Hebrews 6:9-6:20
April 26, 2020 {sermon 9 | Jesus > Everything}
The question I’ve heard most in the last 40 days is, What is God doing? It might also be a fair question to ask: What is man doing? Well, in the midst of what man is doing, God is offering a lot of hope. Which is what He does all of the time, but right now it seems a lot more needed I guess. God doesn’t instantly rectify large scale calamity, let alone minor mistakes. We must live with them and learn how to work through their consequences and in spite of them. Sometimes it requires repentance, sometime course correction, sometimes a new strategy, sometimes new inventions, sometimes revolutions, sometimes simple love and compassion. Always love and compassion. But His making everything right comes in the age to come. We are not there yet. So we require hope in order to persevere in the now, today during a pandemic that cripples our world. The bible never promises that things are going to always work out as we expected. Or that if we’re a child of God, we will always end up on top and be blessed more than anyone. These are western fantasies written into the church narrative but those trying to gain a following.
What the bible does promise, over and over again, is that in the midst of trials and suffering we can have hope. There is short term hope that God will demonstrate some of the powers of the age to come right now and bring relief to us in miraculous ways. And He does do that some of the time as He wills. But there is the longer term hope, that even if He doesn’t bring that kind of instantaneous relief now, that we can have peace and solace now and also know our place in that age to come is secured. And in the meantime, our hope is fashioned in accordance with Romans 5:1-5: Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Our hope is the anchor of our soul, reaching into heaven itself to secure our place there with Jesus. So let us not be sluggish, but be diligent to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises of the age to come.
