Hope Series

Hope. Roms 15:4-13 WBC Sun 1 Dec 2003 pm

Intro

This is the first Sunday in advent. Traditionally in advent look at:

- JTB, ¡§the forerunner¡¨ Preparing the way

- Christ¡¦s second coming. Judgement

But this Sunday it is traditional to look at ¡¥the advent hope¡¦.

But, first- let me show you an example of ¡¥hope¡¦

Clip from City Slickers:

Billy Crystal¡¦s character Mitch attends career day at his son¡¦s grade school. Mitch is anything but optimistic. His son had told everyone that his dad was a submarine captain, but he really sells advertising. The kids aren¡¦t interested at all in what he does¡Xand neither is he. In classic Baby Boomer angst, Mitch gives the kids something to think about. He tells the kids to

¡§Value this time in your life, because this is the time in your life when you still have your choices, and it goes by so quickly. When you¡¦re a teenager, you think you can do anything, and you do. Your twenties are a blur. Your thirties, you raise your family, you make a little money and you think to yourself, "What happened to my twenties?" Your forties, you grow a little potbelly, you grow another chin. The music starts to get too loud and one of your old girlfriends from high school becomes a grandmother. Your fifties you have a minor surgery. You¡¦ll call it a procedure, but it¡¦s a surgery. Your sixties you have a major surgery, the music is still loud but it doesn¡¦t matter because you can¡¦t hear it anyway. Seventies, you and the wife retire to Fort Lauderdale; you start eating dinner at two, lunch around ten, breakfast the night before. And you spend most of your time wandering around malls looking for the ultimate in soft yogurt and muttering, "how come the kids don¡¦t call?" By your eighties, you¡¦ve had a major stroke, and you end up babbling to some Jamaican nurse who your wife can¡¦t stand but who you call mama. Any questions? (From City Slickers)

Is this Biblical ¡¥hope¡¦, do you think?

What is Biblical¡K Christian¡K Christmas HOPE?

- Ask

- quite different to normal ¡¥hope¡¦

Hope is a major theme of the Bible.

- and it starts in the OT

O.T. HOPE (projector)

Summed up by advent Hymn ¡¥O come, O come Immanuel

The OT is full of hope and longing

- for God to come and visit¡K redeem His people

- From Genesis

o (3:15) ¡V someone to crush the serpent¡¦s head

o 3:23 ¡V someone to restore the Eden they were chucked out of

- From Abraham (2000BC)

o 12:3 all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."

o 28:14 14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth¡K All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your OFFSPRING

- Through Moses (1400BC)

o Deut 18:18 ¡§I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him¡¨

This figure became known as the ¡¥Messiah. The ¡¥anointed one¡¦

-someone from the line of David, who would continue David¡¦s dynasty forever

- 1Ki 9:5 5 ¡§I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father when I said, `You shall never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’¡¨

- and someone who, like David, would be a good king. A righteous king

- in fact, in David¡¦s own writings (psalms) he writes some things which, surely, can not apply only to him!

o PS 16:10 because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.

o Bits in the psalms where a man is referred to as God (Ps110)

The unusual thing is- when David¡¦s kingdom gets torn apart (after his son Solomon/Reheboam -> Israel/Judah)

- rather than giving up- the HOPE grows

- Is (8C prophet). Spoke of one reigning on David¡¦s throne

o even points to where he comes from & ministers

ISA 9:1 Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan--

ISA 9:2 The people walking in darkness

have seen a great light;

on those living in the land of the shadow of death

a light has dawned.

ISA 9:5 Every warrior’s boot used in battle

and every garment rolled in blood

will be destined for burning,

will be fuel for the fire.

ISA 9:6 For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given,

and the government will be on his shoulders.