Hope for All Things
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I want to begin our time in the Scriptures this morning with a consideration of something that you probably would not have expected this resurrection Sunday morning.
I want us to consider the concept of lament.
Laments are interesting things. They can express raw emotion, opening our hearts to the Lord and sharing what we are feeling inside.
Listen to one David’s laments. This is Psalm 13.
How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,” lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.
Pretty raw stuff
David pouring out his heart to the Lord in anguish over his circumstances. There are many examples of these kinds of laments through the Psalms and in other portions of the Scriptures.
These passages are the words of men who in grief cry out to the Lord expressing their confusion, anger, and sorrow.
Virtually all the laments of the Scripture were written in times of deep sorrow, loss, danger, or heartbreak.
But there is one lament that was written in times of prosperity.
So many times we think when we are going through something difficult that if only things were better, then I would be happy.
And we look around at others who seem to be better off than we are and wish we could have their life.
And yet the Scriptures give us another perspective on a life of prosperity in Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes was written by a man who seemed to have it all. Wisest of the wise, richest of the rich, and more powerful than anyone else on earth at that time. Anything he wanted he could have it in a moments notice. And yet he pens for us Ecclesiastes.
Listen to Ecclesiastes Chapter one:
Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?
All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.
There is a note of despair in the voice of the Preacher. He looks around and life and says “what’s the point?? All of life is worthless!”
He uses the words “vanity of vanity”. I like the way the CSB translates these words. It says,
“Absolute futility,” says the Teacher. “Absolute futility. Everything is futile.”
That’s the idea. Everything is pointless.
These are depressing words.
We expect to hear from someone who is going through difficult things to cry out in vexation about their struggle, but this is the wealthiest, wisest, and perhaps the most powerful king Jerusalem has ever known, and he is the one expressing his displeasure with life! This can lead one to ask some very hard questions.
Questions like, if life at its best is not really any better than life at its worst, then why bother? Why not just check out before you have to endure it any more?
I find the contrast between David’s lament in Psalm 13 and the Preacher’s lament here in Ecclesiastes fascinating. Two men, ironically father and son, two very different circumstances in life. One man at the lowest of the low, and the other at the highest of the high. And yet the Preacher still is dealing with the futility of life.
These are two very different forms of lament coming from very different ends of the spectrum. The fascinating aspect to all this is the conclusion that these men come to as they work through things.
In Psalm 13 David goes from asking “God where are you?? How long will you forget me?” to ending the psalm with these words:
But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.
How does he get there? How does he go from the feeling of absolute despair and abandonment to an expression of trust in the Lord?
And then the Preacher, in Ecclesiastes concludes his book with these words:
The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
This is a statement of faith. Again. How does he get there?
How do we process the trials, hardships, and apparent futility, vanity, or worthlessness of life and come away without losing hope and losing faith in God?
It’s important to note that these passages of Scripture are OT texts. They were written hundreds of years before Jesus Christ was born, and from the context of those individuals they were anticipating the coming of the Christ who would redeem and restore them.
They were waiting for the King who would come and rule in perfect justice.
If we were to examine these texts and other passages those authors wrote, we would find that they were able to find hope and solace in the promises of God that one day, God would make everything right, and he would do it through the coming of the Messiah.
But when the long-awaited Messiah came, he did not come as they expected.
Rather than the conquering king he came as the suffering servant.
We have been walking through Mark and have seen the mission of Christ. He came to seek and saved. He came not to be served but to serve. He came to give his life.
And as we spent time here on Friday we reflected upon the sacrifice of Christ.
If you can, I’d like you to use your imagination to put yourself in the shoes of the disciples at this point in the story. Jesus Christ has just been crucified.
The man you spent the last three years following around. He’s dead. You’ve been through so much together. You’ve hiked through the wilderness. You’ve been mocked. You’ve endured life-threatening storms at sea.
Now everything you had once hoped would come to fruition seems to be fading away.
In Luke 24, some of the disciples explain what they were experiencing. This is after Christ has been raised from the dead, but before all the disciples had seen the resurrection Christ, and before they all really knew what was happening.
Two of the disciples were walking on the road and stranger approached they and asked them what they were discussing and they said the things that happened in Jerusalem. I’ll pick it up in verse 19.
Luke 24:19–21 (ESV)
And he said to them, “What things?” And they said to him, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people,
and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him.
But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.
They had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.
They had hoped that he was the one that the prophets spoke of. That he was the one who was going to cast off the oppression of the Romans. Who was going to restore justice. Who was going to bring in the promised Kingdom.
But he was killed.
And with his death their hope began to die with it.
I’m sure each of you have had experiences in life where you have felt hope die.
You had been holding out hope that something would come together, that some desired outcome would develop, that someone would change, that God would answer your prayer in a particular way, and something happened that crushed that hope.
Even when the situation isn’t final, the death of hope can feel like the end and you can feel like you’re grieving a death, because you are. It’s the death of hope.
That’s what the disciples felt as they watched their Messiah, their master, their friend. Die.
But we know that that story wasn’t finished. Amen?
We know as we read from 1 Cor 15 earlier, that in fact Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead!
And so when Jesus finally revealed himself to his disciples, they weren’t happy just because they had their friend back, what returned to them was hope! Fresh life infused into their souls!
And friends, this really is one the most foundational aspects of the Christian faith. If we have this mixed up, we might as well through our entire faith out.
While Jesus remained in the tomb, while there was still no life in his body, no breath in his lungs, hope was dead.
And if Christ had remained in the ground, hope would rightfully be dead to this day.
And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.
It useless. A dead savior is no savior at all. A dead man cannot give hope.
But if Jesus really did rise from the dead. Then that changes everything.
There is reason for Joy! There is reason for Hope!
There is a reason why resurrection Sunday to looked forward to by so many people, because we get to spend our day relishing and basking in the awesome reality of what Christ has done and what that means for us today!
But what does that mean for us today? How does the resurrection of Christ give us hope?
What I want to do for the rest of our time together to today is to talk a brief walk through Romans 8 and see some of the outworking of hope that we have if we are in Christ.
Romans 8 is one of the most precious chapters in the entire Bible. If you ever decided to set your mind to memorizing an entire chapter, this would be an excellent one to select.
Paul has been building an entire argument in the book of Romans which we do not have time to unpack. Suffice it to say that after establishing the personal need for salvation for every individual because of our own sin, Paul declares that we can be saved by faith and faith alone in the work of Christ. And that if we have been saved by His grace, then that ought to produce within us a certain desire to live as Christ lives.
But sometimes we fail. We still sin. Even though we believe in Jesus we aren't yet in our glorified state. How do we think about that?
As we come into chapter 8 Paul wants to encourage us with the hope of the Gospel.
For those who are in Christ, who have repented and trusted in Him, this is the hope that we have through His resurrection.
Hope for Acceptance
Hope for Acceptance
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
No condemnation. None. That weight of guilt that you feel because you aren’t good enough, or that you might be a bad mom, or bad husband, or that you’ve been battling some chronic sin that you want to kill but you’re struggled to gain victory over it.
If you have trusted in Christ, God has accepted you. There is no condemnation.
That doesn’t mean your sins aren’t sins. That doesn’t mean that those sins don’t matter at all. Paul dealt with that back in chapter 6.
But it does mean that you don’t have to live in fear of getting whacked because you messed up one to many times and God is just done with you.
Despite our sin, because of Christ we are accepted by God.
But there is hope for our sin as well!
Hope for Victory Over Sin
Hope for Victory Over Sin
For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
There is hope for victory over sin!
We’ve been set free from bondage to the law, bondage to sin, bondage to death!
And it’s all based on what Christ has done for us.
For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,
in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Outside of Christ we are slaves to sin and Paul says in verse eight if we remain in the flesh that we cannot please God.
But in verse 9 he says that doesn’t apply to you, if you are trusting in Jesus Christ!
Freedom from the chains of sin.
I remember when I trusted in Christ for the first time. I was living in habitual sin. The day I trusted in Christ everything changed.
I wasn’t perfect overnight. I still dealt with that sin and it took years to learn how to fight it.
But I could fight it! I wasn’t powerless any more. I had the Spirit of life within me, having been set from from the the law of sin and death!
Because Jesus Christ is alive, we have hope for victory over sin. This build upon something Paul said earlier in chapter six.
“Just as Christ Jesus was raised from the dead by the glory of the father, we too might walk in newness of life”
This is true because we have been given life.
Look at verse 11 of chapter 8
But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
Hope for Personal Resurrection
Hope for Personal Resurrection
There is a day coming when our physical bodies will die. All of us age and our bodies deteriorate.
I’m only 32 years old. But I’ve already lost most my hair. Yesterday my wrist seemed to ache for no apparent reason. I’ve had back pain. My eyes don’t work properly at times and I have to put paste in my eye every night before going to bed.
I’m only 32! It only goes down hill from here.
But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in me, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give me life to my mortal body through His Spirit.
This is not end. I have a hope for eternal life and a hope for the resurrection and restoration of my physical body!
Some day everything that is wrong and broken about my body will be restored! Even though my body dies, it will be resurrected.
Christ’s resurrection gives us hope for our own resurrection.
Hope for Creation
Hope for Creation
If we look down at verses 18-23 we see that because of what Christ has done we have hope that creation itself will be redeemed.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope
that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
There is much that could be said about this. There is sense in which all of creation is groaning under the curse of sin. All the natural disasters that we see in life. Hurricanes. Tornadoes. Wildfires. Earthquakes. Volcanoes.
It’s as if the earth itself is expressing its longing for redemption.
And that day will come. Christ’s resurrection has secured the redemption of creation itself. A day is coming when the natural disasters of the world will be history and creation is restored to peace.
That applies globally. That applies individually.
Hope for Our Trials
Hope for Our Trials
And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
Paul says we also endure hardship. But there is an end to those.
Furthermore, not only is there any end to those, but God is accomplishing his purposes in the midst of them!
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Hope for Our Trials
Hope for Our Trials
God is accomplishing His purposes in and through you, and he is able to take the worst of circumstances and use them for good in your life! You may not see it now.
You may not understand why you are enduring what you are, but if Jesus really has been raised from the dead, If there really is new life, then God is able to take what feels like death and breath new life into it and use whatever hardship you’re going through for good.
God’s not finished with you yet.
This is why the next two verses exist. Its the foundational grounding for why Paul can say this with such confidence.
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
God has taken you from lost sinner, he has saved you, and he will bring you into glory. He who began a good work in you will what? Complete it!
That should give us so much confidence that he is able to take my trials and redeem even those.
And so I close with this final point from Paul’s grand conclusion to this chapter, and notice the importance of the resurrection of Christ in this final paragraph.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,
Brothers and sisters. If Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead, than I can have hope for all things.
Hope for All Things.
Hope for All Things.
I don’t have to fear the condemnation of man. I don’t have to fear death. I don’t have to fear trials. Even if I am murdered for the sake of Christ, I have the hope that comes to be through the resurrection power of Jesus Christ.
We have hardly done justice to what is in these verses, but I hope, dear Christian that you are encouraged today by the wonderful truth of the resurrection of Christ.
We began our time with words of lamentation. We saw how even through the lament the psalmist was able to find his way back to faith and trust in God.
That hope is only possible because of this wonderful truth. That Jesus is alive.
If you are hearing my words today and you have not trusted in Christ, then these are not hopes that you have. But they can be yours.
This is the Gospel.
You must recognize that you are a sinner in the sight of God and that sin makes you worthy of God’s judgment. That’s a heavy thing.
But in God’s great love for the world, He sent His Son Jesus Christ into the world. He lived a perfect life and died on the cross. In that death he bore the judgement of God on our behalf.
And now he says you can have your sins forgiven. You can be restored. You can have hope.
How?
Repent. That word means to turn away from something. You’ve been doing life your way. You’ve been trusting in your own goodness. It’s not good enough. And it wasn’t working out for you anyway. Repent, turn away from that.
Repent and believe. Trust. Place your confidence in Jesus Christ. Repentance is the turning away. Faith is turning to Jesus Christ.
Trust that what Jesus did on the cross was done for you. Trust that if you believe on his name you will be given new life. Trust that through his death, burial and resurrection your sins are forgiven and you are made right with God. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.
You will be saved. And you will have hope. If you’ve never done that, today is the day.