Easter 2026 | Hope for Life that is Certain

Would you stand and worship with us this morning? Who's that? Who's that? So be it with God When the king speaks a word it cannot be overturned It's as good as done And when heaven touches earth it can never be reversed It's the kingdom come To the Alpha, Omega, the Master, the Maker There is only one Sovereign and supreme Everywhere He speaks is holy The Lamb of God has overcome My testimony is His blood And if He said that it is done, it is done So be it, God The weapons of enemy They have no power over me The one with all authority covers me So be it, God So be it, God So be it, God From a throne to a cross Who will pay such a price For the sin of the world Here's your King crucified See the nails in His hands See the wounds in His eyes See the crown meant to mark That His death prophesied That it was not the end

But the tears from Your eyes Don't forget that He said On the third He will rise He's alive, He's alive He's alive, He's alive He's alive, He's alive He's alive, He's alive The Lamb of God has overcome My testimony is His blood And if He said that it is done, it is done So be it, God The weapons of enemy They have no power over me The one with all authority covers me So be it, God So be it, God Let's sing this together It is final, it is written It is settled, it is finished See that old grave, He was in it Now He is it, He is risen It is final, it is finished It is settled, it is finished See that old grave, He was in it Now He is it, He is risen Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah Come on if you believe He's risen from the grave this morning Come on we give Him praise We'll say this So be it, God

Come on give Him praise this morning Well welcome everybody Happy Easter Happy Resurrection Day Well we're gonna continue to celebrate and worship the Lord with all praise So I want every voice to sing I want every hand clapping raised Let's give Him the praise He deserves Come on I'll praise in the valley Yeah I'll praise on the mountain Oh I'll praise when I'm short And praise when I'm tired ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ And come to the table, He will satisfy ♪ ♪ Taste of His goodness, find what you're looking for ♪ ♪ For God so loved the world that He gave us ♪ ♪ His one and only Son to save us ♪ ♪ Whoever believes in Him will live forevermore ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Sing, sing, sing all you feelings ♪ ♪ And your addictions come laden down at the foot of the cross ♪ ♪ Jesus is waiting there with open arms ♪ ♪ For a cost of love, the world that you gave us is one and all ♪ ♪ Son to save us from ever losing you ♪ ♪ We'll live forever ♪ ♪ The power of death is forever defeated ♪ ♪ Now it is well, I'm walking in freedom for God so loved me ♪ ♪ Oh, God so loved me Lord ♪

♪ Praise God, praise God from whom all blessings flow ♪ ♪ Praise Him, praise Him for the wonders that they've loved ♪ ♪ Praise God, praise God from whom all blessings flow ♪ ♪ Praise Him, praise Him for the wonders that they've loved ♪ ♪ It's amazing love, for God so loved me ♪ ♪ The world that He gave us is one and all, Son to save us ♪ ♪ For God so loved me, the world that He gave us is one and all ♪ ♪ Son to save us, forever we'll be together, we'll live forever ♪ ♪ The power of death is forever defeated ♪ ♪ Now it is well, I'm walking in freedom for God so loved me ♪ ♪ God so loved me Lord ♪ ♪ Bring all your fears, bring all your addictions ♪ ♪ Come lay them down at the foot of the cross ♪ ♪ Jesus is waiting, God so loved the world ♪ Sing in Christ alone. ♪ In Christ alone, my hope is found ♪ ♪ He is my light, my strength, my song ♪ ♪ This cornerstone, this solid ground ♪ ♪ Firm through the fiercest drought and storm ♪ ♪ What heights of love, what depths of peace ♪ ♪ When fears have stood, when strivings cease ♪ ♪ My comforter, my all in all ♪ ♪ Here in the love of Christ I stand ♪ ♪ In Christ alone, He took on flesh ♪ ♪ The fullness of God in helpless faith ♪ ♪ This gift of love and righteousness ♪ ♪ Was scorned by the ones He came to save ♪ ♪ Till on that cross as Jesus died ♪ ♪ The wrath of God was satisfied ♪ ♪ For my living Son, my name was laid ♪

♪ Oh, here in the death of Christ I lay ♪ ♪ Here in the death of Christ I lay ♪ ♪ Here in the death of Christ I lay ♪ ♪ Fallen on the ground, His body laid ♪ ♪ The light of the world by darkness slain ♪ This is our hope. ♪ Then bursting forth, come on, in glorious day ♪ ♪ Oh, all from the grave He rose again ♪ ♪ And as He stands in victory ♪ ♪ Sin's curse has lost its grip on me ♪ ♪ For I am His and He is mine ♪ ♪ I've been bought with precious blood of Christ ♪ ♪ Oh, we've been purchased with blood of Christ ♪ ♪ For all our sins, oh, all our sins ♪ Oh, dear God. ♪ I'm again in love, no flame or death, this is true ♪ ♪ This is the power of Christ in me ♪ ♪ From life's first cry to its final breath ♪ ♪ Oh, Jesus commits my destiny ♪ ♪ No power of hell, no scheme of man ♪ ♪ Could ever pull me from his hand ♪ ♪ Till he returns or calls me home ♪ ♪ Oh, here in the power of Christ I stand ♪ ♪ No guilt in life, no fear in death ♪ ♪ Oh, this is the power of Christ in me ♪ ♪ From life's first cry to its final breath ♪ ♪ Oh, Jesus commits my destiny ♪ ♪ No power of hell, no scheme of man ♪ ♪ Could ever pull me from his hand ♪ ♪ For I am the hope of man ♪

♪ Here in the power of Christ I stand ♪ ♪ When he returns or calls me home ♪ ♪ Here in the power of Christ I stand ♪ ♪ Because he lives, I can face tomorrow ♪ ♪ Because he lives, I can face tomorrow ♪ ♪ Because he lives, all fear is gone ♪ ♪ All fear is gone because I know he holds the future ♪ ♪ And life is worth the living just because he lives ♪ ♪ Because he lives, I can face tomorrow ♪ ♪ Because he lives, all fear is gone ♪ ♪ All fear is gone because I know he holds the future ♪ ♪ Oh, He holds the future ♪ ♪ And life is worth the living just because He lives ♪ ♪ And life is worth the living just because He lives ♪ ♪ And life is worth the living just because He lives ♪ Thank you, Jesus. It's because you live, God, that we can live. Lord, so we praise you for that. Thank you for today, this day of hope, a hope that is certain for us. Lord, as we open your word, God, and receive your word that is true, your word that is everlasting, God, I pray that you would just uplift our hearts, uplift our souls, God, and remind us of the goodness of your resurrection, of the meaning of your resurrection, and the certainty of your resurrection, God. We open ourselves to you, Lord. Speak to us.

Thank you for this time. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ What powerful worship this morning. As we think about Jesus Christ as our cornerstone, as a solid rock on which we stand. If you turn your Bibles to 1 Peter chapter one, we're gonna linger in verses three through 21. I'll move around a bit through it rather than going in order. I think it'll make sense as we work our way through. But I'd like for us to wrap around the idea of a certainty in hope, that we can have a hope that is certain. And I'm not sure what would come to mind for you immediately when you hear that. I know for many in this room and online, it might be that when you hear the word hope, you really don't have any right now. There is a hopelessness in you. There's a despair. There might be depression or anxiety or whatever the things that are weighing you down.

But you just, there's a hopelessness right now. And then there's others that when we think about hope, there's that idea of a hopeful wish. I'm just hoping something will happen. I'm hoping my team will eventually make it to the final four. I'm hopeful that the stock market will do this, or I'm hopeful for this particular thing. And then there's that kind of hope that we see in people that is probably more of an optimism. Some people just have this built-in optimism with them, and it just seems like they're able to make things happen, and they have this positive spirit and so forth. And I would say that's optimism, and that's what that is. That's not necessarily hope. Are there things that we can have hope in that are certain? And I think I would narrow it down and say that there are two objects of our hope. It's either ourselves or it's God himself through Jesus Christ. But we can place our hope in ourselves through our achievements, our academic performance, our work performance, our ability to make money, our athletic performance, our art performance, our ability to socialize and network well. We can put our hope in a number of things, but all those bottom line come down to putting hope in ourselves. And at some point in a broken world, all of those things eventually have some kind

of problem with them. But what we can be certain in today is that in God through Jesus Christ through his death and resurrection, there is hope. is a hope that we can have that is a certainty whether life is going well or it's not going well. So I'd like for us to look at three ideas running through this section of 1 Peter in thinking about hope for life that is certain. And if we're going to have a certain kind of hope, it has to be grounded in something. There has to be something that is a grounding for us to have hope that we can hang on to no matter what's going on. And I would say the first thing that Peter lets us see is that that grounding is in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Oftentimes we're anchored on the cross and rightfully so, but without the resurrection, there is no grounding for the hope that we have. Here's what he says in verse three of chapter one. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Let's break that down for a minute. So Peter is writing, and this is several years after the death

and crucifixion of Christ, after the appearances of Christ, after the ascension of Christ. And Peter is writing, he's saying, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy, and what we need to know today that we are so dependent on the mercy of God, on his compassion, and on the undeserved compassion that he puts on us, that is his mercy. He's merciful in that he's caused us, Peter is writing to believers, those who are followers of Christ, and he said, it's God that has caused us to be born again. Now everyone in the room and online, we were all born once physically, and we had nothing to do with our birth. Jesus speaks of another birth, of being born again. It's a spiritual birth, and it's all on his mercy in which we can be born again. It's not on us. He's caused us to be born again. That comes through what Christ did on the cross in the resurrection. Now when you and I were born into a physical life, we were born into something. And oftentimes we're moving through life trying to figure out, why was I born?

Why am I in here? What's my purpose? What's the significance of who I am and what the ways I've been gifted? When we're born a second time spiritually, we're also born into something. It's not just this rescue later and that we go to heaven, but we're born into something now. And Peter says we're born into a living hope. We can have something that's sure and something that's certain, and it's alive, it's living. So it's for now, and it's also a hope for the future. It's a present hope, and it's a future hope. And it's grounded in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It has a grounding in Christ. That's where our living hope comes from. That's where our certainty lies. I can't imagine anyone more excited about the resurrection of Jesus Christ than Peter. The last thing he did before Jesus was crucified is he denied Jesus three times. He publicly denied him. Can you imagine if that's the last thing you did with someone, and then they died, and you had no opportunity to rectify what you did? That's where Peter was. But there are three things that happened with Peter that are actually historical and reasonable evidences

for the resurrection of Jesus. Peter was one of the first ones, after a group of women, to see the empty tomb. The body was never produced. It was seen going into the tomb. It was sealed, and then it was empty on that third day. That's historical proof of the resurrection of Jesus. But not only that, Peter also saw Jesus physically, and was encountered by him, and actually restored by him. There were those physical appearances, not just to Peter, but to more than 500 that saw him. Historical and reasonable proof. There's a third thing, though, that was also critical. And we see that Peter's life radically changes after the resurrection, and then the coming of the Spirit of God. So it's a crucifixion, it's the resurrection. And then it's the Spirit coming down on him. And we see a life change. I read recently where people today are not as interested in the historical evidence and facts of the crucifixion and resurrection as much as they are seeing a life that actually looks like Jesus describes. They wanna see something that's real, something that's really changed. That's what happened with Peter. His life was changed. He had been with Jesus, but then it was radically changed after his death and his resurrection.

If you're interested in more evidences of the historical reality and the reasonableness of the resurrection, Timothy Keller wrote a book called Hope in Times of Fear. He wrote it while he was battling pancreatic cancer, which will later be the way that God brought him home. But great, great resource if you're interested in those kind of evidences along with practical stories. Now, Peter begins this section in verse three of chapter one and it's a section that goes through verse 21. And I want us to go to verse 21 to ground in the resurrection. So who through him are believers in God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God. So he begins this section by talking about a living hope and it's a hope that's grounded in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. He ends this section by talking again about believers and the way they're believers. They're believers in God who raised Jesus from the dead and then exalted him at his right hand, gave him glory. It's here that he ties faith and hope in God. So our faith and hope are tied together. You may be aware of a movement that's happening on college campuses all over the country. In 2023, on the campus of Auburn University, a group that's called Unite US hosted a worship night for college students. Thousands came and hundreds received Jesus that night

and were baptized. This past several days at the University of Pittsburgh, there was another gathering of thousands of students and there were hundreds saved and several hundred that were baptized as well. In the last three years, just through Unite US, it's just one movement among many going on across the US right now, but in this one movement, there've been over 100,000 students that have gathered on these nights and thousands have come to Christ and thousands have been baptized. Why is that? Because they're tired of the uncertainty and the chaos and the mental chaos of our culture. They're grasping and hoping that there's something that's certain out there, something they can lean into. And what they're seeing is that Jesus Christ himself is that certainty and there is a hope, a living hope that is in him. And through the resurrection, we have the power to overcome sin and to overcome the penalty of sin and for death to be overcome and for hell to be overcome. All of that's overcome through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He conquered all those things that he died for on the cross. Paul would later write in 1 Corinthians 15, in talking about the resurrection, that chapter, he describes a number of things.

He said, but if there was no resurrection of Christ, then we're of all men most to be pitied. If we've hoped in Christ in this life only and there's no resurrection, no present and no future resurrection, then we're the most pitied of all. And the faith that these college students have placed in Jesus Christ, it's a worthless faith if Christ has not been raised. If we've placed our faith in Christ, there's no resurrection, then our sins are not forgiven. If we've placed our faith in Christ, then this preaching that I'm doing, it's empty, it's worthless, what we're doing. But there is a certainty in the resurrection of Christ. It's why the psalmist, and I think he's anticipating what would come later, because everything in the Old Testament points to Christ. But in Psalm 42 and Psalm 63, the psalmist says, he's talking to himself, and he says, why are you in despair, O my soul? And then his response is, hope in God. And I would say today, if you're saying to your own soul today, or if you're trying to achieve today, that you can say today, your hope is in God, and it's grounded in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. There's a second thing that unfolds in this part of this letter, and I would say this, that if we're gonna have a hope that is certain in life,

then it stems from grace. In verse 13.