THE PROMISE OF HOPE

Introduction

Thanksgiving 2020 is now in the rear-view mirror of our lives. The preparation of the meal, the time with family and friends, the laughter and the tears have are now part of our past experiences. Hopefully, many memories were made around the table and with others. The next big event on the 2020 calendar-Christmas. We turn attention to the Advent of Jesus Christ.

Advent is all about the incarnation. The incarnation is important to understanding the main theme of the Bible which is the person and work of Jesus Christ. We have already considered the promise of Bethlehem, the importance of biblical prophecy concerning the promised Messiah. Tonight we will consider the promise of hope. Hope is certainly something all of us could use right now at the end of a very unusual and almost unbearable year.

The question presents itself:What is hope? Personally speaking, it can mean something different to each individual. However, hope can be defined as an expectation or a belief that something we desire we be fulfilled. Consider the state of our nation tonight. Many people are filled with fear, frustration, and even anger over the current situations of how life is being presently lived. These things create a need in our minds for hope. We desire and pray for something better than the current circumstances for our children, our grandchildren, and for each other. It is important that we come to grips with the disappoints of life so that Christmas 2020 will not be high-jacked by our own emotions. In the mist of the struggles, disappointments, hurts, and fears, will we dare to hope in spite of them.

We are tempted to cry out with a sense of hopelessness. “Dear God in heaven, do you not know what is going on?” Of course God knows what is going on. Still, we sense the hopelessness at times in the lives of those around us. I hope you have learned or are willing to learn that win the pressure of the world rises, there is a renewed openness to spiritual and eternal world. That is why we have been left here. If we refuse to give the its only hope, if we refuse to give Him to others, then there is no longer any reason for God to allow us to exist. We will have become self-focused, self-righteous, and self-sufficient. In other words, we will have become the Church of Laodicea, and under the condemnation of the Lord Himself.

The Hebrew verb for hope is a word denoting expectancy. It carries the idea of believing that something good will occur and then goes out and searches for it. This is not some form of pop-psychological perspective of positive thinking. It is the possession of an expectant hope. [read text]

In this text, it appears that all of heaven seems to have this attitude of expectant hope. The angels break forth from heaven and enter earth’s atmosphere to engage with some lowly shepherds minding their business as they care for their sheep on the Judean hillside. This overflowing praise not only cuts through the fields and the hills, but into the very hearts of an expectant nation.

We will notice two observations from the text concerning the promise of hope.

WE OBSERVE THAT THIS PROMISE OF HOPE SPEAKS OF A CONTROLLING PROVIDENCE (LUKE 2:4-5)

Notice the words of the second verse of the popular Christmas carol, Away in a Manger:

The cattle are lowing, the Baby awakes,

But the little Lord Jesus, no crying He makes;

I love Thee, Lord Jesus! Look down from the sky,

And stay by my cradle till morning is nigh.”

This verse has problems in connection with the facts surrounding Christ’s birth. The cattle might have been lowing, but they were not doing it there, because they were not there. They would have been out grazing in the fields when Christ was born. Further, there is the issue of Jesus not crying. This is an attacking, whether wittingly or unwittingly, against the incarnation. Christ was fully human and such did cry. He cried as an adult and He surely cried as an infant. The Lord Jesus was not void of human emotion. As a matter of fact, in His humanity, Jesus experienced the entire gambit of human emotions. The only thing Jesus did not experience in His humanity was sin.

Our text explains that Joseph left the province of Galilee and his residence in Nazareth and goes to the province of Judea to the city of Bethlehem. Why Bethlehem? This question will take us back to the reason for the census that required Joseph to make the journey to Bethlehem.

The village of Bethlehem was located six miles south of Jerusalem. It was located on the main highway to Hebron and Egypt. The journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem was ninety miles. Because Mary was pregnant, the most they could have traveled in one day would have been ten miles. Under the best conditions, it would have been a dangerous trip to make.

When Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem, they would have been joined by ten thousand other people from the house of David who had come for the very same purpose. That is the reason there was no lodging available for them.

We know that Jesus had to make this trip because of the requirement for the census. Yet why did Mary have to go? Simply, it was because of God’s providence and the fulfillment of divine prophecy. it was to be the fulfillment of Micah 5:2 that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. Eight hundred years before Caesar made his decree, God had already decreed that Jesus was to be born in Bethlehem.

Get this picture in your minds. Caesar is sitting on his throne. He is ruling the Roman world, thinking that he was large and in charge. He had no idea that he was merely the errand boy of a prophet named Micah. He had no idea that a young peasant girl named Mary was about to give birth to a Son who would be named Jesus and that He would forever change the world.

At the time of Jesus’ birth, there were only three continents known to exist. There was Europe, Africa, and Asia. Yet, it was the continent of Asia that God chose. Many countries made up the continent of Asia. However, it was a seemingly small two-bit country referred to as Palestine that God chose. That little country was divided into three districts: Judea, Galilee, and Samaria. Out of these three districts, God selected Judea. Within Judea there were many villages and towns. Out of all those villages and towns, God favored a seemingly insignificant village called Bethlehem.

Why? It was because God said it would happen there and in the exact way He had Micah prophesy it. Biblical prophecy is always in connection with God. It is never a shot in the dark guess as to what might happen. It is always a divine declaration of what will happen.

WE OBSERVE THAT THIS PROMISE OF HOPE SPEAKS OF A CONFIRMED PROMISE (LUKE 2:6-7)

Notice now the words of the third verse of Away in a Manger.

Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask Thee to stay

Close by me forever, and love me, I pray.

Bless all the dear children in Thy tender care,

And fit us for heaven to live with Thee there.

We are told that Jesus was laid in a manger (animal feeding trough) because there was no room for Him anywhere else. Increasingly our world does not have room for Jesus.

But God made a promise in Isaiah 7:14 where we are told, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.”

God has made us other promises in Scripture concerning our Deliverer.

He would be human and not an angel (Genesis 3:15).

He would be a Jew and not a Gentile (Genesis 12:1-3).

He would be from the tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:10).

He would be from the family of David (2 Samuel 7:1-17).

He would be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14).

He would be born in Bethlehem, the city of David (Micah 5:2).

In that manger, that feeding trough for animals, God kept every promise.

Today we can find great hope in the fact that God always keeps His promises.

CONCLUSION

We have lit the advent candle of prophecy, the promise of Bethlehem, and we have lit the advent candle of hope. This promise of hope speaks of a controlling providence and it also speaks of a confirmed promise.

There was once a man who went into a hotel and asked for a room. The owner-operator said, “I’m sorry but we have no vacancies. Thee are no rooms left.” The disappointed man replied, “Well sir, I want to ask you a question. If the President of the United States were to show up here, would you have a room for him?” The hotel owner replied, “Well, of course.” The man desiring lodging countered, “Well, he’s not coming. I’ll take that one.”

There was no room for Jesus in Bethlehem on that night of His birth. There is no room for Jesus in many people’s lives today. Yet, I guarantee that you will want Him to make room for you one day. If you want God to make room in heaven for you, you must make sure you make room for Jesus in your heart today.