Hope In A Future

     Hope In A Future     

Introduction: As we read and think about great Christmas passages of the Bible, one of the things we need to do is to resist the influence of our culture to trivialize Christmas and its powerful meaning for our lives.

1. One of the true message of Christmas is about hope.
2. At Bethlehem, for today, and for tomorrow.
3. Hope is one of the greatest messages of the Christmas story. Incredibly, it is one of the greatest needs of the human heart.
4. Sometimes in English the word “hope” describes a wish.
5. But in the Bible hope is a kind of confidence.

Read: Luke 1:39-55 Pray Tran: Edward Mote was born into poverty on January 21, 1797, in London. His parents, innkeepers, wouldn’t allow a Bible in their house, but somehow Edward heard the gospel as a teenager and came to Christ.

He eventually became a skilled carpenter and the owner of his own cabinet shop.

“One morning,” he recalled, “it came into my mind as I went to labor to write a hymn on the ‘Gracious Experience of a Christian.’ As I went up to Holborn I had the chorus: On Christ the solid Rock I stand / All other ground is sinking sand. During the day I had four first verses complete, and wrote them off.”

In 1852, Edward, fifty-five, gave up his carpentry to pastor the Baptist Church in Horsham, Sussex, where he ministered twenty-one years.

He resigned in 1873, in failing health, saying, “I think I am going to heaven; yes, I am nearing port. The truths I have been preaching, I am now living upon and they’ll do very well to die upon.” Today his hymn, “The Solid Rock,” is still popular with Christians around the world: “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.”

T.S. Let’s look together at the lessons about hope that Christmas brings:

1. Hope is the conviction that God will fulfill his promises (1:45).
1. When Mary the mother of Jesus meets her cousin Elizabeth, she says: “Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!” (Luke 1:4)
2. That’s the language of hope.
3. Hope is knowing that what the Lord has said to you will be accomplished even though we have little direct evidence that it will happen.

(Appl.) Have you ever been disappointed about something you really hoped for? Was it a gift at Christmas? A person that you had hoped to spend the rest of your life with?

4. We need the confident expectation that God can be relied on to fulfill the hopes He has awakened in our hearts through the promises of His Word.
5. And that leads us to our second point this afternoon:

2. Hope trusts in God in spite of problems (2:25).
1. The whole Christmas story takes place against the backdrop of all kinds of serious problems.
2. Yet its entire message is filled, not only with deep happiness in the midst of great darkness, but also profound hope in the face of perplexing problems.
3. For example, “Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him” (Luke 2:25).
1. Simeon was waiting and believing.
2. That’s hope.
3. Simeon’s hope was not based on a denial of the problems of the day but rather on a decision to trust in God despite the problems of the day.

3. Hope Trusts God to Transcend Understanding and Expectations (Luke 1–2).
1. Mary, Joseph, Simeon, the shepherds, and all the others in the Christmas story are not given full explanations that describe in detail how God will fulfill His promises.
2. Mary and Joseph don’t understand the spiritual and biological details of the miracle of the virgin birth.
3. Simeon doesn’t know precisely how this little baby will be a light of revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of his people Israel.
4. But Mary, Joseph, and Simeon do not allow the limitations of human understanding to determine the height of their hope in God.

(Ill.) Have you watched a candle? If I were to light it right here, it would not appear very bright – in fact you wonder what good is that candle? But if we were to wait till the sun goes down, we might say that the candle adds “atmosphere” to the room. And if we waited till it was really dark, we might find that the candle actually gives us enough light to read by.

5. Hope trusts God to fulfill His promises in ways that transcend our understanding and expectations.

4. Hope waits for God to accomplish His will in His way (2:28–30).
1. One of the most revealing things about this man, Simeon is the way he describes his own relationship to God: “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace” (v. 29).
2. The word “Lord” is “despota”. It is the word from which we get the English word despot.
1. It is not the common word for Lord that is found throughout the Bible.
2. Though a despot is thought of as cruel or mean, that was not its original meaning. It does mean that Simeon has an absolute master who has complete rule over the lives of those under him.
3. To hope in God for Simeon is not to come to God with his agenda and ask God to bless it and “hope” that He will do it.
4. It is to come to and ask God for His agenda and ask Him to bless it.

(Appl.) In every life something rules as sovereign. What is it that rules as sovereign in your life as you prepare for Christmas? Where do you place your hope?

5. Hope does not disappoint (1:45-47).

1. The exchange between Elizabeth and Mary shows how hope does not lead to disappointment, but sees the fulfillment of God’s promises for our greater good and His greater glory:
2. Remember the words of Elizabeth“Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!”
3. And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior” (vv. 45–47).
4. Mary trusted the promises for good reason.
5. They were all fulfilled in Christ as He was born that first Christmas in a manger with heavenly signs and hosts, with shepherds and wise men bowing at His feet, with kingly gifts, and so much more than Mary could have expected; not to mention His ultimate role as Savior.

Conclusion: As we move through this holiday season, I hope that you will remember that Christmas is about HOPE

1. Not for what we want
2. But for what God wants

Pray