Remembering Hope --- "Hopesanna"

Remembering Hope ---“Hopesanna!”

Lamentations 3:21-26 & John 12:12-19

“The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.” Lamentations 3:25-26

Over this season of Lent we have been walking with Jesus to Jerusalem for the Passover! We have been looking at words of hope found all throughout the Scriptures. The title of this Lenten Series is called “A Hope Revealed.” The first Sunday of Lent we built a foundation of hope found in Hebrews 11:1which says, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” The second week we learned that we were born again into a living hope according to I Peter 1:3, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” Then we came to week three and we heard the good news from Paul in the book of Romans that we will have a persevering hope. Paul said, “We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” (Romans 5:3-5) Last week, we learned that we have a glorious hope that will never fade, and we can be bold because we have hope! Paul put it this way in 2 Corinthians 3:12, “Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold.”

In Jesus, we have a foundation of hope that gives us a living hope, a saving hope, a persevering hope and a glorious hope. Today we learn we have a remembering hope no matter what comes our way!

Our Old Testament Reading is from the Book of Lamentations and our New Testament Reading comes from the Gospel of John.

Before we come to God’s Living Word of hope, let us come before the One who promises a hope that will never disappoint us. “Lord God of all hope! We come this Palm Sunday to have our hearts filled with an everlasting hope. May your Words be alive and redemptive and may your Words bring us a hope that we will always remember and never forget. Amen”

Lamentations 3:21-23

Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: 22Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” 25The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; 26it is good to wait quietly

for the salvation of the Lord.[i]

John 12:12-19

The next day the great crowd that had come for the Feast heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. 13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the King of Israel!” 14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it, as it is written, 15“Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion;

see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.”16 At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that they had done these things to him. 17 Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. 18 Many people, because they had heard that he had given this miraculous sign, went out to meet him. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!”[ii]

COMPASSION NEVER FAILS

In our passage from Lamentations we hear again powerful words of hope in the midst of suffering, doubt, fear, frustration, pain, discouragement, opposition, and disappointment. Let’s set the scene for us this morning. Jerusalem had been totally destroyed by the Babylonians. The best and the brightest of the Jews were taken to Babylon to be slaves. The rest of the people who had not died in the invasion were left behind in a broken-down city. A city with no walls, no food, no protection, and almost no hope. Yet in these shadows of doubt, despair, discouragement, and disappointment the writer of Lamentations remembers! Most scholars credit the Prophet Jeremiah with writing the book of Lamentations. Jeremiah is nicknamed “The Weeping Prophet.” By the time we get to chapter three, we hear a cry of hope! Jeremiah remembers that his God is a loving God! Listen again to how Jeremiah says it --- “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.” The word that Jeremiah uses for God’s “love” is “hesed.” It is a powerful word of grace, mercy, loving-kindness, and steadfast love! Listen again as Jeremiah writes, Because of the Lord’s great love…Because of God’s great grace! Because of God’s great mercy! Because of God’s great loving-kindness! Because of God’s great steadfast love… we are not consumed --- not finished, not used up! Why not? Because God’s compassions never fail! It is wonderful that Jeremiah uses the plural for compassion by using the word “compassions” instead of singular, “compassion.” Our God is a God of countless daily compassions for each one of us. In the Hebrew, Jeremiah is telling us that God is filled with countless expressions of love towards us; not just one time, not just one time each day—but over and over and over again—we can count on the fact God’s great love, and grace, and mercy and loving kindness for us…is a countless number for us each and every morning! We really need to remember this…we cannot exhaust God’s love for us.

Have you ever been discouraged, defeated, disappointed, disillusioned, overwhelmed, overcome and outcast? Do you know what it is like to lose hope? These poor people have lost their hope. The walls of their great city have been destroyed. The city is in ruins. The people have no peace.

Dr. Richard Swenson wrote a book called, “Margin, Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial and Time to Overloaded Lives.” In his book, Dr, Swenson talks about being out of margin. He would say that “margin,” “is the space between your load and your limit.” He would also say that most of us are loaded beyond our limit. This means we have no margin in our lives. When we lose our margin, we begin to lose hope.

Swenson wrote, “The conditions of modern day living devour margin …

Marginless is being thirty minutes late to the doctor’s office because you were twenty minutes late getting out of the hairdresser, because you were ten minutes late dropping the children off at school, because the car ran out of gas two blocks before the gas station, and you forgot your purse. That is marginless.

Margin, on the hand, is having a breath at the top of the staircase, money at the end of the month, and sanity left over after adolescence.

Marginless is the baby crying and the phone ringing at the same time.

Margin is grandma taking care of the baby for the afternoon.

Marginless is being asked to carry a load five pounds heavier than you can life.

Margin is having a friend to help carry half the burden.

Marginless is not having enough time to finish the book you are reading on stress.

Margin is having the time to read it twice.

Marinless is fatigue.

Margin is energy.

Marginless is red ink.

Margin is black ink.

Marginless is hurry.

Margin is calm.

Marginless is our culture.

Margin is counter-culture, having some space and life in your schedule.

Marginless is reality.

Margin is remedy.

Marinless is the disease of our decade.

Margin is the cure.[iii]

The people who were left behind in their destroyed Jerusalem were marginless and hopeless. They had no wall! They had no protection. They have no food. They were discouraged, defeated, depressed, and deeply disappointed. God now sends a message through the prophet Jeremiah. “Tell the people that there is hope.”

Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: 22Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” 25The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; 26it is good to wait quietly

for the salvation of the Lord

These words in Lamentations are familiar to many Christians because they form the basis for the well-known hymn Great is Thy Faithfulness by Thomas O. Chisholm (1866–1960)

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father!

There is no shadow of turning with Thee;

Thou changest not; Thy compassions, they fail not:

As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.

Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!

Morning by morning new mercies I see;

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided—

Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me.

The story of how Chisholm came to write his great hymn reveals a profound truth about God’s faithfulness. Many of our great hymns were written in response to a dramatic spiritual experience; this is not the case with “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.” The hymn was not the product of a single experience of Chisholm but of a lifetime of God’s faithful care. Not long before his death, Chisholm wrote, “My income has never been large at any time due to impaired health in the earlier years which has followed me on until now. But I must not fail to record here the unfailing faithfulness of a covenant-keeping God and that He has given me many wonderful displays of His providing care which have filled me with astonishing gratefulness.”[iv]

Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!

Morning by morning new mercies I see;

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided—

Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me.

Our first so what for today comes from the prophet Jeremiah:

Our hope comes from waiting on the Lord! “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” As Chisholm looked back over his life, he saw a faithful God—and his hope in God was magnified.

HOPESANNA

Hosanna! Hosanna! Hosanna! Hosanna in Hebrew literally means --- “save us, we beseech you.”

This was the cry from the people as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the Sunday before Passover. The crowd had heard about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days. Jesus called Lazarus’ name…and out from the tomb he walked. Word had spread, and everyone was wild with enthusiasm and hope! Jesus was coming to Jerusalem! HOSANNA!

The day Jesus rode into town on a donkey was the day that the all of the Jewish people gathered in Jerusalem for Passover. On this day, each family had selected the one lamb that they would offer as a sacrifice for Passover Meal. Our Palm Sunday is Lamb Selection day for the people of Jerusalem. It was on Lamb Selection day that Jesus came riding into Jerusalem. Scholars suggest that up to 2,700,000 people came to Jerusalem for the Passover. It was estimated that close to 265,500 lambs were needed for the Passover celebration. Can you imagine the scene? Everyone is in Jerusalem for the Passover. Everyone has heard about Jesus healing Lazarus and raising him from the dead. Everyone has heard that Jesus was on His way.

Can you put yourself in the sandals of the people standing alongside the road as Jesus rode into town? These people had lost their margins. They had been waiting and waiting and waiting for the Messiah. Year after year the people came to Jerusalem and they remembered the Passover-- a time to remember what God had done for the Israelites so very long ago when they were held in captivity for four hundred years. Remember Moses and Pharaoh? Remember the plagues? The final plague was the Passover. When all the Jewish people bathed their doorposts with the blood of the lamb. Everyone is there in Jerusalem. Everyone is celebrating the Passover. And the Lamb of God rides into town on a donkey. The people have gone crazy—they are tearing the branches off the trees and waving them in celebration!

So What?

The southern tip of Africa used to be called “Cape of Tempests.” Its swirling seas and continuously adverse weather conditions caused sailors great anxiety and took many lives. A certain Portuguese sailor was determined to find a safer route through those seas and he did. He discovered a safer passage around this dangerous southern tip of Africa. The area was renamed the “Cape of Good Hope.”[v] From the Cape of Tempests to the Cape of Good Hope.

This is exactly what God is so good at creating. From Jeremiah to the people of Jerusalem, from Jesus to the people of Jerusalem, from each one of our marginless lives—hear these living words of hope: 22Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” 25The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; 26it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord

This summer I will turn 64. I will have lived on this good earth for over 23,000 days! No matter what I’m going through right now—I can look back and say that my God is faithful. No matter what storms have risen up in my life, God’s compassions have been there every single morning of my 23,000 days. The same goes for you. God’s compassions for each one of us never fails—and they are new every single morning. God’s faithfulness to us is great. Today’s message is about sitting down and figuring out how many thousands of days you’ve lived. How many days has God’s faithfulness covered you?

That’s your job this week, this is your SO WHAT, PASTOR DAVE? Figure out how many days you’ve been on this earth. Look back over your life—like the sailors of Cape of Tempests, like the Jews in war-torn Jerusalem—we need to find the remembering hope that we have been given. Our God has been with us. Every single morning we’ve been given God’s compassions. If you’re in dangerous territory—wait it out. Our job is to HOPE IN GOD. How do we do that? We remember God’s faithfulness.

When I was ordained, I finished my service by having the people sing, “Great is Thy Faithfulness.” Even to this day, when I feel overwhelmed in ministry, when I am overwhelmed with this rash, when the world tells me I’m a big nothing—this is the song that brings me back full circle. REMEMBERING HOPE. Hope has nothing to do with me and my faithfulness. Hope has everything to do with God and God’s faithfulness. Remember that this week as we round the corner into Jerusalem…waving our palms and shouting HOSANNA! I like to call it HOPE-SANNA!

Please sing with me:

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father!

There is no shadow of turning with Thee;

Thou changest not; Thy compassions, they fail not:

As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.

Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!

Morning by morning new mercies I see;

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided—

Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me.

Let us pray …

The Seed Christian Fellowship

Rancho Cucamonga, California 91701

www.theseedchristianfellowship.com

March 25, 2018 --- Palm Sunday

Pastor Dave Peters

[i] The Holy Bible: New International Version. (1984). (La 3:21–26). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[ii] The Holy Bible: New International Version. (1984). (Jn 12:12–19). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[iii] Richard A. Swenson, M.D. Margin, Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial and Time Reserves to overloaded Lives, Colorado Springs, NavPres, 2004

[iv] Thomas Chisholm, quoted in Kenneth W. Osbeck, Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel, 1990[iv]

[v] Tan, P. L. (1996). Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times (p. 565). Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc.