We are living in a time when fear is everywhere. You don't have to look very hard to find reasons to be anxious. There is political unrest, protests in the streets, bombings in the Middle East, and evil showing up in places where it has no business being. For many people, hope feels like a very fragile thing right now.

But there is hope, and I want to talk to you today about a hope that cannot be shaken. Not wishful thinking, not a fleeting feeling you might have on a good day. I am talking about a living, anchored, unbreakable hope that has been available to every generation of believers who has ever faced a frightening world. The apostle Paul calls it the hope of glory.

In his letter to the Colossians, Paul tells the church that he has been entrusted by God with a mystery.

"The mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints" (Colossians 1:26).

"To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27).

Christ in you, that is the hope of glory. It is not a religion you follow or a set of rules you try to keep, but Jesus Christ living in you through his Spirit, producing a hope that the world cannot give and cannot take away.

Jesus himself warned us that we have an enemy whose only goal is to steal that hope, but he also said,

"I have come that they may have life and have it to the full" (John 10:10).

And so, as believers, our hope is within us; but watch what the enemy does. He points you toward something in this world and claims that it will give you what you are seeking, and we fall for it time and time again because the hunger inside is real, even if the answer is wrong.

Consider those women who went to the tomb on that first Easter morning. The Bible tells us that they went to the tomb at dawn carrying the spices they had prepared, expecting to find the body of Jesus. But when they arrived, two angels met them and asked them the most searching question in all of Scripture:

"Why do you look for the living among the dead?" (Luke 24:5).

That is not just a question for those women that morning. It is a question for all of us because we do it constantly. We keep searching for hope in places that have nothing to give.

We look for hope in stuff, thinking that maybe if I had a bigger house, a newer car, or a little more in the bank. And we get those things and they do not do what they promised, so we conclude we must need more and different stuff. But the Bible says,

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy" (Matthew 6:19).

Because more things are a graveyard. There is no hope there. The Bible says the world offers three things.

"The cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does" (1 John 2:16).

And every one of those cravings has a very short vocabulary. It only knows two words: more and now. In other words, it is never satisfied. They are all graves, and you will never find the living among the dead.

And then we seek hope in status, the title, the followers, and the applause. We keep climbing and climbing, only to wonder why we feel empty at the top. We look for hope in relationships, thinking that another person can finally make us feel whole, but they cannot, because no one other than God was ever meant to carry that burden.

You see, the resurrection is what grounds our hope. Our faith is not built on feelings or wishful thinking. It is built on an actual historical event that happened in real time, in real space, and was witnessed by real people.

Jesus made a lot of radical claims during his life. He said he was the Son of God. He said he and the Father were one. He said,

"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6).

And then he backed up those claims by predicting exactly what would happen to him. He told his disciples,

"That he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life" (Matthew 16:21).

And then he actually did it. Luke chapter 24 records what happened.

"Very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus" (Luke 24:1-3).

The tomb was empty, but the risen Christ did not remain hidden. He appeared to the women. He appeared to two disciples on the road to Emmaus. He appeared to the eleven disciples hiding in the upper room. He appeared to Thomas, who said he would not believe unless he could put his fingers in the nail marks. He appeared to Peter, who had denied him three times.

"After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time" (1 Corinthians 15:6).

This is not fantasy, not mythology. The disciples were so transformed by what they witnessed that the men who had been hiding behind locked doors burst out into the streets and turned the world upside down, proclaiming the risen Christ. Most of them died for it. And people do not die for something they know is a lie. What they saw was real. What they experienced was real. Because what Jesus did was real. When he pushed up on those nail-pierced feet and declared,

"It is finished" (John 19:30),

he was not simply closing out a chapter. He was putting death to death and stripping the grave of every last bit of its power. He said he would rise, and he rose. Because he lives, we have a hope that no enemy, no circumstance, and no darkness can extinguish.

But here is the question that really matters. Have you personally met the risen Savior? Because the disciples walking on the road to Emmaus did not recognize him at first. It was not until he broke bread with them that their eyes were opened. Luke records this beautiful moment when they turned to each other and said,

"Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?" (Luke 24:32).

Has your heart ever burned within you? Have you ever experienced that moment when something inside you said, this is real, this is true, and when Jesus died on that cross it was for me? That is the moment when everything changes. Everything becomes completely new.

That is Colossians chapter 1, verse 27.

"Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27).

Not because of your circumstances, not because the world has gotten safer, not because the enemy has backed down, but because the sovereign King of the universe still holds the future in his hands, and if you belong to him, he is not letting go.

I wonder how many of you would declare, because he lives, I can face tomorrow. Because he lives, all fear is gone. The hope of glory is not something you receive when circumstances finally go your way. It is not a reward waiting at the end of a good life. It is Christ himself, taking up residence inside you right now, by his Spirit, holding your future from the inside out.

And the Bible points us exactly where our focus belongs.

"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:2).

Fix your eyes on Jesus. Not on the news, not on your bank account, not on the opinions of other people, not on the circumstances that are trying to convince you that your hope is foolish. Fix your eyes on the one who endured the cross and sat down at the right hand of God. Fix your eyes on the one who is not in the grave. Fix your eyes on the one who lives in you. Because anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart,

"We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit" (1 John 4:13).

The hope of glory is not something you wait to experience when you die. It begins the moment Christ takes up residence within you.

So let me ask you directly. How do you know he lives?

You might say, “I believe the historical evidence.” And that is good, you should, because the evidence is solid and it stands up. But intellectual agreement with a historical fact is not the same as knowing the risen Christ personally. You can believe every detail of the resurrection story and still live as if he is in the grave. The difference between fear and faith is not more information. It is a relationship. It is not just knowing that someone holds the future. It is knowing who that someone is and knowing that he knows you by name.

And the good news is that coming to know him personally is not as complicated as you might think. It is the most simple transaction you will ever make, and yet it will cost you everything and give you more than you could ever imagine.

It begins with admitting that you are a sinner in need of a Savior. That your efforts are not enough. That no matter how hard you try, you cannot clean yourself up enough to stand before a holy God on your own. You need someone to do for you what you cannot do for yourself.

Then it moves to believing that when Jesus died on that cross, it counted for you. That when he said, it is finished, he was signing your sin debt as paid in full. And that the righteousness of Christ is being offered to you right now as a free gift, not because you earned it, not because you deserve it, but because he loves you.

And then it moves to calling, because the Bible says,

"Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved" (Romans 10:13).

Everyone, no matter your background, no matter what you are ashamed of, no matter how far you have wandered or how long you have been looking for hope in all the wrong places. If you call on his name, his answer is yes every single time, because it is not your worthiness that saves you. It is his grace. It has always been his grace. And when you do call on him, something remarkable happens. Paul describes it this way in Romans chapter 8.

“He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you" (Romans 8:11).

That is not just a feeling or a philosophy. It is the living God moving in, holding your future, and anchoring your soul to someone no storm in this life can ever move. The same Spirit who raised Jesus Christ from the dead comes to live inside of you. That is the hope of glory. Not a distant wish, not a maybe. Paul said it plainly,

"God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27).

Christ in you. Not Christ near you. Not Christ watching you from a distance. Christ in you.

The same risen Lord who walked out of that tomb, the same one who appeared to the women, to the disciples, to Thomas, to Peter, to more than 500 witnesses, that same Christ, by his Spirit, takes up residence inside every person who calls on his name. And when he does, you are not just forgiven. You are filled. You are anchored. You are alive with a hope that death itself could not hold down. That is the hope of glory. And it is yours, right now, in him.

Graphics, notes, and commentary from LifeChurch, Ministry Pass, PC Study Bible, Preaching Library, and Sermon Central. Scripture from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.