HOPE
Romans 15:4-13 (Epistle for Advent 2)
Prayer: Lord, be Thou our Hope. Lead us into Your Word, where we receive patient endurance, encouragement, and hope from You. Empower us to welcome others, especially those weak in faith, and to give them this same encouragement and hope. Amen. (The Lutheran Study Bible p. 1939; also ELH 372:5)
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ: Grace and peace be unto you from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Paul begins and ends this section of Romans 15 by talking about hope.
He begins with hope: “Whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” After showing that God’s will always was for people of all nations to be in His kingdom, Paul ends with hope: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope.”
Hope. The name that was chosen for our congregation. In the Bible, hope is not the iffy way people often use the word hope, as in, “I hope it’ll work out,” or “I hope I get that for Christmas,” or “I hope I get a raise.” We can even act like it’s presumptuous or arrogant to think hope can be so certain, acting like it’s a humble thing to say, “I hope God forgives me,” or “I hope I’ll get to heaven.” But the humble thing is to trust what God says.
The hope that God speaks of in the Bible, through the apostles and in the psalms, is absolutely certain. It’s the true hope in Jesus Christ.
We want to talk about what this hope is. But first, let’s see what it isn’t. People put their hope in things that are temporary or fail in the end. The Bible says, “Hope that is seen is not hope” (Rom 8:24). The Bible shows that for people who don’t have God, the heathen, unbelievers, atheists, agnostics, this is all they have: things they can see, tangible things. No hope. This is the world of the New Testament that the apostles existed in, speaking to pagans. Even today a quarter of our population says they have no religion. No God.
St. Paul says in Ephesians that this being “without Christ … without God in the world,” is “having no hope” (2:12). In 1 Thessalonians, he says that we should not grieve like these “others who have no hope” (4:13); it’s a sadness that can’t be comforted. In 1 Corinthians, he says if a person’s hope is for “this life only,” that person is “pitiable” (1Co 15:19). This is why people in the world make this life everything, and suicides among them increase, why they can get disillusioned, and in despair – the word for that is hopeless.
But we are just as susceptible, although we have God and believe in Jesus. We’re not only saints but also sinners. We struggle against the flesh. So you put your hope in people, and they let you down. People put their hope in the government or the election results. You put your hope in what you wish for. You put your hope in your abilities, that you can succeed or reach your goals. You rely on institutions or things you’re used to being there, not going away.
The devil has a thousand ways to destroy your hope, and when he does so it reveals that you’re building your hope on the wrong foundation. So if your hope is tied up in your abilities, or perceived success, or being praised by others; or if it’s good things in your family life, or friends, or your reputation; or if it’s your work or career, what you hope to do in life, how the world is going – the devil will certainly use that, take from you, and persuade you that you lack hope – because you lack these things you’re depending on for hope.
The reason you need hope is due to the devil’s attacks. It’s actually great to be honest and confess that you’re operating without hope, to admit you feel hopeless. It’s hard to confess this. It even has its own special brand of despair. You despair of despairing. You think it shouldn’t be like this for you. You’re a Christian. You’re quick to condemn yourself. But hope can’t be found or produced through pressuring yourself, or carrying the burden yourself or by summoning your willpower. How hard it is to keep the 1st Commandment! – to rely on Him above all, including yourself.
The hope you need – the true Christian hope – is a gift of the Gospel. We heard last week that faith comes from the Gospel. We heard that you aren’t able by your own reason or strength to believe in Jesus. Faith is produced by the Word, by the Gospel: “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom 10:17). “These are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name” (Jn 20:31). And St. Paul says that here: “Whatever things were written before were written for our learning,” that is, the Word was written for us to have faith.
But today we hear that hope also comes from the Gospel. This is the second thing Paul says in that verse: “that we – through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures – might have hope.” The Gospel not only gives faith, it gives hope. The Gospel is not only that Jesus came down from heaven and did all this work of redemption. The Gospel is that He did it for you. His perfect life counts for you to give you His righteousness. He died for you, paid for all your sins. He rose from the dead for you – for your justification, declared innocent by God. His resurrection is your victory.
Faith believes this. We talk a lot about faith because faith is how you get the benefit of what Christ did. He died for all, but without faith you don’t benefit from it. We baptize babies so they’ll receive saving faith. “Whoever does not believe will be condemned.” (Mk 16:16) So we talk about faith. We don’t talk as much about hope – which is similar to faith – but we need to!
Because what Jesus did, He did not only so that you’ll believe in Him and be saved, but so that you’ll live in hope. He died on the cross and rose from the dead so that things won’t be hopeless for you, to defeat despair, to provide you a future, to make everything bright so you don’t grope in gloom of night.
Here’s the picture with hope (this is from Martin Luther):
In contrast to faith, which is like a preacher or teacher that instructs the mind and teaches what to believe – kind of like a classroom situation, free from outside disturbances – hope is like the captain of a ship that’s being tossed about. Hope battles the storms. Faith has the knowledge you need, hope is the encourager when trials come.
Here’s how it works: I believe the Gospel, I believe in Christ, I believe He died for me and God loves me and I’m going to heaven. But then the devil attacks my faith; he obscures what my faith wants to believe; he hides God’s love for me by tossing me about with uncertainty and giving me sadness, worry, fear, and adversities, including seeing how terribly things go in my life or in the world. The devil attacks my hope, returns me to false hopes and uncertain things to rely on. I can’t see how I can reach the heavenly shore. This is where hope is needed: to battle and be steady – like an anchor (Heb 6:19).
This is a two-pronged battle. Hope battles defensively against the waves beating against you in time of trial: hope must battle against sadness, despair, impatience, fear, anxiety, discouragement, faint-heartedness, feeling defeated. Hope says “no!” to such things. Hope also must go on offense and battle with – say “yes!” – to joy, courage, patient endurance, being comforted, being sure and confident in Christ. This is why Paul mentions “patience” – patient endurance – “and comfort,” and also how God will “fill you with all joy and peace in believing.” This is hope’s arsenal, the weapons for hope to wield.
Faith enlightens the will, says this is what to believe; but hope persuades the will when the going gets tough. Hope is what says in you, “Be brave! Keep going! Look for better things! The fog will lift and you’ll see the shore!”
But where will such hope come from? St. Paul tells us: from the Scriptures. He says we can have hope only “through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures.” We have to confess our unwillingness to receive hope as a gift from the Scriptures. We have to see that when we absent ourselves from the reading or hearing of Scripture, we make ourselves vulnerable to hopelessness. This is what the devil wants, for you to not read or hear God’s Word, or to think it’s boring or dry, or that you already know what it says so why hear it again, or instead of the first thing on your phone being the Bible for the day, it’s all the noise. That makes it easy for Satan to bring you into hopelessness.
Each day that I struggle to have hope, I must relearn what my hope as a Christian is, what it’s founded on, how to cling to this hope. I learn it when I open my Bible and God speaks to me. In the New Testament it says, “The Lord Jesus Christ is our hope” (1Tim 1:3), and that I have “a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1Pet 1:3). But the Old Testament too, all the things that at St. Paul’s time were “written before,” speak of this hope, this struggle for hope, and how to find it in God and His promises – especially in the Psalms and prophets like Habakkuk. So we hear:
Now what do I wait for? My hope is in you. (Ps 39:7)
For You are my hope, O Lord GOD; You are my trust … (Ps 71:5)
Paul points out that this hope wasn’t only for Old Testament people, but God intended Gentiles, every person, to have this hope: “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people!” – to have this joy belongs to hope, hope battles with joy in spite of what’s happening; and that Jesus – the “Root of Jesse” – is our Hope, as Isaiah said: “in Him the Gentiles shall hope.”
So this feeling of hopelessness is there to drive us to the Scriptures to get resupplied for the battle – not to keep us away from God and His Word! Once again we see that God undermines Satan’s work and turns evil into good. The devil creates hopelessness; God uses it to make you thirst for what He has for you in the fountain of living water, in the Scriptures. So we read Paul’s statement here as a promise, a Gospel statement: “we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, *will* have hope!”
This is God’s promise to you. There is only one source of hope: Jesus. In fact Jesus Christ is our hope. When you open the Scriptures you see Him. It is He – your Hope – who strengthens you and is there with you and in you, to battle against sadness, despair, impatience, fear, anxiety, discouragement, faint-heartedness, and say “no!” to such things; and Who arms you – brings you to say “yes!” – to joy, courage, patient endurance, comfort, certainty and confidence. In Him the fog lifts, and you see the shore and you dwell in the light, His light. “May the God of hope” make you “abound in hope.” Amen!