Hope is here & there
Notes
Transcript
Common English Bible Chapter 2
10 The angel said, “Don’t be afraid! Look! I bring good news to you—wonderful, joyous news for all people. 11 Your savior is born today in David’s city. He is Christ the Lord. 12 This is a sign for you: you will find a newborn baby wrapped snugly and lying in a manger.” 13 Suddenly a great assembly of the heavenly forces was with the angel praising God. They said, 14 “Glory to God in heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors.”
15 When the angels returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go right now to Bethlehem and see what’s happened. Let’s confirm what the Lord has revealed to us.” 16 They went quickly and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. 17 When they saw this, they reported what they had been told about this child. 18 Everyone who heard it was amazed at what the shepherds told them. 19 Mary committed these things to memory and considered them carefully. 20 The shepherds returned home, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. Everything happened just as they had been told.
I watched a special on titantic
It was delving in some more facts that have be speculated at over the years, but now there is bit more information that bears on why the titantic sank.
If anyone wants to talk about this, please give me a call.
As I was watching at one time, there were showing the doors that were lowered to stop the ship from flooding. As they were showing the illustration, I remembered thinking.. this will work...
And then I realized that this was not happening now, they were telling what should have happened.
The titantic ends in disaster. There is no hope in watching a story about it, right? Lessons learned? Yes, but hope, no.
Hope is by definition: a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.
When the outcome is already determined by history, then hope is hard to come by.
Well, in the case of the titantic, yes, but each year we celebrate Jesus coming to the this earth - we celebrate Christmas and Advent. We literally celebrate an event that happened in the past that brings hope to us still today.
Hope is real. We can experience it.
The hope we are going to talk about between now and Christmas day is pretty straight forward. It is the hope that is found in Jesus.
The hope that we find in Jesus is steady, true, stable, lasting, enduring… it is real, sincere, authentic and it is tangible.
As we go through this series, we will explore the different aspects of how hope is brought to us in Jesus and in turn how we experience it.
I want us all to experience hope in real and tangible ways. I want us all to experience more of Jesus during this season. We need it. The world needs it.
So let’s start today with this familiar Christmas text:
10 The angel said, “Don’t be afraid! Look! I bring good news to you—wonderful, joyous news for all people. 11 Your savior is born today in David’s city. He is Christ the Lord. 12 This is a sign for you: you will find a newborn baby wrapped snugly and lying in a manger.” 13 Suddenly a great assembly of the heavenly forces was with the angel praising God. They said, 14 “Glory to God in heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors.”
15 When the angels returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go right now to Bethlehem and see what’s happened. Let’s confirm what the Lord has revealed to us.” 16 They went quickly and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. 17 When they saw this, they reported what they had been told about this child. 18 Everyone who heard it was amazed at what the shepherds told them. 19 Mary committed these things to memory and considered them carefully. 20 The shepherds returned home, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. Everything happened just as they had been told.
So we will see hope is both here and there.
In this story, Luke let’s us in on this truth: Hope is born, over there - but here, hope is not yet. By believing we move from here to there.
Let’s look at this a bit:
So Jesus is born as chapter 2 of Luke begins. But the to the shepherds that we meet in verse 8 - hope has not showed up in their “here”. Hope there are told has been born over there. and it is great news that has happened:
I bring good news to you—wonderful, joyous news for all people. 11 Your savior is born today in David’s city. He is Christ the Lord. 12 This is a sign for you: you will find a newborn baby wrapped snugly and lying in a manger.” 13 Suddenly a great assembly of the heavenly forces was with the angel praising God. They said, 14 “Glory to God in heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors.”
The good news has showed up: It is other there in Bethlehem. It is there and yet the shepherds are “here”.
Listen to what they do: The hear the message and they move from here to there.
they go and affirm , or make real to themselves the hope that was introduced to them.
And there, hope that was known, is confirmed and shown to be true-true.
Hope is known and is true, but when the shepherds act in faith, they now know it know it. You know what I mean?
So what can we learn from this:
God is in the business of showing his creation the hope that is in Jesus. This is the Christmas message. God is showing favor to the whole world and this is the essence of hope.
More specifically for us here in 2020. I think this Christmas is a deep reminder of this - God is making hope over there. It might not feel like we have seen it seen it, but it is there and we have heard the call - there is good news that goes beyond what we are currently experiencing.
WE have have hope right here and now because we know that there something that has happened and is happening that we have not yet seen. This is how God works.
We can have hope that God is working through Jesus Christ. we can take that to the bank.
And yet when God calls us to the hope and says it is right here, then we must go.
What does it look like for you right now to have hope?
what does it look like for you to move towards that hope?
You see it is by faith that you move from here to there? where are you being called?
Example: a posture of hope in this season.
you can always be waiting for the other shoe to drop
or you can have hope - that God is working, that He cares and he is doing something profound.
which will you choose?
How is hope in Jesus calling you to move from here to there.
God is in the business of calling us froward with the hope that is in Jesus.
What is the shepherds stopped short of going?
what then?
would not their joy be stunted?
Let’s be like the shepherds - when we get the call in our here that hope is born, we chase it down and when we get there - we live in the fullness of hope of this season..
And can we turn our minds and hearts towards this reality - what was done there - at the cross - was so I could have life here.
Let’s pray.
