Daily Reading: 2 Corinthians 5v1-10 'Real Hope'

"For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2 Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, 3 because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

6 Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7 For we live by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due to us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad."

Hope is vague, at least it is when we talk about what our football team might do this weekend, or whether the weather will be nice, or even if she might say yes.  Hope when we use it doesn't normally come with any guarantees.  In fact I wonder sometimes if our Britishness injects our use of the word 'hope' with underdog tones, almost as if we are always hoping against hope, as if hope is forlorn because it is a hope for the outsider and the results not certain but merely wishful thinking, a possible but improbably best case scenario.

When the Bible talks about hope it is not in any way shape or form vague.  It is as the polar opposite of vague and wishful.  As Paul writes to the Corinthians about our resurrection hope - a new body, physical resurrection when Christ comes again, he does so with a longing for something that is real.  He is able to talk of what we "know"(1), of being fashioned for a purpose, and having a guarantee(5).  This is not vague, it is not wishful, it is real.

Paul is writing to sweep away the vague, ethereal, spiritual notions of the culture around Corinth which have seeped into their thinking and polluted and diluted their hope, so much so that it is making no discernible difference to the way they live.  But Paul contends that our hope is real and therefore it MUST make a tangible difference to the way we live and he spells out those tangible differences in v6-10.

Here's the question I have to ask myself.  Is my hope in the resurrection making a difference to my life, not just to my thoughts about death?  And if so how?  If not why not?  If it isn't is it because I have forgotten what my hope really is?

Daily Reading: 1 Thessalonians 4v13-18 'Hope for Living'

Hope matters, hope not just in this life but of eternal life, hope not just in heaven for those who die but of Christ’s return and the renewed recreated creation marked by the glory of God. We’ve seen that Christ’s coming again and the promise of a new creation give us hope for living now with suffering and death in perspective. But what is our response to these truths, where does the rubber hit the road? 

In Thessalonica there was a problem.  They were worried about those who had died before Christ’s return; will they be resurrected, have they missed out?

Paul writes to encourage them to think rightly about death, the resurrection and Christ’s return. It is a response that is counter cultural; a typical inscription on a grave in Thessalonica would read: I was not, I became, I am not, I care not. But Paul wants these believers to know the truth and to live out their hope because of the promises of God!

What we believe gives us hope.

(14)Paul uses the phrase “We believe...” and then explains the implications of that belief. “We believe that Jesus died and rose again...” Our hope is founded in the historical death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, a death that pays the wages of sin for us, and a resurrection that guarantees we’re made right with God and death is conquered.

Paul is quoting an early church creed which summarised their beliefs, similar to that used in 1 Cor 15: “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.”

Christian hope is not a vague wish it’s an historical certainty, anchored in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And he goes on to point out the implication of that historical belief, because we believe that we also believe that he will come again, bringing with him those who have died in the mean time. Your friends haven’t missed out, those who die ‘in Christ” – believing and trusting in him are secure in him. They are in heaven now awaiting his return.

When Jesus returns the dead in Christ will come with him from heaven, their bodies will then rise – not as zombies but patterned after Christ resurrected physical body, the dead in Christ will be given their resurrection bodies(16), before the living are changed and united with our Saviour and them.

Again we see that it is Jesus presence that marks out these events, the dead are in Christ and with Christ, they return with him, and we are changed and caught up to be with the Lord, then and forever.

Paul reminds the Thessalonians of what the bible teaches about death, heaven, the last day and eternity. The dead are secure and with Christ now in heaven, and they w ill not miss out; they will return, and share in our ultimate hope in new physical resurrected bodies in a new creation with Christ for eternity. Doctrine matters! Knowing what the bible teaches matters because otherwise we’ll be like the Thessalonians uninformed, doubting and responding to death and living life wrongly.

Hope applied

Paul applies the doctrine he has reminded them of here – doctrine – truth is never the stuff of academia in the bible it is truth to set your living by. Here we see it in two main applications:

a. Grieve differentlyHow does the world grieve? Like all is lost, without certainty. But not you says Paul, believers grieve differently, why? Because we know what we believe and Christ’s historical resurrection means we know there is life beyond death, it means we trust God’s promises. Notice it does not say that we do not grieve – but that it is distinctly Christian grief, resurrection grief.

b. Encourage one anotherSecondly he says we encourage one another. What is it we encourage one another with? (18)”these words”. The truths he has just reminded them of; not vague niceties about going to a better place but the concrete realities of the death and resurrection of Jesus our Saviour and its implications for those who trust in him. We remind each other of the basis of our hope and the certainty of Christ’s return, and the nature of death for the believer – they have “fallen asleep in him.”

We need to grasp that – we are never short of something to comfort and encourage those have lost a believing son, daughter, father, mother, sister, husband, wife or friend with.

I want to draw out some other implications of our hope which have to affect our living.

c. We wait faithfully(5:1-4)We see in 2 Peter and it is repeated again here that Christ is definitely returning though we do not know when. That certainty means we are to live faithfully, we live life now knowing that Jesus will come.

d. We live with a purpose (Philippians 3:12-21) Paul talks about straining towards what is ahead, pressing on to win the prize for which Christ has called us. We know Christ is coming and so our goal in life is to please him, as we eagerly wait for his return. Our hope gives us a reason to live differently, it does not make us of no earthly use, but spurs us on to live now pleasing Christ.

e. We endure suffering(Rom 5:3-5)It liberates us to glory in our sufferings(3), not because we are masochists, or because we can keep a stiff upper lip, but because we know that it is not pointless, that suffering is not hopeless. Suffering produces perseverance which produces character which produces hope. Suffering weans us from loving the world and putting our hope in the world and is used by God to enable us increasingly to boast in the hope of the glory of God. It makes us long for our glorious future where God rules and reigns, which will make our suffering seem like merely the dust on the scales. And as we fix our hopes less on the world our faith is proved and tested, and we are refined and fitted for our glorious future.

f. We are liberated from the fear of death (2 Cor 5:1-10)
Our hope gives us confidence of live beyond death with means the fear of death does not paralyse us. In this life we will experience outward decay, persecution, hardship, trouble, illness and death, it is normal Christian experience because our hope isn’t in this world but the next. Instead it produces a people captured by the prospect of their glory so wonderfully secured by God’s grace in Jesus that they live out their hope even in the face of suffering and liberated from the fear of death!

g. We live assured by the Spirit (Eph 1:13-14)
We hope and look forward to God’s glory not dependent on what we do but on what Christ has done and with his Spirit within us as a deposit guaranteeing our adoption. The Spirit is the first instalment of our new life and new relationship with God in all his glory. So we are not uncertain but assured and look forward to the future, cooperating with the Spirit now sealed in him for Christ return.

h. We hope in the glory of God (Rev 21)
Our hope is God in all his glory; an intimate, unalloyed, unbreakable relationship with the God of glory in all his splendour, holiness and majesty where every moment of every hour for eternity is bathed in his glory and we are transformed to perfectly reflect and irradiate his glory. That is our hope! It means now we will want to investigate, to dig into, to unearth, to mine the truths of God’s glory through his word so that we increasingly desire his coming, so that we pray “Come, Lord Jesus”, so that the joy of the gospel hope that is ours by grace inform our joyful living looking for our Saviour's return.

Isaiah 1 - A Tale of Two Cities

For some reason the audio recording of this morning didn't work so here are the notes:

Isaiah 1 A Tale of Two Cities

 

Lots of countries have an annual address; in America it’s called the State of the Union address, in others the State of the Nation address. The leader of the country outlines the situation the country is in, the challenges it faces and the government’s hopes and plans to overcome them and secure its future.

 

In Isaiah 1-5 we hear God’s state of the nation address for Judah. Through the prophet Isaiah God speaks to his people, he describes their condition, attitudes, and their future if they continue on their current course. But he also outlines what he will do about it, his plan to save them and restore them to a joy filled relationship with him, and he challenges them to turn back and put their trust in him.

 

Judah is a small nation, two tribes split from Israel, with a Davidic king, but facing pressures from Assyria and Egypt. Historically Judah had been at its strongest when it was most reliant on God, ruled by a king who trusted Yahweh, but God’s state of the nation address peels back the presentable exterior and exposes the rotten heart of a city, people, and nation.

 

1. A Broken Relationship produces Broken People

I wonder what you think of when you hear the word prophet? We tend to think of someone who tells the future, but that’s only part of what they do, the prophets are covenant watchdogs, calling Israel back to the covenant God made with them at Sinai. They remind them of the character, love, grace, mercy, and glory of God and call the people to faithfulness to Yahweh their saviour.

 

Isaiah is no different, and v2 starts off with an ominous covenant formula. Turn to Deut 4:25f, as Israel stand on the border of the Promised Land Moses warns Israel about the consequences of unfaithfulness, especially of idolatry. (26)He calls heaven and earth to be witnesses to the broken covenant and warns Israel they will lose the land and be scattered. So as Isaiah calls on the heavens and earth to listen, as witnesses, he is calling Israel back to a covenant they have broken but which God keeps. (29) Reveals the fertility worship of the Canaanites they have engaged in, and (2-4) show Judah’s rejection of God. Despite being God’s child whom he has raised, cared and provided for Judah has rejected God. Whilst animals recognise their master and provider Judah will not recognise and come to God who has kept and provided for them. And that broken relationship, that wrong heart, has led to sin, guilt, evil and corruption(4).

 

And as God looks on Judah he gives two graphic images of what he sees. (5-6)Judah is like the victim of a mugging, bruised, beaten, broken. And (7-8)like a flimsy broken down shack in the face an enemy army. Judah is weak and sick because she has forsaken God.

 

As Judah heard this they think they are strong, under King Uzziah they are prosperous, they’ve won military victories against the Philistines and Ammonites. He has undertaken great building projects, has a well trained and equipped army, is famous, but doesn’t stop the idolatrous worship in Judah. His success led to pride and he was afflicted with leprosy. As Judah look around them as Isaiah speaks the people would think God’s diagnosis was off. They look secure, they look strong, they look wealthy. But God doesn’t judge as they do or as the economist or general does. God sees a weak and impoverished nation in danger because their only real hope is in God not money, military or territory, and they have turned their back on him.

 

Judah’s state of the nation speech would be very different from God’s, but (9)the only reason Judah is not destroyed is God’s grace. Even as they have turned their back on God, he has not turned his back on them, in mercy he gives them his diagnosis, and by grace promises a remnant will survive.

 

How do you judge your security and future? We’re no different from Judah we judge our security independently and materialistically – money, savings, job, family, health, our plans. Isaiah warns us that what matters is how God sees us. What secures our future is dependence on God not ourselves, and so it is foolish to trust in anything other than God. What would our state of our hearts address unearth? What would God’s? God graciously calls us from independence to dependence, from trusting ourselves to trusting our glorious almighty Father, saved by the son, and living by the Spirit. God graciously calls us this morning back to him, maybe you have begun to wander in your relationship with God, maybe things have grown a bit cold and distant. God this morning by grace shows us his character, he waits and calls us back to him, but he also warns us that a broken relationship produces broken people.

 

2. A Call to Return and Repent

(10)Would have shocked and horrified Judah and its leaders, why? Because Yahweh compares them to the leaders and people of Sodom and Gomorrah. Two cities which were a by-word for sin and deserved destruction in judgement. Two cities from whose destruction only Lot and his daughters escaped alive. God calls them to listen as he outlines Judah’s sin, rejection of him, rottenness of heart, and failure to love him.

 

Again it is not obvious externally. If we’d gone there as mystery worshippers we would have given them high scores for their religious service and practice. They offer multitudes of sacrifices, burnt offerings, and incense, they regularly go to the temple, they keep new moon and Sabbath festivals, they pray frequently(11-15).

 

But their worship is disconnected from life. God hates their sham, show, religious expressions of love and worship, because that’s all it is. Their faith is only skin deep, it is a practice not a reality. It would be better if you stopped says God because I hate it, I’m not listening, I’ve had enough. I guess we might think that’s a bit unfair, after all they are doing what God said they should do. They are keeping the covenant.

 

But they aren’t because these things were meant to be signs of a deeper reality. They were a way to express love, gratitude, thanks and devotion. They weren’t the means of earning God’s favour, they were an expression of gratitude for God’s grace which had delivered and kept them day by day, they were a way to enjoy knowing God.

 

(15)Is a brilliant play on words “your hands are full of blood”, blood of both the pointless animal offerings but also of the innocents they oppress(16-17).

 

God doesn’t want big religious gestures but everyday covenant faithfulness, a people who having experienced his love and grace as helpless, oppressed, fatherless orphans show they are his children by expressing that to others. Again Isaiah’s charge is based on the covenant which reveals the character of God and calls Israel to be like him, Deut 10:17-19, Deut 24:17-22.

 

God isn’t interested in a Sunday faith but in a moment by moment faithfulness that reflects his character, grace and glory. God longs for his people to treasure him and therefore be like him, not in bold promises but everyday love, care, concern and mercy. In grace he highlights their sin and calls Judah to turn back and repent and he will cleanse them, or they will face judgement just as the covenant promised.

 

One of the problems we have as a church today is that in reacting against the social gospel which says we are just to love people and serve them not proclaim the gospel we have gone to the opposite extreme. But as God’s people, like him, following Jesus, having experienced his grace and mercy, his rescue and love we must be concerned with social injustice.

 

Jesus calls us to love our neighbour as ourselves, James instructs the church to look after the marginalised. The Bible calls us to be open handed with what God has given us not tight-fisted.

 

Within a short walk of a UK church in a population of 10,000 you will find on average:

• 1200 people living alone, 580 of whom are pensioners
• 375 single parents
• 250 unemployed
• 1700 living in low income households
• 1100 people living with some mental disorder
• 1280 people caring for a sick, disabled or elderly relative or friend

They are staggering figures, they ought to open our eyes to the need around us. But they won’t open our hearts only understanding what God has done for us, the love and mercy he showed us, only seeing his heart beat for the oppressed and poor will we be motivated to love and serve these people.

 

We will never eradicate injustice or poverty this side of eternity but God still calls his people to reveal his heart, his love by contending for justice, by being a voice for those who have no voice, by being open handed with what he has given us both in terms of money, possession, energy and time.

 

We mustn’t isolate ourselves from such need we must be willing to help uncover it. How? Well it will be present in your workplace, in the playground, amongst your friends, in your street, we begin by just taking time to build friendships. By taking time to speak to people, to help people, to care for people, in ways that show we are for them and which encourages them to open up to us because they know we love. Not grand gestures but everyday faithfulness.

 

Worship is not in the big and the grand but in the little everyday actions and reactions to the needs of others around us which reveal a heart that loves and gives like God’s.

 

God in grace again calls us to ask his forgiveness for our wrong worship for living one way on Sunday but another during the week, and invites us to be what he wants us to be, a people who having experienced his love, mercy and grace live life with his heart beating in us through his Spirit.

 

3. A People Restored by God’s Grace

The chapter closes with a contrast between two cities, two Jerusalem’s. It begins with the failure of the current Jerusalem to be all that God intended it to be. It’s a prostitute not faithful, full of murderers not justice and righteousness, dross not silver, rebels and thieves. God’s people have become everything they shouldn’t be.

 

But God is not done with Judah yet(24). God will judge them as he promised faithfully keeping his covenant. In a terrifying passage he (24-25) describes himself as turning his hand against Judah who has now become his enemy. God’s anger is not like ours, he’s not simply seeking to release all the pent up rage, to lash out until he feels better, or until Judah are emotionally manipulated into to repenting.

 

No God’s anger is righteous, it is purposeful. His wrath filled judgement is designed to purge and purify(25-26) and it will result in a city that is everything Jerusalem should be; a faithful city, a City of Righteousness, with leaders who rule rightly as God’s regents. God outlines his plans and dreams, his vision for his people and he will accomplish it.

 

Notice that God doesn’t give Judah a blueprint to follow, in fact what is the only response he requires of them? (27)Repentance and trust in him. Just as God saved Lot and his daughters from Sodom and Gomorrah so he will save a remnant purified through the exile. God will accomplish this, man cannot, so Isaiah calls Israel to trust God not themselves. To forget their independence, hear God, recognise the accuracy of his diagnosis and the amazing deliverance he promises and repent and trust him. Because God has a glorious future in store for his redeemed people, where they will be everything he intended them to be, a light to the nations, a glorious advert for the joy of knowing and serving Yahweh the Saviour.

 

It’s a staggering vision of what God wants his people to be. God’s redeemed people are to reflect his heart, love, glory and grace to a watching world. That call hasn’t changed. Ephesians 3:10. The church is an outpost of the kingdom of God declaring God’s splendour, love, grace, mercy and glory experienced in Jesus to the world, giving them a glimpse of what it means to be loved by God, to know God, and to enjoy being part of God’s plan and purpose which he will accomplish, while we wait for the coming of the kingdom in all its glory.

 

Isaiah calls us to lift our eyes, to see God, to hear his call to repent and return, and to see the glory of what he calls us to as he redeems us to be his people. He calls us to stop trusting in things which cannot sustain or save and trust in Yahweh. 

Hope for Living - 1 Thessalonians 4v13-18

One day a hospital teacher received a call asking her to visit a boy. She took his name and room number and talked with his teacher. “We’re studying nouns and adverbs in his class now,” the teacher said, “and it would be great if you could help him understand them so he doesn’t fall too far behind.” 

The hospital teacher went to see the boy that afternoon. No one had told to her that he’d been badly burned and was in a lot of pain. Upset at the sight of the boy, she stammered as she told him, “I’ve been sent by your school to help you with nouns and adverbs.” When she left she felt she hadn’t accomplished much.

The next day as she went onto the ward, a nurse asked her, “What did you do to that boy?” The teacher worried she’d done something wrong and began to apologize. “No, no,” said the nurse. “You don’t know what I mean. We’ve been worried about him, but since yesterday, his whole attitude has changed. He’s fighting back, responding to treatment. It’s as though he’s decided to live.”

Two weeks later the boy explained that he had given up hope until the teacher arrived. Everything changed when he had a simple realization. He said: “They wouldn’t send a teacher to work on nouns and adverbs with a dying boy, would they?”

Hope matters. And in this series we’ve seen the distinctiveness of Christian hope, hope not just in this life but of eternal life, hope not just in heaven for those who die but of Christ’s return and the renewed recreated creation marked by the glory of God. We’ve seen that Christ’s coming again and the promise of a new creation give us hope for living now with suffering and death in perspective. But what is our response to these truths, where does the rubber hit the road? That’s what we want to look at tonight, we’re going to begin by exploring this passage before looking at some others.

In Thessalonica there was a problem, **what was it? They were worried about those who had died before Christ’s return; will they be resurrected, have they missed out?

Paul writes to encourage them to think rightly about death, the resurrection and Christ’s return. It is a response that is counter cultural; a typical inscription on a grave in Thessalonica would read: I was not, I became, I am not, I care not. But Paul wants these believers to know the truth and to live out their hope because of the promises of God!

1. What we believe gives us hope.(14)Paul uses the phrase “We believe...” and then explains the implications of that belief. **What is it that Paul says we believe? “We believe that Jesus died and rose again...” Our hope is founded in the historical death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, a death that pays the wages of sin for us, and a resurrection that guarantees we’re made right with God and death is conquered. 

Paul is quoting an early church creed which summarised their beliefs, similar to that used in 1 Cor 15: “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.”

Christian hope is not a vague wish it’s an historical certainty, anchored in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And he goes on to point out the implication of that historical belief, because we believe that we also believe that he will come again, bringing with him those who have died in the mean time. Your friends haven’t missed out, those who die ‘in Christ” – believing and trusting in him are secure in him. They are in heaven now awaiting his return.
When Jesus returns the dead in Christ will come with him from heaven, their bodies will then rise – not as zombies but patterned after Christ resurrected physical body, the dead in Christ will be given their resurrection bodies(16), before the living are changed and united with our Saviour and them.

Again we see that it is Jesus presence that marks out these events, the dead are in Christ and with Christ, they return with him, and we are changed and caught up to be with the Lord, then and forever.

Paul reminds the Thessalonians of what the bible teaches about death, heaven, the last day and eternity. The dead are secure and with Christ now in heaven, and they w ill not miss out; they will return, and share in our ultimate hope in new physical resurrected bodies in a new creation with Christ for eternity. Doctrine matters! Knowing what the bible teaches matters because otherwise we’ll be like the Thessalonians uninformed, doubting and responding to death and living life wrongly.

2. Hope appliedPaul applies the doctrine he has reminded them of here – doctrine – truth is never the stuff of academia in the bible it is truth to set your living by. Here we see it in two main applications:

a. Grieve differently**How does the world grieve? Like all is lost, without certainty. But not you says Paul, believers grieve differently, why? Because we know what we believe and Christ’s historical resurrection means we know there is life beyond death, it means we trust God’s promises. Notice it does not say that we do not grieve – but that it is distinctly Christian grief, resurrection grief.

b. Encourage one anotherSecondly he says we encourage one another. **What is it we encourage one another with? (18)”these words”. The truths he has just reminded them of; not vague niceties about going to a better place but the concrete realities of the death and resurrection of Jesus our Saviour and its implications for those who trust in him. We remind each other of the basis of our hope and the certainty of Christ’s return, and the nature of death for the believer – they have “fallen asleep in him.”

We need to grasp that – we are never short of something to comfort and encourage those have lost a believing son, daughter, father, mother, sister, husband, wife or friend with.

I want to draw out some other implications of our hope which have to affect our living.

c. We wait faithfully(5:1-4)We saw in 2 Peter a few weeks ago and it is repeated again here that Christ is definitely returning though we do not know when. That certainty means we are to live faithfully, we live life now knowing that Jesus will come.

d. We live with a purpose (Philippians 3:12-21) Paul talks about straining towards what is ahead, pressing on to win the prize for which Christ has called us. We know Christ is coming and so our goal in life is to please him, as we eagerly wait for his return. Our hope gives us a reason to live differently, it does not make us of no earthly use, but spurs us on to live now pleasing Christ.

e. We endure suffering(Rom 5:3-5)It liberates us to glory in our sufferings(3), not because we are masochists, or because we can keep a stiff upper lip, but because we know that it is not pointless, that suffering is not hopeless. Suffering produces perseverance which produces character which produces hope. Suffering weans us from loving the world and putting our hope in the world and is used by God to enable us increasingly to boast in the hope of the glory of God. It makes us long for our glorious future where God rules and reigns, which will make our suffering seem like merely the dust on the scales. And as we fix our hopes less on the world our faith is proved and tested, and we are refined and fitted for our glorious future.

f. We are liberated from the fear of death (2 Cor 5:1-10) Our hope gives us confidence of live beyond death with means the fear of death does not paralyse us. In this life we will experience outward decay, persecution, hardship, trouble, illness and death, it is normal Christian experience because our hope isn’t in this world but the next. Instead it produces a people captured by the prospect of their glory so wonderfully secured by God’s grace in Jesus that they live out their hope even in the face of suffering and liberated from the fear of death!

g. We live assured by the Spirit (Eph 1:13-14)We hope and look forward to God’s glory not dependent on what we do but on what Christ has done and with his Spirit within us as a deposit guaranteeing our adoption. The Spirit is the first instalment of our new life and new relationship with God in all his glory. So we are not uncertain but assured and look forward to the future, cooperating with the Spirit now sealed in him for Christ return.

h. We hope in the glory of God (Rev 21)
Our hope is God in all his glory; an intimate, unalloyed, unbreakable relationship with the God of glory in all his splendour, holiness and majesty where every moment of every hour for eternity is bathed in his glory and we are transformed to perfectly reflect and irradiate his glory. That is our hope! It means now we will want to investigate, to dig into, to unearth, to mine the truths of God’s glory through his word so that we increasingly desire his coming, so that we pray “Come, Lord Jesus”, so that the joy of the gospel hope that is ours by grace inform our joyful living looking for our Saviours return.

Revelation 21:1-18 Hope in a New Creation

We were continuing our series on Christian Hope last night, here are the notes.

Revelation 21-22 comes as the climax of a book written to encourage churches to live faithfully in the midst of a hostile world, a world of false teachers and persecution. It is a call to view the world rightly and an encouragement to remember the significance of their being a part of God’s plan to remake a broken universe. In Rev 21-22 we see their and our final destination, earth is not their home or hope, heaven is not their home or their hope, but(1) their home and certain hope is a new heaven and a new earth. Heaven is a wonderful place because Jesus is there, but it is not what the bible calls us to hope in. We to live waiting for and hoping in Jesus return from heaven when he will bring our promised inheritance with him.

Our hope is not heaven it is Christ’s return and the new age it will usher in, when the first heaven and earth have passed away and the new heaven and new earth are established. The first heaven and earth are not destroyed as in obliterated but rather are transformed through judgement being purged, renewed and regenerated. Look at (5) “I am making everything new!” are the words from the throne, not I am making all new things, it is new in terms of nature and quality, but there is continuity, the labour pains of creation seen in its groaning lead to new birth not obliteration.

That matters because it means that things we experience now; the beauty of music, the thrill of sport and exercise, the enjoyment of food and different tastes, the wonder of creation will all be there though transformed and transcendent. There is no sense in which the new creation will disappoint us, there is no way in which we will think I wish this or that was here, or I miss this. But too often we focus on those features of the new creation, but actually that is not the stand out characteristic of the new creation and of our hope, in fact that is just a by-product of our hope realised. So what is our hope?
1. Our hope is the glory of God
As we read these verses its helpful to see what sits at the centre of them both literally and figuratively – it is God(3-4, 7) “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will be dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be their God.” Do you see the repetition of ideas to emphasise the point he is making, the stand out feature, the defining characteristic of the new creation is God with his people.

It is what marked out the early days of creation as Adam and Eve enjoyed an intimate relationship with God before sin drove man from God’s presence and forfeited God’s glory. From then on sin meant man could not dwell with God, could not be with the God of glory. It’s an idea that runs throughout the bible.

In Exodus 40:34-35 when Israel build the tabernacle and it is finally complete in all its God given detail and instruction, God fills the tabernacle – he dwells there – and **what happens? Everyone is driven out, even Moses cannot enter? **Why? “because... the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.”

In 1 Kings 8:10-11 **when the temple is finished in all its glory and splendour what happens? The cloud fills the temple and the priests cannot serve in it because they cannot be in the presence of God’s glory. Sin separates man from the glory of God, from his presence. 

That’s why at Pentecost it is so significant; as the Spirit of God comes it does not just rest on the disciples but it fills them (Acts2:4), not temporarily but as a permanent indwelling because Christ has given them new hearts. And the spirit is just the firstfruits of this new relationship with God, he is a divine empowering foretaste of what full unfettered, unhindered relationship with the God of glory will be like in the new creation saturated and suffused with his glory.

Our hope is God in all his glory – an intimate, unalloyed, unbreakable relationship with the God of glory in all his splendour, holiness and majesty where every moment of every hour for eternity is bathed in his glory and we are transformed to perfectly reflect and irradiate his glory. That is our hope!

If you turn to 22v1-5 you will see the same key facet of the new creation as it is described in terms of Eden Restored. **What marks it out is God’s throne where? In place at its centre and his servants seeing his face and bearing his name. God is our hope because he fills the new creation – his glory, his majesty, his presence and we will be so transformed that we bear his name, reflect his character and irradiate his likeness.

Do you see the defining feature of our hope, it is not the side effects, the by-products of God’s presence but it is the very presence and glory of God himself, Rom 5:2 “And we boast in the hope of glory of God.” Revelation gives us a glimpse of our hope realised.

2. A New Creation Saturated with God’s Glory
Everything else in these chapters is glorious and exciting but only because it reflects the glory of God in its fullness, it flows from that defining reality of God’s presence with his people realised. It is the glory of God manifest in a new creation stamped throughout with his glory seen in its goodness.

It is because of God’s presence that he will wipe every tear from our eyes – God’s presence in all his glory will make every moment of suffering worthwhile, every hardship and struggle seem fruitful.

Because the new creation is defined by God’s glory and his presence with his people there will be “no more death, or mourning, or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Because the new creation is defined by God’s glory and presence his people will be eternally safe and secure(6) and live forever in right relationship to their Father.

Because the new creation is defined by God’s glory and presence there is no rebellion or sin or any effects of the curse(8, 22:3).

The new creation is not just new version of this one only slightly better. It is not version 1.1 rather than 1.0, like some update on a computer programme designed to patch a glitch. It is utterly transformed so that it bears the hallmark, it is stamped throughout with God’s glory; every part, being, cell, molecule and atom will be transformed so that it declares the full glory of God and can sing its symphony of praise.

Do you see the importance of grasping that these things are the result of God’s glory which is our hope. The features of the new creation are not ultimately what we hope for. Death, mourning, crying, and pain ended are wonderful and we look forward to them because they are symptomatic of a sin sick world dislocated from God but they are not our hope, it is the glory of God which is our hope.

So what?
So what are the implications of understanding this? What should it change?

a. We can’t make this creation the new creation. Revelation 21-22 remind us that it takes the presence of God to eradicate sin and suffering, and that will only happen on Christ’s return when (ch20) all opposition and rebellion is dealt with. This means that there is no way we can bring it about in society now, any such attempt is arrogant folly, sin permeates our very fabric and that of the world around us. We can’t bring about the age to come, but we are to look forward longing to is, to hope for God’s glory.

b. The Church gives a glimpse of the new creation. But neither are we to withdraw from the world around us and simply wait fatalistically. The church reconciled in Christ to God and one another gives the world and beyond a glimpse of what it means to have God’s glory as its chief concern and at the centre of everything. It provides a glimpse of what a broken world reconciled to its creator and one another looks like, and it carries the power to change the world one life at a time as it holds out the truth of the gospel and the hope of the glory of God.

c. The new creation spurs us on to endure suffering. It reminds us that this world is not all there is and that one day we will reach our final destination. But between now and then Revelation paints a picture of a world at war with God and his people, we live amidst that war. But God is the alpha and omega whose word we can trust, and one day he will wipe every tear from our eye. It also reminds us we do not suffer alone but as part of God’s people with a common identity and destiny. We wait together, groaning together, hoping together, spurring one another on as we remind one another of our glorious hope; the glory of God.

d. We desire to know now what we will fully know then. Why is Revelation written? It is written (1:13-2:3)so that God’s people know their hope and live in the light of their future. It is written to whet our appetite to know and taste that the Lord is good. We long to know our hope in God’s glory realised, and so we put his word into action now, living for his glory, learning more of his glory, and praying for him to come in glory that out hope may be realised.

Hope in the face of Death 2 Corinthians 5v1-10

Corinth was a fascinating city it had been totally destroyed in 146 BC and was rebuilt in 44 BC by Julius Caesar. This rebuilt city was repopulated with old soldiers, slaves and ex-slaves and became a city of contrasts; there were the very wealthy and the poverty stricken. One third of the population of the city were slaves who had nothing, yet for the very rich, many of whom were ex-slaves made good, “wealth and ostentatious display became a hallmark of Corinth”

In Corinth the gospel was under threat because the church in had too much of Corinth in it. In society they prized power, charisma, personality, and speaking skills and the church adopted the values of society. It led to misunderstandings about where and when they live – they thought they had already arrived, that the blessings of the kingdom come were to be theirs now! And so as they look at Paul who is hard pressed, beaten, persecuted and arrested they questioned his ministry – can he really be an apostle if he’s suffering, where is the power in his life? And crucially it means that when they experience difficulty, persecution, and hardship they will be rocked to their foundations.

Paul confronts this head spending ch1-7 defending his gospel ministry and seeking to correct their misunderstandings. As we come to ch5 Paul has been explaining how the believers hope is not realised now. Now we experience suffering (4:7-18)our physical bodies are decaying and wasting away, but our hope is not in now, it’s not in our physical well being or freedom from persecution or infirmity, it is(4:16-18) in our future. Suffering and wasting away now prepare us for glory when Christ returns and we receive our eternal glory, and the implications are massive because it affects what we value. Believers value inward renewal not outward appearance(16), believers value the future over the present(17), and believers value the unseen over what is seen(18).

Our future is eternal and glorious even if now we experience suffering, ageing and hardship. Paul’s teaching in chapter 5 builds on this. In (1-5)Paul reminds them of what they know, before in (6-10)applying that to their attitude and living.

1. What we knowHow does the world think of death? How does that show itself in society? How do believers think counter culturally?

George Bernard Shaw wrote: ‘Death is the ultimate statistic: one in one dies.’ Yet the world buries that, it denies that reality in the way it lives, it seeks to disprove it in the never ending groping of science to prolong life. Death is the great enemy! And we want to say yes death is the great enemy, it’s the ultimate consequence of sin. But Paul reminds believrs death is not the unconquerable end of hope for the believer.

(1)Paul begins “For we know” because he is reminding them of what they have already been taught. Turn to 1 Corinthians 15:50-57 – read it. Paul here reminds them of what he has already taught them – death is not the unconquerable enemy, death is the conquered enemy. He reminds them that our hope is not in this life but in life beyond death, in fact it is in resurrection life because Christ’s people are resurrection people. Our hope is eternal glory which outweighs all the struggles and sufferings of this present life.

As he reminds them of what they know about hope, glory, death and resurrection Paul uses different metaphors.

a. Earthly tent v Eternal house(1)Paul begins with a compare and contrast metaphor of an earthly tent, our bodies and an eternal house, our resurrection bodies.

The body is like a tent in that it is temporary and will one day be taken down – in other words we will die. But believers do not despair because **what do we have? A building from God and it’s more secure, more substantial, permanent, heavenly and eternal, it won’t be subject to wear and tear, it won’t suffer or be taken down.

It’s a brilliant image isn’t it? If I offered you the choice; live in a tent or a house which would you choose? House, why? Security, safety, permanence, comfort and so on. 

Death may claim our tent – our temporary residence but it will not claim us. In fact our hope is not in the world it will only be realised after death. Death does not signify the end of hope for believers but a doorway to hope.

b. New clothes(2-4)
**Paul uses a second image, what is it? Clothing. Knowing what we know – that this body is temporary and God has prepared for us a resurrection body that will be glorious and eternal we “groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling”. In anticipation we long to put on our resurrection bodies because the bodies we have now aren’t perfect, in them we experience suffering and are subject to the decay of living in a sin sick world. We want to put on our resurrection bodies not so we can live in them here and now but because they will mean that we are enjoying eternal glory with God.

Believers are not afraid of death, though we may have a fear of how we die. Death is not the end we know that and we trust God. But neither do Christians have a death wish, it is not that we long to die and be done with this world. No, our longing is a positive one we long to experience all the joys and wonders of relationship with God fully realised in the new creation when the perishable is clothed with imperishable and when Christ’s victory is realised at his return – when our longing for God’s glory to be fully and universal known is fulfilled.

Believers long for our resurrection life when Christ has returned and everything is united under him.

c. Our Guarantee of life(5)But how can we be sure? (5)God has made us for this purpose through the gospel(5:17), he has made us for life eternal and we have the deposit – the Holy Spirit living in us.

Imagine I put down a deposit of £500 on a new car over the internet. **What does that deposit say to the dealer? I am coming to get that car, it will be mine and I have made a considerable investment in it so it is kept for me. It promises that I will pay for it in full and take possession of it.

So it is with the Holy Spirit, at the point of conversion the Holy Spirit indwells God’s people as a deposit of what will come. He is the downpayment – a partial experience of what our true glorified and realised relationship with God will be like so that we are certain of its reality. It’s a taster and a promissory sign that what God has begun he will complete, what he has promised he will make good. He works in us to renew and remake us day by day as a sure and certain sign that we are being renewed and fitted for a purpose – resurrection and being with God.

Our current life is not our hope, our current bodies are not all that we are. Our hope is in resurrection bodies fitted and glorified to spend eternity with the God of glory. And we know it is our certain future therefore death is a beaten enemy and we do not fear death because we know it has no hold on us.

The world views death as the ultimate tragedy, an end to all life, dreams, hope and potential, but for us it is just the beginning of realising our life, dreams, hopes and potential in Christ.

2 What hope produces(6-10)Paul is not revising theology so that they can get an A* in an exam on a Christian attitude to death, he is reminding them because it affects how we live. We see with the “Therefore”(6) some implications of this.

a. Confident in living life by faith – Believers don’t need to be wavering and fearful in the face of suffering, illness or even death itself, instead we can be confident because we know that this is not all there is. The Corinthians had an over realised view of life now – they thought all the blessings of Christ’s return were theirs now. So suffering, ageing, illness, persecution, and death rocked their confidence and caused them to question. But we can be confident in our hope because “as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.” In this life we will experience outward decay, persecution, hardship, trouble, illness and death, it is normal Christian experience because our hope isn’t in this world but the next(4:7-12).

This understanding liberates us to live by faith, not by sight. We may look at our lives and see hardship, struggle and decay but we know that inwardly we are being renewed and fitted for an eternal glory that outweighs our momentary troubles. In the face of life’s strife and struggles we are confident – unshaken, anchored and secure – of our future so much so that we want to be with our Saviour.

So as we are persecuted we aren’t asking God what he is doing because his people should not experience persecution, but we know resurrection realities aren’t ours yet, but he is preparing us for them. As we feel the ageing and decay of our bodies we are not obsessed by it and rail against it but know what our future is. As we face death we know that it is a conquered and vanquished enemy, for us as believers we are simply falling asleep in Christ.

b. Assured and aware – Believers are assured of their future secure in Christ and it has an impact on how they live. They are to live with an awareness of Christ’s return and therefore live out their faith. Christ is coming again and we look forward to it but we do not sit on our hands as we wait for it.

The doctrine of the resurrection is to reassure us in suffering and produce in us lives that please him. It is not to produce a complacency that simply rests on having a ticket to the gig. (5:21)Believers are saved by faith Christ alone but that faith is expressed in love and obedience.

We are to live now aware of then, living to please the one who gave everything for us. How do we please him? (11)We persuade others, we live differently(6:3-13), we pursue holiness(7:1), we repent over our sins(7:10), we display our hope for all to see.

It does not produce saints so preoccupied with this world that they give no thought of the next, but neither does it produce saints so heavenly minded they are of no earthly use. Instead it produces a people captured by the prospect of their glory so wonderfully secured by God’s grace in Jesus that they live out their hope even in the face of suffering and liberated from the fear of death!

Romans 8:18-30 Hope in Suffering?

How does the world think of suffering? What strategies does it suggest for facing it?

How is a disciples’ perspective different?

The bible is honest about life; it doesn’t hide away the unpalatable truths or the difficulties, or shy away from the hard questions. It is not possible to read the bible and remain in denial about suffering, its reality, its origin and what it points us to. As soon as sin enters the world in Genesis 3 suffering comes with it. As God’s pronounces the curses we see they are shot through with suffering. In a world made sick by sin suffering is now part of normal life. If you reject the key stone of creation – God and his word – then that world becomes dislocated and painful. Enmity, pain in childbirth, battles and strife in relationships, painful toil, thorns, thistles, sweat, and death are all a normal part of life exiled from the Garden of Eden, outside of God’s glory and his presence.

And it doesn’t just affect those who reject God. Saints suffer – Abel is murdered, because he makes righteous offerings to God, by his jealous brother, Abraham and Sarah are childless, Joseph is hated and betrayed, Israel are oppressed in slavery in Egypt and so on. Saints suffer. That continues in the New Testament as the Church suffers – beatings, persecution, ship wreck, and death. And even the Son of God suffers. Jesus God made man steps into his sin sick creation and even he is not immune from suffering, he feels hunger and thirst, he mourns, he is opposed, hated, confronted, abandoned, isolated, betrayed, unjustly condemned and crucified.

The bible teaches us again and again that suffering is normal in a fallen world and God’s people are not immune, the gospel is not a get out of suffering free card!

In Romans 8 we see the distinctive nature of Christian suffering because Christians have a certain and sure hope that suffering cannot shake, a hope which, in fact, suffering makes stronger. The suffering Romans 8 talks about is not only those trials believers face because of their faith but the whole spectrum of suffering; illness, death, hunger, mourning, loss, poverty and so on... But how ought we to react? As we live in a fallen world as those who trust Jesus how are we distinctive in suffering?

As we come to this passage we need to put it in its Romans context. Romans 1-2 show us why everyone needs the gospel, Romans 3 remind us of God’s standard of righteousness and our inability to attain it, while ch4 shows us that justification is by faith. Ch5-8 look at what it means to live under grace:

5:1-11 Suffering with the assurance of future glory
          5:12-21 The work of Christ is the basis of our assurance
                   6:1-23 The gospel liberates us from slavery to sin
                   7:1-25 Rescued from the law in Jesus
          8:1-17 The work of the Spirit is the basis of our assurance
8:18-39 Suffering with the assurance of future glory.

Chapter 8 begins how? “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ...” and ends(39) with the assurance nothing can separate us from the love of God. Those who believe in Jesus are secure even as they suffer, and (17)suffering does not mortgage our hope, but it points us to our hope which we see in our Saviour.

Suffering is the way to glory(17-18)
Paul reassures these believers that their hope is in Jesus who justifies them, who makes them sons and heirs with him, they share in his inheritance and they will share in his glory, and they will also share in his suffering.

Glory is a big idea in Romans, (1:27)we forfeited the glory of God when we rebel against God, (3:23)now because of sin we fall short of the glory of God and face death, but (5:25)because of the grace of God by faith in Jesus we can be justified and know the hope of the glory of God. That one day we will see God in his glorious splendour, brilliance, holiness and majesty and we will be fitted to be in his presence, glorified ourselves so we can be in the presence of his radiant glory.

In (18)Paul puts suffering and glory on the scales to weigh up if suffering now is worth glory then and his conclusion is an emphatic yes! “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” As he weighs these it’s as if suffering now is but dust on the scales compared to the weight of glory that is our hope.

But what evidence is there to back up Paul’s conclusion? That is what Paul provides in(19-27), before concluding(28-30).

Evidence A: Creation groans longing for hope realised.
(19)Begins with a “For” which is missed out in the TNIV, but it helps us see the connection, I consider suffering now to be nothing compared to glory then because... **What is creation waiting for? “for the children of God to be revealed” for the new creation when God’s creation will be remade and governed by Christ-like stewards, when it is liberated from its subjection to decay and imperfection, when it returns to its former glory when it sung the symphony of God’s glory without discord.

Creation is messed up, it feels the effects of sin, it is subject to decay and chaos like a marred masterpiece. And it longs for its former glory but cannot attain it because its stewards did not and will not rule it under God’s rule. And it eagerly expects, it hopes, it groans out its longing for the day when it will experience that again. Creation does not long for the absence of human beings but for a restored creation under a new Christ-like humanity ruling under God so it truly displays his glory.

Do you see the scope of your hope? It is universal! It is a hope the whole universe shares, and it is certain, in fact the groaning of creation now is like labour pains, pains that don’t indicate a tumour or a sickness or death, but an impending newness, a new life, a new beginning.

Evidence B: We groan longing for hope realised
The second proof of the magnitude of the glory we have as our hope is the groaning of the church. Suffering makes believers groan. You might say ‘Yes but it makes unbelievers groan too’ but there is a vital difference; the believers groan is not hopeless.

When the world groans in the face of suffering it is a groan of hopelessness; ‘This is awful’, or ‘How terrible’, or ‘Why me?’ or ‘How could a loving God allow this to happen?’ It moans but it is a hopeless moaning.

But notice that believers groan longingly, expectantly, hopefully, patiently. Because believers are marked by having the Holy Spirit at work in them. 8:11 “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is at work in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.” We are God’s children filled with God’s Spirit and that means our groaning is distinctive because we are resurrection people.

The Spirit within us reminds us as we suffer of our future, of which his presence is just a taster of what one day we will realise - the hope of the glory of God. And so we groan differently from the hopeless world. Our groan is come Lord Jesus, it is Father come and reveal your glory to us and in us as you redeem and renew our bodies.

That is what marks out the believer, it is a distinctive groan that longs for Christ to come and will not give in to bitterness or cynicism but chooses to boast in the hope of the glory of God even in suffering.

Our hope is so great we groan for it.

Evidence C: God groans to God for hope realised(26-27)The believer is marked out by having the Spirit, living by the spirit and being led by the Spirit, the Spirit as a taster of what’s to come helps us expectantly and longingly groan. But actually Paul goes beyond that, the glory that is our hope is so magnificent, so amazing that God the Spirit groans within us. The Spirit within us enables us to see the worlds groaning as labour pains, he enables us to pray ‘your kingdom come’ and causes us to long for God’s presence. But there is more here, beneath our groaning the Spirit himself cries out to God on our behalf – God prays to God. The Spirit joins with us in bearing the burden of our humanity, praying for us when we don’t know what to pray.

Our hope is so vast, so cosmic in scale, so universal in its significance that God prays to God from within us. That is how glorious our hope is and how certain if God prays top God for it we know it is according to his will and is a prayer that will be answered!

“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”

Conclusion: A certain hope worth waiting for(27)Ends with the Spirit interceding for us in accordance with God’s will, the question is what is God’s will?

God’s will is for those who love him and are called to be his people to be made Christ-like, and to follow where Christ has blazed a trail. But there is also security here because of how God’s people facing suffering are described.

Foreknown – God’s foreknowledge is relational not just knowledge based. Before believers know God he knows them.

Predestined – God’s purpose is that those he knows become more and more like Christ, increasingly reflecting God’s glory.

Called – Is the effective calling of God which brings us spiritually alive from the dead.

Justified – God’s declaration that those he has predestined and called are righteous by faith in Jesus and in a right relationship with him.

Glorified – **What tense is this in? In the past tense because our future is certain because God says it will happen! We will be glorified, our hope will be realised.

Suffering is just the dust on the scales compared to our hope of glory because what God has begun he will complete. In fact even in our suffering God is at work not just for our good – developing perseverance, character, and hope, but for the greater good because our groaning becomes part of the great symphony of groaning with creation and the Spirit crying out come Lord Jesus. And no matter how great our suffering our future is certain, our hope of glory will be realised.
“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”

Romans 5:1-11 Hope amid Hopelessness

We started a new series on The Christian Hope on Sunday night here are the notes:

What does the church have to offer the world?  What is our hope as Christians?

Hope is the thing we have to offer the world in the gospel.  We live in an age of plenty, one of the first generations to have leisure time and the money to be able to decide what to do with it, to speak of retail therapy and club memberships and expect them to be normal.  Even in a time of recession we have more than our grandparents, we are historically secure as a society, we are living longer, receiving better medical care and so on.

And yet there is a curious disconnect between those facts and the hopelessness many people feel.  More people are on anti-depressants in the UK than voted in last years X Factor Final.  Every year in the UK more than 13 million working days are lost to stress, depression and anxiety.  And nearly twice as many people die by suicide than in road traffic accidents.  They are sobering statistics and show how many view life as dissatisfying and even hopeless.

As always there is a danger than Christians rather than standing out in society follows the trends in society, and if God’s people lose their hope then what chance is there for society.  If believers lose their hope then we will be dissatisfied, anxious, loss our assurance and increasingly apathetic to faith and the world around us.

This series aims to remind us and to explore what our hope is, its roots, its security and to look at the impact it should have on us and through us on the world around us.

Someone has said “Hope is listening to the music of the future, faith is dancing to that music in the present.”

As God’s people living in a world without hope we need to be confident in our hope and living to its music now, as we hold out hope to world without it.

We are going to begin by exploring Romans 5:1-11, where Paul highlights the blessings that are ours through justification by faith.  The first is peace with God which bookends these verses and leads us to be confident that we can approach God and the other is hope which we are going to focus on tonight.

In Romans 1-3 Paul has shown how there is no-one righteous either because or a refusal to recognise God or because of a failure to keep the law, in v21-22 of Romans 3 we have one of the greatest ‘Buts’ in the Bible “But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known...This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.”  In chapter 4 Paul goes on to explored that righteousness and how it was given to us “He was delivered over to death for our sins and raised to life for our justification.”  Justification is God’s declaration that he views us by faith in Jesus death and punishment for our sins and resurrection as his perfect children.  To be justified is a statement about our legal standing – we are declared right with God, and this justification brings relationship with God by grace and hope not just for the future but for this life now.

1. A Hope to boast in(1-2)

(2b)Paul exhorts the Roman Christians to boast in what “in the hope of the glory of God.”  But what does that mean and what will it look like?

(1-2)Give us a clear explanation of what justification by faith brings.  It brings a change of status: “we have peace with God through Jesus Christ” sin is dealt with, the cause of conflict and opposition between us and God and God and us is paid for in Jesus, the wages of our sin is paid for in Jesus death and now we enter a new relationship with God.  Not an uneasy truce but a new relational reality marked not by absence of conflict but by a unity, love, friendship and shared purpose and goal.

Secondly the justified through faith “have access by faith into this grace in which we now stand”.  God views us by grace and we stand before God in grace.  When we come to God he does not see guilty, sin sick and stained rebels but obedient sons, which means we can confidently come to him by faith in Jesus.

The third is “the hope of the glory of God.”

Imagine a wedding, at the rehearsal the bride expresses a hope it will not rain.  What is that hope based on?  How certain is it to happen?  Not very it is a wish with nothing to back it up.

But what about the bridegroom who expresses the hope that his bride turns up?  What is his hope based on?  Relationship, it is confident, it builds on everything he knows about her and them.

The hope we have is like the second it is based on God’s character, what he has done for us in the past which means we trust his word about the future.  It is a hope that is concrete and confident in future expectation, because it is based on what Jesus has done for us in justifying us by faith.  You see that here because Paul says we can boast in this hope.  He means that we can exult in it, glory in it because it is certain, because it doesn’t depend on what we do but on what God has done in Jesus, who he has revealed himself to be.

We can boast in it because we know it is certain.  But there is more to it than just that.  Boasting is more than just a confidence it is an excited expectation, it is something that because we know it is happening we are looking forward to.  **But what is it we excitedly and expectantly look forward to?  “the glory of God.”

But what does that means?
a. Seeing God in all his glory
In the bible we catch glimpses of God in his glory; Moses as he comes down from Mount Sinai, Isaiah as he has his vision of God in ch6, Habakkuk in ch3, Daniel in his vision in ch7, Jesus at his transfiguration, John in his revelation.  But they are mere glimpses, and majestic as they are the words used to describe them are trying to convey what the heavens and earth cannot contain – the glory of God.  But one day because we are justified by faith we will see God in all his glory – face to face.  With no veil, no barrier, no need for God to hide it, or need for us to cower away from it.  We look forward to seeing God face to face, knowing him and being known by him.

b. Changed to share in God’s glory

But there is even more to it!  In order to do that our hope is that we are changed, that we are glorified too, made fit to stand before God in all his glory.  (Rom 8:30)”And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified, and those he justified he also glorified.”

Romans 3:23 tells us that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God...”  It is one of the most earth shattering consequences of the fall, we can’t be with God!  But Paul is saying this is overturned in Jesus; justified by faith we will be glorified so we can partake in and see God’s glory.

Isn’t that something to be excited about?  To hope for?  To live in excited expectation of?  And it depends not on us but on what Jesus has done for is.  It brings us assurance, this is our certain hope because of Jesus.  We can boast in it, live confidently in the light of it, dance to it because it is our certain future.

2. A hope to live by (3-11)

We need to grasp the treasures that are our because of Jesus death and resurrection for us because hope has significant implications for how we live now.

The implications are seen in (3-11).  Our hope changes the way we view the present and live in it.  It liberates us to glory in our sufferings(3), not because we are masochists, or because we can keep a stiff upper lip, but because we know that it is not pointless, that suffering is not hopeless.  Suffering produces perseverance which produces character which produces hope.  Suffering weans us from loving the world and putting our hope in the world and is used by God to enable us increasingly to boast in the hope of the glory of God.  It makes us long for our glorious future where God rules and reigns.  And as we fix our hopes less on the world our faith is proved and tested, and we are refined and fitted for our glorious future.

(5)And that hope will not disappoint us as we suffer, because God has given us his Spirit who dwells in us reminding us of God’s love for us now, shown to us in Jesus death for us when we were God’s enemies.  And if God loved us like that then and secured our future by faith he will not be doing any less now.

Our hope is not just escaping God’s wrath by the skin of our teeth, it is not creeping as quietly as possible into heaven by the back door, it is not just being saved, and it is not just future.  Our hope is a present reality dependent on what God has done for us through Jesus Christ, it is relationship with God enjoyed now, it is access to God confident that we stand in grace, it is the knowledge of a glorious future to which the Spirit testifies and works in the present as he points to God’s love.  It is a hope that we expectantly and excited wait for as God readies us for it through suffering.

Our faith is certain, our future is glorious, and it has implications for now.

“Hope is listening to the music of the future, faith is dancing to that music in the present.”

Hope

I was watching Flashforward in the early hours of this morning and was really struck by on comment. One of the characters who has not had a flashforward and therefore will be dead within 6 months finally confides it to his fiancee. She says his flashforward can't be true because in her flashforward she saw their wedding day. Then she says 'I choose hope'.

She just decides to live her life as if that is going to be reality and ignore the alternative. It got me thinking about hope.

One of the things we've been reminding ourselves in the last few months as a church is that bible words have bible meanings. The hope that the Bible speaks of the Christian as having is dramatically different from that expressed in Flashforward. The believers hope is sure and certain, it is not just wishing for something nice to happen, because it is grounded on the character and actions of a faithful God.

We do not choose to hope simply because we do not like the alternative, we have hope because Christ has rescued us, the spirit lives in us as a deposit and because God has said he will take us home for eternity.

The tragedy of the school shooting

The YouTube killer, that’s what the newspapers are dubbing Pekka-Eric Auvinen, the young man who walked into his high school and shot dead 7 students, and the headmistress before finally turning the gun on himself. Pekka-Eric regarded himself as a ‘social Darwinist’ and on a home made video said “I, as a natural selector, will eliminate all who I see as unfit.”

Today sees Finland hold a day of national mourning for the dead with their Prime Minister calling it a “great tragedy”. One distraught relative said “This is the end of our world - the end of Finland.”

Our heart goes out to the families and relatives of those caught up in such a horrifying ordeal. An act made all the more horrifying by its perpetrator, a young man of just 18. Yet this is not an isolated incident, in April 32 were killed at Virginia Tech not to mention other teen sprees.
What would lead young men to such acts of violence? What would leave them feeling so bereft of hope and to place so little value on life?

The tragedy that has unfolded in Finland reminds us of the worlds needs seen in individuals who are hurting and bereft of hope. It reminds us that the local church is the hope of world because it is God’s mean of calling people to experience his grace. It also confronts us with the awful consequences of leaving God out of life.

Hope

This week I'll attend the second funeral I've been to in two weeks, it would be three in two but for the fact another is on the same day. Whilst funerals are never enjoyable they are not without hope for those who believe in Jesus Christ as their saviour.

It is at the grave side that you are confronted with the big questions of life that we try so hard to insulate ourselves from in our everyday lives - what's the meaning of life and what happens when we die?

The Victorians big taboo was sex, they didn't talk about it and any evidence was hidden away. In our society we have gone to the other extreme and sex is on everything, you don't have to spend too long watching day time television or adverts or listening to the breakfast shows on the radio to realise that. Our taboo is death, the Victorians dealt with death much more matter of fact way than we do, but we hide it away and try to isolate people from thinking about it. Mention it in conversation and it suddenly goes very quiet. Lose someone close to you and people don't know what to say to you, in fact so often they choose to avoid you altogether.

I wonder if that's why people no longer think about the big question; 'What happens after we die?' I'm not sure my friends would appreciate me even asking the question, yet it is one that is pushed at us every day as we watch the news and hear of more deaths in Iraq or of the Virginia tech shooting, or another teenager killed in London.

Its a question that Jesus seems to address frequently in the gospels. With Nicodemus he talks about the need to be born again if you want eternal life - life after death, with the rich young ruler that is the issue under discussion, in Matthew 24 and 25 again it is life after death that is the subject.

When Paul writes to the Corinthians life after death features (chapter 15) and then to the Thessalonians (chapter 4:13) he writes "Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you grieve like the rest, who have no hope..."

If the New Testament answers that question about life after death then it is a question that man had and still has, and it is a question that we must pose of those around us.

always prepared to give a reason for the hope that you have

It is quite a challenge that Peter makes in his letter (1 Peter 3:15) 'always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.'

It assumes that people will have looked at your life and had questions to ask you. In fact at the start of that verse Peter even tells us how to ensure that is that case; 'But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord'. If people see that Christ is Lord of our lives, that we are seeking to live for his glory and not for our own then it will provoke questions. If people see that actually we are maximising the law not minimising it then they will ask questions. If people see by our actions that we love others because we have been loved by God then they will ask questions.

And that is when we must be ready. I think the first challenge for us in 2007 is to be close enough to people that they can see that Christ is Lord, unless people are seeing how I act under pressure, in the home, on the squash court, in the pub how will they ever know that we have a hope. Unless we are in the world people cannot ask us the questions Peter assumes they will be asking. We have to get out of the Christian ghetto, move away from the holy huddle. And not just into superficial relationships but to real relationships that show those around us that we love them, that we care, that we are different.

Only then will it provoke questions about the hope that we have, about our reasons for believing such hope. Then we must be ready to answer those questions. I wonder some times if we spend so long on preparing to answer the questions that by the time we feel we're ready we have no one who knows us well enough to see our lives and to ask the questions.