October 19, 2013

From Ben Fronczek... Acts 26:1-8 Our Hope in God

Acts 26:1-8 Our Hope in God

Acts 26:1-8   Our Hope in God
Opening:  One of the greatest chapter in the NT is recorded in 1 Corinthians 13. Many refer it at to as Paul’s discourse on love. Now if one takes the time to look a little further into the text, Paul’s discussion there goes deeper than just love. Actually he is writing to those in the Corinthian church who seem to think that people who were blessed with certain miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit were more important than others in the church. Paul goes on to teach them that we are all important, and that love for one another is the most perfect way. As a matter of fact he goes on to tell them that some of those gifts will disappear while others  will always remain true and will never fail.
Read 1 Cor. 13:8-10 & 13  “Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.” And then Vs. 13 “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
So Paul tells the Corinthians that those miraculous gifts of that time were only temporary, but the 3 gifts that would remain, is faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of course would be love… why?  Because it is the one virtue that would endure forever, even beyond this life.
Where would we be without our Christian faith, hope, and Love?
I cannot imagine. Those things that  we have faith in, and things that we hope for, and loving others, gives our Christian life meaning and purpose. These virtues define who we are as Christians. In today text we will read where the Apostle Paul talks about one of these virtues – his hope, as a matter of fact the hope that all believers have.
Background to our text:  Before Paul is shipped off to Rome where he would stand trial before Caesar, the new governor of Caesarea, Festus, the man who replaced the evil Felix asks King Agrippa, who was visiting Festus to sit and listen to Paul. Before sending Paul to Caesar, Festus wanted King Agrippa to help him come up with something he can put in a letter regarding why Paul was being sent to him in the first place. So in chapter 26 we have a copy of what Paul had to say as he addressed this king and his wife.   
There is a lot in this chapter we could talk about this morning, but today I would like to focus on something Paul says as he begins his defense; the very reason why he felt he was on trial. 
Paul said, “it is because of my hope in what God has promised our ancestors that I am on trial today…  (He said) King Agrippa, it is because of this hope that these Jews are accusing me.”
And what hope is he referring to? In the very next verse (26:8) he lets us know; “That God will raise the dead.”   And then in verses 22-23 he says, “God has helped me to this very day; so I stand here and testify to small and great alike. I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen—  that the Messiah would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would bring the message of light to his own people and to the Gentiles.”
The very hope of every Christian is, that one day… just as Jesus rose from the grave, we shall also rise to be with Him. Some had doubts during that time, even in the church, so Paul addressed this issue to encourage us and give us hope. 
Jesus came to give us life eternal, abundant life. And part of that comes from knowing and believing and having hope, in what is to come. Because Christ died and was then resurrected, together we share in that hope of resurrection as well !
The Apostle Peter also wrote of this hope    Read:  1 Peter  1:3-9  
“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, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
Peter said that we have been given a new birth into a living hope. It is a living hope because Jesus was resurrected and is NOW (present tense) now alive in heaven. And that hope should be alive in you! Today we see too many people in despair because they count on, or build their lives on the wrong things.  They put their faith in and hope in things that won’t last: wood hay and stubble; the things of this world. Jesus once said, “What good will it be if you gain the whole world yet loose your soul.” 
A philosopher in the early 1900’s, Bertrand Russell was an outspoken atheist. He even wrote a book called Why I Am Not A Christian. When Russell was 81 years old, he was interviewed on a BBC radio talk show. The interviewer asked him what he had to hang onto when death was obviously so close. Russell responded, “I have nothing to hang onto but grim, unyielding despair.” What an honest yet hopeless response. You see, when you live only for this life, and only for what it has to offer, and when you think that this is all there is, you can’t help but eventually fall into despair. But for those of us who are in Christ Jesus, there is hope. A living hope, because we anticipate a time when death and decay will no longer exist.
Paul wrote in Romans 8:18-19
“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.”
In verse 19, that phrase “eager expectation” is a picturesque word that means “to stretch the neck in anticipation.” Have you ever waited for someone to come home on a plane? As the people come off the ramp you stretch and strain to see them as soon as possible. Paul says creation is in that type of existence, longing to see what God is going to do.
And the next thing that Paul goes on to say in that text is. (vv. 22-24)
“We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all.”
Have you been there? When you ache or groan in this world of materialism, and pain, and frustration knowing what God has waiting for us in Glory?   If you are in Christ, you have this promise that there is something better. So as we groan, we remember our hope. Some day things will be better. That is our hope! And that hope can and should affect our present disposition. You see, this Biblical view points us to a hope that is greater than the world we live in. And, if we are in Christ, we have been infused with an eternal sense of hopefulness. So for the Christian, there is no such thing as a hopeless life. We may not like a particular situation we are in, or what’s going on in our life right now, but you should never be hopeless or without hope. 
Paul expands on this idea a little more in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18. He writes,
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
So why does Paul and others talk about our hope in Christ?
1. Because we need to be encourages and reminded that this world is not our home..
2. Because I believe he knows that this hope will keep us from settling for the things of this world.
Scott Dudley put it this way: “Never in history have so many had so much for so long and been so depressed about it.”  Fulfilment doesn’t come from that stuff.  But when we adopt an eternal mindset, stuff looses its significance. When we recognize that the things of this world aren’t going to last forever, we realize that there is no complete sense of fulfillment in collecting stuff. When we place our hope in God and what He has to offer, we don’t try to satisfy our groanings with the things of this world. In hope, we anticipate that God will satisfy us in ways that cannot be understood in this lifetime.
3. I believe Paul knew that our hope can turn our eyes away from our present pain, or hardships to God’s glory.
The good news is that, in Christ, we live knowing that the pain of this world will give way to the painless reality of heaven. The promise from the Bible is that in that time Christ will take away our pain and will dry all our tears.  That hope can and should infuses us now with the ability to turn our eyes away from our pain to God’s glory.
The hope that we have in Christ is a great power. It will sustain us. It will comfort us and give us peace. It give the Christian a sense of purpose  and a reason to live for and serve God. As Paul found out some may even laugh at us and even try to persecute us for our belief. But be assured of this, those who know that they are in Christ Jesus will always have hope.
So hang in there everyone, and never forget the hope you have in Jesus!!!

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