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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/david-petterson/the-buoyancy-of-hope/
Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus, we come, we give thanks for him. We're thankful that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and that when we came to him in all of our sin, that he has sheltered us, that he saved us, and that we have found a refuge in Christ, and that we don't need to fear judgment for our sins.
We're thankful for the great fact that Christ has borne our judgment on the cross, and that we are safe, we are saved, and in his hand. And yet, as thy people, we recognize that with so much around us that's distressing and troubling, we can still come to God and come to our Father for refuge and for hope.
So we're thankful for what we find in the word of God. We're thankful for the promises of thy word, and we would seek, Lord, to look at what some of those promises happen to be, and how we can enjoy the blessing of hope in a hopeless world.
And so we pray thy blessing upon us as we open the scriptures. We pray that we might be challenged, that we might be encouraged, that we might indeed be built up in our most holy faith. Remember, many of the Lord's people even today that are not well, some that are sick with COVID -19, draw near and minister to their need.
Many families have been touched by this illness, by this virus. Lord, draw near and minister to the need of thy dear people. And we pray especially for unbelievers that have no hope, that have no refuge in Christ, that even on this day, perhaps listening to the message just now, they will recognize they need to be saved.
They need safety in Christ, that they may turn to him. And so we pray to bless thy word as we look into it now. We pray in the worthy name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Now I would like to begin with just one verse from the epistle to the Romans chapter 15.
Romans chapter 15. And we will read some other verses as we go through the message together, rather than reading them all at once. So we'll begin at Romans chapter 15, verse 13. Romans 15 and 13, Paul says here, Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Now it's amazing to consider the experiences of the man who wrote these words. And not just the experiences that he had had while he wrote the words, but even more that were yet to come. Impostor Paul was shipwrecked three times.
Beaten with rods, he said three times. Lashed with the whip five times, 40 stripes, less one. Imprisoned and survived not only these instances, but even a stoning. He says that he faced dangers at sea, dangers on land, dangers from his own people, dangers from the heathen, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers among false brothers.
Paul would say that he endured sleepless nights, experienced hunger and thirst many times, and was often cold and without enough clothing. And he experienced all of these things for the cause of Christ.
Yet, yet, he did not sink in despair. I haven't even mentioned the things that were going on in the political world all around him. These are just personal experiences that would be enough to make anyone sink.
Paul did not. How could this man, who often sank literally in the waters of the Mediterranean, not sink in despair? Well, Paul consistently enjoyed the buoyancy of hope. The buoyancy of hope. That's the title for my message today.
Now, you might respond immediately like I might if I were hearing that and say, well, I am certainly not the Apostle Paul. And that is absolutely true. And I haven't experienced what he experienced. Let me give you a more modern example of someone who enjoyed the buoyancy of hope.
His name was Terry Waite. Terry arrived in Beirut, Lebanon, on January the 12th, 1987. He went there with an intention of negotiating for the release of four hostages. Eight days later, Terry agreed to meet the captors of those hostages as he was promised safe passage to visit them, who he was told were ill.
But the group broke trust. And Terry Waite became a hostage himself, the fifth in that group. Waite spent 1 ,763 days in a darkened cell, most of it in solitary confinement. He was beaten. He was blindfolded, even subjected to a mock execution just to see how he would respond to instigate as much terror into his heart as possible.
Terry spent two years shackled to a wall. And when he was unshackled, he walked 6 ,000 laps around his tiny prison cell each day to exercise. I think I would go out of my mind just trying to count to 6 ,000, but he did the 6 ,000 laps every day.
He recited large portions of the Book of Common Prayer that he knew from memory to, as he said, keep from going insane. But when he gave his reason for how he could make it through such a terrifying experience, as this, Terry Waite said, without any hesitation, he said, I came through that ordeal because I was able to maintain hope.
I was able to maintain hope. He did not sink in despair, but enjoyed, as Paul did, and as many believers have, enjoyed the buoyancy of hope. Now, this world that we're living in is sinking. Sinking into an abyss.
We have disease. We have division. We have destruction. By the way, all characteristics of the reign of the God of this world. In some ways, we shouldn't be surprised that we have those things. Satan is the prince, the ruler of this world.
He's the God of this world. And we will have those things as long as he continues to be the God of this world. And no amount of posting, and no amount of protesting, and certainly no politician will provide the answers for these terrible things.
But listen, we have the answer. We have the answer. Jesus Christ. Christ alone is the answer. You know why? Because sin, sin is not in systems, unless by systems, we mean people. Sin is in the human heart.
And only Christ can deal with the sin of the human heart. And I'm so glad that he has. Aren't you glad that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners? But as this world around us is sinking, and experiences that we have, even as God's people sometimes, can be quite alarming and quite discouraging.
Even though the world is sinking, we don't have to be. We don't have to be. We too can experience the buoyancy of hope. So how? How? That's the message, right? How can we experience the buoyancy of hope?
How can we stay afloat in a world that's sinking? Well, first of all, we have to define hope. What is hope? Now, if you look in a modern dictionary, you might not get a very good definition of hope. Because I looked up one just to give you an example.
This is probably a pretty prevalent definition of hope in our world. The dictionary told me that hope is, quote, the feeling that what is wanted can be had, or that events will turn out for the best. Hope is, quote, the feeling that what is wanted can be had, or that events will turn out for the best, end quote.
Now, that's, by the way, that's why people buy lottery tickets. They, the feeling that what is wanted can be had, or that things will somehow turn out for the best. That's not what we have. That's not hope, as defined by the New Testament.
Because in the New Testament, there is a word found 54 times, and translated most of the time as hope. And what is it? It's not a feeling. It's not a feeling. It's not a wish. It's not something we conjure up in our imagination.
The hope we have is a certainty. It is, it's actually a word connected with the unshakable promises of God. Now, one of the best definitions that I could find for the biblical concept of hope is this.
And this is what I really want to emphasize. I don't want you to miss this. Here's a good biblical New Testament definition for hope. Hope is the confident expectation that what God has promised, he will bring to pass.
Hope is the confident expectation that what God has promised, he will bring to pass. So, not the wish that those promises will be fulfilled. The confident expectation that what God has promised, he will bring to pass.
This will keep us from sinking in despair in the midst of a hopeless world. We can enjoy the buoyancy of hope no matter our circumstances, whether personal circumstances or those of our nation of our world, we can enjoy the buoyancy of hope.
Now I've got, let me see here how many things, six things about hope I want to emphasize. First of all, I want you to consider the source of our hope, the source of our hope. It's not a bank account, it's not a retirement plan, it's not a stimulus check, no.
The source of our hope we read in Romans 15 and 13 it is this, I think it's the ISV says, now may God, now may God the source of hope fill you with all joy and peace. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace.
It was a psalmist that wrote in Psalm 42 and Psalm 43 which are, I don't know what you think, I think they're probably the same psalm. There's not a title in the 43rd and there's a there's a refrain that runs through the two together and you might remember what it is.
The three times over the psalmist says hope thou in God, hope thou in God. Our hope is found in God and as we turn to the New Testament in Christ. That's the source of our hope. Now we have to remember, it's always good for us to remember too and it's good if there's any listening that aren't Christians to understand this.
Those of us that are Christians now, we were once without hope. We were once without hope. That's what Paul said to the Ephesians in chapter 2. He said you were without Christ. You were strangers to the covenants of promise.
He said having no hope and without God in the world. Without Christ, without hope, without God. They're all connected. Anyone without God, anyone without Christ is without hope. That's where we used to be and apart from Christ Jesus coming into the world, dying on the cross, paying the price for our sins, rising powerfully from the dead, taking his seat at God's right hand, we'd still be without hope.
As vice president, George HW Bush represented the United States at the funeral of former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. Now Bush was deeply moved by a silent protest carried out by Brezhnev's widow. She stood motionless by the coffin until just seconds before it was closed.
She could still see his body and then just as soldiers touched the lid and they were about ready to close the casket, Brezhnev's wife performed an act of, I think, great courage and hope. A gesture that must surely rank as one of the most profound acts of civil disobedience ever committed in that country.
She reached down and made the sign of the cross on her husband's chest so that there in the citadel of secular atheistic power at the time, the wife of the man who had run it all hoped that her husband was wrong and she hoped that there was another life and she hoped that that life was best represented by Jesus Christ the Lord who died on the cross.
He's the one in whom we have hope. He's the source of our hope. In fact, after Paul said that the Ephesians were without Christ and without hope and without God in the world, he added, one of the best but now texts in the New Testament, but now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Christ has given us hope. We heard the gospel and we trusted Christ. You might remember that Paul wrote in Colossians 1, 23, he spoke about the hope of the gospel that you heard or the hope that the gospel brings.
Because listen, there's no hope outside of the message of the gospel. Turn on the TV, listen to the radio, scroll through the feeds on your phone, there isn't any hope outside of Christ. But the gospel brings hope and we heard it.
We trusted Christ and now we have hope. Paul calls this elsewhere, this hope of ours, good hope through grace. Good hope through grace. By God's grace, we're now linked to all the promises of God that come through knowing Christ.
He refers to it in other places in Ephesians 1, the hope of his calling, meaning the hope that God's calling of us has given to us. And Peter says it's a to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Hope, if you will, rose up with Christ from the dead because if Christ is not raised, we are still in our sin. We would be without hope, right? So Christ has given us hope. God alone, Christ alone is the source of our hope.
Bank accounts don't bring hope. Stimulus checks don't bring hope. Stock market rallies don't give us hope because hope is the confident expectation that what God has promised he will fulfill. Now we've already experienced some of that in our lives as God's people.
We believed on Christ. We have received the promise of everlasting life. We know God comes through on his promises. We've received Christ. We receive with him joy and peace promised to us that are in Christ.
We already know something about the blessing and the buoyancy of hope. Now he's the source of hope. Is that good enough? Is he enough? Is Christ sufficient? Do we need something else? I want you to think secondly of the satisfaction of our hope or the sufficiency of our hope.
Please turn back to Romans chapter 5. You still have your Bible there to Romans 15. Just back to chapter 5 and in chapter 5 and verse 3 Paul says, and not only so but we glory in tribulations also knowing that tribulation worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope and hope maketh not ashamed or this hope does not disappoint us.
This hope does not disappoint us. Now just for a minute I want you to think of the world's definition of hope again and see if it brings disappointment. Okay I'm looking up in the dictionary hope the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best.
That disappointing? You ever been disappointed by that definition of hope? I guarantee that you have. What we want we often don't get and events don't turn out for the best. That's why people, that's what we hear phrases like dashed hopes.
Oh our hopes were dashed or we hear phrases like try not to get your hopes up you know because it might not happen. Our hope can't be dashed. Impossible. Nor do we have to try to fan it up. We don't have to get up our hopes.
The hope that we have is the confident expectation that God will fulfill what he has promised to us. Now what are the promises that God has given to us? Well there's many we could mention but I think it's important to point some of them out just so we can flesh this out and you can see that hope is a very buoyant thing.
I want you to think of every biblical promise linked with the Christ that we've received as Savior and there's a lot of them. We don't have time to go through all of them but listen first of all we have eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
That was a promise. He that believeth on him has everlasting life. When we trusted Christ we received life and you know that you have it because the Word of God says it and we also received the promise Holy Spirit and just that alone is enough to tell us God comes through on his promises.
If you're a Christian you know your life is not what it was before and you could not affect that change. Only God could bring it about. God has brought change into our lives. He has given us hope. He has given us peace.
He has given us joy. He has given us forgiveness. He has granted us his Holy Spirit. We have other promises. If we abide in Christ Jesus said we will produce fruit. It's a promise. We have the Old Testament Scripture.
I know it's an Old Testament promise but it's still a good one that tells us that when we sow the Word of God it will not return unto him empty. I'm certain you've already seen God come through on that promise.
Sowing the Word of God and seeing him work. When we die we will go to be with Christ which is far better. It's a promise. If we don't die it's because Christ will return to take us to be with him in heaven.
It's a promise. We'll mention that later. We are going to share in the reign of Christ. It's a promise. If we work for his kingdom we will receive rewards in his kingdom. It's a promise. These are all promises God either has already or will fulfill for us.
We can be confident that he will do what he says. We have enough experience with God's promises to know that he can be trusted. This hope that we have doesn't disappoint us. Listen, when you think of all we have in Christ how could you ever think that what we have is disappointing?
Earthly hopes will disappoint. Ours is a heavenly hope. Ours is linked with the promises of the God of the Bible. Ours is a satisfying hope. The source of our hope and the satisfaction of our hope there's nothing better than what we have in Christ.
Third, I want you to think of this is where we get into trouble, at least I do, the seizing of our hope. Turn to Hebrews 6 please. We'll read a few verses here in Epistle to the Hebrews chapter 6. We will break into the reading at verse 17.
Hebrews 6 and 17 says, wherein God willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold to seize the hope set before us which hope we have as an anchor of the soul both sure and steadfast and which entereth into that within the veil whether the forerunner is for us entered even Jesus.
Now there's a lot going on here we don't have the time to go through everything in the Epistle to the Hebrews but as far as the seizing of our hope goes this is where we often run into difficulty. We fit and that's where the Hebrew believers were running into difficulty.
We fail to believe, we fail to trust God's promises. We stumble in our faith. In Hebrews 6 the example of Abraham is given just before this reading and you remember that God's promise to him in the text was I will certainly bless you and give you many descendants and it's an unconditional covenant it's not Abraham if you will do X Y Z I will bless you and give you many descendants no unconditional promise and yet Abraham had a hard time with that unconditional promise didn't and he felt that he had to take matters into his own hand and he stumbled.
But his failure interestingly isn't mentioned here and neither is the failure of the faith heroes in chapter 11. Verse 15 says and so after he had patiently endured Abraham he obtained the promise. Now you had to wait a long time but eventually Abraham in dependence upon God seized the hope and saw God fulfill his promises in God's time.
And so the message to the Hebrew believers and for us is don't give up. Don't give up hope. Seize it. Listen when we fail to abide in Christ we don't produce fruit. If we don't sow God's Word we won't see others reach.
If we fail to serve the Lord we will lose reward in a coming kingdom. Hope is to be seized. We are to act upon the promises of God. In chapter 6 the Hebrew writers talking about us as the as heirs of his promise God's promise and he instructs us to seize the hope that's before us.
And then he calls it that hope firm and secure like an anchor for our souls. And just when I'm starting to understand the imagery he switches metaphors by saying that this hope reaches behind the curtain.
Now he's using tabernacle imagery right? Where Jesus our forerunner has gone on our behalf. Christ is the one who anchors us by the way. But he doesn't anchor us downward. He anchors us upward. That's where he is.
And now we because we're anchored upward we cannot sink. Now the Hebrew writer was trying to encourage his readers in Christ or his readers that Christ was who he claimed to be right? That he was worthy of their trust.
He was the fulfillment of many of the Old Testament promises that God had given to them. That they could be confident they had placed their faith in the Messiah. Because he's a living Savior. His sacrifice was superior.
The sanctuary into which he entered was superior. The priesthood that he inaugurated was superior. The covenant that he affected was superior. He was trying to put to ground them in the promises of God's Word in the Old Testament to seize the hope that was theirs in Christ and not sink.
He wanted them to act upon the promises of God. And if we do we will see God fulfill his promises to us in his time and in very specific ways. Now I'll have to talk about that for just a moment because Paul did.
Paul did. We started out with Paul. Well what did Paul do? In the midst of all that suffering that we described at the beginning, using Paul's own language, what did Paul do? Even though he suffered, what did he do?
He shared the gospel. And souls were, no matter where he went, even if he was chained to soldiers next to him, shared the gospel with them. Souls were saved. He was acting on the promise of God. That God's Word would not return unto him empty.
And he knew that promise. In fact, Paul says in Romans 1, he says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it's the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it. He knew it. So he spread the Word knowing that everyone that put their faith in Christ would experience the power of God to salvation.
He acted on the promises. Even though Paul suffered, he served others with gladness. And he knew that he earned a reward in a coming day. How do we know that? Because he says it. As his life is coming to an end, he's writing Timothy the second time and Paul says, henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.
He doesn't say, you know, I'm really hoping there's a crown. He knew. He knew. He was acting upon the promises of God. Certain confident expectation that what God had promised, he would bring to pass.
Even though Paul suffered again and again, he was he was a follower of the Lord Jesus. He was doing it all for the cause of Christ and suffering because of it and still followed Christ. He was abiding in Christ day after day and people could see Christ's likeness in him.
When Jesus spoke about fruit in John 15, the inevitable result of abiding in him, I think it's the fruit is likeness to him. Just like the branch looks like the vine. The person, the Christian that abides in Christ has Christ's likeness.
Paul was abiding in Christ and people could see it in him so that he could say, be ye followers of me, be imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ. Now we might not say that, Paul did, but he laid hold.
He sees the promises of God. He acted upon them. God fulfills his promises. That's why Paul, rather than sinking in despair no matter what his circumstances, he sees the buoy of hope and stayed afloat and so can I and so can you.
The seizing of our hope. Number four, I'll just say a quick word about the sanctification of our hope and I'm going to turn to someone other than Paul here but turn please to 1st John chapter 3. 1st John chapter 3 and we'll look at verse 2 verses 2 and 3.
1st John 3 and 2, John writes, Beloved now are we the sons of God. That's a realization of a promise by the way, John 1 and 12. Beloved now are we the sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know, there's more confident expectation, we know that when he, Christ, shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is and then he says and every man that hath this hope, there's the word again, there's our word again, everyone that has this hope in him purifies himself even as he, as Christ, is pure.
You see the sanctification of our hope there? We know that when Christ appears he said we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is and everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself even as Christ is pure.
The hope that we have in Christ should have a purifying, sanctifying effect in our lives. The certainty of our future should affect us in the present. So often in the New Testament we read about our position in Christ, right, and then immediately afterward we read about what our practice should be because of our position.
Position should affect our practice, does it? Knowing the promises concerning our future should affect the way that we live today. So we read about the sanctification of our hope. Number five, the sharing of our hope.
So we'll go to Peter for a moment and turn back to his first epistle, 1st Peter chapter 3 and verse 15 Peter says, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to everyone that asks you, a reason of the hope.
There's the word again, the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. I think that ESV is good here, the ESV says, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect.
I like those words, I need those words, gentleness and respect. When we witness to other people, when we tell them about the hope that we have in Christ, we are to do it with gentleness and respect. We are to witness honorably, not condescendingly, but carefully and compassionately to those that we're trying to reach.
But by the way, Peter says this hope is in you. He says it's in you. How can it be in you? You have Christ. If you have Christ, you have hope. If you don't have Christ, and there may be listeners just now, and if you don't have Christ, my friend, you don't have hope.
You need a Savior and He's the only one who can give you hope. He's the only one who can cleanse your sins, forgive you of your sins, and set you right with God. You need Him. But to those of us that have Christ, we have hope.
He says this hope is in you. You have it. Act upon it. When others see, because I think they do, maybe not as much as we would like them to, when others see that we do have this hope, are we ready to share the reason for the hope that is in us?
I mean, how can we say that we have the confident expectation that God will fulfill what He has promised? How can we say? Because in so many ways, and on so many occasions, God already has. He's already fulfilled His promises, and we can tell other people those things.
We can make that a part of our gospel witness. God's word promises peace. We can tell them we have peace that we never had before, the peace that passes understanding, knowing that when we leave this world, that we're going to a better place, that we're going to heaven, and we are 100 sure.
We can tell people that we have joy. We shouldn't have to just tell them, by the way. They should notice that we have joy. We can tell them that we have purpose, because life without Christ doesn't have purpose, and if they don't have Christ, they know that.
We can tell them that there is purpose. We have all these blessings. He says to be ready, and He says to be always ready. Be always ready to share our hope with others. Some of you know that the athlete from our country here in the United States, Tim Tebow, and Tebow was an outspoken Christian and a very good athlete, and he was on a driving range during the midst of an interview.
He was being interviewed, and he was hitting balls on the driving range, and the person that was interviewing him used the name of the Lord in vain, and you know what Tim Tebow did right away? He didn't miss a beat.
Right away, you just heard these words, love you, love you. He was ready, and then he was able to tell that man that God did love him, that Jesus loved him, and went to the cross for him. Always anticipating an opportunity to turn things around, to share a reason of the hope that is in us.
Always be ready. I need that exhortation. Always be ready to share the reason for the hope that is ours. Remember that we're living in a world that is without hope, and we were once without hope too. Maybe some of you heard the story, but I'll tell it anyway.
Despite owning a home perched atop a high cliff with an ocean view in Sydney, Australia, Don and Moya Richie live on a plot of real estate that can be best described as something out of a bad dream. The rocky cliff where they live is known as The Gap.
The Gap, the most notorious suicide destination in the country. While most people would surely move away from that location, the Richies have stayed for almost 50 years, saving an estimated 160 people from taking the leap.
Every morning, Mr. Richie would wake up, look out the window to see if anyone was standing alone too close to the precipice. If he senses someone may be contemplating suicide, he actually approaches them and asks if they'd like to talk over a cup of tea.
He says, I'm offering them an alternative, and many times they take it. The retired life insurance salesman says he's not burdened by the reality of what happens in close proximity to his house. Instead, he and his wife of 58 years have learned to look at this as a calling.
He says, isn't it wonderful to have saved so many lives, to have sold people on life. I think, says Moya, isn't it wonderful that we live here and and we can help people in this way. Now, in recognition of their efforts, the Richies were named 2010's Citizens of the Year.
A few years before that, the government recognized Don's efforts with a Medal of the Order of Australia among the nation's highest civilian honors. Although Richie claims to have seen more saved than lost as a result of his reaching out to them, too many, he would agree, have perished.
One teenager ignored his invitation and suddenly jumped as the wind blew the boy's hat back into Richie's outstretched hand. He later found out that the team that jumped lived next door years before. His mother brought Richie flowers afterwards and thanked him for trying.
She said, if you couldn't have talked him out of it, she told him, no one could. Richie's optimistic that his efforts to save lives will continue even after he passes. He said, I imagine somebody else will come along and do what I've been doing, but Don passed away.
I'm not sure if anyone else did come along. Are we doing what the Richies were doing? We have real hope. We have a real reason to live. We don't have to try to sell people on life. There's something beyond this life, eternity, either in heaven or in hell without Christ.
We have the gospel of hope. It's what Paul calls it. And like the Richies, most of us don't have to go searching for people in need. They're right outside our door. They may not be treading the precipice of a literal cliff, but they do walk dangerously close to the edge of eternity, don't they?
Do we share the reason for our hope, the sharing of our hope? I have one more and I want you to turn back now to Paul's words as he writes to Titus. Titus chapter 2. You may have expected this reading to take place in a subject about hope.
Titus chapter 2 verse 11 says, for the grace of God that bringeth salvation, it brought salvation to us, hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.
By the way, there's the sanctification of our hope again. But then he says, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ who gave himself for us.
I'll just end by telling you something about the summit of our hope, the pinnacle of our hope. And I have two things in mind here. First, this hope as it relates to us. And second, as this hope relates to Christ.
In Titus 2 .13 Paul says, we're waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. Now I do believe this refers to the Lord's coming in both of its stages because at both of its stages different groups of people will be reading this text.
I believe this blessed hope belongs to the church right now as we await the any-moment return of Christ to rapture us to be with him in heaven. And I do think that he will appear to us. But I also believe that this blessed hope will belong to the tribulation saints as they await the return of Christ to reign upon the earth, delivering them in a coming day from persecution and extreme suffering.
But for us, the summit of our hope is this. Christ is coming to receive us to himself. I still believe in the rapture of the church. This blessed hope of ours is a purifying hope as pointed out earlier, right?
Everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. A sanctified purifying hope. And yet this hope of ours is an encouraging hope. It's meant to encourage us. We don't look at it and fear everything that his coming will mean.
No. Even though his coming will mean tribulation for the world afterward. It's an encouraging hope. Jesus said to his discouraged disciples, let not your heart be troubled. Remember he told them that he was going away and they began to sink in despair.
He says you don't need to sink in despair. I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there you may be also. He's trying to encourage them. And it is an encouraging hope. With all around us that's uncertain and all around us that's troubling and distressing.
Just remember at any moment Christ could come and take us to be with himself. Let that promise encourage you today. It's intended to be a purifying hope. It's intended to be an encouraging hope. It's according to Paul intended to be a comforting hope.
Because Paul was writing in 1st Thessalonians. Paul wrote to those who thought their loved ones were gone and had no hope. And so to these sorrowing Thessalonians he reminded them of the Lord's return.
And he reminds them that they could be reunited with them at that moment. The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout. With the voice of the Archangel and with the trump of God the dead in Christ will rise first.
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the air to meet the Lord. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. Then he you remember what he said. Therefore comfort one another with these words.
In other words they didn't need to sink in despair. They had a comforting hope that they would be joined together with their loved ones. They would see them again and be joined together to be with Christ who they would be with forever and ever.
We're going to see our saved loved ones again. I know people over the past week that have passed away. Believers. And it was you know what it was sad not to be able to go to the funeral and see them and see their families.
But there's an event coming that no disease on earth and no power on earth will be able to stop. And it will be the greatest gathering in the history of this universe. When Christ returns every believer in the Lord Jesus will be joined together in the greatest reunion of all.
And we will see our loved ones again. What a comforting hope is ours. This blessed hope is a purifying hope. It's intended to be an encouraging hope. It's intended to be a comforting hope. But one more.
It ought to be a motivating hope for us to seize and enjoy the promises of God to lay hold upon them. In fact, in one of the great rapture passages, 1 Corinthians 15, Paul ends there by saying in verse 58,.
Therefore be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. That's in a rapture passage. Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. Our blessed hope, far from being excused to be lazy and just sit around and wait, is a motivation to be active.
May we all be motivated to get to work for our Lord. So the summit, the summit of our hope is the rapture. But I'm thinking of one other thing as I finish. Not only the summit of our hope as it relates to us, but the summit of our hope as it relates to Christ.
First, his will be the joy of being united with his bride at the rapture. You think you've been waiting a long time for Christ to return. He's been waiting a lot longer. And the thrill of it that strikes us is probably nothing compared to that compares to the thrill of his heart to be joined together with the bride that he has purchased with his own blood.
And so his will be the joy of being united with his bride at the rapture. But also he will be unveiled in all of his glory when he returns to rule upon this earth. And I don't know about you, but I am looking forward to the day when Christ comes to this earth and there really will be justice.
And there really will be righteousness. And there really will be peace. Those things, disaster, death, division, destruction, they all belong to the God of this earth right now. But there's someone that's coming and he's going to turn the whole thing around.
Christ will come and reign in righteousness and peace and he will be universally acknowledged. He will. He will be honored. He will be worshipped here in this world where he was crucified and slain. That's the summit of our hope, to see Christ being given the place that he received.
Christ's return. Christ's reign. Christ's restoring what was lost and ultimately God being all in all. And these, by the way, these are absolute certainties because God has promised them in his Word. Our hope is in the confident expectation that what God has promised he will bring to pass.
You already have enough experience from God's Word to know that he fulfills his promises. Don't lose hope. Trust God's promise. Brother, sister, do not sink in despair even if things get worse than they are right now.
Seize the hope that is yours and enjoy today and every day the blessed buoyancy of hope. Let's pray. Father, we give thanks today for all that have tuned in to listen to the Word of God. We're thankful for all the promises of God that are realities in our life and that we can act upon them with certainty that God will fulfill them.
We're thankful for all that is ours in our Lord Jesus Christ and that every promise he gives is one that he will fulfill. We confess that at times we seek to speed up God's program. We confess that we have a bit of impatience to us.
Help us to wait confidently on the Lord and to continue to find our refuge in the Lord. Our hope is in the Lord our God. We pray to bless thy Word to our hearts and help us as we reflect on the great hope that does belong to us that we might share it with people that are around us that are in the same condition that we once were in without hope, without Christ, without God.
Lord, use thy people. Use the Word of God that has gone forth to the blessing of many and that there may even be those that have listened today that will put their confidence in Christ, put their trust in him and experience the great promise of passing from death to life.
And so we pray thy blessing upon our afternoon and our evening and ask these things in the worthy name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Thank you.