HOPE

-Intro to Advent

This is the 4th Sunday before Christmas which marks the first day of Advent in which is a season of waiting and preparation for the birth of Christ and also His future return.

The early development is said to be in the 4th-6th centuries

The word advent comes from the Latin “adventus” meaning “coming” or “Arrival” SO on the Advent calendar the first key theme is Hope.

I love this time of year because I know that it gets busy and we have so much going on in this season and I see it to be necceassary that we re-center our hearts and minds towards the reason we celebrate and the reason we worship and gather.

SO this morning we will see what scripture has to say about HOPE

1 Peter is written to persecuted christians scattered abroad from and to these specific areas in which christianity had extended in the first several decades after the beginning of the Church. Studies believe this letter was written during 62-63AD

Id like to turn to 1 Peter 1:1-9

Verse 3, Praise God for his GREAT MERCY in which caused us to be born again to a LIVING HOPE because CHRIST LIVES.

I love that he begins the writing with giving all praise to God the father , when you take into consideration of what is happening historically to believers in Christ. They were being treated harshly , beaten , exiled, killed , mocked for their faith in this man named Jesus.

As I prayed and prepared for this message I began to ask some simple questions and the first one is “man what is Hope”?

The definition of Hope is - a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen or a feeling of trust.

The next question was this “what does this world say that Hope is” after some thought and reflection upon my on observation of my life and observation of our culture I think that sometimes The Hope is in what we could achieve by hard work or discipline, Hope in the byproduct of discipline and relentlessness. Hope in the 401K That is going to allow you to retire some day. Or hope in a future business investment.

While none of the things I just listed are necessarily wrong when I read verse 4 well see something very important

READ Verse 4-5, Now an inheritance is a permanent , essential and inseparable part of a person or thing. The thing about a worldly inheritance is that everything has a time limit, everything has an expiration date, Your great grandfathers chevy will some day rust and rot and no longer be of use , The inherited finances will run epmty at some point. Every person on this earth has a day in which he or she will depart from this life.

As I pondered on these things , as I thought of the original audience being written to, Man Peter writes this letter because these people put their hope and trust in Jesus and they are now being persecuted. Its fair to think that maybe their hope could have been nearing compromise or even abandoning.

IF we remember the definition of Hope it starts of a feeling of expectation , I thought to myself recently from studying this exact passage man why do we loose hope? why do people abandon the faith? And the conclusion was that we loose our hope when we have UN-biblical expectations of this life.

Peter writes that our hope is in the heavenly inheritance that is imperishable , undefiled , and unfading , kept in heaven for you. The truth is there is only one real HOPE that is imperishable , undefiled , unfading and its in our Salvation through Christ Jesus.

“The only imperishable hope is that which climbs above the stars, and fixes itself upon the throne of God and the person of Jesus Christ.” (Spurgeon)

SO if man puts his hope in things that will perish , and fade and will be corrupted does he have hope at all? I would argue NO

These persecuted Christians didn’t really have hope in anything other than their heavinley inheritance because things were not easy for them to follow Jesus. Put your faith in Jesus at this time you may loose your life for it. SO he directs them to focus their eyes on the things above and on their eternal inheritance kept in heaven for them.

Verese 6-9 , Church as you can see here in this passage we will endure and encounter trials in this life. Its possible that some of us have been told that once you put your faith and Hope in Christ that life turns into a cake walk and all trials disappear. That is an un-biblical expectation of THIS life which leads too abandoning of the faith. I know that it is likely that someone in this room has had a rough life lately, Loss of loved ones, marital stuggles, prodical sons and daughters , financial issues, or maybe you’ve just struggled mentally with self worth or guilt or shame.

THERE is Hope , and the HOPE is in the heavinly inheritance , where there is no pain , there is no suffering , there is no sin, there is no struggle. AND the glory that awaits us in Heaven is so much greater than any trial we may encounter , its so much bigger and better than anything that we could ever imagine.

And all of this is made possible when a baby was born through a virgin to fulfill old testament prophecy and that babies name was Jesus and he lived a sinless life and was put on cross to pay the debt of our sin paving the way for us to inherit a life in heaven.

- the only imperishable hope is that which climbs above the stars, and fixes itself upon the throne of God and the person of Jesus Christ.” (Spurgeon)

Altar call