“What the Heck is Hope?

”
June 10, 2007
by John Partridge

Scripture: Job 13:15 Psalms 33:16-19 1 Corinthians 15:12-20 1 Peter 3:15-16

From the beginning, I knew that there would be questions about last week’s message on the trinity and I was
right. I was also right in assuming that hardly anyone would ask me the questions that they had. I did,
however, get a call in the afternoon that described one of the questions that was asked during Sunday school at
Johnsville. I am not certain what exactly was asked, but what became clear to me was that I had assumed
more about what you all knew than I should have and that we needed to back up and do a better job. In
particular, the conversation made it plain that I had assumed everyone knew what “hope,” meant but I had
never taken the time to adequately explain it; that’s my fault.

I’m not going to identify who asked the question last week both because I don’t know and because it isn’t
important. In fact, I want to thank whomever it was for being honest enough to ask the question. I would be
willing to bet that if one person was honest enough to ask, then there were at least ten others who were
thinking about it and more who would have wondered about it later in the week.

We talk about hope a lot both in and out of church. Last week I read Paul’s words from Romans 5…
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Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
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through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the
hope of the glory of God. 3Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering
produces perseverance; 4perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5And hope does not disappoint us,
because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

We often make note of well known verses such as 1 Peter 3, which says, 15But in your hearts set apart Christ
as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that
you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak
maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.

But what does that mean?

I looked up hope in the computerized version of the Bible and found more than 150 references to hope and I
found what I knew that I’d find. There are at least two distinct definitions of hope used in scripture. I didn’t
dig deeply enough to see if there is more than one Greek or Hebrew word that are all translated as “hope,” but
just by reading through the list of references, it was obvious that the word hope is used in radically different
ways. There is no way I could use all of the references that I looked at, but for your benefit I made a list of a
few of these references so you may look at them later.

In our everyday lives, we use the word hope a lot. We hope that the Cavaliers will win the NBA
championship. We hope that there will be something good for dinner. We hope that someone will remember
our birthday. In everyday use, we can practically erase “hope” from our sentences, replace it with the word
“wish” and the meaning would be almost exactly the same. This usage is also found in scripture. In many of
Paul’s letters he mentions that he hopes to visit someone, or that he hopes his friends will understand. There
is also another use that is slightly different but is also a common way in which use the word “hope.” Paul
uses “hope” as an opposite of “hopeless,” simply that in order not to despair of life and death and everything
else, that human beings require hope. That is getting closer to the third meaning but is still not quite there.

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Let’s back up again and begin where good beginnings are often found, in the Old Testament. We first hear of
hope from Job who says, “15Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him… (Job 13). Clearly that seems to be
more than just wishful thinking. In the Psalms, as in many places in the Old Testament, the writers often used
parallel phrasing where for emphasis, they would write the same phrase two times using slightly different
wording but with the same of nearly the same meaning. In Psalm 25 we find these words…
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in you I trust, O my God. Do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me.
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No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame,
but they will be put to shame who are treacherous without excuse.

We see here that the writer draws several parallels, he says, “Do not let me be put to shame,” but then prays
that God would put his enemies to shame. The Psalm writer also says, “In you I trust,” and parallels this
thought by saying “No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame.” In this way the Psalm writer is
defining hope not as something close to wishing, but almost equal to trusting.

Now listen to these words found in Psalm 33…

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No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength.
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A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save.
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But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love,
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to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.

20 We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield.
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In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name.
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May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD, even as we put our hope in you.

The psalm writer tells us that hope in armies, or strength, or horses is a vain and futile hope, but hope in an
unfailing God is something altogether different. God is our help and shield, God’s eyes are upon us, and
God’s love for us never fails. Again, we see hope in God described as trust in God.

Isaiah takes this a step further still. Isaiah tells us that hope in God not only comes from trust in God, but that
hope in God itself causes things to happen.
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Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;
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but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint. (Isaiah 40)

What’s more, in Isaiah 49 God himself declares a great promise…

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This is what the Sovereign LORD says:
"See, I will beckon to the Gentiles, I will lift up my banner to the peoples;
they will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their shoulders.
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Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers.
They will bow down before you with their faces to the ground; they will lick the dust at your feet.
Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who hope in me will not be disappointed."

Is that not an amazing promise? “Those who hope in me will not be disappointed.”

Several times, Jeremiah uses the name “Hope of Israel” as a name for God. Also in the book of Jeremiah,
God himself makes this promise to his people…
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For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans
to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to
you. (Jeremiah 29)

From this we see that this kind of hope is something more than a wish or something fragile that can be easily
broken. Here we see that this kind of hope is a gift from God himself.

Let’s move now to the New Testament where hope continues to take on new meaning. Matthew says…
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A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out,
till he leads justice to victory.
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In his name the nations will put their hope." (Matthew 12)

Not only is the name of Jesus something that is powerful enough for entire nations to place their hope, but it is
tender and gentle. Have you ever been around reeds? They are a thin walled plant that is hollow in the center.
When they are damaged they just collapse, but Matthew says even when a reed is bruised, Jesus is tender
enough not to break it, even when a candle wick is drowning in its own wax and can be extinguished by the
slightest movement of air, even then Jesus will preserve that tiny spark of flame until he leads his people to
justice and victory.

In Acts 23, Paul says that he is standing trial because of his “hope in the resurrection of the dead. (v. 6)” Paul
calls this “hope” even though everything that he has ever learned or studied as a Pharisee tells him that the
resurrection of the dead is true. What’s more, Paul personally met the risen Lord Jesus on the road to
Damascus. Paul hopes in the resurrection of the dead with both knowledge and rock hard evidence and
personal experience to back it up. Later in Acts, Paul tells those judging him that “It is because of the hope of
Israel that I am bound with this chain (Acts 28:20).” Jeremiah used the name “Hope of Israel” as a name for
God but here Paul is in a room full of Jews who are accusing him of division. Here we see Paul defining the
hope of Israel no longer generally as God, but specifically as Jesus Christ. For Paul, Jesus is the “Hope of
Israel.”

Later, Paul reminds the church in Rome (Romans 4) about the faith of Abraham. Abraham had hope that God
would give him children even after there was no hope, even after he was over a hundred years old and his
wife was far too old to have children. Paul declares that for Abraham, hope and faith were inseparable. I also
want to go back to Romans chapter five that we read last week. In that passage we read, “…we also rejoice in
our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4perseverance, character; and
character, hope.” (Romans 5:3) Hope comes from character, character comes from perseverance,
perseverance comes from suffering, and so our hope is a product of our suffering. In this way we see that our
hope is not something that we arrived at lightly or without difficulty, but was won through our hard fought
battles. Our hope in Jesus Christ comes to us because of the character that we built by hanging on to the
promises of God and persevering through our suffering. Hope is a hard won possession.

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Paul expands the meaning of hope once more in his letter to the Corinthians…
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For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17And if Christ has not been raised,
your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19If
only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.
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But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. (1
Corinthians 15)

Jesus is hope, Jesus is our hope in this life, but he is something far more than that as well. Paul says that if we
only have hope in Christ for this lifetime then “we are to be pitied more than all men.” Paul teaches us that
since Jesus has indeed been raised from the dead that we must also one day rise from the dead. Our hope in
Christ is not just for this lifetime but also for all time and for all eternity.

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews encourages us to “hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he
who promised is faithful.” (Hebrews 10) Furthermore, we are reminded that it is impossible for God to lie, so
that “19We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.” (Hebrews 6)

Peter says that God in his great mercy “has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead, 4and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for
you, 5who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be
revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1)

Be assured my friends that the hope that we refer to in church is something far more, and far better, than the
way in which we hope for a good dessert after supper. If your father was a world renown pastry chef and had
never, ever created anything that was less than absolutely wonderful, and if your father had this very morning
promised you something better for dessert than you had ever tasted, then perhaps you might get just a tiny
idea of how we understand our hope when you hope for a good dessert.

Jesus Christ is the hope of the world.

God has promised that those who hope in him “will not be disappointed.”

It is impossible for God to lie.

God has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Let us “hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.”

Our hope is an anchor, “firm and secure.”

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 You have been reading a message presented at Johnsville Grace and Steam Corners United Methodist Churches on the date
noted at the top of the first page. Rev. John Partridge is the pastor of the Johnsville Parish. Duplication of this message is a
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