Advent 2023: Hope
Advent Doxology
Call to worship:
pastor brett eckel
Isaiah 64.1-9
Light 1st purple candle:
pastor brett eckel
song:
Joy to the world
Reading:
pastor michael champoux
Mark 13.24-37
Historical eading:
pastor michael champoux
Apostles Creed {Mike}
song:
Sing we the song of Emmanuel
Reading:
pastor zack mcguire
Psalm 80.1-7; 17-19
Confession & pardon:
pastor Andrew loginow
Doxology
song:
O little town of Bethlehem
Sermon:
dr. alex loginow
Advent 2023: Hope
1 Peter 1.3-5
Introduction
The late, great Dr. Tim Keller once told the story in a sermon of the brilliant Russian author Leo Tolstoy. Tolstoy authored many works – his most noteworthy being War and Peace. Tolstoy was a member of the elite Russian intelligentsia and so naturally he was an atheist. Around the time Tolstoy was 50 he wrote a book called My Confession and in it he talks about his return to a form of Christianity.
Tolstoy said he was struck one day with the thought – “what happens when I die?” As an atheist the answer was nothing – you simply cease to exist when you die. And one day the sun will burn out and everything will cease to exist; there will simply be nothing. If that’s true, Tolstoy thought, then what’s the point? Why keep writing? Why do anything?
Tolstoy’s friends told him, “You’re just thinking too much. Enjoy your life. Go to the beach. Spend all of your money. Just don’t think about what happens after you die.” And Tolstoy came to the conclusion – how good can a worldview be if it requires you to not think about the implications of the worldview in order to have hope, peace, joy, and love?
We find ourselves once again at the start of a new church calendar year. Today is the 1st Sunday of Advent. Advent comes from the Latin word adventus, which means, “coming or arriving.” Advent is the season on the church calendar that prepares us for the coming or arrival of the Lord Jesus Christ in his incarnation. We begin each liturgical year celebrating the Father sending his Son. The Advent season looks back on the 1st coming of the Lord Jesus and also forward to his 2nd coming when he will raise the dead, judge the world, and make all things new.
Every year on the 1st Sunday of Advent we light the 1st purple candle – the hope candle. And we think together about the hope we have in the 1st and 2nd advent of the Lord Jesus Christ. We begin every Advent season with the hope candle because Advent is all about hope and Christians are the only people in the world who know what genuine hope is. Maybe this is the 1st time you’re ever actually hearing about genuine hope or maybe this sermon will just be one more time that your soul is fed with the old, old story, either way if we want to know what genuine hope is, what living hope is, we must look to the Scriptures for they are the only place where God speaks.
The Why of Hope
Starting in 1st Peter 1.3 the Holy Spirit tells us of the reason behind hope; the why behind our hope – the mercy of God the Father. Peter begins the pericope praising God: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! How fitting. It is right to begin with acknowledgment and worship of God because he is our creator, our sustainer, our redeemer, our sovereign. All of life should begin and end with worship of the one true God. The Father is worthy of blessedness because of his identity, because of who he is.
And then Scripture says it is according to his great mercy. The motivation of God behind our hope, the why of hope, is God’s mercy. One lexicon defines mercy (ἔλεος) as, “to show kindness or concern for someone in serious need.”[1]Mercy means we don’t get what we deserve. What do we deserve? We deserve eternal conscious punishment in hell because we have all sinned against the one true and holy God. We have cursed the one we should have blessed; we have rebelled against the one we should obey.
You cannot understand the gospel unless you understand that it is all of God’s mercy. We sing a song here based on the prayer of confession from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer and in the chorus we sing: “Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy on us.” Christians have prayed that prayer for hundreds of years because we understand that we don’t deserve God’s favor, we could never earn God’s forgiveness yet there is hope because of God’s mercy. We were in serious need and God showed us kindness.
The How of Hope
God showed us kindness by causing us to be born again. The why of hope is God’s mercy; the how of hope is that God has caused us to be born again. President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn have been in the news recently due to the former First Lady’s passing. Jimmy Carter was the 1st President and one of the 1st people to bring the term born again into pop culture vernacular. Other presidents called themselves religious, or Christian, or they may have identified themselves by certain denominations but Jimmy Carter was the 1st to say he was a born again Christian. At that point pop culture started asking what does born again mean? Maybe you’re unfamiliar with it too; maybe you’ve heard it before but don’t really understand what born again means.
1st Peter 1 isn’t the only place in Scripture where we see the phrase born again. In John 3 Jesus tells Nicodemus that if he wants to see the kingdom of God he must be born again. Nicodemus is confused – how can someone re-enter his mother’s womb to be born again? But Jesus was speaking of a spiritual reality. To be born again is synonymous with regeneration. To be born again is to be made new on the inside; to have your heart changed.
And just like your physical birth, being born again is not something you do; it is something that happens to you. God is the one who causes us to be born again. The Holy Spirit uses the preaching of the gospel to give us new birth. When someone is saved it is because they hear the gospel, the Holy Spirit changes their heart and gives them the gift of faith, and they repent.
Have you been born again? How can you know? Do you have faith? Do you know the good news of Jesus? Do you know that God is holy and that you are a sinner and that Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection are your only hope for forgiveness and eternal life?
Have you assented that all of this knowledge is true? Do you actually believe that God is holy and that you’re a sinner and that Jesus is your only hope in life and death? Are you trusting in Jesus Christ alone to save you? Is your hope in Christ? Are you resting in the life, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus for your justification, your right standing before God?
Have you repented of your sin? Have you confessed your sin and turned from your sin? Do you agree with what Scripture says about you and your sin? If you have genuinely repented it is because you have faith. If you have faith it’s because God has cause you to be born again. If you have been born again it’s because of God’s great mercy.
The What of Hope
And what is the result of this new birth? What has God caused us to be born again to? If the why of hope is God’s mercy and the how of hope is that God has caused us to be born again, what is the what of hope? The answer Peter gives is three-fold – (1) a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead; and (2) an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for [us]; and (3) a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
First, we have been born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Hope is the Greek word ἐλπίδα, which means, “to look forward with confidence to that which is good and beneficial.”[2]. The verb “living” is the Greek word, ζάω – this is where we get the word zoo; it speaks to “life, alive, living.” And the Holy Spirit tells us that this living hope is through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The hope of advent is the hope of the final resurrection. It is quite literally a living hope. It is the hope that because Jesus rose from the dead, when he returns we will too. We will live forever with King Jesus and so even though we suffer and struggle with sin in this life, it is but a vapor compared to the eternal life ahead (Jas 4.14).
Verse 4 says that God has caused us to be born again to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for [us]. Dr. Tom Schreiner notes that in the Old Testament the language of “inheritance” referred to the Promised Land that was fulfilled in Joshua. The New Testament tells us that our inheritance includes physical land too – the new heavens and the new earth. The hope of advent is that Jesus will come again and remake the world and will replace sin and death with shalom.
And the inheritance that we have been born again to is imperishable. Our inheritance is immortal. It is not subject to decay and death. Our resurrected bodies and the new world will be imperishable; they will not be subject to death or decay.
Not only is our inheritance imperishable, but also it is undefiled. Our inheritance is ritually and morally pure. There will be no sin in us or in the new world. Our inheritance is also unfading. Our inheritance can never lose its wonderful, pristine character.
Then in verse 5 Peter tells us that we have been born again for salvation. We are being guarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Salvation refers to being rescued for God’s wrath against our sin. It evokes the language of yhwh rescuing Israel against the wrath he unleashed on Egypt.
Salvation is first the spiritual exodus. It is regeneration – the new birth. In order to be saved we had to be born again – we had to die to our sin nature and be reborn as a new man. But salvation is not complete until we are physically reborn – resurrected. It is not finished until we experience the physical exodus from a world scarred by sin and death into the promised land of the new heavens and the new earth.
And we can be sure that God will save all of his elect because Scripture says God guards us until we are finally saved. This doctrine has long been called the perseverance of the saints but what the Scripture makes clear to us here is that it is actually the perseverance of God in his saints. And how does God guard us? How does he make us to persevere?
The Scripture says it is through faith. God guards us for our final salvation through faith – through knowledge, assent, and trust in the good news of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is why we must preach the gospel to ourselves daily. This is why we must gather as a church weekly under the Christ-centered preaching of the Word and around the sacraments because these are the means by which God is guarding us until the 2nd advent of Christ. N.T. Wright said, “Faith itself is the anchor which holds us firm in hope.”[3]
The Who of Hope
We must note one more aspect of our advent hope and that is the who of hope. Scripture makes it clear that all of our hope is wrapped up in one man and what he did for us. Jesus is our hope. Jesus is our living hope, Jesus is our inheritance, and Jesus is our salvation.
Jesus is our living hope. Jesus is literally hope alive. Jesus is our living hope because he is the living God who gives us hope. He is the Son of God – the eternal 2nd person of the Holy Trinity who submitted to his Father’s plan before the world was even created.
Jesus is our living hope because he is hope incarnate. This is what advent is all about: the Father sent the Son to be conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Jesus lived without sin and Jesus died on the cross for our sins. Jesus is living hope because from conception through death Jesus lived for us.
And Jesus is living hope because he did not remain dead but on the 3rd day Jesus resurrected from the dead. That’s why Peter says that God has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus was literally born again – he is the 1st born of the dead (Col 1.18). And what God did for Jesus on that very 1st Easter, he does in our hearts (that’s what it means to be born again!) and he will do for us on the last day when we’re raised from the dead. Spurgeon said, “You are not asked to trust in a dead Jesus, but in one who, though he died for our sins, has risen again for our justification.”
Not only is Jesus our living hope, but Jesus is also our inheritance. Jesus is kept in heaven for us. 40 days after he rose from the dead Christ ascended to heaven, to the right hand of God the Father almighty where Jesus lives and reigns. As our inheritance Jesus is imperishable; he is not subject to decay and death.
Jesus is undefiled. Jesus is ritually and morally pure on our behalf. Jesus never broke God’s Law, never broke 1 of the 10 Commandments in thought, word, or deed. Jesus never sinned and actively loved God and neighbor. Jesus is our righteousness.
Jesus is unfading. Jesus can never lose his wonderful, pristine character. He is forever Holy God. He is forever the righteous man. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb 13.8).
Jesus is our inheritance. He is the reward of our salvation. We were created for the purpose of glorifying God and enjoying him forever. Jesus is the only one through whom that goal is possible.
And because that’s true, Jesus is our salvation. Jesus is the means by which we are saved. It is only through the sinless life, substitutionary death, and saving resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ that we are saved. It is through Jesus that we are justified. It is through Jesus we are sanctified. It is through Jesus that we will be glorified. Jesus is our salvation.
Conclusion
When Leo Tolstoy really thought about the implications of his atheistic worldview he saw no hope. His friends encouraged him, “Just don’t think about it. Enjoy your life.” But that didn’t sit well with Tolstoy because how valuable can a worldview be if it requires that you don’t think about the implications?
Dr. Tim Keller said that’s because atheism is dumb. Keller isn’t calling atheism and naturalism dumb in a schoolyard mocking kind of way. No, he’s saying they’re dumb in that, in order to have genuine hope; in order to have peace, joy, and love, you can’t think too much about the implications of what you actually believe. But that’s not what Christianity is. That’s not what the gospel is.
Christianity is a smart worldview. The gospel is a smart message. You see the more you think about the implications of what you believe, the more hope you have, the more peace you have, the more joy you have, the more love you have. Think more about the 1st advent of the Lord Jesus – how he became incarnate for you and lived without sin for you and died on the cross for you and rose again for you and how he passed through the heavens for you where he’s interceding for you.
Think more about how the Lord Jesus will return in his 2nd advent. Think more about how Christ will raise the dead, judge the world, and make all things new. Think more about how he will destroy Satan, sin, and death. Think more about how he will finally and fully be Emmanuel – God with us! Think more about how Jesus Christ will make everything sad untrue.
Hope means “to look forward with confidence to that which is good and beneficial.” Church, on this 1st Sunday of Advent 2023 let us look foreword with confidence to the 2nd advent of the Lord Jesus. Let us hope. Hope means to think more often and more deeply about the promises of God. Think more for there you will find hope.
[1] Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition., Vol. 1, p. 750). New York: United Bible Societies.
[2] Ibid. 295.
[3]NT Wright, The Early Christian Letters for Everyone, 51.