Hope Series

Billy Graham in his book Hope For The Troubled Heart tells the

story of the lone survivor of a shipwreck who was marooned on an

uninhabited island. He managed to build a hut in which he put

everything he had saved from the wreck. He prayed to God for

rescue as he daily scanned the horizon for a passing ship.

One day he returned to his hut and to his horror he found it in

flames. All he possessed was going up in smoke. It was the ultimate

tragedy, and he sat in despair. Shortly after that a ship arrived.

The captain said, "We saw your smoke signal and hurried here."

The ship wrecked man fell to his knees and thanked God for the fire

he had just been cursing as a tragedy.

The point of Graham in telling this story is that he recognizes

the great need for people to have hope. When bad things happen it

is important that we have hope that God can work in all things for

good. The world is full of bad things, and today we do not have to

wait for weeks and months to hear about them. We get the bad

news the very moment terrible events are happening. This much

bad news is affecting people around the world and producing a lot

of the sense of hopelessness.

Graham writes, "Perhaps the greatest psychological, spiritual,

and medical need that all people have is the need for hope. Dr.

McNair Wilson, the famous cardiologist, remarked in his

autobiography, Doctor's Progress, 'Hope is the medicine I use more

than any other-hope can cure nearly anything.' I remember years

ago that Dr. Harold Wolff, professor of medicine at Cornell

University Medical College and associate professor of psychiatry,

said, 'Hope, like faith and a purpose in life is medicinal. This is not

exactly a statement of belief, but a conclusion proved by

meticulously controlled scientific experiment.'"

This is confirmed over and over again by Dr. Robert Veninga,

professor in the School of Public Health at the University of

Minnesota. He has written a book called A Gift of Hope. In it he

gives dozens of illustrations of how hope is the key ingredient for

facing the trials and tragedies of a fallen world. I can share only a

few examples. He says that when children are diagnosed as diabetic

they are overwhelmed. Disease is supposed to be for old people and

not kids. They get depressed at the cruel injustice of it all. The

treatment is not just diet and insulin, but hope. They teach the

children that they can back pack, play football, and be fully involved

in social activities. They learn that prominent personalities like

Mary Tyler Moore, and former New York Yankee star Jim (Catfish)Hunter

are diabetics, and they live full and exciting lives.

When hope crowds out their fears these children adjust rapidly

and begin to enjoy life again. He goes through a whole series of

family problems and tragic situations, and he shows that families

that survive any crisis do so because they give each other the gift of

hope. Jerry Lebenow was locked up for three and a half years for a

crime he did not commit. A woman was brutally killed and he was

charged and found guilty, he was sent to Stillwater prison. Three

years later the Supreme Court reviewed his case and found that he

had not received a fair trial, and that the evidence did not support

his guilt. He was released to return to his family. How could he

suffer such an injustice and not be bitter and hateful? He had

family and friends who kept encouraging him and giving him hope.

Survivors in concentration camps did so because they never lost

hope. Those who did lose hope died. Hope is a vital ingredient to

life. Dr. Veninga says there is nothing in the world of medicine or

psychology that can help people survive and be healed that can

match the power of religious hope. And this brings us to our text,

for long before all of the scientific and psychological research the

Apostle Paul told the people of God that hope is the foundation of

even faith and the knowledge of the truth. These are the two vital

goals the church is to achieve in the lives of the believers. It is to

build up their faith and their knowledge of the truth, and he says

these both rest on the hope of eternal life.

Hope is used about 180 times in the Bible, and so it is a major

topic of the Word of God, but I never saw it before that Paul is

telling us here that hope is foundational, and that even faith rests on

hope. That means when he said these three remain, faith, hope and