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Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: John 14:1-6
There is nothing more attractional than Christian Hope. Hope is the sure and certain confidence in the truth and promises of God. Trust in Jesus gives birth to this Hope in our hearts that endures through life’s most challenging circumstances. Through Jesus’ finished work we know that the best is always yet to come.
Transcript
Hopefully, everyone has a place to sit I see we’ve put out a few extra chairs that that are available if anybody comes in you can hopefully uh uh let them be aware of where the the seats might be available but welcome home or welcome to a new home we pray and
hope yeah if you’re if you’re visiting with us and the Lord so leads you we pray that this will be your home as well uh as we gather together as a family of Christ to uh to support one another to encourage one another to hold each other accountable to build each other up to love one another all those things that are going to be happening here but as this new season begins today uh here in our new space I want to remind us of of why we did it what it was all about the Lord called us in the Clear Vision of reaching the Next Generation for Christ uh and we’re going to do that and be focused in many ways but uh through our joy-filled worship our Grace rooted relationships with God and with one another and through hope inspired evangelism and and I hope and pray that us we as a community will be joyfill Grace root rooted and hope inspired followers of Jesus Christ you know the last two weeks even though we were outside and I know that was difficult for some folks but uh we looked at the first two parts of that the being Joy filled and then uh being Grace rooted and so today I want to talk about being hope inspired being hope inspired because hope might be the most important uh Christian witness in the world it’s hope it’s hope because hope is the gift of the Gospel it’s what’s rendered in our hearts when we come to know the fullness of the gospel and the joy and the grace of of God for us and it’s a reflection of a life that has been brought out of darkness and Into The Marvelous Light of Jesus we’re a people of Hope if we’re perceived as a people without hope then there is no Christian witness in this world at all we’re just like everyone else consumed with worry and fear and anxiety and and uh desperation and despair you know the most powerful witness we have in this world is the hope that’s been borne in our hearts out of the Gospel of Jesus Christ see while the world is gripping uh with fear we’re a people filled with hope and a and and and people want to know why why do you have hope when everything around you would paint a much different picture how is it that you have this hope in your life and then by virtue of that how can I find that kind of Hope in my life where can I find that kind of meaning that kind of and that kind of purpose when everything around me is just screaming despair so what is hope well I think the best place to in talking about hope is to start with what is hope not I think you have to start there uh because the world has a you know certainly an idea of hope that’s not Christian hope it’s not a gospel centered hope so what hope is not is it’s not a naive wish or a dream that tomorrow may be better that’s not what hope is at all hope is the sure certain confidence of God who is true to his word and who fulfills his promises that’s what hope is Hope is not just some blind kind of optimism because there’s certainly more optimistic people by nature in the world right and some are just tend to be more pessimistic but that’s not what hope does not have to do with that kind of optimism ji Packer uh said this about uh talking about hope as as opposed to optimism he says optimism is a wish without warrant optimism reflects ignorance as to whether good things will ever actually
come but Christian Christianity on the other on the other hand that kind of hope it’s a hope that is certain he said is guaranteed by God himself Christian hope expresses knowledge that every day of our lives and every moment Beyond it we can say with truth on the basis of God’s Own commitment that The Best Is Yet To Come praise God that’s incredibly beautiful isn’t it does the world need to hear that does the world need to experience it and so do we in our own Hearts it’s not like we figured it all out we forget Christian hope is the sure and certain confidence that no matter the diet the
diagnosis no matter the poor performance of the economy no matter our struggles in marriage or our family breakdowns no matter the outcome of an election the best is always yet to come for followers of Jesus Christ that kind of Hope friends it’s attractional that that kind of hope is is infectious that kind of hope is inspiring that’s the kind of hope that all people are longing for and looking for and want but just can’t figure out where to find it in John 14 1-6 our Our Gospel reading this morning captures the basis of Christian hope possibly better than any other passage of scripture it’s it’s why it’s so popular at funerals in fact we used it yesterday uh and our celebration of uh uh of Rick Wood’s life and our hope of the Resurrection um and it’s used so often because it is just such a clear communication of the hope that we have in the gospel and so I want to talk about this passage for just a a few minutes you can either uh open your bibles if you brought them uh or you can open your bulletin to to follow along as we work through this just a for a few minutes uh together this morning just a little bit of context uh to John 14 uh if you look back a chapter or two and you look in uh John 13 you’ll see it’s the time that Jesus has gathered his disciples together to celebrate the Passover meal and so this is the the setting of The Last
Supper Jesus has already announced that he will be betrayed and Jews uh Judas has already taken the uh the the bread from him and is left the the room uh Jesus has also already told Peter that he’s going to deny him three times things are getting bad things are really heating up which makes the words in Jesus’s words in John 14 all the more powerful and impactful Jesus right off the bat in 14 after telling Peter that hey you’re going to betray me you’re you’re going to leave me you’re going to deny me he says but let not your hearts be
troubled seems kind of strange doesn’t it but that word troubled it means it means to be fearful it means to be agitated to be worried to be disturbed to have your your M your heart and mind mixed up meaning that things may look bad Jesus is saying they may look wor worthy of being uh fearful and and worried and troubled but don’t let it stir you up don’t let it stir you up have you ever had a moment like
that maybe you got a a word about something that that stirred your heart the fear and the worries the trouble began maybe you got news that was crushing World Al altering at least your world your heart just sinks the blood pressure Rises the fears and the worries begin to kind of creep in and they threaten to just completely overcome you you ever had that experience in your life I remember sitting in a doctor’s office with with Gracie when she was pregnant with chess uh and we had gone in for the routine kind of ultrasound and and hearing the doctor say uh that what they saw on the ultrasound was a situation that by percent es wasn’t conducive to
life that was one of those moments my heart just sank started to get stirred the fears began to creep in the worry uh even a sense of Despair I could feel it it it was there and it was wanting to come in and it was it was creeping wanting to to consume me have you ever had that kind of
moment well that’s kind of where the discip IES of Jesus were uh In This Moment they’ve just gotten this terrible news they’re heading in this uh this direction that they don’t fully understand they can’t see the outcome of what’s about to happen and and it looks like it’s a time of total Despair and Jesus tells them let not your hearts be
troubled what does that even mean well what’s the opposite of a troubled heart well I’d argue the opposite of a troubled heart is a hopeful heart I think that would be the opposite hope that despite the worldly evidence that is standing before
you you have a sense of hope about what’s about to happen but how how can our hearts be filled with hope when the worldly evidence would dictate nothing but Despair and it can come up with lots of evidence well in the second half of verse one Jesus says it he said believe in God believe also in me believe in God believe also in me well what Jesus seems to be saying is that what we believe is directly connected uh with whether we have hearts that are full of fear and worry and even despair or hearts that are full of Hope but the the transl for belief I think can be a little bit misleading because uh we it gives the impression that it’s just some sort of mental exercise right that that if we can just believe enough or we can just have the right thinking the cognitive recognition of what’s really true then I’ll be filled with hope but but the Greek here doesn’t allow us to do that the Greek word means more than that it means to trust to entrust our lives and so with Jesus is saying is trust God and trust me trust God and trust
me and so Jesus is saying what or who you trust for life will directly DET determine whether your heart is full of Hope or in the end is full of Despair if you trust in the world or in yourself then the fruit is worry and anxiety and fear and ultimately despair but if you trust in God and Jesus and you trust in their promises and that they’re true then the fruit that that trust is a heart that’s full of Hope why because Jesus goes on to tell them in in verses 2 to three because he says this in my father’s house are many rooms if it were not so would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and will take you to myself that where I am you may be
also those are hopeful words right but but I think even more specifically of Jesus telling us that what’s to come and what he’s but but listen more more you know distinctly to that he says I have told you I go I prepare a place for you I will come again to take you to myself where I am you may be also Jesus is giving us a clue here what is the the root of hope it’s him I not me Jesus says I it’s the work that I do and what I’ve promised I will what I have done and what I will do for you hope is the fruit of a life that trusts in the work and the promises of Jesus alone not in ourselves not and not in anything that this world can Poss possibly offer us hope is the natural result of a life that’s been bought and paid for by the finished work of Jesus on the cross and through his resurrection from the dead the Forgiveness of our sins and the new resurrected life that we have with God now and forever and the promise that no matter what we’re facing no matter what’s before us the best is always Yet to Come Jesus will come and he’ll take us to be with him
forever because he is the way he is the truth he is the life friends that sure and certain confidence is Our Hope and that hope is a hope that inspires it inspires us it inspires other people it inspires us to to endure as we heard in our Romans 5 passage it inspires us to be strong it inspires us to
change hope fills our hearts always with a sense of joy and peace Charles Spurgeon said this he said let this one great gracious and glorious fact Li lie in your spirit until it permeates all of your thoughts and makes you rejoice even though you are with without strength Rejoice that the Lord Jesus has become your strength and your song he has become your
salvation Jon Jonathan Evans uh I think brother of Tony Evans the uh the preacher um gave a eulogy at his uh at his mother’s funeral um and Mary Stewart Pratt actually shared this with me that I thought was really powerful and really speaks to the hope that we have in Christ uh and and I want to read some of that eulogy to you uh because it’s powerful he got up and he admitted that his his mom had suffered with cancer and had died and it would it was difficult he was wrestling with God and this is what he said I was wrestling with God because I said if we have victory in your name didn’t you hear us when we were praying didn’t you see the cancer didn’t you hear us why didn’t you do what we were asking of you because your word says if we abide in you and your word abides in us we can ask whatever we will and it will be given to us your word tells us that if we ask according to your will that you hear us your word tells us in Mark 11 that if you pray believing you will receive to be anxious for nothing but through prayer and supplication to make our requests known where are you God he said he was wrestling with God the last few days for his mother’s death because this was a great opportunity that we can tan tangibly see your glory god to bring healing to his mother he said everybody was praying not only in Dallas where they were but around the country and around the world people were watching where are you Lord this was an opportunity to see your glory and as I was wrestling with God he said he answered and he said number one you don’t understand the nature of my victory because just because I didn’t answer your prayer your way doesn’t mean that I haven’t already answered your prayer anyway because victory was already given to your mom you don’t understand because of the victory that I have given you there was always is only two answers to your prayers either she was going to be healed or she was going to be healed either she was going to live or she was going to live either she was going to be with family or she was going to be with family either she was going to be well taken care of or she was going to be well taken care care of Victory belongs to me because of what I’ve already done for you the two answers to your prayer are yes and yes because Victory belongs to Jesus friends that’s our Christian hope the sure and certain confidence that we have in Jesus because what he has done and because what he promises he will do and as we begin this new season of ministry together here in this new space reaching the Next Generation for Christ may this be a place that inspires hope in Christ alone and may we be a people so inspired by the hope that we have found in Christ that we reach out to a lost and a hurting world that so desperately needs him amen
