Finding Hope in Our Uncertainties

Jonathan Barker

Rediscover Christmas • Sermon • Submitted 6 months ago • Presented 6 months ago

0 ratings

· 1 view

Notes

Transcript

FINAL EDIT Rediscover Christmas: Week 1

Luke 2:22-38

Introduction

Launching our new series today we jump into advent with a theme of rediscovering Christmas. If you want to find the text today, we will be in Luke chapter 2 starting in verse 22 and as you find your way there, we will start with the question. “Where were you when?” Every generation has its “where were you when” question about some cultural seismic event. Where were you when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon? Where were you when you heard JFK or Martin Luther King Jr. had been shot and killed? Where were you when you heard about Columbine? Where were you on 9/11? Some of those examples’ pre-date many of us, but we all have a new one we can share:

Where were you when you first realized this coronavirus was for real? My thoughts, lego world, tp, driving around cleveland to buy livestream

Moments like these are big. They change things. There’s no going back. Our lives are never the same. Unfortunately, many of these tend to be negative events, catastrophes, or tragedies. They strike with no warning and introduce a new sense of uncertainty into our lives.

But in the midst of the uncertainties, we can have certainty in knowing that Christ is our source of hope. As we enter into advent today, we enter into… A season of hope.

Entering Advent

Advent is all about hope. The word Advent means “coming” or “arrival,” and the season is traditionally a time of expectation, waiting, anticipation, and longing.

Advent is not just an extension of Christmas—it is a season that links the past, present, and future. Advent offers us the opportunity to share in the ancient longing for the coming of the Messiah, to celebrate His birth, and to be alert for His second coming. Advent looks back in celebration at the hope fulfilled in Jesus’s coming, while at the same time looking forward in hopeful and eager anticipation to the coming of Christ’s kingdom when He returns for His people. During Advent we wait for both—it’s an active, assured, and hopeful waiting.

Far too often, our Christmases have become frenzied and overwhelmingly busy. We pack our schedules with so many seasonal happenings. Our stores start pushing Christmas decor and merchandise and fueling a gift-buying frenzy in October. Our season of peace is quickly overloaded as a season of stress.

But Advent is an opportunity to set all that aside. Advent is a time to prepare our hearts and help us place our focus on a far greater story than our own—the story of God’s redeeming love for our world. It’s not a season of pretending to be happy or covering up the pain or hardships we have experienced during the past year or continue to experience—it is a season of digging deep into the reality of what it means that God sent His Son into the world to be Immanuel, God With Us. It is a season of expectation and preparation, an opportunity to align ourselves with God’s presence more than just the hectic season of presents.

So, wherever you are on your level of anxiety and uncertainty, wherever you are on your own spiritual journey, I invite you into this season of Advent.

For the next four weeks, we’re going to be exploring the attributes of Christ that are realized in His birth and the Christmas season: hope, peace, joy, and love. Today we begin with rediscovering the hope of Christmas, even when we are surrounded by uncertainty.

As we explore these themes of Advent over the next four weeks, we’ll see how they are exemplified in different characters of the biblical Christmas story. Most of the time, we end our Christmas story narrative with Mary and Joseph and Jesus in the stable. The shepherds come and visit and go back to their flocks in the field, but the next, ongoing scene in Luke’s story comes right after it. So let’s take a look a little more closely today at that scene, and specifically its characters, Simeon and Anna.

TEXT: Let’s take a look at Luke 2:22-38 Luke 2:22–27 “And when the days for their purification according to the Law of Moses were completed, they brought Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord: “Every FIRSTBORN male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”), and to offer a sacrifice according to what has been stated in the Law of the Lord: “A pair of turtledoves or two young doves.” And there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; and this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to carry out for Him the custom of the Law,” Luke 2:28–33 “then he took Him in his arms, and blessed God, and said, “Now, Lord, You are letting Your bond-servant depart in peace, According to Your word; For my eyes have seen Your salvation, Which You have prepared in the presence of all the peoples: A light for revelation for the Gentiles, And the glory of Your people Israel.” And His father and mother were amazed at the things which were being said about Him.” Luke 2:34–38 “And Simeon blessed them and said to His mother Mary, “Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and as a sign to be opposed—and a sword will pierce your own soul—to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years and had lived with her husband for seven years after her marriage, and then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She did not leave the temple grounds, serving night and day with fasts and prayers. And at that very moment she came up and began giving thanks to God, and continued to speak about Him to all those who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.”

In Luke’s account neither Simeon nor Anna seem the least bit surprised or uncertain about the fact that this baby, Jesus, is the long-promised Messiah. Almost everyone else in the Christmas story so far has taken a little convincing about the whole arrangement. But Simeon and Anna were ready to see God act and do great things. They were tuned in, waiting, watching, listening, expecting. They were filled with hope, and that hope made them ready.

Day after day, year after year, Simeon and Anna had served God faithfully, inspired and fueled by the hope that God was at work. Even though they couldn’t see it. Even if they were surrounded by hardship. Even as time passed and they grew older and older. Simeon and Anna still held onto hope. And they fostered new and renewed hope as they set their focus on God, worshiping Him, serving Him, serving others, taking one step faithfully at a time as they waited.

Simeon and Anna reveal several things about hope and its power that we can take away and apply in our own lives.

1. Hope sees beyond the past.

Hope is the fuel of faith. And dreams. And possibilities. Hope is that whisper of maybe, just maybe. It’s the spark in the cold darkness that catches flame. It’s the flicker of first light on a new morning.

No matter how bad your year has been, no matter what kind of problems and struggles you are facing right now, no matter what kind of season of darkness and pain you are in, let me encourage you not to abandon hope. Hope is still alive even in our deepest pain and most hopeless circumstances. Hope chases away the darkness and uncertainty. Hope is alive because… God is with us.

Romans 8 is a well-known chapter in the Bible, but there’s a section of it that often gets overlooked. In this chapter, Paul starts off clarifying that “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1, NIV). He then explains our relationship as God’s children and what it looks like to live by God’s Spirit. Then he shifts to our future when God will fulfill His work in us and restore all of creation. And in verses 24-26 of Romans 8, he says this:

For in this hope, we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. (Romans 8:24-26, NIV)

Let me reread part of that again. “Hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?” No instead, hope precedes our present reality. (REPEAT) Hope, by its very nature, exists in the uncertainty before. It exists in questions. It even exists in our doubts. In that unclear sense of what is to come. But hope is the willingness and desire to believe beyond what our present circumstances and reality are presenting to us. I included the beginning of verse 26 in our Romans reading because I think it’s vitally important. “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.”

Transition: That leads us into our second point

2. Hope is here because God is with us.

We can rest assured that with God there is no uncertainty. God knows your pain and challenges and struggles. He was not taken by surprise when a new coronavirus mutated and spread and went global. He was not surprised when the economy froze and sunk. He was not surprised when you or your loved one received that dreaded diagnosis, or call in the middle of the night, or heard those words that broke your heart or shattered your world or left you in confusion or uncertainty.

He sees us. And He is here. He is Immanuel, God With Us. And this hope He delivers, this hope He embodied and fulfilled and brought into the world so long ago, this hope that He offers today.

This is a hope that He infuses within us. It is a hope filled and fanned within us by God’s Spirit—even in our weakness. When we feel too weak to carry on, when we feel our grasp slipping on even the ability to try to hope, His Spirit is with us. His Spirit helps us to restore hope by reminding us of God’s faithfulness and promises. His Spirit leads us into God’s Word and its reminders of all God has done for us and all He has promised to do.

Our God, our Immanuel who is with us, has promised His people throughout history, and us today, messages of hope. We are not alone even at our loneliest or darkest moments. Christ has come. Our God is with us every step of the way.

Transition: So then…

3. Hope inspires us to carry on.

Ben and Luke Never Give Up Story - Running races in the yard, Ben never give up like a linebacker that had sacked a quarter back, Yells at Luke, then irony of shirt… FInd yourself like that some time. I’m wearing the t-shirt but laying on my back…

It’s a familiar poem to many but fitting for where we are today, It’s entitled Don’t Quit, and if you will listen for a moment I hope that it will encourage you to take one more step, to fight one more day, to believe that God is working for you.

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will, when the road you're trudging seems all uphill, when the funds are low and the debts are high, and you want to smile but you have to sigh, when care is pressing you down a bit - rest if you must, but don't you quit. Life is strange with its twists and turns. As everyone of us sometimes learns. And many a fellow turns about

When he might have won had he stuck it out. Don't give up though the pace seems slow

you may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than it seems

to a faint and faltering man; Often the struggler has given up

when he might have captured the victor's cup; and he learned too late when the night came down, how close he was to the golden crown. Success is failure turned inside out

the silver tint of the clouds of doubt, and when you never can tell how close you are, it may be near when it seems afar; so stick to the fight when you're hardest hit - it's when things seem worst... you must... not… quit

LOCKER ROOM COACH! THEY NEED CHEERED ON

In Romans 5, Paul emphasizes that this hope from God’s Spirit does not put us to shame. It will not let us down. It will not disappoint us. Instead, it gives us new and growing strength to see beyond the pain and confusion in front of us. Many times, taking that first step of faith is the hardest. Sometimes it even feels impossible to take that first step toward hope when we are weighted down by our burdens.

But when we receive the promise of hope in God’s Word, we find new strength. When we accept the power of hope granted to us in God’s Spirit, we find new inspiration. When we focus on the power of hope embodied in the birth and life and death and resurrection and return and eternity of Jesus, we discover new strength to take that first step. And keep on stepping. And walking. And maybe even running. One step at a time. Hope inspires us. Hope emboldens us. Hope builds upon hope and keeps us going, no matter what.

Conclusion (INVITE TEAM)

I’m going to invite the team and pose this question, What is your next step of hope TODAY? So often, we as humans want to see what happens tomorrow. We want to know the future. We want to skip to the end of the story. Our lives just don’t work like that. It’s not a privilege we’ve been granted. But in Christ, we have been given the end of the ultimate story. In Christ, we have been given true life that transcends the pains of earth and the brokenness of our present world.

In this Advent season, we can find hope in the arrival and life of Jesus. We can draw hope from God’s faithfulness in fulfilling His long-awaited promise of the Messiah. We can focus on the hope of God’s continued work in and all around us, that will one day take away even the need for hope as we realize the reality of God’s full restoration. And in the midst of whatever life is throwing at us, we can experience the hope of God’s Spirit within us, carrying us, strengthening us, emboldening us, and giving us the strength to take the next step before us.

MAYBE EDIT THE RESPONSE, MAYBE PRAY THE LYRICAL CHORUS YOU HAVE HERE

The invitation for us is to take a step toward hope in this Advent season. Hope is dawning. Christ is coming. He is returning again. Let’s welcome Him into our hearts and lives every day in this season of expectation and hope. We are going to sing a song this morning, and if you feel hopeless day, if things feel uncertain you can know that hope has a name, His name… is Jesus. Won’t you stand and respond as you are lead by His spirit this morning.

This song says...

Hope has a name, His name is Jesus My Savior's cross has set the sinner free Hope has a name, His name is Jesus Oh, Christ be praised, I have victory

Don’t just let that hope be something you embrace. But also ask God how you can be a source of hope in a season that seems hopeless for so many this season.

POST RESPONSE

BAPTISM? JACOB? CHRISTMAS PARTY?

And as you go today, Let’s claim the words of Romans 15:13

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13, NIV) Go in the power of His Spirit with a renewed hope that He will deliver. Have a great week!