1 Timothy 1:1 Hope (Wednesday Evening)
May the god of Hope and peace fill you with all joy and believing. Amen. Text for our consideration today is from Paul's letter to Timothy the first letter to Timothy chapter 1 verse 1.
Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God on our savior and Christ Jesus our hope this is God's word.
In the name of our Saviour Jesus your fellow redeemed. Are Sunday's sermons for the season of Advent revolve around the theme he comes bearing gifts before gifts are hope peace. Joy and love these gift all come from our Saviour Jesus. Each highlights are a particular aspect of the season of Advent as we look forward to the celebration of Jesus birth at Christmas.
Have you ever thought about the fact that the Bible is a book with the answers in the back?
The New Testament answered all the questions people might have had in the Old Testament as they read and heard the prophet speak. The central figure of the Bible is Christ. The whole thing points to Jesus the Old Testament points ahead to Christ and the New Testament points back at Christ at what he accomplished and how everything he did fulfilled everything that had been prophesied in the Old Testament concerning the Christ the Messiah.
In Genesis right after the beginning where God created the heavens and the Earth. There is the sad and tragic story of Mankind's fall into sin. The school children have been hearing about the Genesis the creation and the fall into seeing in the Wednesday Chapel Services this school year Satan tempted our first parents with false hopes and expectations of being like God and having greater knowledge. By their Disobedience of God the whole human race fell into a condition of hopelessness. God didn't leave them the rest of Hope. You sought out Adam and Eve after the first sin and spoke the very first recorded promise of a savior in their presents that promise fueled the premises of hit of the hopes of his people for many years that promise was that they would be a special seed of the woman that eventual descendant would deliver all people from sin and death in the power of the devil. Eve was so excited about that promise that she thought it was being fulfilled already at the birth of her first child. centuries past many centuries Before the promise seed was born. Promise was repeated a man named Abram later known as Abraham received the promise that he would be the father of many people. He didn't have any children yet yet. The Apostle Paul tells us hoping beyond what he could expect. He believed that he would become the father of many nations just as he was told he did not waver in unbelief with respect to God's promise, but he grew strong in faith giving glory to God and being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.
The promise of many children and the one child in particular in whom the world would be blessed served as a Beacon of Hope. God's people throughout the centuries relied on the promise that God the promise of God that the holy child would be the savior of the world.
Promise that served so well for God's Old Testament people still serves for us. God promised that the whole world would be blessed in Jesus. So he is our savior to we are sharers in the promise of that descendant that was given so many centuries ago. We are blessed beyond all imagination. We have forgiveness of sins victory over Satan and the shore hope and expectation of eternal life to come in heaven because of Christ child whose birth. We are preparing to celebrate. Even with such a wonderful. Hope God's chosen people still send they strayed into the Pagan worship practices of their unbelieving neighbors at Mount Sinai. They promised to to love and serve the true God Alone.
He made his Covenant with them and that was what they promised but they repeatedly turn to their own ways. The sure hope of the people was set aside as they placed their hopes and false gods and idols.
God had to chastise his people many times. He allowed Nations to conquer them and some of those conquering Nations to carry the people out of the promised land altogether and into captivity. He did this so that they would turn again to the Lord into his promises to them. Even at their lowest moments Jeremiah Jeremiah the prophet reminded Judith at her. Hope was still the Lord.
We are no strangers to Affliction either sometimes things happen in our individual in our individual lives and in the world around us and we begin to wonder will I ever get any relief? Can I really have any hope that things will improved sometimes we feel exiled from God abandoned by God?
There could be many ways you feel this way in your life. Perhaps it some physical problem may be a certain sickness or illness that you've had to endure and continue to endure. Maybe you have emotional distress in affliction. You might even wrestle with spiritual weaknesses. No matter what it is. Your hope is in the Lord. He has rescued you from the body of death. He has promised his grace and strength even in times of trial in Affliction. He gives us a promise that is just as sure and certain as the promises he gave to his Old Testament people all pain and trial and sickness and death and sorrow will end when he comes again. That's what he promises. We long for our savior to come and take us to heaven.
As the Old Testament rolled along well after Abraham and Isaac and Jacob God revealed more and more of the specifics about the coming savior through His prophets. The prophet Isaiah wrote The Lord himself will give you a sign. Look the Virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and call his name Emmanuel God With Us. Micah revealed the birthplace but you Bethlehem ephrathah though. You are small among the clans of Judah from you will go out the one who will be ruler for me. And Israel is going as for Thor from the beginning from the days of Eternity. 700 years later God sent the angel Gabriel to a virgin named Mary. She would be the woman through whom all the promises of God special seed would be fulfilled nine months after the angel visited her The Descendant Eve. Hope for an Abraham look for in generation after generations of Believers. Listen to the promises of God that they eagerly anticipated. Finally that descendant came in the little town of Bethlehem.
There was a lot of Hope wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a Manger that night.
Primary Hope was crushing Satan's power in the sin. That is filled every every descendant every other descendant of Adam and Eve ever since the beginning. With the first Advent of Christ the hopes of one who could contend with the devil and break his power as well as the power of sin and death or realized in the Christ child. The devil was outmatched in the Christ child. We found God In the Flesh.
Jesus did not flick his wrist or wave a magic wand to eliminate sin and Vanquish Satan. Was with his hands and feet nailed to the cross that he crushed the Serpent's head. You and I are no longer captives to sin and Satan through faith in Christ. We have a new birth into a Living Hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Because of Jesus who is the resurrection in the life, you have an unwavering. Hope that will live even though we die. Sin, will not get the best of us. We will see and be with all of those who have died in the Lord since he has risen from the dead and lives and rules eternally in heaven. We have the shore promise that we will stay with him there and join him there.
Perhaps you have known someone living without hope maybe you know someone like that now. It doesn't have to be that way.
There are times. Of course when our hope in Christ is challenged, but we know that our lives have meaning and purpose Paul left us with a blessing in the the lesson earlier this evening. May the god of Hope fill you with complete joy and peace as you continue to believe so that you overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Share that blessing with others be prepared to tell them about Christ who is our sure hope and why we are confident in certain that God Is With Us in good times and bad will take us to be with him on the last day. Tell them that Jesus is the hope not just of all the Old Testament people of God who were looking ahead but also of everyone of us as we look back on what he did to win our salvation, We wait for the return of our Lord Jesus in eager expectation. And as we wait, we eagerly look forward to celebrating the birth of our savior and King who comes bearing the gift of Hope. amen May the peace of God which passes all human understanding keep your hearts and Minds through faith in Christ Jesus. Amen.