Christmas Day 2023

Hope

“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” (Rom 15:13)

A little boy wrote to Santa Claus, saying, “Dear Santa, you did not bring me anything good last year. You did not bring me anything good the year before that. This is your last chance. Signed, Alfred.” Now there is a little boy who has just about lost hope!

I. God Gives Hope!

Thankfully, Christmas brings with it the gift of hope, which Paul says, can be ours, if we will but take a moment to pray for it - “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.” (New Living Bible)

And we all need HOPE! Dante describes how above the door of Hell is written: “All hope abandoned, ye who enter here!” In contrast it was Cicero who famously said: “While there is life, there is hope!”

Augustine once memorably said: “Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are anger and courage; anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are”.

BUT WHAT IS HOPE? - Vaclav Havel said: “Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.”

And this connects the need for hope with the source of hope. For the Christian, God is “the God of Hope” - the source of our Hope; the one we hold onto and look to, when nothing makes sense and all seems out of control!

Back in the days of sailing ships a young sailor went to sea for the first time. The ship encountered a heavy storm in the North Atlantic.

The sailor was commanded to go aloft and trim the sails. As the young sailor started to climb, he made a mistake and looked down. The roll of the ship combined with the tossing of the waves made for a frightening experience. The young man started to lose his balance. At that moment, an older expereinced sailor below shouted, "Look up, son! Look up!" The young sailor looked up and regained his balance. “Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” (Desmond Tutu).

When things go wrong, the Holy Spirit whispers into our hearts "Look up, son! Look up!" That’s how we regain our balance! This is how we receive our peace and recover our joy; our confident security!

II. Jesus is our Hope!

God gives Hope by giving us the unspeakably wonderful gift of His Son Jesus!

And it began in a manger, in Bethlehem - Isaiah 9:3-9, “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….…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. 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.”

God came down to us at Christmas to be with us: “You shall call His name, Emmanuel, which means, God with us”! Not just for one day, but everyday of our lives, to give us HOPE and dispel our darkness!

The writer to the Hebrews, speaks of this Hope as “an anchor for the soul, firm and secure” (Hebrews 6:19 NIV).

And to ensure that this does not become an abstract thing; a mere feeling of confidence, he exhorts us to “fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith”(Heb 12:2)

He was writing at the time to those who were being persecuted for doing just that! Those who were suffering and being imprisoned, even martyred for their faith. In the midst of such darkness, he wants then not to lose sight of Jesus who “for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross and scorned its shame” so that we could have the hope of eternal life in Him!

Such hope “anchors the soul” - Looking to Jesus does not stop the storms of life or even change the immediate situations we face, but loooking to Jesus, like an anchor steadies us to survive in the midst of the storm.

We look to Jesus for Hope when things seem hopeless!

And Peter calls this HOPE, “a living hope”!

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you,.”(1 Peter 1:3-9)

Peter, writing around 30 years after the death and resurrection of our Jesus Christ, wanted to encourage the beleaguered Christians of Asia Minor. Who were being abused by overbearing employers(1 Pet 2:18), threatened by unbelieving spouses (1 Pet 3:1, 6), and ridiculed by skeptical neighbors and associates (1 Pet 4:14). The future looked bleak and on the horizon loomed the possibility of a much more violent form of persecution (1 Pet 4:12-18). At such times we need HOPE!

Some of you will be familiar with the Peanuts cartoon?

In one story, Lucy and Linus were sitting in front of the television set when Lucy said to Linus, “Go get me a glass of water.” Looking surprised, Linus responds, “Why should I do anything for you? You never do anything for me.” So Lucy promised, “On your 75th birthday I’ll bake you a cake.” Linus thought for a moment, then got up and headed to the kitchen, saying, “Life is more pleasant when you have something to look forward to.”

“Life is more pleasant when you have something to look forward to.”

When things go wrong; when storms come; when we face up to out weakness and mortailty, we have a “LIVING HOPE” that is ours, as a GIFT from God, encapsulated in that tiny infant, who grew up to live and die for us, trumphing over sin and death through His resurrection so that we might have “an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you,.”(1 Peter 1:3-9)

The New Testament idea of hope is very different from our normal thinking about hope.

I hope that Newcastle may win the Premier League title. I don't know that they will but I hope so. In this sense my hope is a desire for some future thing which I am uncertain of!

This is not the way Peter, or the rest of the New Testament, thinks about hope. When Peter says in 1 Peter 1:13, "Hope fully in the grace that is coming to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ," he does not mean we should desire it and be uncertain of it, he means that our hope is one of complete confidence for all believers, being fully confident that Jesus Christ who came to earth over two thousand years ago to save us from our sin, is coming again for his people! It’s a LIVING HOPE; it makes a difference to EVERYDAY LIFE and the writer to Hebrew Christians says in Hebrews 6:11 "We desire each one of you to show the same earnestness in realizing the full assurance of hope to the end."

Our HOPE is a full assurance and strong confidence that God is going to do good to us in the future - Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” It believes in and “draws near to God”(Heb 11:6) and fixes its “eyes on Jesus!”

Application:

“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” (Rom 15:13)

Do you have HOPE this Christmas Day? Here we are celebrating with carols that send out a message of Hope!

O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie!

Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by.

Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting Light;

The hopes and fears of all the years are met in Thee tonight.

This Hope can become ours by accepting God’s gift of Jesus - 1 Peter 1:3 says, “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.”

We can be “BORN AGAIN” - our life can BEGIN AGAIN if we simply accewpt the gift of Jesus into our hearts and lives!

And the GOOD NEWS is that HOPE is just a prayer away! - “May the God of your hope so fill you with all joy and peace in believing [through the experience of your faith] that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound and be overflowing (bubbling over) with hope.” (The Amplified Bible)

If you are feeling stressed; anxious; frustrated or disappointed, counter this with the wonderful and compelling HOPE you have in Jesus!

1 Peter 5:7, "Cast all your anxieties on me because I care for you."

Remind yourself with the words of the Psalmist, “Why are you downcast, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me--Hope in God!" (Psalm 43:5)

In C.S Lewis’ book The Lion; the Witch and the Wardrobe, 4 children discover a magical wardrobe and stumble into the land of Narnia, where it’s always winter and never Christmas because the land is under the curse of the evil White Witch, Jadis.

The Narnians long for spring, well, really they long for much more than spring, they long to be rescued from the evil witch, they long for the return of Aslan, the Rightful ruler of Narnia; they long for hope that is bigger than their everyday hardships and struggles.

Later in the Voyage of the Dawn Treader at the end of the book, the great lion Aslan tells the two Pevensie children, who we first met in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, that their adventures in Narnia have come to an end. They will not be returning to this country again. And Edmund and Lucy are reallyy upset. “‘It isn’t Narnia,’ you know, sobbed Lucy. ‘It’s you. We shan’t meet you there. And how can we live, never meeting you?’” They have come to love him and serve him, and they can’t think of life without him. “You shall meet me, dear one,” said Aslan. “Are—are you there, too, Sir?” said Edmund. “I am,” said Aslan. “But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason that you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.”

Years later, after reading this passage in Dawn Treader, a little girl named Hila wrote to Lewis, asking him, what is Aslan’s other name? Ever the teacher, Lewis responded, “Well I want you to guess. Has there never been anyone in this world who (1.) Arrived at the same time as Father Christmas. (2.) Said he was the son of the Great Emperor. (3.) Gave himself for someone else’s fault to be jeered at and killed by wicked people. (4.) Came to life again. (5.) Is sometimes spoken of as a Lamb.” He appears as a lamb at the end of Dawn Treader. “Don’t you really know His name in this world. Think it over and let me know your answer!”

Can you imagine a world without Christmas? No Christmas tree, no gifts, no family gatherings; no Christmas carols, no Grinch, or It’s a Wonderful Life.

Into this world of cynical hopelessness, true Hope was born. Hope for the forgiveness of sins. Hope for a bright future—forever in Jesus, our “Emmanuel, God with us”!

Hope for God’s presence and power in daily living. Hope that would enable us to forget the past and set our sights on stuff that doesn’t disappoint. A hope that is a certainty and not just another wish to be dashed on the rocks of reality.

And what a wonderful hope it is - “May the God of your hope so fill you with all joy and peace in believing [through the experience of your faith] that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound and be overflowing (bubbling over) with hope.” (The Amplified Bible)

This Christmas Day, I pray you will have an overflowing hope; a confident hope, a “bubbling over” hope, so that you will be blessed today and forevermore!