What is Your Hope This Christmas?

Transcript of a sermon delivered December 4th, 2011 at OBC

On the Polar Express the children sing and talk of whether one believes and the special “magic” or experiences that await such believers. The hope the main character has is all for meeting a man in a red suit in the North Pole; this comes when all hope is fading that this man is even real. He is taken on the train ride of his life and does meet Santa and receive, from him, a special gift of a bell that only rings for those who believe. At the film’s end, the voice-over of the character as a man states the bell still rings for him always while its sounds fade for many in his life.

“Imagine a place you have to believe to see”.

What exactly is the magic or the spirit of Christmas? Whatever it is, in movies I have seen it bring dead dogs to life, grow a Grinch’s heart, take trains down icy hills safely, give men a glance at alternate lives they would live, and get a department store clerk to marry an elf!

It is all very distracting from that for which our hearts are really hoping, longing, groaning. It seems to set up a hope for something, implies it exists if we “just believe”, but reality sets in to let you know “it’s only a story” and we’re disappointed. It ends that the hope is a humanistic aspiration to fulfil that hope.

This is not a new phenomenon. Well before Christmas was cemented on our calendars, people were chasing false hope. In the first century, people were setting their hope in their citizenship, in their possessions and their abilities/accomplishments. They were placing hope in their leader, spreading the gospel of a Caesar who couldn’t save; who ultimately oppressed them and left a legacy of war and pride.

During this time, however, a small boy was born who was foretold to bring the promises of a nation to fulfillment; and He was a blessing not only for that nation, but for the whole world.

This Man grew, He began to identify Himself with the prophecies in ancient writ and He spoke as one with authority. He invaded people’s lives; never to be the same. He challenged the people’s hopes and pointed to Himself as the embodiment of Hope, giving people real reason to look beyond themselves and others for completion and reconciliation. He made a lot of statements that put Him out of the realm of being only a man and did things that often surprised, confused and even angered witnesses; he created quite a stir and He generated quite a following.

The great thing is He made good on all the promises He gave … even promises that were written in their Holy Books. And when He left, He left the world with the most complete sense of victory and the hope and promise of a new life to come; a new life that can begin here and now!

Have you placed Hope in Hope itself? Are you waiting for something to happen that is outside of your control, but desperately grasping for the steering wheel of your life, thinking you can do a better job? Do you long for something that is always beyond your reach but not really know what it is? Or worse yet: do you chase something only to have it later and then realise it does not satisfy, so you move on to something or someone else? It is difficult in this life to see the benefit of living in a hope that is promised beyond this life. So we are often content to be the captain of our own destiny; and when we do, there is always a promise out there ready to take us deeper into ourselves and away from the One who truly gives hope.

The Polar Express and so much of what is fed to us over the Holidays offer a Christ-less hope and, therefore, can not really deliver on the promises made. They take what is wholly intended as a celebration of rescue, of love and hope and feed you empty-calorie optimism that only leaves you hungrier. People and things let us down and dash our hopes daily. Yet with God, He is faithful to keep His promises, so we can hope in Him. His track record shows He is trust-worthy, so when he offers hope for this life and the one to come, one would be a fool not to take it! That is just what a “fool” is: one who has failed to recognise the sovereignty of God over all of life; here and after. Should not the One who made us know what we require and be the One in whom we hope?

Do you live life with that as your Hope? Are you distracted by the desires of the society and what the culture tells you are worth your hope? Are you a Christian this morning, and have substituted the Gospel of Hope for a Polar Express Promise?

Hope is found in Christ and in His resurrection; the promise of new life in heaven.

A life lived in such hope is satisfying and will be satisfied. Come with me; let us be awakened by the scripture this morning as we discuss Hope …

Hope is Worth Boasting in & Suffering for [Rom 5. 2-5; 8. 18] 
Boasting; celebrating the believers hope in resurrection ~ foreshadowed for us in Jesus on Easter morning. The term “rejoice” is often used to translate it here; but ‘boast’ better conveys the strength and confidence intended.

Why do we boast, when do we do it? When we have a sure confidence in something. Often our boasting is misplaced onto something temporal and limited, something that doesn’t satisfy and is self-serving, thus it is given its pejorative use throughout the NT, but herein lies proper boasting: Christ’s work on the cross and wilful exit from the tomb conquered sin’s power, worked death backwards and wrestled free the Devil’s stranglehold on us and secures us a place in heaven with rockin’ new spirit bodies ~ something definitely to brag on!

The bad news: it comes with suffering. The wicked prosper, persecution continues, bearing with the pains of sin-marred creation in people and the world, the decay of our bodies; we suffer indeed and may be tempted to give up. But we see so little down here [I Cor 13.12] …that’s why He came, at Christmas, to show us the way back to Eden. No suffering compares to that! “The glory to come far outweighs the affliction of the present. The [hardship] is light and temporary when compared to the all-surpassing and everlasting glory.” F.F. Bruce, TNTC, 159

Why are we boasting and confident? Why endure the suffering? We celebrate the fact that its impact is eternal and universal.

Hope Has Saved Us & the World [Romans 8.20-25]

The subject matter of Romans 8 is all about this present period of hope – the time between Jesus’ first and second comings!

Our full enjoyment of the salvation awaits us in the future, so we cling to it; white knuckled. “But it is not only the people of God that have this hope of glory. [what an awesome creator] All creation, says Paul, is waiting [with bated breath and with moans] for the day when the sons of God will be manifested in glory.” F.F. Bruce, TNTC, pg.160   That is when the earth too will be restored to its original glory.

Here is how boasting and suffering is part of the saving; ch. 5& 8 bookend one another.  Between these chapters, Paul makes a huge point: The climax in God’s plan is both for his people and for creation generally. Since we have not reached that climax, we must eagerly and patiently wait for it ~ so he gave us the ability to hope!
We see Hope is a cause for rejoicing and consolation for our trials, that the inevitable salvation is going to be awesome and globally inclusive…but that is the now; what do we do in the meantime? How does Hope help me now?

Hope Purifies Us, Already and Not Yet [1 John 3.2-3] Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol is a picture of one who has seen the outcome of his life early and, when given a chance of hope, takes it to purify himself; now that’s a Christmas movie!

John here, along with the whole counsel of scripture, agrees with Paul that what the Christ has accomplished impacts us beyond the space-time continuum.

John expresses here the thrust of that which is capitulated in Romans: that we are the children of God. Yes, Now. But we also will be as the Son of God, when He returns and we see Him as He is … so until that time, we purify ourselves. We do/say/think those things which align us with the commands of God in order to purify our lives from that which is not in keeping with who we will be.

Scrooge is the negative outworking of this text, but we see the effect the Gospel has on him. He turned his mind to things above.

The key to real hope rests in the discipline of setting our minds on things above, not here: Colossians 3.1-2. That is where Christ is, and it is where we too will be … Do you have such hope this Christmas?
The hope of Christmas is truer than anything the world offers us at this time of year. Don’t misunderstand me: I like Christmas and would hearten you to enjoy family & friends, gifts, singing, egg nog and the movies; so as long as you see them all through the filter of the-messiah-in-a-manger you will enjoy them properly. Since God is in control, we needn’t fear the future; His promises are sure and they make the future bright ~ God came to us, lived for us, died for us and rose again to give us hope. Hope of eternal life in His true Kingdom, sealing the deal with His Spirit. This hope is something to boast about, to suffer for; it saves us and purifies us.

The Polar Express can’t deliver that.