Christmas hope

Hope is many things to many people. Hope is a town in Arkansas, a woman’s name in our church and a feeling we get around Christmas concerning the present we most want. Hope is the first Sunday of Advent, part of our celebration of Christ’s birth. And, real Christmas hope comes in three packages, according to the Gospel of Luke 9:18-26:

Hope from the past

I hope that Jesus Christ has died and rose again for my sin and salvation. I confidently believe that this happened nearly 2,000 years ago. I stake, in the words of Isaac Watts, “my soul, my life, my all” in the person and work of Jesus Christ as described in this turning point passage in the Gospel of Luke. Jesus is the Messiah, the “Christ,” the Son of God and “Son of Man.” Fulfilling all prophecy, Jesus was the God-incarnate, virgin-born Savior come to

deliver God’s people from their worst enemies.

Only the worst enemies of God’s people were not the ancient Romans. The worst enemies of God’s people and all people are sin and death. Sin separates us from a holy and loving God. Death is the ensuing, final permanent estrangement from God. Jesus did something, in the past, to defeat them both, so in Him I put my ultimate hope.

Hope in the present

Hope in the gospel is absolutely free. So free, in fact, that most people take it for granted and leave it unclaimed. So how do we have hope, presently, that we really are saved by the free grace and full gospel of Jesus Christ? Ask yourself another question. Am I paying the cost of being a true follower of Jesus Christ? The gospel is free, but it costs everything you have.

Denial, death and discipleship are the costs for following Jesus. These things, according to Christ, must be paid in the present tense to enjoy assurance of one’s salvation. Your hope in the gospel is dependent upon the manner in which you are presently living your life.

Self-denial is waking up every day and realizing that you are not the most important person in the world. Jesus is. Serve Him by serving others. The cross equals crucifixion and resurrection. Christians must be born again because they died before they were. After we die, we live, for Christ, one day at a time. If you are doing God’s will by listening and obeying God’s word, you have every present hope that you are saved by grace and bound for a glorious future.

Hope in the future

To appreciate the future hope of Christians, though, we have to go back to the past of the Jews. They were right and wrong in their rejection of Jesus Christ. They were right to expect a Messiah who would conquer their earthly enemies, too, all of those who disparaged and persecuted and martyred them over the centuries. They were wrong, however, dead wrong to not see in Jesus the Messiah who would take care of their greatest needs first — forgiveness of sin and salvation from death — before coming a second time to crush enemies and rule the world.

So, the Jews in Jesus’ day were ashamed of Him. They scoffed at His preaching and teaching. They mocked Him as He hung naked on the cross. They disbelieved His resurrection. If you are ashamed to take your stand with Christ and His church, if you take lightly his work on the cross, if you profess to be a child of grace, but do not practice a life of worship and obedience, then you will not share in His salvation and glory.

Perhaps the greatest paradigm of hope ever put forth on the movie screen is Stephen King’s “The Shawshank Redemption,” a story of hope. A man hopes to be free. A man hopes his friend will be free, too. And, he hopes they can be free together in paradise.

This pictures our gospel hope. Christ is free from the death and tomb that held Him 2,000 years ago. I am now free from sin and death by grace through faith in Him. And one day, we will be free together, face to face, in a new heaven and earth. Put your past, present and future hope in the gospel of Jesus Christ!