“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead”
1 Peter 1:3
If you look back through history you will find the names and stories of many people who brought hope change. This hope helped shape the future of countless lives, communities, and even the world. Some of the changes were not for the best and i wont mention those, but many were for the good of man.
Take Rosa Parks for instance. She brought a great deal of hope and change with the Montgomery bus boycott. In 1955 she refused the demand of a bus driver to exit a seat reserved for white people only. Her stance helped overturn Alabama segregation laws a year later. She gave the black community hope and a voice in troubled times.
Go back further than 1955 and you will find Thomas Jefferson. One of the founding fathers of the United States and the author of the Declaration of Independance. With this document the 13 colonies was able to seperate from the control of Great Britain, gaining independence. This had later effects on many other countries and we have benefited from it since July 4, 1776. He helped bring hope to struggling people who prayed for freedom.
Even further back in history is Martin Luther (November 10, 1483 – February 18, 1546) Luther was a German monk who became the father of the Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther criticised aspects of the Catholic Church and the concept of Papal infallibility. In particular, he believed that it was the Bible alone – and not priests or the Church – which had legitimacy for interpreting the word of Christ. Martin Luther helped put scripture back in the hands of the public and an enormous change in history came about.
You could spend hours upon hours reading the stories of those who helped shape nations and gave hope to so many people. These people and the many others have since passed away, history was changed, hope was given for a time, and now they are just historical figures with amazing stories. Their accomplishments may be great, and may have lasting effects, but the hope and change they gave can be erased. We can return to the same hopeless struggles they went through before the change and hope was given.
Out of all the historical figures that brought change and hope one stands above the rest. Jesus Christ, born of a virgin, very God and very man, brought a hope no other person could have. Unlike the fleeting earthly hope that I mentioned earlier, Jesus brought a great hope, an everlasting hope. No man, no government, no power on earth can remove the hope that’s found in Christ. This hope was determined in eternity past and was finished on the cross. And unlike all the historical figures from the past, Christ lives again. The graves hold the bodies of Rosa Parks, Thomas Jefferson and Martin Luther, but the grave could not hold Christ. He defeated death and was raised to life on the third day.
Even when most were ruled by the Pope, or later when controlled by the British, even while being mistreated for the color of their skin, people found hope in Christ. They had a living hope, an undying hope, a hope that will bring us to Him on that day of glory either when He returns or when He calls us home.
All of mankind has held to some kind of hope. For some it’s a dead worldly hope that vanishes quickly when trials are over, and only reappears during trying times. For the believer, the foundation of our living hope is the ressurection of Christ. We have a risen Saviour who satisfied the demands of the law(Colossians2:13-14), and lives to intercede for us(Hebrews7:25). Anchored in the past and fixed in the future, Christ our living hope.
No King but Christ 