A Hope the World Cannot Understand
* Good morning.
*
A noiseless patient spider,
I mark’d where on a little promontory it stood isolated,
Mark’d how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,
It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,
Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.
And you O my soul where you stand,
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing,
seeking the spheres to connect them,
Till the bridge you will need be form’d, till the ductile anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.
(Walt Whitman)
When I read this poem, it makes me think of myself standing on the edge of a cliff, looking out over a vast expanse - something like the Grand Canyon. I have to get from here to there, and somehow do it without killing myself! I have to plan a plan, scheme a scheme, pick myself up by the bootstraps and somehow carry myself over to the other side, and do it without killing myself.
At our house, we have a cup in the bathroom where we put our toothbrushes. I discovered it a few weeks ago. A friend had given it to Lisa, and it has little encouraging sayings all over it. Now, every morning, before I drop my toothbrush into this thing, I see a little bee looking up at me saying "If it's to be, it must be me!" It was a very nice little gift – but BAD THEOLOGY!
Because - that's self-reliant hope, and it's not the kind of hope I have. I have a hope that the world can't understand, and it’s not self-reliant hope. The world's way is to reject Jesus and His work for them. And as long as the world rejects the Author of hope, they cannot understand His message.
Let's turn in our Bibles to Hebrews chapter 6, verse 9. Hebrews, by the way, was written by an unknown author, to a primarily Jewish church. Hebrews is toward the end of the New Testament. . . . Titus – Philemon – Hebrews – James – 1 & 2 Peter. . . Our text for today introduces the main argument of Hebrews - namely, that the person of Christ is superior to the Law of Moses. Today's passage emphasizes our eternal security. And it encourages us - in the face of the trials, to hold on to our hope in Christ. Follow on as I read from the New American Standard Version of the Bible: But, beloved, we are convinced* of better things concerning you,
and things that accompany salvation,
though we are speaking in this way.
10For God is not unjust so as to forget
your work
and the love which you have shown toward His name,
in having ministered
and in still ministering to the saints.
11And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence
so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end,
12so that you will not be sluggish,
but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
13For when God made the promise to Abraham,
since He could swear by no one greater,
He swore by Himself, 14saying,
“I will surely bless you
and I will surely multiply you.”
15And so, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise.
16For men swear by one greater than themselves,
and with them an oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute.
17In the same way God, desiring even more to show
to the heirs of the promise
the unchangeableness of His purpose,
interposed with an oath,
18so that by two unchangeable things
in which it is impossible for God to lie,
we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement
to take hold of the hope set before us.
19This hope we have as an anchor of the soul,
a hope both sure
and steadfast
and one which enters within the veil,
20where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us,
having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
Let’s pray: Gracious God, we come before You today on the edge of a cliff, looking out over our vacant vast surrounding, and wondering how to get from where we are to where You are. We ask that your Word would be near us, in our mouth and in our heart, resulting in understanding for all of us, and even for salvation in some today. May we be able to agree with the Apostle Paul at the end of this day, that having believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall not be disappointed. For it is in His precious name that we ask this. Amen.
Now, let’s look again at verse 9. Notice he says, "though we are speaking this way." That makes me ask, "What way was he speaking?" Well, I'll tell you what way he was speaking: NOT VERY NICELY! Let’s turn back a chapter to 5:ll, and see:
11 Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.
The author of Hebrews is telling them that they are being "lazy thinkers" in the way they regard Christ, and His work on the cross. As I read it, they were still thinking of salvation in Jesus like a daily sin offering of a bull or a goat. They were thinking that, if they fell away, that they had to get saved all over again. As I understand the earlier part of Chapter 6, he is telling them that they can’t repeat the elementary things of the faith, even if they fall into gross sin. They must take in the full value of what Christ did for them, accept it by faith, and move on.
So in verse 9 he reassures them, "we are convinced of better things concerning you… things that ought to go along with salvation." He complements them for the hard work they are doing in the name of Jesus - demonstrated by how much they love each other. Now, he says, take that same hard work and apply it to how you think about Christ!
I think that the New American Standard Bible at verse 11 does not convey this thought very well. :8At first reading, it looks like he is saying, some of you are loving each other very well. Now I want all of you to love each other that way, so that you will realize, or experience, your hope in Christ. But, that is not what the verse is saying. The thought is better expressed: "We want each of you to show the same diligence toward the full realization of your hope until the end." The hard work is to be applied to how we THINK, not how we ACT.
How many of us have looked up into the sky at twilight, before any stars come out. Then we see the first star and remember this little rhyme: "Star light, star bright, the first star I see tonight. I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight." You know, we see the star, but that star has no power to do anything for us.
We can wish all we want, we can hope all we want, but it's just wishing-star hope. I have a hope that the world can't understand. It is not self-reliant hope. It is not wishing-star hope. The hope I have in Jesus Christ is based not on how hard I wish, but on whether or not He is able to do what He says. In Walt Whitman's poem, he uses the phrase "ductile anchor." Ductile means malleable, or bendable. What kind of anchor is that? What good is an anchor that bends instead of holds? You can squeeze the rope as hard as you want, but if the anchor is slipping, your squeezing will do you no good.
Our hope in Christ cannot be something we make up. I actually had someone tell me once, “It doesn’t matter what you believe, as long as you are sincere.” How foolish! If our hope is not based on the truth, it’s just wishing star hope. If we are hoping for something Jesus never promised, like he will make us rich, or make all our problems go away, or we will never be sick, or we will never suffer hardship, we have nothing more than wishing-star hope. I have a hope that the world can't understand, and it is not wishing star hope. It is based on the very Word and promise of God.
Let's go back to Hebrews. Rather than being lazy in our thinking, the author of Hebrews wants us to imitate great men of faith like Abraham. Let's read again at verse 13:
13For when God made the promise to Abraham,
since He could swear by no one greater,
He swore by Himself, 14saying,
“I will surely bless you
and I will surely multiply you.”
15And so, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise.
:10Notice an interesting twist here. You would expect, after telling them to imitate Abraham, that the author would tell them something about him. But he doesn't. Instead, he talks about God. He doesn't talk about how great Abraham's faith was, he talks about how great God's promise is.
Of course, Abraham did have great faith. We know that Abraham was 75 years old when God promised that he would have descendants like the stars in the heavens and the sand on the seashore. But Abraham had to wait 25 years for Isaac to be born. THAT’S patience - but there's more to it. Did you know that Isaac was 40 years old when he married Rebecca, and they did not have Jacob and Esau for another 20 years? Abraham was still alive, so he waited 60 years to see his grandchildren! Imagine waiting 60 years to see if the whole thing would end at Isaac!
Abraham had great faith, but it was because God made a great promise. I like to think of it like this. Back in the 80's Lisa and I went to Niagara Falls. After we parked, we walked up a little hill to look at them. From the parking lot, you can hear the roar of the Fall's, but you can't see them. But then, you walk over a little rise and there, before you, is a magnificent sight. Stretching out all out in front of you are these huge falls. The thunder is so loud you can't hear each other. Millions of tons of water careening down into an explosion at the bottom, sending up a mist that casts a rainbow over the whole thing. It is awesome, and you are speechless.
I imagine it is like that with God. He is so awesome, so magnificent, so beautiful, that we do not have to make up worship in His presence. He is great enough to draw it from us. :11I think, that as we begin to understand the security of his promise, we do not have to make up faith. He draws it from us.
We have great security in Christ. In the business world we call it a guarantee. Look at the next verse:
16For men swear by one greater than themselves,
and with them an oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute.
I live in the world of contracts. My job is to create contracts. A good contract is really just a handshake put in writing. If I do it well, then disagreements are resolved before they ever happen. I don't have to hope that a situation won’t surprise me. I can have hope that I did my job well. :12When I trust in Christ, it is not a "hope-so" hope, where I am unsure if God is willing to uphold his end of the bargain. My trust in Christ is a confident expectation that He will be true to his promise to save me.
Now look at verse 17:
17In the same way God, desiring even more to show
to the heirs of the promise
the unchangeableness of His purpose,
interposed (or negotiated) an oath,
18so that by two unchangeable things
in which it is impossible for God to lie,
we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement
to take hold of the hope set before us.
When we first read these verses, it seems rather complex, so let’s break them down a little. The author’s bottom line is, “Just like God made a promise to Abraham, he made one to us – so that we would be encouraged to hold on to our hope in Jesus.” God has offered a guarantee, so that we won’t have “hope-so” hope. Instead, we will have soul-anchor hope. God has offered a guarantee, and He put it in writing.
I have to confess that these verses have always troubled me. I have always wondered two things: (1) What is the oath? and (2) What are the two things? I suppose YOU don’t get tripped up over these kinds of questions, but they drive ME crazy! So I am going to give you the answers that satisfy me.
I think that the oath the author is talking about is NOT the same one God made to Abraham. I think Abraham is used as an illustration of how God wants us be secure in our salvation. FIRST, the author says, “in the same way.” The Oath is LIKE the one God made to Abraham, but not the same one. SECOND, God is trying to show something to Abraham’s heirs, not Abraham. THIRD, the Oath has two parts, and those are supposed to give us strong encouragement to hold on to our hope in Christ. FINALLY, in the context of Hebrews, there is another oath and it is this one:
Ps 110:4 The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind,
You are a priest forever
according to the order of Melchizedek.
Do you see the “two things”?
FIRST. Christ is a High Priest forever.
SECOND. He is after the order of Melchizedek.
So he is saying, because Jesus lives forever, it encourages us to stick with it in the Christian life. So, let’s ask ourselves, how does this work? How does knowing this about Jesus help me? I give you one reason, and I’m sure there are plenty more, that helps me.
Please turn with me to Hebrews 7:25:
7:25 He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.
Think of this, there will never come a time in all eternity when my sin will stand between the Lord and I. This is marvelous good news. It is one more assurance that I am eternally secure. As long as Jesus lives, His appeal before God on my behalf will always prevail against the accusations of the enemy, even when I stupidly feed the devil more and more evidence against myself. Jesus always lives to make intercession for me.
Because I serve a risen and living Lord, my identity is wrapped up in Him. How I respond to whatever life throws at me, is shaped by my relationship with Jesus Christ. After 24 years of marriage, it is safe to say that my wife Lisa and I don’t always see eye to eye. Sometimes, we are downright cross-eyed in the way we look at each other! But, I have a commitment to her, that is based on my commitment to Christ. The strength of our marriage - really, the foundation for anything I do, is based on my relationship with Christ as Lord. Because He lives, I live. When tough times come, it is WHO I turn to, that makes my hope one the world cannot understand.
The 2nd thing that is to give me hope and confidence, is that Jesus will be after the order of Melchizedek. Now, there are many things I could tell you about Melchizedek - and you can be grateful that I am not going to! The author’s point here is not the comparison of Jesus to Melchizedek, so much as it is a contrast between Jesus and Levi. Jesus is not a priest after the order of Levi. He is not a priest out of the Mosaic Law at all. No, Jesus is a priest of a completely different order.
This highlights how different Jesus’ sacrifice was from the sacrifices required by the Law. The Jewish priests offered bulls and goats day after day after day, week after week after week, month after month after month, year after year after year, and not one ever took away sin. At best they reminded the sinner that he was a sinner. The sacrifices only covered up his sin. But they never did the job. Probably millions of sacrifices, and all of them combined could not take away one single sin. All that blood, and the sin was still there. The guilt was not gone. The gap between God and man lay as wide as ever.
Now contrast that with what Jesus did. There was a day, 2000 years ago, when Jesus offered himself on a cross one time, and one time only. He did it for your sins and mine, and because of that, :19God says, “I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins NO MORE.”(Heb 10:17) At the end Jesus cried out, once and for all: IT IS FINISHED! The one sacrifice of Christ was enough to satisfy God, and your sin, no matter how great, He will remember, NO MORE. There is nothing you can do to earn that. There is nothing you have ever done or ever will do to deserve it. All you have to do is receive it.
Complete in Thee! no work of mine
May take, dear Lord, the place of Thine;
Thy blood hath pardon brought for me
And I am now complete in Thee.
Yea, justified! O blessed thought!
And sanctified! Salvation wrought!
Thy blood had pardon bought for me,
And glorified, I too shall be!
Complete in Thee! no work of mine
May take, dear Lord, the place of Thine.
I have a hope that the world can’t understand. It is not a self-realized hope. It is not a wishing-star hope. It is not a hope-so hope. It is a soul-anchor hope.
19This hope we have as an anchor of the soul,
a hope both sure
and steadfast
and one which enters within the veil,
20where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us,
having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
From what are you seeking refuge? We can’t avoid the fact that men need shelter from God's wrath. He hates sin, and His responds to it with holy and righteous anger. If you have never done business with God over the issue of your sin, His anger is against you, and you are, right now, in need of shelter.
God's promise is for you today: The Lord has sworn, and will not change His mind…Jesus can be your High Priest forever. He can remove your sins forever. And forever covers all your past sins, all your present sins, and even the ones you haven't committed yet. As we saw, He is a priest apart from the Law, so you don't have to do anything to find this shelter. You can say you are sorry a million times, and do good works until the day you die, but that will not purchase God's forgiveness. The only way to get it is by faith; the kind that sees the wonder of Christ’s death on a cross for you. You behold the magnificent Lamb of God, who has taken away your sin, and leaves you in speechless agreement that you need him desperately.
Let me introduce you to an old friend. This is a 1973 Fender Jazz Bass. In 1976, playing this bass was the only identity I had. But even then, I knew that there was no hope in it for me. I just wasn't good enough to make it on my own. So the only hope I had back then was as thin as Walt Whitman's spider web.
Then, one summer night, in the middle of June, a friend told me something that even now, I can't take its full measure. "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life." If I were to use one word to describe my life back then it was this: lost. I had no plan for my life, and no understanding of even where to find one.
My friend Jimmy went on to explain that my problem was sin - but Jesus Christ paid the penalty for that sin. By accepting Christ's death on the cross, I could experience God's plan for me. By God's grace, I said back then, and I say to you right now, "why not?" What is holding you back? Do you really prefer “self-reliant” hope, “wishing-star” hope, or “hope-so” hope? How much better to have hope that is an anchor for your soul!
Little did I know then that God's plan included using my bass to serve Him in all kinds of music ministry. 26 years later, I am still playing this thing. Amazing! If that weren't enough, God has blessed me with the lovely and virtuous Lisa, my wife and the love of my life for 24 years. After 14 years, we saw our first born, Luke, and then in 1997 my second, Michael. I have a hope that God will use their lives to bring glory to Him. And now, in my mid-life years, God is opening a door for me to serve Him vocationally. I have traded the bass for the Bible – well at least most of the time! Amazing!
Now, if that weren't enough, all I have to do is turn to Hebrews 6:19 where I read: "This hope we have as an anchor for the soul, sure and steadfast, and one which enters within the veil where Jesus entered as a forerunner for us." Now if it weren't enough that God has had a plan for me that far exceeded what this lost soul expected in 1976, he has given me this: At any time, in any place, in my deepest sorrows, my highest joys, in the depravity of my sinful nature and the holiness of Jesus Christ, I can follow my Lord Jesus right into the veil, and come face to face with the God who created me, and entrust my soul to Him, knowing that He cares for me.
Who does the world turn to in a crisis? What kind of hope do they have? Is it self-reliant hope? Is it “wishing-star” hope? If they don’t know Jesus, can they have anything other than “hope-so” hope? No, they cannot. And should we not, as those who have this hope, be willing to introduce them to the Author of Hope, so that they can understand His message?
Let’s pray: Father, there are many here who know you as Lord, and even now are standing in awe and worship at what You have done for them. We do worship You, for You are worthy of it.
But there are some here who need to do business with You right now. They are already agreeing in their heart that they are sinners, and have come to have a change of mind about Jesus Christ.
Friends, if you are in need of transacting with God, would you repeat – right now - to yourself this simple prayer? Understand that it is not the exact words that matter, but the sincerity of your heart.
“Lord Jesus, I am lost, and I need you. I have no hope, and I want hope that is an anchor for my soul. I have sinned, and beg Your forgiveness. I trust in your death on the cross, as payment for my sins, and I believe that you have been raised from the dead and are alive today to guarantee my salvation. Please come into my life, and make me the kind of person you want me to be. Amen.”
May God bless you today, and may YOU have a hope, that the world can’t understand!
