Hope in the Resurrected Thorn
Sermon in Oral Style:
Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Most of us enjoy a good comic strip from time to time. My favorite while I was growing up was the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. Calvin is an imaginative young boy who always gets into trouble. And his best friend in the whole wide world is Hobbes, his stuffed tiger. Calvin’s parents also show up in the comic strips quite often. And Calvin’s dad is always full of words of wisdom.
One of Calvin’s dad’s favorite phrases is “It builds character.” It rained all day on your fishing trip. “It build character.” You got the car door slammed on your finger. “It builds character. The teacher assigned you too much homework. “it builds character.” Calvin’s dad’s reassurance when anything got too difficult. “suck it up. Get through it. It builds character.”
In many ways Calvin’s Dad is right. Our sufferings are what will train us to be people of even greater character. If we never have to work for anything. If we never have to feel a burden of any kind, then we will have trouble becoming people of character.
In fact, Calvin’s dad was almost speaking words from Scripture. Calvin’s Dad is teaching his son something that has a good biblical foundation. But he missed the last part of the passage that we read today. Suffering doesn’t just build character. It produces hope. Something much greater. Verses 3 and 4 of Romans 5 say. “3Not only so, but we[c] also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4perseverance, character; and character, hope. Suffering produces character and character produces hope.
That is something we have been talking about all throughout this series about the thorns. As we bear thorns in many different ways. Whether it be physical suffering, emotional suffering. Maybe we suffer some kind of persecution or trial, or betrayal or rejection. Our sufferings will make us people of greater character.
Growing in character is something everyone can appreciate. Whether someone is a Christian, or a Jehovah’s Witness, or a Muslim, or an atheist. Everyone can appreciate a person who is going to take their sufferings and use them to become a person of character. But this passage is not simply calling people to be people of character. Jesus was not simply about calling people to be people of high moral character. And today, Easter, the celebration of Jesus Christ rising from the dead is not a celebration the triumph of character.
Today is about hope. It is about triumph of Christ. It is about the coming of hope into the world. It’s about giving our hopeless lives something to hope for.
In the last verse of Romans 4, Paul sets the stage for what he wants to talk about in Romans 5. Romans 4: 25He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. On Good Friday, Jesus Christ was delivered over to death. On Good Friday, Jesus Christ was forsaken by God. He was abandoned by his father. He was turned into an orphan on the cross to rescue take all our sins to the cross, to bear all our thorns.
And the story doesn’t end with Christ’s death. Nothing is truly finished without the resurrection from the dead as well. Christ wipes away our sins on the cross, but it is when he rises again from the dead that we can be sure that he has truly conquered all sin. And it is through the resurrection that we can be sure God doesn’t hate us. He loves those who are covered by the blood of Christ and believe that he rose again from the dead. We are justified. We are declared innocent before God, once and for all when Christ rises again.
That’s what Paul is talking when he writes the passage we are looking at this Easter Sunday. The next thing he says is, verse 1, “1Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we[a]have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.” Because Jesus Christ leaped out of the tomb on Easter, we can have peace in our lives. You can have peace in your soul.
If you noticed the cross is nearly empty this morning. This is the first Sunday since the beginning of Lent that our cross here has been this empty. For weeks we have been putting different items representing our pains and struggles on the cross. We have been putting our brokenness on the cross. We let it hang there on Good Friday, symbolizing how Christ takes all those thorns to the cross with him.
Now we look at the cross. It is empty. The blood and the gore and the horror of the crucifixion is done with. Christ’s has finished the work on the cross. And all of our thorns died there with him. Christ went to the grave and when he rose again, all the thorns and pains were gone. They stay in the grave.
That brings us peace. No more chaos caused by others rejection. No more chaos in our hearts over others rejection of us. No more of the tumultuous trouble in our hearts over the loss of loved ones. If we have been able to give it over to Christ, the memory isn’t gone, but the pain can be taken away. If we have given our pain over to Christ, then the thorns are gone and our hearts can finally find peace in it all.
When we are at peace then we can begin to rejoice. Verse 2 says, “And we[b] rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” When we accept the resurrection of Christ. When we feel the Holy Spirit stirring that faith inside of us. When we start having peace because we have cast all our cares on Christ, then it is time to celebrate. It is time that we can rejoice in the hope of the Glory of God.
The glory of God isn’t the first thing we would figure to rejoice in. Maybe we would rejoice as our team stayed in playoff contention. Maybe we would rejoice as our buddy’s team lost their chance for the playoffs. If someone won a bunch of money. That’s when most people would spend time rejoicing.
I have no doubt a man by the name of Jack Whittaker did some rejoicing when he won a 315 million dollar lottery pay off. The biggest solo winner in the lottery ever. Evidently he was a Christian man. He prided himself in giving a tenth immediately to the church. Then he set up a foundation for helping the poor and needy of West Virginia, where he was from.
But, quickly his lifestyle changed. Instead of rejoicing in the blessing of the wealth that God had given him, his hope had turned to other things in the world. He wasted his millions on people who misused the money. His lifestyle turned to alcohol and women. He began rejoicing in the hope of immediate pleasures. He began rejoicing in the hope of an escape from the troubles that his instant wealth had brought him.
When our hope is in the things this world has to offer, we can expect to get only what this world has to offer. This world offers instant gratification. It comes quickly. It is gone quickly. It leaves you wanting more. When we rejoice in the things of this world we hope that we can get as much of this world as we can.
But what should we rejoice in? We rejoice, not in the things of this world. We rejoice in having a lasting hope. We rejoice in hoping for something better some day. We rejoice as we put our struggles of this life on Christ. And we rejoice as we hope for a future that gives us so much more. We rejoice in a future that promises us the richest blessings that only a resurrected Jesus can give. We have blessings that 315 million dollars can’t even touch. Because Christ rose again after bearing our thorns, we can rejoice every single day in expecting some day to be with Christ in perfect peace for all eternity.
This rejoicing is not about instant gratification. We should be rejoicing in the hope through the resurrected Jesus Christ. Its about expecting more some day that this world can’t even hold a candle to. You see, because Jesus Christ came out of the grave, we will never have to fear the grave. He destroyed the last enemy that stood between us and a happy eternity with God. That was sin and death. Our passage tells us that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. To rescue us from that sin and make us right with God again.
Hope of everlasting life through the work of Christ on Easter gives us the drive to endure everything else in our life.
Life without hope is truly hopeless.
Hope can bring us through almost anything. Hope in the resurrected Jesus Christ always has a future.
One of the strange things about the human brain is that even though a person is in a deep coma, they might be able to hear or experience the things that are going on around them.
In one situation, a father had been badly burned in a fire. The doctors weren’t sure if he would survive, but day after day this father held on to life. One of the things that he attributes to his survival is the simple actions of one of his pastors. His pastor decided thought about could possibly be done to give this man hope for life again. Finally, the pastor decided that the sound of his children’s voice would be best. So, the pastor took a small little pocket voice recorder and visited the man’s two children. The oldest one said a few words of encouragement. “we miss you daddy. We hope you get better soon daddy. We love you.” But the younger one was too little and too shy to talk with the pastor into this funny little tape recorder. Finally, the younger son sang his ABC’s into the recorder.
Whenever the pastor visited the burned man, he would play the tape several times over. He wanted the man to realize that he had something to live for. There was reason to hope for the future and to want to get well. Eventually, the man recovered. He was still disfigured by all the burns. His life will never be the same again. But he is a new man, because he survived. He says he could hear the tapes of his children in his coma. And it gave him hope for the future. It gave him inspiration to endure everything for the sake of his children.
That is hope. That is what our Easter hope is like as well. It says in verse 10 10For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
We are dead in our sins. And the brokenness of the world that we live in and the thorns that we suffer every day are enough to put us in a coma of sorts. We have no hope for the future. But the news of Jesus’ death and resurrection gives us hope. Its like the little voices of the fathers children whispering to us. Christ is whispering to us in our coma of sin. He says, “Its okay. God loves you. There’s better things to come. It’s okay. God loves you. I paid it all. There are better things to come. There are better things to come for you.”
Christ suffered to whisper that hope to us. In fact the truth of the resurrection is so incredible it is like Christ is shouting out his love for us. On the cross, he already showed his love. But then as he broke free from the grave he is able to shout it around the world. I have conquered everything evil. And I did it all for you!
Congregation, Jesus lives. Jesus Loves. Let’s celebrate. We have eternal hope for this life and in the life to come.
This is God’s will from His word. And all God’s people say, AMEN.