Believers Blessed Hope - Pt 2
Titus 2:13
Intro: The Hope is Imminent, Personal, Thrilling and Exciting
Blessed Hope - Joyful and confident expectation that is based on the promise of God Himself.
Our Hope is Blessed because it:
1. Deals with the person of Jesus Christ Himself
A. Jesus is personally coming back again.
2. It is pertinent to every believer.
A. Every single true born again child of God is going to heaven.
B. Harpedzo - catching away.
Ralph Waldo Emerson was once approached by a concerned and inquiring person. He said, "Mr. Emerson, they tell me that the world is coming to an end." Emerson calmly replied, "Never mind, we can get along without it." The hope of heaven gives us confidence beyond this present world.
I. IT PERMEATES THE ENTIRE BIBLE
1. 318 times in the N.T.
II. IT IS SO PRACTICAL IN AFFECTING THE BELIEVER’S CHARACTER AND CONDUCT
We have no greater incentive to live a Holy life than we do in today’s world.
Christ could come back at any moment:
So we have an incentive to:
1. Be Watchful: Matthew 25:13 Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.
a. That watchfulness and being prepared is a duty that lies upon all those who believe and look for Christ’s coming and appearance.
b. 2 Peter 3:14 Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you are waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to live a pure and blameless life. And be at peace with God.
c. We tend to get lazy and complacent because Christ hasn’t come back yet.
d. But we should be eager. Expect His coming to be at any time.
When you have company, you usually clean your house before they come. Prepare for them. What if someone drops in unexpectedly, are you embarrassed? Jesus is going to drop in.
2. Love: 1 Corinthians 4:5 So be careful not to jump to conclusions before the Lord returns as to whether or not someone is faithful. When the Lord comes, he will bring our deepest secrets to light and will reveal our private motives. And then God will give to everyone whatever praise is due.
A. We are to love one another until Christ returns. Don’t judge everyone else but look to yourself
a. KJV - "Do not judge" - God will do the judging. (We are to love)
b. God knows your heart. He knows how you treat others. We are to love them.
3. Live a life of Separation: (Sanctified) Titus 2:11-14 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
A. We should live soberly, righteously, and Godly in this present world
B. We are a peculiar people. The world will persecute us.
4. Patience: James 5:7-8 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Consider the farmers who eagerly look for the rains in the fall and in the spring. They patiently wait for the precious harvest to ripen. You too must be patient: take courage, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.
This week we received a much needed rain. The farmers have been needing it for their crops in the field. The beans are looking great but their is not any beans (fruit). In our Christian lives, we can look good. Stand up big and tall, but are we bearing fruit?
A. A farmer patiently waits for his crops to grow, but can’t hurry the process.
B. He can’t take the summer off, there is work to be done.
C. In the same way, we have to wait patiently for Christ to return, but in the mean time, there is work to be done.
D. The farmer and the Christian live by faith, looking for the future reward for their labor.
E. Don’t live as if Christ will never come. Work faithfully to build His Kingdom
F. Jesus is coming again, but only when the time is right.
5. Abide in Christ: 1 John 2:28 And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.
A. The visible proof of being a Christian is right behavior
B. Some people do good deeds but don’t have the faith in Christ.
C. Others claim to have faith but rarely produce good deeds.
D. Be doing what Christ wants for your life so that when He returns, He will find you faithful.
6. Diligence: Revelation 3:11 Behold, I come quickly: hold on to what you have, so that no man will take thy crown.
A. We all have different gifts, abilities, and experiences.
B. God doesn’t expect us all to be the same, but He does expect us to "hold on" to what we have.
C. Use what you have to live for Christ, and God will commend you, and reward you.
7. Purity: 1 John 3:2-3 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope, in "him" purifieth himself, even as He is pure.
A. A Christian life is a process of becoming more and more like Christ.
3 stages of salvation:
1. Have been saved — the day you accepted Christ
2. Are saved — as we take up our cross and follow Him
3. Will be saved — the day that He returns to take us out of this sinful world.
B. This process won’t be complete until we see Christ face to face.
C. But knowing that we WILL see Christ face to face, should motivate us to stay pure.
D. Every believer who has the blessed hope within, purifies himself.
a. In the light of His Word, we will live faithfully and carefully.
III. HOPE IS BLESSED BECAUSE IT PROMOTES WORLD EVANGELISM
1. Matthew 28:19-20 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
2. Christ is our only hope.
A. No man, politician, government, or scientist can solve the worlds problems
B. But God has the solution.
C. Christ will come back and work it out perfectly.
3. We should tell the world that Jesus Lives
A. Go ye therefore, (ye is all of us)
B. Win people to Christ
C. Share His love with others in the power of Jesus name as He is with us "even unto the end of the world.
IV. HOPE IS BLESSED BECAUSE IT PERFECTLY CURES THE TROUBLED HEART
John 14:1-3 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
1. Many of us are anxious, fearful, lonely, and sad.
2. Is their anything more comforting than the glorious appearing and truth of the blessed hope?
3. I Thess 4:19 "comfort one another with these words"
V. HOPE IS BLESSED BECAUSE IT PROMISES A REUNION WITH OUR LOVED ONES AND WITH JESUS.
A song entitled "I bowed on my knees and cried Holy" says:
When I entered the gates of that city, my loved ones all knew me well. They took me down the streets of heaven, the scenes too many to tell. Then I saw Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, talk with Mark and Timothy. Then I said, I want to see Jesus, the one who died for me.
1. Jesus died for you and for me.
2. Because of His death, burial, and resurrection, we will be able to see Him face to face.
3. One day that will happen. Are you ready for that day?
A man worked at a factory in a small town. Every day at noon, he would walk across the street to a church where he would sit on the back pew and talk to God. Jesus, this is Jim. Jesus this is Jim...I need you today. One day, Jim was very ill and in the hospital. His family was around him and it seemed as if the presence of God filled the hospital room. You could almost hear God speaking to Jim saying, Jim, this is Jesus. Jim this is Jesus... I need you today. Jim went home to be with his Lord. He was ready.
4. The doctrine of Jesus return in the clouds is what we as Christians live for.
Christ is Returning!!!
Are you ready?
"No one can go back and have a new beginning, but everyone can start now and have a new ending."
