Hope: An Anchor For The Soul

HEBREWS 6:9-20

The Hebrews writer was concerned about the Christians he was writing to. The Hebrew Christians needed encouragement to persevere through the trials they were undergoing.

He writes to them, reminding them of the great God that they follow and the hope that they have. He here warns them against the great danger of apostasy; and then encourages them to persevere to the end, trusting in the mercy and faithfulness of God; who by both His word and His oath, has given great encouragement to all who have come to Christ for refuge.

They could have great comfort knowing that if they remained faithful they had a great hope as an anchor for their souls. In this lesson I would like to look at this great hope; this confident expectation that they had and we have, briefly look at just a few of the many reasons why we can have this hope, and what our reaction to being given this great hope should be.

Our God gives us a great hope.

If I were to pick a text that best describes our Hope as Christians, I would go to

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I think our hope can be summed up in the statement we see in verse 4, “They shall see His face.” God said to Moses that no one could see His face & live. We will be in the presence of our God for eternity. That’s our hope!

He gives us a purpose to live for, a home to strive for; a reason to live our lives to the fullest in service to Him. There is no greater hope than the hope that our God gives us.

I would like to look at just 3 reasons out of the countless reasons for us to have hope:

SLIDE 3à I. The Word of God Gives Hope

(NKJV) For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.

The stories of old should give hope to a soul that needs comfort and encouragement

Our problems aren't new. There is nothing new under the sun as the Preacher writes. No matter what we go through, someone has been there before and has gotten through the struggle; and we can too!!!

Some Biblical Examples of problems:

1. Lonely—Elijah, David, Jeremiah, etc. found that God was still with them

2 Unfairly treated--Joseph rose from prison to Pharaoh’s court

3. Crisis--Daniel’s God saw him through the lion's den. The God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego delivered them from certain death in the fiery furnace.

These problems and struggles that followers of God went through, but the Lord carried them through it all!

We see so many godly people in the Scriptures (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Peter, Paul, etc). We see all of their weaknesses and failings; all the times they fell short, but we see how the Lord was merciful to them and still used them. These were all men that made mistakes and had struggles but God used them to bring Him glory! Does that give us hope? Even when we fall short, we have the hope of being forgiven when we come back to the Lord on His terms!

Another reason why the scriptures give us hope is because within them we see the great promises that our God gives to us.

“Not one of the good promises which the LORD had made to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass.”

God keeps His promises. Even through the unfaithfulness of Israel, God remained faithful always, even when that meant He had to bring judgment on His people. All of the promises God made to Israel came to pass, and all of the promises He made to those who are in Christ will also come to pass!

He gives us many promises in this life that we can have hope in when we go through trials:

lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age I will never leave you nor forsake you." all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose

When we face trials, we can say with the psalmist “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God; For I shall yet praise him, He is the help of my countenance, and my God. I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, And in His word I do hope (; ).

SLIDE 4à II. The Cross of Christ Gives Hope

The cross reminds us of God’s great love for us and how He has made it possible for us to be reconciled to Him.

“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.”

Our Lord showed us a love that is greater than any other. He did not die for His friends only, but also for us, His enemies.

“For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. 10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life ( (NKJV)).

Because of the love of our Great God, we can be justified by Christ’s blood and reconciled to Him. We can be His friend instead of His enemy if we meet His terms of reconciliation.

It is such a great feeling; that peace of heart and mind, knowing that our sins can be forgiven because Jesus endured the cross, bearing the punishment that we deserve for our sin. We can be holy, blameless, and without reproach in the sight of God because of the blood that was shed on our behalf; a great reason for us to have hope. Truly, a great God in whom we can place our hope!

SLIDE 5à III. The Empty Tomb Gives Hope

In we see the importance of the resurrection to our faith in Christ. Without the resurrection, we could not have the hope of eternal life that we now have.

We also see in that our hope and our faith are not blind. We aren’t asked as Christians to check our brains at the door. We have the hope that we have because of eyewitness testimony. It is based on evidence. Over 500 people saw our resurrected Lord. If I was put on trial for committing a crime, and over 500 people came to testify against me, I don’t think I’d be in too good of shape!

Over 1900 years have passed since the resurrection of Christ. All that the so called “wise” of the world have needed to do to make Christianity crumble is disprove the eyewitness testimony of the resurrection. No matter how hard skeptics try to disprove the resurrection because of their unwillingness to fear God, the word of God stands the test of time and all of the accusations offered against it.

As the scripture says:

“The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever."

Assurances of the resurrection

The resurrection assures us that we can be a new creation, reborn to walk in newness of life; and that our bodies will be resurrected also on the last day.

SLIDE 6à

(NKJV) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Because of the resurrection, we can be born again, freed from sin; created to walk in a new way of life. When we were baptized into Christ, as states, we were saved “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We can defeat death because our Lord has! And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power.

TURN TO

READà

How should we respond to the hope of victory that our God gives us? Well, let’s look at the next verse. VERSE 58

SLIDE 7à

Does our hope lead us to be steadfast in our service to the Lord? Just as our faith is shown to others in action, so is our hope. How much do we show others our hope in Christ?

JUST ONE EXAMPLE: My hope is to be in God’s presence, singing His praises and serving Him for eternity. The question I need to ask myself is, “Am I showing in my life right now that I have this hope?” Do I steadfastly serve and worship God now? If I don’t right now in service give Him my all or if I don’t look forward to assembling with the saints to offer God praise today, how great is my hope of doing it for eternity?

Several years ago a teacher assigned to visit children in a large city hospital received a routine call requesting that she visit a particular child. She took the boy's name and room number and was told by the teacher on the other end of the line, "We're studying nouns and adverbs in his class now. I'd be grateful if you could help him with his homework so he doesn't fall behind the others."

It wasn't until the teacher got outside the boy's room that she realized it was located in the hospital's burn unit. No one had prepared her to find a young boy horribly burned and in great pain. She felt that she couldn't just turn and walk out, so she awkwardly said to the boy, "I'm the hospital teacher, and your teacher sent me to help you with nouns and adverbs."

The next morning a nurse on the burn unit asked her, "What did you do to that boy?" Before she could finish apologizing, the nurse interrupted her: "You don't understand. We've been very worried about him, but ever since you were here yesterday, his whole attitude has changed. He's fighting back, responding to treatment....It's as though he's decided to live."

The boy explained later that he had completely given up hope until he saw the teacher. It all changed when he came to a simple realization. With joyful tears he expressed it this way: "They wouldn't send a teacher to work on nouns and adverbs with a dying boy, would they?"

This boy received hope because of this teacher. That expectation of being able to live as a normal boy once again led him into a fight to survive. What does our hope lead us to do?

SLIDE 8à

If we are diligent in our efforts, the Author of Hebrews says that we can have the full assurance that will inherit the promises that our God gives us. We need to so all we can to bring our God the glory and honor he deserves

If we remain faithful, we know that our God will give us our reward that we desire, because that is His promise! Our God wants us to be in a place where there will not be any more sickness or death, or any more crying and mourning; IN HIS VERY PRESENCE FOR ETERNITY.

(NKJV) And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. 4 They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. 5 There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.

That’s my hope! And I trust that it is yours also.

SLIDE 9à

SLIDE 10à Quote I found “Life with Christ is an endless hope, without Him a hopeless end”

For those who obey the gospel of our Lord, & 22 states that they will have the privilege of being in the presence of the Lord for eternity where there will be no more crying, pain, or death.

For those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord, indeed their life will end without hope.

says that they will away from the presence of the Lord for eternity, where they will suffer everlasting destruction.

A question that I will ask us all to conclude this lesson is “Which do we have, an endless hope, or a hopeless end?” Thank you for your kind attention.