Hopeology, Part 7

God is our anchor of hope. The writer of Hebrews makes that very clear in Hebrews 6 verses 13 to 20. I don't know about you, but during this time of the year, as the summer begins to wind down, we embark on the month of September and Labor Day And for me, that marks the time in which I shift into high gear for the Christmas season Now I know that for most of you that's abnormal, weird, ridiculous, and your pastor needs to see some psychiatrist. I understand that that's what you're thinking

But for as long as I can remember, that's the way it's always been in my mind and heart and family and life That when September rolls around, everything is geared toward the Christmas season Everything about Christmas, the sights of Christmas, the sounds of Christmas, the smells of Christmas, everything begins to escalate in my mind and heart And I know that in California, September and October can be very, very hot months And we get those weeks of 100 degree and 105 degree temperatures and the wind blows

But needless to say, we're looking for the opportunity to put up our Christmas tree early and to begin to understand more and more about the celebration of the great season of Christmas And every time the season rolls around, the fact is, as you go to the malls, you begin to realize that Christmas songs in the malls are beginning earlier and earlier every year Now I know that there's a method, a madness to their method, and that is they want you to buy more earlier than later And I understand that

But you'll notice that Christmas songs are beginning in the first part of November now and in places like Macy's and Nordstrom and even Foot Locker and Champs and even in restaurants because the Christmas season is upon us as we embark toward the month of December And yet with all the things concerning Christmas, we go through the motions of Christmas and we sing the songs of Christmas without ever really listening and understanding to the words of the songs Some of our Christmas carols have the greatest of all words

And you'll watch Christmas specials on TV beginning as early as November and people will sing those great hymns that we sing on Sunday morning And they are celebrities that don't even know the Lord And you wonder how can you sing songs about the birth of the Christ child, about the virgin birth of the Christ child and the Lord as King and yet not believe in the words that you sing But it happens all the time It happens even in the church And even when in the late 1800s when Philip Brooks penned those words, Oh little town of Bethlehem

And when he penned those words, the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight He understood that with the coming of the Christ child, the anticipation of the promises were being fulfilled Because hope is all about anticipation Anticipating the things that God has promised being fulfilled in the lives of his people We live by hope With Christ, endless hope Without Christ, a hopeless end And so I wonder even for us as a church that when we sing those Christmas carols that talk to us about the coming of the living hope, how it truly resonates in our hearts and minds

We have spent the last six weeks talking to you about hope Helping you come to grips with how the hopes and fears of all the years were met in that Christ child If he is truly our anchor of hope, what is that hope that we hold so dearly to? It's a hope that we talked about last week and for the last several weeks that's rooted in God Received by grace Ratified in and through the resurrection Reinforced by scripture Reaffirmed by the Holy Spirit Ratified or excuse me, is a rampart against Satan and all of his devices It is that one element that reproduces joy Reproduces joy

If the hopes and fears of all the years were met in the Christ child, then the hope is going to reproduce in those who embrace the Christ child with great hope In fact, Jesus would say it this way First of all, the Apostle Paul would say in Romans 15 verse number 13, Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy All joy Not just fill you with some components of joy Fill you with partial joy, but fill you with all joy And so Paul is echoing something of what the Christ said when he spoke to his men in John chapter 15 When he said, these things I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you

Think about that My joy Christ says I want my joy to be in you What kind of joy is that? The joy that was set before him So that he could endure the cross, so that he could despise the shame. I want you to have that kind of joy And then he says this And that your joy may be made full So Paul says the God of hope is going to reproduce in you joy that's all-encompassing Because he knows what Jesus has said in John chapter 15 about his joy being made full in us See? He would go on to say in John's gospel, the 16th chapter, these words Verse 22

Therefore you too have grief now, but I will see you again There's the promise. I'm going to see you again because hope is living in anticipation of what God promises to his people Therefore you will see me again and your heart will rejoice And no one will be able to take that joy from you The kind of joy that comes because it's reproduced by hope is a joy that no one can take from you Because it is a joy that is not dependent upon circumstances and situations It is the joy of the Lord It's that inner contentment It's that inner rest that comes because you are at peace with the living God

So important Because the hopes and fears of all the years were met in the coming of the Christ child Let me say it to you this way Remember Luke's gospel Of course you do Spent nine years in Luke How can you forget, right? Luke's gospel Let me take you back 10 years to Luke chapter 1 And remember Zacharias was performing his priestly duty You got to love Luke's narrative of the Christmas story Because he takes you from those silent years in between the Old Testament and the New Testament Those 400 years where an angel didn't speak God didn't speak. A prophet didn't speak

It was completely quiet To see whether or not Israel would live in anticipation of the promised Messiah Because that's where their hope would lie And so when you open up the New Testament narrative There are very few left hoping in the promises of God and the fulfillment of the arrival of the Messiah There are just a few And we've talked about them over the years So Zacharias is performing his priestly duty He's doing what the priest does And an angel appears We assume it's Gabriel The same angel that would appear to Mary a little later on

But we assume it's Gabriel because he's the messenger angel He would come in Luke's gospel He would say these words to Zacharias Luke 1.11 An angel of the Lord appeared to him standing to the right of the altar of incense And Zacharias was troubled when he saw the angel and fear gripped him Now what have we told you about the Christmas story? The theme of the Christmas story is fear Fear gripped Zacharias Fear gripped Mary Fear gripped the shepherds as the angel would come and the glory of the Lord would shine all around them

The story is all about fear and how the hopes and fears of all the years were met in the coming of the Christ child That's why Philip Brooks penned a hymn that he did And fear gripped Zacharias But that fear, because of hope, would reproduce joy So, it says, the angel of the Lord said to him, Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John Now remember, Elizabeth was barren for years She and Zacharias were up in years Probably in their mid-70s, early 80s They were not young and chipper

They were up in years And the Lord was waiting for the right time But the joy coming would not be centered around the son, as great as that was But the fact that their son would be the forerunner to the son, the Messiah So, he says, You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and he will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother's womb, and he will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God

It is he who will go as a forerunner before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to their children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord In other words, the hope and fears of all the years have been met now, because your son, John, will be the forerunner to the Messiah He will be a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, because the promise of the coming Messiah has now arrived And the hearts of the people will be filled with joy, because hope has been realized

And so, when the angel came to Mary, same thing, do not be afraid, because the fulfillment of the coming Messiah is taking place Your hope, Zacharias' hope, Elizabeth's hope is being fulfilled, because God promised And Mary, you are part of that fulfillment, because you will bear in your womb the Lord's Messiah And so, what did Mary respond? Luke 1, 46, and Mary said, My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior Why has she rejoiced? Because the hope and fear of all the years have now been met in the coming of the Christ child

The promises are being fulfilled right before her very eyes And so, the Christ child comes, and of course, you know about the birth of the Messiah, and the glory of the Lord shining all around, and the angels go into Bethlehem, and they go into the grotto, and regurgitating back to Mary all the things the angels said to them, and they left glorifying God, and they left rejoicing, great joy Why? Because the hope and fears of all the years have finally been met in the Christ child That's why Hope reproduces joy

So, the Christ child is born, and as I'm reviewing this, this is all introductory to point number eight, so just bear with me, there's a method to my madness here And so, the Christ child is born, and the Christ child grows in wisdom and stature And John the Baptist fulfills his ministry, and he is the forerunner to the Messiah The Messiah comes on the scene The Messiah begins to preach in Matthew chapter four, after commissioning the twelve

It says in verse 23, And Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease, every kind of sickness among the people And the news about Him spread throughout all Syria, and they brought to Him all who were ill, those suffering with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics, and He healed them Large crowds followed Him from Galilee, and the Decapolis, and Jerusalem, and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan Now think about that

How long do you think it took? Without the age of social media, for everything about the Christ to spread throughout all Syria, the Decapolis, Judea, Galilee, Jerusalem, how long do you think it would take for the news to spread about this great healer that was among them? Weeks? Months? I don't know But what I do know is that it spread in such a way that everybody who was sick made sure, made certain, they made their way to find the healer This miracle work So much so that when they arrived, Jesus healed them all Now think about that. I don't know what your disease is today

Maybe you don't have a physical ailment But when you have one, and you are able to be relieved of whatever sickness you have, whatever disease you have, there is this feeling of joy, there's this feeling of reprieve, there's this feeling of excitement that you have It's finally over, I can breathe now, I can move on with my life

Or if you have it and you can't get rid of it, you wonder, will I ever be rid of this disease? And these people were coming, and they were all being healed, and there was great joy in the land because those who were blind could see, and those who couldn't walk could now walk, and those who were deaf could hear, and those who were having seizures were healed by Messiah And Jesus knows that He does that because for 400 years, as we read the book of Malachi, it tells us that in Malachi 4, verse number 2, that the Son of Righteousness, who is the Messiah, will rise with healing in His wings

And He will turn the hearts of the fathers back to the sons, and the hearts of the sons back to the fathers They know that the Messiah's credentials are one of great miracles in healing And so He does what was prophesied by Isaiah, what was prophesied by Malachi, what was prophesied by both major and minor prophets alike about the arrival of the Messiah, what He would do And so as people came, they couldn't help but gather around How large were the crowds? We don't know We know that He healed 5,000, which literally is around 20,000 plus because He only counted the men in those days

Another time He healed 4,000, which was probably 16,000 or more So those were large crowds So we would assume that this is a large crowd in upwards of the thousands, maybe tens of thousands We don't know But it was a large crowd And they're coming Jesus sees them Jesus heals them all But Jesus knows something that they're not remembering That once He heals them of their physical illness, they are still going to die Some of them will get sick and die Others will have accidents and die But He knows they're all going to die soon

So healing them physically is one thing because it proves that He is the Messiah and all the credentials as the Messiah But He knows that He came for one purpose, and that was the healing of the soul Because the physical healing was temporal The soul's healing would be eternal So on the northern slopes of the Galilee, He gathers them around If you've been to Israel with me, we have a semblance of the location We don't know exactly where the location was It was somewhere close to Capernaum because that was His ministry hub during His time in the Galilee And so it was around there

He would gather the people together, and He would sit down upon a mount That's what chapter 5 says And when Jesus saw the crowds, because there were so many of them, He went up on the mountain And after He sat down, His disciples came to Him, and He opened His mouth and began to teach them He wanted them to understand something He wanted them to understand that there's more to life than just a physical healing, because it doesn't produce internal, eternal joy So it begins with the word blessed, makarioi

It's a word that deals with an inner contentment, an inner peace, an inner joy that is never dependent upon the circumstances surrounding it Blessed He says, I want you to truly be blessed. I want you to truly have joy Because right now you're happy Right now you're happy that you've been healed Right now you're happy that there's a better circumstance, a better situation, just a better life ahead of you, so you think But I want there to be more than that. I want you to understand the internal blessing that you can have if you understand the kingdom of God

If you understand the purpose of my coming Because in all reality, all your hopes, all your fears for all the years have been met in me in the arrival 30 years ago But I'm going to show you exactly how it happens today So he begins with blessing Blessed are the poor in spirit Blessed are those who mourn He goes to those great beatitudes Because he says, you know, to be a part of my kingdom, your righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees Matthew 5, verse number 20 Theirs was one that's achieved by their human accomplishments

But the one that I'm granting you comes because of my divine gift to you He talks about the words that he gives at the end in Matthew 7 If you hear these words, you obey them, you follow them You're going to have hope Because you're going to build your house upon the rock When the storms and the floods of life come, you will not be shaken Because you will have the inner joy, the inner peace, the inner contentment that allows you to stand firm But if you hear these words, you don't obey them When the storms come, the winds blow, the rains fall, your house will be shattered

It ends with those famous words, and how great will be that fall You'll be devastated That's why hope reproduces joy Because point number eight, hope removes the fear of death See how I led into that? Hope removes the fear of death That's so great Because Jesus knows you're all going to die That's the one thing everybody on the hillside had in common And by the way, that's the one thing you and I have in common with everybody who's ever lived, who's ever existed, except for Enoch and Elijah Who probably will be the two witnesses in Revelation 11, because they never died

But that's another sermon for another day But the fact of the matter is, we're all going to die That's the one thing every one of us knows for certain is going to happen It's a putter that a man wants to die And yet the Bible says in Revelation 14, 13, blessed, same word Jesus uses in Matthew 5, makarioi, John uses, because John was there on the mount when Jesus preached the sermon And John knows death is imminent He's on the island of Patmos And he understands blessed are those who die in the Lord Yes, says the Holy Spirit That's the ultimate spiritual high five Yes, says the Holy Spirit

Right? For they rest from their labors, and their rewards follow after them The blessing comes in dying, if you know the Lord That's why Solomon would say, your death day is better than your birthday Because when you're born physically, you're born into this world How great or how bad is that? But when you die, you enter into the heavenly realm That's why it's so great That's why your death day is better than your birthday Because you're born dead in your trespasses and sin

But if you come to know Christ as Lord and Savior, you leave this world, enter into eternal glory, and your death day far surpasses your birthday, because blessed are those who die in the Lord They have an eternal relationship And with that eternal relationship brings an eternal rest And with an eternal rest brings an eternal reward Blessing Hope removes the fear of death So let me talk to you about that Let me talk to you about death Okay? Nobody likes to talk about death That's okay

We are to talk about death, because it's mentioned over 900 times in the Old Testament, over 400 times in the New Testament And the Bible says in Philippians 4, 8, think of the things that are true Is death true? Is it? Some of you are wondering, I'm not dying Yeah, you're going to die Death is true Okay? So because death is true, and we are to think of the things that are true, you need to think about death You think about death, because it's going to happen

Unless, of course, there's the rapture, and Jesus comes back to take us all, and that would be great, right? And we anticipate that time as well But if that doesn't happen, we will die And so it's imperative for us to understand what the Bible says about thanatology We need to add that to your elective classes there, Harold Thanatology Wow Let me talk to you about it this way Number one, death is caused by sin You know that, right? Death is caused by sin If you go way back to Genesis 2, and God created Adam, and God created Eve, they put them in a garden

In that garden, he said, there's a tree of life There's a tree of knowledge of good and evil And the Lord God said, you can eat of any tree, partake of any fruit you want to, except one Just one This was the test Just one To prove that man created perfect without a sinless nature If given the opportunity to choose, having been tempted by the devil, will always choose evil, not good That's exactly what happened The Lord God said, the day you eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you will die, right? You're going to die Don't eat that You will die Adam was created good

Adam was created perfect Adam was created without a sinless nature, right? Adam was created and designed to live forever, to be immortal But if you eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you're going to die You know the story? He and his wife were tempted They partook of the tree, and they died But they didn't cease to exist They still lived And they died a spiritual death And because they died spiritually, they would ultimately die physically That doesn't happen in Genesis chapter 5, because Adam lives to be over 900 years of age

And when you read about the genealogy of Adam, the one common denominator is, and he died Just, that's the common denominator Everybody dies Because death is caused by sin The wages of sin is death Romans 6, 23 The soul that sins, book of Ezekiel, dies Dies So the Bible says in the book of Romans, the fifth chapter, these words, Therefore just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, so death spread to all men, because all have sinned You're not a sinner because you sin You were born a sinner You were born dead in your trespasses and sin

Because of Adam's sin, death now is passed upon all men, for all now have sinned We now have Adam's sin nature Death is caused by sin That's what happens Death, number two, is characterized by separation It's important to know that Death is characterized by separation When Adam and Eve died, they didn't cease to exist But they were dead How can they be dead if they're alive? Because they died spiritually There was a separation between them and God They had lost fellowship with God They lost communion with God That's what's called spiritual death

And now because death is passed upon all men, Paul says in the book of Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 2, these words, And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked, according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience, in verse 17 of chapter 4, So this I say and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God That is spiritual death

You are excluded from the life of God You are separated from the life of God So Jesus comes and says, I am the way, the truth, and the life, because I give you a living hope, and with that living hope gives you a life that truly is alive So when you're born, you're born dead in your trespasses and sin You are born separated from God You do not have life with God It's called spiritual death James 2 tells us that when the body is separated from the soul, that's physical death, right? That's physical death So when you ultimately die physically, your body is separated from the soul

Your soul continues to live on Either with God or without God But your physical body has died That's called physical death There's a separation of body from soul What we see on the outside is just a veneer of what truly is on the inside, your soul, right? That's the important element of your life Now what we see on the outside is decaying The outside is getting old The outside is becoming more and more decrepit It's dying, right? And one day it will die physically And when that body dies physically, there's a separation of soul from body That's physical death So you're born spiritually dead

That's why your death day is better than your birthday because when you're born, you're born spiritually dead But before you die physically, that has to be rectified Or you'll experience what the Bible calls eternal death Eternal death Which is the separation of body and soul from God forever It's described in the book of Revelation in the 20th chapter and in the 21st chapter when it says, Blessed and holy is the one who is a part in the first resurrection Over these, the second death has no power What is the second death? Revelation 20, verse number 14

Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire This is the second death, the lake of fire. 21, verse number 8 says, But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone This is the second death That's called eternal death Eternal separation of body and soul from God forever Death is characterized by separation That's all it is That's how the Bible defines death It never defines death as annihilationism

It never defines death as being removed from existence It never defines death as a cessation of existence It always defines death as a separation You are born spiritually dead You will one day die physically You are born spiritually separated from the life of God Therefore, somewhere before you die, you must come to a place where you repent of your sin, you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the living God, that you might experience His life so that when you do die physically, you then enter into eternal glory and you're not eternally separated from God, but you're eternally forever with God

Does that make sense? So death is caused by sin Death is characterized by separation But death is conquered by a Savior Death has been conquered by a Savior Hebrews 2.9, Christ tasted death for every man He tasted death for every man When He died on the cross, yes, He first died spiritually before He died physically He had to die spiritually because we are separated spiritually from God We all have experienced life without God He, therefore, had to die spiritually on the cross There had to be that three hours Well, that's what it was, three hours

It could have been longer than that, could have been shorter than that, in which He would be separated from His Father where He would say, My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Because He was separated from His Father in terms of communion and fellowship, that sweet communion that He had from eternity past It would forever have after His physical death or after He committed His hands into the Lord's Spirit, committed His Spirit into the Lord's hands, He would experience spiritual separation from His Father so that when He died physically, we could live eternally with Him forever

He tasted death for every man And in Hebrews chapter 2, a verse we covered, wow, a long time ago, Hebrews 2, 14, Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also predicted the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives He feared us from the fear of death That's why hope removes the fear of death It obliterates it We don't fear death anymore

Why? Because we know that when we physically die, we enter into the presence of the Lord Blessed are those who die in the Lord Yes, says the Spirit of God, for they rest from their labors and their reward follows after them It removes the fear of death because Jesus is our conqueror He conquered death. 1 John 3, verse 5, He came to remove iniquity How did He do that? 1 John 3, 8, He came to ravage the enemy, to destroy the works of the devil And that's exactly what He did because Satan wanted to hold you in his kingdom He wanted to hold you in his power

And Christ came to obliterate that through His death on Calvary's cross that we might be children of the living God See, death, is it caused by sin? Yes Are we born dead in our trespasses and sin? Yes Death characterized by separation. A life without God. A life without God Body without a soul Eternal death, body and soul without God or body and soul with God, which would be eternal life See, and Christ who is the life came to bring that life This is so rich, so pure, so true That's why you need to think on these things You need to know, yes, death is caused by sin

Yes, death is characterized by separation But death is conquered by our Savior On top of that, death is controlled by a sovereign king Death is controlled by a sovereign king Nobody dies by accident Everybody dies by divine appointment The Lord God, the sovereign of the universe, is in complete control of everybody's death who's ever lived He's in charge That's why He said, I hold the keys to death and Hades Revelation 118. I'm in charge. I got the keys We got keys, you're in charge You open the door, you close the door He said, no one takes my life from me

John 10, right? I lay it down on my own initiative You can't take my life from me. I'm in control of life and death So no one takes my life from me. I lay it down on my own initiative And if I lay it down on my own initiative, guess what I'm going to do? I'm going to take it right back up again Because I'm in charge See, death is controlled by the sovereign God of the universe Deuteronomy 32, 29. I am He There is no God besides me It is I who put to death and give life How much clearer can it be? God says, I'm the one who puts to death. I'm the one who gives life

Because there is no God beside me. I'm in charge of everything That's why Psalm 139.16 says, All of our days were ordained by God He knows how long we're going to live He knows where we're going to live He knows how we're going to die Because it's all been ordained from eternity past That death caused by sin, that death characterized by separation, that death conquered by the work of our Savior, that death controlled by God is a death that's celebrated by the saints Revelation 14.13, we've already talked about that That's why Paul said, For me to live is Christ, to die is what? It's a game

It's a game. I'm in a quandary, he says. I'm in a huge quandary And that is, I want to be with you. I do, I want to serve you But, but, but, I'm going to go be with Jesus And that's why he stood at the end of his life Ah, there is a crown of righteousness laid up in store for me and for all those who love his appearing He sat in that Mamertine prison in Rome knowing his death was imminent. I've run the race. I have fought the fight But there's one thing that's laid up before me

And that's the crown of righteousness that the Lord himself will give, not only to me, but to all those who love his appearing How about you? Do you have life? Do you have the hope that removes the fear of death? That's how you know you've got life, by the way How do you know you have eternal life? You have the hope that removes the fear of death God rest ye merry gentlemen Let nothing you dismay Remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day Love those Christmas songs To save us all from Satan's power when we were gone astray Oh tidings of comfort and joy That's the joy

Hope reproduces joy because hope removes the fear of death And we have just scratched the surface on hope We're not done yet Come back next week Let's pray Father, we thank you for today Thank you for the joy you give us because of the assurance of your word Truly we are a blessed people May we live in the light of the living hope of God In Jesus' name we pray.