up our mind whether we're going to follow him. "Follow me. Follow me."

He is calling followers today and he's calling them into the church to follow him. And those of you who are streaming, listen, he's calling you to follow him, Jesus. We are followers of Christ, that's what the word "Christian" means, that's what the word "disciple" means—a follower of Jesus. I think there's too many today—when I'm coming down the highway, I'm praying for the churches all along that I see—there seems to be a slowness, a comfortableness.

"When I have the right time and my calendar is right." No, it's Jesus! Seek first the kingdom of God. What does "first" mean? Following the Lord Jesus, following him. Then Jesus, now he has four people following him. He didn't start out with a mega congregation, did he? And he goes on into the town and there is Matthew, a Jew working for the Roman government as a tax collector.

His name was Levi and Jesus walked by him. Now, this was a very lucrative business because Matthew, the tax collector, would gather the taxes, give so much of it to the Roman government and then put the rest in their pocket. And the Jews hated their own race because their own race was ripping them off financially and serving the Roman government. But Jesus said, "Follow me," and Matthew got out of that toll booth, left all of that money behind and followed Jesus because Jesus was more important to him than anything else.

Now Jesus has five. He kept calling. He's calling today. But how many of us are going to take up our cross and follow him? The cross says you go to church, you love God when it's convenient and when it isn't convenient because he comes first. Now you're going to get answers to prayer. Now you're going to have miracles. If we are casual with him, isn't it so we reap what we sow? He will become casual with us.

Listen to what he is saying. "In his great mercy, he has given us a new birth." A new birth. A change so radical and so decisive. No, it's not just walking down and shaking the preacher's hand and saying, "I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." The scripture even says the devils believe and tremble. But to truly believe is to experience this radical, decisive new birth.

This new birth—oh dear Holy Spirit, help me—this new birth is like you're starting life all over again. Now, Nicodemus in John chapter three said to Jesus, "Shall a man enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born again?" Well, it's just about like that, although you don't enter into your mother's womb, you enter into the very life of Christ and the very life of Christ enters into you. You start life all over again.

Old things are passed away and behold, all things become new. All things. Do you understand what "all things" means? All things become new. I wonder how many people are claiming to be born again and they have never experienced the all things becoming new. So they're maybe just fooling themselves. They haven't really truly been born again.

And it says in verse three—let me read the whole verse to you again, listen to it, there's nothing quite like it in the Bible. And it begins with praise because Peter knew that God is worthy of praise for all that he's done. He says, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."

There is the story of our reality in him. We're praising him for the great mercy, the new birth, the living hope, all because he arose from the dead. If Christ be not risen, we are still in our sins. Only as we allow the truth to grip our hearts that he is alive, are we really truly experiencing Jesus and the blessing that he has for us. It all happens through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

Now, Peter writes his letter of hope to two groups of people. Now listen, do you fit in? I'm going to read it because it's in the Bible. It was just read just a moment ago from this pulpit. Do you fit into one of these camps? If you do, you're a child of God, following the Lord with the joy of God in your heart regardless of what's going on in your life. Listen to this.

Through the resurrection of Jesus, Peter writes his letter of hope. Number one, verse one: God's elect. God's strangers. Friend, this world is not your home. No, your home is in heaven, and heaven is in your heart because the scripture says God has put eternity in your heart. Come on, let it come alive! Look to the Lord and let that eternal heavenly experience just overwhelm you with joy and with God's wonderful glory.

So you're the elect, you're strangers. Now, those were people at that time, and the elect and the strangers are people of this time. Look at verse eight. Do you have your Bible with you? Verse eight. "Though you have not seen him," now he's talking directly to you, "though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy."

You see him, but you don't see him. By faith we see him, but I've never seen Jesus. But in my heart I know he's alive from the dead. I know he's with me. You also know this. When Jesus died, all hopes died with him. If we do not have hope in what he has promised us—salvation, forgiveness of sin, healing, joy, peace, love—if we do not have hope, we don't have all of that.

And if we only have some of that, our hope is a very weak hope. But there is a strong hope that it's a living hope that the Lord is pointing out to all of us. And when Jesus died, Peter, who wrote this book, he knew what he was talking about. The Apostle Peter, when he wrote this letter, he was thinking of himself in the courtyard warming himself by the fire while Jesus was being persecuted, lied about.

Jesus had already told Peter, "Before the rooster crows in the morning, you'll have denied me three times." And then when the rooster crowed, it was like an echo of Peter's cursing. "I swear to God, I don't know that man!" And he looked, and Jesus was looking straight at him. Then Jesus was led out to be whipped. Jesus knows where you and I are spiritually. Did you hear that? And he's looking at us and he's calling us just like he called the early disciples to follow him.

Called us into joy, called us into peace, called us into rest. He's called us into a great salvation. The elect, the strangers in this world, though you have not seen him, you love him. And even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with inexpressible and glorious joy. Friend, this book is alive with the Spirit of God and God is doing marvelous and wonderful things.

Well, Peter lost all hope. Now, that could happen to any of us. And if it happened to Peter—now remember, prior to this, prior to him losing all hope, Jesus asked him, "Do you love me?" I believe Jesus is asking some of us, and he has every right to question, "Do you love me?" That's a good question. And there's a reason he's asking that, because I sometimes wonder if he even is wondering about it. But he knows. He doesn't wonder about it.

And Peter said, "You're the Christ, the Son of the living God," which means this: you can love God, be so dedicated to God, have a great relationship with God, and then trouble comes and you lose that hope. Peter knew he was the Christ, the Son of the living God, and Jesus said, "On this rock I'll build my church." And what kind of a rock was it? A rock that lost hope.

A rock that cursed and denied Jesus. It could happen to any of us, and it has happened to so many. But then something happened. You see, Jesus won't let us go no more than he's letting us go this morning, and those who are watching by streaming. The ladies got up on Easter Sunday and went to the tomb. And they looked, and no one was in the tomb. No dead body in the tomb.

And Mary Magdalene, maybe she was one of the younger ones, she ran and told Peter of all people. You said he was the rock, the Son of the living God, and then you took an oath and cursed that you didn't even know him. Hey, where do you stand, Peter? Where do I stand? Where do you stand with the Lord? And Peter and John took off for the tomb and they got to the tomb and they looked in and it was just like Mary Magdalene told them—no one was there.

All of a sudden, hope that Peter lost, hope began to come back again. You see, Jesus, the resurrected Jesus, is restoring hope to those who may have lost hope, and so many people have lost their hope. It's all because he lives. And he's alive now. Let me do it again. "Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with inexpressible and glorious joy."

Is that the case with you? I'm asking myself. Everyone born of God overcomes the world. Would you read that with me? First John 5:4. "For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith."

Guest (Male): Those who know Jesus have been reborn into a living hope and can face the challenges life brings with joy and a confident expectation that everything will work out.

If today's message strengthened your faith, we invite you to stand with The Healing Word through your prayers and your generous support. Every gift helps us take the gospel to more people who desperately need to hear that Jesus still saves. Join us tomorrow for another Healing Word message. Until then, blessings on you.