Christ Our Hope Woodvale Baptist Men’s Breakfast1/6/19
The obsession with hope for a better material life in Australia has obscured the true spiritual hope which is centred in Christ alone. We are often no better than the disappointed disciples on the road to Emmaus, ““But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem/deliver Israel.”” (Luke 24:21) Human beings cannot live without hope, “What oxygen is to the lungs, such is hope to the meaning of life.”, said Emil Brunner. But the hopes of winning Lotto, good health, a happy family and a successful career are essentially different from the glorious hope laid out in the gospel (Col 1:23; Heb 3:6). If you listen to how people pray you know what their deepest heart hopes are (Luke 6:45). And sadly, many of our prayers are focussed on this world rather than the eternal glory of God. But we must be careful in talking this way. When Paul says, “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.” (1 Cor 15:19), he is not counselling us to put our hope in “going to heaven”, but in Jesus. as he says 1 Timothy 1:1, “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Saviour and of Christ Jesus our hope”.
Biblical hope is all about a Person, we hope to share in the glory of God as it has been revealed in the life of Christ. “Christ in you the hope of glory” (Col 1:27) Paul teaches the Colossians. What God has done in Jesus has created a new future for humanity, this must be our dearest hear desire. Our ultimate hope is for the future Return of Christ, we are “to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ,” (Tit 2:12-13). This future hope is grounded in a single past event, the resurrection. Not grounded in an idea of the resurrection but our present sharing in “the power of the resurrection” (Phil 3:10). This makes Christian hope a lively hope, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,” (1 Pet 1:3; cf. 1 Thess 4:13-14). The Spirit of God intensifies our hope by sharing with us how Jesus’ own hope in God was fulfilled by resurrection.
Peter preaches about Jesus’ fulfilled hope in his Pentecost sermon; ““‘my flesh also will dwell in hope. 27 For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption. 28 You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’” (Acts 2:26-28). Although on the cross in our sin Jesus descended into the pit of final hopelessness (Mark 15:34), having let go of all worldly expectations and never taking his eyes off God Christ’s hope in the Father was not disappointed because the Spirit raised him from the dead. It’s sharing in the power of the Spirit in Christ’s own resurrection from death (Rom 6:1-11) that makes our hope in Jesus sure and certain hope.
If you have the Spirit who raised Christ in you (Rom 8:11) no matter what is happening in your life your case cannot be hopeless. Paul prays for the Roman Christians with vigour and expectation, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” (Rom 15:13). His faith in praying so positively is grounded in his teaching back in Romans 5. “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint us/put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Rom 5:1-5). Flooded with the love of God we cannot be despairing. God’s purposes in our suffering trials is to shatter our worldy hopes and to strengthen our hope in Christ (cf. Heb 12:1-2.) Let me give a personal example.
When I was studying full time and had four small children, I was asked to take the services of a small daughter church. The people took a liking to my ministry and put a proposal to the senior minister of the parish that they set me up in a house and pay my rent. The next thing I knew there was a note in my letter box telling me that I must stop ministering in the branch church, and that our family were no longer welcome in the parish. Things got worse, there was even an accusation I had been stealing from the Sunday collections, until in some state of misery and bewilderment I went out into the forest to pray. I remember saying to the Lord, “I have nowhere to minister, nowhere to take my family to worship, but if I have you, I have everything.” That was a turning point in my life. My hope in Jesus has been tested many times since then, but whilst long ago I stopped putting final hope in institutions or people, including churches, I have found that Jesus will NEVER disappoint me. Jesus will never disappoint you because he was never disappointed by the Father and the Father has never been disappointed with his all-obedient Son. At the heart of living in the unshatterable hope of Christ is the revelation that in Jesus the Father is never disappointed with us. We experience this all triumphant state as we keep putting our hope….in Christ alone.
I have ministered to some hope-destroying cases, the man born alive who was meant to be a late term abortion, someone who as a baby was left in his bassinet on the steps of a hospital. But Jesus, “raised from the dead by the glory of the Father” (Rom 6:4) can console every despair by the impartation of resurrection hope. It’s at this point that our society in its denial of resurrection life is in deep trouble. Proverbs 13:12 says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.” 1 in 8 Australian men will experience serious depression during life, 1 in 5 serious anxiety, 1 in 7 depression or anxiety in any given year. Every addiction, drugs, sex, food, alcohol, religion, is an attempt to cover up a sense of hopelessness (Eph 2:12) i.e. lost glory (Rom 3:23).
The positive side to all this is that Christians abounding in hope can be a marvellous testimony to those struggling to hope, and especially to those whom the world labels as “no-hopers” (Ps 62:5). To have a life filled with hope does however require a focussed mind set, Peter exhorts us, “preparing your minds for action…set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (1 Pet 1:13). A truly Christ-centred state of mind can bring a revival of hope in the Church and a spiritual anticipation of God’s purposes being fulfilled in every circumstance of life, even those which would otherwise bring despair. As we point others to the promises of God that never fail (Rom 4:16-21), hope can be an outstanding positive life giving feature of our Christian communities.