We welcome you to Stone's Hill today!

A typical Stone's Hill service has:

* music (so feel free to sing out);

* some announcements (things that are upcoming that you can be a part of);

* a message out of the Bible (God speaks to us through his Word);

* and an opportunity for you to respond to the message (either immediately in the case of a decision that needs to be made OR in the future as you live out the message in your daily life.)

So relax and enjoy your morning! We're so glad you are here!

MESSAGE TEXT
1 Peter 1:3-9
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INTRODUCTION
Verses 3–13 are one long sentence in the Greek, but the main clause is in verse 3: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (v 3).
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Jesus is the clear focus of the passage. He holds you in one hand and your inheritance in the other. And He’s the only qualified One who can bring those two things together because of His resurrection from the dead!
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MESSAGE OUTLINE
Proposition: Easter Changed Everything… In 1 Peter 1:3-9, we now have FOUR guarantees Christ has locked down for us… and these guarantees soften the sharp edges of life,
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Living hope (v.3) – Christ gets brighter in a dim world
Heavenly inheritance (v.4) – Christ never decays
Secure salvation (v.5) – Christ never lets go
Glorious joy (v.6-9) – Christ knows where you’re at
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ESSENTIAL POINTS
Peter gives eleven reasons for praising God for what He's done through Jesus in this passage. In that same spirit, I want to list out for you the things that Easter changed. Matthew S. Harmon (@DocHarmon) is professor of New Testament Studies at Grace College & Seminary in Winona Lake, Indiana. He and several other authors do a great job of elaborating on all the things that Easter changed. They point out all kinds of things here that gave Peter this inexpressible and glorious joy.
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1. Jesus’s resurrection embodies the new creation and launches God’s end-time kingdom into this present world. When Jesus rose from the dead, he took something that all Jewish people thought was reserved for the end of the world and the arrival of the Messiah, and Jesus lassoed it, (to use a phrase from Jefferson Bethke, It’s Not What You Think, 80) and pulled it into the present. They thought resurrection came at the end of everything. “We’ve got people getting resurrected right now and that’s not supposed to happen until the end of this age.” God’s new-creation kingdom has broken into this fallen world per OT promise. The cycle of death has been broken! That’s why it was inexpressible joy to Peter! And Paul preached this message in Acts 13. God brings the promise into the present and fills it with hope.
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2. Jesus’s resurrection identifies him as the promised Davidic King who rules over creation. God had promised to raise up a King from David’s line who would be anointed with God’s Spirit. And he would rule in righteousness. And, as a result of his rule, creation would be set right, the way it was supposed to be originally. So in his sermon on the day of Pentecost at Acts 2:33–36, Peter tells us that when Jesus rose from the dead, it proved that he was this promised descendant of David, the promised King who would come and be the one who rules over creation.
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3. Jesus’s resurrection identifies him as the end-time judge of the world. In Isaiah 11, this Davidic King is said to rule over creation with perfect justice. He wouldn’t be swayed by people’s appearances or their wealth or their socioeconomic status. But he would execute perfect justice. Because Jesus rose from the dead, it establishes him as the one who will judge all creation at the end of time.
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4. Jesus’s resurrection identifies him as the last Adam. In 1 Corinthians 15:21–22, Paul writes, “For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” When Adam sinned, death entered the world. When Jesus Christ, the last Adam, rose from the dead, new-creation life began to flow into this world, that is, because Jesus obeyed where Adam had failed. I can look at you and say with Apostle Paul “You’ve been saved, rescued!” And I can say with Apostle Peter “Now, this is how you can live in light of this new reality.”
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5. Jesus’s resurrection accomplishes our spiritual birth and spiritual resurrection from the dead. In Ephesians 2:4–6, Paul makes the point that God made us alive together with Christ, raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavenly places. Because Jesus rose from the dead, he raises us from our spiritual death into spiritual life in a position sense. All that is true of Jesus is true of me now. Romans 6:1–11 talks about how everyone who is joined to Jesus Christ by faith has died, been buried, and raised with Christ. And since that is true, we are no longer slaves of sin
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6. Jesus’s resurrection accomplishes our justification. When God raised Jesus from the dead, he was vindicating Jesus. He was demonstrating to the world that Jesus was innocent of the charges against him and that death had no rightful hold on him. Easter proved that Jesus was telling the truth. Romans 4:25 tells us that Jesus was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Because Jesus rose from the dead, we who are joined to him by faith are justified. We are declared not guilty in God’s court of law.
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7. Jesus’s resurrection ensures us that we too will one day have resurrection bodies. Philippians 3:20–21 tells us that when Christ returns, he will transform our bodies to match his glorious resurrection body. And that is a remarkable promise as well — living in a fallen world where our bodies decay and are subject to sickness and to aging — that there is coming a day when, because of Jesus’s resurrection, our bodies will be transformed to match his perfect, glorious resurrection body.
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8. Jesus’s resurrection guarantees that God will one day transform all of creation. So 1 Corinthians 15:20–28 presents Jesus’s resurrection as the beginning of God transforming the entire universe. And Romans 8:18–25 tells us the creation is groaning right now under the weight of the curse, waiting for the day when God will completely transform all of creation so that the entire universe will be full of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (Habakkuk 2:14). And when that day comes, Revelation 21:3–4 tells us that we will come face to face with God himself. Every stain of the fall and the curse will be gone from creation, every tear wiped away, no more death, no more sorrow, no more weeping. All of it is done away with and all of that stems ultimately from the fact that Jesus Christ rose from the dead.
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Summation: So those are just a few of the reasons why Jesus’s resurrection is so important and why Peter would write: 8 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… It literally changed everything. And that is not only why we celebrate Easter, but it is why we gather every Sunday morning, because every Sunday morning is resurrection Sunday. Do you see why people hate and fight the resurrection now? It changes everything.
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CONCLUSION
Invitation: What trials are you facing right now? What grief are you experiencing? You do not have to ignore it or seek to belittle it; but neither must you despair in it or be crushed by it. If you have trusted in Christ, God is at work in your life, and he will not waste your suffering. Keep trusting in Christ; keep loving Jesus. Remember the living hope you have; remember the inheritance you will enjoy; look at how God has guarded your faith through your trials; know that God is refining your faith in those trials—and rejoice!