Baptists Preaching is a column from the Baptist Standard. It is not an effort to advance any one theology or style but to present what a collection of Baptists considers a word from God. Likewise, Baptists Preaching offers a repository of Baptist preaching for future study and research. To recommend a sermon to be featured in Baptists Preaching, please contact [email protected].
James Soy: New Birth into a Living Hope (1 Peter 1:3-4)
James Soy, pastor of First Philippine Baptist Church in Houston, Texas, begins by reading the account of Jesus’ resurrection in John 20:1-21 to give background for the passage on which he will focus. Soy said hope is needed in the world as it is gripped by fear related to coronavirus. He points his hearers to Jesus’ resurrection as the source of such hope. Salvation is available in Jesus, our living hope, because he is resurrected from the dead. A Christian’s hope is not in the present or in this world but is a future hope of triumph over death because of Jesus.
Soy’s sermon outline follows:
- Takeaway: Our living hope comes from a living, resurrected Christ.
- Burden: In the midst of this pandemic, Jesus is our living hope now and forever.
- Why is Jesus the living hope we need?
- Jesus gave us new life (1 Peter 1:3a).
- Jesus brought us a living hope (1 Peter 1:3b).
- God defeated death and achieved victory. Therefore, we also are victorious over death (1 Peter 1:3c).
This sermon was delivered by video on Apr. 13, 2020, during the morning worship service hour on Easter, or Resurrection Sunday. To see a sermon delivered just before social distancing restrictions were imposed, click here.
We seek to connect God’s story and God’s people around the world. To learn more about God’s story, click here.
Send comments and feedback to Eric Black, our editor. For comments to be published, please specify “letter to the editor.” Maximum length for publication is 300 words.