HOPE OF THE NATIONS

Introduction

-{Romans 15}

-I read a story about a school system in a large city that had a program that helped children keep up with their school work during stays in the city's hospitals. One day a teacher who was assigned to the program received a routine call asking her to visit a particular child in a hospital. She took the child's name and room number and talked briefly with the child's regular class teacher. "We're studying nouns and adverbs in his class now," the regular teacher said, "and I'd be grateful if you could help him understand them so he doesn't fall too far behind."

~The hospital program teacher went to see the boy that afternoon. No one had mentioned to her that the boy had been badly burned and was in great pain. Upset at the sight of the boy, she stammered as she told him, "I've been sent by your school to help you with nouns and adverbs." And she did what she could to teach him, but when she left she felt she hadn't accomplished much.

~The next day she went back up to the hospital, and a nurse asked her, "What did you do to that boy?" The teacher felt she must have done something wrong and began to apologize. "No, no," said the nurse. "You don't know what I mean. We've been worried about that little boy, but ever since yesterday, his whole attitude has changed. He's fighting back, responding to treatment. It's as though he's decided to live."

~Two weeks later the boy explained that he had completely given up hope until the teacher arrived. Everything changed when he came to a simple realization. He expressed it this way: "They wouldn't send a teacher to work on nouns and adverbs with a dying boy, would they?"

-What made all the difference in the world was hope. Without hope, it’s as if there is nothing to look forward to or to live for. As we see a world filled with sin and violence and darkness and wickedness, we might begin to wonder to ourselves if there is any hope. As we go through the struggles of life—the trials and tribulations—we might begin to wonder if there is any hope. As we think about and consider the absolute lostness of the nations—with 8 billion people in the world and the vast majority of them are lost—we might begin to wonder if there is any hope. And when we question hope or deny hope or doubt hope, we fall into despair.

-Why do we think so little of hope? Why do we believe in our heart that hope is so elusive? Why would we rather give up than actually hope? The problem might be a misunderstanding about what true hope is to begin with. All too often, hope is pessimistically defined as the little boy did when he said: “Hope is wishing for something you know ain’t gonna happen.” Hope is equated with the HOPE SO mentality—I’d like it, but I doubt I’d get it. Christmas was a few weeks ago, and some of you may have said out loud or to yourself, “I hope I get this present or that present.” It is nothing more than a mere wish, followed by a lot of doubt of its fulfillment. I’d like it, but I doubt I’d get it.

-But that is not the biblical concept of hope. The hope that we have with God through Jesus Christ is not some mere wish mixed with a lot of doubt in the outcome. God’s idea of hope is something completely different from the world’s. As one theologian defined the biblical concept of hope: Hope is the total grounding of one’s confidence and expectation in God’s goodness and providential care even in the face of trouble.

-That means that even when we are in adverse circumstances, our hope does not disappear. Our hope is not founded upon the world or what is going on in the world, but it is founded on the God who gave His only begotten Son. My prayer today is that you will see that in a world that is filled with sin and uncertainty, God has offered the hope that all people in all the nations desperately needs—and this is the hope that you need to put your confidence in today.

Romans 15:8–13 ESV

8 For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, 9 and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, “Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name.” 10 And again it is said, “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.” 11 And again, “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples extol him.” 12 And again Isaiah says, “The root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles; in him will the Gentiles hope.” 13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

-{pray}

-I want us to have a biblical understanding of hope so that, as Paul wrote, we may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. What lessons do we learn about hope. First, Paul talks about...

1) The root of God’s hope

-We Christians hear about or talk about hope in God, and too often that can sound like empty words and hollow platitudes. The way we talk about hope in God sometimes sounds like something you say when you have nothing else to say—it’s almost robotic, an automatic response because we know it sounds good and it sounds pious, but we still feel like the kid with hope being something that ain’t really gonna happen.

-But Paul here says that the hope that comes from God is real because it has a solid foundation, it has a sovereign source, it has deep spiritual roots from which it grows, and we can look at life’s circumstances and then we can look at this hope in God and really believe that God has already done everything possible to make this hope a reality. And so Paul says that the spiritual root from which hope sprouts and grows is Jesus Christ—which in and of itself sounds like a simplistic Sunday School answer. But Paul is telling us that Jesus is the only basis of any hope in the world, and he goes on to tell us in what ways we can know that Jesus is the root, the source.

-One truth about Jesus that makes him the root of our hope is the fact that He is the embodiment of the very character and nature of God. Jesus is God incarnate. He is the Word become flesh. So, being God the Son, He is the ultimate revelation of God. Paul says Jesus became a servant (by becoming a human) in order to show God’s truthfulness. Jesus left the glories of heaven so that the world would know that God is not only the Creator of all things, but that He is good, perfect, holy, righteous, and just while at the same time being loving and caring about the mess that humanity finds itself in due to sin.

-If God just stayed in His heaven and made no gesture of outreach to mankind, things truly would be hopeless, because we’d have a God who is angry at us and we’d have no recourse. We would all sit under His righteous condemnation. But Jesus shows God in every way—God is perfectly holy and full of justice, and He is also merciful and full of grace toward mankind.

-Then Paul goes on to say that Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promises. God promised Abraham that through his descendants the world would be blessed; God promised David that through his descendants One would come who would rule and reign as King of everything for all of eternity; God promised through Isaiah that there would be a Suffering Servant who would place the sins of mankind on Himself; and God promised through Daniel that the Son of Man would come and renew all of creation, bringing with Him a new heaven and a new earth. Jesus is the fulfillment of all those promises.

-And Paul also says that Jesus is the fount of all mercies—Jesus, God the Son, becoming man, dying on the cross to satisfy God’s wrath, and bringing humanity into relationship with God from whom they were formerly separated, thereby making peace with God and giving us forgiveness and freeing us from the bondage of sin and death.

-We know that when the Bible says that God is the God of hope and that He offers real hope, we can believe it because of God’s character and His work through Jesus Christ is the root of it all. If God did not spare His own Son, do you think that He would withhold hope from you? You can have real hope because of the person and work of Jesus Christ, the revealer of God, the fulfiller of promises, the giver of mercy. And since Jesus is eternal, His hope is eternal, meaning this is something that we can cling to forever. When we have hope in Jesus Christ, this is something that we then possess for all eternity—the hope we receive can never be taken from us, it is our possession for all ages. Again, this is not a wish, but this is a rock solid promise.

-I read a story about a man who went to Washington, D.C., just to see the Hope Diamond which was on display in the Smithsonian Institute. The Hope Diamond is the most beautiful blue diamond in the world. For a long time, the man stood above it and looked through the bullet-proof glass at it and its roommate, the Portuguese Diamond. The Portuguese Diamond is twice the size of the Hope Diamond and brilliantly white. There were four guards in the room.

~One of the guards walked over, so the man asked him, “What is the value of these two jewels?” The guard answered, “No price has ever been put on the two of them together. The Hope Diamond has been evaluated by Lloyd’s of London for it was sold several times, but now it doesn’t matter what the value of these two diamonds is, for they will never be sold again. They are priceless. They are our own; they belong to America. They are ours forever.”

-I love that description of the Hope diamond because it is so appropriate to the hope of God in Christ. Because Jesus Christ is the root, the source, the basis of the hope God offers us, like the Hope Diamond it is a priceless gift that belongs to us forever if we have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. You may not feel it. Your emotions might not align to it. But the Bible says it, and so it must be true. Another area that Paul talks about is...

2) The range of God’s hope

-Paul goes on in this passage to emphasize the fact that the promises and mercies found in Jesus Christ were not only for the Jews, but have been extended to the Gentiles, which refers to all the other nations and all the peoples of the earth. He quotes several Old Testament passages from every section of the Old Testament (Pentateuch, historical books, wisdom books, and the prophets), all speaking of the fact that the hope of God would be declared to the nations and the nations would then turn around and praise God and follow God. This means that God’s plan had always been for the whole world.

-God did not only send Jesus, who is the root of all hope, to the Jews. Jesus is not merely a Savior of Jews. The range of the salvation that Jesus brings, and therefore the range of the hope that He gives, reaches every single person on the earth. There is no one who is excluded from God’s hope. Anyone who believes in Jesus, no matter their race, color, or nationality, will receive the hope of eternal comfort.

-The Jesus who gives hope to the American Christian is the same Jesus who gives hope to the Japanese Christian, who is the same Jesus who gives hope to the Syrian Christian, who is the same Jesus who gives hope to the Sudanese Christian. All who believe in Jesus have that hope.

-I read a story from the 1980’s where then Vice President, George Bush, represented the U.S. at the funeral of former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. Something at the funeral caught Bush’s eye, and he would later say that he was deeply moved by a silent protest carried out by Brezhnev's widow. She stood motionless by the coffin until seconds before it was closed. Then, just as the soldiers touched the lid, Brezhnev's wife performed an act of great courage and sign of hope: She reached down and made the sign of the cross on her husband's chest. The Soviet Union was very much a secular state. To them God was nothing but the opiate of the people, as Karl Marx would put it.

~So right there, in the citadel of secular, atheistic power, the wife of the man who had run it all wished that her husband was wrong. She somehow made the connection that only the Jesus who died on the cross and rose again could provide life and hope, with the wish and desire that He would have mercy on her husband’s soul.

-Yes, Jesus Christ is even the only hope of a Communist dictator, He is the only hope of an ISIS terrorist, and He is the only hope of even the most moral, upstanding American. Jesus Christ is the hope of the nations. But what that means to you is that Jesus Christ is your hope as well. There is no one in this room to whom Jesus Christ does not offer the hope of God. To the one who is struggling financially, Jesus Christ is your hope. To the one who is dealing with a dysfunctional family, Jesus Christ is your hope. To the one who is dealing with sin and addiction, Jesus Christ is your hope. To the one who has a wayward spouse or a wayward child, Jesus Christ is your hope. To the one who thinks that they are beyond the reach of God, you are not beyond His reach because Jesus Christ died for you and He offers you eternal life, and there will be trouble in this world, but Jesus Christ is your hope for a better tomorrow if you would believe in Him.

-Jesus Christ is the only hope of the self-righteous who think that they can get to heaven on their own merit, and is finding it impossible. Jesus Christ is your only hope, stop trying to save yourself and let Jesus save you. There is nobody excluded from the range of the hope of God found in Jesus Christ. From the most pagan of sinners to the most holy of saints, everyone’s hope is found in only one place—Jesus Christ, place your hope in Him today. And one final thought that Paul touches upon...

3) The reformation from God’s hope

-When you find your hope in Jesus Christ, what you will find is that your life is completely changed. If you stop fretting and worrying and trust in Christ and believe in the hope of a better tomorrow that He offers you, your life will be transformed. There is freedom in your life when you have the hope of God in Christ. Paul talks about this fact in v. 13 that with the hope rooted in Christ that reaches out to all people, that hope will give you joy and peace as you continuously trust in Christ. Something supernatural happens, when you place your trust in Christ, you find the peace that surpasses understanding because you are in His hands.

-It goes on to say that you will also receive power that flows from the Holy Spirit so that you may abound in this hope. This hope found in Christ will overflow in your life and it will touch everything you do, and it will touch the people around you and not only will your life change, but other people’s lives will be touched as well. When you find that hope in Jesus, your life goes through a reformation, changing from being continuously worrisome and filled with anxiety, you will know joy, peace, and power that can only come from Him.

-In 1997 the journal of the American Heart Association reported on some remarkable research. According to the Chicago Tribune, Susan Everson of the Human Population Laboratory of the Public Health Institute in Berkeley, California, found that people who experienced high levels of despair and hopelessness had a 20 percent greater occurrence of atherosclerosis—the narrowing of their arteries—than did people who were full of hope. “This is the same magnitude of increased risk that one sees in comparing a pack-a-day smoker to a non-smoker,” said Everson. In other words, despair can be as bad for you as smoking a pack a day!

-That study might say that hope changes your life physically, but Paul is saying your life will be reformed spiritually, when you believe in Jesus and He is the root of your hope. That is the difference from what the world tries to offer and tell us. The world tells you to put your trust in so many other things—money, power, relationships, etc. But when your trust is in the wrong place, your hope will be nonexistent. If I put my trust in things of the world, my hope will be in things of the world, and it will fail me. A trust and hope in the world will not reform you and change you and give you any sort of spiritual power. We have to join the psalmist when he said that some trust in horses and some trust in chariots, but we will trust in the name of the Lord. His name is Jesus, and when our trust is in Him, our hope is in Him. And when our hope is in Him, we are utterly changed forever.

CONCLUSION

-I read a story about a little boy in India who had heard the American missionary and preacher, Howard Thurman, give a rousing sermon in the boy’s village. One night after Howard and Mrs. Thurman had gone to bed, there was a knock at the door. Opening it, there stood that little boy whose clothing marked him as an untouchable, the lowest of the low in India’s caste system. In broken, but polite, English the little boy said: “I stood outside the building and listened to your lecture, Sahib Doctor. I have to ask you, could you please tell me if you can give some hope to a nobody?” Whereupon the Indian boy dropped to his knees in admiration and reverence. That’s what the untouchables in India are considered—nobodies. Howard Thurman then shared that not only is Jesus the hope of nobodies in India, He is the only hope for the everybodies of the world.

-Jesus Christ is the hope of the nations, and He is your only hope as well. If you have never believed on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved, you are hopeless because anything else you may be trusting in is nothing but sinking sand. Jesus died for you and rose again to give you eternal life. Repent and believe in the gospel and find hope.

-Still, there may be some Christians who need a dose of hope. Maybe you have leaned upon the wrong things in life—you’re looking to the world, you’re looking to other humans, you’re looking to yourself. You’ll never find hope there. I invite you to come to the altar this morning and find your hope in Jesus Christ.

-Maybe you’re looking for a church that preaches the hope of the gospel, and you want to be fed from the Word of God that points to the Son of God who is hope, I invite you to come forward and join Harvest Baptist Church today...