The Hope of New Life
Advent 2023 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Merry, wet and warm Christmas to you all!
Grace and peace to each one of you
I trust that this morning the God of Hope is revealed to you
This Advent season, we have been focusing on Hope.
We, as people, are desperate for hope. Life without hope is a miserable life
But the hope that we are talking about is not some vague and helpless wish that something will take place.
No! The hope that the Bible talks about is a confident expectation that something will take place, or is taking place right now.
We’ve been talking about how sin entered this world as recorded for us in Gen chapter 3
We call that event The Fall of Mankind.
And when sin entered this world, hope departed.
Mankind was cut off from God and became the most desperate and hopeless of Creatures.
However, God wasn’t done with His people. And He had a plan in place to restore Hope
And it’s through Jesus, whose birth we celebrate today, that we have hope. A true, real, confident expectation! A Living Hope
We looked at
How the Fall broke our relationship with God and the hope of reconciliation that we have through Jesus
How the Fall put us in bondage to sin, yet we have hope of deliverance in Jesus
How the fall brought weariness, pain, and toil to our world, and into our lives, yet we have hope of rest in Jesus
And today I invite us to think briefly about how the Fall brought death into the world. I know we don’t want to talk about death at Christmas
But we must acknowledge the reality of our situation before we can fully appreciate the Hope that we have!
But through Jesus, we have the hope of new life.
Back to Adam and Eve in the garden
God had told them that the Garden was theirs to use. Everything in it was available to them
Except for one thing.
And that was the fruit of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
God told them, the day that you eat that fruit, you will certainly die.
But Eve was tempted by the serpent who came to her and said
“Hey, did God really say that? Did He really say that if you eat that fruit, you will die?”
“I don’t think that’s what He really meant to communicate. Rather, He doesn’t want you to eat that fruit because He knows that the day that you do eat it, you will become like Him.”
And satan, speaking through the serpent, twisted the truth just enough that Adam and Eve were persuaded and they took the fruit and put it to their mouths
And the moment that they bit into it
What God said would happen, did indeed happen.
They died
No, they didn’t drop over on the ground
But something almost far worse happened:
They died spiritually. Their source of spiritual life was cut off and immediately they died spiritually, and they began to die physically.
It was at this point that sin entered the world
And with sin, death also entered the world
Romans 5:12 “12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—”
The Bible is pretty clear that death is the direct result of sin.
When they sinned, it was at this point that death also entered the world
Disease and pain and death entered the world
Human beings, mankind, began to feel the terrible weight of what had happened
Their days became numbered
The aging process began
The ugliness of sin crept into their hearts and they began to do terrible things to each other
One of Adam and Eve’s sons killed his brother
And things became worse and worse
warfare and fighting entered the world
We have wars in the Ukraine and in Gaza, and Sudan, and in places that don’t even make it into the news
City streets in places like Chicago are literal killing fields
(although I just read that violent crime in Chicago is actually down, which is good)
And today we are all touched, sometimes in the most tragic of ways with death
Our hearts are separated from God, the Giver of Life
Our bodies are weak and die
Without a doubt, we know well our need for new life
But it was at the Fall as well that even all of creation began to die
It was at this point that even the earth began to feel the terrible weight of what had just happened.
Even The earth suffers from sin. Not its own sin, but our sin
The earth suffers from our sinful use of it
All the ways in which we use the earth for our own sinful and selfish desires instead of for the glory of God.
But even more than that, the Bible says that when Adam and Eve sinned, God cursed the ground
And the earth is growing tired and dying as well
Natural resources are being used up at a tremendous rate. I don’t believe that the earth can sustain human life indefinitely
We deal with air pollution and water pollution
There are earthquakes, and violent storms, and wild fires, droughts and floods
Even the earth is suffering from the weight of sin that has entered the world
Romans 8 19 For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. 20 Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, 21 the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. 22 For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. (NLT)
Yes, all of creation was subjected to the curse and has been groaning, eagerly awaiting for redemption, for new life
But, I don’t want to dwell on death today.
What I want to talk about is
The tremendous hope that we celebrate today! The hope of new life in Jesus!
This is what Jesus came to do: To give new life to those who believe!
In John chapter 1 it says that “in Him (Jesus) was life and that life was the light of men”.
Jesus called Himself, “the Bread of Life”
He said, “I have living water for you to drink”
He said, “I have come to give you life. Abundant life! Life to the fullest!”
When His friend Lazarus died, Jesus said to Lazarus’ sister, Martha, “I am the Resurrection and the Life”.
Jesus said to His disciples, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life!”
there is no doubt about it. When you receive Jesus, by faith, you receive new life!
You move from death to life!
And as we abide in Him, Jesus continues His work of renewing, recreating, and bringing life
In Jesus we have
the hope of a new heart
It’s made clear in Scripture, that the deep problem that we have is that our hearts are dead apart from Christ
Thinking about the children of Israel and all the problems that they had staying faithful to God
The problem that they had was that their hearts were dead
And try as they might, it was impossible for them to stay completely faithful to God.
It was impossible for them to obtain righteousness by obeying the law in its entirety
God knew that. But, of course, the whole purpose of the law was to point out that very fact: that human beings on their own cannot hope to attain to the righteous standard of perfection that God demands
The purpose of the law was to point us toward the hope that we have in Jesus
The purpose of the law was to point out to us that we need a new heart
Because the one that we are born with is one that is dead apart from God, our Creator, the Giver of Life
We need a heart transplant
Ezekiel 36:25–27 “25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”
This is the promise of a new heart. Not a new organ that pumps blood
But it’s the transformation of the deepest part of you:
Your motives
Your desires
Your affections
that part of us from which we live
But that’s not all
God says, “I’m going to put my Spirit inside of you”. His very power and presence living inside of us
That is the promise that God made to His people centuries ago
And this prophecy, this promise is fulfilled in Jesus Christ
When Jesus left this earth, He sent the Holy Spirit
And the Holy Spirit is the very spirit of God who lives in us and with us
And the Holy Spirit:
Cleanses us
Transforms us
Empowers us
by faith in Christ, we receive a new heart. We receive newness of life…abundant life
So, the hope that we celebrate today is the hope of a new heart
And looking forward, we celebrate
the hope of a new body
I know that we look forward to this!
I know. I’m not very old. But, believe me, this is something that I have been dealing with, honestly
It seems about the time I turned 50, I really noticed a change in my body.
My eyesight (reading eyesight) really went to pot
the battle of the bulge became more pronounced
decrease in appetite, but not a decrease in weight
And as these things started to go away, the invincible feeling that I might have had at one time started to be shaken as well
Our bodies really are pretty weak, and at any moment what health we have can be taken from us
But we have a great hope that one day these bodies will be replaced with bodies that don’t get sick, don’t age, and will never die.
in 1 Cor. 15, Paul makes this very clear.
The bodies that we have are scarred by sin.
And we can’t inherit perfection, we can’t live forever in the presence of God with bodies that are ravaged by the effects of sin
No! We need new bodies: imperishable bodies as he calls them. Ones that don’t age, don’t get sick and don’t die
So, he says, one day, this perishable body that we have, will put on an imperishable body
This mortal body will put on immortality
And, at that point, he says, “death will be swallowed up in victory!”
Sin will be forever conquered and done away with, and, therefore, there will be no more death
What an amazing hope this is! Are you looking forward to that day? I sure am!
the hope of a new world
Oh man, this is another one that I’m looking forward to!
You know, I often wonder what this country looked like before European settlers arrived
A vast, wild and beautiful place inhabited by nomadic tribes, massive herds of bison,
vast forests
A landscape unmarked by city highrises, highways, and powerlines
Rivers, lakes and streams unpolluted by toxic runoff
It must have been something!
We can only imagine what this world looked like when God finished His work of creation
And there are times when I wish I could live back then and see what people back then saw
But you know, I am looking forward to a day when God will recreate this world and give it a complete makeover
And once again it will display the perfection of His handiwork
I love John’s vision in the book of Revelation
Many times we might read Revelation and we see the aweful and mysterious things described in there, and we think, “Oh no! God is going to destroy this world!” And it seems awful
But you know, I don’t think that is a very accurate picture
Because God isn’t in the business of destroying. He is in the business of renewal and new life
I believe that it is not in God’s plane to destroy this earth
Rather, He desires to renew it. He desires to give it a complete makeover
Maybe a picture from our experience is if we restore an old house or an old car.
You don’t destroy the old car. Rather you get out your sandpaper and grind away the old. you fill in the dents and the cracks.
You get out your paint and give it a beautiful new coat
And maybe that’s a picture of what God has in mind
He’s going to get out His sandpaper and completely rub out the scars of sin
He’s going to get out His paint and varnish and renew this earth
And it’s going to look like a completely new earth
The apostle John wraps up his revelation with this vision:
Revelation 21:1–4 “1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.””
Folks, I can’t wait for this day!
A new heaven, a new earth
And the dwelling place of God coming down to earth
God Himself living among us, bringing peace and comfort and a world free from sin and free from death
THIS is the hope that we celebrate today!
Jesus has come to give us life. And the invitation stands open this morning!
Have you received Him? Have you tasted of the life that Jesus brings?
Do you have the very real hope of a new body and life with Him
if not, this is your opportunity this morning
The reason that we have any of this hope is because of Jesus, who came so many years ago