1 Thessalonians 2:8

But we proclaim Christ crucified... For there is born to you this day in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord. (cf. Luke 2:8-14)

From Genesis to eternity, the whole of Scripture points to one hope—and His name is Jesus.

A Season That Affects Us Differently

As we sit here December 1st, there's no denying it—Christmas is here. Whether your attitude is "already" or "finally," it sets off a time when we reflect on a few things. You consider how fast the year has gone, how crazy it's been, how you'll make it through this next month without financially destroying yourself. You may be excited about Christmas lights and family, or you may dread this time of year.

This season elicits different effects in each of us. My family and I love Christmas. Our volunteers love it so much they showed up on their day off to make the church look Christmassy—thank you to them. But some dread Christmas, and there are reasons: hurt, trauma, the death of a loved one, an empty seat at the table, anxiety. With that understanding in mind, this is our why. Every year we do a Christmas Advent series because it gives us a chance to rejoice and reflect on the reasons we are called to celebrate and give thanks for what Christmas should represent to us as believers.

The Subject of Hope

Pastor Miles is out for a few weeks—not in Fiji, unfortunately, but on the East Coast for school. As he asked us which messages to take, I specifically requested this first message on hope. All of our pastors love the subject of the hope that comes with Jesus Christ. It's what our foundations are built upon. But one thing we also deeply understand is that without hope, we are truly lost. I've served this church for over two decades and currently serve as a chaplain with the police department. Each of us has seen the person who doesn't have hope. Hope is vital to every life.

As we grow in our walks with the Lord, one of the best practices is getting into the Word and praying. It's a simple task, but it draws us close to the Lord. As we work through Scripture with hope in view, we see different eras and angles of hope depending on where we read—the Old Testament, the Gospels, the latter New Testament.

The Problem That Runs Through the Old Testament

On Sunday mornings we just finished Judges, and it ended on a bleak note. To be fair, it didn't begin well either. We came out of Joshua, triumphant: "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Everybody's cheering. Then Judges 2 tells us Joshua died, and "after them, a generation arose up who did not know the Lord or the works he had done for Israel." One generation later, the Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, worshiping Baal and abandoning the God who brought them out of Egypt.

This was not some far-off pagan group—this was the chosen people of the Lord. We spent a year and a half in Judges, and chapter 19 is one of the more depraved passages in all of Scripture. The book ends in Judges 21:25: "In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what seemed right to him." And what seemed right to them was sometimes blatantly gross.

A King Was Not the Answer

So we read Judges and conclude the answer must be a king. They needed a proper leader. If we follow the storyline into 1 and 2 Samuel, Samuel anoints the first king, Saul—chosen because he looked kingly, tall, a man of great stature. He seemed to fit the part, but his vanity got the best of him until he went mad, fought against the will of the Lord, and died in battle in shame.

So the Lord arranged for David to step in. David was a remarkably better king, a man after God's own heart who wrote many of the Psalms and did mighty things in the name of the Lord. But he had multiple wives and concubines, stole one wife from a friend who was in the very battle David should have been leading, and had the man killed to cover up his sin. This led to betrayal, morally repulsive behavior, and civil war within his own family. David was a decent king, the man God called and used, but he was still an earthly, flawed, sinful man. He was not the ultimate hope Israel was looking for.

Then come 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles, which read like a list: bad king, bad king, good king, bad king, on and on. Across thousands of years you have to ask: where is the hope for humanity?

Enter Isaiah—and the Genesis 3 Promise

Then enter Isaiah, with some of our favorite Christmas verses. Isaiah 9:6: "For a child will be born to us... and he will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace." This matters because of Isaiah 53:

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering... Yet he himself bore our sickness and carried our pains... He was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities... and we are healed by his wounds. We all went astray like sheep... and the Lord has punished him for the iniquity of us all.

The core problem in Judges, Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles is not the lack of a good leader. The problem is found much earlier—a Genesis 3 problem—when man sinned and revealed a heart averse to a holy God. Yet in the midst of His judgment, the Lord gives us an Easter egg of what's to come. Genesis 3:15: "I will put hostility between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head and you will strike his heel." From the very beginning, the Lord pointed to the One who would crush the head and works of the devil—bruised, yet in the end victorious.

This brings us to point number one: Jesus was the hope from the very beginning. He offered us hope because He fixed the root cause—our sin, our flesh, our fallen hearts. The Old Testament saints didn't fully see it yet, but they set a place at the table for Him. They had only the hope of what was to come.

The Arrival of Hope

And then one day it happened in Bethlehem. Luke 2:8-14:

Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields... And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them... "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy... For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord." ...And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men."

Point number two: the arrival of Jesus was the arrival of hope. Yet it's worth noting that God putting Himself into a human body was not the resolution. It was the spark of the beginning of hope. His work was not yet accomplished.

Those Who Sought Jesus Sought Hope

Jesus grows and begins His ministry around thirty. We've spent decades studying His life, and one thing we see is that those who sought Jesus were seeking hope. They broke through a roof to lower a man down. They crawled through a crowd just to touch the hem of His garment. They had hope that He could fix, heal, and help—and He gave them hope when He healed them, fed them, and taught them.

Reading through Matthew in my own time, I noticed how early and how often Jesus warned His disciples: "I'm going to die. I'll be put to death, but I will rise again." He told them lovingly, over and over. But the disciples were human, and they didn't get it. When I learned Photoshop, the first classes felt like making things in Microsoft Paint—until one day the instructor showed me a tool and something clicked, and suddenly the whole program made sense. The disciples heard Jesus and said, "Yeah, we totally got it." But they didn't. When He died, they were scared. They fled and hid.

The Death—and Resurrection—of Hope

I'm thankful my life story isn't written in the Bible for people to study in 2024. I don't mean to disparage these men—they were human. But in witnessing Jesus' death, they believed they witnessed the death of hope. They had ideas about who Jesus would be politically and spiritually, and they put all their eggs in that basket. Then they watched Him die an embarrassing, humiliating death—beaten, bloody, naked on a cross.

But that's not the end of the story. As Phil Wickham puts it, Friday's good because Sunday's coming. Jesus did indeed die, but on the third day He rose again. With this death and resurrection, mankind received rescue, salvation, peace with God, and hope. Romans 10:9-13:

If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved... For whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Point number three: Jesus is the reason for our hope through His death and resurrection. Scripture pointed to the hope of Jesus from the beginning, revealed Him as the hope upon His arrival, and cemented Him as the hope through His death and resurrection. This means our eternity is secure. We are saved. It is good news.

What Now? Hope for Today

But now we're nearly in 2025. Saved by faith, our eternity secure—what do we do today, thousands of years later? We are called to live our lives reflecting the light and hope we have in Jesus, to pick up our cross and follow Him. Whether you're called to be a plumber or a pastor, you're called to do it to honor the Lord. We are called to spend time with Him, hear from Him, know Him, follow Him.

Sometimes that's easy and you see the miraculous works of the Lord and praise God. But sometimes life is hard. Sometimes you sin and struggle to carry on. We are currently praying for a number of people going through life-altering trials. A few times people have reached out and asked to be pulled off the prayer chain—not because they don't care, but because they see the hurt and pain of everyone's requests and just start crying and need to catch their breath. If you write to the prayer line or put in prayer cards, please continue. Our faithful prayer team is here, and we love praying for you. But sometimes those vibrations of grief hit in harmony, and you have to take a break. Life has a way of kicking you while you're down.

Boasting Even in Afflictions

So in trials and hardships, what's our hope for today? Romans 5:1-5—one of my wife's and my favorite passages:

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ... and we boast in the hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. This hope will not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Verses 1 and 2 set the foundation: our salvation and peace with God. If we don't have that part solid, the rest doesn't apply. It is through our Lord Jesus Christ, justified by faith, that we boast in the hope of the glory of God—His splendor, magnificence, and majesty. If you ever wake at three in the morning ruminating on everything you have or haven't done, write these verses down and keep them by your nightstand. Meditate on the goodness of God right there.

With that foundation, we move on: "We also boast in our afflictions." Hang on—I'm not asking for trials, and neither are you. Nobody says, "My life is too smooth; Lord, send some hardships." We joke about the song "Oceans"—"Lord, take me deeper than my feet could ever wander." Have you ever been halfway drowning in the ocean, fighting the current to get back? That's terrifying, not enjoyable.

What Afflictions Build in Us

So what hope is there in trials? Afflictions are building something in us by the working of the Lord. It begins with endurance. You hit a hardship, pick yourself up, work through it, and build resilience. I once heard a man explain why he did cold plunges—I'm not a fan of cold, and if you love them, God bless you, but I'll pray for you from a distance. He was a husband, father, and worker who needed to stay healthy and was tempted to relax. The cold plunge forced him to get in, sit there, and endure, keeping his body in subjection to his mind and spirit. I respected that.

This endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. Verse 5 says this hope will not disappoint, because God's love has been poured out through the Holy Spirit given to us. We have the gift of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, carrying us through trials, walking with us in storms.

I saw a video of a Texas baseball game where thunder cracked right over the stadium and everyone ran for the dugout. If you're up high in the stands, where do you even go? Everyone wants to run when the lightning hits—but we have the Holy Spirit who is not afraid to walk with us through the storm, in the rain, and in the sunshine.

A Lack of Hope—and an Anchor for the Soul

This hope is essential to our day-to-day lives. In the last four or five years—COVID, multiple elections, financial disruption—we've seen what a lack of hope does to people: spikes in anxiety, depression, and suicide. If you're struggling, I recommend Pastor Jason's message from last week, which gave very practical advice on combating depression and anxiety. And if you need professional help, come talk to us—we have help there too. This rise in anxiety indicates a lack of hope not just for eternity, but for today—the belief that "I'm never going to make it through this." But with endurance, and with someone who comes alongside to say, "We will make it through this; it may not be great tomorrow, but it will be better," hope returns.

The author of Hebrews tells us, "We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure" (Hebrews 6:19). I was reading Travels with Charlie by John Steinbeck—a lighter turn from his usual writing, about traveling with his dog. At the end he makes it home, and a massive hurricane is coming. His favorite sailboat is out in the harbor among other boats likely to break their lines and crash. So in the rain and rising winds, he swims out, resets his anchor so the boat points into the wind, and sets it solid. The next day, boats around it had broken loose, but his boat was right there—because it had a firm anchor.

Matthew 7:24-25:

Everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded the house, yet it didn't collapse, because its foundation was on the rock.

Jesus and His words are a firm foundation. He is our rock. Point number four: Jesus is still our reason for hope in daily life. The One acquainted with grief knows our hurts and is not afraid to walk with us through them, building in us resilience, endurance, and character.

Everything for Our Benefit

Turn to 2 Corinthians 4—chapter four could be weeks of study on its own. Verse 15: "Indeed, everything is for your benefit, so that as grace extends through more and more people, it may cause thanksgiving to increase to the glory of God." As we walk with the Lord and are about His business, the things that happen to us are for our benefit, echoing Romans 8:28: "All things work together for the good of those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."

I have to be clear, because this is often misused: this does not mean everything that happens in your life is good. Four of us on staff are chaplains; all the pastors here have sat with people going through terrible things. Bad things happen. The promise is that everything in our lives works together for our eternal good and for the glorification of the Lord who is worthy of all praise.

A pastor I respect told a story about chocolate chip cookies—his favorite to bake because they have only a few ingredients. A warm cookie tastes good, and a handful of chocolate chips tastes good. But grab a handful of flour, or baking soda, and stick it in your mouth—not good by itself. Yet in masterful hands these ingredients work together to create something good. I can't take credit for that analogy, but I've had to preach it to myself many times. Not everything that happens is good by itself, but the Lord, our Master Creator, works all things together for our eternal good, for His glory, and for the building up of His saints.

A Momentary, Light Affliction

2 Corinthians 4:16-18: "Therefore we do not give up. Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day. For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory."

Let me pause. This isn't Pastor Nick calling your afflictions momentary and light. This is Paul, who endured beatings, stonings, imprisonments, shipwreck, betrayals—a whole paragraph of hardships, many of which nearly killed him, plus the daily pressure of his concern for all the churches. He is not calling your experience weak or simple. What he is saying is that our momentary light affliction is producing an incomparable eternal weight of glory, so that we fix our eyes not on what is seen, which is temporary, but on what is unseen, which is eternal.

Compared with the eternal weight of glory the Lord is working in us, our hardships will seem momentary and light—not necessarily today. Today we will feel these trials; they will weigh us down. But with eyes fixed on eternity, valuing the honor of the Lord who brought us salvation, we can withstand and endure, because He is producing in us an incomparable weight of glory.

You won't nail it on the first try. Building endurance is never simple. When I started lifting kettlebells, the first day I thought I might die—I might have been close. But as you put in the work, you get stronger. We can have hope today that even walking through tough circumstances, the Lord is building in us endurance, character, and hope, and that everything we endure in His will is working out for us something amazing—incomparable to anything available in this life.

Point number five: from the beginning of time through eternity, Jesus is our hope.

A Closing Encouragement

Whether this season has you excited and inspired—your favorite time of year—or whether it has you beaten and heartbroken, I encourage you to take some time today, this week, this month. Set aside time alone and set your mind and eyes on Jesus. Focus on Him. Every point today comes down to this: Jesus is the hope. It's not a complicated message, but it can get complicated when you get down to brass tacks in your own life.

Closing Prayer

Father, thank You doesn't feel like enough—it's not—but Lord, we offer You our thanks and our praise, and we offer You ourselves. We look to You and put our hope in You. Lord, would You walk with us, minister to us, work in us? Would You build up endurance in us and help us be a bright shining light to those around us? Thank You for the work You do in us. Thank You that You don't leave us when things are hard or in the midst of our trials. We thank You for the promises of Your word, the promise of hope, and the promise of eternal life. As we consider all Your wondrous works, we bring before You now a time of praise. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.