Advent Means Hope

December 4, 1988 ADVENT II

Romans 15:4-13 "For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverence and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. . . . "

Introduction:

ADVENT IS ALL ABOUT "HOPE." Hope is faith's eye peering into the unknown future. Faith is confidence that what God has promised He will carry through. Hope is living in the reality of that faith. Hope is what makes life worth the living. The absence of hope is the essence of hell.

I. OUR GOD IS A GOD OF HOPE

(Verse 13 "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.")

ADVENT SPEAKS TO US HERE, NOW, TODAY. It was not just those who lived in the darkness before Jesus came who needed to "look forward into salvation." We, too, very much live or die by "hope."

We say that we "are saved," and in a measure we know a present walk with God through Jesus Christ. We know that we have "been saved" through the sacrifice that Jesus made for us on Calvary, and our faith is rooted in the past. But we are not yet saved as one day we shall be.

Paul writes (in Romans 8:20-25): "The anxious longing of creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. ... For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth until now. And not only this, but we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For IN HOPE we have been saved, but hope that is seenis not hope; for why does one hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverence we wait eagerly for it."

And John also write about hope. He says (in I John 3:2): "Beloved now are we the children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is."

We very much live, or we die, by our HOPE. But how may we be filled with hope? The answer is here:

II. THE WORD OF GOD IS THE SOURCE OF OUR HOPE

There is no abiding source of hope apart from God's own self-revelation.

That self-revelation is complete in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. He is the Word of God. (John 1:1-5; Hebrews 1:1,2) The INCARNATION - God with us, God revealing Himself to us, God identifying with us- this is the heart of Christmas truth.
The Written Word of God as we have it today is an incarnational miracle that reflects God's love in the Living Word, Jesus Christ; and results in the miracle of The Indwelling Word, where God Himself resides in and with His Church, and in the individual believers' hearts, Jesus carrying on His life and ministry through His Body on Earth.
The VALIDITY of the Bible is NOT the question. There is a time and place to bring together arguments for the validity of the Bible. But this is not the time or place, so far as I am concerned. We spend a great deal of time and energy going over old arguments to prove the validity of the Bible, when what we need to do is to begin to obey what we clearly can know and understand of the Bible.
[Billy Graham tells of "the" turning point in his long and beautiful and fruitful ministry in the Word. In effect he said: 'I am not going over these things I cannot understand over and over. I believe this is God's Word, by faith. I will make it the authority of my life and ministry.' "The Bible says..." has become Billy Graham's hallmark. And God has honored his ministry perhaps more than any other living man.]
The AUTHORITY of the Bible for YOU/ME IS the question! It is the one authority that can make us abound in hope, and joy and peace in believing!
1. To make the Bible our authority involves perseverence. It is NOT 'an instant' thing. (The NIV calls it endurance.) It must be our way of life. Not a passing, six-week emphasis. Not a self- improvement scheme to bring us to 'success.' But somehow we must come to the Word with the passion of the Jew who binds his philacteries on his forehead and wrist every day, who kisses the word when he enters a room, who meditates day and night in the Word.
  [I cannot quote the rabbi verbatim, but an ancient Jewish maxim has it that blasphemy is when two Jews come together and DO NOT talk about Torah! "In His law he meditates day and night! Whatsoever he doeth shall prosper!" (Psalm 1) Perseverence!]
  Is that the kind of perseverence you know?
2. To make the Bible our authority involves "(a united effort to) glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." (v 6)

III. THE WORD OF GOD OPENS TO THE SEEKER AFTER GOD

[The skeptic says "What IS truth?" and does not find it. The hungry heart says "Where is GOD?"]

We have the awesome privilege of an open Bible. We cannot honor and obey what we do not know. And ignorance of the Word of God is not excuseable for us. There is a time and a place to wrestle with the great question: 'What will God do with the millions who have never heard the Gospel?' But that is NOT a valid question for you and for me! There may well be some excuse for people to whom the Bible is a total unknown.
But there is no excuse for our ignorance of the Written Word. Our ignorance is tremendously expensive, for it costs the kingdom of God many lost man-hours and man-years of labor. And our ignorance is potentially damning to us, if God holds us responsible for what we might have known.
B. We must study the Bible to know and be known of God.
1. Steve McCormick repeatedly asked the question in a chapel talk this week: "When Jesus comes again, will I know Him?" And the question is also there: "Will Jesus profess to know me?" The saddest words some men and women will ever hear will be from Jesus: "Depart from me, you workers of evil, I never knew you!"
2. Knowing 'the facts' is not enough. Intellectual curiosity is not enough. Even knowing the truth is inconsequential unless there is a willingness to submit to the authority of that truth. When the Magi came to the palace in Jerusalem, and asked Herod's wise men about where the Messiah would be born, they came up with the absolutely correct answer: the scriptures say- Bethlehem! But that did not convert them, or give them personal hope.
Scriptures are the breath of life, or the sentence of death, depending on how we diligently receive them.
Scriptures do not bring eternal life unless and until they testify of God and until we are willing to come to Jesus that we may have life. (John 5:39-40: "You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me, THAT YOU MAY HAVE LIFE.")
Scriptures do bring us clear testimony to God's good will when we bring submission, simple obedience, loving trust to what we hear God saying to us: (John 7:17) "If any man is willing to do His will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak from Myself."
The living Word of God still has power to transform lives. [Walter Lahner died this past year. I shall never forget the power of the Word, first to transform this man; Then to nurture him, and powerfully develop him into a man of God, and a testimony to a whole countryside.]

CONCLUSION:

The Messiah did not arrive as a surprise to the faithful who had lived by every Word of God; who had trusted in scriptures. And even the Magi, with their limited revelation had a measure of HOPE. They had hearts to worship the true God, and their HOPE was vindicated.

And our HOPE can be steadfast and certain, too. But our HOPE must be founded on the sure Word of God!

Will you make the Bible YOUR handbook for life?

I am not asking now that you promise to "try" the Bible for a few weeks or months. I am not asking you to take a special graduate course. I am suggesting that unless you make God's written Word the standard for your life and living you will be like the chaff which the wind drives away! Only the one who meditates in God's law day and night can send down roots into HOPE!

The Bible is a best seller. It has never been more popular than it is now. But I am afraid that the Bible is also more and more a book that people are satisfied to know second hand.

But for those who open to the Word— the scriptures are written "that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Word we may have HOPE!" Life IS worth the living . . . to those who live by the Word of God.

But I would rather take my chances as one of the head-hunters of Papua New Guinea who has never heard of the Gospel, than to stand before God having had the wonderful privilege of an open Bible all my life, an open Bible which I had treated with disdain and contempt, considering it easy to master, considering it under my judgment, rather than the proper way: standing under its quick and powerful division of my innermost self.

PRAYER: Fill us with HOPE, O God of hope! Fill us with Yourself! Make Your Word to dwell in us richly! Amen.

No. 36 WS: Open my Eyes, that I May See!