An Unshakeable Hope
Main idea: The birth of Jesus helps us more clearly see the mission of God at work in our world and gives us a foundation in an unshakable hope.
Outline:
1. Hope is a confident expectation of better things
2. Hope requires incarnation
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1. Not just an idea - a body
2. Not just an idea - love
3. Not just an idea - guaranteed victory
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3. Aligning our hope in Jesus
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1. His hope gives us the ability to face our messy world
2. His hope fills our homes and families with joy and confidence
3. His hope is proof that you can change, and you can have victory over sin
4. His hope makes you a hope to others
Scripture References:
• Luke 1:46-55
• Ps. 33:17
• Ps. 42:5
• Colossians 1:15,19-20
• 1 John 4:9-10
• Colossians 1:18
• Hebrews 2:10-11
• 1 Peter 3:15
Main ideas:
• real hope vs. false hope
• our view of the world
• incarnation
• the hope of resurrection
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It's amazing to see how God works to redeem, to save, to transform people in the most difficult situations.
There is nothing more hopeless than coming to the end of a rigorous search for truth and coming to a place of total doubt.
Real hopelessness sinks in when you have tried all you can and it seems that all your trying and seeking has brought you to this place. From here what can you do? Trying harder only sinks you deeper into the hopelessness.
I think that this feeling of hopelessness is something we can all identify with to various degrees in our lives.
We have all faced situations or challenges in our lives - at work, at home, in our relationships, in ourselves - where we have tried and tried to find a solution and it seems that no matter how hard we try it brings us to a situation that is more and more difficult.
Like we heard this morning in Denis' story, God often works most gloriously and unexpectedly through this kinds of situations.
We have been focusing these last few weeks in our advent series on the way that the birth of Jesus, the incarnation of the Son of God, helps us understand the mission of God.
The Christmas story gives us a unique angle into the heart of God as a God who is on a mission to save, to redeem, to restore the world he has made, to reforge the covenant bond between him and humanity, and him and his created world.
Today, i wanted to talk about how it connects to hope
if God is on mission in the world, then this is a world that we see in a specific kind of way - we have hope.
like a house restoration project - you don't just see the brokenness, you see all the ways that it could be so much better and you are excited for what is to come.
We really see this very clearly expressed in the song of Mary that was read earlier today. Her song is an overflow of confidence and joy in the fact that God is indeed present in her life to fulfill his promises.
what is your hope set on today? how hopeful are you about the future? what is your view of the future?
1. Hope is a confident expectation that something that you desire will be fulfilled.
what is hope?
Hope is a confident expectation that something that you desire will be fulfilled.
this is how we are wired as humans - we are forward looking creatures.
what do you expect the future to hold?
your answer to that question determines almost every aspect of your life.
Hope drives our energy and our attitude.
Example - two women working the same job, but one of them will be paid a million dollars.
Hope inspires imagination of what good things MAY happen in the future.
Scripture shows us that there are two general problems we struggle with when it comes to hope
• putting hope in false sources
◦ Ps. 33:17:
· "The horse is a false hope for safety; it provides no escape by its great power."
• battling our hopelessness
◦ Ps. 42:5:
· "Why, my soul, are you so dejected? Why are you in such turmoil? Put yourhopein God, for I will still praise him, my Savior and my God."
the two are interconnected often.
how it works
• we put our hope in something - a young man getting married, excited for the goodness of marriage and the joy it will provide.
• our hope is shattered -
• we try to recover and restore our hope
• we sink into hopelessness
hopelessness today
social research has shown us a dramatic shift in our view of the future. We are the first generation that believes that it will have a worse world than its parents.
continual fragmentation of the world makes it very difficult for people have any source of hope outside of personal pleasure.
Here we see the powerlessness of therapeutic optimism - a decision to have a positive attitude because it is good for your health. SO WHAT??
The whole story of Scripture is premised on the idea that God is working today to restore what is broken, and the future is where we will see more and more of that.
But the promise takes a whole new dimension when we are living NOT just in the realm of future promise - as did the people of the Old Testament (especially during the prophets) but when the eternal Word himself becomes flesh and dwells among us.
John 1:14
14 The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
2. Hope requires incarnation
• Not just an idea - a body.
The challenging thing about learning to root our hope in God is that often times we face a disconnect between our lived experience and the perfect sounding promises of Scripture.
"Yes I know life can be challenging, but you need to learn to put your hope in God. He is sovereign. He is good. He is all powerful. He is faithful to his promises."
That all sounds really good but it doesn't actually help the person who finds them in the midst of hopelessness. It doesn't help to take us from the condition of fear and uncertainty into a condition of deeper confidence and rest in God.
Colossians 1:15,19-20
"He is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn over all creation.
...
For God was pleased to have
all his fullness dwell in him,
20 and through him to reconcile
everything to himself"
When God takes on human flesh, the moment that this baby is conceived in Mary's womb - something radical has taken place.
We often think that the main reason was born as a man is to feel our pain and sympathize with our weaknesses - and that is definitely part of it. But we have to understand that when God became a baby, he entered his world as a man - he has permanently bound himself to this broken world.
and that means that this world is not going to STAY broken much longer. It is inevitable that
The incarnation is proof positive that God is unalterably committed to redeeming every square inch of this creation.
Notice the past and present tense nature of her song - because this baby has arrived in her womb - there is guarantee of his victory over evil, suffering and injustice in the world
Example - a doctor arrives at a disease stricken village. Everything changes.
That means there is hope for EVERYONE and EVERYTHING in creation.
It means that our hope is not just for the future but also in this life, God is present and working.
• Not just an idea - love.
Notice the fact that a central theme in Mary's song is a sense of God's personal, care - his personal love and blessing through this act of becoming a baby
"My soul magnifies the Lord,
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 because he has looked with favor
on the humble condition of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations
will call me blessed,
49 because the Mighty One
has done great things for me,
and his name is holy.
50 His mercy is from generation to generation
on those who fear him."
1 John 4:9-10
9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
The incarnation the coming in the giving of the son of God for him self for us to us that we are loved. That God’s love is demonstrated us in a physical act.
Example of testimonies of people who are about to commit suicide wishing that somebody would notice them and tell them to stop.
Hebrews chapter 2 tells that he was made one of us, just like us, so that he may be called our elder brother, who walks with us, who holds us.
• Not just an idea - guaranteed victory
Mary's song of joy and victory is in the present/past tense.
"51. He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones
and exalted those of humble estate;
53 he has filled the hungry with good things,"
Colossians 1:18
18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
The final chain of all the world is sin and death.
He became a baby that he might take the weight of our sin on himself and let death run its course on him.
Death is an executioner we all must face when we are sinners. Paul says in Romans that "through sin, death entered into the world"
Jesus came to beat death by taking our sin upon himself and letting death wash over him.
And yet, instead of being absorbed by death, Jesus blew a hole in the other side.
"He is the beginning, the first born from the dead..."
The incarnation is our guarantee of victory over death - our guarantee of a greater life beyond this life. That same body that was born in the manger now sits on the throne of the universe - though it has now undergone transformation.
No matter what we face in life today, no matter how scary and bleak - when we look at the baby in the manger, we see a God who has forged for us a sure path through EVERYTHING, putting an end to the power of death itself.
3. Aligning your hope in Jesus
what do you expect from the future? what is your energy and motivation built on? why be optimistic and hopeful if the world is so broken we are so messed up?
Is your hope rooted in a false source? Prepare for a crash landing.
Do you look to the story of Jesus as the anchor for your soul?
MY hope is that God is working in this world today. My hope is in his healing work in my heart, in the lives of the people around me. My hope is that the work of the gospel is making a real and visible difference in me today, and i expect that tomorrow as well.
If its not that, then there is no hope. And simple Pollyanna optimism is just burying your head in the sand.
Gospel hope changes how we relate to everything:
• It gives us the ability to face our messy world
We live in a scary world. We live a life with many challenging things - relationships, sins, addictions, trauma and pain.
the birth of Jesus and the incarnation gives us the ability to look at the world AS IT IS, because it is only in as we look at the world AS IT IS that we see in it both brokenness ,and yet at the middle we find a child, born of a virgin, descended from heaven, to dwell among us.
THIS is the world he entered and THIS is the world is he working in today.
Notice Mary's song is not in the midst of perfect circumstances. She was still in a very messy situation. But she had a reason to sin. Because the Savior had arrived.
• It fills our homes and families with joy and confidence
How do I know that God will save my kids? How do I know that everything will be ok with my family? How do I get strength to love and lead my family every day through the mess and the struggle? How do I know that my own weakness wont be the destruction of my family?
God has come. And he dwells among us. This means that he is here today to fill your home with his song. He is doing something through you today. He is working redemption in your family life - he is King of every home that calls him King.
Do you fill your home with his hope?
It is proof that you can change, and you can have victory over sin
Because Jesus was born into this world - we have guaranteed access to his grace and power for victory in our lives.
Hebrews 2:10-11
10 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. 11 For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers"
He is at work in your heart. Turn to him, seek him. He will do things in your life that are greater than you ever imagined.
• His hope makes you a hope to others
The mission of God captivates us and invites us in to participation every day.
When you see the wonder of God's work in the world, when your heart is anchored in his glorious hope, you want to share the hope with others.
1 Peter 3:15
"always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you;"
Here the Christmas story leads us once again.
Christmas hope is all about incarnation and love.
People don't need more ideas. They don't just need money or things. They need a body. They need love. They need someone to look at them and treat them with the same love, care and dignity that our Savior treats us.
Are you a source of hope for others?
Do you understand the power that you can have others if you are intentionally living to share the help of Christ today?
Its not just about changing people. Its about giving people around you more hope. And that hope drives a life of obedience and change.
The point is that some of the most powerful sources of hope don’t come from people who are so perfect and so different from us but rather from people who are just like us struggling in the trenches of life don’t have it all figured out and yet are filled with a light that cannot be put out.