What is Hope Made Real?
Well, the holidays are already underway and HSCC received a festive makeover this last weekend—if you haven’t been by yet you’ll have to come by and bask in the holiday spirit.
On top of seasonal busyness, the holidays can stir up a lot of heart-content too. Last week, Danny reminded each of us to breathe. Such a good reminder! Let’s take another breath this week as we consider another theme from our Advent sermon last week, Hope…
Hope is often spoken casually as a wish, a desire—something that would occur if luck or providence worked on our behalf.
Like, I hope there’s no traffic.
Or, I hope Christmas dinner is ready on time.
Or, I hope that this sermon ends soon ;)
This sort of hope is tied to our conversational language, and while Biblical Hope contains desire at the core of it, it means more than just a wish or a longing.
Biblical hope is near to our desires, but is not complete without continual conversation with God about these desires and growing alignment with His heart and purposes. This can mean laying them before Him, telling Him what you care about regarding this desire. Also, it may mean studying and learning in His word, and also being open to hearing His desires too.
Eventually this can lead to an integration of His desires in and through the desires which He planted in us, a God-sourced hope flowing through our human sized lives.
Biblical Hope, or what I called in the sermon Real Hope, is Hope that is intimately attached to God Himself. The God who spoke the world into being. Our God who is in authority over the nations. Our Father who sent His Son to be born among us. How might our hope be effected by being in relationship with God?
Consider Romans 15:13:
God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Did you know that God, our God is the Source of Hope?
Other translations say He’s the God of Hope, the God of your Hope, even the God of green Hope. Wow, did you know that Hope is one of the core qualities of Our Father?
When you talk with God, do you picture Him as hopeful?
Do you think that He has hope(s) for you?
For your situation?
For your life?
For our world?
What might God hope for? What if we could find out the hopes that He has for us?
As we explored the theme of Hope in the scriptures, we looked at the character of Simeon in Luke 2:22-35. Simeon represents for us (and Luke’s original readers) a devout Israelite who faithfully waited for the Messiah throughout years of suffering, trials, and disappointment.
Did you know Israel had prophesies of the coming Messiah thousands of years before Jesus arrived? That’s a looooonnnnngggg time to wait.
And even as the Old Testament writings finished, there were still 400 years of waiting on God, where He was silent until the conception of His Son.
Luke 2.25 says Simeon was,
“waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.”
Unlike many Israelites who gave-up in the wait, giving-into compromise, division, unbelief, and despair—Simeon lived in Real Hope, so much so that in the midst of a busy Temple, he could spot the tiny Messiah-baby tucked in the folds of Mary’s garments.
We see Real Hope revealed in four ways in Luke 2:
1. Simeon lived into his namesake, a deep listener and responder to God.
Simeon, whose name means literally means one who listens deeply and obeys, kept His eyes on Jesus and found the powerful experience of Real Hope comforted, aligned (and may have even healed) his waiting heart in the years before breakthrough. His name comes from the Hebrew Shema, which is a Hebrew prayer to wrap one’s whole life and living around the Lordship of God.
2. Simeon lived righteous and devout before the Lord.
In a time where Israel was occupied by Rome, and influenced by competing philosophies, religious, and ambitions, Simeon was called “righteous and devout”. This means his listening life was displayed in such a way that He was in “right” heart and mind toward the Lord and toward others who knew him. This also meant he honored and feared God above all else, following the law, and maintaining vital relationship with God. And devout meant that His whole attention was on the Lord, so much so that he developed a powerful relationship with the Holy Spirit in a time where scholars consider Israel’s faith being dry as a wilderness. Even then, Simeon flourished in hope.
3. Simeon was waiting for the consolation of Israel
Simeon remained anchored to the promises of God, the words God had spoken, and entered willingly into the tention of waiting. Waiting on God is especially hard because He allows circumstances to contradict and even appear directly opposed before He breaks through. He is the God of the impossible. And, in Simeon’s day and age, the hope of the Messiah, the promises of restoration, healing, justice, and peace were seeming like total impossibilities. Yet, Simeon kept growing in his relationship with the Lord, and even received personal promises from the Holy Spirit about the coming One.
4. The Holy Spirit was active & leading Simeon’s hope
The Luke 2 passage records the Holy Spirit “upon” Simeon, “revealing to” Simeon, leading Simeon into the Temple at the right time, and even the word consolation that Simeon waited for is the word paraclete, a foreshadow of Jesus’s favorite name of the Holy Spirit—the comforter. In a time before Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the disciples, it’s hard to imagine a man with a more active relationship with the Holy Spirit. Simeon seems to have cultivated a sensitivity to the voice and activity of God, always mediated for us through God, the Holy Spirit. How did Simeon wait so well and with such faith—we see here it’s rooted in this living relationship with God, the Holy Spirit. Who promised Simeon in his waiting that he personally would see the face of the Messiah—who knew that it would be the face of a little baby boy from Bethlehem?
So as you wait in hope this Advent season, take a moment to consider…
What are you hoping for this Christmas? Do you find that you’re waiting on God for anything in this time?
What is it like to wait on God in this time? What’s been encouraging in the wait? What’s been hard? Have you spent time honestly sharing with God your experience of waiting?
What area are you sensing the voice of the Lord right now? How is it going listening to Him?
Are there any areas are you aware of that are out of alignment with the Lord? Ways that you could refresh or do maintenance your vital connection with Him?
Have you asked for the Holy Spirit’s help in your waiting? This can look like looking for and being open to His to counsel, care, encourage, or comfort you in the waiting.
What would that shift this Advent season, if His power and presence could meet you in the midst of the wait?