Biblical HOPE
Steve Seddon (Manchester) talks about the sure and certain hope of the Christian.
This talk by Steve Seddon, was recorded at West Point Hall 82 Albert Road, Levenshulme, Manchester in December 2024.
TRANSCRIPT:
“... and it's that which I'd like to share with us.
Hope is a kind of curious thing because it's very different in the Bible compared to hope that we kind of speak about on a daily basis. And I looked at many definitions to try and find one that was interesting. The one that warmed to me most was just one word, optimism. And that's how we think of hope, I think, pretty much every day.
And we've got a little illustration. You see in otherwise harsh ground, barren ground, you see a shoot amazingly, emerging. And it speaks of hope. And it's about an optimistic outlook, a positive outlook for the future. And that's really important, isn't it? Because we live in a world that there's plenty of things to be miserable about. And it's good to be optimistic. But the Bible doesn't describe hope in those terms.
And I just want to issue a challenge at this point.
What do you hope for and what is your hope based on? Because there's this statement I've heard a number of times. It's "blind optimism". And it's about having a hope that is baseless. It's just, well, "I hope so!" And you know, one of the most tragic things is that there's that blind optimism in many people's lives to do the most important thing in life. And that is what happens after life. And I'd like us all to consider that.
What's my hope after life and what is it based on? Is it blind optimism or is it something more solid than that? And I put it to you that the Bible hope that we're going to be showing together is not blind optimism. It's not even optimism. It's certainty. And it's not an expectation that something may happen. It's a guarantee that something will happen. And I wanted to share at the beginning one of my favourite verses in recent years. And I find it really interesting when you read the Bible and you interact with Christians and a verse keeps cropping up. And this one is, this is one of those. And it says,
"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Spirit." [Romans 15:13].
What a brilliant verse. It's a prayer, actually. "May the God of hope," - you know, that's who the Christian God is. He's the God of hope. And the prayer is that he might fill us with joy and peace as we trust in him.
I wanted to try and cleverly make an acrostic of hope. I miserably failed. I just couldn't do it. There were some very limp attempts on Google which I chose not to do. So we've come up with something a little more sophisticated.
But we've got these other companions of hope, let's call them that, in this verse. And it's joy and it's peace and it's trust. And what links these things together in this verse? It's a curious thing. Is there something that is missing from the verse that makes them all make sense? And I put it to you.
But if we go back a few verses, just three verses or so, we come across this brilliant word, "promise." [Romans 15:8]
And it says, "Christ has come," that's the Lord Jesus Christ has come,
"to confirm the promises made, to glorify God for his mercy ... May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."
And here's the thing. Christian hope, as well as being a guarantee, not an optimism, is based on promises. And for me that makes all the difference. If your expectation is founded on a promise, it changes the whole thing.
So let's think about that most important part of human life. It's death. It's what happens next.
Blind optimism is a tragedy. Hope, Christian hope, based on promises, just changes the whole scenario. I wanted to try and illustrate it by a promise that was made to a man in a very, very dire situation.
And it's the Lord Jesus Christ being taken to be crucified. So this is a really solemn part of the Christian message.
And it says,
"As they," that's the soldiers, "led him," that's Jesus, "as they led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed when they came to the place called the Skull.There they crucified him along with the criminals, one on his right, the other on his left. The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, "He saved others. Let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One." The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself." All the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him. "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us." But the other criminal rebuked him. "Don't you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly. We are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong." Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth ..."
Here's the promise:
"... Today you will be with me in paradise." [Luke 23:26-43].
You know, one of the amazing things about this story is it puts to rest without question the notion that we can earn a place in heaven by our good works. And, you know, that often I think that sense, it is fairly logical, isn't it, that if we are as good as we can be then somehow that will be rewarded. For many people who have that optimism, it's based on this sense that if I do good then I'll be fine. Here was a man who was sentenced to death and he had no time to do anything. His life was characterised by wickedness, by his own confession. He was receiving what his deeds deserved. But he recognised that next to him on that middle cross was someone who was very different. And he just appealed literally on his deathbed, so to speak, that the Lord Jesus Christ who he recognised was, I believe, the Son of God. He could see that. He wasn't the only man on the day, the centurion, but also recognised because of the dignity of what was going on, and what the Lord Jesus has said from the cross, that here indeed was the Son of God. So he made that appeal. "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."
I just appeal to all of us to make that appeal. If we're struggling with hope, maybe our hearts are stirred about whether our hope is blind optimism or whether it's founded on something, then appeal to God, to the Lord Jesus Christ to help you with that as this dying man did. And then Jesus issued that brilliant promise, "Today you'll be with me in paradise." I think it's the Christian message really in a nutshell.
There was repentance there. There was a recognition that the guy needs a Saviour, and that's part of the Christian message too, that we need the Lord Jesus to be our Saviour. And having recognised that, we also recognise we can't do anything about it ourselves.
And then we appeal and he makes that promise. You know, it's put up in this very famous verse from the Bible that I want to make no apology for defaulting to something that is perhaps the obvious, especially for those of us who are familiar with God's Word. It is the most quoted verse I think, but it's got that promise in it.
I wanted to highlight it. It says,
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes on him"
- and here is the promise -
"shall not perish, but have eternal life." [John 3:16].
And I just make that statement from God's Word to us this afternoon. It has that power associated with it. But you know, there's another dimension.
"For God so loved the world," and we introduce love into this dynamic that's going on. So we have God's love, and it gives us hope, and it gives us peace, and it gives us joy, and it involves our trust. Trust is another word for faith, and they're all bound together by the promises of God.
There's a brilliant verse in Psalm 119, another favourite of mine, and you have to read it in the NIV version. It says,
"Your promises are thoroughly tested, and your servant loves them." [Psalm 119:140].
So when God makes a promise, time has proven that his promises are fulfilled.
That's my message today. It's hope from a Christian Bible perspective, not blind optimism, not just optimism, but indeed it's a certainty, and it's a certainty based on the promises of God, which he's made, founded on his love for us. And it's just for us to appeal, recognising that we need God to be our Saviour.
"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope."
That's a curious expression. How can you overflow with hope by the power of the Spirit?
I think it has to do with dispelling any doubt, and isn't that where we want to be as we get to difficulties in our life, particularly in anticipation - as I get older, I know you suddenly become aware of your own mortality. It's probably something we don't really want to talk about, but it's a fact. And as we get to terms with our own mortality, then don't we want to be overflowing with hope? No doubt as to what is for us beyond this life, and of course its eternal life.
What a hope that we have. Thank you.”
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If you live in the Manchester area, feel free to come along to any of the following regular Services:
Sunday: The Remembrance (Worship Meeting) 10.00am – 11.00am
Sunday Morning Service with Bible Teaching: 11.30am – 12noon
Tuesday:Little Fishes Toddler Group 10.00am – 11:45am
Ladies’ Bible Study (fortnightly) 12.30pm – 2.00pm
Tuesday Club (7-14yrs) 6.00pm – 7.30pm
Bible-based ‘Thought for the Week’ & Prayer 8.00pm – 9.00pm
Wednesday Warm Space 10.30am – 12.30pm Charity Cafe (last Wednesday of the month) 10.30am – 1.00pm.
West Point Hall 82 Albert Road, Levenshulme, Manchester.