SA - Sermon - Hope in times of Distress

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Welcome / Intro:

Social Distancing / Flattening the Curve

Welcome / Intro:

Good Morning One Hope Church
We want to welcome you online wherever you find yourself today
We are glad you are here and we hope you are encouraged by the message

Sermon

We are going to be stepping out of our Exodus Series for at least this week
Interestingly enough where we are in the middle of the Plagues
I thought it would be good to spend directly answering this question:
Where do we find our Hope in a time such as this?
We are living in a time of fear, anxiety and panic for some.
Now life has enough anxieties of its own right?
How to raise kids? Am going to finish school? Will I ever get married?
But throw in a global pandemic and we take it to the next level.
We don’t know what’s going to happen in a week, in a month?
All we keep hearing is how many more people have been infected.
We are not sure if we can or should meet together at all.
We are not sure if we can or should meet together at all.
How to raise kids? Am going to finish school? Will I ever get married?
Pandemics are nothing new, but what is new is how connected the world is.
Pandemics are nothing new, but what is new is how connected the world is.
We are able to gather and distribute data faster and more fully than anytime in history.
I know most of you are all living this reality daily paying attention to news updates and the latest increase in infections, the latest closings.
Where’s it all going to end?
What’s going to happen?
Where do we find our hope in all of this?
Can we have peace in the midst of fear?
I want to take a look at the gospel of John this morning, specifically in what I’ll call Jesus last teaching before he goes to the cross.
This spans John ch’s 13-16
Just look at a couple verses
is a teaching that Jesus gives on the last night he is alive.

Summary of Jesus Life

Jesus lived a live of obscurity for some 30 years as a carpenter from a small town.
At the age of 30 he began his public ministry
He taught about the Kingdom of God
healed the sick,
cast out demons,
performed miracles and
showed people what God the Father was like.
After roughly three years of ministry, he was betrayed by one closest to him,
and executed by the Roman Governor at the behest of the Jewish Leaders for claiming to be God.
Jesus, more than anyone who ever lived, understands unjust suffering.
Having never done anything wrong, he died the death of a criminal.
Here he is on the night of his death.
He was about to enter into intense suffering and death.
Here he is on the night of his death.
They’ve just had the passover meal
His followers would be left leaderless and scattered.
Their whole world was about to be flipped upside down
They will be fearful and anxious, some may panic.
What would Jesus have to say in his last hours to his followers?
What hope could he offer?
This Jesus, who, rather knows about what is to happen to him
And not only that, but he will suffer betrayal, beatings and abandonment as he’s crucified.
And his followers would be disbanded and fearful and anxious.
So what would Jesus have to say to these followers?
He then gets down on his hands and knees and washes all the disciples feet ()
a task reserved for the lowest of servants.
Then he begins talking about how God is going to be glorified in Him.
And begins talking like they are not going to see him for a while ()
He’s talking about his impending death and resurrection.
Peter challenges Jesus, but is told that he will deny him three times before the morning comes.
The disciples then begin to become fearful and anxious.
Jesus never sinned, always told the truth and loved people deeply.
Jesus, more than anyone who ever lived, understands unjust suffering.
Having never done anything wrong, he died the death of a criminal.
He was about to enter into intense suffering and death.
His followers would be left leaderless and scattered.
So what would Jesus have to say to these followers?
I want to answer three questions:
What Hope can we have?
How do we get this Hope?
What is this hope?
In light of this hope how can we live?
In light of this Hope how can we live?
Let me go ahead and pray for us and then we’ll jump in.

Pray

Lord,

What Hope can we have?

is a teaching that Jesus gives on the last night he is alive.
This Jesus, who, rather than being uncertain if he is going to die, actually knows that he is going to die
After eating the Passover meal with his disciples
And not only that, but he will suffer betrayal, beatings and abandonment as he’s crucified.

Summary of Jesus Life

Jesus lived for some 30 years as a carpenter from a small town.
Then he begins talking about how God is going to be glorified in Him.
He lived a live of obscurity until at the age of 30 he began his public ministry
He taught about the Kingdom of God, 23
healed the sick,
cast out demons,
performed miracles and
showed people what God the Father was like.
After roughly three years of ministry, he was betrayed by one closest to him,
and executed by the Roman Governor at the behest of the Jewish Leaders for claiming to be God.
And begins talking like they are not going to see him for a while ()
Jesus never sinned, always told the truth and loved people deeply.
Jesus, more than anyone who ever lived, understands unjust suffering.
Having never done anything wrong, he died the death of a criminal.
He’s talking about his impending death and resurrection.
He was about to enter into intense suffering and death.
His followers would be left leaderless and scattered.
What would Jesus have to say in his last hours to his followers?
What hope could he offer?
Peter challenges Jesus, but is told that he will deny him three times before the morning comes.

My Peace I give to you.

He then gets down on his hands and knees and washes all the disciples feet ()
The disciples then begin to become fearful and anxious.
a task reserved for the lowest of servants.
Then he begins talking about how God is going to be glorified in Him.
And begins talking like they are not going to see him for a while ()
When Peter, the Lead disciple, doubts Him, Jesus tells him that he will deny that he even knows them before morning.
The disciples then begin to become fearful and anxious.
Sensing their distress Jesus says
John 14:1 ESV
1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.
He says that he is going to prepare the way for them.
But he tells them one thing he will leave with them. Peace.
John 14:27 ESV
27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
John
Peace — shalom, harmony, wholeness.
It’s what we all long for in this pandemic.
Can I have peace in the midst of uncertainty?
Can I be settled in my soul?
Jesus says yes, in fact it is MY PEACE that I will give to you.
It is NOT how the World gives peace.

How the World Gives Peace

The World gives peace with...
The promise of the most updated information
And of knowledge.
If we can just understand then we’ll have peace
The security found in health
The promise of wealth
The promise of knowledge
If we could just understand it we could fixe it and it would be ok
The promise of a cure
then we don’t have to worry about it.
These are all hopes in this World.
Contingent and contained within this world.

The Peace that Jesus Offers

But what if there was a peace that went beyond...
anything we could know
any amount of health or wealth
anything we could fix ourselves
This is the PEACE THAT JESUS offers us.
Because it is not grounded in this world, but another.
The World to Come.
You and I were never meant for just this world, but for another..
CS Lewis famously said in Mere Christianity.
CS Lewis wrote that the existence of hunger, proves that something like food must exist.
"Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for these desires exists. A baby feels hunger; well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim; well, there is such a thing as water. Human beings feel sexual desire; well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."
Jesus says, “I am your Peace” because I’m going to secure your path to eternal life.
Because you were made for another world,
The World which I created in the beginning.
You can have HOPE in a time like this.
Even in affliction like pandemics?
Yes, especially in affliction.
In fact, Jesus teaches that affliction is sure to come.
At the end of , he summarizes his teaching in this way:
John 16:33 ESV
33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
You will have tribulation = distress, affliction, suffering, injustice

Why will there be affliction?

God if you are in control, wouldn’t be easier to not have affliction?
God says Yes, in fact.
The world God intended when he created it was not one with pestilences, plagues, or pandemics
It was one of peace, harmony and self-giving love.
But something has gone wrong.
When our first parents turned away from God to and themselves in sin, the world was fractured and nothing would ever be the same.
No matter what you believe — something is wrong with the world, something is wrong with people.
Something deep inside of us knows, this NOT how it’s supposed to be
We live in a fallen and broken world.
Trusted in ourselves
our own ability to control things.
our own ability to understand things.
This is what the Bible means by Sin
This is what sin is: It is a deeply engrained sense of self importance, self preservation and self centeredness.
The remedy is not to focus on others, for that could just be another more sinister form of self-righteousness,
rather the remedy is to focus on JESUS.
That we have all gone our own way.
This is what sin is: It is a deeply engrained sense of self importance, self preservation and self centeredness.
The remedy is not to focus on others, for that could just be another more sinister form of self-righteousness,
rather the remedy is to focus on JESUS.
When our first parents turned away from God to and themselves in sin, the world was fractured and nothing would ever be the same.
The remedy is not to focus on others, for that could just be another more sinister form of self-righteousness,
rather the remedy is to focus on JESUS.
This is the World we are born into.
It is a fallen and broken world
It doesn’t work as it should.
Yet Jesus says,
Yet Jesus says, Take Heart.
Take Heart.
WHY?
I have overcome the world.
That is I have overcome this fallen world and I am making it new.
And I’m going away so that In the new one that I’m bringing,
there will be no pestilences, plagues, or pandemics
Jesus came and was broken on a cross, that the world might be brought back together.
When Jesus resurrected, he began making all things new.
He is on a mission to renew, restore and reconcile all things to God.
In the age to come, there will be no more suffering, sadness or sin.
For all that will have been destroyed.
And the life that we are all longing for...
One of joy, peace, fulfillment and satisfaction with be made a reality forever with Jesus in Heaven.
This is where we find our Hope.
This is why he says. “let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” ()

How Do We Get This Hope?

Jesus says, do you want to know the way to eternal life? To this kind of Peace?
He says...
John 14:6 ESV
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
I am your WAY. I am your Hope. I am your Peace. I am your LIFE
I am your Hope. I am your Peace. I am your Way.
Yes, especially in affliction.
In fact, affliction is sure to come.
At the end of , he summarizes his teaching in this way:
John 16:33 ESV
33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
You will have tribulation = distress, affliction, suffering, injustice

We live in a fallen and broken world.
The world God intended when he created it was not one with pestilences, plagues, or pandemics
It was one of peace, harmony and self-giving love.
I am your way to eternal life, true life, lasting life, life beyond this world.
No matter what you believe — something is wrong with the world, something is wrong with people.
Something deep inside of us knows, this NOT how it’s supposed to be

fall

Take Heart.

I have overcome the world.
That is I have overcome this fallen world and I am making it new.
In the new one that I’m bringing,
there will be no pestilences, plagues, or pandemics
This is where we find our Hope.
This is where we find our Hope.
He says the same thing in
He says the same thing in
John 14:1 ESV
1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.
John 3:16 ESV
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
The way to this kind of HOPE is to Believe in Jesus.
He is the way to eternal life.
Why?
Because God loves you
Jesus is the demonstration of and the way back to the Love of God.
Jesus who came to pay the penalty for Sin.
To bridge the chasm that sin created
to bring us back to God.
to reach down into death and bring us back with him.
What’s gone wrong is that we all have run away from God
Trusted in ourselves
our own ability to control things.
our own ability to understand things.
We’ve separated ourselves from God
This is what the Bible means by Sin
That we have all gone our own way.
It is a deeply engrained sense of self importance, self preservation and self centeredness
field by unbelief in God and an inability to see Him as he is.
But Jesus is the demonstration of God’s love for you.
That Jesus is running after you to bring you back home.
Jesus who came to pay the penalty for Sin.
To bridge the chasm that sin created
to bring us back to God.
It’s like my daughter running off into traffic and me as a good father calling them back, physically pulling them back.
to reach down into death and bring us back with him.
Sacrificing my life to save theirs
This is how God feels towards you.
What is required to have this kind of Hope?
The only requirement to come to Jesus is that you realize your deep NEED FOR HIM.
To stop running away from God and rather run towards him.

What do we need to believe?

That you need Him.
The only requirement to come to Jesus is that you realize your deep NEED FOR HIM.
To listen to His Call
This means recognizing that you run away from God your whole life
and you have tried it on your own terms,
and trusted only in your abilities.
you have done wrong in your life
you have failed to do right
And that you need to be rescued from yourself, rescued from sin.
It’s like my daughter running off into traffic and me as a good father pulling them back, calling them back.
This is how God feels towards you.
It means coming home.
It means giving your whole life to him.
every part of who you are.
And let him re-make you into the person he’s made you to be.
God loves you. Even in this time.
God, like a good father, knows what is best for us.
NOT an absence of pain, but that we would have a relationship with Him.
Perhaps he’s trying to get your attention.
giving us an opportunity to reassess, reprioritize
On our deathbed, we tend to assess our life.
Our regrets, our joys.
Nobody is going to say I wish I would have spent more time at work.
When we near death it forces us to examine our life.
So to, when something like a pandemic comes
It gives us an opportunity to assess our life before we get to our death bed.
It is a chance to see what is most important.
It gives us a chance to reorient and reprioritize our life.
Is God trying to get your attention right now?
how is he asking you to reorient your life?
Can you hear him calling?
God, like a good father, knows what is best for us.
NOT an absence of pain, but that we would have a relationship with Him.
It’s what animates us our our deepest levels and allows us to live extraordinary lives of giving and serving others.
But in Jesus God demonstrates who he is by paying the penalty for sin,
by running after us to bring us back home,
by being cast out that we could be brought in.
It means believing that Jesus died for your sins, that your sin was worthy of death.
But Jesus took that death upon himself and offers you not just life in this age,
but eternal life.
There is no other way to deal with sin against an eternal God.
The only way was to send and eternal being to pay the eternal price against an eternal God.
Jesus died that you and I might have life, eternal life, true life, lasting life. Life that extends beyond this world.
This is what gives us peace.
God has loved us in Jesus.
That we too can be reconciled to God now and forever more.
If you haven’t given your whole life to Jesus, I pray that you would do that now.
If you haven’t given your whole life to Jesus, I pray that you would do that now.
We’d love to talk with you.
Already told us, to believe in Him
Our hope is found in the love of God demonstrated for us in Jesus Christ.
John 3:16 ESV
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:17 ESV
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Perhaps he’s trying to get your attention.
giving us an opportunity to reassess, reprioritize
On our deathbed, we tend to assess our life.
Our regrets, our joys.
Nobody is going to say I wish I would have spent more time at work.
When we near death it forces us to examine our life.
So to, when something like a pandemic comes
It gives us an opportunity to assess our life before we get to our death bed.
It is a chance to see what is most important.
It gives us a chance to reorient and reprioritize our life.
Is God trying to get your attention right now?
how is he asking you to reorient your life?
God, like a good father, knows what is best for us.
NOT an absence of pain, but that we would have a relationship with Him.
It’s like plugging a cord into an outlet, it’s what gives us life, true life, eternal life, lasting life, a life that goes beyond this world.
It’s what animates us our our deepest levels and allows us to live extraordinary lives of giving and serving others.

The Problem:

Sin, unbelief, fear, self preservation.
But when we believe in the certainty of the life to come and the path to get there, we can live a life of self sacrifice in order to preserve others.
This is why Jesus said, I am the Way.
The remedy is not to focus on others, for that could just be another more sinister form of self-righteousness,
rather the remedy is to focus on JESUS.
This is why Jesus said, I am the Way.

That you need Him.
The only requirement to come to Jesus is that you realize your deep NEED FOR HIM.
This means recognizing that you run away from God your whole life
and you have tried it on your own terms,
and trusted only in your abilities.
This is what we call sin. It is rooted in unbelief and an inability to see God for who he truly is.
But in Jesus God demonstrates who he is by paying the penalty for sin,
by running after us to bring us back home,
by being cast out that we could be brought in.
It means believing that Jesus died for your sins, that your sin was worthy of death.
But Jesus took that death upon himself and offers you not just life in this age,
but eternal life.
There is no other way to deal with sin against an eternal God.
The only way was to send and eternal being to pay the eternal price against an eternal God.
Jesus died that you and I might have life, eternal life, true life lasting life. Life that extends beyond this world.
This is what gives us peace.
God has loved us in Jesus.
That we too can be reconciled to God now and forever more.
If you haven’t given your whole life to Jesus, I pray that you would do that now.
We’d love to talk with you.

In Light of this Hope

When we believe and experience the love of Christ
we are then empowered to live the sort of life that he did.
It’s like plugging a cord into an outlet
it’s what gives us life, true life, eternal life, lasting life, a life that goes beyond this world.
It’s what animates us our our deepest levels and allows us to live extraordinary lives of giving and serving others.
In fact this is what he calls us to.
John 15:12 ESV
12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
John 15:9–13 ESV
9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. 12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
John 15:12–13 ESV
12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
Greater love has no one than this: Jesus laid down his life for all of us.
But how?
By trusting in Jesus that we do not live for this world, but the world to come.
How do we do this?
By ABIDE in HIM
The remedy for self-centeredness is not to focus on others
for that could just be another more sinister form of self-righteousness,
rather the remedy is to focus on JESUS.
he says a few verses early that he is the vine and we are the branches, and that we can bear no fruit unless we abide in Him.
John 15:5 ESV
5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
Our love for others comes from abiding in His love.
It’s the only source of power we have to live selfless lives.
The remedy for self-centeredness is not to focus on others
This has been how the TRUE CHURCH has responded throughout History.
for that could just be another more sinister form of self-righteousness,
rather the remedy is to focus on JESUS.
In Rodney Stark’s book The Rise of Christianity, he answers the questions How did the obscure, marginal, Jesus movement become the dominant religious force in the Western world in a few centuries?
One of the key factors was the church’s response to plagues.

The Church in History - Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria

The Church in History

How did the obscure, marginal, Jesus movement become the dominant religious force in the Western world in a few centuries?
That is the subtitle of Rodney Stark’s The Rise of Christianity, a book that explores a number of key factors—one of which is plagues.
Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria
The Plague of Cyprian (249–262 AD) was a lethal pandemic that, at its height, caused upwards of 5,000 deaths a day in Rome. While the plague severely weakened the Roman empire, the Christian response to it won admiration and a greater following.
May we—with our own pandemic—live out the wisdom and way of Jesus before a watching world.
Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria, reported: 
Most of our brother Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty, never sparing themselves and thinking only of one another. Heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ, and with them departed this life serenely happy; for they were infected by others with the disease, drawing on themselves the sickness of their neighbors and cheerfully accepting their pains. Many, in nursing and curing others, transferred their death to themselves and died in their stead.
This perfectly demonstrated the love of Christ.
This evident Christlikeness—taking death in order to give life—stood in stark contrast to those outside the church. Dionysius continues:
taking death in order to give life—stood in stark contrast to those outside the church. Dionysius continues:
But with the heathen everything was quite otherwise. They deserted those who began to be sick, and fled from their dearest friends. They shunned any participation or fellowship with death; which yet, with all their precautions, it was not easy for them to escape. (Eusebius, Eccl. Hist. 7.22.7–10)
In Rodney Stark’s book The Rise of Christianity, he answers the questions How did the obscure, marginal, Jesus movement become the dominant religious force in the Western world in a few centuries?
One of the key factors was the church’s response to plagues.

This is a life lived IN LIGHT OF THE HOPE OF CHRIST.
When we think this life is all we have we will sacrifice anyone and anything in order to preserve it.
But when we believe in the certainty of the life to come we can live a life of self sacrifice in order to preserve others.
We too can Lay down our lives for others, as Jesus did.
This is a call to the CHURCH, wherever you are.
How can we lay down our lives for those in need?
But how?
Because Jesus was risen from the dead, we now have a living Hope.
Because Jesus was risen from the dead, we now have a living Hope.
By trusting in Jesus that we do not live for this world, but the world to come.
And we CAN live for others, just as Jesus tells us to.
But how?
How do we do this?
We must ABIDE in HIM
By ABIDE in HIM
The remedy for self-centeredness is not to focus on others
for that could just be another more sinister form of self-righteousness,
rather the remedy is to focus on JESUS.
he says a few verses early that he is the vine and we are the branches, and that we can bear no fruit unless we abide in Him.
John 15:5 ESV
5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
Joh
Just as our salvation was entirely God’s work, our sanctification is God’s work as we abide in HIM.
John 15:
John 15:16–17 ESV
16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.
Our love for others comes from abiding in His love.
It’s the only source of power we have to live selfless lives.
The Church in History
How did the obscure, marginal, Jesus movement become the dominant religious force in the Western world in a few centuries?
That is the subtitle of Rodney Stark’s The Rise of Christianity, a book that explores a number of key factors—one of which is plagues.

1. Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria

The Plague of Cyprian (249–262 AD) was a lethal pandemic that, at its height, caused upwards of 5,000 deaths a day in Rome. While the plague severely weakened the Roman empire, the Christian response to it won admiration and a greater following.
May we—with our own pandemic—live out the wisdom and way of Jesus before a watching world.
Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria, reported: 
Most of our brother Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty, never sparing themselves and thinking only of one another. Heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ, and with them departed this life serenely happy; for they were infected by others with the disease, drawing on themselves the sickness of their neighbors and cheerfully accepting their pains. Many, in nursing and curing others, transferred their death to themselves and died in their stead.
This evident Christlikeness—taking death in order to give life—stood in stark contrast to those outside the church. Dionysius continues:
But with the heathen everything was quite otherwise. They deserted those who began to be sick, and fled from their dearest friends. They shunned any participation or fellowship with death; which yet, with all their precautions, it was not easy for them to escape. (Eusebius, Eccl. Hist. 7.22.7–10)

Application

Application

So if you have believed in Christ, what does loving others look like during this time?
Let me give you a couple practical things you can do:
get those things done around the house
Pray.
Jesus says when you abide in me, you can ask that he might give it to you.
We can pray for our communities, our leaders, our brothers and sisters.
We can heed the instructions of the Authorities
This means following the guidelines of social distancing, gatherings and cleanliness
This doesn’t mean we lack faith, it means we are being prudent and loving those who are most vulnerable by considering them.
We can demonstrate our confidence in Jesus
But not fearing or panicking, but serving and protecting
It means we can acknowledge the severity of the situation while also acknowledging God’s power and plan over it.
Care for and Serve those in need
Elderly or immunocompromised
Healthcare workers — WORKING OVERTIME
NPR STORY
Look at apps like Next Door for people in your neighborhood
It means dropping of a flyer at people’s door in your neighborhood offering help if needed
Financially:
Financially:
It may be spending money rather than hoarding it.
The Economy is taking a hit.
We can be wise and prudent with wealth
But we can also be self-preserving.
Are there ways you can help small businesses stay afloat in this time?
It may mean supporting those in financial need.
Redeem your time at home:
It may mean stewarding this time with your family to renew spiritual rhythms.
Getting to those house projects
Continue to be connected
It means: social distancing does not mean social isolation.
continue to stay connected through the many incredible digital options we have.
At One Hope, get connected to our FACEBOOK GROUP
Check out our website for resources for connecting online.
If you are looking to get connected, let us know, send us a message on facebook.
These are strange times and we need each other more than ever. Let us look to Jesus and trust in Him
Lets serve and love one another and be the Church.

Let’s pray