Have you ever thought about how the meaning of a symbol or a logo can change meanings if you were to rotate it upside down? For example, if you turn the hands over on our title slide, it looks kind of like someone is now washing their hands. If you rotate the lesser than symbol in math, it becomes greater than. Flip the Chicago Bulls logo over, you now have a preaching robot.
I just learned this one recently- knowing that Superman’s symbol isn’t actually an S but the Kryptonian symbol for hope. Since that’s today’s topic, I thought I’d look for the story behind that. And then I came across this- according to a Superboy comic book, if you turn the symbol upside down, it becomes the Kryptonian symbol for resurrection. As we wrap up our series Pray Like Paul, we’re going to examine the hope that we have because of the resurrection of Christ.
Paul begins his prayer for the Colossians by praying for their faith and love. In verse 5 of today’s passage, Paul points out that hope is the foundation of faith and love. Now, when our group assembled the series plan, I hadn’t caught it, but as I was getting ready for today, it caught my eye that Paul was connecting the concepts of faith and love and hope. Probably the most famous place he’s done that is in 1 Corinthians 13:13 (read). Then it hit me that two weeks ago, we preached about faith, last week we spoke about love, and today we’re going to explore the idea of hope. I just thought how cool is it that God put those concepts on our minds as we planned together, and even though it didn’t occur to us then, here we are looking at how Paul prayed and exploring those three concepts together. Faith, love, and today let’s talk about hope.
What do we mean when we say hope? The worldly idea seems to be more like wishful thinking. The dictionary defines hope as a noun that means “the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best. As a verb, it means “to look forward to with desire and reasonable confidence; to believe, desire, or trust; to feel that something desired may happen. This results in statements like “I hope I get the job” or “I hope she’ll marry me” or “I hope my child returns home safely” or “I hope I don’t get sick.”
The Bible defines hope, on the other hand, as “the sure and confident expectation of receiving what God has promised us in the future.” This results in statements like “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness” and “In Christ alone, my hope is found. He is my light, my strength, my song.”
The big difference between these two perceptions of hope is that worldly hope is filled with uncertainty. Biblical hope is based on reality and not a feeling. Biblical hope carries no doubt. Biblical hope is a sure foundation upon which we base our lives, believing that God always keeps His promises.
Let me give you an example of how the two concepts often get confused. Back when Terri was pregnant with Hannah, her morning sickness was so bad that she had to have a constant IV and carried the IV bag in a backpack. We had visited a church in the neighborhood and were visiting the preacher, getting to know him. He noticed the IV and asked Terri about it, so she explained how her pregnancy had been difficult. He then decided to put Terri’s faith to the test and asked her, “So this baby is going to be healthy?” and she answered, “I hope so.” Now, she meant that in the biblical sense that she was trusting God to get her through this time of pregnancy and deliver a healthy child. He interpreted her use of the word hope in the worldly sense and got after her. “You don’t hope so, you know so, cause you’ve got God on your side!”
Let’s dig a little deeper into this idea of hope that Paul is talking about. Hope comes when you know the past. Hope comes from knowing that God doesn’t lie but always keeps His promises. I like to refer to Hebrews 11 as the Hall of Faith. It contains a list of people who received God’s promises and lived in hope of their fulfillment. Even as God was handing out curses to Adam and Eve and the serpent, He promises about Jesus, “You (the serpent) will bruise His heel, He will crush your head.” When Noah offered sacrifices at the end of the flood, God presented the rainbow as a reminder that He would never destroy the world by a flood again. He promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations 25 years before Isaac was born when Abraham was 100 years old. Moses received the promise that Israel would be God’s chosen people while they were still slaves in Egypt. David was promised that he would always have a son on the throne.
All of these promises were fulfilled in Christ (read Colossians 1:5b-6). Paul describes how the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ is spreading throughout the world. He describes it more fully in (read 1 Corinthians 15:12-19). Because Jesus became human, lived without sin in this world, was crucified on the cross but rose again, all of mankind can have hope that is certain of what is to come. You see, we are all sinners, we owe a debt that we cannot pay, He paid a debt that He did not owe. This knowledge of what God has done through Jesus in the past is our basis for hope.
Hope strengthens you to deal with the present. The book of Acts talks about the court trials that Paul was put through because he was a Christian. On various occasions, he was brought before the Sanhedrin, Felix the governor, King Agrippa, and then the Jewish leaders in Rome. Each time he informs them that it was his hope in resurrection that had put him on trial. This hope may have been the cause of his arrest, but it was also the source of his strength.
In John 15, Jesus promises that we would suffer just as He did. Paul tells the Romans in 5:3-5 (read). How do we know that hope will not put us to shame? Once again, we look to the past. We have hope that God has completed His mission through Jesus when He died and rose again. Timothy Keller says it this way, “Jesus Christ did not suffer so that you would not suffer. He suffered so that when you suffer, you’ll become more like him. The gospel does not promise you better life circumstances, it promises you a better life.” Even when we suffer today, we can hold on to hope.
Hope gives you an expectation for the future. Let me tell you, I’ve read the end of the book and guess what, we win! Our hope will be fulfilled on the day when Christ returns (read 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). We mentioned in previous weeks that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Here, we see that because we’re in Christ, those who had already died when Christ returns will rise from the dead and then the rest of us will be gathered up to join Him for eternity. Now, that is something worth hoping for!
Because we have hope like Paul, we should be praying like Paul (read Colossians 1:9-14). Paul provides his prayer list for the believers in Colossae. I know many of us take the prayer list in the bulletin each week, make additions that are shared, so here are some items for you to add for this week’s prayer list.
Paul prayed that the believers will be filled with the knowledge of God’s will. Now, not only can you be praying this, you can answer that prayer in your own life by getting into God’s word. God inspired the writers of these 66 books so that we are able to know His will (read Revelation 1:3). Do we want to be blessed by God? Read His word, listen to His word, obey His word.
Paul prayed that the believers would walk in a worthy manner of God, that is pleasing him (read James 1:22-25). We need to live out what it is that we’re reading, so that our lives reflect His glory.
Paul prayed that the believers bear fruit. As we know from Galatians 5, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We should be growing in all these things because people will recognize us by our fruit.
Paul prayed that the believers be strengthened with all power. Jeremy Camp wrote a song based on Romans 8:11 in which he says, “We have hope that His promises are true. In His strength there is nothing we can't do. Yes, we know there are greater things in store. We will not be overtaken, We will not be overcome. The same power that rose Jesus from the grave, the same power that commands the dead to wake lives in us, lives in us. The same power that moves mountains when He speaks. The same power that can calm a raging sea lives in us, lives in us.
Paul prayed that the believers would give thanks for the salvation that God has provided through Jesus Christ. God has delivered us from a kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His Son. This transfer qualifies us to share in the inheritance with the saints in light. Jesus is the source of our forgiveness. We need to give thanks for His willingness to be the sacrifice that enabled our salvation. Let’s pray now.
Invitation- we are able to pray all these things because we have eternal hope in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. That hope begins with a relationship with Jesus, so we want to give you that opportunity today. If you believe in Jesus as the Son of God who paid the price for your sins, if you desire to repent and turn to God, if you’re willing to declare that Jesus is in charge from here on out, we’re going to stand and sing a song of invitation. As we sing, come forward to join Jesus in baptism and live your life for Him.
