Series: Find Joy in the Journey
Scripture Text Series:
Phil. 4:4: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”
Romans 15:13: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Sermon 2: Finding Joy in the journey through Hope! Pt 3 - Good Friday “Hope Come Find It.”
Thesis: Hope is a significant key to finding in the journey of life because it is a wonderful gift from God. Hope will become a source of strength, power and courage in the face of life’s severest trials. Hope will bring you joy when you think there is no joy! Hope will help you see the light in the darkness!
Scripture:
Main Scripture: 1 Peter 1:3 “Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
Hebrews 6:19-20: Message
16When people make promises, they guarantee them by appeal to some authority above them so that if there is any question that they’ll make good on the promise, the authority will back them up.
17When God wanted to guarantee his promises, he gave his word, a rock-solid guarantee—
18God can’t break his word. And because his word cannot change, the promise is likewise unchangeable. We who have run for our very lives to God have every reason to grab the promised hope with both hands and never let go.
19It’s an unbreakable spiritual lifeline, reaching past all appearances right to the very presence of God
20where Jesus, running on ahead of us, has taken up his permanent post as high priest for us, in the order of Melchizedek.
Introduction:
Chuck Swindoll from his book Hope Again states this about hope:
“Hope. It is something as important to us as water is to fish, as vital as electricity is to a light bulb, as essential as air is to a jumbo jet. Hope is that basic (3).”
Hope is a key and essential for life. Hope is a power that helps us find joy in the journey. We need it and trust me everyone wants it, but it is only found in a “Living Hope” – This Living Hope is alive and active in our lives!
Peter tells us and those he addresses in his letter that we may be suffering now but we cannot give up and lose hope. Why because we have a Living Hope! Jesus is His name! Hope is His mission! He is a Hope dealer to those who are hopeless!
I want to define HOPE for you in the acrostic and help you find the living hope Peter refers to!
H - He (Jesus)
O – Offers (us)
P – peace
E – encouragement
Especially in times of great suffering! Jesus is a living hope not a dead person hanging on a cross or stuck in a tomb. Tonight is Good Friday a day we actually remember the death of Jesus. This service tonight could be gloomy and solemn as to the content of the story of Jesus tonight.
Jesus is not a dead hope – he may be in our story tonight hanging and dying on a cross – but our hope is not a wishful thought that maybe he will make it – he promised he would raise again people just did not get it – the truth is Jesus is not still hanging on the cross - He is the One who defeated death and opened up the door for us to defeat it too. He is the One who opened up a relationship with us and the Living God – God the Father and The Holy Spirit! He opened up the door to the living hope at His death and resurrection, especially when the curtain was torn in two in the Temple when he died and the earthquake rumbled through Jerusalem. That scene should infuse us with hope and joy! The door is open to connect with God the Father and the Holy Spirit.
T.S. – Yes in the natural eyes the cross looks hopeless – Jesus is losing – Satan is winning – blood is flowing and many are devastated and in grief.
1. We Christians call “Good Friday” – “Good” but when you read the story of Jesus crucifixion it’s far from “Good” it’s really – really bad to the natural eye:
a. The story of Good Friday is not very good to the natural eye – it’s about betrayal, swords cutting off ears, soldiers getting knocked down, chains clanging, arrest, disciples running for their lives, illegal trials, lies, beatings, mocking’s, denial, abandonment, crown of thrones, whippings, humiliation, carrying a heavy cross to your death, cruelty, bloody nails, bloody crosses, torture, stabbings, cries of loneliness, darkness, crying, grief, hopelessness, earthquakes, temple shaking apart and then death. A lifeless body is pulled off the cross in darkness and laid in a tomb.
b. You may be thinking what is “Good” about this! Right!
c. But as I am convinced of our theme this year that we are to position ourselves to find joy in the journey no matter what happens to us in our lives.
2. But the reason Christian’s called this eventful Friday “Good” was how they saw it with their spiritual eyes and not with their natural eyes!
a. When we look at any event with our spiritual eyes and are in tune with the Holy Spirit we can find reasons to be hopeful and joyful in spite of the pain and suffering.
i. Swindoll states, “We don’t look alike. We don’t act alike. We don’t dress alike. We have different tastes in the food we eat, the books we read, the cars we drive, and the music we enjoy. You like opera; I like country. We have dissimilar backgrounds, goals, and motivations. We work at different jobs, and enjoy different hobbies. You like rock climbing; I like Harleys. We ascribe to a variety of philosophies and differ over politics. We have our own unique convictions on child rearing and education. Our weights vary. Our heights vary. So does the color of our skin. But there is one thing we all have in common: We know what it means to hurt. Suffering is a universal language. Tears are the same for Jews or Muslims or Christians, for white or black or brown, for children or adults or the elderly. When life hurts and our dreams fade, we may express our anguish in different ways, but each one of us knows the sting of pain and heartache, disease and disaster, trial and sufferings…Truly, suffering is the common thread in all our garments” (Page 11 and 12).
ii. Even Jesus knew the pain of suffering – of trials - of heartache – and the sting of pain.
b. I want to show you how you can find the “Good” in the “Bad” of life – Let’s look the crucifixion of Jesus and two things Jesus said on the cross – these two statements and action should give you hope and even help you see and experience Hope and joy in this tragic event in Jesus death.
i. The First Word: “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing.” (Luke 23:34)
1. It makes sense that the first words of Jesus from the cross is a word centered on forgiveness.
a. Forgiveness was His message and His mission. That’s the point of the cross, after all. Jesus is dying so that we might be forgiven for our sins, so that we might be reconciled to God the Father for eternity. Forgiveness – grace – all wrapped up in Jesus words and action.
i. John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
b. Here is hope in the midst of torture-pains -suffering – abuse - humiliation – here is hope a living hope in a moment of death – it should gives us joy to know God offers love and forgiveness while hanging on a cross – in pain.
i. In the mercy of God, he prays to God to forgive them because they are blinded by Satan – they don’t know what they are doing.
1. God chose to wipe away our sins, not because we have some convenient excuse, and not because we have tried hard to make up for them, but because he is a God of amazing grace, with mercies that are new every morning.
2. Our part is to just repent of our sin!
c. As we read the words, “Father, forgive them,” may we understand that we too are forgiven through Christ. As John writes in his first letter, “But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness” (1 John 1:9).
i. Because Christ died on the cross for us, we are cleansed from all wickedness, from every last sin. We are united with God the Father as his beloved children. We are free to approach his throne of grace with our needs and concerns. God “has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west” (Ps 103:13).
d. What great news! What HOPE – What a reason to be joy filled even in this horrible moment ON THE CROSS.
i. Do you really believe God has forgiven your sins?
ii. Do you take time on a regular basis to confess your sins so that you might enjoy the freedom of forgiveness?
iii. Do you need to experience God’s forgiveness in a fresh way today? Then ask for it! God is a hope dealer of forgiveness!
e. Prayer a prayer like this:
i. Gracious Lord Jesus, it’s easy for me to speak of your forgiveness, even to ask for it and to thank you for it. But do I really believe I’m forgiven? Do I experience the freedom that comes from the assurance that you have cleansed me from my sins? Or do I live as if I’m “semi-forgiven”? Even though I’ve put my faith in you and confessed my sins, do I live as sin still has power over me? Do I try to prove myself to you, as if I might be able to earn more forgiveness? Dear Lord, though I believe at one level that you have forgiven me, this amazing truth needs to penetrate my heart in new ways. Help me to know with fresh conviction that I am fully and finally forgiven, not because of anything I have done, but because of what you have done for me on the cross. May I live today as a forgiven person, opening my heart to you, choosing not to sin because the power of sin has been broken by your salvation. All praise be to you, Lord Jesus, for your matchless forgiveness! Amen.
ii. The Second Word: “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43)
1. Reflection on this moment – seeing through spiritual eyes and discovering HOPE and even a joyful moment on the cross is found in this scenario and words of Jesus.
a. As Jesus hung on the cross, he was mocked by the leaders and the soldiers. One of the criminals being crucified with him added his own measure of scorn. But the other crucified criminal sensed that Jesus was being treated unjustly. After speaking up for Jesus, he cried out, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (v. 42).
b. Jesus responded to this criminal, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise” (v. 43). The word paradise, from the Greek word paradeisos, which meant “garden,” was used in the Greek Old Testament as a word for the Garden of Eden. In Judaism of the time of Jesus it was associated with heaven, and also with the future when God would restore all things to the perfection of the Garden. Paradise was sometimes thought to be the place where righteous people went after death. This seems to be the way Jesus uses paradise in this passage.
c. Thus we have encountered one of the most astounding and encouraging verses in all of Scripture. Jesus promised that the criminal would be with him in paradise – in heaven forgiven – for believing in him. Yet the text of Luke gives us no reason to believe this man had been a follower of Jesus, or even a believer in him in any well-developed sense. He might have felt sorry for his sins, but he did not obviously repent. Rather, the criminal’s cry to be remembered seems more like a desperate, last-gasp effort.
d. Though we should make every effort to have right theology, and though we should live our lives each day as disciples of Jesus, in the end, our relationship with him comes down to simple trust. “Jesus, remember me,” we cry. And Jesus, embodying the mercy of God, says to us, “You will be with me in paradise.” We are welcome their not because we have right theology, and not because we are living rightly, but because God is merciful and we have put our trust in Jesus.
e. Questions for Reflection
i. Have you staked your life on Jesus?
ii. Have you put your ultimate trust in him?
iii. Do you know that, when your time comes, you will be with him in paradise?
f. Pray a prayer like this to find hope and joy:
i. Dear Lord Jesus, how I wonder at your grace and mercy! When we cry out to you, you hear us. When we ask you to remember us when you come into your kingdom, you offer the promise of paradise. Your mercy, dear Lord, exceeds anything we might imagine. It embraces us, encourages us, heals us. O Lord, though my situation is so different from the criminal who cried out to you, I am nevertheless quite like him. Today I live, trusting you and you alone. My life, but now and in the world to come, is in your hands. And so I pray: Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom! Jesus, remember me today as I seek to live within your kingdom! Amen.
c. Christian Hills has been walking through a series called “Find joy in the journey” the premise of our series is this: No matter what happens to you in life you can still be filled with the joy of the Lord! This joy will strengthen you in your trials and tribulations, through the storms which blow in and out of your life. I have shared many true stories from the book Insanity of God and from the movie about people persecuted – tortured imprisoned – ripped from their families who still found joy in serving the Lord in their persecuted lives.
i. Reference the story from Insanity of God by Nik Ripken about Stoyan’s father. “I will call my next storyteller Stoyan. The name means “stand firm” or “stay,” and it is a common Eastern European name. Stoyan was about sixty years old, energetic and friendly. We met in the capital city of his country. After my usual explanation of who I was and what I was doing, Stoyan began telling me his story. He began by talking about his parents. After the end of World War II, the communists began consolidating their power throughout his country. Eventually, they took control of the government. For decades, the authorities oppressed believers. When Stoyan was twelve, they imprisoned his protestant pastor father. His father remained in custody for ten years. “At first,” he said, “they held him in a secret police place in our city.” “Every morning one of the guards would take some of his own human waste and spread it on the piece of toast that he brought to my father for breakfast.” Stoyan reported that the emotional and psychological impact of this persecution was even worse, and left deeper scars, than any physical mistreatment. Nine discouraging months passed with no word about his father. Stoyan’s mother finally received notification that her husband was being transferred, with a group of other prisoners, to a distant labor camp. The jailers allowed the families a one-hour visit before the transfer. Stoyan and his mother went to the well-known torture facility of the secret police on their assigned day. They were ushered out onto a football-sized field along with many other families who had come to see their beloved husbands and fathers and sons. “Most of the prisoners rushed out to talk with their relatives from the other side of a long row of tables lined up to separate visitors from the inmates,” Stoyan recalled. “But my father did not appear. My mother and I sat and waited. We waited for a long time. Finally, when our hour of visitation was almost up, another prisoner, evidently a trustee, walked through the visiting room door carrying what looked like a bundle of rags. He strode toward us and laid that bundle on top of one of the tables.” “My mother took my hand,” recalled Stoyan, “and together we walked up to the table where, only because of the piercing blue eyes staring out at me from those rags, did I recognize this skeletal figure of a man as my father.” “I took my father’s hand in mine and I put my face close to his. I whispered, ‘Papa, I am so proud of you!’ I was thirteen years old.” “Mama knew what my father would want most, so she slipped a little pocket New Testament under his wool cap. The jailer saw what she had done. He rushed over and took the little book, and then he summoned his commander. The officer took one look at the book before furiously throwing it to the ground. He screamed at my mother, with a great crowd of people around us, ‘Woman, don’t you realize that it is because of this book and because of your God that your husband is here? I can kill him, I can kill you, and I can kill your son. And I would be applauded for it!’” Stoyan was remembering something that had happened decades earlier. But he recited the words as if they had been spoken yesterday. “My mother looked at that prison officer and said, ‘Sir, you are right. You can kill my husband. You can kill me. I know that you can even kill our son. But nothing you can do will separate us from the love that is in Jesus Christ!’” Stoyan said, “I was so proud of my mama!” After the communist government had transferred his pastor father to the gulag outside of the city, the authorities exiled the rest of Stoyan’s family to a remote gypsy village in a distant corner of the country. The police knocked on the door late one night and gave Stoyan, his mother and his three younger brothers an hour to pack. They were allowed to take two suitcases each. They were loaded on a midnight train bound for a place that they had never been. At some point on that lonely train-ride, frightened and feeling like they had lost everything, Stoyan’s younger siblings began to cry. They pleaded with their mother: “What’s going to happen to our house? Mama, where are we going to live now? How will Papa know where we are? What are we going to do? What’s going to happen to us?” Stoyan’s mother had no answers for her traumatized family. All she could do to reassure them was to say: “God will have to provide, little ones.” Then she led them in singing a hymn. After they finished singing, as the train drew near its destination, a stranger approached the fearful family huddled together and spoke to the mother: “Are you the family of the pastor who has been imprisoned?” (As he asked the question, he referred to the pastor by name.) “Yes, we are,” she told him. The man said, “Our church was meeting last night. During our prayers, the Holy Spirit told us to take up an offering, and for me to bring it on this train, to give it to you, and to escort your family to your new home.” He handed her a small cloth bag and lowered his voice to say, “Here’s enough money for six months. We will bring more when this runs out.” Over the remaining years of his father’s imprisonment, Stoyan’s family was allowed two visits. Each visit was for one hour each time. Somehow, the pastor and his family managed to survive.
1. By 1962, Stoyan had completed his correspondence degree and had become a pastor himself. That led to his firing from the foundry, after which he earned another theology degree by correspondence. By 1966, he had acquired two illegal Bibles in his national language. This gave him the idea to start a underground center for smuggled materials in his home. Over the next two decades, he translated over twenty Christian books.”
2. Ripken, Nik. The Insanity of God: A True Story of Faith Resurrected . B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
d. This is Hope which gives us joy in the journey of Life – it’s a living hope – all you need to do to get it is pray for and embrace it.
i. When we connect with The Living Hope who gives us supernatural hope in difficult times it is more valuable than gold! This hope helps us even in the tough times to find joy in the journey. But the key in connecting with a living hope is we have to choose to connect to this Living Hope!
ii. James Gray stated, “Who can mind the journey when the road leads home.”
Conclusion:
We have a Living Hope to assist us in the journey of life if we are Christians. I truly don’t know how people do it without Jesus!
As difficult and hard some pages of our life will be, we are assured we are not alone in this journey! Jesus knows and feels our pain and our struggles in life. Good Friday reveals this about Jesus – our Living Hope! Our Living Hope is with us through suffering it is our anchor!
Hebrews 6:17-20: 17Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. 18God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. 19We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, 20where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.
Hope: An Anchor to the Soul by Mike Willis of Danville, Indiana – FOLLOWING ARE HIS THOUGHT WITH MINE INSERTED TOO:
“The Hebrews passage describes hope as the anchor of the soul. The metaphor compares the Christian to a boat on the sea; the Christian is on the sea of life. There are storms which threaten to drive his ship from its port - the storms of persecution, adversity, doubt, death, etc. Just as the boat's anchor reaches down to the bottom of the ocean and out of sight, the Christian's anchor ascends out of sight into heaven where it is there fixed. To serve any purpose, an anchor must hold. It must be "sure and steadfast." When sailors cast out an anchor, they want it to take hold on the bottom of the sea to prevent drifting, to keep them from being driven upon rocks which might destroy their ship. The Christian's hope also must be "sure and steadfast." It must hold.”
A Christian's hope their anchor will give them stability in the midst of the storms of life. During the storms, the ship may drift a little, but the fixed anchor will bring it back to it’s moorings.
Psalm 62:5-6: ”Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.”
What do we need to Know?
A living hope will empower us to press forward in the journey of life even in times of grief, loss, persecution or even torture for the faith. A living hope is alive – it’s not dead – its not wishful thinking its alive and active in our life. It will comfort us and rejoice with us and even morn with us!
Why do we need to know this?
When we connect with living hope – not a dead hope – we find strength – power and an anchor for our soul that will sustain us through the storms of life. It’s real – you can feel it and experience it – it’s their for all who believe.
What do we need to do?
We have to connect with living hope – we must embrace it – we must believe in it – we must put ourselves in positions to receive it. It will strengthen our soul in the storm and show us the way home!
Why do we need to do this?
If we choose to put our faith and trust in living hope we will discover strength and joy for the journey of life. It will empower us to press on in this life to our home in Heaven. It will lift us up and sustain us through the storms.
