Hope is Alive!
Notes
Transcript
The anticipation built as the theater darkened, the curtain curled back revealing a group of dancers in the middle of an audition. The choreographer’s voice is the only one you hear repeatedly calling out the dance combination they’re working on as a single piano plays.
Then there’s the explosion of the orchestra entering full throttle, the dance comes together and the song begins - “I hope I get it! I hope I get it…” This wasn’t the plea of children’s hyper-focus upon what they might be receiving for Christmas, this was performers wanting a job.
This is the opening scene of the long running Broadway musical, A Chorus Line. It tells the story of performers seeking to make it into the cast of the latest musical.
Auditions are a theatrical performers job interview. They’re often brutal in the way they choose who will and won’t make the cut. Some are cut before they even have an opportunity to audition. Wrong body type, wrong hair, too tall, too short, too (fill in the blank). My sister once attended an “open” audition in So. Cal. where they simply announced before the audition even started, “We’re not looking for any girls, but we’ll let you audition anyway.” After travel, housing, food expenses to even get to the audition? Brutal.
“I hope I get it…”
As we enter the Advent Season we begin with the theme of Hope.
HOPE
HOPE
Hope and faith are closely related. We read in the book of Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Things hoped for…
Our passage this morning speaks of a hope and one that ties well into the book of Revelation that we’ve been studying these past few weeks. Our passage this morning speaks of the Jesus’ return, but it is part of a much larger context as so often is true in Scripture.
His return is set up as going to happen at the end of the age.
This past week in one of our Bible Studies we simply began looking up verses with the word hope in them. If you have a study Bible in the back there is a concordance. A concordance is where you can look up a word and then it will list all the verses that have that word in them.
Nowadays many of us have the Bible’s on our phones, and just putting in the word “Hope” in my digital concordance I got no fewer than 74 hits. Verses such as:
Job 11:18-19
And you will feel secure, because there is hope; you will look around and take your rest in security. You will lie down, and none will make you afraid; many will court your favor.
Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love,
but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
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.
Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
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.
So lets’ take a few moments to go through our passage this morning with a mindset towards hope. We start with Matthew 24:36-37
“But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
1. Uncertainty and Urgency
1. Uncertainty and Urgency
People think they can figure out the timing of Jesus return, but the reality is that we don’t know. Yet there is a sense that his return is imminent.
In this season of the Holidays no doubt you’re decorating, cooking, inviting people over, exchanging gifts and such, and in the midst of it all you don’t know exactly when guests will arive. Will they be early? Will they be late?
There is an uncertainty. And if you’re like I was on Thanksgiving watching the clock and hoping the turkey didn’t get done early while waiting for my guests to arrive. There was a sense of Uncertainty.
There was also a sense of urgency. That turkey comes out of the oven and then there’s everything else, rolls go into the oven, the sweet potatoes go into the oven, the mashed potatoes get whipped, the corn gets cooked, and there is a scramble to get everything ready at once.
Just like we work with anticipation for our dinner guests to arrive at a special meeting, we need to do the same when it comes to Jesus return.
For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
2. Normalcy and Neglect
2. Normalcy and Neglect
In the days of Noah the people of the time got caught uip in the day to day activities, they were not a people that took heed of God’s commands save Noah and his family. The peo;le went about as if there was nothing that was going to happen.
Then when something did happen, they weren’t ready. This is the challenge living in our time, even for you and I as Christians. We study our Bibles and we read that Jesus promised His return, he said things like “this generation shall not pass away…”, we read of Paul talking about Christ’s return being any day now and we recognize they said and wrote these things 2000 years ago. So…what’s the rush.
It’s easy to neglect being ready.
Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left.
3. Separation and Surprise
3. Separation and Surprise
Larry Norman wrote a popular song that was covered by the Christian pop group DC Talk, called “I Wish We’d All Been Ready,” that uses this illustration. Whether one is taken away to final judgment while the other remains to experience salvation at Christ’s return, or the one who is taken is among the elect that the Son of Man will gather and the other is left for behind for judgment is not the point of this passage.
Yes, it creates a fascinating picture, but is that the point? No the point is that there will be a separating of those who are prepared for Jesus return and those who are not, it will happen suddenly and as a surprise. So the lament of Larry Norman’s lyrics rings true, I wish we’d all been ready.
We ougth to seek daily to align our lives with God’s purposes and to live faithfuly now.
Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
4. Awake and Alert
4. Awake and Alert
We live in an age of complacency in many aspects of our spiritual lives. One has only to open our news feeds, turn on the television, or open a newspaper to know this world is not the paradise we might hope for. We dream of a time when war will be no more, where there will be an end to disease and famine, where peace will rule. This is the promise we find in the Scriptures.
It hasn’t happened yet, so we reason it won’t likely happen today and so we go about as if nothing will change. Charle Colson famously said,
“Where is the hope? I meet millions of people who feel demoralized by the decay around us. The hope that each of us has is not in who governs us, or what laws we pass, or what great things we do as a nation. Our hope is in the power of God working through the hearts of people.”
If it is true that our Hope is in the power of God working through our hearts, how are we livng to make that happen?
The season of Advent overlaps with our anticipation of the Christmas holiday. It is difficult at times to separate the secular influence of our world from the practice of our faith. I want to encourage you this season to double down on your efforts to put God first in life.
Set aside time to be in the Word. Perhaps you want to focus on the birth narratives in the opening chapters of Matthew and Luke. Spending time in the word is important.
Set aside time to pray. Don’t just spew a litany of all the things you want. Spend time thanking God, praising God, adoring God.
Set aside time to be silent and listen. This is perhaps the most lost aspect of prayer in our busy culture. God speaks, let’s listen.
I know you will be blessed as you make this true in your life, and God will be glorified. To God be the glory. AMEN
