Encountering Hope

We have encounters every day. Encounters with people, problems, and even possibilities. But how many of those would we say are encounters of a Divine kind?

What do I mean by encounters of a divine kind?

Those moments where we are profoundly aware that God is up to something. He is stirring our hearts. He is convicting our souls. He is reminding us of His presence. He is with us, leading us, giving us grace, strength, hope, love, peace. Those moments where we are able to experience His presence, see His love, feel His passion, know His heart, join His mission. We encounter the divine!

Over the next 5 weeks we are going to see people who encountered the divine and how it changed their world. Are you ready to encounter the divine?

Let see something …

How many of you are happy this morning?

How many of you are hopeful this morning?

How many of you are happy and hopeful?

If you had a choice, would you rather be happy or hopeful?

Slide Do you want happiness, or do you want hope?

Can I have both? Actually, you can but there is a catch … Let me illustrate it …

To people are working the same job on an assembly line …

One is told he will make 10 thousand a year.

The other is told he will make 10 million a year.

They take a lunch break …

One says, “isn’t this the most tedious, boring, sorry job you have ever had?”

The other guys say “no, not at all, and in fact I am really looking forward to the remainder of the year.”

What’s the difference – their hope. One has a totally different belief about the future.

They are experiencing the same circumstances completely differently because their expectations about the future and the end results are totally different. Expectations can change your experience of life in the moment!

So can you have both? Yes, but only if happiness is tide to your hopeful expectations of the future.

Do you have hope this morning?

Slide What is Hope?

Most people understand hope as wishful thinking, as in "I hope something good will happen." This is not what the Bible means by hope. The Biblical definition of hope is "confident expectation, the belief in a future certain reality!

The writer of Hebrews wrote …

Slide Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1

Slide For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11

Paul wrote in Romans

Slide For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Romans 8:24–25

That means waiting in hope even when we are not happy in our circumstances! As a matter of fact … it isn’t until you are unhappy that you discover how important hope is and lean on it as your strength! G.K. Chesterton writes …

Slide Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all... As long as matters are really hopeful, hope is mere flattery or platitude; it is only when everything is hopeless that hope begins to be a strength. G.K. Chesterton

Slide We are unavoidably hope oriented creatures.

In his book Things Unseen: Living with Eternity in Your Heart, Mark Buchanan points out how we all continually live for the "Next Thing"—the next item on our checklist of luxuries, the next job, the next adventure.

Buchanan shows how we are taught …

… not to value things too much, but to value them too little. We forget to treasure and to savor. The pressure of constant wanting dissipates all gratitude. The weight of restless craving plunders all enjoyment.

It’s like a child on Christmas morning that tears into one present after another, never really stopping to enjoy what they have received, treasuring each gift and the love with which each gift has been given … then when they get to the last gift … they are wondering is that all? Is there more?

As Buchanan said … it is the weight of restless craving that plunders all enjoyment … but then there is a twist … He writes.

Slide He made us to yearn—to always be hungry for something we can't get, to always be missing something we can't find, to always be disappointed with what we receive, to always have an insatiable emptiness that nothing can fill, and an untamable restlessness that no discovery can still. Yearning itself is healthy—a kind of compass inside us pointing to True North. It's not the wanting that corrupts us. What corrupts us is the wanting that's misplaced, set on the wrong thing.

Nothing in this world can satisfy our deepest desires.

The Life Lie – That anything will make you happy … if I find the right partner, the right job, earn enough money, go to the right school, do the right things …

Slide My hope will always disappoint – because my desires are insatiable.

But that is how God made the world. The hole in our lives can only be filled with the hope that is in Christ and him alone. Hope can’t be found in what the world has to offer. As C.S. Lewis said …

Slide Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. C.S. Lewis

We encounter hope we discover that there is truly a hope worth having!

Slide There is a hope worth having!

As Paul wrote …

Slide For in this hope we were saved. Now hopethat is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hopefor what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Romans 8:24–25

For hundreds of years the prophets proclaimed the coming of a messiah who would save people from their sins. One who would rescue, redeem, liberate them from oppression, slavery and restore the throne of King David. They lived with that hope that they could not see!

Then Jesus comes on the scene and word gets out … the messiah is here, the one whom the prophets spoke of … our hope is here!

Slide Wherever Jesus went, people encountered hope!

Jesus proclaimed, repent for the kingdom of heaven is coming and is even now here!

This morning in our text we see the triumphant entry into Jerusalem. This is the last week of Jesus’ life and yet, we won’t finish the book of Matthew until the end of December, because in this last week so much was said, so much happened that we will unpack for the remainder of the year in the last 8 chapters. When you and I encounter hope that is only found in Jesus … several things change… first.

Slide When we encounter hope, obedience is a joy!

When your hope is in Jesus, obedience is a joy. Jesus said, if you love me you will obey be. So, the disciples ability, desire and joy in obedience is evident …

Slide Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. Matthew 21:1–2

On this Sunday, starting out from Bethany, a village located on the eastern slopes of the Mount of Olives and about two miles east of Jerusalem (John 11:18), Jesus and his disciples were nearing Bethphage (“house of unripe figs”). The Mount of Olives is a rounded ridge to the northeast of Jerusalem. At its highest point it rises to a height of over 2600 feet above sea level, about 250 feet above the hill on which the temple was built.

We don’t know how Jesus knew. It could have divine knowledge or someone had offered the use of the donkey and colt. Matthew is the only gospel to say that there was a donkey and a colt.

We don’t know if Jesus had been told that if he ever needed a donkey or a colt, come on by the house and what I have is yours. The disciples simply do what they are instructed to do. Jesus continues with his instructions …

Slide If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’” Matthew 21:3-5

The Lord, not my Lord, not our Lord, … The Lord! I wonder if the one who stopped them was a disciple, a follower of Jesus who would naturally agree to them taking the donkey and the colt, rather than some Jedi saying that simply cause the owner to look the other way.

There is a joy about serving the Lord with what we have. When Jesus asks, do we say yes. When Jesus leads do we say yes? We never know how our obedience will lead to someone encountering hope!

The prophet Zechariah would write this prophecy around 500 B.C. or some 500 years before Jesus was born.

Slide Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. Zechariah 9:9

So Jesus, prepares to enter Jerusalem, sends two disciples to retrieve a donkey and a colt.

Slide The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. Matthew 21:6-7

Them, cloaks, not them as a donkey and colt. The scene is set, crowds are gathering, the processional is growing, the cheers are swelling, the chants, the smiles, the celebration … it is electric … why?

Because when we encounter hope, worship is our response …

Slide When we encounter hope, worship is our response!

When the Jesus is our hope, when He alone has come to purchase our freedom with his very life. When what is promised is greater than all our pain. When our salvation is greater than our suffering then worship, filled with confession, repentance, praise, attention, adoration, affection, and allegiance is given.

Slide Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” Matthew 21:8-9

This is the response of a people who recognize the king of kings and lord of lords. The crowd spread their cloaks on the road while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road the crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted Hosanna to the son of David – referring to the restoration of the throne of David, Hosanna means Lord save us save us blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

It is Passover week, this is one of the greatest high holy celebrations in all of Judaism. The first century historian Josephus tells us that the city of Jerusalem swells in population during Passover. Upwards of a million people coming to this city and now there is a buzz.

What is amazing is these very same people, that are shouting Hosanna lord save us … many will be the very same people at the end of the week who are shouting crucify him, kill him … lord save us kill him crucify him. Soon Jesus will be betrayed, arrested, and sentenced to death. The Psalmist writes …

Slide The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Save us, we pray, O Lord! O Lord, we pray, give us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We bless you from the house of the Lord. Psalm 118:22–26

Moltmann writes of the righteousness versus success that is ours …

Slide Christian hope does not promise successful days to the rich and the strong, but resurrection and life to those who must exist in the shadows of death. Success is no name of God. Righteousness is. Jürgen Moltmann

God’s name is righteousness and in him is our salvation.

This King is not the fulfilment of men’s dreams but of a specific Messianic prophecy: He is both great and humble, exalted and lowly. He is the One who in this very act is riding … to his death, and thus to victory, a victory not only for himself but also for his true people, those who believe in him.

This is “your” King, your very own. He is coming to you, that is, to benefit you, to bless you, to save you. This King is meek, gentle, peaceful, gracious. This also explains why he is mounted on an donkey not on a high-spirited war steed, or on a prancing white stallion.

If we were to zoom out and take a 10,000 foot view above the city and what we would notice is …

Slide There was another processional …

Jesus’ procession was not the only procession that was being celebrated at this time because across town on the west side of the city there's another triumphal entry. There’s a fascinating book written by Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan called The Last Week and they make an historical point that in 30 AD Pontius Pilate rides into Jerusalem at the beginning of Passover week at the west end of the city and as he rides into town he's on a war horse because he's the governor and as governor he is protector of the peace and behind him he leads soldiers on horseback and on foot and it would have been an incredible spectacle, in fact we get these historical details about what this might have been like.

Picture each soldier was clad in leather armor polished to a high gloss. Soldiers wore really thick leather to absorb the blow of a knife or an arrow but you can polish leather so it becomes brightly shining.

So here's Pilate riding into Jerusalem on the first day of the week on the west end of the city leading a troop of soldiers with polished leather and helmets gleaming in the bright sunlight and swords crafted from the hardest steel and in their hands each Centurion carried his spear or if he was an archer a bow with a sling of arrows across his back and drummer's beat out the cadence of march as pilot made his triumphal entry into the city.

What's going on, why would Pilot do this? Because pilot as governor of the region knew that it was standard practice for local governors of a foreign territory to be in that city during Jewish high holy festivals. Why? As a show of force. The Romans understood that Passover was a Jewish celebration of the liberation the Jews because God saved them from the oppressive culture of the Egyptians hundreds of years ago. So if nationalism and Jewish zealousness was going to be at an all-time high, it was going to be during Passover week. It was just 80 years earlier that the Romans conquered the Jews, took over their cities moved into Jerusalem and began ruling over the nation of Israel and so as Pilate comes in with his war horses and his armies he's sending a very strong message and that if you rise up against Rome she will put you down so don't get too carried away in your national zealousness now you can have your High Holy Week but just remember you are under Rome's Authority lest you think your God's is going to deliver you again from another Empire. It's not going to happen, Rome will crush you!

On the west side you have this triumphal entry from Pilate. An absolute show of might and power and force!

On the other side of the city you have this homeless guy who claims to be a rabbi leading a ragtag group of followers riding in on a donkey and people are celebrating him. What Jesus is doing is actually launching a counter processional. If Pilot’s procession was meant to be a show of force, Jesus procession was meant to show the opposite he comes in humility.

One processional was meant to illicit fear… the other faith.

One processional was meant to keep hopelessness in place.

The other to usher in a kingdom of hope. Because …

Slide When we encounter hope, our lives are never the same!

Hope changes everything!

Slide And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.” Matthew 21:10-11

The whole city is stirred and they ask who is this guy riding into town on a donkey and he's got a few hundred people following him waving palm branches putting their cloaks out in front of him on dusty roads giving him all this honor and respect and who is this and the crowds answered this is Jesus the Prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.

So what can we do? Choose hope in the Lord.

Slide Where is your hope today?

Slide Hope in Jesus will NEVER disappoint!

Slide 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, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 1 Peter 1:3–5

Slide Choose Jesus as your only hope!

Slide 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. Romans 15:13

Pray

Song – Son of Heaven – This is the one in whom we have hope! He is our hope!