Rediscover Christmas: Finding Hope
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Where were you when…?
Where were you when…?
Every generation has a “Where were you when?” moment…
— Where were you when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon?
— Where were you when you heard JFK or Martin Luther King Jr. got shot?
— Where were you when Columbine happened?
— … 9/11?
And the list goes on…
Moments like these are big!
They change things.
There’s no going back… These are moments that create “Culture Shifts”.
When they happen, our lives are never the same.
Many of these moments are negative events… catastrophes… or tragedies…
They strike without warning, and they leave uncertainty in their wake.
Sound familiar?
These last couple of years have been just that.
They have been filled with uncertainty…
We’ve experienced a global pandemic… mass unemployment… political division… social and racial division… record high fuel prices… and shortages at the stores…
It’s hard to tell what will happen next!
One pastor said: “If there’s a new word for this year, it should be — doomscrolling.”
You know what that is — scrolling through Facebook, just reading the headlines… Looking for what new “doom” is in the news…
I don’t want to bring us down… Quite the opposite actually!
Christmas is a time of Joy and celebration!
But… this is the world we live in…
It’s been a tough few years… We’ve seen families struggle… finances struggle… people leave the church…
If there’s ever been a year that we need Christmas… This is it!
You see… That’s the thing about Christmas, isn’t it?
There is Hope in Christmas!
We are at the beginning of the Advent Season.
Advent is a season of HOPE.
Advent means “coming” or “arrival”.
This season is a time of expectation… of waiting… of anticipation… and of longing… Amen?
It is a time when we look at what God has already done… and we long for what He will do in our lives next!!!
You see… Advent isn’t just about Christmas!
It is a season that links past, present, and future…
Advent looks back in celebration of the Hope fulfilled in Jesus’s birth… while at the same time, looking forward in hopeful and eager anticipation of the coming of Christ’s Kingdom!
During Advent, we wait for both — all the while being actively assured of His promises!
Far too often we allow Christmas to become to full… to frenzied… and to overwhelmingly busy.
We pack our schedules with family activities… church activities… shopping, etc…
Have you noticed that the stores began pushing Christmas back in September?
At one point you could have shopped for Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Easter all at the same time!!!
The season of PEACE has quickly become a season of STRESS!
Advent is an opportunity to set all that aside… to prepare our hearts… and to focus on rediscovering a far greater story!
We need to rediscover the story of God’s redeeming love for our world.
Don’t make this a season of pretending to be happy… or of covering up the pain and hardships…
Let this be a season of digging deep into the reality of what “Immanuel — God With Us” means…
As we enter this season of Advent, I invite you to set aside all the craziness and uncertainty of the past year… and to journey with us as we Rediscover Christmas!
Rediscover HOPE
Today, we begin with rediscovering HOPE… Even when we are completely surrounded by uncertainty and fear… We CAN find HOPE!
During Advent we look at the Christmas story… We look at the characters… We look at the narrative…
But today… We need to look at the background first…
You see… we think we have it bad today,
But… In Jesus’s time… in the world He was born into… Things were rough!
Israel was a defeated nation… The people were living under the iron thumb of Rome…
It was a harsh time to live in… It was a time of brutality and conquest… When Rome conquered, it was brutal!
Punishment for crimes were harsh!!! (And they didn’t even have to be capital crimes!)
It had been thousands of years since Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and God calling out Israel as His “chosen people”…
They had suffered thousands of years of invasion and suffering under the rule of the Assyrians… the Babylonians… the Greeks… and now Rome…
They were generations and generations away from the forming of God’s covenant and the promised of the Messiah…
They were clearly a defeated and broken people… There was no doubt that many of them were lost… (That’s what made it the perfect timing for Christ to come…)
You see… The fulfillment of God’s Covenant and the coming of the Messiah wasn’t just a “happy idea”…
It was their deepest hope… It was the promise that sustained them … encouraged them… spurred them on… (This Messiah would save them… would free them… would change their lives forever!)
They clung to the promise to Abraham that “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you...” (Gen 12:3)… Like they clung to life!
“How long, O’ God?” became their cry…
How long can hope survive?
The whole world seemed to be against them… Nothing in their lives seemed to say “We are God’s Chosen People!”
Were there even embers of hope left smoldering?
The Christmas story says “YES!”
Most of the time, We end the Christmas story with Mary and Joseph in the stable… Baby Jesus is born… Shepherds come to visit and go back to their fields… The angels have sung… We sneak the Magi in because it’s convenient… All is calm a quiet… peaceful… We all sing “Silent Night”… and it’s done, roll credits!
But today, we are going to pick up in an unusual place.
You see… Luke’s Christmas narrative doesn’t end with Jesus’s birth and the shepherd’s departure… It moves on to tell the story of two people: Simeon and Anna.
Look at Luke 2:22-38
22 When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord
23 (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord”),
24 and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.”
25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him.
26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.
27 Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required,
28 Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:
29 “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace.
30 For my eyes have seen your salvation,
31 which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:
32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.”
33 The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him.
34 Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against,
35 so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”
36 There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage,
37 and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.
38 Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.
Simeon and Anna were sparks of HOPE in Israel!
They lived their lives in expectation that God would come through… That He would do what He promised to do!
They believed God when He promised the Messiah!
They were waiting for this moment!
Both Simeon and Anna were old… They had lived long lives… They had seen the hardship and pain of their people…
Anna had been a widow for decades… which was a position of extremely low social status… In fact, she had nowhere else to live, so she stayed in the Temple…
Yet… Both Simeon and Anna remained faithfully devoted to God.
Did you notice that neither Simeon or Anna seemed surprised, or uncertain about Jesus being the Messiah?
Look at the Christmas Story… Almost everyone else in it has had to be convinced by an angel…
But… God didn’t need an angel to get the message to these two!
They were ready… They were tuned in…watching… waiting… listening… expecting… They were filled with HOPE!
Is that how we are approaching Christmas?
Are we tuned in… Watching… Waiting… Expecting… ?
Day after day… Year after year… Simeon and Anna served God faithfully… fueled by the hope that God was at work… Even though they couldn’t see it…
Even though they were surrounded by hardship… Even though they both were growing older and older… They held on to HOPE!
They set their eyes on God… on worshipping Him… on serving Him… and finally… they saw Him!
They could have been smug… arrogant… they could have said: “Of course God came through! This is what He said He’d do!”
But instead… They rejoiced and celebrated! They shared their Joy and Hope with the people around them… With Mary and Joseph!
Simeon and Anna’s stories reveal several things about Hope.
I. Hope sees beyond our current circumstances.
Hope is the fuel of Faith.
Hope is that whisper that says “Maybe… Just maybe…”
Let me tell you… No matter how bad your year has been… No matter what kind of problems and struggles you are facing… No matter what kind of season of darkness and pain you are in…
Hope is still alive!
Even in our deepest pain and most hopeless circumstances…
Hope is alive!!
Hope chases away the darkness and uncertainty…
Hope is alive because… God is with us!!!
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,
If you are God’s Child, then you have been set free from the consequences of sin and empowered to live by God’s Spirit!
Not only that… You have a future with God!!!
And because of that… We have HOPE!!!
Paul goes on to say:
Romans 8:22–26 (NIV)
22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.
24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?
25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.
“Hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?”
Hope exists… before reality comes to pass.
I’ve got an illustration…
(pick a youth)
$100 bill illustration — “What if I told you I have a $100 bill in my pocket, and I might… just might… give it to someone today?”
— You can think about it… You can expect it… You can tell yourself to keep believing that it is going to be you…
— You can HOPE that you will leave here today $100 richer…
BUT…
As soon as I give you this $100 bill… Hope is gone.
You can’t keep hoping it will happen because it already has!
Now… You can HOPE that I am going to let you keep it!
LOL… Now, you can accept it as a fact of reality, because it already happened.
HOPE precedes our present reality.
HOPE, by its very nature, exists in the uncertainty before.
Hope exists in questions… In doubts… In uncertainty…
Hope is the willingness and desire to believe beyond our present circumstances.
Look at verse 26:
Romans 8:26 (NIV)
26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.
II. God is with us — Here, Now, and Always.
With God there is no uncertainty.
God knows your pain… He knows your struggles… He knows your challenges…
God is not taken by surprise!
He was not surprised by the coronavirus… He is not surprised by the economy… He was not surprised by your loved one’s diagnosis… or that call in the middle of the night… or your shattered world that left you confused and uncertain…
God sees you.
God is here.
He is Immanuel — God with us.
The same HOPE that God embodied, fulfilled, and brought into the world with the birth of Jesus… He offers today!
God doesn’t dangle it in front of us… keeping it just out of reach…
He doesn’t leave us to conjure Hope ourselves…
God infuses HOPE within us… It is fueled and fanned by His Spirit… even in our weakness!
Even in our grim circumstances and deepest pain…
Even when we feel to weak to carry on…
God’s Spirit is with us!
The Holy Spirit reminds us of God’s faithfulness and promises… He leads us to God’s Word… He reminds us of all God has done for us and all the He has promised for us!
God With US is a promise!
It is a promise that God will never leave us or forsake us!
1 But now, this is what the Lord says— he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.
Do you feel the HOPE leaping out of those words?!
We are not alone… even in our loneliest and darkest moments…
Christ has come!
Immanuel!
God with us… every step of the way.
III. Hope inspires us to carry on.
2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.
3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;
4 perseverance, character; and character, hope.
5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
God’s Spirit does not put us to shame.
It will not let us down.
It will not disappoint us.
It gives us new and growing strength…
Because of God’s Spirit, we can see beyond the pain and confusion in front of us… right to the HOPE He has promised us.
It can be sop hard to lift our downcast… tear-filled eyes… to look for that tiny spark of HOPE… in the midst of our pain.
It can seem so difficult to reach beyond our troubles to grasp our Lord’s outstretched hand.
It can feel so impossible to take that first step toward HOPE when we are weighed down by our burdens.
BUT… When we receive the promise of HOPE in God’s Word… we find new strength.
When we accept the power of HOPE given to us in the assurance of the Holy Spirit… we find new inspiration!
When we focus on the power of HOPE embodied in the life, death, resurrection, and promised return of Christ… we discover new strength in our lives.
HOPE inspires us… HOPE emboldens us… HOPE builds upon itself to keep us going!
Because… HOPE promises a FUTURE in spite of our current circumstances!
What is your next step in HOPE today?
So often, we want to see what is going to happen tomorrow… We want to know the future… We want the fortune teller to tell us what to expect…
BUT… Our lives don’t work like that!
We don’t know what will happen tomorrow…
But in Christ… we have been given the end of the ultimate story.
In Christ… We have been told how the story ends!
No matter what the middle holds!!!
In Christ… We have been given true life… Life that transcends the pains of earth and the brokenness of our world.
As we enter into this Advent season, let us be reminded of the HOPE we have…
HOPE is dawning… Christ is coming.
He promised to return again… for us!
Let’s welcome Him into our hearts…and into our lives… with expectation and HOPE!
Benediction:
13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.