Intro:
Many people were touched by God after they met Him. A living testimony is none other than ourselves. We are a living testimony to everybody that after we met Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we have that hope and peace through the power of the Holy Spirit in us. But before knowing and accepting God, we are just like the other people who are hoping for joy to come to them filling and satisfying them. Let us learn again how to be…
Joyfully Hoping for God
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.”
ASND “Nawa ang Dios na nagbibigay sa atin ng pag-asa ang siya ring magbigay sa inyo ng buong kagalakan at kapayapaan dahil sa inyong pananampalataya sa kanya, para patuloy na lumago ang inyong pag-asa sa pamamagitan ng Banal na Espiritu.”
It is only God that can be our source of true joy in our lives. And once we found it, this will grow and overflow in us through the power of the Holy Spirit living in us. Once we experience this inexpressible joy, changes in our lives start to happen.
What are the effects of these joy in our lives after we found our hope in God? On this exhortation, we can find 3 major effects of this joyful hope in us. Let us look upon the 3 persons in the Bible that showed joyful hope. There are a lot of Bible characters that showed joy and hope after they met our Lord Jesus. Who are these people and what we can learn something from them in order to have a joyful hope?
1. There is a joyful hope in loving God. – Samaritan woman
Here comes an encounter with a hopeless woman in the person of the Samaritan woman…
John 4:15-18 “The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
Here is an encounter that started in confrontation with Jesus with the Samaritan woman who had 5 husbands and the current partner is not yet her husband. Jesus was pointing to the woman of a kind of thirst for a genuine love that only God can give to her. See how the woman wanted to experience the kind of quench of thirst that only Jesus can give to her. She wanted to have this kind of love so that she will no longer look for any other love aside from God’s love.
As this joyful hope progress, the Samaritan woman went to see her other villagers who were also thirsty like her…
John 4:39-42 “Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to Him, they urged Him to stay with them, and He stayed two days. And because of His words many more became believers. They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
Look at how the Samaritan woman influenced her villagers because of the love they got after meeting Jesus. They have seen Jesus and heard Jesus spoke of this kind of love that brought them joyful hope! However, for Peter, he was there when Jesus went to see them especially Thomas who was doubting Jesus’ resurrection. And so Peter told the early believers to love and to have faith in God as a result of our joyful hope!
1 Peter 1:8-9 “Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
It is the joyful hope that led the people of God to love and have faith in Jesus and as a result, faith and the salvation of their soul. This mean that we can love God and others because of the joyful hope in us.
2. There is a joyful hope in living for God. – the Gadarene demon-possessed.
Another person who had encountered Jesus and experienced joyful hope is the Gadarene demoniac found in Luke 8:26-39. And we know the story of this man who had been demon-possessed for a long time. And when he met Jesus, deliverance happened as Jesus rebuked the demon inside this man and went to the herd of pigs. After the deliverance, suddenly the spirit of joyful hope prompted the man to be on his right mind, dressed and sitting at Jesus’ feet. But look after what happened next.
Luke 8:35-39
“and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus’ feet, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people how the demon-possessed man had been cured. Then all the people of the region of the Gerasene asked Jesus to leave them, because they were overcome with fear. So he got into the boat and left. The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return home and tell how much God has done for you.” So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him.”
And at that moment, this man lived his life with God. This man literally begged Jesus not to leave Him and be with Him and live with Him. Yet Jesus opted for him to stay and be a messenger of joyful hope to other people so he may testify about Him.
It is similar to the woman caught in adultery and who also poured oil to the head of Jesus she too lived with joyful hope in her heart after her encounter with Jesus. She never cared how expensive the perfume so long as Jesus will be pleased. In fact, her act of worship was mentioned by Jesus to be remembered.
Lastly…
3. There is a joyful hope in leaving our past life – Matthew and Zacchaeus
Here comes 2 famous tax collectors in the Bible. If there is most wealthy job in the Bible it is probably the tax collector. And Jesus was able to choose one of His disciples in the person of Levi or Matthew.
Luke 5:27-32 “After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow Me,” Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed Him. Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to His disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Luke 19:5-10 “When Jesus reached the spot, He looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed Him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.” But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
What can you notice about the 2 tax collectors? Both have given Jesus a party. But what is the reason for celebration? It is because these 2 tax collectors are willing to leave all what they have in order to have that hope they found with Jesus. Matthew or Levi followed Jesus and became His disciple and Zacchaeus believed to be a follower of Jesus after this incident in his life. There is this joyful hope that they felt when they met Jesus for the 1st time in their life.
It's not only Matthew but the rest of His disciples left their old lives so they can follow and live with Jesus. What is the hope that they are clinging on to with Jesus – it is the word “joy”. Nothing in this world can equal the kind of joy that God is bringing to His own people.
Robert Murray once said “The truest, purest joy flows from a discovery of Jesus Christ. He is the hidden treasure that gives such joy to the finder.” Compare this to Matthew 13:44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.”
And once they found this joy, they would not want to leave Jesus anymore. Look at an instance when many of His follower unfollow Christ…
John 6:66-69 “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
“You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”
Why did the other disciples leave Jesus that time? Because they don’t have the joy – the joy of knowing God deeper and wider. Look at what Peter told Jesus – Lord You have the words of eternal life. The joy of leaving our past life is called the joy of our salvation.
Conclusion:
So, the 3 major effects of a joyful hope to people were that it caused them to love God, live for God and leave their past lives.
Illustration:
I really like this story about Professor William Phelps. He taught English Literature at Yale from 1892-1933. Dr. Phelps was grading tests shortly before one Christmas, and he saw a note a student had written next to a tough question on the test. The student wrote, "God only knows the answer to this question. Merry Christmas."
The professor returned the test with his own note under the student’s comment: "God gets an A. You get an F. -- Happy New Year."
I like that statement: "God gets an A." When our world is falling apart and nothing seems to be going our way, God gets an A, our Adoration and Awesome Praise despite of all difficulties in life! Then we will get an F (not a failing grade) but that is Filled with Joy!
Jesus promised us that His joy will always be with us to complete us or to fill us.
John 15:11 NIV “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”
Are you joyfully hoping for God right now?
