Finding HOPE In Our Uncertainties

REFLECTION / ADVENT READING:

SERMON: Luke 2:22-38

BENEDICTION: Romans 15:13

INTRODUCTION

Years from now, we will look back on 2020 as a “marked” year. I’m not sure how your year was marked, I won’t belabor the possible outcomes, we’ve had them ad nauseam in our intake stream. Let me just acknowledge it this way,

Brother or Sister in Christ - wherever you are on your level of 2020 anxiety and uncertainty,

Friend, wherever you are on your own spiritual journey, we’d like to invite you into this season of Advent.

Might I suggest to you that in the craziness and uncertainty and pandemic of this year, we’ve been given a gift. We’ve been given the opportunity to rediscover Christmas.

For the next four weeks, we’re going to be exploring the attributes of Christ that intersect beautifully at His birth and the Christmas season: hope, peace, joy, and love.

We’ll also gather on Christmas Eve to celebrate the arrival of Jesus, the Christ.

We begin today with a commodity that is in high demand in this season of uncertainty…HOPE.

TRANSITION

This is a season of hope. Advent is all about hope. The word Advent means “coming” or “arrival,” and the season is traditionally a time of expectation, waiting, anticipation, and longing.

Advent is not just an extension of Christmas—it is a season that links the past, present, and future.

It offers us the opportunity to share in the ancient longing for the coming of the Messiah, to celebrate His birth, and to be alert for His second coming.

Advent looks back in celebration at the hope fulfilled in Jesus’s coming, while at the same time looking forward in hopeful and eager anticipation to the coming of Christ’s kingdom when He returns for His people.

During Advent we wait for both—it’s an active, assured, and hopeful waiting.

We’ll look at different characters of the biblical Christmas story and see these themes exemplified and how they relate to us today.

Simeon & Anna: Keeping Hope Alive

In our reading today, we were reacquainted with Simeon and Anna.

It had been centuries since God had spoken directly to His people. And every time Jewish people trudged past their temple, they had to see the Roman flag, flying high above their land, a visual slap in the face reminding them of their lost glory. They were a defeated nation under the thumb of the Roman empire. It was a time of conquest and brutality - a culture of death…for 1,000 years of invasion and conquer from the Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, and now the Romans.

God ‘s covenant promise to send a Messiah to make everything right was Israel’s deepest hope that sustained them and encouraged them and spurred them on, especially through thousands of years of uncertain waiting. They clung to God’s promise.

If they would have possessed the lyrics they would have sung, “O Come O Come Emmanuel and Ransom Captive Israel”

But how long can hope survive? Especially under the world-changing forces of the Greek and Roman Empires, whose cultures we are still influenced by today. Were there even embers of hope left smoldering?

The answer is yes...

We’re picking up in the Christmas story this morning AFTER Jesus has been born…and has been taken to the temple for his presentation - standard custom of the day for Jewish families.

But among the crowds that day, not among the waiting parents, not among the religious leaders, was a mysterious old man and a mysterious old woman. Unlike their peers, unlike the cynics, unlike the religious leaders, Anna and Simeon held on to a seemingly impossible HOPE grounded in a radical faith in the Scriptures’ promise of a coming Messiah. Would God appear in the flesh in their day?

Though most missed the signs and the prophecies and the star. Though many dismissed the frenzied tales of those shepherds. Though even the authorities ignored the searching of the traveling Eastern mystics, Anna and Simeon hoped...believed…so they waited.

They studied the Scriptures and the prophecies - they listened to the voice of God’s Spirit.

Luke 2:26–27 ESV

26 And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. 27 And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law,

Luke 2:37–38 ESV

37 and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. 38 And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.

Did you notice in that neither Simeon nor Anna seem the least bit surprised or uncertain about the fact that this baby, Jesus, is the long-promised Messiah?

Almost everyone else in the Christmas story so far has taken a little convincing about the whole arrangement. Granted, many of the others had an angel appear with a heavenly announcement, and it caught them off guard, if not made them completely terrified, at first.

God in His Sovereign Omniscience knew Simeon and Anna might just have heart attacks on the spot if an angel appeared, but I think it’s more than that. I think God didn’t need an angel to get the message to these two faith-giants. They were ready. They were tuned in, waiting, watching, listening, expecting. They were filled with hope, and that hope made them ready.

Here is one key lesson that Simeon & Anna teach us!

1. HOPE SEES BEYOND...

(The Now…the THIS…the HERE…)

Day after day, year after year, Simeon and Anna had served God faithfully, inspired and fueled by the hope that God was at work. Even though they couldn’t see it. Even if they were surrounded by hardship. Even as time passed and they grew older and older. Simeon and Anna still held onto hope. And they fostered new and renewed hope as they set their focus on God, worshiping Him, serving Him, serving others, taking one step faithfully at a time as they waited.

BIBLICAL HOPE is not just wishful thinking - I “hope” it doesn’t rain today. I “hope” my pants still fit after this meal.

Hope is the fuel of faith. And dreams. And possibilities. Hope is that whisper of maybe, just maybe. It’s the spark in the cold darkness that catches flame. It’s the flicker of first light on a new morning.

There’s a section of Romans 8 that can often get overlooked.

Paul starts off clarifying that “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1, NIV).

He then explains our relationship as God’s children and what it looks like to live by God’s Spirit.

Then he shifts to our future when God will fulfill His work in us and restore all of creation. And here in verses 24-26, he says this:

Romans 8:24–26 ESV

24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. 26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

Look at it...”Hope that is SEEN is NOT HOPE. Who HOPES for what he SEES?”

Like Ralphie, you may HOPE for the “official Red Ryder carbine action, 200-shot, range model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time.” You can think about. You can expect it, because you put it the amazon cart for checkout. You can tell yourself it’s going to happen! You can HOPE to be shooting that bb gun by lunchtime on Christmas. BUT AS SOON YOU RECEIVE IT, HOPE IS DONE. There’s no need for it…you can’t keep hoping for what you already have.

Hope precedes our present reality. Hope, by its very nature, exists in the uncertainty before. It exists in questions. In doubts even. In that unclear sense of what is to come. But hope is the willingness and desire to believe beyond what our present circumstances and reality are presenting to us.

BIBLICAL HOPE…HOPE IN CHRIST is still alive even in our deepest pain and most hopeless circumstances. This kind of hope chases away the darkness and uncertainty. This Hope is alive because God is with us.

Now, I included the beginning of verse 26 in our Romans reading because I think it’s vitally important. “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.”

If the first lesson Simeon & Anna teach us is that HOPE Looks Beyond, the second lesson is clearly:

2. GOD IS WITH US: HERE, NOW, & ALWAYS

Simeon & Anna were infused with hope because they were filled with Word of God and the Spirit of God was upon them.

Luke 2:25 ESV

25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.

Remember we read of Anna’s status with the LORD in verse 36.

God was not some distant cosmic force to them. He was the covenant God of Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob, the one the prophets called men and women to obey…and He was present with them!

Friends, with God there is no uncertainty. God knows your pain and challenges and struggles. He was not taken by surprise when a new coronavirus mutated and spread and went global. He was not surprised when the economy froze and sunk. He was not surprised when you or your loved one received that dreaded diagnosis, or call in the middle of the night, or heard those words that broke your heart or shattered your world or left you in confusion or uncertainty.

He sees you. And He is here. He is Immanuel, God With Us. And this hope He delivers, this hope He embodied and fulfilled and brought into the world so long ago, this hope that He offers today—this is not a hope He dangles before us, taunting us with it just out of reach. It’s not a hope He demands us to conjure as we struggle in our life’s worst moments to achieve.

This hope is infused into every woman and man and girl and boy who will bow the knee, repent of their sins and put their faith and trust in the LORD Jesus Christ!

This hope that is from the LORD is fanned and fueled within by GOD’s SPIRIT - especially in our weakness.

When we feel too weak to carry on, when we feel our grasp slipping on even the ability to try to hope, His Spirit is with us. His Spirit helps us to restore hope by reminding us of God’s faithfulness and promises. His Spirit leads us into God’s Word and to remind us of all God has done for us and all He has promised to do.

Our God, our Immanuel who is with us, has promised His people throughout history, and us today, messages of hope, including these:

Isaiah 43:1–2 ESV

1 But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.

HEB 13:5 “…I will never leave you!”

Titus 3:4–7 ESV

4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Do you see the hope leaping in these words? We are not alone even at our loneliest or darkest moments. Christ has come. Our God is with us every step of the way.

Hope Sees Beyond…Now/This/Here

God is With Us: Here, Now, & Always

If Simeon & Anna could peek in on 2020 and give us 1 final thought, they would probably remind us that...

3. HOPE INSPIRES US TO CARRY ON

Simeon and Anna were sparks of hope in Israel. More than that, they were torches of hope, expecting God to come through and do what He had promised. They believed this! They were waiting for this!

Both Simeon and Anna are likewise elders in this story. They have both lived long lives. They have seen and experienced many things, both hardship for their people and pain in their own lives. We know Anna specifically has been a widow for decades, a position of low social status in that culture. But we know both Simeon and Anna have remained faithfully devoted to God. They are ready to see God act and do great things.

The Apostle Paul described the cycle of hope like this:

Romans 5:2–5 ESV

2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

This hope from God’s Spirit does not put us to shame. He will not let us down. He will not disappoint us. Instead, God gives us hope that provides new and growing strength to see beyond the pain and confusion in front of us.

This HOPE pushed Simeon to SEE JESUS! That’s what HOPE DOES!

When you go back and read Simeon’s proclamation of Jesus (even as God is speaking through him) you are reminded that when you fix your eyes on Jesus, you see things differently!

Luke 2:29–32 ESV

29 “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; 30 for my eyes have seen your salvation 31 that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.”

When Simeon sees Jesus:

He sees the SCOPE of the gospel - dividing individuals at a heart-level.

Because Jesus is God himself in the flesh, to face the gospel of Jesus is to face God.

And to face God is to have our thoughts and hearts opened and revealed (Heb. 4:12). This will result in a fall for any who are proud or opposed to Jesus (Luke 2:34).

He sees the HOPE of the gospel - bringing nations together.

Now, in Jesus, God’s plan from the beginning of Creation is being accomplished.

The spreading of His grace and glory to all the earth - Jew & Gentile.

CONCLUSION

Hope inspires us. Hope emboldens us. Hope builds upon hope and keeps us going, no matter what.

What is your next step of hope today? What is your next step of hope in this Advent season?

In this Advent season, we can find hope in the arrival and life of Jesus.

We can draw hope from God’s faithfulness in fulfilling His long-awaited promise of the Messiah.

We can focus on the hope of God’s continued work in and all around us, that will one day take away even the need for hope as we realize the reality of God’s full restoration. And in the midst of whatever life is throwing at us, we can experience the hope of God’s Spirit within us, carrying us, strengthening us, emboldening us, and giving us the strength to take the next step before us.

Friends, my invitation to you is to take a step toward hope in this Advent season. Hope is dawning. Christ is coming. Christ is returning again. Let’s welcome Him into our hearts and lives every day in this season of expectation and hope.

If you are without a Christ today, you are without hope…but you don’t have to stay that way!

If you are in Christ today, you are an AMBASSADOR of HOPE to your neighbors and the nations.

LET’S PRAY!