Easter 2019: Hope come find it!
Introduction:
We challenged you today to come find hope and that is what we are talking about this morning – in the prayer time, in the worship time and in the testimony times – by the way there are more testimonies coming to show how people found a living hope right after my message.
What did you hope to find when you came here to CHC this morning?
• Maybe Easter Candy?
• Maybe Chocolate?
• Maybe Peeps?
• Maybe Eggs?
• Maybe Pancakes?
• Maybe Easter flowers and decorations?
• Maybe fun and laughter?
• Maybe friends?
• Maybe great music?
• Maybe great preaching?
• Maybe you hoped to find some peace, some answers, some inspiration or some direction for a life that at times seems to be spinning out of control.
Jonathan Kruschel stated this about why some come to church for Easter: From sermoncentral.com sermon “The Living Hope of Easter”
“What did you hope to find when you came to church this morning? Many times our hopes are based on our past experiences. You’ve been to Easter services before and so you build your expectations for today on previous experiences, that this year will be similar to past years. Or maybe your hope is based on what someone said to you. Someone said that they were going to meet you here, that there was going to be beautiful music, singing, decorations and they even told you that the message of Easter is so much more than chocolate bunnies and brightly colored eggs, but that the message of Easter is about a man that gives living hope, lasting peace and true purpose. So here you are, with all those hopes. Well, I’ve got some good news. No matter what brought you here to today, today is a day of hope because a living Jesus gives living hope. Strangely enough this living hope takes us to a place of death, where hope normally appears to end.”
In the Biblical narrative about Easter Sunday about 1986 years ago we discover – people found a Living Hope!
Easter morning comes with the Sun coming up and a few ladies heading to the cemetery. A strange place to find hope – right? This cemetery is located just outside of the city of Jerusalem. The week leading up to this Sunday had been filled with parades, shouting, praises, arrests, torture, crosses and death it was festive and frantic. This relatively small city was packed full of people who had travelled to Jerusalem for the annual Jewish festival called the Passover. But this year’s festival was underlined with controversy as a man names Jesus had burst onto the scene. Jesus emerged some claimed He was the Messiah, the king of Israel. He had been performing miracles, healing people and even raising dead people back to life especially this guy named Lazarus. He even had claimed to be the Son of God and that He would die and be raised again on the third day. His following was growing larger and larger, and in the eyes of some Jewish religious rulers this was threatening. This man Jesus had been arrested Thursday evening and crucified on Friday and that evening his body quickly placed in a tomb were these ladies were heading too.
It was day three of Jesus’ death but I don’t think from the story there was much hope left in Jesus followers. The ordeal of Good Friday had robbed them of joy and I think hope. But what did they find at the cemetery and tomb?
I love what Jonathan Kruschel states, “Their past experience had taught them that you do not go to the cemetery to see IF the person is still there. You go to the cemetery because you KNOW the person is still there.”
Kruschel adds, “So they set off hoping to find Jesus’ lifeless body to maybe look it? When they arrived, they saw the stone that blocked the entrance to Jesus’ tomb had been rolled away, allowing them to look in and see that Jesus’ body was not there. What did they expect had happened? Experience had told them that if the body was missing, someone must have stolen or moved it. That was the only natural conclusion that Mary, one of Jesus' followers, could come to as she asked a man who stood beside her, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him” (John 20:15). But the man who stood next to Mary was none other than the man she was looking for – it was Jesus. The women came to that cemetery hoping to find a dead body, but instead, they found a living Jesus who gave them hope. Jesus was not dead, Jesus was alive!”
Thesis: Today we will be talking about Hope and how we can find it in the journey of life – because if you find a “Living Hope” you will also discover there is joy in the journey of life no matter what happens to you. You will discover meaning for life, purpose for life and even have a solid foundation to build a life that will mean something for eternity. Out Living Hope is alive!
Scripture: 1 Peter 1:3-7:
3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, 5who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
Thesis: Have you ever had your hope in something crushed – filled with disappointment when you bit into it? Discovered that what you put your faith or trust in was hollow and or empty hope? Jesus proved on Easter that He is a Living Hope! So, embrace Him today and find Hope and even joy in the journey!
Opening Illustration: Basket with Easter Candy in it!
Today many children will be getting or have already gotten lots and lots of chocolate and Easter candy! They have found their Easter baskets and presents. They will be searching for eggs with the goodies in them. The excitement will be high. I recall a certain Easter morning many moons ago when I was around 7. The Easter candy basket search was on, the eggs were being uncovered and I found my Easter basket and there in the middle of the basket was a large chocolate bunny – like this one!
Emerson saw this bunny in my office Thursday and said this about the chocolate bunny – “That is really big chocolate bunny Grand Pa! What are you going to do with that big chocolate Easter bunny?” I told him I was using it for my Easter sermon – his eyes were big and he was starring at my bunny and licking his lips – so I told him when I am done with it you can have a piece of it and he gave me a huge big smile and then Harlowe chimed in “me - me!” She wanted a piece of this bunny too.
So back to my distant memory - I was so excited to eat this chocolate bunny. I was imagining days of chocolate ecstasy and rich creamy flavor as I was looking at this chocolate bunny. My mom told me I had to wait to later to eat the bunny since it was still morning. So, most of the day I would look at this chocolate bunny with anticipation and delight. Finally the word came from above I could eat it - My hope was soaring I ran to the bunny unwrapped it and bit into the chocolate bunny! Then my hope of chocolate indulgence came crashing down as I discovered it was hollow – I was taken back – my chocolate rabbit was defective – someone forgot to fill my bunny with chocolate - it’s empty there is no chocolate in the middle – I went to my mom and said they ripped me off and forgot to fill my bunny! She laughed said no its suppose to be hollow, really, I said now doing this to a young hungry boy is very disturbing especially when he hopes for a pound of chocolate and ends up with less than an ounce of chocolate – I just thought that was a mean thing to do to a young hopeful mind.
Are you with me on this everyone – I know Emerson thought this bunny was solid chocolate but it’s not – it’s a deception – it’s a let down – please don’t do this to your grandkids – get them the solid chocolate bunnies! Let them bite into something solid and not something that will let them down and crush their hopes of chocolate ecstasy. That is why I got him them a solid bunny – I don’t want to shatter my grandkids minds and hopes with a hollow chocolate let down.
Point of illustration: But sad to say life can be like a hollow chocolate bunny – you put your happiness and focus on something and it ends up being hollow and empty inside. It never satisfies – never meets expectations – it’s not a solid hope but a hollow void – do you know what I am talking about? Have you been there?
Many put hope and happiness in something that is hollow and empty on the inside?
Some empty hollow hopes:
1. A job and or career – reference the comment by my dad this week.
2. More money but its never enough!
3. A sports dream of being a superstar athlete and contract – my cousin’s son, Wes Hamilton and Ben’s story.
4. A person
5. A drug or even alcohol
6. Education
7. A House
Pull out the solid chocolate cross!
Now the “Living Hope” Peter is talking about in our Scripture text today is symbolized by this solid chocolate cross – trust me when I bite into this ecstasy of hope I will not be disappointed, let down or hopeless – I will have my chocolate and peanut butter taste buds exploding with joy and strength.
Questions to ask ourselves:
Is your hope hollow or solid?
Where does your hope come from – is it a dead hope or living hope?
Is your hooe living or dead?
Is the hope you have an anchor for your soul?
As difficult and hard some pages of our life will be, we are assured we are not alone in this journey through Scripture! 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.
Let me read this passage again from the Message Bible – I think it will help you get the point from this passage:
Hebrews 6:17-20 The 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.
1. Hope is to be our anchor in the storms of life – It’s rooted in Jesus the Living Hope!
a. HOPE acrostic
i. He (Jesus)
ii. Offers
iii. Peace (and)
iv. Encouragement
1. This is what helps us stay the course of living a good life that will have eternal meaning!
b. Hope: An Anchor to the Soul by Mike Willis of Danville, Indiana – FOLLOWING ARE HIS THOUGHT WITH MINE INSERTED TOO:
i. “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.”
ii. 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.
iii. 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.”
1. Biblical hope found in Jesus causes us to see the hope when everything else around us is wasting away. It helps us see beyond this world into the spiritual world.
2. This hope is ability to see beyond our failures, our crises, death, suffering, temptation, sin, battles, hurt, depression and lost culture.
2. Hope in us should be fueled by the Promises of God’s Word – His Word is foundational and not an empty hollow hope!
a. God delivers what He promises!
i. Hebrews 10:23: Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
ii. Romans 4:20-21: 20Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.
iii. 2 Peter 1:4: Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
b. Listen to some of God’s Word and the promises for those who believe and follow Him:
i. Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
ii. Matthew 11:28-29: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
iii. Isaiah 40:29-31: He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.
iv. Philippians 4:19: And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.
v. Romans 8:37-39: No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
vi. Proverbs 1:33: But all who listen to me will live in peace, untroubled by fear of harm.”
vii. John 14:27: “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.
viii. Romans 10:9: If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
ix. Romans 6:23: For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
c. Easter proves that Jesus the Living Hope keeps His word:
i. Jonathan Kruschel stated, “Jesus did not stand up anyone on Easter. He said that he would rise on the third day and did exactly what he said. As impossible and hopeless as it may have seemed to those who saw his lifeless body taken off the cross and placed in the tomb, Jesus still did it. And dear friends, Jesus will never stand you up either. No matter how impossible and hopeless the situation may seem to us, he will absolutely do what he has promised – Easter assures it to you!”
ii. He adds, “A marriage that seems hopelessly irreparable, a relationship with an adult child that has been stressed, health that continues to deteriorate, a job that brings frustration, a world that seems to become more and more violent – look to what the Lord promises you in the Bible and know that God will do what he says. That is the living hope that allows you to even stand in a cemetery at the graveside of a fellow Christian, and stand with hope-filled grief, that while the separation is hard, it is only temporary. Jesus has transformed death, to be the doorway to life eternal for all those who believe in him.”
d. Max Lucado states from Unshakable Hope page 5:
i. “God did not emphasize the Israelite’s strength. He emphasized his. He did not underscore their ability. He highlighted his. He equipped them for the journey by headlining his capacity to make and keep his promises. From the first chapter of Scripture, the Bible makes a case for the dependability of God. Nine times the text reiterates “God said.” And without exception when God spoke, something happened. Something wonderful happened. By divine fiat there was light, land beaches and creatures. God consulted no advisers. He needed no assistance. He spoke, and it happened. The reader is left with one conclusion: God’s word is sure. What he says happens (Lucado, page 5).
Conclusion:
Chuck Swindoll from his book Hope Again states this about hope:
Hope is a wonderful gift from God, a source of strength and courage in the face of life’s harshest trails.
• When we are trapped in a tunnel of misery, hope points to the light at the end of the tunnel.
• When we are overworked and exhausted, hope gives us a fresh energy.
• When we are discouraged, hope lifts our spirits.
• When we are tempted to quit, hope keeps us going.
• When we lose our way and confusion blurs the destination, hope dulls the edge of panic.
• When we struggle with a crippling disease or a lingering illness, hope helps us persevere beyond the pain.
• When we fear the worst, hope brings reminders that God is Still in control.
• When we must endure the consequences of bad decisions hope fuels our recovery.
• When we find ourselves unemployed, hope tells us we still have a future.
• When we are forced to sit back and wait, hope gives us the patience to trust.
• When we feel rejected and abandoned, hope reminds us we’re not alone …we’ll make it.
• When we say our final farewell to someone we love, hope in the life beyond gets us through grief.
Put simply, when life hurts and dreams fade, nothing helps like hope! (Swindoll page xi and xii).
Hope isn’t merely a nice option that helps us in a tough moment but it is essential to our survival and for Joy in the journey of life.
Video Illustration: Listen to these testimonies from people who found a Living Hope in a hopeless situation!
Challenge: Hope come find it today – tap into it -embrace and grab ahold of it!
Point of message: 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!
What do we need to Know? Answer: 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? Answer: 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 there for all who believe.
What do we need to do? Answer: 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? Answer: 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.
