Title: Hope
Text: Acts 2:22-39
Acts 2 has been called the record of the birthday of the church. This is true. It was the beginning of "the Way", as they called it. It was the beginning of the gospel of Christ being preached, that He was the resurrected Son of God.
Peter preached statements of indictment against those who had Jesus crucified: READ Acts 2 SELECTED VERSES.
**Why did Peter tell them to repent and be baptized?
--Peter didn’t say things so they would believe and maybe be saved.
--They asked what to do to be saved.
--They wanted to know how to keep from being lost.
--And the answer they received, they expected, would cause them to expect to be saved.
**And we all know what happened "...the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved."
**"How do you know that you will be saved?" Let me ask you right now, Are you sure?
**Our assurance, or the lack of it, in our salvation is summed up by how we feel about one word in the New Testament. HOPE What is New Testament hope and how do we learn how to trust in that hope?
DEFINITION OF HOPE IN THE BIBLE: “Hope is when the realities of the next world and the future are perfectly familiar; the tone is not that of prediction but that of obvious fact. In other words hope, to Christians, is CERTAINTY....”
**Listen to these scriptures:
‒ Hebrews 6:18-20 "These two things cannot change: God cannot lie when he makes a promise, and he cannot lie when he makes an oath. These things encourage us who came to God for safety. They give us strength to hold on to the hope we have been given. {19} We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, sure and strong. It enters behind the curtain in the Most Holy Place in heaven, {20} where Jesus has gone ahead of us and for us...”.
‒ Romans 5:3-5 "We also have joy with our troubles, because we know that these troubles produce patience. {4} And patience produces character, and character produces hope. {5} And this hope will never disappoint us, because God has poured out his love to fill our hearts. He gave us his love through the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to us."
‒ Titus 2:13 "We should live like that while we wait for our great hope and the coming of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ."
Do any of these sound like there is no expectation????
1. Hope is founded in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Heaven is our hope, we want to be raised. Without resurrection we can all go home.
A. The word “So,” rendered “therefore” in some translations, in Acts 2:36 points back to the conversation about Jesus being resurrected from the dead. That was the basis for Peter’s Sermon.
‒ He said concerning the Jews, Acts 2:23-24 "...You put him (Jesus) to death by nailing him to a cross...{24} God raised Jesus from the dead...."
‒ He said "Jesus is the one whom God raised from the dead. And we are all witnesses....” V. 32
‒ Therefore, the basis of their salvation and hope is seen in the resurrection.
B. Paul’s hope in resurrection is what drove him to serve God.
‒ Acts 24:15-16 "I have the same hope in God that they have--the hope that all people, good and bad, will surely be raised from the dead. {16} This is why I always try to do what I believe is right before God and people."
2. Because of hope we gain an obedient faith.
A. What is your motivation for serving God?
‒ Some serve from fear, continually. Not the reverent fear of God, but a fear that He is out to crush them.
‒ Some serve God because of the threat of others like a parent or a preacher.
‒ Some serve God from the confidence of the hope that He gives them.
B. Why didn’t I say that "hope is seen in an obedient faith"?
‒ Because hope causes motivation, not visa versa.
‒ Too many have the cart before the horse on this subject.
‒ My hope keeps me going, not my going makes me hope.
‒ We sing, "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus name."
‒ Too many times we have confidence in our own ability to be saved. This always fails, why?
‒ "Our righteousness is as filthy rags." --Isaiah 64:6
‒ "There is none righteous, no not one." --Romans 3:10
‒ We cannot be good enough to earn our salvation. We are "bent" toward sin.
‒ Our nature is sinful. As we grow older we get wiser, but we never will attain "sinlessness."
‒ Listen to Romans 3:23-24 "All have sinned and are not good enough God’s glory, {24} and all need to be made right with God by his grace, which is a free gift. They need to be made free from sin through Jesus Christ."
‒ Romans 4:7-8 "Happy are they whose sins are forgiven, whose wrongs are pardoned. {8} Happy is the person whom the Lord does not consider guilty."
- Me? Not Guilty? It can’t be!! But thanks be to God, it’s true!!
‒ God doesn’t put sin on the account of those who serve Him.
‒ 2 Corinthians 5:21 "Christ had no sin, but God made him become sin so that in Christ we could become right with God."
‒ Jesus died in our stead so that we would not have to worry about the awful state of being separated from God.
‒ We have redemption, salvation, faith and HOPE through Him and only through Him.
3. Hope is realized in heaven.
A. 1 Corinthians 13:13 ends this way, "So these three things continue forever: faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love."
- One thing about hope is that it is never seen. Because when that which we expect comes true, we no longer have to expect.
‒ When the trumpet sounds, and the dead in Christ rise, and we ascend into heaven to be with our Father, we will no longer expect heaven. Our hope will be realized.
B. Don’t you want to go there more than any other thing in this world!!
‒ Do you pray for that day to come?
‒ Do you long for that day? If not, you do not have that blessed hope and confidence in Jesus Christ.
Conclusion: Do you know right now, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that should you die to night you would be saved.
‒ Why do I preach this? It is because there are so many Christians who do not believe that they will be saved.
‒ They hope they will.
‒ They will even "think they might."
‒ But they are just not sure. What a miserable existence!!
‒ 1 Corinthians 15:19 "If our hope in Christ is for this life only, we should be pitied more than anyone else in the world."
‒ How ridiculous it would have been for Peter to tell those people on Pentecost, "Change your hearts and lives and be baptized, each one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, (and just maybe, if you work hard enough, you might be saved). He said, Acts 2:38 "...for the FORGIVENESS of your sins. And you WILL receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." [Emphasis mine].
‒ They are not sure because they think their salvation lies within their ability to not sin.
‒ You can’t stop sinning totally. You can stop a lifestyle of sin, that’s repentance. "I am sorry for my sin and am going to quit." Famous last words, right. What you mean is that you will try.
‒ Saying that we will try is still not enough. If you want to come to heaven with the rest of us, and you do not want to go through Jesus, you must have been and continue to be perfect. Now, I you don’t qualify for perfection, the only other way is to surrender you life to Jesus Christ and serve Him.
‒ We can’t be sinless, but we can trust Jesus to wash away those sins every day.
‒ 1 John 2:1"...these things I write to you, so that you may not sin, and if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."
‒ I end with this verse because it is such a statement of confidence in God.
‒ "I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God." 1 John 5:13
‒ One thing we do know is that without being in Christ, there is no hope.
‒ One must come to Him and believe He is the Son of God.
‒ We must repent from our lifestyle of sin to a lifestyle of righteousness.
‒ One must confess His name before men and through his life.
‒ One needs to be baptized.
‒ All of this is done in trusting faith in Jesus Christ.
‒ Without that you are just saying words and getting wet.
