Jesus: God’s Promise of Hope for a World in Need
Hope in the Face of Death
Introduction
“I don’t like the idea of being picked as a number.”
"It began with a syringe in my arm," he said,
[In-between] was a special meal of his choice two steaks, a baked potato, salad, bread, apple pie, a soft drink and potato chips.
"and today I have a needle in my arm. I have come full circle and am at peace with it."
the infant was fussing because he had a cold, just like the other children in the apartment.
, Mr. Nowak put his head on the table and sobbed.
"It’s tough, but it’s better than not knowing where they are."
""If something like that were to happen to my children, I would hope somebody would do something like this for them."
, Mr. Gilbreath wanted to make things right with God.
"Whitey was like a dad to me. I dont understand how someone could kill somebody like that. Whitey was a good man. He didn’t deserve that."
I can’t believe I did what I did," "I loved them all," Regarding any punishment that may come for what he did, Henderson said: "I deserve it."
"God will handle this,". "The price they’re going to pay is when they face God."
Ge 2:15--2:25
The Fall of Man
Ge 3:1-13
ALL 3 are guilty, and as such, are CURSED, directly or indirectly
The reasons for the curse were: NO ONE LISTENED TO GOD!! (Kaiser, p. 78) Dan, think of the Mount of Transfiguration . . .
Ge 3:14--24
This is really a sad moment in the history of mankind. As bad as Osama is, as bad as those executed last week, as bad as those who committed murder:
Adam and Eve, were, too. For when they sinned—not murder, but something just as sinister and evil: placing themselves above God—death came into the world.
Physical Death (for sure)
Spiritual Death (more importantly)
They were condemned to die.
And so are we? Do you feel like a person on executioners row? I don’t often. But it doesn’t matter how I feel. Reality is not based on either my emotions or my awareness. I, like Adam and Eve, am a sinner. And so are you. And we deserve to die. Both deaths.
BUT, there is hope—I don’t know if you caught it:
Big Idea: In the Face of Death, God Gives the World His Promise of Hope
Let’s read that message of hope again:
READ Ge 3:15
Does this sound like HOPE to you?
Transition: It is a message, or a PROMISE, of Hope but it does sound a little strange, and it really isn’t spelled out very much. And that is the first thing we notice about God’s promise, as it appears on the stage of human history:
1. His Promise of Hope Comes as an Unexplained Mystery
Dad’s Story of religious plaques, a fishing pole, and a bullhead.
In a similar way, God has given humanity a promise of hope, that they really can’t understand fully. It is a mystery.
What Eve MIGHT be able to understand: basic victory over the snake
What only comes out later in history is the meaning—which really is unfolded through history and the Bible—and what we will be getting a “bird’s eye view” of over the next few weeks leading up to Christmas.
The identity of the Serpent/snake
In Romans and Revelation, we see two apostles of Christ referring to the Serpent as—what many of us now know—Satan, the devil, our adversary.
He has been condemned and conquered with finality: “eat dust”
But the GOOD news, for US, is not just his conquering, it is HOW:
Ge 3:15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
In the FIRST part of the verse:
There will be a war of hostility between the offspring/SEED of the woman—ALL her descendants, and that of the serpent.
In the SECOND part of the verse:
In stead of referring to “all the womans descendants”, and the serpent’s “descendants”, the writer of Genesis—Moses—through the inspiriation of God
SINGLES OUT some MALE DESCENDANT that will DEFEAT, or CRUSH, Satan into total defeat.
While it does not appear so in the Bible, in the movie of the PASSION, we see that imagery as Jesus is praying in the garden of Gethsemane
But the fact that it is, IN FACT, Jesus, is made plain in the Bible. What was only a mystery to Eve and the world for millennia was made plain in Christ.
For not only did he show his divine connection and power, as he calmed the storm and drove out demons with ease, but when he died on the cross,
NO LONGER did people have to fear death?
• WHERE, oh death, IS YOUR STING?
• Who ever believes in him shall not perish (a spiritual death) but have “EVERLASTING LIFE”
So now, these verses make a little more sense to us, when Paul writes in Romans
Ro 16:25 Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, 26 but now revealed and made known
Col 2:2 My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Colossians 4:3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4 Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should
It is no longer a mystery, as it was then.
2 Cor 120 For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ.
Christ is the key figure in the Bible, and it is the PROMISE of HIM, that HOLDS the Bible together, from Genesis to Revelation.
It is His Mystery that God unfolds for us IN the lives of men and women, and FOR the
Lives of men and women.
Transition: While it may not be a mystery now, God’s promise reveals a bit more about God in that his Promise to Mankind came UNEXPECTEDLY:
2. His Promise of Hope Comes Unexpectedly, pt 1
• Eve wanted wisdom. BUT the FEAR of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. She lost that fear, the desire to revere and respect and LISTEN to the Lord
Kaiser:
The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil ‘stood for the possibility” of man’s rebellion. They were “good” before the fruit, but after, they would know or “experientially taste” the bad, too. “The totality of experience—both good and bad—would be their repertoire of sensations.” (77)
God had pronounced a blessing on them, and given them a beautiful paradise where death was not known. ALL that changed after the deception and sin. But when you thought all hope was lost, HOPE is there, from God himself.
Unexpectedly
We have all had are little surprises. One big surprise in my life came when Angie called me:
• Someone gave me a Pathfinder
But that really doesn’t reveal the character of God, and the truly unexpected surprise as it may have appeared to Adam, and now surely, US, as much as the time when a friend of mine recounted:
• Mike Baker: woman confessed to adultery. Baker to husband, “You know God gives you the right to divorce her.” “I know,” replied the man, “but what would God WANT me to do?” “I think he would want you to love her like Hosea did Gomer (and God loved Israel).
When God declared His (mysterious) Promise, he was showing his lavish and overwhelmingly sacrificial love for us.
One that he kept alive, though man’s wickedness was great—we read in the account of Noah.
One He kept alive, even though man persisted in sin, as we read in the account of the tower of Babel.
Transition: His love is GREAT, HIS PROMISE is Great, and His Promise reveals an IMMENSE, SACRIFICIAL LOVE for us—the people he created. We see this in “part two” of how his promise came “unexpectedly.”
3. His Promise of Hope Comes Unexpectedly, pt. 2
As you read the Bible:
Not only Christian, but Jewish understanding of verses that foretell of the Messiah, the Promise of God, you can’t help but get the picture of a mighty world ruler:
CRUSH his head
MIGHTY GOD
King to RULE on the throne FOREVER!
And so, when the time came for God to fulfill his promise, which we celebrate on December 25, he did so in a most unusual manner:
A baby.
Born to unwed parents (said to be conceived by the HS directly to Mary)
Born to poor parents
One who walked around with a bunch of fishermen, women, and ex-whores and formerly demon possessed
Condemned as a Criminal
Wouldn’t (COULDN’T?) strike back at his Enemies, his assasins, his executioners.
Hardly the picture of Might. Of strength. Of a conquering, crushing, KING
And yet he was. His death, as we referred to earlier, defeated our most powerful enemy of all, not just SATAN, but DEATH and SEPARATION from our LORD GOD, the one who wants to so desperately and sacrificially wants to be our loving father.
Transition: And yet, as unexpected in his timing and manner to us is HIS PROMISE, we find that in reality,
4. His Promise of Hope Comes Unsurprisingly (to Him!)
We many not have known it at the time, but we NOW know (THE REST OF THE STORY. . . ) HE KNEW!
Eph 1:3.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, g who has blessed us in the heavenly realms h with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us i in him before the creation of the world j to be holy and blameless k in his sight
Mt 25:34.
Mt 25:34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom y prepared for you since the creation of the world. z
Rev 13:8.
Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world
These verse tell us something about God. As much as we want to malign him, about how unfair life is, how hard (really only a result of OUR sin) life is,
He listens to us, nods his head and agrees with us, and would gently point us to the fact that his Promise of Hope--
HOPE TO A WORLD OF DEATH
Is one of sacrifice to HIM
And ONE THAT HE LOVINGLY PREPARED BEFOREHAND FOR US TO BE ABLE TO CLAIM
To be sons and daughters of God, in HIM.
PRAISE BE TO GOD FOR HIW WONDER PROMISE IN JESUS CHRIST!
Conclusion
"God will handle this,". "The price they’re going to pay is when they face God."
I can’t believe I did what I did," Regarding any punishment that may come for what he did, "I deserve it."
But instead of the fate that came to Kenneth Lee Boyd, 1,000 prisoner executed in the US since 1976,
Our Fate, if we ACCEPT and CLING to the PROMISE OF GOD
Is more like that of ROBIN MCKENNEL LOVITT—NOVEMBER 30, 2005
OT: someone IS COMING
GOSPELS: Someone is Here
AX-REV: Someone is Coming again
One promise..ONE Person...The Son!
A reporter wrote concerning the man SLATED to die as 1,000 man to be executed, AHEAD of Kenneth Lee Boyd:
“Robin McKennel Lovitt will not die by injection tonight as the 1,000th person executed in the U.S. since the death penalty was allowed to resume in 1976.”
And we don’t have to die either, the more painful 2nd death, when we face God and meet our Maker.
Thanks be to GOD FOR HIS GLORIOUS PROMISE!!
