The Spectrum of Hope
Text: 1 John 3:1-3
Proposition: Hope in Christ has a spectrum of applications all of them certain.
Introduction: You’ve likely seen the manyphotos and news programs showing the growing crisis among Syrian refugees but Naguib Sawiris is not a name familiar to many at all. He is an Egyptian billionaire who announced his willingness to buy a large Mediterranean island to provide shelter for the region's desperate refugees. In a communication Sawiris said, "Greece or Italy sell me an island, I'll declare its independence and host the migrants and provide jobs for them building their new country,". Despite the multi million dollar offer neither country has taken him up on his offer.
Hundreds of thousands of refugees continue to seek to find their way to Europe and the world holds its breath knowing that a seismic shift in population like this will disturb the balance of economies, support systems and world powers. That’s the view from the host countries but the view from the refugees’ eyes is far more severe. Mile upon mile of suffering women, children and men are desperate, hungry and vulnerable, trapped in despair. What Bashar al Assad the President of Syria has done is to put 5.6 million people out of their homes in Syria and caused another 4 million Syrians to flee the country in pursuit of a life anywhere else. It isn’t just the volume or numbers of people that is problematic, it’s the rapid injection of a large population who are in deep need, who have been traumatized, who are outside of their own culture and language that makes this extremely volatile. The scale and devastation of the Syrian governments bombing of their own people is as evil as the Nazi regime was evil. It is sin amplifying and the destructive wake it leaves has Satan’s signature all over it. The possibility of ending a wicked regime like Assad’s appears unlikely with Iran and the Soviet Union putting their support behind him. So to many the present situation will seem hopeless and we wonder where it will lead.
For just a moment I want you to contrast that with the exact opposite. The kingdom of heaven in Christ has a perfect King, the methods of death and destruction have no entry point in this eternal kingdom. The sense of belonging to God the Father is a security and joy that leaves sorrow, fear and mourning banished forever. Heaven is a stark contrast to our world where the effect of sin and the schemes of Satan have worn it down for over 5000 years. What I’d like to introduce you to this morning is something called the spectrum of hope. Like a spectrum of light made up of different colors yet experienced as one so the spectrum of hope has many aspects to it and it is every bit as essential to life as light is. Turn to 1 John 3: 1- 3.
I. The Two Hopes, A Contrast Between Probability and Sovereignty.
When people buy a lottery ticket from one of the tens of thousands of lotteries in the world they are in essence renting some hope. There is no certainty attached to the ticket just the odds or probability of winning, the possibility of wealth, the hope of it all. It’s subject to what people call chance, fate or luck, a random possibility that for awhile makes you a possible winner. It’s rented hope.
But when you turn through the pages of the Bible what you encounter is a different hope, a second kind of hope. The hope it refers to is not possibility but certainty, not random but of sovereign design. Author John Piper once wrote this about the hope in Scripture, “Christian hope is when God has promised that something is going to happen and you put your trust in that promise…Hope is a portion or part of faith. Faith and hope, in my mind, are overlapping realities: hope is faith in the future tense so most of faith is hope.” Our hope is not fashioned after possibilities, it’s built upon a future that God desires, designs and determines. So what is this spectrum of hope, what makes it as essential to life as sunlight? Well let’s begin by recognizing that the synonym for hope is certainty. Whatever we are being pointed to as an object of hope in the Scripture, consider it a certainty. That’s the radical difference between these two hopes. Now let’s look at 1 John 3.
II. The Spectrum of This Hope Is Sourced in Bestowed Love.
Look at how John begins this chapter, “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God”. The ‘behold’ is like a command, it means ‘look at this, see what I’m seeing, check this out!” The manner of God’s love that He bestowed or freely gives to us is breath taking. It is a love that is not just an emotion, it is incarnated in the person of Jesus Christ. The love of the Father for the Son existed before creation, it was built on the identical character and nature of the Father and the Son, perfect, holy, omnipotent, omniscient, immutable. The Father willingly gave His Son to incarnate into humanity. Born in poverty and vulnerability He grew up in a land filled with crisis. At the age of 33, when He was considered ready for life, He was cut off like a tender shoot emerging from the earth. And get this, we were the hope of the Father in the cutting off of Jesus life. His death would perfectly satisfy the holy justice that sin demanded. His life became ours when by faith, or hope, we took hold in Him. The spectrum of hope began with the bestowed love of God in Christ Jesus and it gave to us a new identity… “that we should be called sons of God.” By the worlds methods of power and possession God does not make sense. Man continually seeks to make a God in mans image but the reality cannot be contained in such a small concept. We are all made in the image of God, but the zenith of that comes by the taking hold of Jesus Christ as our life, our certain hope in the forgiveness of all sin. We are made into an even clearer image of God, even called sons or children of God. That’s an amazing aspect of this spectrum of hope but it doesn’t stop there. The hope, the certainty, is seen in verse 2, “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” Notice the hope here… the certainty that He will appear a second time, every bit as perfect in timing and method as the first coming of Christ. When that happens we have the certain hope that we shall be like Him. What could that infer? Immortal, transformed bodies not subject to the laws of space and time. Could it infer the sinless nature of Christ, could it infer the refined purposes of glorifying the Father, could it refer to the change in position of authority from being under angelic power to being made higher than the angels, could it refer to a quality of relationship with God the Father that Jesus has always had that we now grasp and are included in? And what about that tiny tag line in verse 2, the reason for why we will be like Him, “for we shall see Him just as He is.” What’s the hope here? Is it the presence of sinless man in the proximity to the unrestrained glory of God and it does not undo us or consume us? We see His glory and we stand before Him being made like Him, sinless, deathless, immortal and glorified. That’s a breath taking certainty! Check out the next aspect in this spectrum of hope, verse 3, “And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” Note that John simply states this as a matter of fact. You have “this hope” that is to you a certainty because the promise behind it originates with an Almighty God and a Savior Who loves us to death. This hope, this certainty, will purify you. What does he mean ‘purify you?’ It’s not a reference to being made righteous or eligible for eternity with Christ which was done by Christ for us. No, the ‘purify’ that John is referring to is like a defense system against sin. This certainty of hope shifts our priorities from self gain to blessing others, from self protection to the love of others, from self doubt to an assurance in Christ’s capability in and through us. Please note that that this hope is not in our ability, our goodness or our having a good life to live. This hope is in Him. If you have this certainty of hope in Christ it will equip you to resist the accusations and lies of Satan, it will guard you against the corrosive effects of sin that comes from yourself and others. What I’m suggesting is that this hope is as essential to a Christian’s life as sunlight is. Let me show you just a tiny bit of what this hope has in its spectrum: 2 Cor 3:12…Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech. Heb 6:19 …This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil. 1 Thess 2:19… For what isour hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming?
The spectrum of hope is what John is about to describe in the next verses and what you’ll see is that it’s all about how to love. “Behold what manner of love…”