All My Hope is in Jesus

Introduction

Good morning Church! I want to begin this morning by saying thank you to each and every person who has joined us here in person and those joining us online this morning. I pray that each of you had a wonderful Christmas and also that each of us remembered the real reason behind the season which is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

As we get ready to close out this historic year that we’ve had, and man has it been historic, I feel as if we could all use a little HOPE going into the new year!

My wife was telling me of a meme she saw on Facebook where a clock that had a calendar on it was getting ready to change from 12/31/2020 to 1/1/2021 but instead when it went to change it went to 13/01/2020!

And after the year we’ve had, I don’t believe any of us would be surprised if that exact thing happened! We’re all gonna be on the edge of our seats on New Year’s Eve waiting and watching for it change to January 1st going “we’ve had enough of 2020 come on 2021 please be a better year!

We’ve endured a worldwide pandemic, a catastrophic failure of an election, devastating tornadoes, the most active hurricane season on record and now to finish it all off on Christmas Day of all days we had a bombing in the heart of downtown Nashville that caused extreme structural and infrastructural damage to businesses and communication networks across the state!

I mean if ever there has been a time in history that the hope meter was running on “E” for the people of the United States, I would say 2020 would rank among the top spots!

And so this morning, I pray the outcome of this message restores your hope in the future, not in humanity for humanity is flawed but I pray your hope is restored in the savior of the world, our Lord Jesus Christ!

The one who left the splendors of Heaven and came to this sin soaked world to save His people from their sins!

That’s who our hope should be in this morning and so I’ve entitled this message “All my hope is in Jesus!”

I want us to look at what hope is, who scripture says our hope should be in and why.

So if you have your Bibles with you this morning, turn with me to the Book of Matthew Chapter 1 to kick us off.

I. What is Hope?

Romans 8:24-25 — 24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? 25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

The scripture here tells us that hope is something that we have not yet seen, right? Now, I have never seen or experienced heaven but I in patience long for it, wait for it and hope for it!

I don’t doubt that heaven is real but in full confidence and assurance of faith believe that one day, when God is finished using me and my race has been run, I’ll get to go there and therefore I have a hope in heaven that is sure!

Well Preacher, you just said you’ve never experienced it or seen but you are fully confident that it exists and that’s why you hope in it. How can you be so confident that heaven is even real?

Well because other people have seen and experienced it and left behind for us a record of such! The Bible says in...

Romans 15:4 — For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

You see, when the Bible speaks of Hope in the New Testament is uses the Greek word — (“elpis”) — and it means “a confident expectation” or “anticipation” not just “wishful thinking.”

So what the Bible is saying when it speaks of hope is that our hope is not something that should waver as the sands of time but is something that is stedfast and sure as the morning sun!

The hope we glean from the scriptures is something that has been tested and tried and found to be true from generation to generation!

It is something we can stand absolutely confident in and wait for in anticipation because we know that it shall never fail!

And the Bible goes on to say in...

1 Peter 3:15 — But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:

We should always stand ready to tell others of the reason of the hope that is within us!

And what this world needs to know this morning is that reason has a name which brings us to our next point of Who is Our Hope in?

II. Who is Our Hope in?

You see, as Christians, our hope is not in a thing or a place but rather in a person and that person is the reason for the season we just celebrated and His name is Jesus Christ!

He is the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valleys and our bright and morning star!

He is Christ, the Messiah, the everlasting one, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!

He is Alpha & Omega the beginning and ending, the first and last!

He is the one and only Son of God and it has pleased the father that in him should all fullness dwell!

He was born of a virgin, lived a life of servanthood, died a criminals death and buried in a rich man’s tomb for the Son of man didn’t even have a place to lay His head!

After 3 days in a cold dark tomb, He left the swallows of hell and took the keys of death and hell with Him!

He defeated that dark foe we call Satan at his own game and walked out a victor of the dark domain forevermore!

He lived to die so that when we die, we might live!

He now sits at the right hand of the Father making intercession for all who have and shall put their faith Him!

He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world!

His name is Jesus!

Paul said to young Timothy in... 1 Timothy 1:1 — Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope;

You see friend, our hope this morning is not in a mere man but in the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ for it is He who was sent to take away the sins of the world!

READ MATTHEW 1:18-25

It doesn’t say that Donald Trump was sent to take away the sins of the world now does it? It doesn’t say that Joe Biden was sent to take away the sins of the world now does it? It doesn’t say Congress or government was sent to take away the sins of the world now does it?

What it does say in the Book of Isaiah is this though...

Isaiah 9:6–7 — 6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: And the government shall be upon his shoulder: And his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, Upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, To order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice From henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

And the child it is speaking of here was none other than the Lord Jesus Christ!

He is our hope this morning, Church!

And as our beloved Bro. Paul said in...

1 Corinthians 15:19 — If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

Could you imagine if this was all just a myth or a legend? Can you imagine how disappointed we’d be?

If the only hope we had of Christ were the here and now! We’d all be miserable human beings wouldn’t we?

But praise be to God, we know…we know that our Lord rose up out out of that grave and lives even today!

Some would say…this is all a bunch of malarkey! You have never seen Him so what in the world makes you think He’s alive today?

My response would be eye witness testimonies!

He was seen of Peter and then of the twelve and after that he was seen of above 500 brethren at once! Stephen seen Him standing at the right hand of the Father as he was being stoned. Paul seen Him after His death, burial and resurrection on the Damascus road. And then He came to John on the Isle of Patmos and gave Him the Book of Revelation.

There is insurmountable evidence from eye witness testimonies that Jesus rose from the grave and is alive and well today!

He told His disciples in John 14:1–3 — Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

He is gone but not forgotten for we know the reason why He left! At this very moment He is preparing us, those who have put their faith in Him, a place to live for all eternity!

And that gives us cause for great Hope this morning Church! Why? Because when God says He’s going to do something He does it, Amen !

It may not be on our time table but you can rest assured that it will come to fruition when God is good and ready for it to!

Now, that we have a good understanding of what Hope is and Who Our Hope is in, now we need to finish it out by understanding the why!

Why does all our hope lie in the person of Jesus Christ?

For this we will need to turn over to the Book of Colossians Chapter 1.

III. Why should We put Our Hope in Jesus? — (Colossians 1:12-29)

Now, just as there are 12 days of Christmas in the old Christmas carol, I have 12 points I want us to look at as we work our way through these verses.

And I promise I will do my best to get you all out of here before 3 o’clock! JK we’re going to work our way through these pretty fast so if you haven’t put them on already, now would be a good time to focus in and put your listening ears on!

First off, here in Verses 12-13 we are going to see...

1. The Provision of the Father — (Vs. 12-13)

“Meet” — means “to make adequate” or “to qualify”

“Delivered” — Greek word (rhuomai) — means “to rescue”

“Translated” — means “to cause to move from one place to another”

We were on the road to hell and God the Father rescued us and set us on the road to Heaven!

We were once slaves to sin but now through the blood of His dear Son, (which He provided might I add) we have become the Sons of God!

So, we see the Provision of the Father in Verses 12-13. Now I want you to see the Price Paid by the Son in Vs. 14.

2. The Price Paid by the Son — (Vs. 14)

“Redemption” — Greek word (apolytrōsis) — “The act of freeing or the state of being freed from bondage, such as that of a prisoner or slave, by payment of a ransom.”

It speaks of the price that had to be paid to set one free and the price our Lord paid was penned with His own blood!

We have redemption, we have been set free, we have received forgiveness of sins through the shedding of His blood!

That was The Price Paid by the Son!

Then we see The Person of the Son.

3. The Person of the Son — (Vs. 15)

He is Emmanuel — God with us!

Chuck Swindoll — God, who is by nature utterly transcendent and unable to be looked at by finite mortals, has made known His attributes, character, power, will, and works through His Son.

Hebrews 1:3 (TEV) — He reflects the brightness of God's glory and is the exact likeness of God's own being, sustaining the universe with his powerful word. After achieving forgiveness for the sins of all human beings, he sat down in heaven at the right side of God, the Supreme Power.

John Phillips said, “Jesus is the one who gives visible expression to the invisible God.”

J. B. Phillips said the “The Lord Jesus is God in focus."

This is why Jesus was able to say in...John 14:9 He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.

John 10:30 — I and my Father are one.

The Person of the Son is the visible image of our invisible God!

And then the Bible says that Jesus is the firstborn of every creature.

This doesn’t mean that Jesus was created but rather this phrase can also be rendered "the firstborn over all creation” which helps to understand the phrase better because God has always been and will always be the creator and not the created!

He was the firstborn “over” all creation!

Which leads us next to The Power of the Son.

4. The Power of the Son — (Vs. 16-17)

John 1:3 — All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. “Consist” — Greek word (synistēmi) — means “means to hold together in proper place or arrangement!”

Jesus is the glue that holds heaven and earth together! Isn’t that amazing!

This speaks to The Power of the Son! And because of His great power, it has earned Him a place of Preeminence among all creation which brings us to our next point.

5. The Preeminence of the Son — (Vs. 18)

Paul tells us here that Jesus is head of the Church! Many a men have claimed themselves to be the head of their respective Churches and many a men have been put in positions to be the head of the Church but at the end of the day Jesus Christ, the one and only Son of God is the Head of His Church!

He told Peter in...

Matthew 16:18 — And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

It’s His Church! This Church is His Church. The Church down the road is His Church. The mega Church in Nashville is His Church!

It isn’t the Pastor’s Church. It isn’t the Deacons or the Elder’s Church. It isn’t the Pope’s Church! It’s God’s Church and more respectively it’s Christ’s Church for He and He alone is the Head of it!

Not only is He the head of the Church, He is the firstborn from the dead!

Now there were others in the Bible who were dead and then brought back to life but Jesus is the only one who laid down His life that He might take it again!

John 10:17–18 — 17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. 18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.

He was the only person ever to lay down His life and then take it again and therefore He is preeminent in all things!

No one has ever been able to do the same and no one will ever be able to do the same for this miracle was reserved for the Son and Him alone!

Not only did He raise Himself from the grave but He put off the mortal flesh upon His return and put on an immortal body, one that could never die again!

All of the people in the Bible who had been raised from the dead prior to Christ had been raised in their corruptible bodies and therefore had to die once again!

But not Christ, He put off His corruption and put on incorruption. He put off dishonor and was raised in glory! He put off the weakness of flesh and was raised in the power of a glorified body and therefore, He was the firstfruit of His kind!

And the best part is, the Bible say in...

1 John 3:2 — Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

I don’t know about you this morning friend but I look forward to the day that I will be like Him!

He is Preeminent in all things!

The Preeminence of the Son leads us to the Pleasing of the Father in Vs. 19.

6. The Pleasing of the Father — (Vs. 19)

Because of Christ’s willingness to lay down His life for His sheep, it pleased the Father that in Him should the fullness of God dwell!

Colossians 2:9 — For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

All of the attributes of God, placed into the shell of a man! Fully God, yet Fully Man.

The thought of God being placed into the frail shell of man in and of itself is a miracle in my opinion!

But it pleased the Father that His Son would be willing to take on a lesser form of Himself, go through the pain, agony, and torture of being beaten, battered and bruised all so that His creation could once again dwell with Him in eternity!

Many a babies over the generations have grown up to become Kings and rule their nations but only one ever left His Kingship to become a baby in order that all Nations might be saved through Him!

And because of that humility, that selflessness, it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell!!

And it’s that fullness, fully God and fully man that was able to bring peace and restoration to a relationship severed by sin!

Look with me next at the Peace of the Son!

7. The Peace of the Son — (Vs. 20a)

A. Romans 5:1 — Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

B. Romans 5:10 — For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

C. Isaiah 32:17 — And the work of righteousness shall be peace; And the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.

D. Luke 2:14 — Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, Good will toward men.

The Bible says that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. What that means is that since the dawn of time in order for a persons sins to be forgiven there has had to be some form of blood given for that sin.

In the OT there were many different types of blood given for different types of sin and then there where different times when only certain sacrifices were accepted.

If you brought the wrong type of sacrifice at the wrong time then your sins might not be forgiven!

But Jesus did away with all that when He gave His life a ransom on Calvary’s cross!

His blood, perfect and pure, made an everlasting atonement for all who would believe upon Him!

Fully God, Fully Man, He restored the peace between God and Man that man had broken in the Garden of Eden!

There is an old song that says “love can build a bridge” and that’s exactly what happened!

Jesus’ love for us took Him from Heaven, to Earth, to the Cross, and then to the Grave before taking Him back to Heaven and all so that He could mend that bridge that had been broken between God and Man!

His blood and His blood alone brought Peace to a broken relationship between God and Man!

Which brings us to our next point....

8. The Performance of the Son — (Vs. 20b-21)

The word reconcile means to restore, to reunite. And as we just learned that’s exactly what Jesus did!

He restored the relationship between sinful man and Holy God!

And next in Verse 22 we will see why He reconciled us to Himself!

9. The Presentation of the Son — (Vs. 22)

Jesus reconciled us to Himself so that He could present us holy, unblameable, and unreproveable in his sight!

He did the work so that all who will believe shall be granted an entrance into His everlasting Kingdom!

Do you see the common theme here this morning Church!

Jesus is the one who did all the heavy lifting and He did it all so that you and I might spend eternity with Him!

HE DID IT SO THAT WE COULDN’T MESS IT UP AGAIN!

All we have to do is be Persistent, Persevere by simply believing which is point # 10!

10. The Persistence & Perseverance of Man — (Vs. 23-26)

11. The Prize of the Father — (Vs. 27)

The prize for believing is Christ in us!

Isn’t it wonderful to think that the one who died for you, after coming to know Him as Lord and Savior over your life, now lives inside of you!

It doesn’t get any better than that!

That my friend is the greatest prize any man, woman, boy or girl on any continent in any part of the world could ever hope to obtain!

The Prize given by the Father is His Son and the gift given by the Son is Salvation and restoration for all who would call upon His name and believe upon Him!

And that is why All My Hope is in Jesus!

Which leads us to our final point here in today’s message which is the message itself.

12. The Perfection of the Son Preached by Man — (Vs. 28-29)

Does Christ live in you today?

If so, then you and I have a job to do!

We are to warn and we are to teach so that we in turn might present every man, woman, boy and girl perfect in Christ Jesus!

If All Your Hope is in Jesus, won’t you share Him with someone else today so that they in turn can share in that Hope as well?

What an awful shame to know that there are millions of people out in this world, lost and undone, living day in and day out without a ray of hope and here we are, with the answer to their problems, hope for the hopeless, and we’re to stingy or scared to share!

Illustration of someone dying without a cure and we have it.

We should be ready at all times to give a reason to the hope that lies within us!

Are you ready? Are you willing?

If so, then find someone, anyone and tell them that All Your Hope is in Jesus!