The Hope we have in Jesus

At the beginning of 2020, we had so much promise. The General Conference theme was 20/20 Vision. Plans were underway to have Conference in Grand Rapids. Some were making graduation plans, spring and summer vacation plans. Then, the dumpster fire of 2020 started. Covid-19 made its way from China over to the United States and every other country in the world. Things changed drastically as lockdowns started. Flights from certain countries were not allowed to enter the US. No longer could students meet in person. All sporting events had to halt their seasons. Restaurants, movie theaters, and churches had to close their doors as we were directed to stay home and only leave for necessities. People started hoarding food, toilet paper, cleaning supplies and other things.

We were told this would only last a few weeks to “flatten the curve” and get a handle on the virus. Weeks turned into months, and now over 8 months after the first lock downs started, we still are living with restrictions. A time where people are so divided. We see people arguing that we need to stay home and wear a mask, to those saying, you’re violating my freedoms. And apparently, you cannot be in the middle.

I have seen many Christians on both sides get in heated arguments. I’ve seen where many people, including pastors and pastor spouses, calling people Cov-idiots to describe people that don’t agree with them on wearing a mask all the time. Oh, and I’ve even seen that same group say that if you don’t wear a mask, you are not a Christian. The same people that tell us not to judge others because only God can do that, have just judged, as if they can look at the other person through God’s eyes declare them not a Christian just based on whether they wear a mask in public or not.

Not one single person in this country has been unaffected by Covid-19. We have seen the effect on people that own a restaurant that cannot open, or a small business owner that was forced to close while big-box stores were allowed to be open early on. I imagine that everyone knows at least 1 person that tested positive for Covid at this point, many of us know someone that was hospitalized and released, or tragically passed away due to Covid.

I’m not going to get into the politics of any of it. All the businesses closing for good, people losing jobs and benefits, people being sick and the deaths are tragic, and politicizing it does not do any good. We have seen way too much of that already. What we have seen, is a nation, that used to look to God for guidance, has lost hope. Depression and suicides are all on the rise since this all started. And that shows me, that our nations people have put their hope in the wrong place.

Whose hope are you holding onto this morning? More often than we realize or like to admit, Christians struggle with the issue of hope.

Too often we use the words hope, where we’re hoping something will happen, but we know the odds are against us. We “hope against hope” someone will get better — or we hope against hope that we will pass that final exam we didn’t study for. We’re not expecting it, yet we have a fatalistic sense of hope. You could describe all Detroit Lions fans this way. We have a fatalistic hope.

With Christ we have something so much more than hoping against hope. We have a hope which is real. Peter tells us in his letter, 1 Peter 1:3-4,

1 Peter 1:3–4 ESV

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,

When Peter spoke about our hope, how did he describe it? He said we were born again to what kind of hope?

A LIVING HOPE!!!

Peter could have just said we were born again to hope through the resurrection of Jesus. But we needed to hear and believe and trust that our hope is living. Our hope is alive. That was and is part of the great hope we have in Christ. He is alive! He defeated death. Our hope rests on the living Christ. Not the dead and defeated Christ!

Our living hope comes through the resurrection of Jesus. It’s a fact, it’s not a maybe or what if. Jesus rose from the dead, and our hope can never die. It’s not hope against hope, it’s a very real hope.

We will all experience hardship and struggles and trials and tribulations. You may feel like some of your hopes have been crushed. You’ve had your dreams, but for whatever reason they have not materialized the way you expected.

You see, when we’re struggling we need something to hold onto. I’m sure you have all heard this comment people make to encourage others, “well, you’re strong, you can handle this.” NO!! I don’t feel the least bit strong right now! I’m weak, I feel weak. The last thing I can do is rely on me.” I need to rely on Christ! Paul said it best in 2 Corinthians 12:10.

2 Corinthians 12:10 ESV

10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Ah, yes, when we are weak, then we can become strong. Not on our own power, but through the power of the Spirit because we have Jesus as our Lord and Savior. On our own, even though we think we’re strong, in reality, we are pretty weak. So, we need Jesus. He’s the source of our power, courage, strength and our hope.

As we get into the main text this morning, I like how Paul talks about hope in Romans, Romans 5:1-5,

Romans 5:1–5 ESV

1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 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.

v1-2

I want to break verses 1 and 2 into 3 things really quick.

Peace with God - “The unsaved person is at enmity with God because he cannot obey God’s Law or fulfill God’s will. Isaiah makes this pretty clear with Isaiah 48:22, “There is no peace, says the Lord, for the wicked.” and Isaiah 32:17, And the effect of righteousness shall be peace.” Condemnation means God declares us sinners, which is a declaration of war, but justification means that God declares us righteous, which is a declaration of peace, made possible by Christ’s death on the cross. Because the law brings wrath, nobody condemned by the Law can enjoy peace with God, but when you are justified by faith, you are declared righteous, and the Law cannot condemn you or declare war.

Access to God - “The Jews were kept from God’s presence by the veil in the temple; and the Gentiles were kept out by a wall in the temple with a warning on it that any Gentile that went beyond would be killed. When Jesus died, He tore the veil and broke down the wall. In Christ, believing Jews and Gentiles have access to God and they can draw on the inexhaustible riches of the grace of God. We stand in grace and not in Law. Justification has to do with our standing; sanctification has to do with our state. The child of a king can enter his father’s presence no matter how the child looks. The word “access” in verse 2 means “entrance to the king through the favor of another.”

Glorious Hope - “Peace with God” takes care of the past: He will no longer hold our sins against us. “Access to God” takes care of the present: we can come to Him at any time for the help we need. “Hope for the glory of God” takes care of the future: one day we shall share in His glory! According to Warren Wiersbe, the word “rejoice” can be translated to “boast”. When we were sinners, there was nothing to boast about because we fell short of the glory of God. But in Christ, we boast in His righteousness and glory!

William Hendriksen wrote, “It was Christ’s blood, representing his entire vicarious sacrifice, which brought reconciliation, and it was his Spirit which brought to the hearts of all true believers’ appreciation of that which redemption through blood had accomplished. So it was indeed through the person and work of the Savior, appropriated by faith, that access into this state of grace—that is, the state of justification—had been affected. Moreover, access to this state of grace implies confident access to the Father and to his throne of grace.”

We have been justified by faith alone, nothing we do outside our faith in Jesus, will ever justify us in the eyes of God. But because of Jesus and our faith in him, we are at peace or better yet, reconciled with God. Up until the time we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are enemies and at war with God. But now, we are reconciled with Him and no longer objects of wrath; for Christ has removed all wrath for those that place their faith and trust in him alone. We are now children of God, and have that access to Him through Christ.

We have this glorious hope, because we have been justified by our faith. We have this glorious hope, because we are no longer at odds with God, but reconciled and at peace.

I want to read verses 3-5 again, Romans 5:3-5,

Romans 5:3–5 ESV

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.

Now, we don’t rejoice and jump up and down because we’re going through a period of suffering. What happens is that we still rejoice in spite of our sufferings. We may be justified through Christ, but it is not an escape from the trials of life. For believers, trials work for them, not against them. No amount of suffering can separate us from the Lord; but instead, trials bring us closer to the Lord and makes us more like Him. Nobody wants to suffer, but because we have Christ, who has given us the Holy Spirit, we can still have joy. So, in spite of our situation we continue to hold onto joy.

And we can still rejoice because we’re holding onto the Lord, who tells us . . . our suffering will produce endurance. It’s the picture of a person who is cheerfully enduring their storm. You suffer, yet you move through the process because you cannot be shaken from your foundation and faith in Christ. It’s also the person who is showing great patience in the midst of the storm.

And when you move through the process, endurance produces character. Literally, character means “proof of genuineness.” Enduring the storms of life changes us. So many people become bitter and resentful, but if we seek Christ in the storm, and we hold onto Him, we change from the inside out. Our testimony is different. When we talk about Christ in our lives, people listen. Why? Because they’ve seen Christ in us through the storm. They’ve seen how we’ve changed, how our character has changed, we’ve grown, we’ve become more mature in Christ.

And because we’ve endured, and we’ve changed in character, we’re more genuine, Paul then tells us, character produces HOPE! It is a confident, joyful expectation of something which is certain. That’s what our hope is. It’s based in Christ. It’s the expectation, the very real and true expectation of His presence in our times of distress.

And because we have HOPE, we can face tomorrow, even though our tomorrow will be different than today. It may not be what we wanted it to be, but we have Christ and we will make it because we trust in His power and presence.

Paul concludes by telling us ~ we won’t be disappointed because God has poured His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.

You see, because of our certainty of the resurrection.

Because of our confident faith in Jesus.

Because we believe we are a child of God Almighty.

Because we trust in the goodness of God.

Because we have faith God’s plan is for good . . .

. . . even in the storm . . . we hold onto hope, and when we do, Paul tells us we will not be disappointed because God’s love — — (NOT human love) but God’s love, God’s most powerful expression of love, agape love . . . His fellowship with us, will be poured into our hearts. Again the image from Greek isn’t I’m just going to pour something into a cup, it means a gushing type of pouring. It’s turning the pitcher over and dumping it all on the person. And that is part of the work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is taking God’s love and pouring it into our hearts.

It’s not wishful thinking. It’s something which is to be expected. It’s not hope against hope. It’s very real and a promise from God to you and I.

The writer of Hebrews adds to the message of Hope. Hebrews 6:18-20,

Hebrews 6:18–20 ESV

18 so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. 19 We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, 20 where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

The writer is telling us that our anchor is Christ. We anchor our souls on the certainty of the promises God has made to us. The promises that He will never fail us, never forsake us. The promise that He will be our God and we will be His people.

We see a great promise in Romans 8:38-39

Romans 8:38–39 ESV

38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Do you hear that promise from God? Paul said, I am sure, I am convinced, I have been persuaded to believe nothing, absolutely nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Great news of hope. That’s something we can hold onto. That’s because Christ is our anchor. He holds us steady and firm in all situations.

History lesson, I read an article from Christianity Today. The anchor was a symbol of Christianity in the first century until about 400 AD. To quote the writer, “The first century symbol wasn't the cross; it was the anchor. If I'm a first century Christian and I'm hiding in the catacombs and three of my best friends have just been thrown to the lions or burned at the stake, or crucified and set ablaze as torches at one of Emperor Nero's garden parties, the symbol that most encourages me in my faith is the anchor. When I see it, I'm reminded that Jesus is my anchor."

Epitaphs on believers' tombs dating as far back as the end of the first century frequently displayed anchors alongside messages of hope, such as "peace be with you" speak to the hope Christians felt in their anticipation of heaven. Archaeologists found about 70 examples of these kinds of messages in one cemetery alone.

If a person is hopeless, they’re in great despair. You see, most of us create false senses of hope. When we do that, we’re usually on the verge of being disappointed pretty soon. So, the only lasting hope . . . . . . And this is the crux of this message . . .

This is the big take away for today. So . . . listen.

In all the storms of life I can cope with the hardships of life and the struggles of life, and even death, because I’ve got this anchor in the midst of my story.

So, it really boils down to 2 major beliefs, and the reason most people don’t have sustainable hope is because they either don’t believe in the promise of the future, or they don’t believe in the one making the promise.

Let me say this another way . . . Biblical hope is anchored in a person knowing the promises for the future AND believing in the one making the promise. And that goes to the belief in God and the belief in Jesus who is making these amazing promises to us.

When we have hope, we know we have a future, wherever that may be.

When we have hope we believe differently.

When we have hope we think differently.

When we have hope we act differently.