Sermon Tone Analysis

[On Easter] I always say to my skeptical, secular friends that, even if they can't believe in the resurrection, they should want it to be true.

Most of them care deeply about justice for the poor, alleviating hunger and disease, and caring for the environment.

Yet many of them believe that the material world was caused by accident and that the world and everything in it will eventually simply burn up in the death of the sun.

They find it discouraging that so few people care about justice without realizing that their own worldview undermines any motivation to make the world a better place.

Why sacrifice for the needs of others if in the end nothing we do will make any difference?

If the resurrection of Jesus happened, however, that means there's infinite hope and reason to pour ourselves out for the needs of the world.

N.T. Wright has written: The message of the resurrection is that this world matters!

That the injustices and pains of this present world must now be addressed with the news that healing, justice, and love have won.

If Easter means Jesus Christ is only raised in a spiritual sense—[then] it is only about me, and finding a new dimension in my personal spiritual life.

But if Jesus Christ is truly risen from the dead, Christianity becomes good news for the whole world—news which warms our hearts precisely because it isn't just about warming hearts.

Easter means that in a world where injustice, violence and degradation are endemic, God is not prepared to tolerate such things—and that we will work and plan, with all the energy of God, to implement victory of Jesus over them all.

Hope is as vital in our day and age as it has been since the beginning of time.

So many have written about hope.

So many have said the most grandios of it.

“What oxygen is to the lungs, such is hope to the meaning of life.”

“Human beings can live for forty days without food, four days without water, and four minutes without air.

But we cannot live for four seconds without hope.”

“It is not the way we deal with our human situation that is the basis for hope--hope is the basis for how we deal with our human situation.”

“Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.”

But think about this… In 1963, Kurt Vonnegut wrote a book entitled Cat's Cradle in which the narrator and main character, John, sought to write a book about the day the world ended.

Vonnegut was prompted to do so by the nuclear bomb at Hiroshima.

His fictional story deals with the technological ability of the human race combined with its stupidity.

Within the story, in the process of his research and travels, John comes across a chapter in a book related to his new religion.

The title of the chapter is, "What Can a Thoughtful Man Hope for Mankind on Earth, Given the Experience of the Past Million Years?"

It doesn't take John long to read this book because it consists of only one word followed by a period: "Nothing."

Vonnegut's book reveals what many in our world today think—there is no hope.

The continuing difficulties we face in life.

So many injustices.

Corruption with people we need to trust in.

Deception and lies galore.

The war in the Ukraine and the elevating escalation of even more violence.

Natural disasters.

Covid and other sickness and disease.

Problems and even more problems today.

Does Christianity have anything to say in this situation?

Does the church have a message of hope in the apparent hopelessness?

It is called the Gospel of Jesus.

Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Let’s take a look.

The grass withers the flower fades but the Word of our God stands forever.

Artificial Hope

Actual Hope

The first thing we will look at today is the unfortunate practice of humanity for all history to try to find hope in the creation instead of the creator.

The second thing we will look at is that the hope we find in Christ is the hope that we can truly hold on to.

It will not disappoint.

And we will see why today.

Thesis: Though sin, the pattern of this world, and the false teachers in the world cause us to put our hope in things that bring no hope at all, it is the truth of the Holy Scriptures and the power of the Holy Spirit that will cause us to find our hope in Christ and in Christ alone our hope of future glory.

I. Artificial Hope

- Hope in things that bring no hope at all.

A. Paul makes it clear right here at the beginning a huge stumbling block for Christianity in our culture today.

Paul is glad when he suffers.

This is for many of us incomprehensible.

Why is the world would we be glad when we suffer?

I don’t like suffering.

And so as Christians, we are caught in an artificial hope because of our defective perspective.

B. We feel like God is failing us.

We feel like God has abandoned us.

We feel like God has not kept up His part of the the deal when we became Christians.

Why are we suffering?

I am disapointed with God when I suffer.

After 30 years of ministry I have watched suffering destroy the faith of many believers.

And because of suffering, harship, tribulation, and persecution I watched many walk away from Christ.

Are you serious?

Paul is happy about it?

Why?

C. Paul says that he is glad in suffering because it is bringing good things to the church.

It was through his suffering the the gospel spread throughout the land.

When we read the book of Acts, we see the many trials that the apostles went through in order to proclaim the gospel and to build the church of Christ.

Suffering helped to further the spread of the Gospel.

D. When we suffer from defective perspective, we see our suffering as something peculiar to ourselves, but do not see how it is helpful to others and to the kingdom of God.

In our lives and experiences we look at what God is doing in us as pertaining only to ourselves.

What if the reason we were lead by God to go somewhere was not for us at all but so that you could be there for someone else?

E. John Newton, the author of “Amazing Grace,” said: “God appoints his ministers to be sorely exercised, both from without and within; that they may sympathize with their flock, and know in their own hearts the deceitfulness of sin, the infirmities of the flesh, and the way in which the Lord supports and bears all who trust in Him.”

- So we can clearly see that when God’s servants benefit, everyone benefits.

For Paul, this is cause for rejoicing.

And it should be as well for all of us.

The suffering of a brother or sister in Christ is a great source of blessing to the Church, for their elevated character is transferred to fellow believers.

F. But as it pertains to our hope today, why is it that we continue to look for love in all the wrong places?

For since the beginning of human history we see the endless efforts of mankind in our own way to establish a basis of belief in some kind of immortality, life after death, or some kind of future state of perfection.

Or ultimately a bit of the good life and eternal happiness and bliss.

G.

But in the end, because of our defective perspective, many will find the hope that the scriptures declare as unacceptable and therefore we search for other options or even create our own.

Christianity is too hard.

All the rules.

The abstinence.

The enduring of suffering and persecution.

This is not the kind of life I want.

I need hope that my life will be better tomorrow not when I get to heaven.

H.

But in accordance with the scriptures your life is better already.

We say no because of problems we face here on earth that we don’t like.

It is the constant problem we have with defective perspective.

We feel that riches are the thing that will make us happy but in the end it could cause you to deny God and be forever in misery.

I have hope that one day I will be successful.

We feel that success is what will make us happy, but what do you think is successful?

I once had a friend who always defined success in such a way… lots of money, a company that has steady business, pay back all that was invested, go home after only working 8 hours, more to spare, building a nest egg, the respect of people who work for you, able to buy a house for your mother, you can go on vacations anywhere you want, you can buy anything you want, big house with a maid, nice cars… well that’s nice, but even a drug dealer can fit that description.

And even if you get all that but do not believe in Christ in the end you get nothing and weeping and gnashing teeth for ever.

What good is it to gain the whole world but lose your own soul.

I.

But Shane I have hope that I will be popular someday and everyone will like me.