The Hope of the Lord

The Hope of the Lord

The Gospel of Luke, Luke chapter 24. Before we look to the Word of God, let us ask Him to bless our time together. Our Gracious Heavenly Father, once again as we gather in this your house on this your day, we would ask that you would open our hearts and minds to understand your truth, you would give guidance, you would give protection against distraction.

Most importantly, Lord, we pray that the Spirit would meet with us this day. What we do may be all to the honor and glory of the name of Jesus Christ. In His name we pray. Amen. I hope I make my connection.

I hope I make my connection. I can't tell you how many times I have texted that. As soon as the wheels touch down, I get the cell phone out and you fire it up, and I'll text my wife or I'll text Rich or somebody and say, oh man, we're late.

I hope I make my connection. I know that happens a lot these days. I remember flying, I don't know why I was flying from, getting back I think from New Orleans if I recall correctly, but I had to go through Charlotte.

That's sort of going backwards, but that's how airlines work. I had to take this commuter and the commuter was was delayed, and I looked at a map later on of the of the Charlotte Airport, and physically there was no gate farther away from the gate I had to get to than the one I came into.

Isn't that always how it works? And I had to do the OJ Simpson thing, which had nothing to do with killing my wife. It had to do with running through an airport, which is not easy to do when you're dragging something behind you and you've got a bag on your shoulder, and it is a chiropractic nightmare to be perfectly honest with you.

And you always run into the folks that are going up the escalator very slowly or whatever when that happens, but I was the last one on to the flight. I actually made that one, and amazingly so did my luggage.

I mean my carry-on luggage, I mean even my check luggage somehow got all the way across the Charlotte Airport and onto that plane in a very, very, very short period of time. But notice the language that I used.

I hope I make my connection. Now how would that be, how differently would it would it sound if I actually texted my wife and said, I believe I will make my connection. See in our language we differentiate between those terms believe and hope, and for some reason, I'm not exactly certain why, we have attached an element of doubtfulness or negativity to the term hope.

Well, I hope the suns get better, or I believe the suns will get better. See the difference? It's not just the use of my voice, I mean obviously you could say, I hope the suns get better, but still there's this, there's this, but it's not looking like it right now, you know, type of an attitude to it, or, but when you say I, I believe, there's a, there's an automatic positive aspect to that utilization of the language.

Now what I'm referring to is the fact that in our text today we find the term hope, we find the term hope, and I began thinking about that word. I began thinking about how absolutely central it is to Christian theology, and I did a little word study on it, and wow, it is central to the expression of our, our hope of eternal life.

In fact, just, just recently Paul used the language we'll look at later on and in Romans 15, and what did he, what did he call God? The God of hope. The God of hope. Remember that? And yet for most of us, that's sort of like, well the God of, well maybe it'll happen, but probably won't.

But that's not what the term means. And so here's an instance where we have a word where the proper English translation, well, it communicates something to us that the, the original language does not communicate to us.

There is nothing, there is nothing doubtful or negative about the term hope as it's used in the original languages, but when we translate it that way, very often we allow our linguistic use, our cultural use of that word to end up influencing how we understand Scripture, and what's even more than that, hope is used very similarly to the word faith, and yet how often do you and I, we talk about justification by faith alone, the faith, believing, it's all good stuff.

When do we talk about hope? Well, at a funeral once in a while, we'll talk about hope. Shouldn't be that way. It is a central affirmation of the Christian faith. We are to be a people of hope, and that doesn't describe people who are in a really bad situation and just hope things can get better.

That's not the Christian understanding. Here in Luke chapter 24, we'll encounter that term, and it seemed fitting. I'll be perfectly honest with you, I was, I was just going to continue on in Deuteronomy until I realized, oh, oh, it's, it's Resurrection Sunday.

We are so bad with the quote unquote liturgical calendar around here that we don't have one. I mean, honestly, people could come here and not have any earthly idea what, what holidays or anything else were going on outside, and, and I guess I've really adopted that attitude, and it took me a few days this week to go, you know, I think people might be expecting a little something different than something about Old Testament laws on Sunday morning, this coming Sunday morning.

You might be a little disappointed. So I thought we would look at Luke chapter 24. It might be a little bit more appropriate. Beginning at verse 13, Luke 24, 13, and behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem.

They were talking with each other about all these things which had taken place. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself approached and began traveling with them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.

And he said to them, what are these words that you're exchanging with one another as you are walking? And they stood still, looking sad. One of them, named Cleopas, answered and said to him, are you the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days?

He said to them, what things? And they said to him, things about Jesus the Nazarene, who is a prophet, mighty in deed and word and sight of God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to the sentence of death and crucified him.

But we were hoping that it was he who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened. But also some women among us amazed us when they were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his body.

They came saying that they had also seen a vision of an angel, of angels, of an angel who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just exactly as the women also had said, but him they did not see.

And he said to them, O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into his glory? Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, he explained to them the things concerning himself in all the scriptures.

Amen. Now this, of course, is a story we know. If you didn't know it and you were in Sunday school, you have heard it just recently because we covered these things. But here is a story well known. It has been put into a work of art, the two disciples along the road to Emmaus.

And it is an amazing story when we consider all of it and what it, I wonder how many times Cleopas and the other had to narrate that story over the next number of decades as people would ask them to tell them what obviously became to them the old, old story.

But as they're walking along, they are speaking with one another. And it's interesting, that term in verse 14, I had never noticed it before, but the Greek word that is used there is the root word of the term homiletics.

Homileto, to speak with one another. It's not the normal term, but it seems to have been a fairly in-depth conversation. I mean, they are going over things and they are very much invested in this conversation that they have going on between them about the things that have taken place.

And certainly, we cannot help but give consideration to what it must have been like to be a follower of the one that you believe was the Messiah. To be a follower of the one that possibly you had seen him feed the 5 ,000.

Maybe you had been one of those who had stood outside of Lazarus' grave and you had seen him come forth bound in the grave cloth. And maybe, even though the Bible doesn't tell us about what the conversations were, maybe you had spoken with Lazarus.

You knew he was dead. It wasn't some magician's trick. You had seen him raise the dead. You had seen him work so many miracles. Maybe you had spoken with the disciples and you knew about his walking upon water.

You knew all of these things and so you thought this was the one. This was the one, even though there were all sorts of traditions and you didn't really see how everything fit together and he didn't seem to want to gather together an army or anything like that, but he spoke words of wisdom and life and grace.

And then he said, we must go to Jerusalem. It's necessary. The Son of Man died and there had been dispute and Peter had said, no, no, no, Master. And the Lord said, get behind me, Satan. And so you've been there.

Maybe you've heard from the disciples themselves who are eyewitnesses about his death, about his trial, about the beatings, the mockery. Oh, and your own leaders. Oh, the chief priest, scribes, Pharisees.

You knew of their hatred. You had seen it in their eyes. You had heard that if anyone confessed that Jesus was the Messiah, they were going to be put out of the synagogue. So you knew, but how could they have done this?

How could they have colluded with the Romans? And here at this high time of the year, this special time, it's just, how could this be? Certainly from Friday night all day Saturday, what were the conversations like?

Was it primarily silence? The deep disappointment, the confusion. He could give life to others, but he couldn't save himself. What has happened? What a tremendously dark time it must have been for the disciples themselves, for those that were close to them.

A time of fear, darkness, despair, disappointment, confusion. How could we have been wrong for so long? How could we have missed them? We've given up so much. What a dark, dark time it was. It must have seemed like forever.

But then Sunday came, and strange things start to happen. The Cleopas and the other disciple had some business. There was a home they could go to there, so they had to visit with someone, some reason to go.

They say farewell, but not before some strange things start happening. There are reports that the women have gone to the tomb, and they've had visions of angels, and he's not there, and he's risen, and Peter and John, they've gone, and they've looked, and something strange has happened.

The tomb's empty. The stone's been rolled away. But they've left, evidently shortly after this takes place. And so they're on the road to Emmaus, and they're talking. They really don't care who else is around much.

They're talking with one another, and this stranger approaches and began traveling with them. That wasn't overly unusual. And we already noted in our Sunday school lesson a few weeks ago that something supernatural happens.

Their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. Something supernatural takes place because God wants to accomplish something in their lives. He wants to demonstrate to them something important, and if they just looked over and, oh, it's Jesus, he would not have had the opportunity of opening the scriptures to them.

But before he opens the scriptures to them, he draws out from them a confession of what it was like to be a hopeful but disappointed believer in that dark time between the crucifixion and the resurrection.

He asks them, what are these words you're exchanging with one another? He says, they stood still, looking sad. They did not hide their disappointment. They did not hide their sadness. These were individuals who were experiencing dark depression, confusion, disappointment.

And then Cleopas speaks up, and maybe there's some sarcasm, maybe there's some disbelief. Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days? How could you not know the whole city has been in an uproar?

It's what everyone's talking about. He said to them, what things? Of course, he knows. He's drawing out from them the expressions of their hearts, and here is their description. They said to him the things about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet, mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to the sentence of death and crucified.

But we were hoping that it was he who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened. But also some women, some women among us, told us these amazing, amazing things.

I want to stop there for a moment and listen. Listen to what was said by those individuals. They didn't want to talk about this. In fact, there's some sense in my mind that they were a little bit concerned.

I mean, I would have been if I were them. There did seem to be some concern on the part of the disciples because remember when Jesus appeared to them, what had they done? Did they have the doors open and they were going to have a Christian prayer meeting in here?

No, they had the doors locked. They were more than just a little bit afraid. And so these individuals, I'm a little bit surprised, maybe that's why they stood still at first, but did they have some fear?

Were they concerned about what was going on? I think they probably were. And they were now confused because these women, they've brought a report we don't understand, they couldn't find his body, and some of us went to the tomb, found as they said, but they don't have any conclusion.

And you and I sit here and go, but how could they not have known? How could they not have known? Jesus had said it to them. Jesus had told them, it is necessary that I go, it is necessary that the Son of Man be delivered into the hands of the Gentiles.

He had told them. You and I, we've read the whole story. But still, we do have to ask ourselves the question, why was it that what Jesus had so clearly communicated to these individuals just didn't seem to get through to them?

They only heard up to a certain point, and after that, the traditions kicked in. The Messiah, this Messiah can't die. I've been taught that since I was this tall. The Messiah will redeem Israel. All the nations will stream into Jerusalem and they will worship Yahweh there and the Messiah can't die.

Never underestimate, never underestimate the power of tradition. Because even when the Lord Jesus says things with a clear voice, what's the result? What's the result? Well, they can't hear. And even, think of the amount of time that they spent on Saturday thinking.

Someone had to have at some point said, well, remember he did say, but that didn't seem to have come up. Wasn't someone thinking about, well, remember Caesarea Philippi, remember Philip what he said? Remember Peter?

Well, we don't want to remind Peter what he said, but remember Thomas? Somebody, do you remember what he said? Where was the faith? We don't have any evidence of searching scriptures, nothing like that.

What was going on? Well, I want us to look especially at what they said to Jesus about what their faith in him was to be. They said, we had hoped. Right after talks about the rulers delivered him to the sentence of death and crucified him, and by the way, I've seen him over the past few weeks, I don't know if you did too, but every time this year there's some discussion who killed Jesus.

See it? I saw it, maybe you don't, but social media and various places, who killed Jesus? And I'll be honest with you, I didn't pursue most of the links, but most of them were trying to avoid giving a full orbed biblical view.

Jesus gave himself freely. The Father delivered him over. The Spirit was involved, and there were means that were used. Romans, you can't avoid what's said right here. Our rulers delivered him to the sentence of death, and who crucified him?

Our rulers did. They recognized that. They recognized that, but you're not allowed to say that, by the way, in much of theology today. It's not allowed to. Just considered to be too inappropriate. But then here is the phrase, we were hoping.

We were hoping that it was he who was going to redeem Israel. Now, it's interesting, the majority of translations follow what seems to be the best reading of the original language. There is a textual variant here, but the best reading uses what's called the imperfect tense.

The best reading is, we were hoping. There's one possible reading of a perfect tense, and there's one present tense as well, but the best reading is, we were hoping. The imperfect describes an ongoing action in the past, but it doesn't assert that that action continues till today.

We were hoping. It was an ongoing thing. We've been following for a while. We don't know who the other disciple here was, but we were hoping. Not we had hoped, just a statement that briefly, this was something that was ongoing.

This was something that had impacted their lives, but now in the midst of darkness, that hope was flickering. And there in fact is not a statement here that they were still hoping, which might explain Jesus' words, because remember what he says, you foolish men, slow of heart to believe.

Didn't you know that this is what the Christ would have to suffer, and then he begins to open the scripture to them. So maybe this is what the Lord was responding. We were hoping. We were hoping. That was the phrase that began my thinking, but what do Christians hope for?

And I thought back to the sermon just recently that Pastor Fry presented to us, because he had mentioned in Romans chapter 15, that description of God, Romans 15, 12, I'm sorry, there's 15, 13. Now may the God of disappointing expectations?

Of course not. May the God of doubtful expectations? No. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing. See the connection between hope and faith there? And that came right after an Old Testament citation, which is interesting to me to always note.

Paul had said, again Isaiah says, there shall come the root of Jesse, and he who arises to rule over the Gentiles, in him shall the Gentiles what? Hope. Now see for most of us we're going, well what's the difference between hope and belief here?

And it is fascinating, as I considered this word hope, I was struck by how often hope and faith are directly linked to one another. Listen to a couple of these pastors, a bunch of them here, but we're going to do a little run through on hope.

And the Apostle Paul, my, he was the Apostle, if we're going to describe him of almost anything, I'd call him the Apostle of Hope. Remember Romans 8 .24, for in what we have been saved? In hope. See I think if we were to frequently ask a lot of Christians to fill in some of the blanks where the term hope appears in the New Testament, they'd put in faith or belief if they weren't familiar with the text.

But for in hope we have been saved. But hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes what he already sees? But if we hope what we do not see with perseverance, we wait eagerly for it. Remember that section in Romans 8, that right before the great section of the golden chain of redemption and everything else?

There in hope we have been saved. Do you ever think about yourself in those terms? Does hope describe you? And I think one of the main reasons, and I could be wrong, maybe you are a big hope person. I know of, I've spoken at Hope Reform Baptist Church back on Long Island, so there's some folks that maybe don't need this exhortation, but I think for a lot of us, because of that false distinction between trust, believe, and hope, one being positive and one being negative, that sort of in our minds we sort of do a little translation thing, and sort of flip hope into belief.

But there's nothing in the original language that substantiates that differentiation. Hope is a positive thing, and may I suggest that hope is faith looking forward to the promises of God resting on the character of God.

That's what hope is. Hope is faith looking forward to the promises of God and resting on the character of God. So notice what Paul said in Romans 5, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand and we exult in what?

In hope of the glory of God. See hope and faith connected together again, but hope is looking forward to what? It's looking forward, we exult in hope of the glory of God. And that's not, oh, I hope someday it will all work out, I hope God can make it work, that's not what it's saying.

This is an expectation. I mean if I were to say, I expect the Diamondbacks to win the World Series someday again, they did it in four years the first time, but it's been a while now, but I expect this is the year.

That's different than, well, I hope. But this is the expectation, we exult. That means we rejoice, we have great exultation in hope of the glory of God. God's glory is going to be revealed and we are going to see that.

Romans 5 continues on to talk about that one of the things God works in a Christian life is hope. Perseverance, proven character, proven character brings about what? Hope, and hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts, the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

We're to be hopeful people. We're to be people who are not always just dragging our feet along the ground and looking down and, oh, we're the persecuted lot. We may be persecuted, but the very power that defeats persecution is the hope of the glory of God.

And that hope does not disappoint. Why? Because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through what? The Holy Spirit. I think one of the things that made that time period between the cross and the empty tomb so dark was it was before Pentecost.

It was before Pentecost. We could never really experience that now because God has poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit, His love. We have that testimony of the Holy Spirit. Remember in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul said, if we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.

Remember what he was talking about? He was talking about the resurrection. Notice how it's hope basically is faith cast forward, looking forward. We could have said certainly if we have trusted in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.

That would be a true statement. But there is that added aspect of that forward looking here to the promise of our own resurrection. Christ being the first fruits of that. Likewise, the Ephesians, they said to the end that we who are the first to what in Christ?

Hope. We are the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of his glory. In 2 Corinthians 1 .10, who delivered us from so great a peril of death and will deliver us, he on whom we have set our hope.

We have set our hope upon him. Intimately connected is hope and faith. Intimately connected. There can be no hope apart from faith. There can be no hope apart from faith. Very clearly. And so if faith is the work of the Spirit of God within our hearts, repentance is the work of the Spirit of God within our hearts, then it makes sense.

We've already seen that part of the work of the Spirit within our lives is to make us hopeful people. We look forward to, we accept the promises of God. Paul said to the Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians 2 .16, now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace.

Have you ever thought of hope as a gift? I guarantee you if you've been in the sick room, if you've been in the ICU, you have thought of hope as a gift of grace. I've told some of you this before and some of you have been around here so long that you remember this.

Shortly after my wife and I began attending here, I began working at what was back then called Thunderbird Samaritan Hospital. Some of you would remember that right after the Sunday morning service, I would have to leave, or sometimes even earlier, to get out of the hospital because on Sunday afternoons, the hospital had a lost support group that the chaplain had to lead.

And I was one of two chaplains. And we were supposed to do it only every other week. But the other chaplain was candidating all over the place. Evidently it took him forever because the first year that I was there, out of the 52 Sundays, I had it 48.

That's not quite half. And I'm going to tell you that was some of the hardest work I ever did. I rarely have sleepless nights, but I had a complete sleepless night right over there in that caretaker's front room, that building right behind us there.

Because I had gotten a bunch of books about grieving and lost support at the Christian bookstore, and they were all impossible for me to follow their counsel because they all had the wrong doctrine of God.

They were all telling me to distance God from the loss and insulate God. And I'm like, even back then, even before all the experiences I ended up having in the hospital, I recognized that if you distance God from what has caused this, then how can you tell someone that God has a wonderful plan for their life in the future?

If God was off on vacation when this happened, what kind of faith is a person supposed to have that for the rest of their life he's not going to be going on vacation again? It removed any meaning and purpose.

Couldn't do it. Had the wrong theology. I remember that night just, just wrestling. How am I going to handle this? What am I going to do? Well, after doing that for quite some time, I made some observations.

I learned some things, and some of you know that one of my most popular books is a little teeny tiny book on grieving that I wrote a couple years later, actually, after I wasn't a chaplain any longer.

But the one thing I discovered, we were, if you know where Thunderbird is, it's now I think Banner or whatever it is out there on Thunderbird around 55th Avenue, not very far from where? Sun City. And so we would have a lot of older folks, and normally what it was is that group would be filled, it wasn't a Christian hospital, that group would be filled with elderly women who had lost their husband.

And many of them had been married for many decades, which is a good thing. But most of you probably know that in many situations when people who have been married for a long, long, long time lose that other person, they don't tend to live all that long themselves after.

And it became very clear to me, and I preached it in those classes, that the key word, the key concept as to whether someone was going to be moving up the spiral of grief toward fulfillment, happiness, the ability to look toward the future, or going down the spiral toward depression, sickness, maybe even death itself, the one word that made the difference was the word hope.

I saw it over and over. If that woman who had lost that husband that had so defined her life and her experience could look forward and see something other than just darkness, could see a purpose, could see a reason, could see a reason to continue on, sadly, in many instances, these were folks who were separated from their family.

You know, they had retired out here, all the family, all the grandkids, someplace else. And they did not see any reason to continue on. The future was simply dark. They had no hope. When I would see that, I would do everything in my power.

I remember it wasn't a quote-unquote religious hospital, but I was the chaplain, they were there, so I could at least mention things. But to talk to them and try to find some support in their life to try to encourage them to be able to look forward and see something other than murky darkness and despair, I would suggest practical things like, well, why don't you, could you, is there some way of getting involved in other people's lives?

Serving others was a huge way of creating hope. It drags you out of yourself and helps other people. It brings tremendous light to people, to serve others. Family, if there was family, oh, I would want to get them involved.

And if that could happen, I saw people who at first were just in darkness and despair, but slowly over time, they began to move outside of themselves, serving others, seeing in their family members and others a reason to continue on.

But then there would be those who just wouldn't come again, wouldn't see them again. And since it wasn't something you signed up for, there wasn't any way of contacting people. The word was hope. That was the one thing that made the difference.

Could they look forward? Remember that text when Paul talked about death? He said that we are not to grieve as believers, as those who what? Have no hope. Have no hope. Now, don't get me wrong. Paul did not say we don't grieve.

He didn't say that. Sometimes that text is misunderstood. Anyone who is old enough to love will grieve the loss of the object they love. Christians grieve. But we are not to grieve as those who what? Have no hope.

Now, the world hears that phrase and doesn't like it. How dare you? Because you see, the only way to understand what Paul said is that there is only one true way of having a hope that allows you to look forward, a hope that allows you to press forward in the midst of the deepest darkness and despair.

And it doesn't come from psychology. And we don't work it up within ourselves. And it doesn't come from the other religions of man. The Christian message is the reason that there is hope. The reason that we can have hope because of an empty heart is because of the faithfulness of God to the promises he began making all the way back in the book of Genesis in chapter 3 about one who would come.

And he would bruise the serpent's head. He would crush that serpent while he himself is only bruised. And then you have more light coming and more prophecies. And then, of course, we read Isaiah 53, and yet God remains faithful.

And you have an empty tomb. And I think that's why Jesus responds. They're saying, we were hoping. We were hoping. Jesus' response is to point them to the Scriptures and say, don't stop because the one who made these promises has now shown himself faithful.

Hope. We were hoping that it was he who was going to redeem Israel. That was a true hope. They were right. But for a brief period of time, the light of that hope had flickered. And we know why. Spirit not yet given.

The Scriptures not yet open to their minds. Traditions crowding in and bringing confusion so you don't even hear what Jesus himself had said. We were hoping. Since that conversation, every Christian has changed the tense of the verb.

The resurrection changes the tense of the verb. Because the description of you and I today is, we are hoping. Because of the love of God that has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, we have the hope of eternal life.

We are a hopeful people. And we need to take that word back from its misuse in our language. It needs to be a positive word. It needs to be a word of light in our minds. We need to be a people of hope.

Because, my friends, we live amongst a people. We live amongst a nation that has none of it. The message that you are but a highly evolved animal that's going to live a little while, die a painful death, and turn to dust, does not bring hope.

Especially to those who know that there is more than that. And everyone creating the image of God knows that. So where will they get hope? Well, folks, God has given you hope in your heart. Don't hide it.