KV: 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…”
In verses 1-2, Peter identifies himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ. This was very dangerous then as it would be now in a modern day Muslim country. You would be pronouncing your own death sentence. Yet, Peter proudly wore this title, an apostle of Jesus Christ. He also called his fellow Christians, God’s elect. At that time, Christians in Peter’s church were being thrown to the lions and burned alive in boiling pots of water by anti-Christians. Yet Peter called them, “God’s elect.” Out of all the world, they were chosen by God to be his elect. How great they are! However, in reality, according to verse 2, they were exiled from their communities and scattered and hidden like today’s underground church in North Korea. Though we in this room are not quite so persecuted, yet we face human rejection or are despised for our faith. Like them, we are God’s elect scattered throughout the high schools in the Chicago area: Lane Tech, Evanston, Northside Prep, Amundsen, Senn, Mather, Lincoln Park, Niles East, Niles North, and even Bell Elementary. And as verse 2 also says, we spiritual exiles have been chosen according to God’s foreknowledge, we are being sanctified by his Spirit to be obedient and are covered by Jesus’ blood. Through all these spiritual blessings, we truly experience grace and peace in abundance.
Verse 3 is our key verse and the title and theme of our conference. Let’s read this verse together very meaningfully. “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…” Sometimes we feel our Christian life is too hard and does not get us anywhere in this world. Rather, than praise to God our Father, all kinds of complaints come out of our mouths, anger fills our hearts, and sorrow and self-pity trap our minds in dark thinking. But when we know our identity -- who we are in Jesus, his precious elect, called by the Father, filled with the Spirit, covered with Jesus’ blood, we realize we have so much to praise God for!
We can praise God our Father that he sent his Son Jesus into this world to be one of us! Out of his mercy Jesus died for us though we did not deserve it! Jesus rose from the dead and opened the way back to the kingdom of God for us! Jesus gives us new birth into a living hope through his resurrection! We are purchased by Jesus’ blood from Satan and the realm of death and judgment and now belong to the kingdom of God and eternal life! Praise Jesus!
Let’s read verse 4. “...and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you…” High schoolers (and third graders) have hopes for good grades, popularity, and sports ability. For example, you may think if you get an A in biology or win the sports championship, this will make your life great. But these hopes fade fast and these things often don’t work out.
We also naturally inherit what was left behind by our parents or grandparents or the generation before us. But these things that we hope for and inherit all perish, spoil or fade -- sometimes as an astonishing rate. There is nothing in this world that lasts or we can hold onto. The people and things of this world are from the dust and return to dust. We cannot put our confidence in this world. This week I took my 8th grade students to the Holocaust Museum and I was reminded of how truly wicked, dark and evil this world is. We cannot put our hopes such a volatile world. But we have a living hope in Jesus and our inheritance never perishes, spoils or fades. It is always shining in heaven with God’s infinite glory and majesty. Where is our inheritance? In heaven! Revelations 21:21 says that heaven has pearly gates and streets of gold. Rev 22:1-3 says, the river of life flows from the thrones of God and Jesus. And on each side of the river grows the tree of life with leaves that bring healing for the nations. Where in the world can you find such a place? You cannot. This is the inheritance kept in heaven for you!
We may suffer in this world. But we are truly God’s elect and the most blessed people who have a living hope to inherit heaven! By really praising God and Jesus for this living hope, let’s read verse 3 again. “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…”
This living hope in Jesus is our real confidence. This living hope in Jesus helps us to persevere in our faith. This living hope in Jesus restores our joy!
In verses 5-9, Peter explains that the meaning of our trials in this world is to purify our faith and strengthen our living hope in Jesus’ kingdom. So trials are good!! Did you know that? People may not like you at school because you say you are a Christian. (I know because my friends feel uncomfortable when I bow my head before lunch and pray in the teacher’s lounge.)Trials are God’s way of polishing our faith and making it shine brighter in the world! Through trials, our love for Jesus grows. Instead of becoming too attached to this world and people in this world, through trials we learn to cry out to Jesus for his help, rely on him, and fix our eyes on Jesus. Then we love Jesus more and believe in Jesus more, seeing Jesus’ hand at work in our lives.
Let me tell you my side of the story. In 2012, I met M. Steven. His wife had died 2 years before, and he had 2 girls, ages 9 and 14. We spent one week together in Korea, and then he proposed. Then for 2 years we did not see each other, and we had a burning hope to get married. I joined the 5:30 morning prayer meeting at the center, driving 30 minutes each way, to pray for our house church to be established, and then went to work. Finally, in May 2014, we married in Seoul, blessed by God’s people from around the world. Afterwards, I spent the summer in Korea and returned to Chicago. We prayed for their US visas with a desperate hope for our family to be united as a house church in America. But it took 2 more years during which I continued to go to the early morning prayer meeting. I can’t mention all the trials, but here are a couple. We prayed for M. Steven to get justice and God answered our prayers, his assets were unfrozen, and his debt of $35 million was solved. In great agony, we prayed for US visas for them, but his police record of bribery made it impossible. In 2016, I went to the world mission report in Korea, taking a week off from work without pay. At the airport, many senior missionaries gathered to pray, and in a very loud voice, they prayed for M. Steven to get a US visa and go to America as a missionary. God accepted our crying out prayers at the airport, and exactly at that hour, the US government miraculously granted them US visas. First, our daughters came. Their hearts were broken by the power of death, like Mary and Martha. I suggested they take names after their mother who was called Living Hope Maria in UBF. Olivia sounds like Living (Hope), and Marie is for Maria. For the next year and a half, we were desperately hoping for M. Steven to join us. But during this time, family members were holding him in Korea with various human obligations. Yet God answered our prayers in his own way through a serious car accident in which I was unable to go to work for 3 months. M. Steven decided to go permanently to Chicago to take care of our family, leaving his elderly parents. After six months, we prayed for M. Steven to have a good job and to be successful in Chicago and serve HBF as a missionary. And immediately God answered these prayers and he got an excellent engineering job at his first interview. These trials refined our faith and helped us to set our hopes in Jesus and to do his will. We greatly rejoice in all these things through which God has helped us to overcome for his glory!
As I get older (I am 51), I worry about health, retirement and death. But I have no assurance of anything. Only the living hope in the kingdom of God can be my real hope. I repented through this passage that I still put my hopes so firmly in this world. I wanted to be recognized and well-liked at work; I want my children to be successful and spiritual at the same time; I want good health and want to prepare well for my retirement. I thought these things will make me confident and secure. But these wants are not real hopes at all. They do not give me real confidence or strength to persevere in the face of reality of so many personal or global problems and lead to a lot of stress. Rather I found that when I have living hope in Jesus, fixing my eyes on my heavenly reward, I can thank Jesus, praise Jesus, give glory to Jesus, and love Jesus. I am happy and free, trusting in his power and love. I can love others more and more. And, I can have a living hope in his kingdom in heaven which is forever and is far greater than anything we can imagine here. I can only ask Jesus my Lord to forgive me for holding onto hopes in this world and ask Jesus to help me to persevere through all kinds of trials putting my hope in Jesus, having confidence in Jesus’ love and power, and love others more for Jesus’ glory.
Let’s pray: Lord Jesus, thank you for giving us a living hope through your resurrection, Please help our HBF children to have a living hope in your kingdom and trust in you, not putting their hope in their own strength or ability to reach their dreams. Help them to trust in you Jesus, who shields them, loves them and will help them to pass through the fire, shining in their faith in their high schools. Thank you! I pray in Jesus’ name, amen
Verse 3 is our key verse and the title and theme of our conference. Let’s read this verse together very meaningfully. “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…” Sometimes we feel our Christian life is too hard and does not get us anywhere in this world. Rather, than praise to God our Father, all kinds of complaints come out of our mouths, anger fills our hearts, and sorrow and self-pity trap our minds in dark thinking. But when we know our identity -- who we are in Jesus, his precious elect, called by the Father, filled with the Spirit, covered with Jesus’ blood, we realize we have so much to praise God for!
We can praise God our Father that he sent his Son Jesus into this world to be one of us! Out of his mercy Jesus died for us though we did not deserve it! Jesus rose from the dead and opened the way back to the kingdom of God for us! Jesus gives us new birth into a living hope through his resurrection! We are purchased by Jesus’ blood from Satan and the realm of death and judgment and now belong to the kingdom of God and eternal life! Praise Jesus!
Let’s read verse 4. “...and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you…” High schoolers (and third graders) have hopes for good grades, popularity, and sports ability. For example, you may think if you get an A in biology or win the sports championship, this will make your life great. But these hopes fade fast and these things often don’t work out.
We also naturally inherit what was left behind by our parents or grandparents or the generation before us. But these things that we hope for and inherit all perish, spoil or fade -- sometimes as an astonishing rate. There is nothing in this world that lasts or we can hold onto. The people and things of this world are from the dust and return to dust. We cannot put our confidence in this world. This week I took my 8th grade students to the Holocaust Museum and I was reminded of how truly wicked, dark and evil this world is. We cannot put our hopes such a volatile world. But we have a living hope in Jesus and our inheritance never perishes, spoils or fades. It is always shining in heaven with God’s infinite glory and majesty. Where is our inheritance? In heaven! Revelations 21:21 says that heaven has pearly gates and streets of gold. Rev 22:1-3 says, the river of life flows from the thrones of God and Jesus. And on each side of the river grows the tree of life with leaves that bring healing for the nations. Where in the world can you find such a place? You cannot. This is the inheritance kept in heaven for you!
We may suffer in this world. But we are truly God’s elect and the most blessed people who have a living hope to inherit heaven! By really praising God and Jesus for this living hope, let’s read verse 3 again. “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…”
This living hope in Jesus is our real confidence. This living hope in Jesus helps us to persevere in our faith. This living hope in Jesus restores our joy!
In verses 5-9, Peter explains that the meaning of our trials in this world is to purify our faith and strengthen our living hope in Jesus’ kingdom. So trials are good!! Did you know that? People may not like you at school because you say you are a Christian. (I know because my friends feel uncomfortable when I bow my head before lunch and pray in the teacher’s lounge.)Trials are God’s way of polishing our faith and making it shine brighter in the world! Through trials, our love for Jesus grows. Instead of becoming too attached to this world and people in this world, through trials we learn to cry out to Jesus for his help, rely on him, and fix our eyes on Jesus. Then we love Jesus more and believe in Jesus more, seeing Jesus’ hand at work in our lives.
Let me tell you my side of the story. In 2012, I met M. Steven. His wife had died 2 years before, and he had 2 girls, ages 9 and 14. We spent one week together in Korea, and then he proposed. Then for 2 years we did not see each other, and we had a burning hope to get married. I joined the 5:30 morning prayer meeting at the center, driving 30 minutes each way, to pray for our house church to be established, and then went to work. Finally, in May 2014, we married in Seoul, blessed by God’s people from around the world. Afterwards, I spent the summer in Korea and returned to Chicago. We prayed for their US visas with a desperate hope for our family to be united as a house church in America. But it took 2 more years during which I continued to go to the early morning prayer meeting. I can’t mention all the trials, but here are a couple. We prayed for M. Steven to get justice and God answered our prayers, his assets were unfrozen, and his debt of $35 million was solved. In great agony, we prayed for US visas for them, but his police record of bribery made it impossible. In 2016, I went to the world mission report in Korea, taking a week off from work without pay. At the airport, many senior missionaries gathered to pray, and in a very loud voice, they prayed for M. Steven to get a US visa and go to America as a missionary. God accepted our crying out prayers at the airport, and exactly at that hour, the US government miraculously granted them US visas. First, our daughters came. Their hearts were broken by the power of death, like Mary and Martha. I suggested they take names after their mother who was called Living Hope Maria in UBF. Olivia sounds like Living (Hope), and Marie is for Maria. For the next year and a half, we were desperately hoping for M. Steven to join us. But during this time, family members were holding him in Korea with various human obligations. Yet God answered our prayers in his own way through a serious car accident in which I was unable to go to work for 3 months. M. Steven decided to go permanently to Chicago to take care of our family, leaving his elderly parents. After six months, we prayed for M. Steven to have a good job and to be successful in Chicago and serve HBF as a missionary. And immediately God answered these prayers and he got an excellent engineering job at his first interview. These trials refined our faith and helped us to set our hopes in Jesus and to do his will. We greatly rejoice in all these things through which God has helped us to overcome for his glory!
As I get older (I am 51), I worry about health, retirement and death. But I have no assurance of anything. Only the living hope in the kingdom of God can be my real hope. I repented through this passage that I still put my hopes so firmly in this world. I wanted to be recognized and well-liked at work; I want my children to be successful and spiritual at the same time; I want good health and want to prepare well for my retirement. I thought these things will make me confident and secure. But these wants are not real hopes at all. They do not give me real confidence or strength to persevere in the face of reality of so many personal or global problems and lead to a lot of stress. Rather I found that when I have living hope in Jesus, fixing my eyes on my heavenly reward, I can thank Jesus, praise Jesus, give glory to Jesus, and love Jesus. I am happy and free, trusting in his power and love. I can love others more and more. And, I can have a living hope in his kingdom in heaven which is forever and is far greater than anything we can imagine here. I can only ask Jesus my Lord to forgive me for holding onto hopes in this world and ask Jesus to help me to persevere through all kinds of trials putting my hope in Jesus, having confidence in Jesus’ love and power, and love others more for Jesus’ glory.
Let’s pray: Lord Jesus, thank you for giving us a living hope through your resurrection, Please help our HBF children to have a living hope in your kingdom and trust in you, not putting their hope in their own strength or ability to reach their dreams. Help them to trust in you Jesus, who shields them, loves them and will help them to pass through the fire, shining in their faith in their high schools. Thank you! I pray in Jesus’ name, amen
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