True Hope this Christmas

Introduction

Good morning and welcome to Dishman Baptist Church. Please take your Bibles and turn in them to Titus 2, Titus 2.

It truly is the most wonderful time of year that we have entered in to and we’re thankful that all of you are here to worship with us this morning. Whether you are here physically or you are joining us online we count it a privilege to come before our Lord Jesus Christ with you.

We’ve been travelling through the book of Mark but we’re going to take a bit of a break as we prepare for the Christmas season. That is what advent stands for - it is a time of preparation for the celebration of Christ’s birth. For the next four weeks Chuck, Kyle and I will be looking at different aspects of the Christmas story and maybe not from the passages you might expect. We’re going to be turning the diamond of Scripture so that its beauty can be seen as we look at the true aspects of Christmas - through hope, faith, joy, peace and finally through love on Christmas Eve. It is our prayer that this short journey and these reflections will help you to prepare not simply for the coming of Christ at Christmas but also for the glorious coming advent when He will return to claim all of His people.

I would suggest that besides love, there is no more powerful human emotion than hope. Hope can bring men and women to the brink of greatness. Except maybe on Black Friday. One news outlet reporting on events from this last weekend said “If there’s ever a time during the year to lose hope in all humanity, it’s on Black Friday.” That one day aside - hope has the power to raise the expectations of humans to amazing levels. The internet is rife with quotes touting the all powerful nature of hope.

Christopher Reeve, the one time superman actor who became paralyzed when thrown from a horse only to walk again, said “Once you choose hope, anything’s possible.” Martin Luther King Jr said “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” The reformer Martin Luther also recognized the power of hope saying “Everything that is done in this world is done by hope.” Yes hope has the capability to take mankind to great heights.

But it also has the capability to take us to the deepest valleys when hope is misplaced or what or who we place our hope in doesn’t come through. This morning we’re going to look at where our hope should truly be placed because there really is only one source of true hope. Please look with me at Titus 2 verses 11-14.

Titus 2:11–14 CSB

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, instructing us to deny godlessness and worldly lusts and to live in a sensible, righteous, and godly way in the present age, while we wait for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. He gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for himself a people for his own possession, eager to do good works.

In order to understand the enormity of this passage and the depth of the hope that it offers we need first to look at two other forms of hope - no hope and false hope. Only when we understand how those two counterfeit hopes operated in the world at the time of the first advent of Christ and are still in operation today can we truly grasp the beauty of the true hope that is offered by Christ in this passage for us.

No Hope

In the letter to the Ephesians Paul writes about their lives before Christ

Ephesians 2:11–12 CSB

So then, remember that at one time you were Gentiles in the flesh—called “the uncircumcised” by those called “the circumcised,” which is done in the flesh by human hands. At that time you were without Christ, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world.

The Gentiles were completely without hope. There were a few instances in the Old Testament that demonstrated God’s kindness to them to grant them opportunities to repent - one case being the Ninevites - but overall they had no hope of knowing Him because their hearts were darkened and they had no way of knowing Him. Paul reveals something important about the characteristic of hope here - real hope isn’t concerned with temporal things.

It wasn’t as if the Gentiles were poor or weak. Abraham became rich by receiving goods from Gentiles around him. The Israelites, when they left Egypt, left well supplied because of the riches of the nation of Egypt. But Paul says that they had no hope or they were without hope.

We see the same malady affecting humanity today. Even the quotes that I alluded to in the introduction place their hope in the fallacy of human nature. It is a fickle and inconsistent subject at best. And those who place their hope in the goodness of mankind are often disillusioned regarding their choice quickly. That is why men and women are always looking for the next best thing or even just the next thing. It’s why we work 80 hours a week or some play 80 hours a week. It is why we live in a materialistic culture that feeds on the next great deal - like the two women who got into a tugging match over the last shark vacuum cleaner on Black Friday - they just had to have it or else they wouldn’t be satisfied.

We see those who put their hope in a political party or a social construct or even a social status - because they don’t know why but their life is unsatisfying. They have no hope and they don’t even realize it. They are eternal creatures who are meant for more than just this life. The good thing about having no hope is that when true hope comes along or real hope comes along you are willing to reach out and take it. That’s not always true of those who are operating under false hope.

False Hope

It was a good time to be an Israelite. The stains of slavery had been left behind in Egypt. The pursuit by the Egyptian army had come to a soggy, turbulent end under the crashing waters of the Red Sea. Moses was leading them to the promised land. He was summoned by God and given a message for the people.

Exodus 19:4–6 CSB

‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you will carefully listen to me and keep my covenant, you will be my own possession out of all the peoples, although the whole earth is mine, and you will be my kingdom of priests and my holy nation.’ These are the words that you are to say to the Israelites.”

This nation was to be a special nation - they were to provide a witness for all nations what the Lord had done and could do. They were a small nation that had been given everything - everything they had was the result of the plundering of Egypt as they were leaving. And so they were called to be a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. Not simply for themselves but for the distinct purpose of bringing glory and honor to God.

Throughout the rest of the Old Testament this theme will be the thread that should characterize the nation of Israel.

In Isaiah 43:8-13 this is clearly presented - the people of Israel were supposed to be witnesses to what God had done

Isaiah 43:10 CSB

“You are my witnesses”— this is the Lord’s declaration— “and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. No god was formed before me, and there will be none after me.

Israel was to be a witness to God for what He had done. For the salvation that He had provided for them.

And yet what we see throughout the Old Testament was that the hope provided by this nation was a false hope. They cast off the restraints of God and desired a human king - like the nations that surrounded them. They did not listen to the Lord or keep His covenant, instead they succumbed to the influences of the nations that they were called to witness to and appropriated their religious practices - synchronizing or blending the Jewish religion with that of Baal or Asherah or Molech.

Instead of witnessing to the culture they were immersed in, they mimicked and became exactly like the culture. They were called to be a people “set apart” that is what holy means - “set apart” they were to be separate from the nations, peculiar, different not look exactly like them. But Israel failed in this and so they were exiled out of Israel into Babylon.

But even then God did not abandon them - He did not remove from them their status as a favored nation or one which would be a witness for Him. He promised that they would return to Israel and so they did. They rebuilt the Temple, Ezra the priest led them back to the Law and the implications that it had on their national life. But an interesting thing happened. Instead of returning to the role of the light to the nations - those who should cause the nations to exalt the Lord as Psalm 100 says

Psalm 100:1–2 CSB

Let the whole earth shout triumphantly to the Lord! Serve the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.

The people of Israel became consumed with their own national religiosity. We have looked at this several times over the last few incidents in our study of Mark - the Jews became obsessed with trying to keep the Law. So obsessed that they made the laws so restrictive that no one could adequately keep the law or be holy. And even those who could (as Paul says that he did in Philippians 3) achieved only a self-righteousness that led them to pride in their own accomplishments and also led them to be separated from the nations - not out of a desire to be culturally distinct but out of a desire to remain ceremonially clean.

In either instance the nation of Israel proved themselves to be a false hope to the world. They were so blinded by their own efforts that they missed it when the true hope that had been promised to come through them came into the world.

John 1:11 CSB

He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

They had a zeal for God but they didn’t understand how righteousness, true righteousness could happen

Romans 10:2–5 CSB

I can testify about them that they have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. Since they are ignorant of the righteousness of God and attempted to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes, since Moses writes about the righteousness that is from the law: The one who does these things will live by them.

Now before we are too hard on Israel and the false hope they provided - we need to understand that just as Solomon says in Ecclesiastes there is nothing new under the sun. We are oftentimes guilty of doing the exact same things.

The church has been called to be a set apart people, to be witnesses to the power and righteousness of God

1 Peter 2:9 CSB

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

And yet here we are in a day when the church is trying so hard to be like the world that in some instances it is indistinguishable where one ends and the other begins. We have appropriated their musical styles and in some cased the very songs. We try and dress like them, act like them and now we, and by we I mean the extended church, are trying to welcome in all manner of worldly ideals and standards. All, as many would attempt to defend, in an attempt to win the culture - to become all things to all men or women as it were - but instead what we have become is no different than the culture. We’ve become just another source of entertainment on Sundays - and frankly we’ve been exposed as those who don’t do it as well as the world outside our doors and so people just don’t come anymore.

Or we’ve swung to the other side and have placed burdens on people that they can’t bear up under. We tell them to try harder, to work harder and everything will work out. I saw a clip of Osteen recently that said something like “if you dress like you’re poor, broke and defeated all that proves is that you’re poor broke and defeated. When you look good, dress good, live in a nice place, excel in your career, be generous to others that brings a smile to God’s face - it brings Him pleasure to prosper you”. The implications of that is that if you don’t look good, dress good etc. you aren’t doing the right things for God.

Whether it is the permissive culture of the church allowing the world to permeate and define the truths or the false ideals of legalism or prosperity both are nothing more than false hope that will not satisfy. In some ways it is worse to be in false hope than to have no hope - because those who have false hope are inoculated against the light of true hope.

True Hope

All of that backdrop brings us back now to the passage that is the core text for today - Titus 2. See Paul here defines what true hope is and he does so on two levels.

The first is in verse 11

Titus 2:11 CSB

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,

The grace of God is not the characteristic or the attribute of God that provides for forgiveness but instead it is the person of Jesus Christ. He is the grace of God. He is the person who has brought salvation for all people. He has succeeded where an entire nation failed. He has brought the true hope that the Gentiles were without into the world and by bringing it He has brought them close.

Ephesians 2:13–14 CSB

But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility. In his flesh,

He has provided for those who have no hope to now have the hope of salvation through His blood.

He has removed the false hope of a broken system and replaced it with the true hope of His grace. He has instructed us to deny godlessness and worldly lusts - both are incompatible with true Christianity. Despite what many are saying in our church culture today you cannot synthesize your sin with Christ and still come away cleansed. True hope provides the ability and the pathway to be cleansed of those things which separated us from God to begin with. And this is a hope that is possible and achievable in this present age - not perfection but forgiveness and a life lived in His righteousness and according to His standards.

The text itself removes any illusions of perfection. It says that we will be instructed. A person who has mastered something has no need to be instructed - only those who still need improvement. We will fail. We will fall short. But even when we do we still have the hope that the salvation that has been provided for us is sure.

We need to skip ahead a bit to understand why this is - the promise is secured in verse 14. In fact it is the security of both these current verses as well as verse 13.

Titus 2:14 CSB

He gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for himself a people for his own possession, eager to do good works.

He gave himself for us - even as we celebrate the first advent of Jesus Christ we must always remember that the cross cast a long shadow over the cradle of His birth. Just as the angel told Joseph at the announcement of His conception

Matthew 1:21 CSB

She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

He will save His people from their sins - Paul phrases it that He will redeem us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for Himself a people for His own possession. It is interesting that there is an effort in our day to pit the words of Paul against the words of Christ - mostly surrounding one particular subject - but here we see that Paul is in complete agreement with the mission and methods of Christ. And of course he would be since he was being inspired by the Holy Spirit as 2 Timothy 3:16 tells us that all Scripture is God breathed.

What we see in these first two verses and then in verse 14 is that we, unlike the Gentiles who went before, have hope because Christ has provided it for us now.

And if that were all that were promised it would be amazing. But there is more - and Paul lays it out for us.

Titus 2:13 CSB

while we wait for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

While we wait for the blessed hope - the context of the verse tells us what that blessed hope is. It is the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. It is the promise of His return fulfilled. It is the promise that we will one day rule with Him and live with Him but most importantly that we can rest in the hope that one day we will see Him face to face. It is a hope that we can rest in. It is a hope that we can count on.

But there’s also a challenge for us in this hope. The CSB translates the verse as while we wait. The NASB translates this as “looking for” a verb that carries the meaning of longing and waiting for but also of eager and certain expectation. The challenge for us is the eager and certain expectation part. We grow complacent in our waiting. We grow tired in our waiting. The same thing happened to the nation of Israel - as year after year went by and no Messiah came they fell into a routine and just went about their business living as if the only thing that mattered was today.

But Paul here gives us the greatest news ever. That our salvation has been provided for both in the here and now and the someday far off. Hopefully not that far off. And he also provides a few admonitions for us as well - that if this hope is in us that we will be instructed, that we will deny godlessness and worldly lusts, we will live sensible, righteous and godly lives in an age that is anything but. Finally that we will be eager to do good works - that we will live as those who are set apart, holy, and live as those who have a hope - the true hope that fuels this Christmas season that can only be provided and found in the person of Christ.

Conclusion