Thanksgiving is just a few days away and I hope you have put your turkeys in the fridge to thaw in preparation for that big day, but are you really prepared for Thanksgiving? Now I don’t mean that have you gotten all the food ready to be made or do you have enough chairs to put around your table, but have you prepared yourself for Thanksgiving? An attitude of thanksgiving should be present at all times in the life of a Christian, but if we are honest, we sometimes find ourselves struggling to give thanks during times of stress or brokenness in our lives. That’s one of the reasons we wanted to do a mini-series on thanksgiving, because while the topics we discuss might not be all that common for conversation when we all share what we are thankful for around the dinner table, there are some things we as Christians need to be thankful for not just in November but during each and every day of the year.
Last time in this series we were encouraged to be thankful that the veil was torn on that Good Friday, and we looked at the fact that since the veil is torn that we have personal access to God through the blood of Jesus Christ, but today I want to look at a topic that I’m not sure we fully understand due to our culture and that’s the subject of hope.
In our culture we have exchanged the true Biblical meaning of hope for an enfeebled definition of hope that is something more along the lines of wishful thinking. For example we hear people say, “I hope it snows” or “I hope my team wins the Super Bowl this year”, we hear these all the time, but this is not the kind of hope we are going to be thankful for today. The reality of Biblical hope is something much greater than a wish, but before we explore our primary text today, I think we need to look in the book of Romans to understand what exactly Biblical hope is.
Hope is a reality not a feeling. – Romans 8:18-25
18 “Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. 19 For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. 20 Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, 21 the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. 22 For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. 24 We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. 25 But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)”
In both the Old and New Testament, the words that are commonly translated as hope (The Hebrew “batah” and the Greek “elpizo” among others) mean confidence, security, and being without care. When we look at how we usually use hope in our culture there is always a sense of doubt. If we were to say “I hope I win a million dollars”, most people know that’s just not going to happen no matter how hard they wish. When we see hope mentioned in the Bible it’s a totally different story because we must change our view of the word. In this passage we see that hope causes us to look forward to promises that we know are going to be fulfilled because the One who made it never fails. That’s true hope knowing beyond a shadow of doubt that what has been promised is coming. It also tells us that while we are assured that it’s going to come to pass, we still must still wait with patience and confidence knowing that the day will come when all these promises will come to pass.
Hope is fueled by faith. – Hebrews 11:1-2
1 “Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see. 2 Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation.”
Hope isn’t assurance that something is going to happen just because I say so, or just because the Bible says so (stay with me here). The reality of hope comes from faith, because without faith you cannot be a partaker of hope. Let me explain. Here in these two verses, we see that faith shows the reality of what we hope for. In other words, faith shows us if this hope is true or not. We see this truth played out when we read in Romans 8, that our hope is that we will be released from sin and suffering because of what God has done for us through the blood of Jesus. This hope is a promise that is only for people who have put their faith in Jesus as their Lord and Savior. It’s not hope for anyone else, it’s not a hope for good people. It’s not a hope for religious people, it’s not even a hope for church going people, it’s only a hope (remember a confident assurance) for those who put their faith in Jesus Christ. Faith in Jesus is what gives hope it’s power and shows us the reality of that hope. It’s all because of the person of Jesus Christ.
This truth works in other ways as well. Let’s say our faith is in something or someone other than Jesus, such as in the promises of Jesus or even in a Jesus that’s not found in scripture. Any hope we derive from that will not be a real hope because of the object of our faith. There is nothing worse than false hope. False hope tells people they will be in heaven with their loved ones if they are good people, while real hope tells us that heaven is only reserved for those who make Jesus the Lord of their lives. False hope tells us that we can pray our loved ones into heaven or be baptized to make sure they are in paradise, while real hope tells us again that it’s only through the blood of Jesus that we can be made right with God and we can do so only on this side of eternity. True hope only comes when faith is placed in someone that’s unfailing. It can't be a blind faith in that someone, it must be based on evidence.
This is why there are so many invitations in the Bible to come and see for yourself and don’t take anyone else’s word for it. It is to make sure your faith isn’t blind but is based on facts so that faith can grow and with it your hope for tomorrow grows as well. Remember what the angel said to the women at the tomb in Matthew? Come and see that the tomb is empty. It’s so that years down the road doubt would never creep into their minds about the hope they had; they wouldn’t even give it a second thought because they had experienced the empty tomb for themselves. We must make sure the object of our faith is the God of the Bible and that will fuel the hope we have in the promises of the Bible. The more faith we have, the more hope we have, and there is no limit to either.
We know what true Biblical hope is and we know where it comes from. So, what does hope do? Well for that let’s get into the meat of our sermon today.
Hope through faith affects our worship. – Hebrews 11:3-4
3 “By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen. 4 It was by faith that Abel brought a more acceptable offering to God than Cain did. Abel’s offering gave evidence that he was a righteous man, and God showed his approval of his gifts. Although Abel is long dead, he still speaks to us by his example of faith.”
I often wonder about the stories that Cain and Abel were told when they were children. Surely their parents told them all about the walks they had with God, the talks they had with Him, God’s glory that was revealed in the garden to them, and His holiness that drove them from His presence when they sinned. Cain and Abel had firsthand testimony to who God was and that evidence should have led them to putting their faith in Him. It seems that Abel's faith was what led to the hope that God is worthy of the very best. When they were bringing their acts of worship in the form of a sacrifice, we see that Cain just brought something, but Abel (because of His faith and hope in God) brought his first and his best because his hope was that was what God deserved because of God’s greatness. You see, when his faith in God fueled his hope in God it led to a change in his worship of God.
When our faith is in the God of the Bible, our hope is in the fact that He is holy and is deserving of all praise. Even if He never sent Jesus to die for us, He would still be worthy of all our praise because that’s who God is. We haven’t seen all His holiness, we have never seen ALL His Glory, but nevertheless our worship should be impacted and we should only bring our very best because He deserves nothing less.
Hope through faith affects our walk. – Hebrews 11:5-6
5 “It was by faith that Enoch was taken up to heaven without dying— “he disappeared, because God took him.” For before he was taken up, he was known as a person who pleased God. 6 And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.”
Again, we are told by the author here that it was faith that powered this entire event and faith is the only way to please God. Enoch had faith in God and his hope was in the fact that God knew what was best, so Enoch walked the way God asked him to. He lived his life out in a way that was pleasing to God.
When our faith is in the God of the Bible, we see that He says in His word things like what we find in Proverbs 3:5-6, “5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.” He means it and that is our hope. Have we seen that our path is going to take us where God wants us to go? No, because we aren’t at the end of our journey, that’s why it’s hope. Hope is never in what we can see, but rather in what we know will happen due to the object of our faith. Our faith that will produce hope will always direct our walk with God.
Hope through faith affects our obedience. – Hebrews 11:7-12
7 It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before. By his faith Noah condemned the rest of the world, and he received the righteousness that comes by faith. 8 It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. 9 And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise. 10 Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God. 11 It was by faith that even Sarah was able to have a child, though she was barren and was too old. Abraham believed that God would keep his promise. 12 And so a whole nation came from this one man who was as good as dead—a nation with so many people that, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore, there is no way to count them.
It is no surprise that faith is the main factor in all these accounts, faith powering the hope that God knows best. This goes a little farther than our last account of Enoch because these were specific examples of not only obedience, but obedience when it made absolutely no sense. Noah was told to build a boat because God was going to make it rain - something that had never happened before. Abraham was told to go from his homeland because God said to and he was given a hope that he would have descendants as numerous as the grains of sand on a beach. This was ridiculous because of Abraham and Sarah’s age. It made no sense, but nevertheless Abraham trusted, and God came through right on time. Their obedience didn’t make sense to anyone around them, but it was because their faith was in the God of the Bible and their hope was in His promises.
We have faith in God and our hope is in the truth that His ways are not our ways, His thoughts are not our thoughts, and that He’s a good father that will only do things to benefit us. That’s when obedience comes easy, not because it makes sense, but because the One who asks us is good.
Hope through faith affects our vision. – Hebrews 11:13-16
13 “All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. 14 Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. 15 If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back. 16 But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.”
Verse 13 really hits home; they died still believing even though they never received it on this side of eternity. This is what true biblical hope is. It’s something that can’t be destroyed even in death. This is hard for us. We read scripture, we have hope, but sometimes we won’t see it this side of eternity. Does this make you believe less or trust God less? We live in a world that wants everything here and now, but for Christians we are on God’s timetable. The stronger our faith is in God, the stronger our hope is, and the easier it is for us to see things from an eternal perspective.
Now back to Thanksgiving. If you went and asked the average person on the street:
If every one of them were to say 100% yes. It seems like a pipe dream, but this is exactly what we have in Jesus demonstrated in Scripture and we aren’t even out of the book of Genesis yet! There is nothing earthly that can compare to Biblical hope, the assurance it gives us in all parts of our lives, and it’s all through faith in the One who makes it possible - Jesus Christ.
