We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope!

-Martin Luther King

  

But a funny thing happened on the way to Utopia:

  

One: Pandemics now happen because of globalization.

  

Two: There are rogue states and terrorist organizations that would very much love to detonate nuclear bombs or dirty bombs and bring down their enemies.

  

Three: We have begun to see, where technology is concerned, that perhaps, we have created a monster.

Robert Putnam said:

• Suicide is up.
• Depression and anxiety are up.
• The birth rate is down.
• No optimism or hope for the future.

  

Question is: Why is there a crisis of Hope?

• The problem of Human Nature.
• The problem of ultimate oblivion.

  

1 - The problem of Human Nature.

  

2 - The problem of ultimate oblivion.

If the immediate demise of humanity would render life meaningless, then the same would be true even if the end is far off. Human beings try to take comfort in symbolic transcendence; the idea that what we do will live on in our work or in the lives of our children. But the reality is, in the end, whether you live a life of goodness, or a life of cruelty, will make no final difference at all.

-Brian Green

If Nature is all that exists, that is, no life and no God, then all of human nature will eventually die in the death of the Sun. Humanity will turn out to be an accidental flicker and there will be no one around to remember it. No doubt atomic bombs may cut short its duration, shorter than it might have been, but if the whole thing, even if it lasted for billions of years, will have to be so infinitesimally short in relation to the ocean of dead time that precedes and follows it. Then does it really matter if it ends a little bit early?

-C.S. Lewis

 

Where does our hope come from?

Why should we be hopeful?

Why should we ever expect anything better?

  

If Easter happened, if the resurrection of Jesus Christ happened in real time and real space—then everything changes!

  

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

-John 3:16

For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

-2 Corinthians 4:6

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb,…

-Luke 24:1-2

…but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this,…

-Luke 24 3-4a

…suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!’

-Luke 24:4b-6a

But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. Peter, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

-Luke 24:11-12

Blepo: “To Process”

Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?

-1 Corinthians 15:55

Before this event: Hope was, Maybe, but probably not.

After this event: Hope: “Profound certainty.”

Because it’s based upon something that happened in history!

   

Jesus offers an incredible hope: Profound certainty.

   

  

Jesus offers:

  

A reasonable hope!

No explanation has been offered, in two thousand years of sneering skepticism that can satisfactorily account for:

• How the tomb came to be empty.
• How the disciples came to see Jesus.
• How their lives and worldviews were transformed.

Though a man dies, yet shall he live again.

-John 11:25

No eye has seen, nor ear has heard nor mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him.

-1 Corinthians 2:9

For God so loved the world that He sent His only son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but will have everlasting life.

-John 3:16

  

A full hope!

  

When are your best moments of your life?

The greatest happiness we can know is to be loved by another person.

-Jonathan Edwards: Heaven is a world of Love

All the things that reduce love in this world to a trickle at the bottom of a riverbed are removed when we get to heaven, where love is an endless deluge and fountain of delight and bliss flowing in and out of us infinitely and eternally

-Jonathan Edwards: Heaven is a world of Love

The Christian hope is not a consolation for the life you have lost.

The Christian hope is a restoration of the life you have lost and the life you never had but always wanted.

  

A realistic hope!

Does it mean that we never suffer?

Does it mean that we never mourn?

Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.

-1 Thessalonians 4:13-14

This is the story you see all through the Bible.

  

God always seems to take us through death before we can experience a resurrection!

  

  

We are Friday people, living in a Saturday world, waiting for Sunday to come!

  

  

A living hope!

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,…

-1 Peter 1:3

…and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

-1 Peter 1:4-5

This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

-1 Peter 1:4b-5

In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

-1 Peter 1:6-7

One of the reasons when you get to heaven that you will bow down and praise and worship Jesus is because:

Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

-1 Peter 1:8-9

  

It may be Friday but Sunday’s coming!

  

  

  

  

What are you main takeaways from this sermon?

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