St. Peter knows about the realities of human life, about suffering and failure, about the difficulty of standing firm in your faith when opposition arises around you. He could never forget his own betrayal, his denial of Jesus. I’m sure the sound of a rooster crowing regularly gave him nightmares. But he also knew of the life-changing compassion and forgiveness our Lord poured out upon him after the resurrection, when he called him to feed his sheep. And so his word to us this morning speaks to the reality of living as the people of God, about living with hope. He says, “Always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.”

We can press on, we can be slandered, reviled, and even suffer, yet endure because of the hope that we have. Hope. Hope is a powerful reality in our lives. To have hope is to live with the assurance and expectation of something beyond your current reality. Hope moves you forward, hope gives courage in the face of opposition. Over the years, I’ve had conversations with couples who are really struggling in their relationship. Now, if they’re in my office and not speaking with attorneys, there remains a desire to keep their union together. I’m not a licensed counselor or a therapist in any way, but they come to me as their pastor seeking some guidance. And one thing I’ve learned over the years is that even if there has been a great betrayal and deep hurt, it can be overcome, but not without hope. What I mean by that is that the hope for a better future together, the hope of forgiveness, the hope of reconciliation, is what is needed to do the work necessary in the moment. Without that hope, it seems to be over before any work is done.

When I was thinking through all this, I began to see more clearly how big a role hope plays in my own life. I can think of countless examples, both professionally and personally, where I might have given up if it were not for hope. I’m sure you are probably the same way, that there are many times where the difference between complete despair and the courage and strength to press on was hope. I’ve witnessed it many times in the people of God. Like a grieving wife holding the hand of her dying husband. All that she knows, the patterns of this world are about to come apart at the seams, but there remains hope in the midst of her tears. Hope in the promises of God, hope that death will not get the last say, hope in a more glorious day to come when God opens the graves of his children and restores them to life. And that hope makes all the difference.

And so Peter says, “Be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.” And so we are reminded that our hope is not unreasonable, our hope is rooted in the works of God. As Peter says, “Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.”  The works of Christ are the reason for your hope. Not your effort, not your wisdom, not your great deeds, but the suffering, death, and resurrection of Christ give hope.

The promises of God, made to you through our Lord Jesus Christ, are the birth of your hope. A hope that changes how you live in this world, a hope that does not run from suffering, or demand glory here and now, but endures while trusting in his promises. Such a hope is the mark of all the martyrs that have gone before you; such hope means that all that you live looking forward to something more, something beyond this age. The reason for your hope is that you have a Lord who has done what you could not, a Lord who forgives you your sins while he pays for the trespass. Christ’s work is complete, with nothing left over that you must complete on your own.

To highlight the totality of this work, Peter calls our attention to Christ’s descent into hell after his death. Saying, “he proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah.” He speaks here of those destroyed in the great flood. And then at the end of our text, he says, he “has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.” And so from the depths of the grave, those on the earth and under the earth, to the height of the heavens, and even the right hand of God himself, the victory of Christ is proclaimed. All the cosmos echoes with the reason for the hope that you have in Christ.

And the world might push back at such hope. Declaring how can you be sure, how can you know that such blessings are yours in Christ? Those without such hope will often seek to tear at the hope that you have. Well, this too Peter takes up. In mentioning the days of Noah, he said that “few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.” In the ark, in the midst of the terror all around, they drifted out of control but not out of hope. Hope in God’s promises carried them through. And he says, “Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

Baptism connects you to the complete victory of Christ. Baptism means that hope is not just a vague wish, a dream floating out there, but a proclamation about who you are and what God has done for you. You are known by name, you are clothed in the white garment washed clean in the blood of the Lamb. You are then filled with the Spirit and brought to God, and you are promised to share in the eternal blessings of paradise. In the waters of Holy Baptism, eternal life springs forth before you. And this fundamentally changes your position in the world. All the experiences of this life, all the trials and sufferings, along with all the joy and love you give and are given, are guided and shaped by hope.

So there is great cause for you to rejoice, for you to press on in this life, there is a reason for you to hope. And that reason is the love and compassion of Christ your Lord.