Sermon November 8, 2020
Jesus – Our LIVING Hope
I want to talk this
afternoon about hope. The hope I speak of is not how we so often use the word –
a kind of a wishful ‘maybe’ – as in, “I hope I can get that job.” Or, "I hope I
will get better from this illness."
The Biblical definition of hope is a ‘confident expectation’ that what God has
promised, God WILL perform. I do not engage in wishful thinking that God will forgive my sins. I am confidently expectant that He will forgive my sins because He promised to always forgive the penitent. I do not engage in wishful thinking that I will be in heaven when I die. I am confidently expectant I will be in heaven when I die because God promised all who come to Him by faith in Christ WILL be in heaven when they die.
For many Christians today
in America, at the end of a tumultuous week of election counting and ongoing
lawsuits, a ‘confident expectation’ in the fulfillment of God’s promises
to His children is the need of the hour.
Please remember:
Regardless of who sits in the White House, God still sits on His throne.
You will please
remember the second verses of the first chapter of the first book of the Bible.
God tells us that in the beginning: “The earth was formless and void,
and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of
God was moving over the surface of the waters. (Genesis 1:2)
It doesn’t get any darker – it can NEVER be any
darker, than Genesis 1:2. Without the light of God’s glory to illuminate the
universe, without the light of the sun, the moon, and the stars to illuminate
the earth – that darkness must have been so deep it would have been palpable.
But then there is the next verse, verse three: Then God
said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.
And what is the hope for those
living in darkness – social darkness, political darkness, religious darkness,
emotional darkness, relationship darkness? Here is the promise of hope from the
pages of Scripture: “The people who were sitting in darkness saw a
great Light, and those who were sitting in the land and shadow of death, upon
them a Light dawned.” (Matthew 4:16).
And
Who is that great light that shines through the land and the shadow of death
itself? It is Jesus, of course. Jesus, who said of Himself: “I am the
Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk
in the darkness, but will
have the Light of life.” (John 8:12)
Listen! Our hope in God – even and especially in
darkness – is rooted in God’s word to us. His promise to us. The Bible is not
only His voice, but it is His heart.
Ephesus, as many of you know, was a decadent city supported by the
sex-cults of the goddess Diana. Demonic activity pranced about the city
unhindered. But it was to the Christians living in that place, working day
after day and raising a family in that sewer, that apostle Paul counselled the
Christians, “Therefore be careful how you walk,
not as unwise men but as wise, making the
most of your time, because the days are evil. (Ephesians
5:15-16)
If you think OUR days are not evil, you are not paying attention to what
is happening all around us. And yet, God’s exhortation is still the same word
of hope – Make the most of your time.
As I prepared this message this morning, I thought of JRR Tolkien’s,
“The Lord of the Rings.”
I could recall only a short piece of the scene in which Frodo the Hobbit
is speaking with Gandalf the Grey, but Gandalf’s counsel to young Frodo was so
insightful that I did an internet search and found an essay specific to that
part of the movie. The essay was written by someone named Stuart McDonald. I
include the URL for those who will read my print version of this sermon. https://medium.com/@stuartmcdonald_60154/what-gandalf-meant-when-he-said-that-thing-to-frodo-35d9baefe0ae Here is my edited paraphrase of
McDonald’s essay:
Frodo
the Hobbit and Gandalf the Grey take a moment in the dark caves of Moria.
They sit together on a rock, quietly having a heart to heart talk. Frodo is
unhappy. Despondent might be the better word. The fate of the whole world literally
rests in his hands that carry the magical ring.
It
is a most heavy burden, this ring of immense power, and it's weighing him down.
Evil follows him wherever he turns, threatening to destroy him. Frodo says to
Gandalf, I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had
happened. To which, Gandalf replies:
So
do all who live to see such times; but that is not for them to decide. All we
have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other
forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides the will of evil. Bilbo was meant to
find the Ring. In which case, you were also meant to have it. And that is an
encouraging thought.
------
Encouragement. Hope.
Here is what God tells everyone who will listen about encouragement and hope.
You will find in in Paul’s letter to the Christians in Rome: “For whatever was written in earlier times
was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we
might have hope. Now may
the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be
of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, so that with one
accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ. (Romans 15:4-6)
Do you see how often God refers us back to His
word to find encouragement and hope and promise?
Let
me go back a moment to Stuart McDonald’s essay. He reminds his readers that Gandalf
neither dismissed Frodo’s words of despondency, nor did he let them rule
Frodo’s life. Instead, Gandalf turned the situation around. Amid despair, there
can be hope.
And
every mature follower of Christ recognizes how we can have hope in the midst of
despair. How? Why? Because God is absolutely sovereign in all and every
situation and circumstance. And it is even fair to suggest, God meant us to be
in this situation – whatever that situation might be.
You
might remember the Biblical book of Esther. It is the only book of the Bible in
which God is never mentioned by name. But His presence is easily recognized on
every page of those short ten chapters.
Haman,
the wickedly anti-Semite, tricked the king into ordering the annihilation of
all the Jews in his vast kingdom. When Mordecai learned of the impending
disaster, he urged his niece, Queen Esther, to appeal to the king for mercy for
her people. If you remember the story, Esther was Jewish – a truth unknown to
the king, or to Haman.
But
Esther feared approaching the king unless he specifically invited her to his
throne room. Without such an invitation, a person could be executed. Even the
queen. We pick up the story in chapter four: “Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not imagine
that you in the king’s palace can escape any more than all the Jews. For
if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for
the Jews from another place and you and your father’s house will perish. And
who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:13-14)
Do you and I think we were
not born for such a time as this on November 8, 2020? Of course, we were! God is sovereign not only
over kingdoms and nations and storms and pandemics – AND elections, He is
sovereign over the time when we were conceived, where we were born, and where
we live today.
And better still: God
orchestrates it all because He loves YOU. And me. And all who live wherever
they live on this planet. We don’t have time to turn to it, but that is
precisely what God tells us through Paul’s sermon to the philosophers in Athens
in Acts 17.
Listen! The Lord Jesus promised His followers many things such as mercy,
compassion, forgiveness, and eternal life. But He also spoke this word of
warning and of encouragement in the midst of that warning: “These
things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In
the world you have tribulation. But take courage; I have overcome
the world.” (John 16:33)
How then ought we
to live? How then can we LIVE lives of encouragement in darkness? How then can
we STAY in the Light of the world who shines in the deepest darkness?
The psalmist can help us with the answer. Here
are the first verses of Psalm 42: “As the
deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God. My
soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” (verse 1-2a)
Are you thirsty for God? Are you hungry for God? Are you seeking
Him as a parched deer searches for water? Listen to what the psalmist writes a
few verses later: “Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have
you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again
praise Him for the help of His presence.”
Hear now from psalm 131: Surely I have composed and quieted my soul; Like a
weaned child rests against his mother, my soul is like a weaned
child within me. O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forever.”
Let me say this as clearly and as passionately as I know how: We
will never come to a place of restful, peaceful, utterly confident hope
in darkness and despair without a thirsty soul and a hungry heart for God. St.
Peter tells us: “[L]ike
newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you
may grow in respect to salvation . . . .” (1 Peter 2:2)
Many people, when they’re thirsty, pull a can of cola from the
fridge. But although the sweetness tickles their tastebuds, the cola cannot
nourish their body. Or when they’re hungry, they pull cookies or cake from the
shelves. The cookies satisfy the tastebuds, but they do not nourish their
body.
How often do you quench your soul’s spiritual thirst with God’s
word? How often to you quell your soul’s hunger by reading His word? Or do you
try to satisfy the cries with other things that might taste sweet but, in the
end, cannot nourish you?
I have often urged you to adopt my 2+2=1+3 Bible reading plan. If
you read an average of two chapters of the Old Testament each day and an
average of two chapters of the New Testament each day and you will finish the
Old Testament once each year and the New Testament three times each year.
But here is a short-term option to get us through the end of 2020.
Decide today to read two New Testament books between now and December 31: Matthew’s
gospel and the Book of Romans. Only those two books.
And, if you feel ambitious, add several chapters from the book of
Psalms each day.
The days are dark. They may get darker. In this life we WILL have
tribulation. The Lord Jesus promised it. But He also promised those who are IN
Christ and who REMAIN in Christ – He promised us peace in the storms.
Do you remember the story of Peter on the water? As long as he
kept his eyes on Jesus, he did well. But as soon as he focused his attention on
the storm – he sank like a rock.
The lesson ought to be obvious to us, but if it is not, let me
help us all make application of that story to our own lives:
Turn your eyes on Jesus. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Open His word
and not only read it but also meditate on what you read.
Some of you will remember these lyrics, and I close with them:
O soul, are you weary and troubled? No light in
the darkness you see? There’s light when you look at the savior, and life more
abundant and free.
So, turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His
wonderful face.
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
in the light of His glory and grace.
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