We Have Hope

We Have Hope  2021 01 03

1 Timothy 1:1

“I hope someone will be nice to me, today.”

“I hope I can retire wealthy.”

“I hope the pandemic will go away in 2021.”

“I hope 2021 is going to be better than 2020!”

 

How about this one… “I hope I can go to heaven when I die…”

What is our hope?  What is your hope?  Is it really hope or is it wishful thinking?

 

Hope is defined as something real that you are waiting for.  What is it that you are waiting for?  Is your hope real?  Is it trustworthy?  Is it 100% sure?

 

1 Timothy 1:1

Paul’s hope was in Jesus Christ.  We have hope!  In whom or what is your hope?

 

  1. Paul
  2. Paul was called to be a missionary of the gospel of Jesus Christ
    1. (The Apostles were missionaries of the gospel)
    2. The gospel is the very power of salvation! Paul wrote, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” Romans 1:16 
    3. And what IS the gospel? The gospel is what saves you!  The gospel, or good news, is that Christ died for our sins as prophesied in the Old Testament, and that He was buried and rose again on the third day as prophesied in the Old Testament. Furthermore, He was seen alive by many reliable witnesses who were also witnesses of His death, including Peter, the eleven original apostles, five hundred more just in one place, James, all the apostles, then later, by Paul, himself.  1Corinthians 15:1 – 8
    4. Paul was absolutely sold out to the gospel because he knew it is the truth! “For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!”  1 Corinthians 9:16 
  3. Paul was called by the commandment of God our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ
    1. The coming of God the Son as a human being was prophesied in the Old Testament in Isaiah 9:6, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”
    2. God the Son is the mighty God our Saviour
    3. God the Son is the mighty God our Lord Jesus Christ
    4. This passage says that very clearly. Paul was called by the commandment of God (who is) our Saviour, and (who is our) Lord Jesus Christ.

 

  1. II. Our Hope
  1. God our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ IS the power of our hope.
    1. Where else do we find the reference to God our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ? “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13
    2. In Jesus Christ is our hope, our blessed hope. In Him is the thing we are waiting for, our blessed hope.

 

III. Hope Defined

  1. Hope means to expectantly wait for. “For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?” Romans 8:24
    1. Let’s read the whole passage to see what we are waiting for:  “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,  Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;  Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”  Titus 2:11 – 14
      1. The subject of the entire passage is, “the grace of God that bringeth salvation.” So “that blessed hope,” the object of our faith, is “the grace of God that bringeth salvation.”  What we are waiting for is the completion of our salvation!  “For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.”  Galatians 5:5   “For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel;” Colossians 1:5 This is our blessed hope!
      2. Our blessed hope is more than a thing (grace); this grace is found in Christ, through whom this grace comes by faith (Ephesians 2:8), by whom is the POWER to save, and by whose glorious appearing we know our salvation will be completed “in a moment, in the twinkling of the eye.” This is why Paul wrote, “God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope;” Our hope, this grace, our salvation, is in Jesus Christ.  Our blessed hope, our salvation, is complete at the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
  • We wait expectantly for our salvation to be complete (the blessed hope) and for the appearing of the one through whom that hope comes, “God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope;” The one is inseparable from the other, as the one only comes in the other. Without God our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ, there IS no salvation and there IS no hope!
  1. Without Jesus Christ, your hope is no hope at all, but wishful thinking, fables, doctrines of men, and creating your own hopeLESS reality!
    1. Creating your own reality IS hopeless, having no power of any kind. “What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing?  But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.” 1 Corinthians 10:19,20
    2. Without Jesus Christ, there is no hope! You are born, you get old, you die, you go to hell, hopeless, that is it!  Few will care and no one will remember you for long!  “As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.  For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.”  Psalms 103:15,16
    3. All other claims by other religions, beings, and powers have NO power to save; therefore they have NO hope. Whether a great leader, now dead in a tomb, an impressive figure of stone or wood, or powers and principalities of the air, such as angels, fairies, devils, wicca, ancient mysteries, and on and on goes the list, only the one almighty God has the power to rise from the dead and to raise you from the dead.  Only ONE man, who was both fully man and fully God, the God-man Jesus Christ, God the Son, was seen by hundreds of witnesses as he died on a cross, and was seen again by hundreds of witnesses alive after three days in the grave!

 

  1. The Bible says that all who put their faith in Him have everlasting life (John 3:16).
    1. The Bible says that even though they die, yet shall they live.
    2. The Bible says that to all who put their faith in Jesus Christ the Son of God, God gives them power to become sons of God! John 1:12  “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:”  again – 1John 3:1  “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.”
  2. Trust in HIM, God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope! Ours is not a powerless hope, but God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ is the power of our hope!  Trust Him, believe in Him, hope in Him.  Put all your faith in Him.
  3. Are you 100% sure that if you died right now, today, you would go to heaven? The Lord Jesus Christ, God our Saviour, has the power to make you become a child of God, and He guarantees 100% that if you are trusting in Him, right now, you already have everlasting life, which means it is a 100% certainty that you will go to heaven!
    1. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16  Guaranteed!  100% free!
    2. “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8  Jesus did it all for you!  It’s a gift!
  • “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” Romans 10:9  100% guaranteed.  If you have truly trusted Jesus Christ as your Saviour, it is a 100% certainty that you are going to heaven when you die.  There is power in hope when your hope is in God our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ!

 

 

Conclusion

1Peter 1:13 “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”  If Jesus Christ is your Saviour, today, then you can be 100% certain, right now, that your hope is powerful and true, and that you will go to heaven.  When your hope is in Jesus Christ, you can hope to the end with confidence because you have Hope, whether you live to be 100 or only 1 minute longer.  But if you are uncertain, at all, you need to get this settled right now, today, this very minute.  Do not wait another moment.  “…behold, now is the day of salvation.”  2 Corinthians 6:2  Tomorrow might not come.