Hope Secured

1. Introduction

Hope secured. What does that mean to you? If you look up the definition of hope in the dictionary you find a lot of language about wishes and longings and desires and some unsure type of confidence. Basically, the dictionary definitions assume that hope is based on your internal feelings and desires. But is that the basis for a Christian’s hope?

Today we will see that our hope is based on a more secure foundation. On our way, let’s take a short journey. Travel with me to a nation that is on top of the world. The hub of commerce, of knowledge and learning, of finance, and of religion. Christian churches have been established in this nation but there are many other religions and beliefs systems as well. All seems right with the world, but storms are on the horizon.

General society is full of ills - sexual immorality, addictions, abortion, oppression, intolerance, and the cult of personality leading to the worship of human individuals are some of the problems. Women, minorities, and non-citizens are treated as second class, at best. Government is less concerned about the citizens of the nation than they are about their power, their wealth, their place in history.

The church, once mainly tolerated, is more and more becoming a target for attacks. Christians are accused of hatred, racism, of being liars, cheats, and charlatans. They are blamed as the cause of many of the society’s ills. Even the government is becoming less tolerant and is increasingly persecuting the church.

The church itself has internal problems. Sexual immorality has become commonplace. Heresies have taken root and have not been expunged. Many churches are just going through the motions - all activity, no Spirit. Wealthier churches seem to be chasing more wealth while their poorer brothers and sisters are left to fend for themselves. There are some shining lights among the church, but they seem to be getting dimmer and dimmer as the church becomes more like the society around it.

This was the world that confronted John when he was given the Revelation. This combination of letter, prophecy, and apocalypse was written to a church that needed both a wake-up call and reinforcement of their faith. Now, the Revelation was not intended as a super-secret code book that requires some esoteric key or knowledge to decode. The Greek word from which we get our word apocalypse means an “unveiling of something hidden.” Something that was hidden or partially concealed by a veil is now seen in totality because the veil is lifted.

In the midst of such a situation, where is hope to be found? And what type of hope is it? Revelation was written to the church , in any generation, as confirmation of the foundation of the church’s hope. A hope that is as solid and sure as the God we worship and serve. A hope that is secure in God’s unseen realities.

Turn with me to Revelation chapter 1 as we read verses 1 through 8.

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.

John to the seven churches that are in Asia:

Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

2. God’s promises are true even when unseen.

Verse 1 tells us something that I don’t think many people realize. God the Father gave the Revelation to Jesus to give to John. This is the foremost basis for our hope because this “unveiling” was given by the same God the was present in the Garden of Eden. As soon as Adam and Eve sinned, and were being punished, God promised restoration. This promise was based solely on God’s mercy and love, for Adam and Eve had done nothing to deserve it.

Genesis 3:15

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

God’s promises continue as we work our way through Genesis and the patriarchs. Abraham was called out of a world of idolatry and into the land God promised. Even more he promised Abraham descendants beyond number. Again, this covenant was made by God through his infinite mercy and love. Abraham added nothing as he was in a deep sleep.

Genesis 15

After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son[b] shall be your heir.” And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

7 And he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” 8 But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” 9 He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. 11 And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”

This promise of God was repeated to Isaac and Jacob. In Genesis 26, the land is again experiencing famine and Isaac is looking for a place where he and his family could survive. God tells Isaac explicitly not to go to Egypt but to dwell in the land that God tells him.

Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”

We have all heard the story of Jacob’s ladder in Genesis 28. (Which should rightfully be called God’s ladder.) Of how Jacob was travelling, fell asleep, and had a vision of a ladder descending from Heaven to Earth.

And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

What had Abraham, Isaac , and Jacob done to deserve such a promise? Was there anything in their personalities or some quality within themselves that deserved such a promise? No, the promise rested solely on God and his nature.

The same thing happened to David, “the man after God’s own heart.”

2 Samuel 7:12–17

When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’ ” In accordance with all these words, and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.

As we know from the OT, Israel was not obedient, and their disobedience led to them being evicted from God’s land. Even that could not derail God’s love and mercy as we read in Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 31:31

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

God made promises to Adam and Eve, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to David, to Israel and to all peoples. Promises that did not depend on those individuals or peoples nor their participation in the promises’ fulfillment. God would fulfill these promises because of his own nature.

In Romans, Paul uses Abraham’s faith as an example of what faith should be and how his hope was based on God’s promise.

Romans 4:13-25

For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.

That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

We don’t know how much time passed between the promise to Adam and Eve and the covenant with Abraham, but we have a pretty good idea that roughly 1,800 to 2,000 years passed between the promise to Abraham and birth of Jesus.

We also know that Jesus is the promise of the OT realized. The entire New Testament is witness to this truth.

For example, the Gospel of John tells us in Chapter 1:14-18

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’ ”) For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

Abraham knew nothing of this. He did not know how the promise would be fulfilled, he did not know when, he did not know why, other than God gave the promise, and yet he believed that promise as if it had been fulfilled in his life. Abraham based his hope on God’s unseen reality.

It is amazing when Jesus speaks of Abraham and says,

John 8:56

“Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.”

3. God’s promises are not fully realized.

Furthermore, we see in this passage the Triune God present at the unveiling of the Revelation to John.

Revelation 1:4-5

Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.

This first mention of who is, who was, and who is to come refers to God the Father. The seven spirits before the throne are a symbol referring to the Holy Spirit and his completeness and perfection. The faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth speak to Jesus as the perfect prophet (only speaking and doing what he was told by the Father), the perfect priest (offering the only perfect sacrifice for sin), and the perfect king (ruling in perfect justice and love). The Trinity is present and involved in Revelation.

This is the same Trinity that has existed from eternity. The Trinity that created the Heavens and the Earth.

Genesis 1:1-2

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

John 1:1-3

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

This is the same Trinity that was present at the inauguration of Jesus’ earthly ministry.

Mark 1:9-11

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

This is the same trinity that will be with us in the New Heavens and New Earth.

But, the promise of the New Heavens and the New Earth has not yet been realized. This world will be redeemed one day. As Jesus brought reconciliation between man and God so he will also bring renewal for all of Creation. Jesus will defeat Satan completely and eternally and Man and God will live in a paradise that was intended from the beginning. We still say with Isaiah:

Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence—

as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil— to make your name known to your adversaries,

When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.

From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him.

The apostles were concerned when this would happen, and they hoped it would be while Jesus was on Earth.

Matthew 24 records Jesus discourse with the disciples about the end of the age and his second coming. At this point Jesus himself does not know when this will occur.

Matthew 24:36-44

“But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

What Jesus does know is that it will occur. It is a promise given by the same God that give the promises to the patriarchs and David. Revelation is confirmation that Jesus will return, and God’s final redemption of Creation will be accomplished.

Revelation 1:7-8

Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen. “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Revelation 19:11-16

Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.

Revelation 20:11 - 21:8

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Our hope is secure in God’s seen reality in Jesus and in God’s unseen reality through his promises. Our God does not lie - as he speaks, so it will be.

4. Conclusion

There is so much more we can say about the Revelation. Heaven knows a lot of time, money, thought, and words have been wasted on this book. However, whenever it occurs and however it happens, Revelation gives us further evidence of the basis for our hope. Jesus is coming again. Creation will be redeemed. Satan will be imprisoned forever. Like the patriarchs, like David, like the early Christians, our hope does not come from human institutions, human wisdom, or human activity. Our hope is solidly founded on God’s promises - on his unseen reality.

If you are a believer, then you are assured your hope is not in vain. No matter the circumstances of your life you can live in peace and as a victor over sin because that is what you are. We have not yet attained the full measure of our likeness to Christ, but we know it will happen. It’s not a matter of if, but when.

If you are not a believer, then you truly have no hope. Any hope you think you have is based on wishes and longings and desires and some unsure type of confidence. In other words, things that are transitory and changing. Even the hope that there is no God is a false hope. Any hope that is not based on God’s seen and unseen promises are quicksand, which appear solid but soon trap you and draw you below the surface and only lead to death.

The only hope that is sure, that is real, that is worthwhile is hope that is based on faith in Jesus Christ and founded on God’s promise - his seen and unseen realities.