Hope - Part Two: Something To Look Forward To, The Hope of Heaven

In Part One of Hope: Something To Live For, we learned that because of the resurrection of Jesus, we have a reason for living, meaning to life, and purpose for our lives.

But what about the future?

We need something to look forward to in the future that excites and energizes us in the present.

As believers in Jesus, we have this hope!

This hope is not wishful thinking, but it is the absolute guarantee of what is awaiting believers in Jesus.

Peter writes about this hope in 1 Peter 1:3-4

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has 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. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you…

Our hope is our eternal inheritance in heaven.

Peter called this inheritance something that can never perish (go away), spoil (go bad), or fade (grow old).

These words would have been especially encouraging to the believers Peter was writing to in the first-century because many of them were being persecuted throughout the Roman Empire for their belief in Jesus.

Prior to Rome’s persecution of believers, unbelieving Israel persecuted and killed many of their fellow Jewish people who believed Jesus was the Christ of the Hebrew Bible.

Jesus told these first-century believers (Matthew 5:11-12)…

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Paul also encouraged the first century believers about their hope in heaven.

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people—the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace. (Colossians 1:3-6)

The believers in Colossae not only heard the good news about Jesus and his grace and his death and resurrection, but they also heard about the hope stored up for them in heaven.

This hope is the reward Jesus spoke about to those who would be persecuted and the inheritance Peter wrote about to those being persecuted.

We can only imagine what this reward and inheritance is…but we can be assured it’s greater than anything we have ever experience because it can never perish, spoil, or fade.

Today, the believers of the first-century are enjoying their heavenly reward and inheritance.

Believers who have died after them are enjoying their heavenly reward and inheritance, too!.

The heavenly reward and inheritance they are enjoying awaits all believers in Jesus.

We have something to look forward to!

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