The Gift of Hope | Sunday, December 18, 2022

Now when people take an oath, they call on someone greater than themselves to hold them to it, and without question the oath is binding. God also bound himself with an oath, so that those who received the promise could be perfectly sure that he would never change his mind... Therefore we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls; it leads us through the curtain into God's inner sanctuary. (Hebrews 6:16–19)

The coming of Christ is the coming of an eternal, certain hope into a weary, broken world.

Christmas as an Opportunity

Christmas is just a week away, and for many—myself included—this is the most wonderful time of the year. It comes and goes very quickly, but it remains a joyful time, and a time in which Christians, who are really the reason there is a Christmas in the first place, should rejoice. We should take advantage of the opportunity this holiday season provides.

This is one of the greatest opportunities for fulfilling the commission Jesus gave us. He commanded that we go into all the world and proclaim the good news of the Gospel, and what better time is there to do that than at Christmas? Our culture still highly values Christmas, even with all the trappings and distractions added to it. Westerners don't celebrate Easter to the same extent. So when virtually all of our neighbors, co-workers, family members, and friends are celebrating this holiday, that provides Christians a huge opportunity to share the Gospel.

The Good News We Proclaim

What is that good news? As we've shared over the last several weeks, the good news is that the gift-giving God has given us the greatest, most needed and necessary gift, by and through His Son, Jesus Christ. Our job as His disciples is to clearly articulate that good news. Peter writes:

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. (1 Peter 2:9)

We who once walked in darkness have seen a great light, and that great light has brought us great joy. When you're in a dark place and even a little light appears, your heart fills with joy. Isaiah speaks of this in chapter 9. And that light has brought us not only joy but freedom from bondage. That great light we celebrate at Christmas is Jesus Christ. Having received the gift of His love and grace, we are to proclaim the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.

God Loves to Give Good Gifts

This Advent we have been talking about some of the gifts of God. We who love to give and receive gifts do so because God, the gift-giving God, made us in His image. Our good Father in heaven loves to give good gifts.

We see this in the Old Testament in the fascinating story of Balaam, the prophet hired by Israel's enemies to curse God's people. Every time he stood to curse, only blessing came out, because, as Numbers 24 says, "When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel." It pleased God to bless His people.

We see it from Jesus, who said, "Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (Luke 12:32). And we see it from Paul:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places... according to the good pleasure of His will. (Ephesians 1:3, 5)

From Balaam, from Jesus, from Paul—it pleases God to bless His people.

Gifts to Enjoy

God also gives us good gifts to enjoy. This is a key and important truth. For some strange reason, many Christians live as if joy and enjoyment are somehow bad, as if it is more spiritual to be dour and morose. In reality, the Scriptures teach that God desires our joy. It honors and glorifies God more when we are joyful than when we are gloomy.

Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. (1 Timothy 6:17)

Living in the United States, in Southern California, we are blessed with amazing abundance. We must be careful that we do not become arrogant, thinking we deserve these things or that we're better than those who lack them. Paul warns against two pitfalls: becoming haughty in our riches, and putting our confidence and trust in them. Instead we should rejoice in and trust our Father who blesses us—and it is okay to enjoy His blessings. The psalmist reminds himself, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits" (Psalm 103:2).

Gifts to Share

Our enjoyment of God's gifts brings Him glory, "to the praise of the glory of His grace" (Ephesians 1:6). Finally, God gives us good gifts to share with and bless others. Peter writes:

As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. (1 Peter 4:10)

We have been blessed to be a blessing. We have not been given these gifts—physical, practical, and spiritual—to hoard them, but to share them as good stewards of God's grace. Last time I spoke about God's great gift of love. God pours out His love upon us so abundantly that it overflows, and it ought to overflow to other people. We should be conduits of God's love. But love is just one of many wonderful blessings. Today I want to highlight another gift God has given in abundance, remembering this point: God's gifts are given for our joy, for His praise, and for us to share.

Hope Is Essential

Hope is a fascinating topic. It is not just a good thing—it is an essential thing, an essential reality for our lives. I've shared before the story of Viktor Frankl, the Jewish Holocaust survivor, neurologist, and psychiatrist who wrote Man's Search for Meaning. During the 1940s he lived in the worst possible place in the world for a Jew, spending three years in German concentration camps, including Auschwitz. There he observed an important truth: the prisoners who gave up on life, who lost all hope for the future, were inevitably the first to die.

Modern psychologists agree that hope is not just a feel-good emotion. Writing for Psychology Today the day after Christmas in 2011, psychologist Scott Kaufman wrote: "Talent, skill, ability... will not get you there. Sure, it helps, but a wealth of psychological research over the past few decades shows loud and clear that it is the psychological vehicles that really get you there. You can have the best engine in the world, but if you can't be bothered to drive it, you won't get anywhere." Among the vehicles psychologists name—grit, conscientiousness, self-efficacy, optimism, passion, inspiration—one is particularly undervalued and underappreciated: hope. Kaufman argues that hope motivates us to move forward.

A Hopeless, Broken World

One challenge in moving forward is that we live in a broken and fallen world. You don't have to look far to find this is true. Three thousand years ago Solomon observed that "hope deferred makes the heart sick." Coming into 2023, we are witnessing heart-sickness on an astronomical level. This hopeless heart-sickness is leading, in huge ways, to increased substance abuse and increased suicide. This was already true before 2020, but it is especially true post-COVID.

I had a thirty-minute conversation a couple of weeks ago with a friend who is a sergeant in the local police department. He told me this season has been incredibly difficult on law enforcement and emergency medical staff, because they have been confronted by the effects of hopelessness like never before.

But I want to remind you—or perhaps tell you for the first time—that Christmas, the celebration of the coming of Christ, is also the celebration of the advent of eternal and abundant hope. This is vitally important, because the gift of hope is essential for life. Jesus's entrance into the world 2,000 years ago is the entrance of hope into a hopeless world. One of my favorite Christmas songs says, "Long lay the world in sin and error pining, till He appeared and the soul felt its worth... a thrill of hope, a weary world rejoices." We live in a weary world, broken by sin, and Jesus's coming brings hope and rejoicing.

Without Hope, Then Brought Near

Before Christ came, we were without hope in this world. Paul states it clearly:

Remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh... at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:11–13)

Do you remember when you were without hope in this world—without the promises of God, without a relationship with Him? Maybe you stumbled upon this video, and right now you are without hope. But for those who have received Christ, you can remember when you had none. Jesus is the one who comes and brings hope to a hopeless and broken world.

Biblical Hope Is Greater

It's worth explaining that biblical hope is different from what we often mean by the word. For some, hope is just an optimistic feeling. Here in San Diego County we once had a football team called the Chargers—since departed, and now anathema to us. They had a terrible pattern of starting games well. At halftime they might lead by three or four touchdowns, and you'd turn to your friend and say, "I have a really good feeling—we're going to win." Then the third and fourth quarters came and that optimistic feeling was dashed. That blind-optimism kind of hope is not biblical hope.

Biblical hope is also greater than wishful thinking. Our baseball team, the Padres, sometimes inspires that kind of hope. They start a season strong, or come into the postseason looking great, and someone says, "I hope they make the World Series." Then the hope is dashed. It's the same as saying, "I hope I win the lottery someday." Biblical hope is neither blind optimism nor wishful thinking. Christmas brings hope for an absolutely certain future and outcome.

Twenty-five hundred years ago Israel was in a seemingly hopeless, dark situation, being exiled to Babylon. Into that turmoil the prophet Jeremiah wrote God's word to His people:

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. (Jeremiah 29:11)

The future and hope God promised His people then, and the hope promised us today in Christ, are not mere optimistic feelings or wishful thinking. They are great confidence, "a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls." Paul writes that this certain hope "does not disappoint." Wishful thinking disappoints; blind optimism constantly lets you down. But the gift of hope in Christ is a sure and steadfast anchor.

How Should We Respond?

Having such great hope as a precious gift from our Father, how should we respond? The author of Hebrews answers:

Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith... Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together... but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10:22–25)

First, we should draw near to God. He has given us a promise He will not go back on. Because His word is sure and steadfast, we can have strong, confident hope, and that should draw us near to Him.

Second, we should hold fast to our faith. Even if we go through difficult times—and in 2023 some of us will face challenges in our families, our work, our health, whatever it may be—if our hope rests in the God who gave us His sure word and promise, we can keep trusting Him.

Third, we should encourage others to persevere. We are to stir one another up to love and good deeds, maintaining our relationship within the body of Christ. With this strong confidence in God, we can urge people to press on.

Share the Hope You Have Received

Finally, notice those words: "so much the more as you see the Day approaching." As Dr. Kaufman observed, hope is a dynamic motivational system that moves us forward. The gift of certain hope, grounded in the resurrection, motivates our faith and faithfulness.

God has given you great hope in Christ. Such hope is something to rejoice in, and it is meant to be shared. I'm sure you know people who, at this very moment, find themselves without hope—maybe clinging to blind optimism or wishful thinking that has let them down before, because that kind of hope disappoints. But we have a certain, steadfast, confident hope found in Christ.

As 1 Peter 2 says, you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, God's holy nation, His own special people, set apart so that you would proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. In this final week leading up to Christmas, if you know this hope and rejoice in it, share it. I guarantee there is someone you work with, go to school with, live next door to, a family member or friend, who is lacking this hope and needs to see the light that is found only in Jesus Christ. May God give you boldness by His Holy Spirit to share that hope. Don't hoard it. Freely you have received; freely give.

Closing Prayer

Father God, I pray that in this season—where we celebrate with one another, give and receive gifts, and remember Your coming into this world—You would impress in a huge way upon the hearts of those who know You, Your church, the reality that Your coming brings us joy, hope, mercy, and grace. You have given us these great gifts in abundance, for our joy and rejoicing, for Your praise and honor, and so that we would share them with others. I pray that this week You would open doors of opportunity for my brothers and sisters to share the good news of Your hope—not a blind optimism, not wishful thinking, but a sure and steadfast anchor for our souls that does not disappoint, the hope You have given us in Christ Jesus. Jesus, we thank You for that kind of hope, and Lord, help us to share it with others. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.