Hope That Will Not Die

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

1 Peter 1:3

Today, we come together as believers to celebrate the greatest day in all of human history—the day Jesus rose from the dead. We who are born again possess a hope that those without Christ can never understand. The world places its hope in the things of this world. They hope it in health—until sickness comes. They place hope in people—until they fail them. They place it in plans—until life changes them overnight. But Easter declares something radically different: there is a hope that cannot die.

Solomon’s words in Ecclesiastes reflect a life devoid of hope in resurrection: “Vanity of vanities… all is vanity.” After experiencing wisdom, wealth, pleasure, and success, he realized that without God, all is like vapor — here one moment, gone the next. If this life were all there was, Solomon would be correct; work would seem endless, success fleeting, loss permanent, and death final. Life under the sun would be truly empty. Yet, Scripture does not end with Ecclesiastes, and God did not leave us trapped in vanity. He offers salvation through the resurrection of His Son.

The gospel points us to the empty tomb. Paul tells us that if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are to be pitied, but then he declares the turning point of history: Christ has been raised from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:12-22). Because Jesus lives, everything changes. Life is no longer meaningless, suffering is no longer wasted, and death is no longer final. What Solomon saw as vapor, Christ turned into victory. The resurrection transforms emptiness into eternal purpose. It tells us that our faith is not in vain, our labor in the Lord is not in vain, and even our tears are not in vain, because they are held by a God who brings life out of death.

Without Christ, life truly feels like a mist that slips through our fingers. With the risen Christ, life becomes filled with eternal meaning and unshakable hope. Solomon teaches us what happens when we search for purpose without God, but Jesus shows us what happens when we live in the light of the empty tomb. Because He lives, our lives are not vanity—they are part of God’s everlasting story of redemption and resurrection.

Your shepherd,

Pastor Mark