What Hope Do We Have?

Our hope is God’s mighty love and power are for us.

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Intro me

This morning I want us all to be encouraged by two great reasons for hope: hope for us - as individuals and as a church - and hope for our city - hence the name! Hope City!

So I wanted to start with a question: what are you hoping for just now? What do you hope for? Would you grab that QR code and let me know. Anonymous answers. What are you hoping for today? Hope I’m going to be brief?! Well, get your answers in quick and we’ll be done sooner!

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Well, before we talk too much about hope, we need to get clear on what we mean by it: Hope, as we would often talk about it today, is often just a sort of wishful dream. You know, we might say “I hope it doesn’t rain today”, looking nervously up at the grey sky. And what we mean is we wish it wouldn’t rain today - but we fear it will. And, my friends, we live in Scotland - so we can hope it doesn’t rain all we like - but apart from the odd day in May or September, we’re basically dreaming. Or “I hope Scotland win the world cup”… but again, basically dreaming!

That’s how hope often works in our conversation, right: when we “hope” for something, we’re saying it’s a desired outcome, a future we’d like to see - and perhaps we’re even hinting it’s an unlikely future - something we’re worried won’t happen. Hoping for something - wishing for it - doesn’t have anything to do with whether it’s really going to happen or not. Doesn’t have any bearing on whether it’s really going to happen or not.

But that is not how the word “hope” works in the bible - and that is not the sort of hope we’re talking about today. When the bible talks about hope, it means something unseen - out of sight, maybe not yet come to pass - but also something sure. Something we can be confident of, ahead of us. So you could hope for the dawn in the dark of night. Because although the sun’s out of sight just now, it will surely rise tomorrow. That’s hope, the bible sense of hope: unseen-but-sure. That’s the hope we’re going to be talking about this morning, ok? unseen-but-sure

So let’s dive into the bible. And we’re going to pick up in the middle of a letter from a guy called Paul, one of Jesus’ earliest followers, to an early church in a difficult place. He’s writing down a prayer for them, praying they - and we, too - would know God better. And one of the things that comes with that is hope. So come with me to Ephesians chapter 1 and we’ll pick up at verse 18. Page 1173. Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 18. Look for the big 1 and then the tiny 18. Page 1173 and Ruth/Abraham is reading for us this morning.

Ephesians 1:18–22 NIV

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church,

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In that short, dense passage we’re going to be thinking about this morning Paul gives us two foundations for hope - for that unseen-but-sure kind of hope we’ve been talking about, two foundations he wants us to begin to see, or to come to see better. And I think we really can do that this morning, have our eyes opened a bit more to this, in just the few minutes we’re together. Two foundations for hope. Let’s unpack that together.

That first foundation, I have to admit, is slightly opaque: “the riches of his [that is, God’s] glorious inheritance in his holy people”. Let’s take that back-to-front to get inside what this phrase really means. So, first “holy people”, or, as you might find it in older translations “the saints”. Who’s that? Us, church. Us.

Holy has two basic senses: first, it means “set apart” - so God is holy in that he is set apart from every other being: different, special, unique. Second, holy also has the sense of “pure, perfect, worthy of God” - so when we call something - or someone - holy, we’d mean they were set apart and pure or perfect.

And who are this “holy people”? I said “us” - but really, how holy do you feel? Let me be honest: I don’t see many halos out there. And I have to tell you I don’t feel very holy either - it can be quite disconcerting with my job to be aware just how little I match up to that perfect, pure, worthy standard. Or set apart - I mean, come on, how much are we really set apart, reserved for God? And how much do we just feel like, and act like, ordinary everyday people, like everyone else? So why do I say we are that “holy people”? How can that be?

Well, we have to hop back a bit to verse 4 - see Ephesians 1:4 God “chose us in him [that is, in Jesus] before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.” and that holy has both the “set apart” and the “worthy of God” in it. And how could we be that? Verse 7 Ephesians 1:7 “In him we have redemption [that means freedom, a rescue] through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace” - see that redemption and forgiveness, that’s what makes it right to call God’s people holy - it’s the gift of God, in His grace, through the blood of Jesus, dying on the cross in our place.

So, church, we’re that “holy people”. Next, our writer calls us God’s “glorious inheritance.” What does that mean? We’re not the cash God will get when someone else dies and their property’s divided up - that’s what inheritance means today - but it’s not that. He’s talking about the ancient Hebrew understanding of it: your inheritance was the particular part of the Land God gave His people, land which belonged to your family forever, down through the generations. When you talked about your inheritance it wasn’t about people dying and leaving you stuff, it meant your patch, your own special bit, something no-one could ever take away which would always be yours. That was your inheritance. When the bible says the church is God’s glorious inheritance that’s God staking his claim on us: we are His own special portion forever. We’re his personal bit, his forever patch. That make more sense?

Ok, last bit to unpack here: why is this a foundation for hope, that unseen-yet-sure hope we’ve been talking about? See “the riches” the phrase starts with? You might read that thinking it’s talking about riches for us - riches which belong to this glorious inheritance which is His holy people. Sounds good - but that’s not reading it right. That’s not what it actually says. It’s saying we are the riches of this glorious inheritance. We’re the treasure in God’s forever patch, his inheritance. You know what that means? God treasures us - to Him, we are riches; we are precious; we are valuable.

Now there are some people who really do think they are so important, so significant, who have this super high view of their worth. But I think for most of us, it’s actually pretty hard to believe deep down that we really are precious, valuable, significant. And I think a lot of the sadness in our world come from people desperately trying to prove this to themselves - “I am someone. I am significant. I do matter.” - and a lot of the sadness in our world comes from people totally disbelieving it, too: “I’m no one. I’m not significant. I don’t matter”.

I don’t think Christians are necessarily much better at this - but we should be. Because the truth is we are treasured. we are precious. And not just that, we’re treasured by the most important person in the universe. We’re precious to God.

If you’re not a Christian, just imagine for a minute that was really true. Imagine someone - someone who knew you through and through, inside and out, good and bad - treasured you; that nothing you could do, no mess up, no failure to come, could ever shake that. Then imagine that someone wasn’t just a lunatic high on some love-drug but the most awesome and powerful being in the universe. That you, personally, were precious to them. That’s pretty profound, right? That should change how you live! Christians, this is pretty profound, right! This should change how we live! God treasures us - he knows us this profoundly, and he loves us this profoundly.

You might be wondering how do we really know that is true? Why would we really think we’re treasured, precious, loved like that? What evidence is there for such a massive claim? Well here’s the evidence: Jesus going to the cross. “This is my son whom I love” God says over Jesus at his baptism. And this son - God’s beloved son - out of love for his people, voluntarily goes to his death at the cross. The bible itself talks about what this means, what this shows us: Rom 5:7-8

Romans 5:7–8 NIV

Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

What do we see at the cross? We see God’s love for us on display.

So are you in a hard place just now? One that makes it hard to believe God actually loves you? Because I know life is hard for many people in this room - I have the privilege of being inside some of the stories. Perhaps even this Easter morning you are asking yourself “how could a God who loves me let this happen to me”?

When those questions come, try today to turn them around and towards the cross: “why would a God who doesn’t love me let that happen”? Because that’s what’s on display at the cross - God’s love. God’s love for you. he loves you that much. When we need reminding, need convincing, that’s where we should look.

Now this doesn’t magic the hard things of today away. They are still hard. God’s love doesn’t promise things will always be easy. But it does help us see hard things in perspective - looking at them kind of beyond the cross as it were, trying to always see the the cross in the foreground as we look at our struggles, seeing our current struggles in the light of God’s demonstrated love for us, his extreme love for us, love which goes all the way.

Maybe we still can’t understand why a God who loves us this much would let this happen. But at least as we struggle, we can do that with renewed confidence that God really does love us this much. It’s not that he doesn’t care. Or your struggle doesn’t matter to him. It’s not arbitrary, just a meaningless accident in the universe.

And if you’re not a Christian here today, maybe this is something for you to think about: when hard things come your way, how could you have any confidence that it’s not just a meaningless accident in a heartless mechanical universe? If there’s no God, no God who loves or cares, what are you left with? “Life sucks sometimes, get over it.” But that’s no real help. Let the cross speak to you today: God cares. God loves. God loves you.

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But Easter isn’t only the story of God’s love shown at the cross - it’s also the story of his power shown at the resurrection. And that’s the second of our two foundations for hope. Let’s think about that resurrection power for a minute together. Eph 1:19-21

Ephesians 1:19–21 NIV

That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.

Anyone bought petrol this week? Yikes - the price, right?! But we pay for it because petrol is like liquid power - portable power. Power to move. We think a lot about how much power - how much petrol - it will take to get from A to B. Well that’s our author’s point here - he wants us to think about how much power it takes to get someone all the way from death to life.

See, Jesus was three days in the grave - and the point there is he was dead, really really dead. No amount of petrol or electricity or drugs or any power we know of could change that. He didn’t just need a recharge, a top-up, or a reboot - the only thing for it was resurrection. Is that impossible? yes - it’s impossible in our world, in earthly nature, under the laws of science - but it’s not impossible for God, the one who made those laws of science, who designed this wonder of nature that is a living body. Jesus’ body, his actual physical body, was returned from death to life by the power of God.

Now let me just hit pause here for a moment: if you’re not a Christian and you’re still listening, thank you! I don’t want to beat about the bush - I understand the idea of resurrection can seem ludicrous. The resurrection of Jesus is not something natural, or ordinary or explicable. It is a miracle. It defies any natural explanation.

But this miracle, this particular miracle, the resurrection of Jesus, is also the one thing everything hinges on for Christianity. The guy who wrote the letter we’re looking at this morning wrote other ones too. And in one of them, he makes exactly this point: 1 Cor 15:14-19

1 Corinthians 15:14–19 NIV

And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith ... For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

Every Christian in this room has come to believe this actually happened. So do you know any of us? Do you rate any of us? There are lawyers here - they really get evidence. There are doctors here - they really get bodies and life - and death. There are joiners here - they really get practical things like moving huge stones. There are PR people here - they really get what it takes to convince a bunch of people to willingly go to their deaths to defend this resurrection as real. We’ve all come to believe this really happened.

And if that doesn’t move you, what about all the billions of Christians before us, too - yes, billions. 3 to 8 billion Christians have lived, depending on how you estimate - billions of Christians. That’s an awful lot of people for you to write every single one of them off as weak-minded and gullible. To be confident you are wiser and smarter than all three billion of them could be just a teensy weensy bit arrogant of you. Think about what you’re doing, writing off every single one of us. Are you sure we’re all wrong and it never happened? couldn’t have happened? Wouldn’t it be worth ten minutes of your time to investigate?

I’ve got three resources for you to do that with - just go to hopecityedinburgh.org/resurrection and we have a video, a podcast, and an article. Whatever suits you. This is so important - it would change your life if it was real. Why not take just a few minutes to consider it for yourself, to listen to the evidence and the arguments? hopecityedinburgh.org/resurrection

What’s the point our author is making here about the resurrection? That God’s power, His extraordinary power, His divine power, is clearly and publicly demonstrated in raising Jesus from death to life. And it doesn’t stop there - as you read on, we’re told Jesus goes from being under these earthly powers - the Roman Empire, the Jewish religious authorities - who looked for all the world like they had the upper hand, like they truly had the power. Under evil supernatural powers, the devil, God’s ancient enemy who looked like he had power over the situation as Jesus went towards his death.

From under them to over them - over all of them - over everything. Eph 1:19-21

Ephesians 1:19–21 NIV

That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.

That’s power, right? That’s the mighty power of God, turning the world upside down. But there one more thing I need you to see here. Remember we’ve been talking about foundations for hope? And remember foundation number one, God’s love is for us? Well here’s foundation number two: God’s power is for us, too. Do you see that there at the start of verse 19? Eph 1:18-19

Ephesians 1:18–19 NIV

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

This power, this mighty power of God, is for us - just like this mighty love of God is for us. Our author underlines this again in verse 22: Eph 1:22-23

Ephesians 1:22–23 NIV

And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

God’s power, his mighty resurrection power, is for us - us who believe. Jesus’ position of power, as head over everything, is for us - for the church. For our good. For our benefit. In love. In God’s mighty love.

These are our two foundations for hope. These are why Christians can - and should - have hope! Not a wishful dream. Remember hope for sunrise in the dark of night? This is why the hope Christians have is unseen-but-sure. God can keep, and will keep, his promises. Our unseen-but-sure hope for that is built on these two strong foundations: because His mighty love is for us, and because His mighty power is for us.

Christians, it is this God who promises He will take us to be with Him and live with Him forever - and that’s what we hope for. Unseen-but-sure.

Church, it is this God who promises he will build his church and nothing will stand against it - and that’s what we hope for. Unseen-but-sure.

That’s how we can be safe in the middle of this epic building project. God’s mighty love is for us. God’s mighty power is for us. It’s all going to be ok. He loves us and he’s able.

And finally, this is why there is hope for our city. Not because we’re so great as individual believers - or we’re so great as a church - but because God is. That’s the hope for our city. That’s the hope we celebrate this Resurrection Sunday. And if I can invite the band back up, I want to finish by asking you to join in speaking out this hope and this truth with me - if this is your faith, then this is your hope. So would you stand, and let’s speak these words in response:

Church, what is your hope? God’s mighty love is for us, and God’s mighty power is for us

Church, what is your hope? God’s mighty love is for us, and God’s mighty power is for us

Church, what is your hope? God’s mighty love is for us, and God’s mighty power is for us

Let’s sing to this God, this miracle worker, this promise keeper.