Sermon Tone Analysis

Hope is an Essential Part of life.

Humans seek after hope like moths seek after light.

It’s intrinsic to who we are.

Neuroscientists Tali Sharot argues hope is so essential to our survival that it is hardwired into our brains, arguing it can be the difference between living a healthier life versus one trapped by despair.

Studies show hopeful college kids get higher GPA’s and are more likely to graduate.

Hopeful athletes perform better on the field, cope better with injuries, and have greater mental adjustment when situations change.

In one study of the elderly, those who said they felt hopeless were more than twice as likely to die during the study follow-up period than those who were more hopeful.

It’s pretty clear: hope is powerfully catalytic, and why Dr. Shane Lopez, the psychologist who was regarded as the world’s leading researcher on hope, claimed that hope isn’t just an emotion but an essential life tool.

Over a ten-year span, it turns out that the one factor most strongly predictive of suicide is not how sick the person is, nor how many symptoms he or she exhibits, nor how much physical pain he or she is suffering, nor whether the person is rich or poor.

The most dangerous factor is a person sense of hopelessness.

The person without hope is the likeliest person to commit suicide.

We can not exist without Hope

HOPE The confidence that, by integrating God’s redemptive acts in the past with trusting human responses in the present, the faithful will experience the fullness of God’s goodness both in the present and in the future.

NOTE: Biblical faith rests on God’s trustworthiness to keep His promises.

The verb קָוָה (qawah) means “to wait or to look for with eager expectation” (Hartley, קָוָה, qawah), as upon Yahweh (Holladay, “קוה, qwh”).

The essential notion is that the God of Israel is reliable and worthy of His people’s trust.

Trusting and hoping in Yahweh, however, is an expression of great faith.

Such action on Israel’s part means “enduring patiently in confident hope that God will act decisively for the salvation of his people” (Hartley, “קָוָה, qawah”; Gen 49:18; Isa 49:23; Psa 37:9).

God has planned to give his people light again, though the timing of this is not specified.

8:17 “I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him.

There is a sense of a sure hope that it is written in the past tense as something that has already happened.

Believers walking in darkness can already see the great light and are sustained by hope.

I remember in elementary school we made these devices out of a paper towel tube so that we could watch the total eclipse of the sun.

It was supposedly suppose to protect our eyes from looking directly at the son.

Total darkness is immediately given way to immediate light.

I was struck by the waiting and waiting for the sun to be covered by the silhouette of the Moon and once it was covered it immediately began to display the light from the sun.

Almost as if the light from the sun could not be contained.

This is the picture we get in verse 2 “The people who have walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in deep darkness, on them has light shone.

This doesn’t necessarily look like a heading for your next Christmas card does it?

Isaiah 8:19-22 sets the stage for 9:1-7.

Note: Isaiah saw this prediction of darkness began to be fulfilled but, as always, we have to decide what reading of our experiences we are going to live by.

This prophecy was written 700 years before Jesus birth.

BIG IDEA: Only the Light of Our Hope can push back the Darkness.

Note: The people know that they should be pushing back against the darkness and seeking God, however, they are consulting different mediums and spirits.

You may say well, that was then, and this is now.

I assure you that there are plenty of spirits and mediums that people are consulting today.

People who were people of the Torah, the chosen people of God, knew that they should be diving deep into God and his word but, here is the Verdict.

“THE PEOPLE LOVED DARKNESS MORE THAN THE LIGHT.”

Here is the good news, God refuses to leave us where we are in the darkness.

Notice my favorite word in the text again.

“But” there will be no gloom.

The Light of our Hope is in the Glory

Christian Hope is not Uncertain

God’s Glory is the object of our Hope!

Like our everyday hopes about the weather or our health; it is a joyful and confident expectation which rests on the promises of God, as we saw in the case of Abraham.

The object of our hope is the Glory of God meaning the splendor with which will in the end fully be displayed.

One day the curtain will be removed and the veil lifted from all of humanity so that they will see the glory of God in it’s full display.

NOTE: Jesus coming as fully God and fully man displayed the glory of God in flesh.

This is a future glory that we will see manifested in three ways.

*The Hope we have of Future Glory is an Objective hope not Subjective.

Hope in the English language conveys doubt or speculation.

The word hope is many times followed by the word so.

This is the answer some may give if asked if they think they will go to heaven when they die.

They say, “ I Hope So.”

However, this is not the meaning of the world that is translated “hope” in the Bible.

The Old Hebrew word Batah resonates the meaning of confidence, security, and being without care; therefore, the concept of doubt is not part of this word.

Possible the best verse to identify hope in scripture is Hebrews 11:1

This carries with it the sound and feeling of a confident assurance or hope in God.

So, the object of our Hope is Jesus Christ.

As believers we are also commanded to give an answer for the hope that is within us to anyone who asks. 1 Peter3:15

So, Biblical Hope is an assured reality not a feeling.

Biblical hope carries not doubt.

This is the foundation on which we base our whole lives that God is trustworthy and true in every way.

1)Jesus Christ himself will appear with great power and glory.

All of creation is waiting with eager expectation for the day of Christ’s revealing, when the veil of heaven will be pealed back and Jesus Christ will return in all of His glory.

There will be no mistaking the return of the king.

Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings

Tolkien describes Aragorn as someone that none of us would really be attracted to.

As Tolkien would put it, “All that is gold does not glitter" (Fellowship of the Ring ch.10).

This sounds very familiar to a passage of scripture that describes Jesus: Isaiah 53:2

Furthermore, in Return of the King, Aragorn dies a figurative death when he enters the Path of the Dead to summon the deceased traitors of the mountain to fulfill their ancient oath and fight for Gondor.

Though Aragorn himself did not die, he willingly entered into a world in which the line between life and death is very blurred.

Moreover, being surrounded by ghosts, darkness, evil, skulls, and other symbols of death emphasizes Aragorn’s metaphorical death.

Once Aragorn emerges from the dark Path of the Dead, he leads his newfound army of the dead to liberate Gondor from the forces of darkness.

Upon the fall of Sauron, flight of Sauron’s armies, and Aragorn's healing of the people of Gondor, Aragorn is crowned king with much praise and exaltation.

His coronation signaled the restoration of the ancient Kingdom of Gondor and began a time of unparalleled peace.

The Christ symbolism of Aragorn largely draws from the Jesus of Revelation.

In Christian theology, Jesus Christ is going to return to the world and rescue all those who have faithfully served God.

When Jesus returns, the book of Revelation describes Jesus as a warrior much like Aragorn:

Remember that the first time Jesus came he appeared as the Lamb being led to slaughter, which many saw as week an unappealing.

Look at the Description now of the return of the King.

“For every boot of the warrior that tramps noisily, and the cloak rolled in blood, rolled for burning.”

Note: All military acts will be committed to the flames, that the reign of peace and justice may commence.

2) We will not only see His glory but be changed into it.

Note: We will not only see his glory but we will be changed into it, so that he will ‘be glorified in his holy people.’

Then redeemed human beings, who were created in the first place to be ‘the image and glory of God.’ Remember to be made in the image of God means that you were created to reflect His glory.

3) All of creation will be liberated from it’s bondage of decay.

The renewed Universe will be displayed with the Creators Glory.

All this is included in the glory of God and is therefore the object of our sure hope.

*The hope we have of future glory is powerful motivation for our present duty.

Note: The fruits of our justification relate to the past, present and future hope.

So, what is our present duty as his creation, to wait with an objective hope, not merely a subjective idea of hope.

The hope we rest in is an active hope.

We have peace with God (our past forgiveness).

We are standing in His Grace (our present privilege).

We rejoice in the hope of glory (our future inheritance)

2. The Light of our Hope is in the Suffering

Note: The sufferings that Paul speaks of can also be translated as tribulations.

These are not what we sometimes call trials and tribulations of our earthly existence, meaning our aches and pains, fears, frustrations and disappointments.

These are specifically pressures referring to the opposition and persecution of a hostile world.