Merry Christmas! This week on Friday, we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. A birth that divided history into BC and AD. A birth that changed our world and our eternity forever. Our current message series, Jesus the Messiah, is all about the baby that was born 2000 years ago. But the baby Jesus was not an ordinary baby by any means.
Today, our message is entitled Jesus the God-Man. We’re going to be talking about who Jesus is and how He brought hope into our world. Let’s watch a short video about the hope that Jesus brings called Bethlehem Hope. We commonly think of hope as something that we wish for. For example, I hope that it snows on Christmas. But when the Bible uses the word hope, it means something quite different than simply wishing for something in the future. Hope in the Bible is the confident expectation of what God has promised. Biblical hope is not wishful thinking, it is based on faith.
Hebrews 11:1 (ESV) Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Here we see how hope and faith work together. It takes faith to have the assurance or confidence that the things we hope for will ultimately come to pass. For, hope and faith have to do with the future, we put our hope and faith in the promises of God. What is in the future, the future that we hope for cannot be seen with our eyes, because it has not yet come to pass. Yet with faith and hope, we can have a firm conviction in things that are unseen. The Bible is filled with verses about the hope God wants to bring us.
Psalm 42:5 (ESV) Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation
When we don’t have hope, what do we have? Without hope, we are depressed, we are anxious, in turmoil about the future. With hope in God, we have faith that we will praise God again in the future. Where does Jesus come into the picture with hope?
Colossians 1:27 (ESV) … God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Let’s focus on the last phrase of this verse, Christ in you, the hope of glory. Jesus Christ came to this earth, so that He could live within each and every believer. When Jesus lives within us, He is our hope of glory. What is this glory talking about? It is spending eternity with Jesus in glory, in heaven coming down to earth, filled with the glory of God. No matter what happens on this earth, no matter how bad things may get, we can have hope through Jesus of eternal glory with Him.
So, this morning, we’re going to look more closely at how the coming of Jesus brings hope. We’re going to learn more about who Jesus is from His closest disciple, the apostle John in the very first chapter of the Gospel of John.