Got Hope?
I John 3:2-3
11-30-03
Intro:
We take our text this morning from 1 John 2:28-3:3.
28And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming. 29If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.
3:1How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.
NIV
In that passage John touches upon one of the great themes of the Bible—the subject of hope. The word occurs over 50 times[1] in the New Testament. Our strength to live healthy, godly, productive lives depends greatly on this element of hope in our hearts.
Without hope there is really no reason to expend effort. A state of hopelessness is closely akin to a state of death. Hope is as essential to the human soul as water or food is to our physical bodies.[2]
A life without hope is a living hell. In fact, one thing that will make hell so unbearable is the absolute absence of hope.
The Devil was having a yard sale, and all of his tools were marked with different prices.
They were tools like hatred, lust, jealously, deceit, lying, and pride—all carrying a high price tag. But over to one side of the yard on display was a tool more worn than any other tool. It was also the most costly. The tool was labeled Discouragement.
When asked why this tool was priced so high, the Devil answered, “It’s more useful to me than any other tool. When I can’t bring my victims down with any of these other tools, I use discouragement, because most of them don’t even realize it belongs to me.”
Have you ever had that tool used on you?
Have you ever lost your joy because you lost your hope? Have you ever lost your will to go on because you lost your hope?
Paul wrote to the Romans Christians, “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.” Romans 15:13 NIV
Have you ever been around someone who was overflowing in hope? That’s good kind of person to be around. When I’m around a person like that I want to get all the overflow of hope I can get.
A person who is overflowing with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit is also full of joy and peace. Those are the kinds of things that accompany hope. It’s amazing what a person full of hope can accomplish.
But the Devil also knows that godly hope is a powerful thing. That’s why he will do everything he can to rob you of your confident expectation in God.
In the New Testament the word translated hope means confident expectation[3].
In our society hope often carries the weak idea of wishful thinking. We say, “I hope so” and often mean “I doubt so.” But when you read that word in the New Testament understand that we are talking about a firm expectation.
That kind of hope has a profound influence on the way we live.
Have you noticed in the Bible how God gives hope as a preparation for great things? There is Abraham is Ur of Chaldes. He is surrounded by idolatry and wickedness. God gives Abraham a very special promise.
Gen 12:1-3
2:1Now the LORD had said to Abram: "Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. 2I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. 3I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." NKJV
Abraham’s wife, Sarah, was barren. And God begins by offering to Abraham the impossible. “I will make of you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great.” How many think you might be excited about life if you had just gotten a promise from God like that? It gave Abraham the strength to do what God told him to do.
As Abraham proceeded in his journey he encountered some discouragements. When he got to the land God had promised him he found that there were already people there. The Canaanites were occupying the land. I don’t think Abraham was expecting that.
Guess what God did? He gave Abraham a “hope boost”. Those of you who get flu shots know that sometimes you have to get a booster shot because what you got in the past is no longer sufficient for the present. Well there are some of us here today who need a shot of hope, a booster shot of hope. And God wants you to have that this morning.
He told Abraham in no uncertain terms that his descendants would have that land.
Then there came a famine in the very place where God had led Abraham to go.
I doubt that made a lot of sense to Abraham. If God led me somewhere I would expect abundance, not scarcity. Abraham goes down to Egypt and has a moral failure—telling Sarah to lie about her being his wife. Have you ever been discouraged about your own failures? I think those can be some of the greatest discouragements of all.
That wasn’t the last of Abraham’s discouragements.
There was the conflict between his herdsmen and Lot’s herdsmen. Then there was the conflict with the kings who captured Lot and his family. I want you to remember that Abraham’s journey of faith encountered a lot of discouraging circumstances, not to mention the length of time that expired before Abraham began to experience the blessing of Isaac.
What did God do to help Abraham succeed in his journey? On a number of occasions He fed Abraham’s soul with reminders of His promise. Why? Because hope is what will empower Abraham to do what is to be done—in the now!
This morning I we approach our text as a reminder of God’s promises to you and me. We learn from it just how essential hope is to our success now.
If I were to ask you the question this morning, “What are you looking forward to?” how would you answer? If I were to strengthen that question by asking, “What are you living for?” I would be touching on this issue of hope.
John addresses the
I. Subject of our Hope in I John 3:2, “Now, we are the children of God...”
A. We need to know what we are now. “Now, we are the children of God...”
Last week we heard Jesus say to a group of people in John 8, “You are of your father, the Devil.” Here is the contrast to that—now the children of God.
The only difference between the two groups is their response to Jesus.
John 1:11-13 “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God- 13children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” NIV
I am not a child of God because I am better than any sinner out there.
I am only a child of God because I receive the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ.
But if we are to succeed in our journey of faith, we must know who we are. “Now, we are-- the children of God...”
This is not just something that will happen someday in the great beyond. This is a present reality. Now I am a child of God.
This is something we can know in the here and now—in this life.
I have at times asked people the question, “If you died today, do you know that you would go to heaven?” An answer that often comes is, “I hope so. I’ve tried to live a good life and I would hope that God would receive me.” That is a very different answer than John would have given. John knew he belonged to the Lord. He didn’t have to wait until he died to find that out and neither do we. We can and should know now that we are the children of God.
Someone might say, “How can I know.”
1. You can know because the Holy Spirit will witness that reality to your spirit.
Rom 8:16 “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” NIV
In this very epistle John gives us a number of ways to confirm our relationship with God.
2. We know we are children of God by our love toward other believers.
1 John 3:14 “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death.” NIV
That does not mean that we never have a disagreement or never have to deal with our attitude toward another believer. But deep inside of us there is a union with them and we are convicted when our attitude is not right and we are prompted by the Holy Spirit to walk in love.
3. We know we are God’s children by our life style.
Good works don’t save us but new life in Christ will change the way we behave.
1 John 2:3 “We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.” NIV
Again that doesn’t mean there will be no temptations or even failures. But as a whole our lives will by lived in submission to God and His commandments not in rebellion and debauchery. “Now, we are the children of God...”
What does it mean to be a child of God? It means you are already acceptable with God. You don’t have to earn His favor. You don’t have to be good enough for God to like you or bless you. You are as Ephesians puts it “...blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ...” and you are already “...accepted in the Beloved...”[4]
—approved by God because of the sacrifice of Christ in your behalf—worthy because by the grace of God He has made you worthy.
The practical significance of that is you can come to God for help whatever the need may be—even when you have failed and come short of His glory, you don’t have to draw back from God but are invited to His throne of grace.[5] Do you need forgiveness this morning? Ask and you shall receive. “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.”[6]
Its important to know who you are in Christ right now because the Accuser[7] of the brethren, the devil, will jump on every failure, every shortcoming and try to use it to steal your hope in God.
“Now we are the children of God...” Sometimes we don’t act like it. Sometimes we misbehave and our Father has to deal with that. But what we are is what we are. Or as the cartoon character, Popeye, would say, “I ams what I ams.”
“Now we are the children of God...” That statement is a call to act like it.
It is also a basis of hope and confidence to strengthen our resolve to act like it.
In I John 3:1 John tells us to consider the love God has lavished upon us that we who were once enemies of God and children of the Devil, doomed for destruction[8] would now be called the children of God.
A revelation of that great love (that sent Jesus to the cross in our behalf) will to stir us to gratitude and obedience. “We love Him because He first loved us.”[9]
The subject of our hope does not end in this life, for John also talks about
B. “What we will be...”
Here is a great encouragement of faith: “What we will be...”
1. What we will be “has not yet been made known”.
We are limited in our revelation of God’s plans for us. The world certainly doesn’t see us as anything special at all. The manifestation of the sons of God has not yet happened.[10]
We have this treasure in earthen vessels.[11] And what people mostly see is the earthen vessel not the treasure of God’s life in us. (“Christ in you, the hope of glory”)[12]
There is much about heaven we don’t know. “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” 1 Cor. 13:12 NIV
We do know from the book of Revelations that heaven will be a place filled with worship. We do know that we will be heirs[13] with Christ serving with Him in His eternal kingdom.
I like the way one person summarized our hope of heaven.
There we will be:
Worship without Distraction
Serve without Exhaustion
Fellowship without Fear
Learn without Fatigue
Rest without Boredom.[14]
The hope of heaven is a powerful strength for godly living that many people seem to virtually ignore in their daily lives. It was Myrtle Erickson who wrote:
Think of stepping on a shore and finding it heaven
of taking hold of a hand and finding it God’s hand
of breathing new air and finding it celestial air
of feeling invigorated and finding it immortality
of passing from storm and tempest to unbroken calm
and looking up and finding it home![15]
We used to sing a lot about heaven:
“This world is not my home I’m just a passing through
My treasure is laid up somewhere beyond the blue. The angels beckon me to heaven’s open door and I can’t feel at home in this world anymore”[16]
And every time we sang like that we were reminded that life is not just about what I get now. This life is just a preparation for better things and life should be lived with that in mind. If you are not living your life with eye toward the coming of the Lord and an eye toward heaven you have probably gotten too attached to the things of this world.[17]
“...what we shall be has not yet been made known.”
“But we know...”
Let’s talk about some things we do know that will fill our hearts with hope and expectation.
1 John 3:2 “...But we know that when he appears...”
1. We know that He will appear.
In John 14:1-3 Jesus said,
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” NIV
John takes that for granted in his statement. He doesn’t try to analyze it or explain it. He just builds upon it. “But we know that when He appears...” The New Testament puts far more emphasis on that that we do today.
Jesus literally and visibly ascended into heaven in His glorified body.
In Acts 1 the disciples watched with mouths open as a cloud received Him out of their sight. Do you remember what the angels told them at that moment?
Acts 1:11 “...Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”
He is coming back in like manner. Not just figuratively but literally in His glorified body of flesh and bone.
2. We shall see Him as He is
Won’t that be something? Won’t that be worth waiting for?
Now we walk by faith, not sight, but one day you and I will see Him as He is.
Job got the revelation of that in the 19th Chapter of his book. Listen to what he says,
“I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. 26And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God;27I myself will see him with my own eyes-I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me.” Job 19:25-27 NIV
That reality ought to cause our hearts to yearn within as well.
Like the old song says,
“Oh, I want to see Him, Look upon His face.There to sing forever of His saving grace,on the streets of glory, let me lift my voice,cares all past, home at last, ever to rejoice.”[18]
I think I hear a new genre of songs emerging that will sing those truths in today’s culture.
I remember three decades ago when people began to say, “We don’t need that stuff about heaven. We need faith for our immediate needs.” Well I say, “We need both!”
But what we have in this life is just the earnest of our inheritance.[19] I’m thankful for God’s provision in the now. But I’m looking forward to much, much more in eternity. And I may just start singing about it now.
We may not have all the answers about what’s to come but here is something we are assured of.
3. “We shall be like Him”.
Drink in that promise. That is exactly what I want—to be like Jesus. There could be no greater promise than that. David wrote in Ps 17:15 “As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness.” NKJV
In our present state there are limitations that we will one day leave behind.
No more sorrow there
No more sickness
No more death
No more crying
No more pain
All that will have passed away.[20]
My dear brothers and sisters, you really have something to look forward to!
Now we struggle with temptations and we don’t always accomplish what we would like to accomplish. But one day we will be resurrected in His likeness. This corruption will put on incorruption. This mortal will put on immortality.
then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." 55"O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?"
56The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. 57But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Cor 15:54-57 NKJV
Are you living in anticipation of that? If so, you can’t be anything but happy.
God wants to fill our hearts with the hope of our calling—because hope strengthens our resolve and fortifies our ability in the now.
II. The Significance of our Hope -- 1 John 3:3
“Everyone who has this hope in him purifies[21] himself, just as He is pure.”
John is not saying he should purify himself. I used to read that verse wrong. I used to think it said, “Everyone who has this hope in himself ought to purify himself...” But that is not what John is saying and when you discover that you discover a golden nugget in this verse. John is telling us this will happen because of the influence of that hope.
Hope Floats! It rises above the adversities. Eternal hope infuses us now with the ability to turn our eyes away from the glitter and attraction of the world to a much, much greater Light.
Some of us are weak in the face of temptation because our hope tank is on empty. We are gnawing on the husk of earthly things trying to get inspired and failing to see the great big WHY of it all. Why would I deny myself the pleasures of this world? Because I am saving myself for something far, far better. If you were about to eat steak & lobster would you fill up on low-grade bologna? If I knew that steak had been prepared for me I would loose my appetite entirely for bologna.
The school system in a large city had a program to help children keep up with their schoolwork during stays in the city’s hospitals. One day a teach who was assigned to the program received a routine call asking her to visit a particular child. She took the child’s name and room number and talked briefly with the child’s regular teacher. That teacher told her that the class was studying nouns and adverbs and asked her to help him understand them so that he wouldn’t fall too far behind the class.
The hospital program teacher went to see the boy that afternoon. Nobody had told her that the boy had been severely burned and was in great pain. Taken back by the severity of his condition she stumbled through the lesson on nouns and adverbs. When she left she didn’t feel like she had accomplished much. But the next day, a nurse asked her, “What did you do to that boy?” The teacher thought she had done something wrong and began to apologize. “No,” the nurse explained, “you don’t know what I mean. We’ve been so worried about that little boy. But ever since yesterday his whole attitude has changed. He’s fighting back and responding to treatment. It’s as though he has decided to live.”
Two weeks later the boy told them that he had completely given up hope until the teacher arrived. Everything changed when he came to a simple conclusion. He expressed it this way: “They wouldn’t send a teacher to work on nouns and adverbs with a dying boy, would they?”[22]
God wouldn’t be working His grace in your life if it were not important for him to do so.
Learn to draw strength from the possibilities God has set before you.
What sustained Joseph through all the trials he experienced: rejected by his brothers, sold into slavery, lied about by Potiphar’s wife, unjustly thrown in prison. Many of you know the story. Life got pretty unfair for Joseph. What kept him going? What kept him faithful to God? HOPE God gave Joseph revelation of what can be and Joseph grabbed hold of God’s plan for his life and hung on. What is God’s plan for your life and are you hanging on? There is nothing, nothing like fulfilling God’s plan for your life.
Don’t ask how much it pays or how much it costs—asks if it is God’s will for you.
If it is, He will take care of the payments. I’m sure there were times when Joseph wondered how it would all work out. But he continued do what he knew was right to do.
How do we nurture Hope?
1. Discipline your Thinking
1 Thess. 5:8 “But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.” Are you wearing your helmet? Is your mind covered with confident expectations in God? Hope is a powerful defense against your adversary.
1 Peter 1:13
“Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;”
A disciplined thought life is important. Gird up your thoughts.[23] Are you tempted with sin or discouragement? Ponder in your heart the hope John is talking about in our text. The hope found in what we already are by the grace of God—“Now we are the children of God”. The hope of eternal glory—“We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”
Lam. 3:21-26 Jeremiah had been worn down by difficulties and disappointments. But he discovered a secret of personal victory.
“21Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:” Sometimes by an act of our will we need to call some things to mind. Jeremiah’s hope sprang forth as he meditated on these things.
“22Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
24I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him."
25The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;
26it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.” NIV
Have you ever felt like your life wasn’t counting for much? At times I get discouraged and wonder if I’m really doing much good. I’m sure some of you have struggled with similar feelings. But we don’t always know what God is accomplishing.
It’s not for us to figure it all out. Our part is to faithfully do what God tells us to do.
In the town of Port Hope, Canada there is a monument erected, not for some leading citizen, but for a poor, unselfish working man who gave most of his life and energy helping people who could not repay him.
Joseph Scriven was born in Dublin in 1820. As a young man he was full for high ideals and aspirations. He was engaged to a pretty young woman who promised to share his dreams with him. But on the eve of their wedding her body was pulled from a pond where she had accidentally fallen and drowned. Joseph Scriven never overcame the shock of that tragedy. Although a college graduate with the potential of a brilliant career,
he began to wander to try to forget his sorrow. His wanderings took him to Canada where he spent the last 41 years of his life. He became a very devout Christian. His beliefs led him to labor tirelessly for poor widows and sick people. He often served for no wages.
No one knew that Joseph had poetic gifts until shortly before his death at 60 years old.
A friend, who was sitting with him while he was ill, discovered a poem he had written to his mother during a time of sorrow. Joseph never intended for anyone else to see it. His poem was later set to music and has become a much loved gospel song. It is said to be the first song that many missionaries teach their converts. In polls taken to determine the popularity of Gospel songs, his is always near the top. What was his poem?
“What a friend we have in Jesus. All our sins and griefs to bear.
What a privilege to carry, Everything to God in prayer.
Oh, what peace we often forfeit, Oh what needless pain we bear;
All because we do not carry, Everything to God in prayer.”[24]
In this lifetime Joseph Scriven had no idea how God would ultimately use his life.
You may not understand what God is doing in your life. But if God has told you to do something He has His reasons. And one day, you may be pleasantly surprised to discover that God has done abundantly more than you ever imagined.
Nurture hope. For if you do, hope will nurture you.
Pray
Richard Tow
Grace Chapel Foursquare Church
Springfield, MO
www.gracechapelchurch.org
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[1] The Greek word, elpis, occurs 54 times according to Englishman’s Concordance.
[2] Dave Workman message entitled “Recovering Hope After the Storm, June 10, 2001, Vineyard Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio
[3] Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament (Iowa Falls, IA: World Bible Publishers, Inc. 1992) p. 570 For “elpis” Zodhiates writes “Hope, desire of some good with the expectation of obtaining it.”
[4] Ephesians 1:3-6
[5] Hebrews 4:16
[6] 1 John 1:7
[7] Revelation 12:10
[8] Ephesians 2:1-7
[9] 1 John 4:19
[10] Romans 8:19
[11] 2 Corinthians 4:7
[12] Colossians 1:27
[13] Romans 8:17
[14] Ray Pritchard, sermon entitled “What is Heaven Like?” preached 1-18-98 at Calvary Memorial Church in Oak Park, Illinois. Pritchard got it from David Burns.
[15] Paul Lee Tan, Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations (Rockville, Maryland: Assurance Publishers, 1979) p.545. Identifying Myrtle Erickson as the author came from old notes I took from a sermon by E.M. Fjordbak at Lakewood Assembly of God in Dallas, Texas.
[16] Church Hymnal (Cleveland, Tennessee: Tennessee Music and Printing Company, 1951) “I Can’t Feel at Home in This World” p. 394 My quote which is the way we sang it is actually a variation of this song.
[17] 1 John 2:15-16
[18] The New Church Hymnal (Lexicon Music, Inc, 1976) “O I Want to See Him” p. 486
[19] Ephesians 1:13-14
[20] Revelations 21:4
[21] Present active indicative of hagnizoo
[22] http://www.christianglobe.com/illustrations See Hope
[23] 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 and Philippians 4:4-8
[24] Jeff Strite sermon entitled “The Source of Hope” preached October 1998 at the Church of Christ at Logansport, IN.
