To Hope
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So, the disciples have scattered. Most are hiding somewhere, fearing they will be the next to be arrested. Jesus mother has gone home with John, wondering why her Son, the Son of God, is dead. In fact, most followers of Jesus are in doubt. He was supposed to take His place as king, but now he is buried in a tomb.
All is lost...
Maybe the Messiah will never come...
Maybe God has abandoned us...
Maybe he never really cared at all.
All is confusion...
What will I do now? I left everything for Him.
What will happen to me?
All that is left is doubt...
So some hid, some felt guilt, some felt despair, for on this day, evil thought it had won and many thought the darkness would never go away.
But Hope was around the corner, As the old sermon says, “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s a coming.”
But they couldn’t see Sunday. In fact, many times we can’t see Sunday. We can’t see the rainbow on the horizon. We cannot find hope.
Maybe, that is because we see hope not in a biblical way, but in a worldly way.
We see it really as one of three ways:
1. Hope is the desire for something good in the future. The children might say, “I hope daddy gets home early tonight so we can play kickball after supper before his meeting.”
2.Hope is the good thing in the future that we are desiring. We say, “Our hope is that Mike and Karen will arrive safely home.” In other words, Mike and Karen’s safe arrival is the object of our hope.
3. Hope is the reason why our hope might indeed come to pass. We say, “A good tailwind is our only hope of arriving on time.” In other words, the tailwind is the reason we may in fact achieve the future good that we desire. It’s our only hope.
So hope is used in three senses:
1. A desire for something good in the future,
2. The thing in the future that we desire,
3. The basis or reason for thinking that our desire may indeed be fulfilled.
So, we play the odds. We hope, but Biblical hope has a certainty to it. biblical hope is a confident expectation and desire for something good in the future.
Biblical hope not only desires something good for the future; it expects it to happen. And it not only expects it to happen; it is confident that it will happen.
So hope comes to us as Christ was raised from the dead on Sunday. On Friday he defeated sin. On Sunday he defeats death. It is the combination of the two that bring salvation, That is why Paul says to them in :
But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. 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.
1 Corinthianns
But see it may have been Friday and evil may have still ruled the day, but Sunday is coming. On that day Christ was raised and upon his raising from the dead he conquered death. No longer does death have a hold on us anymore.
Our days may be filled with sorrow, heartaches, despair, but this life is only a short amount of the time we will live, for when Christ conquered death it was just not for himself, but for us as well.
So John paints for us five pictures of how people come to hope. Five ways I think we still see in people who come to believe in Jesus today and five people we should be looking to share the Hope of Jesus with.
John believes.
John 20:
So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.
From the day Jesus said, Follow me! John had a special relationship with Jesus. He was one of his dearest friends. Believing came easy for John and there are people we will encounter who will hear the message of the cross, hear of his resurrection and will have the AHA! moment like John did hear at the tomb.
2. Mary finds comfort in the familiar.
Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
John 20:
Some of us don’t handle change well. Jesus removed seven demons from Mary, released her of that burden and from then on she commited herself to being a disciple of Jesus. On that morning, even in death, Mary went to care for her teachers needs. When she found the tomb open she became distraught, running back to tell the Peter and John that he had been taken. She was stressed, lost and full of all kind of thoughts. So full of thoughts that when the angels appear, she wants to know only one thing, where is he?
All it took was the familiar call of here name for Mary to recognize Jesus. In the midst of her pain, his comforting voice reminded her that he was still in control.
For some today, 2000 years is along time. They wonder if Jesus is really alive, if he really is God and what type of impact can he have in the chaos of their life. Then, like it was with Elijah, they hear his answer.
It might come from something that seems like a miracle.
It might come from the gently voice of a friend.
It might come from your moment of vulnerability with them, where you share one of your struggles. But in the familiar they hear the voice of Jesus and hope is restored in their lives.
3. The Disciples turn from fear to joy.
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
John 20:
That first sentence tells us they were still being hunted. They had gathered together, who knows why. Maybe they had no where else to turn. Maybe being together just felt right. Maybe they were gathered to talk about the rumors of Jesus’ resurrection, whatever the reason, their was fear in their midst.
We know
Fear has a way of diminishing hope. It causes us to doubt, sometimes everything. Fear has power to take over, as it grabs our minds and consumes it in negative thoughts. It causes our bodies to become tense and to go on the defense.
But on that night. when Jesus appeared to them, their fear turned to joy. They recieved hope. See on Thursday night they scattered.
Fear took over.
It made them hide.
It made Peter deny Jesus.
But, tonight that fear is gone and is replaced by joy. Hope has once again been reestablished. You will meet people who have been gripped with fear and worry. It will consume them, but when they are ready to give Jesus a chance. He can fill their lives with joy and give them a peace over their situation.
He may not take it away, but he will help them understand that they do not walk the path alone. He will give them you. He will give them His Spirit. Both of you can walk with them and help bring them peace.
4. Thomas doubts are put to rest.
John 20:24-29
Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”
Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Some of us are hard headed. Many times that is a good thing. Thomas did not believe things blindly. In fact, he wanted the proof.
Jesus gave it to him.
But, what he gives to the world today is the transforming power of the life of believers. God is calling us to be the proof for the Thomas’s of our world today.
5. Peter’s insecurities are removed and is purpose is restored.
John 21:7-19
Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread.
Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.
When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”
“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”
Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”
The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”
Follow me and I will make you fishers of men. From that moment Peter was by Jesus side and had not left Him, not until that night when they took Him. On that night, just like Jesus told him, he would deny Him three times.
There are things we do, things we regret doing that will never leave us and they have the ability to cripple us with guilt. We don’t know why Peter was fishing on this day. I think he felt like a failure for abandoning and denying Jesus.
I think that is why this moment is so important.
Three times he denied. Three times Jesus asks Him if he loves Him.
Peter is hurt, He knows Jesus is relating this to his three denials. But what He also left that day with was a sense of purpose. Jesus was calling him to return to the mission Jesus had given him to Feed His Sheep.
Peter found redemption.
Peter Found Hope.
Peter found Jesus.
In the world we live in today, there are many who are plagued with doubt, for them, they need us to help them find hope, by reminding them that Jesus does not want them to dwell on their past, but to begin living for their future. The future hope he offers them.
Invitation
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?