SIMPLY JESUS
JESUS OUR HOPE
HEBREWS 6:13-20
INTRODUCTION
-This morning I want to start with an important question:
WHAT DO YOU PUT YOUR HOPE IN?
-As Christians we are supposed to say “Jesus!”
-And I think most of us do put our hope in Jesus…but it’s so easy to also put our hope in other things.
-For example. If you are facing a financial issue and there is money bank. You might say “Oh, no. $1000 to fix the car, well no problem because I’ve got money in the bank.” What’s your hope in? $
-If we start filling sick, or learn of a medical condition…I’ve got medical insurance. What’s your hope in?
-When we’re going through a hard time, we say “My friends will help me! What is your hope in?
-Some people believe that when the guy/gal they voted for takes office, their problems will all go away! First of all, get real!
-If you think your life will be ruined or saved because who the president or governor is…what are you putting your hope in?
-Others have a hard time and they turn to alcohol, drugs, pornography, food, or even just drown their sorrows in television.
-What does that reveal about our hope?
-OUR HOPE IS REVEALED MOST CLEARLY IN DIFFICULT CIRCUMSTANCES.
-The issue of hope is a major blind spot in many Christian’s faith.
-Everyone hopes in something and sometimes those things deliver
-But as people of faith, our hope should always be in Jesus Christ. -That's part of the message we’re taking to the world, is that we an eternal and unwavering hope in our God.
-But what they want to know is…
CAN GOD BE TRUSTED WITH OUR HOPE? (VS 13-16)
13 For example, there was God’s promise to Abraham. Since there was no one greater to swear by, God took an oath in his own name, saying: 14 “I will certainly bless you, and I will multiply your descendants beyond number.”
-Now, for the record the Bible doesn’t encourage swearing!
-But when people do swear, they usually swear by something or someone that is held in high regard.
-They say I’ll swear on a Bible! On a stack of Bibles.
-I’d swear on my mother’s grave…ooh, don’t drag her into it!
-I’d swear on my firstborn child! He’s just a child.
-I swear to God. Jesus said a simple yes or no would do fine.
-People swear, by some name greater than themselves.
-But WHEN GOD PROMISES THERE IS NOTHING GREATER TO SWEAR BY!
-Because there is no one and no thing that is greater than him.
-And that gives us a clue about the character of God.
-He doesn’t need to swear by anything. Because when God makes a promise he keeps it.
-When God makes a promise…people don’t say…“God, do you swear on a stack of Bibles?” He wrote the Bible.
-“Would you swear on your mother’s grave?” He was never born.
-“Would you pinky swear God?” People don’t pull things like that on God…because he’s God!
-No our author is trying to talk to these Jewish Christians about hopes and promises…and he brings up their favorite example.
-Abraham! God promised Abraham that’d he bless him.
-That he’d give him descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. That the whole world would be blessed through Abraham.
-Abraham probably didn’t fully understand what that meant.
-But we have the benefit of being able to look back on that and understand clearly.
-Abraham’s family was to be the family from which the Messiah came. His family was the family that Jesus Christ came from!
-And when God made that promise, Abraham believed God.
-He didn’t ask him to swear…he just waited.
15 Then Abraham waited patiently, and he received what God had promised.
-If you’ll remember Abraham waited quite a long time.
-God never gave a timeline 4 Abraham having many descendants
-God never spelled out exactly what that would look like.
-He just promised it. Abraham just believed it.
-Our passage says he “received” what had been promised.
-It happened just as God said that it would happen.
-Now Abraham didn’t have his son Isaac until he 100 years old.
-And Abraham certainly had moments of doubt...there is that whole Ishmael thing.
-But overall, Abraham waited, and when he waited he discovered something that many of us have discovered; we can put your hope in God, because GOD KEEPS HIS PROMISES.
-When we got the call to come to McMinnville and start Adventure there were a lot of details that had to fall into place.
-One of our big obstacles was selling our house.
-We were not in a financial position to buy or even rent in McMinnville, until our sold in Eugene.
-We put it up for sale in May and we were supposed to move to McMinnville on the first of September.
-But after 4 months we hadn’t had a single offer.
-And a weird thing happened. People that were close to us, people who were behind our call to be church planters…started to doubt. They’d say, “Do you think you should reconsider?”
-Someone asked, “Is this a sign from God not to go?”
-Someone else asked, “Do you think you made a mistake?”
-Those doubters caused me to think, and pray, because there was this one detail that was keeping me from doing what I felt like God had directed us to do.
-I was commuting from Eugene to McMinnville which made it very hard, we were trying to get Curtis started in school.
-And ultimately we waited for God to sell our house for 6 months.
-That seemed like an eternity….but one thing was clear at the end of those 6 months…God kept his promise.
-He moved us to McMinnville and we started this church.
-It didn’t happen like I expected it to happen.
-It didn’t happen like I wanted it to happen.
-But one of the things I’ve learned is that…
-WHEN GOD MAKES A PROMISE HE WON’T FAIL US ON THE MINOR DETAILS.
-Abraham didn’t have his first legitimate heir until he was 100 years old, and the many descendants didn’t come until after he had died.
-But God did what he had promised to do.
16 Now when people take an oath, they call on someone greater than themselves to hold them to it. And without any question that oath is binding.
-People make all kinds of promises.
-There are times when people promise things that they don’t keep, won’t keep, and sometimes can’t possibly keep.
-When you don’t keep promises people don’t trust you, they don’t believe in you.
-It’s important to be where you say you’ll be, do what you say you’ll do.
-If you can’t do what you say you’ll do…don’t say you’ll do it!
-There’s an old saying…“A man is only as good as his word!”
-You know who always swears? People whose word is no good.
-People who have ruined their reputation, haven’t kept their word…who can’t be trusted.
-Those are the people who feel the need to swear by something or someone.
-But God doesn’t need to swear, because his word is good.
-He always does what he says he’s going to do.
-So when he makes a promise, you can take it to the bank.
-Now in case you’re wondering what this passage about Abraham possibly has to do with you…let me tell you.
-Just like God made Abraham some promises, he’s made us promises too.
PROMISES WE CAN HOPE IN!
17 God also bound himself with an oath, so that those who received the promise could be perfectly sure that he would never change his mind. 18 So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie.
-God keeps his promises to us. And he has promised us a lot.
-Many of you have taken the Read the Bible in the year challenge have started to discover all the promises that God has made.
-There are so many, too many to go over for you today.
-But I wanted to give you a sample of some of these promises.
-Matt 28:20 He’ll be with us to the end of the age.
-Heb 13:5 “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.”
-John 16:3 God’s Spirit will guide us into truth.
-Rom 3:24 We are declared not guilty because of God’s grace.
-Rom 8:1 There is condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.
-Rom 8:28 All things work together for our good
-1 Cor 10:13 God won’t let us be tempted or tried beyond what he knows we can endure.
-Php 4:19 God will supply all our needs from his riches
-Jms 4:8 If we draw near to God, he will draw near to us.
-1 John 5:11 God has promised us eternal life.
-THERE ARE HUNDREDS OF PROMISES IN GOD’S WORD AND HE WILL KEEP EVERY ONE OF THEM.
-That means we can put our hope in God.
-The things that he has promised will come to pass.
-They may not happen when we want them to.
-They may not happen when we expect them to.
-But if God has said it…he will do it.
18b Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us.
OUR HOPE IN GOD IS A REFUGE.
-We are so tempted to put our hope in all these things I’ve already mentioned. All these worldly things.
-In crisis situations it so easy to put our hope in money, and people, and government, and our own ability.
-Often times our first instinct is to hope in all those things and our last instinct is to put our hope in God.
-Sometimes we act like God is our last resort!
-But all those earthly things, and even people, often let us down.
-As people of faith there is one person we should always put our trust in first and foremost…in God.
-He is our refuge. A refuge is a safe person/place you turn to in times of trouble. God is the refuge for Christians.
-When we were kids we had a bunch of neighbor kids and we had a huge backyard. And one of our favorite games was tag.
-But we couldn’t get my sisters to play unless we had a base.
-They were intimidated by my lighting speed.
-We would run around for hours, chasing, and whapping each other…you’re it!
-But whenever we got too tired, whenever we needed a break…
-Whenever you finally tagged someone else…you could step into that imaginary box.
-And no one could tag you inside that refuge place called “base.”
-That’s what our hope in God is for us; a refuge.
-So the next time you face a challenge, or a tough circumstance…
-The next time you face some real trouble….
-Could I suggest that your first response is to turn to God?
-Before you call your best friend. Before you check your savings account balance. Before you call the pastor. Before you take any action all….try turning to God.
-He may use those other things, in fact you could rightly say he’s given you all those other things.
-But he is our hope. In the OT people hoped for land, for prosperity, for safety from enemies, and for God to be their God.
-That was the frame of reference that these Hebrew Xians had.
-But our writer is reminding his NT what readers what we hope 4
-We hope for forgiveness of sins like they did in OT.
-We hope for the guidance and protection of God like they did.
-But we also hope for ultimate justice, ultimate victory and for ultimate salvation…we have the hope of eternal life in Jesus.
-Vs 18 says we have great confidence in what we hope for.
-We can trust God with our hope…because he delivers.
19 This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary. 20 Jesus has already gone in there for us. He has become our eternal High Priest in the order of Melchizedek.
-OUR HOPE IN GOD IS AN ANCHOR.
-If we really trust God for what he’s promised…it will affect us.
-It will change how we deal with things.
-God becomes an anchor for us.
-There is a great old Christian song called “The anchor holds.”
-I remember being anchored on the Columbia one time when my dad and I were sturgeon fishing.
-The wind was howling that day and our anchor came loose.
-That was a bad day. Our boat went down stream and hit another boat. Out boat was damaged, lost some gear, got hurt.
-Our anchor didn’t hold us!
-But the anchor of our soul will always hold.
-The winds of life blow, the tide might rise, the waves may crash against us…but our anchor holds. Our hope remains.
-People can betray us. Satan can attack us.
-We can fail. Others can fail us. Everything can turn against us.
-But our anchor holds. When everything had gone against Job he said something amazing:
-JOB 13:15, “GOD MIGHT KILL ME, BUT I HAVE NO OTHER HOPE.”
-Whatever he allows to come our way.
-However put out you might be over your circumstances…you have no better option.
-God is the one we hope in till the end.
-And if we cling to our hope till the end…we will see God’s promises will come to pass.
-We’ll see that our hopes were not in vain.
OUR HOPE IN GOD, COMES THROUGH JESUS.
-Only through Jesus.
