My name is Matthew Capone, and I'm the pastor here at Cheyenne Mountain Presbyterian Church.
And it's my joy to bring God's word to you today.
A special welcome if you're new or visiting with us.
We're glad that you're here.
And we're glad that you're here not because we are trying to fill seats,
but because we're following Jesus together as one community.
And as we follow Jesus together, we've become convinced that there's no one so good.
They don't need God's grace.
And no one's so bad that they can't have it.
Which is why we come back week after week to hear what God has to say to us in his word.
This morning, we're taking a break from our series in the book of Judges,
because believe it or not, it's Easter.
That's Resurrection Sunday, when we as a church celebrate the fact that Jesus, in fact, rose from the dead.
Now, when we talk about Jesus, it's important to remember we're not talking about an abstraction or an idea or a theory.
We are, in fact, talking about a historical figure, a real man.
Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem, which is five to six miles south of Jerusalem.
And he grew up in Nazareth, which is 64 to 65 miles north of Jerusalem.
Jesus was one of at least seven kids.
And he had both brothers and sisters.
Real man, real time, real space.
It's also important to remember that the resurrection is not a metaphor.
When we speak about the resurrection, we are speaking about a real historical event,
an event that had numerous, many eyewitnesses.
And so every Resurrection Sunday, every Easter, we come together and we talk about what that means for us,
how, in fact, it gives us real hope and joy now.
We're going to turn this morning to the book of 1 Peter.
And the book of 1 Peter is a letter written by the Apostle Peter.
He writes it in the first century A.D. to churches in modern-day Turkey.
And these churches are feeling out of place in the world, and they're facing opposition from the world.
And so they have this temptation, the temptation with all the heat coming in against them,
to give up on Christianity.
And so Peter writes to encourage them.
Peter writes telling them why the resurrection is a better hope than any other hope,
why it is worth suffering for.
And so that's where we're headed this morning.
We're in 1 Peter 1.
We're going to look at verses 3 through 9.
Our focus will be 3 and 4, especially 4,
but we'll read 5 through 9 just so we have a larger, broader context.
And as we come to this passage, I imagine that there are a few of us who are Christians,
and for us, the resurrection is our life.
We think of it when we wake up in the morning,
and it orients the rest of our day and our weeks and our months.
I would imagine for many more of us, it is actually a constant struggle for us to remember the resurrection,
for it to be something as Christians that shapes our minds and our hearts and our lives.
Some of us are not Christians.
Perhaps you have doubts or questions or objections to Christianity.
No matter which of those three categories you fall into, we're here together this morning,
and I hope that you're here because all of us need to be reminded of the great resources,
the great hope that we have from the fact that Jesus rose from the dead.
And so it's with that I invite you to turn with me in God's Word.
You can turn in your worship guide.
You can turn on your phone.
You can turn in your Bible.
No matter where you turn, remember that this is God's Word.
God tells us that His Word is more precious than gold, even the finest gold,
and it's sweeter than honey, even honey that comes straight from the honeycomb.
And so that's why we read now 1 Peter 1, starting at verse 3.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading,
kept in heaven for you,
who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation,
ready to be revealed in the last time.
In this you rejoice, though now for a little while,
if necessary, you've been grieved by various trials,
so that the tested genuineness of your faith,
more precious than gold that perishes,
though it is tested by fire,
may be found to result in praise and glory and honor
at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Though you have not seen Him, you love Him.
Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him
and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,
obtaining the outcome of your faith,
the salvation of your souls.
I invite you to pray with me as we come to this portion of God's word.
Our Father in heaven, we do praise you and thank you again.
We did not choose you, but you chose us.
We did not figure out that we should come here this morning
because we were smart enough and skilled enough,
but instead, you've called us here.
You brought us.
And so we ask that you would remind us of your grace in that,
and you would use your word this morning to show us Jesus once again,
that you would remind us of the glory and the beauty of His resurrection,
that you strengthen us with the hope that it provides,
and that you would use this worship service to change us,
that we would look more and more like your Son and our Savior, our Lord Jesus.
It's in His name that we ask all of these things,
Amen.
A man named William Farley tells the story of many years ago
when he visited a vineyard in the Napa Valley of California.
And when he was at this vineyard,
he had a chance to speak to the foreman
who explained to him many of the dynamics of the work that they performed.
He told him that the grapevines that they grew
could reach an age of 80 to 100 years old.
And then, in fact, they were not most productive
until they hit around 30 to 50 years old.
This was a long-term process of developing these grapevines,
of growing this vineyard.
In fact, he told him that, in fact,
the taproot of many of these grapevines
could grow 30 to 40 feet deep.
Some of them grew so deep
that they actually reached the water table
far beneath the surface of the earth.
And those vines became what is called self-irrigating.
In other words, they had this resource,
this reservoir of water
that they had access to
regardless of what was happening
on the top of the earth.
Whatever was happening up top,
they could sort of be unfazed by it.
Is there a drought?
No problem.
Is there incredible intense heat?
No sweat.
Because these grapevines have these resources, right,
that transcend what's happening up above.
William Farley provides this image
because it reminds us of what, in fact,
the Christian life should be like as we live it.
We should have this deep reservoir of resources,
a separate source of hope and peace and joy.
We should have that independent
of what's happening today.
We have that as it transcends
whatever the events are of this day or week or month.
And as you hear that, you listen to that,
you might think, wow, that sounds really great.
Also, that's not really my experience as a Christian.
In fact, if we are honest,
we would have to admit
that this is more aspiration than reality for most of us.
We live lives riddled with fear and anxiety and greed.
Our hearts ride the roller coaster
of success and failure and wealth and poverty
and praise and criticism and status
and loss and recognition.
The churches in Asia Minor and Turkey
who are receiving Peter's letter
also know what it's like to be rattled
by the circumstances around them.
And so Peter writes to them
to remind them of the great reservoir
that's provided by Christ's resurrection.
He writes to remind them
that they have a source, in fact,
of hope and peace and joy
that is tied beyond this world.
He raises the question for them,
the same question that we have,
where is it that we can get unshakable hope?
Christian, how can you have
a deep reservoir untouched by this world?
How can you have a root
that goes 30 to 40 feet deep?
Well, Peter points us
to the benefits of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And he does that here in verses 3 and 4.
He tells us, verse 3,
we've been born again to a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead to an inheritance.
In other words, Jesus' resurrection means
that if you are a Christian,
you have a great inheritance.
There is something that is in the future for you
that you do not experience in the present.
And so Peter gives us the simple principle
that I mentioned during our confession of faith,
which is this,
whatever we believe about the future
dramatically affects how we live in the present.
Imagine, for example,
you have two people,
they're virtually identical.
Both of them are living in great poverty.
One of them has no hope
of that poverty ever ending.
The other one knows
that there is a relative
who has named them in their will.
And this relative is decades older than them.
They know the amount that's coming to them.
And so as they live in the present,
they have great hope in the future.
They don't give in to the hopelessness
and despair that the other one might have
because they know there is something different coming.
That's the encouragement that Peter is giving here.
You'll see this in page nine of your worship guide.
It's staggering how expectations can alter
how you interpret current circumstances.
Peter is reminding the Christians
in these churches of this.
No matter what's happening now,
you have a great future.
No matter what you're suffering now,
there's great hope.
No matter your loss,
the best things are yet to come.
What is this inheritance though?
What are the good things that are to come
because of Jesus' resurrection?
The apostle Paul tells us in Romans chapter eight
that we are fellow heirs with Jesus Christ,
meaning that whatever Christ's inheritance is,
whatever it is he earns and receives,
those things are true of us as well.
And what is it that Christ accomplishes
in his death and resurrection?
Well, it's the defeat of sin.
It's the defeat of death.
And so this inheritance,
it encompasses all of those things that are coming
when we see death and sin
finally put under the ground.
It means the new heavens and the new earth.
It's part of our future inheritance.
It means the death finally and fully of sin
in our own lives.
We will no longer experience tension with others
because of our words and our actions
and our selfishness.
No, instead, we're gonna experience harmony
and harmony and unity with those around us
better than we can even imagine right now.
It means that we will be at peace
with God and with ourselves.
We'll be free finally from anxiety,
from depression, from guilt, from anger.
The inheritance though is not just freedom from sin
in our own lives.
It's freedom from sin in society
and communities and nations.
There will be no more systemic injustice,
cruel and abusive leaders.
There will be no more contentious elections.
There will be no hunger,
no more poverty,
no more strife.
Our inheritance though is not just freedom from sin
in our own lives,
freedom from sin in our society.
It's also this restored creation.
In Romans chapter eight,
Paul also talks about the fact
that this world,
the natural order,
is groaning with this longing for redemption.
There is some sense
in which the mountains and the trees
cannot wait for Jesus to come back
because there will be no more sickness,
no more disease.
Your bodies will work perfectly.
The earth will be free of pollution.
You will no longer take Zyrtec
because allergies will come to an end.
Because of Jesus' resurrection,
there are better things to come
than we can even imagine.
Because of Jesus' resurrection,
there are things in this world
that no matter how rich
and powerful
and successful you are,
you cannot even come close
to experiencing.
You have an inheritance,
imperishable,
undefiled,
unfading,
kept in heaven for you.
Peter gives us a lot of words here
to try to understand
what this inheritance is like.
Now I have to confess to you this morning
two things.
One,
I buy a lot of chocolate milk.
And not only that,
I am the obnoxious person
in the grocery store
who digs around with the cartons
to find the expiration date
that is farthest off in the future.
I mean,
I'm just one man, right?
I can only drink
so much chocolate milk.
And so if I see
that the expiration date
is two days from now,
am I going to buy the big jug?
No,
of course not, right?
That would be foolish.
I'm going to drive it,
buy the small jug.
Small jug.
Why?
Because the milk
is perishable.
Right?
It is not going to last forever.
If I don't get
while the getting's good,
I'm either not going to get any
or my body is going to rebel
in a tremendous way.
Peter says,
look,
this is not what your inheritance is like.
There is no expiration date.
It is imperishable.
No matter how long you wait for it,
it will not go bad.
No matter how long you suffer
in this world,
it will still be waiting for you.
There is nothing
that can cause it to spoil.
It's imperishable.
There's no best by date.
There is no sell-by date
on the inheritance
that is yours
because of Jesus' resurrection.
Peter also tells us
it's undefiled,
which is his way of saying
this inheritance
is not going to be affected
or touched
by sin.
The very best experiences
that you have in this world,
the closest
and most intimate relationships
in your life,
even when you see creation
at its best,
sin is still there
in the background.
You are still not seeing it
for as good as it can be.
Not so, Christian,
with your inheritance.
You will experience
finally
the world
without sin.
And so he tells us
it's imperishable,
it's untainted
or undefiled.
We're also told
that it is unfading.
You may have noticed
last Sunday,
if you're a careful observer,
that my car
was not in the parking lot
of this church
because my car
was in the body shop.
I got rear-ended
last year
and I finally made it
into the schedule
many months later
so I could get
a new bumper.
I went to
Red Nolan Collision Center
here in town,
which I cannot recommend
highly enough.
And they broke
some very bad news
to me when I took
my car in.
They said,
this is the last time
we will ever help you
because we don't see cars
older than 10 years old.
So you've aged out.
Like, we're going to
let you slide in here,
we'll give you
a new bumper,
don't come back.
Why?
Because my car
is fading.
Right?
There's a sense
in which there's
a relative fading,
it's fading
in comparison
to new cars.
So for a glorious
few days,
I got to drive
around this rental car,
it was a Corolla Cross,
and I thought,
wow,
there's a lot
of wonderful things
that have been put
in cars
in the last 10 years.
This is what it's like
to drive a new car.
So it's fading
in this relative sense,
right?
My car is less
and less relevant.
It does not have
car play in it.
It does not have
all the bells and whistles.
It doesn't beep at me,
you know,
if I'm about to hit someone.
There's also
an absolute fading.
My car is not
as glorious
as it was
10 years ago.
My headlights,
they're kind of foggy.
They don't light up
the roads
like they did
back in 2013,
2014.
They're chips,
right,
from the rocks
of Colorado.
I have a cracked
windshield.
Time
has its effect
on all things.
time wears
down all things
where they become
less and less
beautiful.
Not so
with your inheritance.
It is imperishable,
undefiled,
unfading.
No matter how long
you wait,
no matter what happens
in this world,
it will be as glorious
then as it is
now.
That brings us
back to our question,
which is this,
where do we get
that unshakable
hope?
What does it look
like for our roots
to go 30
and 40 feet
into the ground
that we can access
a water table
separate from
whatever is
happening
today?
Well,
it's reminding
ourselves
of this truth.
No matter
what happens
now
in this world,
it cannot
affect
your future
with Christ.
No matter
what is shaken
temporarily,
your inheritance
is secure.
Your hope
cannot be
taken away.
Let's say
that you
get in your car
and you drive
away after the
service today
and you're
filled with
hope from
our celebration
of Easter
and you get
in a horrific
car accident
and it turns
out that you're
actually paralyzed
from the neck
down.
Your life
will change
dramatically
and the promise
of a new body
in the new heavens
and the new earth
is untouched.
Your future,
your ultimate future
changes in no way.
You still have
an inheritance
that is imperishable,
undefiled,
unfading,
kept in heaven
for you.
Let's say that you are
falsely accused
of a crime
you didn't commit
and you end up
spending the next
20 years
in prison.
That is a real
tragedy.
And
you will
still experience,
if you are
in Christ,
better things
than anyone
on this earth
has ever
seen.
your future,
your ultimate
future
remains
the same.
Your inheritance
is imperishable,
undefiled,
and unfading,
kept
in heaven
for you.
Let's say
the stock market
crashes tomorrow
and you thought
that you were
going to be able
to retire
and now
that becomes
more of a dream
than a reality.
Your financial
security
may decrease,
your ultimate
future
is unchanged.
That
is the
water table
of the Christian.
That
is the
source
of hope
and peace
and joy
no matter
what.
You'll see
this on page
nine of your
worship guide.
What many
people would
spend millions
to attain,
God has
made available
to every
believer
through the
gift of
the Holy
Spirit.
Christian,
you have
a hope.
You have
a future
future
that others
spend their
lives
trying to
secure
and never
achieve.
You are
richer
than you
can imagine.
Financial
advisors will
tell you not
to watch
your portfolio
too closely
if you want
to stay
sane
because the
ups and
the downs
of the market
are so
constant.
It's easy
for our
hearts to
become
tethered
to those
things and
lose
perspective
on the
big picture.
Peter is
telling us
the opposite
here.
Keep your
eyes on
this
portfolio.
Watch
this
portfolio
every day.
Remind
yourself
constantly
of what
cannot
be touched.
And as
life swirls
around you,
you will
have a
peace
and a
security
and a
stability
that others
can only
dream of.
For those
who are in
Christ,
nothing
and no
one
can touch
your
inheritance.
No tragedy,
no accident,
no loss.
Paul also
tells us
in Romans
chapter 8
this,
For I
consider that
the sufferings
of this
present time
are not
worth comparing
with the
glory that
is to be
revealed to
us.
What is
the hardest
and most
discouraging
thing in
your life?
it is
not worth
being
compared
to the
glory
that is
going to
be
revealed.
If you
are in
Christ,
the best
things are
yet to
come.
And so
this raises
the piercing
question for
all of us.
What is
the glory
of your
life?
What is
the hope
that you
have above
every other
hope?
What is
the security
that you
rest your
feet on?
Anything
else,
anything
besides the
resurrection of
Jesus Christ,
which earns
you an
inheritance
that is
imperishable,
unfading,
and undefiled
will
disappoint.
Anything
else
will fail.
Health,
wealth,
relationships,
all good
things,
not
ultimate
things.
There is
one thing
that is
most worthwhile,
one thing
that is
most valuable,
one thing
that you
cannot
lose,
and that
is your
water
table.
That
is what
the roots
of the
Christian
draw water
from deep
underneath
the surface.
It's not a
pie-in-the-sky
hope.
It's not a
maybe hope.
Peter tells us
in verse 3
it's a living
hope.
It's not
based on
someone's
projection
about what
might happen
in the
future.
No,
it's based
on the
fact that
Jesus,
as a
real man
in real
time and
real space,
actually died
and actually
rose again
from the
dead.
Paul tells
us in
1 Corinthians
chapter 15
this is not
just some
idea that
someone
created.
No,
there were
eyewitnesses
who saw
Jesus after
his resurrection.
In fact,
at one
point,
there were
500 people
who saw
him at
one time.
We're not
getting into
this this
morning,
but there
are many
and great
reasons that
Christians
believe that
Jesus did
in fact
rise from
the dead.
And so
there is
great security
in knowing
what will
happen in
the future.
God
tells us,
John chapter
5,
there will
be a
resurrection,
a resurrection
to life
and a
resurrection
to judgment.
Those who
are in
Christ will
experience a
resurrection
to life.
Christian,
that is
your
unshakable
hope.
love.
That is
what gives
you joy
and peace
and hope
and confidence
no matter
what.
Because Jesus
has risen
from the
dead.
Let's
pray.
Our
Father in
heaven,
we do
thank you
that you
have made
us a
great promise
that we
do have
an inheritance
that's better
even than we
can imagine.
And that no
matter what
happens here,
it cannot
be taken
away.
We ask
that you
would grow
that hope
in our
hearts that
it would
become more
and more
real to
our minds
and our
affections
and that
it would
give us
a steady
and unshakable
a daily
peace and
joy in
you.
That as the
world swirls
around us,
we would
have calm
as we stand
on that
foundation,
the only
foundation that
cannot be
shaken.
We ask
these things
in the mighty
name of
Jesus Christ.
Amen.