Maybe you've heard one of these stories in the past that might reflect your own life.
stories about people who made bad decisions in the present because they had misjudged the future.
! Stories like the late actor Gary Cooper, who turned down the role of Rhett Butler in the movie Gone
with the Wind because he thought, to quote, it would be a flop as a movie. For those of you not familiar
with Gone with the Wind, adjusted with inflation, it is the highest grossing movie of all time by
over a billion dollars in terms of its gross. All Decker Record Company refused to sign a recording
contract with the Beatles because they thought that guitar music was going out of fashion.
And of course, those who know the Beatles, it's the, again, the most successful band of all time with
somewhere between 600 million and 1 billion album sales. Warner from Warner Brothers fame, who rejected
the idea of adding sound to silent movies because, in his opinion, who the hell wants to hear actors talk?
Bad decisions in the moment are the cause of a miscalculation of the future and what the future holds.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing. For instance, if you knew that somewhere in the back box of Chatswood right now,
there was a small little internet company, let's call it Amazon, was working out of its garage.
And if you knew, for instance, that it would be in 20 years' time, as big as Amazon is now,
what have you done 20 years ago, invested $1,000 into that company 20 years ago, knowing what the future
would be for that company now? Or electric cars, I mean, who would have thought 30 years ago?
Hindsight's a wonderful thing. It's hard to know what the future actually holds, and yet,
every single person operates day by day, makes the decisions they make on what they perceive the future to be.
That is, humanity, people, us, we are hope-driven. We cannot live without hope.
What we think the future is determines the decisions we make now and how we live right now.
In his 2017 best-selling book, Homo Deus, A Brief History of Tomorrow,
Yuval Noah Harari argues that in ancient times, human beings turned to God or to the gods or to the divine
in some shape or form only in order for their hope, only because they didn't have control of their world.
They were very conscious that they weren't in control of their world and they weren't in control of their future.
And he concludes in the book that with the progress of science and reason and technology,
we no longer need, humanity no longer needs the divine, it no longer needs God.
Humanity, and this is the conclusion of the book, humanity is its own hope.
People can solve all the world's problems.
Within ourselves, all that we need in order to produce a bright and prosperous and flourishing future.
And therefore, the title of the book, which in its Latin, Homo Deus, which is in English, human God.
And so Harari's thinking there is not some new idea that he's come up with, you know, just recently.
It has its origins in what is known as the Age of the Enlightenment.
The Enlightenment Age was an intellectual and a philosophical movement that sort of began in the late 17th century in Europe
and basically to the early 19th century.
It particularly valued reason and scientific fact while questioning every other source of authority
and especially any form of religious authority.
And as a movement, it started to dwindle around the early stage of the 19th century
because it was hard to argue for the supremacy of humanity over all things
and the progress of human history in everything on the back of two world wars,
the Spanish flu pandemic, the Great Depression, and the beginning of the nuclear arms race.
That is, it's hard to argue for the progress of history when you've got that in history.
But at the end of the Cold War in 1989, the idea started to come back into popularity again.
And some declared, in fact, that at the end of 1989, that the Age of Anxiety was now over
and the future of the world was once again in progress
and it will be, we will achieve all that the Enlightenment sought to achieve.
In fact, in the age of when that happened, the end of the Cold War,
more than half of people in the Western world were convinced
that the future for their children and the children that followed them
was going to be much brighter than their own.
More than half of people were totally convinced each generation
will just get better and better and better.
In fact, even in our own history in this country, a former Prime Minister,
by 1990, no Australian children will be living in poverty.
That's the Age of Enlightenment.
And yet, according to a recent Australian National University research survey thing,
Australians are now increasingly pessimistic about the future
and life satisfaction has dropped to its lowest levels since COVID-19 lockdowns.
Lowest levels.
Most Australians now think that the lives of children in 50 years
is going to be worse off than the current generation.
Only one in five Australians think that their life has, in fact,
improved measurably in the last year.
You see, as a sense of uncertainty about the future rises,
and if you're an investor on the stock market,
that uncertainty was certainly there this week.
As that uncertainty about the future rises,
hope decreases, and so does life satisfaction.
And we are hope-driven people.
We need hope to live and to live well.
And so the thing for the next three weeks,
as we have Easter in the middle of it, is hope.
Christian hope is not one of those uncertain,
wishful thinking about the future kind of hopes.
The word that the Bible uses for hope is a word that in its original language
means profound certainty.
Profound certainty.
And this hope of the Christian life centres on the explosive events
of one weekend just 2,000 years ago
in the death and resurrection of Jesus.
The hope, Christian hope,
which has permeated virtually every culture
in the last 2,000 years
all centres on one weekend.
And so I'd invite you to give me one weekend next weekend
and to find out about this profound certainty.
We're going to touch on it a bit today.
That's where we're heading in the next three weekends
to exploring this hope
and how we live in light of it.
So if you've got the St Paul's app,
I've got four points today
as we briefly get introduced into that hope.
First one, new hope.
The foundation of the Christian hope
is the mercy of God
in giving us new birth, new life.
So 1 Peter 1.3 that Anne just read out,
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
in his great mercy.
He's given us new birth into a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
and into an inheritance
that can never perish, spoil or fade.
And this inheritance is kept in heaven for you.
All Christians,
that is everyone who puts their hope in Jesus Christ
are described here as being given a new birth.
That is all are born again.
Not just a certain type of Christian is born again.
Everyone who is a Christian is born again.
We are not told much here
about what the new birth is
that the Christian has received.
We know from other parts of the Bible
that the new birth is a new life.
It's an entire new life.
It's an entire new existence.
It's a new vitality in life.
When a person is born again,
they experience new life.
That is, spiritual life comes into you
and God puts his very life in us.
The life that Jesus now lives is in us.
Now this new birth comes to us in different ways.
There's no type of experience that everyone must have.
And even though it comes to us in different ways,
and it might even be subtle for some,
it is nevertheless astounding, this new birth.
The original New Testament word for it is palagenesia,
which means regeneration.
The book of Titus tells us that when we are born again,
we experience regeneration.
Titus uses that word palagenesia.
In Matthew 19, verse 28, Jesus says this,
Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things,
when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne,
which he's talking about the end of all things,
Jesus is referring to the end of all things,
when all things are made new,
the goal of all of his work in history.
He says God's power will come down into this world
and he will renew it, he will make it right.
Everything that is wrong, everything that is stained,
everything that is evil,
everything that's deformed, broken in this world,
death and evil and suffering will be gone.
All tears, all sadness, all anxiety will be wiped away.
Despite all the superpowers of this world
and the wealth and the technology of this world,
none of that is enough to bring about this kind of total renewal change.
That is what is required to bring about this kind of change,
that kind of power.
And Jesus describes there that this time of renewal
in Matthew 19 as the palagenesia.
And so the Apostle Paul has the audacity to use the same word
to describe the new birth of the Christian.
An entire renewal of an individual.
The tremendous power that renews all things
that will bring an end to all suffering and evil
and make every wrong right,
that tremendous power comes into the life of the Christian now
through faith in Jesus Christ.
And that means on the very surface level,
very quickly,
it means that every single Christian
puts up with stuff in their life that they don't need to.
The potential for change in your life right now
is absolutely astounding.
Just go back to our vision series
and the rhythms of grace.
The power to put those into effect
is yours already in Christ.
So when we are born,
newborn, new birth,
new hope,
we also are given this hope that we have
is a living hope.
It's a hope that's alive.
When we are born,
like in a natural birth,
we are all identified genetically
as we share the genetic makeup
of our biological parents.
We also inherit an ethnic makeup,
if you like,
depending on where we're born,
also likely to have some kind of a national identity as well.
And certainly for the early years of our lives,
we also share the socioeconomic identity of our parents.
That is,
our birth identifies us in some measure.
When a person becomes a Christian,
they receive the new birth,
it becomes their greatest identity marker.
It doesn't change who we are in all our ethnic,
national, genetic, socioeconomic markers,
but it does change our lives
in such a way
that we are fundamentally different people.
The reason the new birth
changes us so much
is because it changes our hope.
It's a new hope.
It's a living hope,
a certain hope,
a very different hope.
You see,
if you change a person's hope,
you change their lives.
Back to verse 3 again.
Praise be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ
and his great mercy
has given us a new birth
into a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
and into an inheritance
that can never perish,
spoil,
or fade.
No hacker can come into your super account
and remove it.
This inheritance is kept in heaven for you.
The direction of every person's life
is set by what they hope in the most.
So if you can offer a person
a life-giving,
imperishable hope,
then their life is changed forever.
Now, all of us have certain desires,
hopes, expectations.
There are desires like meaning
and significance
and security and purpose,
and then you work out
how you're going to fulfill
those particular desires
that you have.
And whatever we believe in
to fulfill those desires
is what it is
that we set our hearts on.
Which is another way of saying
it's
what we put our hope in.
Our hearts, for instance,
might set on
a career,
on money,
on accomplishment,
on status,
on love,
on romance,
on beauty,
on family,
on political or social causes,
or a whole range of things.
Everyone chooses something
to believe in
that will
fulfill their hopes.
We are
unavoidably
hope-based
creatures.
Proverbs 13,
12 in the Old Testament
tells us that
hope deferred
makes the heart sick.
That is,
it
destroys
our inner self.
We experience
our
present
in radically
different ways
depending
on our future
hope.
We've got a lot of
grass
around here
at church.
So imagine
I gave
two of you
a pair of scissors,
a blunt pair of scissors,
and said to you
that your task
was to cut the grass
at St Paul's.
And
your
experience
of that
task
would be
entirely
different
if I
pulled one
of you
aside
and said
at the
end of the
job
and it's
all finished
I'm going
to give
you $20.
And the
other one
I pulled
you aside
and I
said to you
at the
end of the
job
I'm going
to give
you $200,000.
Both
are going
to have
a very
different
experience
of cutting
the grass
at that
moment.
hope
makes
all
the
difference
to
the
experience.
We are
hope
driven
and the
new
birth
changes
our
hopes
because
it is
a
living
hope.
It is
alive
in us.
So how
do we
raise
hope?
How
do we
if you
like wrench
our hearts
away from
the
fragile
hopes
that
fade
and
that
perish
and
that
spoil
and
put
it
into
a
hope
that
will
never
perish
fade
or
disappoint.
Now the
main
way
and this
is what
makes
the
Christian
hope
so
unique.
The
main
way
that
1 Peter
talks
about
growing
in
our
new
life
our
new
hope
is
through
suffering.
Look
verse 6
in all
this
you
greatly
rejoice
though
now
for a
little
while
you
may
have
had
to
suffer
grief
of
all
kinds
of
trials.
These
have
come
so
that
the
proven
genuineness
of your
faith
of greater
worth
than
gold
which
perishes
!
even
though
refined
by fire
may
result
in
praise
glory
and
honour
when
Jesus
Christ
is
revealed.
So the
first
words
of
verse
6
say
that
the
Christian
rejoices
in
their
hope
it's
a
present
tense
the word
is a
present
tense
we rejoice
!
in our
hope
what
makes
it
so
remarkable
is
that
the
words
suffer
grief
actually
mean
being
in
agony
it
actually
means
being
in
lots
of
pain
and
it
doesn't
say
you
used
to
rejoice
but
now
you're
in
agony
and
you're
in
pain
nor
does
it
say
that
because
you've
got
lots
to
rejoice
about
you're
not
actually
really
in
pain
just
get
over
your
difficulty
both
the
feeling
of
agony
and
the
rejoicing
both
of
them
are
present
tense
both
are
present
tense
they
are
concurrent
activities
when
we
do
both
of
these
things
at
the
same
time
it's
like
putting
gold
into
a
furnace
it
refines
us
it
grows
us
as
the
suffering
drives
us
towards
our
real
living
hope
rather
than
anchoring
ourselves
to
a
hope
that
fades
and
perishes
that
is
very
rarely
a
view
of
suffering
in
our
day
and
age
it's
what
makes
the
Christian
idea
of
hope
so
unique
in
a
day
in
culture
that
suggests
our
personal
happiness
is
of the
highest
importance
anything
that's
hard
anything
that's
difficult
or
unpleasant
is
considered
bad
wrong
or
evil
to
quote
the
great
philosopher
Homer
Simpson
son
if
something's
too
hard
to
do
it
clearly
can't
be
worth
doing
that's
the
day
of
that's
the day
which
we
exist
and
we
also
exist
in
a
day
and
age
where
we
cannot
possibly
imagine
therefore
why
God
would
in
fact
allow
suffering
and
hardship
why
would
he
allow
it
then
it's
one
of
the
big
reasons
that
people
reject
the
Christian
faith
why
would
God
allow
it
well
imagine
a
forestry
worker
or if
you're
in
Canada
a
lumberjack
they've
marked
a bunch
of
trees
in the
forest
to cut
down
to
send
off
for
milling
and
as
they
start
their
chainsaw
and
about
to
cut
they
look
up
and
they
notice
that
at
the
top
of
the
tree
there's
this
bird
that's
just
starting
to
build
a
nest
and
so
they
think
being
the
environmentalist
that they
are
they
whack
on
the
tree
to
scare
the
bird
away
make
lots
of
noise
and
eventually
the
bird
moves
from
that
tree
and
goes
to
another
tree
but
that
tree
also
has
a
little
pink
ribbon
around
it
and
it's
going
to
be
felled
and
so
the
forestry
worker
goes
over
to
that
tree
and
whacks
on
the
tree
and
whacks
on
the
tree
and
makes
all
the
noise
and
the
bird
just
moves
through
the
next
tree
and
it
does
it
again
and
again
the
forestry
worker
is
following
it
through
the
forest
and
the
bird
!
right
moves
over
to
a
rocky
cliff
and
starts
building
its
nest
there
and
the
forestry
worker
goes
back to
its
work
and
starts
cutting
the
forest
down
I'd
like
to
think
that
the
older
we
get
we
realise
that
every
tree
every
hope
that
we
build
our
lives
on
will
ultimately
come
down
in one
way
or
another
it's
almost
impossible
to believe
it
when
you're
young
every
generation
thinks
that
they'll
be
able
to
pin
their
hopes
onto
something
and
it'll
be
fully
realised
you
see
our
hearts
are
not
designed
to be
completely
fulfilled
by
anything
or
everything
in
this
life
we
simply
don't
realise
the
greatness
of our
souls
and the
depths
of our
desires
and our
hopes
and so
the best
thing
God
can do
for us
is bang
again
and again
on the
trees
of our
lives
in order
to move
us to
assure a
foundation
into a
greater
hope
one that
will never
perish
spoil
or fade
an
imperishable
hope
and the
worst
thing
that can
happen
to us
is for
us to
be left
to our
own
devices
to build
our nests
on the
trees
that we
choose
only for
those
trees
to come
crashing
down
in the
end
Christian
hope
does
not
fade
in the
face
of
difficulty
like
every
other
hope
you
see
one of
the
reasons
for
the
absolutely
remarkable
rise
of the
Christianity
in the
early
centuries
was that
the
Christian
hope
offered
resources
for hope
in the
face
of
a
empire
wide
Roman
empire
wide
pandemic
as well
as
persecution
of
Christians
in that
time
you see
Christians
orientated
their life
towards a
larger
story
a cosmic
story
the story
of
eternity
and they
saw the
story of
their lives
for the
first time
with all
its hardships
and its
love
as just
a small
part of
a much
bigger
story
that they
were in
fact part
of
and a
story
that would
end
incredibly
well for
them
you see
and from
those very
early days
Christians
view even
the hardest
circumstances
as part
of a
history
guided
by God
at every
turn
towards
not merely
some kind
of
afterlife
but
towards
the
resurrection
of our
souls
and bodies
into a
new
remade
heavens
and
earth
that's
the
Christian
hope
and it's
logical
and it's
plausible
and it's
reasonable
as we
will unpack
in the next
couple of
in fact
next weekend
mainly
so how
do we
get it
how do
we get
that hope
how can
Peter
so
confidently
suggest
such a
thing
when we
ourselves
are
constantly
failing
we
fail
ourselves
we fail
each other
and we
fail God
how can we
be so
confident
that he's
in fact
going to
be on
our
side
especially
how can
you be
totally
confident
of that
when
if this
God
does
exist
he
does
allow
hardship
to come
into
our
lives
how can
we
know
that
he's
on
our
side
and
therefore
going to
guarantee
that
hope
verse 10
concerning
this salvation
the prophets
who spoke
of the
grace
that was
to come
to you
searched
intently
and with
the greatest
care
trying to
find out
the time
the circumstances
of which
the spirit
of Christ
in them
was pointing
when he
predicted
the suffering
of the
Messiah
and the
glories
that would
follow
it was
revealed
to them
that they
were not
serving
themselves
but you
when they
spoke of
the things
that have
now been
told to
you by
those who
have preached
the gospel
to you
by the
Holy Spirit
sent from
heaven
even angels
long to
look into
these things
so what
is the
gospel
that the
if you
hear last
week the
good news
of Jesus
Christ
what is
it the
prophets
revealed
and the
apostles
preached
it is
that
Jesus
Christ
the
son of
God
himself
suffered
that's
what was
preached
he
suffered
the
son of
God
the
creator
of
all
things
came
into
came
into
his
world
as part
of
his
story
rescuing
he
became
as the
rescuer
and the
ruler
of
humanity
in
weakness
not in
triumph
he
came
into
that
Roman
empire
he
died
on
a
Roman
cross
for
the
sin
and
the
failure
of
humanity
our
failure
for
putting
all
of
our
hopes
into
everything
else
but
him
and
so
he
died
the
death
that
we
should
die
we
the
weak
and
the
perishing
have a
glorious
and
imperishable
hope
because
Jesus
Christ
the
glorious
and
eternal
one
perished
in
shame
for
us
and
conquered
shame
and
death
by
raising
again
from
death
the
glorious
hope
on
offer
to
all
is
not
based
on
our
performance
it's
not
based
on
the
strength
of
our
will
or
how
good
of
a
life
or
our
moral
performance
it's
based
on
the
performance
of the
imperishable
one
our
imperishable
hope
is attached
to the
imperishable
one
the
crucifixion
of Jesus
alone
saves us
and his
resurrection
guarantees
that it is
effective
and confirms
that Jesus
is God
and that
all of his
promises
are true
the
Christians
future
glory
is
assured
because
God
the
son
emptied
himself
of
his
glory
that's
Easter
in the
next
couple
of
weeks
the
new
birth
gives
us
a
new
hope
that
is
not
just
imperishable
it's
not
just
a
wishful
thinking
that I
hope
it gets
well
out
there
and if
you
can
just
get
your
minds
around
God
and
understand
him
it'll
be
good
for
you
it is
a
living
hope
did you
see
that
there
it's
a
living
hope
it's
a
hope
that
changes
our
lives
now
you see
the
death
and
resurrection
of
Jesus
doesn't
just
give us
hope
for
the
future
it's
a
hope
that
actually
transports
from
the
future
into
our
lives
right
now
Philippians
3
10
tells
us
that
to be
a
Christian
is
to
know
now
the
power
of
the
resurrection
the
palogenesia
the
renewal
of the
resurrection
now
Paul
says
this
in
Ephesians
1
13
14
you
also
were
included
in
Christ
when
you
heard
the
message
of
truth
the
gospel
of
your
salvation
and
when
you
believed
you
were
marked
in
him
with
a
seal
the
promised
Holy
Spirit
who
is
a
deposit
guaranteeing
our
inheritance
until
the
redemption
of those
who are
God's
possession!
In
the
gospel
of
Jesus
Christ
we
have
now
the
presence
of the
future
not
fully
but
certainly
substantially
that's
what the
deposit
is
guaranteeing
our
inheritance
You see
the
Holy
Spirit
God
himself
comes
Jesus
didn't
just
ascend
to
heaven
and
leave
us
he
comes
to
us
with
the
finished
work
of
Jesus
he
comes
into
our
hearts
as
a
down
payment
guaranteeing
our
future
and
gives
us
a
taste
of
it
right
now
in
such
a
way
that
we
start
living
for
it
right
now
if
our
main
hope
is
in
the
good
news
of
Jesus
Christ
that
hope
is
like
a
mountain
that
cannot
be
shaken
despite
how weary
and
wondering
we might
be
in
the
present
1951
Florence
Chadwick
became
the
first
woman
to
swim
the
English
Channel
in
both
directions
not
content
just
with
that
challenge
she
then
decided
the
next
year
to
swim
from
Catalina
Island
to
mainland
California
about
34
kilometres
something
like
that
after
swimming
this
1951
after
swimming
this
is
the
one
who
swum
the
English
Channel
both
directions
she
had
swum
only
for
15
hours
that's
all
I mean
I'm
sorry
I'm
not
saying
only
for
15
hours
like
I
can
do
that
but
compared
to
the
English
Channel
she
only
swum
for
15
hours
she
only
swum
about
30
kilometres
at
this
point
right
swum
for
15
hours
she
was
pulled
out
of
the
water
exhausted
she
had
given
up
why
she
was
only
800
metres
from
the
shoreline
and
she
gave
up
why
because
the fog
had set
in and
she
couldn't
see
the
shoreline
she
didn't
know
how
far
she
went
all
she
saw
was
the
current
pain
the
current
suffering
the
current
weariness
the
current
difficulty
and
she
gave
up
we
are
hope
driven
people
and
Isaiah
40
verse
31
says
that
those
who
hope
in
the
Lord
are
not
anxiously
holding
on
but
always
renewing
and
their
strength
and
even
soaring
despite
the
difficulties
renewing
and
soaring
for
those
who
have
been
here
through
the
rhythms
of
grace
series
those
seven
things
stop
the
fog
coming
in
those
seven
rhythms
are
what
keep
putting
the
gospel
in
front
of
you
those
seven
things
keep
your
hope
always
in
view
the
Christian
hope
the
new
and
living
hope
of
the
gospel
leads
to
a
life
despite
immediate
and
temporary
issues
a
life
of
running
and
not
growing
weary
of
walking
and
not
being
faint