I Peter 1:3-5
Why Easter?

1. Easter reminds us of God’s mercy
   “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ’The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ’therefore I will hope in him.’”
   -Lamentations 3:22-24

Three things about God’s mercy…

a) “according to”- God is motivated by His mercy towards us
b) “great”- there is a muchness to God’s mercy
c) “mercy”- Kindness or good will towards the miserable and the afflicted, joined with a desire to help them.

1. Easter reminds us that anybody can change

“Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.”
-Mark 16:6-7

1. Easter reminds us that real hope never dies

“At the dawn of the third millennium, humanity wakes up to an amazing realization. Most people rarely think about it, but in the last few decades we have managed to rein in famine, plague and war. Of course, these problems have not been completely solved, but they have been transformed from incomprehensible and uncontrollable forces of nature into manageable challenges. We don’t need to pray to any god or saint to rescue us from them. We know quite well what needs to be done in order to prevent famine, plague and war- and we usually succeed in doing it.”

-Yuval Noah Harari
Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow

“There is a growing tribalism that reveals a culture in which there is a vacated center, a loss of any shared idea of common public good. There is a profound loss of social trust that appears to be undermining all the institutions that have held our society together.”
-Tim Keller

“He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God."
-I Peter 1:20-21

Three things I want us to see this morning...
we cannot get to God except through Jesus
there is a purpose for the resurrection
because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ we have a place to put our hope

Mental worship…

1. If God were to ask you today, “How can I help you?,” what would you say?
2. In what or who do you put your faith and what kind of hope does that give you?
3. We saw today how God sent Peter a personal message. If God were to send you a personal message today what would it say?
4. What did you hear today that you will want to think more about later this week?
   5 Will you spend thirty seconds talking to God about what’s most on your mind right now?