(Modified from a message preached at FBC Chamois, MO on 11-27-2022; not an exact transcription)
Introduction: This is the first Sunday in the Advent season, the four or so Sundays before Christmas Day. Now I understand that some churches believe in using these candles and some don’t; and there is some variation as to what’s covered for each of these Sundays. This Sunday we’re looking at hope, and this first candle would be called the hope candle. By the way, I’ve attended a few churches that have these advent candles but this is the first time I’ve tried to preach based on these meanings, etc., so if you could send an extra prayer my way, believe me, I’ll be grateful!
This morning I’m going at the text a little differently. You know I usually stay in one passage and look at what it says but this time I’m going to use one verse as a springboard and look at several passages. I won’t be reading the various passages, just mentioning them, and by all means please look at these passages when you get home.
Today’s text, then, comes from Paul’s letter to the Romans, chapter 15 and the first few verses:
Romans 15:1-6, New American Standard Bible: 1 Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength, and not just please ourselves. 2 Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to his edification. 3 For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written: “THE REPROACHES OF THOSE WHO REPROACHED THEE FELL UPON ME.” 4 For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. 5 Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another, according to Christ Jesus, 6 that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. (NASB)
(Prayer)
When you saw the candle being lit (okay, when [name withheld] turn on the switch), what came to mind? You know, the people of Bible times had a different definition of hope than we do these days. I can say, “Well, I hope to see you next Sunday” and that’s a genuine wish. Thing is, none of us know what’s going to happen between today and next Sunday. We’re aware of this and we’re realistic enough to know anything can happen and sometimes does.
The people of those days, though, had a different approach to this and if they said, “I hope such and such takes place,” they were confident it WAS going to happen. No doubt about it. And it’s with this double-focus that I’d like to speak about hope this morning.
Maybe you’ve heard the old saying, “When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot in the end of it and hold on”. Sometimes literary authors speak of “a slender thread of hope” or something along those lines. Now, it goes without saying there were times it seemed there was no hope anywhere. In fact, one of these events happened very early in the days after Creation.
The first two chapters of Genesis, the first two in the Bible!, describe how God made the world, a little at a time. He did something on the first day, and a little more on each of the six days (I believe these were literal, 24-hour days) with the creation of Adam on day 6. God took a rib from Adam’s side and made Eve. So far, so good, right?
We’re never told how long this perfect state existed but we do know how it ended. Genesis 3 has the story how both Adam and Eve fell from that condition. Eve listened to the serpent, ate the forbidden fruit, and then gave some to Adam who then ate it too. As an aside, I used to work with a minister of a different denomination at a certain office. We had some interesting conversations, but one of the funniest—at least from his perspective—took place when we were talking about this passage (Genesis 3). When I told him, humorously, that Adam never had a chance because he fell for the first bad girl in history, he laughed out loud!
But it was no laughing matter for Adam and Eve. God had told them to NOT do one thing, and they did it, and now they were going to receive their punishment for disobedience. Nobody can disobey God and get by with it, for very long, because He remembers. Everything. And as a result of their sin, Adam and Eve—and us, too, because we’re their direct descendants—will suffer because of this. They went from fellowship with God to separation; from blessings to curses; from the Garden of Even to the wilderness; and from what they used to have to Adam having to work like a dog to barely get enough to eat.
That was the first time it seemed hope had just about vanished but it wasn’t the last. Just a few chapters later in Genesis, Noah and his family were among the few who still worshiped the True and the Living God. Jesus referred to “the days of Noe (Noah)” in Matthew 24 and Luke 17 and those who knew the Scriptures recalled those days as “filled with violence (Gen. 6:11)”.
Things were so bad that God told Noah to build an ark or large ship because the end of that world was coming. Sure enough, even while Noah, and who knows who else, built that boat, nobody got on board except Noah and his family. Not even the parade of animals coming in two by two seemed to make any impression on the rest of the people. Noah and his family must have had less and less hope as each day came and went, and the end of their world kept getting closer.
But one day God told them to get inside the ark, along with the animals, and stay there because, God said, “in seven days I’m going to make it rain for 40 days and 40 nights. I will destroy everything I’ve made because of the evil I see (Genesis 7:1-5, paraphrased).” The rest of chapter 7 tells about the voyage and the depth of the flood waters. Everything that lived, died, and if that wasn’t a challenge to the hopes of Noah and his family, then tell me, what _else_ would it be? I mean, think about how many years that Ark was under construction, how long it stayed in place, but nobody cared. Everyone on earth except 8 people died.
Now, some folks have wondered just how big the Ark really was. One of my nieces lives in southern Ohio, and went to see the replica of the Ark that’s near Cincinnati. Her daughter, my great-niece, was standing close to the Ark and she’s dwarfed by the size! One of the folks I know took his family to see it a year or so back but wondered where it was (they had never been to Ohio so far as I know. My reply was, “It’s probably where a forest used to be”—think of all the wood needed to build the thing!—and he laughed. They had a great time, too.
Noah and his family weren’t having the best of times, I suppose, but they were in for another shock when the Ark struck ground. This was in the mountains of Ararat, near the borders of Turkey and Iran, I believe. Whether it’s really there or not, few can say for sure, but if it’s in the Bible, it’s good enough for me, and I believe it.
Whether or not the terrain back then was anything like the terrain now is anybody’s guess but even though the Ark struck ground up there, the people and animals stayed inside the Ark for a good while. Genesis 8 has the story of how the Ark was “beached” or struck land and how the people eventually left the Ark, Moses doesn’t record their emotions or feelings but we may have a guess: God told them to repopulate the earth and I can almost hear Noah’s daughters-in-law saying, “You talkin’ to ME????”
At the very least they had the hope of a new future with God’s blessings. But even that was short lived because some very bad things were going to come up soon. Sure, they all had several children and they had children and the population was growing and it seemed all was going well, at least relatively, until Nimrod came along. He’s only mentioned in Genesis 10 and 1 Chronicles but his deeds were amazing—let’s give credit where due. He was a “mighty hunter” but that led him to create empire building and some think he also hunted for people in order to make them his slaves.
There’s probably a lot more to Nimrod and his followers that needs to be studied but for the few who remained true to the True and Living God, hope might have seemed very faint indeed, given their situations. Hebrews 11 summarizes the plight of any number of saints who had to flee for their lives, live in caves, and even worse, because they would not abandon the God of their fathers. They held on to the hope that they had and God honored that.
We can move on to another time when things looked very dark indeed for Israel. After the Tower of Babel incident in Genesis 11, God called Abram, later changing his name to Abraham, and gave him a son, Isaac (plus others). Isaac fathered Esau and Jacob, and Jacob eventually fathered 12 sons. These men became the heads of the Twelve Tribes of Israel and their descendants, the Jews, exist to this day.
Okay, you may be saying, so what? Glad you asked. There was a severe famine that affected most of the land around Egypt. The good thing was that Egypt had stored up plenty of grain and could sell it to others. They still had enough for themselves. Joseph, one of Jacob’s sons, had been sold into slavery years before but had become the second highest ruler in Egypt. It didn’t take long for his father to drop a strong hint to the others “Get to Egypt and buy some food!” Joseph later arranged for the whole family to relocate to Egypt and stay there until the famine was over.
The problem was that the children of Israel stayed a lot longer than any of them probably intended. A new king or dynasty came into power, after Joseph died, and this new king didn’t know anything about Joseph. It wasn’t long before this new king decided to make slaves of his guests (!) and that condition remained for hundreds of years.
The first few chapters of Exodus describe some of what went on. My hunch is that after a couple decades of slavery, their hope was about gone.
Then God brought Moses into the picture. We’ve probably heard the story of Moses and the burning bush, the top of the mountain, and other things, but he was the man God used to lead them to the Promised Land and give them hope! Exodus through Deuteronomy has a lot of information God gave to Moses and his brother Aaron to pass along to the other people. True, there was a lot to follow but all this was based on the hope, the assurance, that God would honor those who honored Him.
Moses died and Joshua, his successor, led the nation of Israel into the Promised Land. The first half of the Book of Joshua describes how Israel was unstoppable except when sin was found. Once that problem was dealt with, victory after victory took place until Israel conquered their land of promise. God again promised them hope if they would honor Him, and for a while, that’s exactly what happened. But eventually the nation threw God away and suffered for it. Read the Book of Judges and you’ll see the pattern, how Israel rejected God, became slaves in their own country, eventually crying out to God for deliverance, but doing the same thing again. Lather, rinse and repeat. It would have been hard to keep hope alive during those days but some did, and those who did are some of the Bible’s unsung heroes.
We’ll pass over some of the worst experiences Israel endured to focus on the Roman occupation for a moment. By this time Israel was once again basically slaves in their own country and hope would seem to be very limited. When Jesus came, their hopes rose: just look at the times various groups of people wanted to make Him King!
But when He told them the kingdom wasn’t coming just yet, they wandered away. Isn’t’ that just like us; it’s so easy to get hope for something, anything, but so much easier to lose hope when things don’t happen the way they want.
But let me close with this one thing. The only real hope any of us have is in Jesus. Believers in Jesus, in various parts of the world, are suffering, some very much so, simply because they refuse to deny Jesus. They still have hope, that they might be released from suffering or else that one day they’ll be with the Lord when this earthly life is over.
Jesus came to do many things and you can read about them in the Gospels. But there’s one thing that certainly put Him above everyone else: He brought hope. Are you losing hope? During this Christmas season, come back to Jesus and receive hope, the best gift ever for a believer!
Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV).
