"Christian Hope" Sermon Transcript for April 1, 2001By Reverend Mike Beck
Scripture Reading: II Peter 3:8-18
We want to talk this morning about Christian hope. And to begin the message, I want to turn to the Book of Ecclesiastes to where the writer begins his book. And remember, here’s a good example that you don’t take scripture out of context. You view books as wholes. He doesn’t end here. But when he begins his writing, these words express the thoughts of millions of people around the world today as they look at life. "Meaningless, meaningless, utterly meaningless. Everything is meaningless. What does man gain from all his labor in which he toils under the sun? All things are wearisome. There is nothing new under the sun. There is no remembrance of men of old and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow. I’ve seen all the things that are done under the sun and all of them are meaningless like chasing after the wind."
The beer commercial phrased it this way, "You only go around once in life, so grab for all the gusto you can get!" That’s the attitude of which many people approach life. But we as Christians do not approach life in that way. For we are filled with what in the Catholic church was referred to as the "blessed hope" that this life and this world are not all there is. And we want to think on that theme today.
As we think about the word "hope" let us realize where it is rooted. It first of all is rooted in our desire for future good. It is said a person can’t live five minutes without hope in their lives. My oldest son, Aaron, who travels with a Broadway play has fallen in love. It is so much fun to talk to him now on the phone, and his mind is filled with hope that wasn’t there a couple of months ago. If you’re around here during the week or on Wednesday evening, you realize we’re totally out of room for our children and youth. And many people here at Grace have hopes that in the coming years there will be a new educational wing for our children and youth. If you are struggling with an illness, you are hoping that surgery or a treatment plan or a medication the doctor has given you will produce a better, good result. Hope is rooted in our desire for future good.
A biblical foundation of hope is based on the character of God. The hope that we’re proclaiming today is not what one person said. Believing in what we know can’t be true. That is no hope. Our hope is based, first of all, on the very character of God that the Bible teaches-- that God is loving, that God is just, that God has purpose and design for His creation. Throughout the scriptures we see that God is creating a people like unto Himself. Yes, we live in a world currently marred by sin, but the hope we hold to is based on the very nature of God himself.
Now as we trace this theme of hope in God through the scriptures, when we read the Old Testament we realize the lens through which they are looking at biblical hope is in the coming of a "political" kingdom. For you see in the Old Testament there was only a very faint understanding of a meaningful afterlife. And therefor if God was going to make things right, they needed to be made right in the coming of the current day. And so their hope in God is rooted in the fact that God’s going to bring about a political kingdom. And if you understand that, you realize what the disciples are saying right up to the time that Christ goes back to heaven. "When, Lord, are you going to establish this political kingdom that we are looking for?" But as we continue to trace the theme of hope through the New Testament, we now see that it is in relation to Jesus teaching about the "Kingdom of God", about eternal life, about heaven which we will be speaking of in more detail in three weeks.
And when we think about Christian hope we also are thinking about the "end of time". And there are a lot of things that go with that. The Book of Revelation, in there we hear the tribulation, the coming of the Anti-Christ, the mark of the beast, the rapture, the millennium, the Battle of Armageddon. And all of that is caught up in the best selling book series of which many of you may be reading, the "Left Behind" series. As we talk about the future we are aware that is a part of that. The Bible talks of the beginning, it also talks of an ending of this present age.
I want this morning to look at what Peter has to say to us about some of these things and look at portions of the passage that we read for our text. First of all, Verses 8-9 where Peter says, "But do not forget this one thing, dear friends. With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. God is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."
There’s four parts in these first two verses I want us to look at. First of all, "With the Lord, a day is like a thousand years..." Now, I am an extremely time conscious person. That’s how God has put me together. Many of you are the same way. Time has great meaning to us in this world. But what we must realize is with God in the realm of eternity where there is no beginning and is no ending, time is meaningless. And so that’s why Peter writes, "With God a thousand days, a day is like a thousand years." Our choir cantata sang, "If a moment is like a thousand years, than a moment ago...", from God’s perspective, "...He came".
And then the phrase, "The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise..." Here’s where some understanding of the background of scripture is helpful. The early Christians believed that Christ was coming again in their lifetime. But then some members of the church began to die. And they began to scratch their heads and say, "Well is Christ indeed coming?" And so Peter says to them, "The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise..."
He also tells us here something that I find very comforting. That "God is patient with you..." Thank you, Lord. Good work! Because I know the Lord’s got a whole bunch of things he’s still working on me about. God is patient with us. And also, God wants "...everyone to come to repentance."
We’ll move on to Verse 10. "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare." The Bible talks over and over again about a coming day of the Lord. And for unbelievers it will be a terrible day. You’ve heard me say from this pulpit that I’m not one to spend a whole lot of time speculating on the end of time. That’s why if you’re waiting on a sermon series on Revelation from Reverend Mike, you may be waiting a long time. For my perspective, all I need to know about Revelation is in the end God wins. There will be a new heaven and a new earth of which I will be a part. And I just don’t spend much time speculating about those things. But I would invite you to contemplate as we think about the day of the Lord that the nations of the world have the kind of arsenal in their hands today to literally bring about what Verse 10 tells us. And next Sunday I’ll be preaching on the "judgment" of God.
We go on to Verse 11. A question, "Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be?" There is the important question. Not exactly when the Lord will come or how he will come, but what kind of lives ought we to be living when He comes? And here, my friends, is the answer and it relates directly to our theme last week of sanctification. Peter says, "You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of the Lord." We can look forward to that day. It’s going to be a terrible day for non-believers, but we have nothing to fear. But our lives, God ought to be able to find as holy and godly before him.
"But in keeping with His promise, we are looking forward...", it says in Verse 13, "...to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness." This has to be one of my favorite passages of scripture in Revelation, Chapter 21. Five verses that I read often and at the grave of believers, where John says, "And then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. There was no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men and He will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain. For the old order of things has passed away and He who is seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new. Write this down for these words are trustworthy and true."
Do you want to know how the Bible’s put together? In Genesis 1 and 2, God creates a perfect world with order and design. But He gives man the freedom of will and in Chapter 3 of Genesis, man messes up and sin enters the picture. All of the rest of the writings of scripture up to the Book of Revelation, tell about God fixing the mess through what we call the plan of salvation. And then the Book of Revelation tells us that in the end the perfect world that God originally designed will come about in a new heaven and a new earth of which I’m planning to be a part. And I hope you are as well.
Verse 14. "So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make very effort to be found spotless, blameless, and at peace with Him." Sometimes I contemplate, should I do something or not? Should I go someplace or not? And let me suggest that probably a better than average criteria for answering that question would be this: Would I want to be found doing that or would I want to be found in that place, if that was the moment Christ came again? And if my answer to that question is, "No, I don’t think I would want Him to find me there or doing that", then in order to be found spotless, blameless, and at peace with Him I refrain from that.
Verse 18. "But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever! Amen." Let it be. Christian hope, my friends, is a wonderful thing. But we are not to opt for "pie in the sky" religion. It’s been said that some Christians are so heavenly focused that they are no earthly good. We are to be the body of Christ to a lost and hurting world. While we wait for the end of times we are to be growing, Peter says, in two ways. He says, "be growing in knowledge", which we talked about last week was one of the keys to sanctification. We also ought to be growing in grace that the fruits of the spirit be manifest in our lives so that we are becoming more and more like Jesus. Are you doing that? That’s what we are to be about while we wait for the coming day of the Lord.
What do you see as you look to the future? Are you afraid? Is the future simply "chance" or "mystery"? Do you have the "blessed hope" of Christ in your life today? I thought about how to close this service, and as I was driving to Marsh yesterday morning to get the Confirmation snacks, I had on a tape of Dan Jones, a young singer who shared with us in our Wednesday night worship about five weeks ago. And I listened again to the song that Dan wrote about a young mother in his church, a friend of his. He wrote this song about her struggle with cancer. Her story, through the words of Dan’s song, has a lot to teach us about Christian hope. I’m going to play that song in closing today. The words will be on the screen. And I invite you as you listen to reflect on your own life the unanswered questions, the heartache, but also the hope that we have in Jesus Christ.
She walked into his office
Her heart was filled with fear
What was the diagnosis?
What were the things she’d hear?
The doctor, with compassion,
Said, "We’ll do what we can do."
The future isn’t easy
And this was the truth she knew.
She thought about the family
How much they really knew
The oldest was just 12
The youngest child was 2
And looking at her husband
not knowing where to begin
She said, " I’m going to fight this
I’ll fight until I win."
(Chorus)
Never did she waiver
Her faith in God was strong
Never did she ask, "Why me?
Or feel that she’d been wronged
A penny for your thoughts
What if this were your cross?
Is God’s grace big enough
to carry you through
How would you respond?
Would you feel that you’d been wronged?
A penny for your thoughts
What would you do?
Never talked of dying
God was going to heal
Her courage was contagious
Her faith in God was real
As long hours passed
And weeks turned in to days
Each moment was so precious
Her strength just faded away
At her daughter’s wedding
Would she even be missed?
The four kids would graduate
Without a mother’s kiss.
But life began to drift away
She passed the final test
She knew that God was in control
Her Spirit now could rest
(Chorus)
Young mother speaks: "And at this point in my life I can honestly say I don’t know what tomorrow holds, but I do know who holds tomorrow."
She said goodbye to everyone.
In perfect peace she died.
She would wait on heaven’s shore
Watching from the other side.
(Chorus)
As we journey through life, we’ve got a ton of unanswered questions. There’s a whole bunch of stuff we deal with that isn’t fair. And the Bible says, "We shed tears." But then it says, "But we do not grieve like those who have no hope." The essence of Christian hope is found in the words of Ira Stanphill’s wonderful song, "Many things about tomorrow I don’t seem to understand. But I know who holds tomorrow, and I know he holds my hand." That is the basis of our hope in Christ.
E-mail Comments to: Reverend Dan Sinkhorn