Tag: Hope

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Easter Message: A Living Hope

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).

This week at our church, something wonderful happened. A young couple in our church had a beautiful baby.

What better picture of hope can there be than a newborn baby? When you see that new life, you feel a sense of hope. Life will move forward. Good things will happen. There is a future.

And that’s the picture that Apostle Peter used to describe Easter for us. We have a new birth to a living hope! For a long time, it may have seemed like there was no hope. Then, there was a new birth. A new birth of hope. Life will move forward. Good things will happen. There is a future.

It’s easy to get focused on the small picture, especially when we are suffering. When we feel loss, rejection, or frustration, or when we experience physical suffering, it’s easy to think that there is no hope.

We must remember that even if there are hard parts to our story, the ultimate outcome is going to be not just good but glorious. That’s why Peter calls it a living hope.

Every good story has moments when hope looks in doubt. Think of C.S. Lewis’ Narnia story, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Four human children are needed to break the White Witch’s reign. Then, Edmund betrays his brothers and sisters to the White Witch. It looks like there is no hope. But, then, Aslan shows up, and you know that there is hope. Things will turn out well in the end.

That’s how a lot of stories work, and that’s how the story of the human race will turn out. History is ultimately a story of hope because God will bring it to a glorious end. History is His story. It is God’s plan working itself out. There may be dark moments where we weep, but joy comes in the morning, a living hope.

It’s important to remember that hope here isn’t a hope that can disappoint us. We may hope the lockdown ends this month, but it may not. That hope may disappoint. When the Bible speaks of hope it means a hope that doesn’t disappoint. It means a certain hope. It means we firmly expect that God will do us good.

So we can be confident that all things will turn out well. We have an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade. Everything will be put together in the right way. We will enjoy what we were created for—forever! That’s where the story is going.

Why can we have hope?
Why can we have this hope of such a good end? The resurrection of Jesus Christ. Peter says that God has given us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

How does this give us hope? This tells us where history is going. What God is going to do for us and all creation at the end of history, God did for Jesus in the middle of history.

Out of all bad things that can happen to us, death is the worst. It is the ultimate enemy. It comes for us and everyone we love. Jesus tasted this death, as Peter says, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God” (1 Peter 3:18). That’s why two thousand years ago, Jesus’ body was dead in the grave. He died for the sins of you and me.

But that wasn’t the end. At one particular moment, on a glorious Sunday morning, life returned to His body. Life came back in such a way that he didn’t merely stumble out of the tomb. It was power and abundant life, and it was glorious. Jesus could shine like the sun like the angels did who came down to roll away the stone. The crack, tough Roman soldiers melted in fear because of them.

Then, Jesus walked out of the tomb, His body filled with life. He walked out of the tomb in glory into the beautiful Garden fresh with the new flowers of spring time. That was Jesus’ resurrection.

So, Jesus has broken the power of death. The greatest enemy of the human race has been defeated. Death will not have the last word. Life, abundant life, is now the destiny of all who put their trust in Jesus. That is our living hope.

What hope is there now?
Well, that’s great, you might say, that we have hope that things will someday be good. But what about now?

We can enjoy this hope right now. This glorious end gives us cause to rejoice. Whatever happens, we know that it will turn out well. Having hope that it will all turn out well can help us in the present.

But we can say more. What we are experiencing now are trials that purify us. “These [trials] have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Peter 1:7).

The language here is taken from metallurgy. Gold is not found in a pure state. It is mixed with other metals. So, ancient metallurgists would go through a lengthy process of mixing the gold with other metals and then heating it up in a blast furnace to get the purest gold possible.

That’s how our faith is. We’ve got it mixed with other things, other loves, other attachments. We think our life is dependent on this or that situation or this or that person, so our faith doesn’t shine forth like it should. God puts us through situations that purify our faith. These situations may sometimes feel like a blast furnace, but they make our faith shine forth. We realize that what matters is ultimately His love and care for us, not having the right clothes, the right vacations, the right job, or even the right people. These things may be nice and helpful, but God is the one we ultimately need, and He is enough.

I’ve watched people get purified. It’s an amazing thing. Right now, in the midst of this crisis, I’m seeing your faith shine forth. It’s beautiful. It’s not that you’re indifference to the world. When people don’t need the world to make them happy, they can serve the world because they have everything they need from God. That’s how faith shines forth like pure gold.

How does having this faith benefit us? It gives us access to an unspeakable joy. “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy” (1 Pet. 1:8). That is a foretaste of the glory to come.

And that, my friends, is the power of faith in the hope that comes from the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Conclusion
As we consider our situation right now, we might ask, how bad will this be? How will it affect our economy? How long will it last? I have some thoughts like you probably do probably, but I could certainly be wrong.

But no matter what happens, no matter how rough it gets, I know this for sure. “Hope” will still be alive. It will still be the dominant theme of our story because we are born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. That won’t change.

That is the message of Easter, and so we can with the Psalmist speak to our souls today, “Yes, my soul, find rest in God. My hope comes from Him” (Psalm 62:5).

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Hope Beyond the Headlines

In times of extremely dangerous threats, it can be hard to see hope.

The time of Isaiah the prophet was one such time (8th century B.C.). For a long time, the kingdoms of Israel and Judah had enjoyed relative prosperity without major threat of invasion. Now, the Assyrian Empire was brutally subjugating the territories around them and menacing the nations of Israel and Judah.

As this threat arose, Isaiah called on the people to consider the state of their lives. Were they living the right way? What were they living for? Had they forgotten the needy around them? Were they living for luxury and sensual pleasure rather than finding their enjoyment in God? This was a time for introspection (see Isaiah 1).

But it was also a time in which the people needed hope. Scary times don’t seem like times to hope. They seem like times for fear and fear. It’s very easy in those times to see only the threats and not see the things that are above them and beyond them.

So, Isaiah preached hope. He preached about a time when a descendant of their kings (from the house of David, see Isaiah 11:1, 10) would rise and create a glorious, prosperous, and peaceful kingdom. Isaiah describes this kingdom using different pictures, like those of the animal world. In this kingdom, for example, the lion will lie down with the lamb. This is the emblem under which he represents the amazing peace of the kingdom of the future King.

Not only that, the nations would actually submit to this King, and this would usher in peace and justice throughout the world. “In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his resting place will be glorious” (Isaiah 11:10). It would be a glorious worldwide kingdom of peace and justice.

The Apostle Paul was a Jewish Rabbi who was nourished on those promises and looked forward to their fulfillment. He was looking for God to intervene and set up that kingdom. In Jesus, Paul saw a threat to this future kingdom. He was so upset by people following Jesus that he sought to imprison anyone who followed Jesus.

Then, all of a sudden, Paul shows up in Damascus, Syria arguing with everybody that Jesus was in fact the very King Isaiah was predicting! What in the world happened?

According to Paul, Jesus was alive, though crucified, and he met the risen Jesus on the way to Damascus. As he explains it, Jesus spoke to him in a vision so convincing that it changed his life forever. In addition, he was convinced that Jesus was not only the King for the Jews but for the entire world. He saw it as His mission to tell everybody about this risen King.

Years later, Paul wrote a letter to the followers of Jesus in the great city of Rome. As he reflected on Jews and Gentiles coming together to confess Jesus as Lord and Savior, he realized that all that Isaiah had prophesied was coming to fulfillment. He writes, “And again, Isaiah says, ‘The Root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations; in him the Gentiles will hope'” (Rom. 15:12).

And we are still seeing it fulfilled in our day. In the past 100 years, we have seen more people from more nations become followers of Jesus and submit to His reign than ever before. In places where the name of Jesus was unknown, prayers and praises to Him ring out all over the world. There is much more to come, but Jesus is reigning now.

So, we have more reason to hope than Isaiah did. Isaiah could only see the kingdom far off. We have seen it fulfilled in Jesus who said that the kingdom of heaven was here because He was here. We have seen it fulfilled in people submitting to His reign all over the world.

It’s easy to lose sight of that hope in the midst of a dangerous threat. We need to remind ourselves and one another of the reality that Jesus is now reigning and His kingdom is expanding over all the earth. That is the hope beyond the headlines.

It’s not always easy to see and feel this hope. To see and feel it more clearly and fully, we need God’s help. That’s why the Apostle Paul told the followers of Jesus in Ephesus that he continually prayed that God would enlighten their eyes to see the greatness of Jesus’ power and reign (see Eph. 1:18–23).

The more they could see it, the more they would become what Richard Lovelace calls “a new center for the reordering of life on earth as it is in heaven” (Dynamics of Spiritual Life, 47). Jesus wants His reign to manifest itself in how we live as people of His kingdom in every sphere of life: family, business, school, state, the arts, and everywhere else.

But we don’t have to do it alone. God has given us the church to help us. One of the major purposes of the church is to equip people to make an impact on the world, living out Jesus’ reign in all of life (see my explanation of the four major purposes of the church here). How do we help each other do that?

  1. We pray for each other to see the reign of Jesus more clearly like Paul did for the church in Ephesus.
  2. We seek to make the church look more like the kingdom of God. We accept one another and “make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification” (Romans 15:7, 14:19).
  3. We help each other think through what it means for us to live out our lives, marriages, parenting, work, and play in light of Jesus’ reign.
  4. We pray for God’s leading and working in each aspect of our daily lives, not just the so-called “spiritual” parts.

If we do this, we can really become a people who live in light of the hope that comes from the reign of Jesus, even in the darkest hours. This is the day of Jesus’ reign. God will help us and answer our prayer, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).

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Why So Little Joy and Peace in Believers?

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).

What a beautiful vision of the Christian life, a life filled with all joy and peace as we trust in Him. It’s a great aspiration.

In a series of talks John Ortberg did with Dallas Willard just before Willard’s death, he recounted a conversation that he had with Dallas about churches:

During one of the first times Dallas and I talked, I asked about the churches. Some churches are great at music and worship. Some churches are effective at evangelism or reaching folks outside of them. Other churches are teaching factories. Others are great at assimilating people. And still others are good at acts of justice and compassion. But, I asked Dallas, where are the churches that are producing abnormally loving and joyful, patient, courageous people in inexplicably high percentages?

It’s a great question. Why don’t we see more joyful, hopeful, and patient Christians? Is it even possible to see Christians who are “abnormally loving and joyful”? Continue reading “Why So Little Joy and Peace in Believers?”

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Suffering Well

Everyone is going to suffer, but will we suffer well? Will we suffer in a way that will do good to our own souls, bless those around us, and glorify God?

In this post, I’d like to meditate on 5 ways we can suffer well and then contrast that with 5 ways in which we can suffer badly. In later posts, I will address why we should suffer well and how we can suffer well, but for now, I just want to try to shed some light on what it means to suffer well.

Before I begin, I want to let you know that I sat down with two friends, Art Stump and Lacie Shingleton to discuss suffering well on our Pinecone Podcast. I would invite you to listen to our discussion by clicking here.

5 Ways to Suffer Well

  1. You acknowledge that you are suffering
  2. You continue to honor those around you.
  3. You continue to do the good that you should do.
  4. You continue to trust in the goodness and faithfulness of God.
  5. You continue to hope and expect that God will give you good things.

5 Ways to Suffer Badly

  1. You suppress or ignore the fact that you are suffering.
  2. You lash out at those around you, even those who may have nothing to do with your suffering.
  3. You get bitter.
  4. You give up on God.
  5. You fall into despair.

Again, this is just the concept. In later posts, I will address why we should seek to suffer well and how we can do it. For now, I think it’s important to have a clear sense of what it means to suffer well and suffer badly. These are the things that came most clearly to my mind. What about you? Anything you would add or take away?

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Hope for a Way Out

We all have those situations where we feel there is no way out. It may be a dead end job, an addiction, negative emotions, a relationship, a city, or bad habits. These are the sorts of things that can make us bang our head against the wall or cry out to God.

In the Bible, the people of God suffered in just such a situation. One of the most powerful nations on earth oppressed them ruthlessly. They were stuck with their necks in a hard yoke of slavery.

But they escaped. How? “I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment” (Exodus 6:7). The mighty arm of God forced Egypt to give up their slaves. Israel was freed and departed to go to the land God had promised them.

From that time on, whenever Israel was stuck again, they looked to God to come down again, bare His mighty arm, and deliver them. This was their great hope: “Let all creation rejoice before the Lord, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness” (Ps. 96:13). “For the Lord will deliver Jacob and redeem them from the hand of those stronger than they” (Jeremiah 31:11).

God is the God who provides a way out. He’s the God of the Exodus, and so there is always hope for a way out.

Sometimes, however, that way out does not appear in the way we might think. In Isaiah 52, the prophet contemplates a new exodus event. He says: “The Lord will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God” (52:10). He bares His arm but not how they think, for he says, “Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” (53:1). God’s mighty arm will be revealed, but people won’t see it or believe it. He won’t be smashing Egypt. The crushing blow will fall on the Messiah Himself He will be a suffering servant who will become a sacrifice for sin. This will provide a way out–an exodus for people stuck in sin and guilt!

I recently heard a story about someone who was stuck. He was stuck in a relationship problem. He struggled so much that he cried out to God. Eventually, God did provide a way out, but it was different than what he expected. “God changed me.” He said. That changed the relationship. He found the way out.

There’s always hope for a way out because the God of all hope is always there. The particular way out may surprise us. We may have to look carefully. We may have to change our thinking and actions. But the way out does come.

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