I Hope, I Hope, I Hope
John 3:16,17
Intro: This morning, for just a moment, I am the ghost of Christmas past. I want each and every one of you to think back to a Christmas when you were a small child. For some it will be easy, it was not that long ago. For some of us, it will stretch our memory just a little. It’s Christmas eve and you are going to bed and the anticipation is so real and so thick you could cut it with a knife. As you are lying in bed, trying to go to sleep, what are you thinking. Most of us are probably wondering what gift we will receive the next morning. You were basking in the expectation of a great and marvelous gift aren’t you?
. I remember going to bed on Christmas Eve and the last thing I remember before drifting off to sleep was the hope that I felt. I drifted off with the words I hope, I hope, I hope sounding loudly in my head. Hoping that when I woke up, I would have a wonderful day with my gifts.
. That’s what Christmas is all about, the excitement that the gift brings.
. You see, Christmas is about gifts but not the ones we see wrapped in pretty paper and shiny bows.
. Christmas is about the gift of hope.
. Hope is an amazing thing. Hope can transform a life from meaninglessness into a life that is full of purpose and direction.
. I recently read a story of self-made millionaire Eugene Land, who drastically changed the lives of a sixth-grade class in East Harlem. Mr. Lang had been asked to speak to a class of 59 sixth-graders. What could he say to inspire these students, most of whom would drop out of school? He wondered how he could get these predominantly black and Puerto Rican children even to look at him. Scrapping his notes, he decided to speak to them from his heart. "Stay in school," he admonished, "and I’ll help pay the college tuition for every one of you." At that moment the lives of these students changed. For the first time they had hope. One student said, "I had something to look forward to, something waiting for me. It was a golden feeling." Nearly 90 percent of that class went on to graduate from high school.
. That’s what hope is. Something to look forward to, something waiting for you.
. In the gospel of John, the third chapter, the sixteenth verse, Jesus told this to Nicodemus, the Jewish religious leader.
16“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
17God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.
. On that first Christmas, God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to save those that would place their faith and hope in him.
. He did this for everyone.
. The KJV translates the word everyone as whosoever.
. That means anybody and everybody that does this is saved through this gift of hope.
. 2,000 years ago in a little Middle Eastern town God sent the source of all Christmas gifts to come to earth in the form of a little baby named Jesus.
. This little baby would grow up to be a man, a man that lived a perfect life and then died a criminal’s death.
He died a criminal’s death because he traded all our shortcomings and sins for his perfect life.
Jesus made us perfect in God’s eyes.
He gave us HOPE.
If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator;
If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist;
If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist;
If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer;
But our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent us a Savior. Jesus life and death gives us hope.
Hope for our past, Hope for our present, and Hope for our future.
It’s because of Jesus that we have:
Hope for our past
. If our past was how we were judged, we would all be in trouble wouldn’t we?
. This gift from God can remove the stain of sin from our past.
. We don’t have to live in despair, we can live in hope.
. Many people still have those deep, dark secrets that hold them down, all those mistakes and poor choices from our past can be made right with a new life that gives us hope.
. Nicky Cruz was the leader of the toughest gang in New York City.
His Satanist parents abused him brutally, so he grew up a hardened man void of love and full of hate.
“I wanted to do to others what my mother did to me,” Nicky says. “I used to feel good when I hurt some people.”
But privately, he didn’t feel good.
“Privately. When I was alone, loneliness became like a seductive woman that crawled inside my chest and [ate] me. I was there twisting and fighting; I felt so lost.”
Only two people saw the desperate condition of Nicky’s heart. One was a psychologist.
“He told me about five times. ‘There’s a dark side in your life that nobody can penetrate. Nicky, you are walking straight to jail, the electric chair, and hell. There’s no hope.’”
The other was a pastor named David Wilkerson. He risked his life to tell Nicky there was hope.
“I heard his voice: ‘God has the power to change your life.’ I started cursing loud,” says Nicky. “I spit in his face, and I hit him. I told him, ‘I don’t believe in what you say and you get out of here.’”
Nicky never expected what he heard Wilkerson say next.
Wilkerson replied, “You could cut me up into a 1000 pieces and lay them in the street. Every piece will still love you.”
Nicky says, “It did damage. Good [damage] in my brain and in my heart. I began to question, and for two weeks I could not sleep thinking about love.”
Nicky and his gang showed up at one of Wilkerson’s rallies. One by one, they gave their lives to Christ. It was the crucifixion – Jesus’ death on the cross -- that grabbed Nicky.
“I was choked up with pain, and my eyes were fighting and tears became to come down and more tears and I was fighting and then I surrendered,” says Nicky. “I let Jesus hug me, and I let my head rest on His chest. I said I’m sorry. Forgive me, and for the first time, I told somebody I love you.”
The love Nicky got in return radically changed his life.
“When I had opened my eyes, I got a new heart. I’d been born again. I’m a child of the Lord.”
. Nicky had experienced the hope that is found in the Christ child that we celebrate this week.
. The Cev translation of the bible in 1 Peter 1:3 tells us:
. “Praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is so good, and by raising Jesus from death, he has given us new life and a hope that lives on.”
. If you are here this morning and think that your past is too bad, that you have done things that you can never be forgiven for, there is hope.
. That hope is found in the birth and death of the Christ child that we celebrate this week.
. Not only do we have hope from our past, this Baby that we celebrate this week also gives us:
. Hope for the present
. A man approached a little league baseball game one afternoon. He asked a boy in the dugout what the score was. The boy responded, "Eighteen to nothing--we’re behind." "Boy," said the spectator, "I’ll bet you’re discouraged." "Why should I be discouraged?" replied the little boy. "We haven’t even gotten up to bat yet!"
. This young man had hope for the present. He had confidence that the 18 runs, the past would go away and he lived in the hope that they could score more runs and win.
. When we are forgiven from the past, those 18 runs that have been scored against us are gone, behind us. We are just getting up to bat. God’s gift of hope through Jesus Christ is available right now, this very moment.
. Acts 2:26 reminds us of this.
. “Because of this, my heart will be glad, my words will be joyful, and I will live in hope.”
. What does that mean, to live in hope? It means that because of what Jesus Christ did we can be free, free and living in that hope.
When this child we celebrate this week rose from the grave, he rose from a grave of our sins, all those sins that each of us struggles with Jesus defeated them.
It might be your temper, or your careless words, maybe you struggle with drugs, or even things like pornography, and bad sexual decisions… All of these things Jesus defeated!
God says I will take away your past, and I will set you free from all those things that still come back to haunt you.
Thousands of things try to control us each day, our schedule, our emotions, our past, our circumstances, our struggles with sin, but you do not have to be a slave to any of them! You are free because of God’s gift of Jesus, which gives us hope for our present.
. The apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth telling them that because of this hope that we have we are different.
. 17This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
. With this hope comes a new life. We can live in hope because of what this Christ child has done for us.
. This gift of the Christ child is so we can have hope for forgiveness for our past sin, sets us free so we can hope for the present and live in peace and it also gives us hope for the future.
11For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.
. Folks, if you are here this morning and heave accepted the gift that God sent into this world.
. If you have opened your heart and life top this Christ child named Jesus, you have hope for a future.
.Jesus assures us of this in John’s recorded words of Jesus in Chapter 14: 2-4 of his epistle.
. Jesus is talking to his disciples about what is about to happen. How He will be betrayed and then crucified and that He will leave but will come again one day.
. Jesus tells them this:
. 2There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?
3When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.
4And you know the way to where I am going.”
. Jesus was giving them the hope that all Christians have.
. The hope that they will spend an eternity with Jesus in Heaven.
. You see, the hope for the future has two elements.
. We have hope that tomorrow and the next day and the next day and the next, that Jesus will be there for us.
. He will be there to strengthen us and care for us.
.We also have hope for an eternity.
. Jesus says that when everything is ready, He will come and get us.
. Jesus told them that they knew the way to him.
. They knew they way to rest in the hope of a future with him.
. All they had to do was believe in him and trust him and place their faith in him and what He was telling them.
. If you are here this morning and have never experienced the hope that comes from the Christ child, you can leave here this morning, knowing that your past sin has been forgiven, that Jesus will walk with you daily.
. Today, tomorrow and for eternity.
. You can leave here this morning with that hope of an eternity with the Christ child Jesus.
. What we celebrate this week is more than just a birth some 2000 years ago.
. What we celebrate is the Hope of the world coming to us through a little child named Jesus.
Invitation
*** To my Christian brothers and sisters, thank you for taking the time to read this sermon. I ask that you take another second and score this for me. I am always open to feedback so that I can continue to grow in the proclamation of God’s word.
May God bless you as you continue to strive to walk worthy of His calling.
Sources: The Holy Bible, NLT,CEV
Illustrations from sermon central
God’s Gift Of Hope, Brian Moon, sermon central
