Mission Christmas: Hope

When The Mission Says Go  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  41:28
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Our Need for Hope

Celebrating Christmas is our natural response to Emanuel - God With Us!
Jesus came to visit His creation in humility and weakness. The incomparable, unique, immeasurable God placing Himself in our midst. What state of sadness or defeat can plead it’s case before the presence of the LORD?
With Him, we have everything. But without God, we are hopeless.
What do we know about hopelessness? It depends on who you ask.
From good Therapy.org :
THE HOPELESSNESS SCALE
In 1974, Dr. Aaron Beck designed the Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS) with the aim of quantifying the feeling of hopelessness by examining an individual’s thoughts and beliefs about the future. The BHS, designed for those over the age of 17, comes in the form of a self-report questionnaire containing 20 true or false statements.
The responses to these statements are used to measure the three primary aspects of hopelessness: feelings about the future, decreases in motivation, and expectations. The BHS can also be used as a measure of suicidal risk among people with depression who have previously attempted suicide.
THERAPY FOR HOPELESSNESS
Hopelessness can be distinguished by inhibited motivation, a lack of interest, negative thoughts about the future, or a negative view of the self. These feelings may become worse depending on a person’s mood.
Cognitive therapy, also developed by Beck, has proven to be one effective treatment for those experiencing hopelessness. This type of therapy targets an individual’s negative thoughts and assumptions. As cognitive therapy requires that individuals in treatment carefully analyze the validity of their assumptions, those dealing with feelings of hopelessness may initially be resistant to the approach. However, therapists can often overcome this obstacle by first working with the person in therapy to address these feelings, often by focusing on self-esteem enhancement.
Numerous studies show that therapy is often able to help those experiencing hopelessness regain their hope and achieve lasting mental wellness.
If our main problem was negative thoughts and assumptions, Dr. Aaron Beck would have really been on to something! But hopelessness has it’s roots in something much more profound, and beyond ourselves. So we will never find the answer to hopelessness from within.
Job 3:1–9 ESV
1 After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. 2 And Job said: 3 “Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, ‘A man is conceived.’ 4 Let that day be darkness! May God above not seek it, nor light shine upon it. 5 Let gloom and deep darkness claim it. Let clouds dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it. 6 That night—let thick darkness seize it! Let it not rejoice among the days of the year; let it not come into the number of the months. 7 Behold, let that night be barren; let no joyful cry enter it. 8 Let those curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up Leviathan. 9 Let the stars of its dawn be dark; let it hope for light, but have none, nor see the eyelids of the morning,
Job experienced hopelessness. It existed in three distinct areas of His life:

Matter, Mind, Relationship

The reality of the actual events of his life
The thoughts of His mind
His relationship with God
All these things are connected. Each can be addressed separately, but profound hope can only be achieved when we address all three.
Proverbs 13:12 ESV
12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.
Who is that tree of life?
Psalm 9:18 ESV
18 For the needy shall not always be forgotten, and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever.
Do we hope in the power and possessions of this world?
Psalm 33:17 ESV
17 The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue.
The next verse gives the answer
Psalm 33:18–22 ESV
18 Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, 19 that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine. 20 Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. 21 For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name. 22 Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you.
It doesn’t take too many years of life before we begin to know this - We all need hope!
We need hope over our thoughts. Hope in our circumstances. And most importantly, we need hope in our relationship to God.
How does the announcement of Jesus’ birth provide hope?
Pray

Hope Proclaims Victory

Luke 1 :26-38
How many of you look forward to something that turns your life completely upside down? Did any of you respond to COVID like “Good, I was looking for a change!”?
Some handle change better than others, but we usually want to be at least a participant in the panning!
God confronted Mary and Joseph with an announcement, not a proposition.
They were two young Jewish people at a time in history where being Jewish was not a path to great wealth of security - especially if you were a common person. And Mary and Joseph were common people. Great change was not likely to produce great opportunity.
So when the message was given to Mary “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” she was quite uncomfortable. She didn’t that greeting was addressed to the right person.
‘The Good Place” - They knew they were not in the right place.
How was she favored? Why is the Lord setting her apart? Notice, Gabriel doesn’t exactly answer her concern, but encourages her - “Do not be afraid, for you have found favor with God.”
Mary has found favor. The word for “have found” is heuriskō vb. to find. To discover, obtain, or arrive at a particular state.
We get our word heuristic from this. A heuristic algorithm is a program that interrogates every option until a solution is found. If this was the sense it is used here, Mary might have responded with more expectation and relief than being ‘greatly troubled’.
She ‘found’ favor with God more like this.
We know the phrase Old Mother Hubbard. What’s in her cupboard? (Nothing!) Mrs. Hubbard (and her dog for whom she went to fetch a bone) is in a state of need, hunger, and uncertainty. But what if when she went to the cupboard, she found more than plenty for her and her household? She didn’t put it there, or purchase it all. But she would FIND HERSELF in a state of blessing.
This is the sense for Mary. She is favored because God has changed her status, not because she has.
When hope depends on what we do, find, or accomplish it is only as secure as our continued effort and perfection. This is NOT hope, but burden!
Hope is victory over our own status - lost sinners. We have no ability to reach beyond the common state of humanity. Hope must come from God.

Victory over lostness.

And so the proclamation of Victory:
Luke 1:31–33 ESV
31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
Jesus is the hope of salvation, the hope of nations, the hope of His people, the hope of Mary! His salvation is anointed from days of old and promised effective through the end of time.
But the best part of the hope of Emmanuel? That God proclaims it! And God performs it!
Luke 1:35 ESV
35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.
How would you respond to such an incredible message? That the Spirit of God will overcome you and produce in you the Son of God? Would you believe it? Would you trust it? Would you change your life in response to it?

Victory over fruitlessness.

God’s massage of hope and deliverance declared victory to Mary. That whatever situations her physical life when through, whatever thoughts of her future, and whatever she understood about her position relative to God was anchored in this declaration.
God declares the same victory in our lives. His Spirit calls us to Himself. He dwells within us and creates in us a new person, in the image of His Son.
God has declared the hope of victory - will you live in it?

Hope Gives Life.

Jesus was born for a purpose - for a mission. That mission is Hope for reconciliation of the creator and a rebellious creation, between God and Man. Through His own action, He declared victory. And that victory gives life.
Earlier, I mentioned the tree of life. We find the tree of life in the Garden of Eden. It was the tree rejected for the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. That tree represents our taking the standard of truth into our own hands - rejecting God and His standard.
The fruit of that tree brought death.
The next time the tree of life is mentioned is Revelation. Rev. 2:7 give us the hope:
Revelation 2:7 ESV
7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’
And the object of hope is in chapter 22
Revelation 22:1–5 ESV
1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
This is the tree of life planted, established, full grown, and bearing fruit. What is the seed of this tree of life?
Luke 1:39–45 ESV
39 In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, 40 and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, 42 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”
So often in scripture we see the Lord interacting with creation. In the Angel of the Lord, the Spirit of the Lord, In pillars of smoke and fire, in burning bushes, in still small voices, and so many others.
I’m always amazed at this moment. God’s hand, voice, Spirit, and incarnation are brought together within the souls of four people in this one interaction. Two pregnant women and the two children within. All submitted to and glorifying God. Elizabeth prophecies, John jumps, Mary Sings, and Jesus is glorified.

Hope in abundant life.

Returning to Genesis for a moment...
Genesis 3:14–15 NKJV
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”
The seed of the woman is the fulfillment of the hope of restoration. Jesus - God in the flesh - is the seed. In Him we find hope and life. In Him we all nations are blessed. In Him His people receive their promise. In Him we are all established in the presence of the glory of God.

Hope in eternal life.

This very focus of God’s redemptive plan spanning all of history is this seed - this tiny, growing human in the womb of Mary. This is life!
When is the best time to plant a seed to grow a tree? 20 years ago. What is the second best time? Today!
God knew just the right time to plant the seed of hope in the world. The seed planted will not grow fruitless.
What seeds of hope and life is God planting in your life today? Are they seeds of relational investment with a lost friend or neighbor? Are they seeds of personal commitment to growth and obedience? Are they seeds of joy? Are they seeds granting/seeking forgiveness?
As we reflect of Christmas season, let’s be reminded about the the seed that grew in Mary had purpose - to proclaim victory and give life.
Let that seed grow also in you!
Pray
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