Tag: hope

Hope Restored

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(Luke 24:13-35)

When is the last time you were disappointed that something didn’t turn out the way you had hoped? Was it something you initiated or coordinated, an event or small get-together that took a good amount of planning and purchasing to pull off, but for one reason or another, it fell short? Was it something that didn’t involve you at all in terms of planning, but was something you were looking forward to attending or participating in and it just missed the mark?

We can also experience a sense of hopelessness in other areas of life. How do you know when you’ve lost hope, when your situation seems hopeless? A recent devotion pointed to the word “never” as an indicator. When “never” makes its way into our thinking and speaking in one area of life or another, that’s when we’ve lost hope. “I’m never going to … get a job / get better / get married / get out of debt / change / etc.” When we use the word never, it’s an expression of a loss of hope in being able to see how things will change for the better. 

How we got to that point of losing hope (two reasons will be explored in this post) matters less than what we do once we’re there. Where do we go from that point? How is hope restored? Let Jesus shows us as he restores hope to two hopeless disciples on the first Easter. 

Jesus joined the two disciples as they were heading toward a village outside of Jerusalem called Emmaus. Though Jesus kept them from initially recognizing him, he wasn’t kept from recognizing something about them: they had lost hope. They were discussing all the things that had just happened in Jerusalem, and when Jesus asked for more clarification, “They stood still, their faces downcast.” (v.17). They were visibly dejected and downhearted!

They explained why. “Jesus of Nazareth… was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel” (v.19-21). While they didn’t use the word “never,” they might as well have! The natural conclusion they had drawn was that Jesus could never redeem them now. They had hoped he was going to be the one to redeem Israel, but since he had been sentenced to death and crucified, that was obviously never going to happen. That was their thinking. They had lost hope. They were at a dead end. They couldn’t see how a dead Jesus could redeem Israel. 

Somewhat ironic, isn’t it, given that it was by his death that he did just that – redeemed Israel, and all people? “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole’” (Galatians 3:13). The same event they presumed had kept Jesus from being able to redeem was the very act by which he carried out redemption. Jesus’ death was the payment he offered up to buy back – to redeem – souls otherwise condemned to hell because of sin.

The source of their hopelessness then – Jesus’ death – should in fact have been their source of hope! “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Peter 1:18-19). Nevertheless, rather than being filled with hope, their hearts were emptied of it.

The thinking of the Emmaus disciples illustrates two of the reasons we often lose hope. The first happens when we start with the wrong expectation on our end. Why were the disciples so disappointed? Why so let down? Why so hopeless? Because they started with a faulty expectation! Their expectation for redemption and God’s promise of deliverance was too narrow-focused and worldly.

Jewish history emphasized and celebrated how God had delivered – redeemed – his people from the earthly oppression of a worldly leader when God delivered the Israelites from Pharaoh’s slavery in Egypt. The remembrance of that event was so woven into their culture that their expectation came to be a similar deliverance from earthly oppression. They anticipated Jesus would be the modern-day Moses who would deliver them from Roman rule. Of course the Emmaus disciples would be hopelessly disappointed if that was the expectation they had of why Jesus had come! They started with the wrong expectation.

Isn’t that often the cause of our own hopelessness? We start off with the wrong expectation. For example, when we begin with the expectation that God’s greatest concern in our lives is our happiness, then we are disappointed when God allows something on our plate that doesn’t make us happy at all. Or, we end up sidestepping Scripture in pursuit of personal happiness. But your happiness isn’t God’s greatest concern in this life; your holiness is, which is why he sent Jesus to secure it.

Another wrong expectation that we can hold is the expectation that God grants believers special dispensation from suffering or hardship in life. As believers, we expect that God must give us a pass on such things. When life unravels then, we feel hopelessly let down by God. But it was our faulty expectation that was the cause. 

The second reason we often lose hope? We give up because of too low an expectation on God’s end. The two disciples made a point of explaining two things: 1) it had been three days since Jesus had died, and 2) multiple visitors had confirmed that there was no body in the tomb.

To us in the present day, who have the full benefit of all of the revelation of Scripture, three days and no body are simply more proof of the Resurrection. But to the disciples, as we can sense from the tone of their words, these realities didn’t make them more optimistic, but instead deflated them even more. We can interpret their reference to three days as an expectation that surely if God was going to do something, it would have happened within that timeframe, but as each day passed, it only became more hopeless.

And no body in the tomb? Well, without anyone actually laying eyes on Jesus, there was still no reason (outside of Scripture and a fully-grasping faith along with it!) to equate an empty tomb with a risen and alive Jesus. Instead of providing more clarity, it just added to the confusion and hopelessness. The disciples were ready to give up because of too low an expectation on God’s end. 

Again, we can relate. While there’s a good reason your financial advisor will remind you that past performance of an investment is no guarantee of future results, we do not need the same caution when it comes to God’s promises. In other words, we don’t have any reason to conclude that simply because God chose not to act in one way in the past, he will do the same in the future.

“The last time a loved one battled cancer, I prayed persistently that God would heal them. Since he didn’t, why should I pray for the same thing this time around?” “We have a record of all of God’s divine interventions in the Bible, but since he doesn’t seem to intervene that way in the lives of believers today, why bother expecting that he will?” Even though our faith may acknowledge that God can do this or that, our faith doesn’t take the next step in bold confidence that God will do this or that. So we give up because of too low an expectation on God’s end.  

Now what does God do for those without hope? Whether hopelessness stems from starting with the wrong expectation on our end or because we give up due to too low an expectation on God’s end, God has the same solution. He does for us exactly what he did to the hopeless disciples heading to Emmaus: he comes right alongside us in the midst of our hopelessness.

He does not wait for us to generate some internal hope first, to work in ourselves some semblance of optimism or positive thinking. No, he walks right up alongside us in the midst of our hopelessness to restore our hope.

Here’s what I love about Jesus’ encounter with the disciples. When all was said and done, as they reflected on the direct divine intervention they had with Jesus, what was it that stood out most? “They said to each other, ‘Weren’t our hearts burning within us while he was talking with us on the road and explaining the Scriptures to us?’” (v. 32). Their hearts were burning not just at being in Jesus’ presence, but in his “explaining the Scriptures” to them! That’s what fired them up! That was what churned a passion inside of them! It was a deeper understanding of the Word, as explained to them personally by the Word himself, Jesus!

The disciples eventually realized they were walking along the road with and in the presence of the risen Jesus! Jesus himself walked and talked with them, and they even ate a meal together with him, but what stood out most about their time with him was how much clearer he made the Bible for them! 

You know where I’m going with this, don’t you? We have the exact same Scriptures – and even more Scriptures than they had – accessible to us in more ways than anyone could ever have imagined it. Yet, when is the last time you’d describe your use of any of these opportunities to be in the Word as your heart burning within you? Has it been a while? Has it been… ever? What’s the deal? What’s wrong with us? What are we missing? Why are we consistently convincing ourselves that something else is a more valuable use of our time than being in the Word so that he can restore our hope through it?

After all, didn’t it seem like the Emmaus disciples’ hope was restored after Jesus opened the Scriptures to them? Luke tells us they got up and returned “at once” (v.33) to tell the others about their experience. They didn’t call it a night and decide to tell them in the morning. They couldn’t wait! Why? Their hope was restored.

Why shouldn’t you think God will do the same for you through his Word? The Bible is where the whole foundation of hope is laid out for us, one that is based on the assurance that our sins have been paid for and forgiven. We give Jesus every reason to address us as he did the Emmaus disciples: “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! (v.25).

But instead, he calls us heirs, children, chosen, treasured, beloved, saints, etc.! In the Bible, he lays out promise after promise that is about far more than just the heaven stuff waiting for us one day, but for the hopeless stuff we face on a daily basis in the meantime. When the world rips away our hope, the Word restores it. Jesus’ resurrection restores it. Hope isn’t dead because Jesus isn’t! “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:3-4). Our hope in Jesus is very much alive because Jesus is very much alive!

Hope for the Suffering

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(Romans 5:1-8)

Here we come across a verse that we would all do well to put into practice a little more often: “And we boast in the hope of the glory of God” (v.2). This is one of those Bible verses that certainly sounds spiritual and like one that we maybe ought to have displayed on some wall art in our home somewhere. But… sometimes we struggle to relate to what verses like this are actually saying.  

Paul doesn’t lack theological jargon in his letters. He uses words and terms that have deep spiritual significance. We have a hard time deciphering the spiritual verbiage and translating it into an understandable application for my life. So what is Paul saying here? I don’t think it’s twisting his words if we take them this way: we rejoice in the confidence of God’s “God-ness.” I know that last one is a made-up word, but we get it, don’t we? Paul is stating that we can find joy in knowing for certain that God is always going to show up, that he is always going to be doing the things that make him God. How do we know? That’s exactly what the “therefore” is there for in the first verse and following.

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand” (v.1-2). Pardon a little more theological jargon from Paul, but let’s restate simply what he is saying here, too: we have been declared not guilty of our sins because of all that Jesus did for us, and because we believe that, we have the perfectly peaceful relationship with God and live every second of our lives as the recipients of his fiercely devoted and limitless love. That is your reality right now and tomorrow and until God’s glorious return on the Last Day.

And since that is our reality, we find in it an unparalleled spiritual swagger that more than qualifies us not just to “get through” life, but to maximize our lives, to live them to the full, at all times… even when faced with suffering. 

You knew it was coming, didn’t you? If you looked at the title of this post or paid attention as you read through this section from Romans, you couldn’t miss the word suffering. Let’s go ahead and just acknowledge that that word wouldn’t make the top ten list of everybody’s favorite topics to talk about. And that’s OK. Neither Paul nor God ever says that suffering has to be our favorite. It is never implied that if you don’t get warm fuzzy feelings at the thought of suffering, you are somehow less spiritual or there’s something wrong with you. No, we don’t have to like it, but here’s the thing: we can learn to embrace suffering because of what God will do through it. 

I don’t imagine too many professional athletes relish the grueling hours spent disciplining their bodies in training and practice in the preseason and throughout the regular season. But those who have had the privilege of holding up the championship trophy at the end of the season would – and do! – go through all of it again year after year in pursuit of that end result. 

So it is with suffering in our lives. God doesn’t say you have to look forward to it or love it, but neither does he want us to shy away from it or to loathe it, because he guarantees that he’s always going to do good things in and for us through suffering.

No, we don’t necessarily need God to remove any inconvenient or difficult suffering in our lives; what we need instead is hope to endure it. And God provides that hope in two ways: 1) Hope is ours because of Jesus’ suffering, and 2) Hope is ours because of our suffering.

I. Hope is ours because of Jesus’ suffering

I wrote a moment ago that God guarantees that he’s always going to do good things in and for us through suffering. Could there be any better proof of that than looking to the crucifixion of Christ? It was the single greatest act of undeserved suffering ever experienced in the world, and through it, God brought the greatest good ever in the world: salvation for all people.

Paul delves into it more in the last part of these verses. “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (v. 6-8). Jesus’ suffering stands out so much not only because it was completely undeserved, but also because of those for whom he suffered, described in two ways in these verses: the “ungodly” and “sinners.”

Consider that the next time you try to smooth-talk your sin to someone else or give the “I’m not really sorry” apology. When we try to whitewash our sin, what are we really trying to convince ourselves and others of? Could it be that we’d like to pretend that maybe terms like “ungodly” and “sinners” ought to be reserved only for the really bad folks out there, but that they don’t really apply to us? 

We would like our sin to be like the one or two-day-old container of food in the fridge that may not smell 100% fresh, but it’s still good, still edible. Our sin isn’t like the stuff that got shoved to the back of the fridge for way too long that leaves no doubt about having spoiled once you take off the lid and the sight and smell trigger an instant gag reflex. Surely that’s not our sin. We want to think that our slightly less-than-fresh sin is not nearly as bad as the funky smell of other people’s sin. 

Realize that if we could hypothetically somehow make our sin appear less sinful, then there’s only one conclusion we could arrive at: Jesus didn’t come for us. We don’t need him. What a terrifying thought!

If Jesus didn’t come for us, then we are on our own, and if we’re on our own, though we might completely fool ourselves about our own perceived goodness, our fraud will be exposed for what it is on the last day when Satan eagerly presents his endless volumes of record books tracking our sins. God would have no choice at that point but to be the just God that he is and condemn any who thought they did nothing to deserve condemnation.

Because Jesus didn’t suffer for the slightly sinful. He didn’t die for the sometimes godly. He died for ungodly sinners.

And that alone is where the hope comes from which Paul refers to at the end of verse two. Hope because of Jesus’ suffering is only for the ungodly. It is only for sinners. We remind ourselves of that when we gather each week in worship by starting out the service confessing our sins – reminding ourselves of the ungodly sinners that we are on our own. 

But we do that for a purpose. Not to beat ourselves up or wallow in that guilt for an hour; rather, to set the tone for the hope that Jesus freely gives to ungodly sinners through the suffering of Jesus – hope that is applied to us as we are assured of the forgiveness of sins through the absolution. 

Now what does that hope have to do with your suffering? Everything, friends! Jesus’ suffering means that your suffering will come to an end, no matter what it is. Whether the cause of your suffering is financial, relational, health or work-related, or a direct consequence of your own sin – it doesn’t matter – it will end. But more importantly, the hope we have through Jesus’ suffering means always having something to look forward to. Always. Even chronic suffering is short-lived compared to the hope we have because of Jesus’ suffering, a hope that allows us to look forward to an eternity without any suffering. 

That’s well and good for the future, you might agree, but it may not seem to be all that helpful while we’re in the midst of the severe storms of suffering. That’s why Paul holds out even more hope to us. Hope isn’t just ours because of Jesus’ suffering, but 

II. Hope is ours because of our suffering

God wants to heap more hope on us. How does he do it? Through our suffering. Paul wrote, “Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;  perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (v.3-5). There’s that word glory again. What on earth does it mean for us to “glory” in our suffering? We might better understand what Paul is saying with the word “rejoice” instead of “glory.” In fact, a good number of very reliable Bible translations use the word “rejoice” here instead of “glory.” Although, you might still be wondering if Paul is off his rocker in encouraging us to rejoice in suffering!

But he is not, and he is not because he knows – from first-hand experience, mind you – that God masterfully makes suffering serve our greater good. Only God could do that! Only the God who brought the greatest good out of the greatest suffering of his Son could also use something like suffering to produce a better version of us. And that is exactly what he does. How? 

Look at Paul’s progression: suffering produces perseverance, which produces character, which results in even more hope. 

Let’s break that down, starting with perseverance. This one might be difficult for us to see, as we have a tendency to nostalgically remember our past as if we’re fondly remembering a greeting card, which allows us then to filter out a lot of the turmoil that actually we experienced. But if your memory wasn’t so dishonest with you, you’d actually recall some pretty significant seasons of suffering, some things that, when you were just starting to go through them, seemed insurmountable at the time. They appeared to be way too much for you as the suffering loomed, and you couldn’t see any way through them. 

But what happened? You got through it (or better, God got you through it!). I mean, here you are today. You (God!) persevered. And because you (God!) did, in your own mind, as more time goes by, you don’t even remember how dreadful it was at the time. God brought you through it and you persevered. And each time God does that, each time he pushes you to persevere, you grow. How do we know?

Character is the proof. Perhaps the best way to describe what Paul is pointing out here is that when you persevere through suffering, God changes you for the better. He uses it to shape you and chisel away the character flaws and faults and replace them with faithful fortitude and fearlessness. 

As a Christian, you are not the same Christian you used to be. God has changed you for the better and will keep doing so. Yes, he’ll continue to use suffering to accomplish that, but if he is ultimately building my character as a child of God through it, then bring it on! That will only serve me, serve others, and serve God’s kingdom better in the future. 

Realizing how God does all of that through our suffering adds even more hope. God doesn’t waste suffering. Read that again. God doesn’t waste suffering. He uses it to keep his promises and bring good out of every situation. When I have that confidence – and every one of us reading this can and should – then I have hope. 

You may think the answer to your suffering is for God to remove it. And sometimes that may very well be his solution since he also delights in doing that! But other times it won’t. Other times he will allow suffering to persist because he wants to fill you up with hope – hope that is yours through Jesus’ suffering and through the good that God will work in you through your own suffering. 

Hope for When Others Want to Mess You Up

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(Matthew 2:1-18)

It is one thing for us to find hope in the mess of things that are messy just because that’s a part of living in a messed up world with messed up people and plans. But what about when messed up people and messed up plans collide together specifically to mess us up? How do we handle it when we’re no longer in the realm of dealing with messy generalities but intentional efforts to mess us up? What do we do when it feels like we’re stuck in the real-life version of Home Alone, trying to fend off one attack after another from the bad guys? How do we find hope when others deliberately and intentionally desire to make our lives difficult, miserable, and unmanageable?

In the verses from Matthew today, Herod managed to take “malicious” to new heights. Not only did he seek to manipulate the magi and their honorable intentions of worshiping Jesus, but in his malice Herod intended to murder the Messiah, giving his insidious executive order to “kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under” (v.16). That’s messed up! How twisted and insecure does someone have to be to go to those lengths to destroy other people’s families and lives? 

For Joseph and his young family though, God directly intervened to disrupt Herod’s plans to mess up the Messiah. “When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. ‘Get up,’ he said, ‘take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.’ So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod” (v.13-15). That’s certainly one way to do it – for God to miraculously intervene and thwart the plotting and scheming of others to do harm! And we’re especially grateful he did in this case, particularly because it allowed his own plan of salvation through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection to be carried out for our benefit!

But how realistic is it to expect God to do the same for us? What if our story doesn’t involve an angel visiting us in a dream to guide us to the right solution? When we’re waiting for some “sign” from God to help or direct us when others are plotting and scheming against us and God seems distant or disinterested, what then?

We will come back to this. Before we do, we need to address what is most often the biggest challenge when it comes to others having it out for us. If we can learn to deal with this challenge, we’ll find that the vast majority of cases where others want to mess us up will suddenly start to subside. It’s not easy to do, and in fact many, many people refuse to ever deal with it, but it has the potential to make the biggest impact on others having it out for us. Do you want to know what the biggest difference maker is?

It’s not what; it’s who. And that who… is you. You are the biggest problem when it comes to others having it out for you, because you allow a different story to be told in your head that doesn’t match up with reality. You have a whole drama played out in your head – an entire novel or movie script, sometimes! – of what you think is going on… and more often than not, there is little to no truth to it. You allow yourself to fill in the unknown details of the narrative with your own interpretation, and frankly, what you’re telling yourself in your own mind is just not the least bit true. There is no basis for it, other than that you have chosen to tell yourself this thing or that thing, and so you believe it to be true. 

The coworker didn’t do that because she’s trying to ruin your life. Your neighbor didn’t say that to mean it in the way you took it. Your family member may enjoy getting under your skin once in a while, but he actually has other priorities in his own life than making yours miserable. There is no hater hell-bent on destroying you. There is no “universe” conspiring against you. This can be a tough pill to swallow, but – precious few other people are thinking about you as much as you are thinking about you. Sorry. You’re just not that important.

Why do we so quickly presume others have it out for us? Because we are sinfully bent toward playing the victim. “My problems are someone else’s fault.” “I deserve to be happy.” “Other people owe me something.” The key to solving this problem is to start realizing you’re the one causing it. Some of you will start to be in a far better place just by realizing this. Why? Because you get to put an end to it. You can choose to stop making up the drama in your head that is not reality in anyone else’s world but your own. You can start to realize, as Paul did in our Second Lesson today, that you aren’t actually a victim; you’re a victor in Christ. He wrote: “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:37). Think about it – this is actually much easier to fix than if someone else really does have it out for me because this I can control. How I handle it is up to me. I can play the victim, or I can realize that in Christ I am the victor.

So how do we know if we’re just guilty of playing the victim or if someone else really does want to mess us up? One way to keep this from happening is to review each word or action the other person took and see if there is any possible way we could reframe it, putting the best construction on it instead of the worst. When we do that we often end up coming to a rather rational explanation for the words or actions of others that didn’t actually have any ill intent at all! Or, simply talk to the other person about it. That, too, might clear up an awful lot. Or, share your concerns with a third person to provide an outside perspective if we’re misreading the situation. Any of these steps will likely reveal more often than not that someone else isn’t actually gunning for you at all.

But… what about when they legitimately are? I said we’d come back to it, so what about cases when someone legitimately wants to mess me up… like Herod in our text today? That was real devilish scheming! Purely evil intentions! How do we handle when the drama is real and not just imagined in our own minds? I’m going to give you three short-term first steps to take and three long-term steps that may take a little longer and be more of a challenge. 

Your first three short-term steps: 1) read, 2) pray, 3) share. Do you know what separates the good sports teams from the great ones on any level? It isn’t necessarily that they’ve got the best talent, although that certainly helps; it’s that they execute the basic fundamentals extremely well. Can we say that about theses three spiritual disciplines? Do we execute the fundamentals extremely well? Do we read the Word daily – are we dialed in to God devotionally as a non-negotiable every day? Or is it sporadic? Occasional? Sometimes? If I remember? Recall the bitter pill of realizing that no one else thinks about you as much as you do – that you’re just not that important? Well, there’s one exception: God. God thinks about you. Constantly. You are and always will be important to him. He lived and died for you to forgive you and claim you as his own. He rules everything for you. But if you’re not reading about his love and devotion for you daily in his Word, you forget about it, you doubt it, or you take it for granted. Read the Bible. Every day. 

And pray. When others are trying to mess you up, take it to God in prayer. In fact, combine these first two steps by praying through the Psalms – the psalm writers are rich with examples of others trying to mess them up and they then unload those burdens on God. Don’t just sing about taking everything to God in prayer; actually do it! Pour out your heart to him and confide in him. 

Then do the same with your brothers and sisters in Christ: share. When we enlist the help of our community of Christians, not only do we find more support to hold us up when attacked, but we can multiply the prayers being offered up on our behalf. We are reminded we aren’t alone. When we neglect to share with others it’s like choosing to take on Satan and his army alone instead of rallying our fellow soldiers to do battle with us. Share – with each other, with your elder, with me, so that we can be there for each other when others want to mess us up. 

In addition to these three short-term steps – read, pray, and share – here are three long-term steps that may take some more work: 1) run to God for rest and refuge, 2) love your enemy, 3) thank God for the good he’ll bring out of it.

Your ability to carry out this first one is going to be tied to the level of consistency in your devotional life. The more you read the Word, the better you get at resting in God. Give God the opportunity to be the rock and refuge he claims to be. When we are hard pressed and others are legitimately conspiring against us, aren’t those exactly the times it would make sense to find our refuge in the Lord? When else do we need refuge but from a threat or an attack? Seems like the perfect time to seek out the Lord’s promises of refuge, a refrain so common in the Psalms as if to almost be forgotten in its familiarity. When others are trying to mess us up, doesn’t God promise protection? Deliverance? So let us run to him first – not last. Not as a last resort only after we have exhausted every other possible solution we could imagine. Go to him first for refuge. He will put your problem in perspective. As he bends his ear to hear your worry and concern about others having it out for you, don’t be surprised when he reminds you of how harmless your enemy is compared to The Enemy, our adversary, Satan. When God then reminds you that he crushed Satan’s head by the death and resurrection of Jesus, wonder no more if he can also handle some temporary, earthly threat to your physical or emotional well-being. He has removed the greatest possible threat to you for time and eternity by his victory over the devil. Know then that there is not any human being who poses any sort of the same degree of threat in your life. Run to God for rest and refuge.

That will make the second step of loving your enemy easier to do. This one can be so easily overlooked. We get so focused on the one trying to mess us up that we forget he is the very person Jesus calls us to love. He is my enemy! God is actually giving me the opportunity to carry out what he calls me to do rather than what I want to do: fix it and put an end to it. Maybe what God wants instead is for you to grow in your ability to love your enemy, and that’s why he keeps allowing them in your life. In that way God wants to use you to bless your enemy – by loving him or her! How do you get better at this? Get better at the fundamentals – the first three steps – as well as the first step of resting in God, and you’ll find loving your enemy starts to come more easily. 

Finally, thank God on the front end for the good he’ll bring out on the back end of your trial. Recall Joseph’s – not the Joseph of our Lesson today, but Genesis Joseph – reflection upon being reunited with his brothers. He acknowledged their intent to harm him, to mess him up. But what carried more weight for him was that he knew God brought good out of it. He will for you, too. So don’t wait until it happens to thank him – start thanking him now, in the midst of the mess others are trying to make of your life. 

Read, pray, share, then as you are able, run to God for rest and refuge, love your enemy, and thank God for the good he’ll bring out of the trouble others try to cause in your life. May these steps help us to find a renewed joy this week as we celebrate the birth of Jesus, and how a gracious God either thwarted or used to his advantage every plot and scheme against his Son to allow him to save us from every mess, both now and for eternity.

Hope for Messed-up Plans

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(Matthew 1:18-24)

If we had to choose just one of the themes throughout this series as an appropriate caption for 2020, this morning’s might be it: the year of messed up plans. Back still near the beginning of the year in March, children had to adjust their plans to accommodate online learning from home while adults across the board learned to work from home. Remember being hit at Easter with the reality of not being able to worship in a sanctuary filled with lilies and flowers (maybe some with allergies didn’t miss it!)? High school and college graduation plans needed to be altered. Summer vacation plans changed. Back to school plans were up in the air until the last minute. Thanksgiving plans and Christmas plans, together with many time-honored traditions, have been tweaked or set aside. This is the year of messed-up plans!

Such messed-up plans can be like riding a rollercoaster. Some people love them, while others can’t stand them. Some of us may actually handle the unexpected ups and downs and roll with them quite capably, occasionally even finding them thrilling, appreciating the spice and spontaneity last-minute changes bring. But those same ups and downs make others nauseous and fill them with anxiety. Those who crave routine and structure and familiar schedules have really struggled with messed-up plans. But even this year has tested the limits of everyone, even those who typically handle messed-up plans effortlessly. 

Yet as hard as 2020 has been, we also have to acknowledge that sometimes messed-up plans are our own fault. Sometimes we fail to plan anything at all. We talk about what we hope will happen or what we want to happen but never set a single step toward completing any goals or plans. Other times our plans just flat-out stink. We plan poorly or don’t seek the counsel of others or of God. And sometimes we even go directly against God’s will when we know better, downplaying it as no big deal or justifying it in this case or that one. In these cases should we be shocked when a dumpster fire results? Of course not – the messed-up plans were our own fault!

But what about when plans were made – and made well! – and didn’t violate God’s will, and they still didn’t turn out the way we had hoped or expected? When this happens, we sometimes draw the wrong conclusion from it: that if it didn’t happen the way we thought it was supposed to, then it must not have been God’s will. We interpret a messed-up plan as a clear indicator that it somehow opposed God’s will. This or that didn’t happen, so we shake it off and tell ourselves and others that it wasn’t what God wanted, because otherwise, it would have worked out. Of course, we don’t draw the same conclusion when bad things happen to people, that God clearly must have wanted it to as part of his plan. But we have no problem applying that logic to when something good that we have planned doesn’t come to fruition – then God must not have wanted it to happen. 

Consider a current issue to help see how flawed it is to presume God’s will or plans on the basis of how ours play out. One Christian has been fervently praying for a vaccine to put an end to COVID, knowing that vaccines have been a blessing in many ways to help eradicate certain diseases in the past. Another Christian, however, who has researched the possible risks of vaccines, has been fervently praying for some solution that doesn’t require her to be vaccinated. Which one was correctly praying for God’s will? Do we wait until there is a clear-cut “winner” to determine which Christian was praying for the right plan of God and which one was praying for the wrong one? 

No – whether or not our plans play out as we had hoped is not the clear sign from God that a plan was or wasn’t aligned with his will. What we DO know about God’s will is clearly recorded for us in his Word; apart from his Word, though, it isn’t our place to try to determine his plans. One plan may work out and God may bless it accordingly; another plan may not work out and… he may still bless it accordingly! His plans are not dependent upon ours; rather, we’re much better off binding our plans to his. But what DO we know when it comes to plans? We know this: our failed plans don’t deter his faithful promises. The backstory of Jesus’ birth shows us that. 

How’s this for messed-up plans: planning to get married and finding out your bride-to-be is suddenly a mother-to-be as well, even though you know with 100% certainty (because you paid attention in biology class) there is no way you are the father? Welcome to Joseph’s world! Whatever plans he had for his dream life with Mary were suddenly out the door! And so, as messed-up plans require, Joseph adjusted his. “Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly” (v.19). He didn’t want to see Mary’s name dragged through the mud, but that didn’t mean he was going to be played for a fool and stay in that relationship, either. His plans were messed-up, so he made different ones. He may even have concluded that since Mary had gotten pregnant and he wasn’t the father, it must clearly have been God’s will for him not to follow through with his marriage plans.

But he would have been wrong. For just as soon as Joseph had in mind to change his messed-up plans, God had a way of changing Joseph’s mind. “But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (v.20-21). Suddenly it turned out plans weren’t as messed-up as he thought; rather, God had been involved in the planning process all along!

Stop there for a moment. Does that help us realize that when our plans go south, it doesn’t necessarily mean that God’s have? No, it could very well be that God’s plans involved your plans going south all along! Do you see that in the case of Joseph? Our failed plans don’t deter his faithful promises. How many times in your life has a plan fallen apart or something undesired and unexpected soured it like spoiled milk… only to see a greater good result from all of it in the end? Do you remember the stories around 9/11 of people missing flights or having to miss work that morning – wouldn’t those classify as messed-up plans? Yet, many of them are still alive today because of those messed-up plans! How many other stories like that, if even on a much smaller scale, have we experienced? Again, our failed plans don’t deter his faithful promises. 

When the disciples got wind of plans to put Jesus to death, they wanted none of it. What if they had succeeded in their plans? What if Peter’s mighty swing of his sword in Gethsemane the night before Jesus’ death had been enough to dissuade the enemies from capturing Jesus and later crucifying him? Thank goodness Peter’s plans were messed up – that allowed God’s plans not to be! His messed-up plans didn’t get in the way of God’s carefully measured-out plans.

In fact, God’s carefully measured-out plans have been taking place in the midst of our messed-up plans ever since the very first one! God didn’t need Adam & Eve to take a do-over and get it right the second time when they messed up in Eden. He revealed his plan right in the middle of the mess! When Abraham and Sarah hatched their Hagar plan to fast-track God’s promise, their mess of things didn’t derail God’s plan. Not even the nation of Israel’s waywardness and unbelief, resulting in their exile from the very birthplace where the Savior was to be born was enough to botch God’s plan from being carried out! He masterfully managed all the major players in foreign kingdoms to allow a remnant of Israelites to return to their land so that at just the right time, the Savior could be born. 

From Joseph’s perspective, everything was just a mess, but from God’s, it was just right. It was just right for God not only to direct his plans from behind the camera any longer, but to insert himself into the action as the drama unfolded. He ensured the plan could not fail by not only drawing it up and keeping it on track throughout history, but also by carrying it out personally, taking it on himself to complete his plan and cement our salvation. He used angel messengers, a trusting virgin, a devout husband, and himself to complete the plan. God himself played the key role, taking the plan from the manger to the cross, attaining the perfection we needed by his holy life, and paying the price for our sin by his undeserved death. And so he leaves us with hope in the mess, the reality of righteousness and the certainty of sins forgiven. 

God is right this very moment carrying out his plans in your life… even when your own plans are messed-up. He can work in a messed-up world, with messed-up people, lamenting messed-up plans. His plans don’t require our plans to work out; rather, we ought to rejoice that even when our plans don’t work out, his still do. And they will continue to until the final phase of his plan is carried out and Jesus returns. When that plan is finalized and followed through to its end, there will be no more mess. 

It’s going to be a different Christmas than anyone could have planned 12 months ago. But only in regard to our plans. Regarding God’s plans, his plans are still right on track. He delivered the goods on the first Christmas when Jesus arrived on the scene, and his plan is still being carried out as he works through his church – believers – to bring hope for everyone.

Hope for Messed-up People

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(Matthew 1:1-17)

One of the benefits of limited gatherings for Thanksgiving and in the weeks to come? You get out of inviting that awkward family member. Now I highly doubt any of you reading this fit that description of course, but we’ve all had the experience of squirming uncomfortably as the offensive uncle opens his mouth to say what everyone knew what was coming, but hoped wouldn’t. There’s the relative with no filter whose lack of social awareness astounds more and more every year. We’ve all had those experiences.

We can joke rather light-heartedly about those awkward family situations around the holidays, but for some of us, the messed up family dynamic goes much deeper than a few uncomfortable occasions at the dinner table. We come from broken homes, toxic relationships, shame-filled experiences, all of which have shaped who we are today and significantly impacted how we deal with our family. Abuse and alcoholism, desertion and death, neglect and narcotics, the list goes on. I’m talking about real trauma that still affects some of us today. These are not just movie subplots – this was childhood for some of us. There was no Leave it to Beaver romanticized, idyllic version of home & family growing up; dysfunction and disorder were the norm.

That can result in real shame and embarrassment regarding our families, and understandably so. There was no eagerness to bring home a date to meet mom or dad, but instead every effort to avoid any possible interaction at all. Being seen in public with certain family members was terrifying. Having to cover up or conceal the dysfunction from others brought stress and anxiety into many of the routine daily activities that other people just take for granted. Thoughts of family-time or being home for the holidays did not evoke warm, nostalgic feelings, but raised anxiety levels and involved thinking up plans to avoid any such occasions. Instead of the home and family being a place of safety and security, they were a source of shame and resentment.

This can all lead to two unfortunate extremes: one – I completely cut myself off from family. Anticipating the day you move out of the house and thinking about getting as far away from family as possible surely seems like a quick fix if family has equaled nothing but resentment and regret-filled relationships. Admittedly, there are occasions when that may even be the best option for a time, especially when abuse puts one at risk. Such a step may result in years or decades of having little to no contact with family. However, where real trauma or tragedy have taken place, it can be extremely challenging for the one who experienced it to process it in a healthy way without some sort of reconciliation or repentance from the offending party. So cutting our messed up families out of our lives may not be the best long-term solution.

A second extreme may be for the individual from a messed up family to start to identify the same way. “I come from a messed up family, which means I’m messed up, too.” When a person starts to identify in such ways, his or her own life can spiral into a tailspin of either self-destruction, or worse, perpetuating that same behavior onto others, including his or her own current family members. Then the cycle repeats itself. Sadly, this is a not at all uncommon result of broken homes. Hurt people hurt people, because their belief that they too are messed up is so strong that it validates any corresponding destructive behavior to self or others.

I acknowledge that this is not an easy topic to cover. It can be especially challenging because revisiting such messed up family history and trauma as some have experienced can run the risk of reopening those wounds all over again. But if the hope we speak of in Jesus is going to be more than just a seasonal buzz word or a theological concept, then we have to be very real about the hurts that hope can heal. That good news is wrapped up in today’s promise that Jesus brings hope for messed up people. That includes your messed-up family – past or present.

If you come from a messed up family, you’re in good company: so did Jesus. Matthew provides us with Jesus’ genealogy. Genealogies in Scripture raise a number of questions for us, and this is no different. There are questions about the significance of whose names were included and whose names were excluded, questions about why Matthew chose to divide the groupings up the way he did, and so on. But there is one rather obvious conclusion we can draw about Jesus’ family from this genealogy: his family was messed up! These were messed up people, including liars, deceivers, adulterers, idolaters, murderers, prostitutes, polygamists, and even flat-out unbelievers! So much for the sinless Son of God being able to claim a squeaky-clean lineage!

Tracing one’s lineage has become a very popular interest today. Many want to discover more about their family history and, thanks to DNA, we are able to trace back our ancestry and find out some pretty fascinating details about our families. While there is certainly satisfaction in just learning more about those details just for the sake of becoming more familiar with our roots and where we came from, don’t we also imagine how exhilarating it would be to find out we have some connection to royalty or fame somewhere in our past? Of course we would enjoy sharing those discoveries with others. But… what if instead you traced back your family history and discovered you came from a line of criminals and convicts and despicably awful people? How readily would you be broadcasting such a discovery to others? Yet such was the family line of Jesus!

So what does this say about the sinless Son of God?  What does this say about Jesus? He can relate. He came from messed-up people. Our real flesh-and-blood Savior descended from a real messed-up family. But there is a takeaway that matters far more than Jesus coming from messed up families; it’s that he came for messed up families. Had Jesus’ genealogy somehow been made up of perfectly righteous people (pretending of course, that such people could ever exist!), might we imagine those to be the types for whom he came? Might we question if he actually came into this world to have anything to do with the likes of my family or even me? But we can relate to a Savior who came from messed-up people to save messed-up people.

Because that means he came to save messed-up me. Paul embraced that in our Second Lesson today – his letter to Timothy. He didn’t have to hide who he was or pretend he was something he wasn’t. “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst” (1 Timothy 1:15). Paul makes a point that ought to resonate with each of us: I can own not only my messed-up family and a world filled with messed-up people, but even my own messed-up self, because then I fit the description of the exact types for whom Jesus came: sinners. If Jesus means hope for messed-up people, then count me in!

Since God doesn’t differentiate between the only slightly messed-up and the severely messed-up, I am included. You are included. We are all included. Though we can’t say with certainty why Matthew breaks down the genealogy listings the way he does, it appears to me there are three classes of people: family men (patriarchs), royalty, and no-names. What do they have in common? They’re all messed up! So if you’re expecting to find the model family headed by the model father-figure in Scripture, keep looking, because you won’t find it! You think you’ll have any better luck finding people who have it together because they’re royalty? You won’t find it among that list of kings! And the last list of those returning after the exile – who even recognizes those people? It’s a list of no-names! What do they all have in common?

Look at the name that matters more than all of them; the name listed at both the beginning as well as the end of the genealogical mess: the Messiah himself. If ever there was an appropriate time to say it, truly it is here: we put the “mess” in Messiah! Or rather, God placed the mess of our sin entirely on his Son, the one chosen to be the Sin-bearer of messed up people. Jesus didn’t run away from sinners during his life’s ministry but gravitated toward them with his gospel. Jesus didn’t run away from sinners in his death but died for them. Jesus didn’t rise from the dead to get away from sinners, but to ensure their resurrection for an eternity with him. 

So see the messed-up people of this world and the messed-up members of your family differently, the way Jesus sees messed-up you. See in them the very types of people Jesus came to save. They are the ones who are looking for hope when there doesn’t seem to be any because they’ve made such a mess of things. They see lives unraveled and the collateral damage that resulted from their selfish decisions and shameful actions, and conclude their is no hope for people like them. The mess is too great. 

Could you be the conduit of hope they need? Could you be the one to resuscitate them with the news that Jesus didn’t come for the know-it-alls or the have-it-alls or the goody-two-shoes; he came to be the Messiah of messed up people? He came to bring the gentle touch of his forgiveness to heal hurting homes, to reconcile ruined relationships, to fix-up fractured families. 

It may not be easy. In fact, it may be even more difficult when the messed-up people are the very ones who hurt you the most. But friends, the pain they caused you in the past isn’t greater than the hope you have in Christ in the present and future. That hope frees us from holding onto hurts, from bearing grudges, from withholding forgiveness. That hope works so powerfully in messed-up people like us, that it longs to be extended to everyone else, too. Is there someone in your life who this Christmas is in need of the greatest gift you could possibly ever extend to them – both for their benefit and yours? Could you unwrap for them this gift: Jesus provides hope for messed-up people? 

Hope in a Messed-up World

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(Matthew 24:1-14)

Won’t it be nice when this is all over? What exactly is “this,” you ask? Let me turn it around and ask you – what is “this?” Isn’t it a sign of our times of how messy our world is when we need to clarify what “this” is? There are so many things going on in our world today that we don’t know where to begin. 

The mess is so, well, messy, that it’s getting harder and harder to imagine it ever being cleaned up. And this is all taking its toll on us, as a number of people have expressed to me in recent weeks. The mess has gotten to us. Here’s why it has been so taxing on us all: we are so sick and tired about hearing how awful this year has been in so many different ways, yet we cannot escape it, because it impacts us daily in one way or another! We find ourselves on a daily basis weighing this concern against that one, feeling at peace with one decision only to have something pop up that leads us to question ourselves. As a preacher, I would love to be able to get through just one sermon without making any reference to how challenging this year has been, but if we are to see how God’s Word applies to our lives, then it’s going to apply to the messiness, too. 

But that doesn’t mean our focus has to be on the mess. Rather, over the course of this “Christmess” series, we’ll give our attention to the hope we have in the midst of this mess: hope in a messed up world, hope for messed up people, hope for messed up plans, and hope when others want to make your life a mess. So as we anticipate a Christmas that has the potential to be more messy than merry, as much as ever, let’s hold onto our hope in Christ.

You might not think of the verses from Matthew 24 as being all that fitting as we are looking ahead to Christmas. But, the season of Advent which begins today, isn’t just a dry-run for Christmas; instead, it gives us opportunity to reflect on Jesus’ coming in every sense of the word – including his second coming, when he returns not in a meager manger, but amidst trumpets and triumph. When will that day be? Jesus provides us with the clues in our verses from Matthew 24. 

Do you think your world is turned upside down right now? Try to imagine how devastating Jesus’ first words to his disciples in our verses would have been as he dropped his bombshell on Tuesday of Holy Week. “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down” (Mt. 24:2). Their lives centered around the Temple. It was everything in Jesus’ day. It was a breath-taking visual representation of the spiritual importance of God’s relationship with his people. Its stones were massive and magnificent. It had taken 46 years to rebuild. And to the disciples calling Jesus’ attention to it, he rocked their world by telling them the whole thing would crumble to pieces. Because Jesus’ disciples expected his rise to power to be an earthly one, and because they anticipate that event would happen simultaneously with the destruction of the temple, they asked for some indicators of when this all might happen.

What Jesus provided them with, however, are what the rest of the Bible makes clear to us are signs indicative of his Second Coming on the Last Day. And, assuming you have any familiarity with the Bible and these signs, it’s no spoiler alert to point out that they all have already taken place and continue to take place. The danger for us today is not questioning the signs, but perhaps becoming too used to them. We have seen and still see false prophets. We have seen and still see wars and the threats of war. We have seen and still see natural disasters. We have seen and still see Christians martyred. We have seen and still see – and perhaps are in the midst of – many falling away from the Christian faith. We have seen and still see wickedness on the rise while love is reduced. It’s all there and it’s all been there, so one danger for us is treating it like the boy who cried wolf and dismissing the signs, possibly to our peril. 

There is another danger, a trap we must guard against as well. Contrary to what we might think, Jesus doesn’t point out these warnings to provide us with a “honey-do” list. It isn’t so that we can try to figure out how to fix all the broken things he’s pointed out. Consider an example from marriage. There is a common communication break down in a marriage that reveals a struggle typically more common for husbands. We struggle with listening. That doesn’t mean we aren’t listening, but the problem arises when we want to do more than just listen. When our wives are sharing a particular frustration or a struggle, we’re listening… so that we can figure out a solution. We are listening to gather just enough information to allow us to determine how to fix the frustration. While that can at times be helpful, as often as not, wives aren’t looking for a fix as much as they are just looking to be heard. So she sees the conversation itself as an opportunity to connect, while he is presuming she’s sharing to find a solution so that he can fix the problem.

Let me state this very clearly: Jesus is not providing these signs so that we can identify what needs to be fixed before he returns. He wasn’t pointing out problems to his disciples so they could put their collective heads together to figure out a ten-step process to remedy all that was wrong. He didn’t record these signs in the Gospels so that we’d know which problems still need attention before he could return. 

No, these signs are not failures for us to fix; they are warnings for us to watch. If we confuse that simple point, we put ourselves at risk. We can have a very unhealthy attachment to this world, as if God’s purpose for placing us here was to solve the puzzle or crack the code. It is too easy for us to think that if we can just do that, then we can make things right and make this world livable and maybe even lovable. We just need to fix what’s wrong or make it more like the old days when things were better, as each and every generation has always arrogantly assumed. While this clearly shows that we know something is wrong with this world in general, we are in the wrong when we presume it is our place to fix it. 

Ask yourself this: are you too busy trying to work Jesus out of a job? Because at the end of the day, if we could hypothetically put an end to abortion, world hunger, social injustice, climate change, etc. we’d eventually fix up everything so that there’s nothing left for Jesus to redeem. We won’t need him. We’ll have fixed everything and he won’t need to bother to return to usher in a new heaven and earth – we’ll have already established it on our own! 

Is that what we’re hoping for? Is it possible that our lamenting over how broken this world is may indicate that our hearts are a little too attached to it? Jesus clearly told us all that we should expect in these end times, so why are we disappointed that his words are proving to be true? When we point out what’s wrong and how things aren’t as they should be, aren’t we actually taking issue with Jesus’ words in these verses? He said things would be messy – why are we so let down and surprised that they are!?!? Do we suppose we know better than he does where the world is and what it needs most?

Friends, this world is not some fixer-upper that we can turn around and flip for a profit. No, it is broken beyond our ability to repair it. And in fact, Jesus never asks us to; rather, he calls us to stand firmly in the mess until he returns. “The one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (v.13-14). We need to stop trying to fix what’s broken in the world, and start standing firmly in the One who fixed what was broken in us. Instead of longing for a better world here and now, take comfort in knowing that Jesus is coming back into this broken world to claim those he has fixed. He already came once to rescue and repair us, not in the way his disciples had first imagined, but with something far superior: the ransom price needed to buy us back. In fact, by the end of the same week of the gloomy end times predictions, on Good Friday, Jesus’ blood would pour the very foundation on which we stand. On that we stand firm until the end. On that hope alone we will be saved.

The good news gets better. Jesus promised that hope would be proclaimed to the ends of the earth before he returned. We don’t have to worry about anyone on the planet missing out on the hope Jesus came to bring. All have had and still will have the opportunity to hear of and believe in the events that took place later that week on Good Friday and that Sunday when the Messiah cleaned up this world’s mess by his glorious resurrection. 

What is left? “Then the end will come” (v.14). And this will not be a bitter end, but a better one – like the end of birth pains when the child arrives. Like the end of a migraine when it all clears up and relief follows. It will be the best ending imaginable. Hope will be fully realized and the mess completely cleaned up. Brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus doesn’t need us to fix what’s wrong in this world – just make sure we don’t cling to it. Cling to Christ alone. When we do that, we no longer need to ask the question, but can rather boldly declare to each other, “Won’t it be nice when this is all over!!!”