Unprecedented Hope
“Obtaining A Living Hope”
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As I announced last week, instead of looking at various examples of hope from characters in the Bible, I’m switching it up. I found that to understand unprecedented hope, a hope that God desires for us to have, it’s important to look at the various topics about hope found in God’s word.
This morning, I’d like to introduce you to a very unusual verse. It was a statement that very few people would have made, given the circumstances this person found themselves in. The person was Job.
He said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21 NKJV)
This is not what someone would normally say under such horrific circumstances. Not only did Job lose everything he had, including all of his flocks and herds, but he also lost all of his children to a freak storm. Later, he was smitten with a horrendous disease of boils from the top of his body to the soles of his feet. And these were not little boils, but huge, form-altering boils.
To an extent, we might say that Job is where many people find themselves as they experience the loss of a job, finances, a place to live, family, freedoms, and even their health, or the loss of a loved one.
But here’s the kicker: what sets this story apart from so many others is that, in the midst of these horrendous circumstances, Job did not once criticize or complain against God. Instead, we see in our verse that he worshipped God through it all.
And when we look at what Job said and understand its implications, we wonder how he could say this, especially given all the horrible things that happened to him and the adversity he had to endure, including his wife telling him to “Curse God and die.”
But Job knew who the Lord was, and he recognized the folly of criticizing and complaining against God, even though everything had been taken away on the physical side of the equation. What we see is that Job still possessed a faith and a hope that are far too often missing in our culture and society, not to mention the church.
Today, humanity places its hope in science and education, believing they will, in some way, provide solutions to what has plagued our world since the beginning of time. But in the end, all the things humanity has pinned its hopes on have come up empty, because all the scientists, philosophers, and educators have yet to find the cure for what plagues humanity, which is nothing less than death.
But Job’s hope was not in humanity’s solutions. Instead, Job’s hope was in the Lord. Job knew that death is the inevitable outcome of life, but he also knew that this life isn’t all there is. He knew that one day he would die and that after death he would be in the Lord’s presence in bodily form.
“And after my body has decayed, yet in my body I will see God.” (Job 19:26 NLT)
Job knew that he had only one shot at this life, and once it was over, he would stand before God and give an account of the life he had lived.
This is what the writer of Hebrews brings forward, saying, “It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27 NKJV)
Further, Job knew that this had nothing to do with how good he was or whether he had done enough good deeds to outweigh the bad ones, but rather that it had everything to do with his faith in the Lord.
The Apostle Paul knew this same truth when he penned these words.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9 NKJV)
So, in the midst of his tragedy, Job did something most would never consider: he blessed and thanked God, placing his hope squarely in Him alone. And it was such a hope that saw Job return to health and even greater prosperity.
The writer of Hebrews wrote about this hope that the men and women of the Old Testament had as they went through horrendous times, and that they held by faith. Why? So that they could, as the writer of Hebrews said, “obtain a better resurrection” (Hebrews 11:35 NKJV).
Consider what it says about Abraham; that he dwelt in a foreign land that wasn’t his own, and that by faith Abraham waited “for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10 NKJV).
Job was able to endure life’s tragedies because he believed in the Lord. Therefore, he had the hope that even after his death he would still see the Lord, not only in his soul and spirit but also in his body. For Job, this became a living hope.
It is this same living hope that we can have as well, even amid the tragedies and disappointments of life. And this living hope comes only through faith in Jesus Christ. Faith in what He did for us on the cross, taking our place and dying our death because of our sins, and then, on the third day, rising from the dead. And it is this hope, the hope of the resurrection, that Jesus gives to everyone of us.
“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” (John 14:1-3 NIV)
And the reason we can trust Jesus in this promise is what He went on to say.
“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6 NKJV)
It is this living hope that Jesus talked about, that through faith in Him we will likewise be raised up on that last day to be with Him.
“This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:39-40 NKJV)
When we place our lives in the hands of Jesus, we will never need to fear the pain and horror of being forever separated from Him. Nor will we ever have to worry about whether we are good enough. And here is the promise, that no one who places their faith and hope in Jesus will ever be lost but will have that living hope (John 11:25-26).
“We do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 NIV)
Paul ends by saying, “Comfort one another with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:18 NKJV). God has always desired to comfort us in our darkest hour, and always will.
Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus, asked Jesus to come and heal their brother. But Jesus didn’t come when they asked. Instead, He arrived later, and they asked why He didn’t come sooner, when their brother was still alive, because they believed that if He had, their brother would not have died.
Jesus, seeing their distress, asked them whether they possessed the same living hope we saw in Job.
He said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. (And then He gets to the question we all must answer) Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26 NIV)
He then raised Lazarus from the dead, and when they unwrapped him, the first face Lazarus saw was Jesus’s.
It is when we make this our belief; when we make this living hope that Job possessed, the hope that saw Him healed and restored, our hope, then we will also see Jesus.
And this hope, this faith, will bring us new life, which will not only see us through this world full of pain and sorrow, but will also bring us into an eternity in the presence of Jesus, where we will immediately see His face when these death shrouds are removed from our eyes as well.
So why this message? It is because I hope that everyone will find the same living hope in their lives. That through the losses we experience, such as the loss of loved ones, health, finances, or whatever else, we don’t have to grieve as those who have no hope.
Instead, we can possess that living hope for our lives through faith in Jesus Christ, knowing that when death overtakes our bodies, we will be in the presence of Jesus.
This is beautifully expressed in Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church.
“We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:8 NKJV)
And so, no matter what tragedy strikes, we can have this living hope, the same living hope that carried Job through a time of suffering that very few have ever experienced, if any.
But that’s not all. There were a couple of other things Job did that helped him through these tragedies, and I would like to take this time to share them to help us get through as well.
The first is our need to express our grief
Job expressed his grief by tearing his robe, shaving his head, and falling to the ground to worship. These were acts performed by those who were experiencing grief. But then he went even further; he sat in the midst of ashes so everyone would know the immense grief he was going through.
We shouldn’t be ashamed or think that grieving our losses is a lack of faith, and I’m not just talking about death. We grieve other losses as well, such as the loss of our health, marriages, jobs, finances, security, freedoms, and even possessions. Losses come in all sizes and shapes, and the normal response to these losses is grief. But there is a blessing that Jesus gives to those who express their grief.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4 NKJV)
Here is God’s promise that when we express our grief, that is, when we mourn, He will comfort us through it. And because of that living hope, that is, the hope of heaven for those who believe, there is comfort in knowing that God will wipe away all our tears (Revelation 7:17, 21:4).
The second is our need to acknowledge that God is in control.
This was Job’s acknowledgment when he said, “Naked, I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away” (Job 1:21). At the end of his time with the Lord, Job made the same declaration that God is in control.
“I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.” (Job 42:2 NKJV)
It was an acknowledgment that the Apostle Paul made as well.
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28 NKJV)
Knowing that God works all things out for the good brings me to the third thing we should do during these times of loss: look for the good.
After it was all over, Job received blessings from the Lord, and it says that his latter days, that is, the days following his trials, were better than his beginnings (Job 42:12).
Far too often, we get so caught up in what has happened that we don’t look around to see the good and the good God is bringing into our lives.
To help, Paul gives us this bit of advice,
“I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14 NKJV)
He was looking for the ultimate good available to all who believe in Jesus Christ.
Conclusion
The Bible’s idea of hope is very different from our normal thinking about it. The world’s current idea of hope is more like wishful thinking, like “I hope this or that will or won’t happen.” But this is not biblical hope.
Biblical hope is evident in Peter’s words, “Hope fully in the grace that is coming to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13 NKJV). To “Hope fully” means being intensely desirous and fully confident that Jesus Christ will come again with grace for his people.
Hope, then, is the full assurance and complete confidence that God is going to do good by us through our faith in Him, not only right here and now but also in the future, as heaven awaits.
Therefore, we obtain this living hope by faith in Jesus Christ, and it is this living hope that has the power to change our lives.
So I’d like to end where the Apostle Peter began.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1:3-5 NKJV)
