HOPE

Preached by Gregory W. Lee
27 November 2005


I. Introduction-- turn in Bibles to Col 1:21-29

21. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.
22. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation--
23. if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.
24. Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.
25. I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness--
26. the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints.
27. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
28. We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.
29. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.

-- have you ever been in a hopeless situation? -- have you ever faced a situation in your life where you looked around and saw no way out? -- I'm sure we all have -- right now, we have a lot of our brothers and sisters here in the southeast who are facing a situation after Hurricane Katrina that they regard as hopeless -- homes destroyed -- jobs lost -- all of their financial security gone in an instant -- there seems to be nothing they can do to make things right again in their lives
-- I can empathize with their situation -- as I have mentioned before, there was one time in my life when I suffered from clinical depression -- I had transferred down to the University of Florida and struggled there in that situation -- it was my first time away from home -- I was in a large school unprepared for the academic load -- trying to work full-time to help pay my way -- and I just didn't do well down there -- for the first time in my life, I was failing in school and overwhelmed with life -- I dropped out of school and came home in failure -- and then the depression hit
-- those were dark days -- I remember feeling like things would never get better -- like I was in a dark place with no light in sight -- like there was no hope
-- maybe you've never suffered from depression, but you can probably identify with this feeling of hopelessness -- in our lives, we sometimes go through storms that test our perserverance and that test our faith -- we have problems in our home lives -- in our work lives -- in our spiritual lives -- and we find ourselves in situations that seem without hope -- in situations where we cannot imagine that we will ever be all right again

-- hopelessness can come about in many different ways:
1) it can be caused internally -- it can come from within us -- caused by depression or other factors that cause us to lose hope in our lives
2) it can be caused by external conditions -- caused by people and circumstances outside of ourselves that cause us to lose hope -- maybe we have difficulties in our marriages -- maybe we have financial problems -- family stresses -- all of those pressures and storms of life that come in and lead us into situations that go from bad to worse and that cause us to lose all hope in the future
-- when I think about hopeless situations caused by external conditions, I think of the story of Job in the Old Testament -- where in a single instance he lost his way of life -- his children -- his home -- and his health -- also, I think of those affected by all of the natural disasters that we have had in our world this year -- the hurricanes and the tornados and the earthquakes and the tsunami
-- sometimes our governments promote doctrines that can lead to a feeling of hopelessness -- for instance, in the communist nations, these governments promoted the group over the individual and, as a result, they destroyed the hope of individuals and of families for better lives in the future -- everything was for the good of the nation and a lot of people and families were forced into poverty and poor jobs with no hope for the future
-- this loss of hope -- this feeling of hopelessness by those who lived in these countries -- was intentional -- because it forced the citizens of these countries to depend on the government to survive
3) the third source of hopelessness is spiritual -- in this passage in Colossians, verse 21 describes a time when all of us seemed to be without hope

21. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.

-- the Bible says that all had sinned and fallen short of the glory of God -- as a result, we were all alienated from God -- separated from Him by our sin -- sentenced to eternal death through our own evil behaviors

-- on Martha Stewart's show, she always comes up with something new to help celebrate the holidays or to make your home a better place -- and after she shows it to you, she says, "and that's a good thing" -- well, living without hope is not a good thing -- it means that there is nothing to celebrate -- it means that there is no rescue -- no relief -- no promise of better days or better ways -- hopelessness means that you are in a darkness in which no light will ever shine -- you are on a journey that will never end -- hopelessness means that nothing will -- or can -- change in your life or in your circumstances -- hopelessness means that all is lost

II. Advent
-- however, the message of the Bible is that you are never in a place of true hopelessness -- no matter how dark the days -- no matter how bad the situation -- no matter the shape of your soul or the seriousness of your sins, hope shines brightly -- especially at this time of the year
-- today we begin the season of Advent -- the time of preparation for Christmas -- Advent is a season that is characterized by hope -- as Romans 8:25 says, hope is the eager anticipation -- the eager waiting -- for something that has not yet happened but that will come to pass to change our situation -- to change our circumstances -- to change our lives
-- two thousand years ago, the Jewish nation lived in bondage to the Romans in their own country -- With their way of life oppressed and dominated by foreigners, they longed for the coming of the Messiah -- the One who God promised would come and restore Israel to its glory and who would rule over the nation forever -- the One who would bring healing and restoration and salvation to both Israel and the world
-- however, for over 400 years, God had been silent and had not spoken to the Israelites -- His prophets were silent -- and for hundreds of years the nation of Israel had been under the rule of foreigners -- first Greeks and now Romans -- two thousand years ago, the Israelites couldn't see how anything would change in the near future
-- still, in the middle of what seemed to be a hopeless situation, they waited with expection -- they lived with the hope that this year would be the year that the Messiah would come and restore Israel -- they waited for the fulfillment of the promise that their God had made to them -- that Messiah would come
-- this is what the season of Advent is all about -- waiting expectantly -- hoping -- anticipating -- for God's promises to come to pass
-- and even though most of the Jews did not recognize Him when He came, at Christmas we recognize and celebrate the fact that our Savior -- the Messiah -- did come into the world as promised over 2000 years ago -- because of this, we know that everything else that God has promised will come to pass -- because of this, we can have faith and trust in God's word and in all His promises and have hope in the midst of what seems like hopeless situations in our own lives
-- one of the greatest books in Christianity is an allegory written by John Bunyan called "The Pilgrim's Progress" -- during his journey to the celestial city, the main character in the story -- Christian -- visits the house of Interpreter -- while he is there he sees a wall against which a fire blazes brightly -- there is a man standing near the wall, pouring water on the flames, but no matter how much water he pours on the fire, the fire does not go out -- instead, the fire burns higher and hotter and grows bigger and bigger
-- Christian watches for a little while trying to understand what was going on -- suddenly it hits him -- the flames represent hope and the man who is pouring water on the fire represents all those things in our life and all those situations in our life that try to take away all of our hope -- a marriage starts to fail, a bucket of water is thrown on the fire -- a wayward child, another bucket of water -- a sin that alienates us from God, more water -- but, yet, the fire doesn't go out -- and not only does it not go out, it burns brighter and bigger
-- you see, on the other side of the wall there is another man -- and at the same time the first man is pouring water on the fire, this man is pouring oil onto the flames, causing the fire to roar and blaze with increasing power
-- no matter how much water is thrown on the fire -- no matter how the storms of life try to dampen our spirits and wash away hope -- they never can succeed because of the man pouring oil on the fire -- because of Jesus Christ, who pours into our lives reconciliation with the Father, the forgiveness of sin, the promise of eternal life, and His very own Spirit

-- the situation descibed in verse 21 seemed like a hopeless situation -- before we were saved, we were alienated from God -- enemies of Him in our own minds because of our evil behavior -- sentenced to death because of our unrighteous acts
-- yet, in the midst of that hopeless situation, hope came alive -- the Savior was born in a manger on Christmas morning two thousand years ago and died on a cross for our sins -- in that atoning act on the cross, Jesus poured oil onto the fire and fanned into flames the hope that lay hidden deep within us

III. Hope in Christ
-- in 1 Peter 1:3 we read that through His death and resurrection, Christ gave us new birth into a living hope
-- what does it mean to have a living hope in Christ?
-- a living hope in Christ is based on God and on His grace -- everything in the Christian life -- from salvation to growing in faith to serving Jesus -- has nothing to do with us and everything to do with Him -- a living hope in Christ means that we live life based on the promises that God has given us in Christ -- with the expectation that they will come to pass as He promised

-- our hope, first, is in salvation and eternal life with Christ -- look again at verse 22
22. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation--
23. if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

-- Paul tells us here that it is through Christ we have been reconciled with God and been made holy in His sight -- because of His death on the cross, we are without blemish and free from accusation -- we have received salvation and eternal life

-- Romans 3:22-25 says that "righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood."--
-- it is our faith in Christ's atoning death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead on the third day that gives us hope -- that causes us to expectantly wait -- for the promised salvation and eternal life in Christ that is to come
-- all we have to do is to recognize our need for a Savior and ask Jesus to forgive us for our sins and to accept, through faith, His death on the cross in our place and His resurrection from the dead, and we will step into this hope of eternal life through Him

-- secondly, with a living hope we hope in sanctification -- in growing in faith in Christ -- we believe that we have been indwelt with the very presence of Christ -- the Holy Spirit -- who leads us and guides us down the path of holiness and righteousness -- that is why Paul writes in verse 23 that we shoudl continue in our faith -- established and firm -- not moved from the hope held out in the gospel
-- through the Holy Spirit we grow in our faith and in our trust in the ability of Christ to meet all of our needs -- to be our strength in times of trial and tribulations -- to bring hope in the midst of seeminlgy hopeless situations
-- through the power of the Holy Spirit working in our life we come to truly trust and believe that in Christ we can do all things -- that in Christ we are more than conquerors -- that through Him, there is no situation that cannot be redeemed and there is no life that cannot be touched for His glory
-- in other words, we acknowledge that we might occasionally face storms in our lives -- we may occasionally find ourselves tossed about on the waves of despair -- but our faith is in Christ and we hope -- we wait expectantly -- for His deliverance in our lives

-- finally, with a living hope we hope in the promise of serving Jesus here on earth -- look back at vs. 28

28. We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.
29. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.

-- Paul tells us that we are called to proclaim the gospel of Christ, admonishing and teaching everyone so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ
-- this means two things -- this means that we serve Jesus through evangelism -- by telling others of the good news of Christ -- by telling them of the hope that we have of eternal life through Jesus' death and resurrection and how they can have it in their own lives
-- and it also means that we demonstrate the grace of Christ to others through our actions -- as it says in 1 Peter 4:10, we administer -- we demonstrate God's grace in various forms by serving our neighbors -- what better way to proclaim the gospel of Christ than by being the hands and feet of Christ in your community? -- what better way to proclaim the gospel of Christ than by demonstrating God's love by meeting the physical needs of those around you?
-- with a living hope, we go forth to serve Christ expecting Him to work through us -- we go forth with the knowledge that there is nothing that we cannot do with Christ's power -- that there is no one that we cannot touch -- that there are no situations that we cannot work through -- hope and faith give us the ability to demonstrate the love and the grace of God to hopeless people all around us

IV. Closing
-- in the paraphrase, The Message, we read the following in 1 Cor 1:9, "God, who got you started on this spiritual adventure, shares with us the life of His Son and our Master Jesus. He will never give up on you. Never forget that."
-- the message of Advent is that hope in Christ overcomes all -- the message of Advent is that God's promises will always come to pass -- the message of Advent is that we can have hope in seemingly hopeless situations because our Messiah has come -- as long as He is present, there is reason for hope -- hope for salvation and eternal life -- hope for sanctification -- and hope for service in His name
-- let us pray