The God of hope
Luke 2:8-2:15
Introduction-
This morning we are in the last Sunday before Christmas.
Tomorrow, we celebrate Christmas Eve by a candlelight service. Then everyone prepares for the big day.
If you had to describe Christmas with one word, what would it be?
Take away anticipation and hope- what would you have left?
You would soon realize what was left was eating and opening presents,
Both of which gets old after awhile and is soon forgotten.
Hope by definition is the emotional state which promotes the belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one’s life.
Despair is the opposite of hope.
Despair in its noun form is complete loss or absence of hope.
Graham Green-
“Despair is the price one pays for setting oneself an impossible aim.”
Without hope life would be dreadful!
Life becomes meaningless.
We are quick to read the Christmas Story in the Bible Luke chapter 2.
I want you to see a message of hope contained in the tail end of the Christmas story found in Luke 2:36-38.
“There was also a prophetess Anna, the daughter of Phanael, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after their marriage, and then was a widow until she was 84. She never left the Temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying, coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.”
Here was a young married girl widowed at an early age.
Now a senior adult 84 years old living in hope.
Oh, the word hope is not there, but the concept of hope is.
She was living and waiting to meet Jesus, who represented hope for God’s people.
Recorded words of Simeon the high priest- 2:25-
“Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. (26) It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.”
I love his words as God’s promise was fulfilled- Mary and Joseph standing before him with 8 day old Jesus.
(30) “For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”
I. God is hope-
God’s hope is based upon God’s promises, not feelings, not the words of others.
The world’s hope is in many things
Money
people relationships
Our jobs, our health.
All these things are necessary, but all these things can be gone in an instant.
God’s people put their hope in the God of hope.
God’s hope never ends
God’s hope is eternal.
God’s hope is not based upon what others do.
Someone has said that “you cannot break God’s promises by leaning on them.”
In Newtown Ct., in the lives of those that suffer loss, it is not about presents, it is about finding hope in a dark situation.
Jesus is that hope!
He is the anchor of our souls
Illustration-
Lee Strobel- a senior pastor wrote a book entitled “the case for Christmas” Before he was a pastor, he was a reporter and he enjoyed tearing down Christmas, and he enjoyed trying to disprove the works of Jesus Christ. Then a funny thing happened! He met Jesus; he had an encounter with Jesus. He wrote the book “Case for Christmas” to show after investigation that the baby in the manger was indeed the Christ-child. He went on to write another book called the case for Christ to prove that Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the Son of God.
II. God can be our hope
God is hope- that is a fact. He offers Himself to be our hope.
Listen again to the shepherds account out in the field.
Luke 2:8-2:15
The shepherds were out in the field doing their thing- watching sheep! Doing their job!
The ordinary just got extra-ordinary.
In the black of the night, an angel lights up the sky with a heavenly announcement of good news.
Today, a savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord.
The news is announced and the sky is lit up with a heavenly choir breaking out in song and praise. Can you imagine?
Glory to God in the highest- (heaven where God dwells)
Proclaiming peace- they were experiencing external peace because of Roman power. The angel’s were proclaiming internal peace that can only come from God.
The angels recognized what had just happened! The God of hope had just come to mankind.
The majesty of God has been revealed- doubts were erased, fears were defeated and they enjoyed the presence of Almighty God.
Peace is not assumed for all- let me clarify.
The peace of God comes from God and if you do not know God, you cannot experience the peace of God in your life.
The same is for hope. You cannot have the hope and promise of God without God.
God’s hope does not disappoint us.
There are many disappointments in life.
People let us down.
People don’t measure up.
Sometimes life itself lets us down.
Listen,
Now hope (God’s hope) does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Roman 5:5
There is power in hope ( repeat)
God specializes in rebuilding broken worlds and giving people back hope.
Illustration-
Preparing for a large Christmas Eve family gathering, a mother had been giving out orders like a drill sergeant; “pick up your things! Don’t get your clothes dirty! Put away those toys.” Well, her 4 year old daughter had been underfoot all day, so she sent her to the next room to play with their wooden Nativity set. As the mother scurried around setting the table she overheard her daughter talking to her toys in the same tone of voice the mother had used; “I don’t care who you are, get those camels out of my living room.”
Illustration-
A little girl was pushing the limits of her mother’s very last nerve. Mom was nearing the end of a hectic season of cooking, cleaning, shopping, wrapping and church stuff. She was also nearing a breaking point with her little pre-schooler. Finally the little girl was bathed and ready for ned. As she knelt to say her prayers, mom listened as her sweet three year old theologian “customized” her evening prayer,.. And forgive us our Christmases, as we forgive those who Christmas against us.”
We don’t need more presents, we need more hope.
We need to act on the promises of God.
We need each other.
We need to stand before a majestic God and receive the good news that He has proclaimed through the angels years ago.
We have two choices this Christmas- no one can make it for us.
(1)You can hear the good news of Christ and say like the shepherds (15) :Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, what the Lord has told us about.”
Get close to the fire, and really see what Jesus has done for you and what He offers.
Jesus help us look past our present difficulties and you have a choice to go see the thing that He has done.
(2) it is to do Christmas- food, presents, hassle, stress, and at the end of it all you have nothing because just like the Inn keeper, you have closed your heart to Jesus and said that there is no room for Him here.
III. Jesus our hope gives us a reason to live
A Christian song goes
He didn’t bring us this far to leave us.
He didn’t teach us to swim to let us drown.
He didn’t build a home in us to move away.
He didn’t lift us up to let us fall.
He is my hope. He is your hope.
He keeps motivating us to keep going! Without Him, we would give up!
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus blood and righteousness
His oath his covenant and blood
Support me in the whelming flood
When all around my soul gives way
He is all my hope and stay.
Closing,
I am a transplant to the Church of the Nazarene. Now it has been 20 years ago, but still a transplant. Church of the Nazarene has a unique call to reach out to people forgotten and unvalued by the world. I have already told you we are larger outside the USA that inside. I believe the Nazarene verse for me is John 1:43-46. I believe it to start a denomination and I believe it to fit this message this morning.
“The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Phillip, he said to him, follow me. Phillip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. Phillip found Nathanael and told him, we have found the one Moses wrote about in the law, and about whom the prophets also wrote- Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Nazareth! Can anything good come from there? “Come and see, said Phillip.”
Come and see! Make room for Jesus in your life and not just a happy thought that you have at Christmas. Determine that He will have priority in your life
He offers hope!
The Bible says all of us were dead in our sins (Ephesians 2:5). Although humanity had been created as the apex of God’s creation, we sinned and forfeited the ideal relationship we had with the Father in the Garden of Eden.
But God didn’t give up on us. Instead, he gave us Christmas. He gave us Jesus.
No matter what you’ve done, who you’ve hurt, or how you’ve been treated, that’s how much God loves you right now. He loves you enough to send his Son so he can have a relationship with you.
Jesus came to reconnect you just like the prodigal son was reconnected with his father. Some people assume that God is ready to scold them when they come back to him.
But God isn’t mad at you; he’s mad about you! He’s crazy about you, and he can’t stand to see what sin has done to you.
2 Corinthians 5:17-18
“Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ” (NLT).
The biblical term for what God has done through Jesus by bringing us back to him is “reconciliation.” When a married couple reconciles, it means the war is over. When warring nations reconcile, it means peace has come. When you reconcile accounts, they are no longer out of whack.
The Bible says that through Jesus we can finally have peace with God and we can have hope.
And it’s the greatest news we can ever discover!
Amen.
