“Advent: HOPE” (Romans 15:3-4, 8-13) | 12/8/19
Romans 15:3-4, 8-13 | 12/8/19 | Will DuVal
This morning we’re celebrating the SECOND Sunday of Advent – Advent means “coming”, as in, the COMING birth of our Savior, Jesus, whose Incarnation we anticipate together each year, during these 4 Sundays of Advent leading up to Christmas. And this morning’s Advent THEME is “HOPE”. Hope is undoubtedly one of the most powerful words in the entire English language. As Andy Dufresne put it, “hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.” If you HAVEN’T seen The Shawshank Redemption yet, you need to. Dufresne is wrongfully convicted of murdering his wife, and sentenced to life in prison, and I don’t wanna ruin the ending for you, so I’ll let his best friend Morgan Freeman do it; he narrates: “Andy came to Shawshank Prison in early 1947... And in 1966, [19 years later] he escaped. All they found of him was a muddy set of prison clothes, a bar of soap, and an old rock hammer, worn down to the nub. I remember thinking it would take a man six hundred years to tunnel through the wall with it. Old Andy did it in less than twenty... In prison a man will do most anything to keep his mind occupied. Turns out Andy’s favorite hobby was totin’ his wall out into the exercise yard, a handful at a time.”
Andy escaped Shawshank by refusing to let his HOPE die. Perhaps you’ve heard interviews with survivors of the Holocaust, who recall that the single most decisive, determining factor of who persevered and was eventually liberated from the concentration camps, vs. those who didn’t make it out, was whether or not they kept HOPE alive: did they lose their will to live, and give up; or did they continue to believe, against all odds, in the HOPE of freedom.
This morning, I want to ask you a very simple, yet profound question, maybe the most important question you’ll ever be asked in your life; and that is this: “What is YOUR hope?” Where is your hope? Where do you find, where do you PLACE, your hope?
The main idea, the GOAL, of this message, is to get us to see that:
We have hope in Christ.
We have hope in Christ. In fact, we ONLY have hope, in Christ. Friends, our only hope, in life and in death, is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Let me try and PROVE it to you, this morning. Let’s play a game. Let’s play “Finish this sentence”, okay? I’m gonna start a phrase, and you finish it, got it? I want you to say it OUT LOUD, the first thing that comes to mind, okay; we’re ALL gonna do it, so don’t be shy, ready? Finish this sentence:
“I really hope that...”
Okay, what did you come up with? Shout out some of your answers...
Here are a few others I came up with this week. I was trying to GUESS some of the answers y’all might give. The HONEST answers, the uncensored ones, if a non-pastor had asked you the question OUTSIDE of church, maybe: ☺
-
I really hope that President Trump gets impeached.
OR, I really hope that he gets re-elected in 2020.
I really hope that my family get snowed in and can’t make it for Christmas this year. [Anyone? ☺ ]
I really hope my husband will help out around the house this afternoon instead of watching the football games.
I really hope my wife likes the Peloton I got her for Christmas. [Don’t do it, brother! ☺]
I hope my kids take a nap today, so I can take one.
I hope the Blues repeat their Stanley Cup victory in 2020.
I hope I get a Christmas bonus this year.
I really hope he’ll get on with the sermon so we’re not here until NOON again this week. ☺
Now, here’s how I know that our ONLY hope is in Christ Jesus – because ALL those other hopes will ultimately fail you.
[their examples...]
If your hope is in POLITICS, where do you turn when your candidate DOESN’T get elected?
If your hope is in your FAMILY, your spouse, your kids... anyone NEVER been let down, by your family? Anyone’s spouse batting a 1,000? Anyone’s KIDS? I know, I’m hilarious, right. But how many parents these days, place so much of their HOPE, in unfair, soul-CRUSHING ways, on their kids? If your 3-year old, sinful child is your Messiah, don’t be surprised when you feel hope-LESS. And when he implodes, under the weight of that burden you’re putting on him.
Your sports team CANNOT win every game, every championship.
If you live long enough, you WILL one day lose your job.
You can’t take your money with you when you die.
And don’t ever bet on my sermons being short.
Everything you hope for in this world, not only CAN, but eventually one day WILL fail you... except for Jesus. That’s why HOPE is the most powerful apologetic there is for the Christian worldview today. When we asked on the 2020 church survey – “What kinds of topics would you be interested in studying in the new year?” – many of you said “Apologetics & Evangelism”; I want help sharing my faith. Well I’ll give you the 10-second CRASH COURSE right now: just ask an unbeliever “Where’s your HOPE?”, then help them see that any answer they offer OTHER than Jesus will ultimately let them down.
Brothers and sisters, we have hope. Blessed hope. In our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And in our passage for this morning, from Romans 15, the apostle Paul is going to outline FIVE REASONS we can hope in Christ. So would you stand with me as you’re able, for the reading of God’s word; Romans 15, vv3-4 and then vv8-13. I’m reading from the ESV, if you’re following along in your Bibles, or on the screen in front:
SCRIPTURE:
“For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.” 4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope...
For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, 9 and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, “Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles,
and sing to your name.” 10 And again it is said,
“Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.” 11 And again,
“Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles,
and let all the peoples extol him.” 12 And again Isaiah says,
“The root of Jesse will come,
even he who arises to rule the Gentiles; in him will the Gentiles hope.”
13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”
This is the word of the Lord... Let’s pray...
#1 - The first reason we can hope in Christ is because We have hope in his SALVATION. (v3)
Now, the context of ch.15 here, is that Paul is writing to the church in Rome, who were struggling to remain unified in selfless Christian love, so Paul exhorts them in vv1-2: Don’t seek to please YOURSELF; rather “Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.” Because as he reminds them in v3, “For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.”” Paul says, ‘Of ALL people, JESUS, the perfect, sinless Son of God, had EVERY excuse to seek his OWN happiness during his lifetime. To look around at the broken, sinful people surrounding him on every side and say, “Sorry suckers; I gotta look out for MYSELF”. But as we heard Jesus remind his disciples time and time again, in our study through Mark’s Gospel this past year, “even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (10:45)
And Christ’s life-giving ransom, his payment, of the spiritual debt that you and I rightfully owed God by virtue of our sin, was not only the greatest example of selfless service the world has ever known, it is the ultimate FOUNDATION and BEDROCK of our hope, our ETERNAL hope, IN Christ. It is the hope of the GOSPEL, the good news of JESUS, and the salvation he offers us. As Paul puts it ELSEWHERE in Romans, ch.3: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” You want help sharing your faith? It’s really quite simple. If you can remember 4 short phrases, you can share the gospel with anyone. And really you don’t even have to remember them; they’re all right here in Romans 3:23-25.
God is holy. He’s perfect. v23: the GLORY of God. He is GLORIOUS. Psalm 145:3, He is worthy of ALL praise. And YET...
We are sinful. “All have SINNED, and fallen short of the glory of God.” God created us to bring Him glory, but in our SIN, our selfishness, our self-servingness, our desire to be gods unto OURSELVES, we have fallen short of our created purpose and our God-given mandate to bring glory to God alone, and the WAGES of our sin, Romans 6:23, what it rightfully EARNS us, is DEATH. Eternal death, and separation from God. And YET...
Jesus is Sacrifice. v24: we “are justified by God’s grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus”. How? How did Jesus REDEEM us, BUY us back, from sin and Hell and Death and SATAN, the enemy, the god of this world, who had legal right to our SOULS, by virtue of our sinful rejection of God?
v25: “God put [Jesus] forward as a propitiation by his blood.” Propitiation means “the act of appeasing someone’s wrath”. Whose wrath?
GOD’S wrath. Romans 1:18 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men”. God, in his holiness, rightfully HATES our sin. But Jesus propitiates, he appeases, he SATISFIES God’s righteous anger... HOW?
3:25 “by his BLOOD”. His BLOOD?! Why?
Because Hebrews 9:22 “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” What? Why? You’re getting into some really Old Testament, barbaric stuff now; can’t enlightened, modern people believe in the good news of Jesus without getting into all the BLOOD stuff?
NO. We can’t. Scripture is perfectly clear: “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” What can wash away my sins? [Nothing but the blood of Jesus] WHY??
Leviticus 17:11 “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.” You and I owe God our LIVES, our whole hearts, minds, souls, and strength, ALL of us. But we consistently offer Him LESS than that, on a daily basis. So in the OT, God devised a system of ATONING for, of paying for, this “life-debt” we’ve incurred, the gap between the life we owe Him and the life we GIVE Him. ON the altar, WITH the blood. Of animals; THEIR life, in YOUR place. We call it “substitutionary atonement”. But Israel proved in the OT that the problem with the sacrificial system is that there aren’t enough bulls and goats in the WORLD to cover over and make up for all our sinfulness. We are SO thoroughly screwed up. So God sent one more sacrifice. A once-and-for-all-TIME sacrifice. Hebrews 9:25-26 “The high priest repeatedly entered the holy places every year with blood not his own... But [Christ] has appeared once for all... to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”
So what, that’s it? You’re telling me Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe; I don’t have to do ANYTHING to EARN my own salvation? Yes and No.
Faith is Required. You have to surrender. STOP trying to earn your salvation. If you count STOPPING as “doing something,” then yes, you’ve gotta do something. Mark 1:15 – “Repent and believe”. Confess that you’re a sinner in need of a savior, and believe that Jesus is that Savior. Back to Romans 3:24-25, we “are justified freely by his grace as a gift” which must be “received by faith”. The greatest gift in the world still has to be opened. This “gift” analogy is apropos with Christmas around the corner – can you imagine getting the biggest, presumably greatest present you’ve ever seen in your LIFE under the tree, and REFUSING to open it. You drag it, still wrapped, back to your closet. Open the closet door once a week, on Sunday, for an hour, and admire it. You even join a club, where you get together with OTHERS for an additional two hours every Wednesday night, to all talk about how great the gift is. But you’ve NEVER even opened it. Friends, you can understand the truth of the gospel in your mind but FAIL in your heart to put your faith, your trust, your HOPE... that’s what we’re talking about this morning, putting your HOPE in Jesus.
The one who bore all our sin, our guilt, our shame; our REPROACH: ““The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.”” Paul quotes the messianic prophecy from Psalm 69:9 there. Reproach is defined as “blame or criticism conveyed in disapproval”. That goes to the ROOT of sin, doesn’t it? Eve disapproved of God’s prohibition against eating the apple. And then when God confronted Adam about it, what did he do? He BLAMED God! The woman, who you gave to me, told me to eat it. Sin is basically just telling God our way is better than his. Reproaching him. And yet, Paul tells us in v3 here that our reproach rightfully earns us GOD’S reproach, HIS confronting US about our sin, and yet what does He do instead? Perfect mercy AND perfect justice, held together on the cross: he made a way for the reproach that was owed you and me, to fall on Jesus instead.
Friend, if you will but call on the name of Jesus this morning, repent of your sin and trust in his precious blood, shed for you, for the forgiveness of your sins, YOU WILL BE SAVED. You can have HOPE in Christ’s salvation today.
#2 - We have hope in Christ’s WORD. v4: “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”
Now THAT is a SHOCKING statement. Paul just claimed that WHATEVER was written, “in former days”, he’s talking about the Old Testament, “through the encouragement of the SCRIPTURES, he says”; the NT is still being written; Paul is actually doing that presently; Scripture for him was the OT. He claims that EVERYTHING written, from Genesis to Malachi, was written for our instruction... that we might have HOPE.” It was written to TEACH us to be HOPEFUL.
Now, if that doesn’t blow your mind, you have never read the Old Testament! In our Leader-in-Training groups here at the church, we just got done reading through the NT together this past year, and in January we’ll start the OT. Here is Paul’s litmus test, for whether or not you are accurately understanding ANY passage of the Old Testament: does it increase your HOPE? The NINE ENTIRE chapters worth of genealogies that begin the book of 1 Chronicles: do they give you hope? The LAMENTS, of Lamentations, of ONE-THIRD of the Psalms, of all SIXTEEN of the prophets – they’re all just MOURNING Israel’s sin, warning of her imminent judgment and destruction... do they bring you HOPE? Paul says, “they SHOULD; that’s what they were WRITTEN for!”
I cited Leviticus earlier; I will tell you, there are few more HOPE-giving books of the Bible for me, when rightly understood, than Leviticus. When you begin to GRASP, the magnitude of your sin, because you read what USED to have to happen, in order to bring a person back into right relationship with God, after they had sinned, and you just imagine how many animals you and I would still be SLAUGHERING today, on a daily basis, just to be able to maintain any semblance of a relationship with a holy God, then you begin to feel the WEIGHT and the GLORY of what Christ has done for you: Hebrews 10:11-14 “Every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ[b] had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God... For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.”
Friends, THAT is hope! But you won’t GET it, if you don’t get Leviticus. You won’t GET it, if you don’t understand the Law, the Prophets, OT history, poetry, wisdom literature. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God[b] may be complete, equipped for every good work.” ALL Scripture, brothers and sisters. Was breathed out by God, so that you might be COMPLETE. That means if there are parts of Scripture you haven’t READ, haven’t understood, haven’t internalized, haven’t gotten down into your SOUL, then you aren’t a complete person. We’re so quick to run to ALL the wrong places for hope, aren’t we? Looking to our spouses to complete us... our jobs to complete us... our possessions to make us feel whole and satisfied. The Bible says you will be COMPLETE, lacking in NOTHING, when you get God’s WORD in you. Friends, you cannot believe that this [[Bible]] really is the word of God, His LITERAL word - “breathed out by God” – and let it collect dust on your shelf. You CAN’T.
Listen, I get it – “Not all of us get paid to read the Bible all day long, pastor; that’s why I come HERE, so you can HELP get God’s word in me.” And that IS my job, and I’ll keep doing it as long as you all and the Lord allow to me to. But brothers and sisters, you’ve got to recognize that Sunday morning worship will NEVER be enough for you. Praise GOD it’s not enough. You don’t want your exposure to God’s word to be relegated to 40-min a week on Sundays, do you? And under MY teaching, nonetheless! I can just tell you, even IF I didn’t get paid to do this, I wouldn’t listen to just me! There are FAR too many good Bible teachers out there. Listen to Piper, and MacArthur, to Keller, Chandler, Platt, DeYoung, Begg, Hughes, Chapell, the Wilsons – Sandy AND Andrew. Those are my teachers; who are yours? Find good teachers, find good commentaries, and STUDY. But do not substitute MILK for MEAT. Don’t substitute someone else’s digested regurgitation of THEIR time spent in God’s word, for your own. Get in the WORD. You want to have more HOPE, in 2020? Commit to spending time in God’s word every single day. And just watch, how God uses the “endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures” to bring YOU hope.
#3 - We have hope in Christ’s COVENANT FIDELITY. “Covenant Fidelity” is just a fancy way of saying that God is FAITHFUL to His PROMISES. We skip ahead to v8: “For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs.”
1st c. Jews like Paul thought of EVERYONE as either a Jew, an heir of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the patriarchs, God’s chosen people to whom he had made PROMISES all throughout the OT, or you were a Gentile; a non-Jew. Paul’s gonna explain in vv8-12 that Jesus came for BOTH. But he starts in v8 with the Jews: “Jesus became a ‘servant’ - the “Suffering Servant” prophesied by Isaiah – to the circumcised, that’s the Jews, to PROVE God’s covenant fidelity, His faithfulness to His promises. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians “all the promises of God find their Yes in him [Jesus].” (1:20) What promises? I mentioned Isaiah already, so for sake of time, let’s just focus in on Isaiah’s prophecies alone, about the coming Messiah:
Isa 7:14 “the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel”. And this child...
Isa 9:2-7, will be a light to ALL the nations
“The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
on them has light shone...
6 For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon[d] his shoulder,
and his name shall be called[e]
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of his government and of peace
there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.”
Isa 11:1-2 “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse [that’s King David’s father, of the tribe of Judah, from whence Jesus came],
and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
2 And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him”. And IN God’s Spirit, he’d perform MIRACLES...
Isa 35:5-6 “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
6 then shall the lame man leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.” And declare...
Isa 61:1-2, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;[a]
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;[b]
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;” He would be preceded...
Isa 40:3, by a prophetic forerunner, who would preach “[[A voice cries In the wilderness]]
prepare the way of the Lord;
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” And the Messiah WOULD make straight the path of the Lord, even in his HUMILITY...
Isa 42:1-4 “Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my Spirit upon him;
he will bring forth justice to the nations.
2 He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice,
or make it heard in the street;
3 a bruised reed he will not break,
and a faintly burning wick he will not quench;
he will faithfully bring forth justice.
4 He will not grow faint or be discouraged[a]
till he has established justice in the earth;
and the coastlands wait for his law.” And yet, he would be rejected and beaten...
Isa 50:6 “I gave my back to those who strike,
and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard;
I hid not my face
from disgrace and spitting.” And ultimately, he would be KILLED, as a sacrifice for OUR sins...
Isa 53:3-6, 11-12 “He was despised and rejected[b] by men,
a man of sorrows[c] and acquainted with[d] grief;[e]
as one from whom men hide their faces[f]
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all...
My servant shall make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities...
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors.”
And THROUGH his substitutionary, atoning, death on our behalf, this Messiah will bring salvation to ALL people, Jew AND Gentile:
Isa 49:6 ““to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to bring back the preserved of Israel;
I will [ALSO] make you as a light for the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.””
And friends, that’s just the book of ISAIAH! You got 38 other books in the OT, all pointing ahead to the same thing, all looking forward, in hopeful anticipation, to the same PERSON – Jesus Christ, God’s great, definitive “YES” to all his promises.
And for all of us here this morning who AREN’T Jewish, the OVERWHELMING majority, I suspect... #4 – we are DOUBLY undeserving of salvation, because not only are we hope-LESS sinners, in need of unearned grace, but we’re not even biological heirs of all these great promises we’ve just read from Isaiah; we Gentiles had to be ADOPTED into the family of God. As Paul said in v8, Christ came as a servant to the JEWS, to confirm promises given to their PATRIARCHS. And MOST 1st c. Jews expected the Messiah to not only rescue His people, Israel, but to JUDGE everyone else, the Gentiles. Because they had FORGOTTEN God’s promises, like we just read in Isaiah, that the Messiah would be a light FOR THE NATIONS. So that His salvation might reach TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH. They’d forgotten God’s very FIRST promise to them AS a people, God’s Chosen people; God’s CHOOSING promise, to Abram: “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:2-3) God’s heart has ALWAYS been for the nations. To call unto himself a people of EVERY nation, tribe and tongue. That’s WHY he chose Israel, to BE a light, to BE a blessing to others. But they failed.
So... what? God’s plan failed? God’s given up on Israel? on His promises to them? and He’s simply chosen a new people, Christians, instead? Romans 11:
“I [Paul] ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! ...God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew... there is a remnant, chosen by grace... Through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles.” (vv1-11) And then Paul explains this using the agricultural metaphor of GRAFTING new, foreign branches onto a mature tree. That’s a picture of how God used this “partial hardening” of Israel’s heart, against her long-awaited, but overlooked Messiah, Jesus, in order to include US GENTILES in His promise of salvation as well. As Paul reminds us back in ch.15: Christ came... “in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written [in 2 Samuel 22:50],
“Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles,
and sing to your name.”
10 And again it is said [in Deuteronomy 32:43],
“Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.”
11 And again [in Psalm 117:1],
“Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles,
and let all the peoples extol him.”
12 And again Isaiah says [in ch.11, that we already read],
“The root of Jesse will come,
even he who arises to rule the Gentiles;
in him will the Gentiles hope.””
And elsewhere, Paul further explains God’s great plan for including us Gentiles using the metaphor of ADOPTION. Israel is God’s biological child; we Gentiles had to be ADOPTED into the spiritual family. And really Israel had to be adopted in too; their adoption just occurred 2,000 years before ours did.
Y’all know that Polly and I have been pursuing adoption for some time now. There’s nothing in the world like watching your own biological child be born. I may never get that experience again. But I have to believe there’s nothing like standing in that courtroom either, and hearing the judge pronounce that you are now officially the parents of this new, adopted child. Imagine being on the other side of it, as a child, having been abused by your biological parents, bouncing around the foster care system, before finally getting placed in a new, loving family, and hearing those words: “You are now a child of these parents, with ALL the rights and privileges that affords you.” Friends, that’s what Jesus has done for us.
Ephesians 2: “you were by nature children of wrath... But[c] God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ” (vv3-5). He goes on: “At one time you Gentiles... were separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” (vv11-13)
So that now, Romans 8 we “have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ”. Every right and privilege that is afforded Jesus Christ as a biological Son of God the Father is now true of YOU, brothers and sisters, if you are an adopted child of God, do you BELIEVE that? THAT is hope.
And that is a perfect segue way to our conclusion; Lastly, #5 – We have hope in Christ, because of God’s Holy SPIRIT. v13: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace [our NEXT two weeks in the Advent calendar] in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”
Friends, how do you get hope? It’s by the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit? How do you get the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, in your heart? Paul says, it comes IN BELIEVING.
1 John 4:15 “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.”
You want HOPE this Christmas season, friends? You can HAVE hope; there is HOPE in CHRIST. It’s Colossians 1:27 – “Christ IN you, the hope of glory”. His indwelling Spirit. But you only GET it, you can only be filled with all joy and peace and HOPE, with the God of hope HIMSELF, living in your heart and sealing your eternal adoption into his heavenly family, if you BELIEVE.
Will YOU believe today? Let’s pray.