Christ, Author of a Better Hope

Main Street = The World’s View

Church Street = God’s View

Good morning. Thank you for being with us today. Last week we started a series that I’ve called “Christmas at the intersection of Main Street and Church Street.” We’re basically taking a look at the the two different approaches to Christmas. There is Main Street Christmas, which I defined last week as the world’s view or its approach to Christmas. It’s characterized by commercialism, giving and receiving gifts, consuming our favorite holiday treats, and trying to create joy and celebration without any kind of religious ties, unless that sells more products. Church Street, on the other hand, represents God’s way or His view of Christmas. It is the original purpose of what He did by sending His son to be born of a virgin and become our Savior. Its focus is absolutely on God and on what His plan is for humanity. But even when we look at that original Christmas, we see that the religious leaders and the general population of the day had an incorrect understanding of what God’s plan was, and how they understood their need and God’s solution to their problem. Their hope was mis-directed. Today, there are also many people who have allowed their understanding of God’s plan to be influenced by the world’s view of reality, so today we are going to look at the contrast between what Main Street puts its hope in, versus what Church Street puts its hope in.

The Israelites in the days of Jesus’s birth had been waiting for God’s Messiah to come and save them for hundreds of years. The prophets had predicted His coming, and religious leaders and commoners alike were full of ideas about what this Savior would look like. The reality was that the people of Israel had never before experienced anything like what God had planned (nor had any other nation, for that matter). In the hundreds of years that they had been a people, the heroes of their history had always been human only, with all the flaws and disappointments that come with that reality. They were people like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the three Patriarchs; Leaders like Moses, King David and King Solomon; prophets like Elijah and Isaiah; women like Sarah, Rahab, and Ruth. All of these people were human and even though they were great men and women of God, they were only human.

Their hope for a savior was that someday God would raise up another “only human” leader who would come and save them from the oppressors they were most concerned about, and who they thought of most often - there had been a string of foreign invaders including Assyria, Babylon, Greece and finally Rome. They prayed and hoped God would send their savior soon so that they could once again rule themselves and establish Israel as a nation to be feared and respected. They failed to realize that the superficial realities of their perceived need was not their deepest need.

God however, knew better. He knew that their real need was for freedom from the oppressor that had held them under its thumb since soon after the start of creation. That oppressor’s name is “Sin”, and the one who wields its power is Satan. Even though the Jews hoped for deliverance from a political and earthly oppressor, God’s plan from the very beginning was to deal with our deeper need, and to free us from that slave master called sin and death. Humanity’s hope was too small, but God’s plan was always to give humanity a better hope than we realized we needed.

If you have your Bible with you, please turn with me to the Gospel of Luke chapter 2, starting in verse 25.

Luke 2:25–35 NLT

25 At that time there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. He was righteous and devout and was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel. The Holy Spirit was upon him 26 and had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. 27 That day the Spirit led him to the Temple. So when Mary and Joseph came to present the baby Jesus to the Lord as the law required, 28 Simeon was there. He took the child in his arms and praised God, saying, 29 “Sovereign Lord, now let your servant die in peace, as you have promised. 30 I have seen your salvation, 31 which you have prepared for all people. 32 He is a light to reveal God to the nations, and he is the glory of your people Israel!” 33 Jesus’ parents were amazed at what was being said about him. 34 Then Simeon blessed them, and he said to Mary, the baby’s mother, “This child is destined to cause many in Israel to fall, and many others to rise. He has been sent as a sign from God, but many will oppose him. 35 As a result, the deepest thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your very soul.”

Let’s Pray...

We don’t know anything about Simeon except what this short passage tells us about him. The Bible tells us that he was righteous and devout, and that he was eagerly awaiting the coming of the Messiah. So far, this description could probably apply to multiple people in Jerusalem. After all, Jerusalem is where the temple of God was, and where the religious elite congregated. Many people would have fit this first part of the description, but then Luke tells us an additional detail about Simeon. “The Holy Spirit was upon him...” This was not common at all. In fact, there is a 400 year period of silence between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the story of Jesus’ birth in the Gospels. For 400 years, the Holy Spirit had apparently been silent. Before the death and resurrection of Jesus thirty-three years later, and Pentecost which happened 50 days after Jesus’ resurrection, the Holy Spirit came upon people only rarely and in special occasions of revelation and prophecy. But Luke tells us that the Holy Spirit was upon Simeon and had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen God’s Messiah.

The presence of the Holy Spirit in Simeon’s life is what made his view of Jesus and of God’s plan different from just about every other religious leader of his day. You see, even the religious leaders at that time believed that God was going to solve the problem that they felt was their greatest need through a political solution. They had bought into the world’s view of how problems are solved.

Main Street tries to solve humanity’s problems through political solutions.

The people in Jesus’s day were looking forward to a political solution to their problems. In their minds, the biggest problem they had was the fact that their nation was under the control of an outside power, the Romans. The blame for many of their everyday problems was easily laid at the feet of this oppressor. The bad political decisions and taxes were responsible for the poor economic conditions of families. Social unrest was caused by these outsiders sticking their noses into local affairs. Unwanted cultural change was being caused by foreigners with their different customs and culture. Moral decay was the fault of the secular population and non-Jews that didn’t take God or religion seriously enough.

If they could just have the right political solution, everything would get better. A Jewish nation led by devout Jewish leaders would soon right the wrongs if given a chance. A Messiah who came and brought freedom from the Romans was just what they needed, they thought. Then this godly, only human leader could do his best at leading the nation to follow God, obey the Law of Moses, establish a thriving economy, restore true Jewish culture and get rid of outside influences, protect the nation from other people militarily, and bring God’s people back to a state of respect and influence.

The last four years have shown how much the church today falls into the same trap. Many Christians have looked at our nation’s political leaders as some sort of savior for the problems in our society. “The right political leader will bring back laws that will turn our nation back to God and to greatness,” they say. Some believe that a political leader can bring the church back to a place of prominence, influence, and leadership; that he can pass laws that legislate moral behavior on the masses; that political power can solve the brokenness of our nation. But this is not how God planned to address our problems and change the world.

Church Street solves humanity’s problems through spiritual solutions.

Throughout His ministry, Jesus continually avoided becoming a political figure. When asked to choose about whether it was right to pay the Roman tax, Jesus’s answer disarmed the politically charged question and turned it into a question of right and wrong. Instead of ignoring or condemning a Roman centurion who came to Him on behalf of someone else, Jesus commended him for his Faith. When Jesus fed the five thousand and realized that the crowd was so amazed by his power that they were ready to force him into a political position by declaring him king, He left the crowd behind and went away. When Satan offered Jesus a chance to rule all the kingdoms of the earth if He would only worship him, Jesus responded that only God was worthy of worship. At any point in time during His ministry, Jesus could have turned his efforts into establishing a political, worldly kingdom, but that was not the true solution to the world’s needs.

Instead, Jesus focused on what really mattered. When the sick came to Him for healing, He not only healed their bodies, He declared that their faith had resulted in the forgiveness of their sins. When a storm came up while He and His disciples were crossing the lake and His disciples woke Him up worried that they were all going to drown, Jesus calmed the storm and then asked the disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” (Mark 4) He didn’t talk about the need for sturdier boats, or for rebuke them for not having more buckets to bail water with, He asked them about their level of faith. Over and over again Jesus commended people for their faith, or criticized them for their lack of faith. This was because Jesus knew that the only solution to our greatest problems and needs is spiritual.

Are you worried about our nation and the direction it’s headed? The solution doesn’t come from electing the right person into a position of leadership. God can lead a nation through Moses, and He can lead a nation through Nebuchadnezzar. He can bend the will of Pharaoh to accomplish His plans, and He can use Joseph to deliver His people. The solution to our country’s problems isn’t making the country more red or more blue, it’s leading the people in our communities to put their faith in Jesus and address the deeper issue in their lives.

Are you struggling with a work-related issue, or a personal relationship issue? Or is your problem health related, or emotional? The solutions to those problems aren’t to hope for a government bailout, a better healthcare law, or finding a good counselor to talk you through the issues; the solution is to trust God and go to Him for insight into how to approach the spiritual issues that may be behind those things.

Main Street addresses needs that are superficial and temporary.

Homelessness, hunger, crime, greed, self-worth, happiness, self-actualization

The world focuses on things that when looked at from an eternal perspective, they turn out to just be superficial. The world worries about external things like appearances. It worries about having enough money to buy the things it says are stylish or important. It tries to sell you things that it tells you will provide happiness and entertainment, even if it’s just for a short time. Even when it is trying to be altruistic and selfless, it focuses on issues of temporary importance. Providing education, clean water, decent housing, food, economic opportunities, safety, medical and health services, and so much more… those are all good things, but they are things that only address a person’s earthly life. As good as those things are, they do nothing to address a person’s eternal security and happiness. Without God’s perspective on reality, the world’s solutions, even its best ones, will only help in the short run.

Church Street addresses the need at the deepest core of our being, with eternal impact on us.

Our deepest need isn’t that we need a better job, more money, a second chance at making the right decision on an opportunity we missed out on, or a bag full of groceries. Our deepest need isn’t even that we need to be free of Covid and all its effects, or to be healed from the disease that is ravaging our body, or freedom from some political system that we feel is oppressive, broken or unfair.

Our deepest need is that we need forgiveness for our sins, and salvation from God’s justice that condemns every sinner to an eternity in hell. It doesn’t matter if we have the most rewarding job in the world, or all the money we could ever want, if we are still carrying our own sin and have to suffer the consequences of what we’ve done. It doesn’t matter if our stomachs are full of our favorite foods, if our bodies are the model of health, or if we live in a country where the government does everything the way we want them to if we don’t have the salvation that guarantees our joy and blessing for all of eternity after this life.

The root behind every problem on earth is sin. Sin destroys how we treat one another, it warps how we view ourselves and others, it breaks systems and governments, it is even the cause of a fallen world where disease exists. Jesus understood that taking a political approach to the problems of his day would not address the core problem with humanity. It had to be a spiritual approach. Only through addressing the spiritual reality of humanity’s soul and how it has been corrupted by sin could we begin to be transformed and changed into who God designed us to be. It is through the spiritual approach to life where faith leads to repentance which results in a transformed heart that is in line with the heart of God that our deepest problem is solved.

When that happens, we can be in a job that is unfulfilling, but still have hope and purpose in line with what God wants to do through us in that place. We can live though a pandemic where stress and anxiety reach new levels of intensity, and still experience God’s peace. We can approach the end of our lives looking at it not as the end of living, but as the beginning of eternal life. We can forgive those who have hurt us because they are broken and hurting too, and because God ultimately forgave us our sins, which frees us to forgive others for what they did to us.

The biggest and most important thing about addressing our deepest need is that when we accept God’s solution for it, He opens the doors of eternity to us and adopts us as His children. It’s not a temporary, short-term fix; it lasts forever.

Main Street settles for imperfect saviors with limited salvation.

The Jews were familiar with the humanness of their heroes. Abraham hadn’t always trusted God when he pretended that Sarah, his wife, was only his sister. David may have been a man after God’s own heart, but he was also a man whose heart led him into adultery and murder. Moses may have been a great leader and liberator, but his sin ultimately prevented him from entering the Promised Land he had led the nation to. Elijah may have been considered the greatest prophet in the Old Testament along with Moses, but he ran away scared, exhausted and wanting to give up immediately after his greatest victory for God. The Jews were used to great men doing great things for God and for His people, but that’s all they expected, a better-than-most, yet completely human savior.

Just as the Israelites who were waiting for a Messiah expected him to be a newer and better version of the heroes they were familiar with, the world is often willing to settle for saviors that are imperfect and whose “salvation” or solutions are limited. People don’t expect anyone to be perfect, and so they settle for putting their hope in imperfect people to help solve their problems. The imperfect politician suggests a policy to address an issue based on what he or she thinks is best. The Pharmaceutical Company touts the 95% efficacy of its vaccine. The Humanitarian organization points to its successes in improving people’s situation. The school brags about the accomplishments of many of its graduates. The world knows no one is perfect, so salvation is found in someone or something that is “good enough,” or sadly, sometimes, “not as bad a choice” as the alternative. But God’s plan was not to do something in line with what the world was used to.

Church Street recognizes that God sent His perfect Messiah to provide the only acceptable outcome to save humanity.

The people in Jesus’s day never dreamed that the Messiah could be Man AND God all in One. They didn’t realize that the standard of trying to be good enough was not good enough for God. But God provided His Son who was able to meet the perfect standard required by God the Father in order to become a substitute for us and pay the price of our sin. Nothing but perfection was acceptable to God. The whole purpose of the Law of Moses, Paul tells us in Romans

Romans 5:20–21 NLT

20 God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant. 21 So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

All that God had revealed about Himself and His ways in the Old Testament was intended to lead us to the understanding that on our own there is no way we can meet His demands of perfection. God didn’t do this out of cruelty or meanness, as if to say, “Haha! You thought you could be good enough to earn my love, but no one can!” That wasn’t His attitude at all, but God had to create an awareness in us that God is so holy, and his requirements are so perfect and absolute, that without His grace we are powerless. Jesus’s message wasn’t, “Try harder, do more good deeds, you can do it!” NO. Instead His message was.

Jesus’s Message:

1. Repent.

Matthew 4:17 CSB

17 From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

Repenting is nothing more than agreeing with God about your sin and your inability to do anything about it, but at the same time turning away from it and depending on God to deal with it. It’s like saying, “I surrender, I know I can’t do it on my own, so I recognize how ugly my sin is and that I can’t clean myself or balance the scales by doing more good things, I need you to forgive me.”

2. Believe.

John 3:16–18 CSB

16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.

John 14:1 CSB

1 “Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.

The word “Believe” in the Bible means more than just a mental agreement that something is true, it includes the actions that show you believe it’s true.

3. Follow.

Mark 8:34 NLT

34 Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.

Following is about adjusting your life to what God asks of you. It’s about obeying Him and letting Him direct you.

Because Jesus provided the only acceptable sacrifice to deal with our deepest need, then we are able to respond to His call to Repent, Believe and Follow.

Main Street’s hope is based on circumstances.

The world bases its hope on the likelihood of a desired outcome to come true. Several years ago my father-in-law told me about a website that had “De-motivational posters”. You know how offices often have motivational posters encouraging people to work hard, be kind, stay motivated, and all kinds of other good things, well this website has de-motivators, kind of a spoof of those more inspirational posters. One of the posters they have on their website is from the perspective of a person looking up into the desert sky with a hot sun blazing down on you, and a whole bunch of buzzards circling above. The caption to this picture has the word “HOPE” in big letters, but then just below it it finishes the thought… “May not be warranted at this point.” When you’re laying under the hot desert sun with a bunch of buzzards circling overhead, hope may not be warranted.” You see, the world’s hope is based on circumstances. Is there enough time on the game clock for a comeback? Do you have enough people on your side to make a difference? Is there a medical treatment that has been effective in curing that disease? Is the economy likely to get better or worse? Do you have an ace up your sleeve? Is the person who makes the decision for you or against you? If circumstances are right, then there is reason for hope. If not, then there is no point in torturing yourself.

Church Street’s hope is based on God’s promises.

Thank goodness that we don’t have to base our hope on the circumstances around us. Remember Simeon at the temple? Simeon never got to see the Messiah grow up and carry out His ministry and mission. He didn’t know what would happen thirty years later when Jesus started his ministry with a bunch of misfits and outcasts, and he had no idea God’s plan was for the Messiah to die and rise again. Simeon didn’t know the details of God’s salvation, but he had faith in God, and trusted that God WOULD save. He knew God’s promises, and knew God’s character. The Holy Spirit on him allowed him to have special, but limited insight into the plan and purpose of God. And that limited insight was enough for him to rejoice, be at peace, and encourage Joseph and Mary about the significance of the life of the small child he held.

Hebrews 11, the great chapter about the giants of the faith from the Old Testament states that all those great men and women of faith never got to see the promise fulfilled in which they put their faith. We are fortunate to live on this side of the cross and the resurrection. We can look back at the testimony and record of what God did and how He fulfilled the prophesies concerning the Messiah. We have a greater understanding of God’s plan than the disciples did when they were just starting to follow Jesus. We know that God’s plan is to have people from every tribe nation and tongue worshipping Him in eternity. Still, there are promises and prophecies that as believers we are still waiting on to be fulfilled. Our hope is not based on the circumstances that we are in. If it were, we would despair and lose hope; but our hope is in God and in His promises. We know that God is good, that He is faithful, and that He will accomplish what He has set out to do. And so we rest in that hope, we feel encouraged by it, and we share that hope with anyone who is willing to listen.

Let’s pray.

Hebrews 13:20–21 CSB

20 Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus—the great Shepherd of the sheep—through the blood of the everlasting covenant, 21 equip you with everything good to do his will, working in us what is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.