Our Living Hope
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Introduction
Introduction
I can imagine this is true for you as well but this year is not what we expected. It feels like this year some of the realities of our broken sinful world are so evident, so in our face that it can leave us feeling desperate and hopeless. As we transition from the fall to the Christmas season I have noticed something I didn’t quite see in past years. There seems to be an abundance of people putting up their Christmas trees early this year. Has anyone here done this? I know some of you do this every year but what I am saying is there are people who would never do this that decided to give it a try this year. Why? I think after a long, difficult, and exhausting year we are all in need of hope and joy. You can ask my wife I am the type of person who has a strong stance that our Christmas tree cannot go up until the day after Thanksgiving. I get frustrated when I see Christmas decorations at the store in August. Yet this year I too find my self just itching for hope in a difficult season. Our message this morning is going to center around finding hope in a seemingly hopeless world. You do not have to look very far to know our world is broken, and we all long for our world to be made right. For sickness to end, for death to be no more, for justice to be served, and the list goes on an on. We cannot lose sight that our longing for the world to be made right can only be fulfilled through the coming of Jesus Christ.
>> Read 1 Peter 1:3-5
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,
Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Our Need For Hope
Our Need For Hope
This world can feel hopeless
We are not the first people to desperately need hope
The Hope of Adam and Eve
God created this world
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
He created man to live in communion with God
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Mankind sinned. Eating the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and sin entered the world.
And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.
We see the consequences of sin.
What is sin?
Sin is fundamental rebellion against God.
We all sin.
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Our sin is debt to God
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Sin kills everything it comes in contact with.
Your marriage. Your productivity. Your relations. And ultimately you.
God is perfectly just and will punish sin.
And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
Yet we see Adam finding hope even as he is cast out of the garden. Even as work because difficult. Even as death and suffering enters the world.
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
God promises to restore humanity through this promised one who the serpent will injure but will ultimately destroy satan. Look at how Adam responds.
And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.
Adam and Eve had to wonder as they had children…is this the one? The one who will make all things right again?
Cain? No.
And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper?
Noah? No.
And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:
And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.
David? No.
And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king’s house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon.
And David sent and inquired after the woman. And one said, Is not this Bath-sheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?
And David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in unto him, and he lay with her; for she was purified from her uncleanness: and she returned unto her house.
And the woman conceived, and sent and told David, and said, I am with child.
Solomon? No.
And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart.
It is easy for us to read the last page of Malachi and then flip one page over to Matthew and miss the anticipation. 400 years passes between the writing of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament. Can you imagine the anticipation? The Israelites have experienced Babylonian and Assyrian captivity only to now be under the oppressive Roman rule. When we think of a cross we tend to immediately think of Jesus Christ but the roman cross was a weapon of war used by the roman empire for hundreds of years. Imagine your self as a young boy or girl. Your father, maybe your older siblings, try to rebel against the Romans. So the Roman soldiers line the streets with crosses and crucify all the men in your village. This was life for the Israelites under Roman rule and they longed for the coming of the Messiah. The promised one who would make all things right again. And its been 400 years of silence. This is the period we enter into when we turn the page from Malachi to Matthew.
These were people in desperate need of hope. Where do you look for hope in?
Your job?
Your marriage?
Your education?
Your health?
All these things will dissappoint you. But God’s promise is that there is One who will never leave you. Who will never forsake you. Look back at our text. Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God is our one true hope.
Christ is our hope
Christ is our hope
Jesus Christ Came
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
He was sinless
For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
He did not deserve death but chose to die on your behalf.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Christ offers deliverance. You cannot earn favor with God.
Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:
To be a Christian means you were born again. You played no role in your first birth and you play no role in your second birth.
This term deliverance is defined as “Rescue or redemption and the agent of such a rescue. Scripture teaches that God’s ultimate goal in history is to rescue people from the curse of sin, death, Satan, and hell.”
David and Goliath
David was an Old Testament type of Christ. Meaning you can look at the life of David and you can see how it points towards the coming of Christ. His life bears some similarities to the life of Christ. One example we see of this is when David fights Goliath. The Greatest Israelite Warriors are trembling afraid. It didn’t matter what accomplishments Saul had racked up, he could not defeat Goliath. David defeats Goliath. The Israelites literally do nothing but watch. David delivers them victory. They are passive. He is active. Christ has delivered you from sin and death. You played no role in it.
Paul understood that his accomplishments amounted to nothing.
Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more:
Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;
Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
But listen carefully. Even with all of these accomplishments Paul counted them all as loss. They were all garbage because none of it earned him favor with God. He couldn’t earn God’s love and neither can you! And this is good news! If you could earn your way to heaven then that would also mean you could lose entrance to heaven from your mistakes. I know in my life if my chances of getting into heaven were rated based upon my good works vs my sins then I would be in big trouble. And if your honest the same is true for you.
For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
Paul realized that the things that he used to boast in were actually destroying his ability to have a relationship with God. But the good news is that no matter how broken you feel or how proud you are Christ wants to restore you.
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Jesus Christ is our hope. Everything outside of Him will fail you. But what Jesus Christ offers is eternal.
Our Future Promise
Our Future Promise
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
It’s imperishable, nothing can take it away from you. We desperately need hope but we desperately need to be looking to the only One who can give us what our hearts long for, Jesus Christ.
You can have this hope.
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
At the end of next month we will put our Christmas trees away. All the decorations will go back in the boxes. Back into your attic. Celebrating Christmas is a good and right thing. But don’t lose sight of what we are celebrating. Jesus Christ came. Yes, He came as a baby and He lived a humble life. He never sinned. But He came to rescue sinners like you and me. But make no mistake about it Jesus Christ will return. And our hope should be in longing for the day He comes again. Not as a baby but as a roaring lion. He is the alpha and the omega. The beginning and the end. He is coming to judge the wicked and save those who placed their faith in Him and His resurrection. Governments, people, materialism, it will all fail you. But Christ never will.
If you’re here this morning and you find your self placing your hope in all the wrong places, will you turn to Christ instead of to the stuff of this world? Maybe you’ve never accepted Christ as your Savior. Let today be the day of your salvation. You too can have this hope. Christ offers it to you.