The Promise of Hope

Introduction

This morning we are beginning a new series called “The Promise of Advent”. Many of us grew up with traditional Advent celebrations that took a similar form every December. Beginning the forth Sunday before Christmas right up to the last service on Christmas Eve we celebrated in various forms what our Church called “Advent”. And many different denominations observe an Advent tradition including Catholics, Protestants, Methodists, Lutherans, Anglicans, Presbyterians and Episcopalians.

I myself grew up in what I would call a conservative Baptist Church and we would celebrate it each year with this huge green wreath laid out on an ornate stand up front. This is a simple one that we use at my house, but there is typically one big candle in the middle surrounded by four smaller candles in a circle.

I remember that for each Sunday in the Advent Season a different family from the Church would come up and either the Father or Mother would read a special Bible reading and someone else from that family group would get to lite the next candle in line. My family got to do it several times and I remember my Dad reading from his big brown leather Bible followed by my mother lighting the candle as all us kids were a little young to be trusted with fire around greenery.

It is a good memory for me. It was a special time. And I knew it was a significant thing…but I didn’t really know why.

Tension

I mean I knew about the true meaning of Christmas and that this tradition called Advent played some part in welcoming the Christmas season... but I really didn’t know what Advent was all about apart from Christmas Day. It just seemed to me to be a fancy way to say “Christmas” but...

“Advent” is about more than just the baby born in a manger.

Unlike the origins of most of the words that we look at, the word “Advent” is not found anywhere in the Bible, because it is not Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic. It was adopted much later in Church history and is from the Latin word “Adventus” which was used in the Latin translation of the Bible as a translation of the Greek word “parousia” which means “coming” or “arrival”.

And far from being found in the beginning of the life of Christ, “Parousia” is most often used in Scripture to speak of Jesus’ 2nd coming. For example, we see this word in Matthew 24 under the title heading “Signs of the End of the Age” were we read

Matthew 24:3 (ESV)

3 As he [Jesus] sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming [parousia] and of the end of the age?”

So when we are talking about “Advent” we are not just talking about when Jesus came as a baby in the manger, that is an essential part but not the whole idea. We are talking about the long term effects of that coming rolling on into our present lives and our future destiny.

Historically, the Christian Church has not just recognized Advent as all about Jesus’ coming as a baby in a manger but also his “coming” into our lives and His coming again to judge all mankind as the conquering King.

So over the next several weeks we are going to be walking through these 4 traditional themes of Advent: Hope, Peace, Joy and Love but we are not just going to look at the Promises of Advent from the perspective of Jesus’ first coming…we are going to look at how those promises are also to be displayed in our lives right now in anticipation of the Advent of Jesus’ Second coming.

With that being said, check out this simple yet thoughtful video on our first theme of HOPE!

Video: The Promise of Hope

Let’s pray.

Truth

So this morning were are looking at the “Promise of Hope” that Advent brings. The hope of his “coming” as a baby in a manger, the hope of his coming into our lives here on earth and the hope of his coming back to usher in a whole new kind of living.

First of all we are going to look at:

The Past Promise of Hope: God’s Son coming as a Baby

The traditional Advent verses for the theme of Hope are found in Isaiah chapter 9 where we read:

Isaiah 9:2 (ESV)

2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.

Isaiah 9:6–7 (ESV)

6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

The prophet Isaiah wrote these words almost 700 years before the first “coming” of Jesus. It was a very dark time in the history of God’s people. They had received so many promises from God, but they had not been faithful to live in those promises and so their lives looked nothing like they thought they would look. Those few who remained faithful wondered what had happened to the promises that God had made.

Promises that He made to their forefather Abraham, that through his descendants all the families of the earth would be blessed.

Genesis 12:1–3 (ESV)

1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

This “great nation” was the nation of Isreal and generations later God promised one of their great Kings, the great King David that one of his descendants would sit on the throne that would lead to salvation of the entire world. God promised David...

2 Samuel 7:16 (ESV)

16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’ ”

These were the promises that God’s people were to be Hoping in and thriving under...but that was not what was happening in Isaiah’s day. God’s people had forgotten His promises and their Kings were leading their nation into the empty promises of the nations around them. Instead of being set apart from the world around them, generation after generation dove deeper and deeper into the practices, behaviors, fears and empty promises of the world around them.

The people were walking in the bitter darkness of idolatry. They had abandoned the promises of Advent, and placing their hope in the so-called “gods” of the nations around even as they watched everything they had known crumble apart before their very eyes.

It is into this hopeless darkness that God gave Isaiah this prophecy of real hope!

Isaiah 9:2 (ESV)

2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.

Isaiah was declaring this hope-filled message of God to the people in an attempt to re-awaken their hope in the promise of Advent so that they would turn away from their Idols and turn back to God again. And where would this great light come from? Where is this hope found?

6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

And Isaiah’s prophecy came true. Despite the rebellious idolatry of God’s people Jesus still came.

Luke 2:7 (ESV)

7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

The Promise of that first Advent was fulfilled in the birth of Christ. This is the story that we tell each Christmas. The true Christmas Story. We love looking back on that story…but how does it carry on into our lives today. What is it that we can learn from the promise of Hope fulfilled in 1st Advent that applies to how we “Hope” today?

Our Present Promise of Hope: God providing for all our needs

Sometimes it is hard to see how the daily lives of people who lived in such a distant time and land connects with our daily lives of computers, cars and carryout dinners. But even though it may seem like a distant world, one thing remains the same:

People today are still living in the bitter darkness of Idolatry.

And you might be surprised to hear that because when you think of “Idols” you only think of little statues that you light candles or kneel down to or pray to. But just because we don’t practice our idolatry in such an overt way doesn’t make it any less dangerous. The fact that is done in such a hidden way, may make it even more so.

I have shared this before, but my favorite definition of Idolatry for our world today is:

Idolatry is putting our happiness or hope, significance or security in anything but God.

That bears repeating in light of our Isaiah 9 passage. “The people who walked in darkness...those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,” were people who were doing this very thing in their idolatry. They were being lured into placing their hope into false gods with names and images carved in stone or wood but the root of it was the same.

Rejecting God, they were placing their happiness or hope, significance or security in something else and whenever that happens, however that happens it is the darkness of Idolatry.

It doesn’t have to be a little statue, which is a foreign idea to us, it could be anything that we look to in order to fulfill these longings. These are longings that God has placed in our hearts so that we seek after Him, so to look to anything but Him to fulfill these longings is Idolatry.

And often times it is good things. It can be bad things, like addictions, bad habits and hurtful practices, but most of us make our idols out of good things. We take the good things in our lives, things that God designed for us to enjoy, and we make them into the sources of our happiness, hope, significance or security.

What kind of things? Anything. It could be gardening, hunting, foot balling, wood carving, cooking, eating, drinking, dating, parenting, exercising, gaming, earning a living in whatever way you do and I could go on and on. If we put our happiness or hope, significance or security in “any...other...thing” but God it is Idolatry. And what happens is it ruins that thing that God gave us to enjoy and it draws us away from God which ruins our life.

Many Theologians have found it helpful to take it a bit further and distill the broad “anything” into four basic categories. They often will call these four basic categories “Source Idols” in contrast to the other infinitely possible list which they call “surface Idols”. We all have the potential for different surface idols because we all have different interests aptitudes and sin patterns - but every one of those fall in one of these four categories.

POWER CONTROL COMFORT APPROVAL

Power: a longing for influence or recognition

Control: a longing to have everything go according to my plan

Comfort: a longing for pleasure in any of it’s forms

Approval: a longing to be accepted or desired

Everyone of us leans toward at least one of these “Source Idols”. Can you identify yours? Which one of these do you think you work the hardest to try and maintain in your life? That is probably the one you are the most tempted towards.

Which one drives you crazy when you feel like you don’t have it?

When you feel powerless to fix something?

Or you feel like life is out of your control?

Or maybe life is just so hard and you just need an escape into some comfort?

Or when you feel like no one really gives you the credit your deserve?

Or however it may manifest itself in your life, all of our idolatry can be traced to trying to have attain one of these four “Source Idols”

In this way, we are much like the Israelites in Isaiah’s day. Because these are the things that the world around us lives for, and God’s people are still called to be set apart from that. We are called to live our lives knowing that only the one true God can provide for our needs in these areas.

So as Christians we don’t place our Hope in attaining more POWER, influence or recognition. Instead we submit to His greater power working within us

Philippians 2:13 (ESV) 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

And we don’t place our Hope in being able to CONTROL our lives, but we surrendering to His ultimate control, knowing that He is working all things out for His good intended purposes.

Romans 8:28 (ESV) 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

And we don’t place our Hope in being able to attain higher levels of COMFORT, whatever that looks like to us, but we remember that real comfort is found when we find our place in God’s ultimate plan.

Matthew 16:24 (ESV)

24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

We don’t place our Hope in the APPROVAL of others, because in Christ we have the only approval that we really need and we seek only to please Him in response.

Galatians 1:10 (ESV)

10 For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Hope placed in these “Source Idols” is really no hope at all. It is the kind of hopelessness that the world around us lives in everyday. They are empty wells that can never satisfy, but Jesus came to give us real hope.

The Lexham Bible Dictionary defines “HOPE” as:

The confidence that, by integrating God’s redemptive acts in the past with trusting human responses in the present, the faithful will experience the fullness of God’s goodness both in the present and in the future.

This is a great definition of Christian Hope as it integrates our Past, Present and Future Hope.

The Past Promise of Hope: God’s Son Coming into the World as baby

Our Present Promise of Hope: God providing for all our true needs and lastly ...

Our future Promise of Hope: God’s Son Coming as conquering King.

Just as God’s people waited for generations for the coming of the baby born in a manger, the Chruch today is waiting. As the people waited for the first Advent of Jesus many of them got distracted and off course. Remember that before the birth of Jesus there had not been a prophet for 400 years. They just had to keep going on what they knew from what they were already taught.

In that time, God’s people were divided into 4 different factions. In a scary way, they line up all too well with the four “Source Idol’s” we looked at earlier.

The Sadduccees sought comfort...so they willingly compromised God’s commands whenever the Roman Empire decided it was in their best interest to do so. In return they were rewarded with authority and riches.

The Pharisees sought approval...so every religious exercise was a public display so that everyone would recognize their name and know how pious and devout they were, at least in public.

The Zealots sought power…they were going to overthrow the shackles of Rome if they had to kill every Roman to do so.

The Essenes sought control…they were tired of all the fighting so they left it all behind, went out in the wilderness to form their own society where they could manage their world in a controlled way.

And none of them sought the baby in the manger. The had lost track of the promise of Advent, and placed their hopes in other things.

And what the Advent season is meant to do for us is to not just look back nostalgically at the story of the first advent, but learn from it. We should ask ourselves, are we ready for the Advent? Are we ready for Jesus’ coming again? Or are we just living for our Source Idols like they did back then.

Because the second coming will not be like the first. The first Advent of Jesus was humble and lowly but the next Second Coming of Jesus will be in earth shaking power and overwhelming authority. For those who have rejected the Hope of Jesus Christ and have instead placed their hopes in another source…comfort, control, power or approval…it will be a terrible day. But for those who have placed their hope in Christ it will be a glorious day of joy and reward...

1 Peter 1:13 (ESV)

13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Where is your HOPE being placed this Advent season?

Let’s pray.

I don’t typically do Scriptural Benedictions, but I can’t help myself this morning because of how fitting this is for the message...

1 Peter 1:3–5 (ESV)

3 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, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.