The Ultimate Source Of Hope Series

Scripture Lesson: Colossians 1:15-29

In one of the Peanut’s cartoons, Lucy and Linus were sitting in front of the television set when Lucy said to Linus, "Go get me a glass of water."

Linus looked surprised, "Why should I do anything for you? You never do anything for me."

"On your 75th birthday," Lucy promised, "I’ll bake you a cake."

Linus got up dragging his blanky, headed to the kitchen and said, "Life is more pleasant when you have something to look forward to."

Hope comes easy for Linus!

Let me ask you a question. In whom or what do you put your hope? We know that some people put their hope on money and wealth. Money can definitely provide you with more options in life, but if you built your hope in it, you would be like building a house on the sand. It cannot hold you through the storms of life.

Money is a good servant but not a good master; if you put your hope in it, you make it your master, and if so you will be very disappointed because you cannot take it with you to the next life to bribe the gatekeepers of heaven or hell, as some religions believe you can do so. You will never see a hearse towing a u-haul.

There was a guy who told his wife on his death bed, “Honey, I have $200,000 of cash hidden in my mattress. Would you promise me that you will put that money in my coffin and bury me with it?” The wife promised that she would do. The next day the husband die, she took the money and deposit it in a bank, and wrote a check for $200,000 and put it in his coffin and buried him with it.

Some people put their hope in people. Some people put their hope in their children and they get disappointed when they don’t measure up to their dreams. None of our loved ones can guarantee to be with us all our lives.

Some people easily put hope in the next person to come into their lives...

Milton Berle told a story about how people can easily put hope in the wrong people:

Four widows were playing cards in the retirement home they lived in. A good-looking older fellow walks in, bags under each arm. "What’s a good-looking man like you doing here?" one asks.

"I’m moving in," he says.

"Oh," says another woman. "Where are you from?"

"I’ve been in the can the last fifteen years."

"The can?" they ask.

"Yeah, the can, the clink, the slammer, the state penitentiary."

"Oh," says one. "What did you do?"

"I murdered my wife. I cut her up and buried her in the back yard." There follows a long pause, and then one of them pipes up:

"Oh, so you’re single!"

We must be careful not to put our hope in the wrong thing or wrong person.

In today’s scripture lesson, Paul wrote to the Colossians, saying that our hope is promised by the gospel, that we have heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven. We must not shift from it. A hope that is placed on anything other than Jesus Christ is a false hope because hope is only as reliable as the person who promised the hope. Paul says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8) Jesus is the most trustworthy person to put our hope on because he is the same yester day, today, and forever.

Paul teaches us why we should put our hope on Jesus Christ. We must...

1 – Put hope in Jesus Christ because he solve the mysteries of life

“He is the image of the invisible God...(later in the passage Paul says) the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints.” (Col. 1:15a, 26).

One of the mysteries of life is, “Is there a God? If so what is God like?” The second question is more important the first one because if you can find out what God is like than there is no need to prove that if there is a God because you are seeing God already.

The scripture says that Jesus is the image of the invisible God. That solves one of the greatest mysteries in the world. All religions all over the world try to paint a picture of God, but none of them get the precise picture of God. Some depict God as an angry deity up in the sky creating thunder and storms to scare people from doing sinful things. Some create an image of God as a deity that you must offer money and food to so that you will become wealthy. Even within one religion you have many interpretation of God. For example, the image of God among the Chinese Buddhists and Burmese Buddhist are totally different.