Preached in Markham Baptist Church, December 31, 2006

A HOPE FOR THE FUTURE

Perhaps one of the most distinguishing features of the Christian faith is hope. It is an attitude that is rooted in the reality of Jesus Christ. So we read in 1 Peter 1:3 - “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.”

In Ephesians 2:12 – “Remember at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.”

So, now because of Christ’s death and resurrection we have been given a new birth into a living hope.

We have a hope for the future, we have hope for the resurrection from the dead. We have a hope that the relationship between ourselves and God that was broken by sin is repaired by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Now this is important to take in for God’s Word clearly instructs us that we must “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that you have.”

So if anyone asks, why do you have a hope in a new relationship with God? Why do you hope for life after death? and says that you are merely a victim of wishful thinking, we can respond confidently, our hope is not wishful thinking! No, true hope is based on reality. And to all who ask, we need to be able to point a steady finger at the reality of a perfect Saviour dying on a cross and the reality of an empty tomb. Our hope is real and steadfast – or in the words of Hebrews 6:19, “We have this hope as an anchor to the soul, firm and secure.” Why is it firm and secure? Because it is based on the reality of Jesus Christ.

But people may press you for a further answer – what is the reason for the hope that you have?

And can we not answer that our hope is based not only on the reality of Jesus Christ but also on the character and nature of God? And it is on this that I want to focus this morning.

If you will open your Bibles to Jeremiah 29 you will discover a letter written by God to the people of God who have been defeated by the Babylonians and force out of their land, their country, their communities, their homes, and forced to live in Babylon. A godless place.

It’s as if God said to His people, if you truly won’t obey me and love me and follow me then I’ll allow you to live in a place that is truly god-less. If that’s what you want, that’s what you’ll get.

In chapter 28, the prophets of the day were saying, don’t worry in 2 years all this will blow over and we’ll all be back in our own land an dour own beds. In two years everything will be back the way it was.

But God, through the prophet Jeremiah, says in chapter 29 – no. That’s not the way it will be. This is what he says He’ll do beginning at verse 4- 14.

Now this passage is very instructive for us as we think of the living hope that is ours. First we discover that it is possible to have a false hope. Verse 8 says “Yes, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel says: Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. They are prophesying lies to you in my name, I have not sent them, declares the Lord.”

It is possible to hold on to false hopes and these hopes are most often generated by our own desires and wishes. The people of God didn’t want to stay in Babylon – they wanted to go home and can’t you just hear them egging on the prophets, “When can we go home? We don’t have to stay here too long, do we? We don’t have to put down roots here, do we? God surely doesn’t want us to stay in this godless place? Surely he won’t let Nebuchadnezzar get away with what he did!”

And as a result the prophets said what the people wanted to hear (Jeremiah 28:3). In two years, God will restore the temple, the king and the exiles and Babylon will be broken. And there was a collective sigh of relief – phew.

But then God says, (Jeremiah 29:5-7) no, no build houses, have families, don’t look for revenge but seek the peace and prosperity of the land in which you live. In verse 10 He says you are going to be here for 70 years and at the end of 70 years I’ll bring you back just like I promised.

So when thinking about hope, we must be careful. We must understand that it is possible to have a false hope based on our wishful thinking, our desires and our agendas. We need to be very careful, asking the Spirit of God to cleanse us of all self; asking the Spirit of God to lead us into all truth – that our ears would be attuned to the voice of our Shepherd.

We Christians tend to get into the worse trouble when we have not taken time to listen to God and to be sure of what God has to say to us – we mix His voice with our own.

That’s why it’s important, of course, for us to be reading God’s Word. That’s why it’s important to be in a small group where you can build relationships of trust with Godly people so they can speak into your life. It is possible then, as a Christian to have a false hope, and we must beware.

But at the same time let us not be a people who have any doubts about the hope that we have in God and His character. Let us not have any doubts about the promises of God.

He reassures the people that their release from Babylon will happen just as He has promised. If you turn the pages of your Bible back to chapter 25 you discover God’s original promise – He speaks of the coming judgment upon the people at verse 8 – “Therefore the Lord Almighty says this: “Because you have not listened to my words, I will summon all the peoples of the north and my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, declares the Lord, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations.”

Then verse 12 - “But when the seventy years are fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation, and the land of the Babylonians, for their guilt, declares the Lord.”

You see, we as the people of God need to trust God that He will do just as He says he will do. To be sure, there is a false hope that we need to beware of, but there is a genuine hope based on the character and nature of God that we often neglect and hesitate, and dodge, and try to rationalize ourselves out of believing it to be true! “God won’t actually work in that way – you really shouldn’t try to force God to do what is rationally impossible.” Hogwash! What God promises, God delivers, regardless of our categories of reason.

We can trust that God’s promises are true, we can place our hope in God because God cannot be false. It is against His character.

Think of the promises of God. Charles Spurgeon once wrote a daily devotional entitled, The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith. It is a daily study of over 300 promises made by God to His people. I love that image of God’s promises being a cheque book that the people of God are able to draw on at any time, as God waits for His people to trust Him enough.

Think of the promises of God. Do you hesitate to give to God? Do you know that God gives you a promise in the Old Testament book of Malachi? “The Lord says, “Try me! And see if I don’t throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.” (Malachi 3:10)

Do you hesitate to pray? God says, Go ahead, pray – speak to God – “your heavenly Father, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.” (Matthew 6:6)

Do you hesitate to ask for forgiveness of your sins, thinking that He cannot cleanse you? God says, “Come! Though your sins are like scarlet they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red as crimson they shall be like wool.” (Isaiah 1:18)

Are you going through a difficult time? A time of stress and difficulty? You know His promise to you? Have you placed your hope In his promises? Psalm 121 – “The Lord watches over you. The Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day nor the moon by night.”

Are you anxious about the future and the possibilities it brings then hear the promise in our text today. “I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.”

Or for those of you who hunger and thirst for God – there is another wonderful promise in our text at verse 13: “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with your whole heart.”

One of the distinguishing marks of Christianity is hope. And I can tell you God is waiting for us to step out in faith – to trust Him wholeheartedly so that He may fulfill His promises through us.

But I also want to say this about the hope that is ours in God. And that is when hope seems dead – when there appears to be no reason to believe that God can actually do what He promises to do – when hope seems dead – hope on!

In our text, the people of God would be in captivity for 70 years and during those 70 years it would seem that God’s promise of restoration would never be fulfilled. And sometimes we are in situations like that. The person we pray for – they seem like the hardest characters and simply will not turn to God. And the situations we find ourselves just get more grim and more grim rather than better.

Look though what God teaches Jeremiah in the midst of this tragedy. If you will turn the pages of your Bible over to chapter 32 you will see that Jeremiah does an amazing thing in response to the command of God. Understand the background again. The nation of Babylon is destroying the land, and they are destroying it, setting it a blaze, tearing all the houses down, taking all the livestock, just laying waste to the land. And what God tells Jeremiah to do is an amazing thing – He tells him to invest in the real estate.

Now at first Jeremiah hesitates. Look at verse 24 of Chapter 32: “See how the siege ramps are built up to take the city. Because of the sword, famine and plague, the city will be handed over to the Babylonians who are attacking it. What you said has happened, as you now see. And thought eh city will be handed over to the Babylonians, you, Sovereign Lord, say to me, ‘Buy the field, with silver and have the transaction witnessed.’ ”

Are you nuts, God??? The land won’t be worth anything, it will be throwing good money away!

I love this, because you can bet that all the people who had their feet firmly planted in rationality were telling Jeremiah, this is a bad investment! And it would have been, if God had not clearly told Jeremiah to do it. Look what God says to Jeremiah at verse 27 – “I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything to hard for me?”

Trust me! I will restore the people and the land. Trust My promises! O how we need to trust God! We need to abandon our false self driven hopes and trust God for the promises that He has given us in Christ. They are sure and certain. O, that we would have the faith of Jeremiah and press on, trusting in God.

Our hope is in the living God, so let circumstances change. Let it appear that what God has promised will never come to pass – but let us be a people who say, I don’t care about the circumstances, my hope is not based on my circumstances, my hope is in the living God who has promised to turn my wailing into dancing and clothe me with joy!

Isaiah said, “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength, they will soar on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

So when people ask you about the hope that is in you, you can look them in the eye and say my hope is based on the reality of a Saviour who has died for me, and who rose for me. And it is based on the reality of a living God who is faithful to His promises. My hope comes from Him.

May it be so in your life.