Sermon Tone Analysis

One of my favorite verses in the whole Bible is quoted on the cover of our bulletin this morning.

According to Peter the resurrection of Jesus Christ gives us a living hope!

A few years ago I preached from this verse on Easter morning.

If you recall that message I compared and contrasted the living hope we have in Jesus with the dead hope this world offers.

Hope is the life blood of the human soul.

I mentioned a few Sundays ago that the life expectancy of American is declining for the first time in our history.

The reason for this increase in deaths among younger Americans is not wars, famines or disease—the traditional causes of increases in mortality, but self-inflected causes.

All across America lives are being cut short by drugs, alcohol, reckless living and suicide.

The reason people are adopting a lifestyle that is cutting their lives short is because they have lost hope.

If the future does not have much to offer you, you might as well shine brightly for a moment and then go into the darkness.

So it is a very precious thing to have a living hope.

But how does the resurrection give us a living hope.

That is the answer the author of Hebrews gives us.

Let’s true in our Bibles to Hebrews 6:19-20.

Three things I want to you notice about our hope that make it “a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul”:

Our Hope is a Person

Our Hope is a Priest

Our Hope is Forever

Our Hope is a Person

Most people still “hope in heaven”.

They base this hope on another hope.

Their hope is either:

A Sentimental, “All Dogs Go to Heaven Faith” Hope

2. A Prideful, “I have lived a good life” Hope

Both of these hopes are not “sure and steadfast anchor’s of the soul.”

If you press such people they can’t give you any good reason for their hope.

It is just the only hope they have.

If fact, because it is the only hope they have they are offended and sometimes distressed you would even question their hope.

The Christian hope however, stands up to hard question because it is based on a person—Jesus Christ.

This is why the resurrection is so important.

Without the resurrection we would have no hope.

The apostle Paul is quite honest about this.

What a difference those ten words make, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead!”

Because our hope is in a person, the resurrection makes our hope a living hope!

But why is Jesus, even if he is living, such “a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul?”

It because he in not just any person, he is a Priest after the order of Melchizedek.

Our Hope is a Priest

Many Jews in the first century, placed their hope in the Temple and the Aaronic Priesthood.

The book of Hebrews was written prior to the destruction of Jerusalem, the Second Temple and the Aaronic Priesthood by the Romans in 70 A.D. We know this because Hebrew Christians were being tempted to abandon Christ and return to the Old Covenant order.

The book of Hebrews was written to show these Hebrew Christians that Christ is superior to the Old Covenant order.

In the context of our text this morning, the author of Hebrews does this by saying that Jesus is a Priest after the order of Melchizedek.

Melchizedek was the priest king of Jerusalem in the days of Abraham and the author of Hebrews argues that Melchizedek must have been superior to the Levitical priesthood because Abraham paid Melchizedek tithes, not the other way around.

Then he turns to Jesus and writes this:

Did you notice what the author of Hebrews did?

He not only quoted Psalm 110, but he speaks of Christ’s resurrection.

The author of Hebrews is saying that the resurrection shows us that the words “You are a priest forever,” are not just poetic hyperbole, they are FACT.

Jesus IS and priest forever because of “the power of an indestructible life!”

It is Jesus’ indestructible life that makes him such a “sure and steadfast anchor of the soul.”

This brings us to our last point.

Our Hope is Forever

Much has been said already about how Jesus is an eternal high priest by virtue of his resurrection, but there is one aspect I want to explore about the forever nature of our hope.

It is found in chapter 9 of Hebrews.

The resurrection proves that Jesus’ blood has the power to save.

The sheep and goats that were sacrificed under the Old Covenant bleed, died and never came to life again.

Consequently,

Do you now understand the significance of the resurrection?

The significance of the resurrection is this: When Jesus cried out, “It is finished,” it really was finished!

You sins were paid for once and for all!

This is why we have a “sure and steadfast anchor of the soul.”

Have you laid hold of that anchor?

The storms of life will wash away all lesser hopes.

Because he lives we can face tomorrow.

Let’s sing our closing hymn.

Hymn #220 He Lives.