What Are You Hoping For?

Today we’re going to talk about hope from 1 Corinthians 15.

Our church, and every church really, is in the hope business.

And today I want to talk in a personal way about what the hope of the gospel is and invite you to make a decision to take a stand on that ultimate hope.

I’ll start by asking you to reflect for a moment on this question. If someone were to ask you, “What are you hoping for?” what would you say? What’s the big deal you’re hoping for?

Maybe it’s at your work — a promotion, or a project, or a deal.
Maybe it’s a relationship — maybe it’s a broken one or one that you don’t have.
Maybe it’s around health or the health of someone you love.

We’re all hopers.

When we’re little, we hope for parents who will love us and friends who will care about us.
We hope to make the team.
We hope to get into a good school and get good grades.
Then, we hope to get out of school with little debt.
Then, we maybe hope to get into a house. Around here, that’s a big hope.
Then, maybe to get married or get a spouse in that house.
Then, a lot of times people will go on to hope to have children. You hope you get kids into the house.
Then, once you get kids in the house, you hope you get the kids out of the house. That can be a big hope, too.
You hope to get a job.
Then, you hope to retire from that job.

Then, what do you hope for?

It’s a strange thing about us. We outgrow a lot of things. No one outgrows hope. You never get too old.

No one can NOT hope.

Some eras tend to be more hope-filled than others.

If you’re into US history, you may know about this. After the United States won the War of 1812 against England, there was such a strong sense of purpose and shared national unity that from 1812 to 1825 is actually known to American historians as the era of good feelings.

What do you think historians will call the era we’re in now?

The era of misinformation?
The gap between the wealthy and the poor?
I know — The era of cultural diversity and appreciation?
The era of unity?

Is anyone optimistic?

There are a lot of indications that we’re actually facing a shortage of hope for all of the wealth we produce.

The Center for Disease Control reported that we’ve gone through eight years where the average life expectancy in the US has declined.

That has not happened for more than a century, and it’s not primarily because of Covid, and it’s not because of heart disease, and it’s not because of cancer. Those deaths are down.

The causes of death that are soaring are drug abuse, the opioid crisis, alcohol-related deaths, and suicide.

And these are being called the diseases of despair. Two economists from Princeton coined that phrase, and it’s caught on quite rightly.

In the last 20 years fatalities to these causes that you might think of as despair deaths have almost tripled. We (our children) are dying of hopelessness.

In Western societies, both rates of marriage and birth rates are declining in spite of technology and education. Sociologists say this happens when there is a lack of hope.

Johns Hopkins says that depression and anxiety are both up across all ages and up the most between the ages of 12 and 17.

Those 12 years old face cyberbullying or social media-induced depression.

Those things didn’t even have names a generation ago, and now we don’t know what to do about them.

There’s another strange dynamic.

Of course, one form of disappointment is you hope for something and never get it. Another source is when you hope for something, and you get it, and you realize, “It’s not all that.”

Tim Keller quoted a New York columnist who had known a lot of people like Sylvester Stallone and Julia Roberts back when they were obscure.

She said a lot of people come to a place like New York to make it big, and of course, most of them don’t.

A few of them would. A few of them would get the success they were looking for, but it didn’t bring the peace they were hoping for.

Here’s what she wrote. I thought this was so fascinating.

“One of the funny things was that after they got famous, if anything, they were more unhappy, angry, and mean than they had been before, because that giant thing they were striving for, that fame thing that was going to make everything okay and was going to provide them with fulfillment and happiness, had happened, and nothing changed. They were still them.”

That’s a great line — “They were still them.”

That’s their problem. And the disillusionment made it a worse kind of suffering.

I’ve come to believe, if God really wants to play a rotten practical joke on you, he grants your deepest wish and then giggles as you realize you want to kill yourself.

We’re hard to satisfy, but this actually says something quite profound, I believe, about our identity and about human nature.

The great thinker, a Danish Christian philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard, put it like this — “If there were nothing eternal in a man, he could not despair.”

In other words, if we were just a bundle of appetites and instincts, and a lot of people are convinced that’s all we are (a lot of people try to persuade you of that), life would not be the kind of problem it is for us.

It would just be the search for survival and pleasure.

But we are not just appetites and instincts. We have another kind of longing.

The writer of Ecclesiastes said it a long time ago like this:

God has set eternity in the human heart. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

It’s in you, and you know it.

That’s why capitalism and socialism and workaholicism and money and success and pleasure cannot fill something that gnaws at our souls.

If there were nothing eternal in a person, they could not despair, but there is, and we do, and you do in quiet moments.

The deeper question is — What is my fallback hope? When I don’t get the thing I’m really hoping for and when I realize I’m never going to get the thing I’m hoping for, what do I put my hope in?

Hope in, which is what I’m talking about today, is much deeper than hope for.

Hope in is an anchor for the soul.

It’s kind of interesting. There’s a famous metaphor. Hope is the thing with feathers.

One of the biblical writers talks about it quite differently. Hope is what anchors the soul and holds you in the storm.

Hope is what keeps you going when you’ve lost what you were hoping for.

The apostle Paul did not have much to say about hoping for that our world is preoccupied with.

Biblical writers rarely wrote from enjoying great circumstances, and they rarely wrote to people who were having great circumstances, and they pretty much never write predicting the imminent arrival of great circumstances, but they have a lot to say about what the human race ought to put its hope in.

The most influential words ever written in the human language about hope are from Paul’s first letter to the church at Corinth in 1 Corinthians 15.

He starts by summarizing the gospel, the good news you can put your hope in.

Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, (1 Corinthians 15:1-3)

Paul here is summarizing this good news. He says, “You have taken your stand on it.”

We’ll come back to that language because I want to invite you to do that today.

First, I want to give you two big reasons for taking your stand on or putting your hope in the gospel of Jesus.

1. This good news is historical.

It really happened. There was a man named Jesus, and he lived like no one had ever lived. He taught like no one had ever taught.

People couldn’t forget him. They couldn’t resist him. They couldn’t understand him. They couldn’t get him out of their minds.

He never wrote a book, but more books have been written about him than anyone who ever lived.

He never posed for a painting. Yet, his face is the most recognizable face in the world. No one is a close second.

He died on a cross a failure and a reject. Yet, he chose to die. He embraced his death even though no one else understood why.

And when he died in that moment on that day, his movement was completely and utterly finished… until three days later when it was not.

Something happened that resurrected that movement, and his followers insisted that what resurrected the movement was the resurrection of Jesus, of the Messiah.

And the cross which had been, up until that time at Rome’s purpose, just a symbol of failure and humiliation and execution became, instead, the world’s greatest symbol of hope… and adorns more graves with the hope of resurrection than any other symbol.

Here’s how Paul describes this in a passage that’s unique in ancient literature. Paul says:

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also. (1 Corinthians 15:3-8)

Historians generally agree Paul wrote these words within about 20 years of the death of Jesus, so within a generation, and Paul deliberately lists the names.

Cephas (Simon Peter) saw Jesus after the resurrection.
The disciples did.
There were 500 men and women. Some of them were dead now within the last 20 years, but most of them were still alive.

The point of all of this is very clear. Paul is writing, “If you don’t believe me, you can go talk to any one of them,” which he would not have said that close to the resurrection if people could not actually do that.

In other words, whatever you think about it, the resurrection was not intended by Paul or any of those people to be understood as a metaphor or a symbol. It was not poetical.

It is historical. It happened. It is the only explanation for how in the world a church got started after a Messiah got crucified.

The resurrection then means you can put your ultimate hope in God.

Here’s how Paul expresses that. People would have kind of picked this up.

He said, “…that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures… that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”

Why does he have that little phrase in there twice?

He’s saying, “We’re part of a great story. There is such a thing as history. There is a grand narrative that means something.”

When he says that Jesus was resurrected on the third day, that’s an important part of the story.

In the Old Testament Scriptures, God was understood to be a God of deliverance, a God who hears and cares and acts. Very often in stories he would deliver, save, rescue, and heal on the third day.

Trouble comes, trouble lasts, and then on the third day…

Just a few examples of this.

In Genesis, chapter 42, Joseph’s brothers get put in prison, but they’re released on the third day.

In Joshua, chapter 2, the Israelite spies are told by Rahab to hide out, but they would be rescued on the third day.

In the book of Esther, she hears her people are going to be killed by this genocidal maniac, and she fasts and prays and is then received favorably by the king on the third day.

Abraham was afraid he was going to lose his son, Isaac, but he sees the sacrifice that will save his son on the third day.

Over and over, God is a God of deliverance and a God of salvation, and it happens on the third day.

Everyone knows about the third day.

Jesus says he’s going to be crucified, but then he says, “I’m going to be resurrected, and it’s going to happen…” Guess on what day? He says:

For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish

Jonah is another three-day story. God rescues.

so the Son of Man [ Jesus ] will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (Matthew 12:40)

Pause here for one second, because I’ve had this question before. Some people will look at this and say, “If Jesus died on a Friday but rose on a Sunday he was only in the tomb for two nights, so Jesus was wrong.”

Here’s the deal. Even in our day, we will count time in different ways depending on your perspective.

For example, imagine a pastor’s wife with three children who are lots of work. Her husband, who is normally a huge help around the house — this is a bit of a hypothetical example.

Her husband has to go on a trip. He leaves early on a Friday morning, and he returns late on a Sunday night, and she says, “You’ve been gone three days!”

And he says, “No, no! I saw you Friday morning. I’m seeing you again Sunday night. I was only gone one day (Saturday).”

She says, “You were gone three days.”

He says, “I was gone one day.”

Who’s right?

She’s right.

Why?

She is always right. That’s exactly right!

Back in the Hebrew counting system, it was an inclusive system. They would count every day that was part of an event.

So this is Jesus’ way of saying the third day… and the resurrection would be the hinge on which history would turn.

This is the hope of the world.

Now, you might not believe that or understand that. You might be just investigating all of that, but it’s kind of interesting that we now divide human history up into what happened BC (before Christ), and AD, after death (anno domini) — the year of our Lord.

This actually happened!

This leads to the other reason to put your hope in this gospel.

2. The problem with the human race was that they were still them.

They got what they were hoping for, but they were still them.

On the third day, he died on a cross for our sins according to the Scripture.

This is really personal. Here’s what Paul writes.

You might think about Paul as just kind of a writing preaching machine or something. This is really personal for him.

Paul writes:

and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. (God’s people and Jesus’ friends)

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. (1 Corinthians 15:8-10)

It’s very poignant. Paul uses a little phrase. It’s actually a single word translated “abnormally born.”

It’s a very odd word. It’s the Greek word ektrōma. It’s only used one time in all of Scripture.

You know how we’ll sometimes use images or nicknames or words for someone we want to mock.

Paul talks elsewhere about how people would say his physical presence was weak or contemptible.

They’d say, “His letters were impressive but not him in person.”

He wrote to the church at Galatia once and said, in spite of his illness or deformity (it could be either way), they did not treat him with contempt or scorn.

The Greek name he took (Paul) actually meant little one. It’s possible he suffered from something like dwarfism.

It’s suggested this word, ektrōma, was actually a term of contempt that his critics would use to mock Paul, but he turns it around here as a way to praise God’s grace to even him.

“An ektrōma like me, a messed-up, goofed-up, unimpressive, sinful, guilty and separated from God, who did horrible things, and killed Jesus’ friends. He died for my sins.”

“But by the grace of God…”

Now, this is grace. Whoever you are and whatever you’ve done.

I read about a dad who wants his children to understand this concept of grace.

So every once in a while, they do something wrong and they should be punished, but he doesn’t punish them because he wants them to remember that when they grow up someday, when they’re seeing their therapist someday, he wants them to remember that it’s not all their dad’s fault.

So every once in a while he’ll do this. He’ll say, “I’m not going to punish you. You know why I’m not going to?”

And they’ll say “Why?”

And he’ll say, “Because of grace. You know why I’m showing you grace?”

“No, Dad, why?”

“No reason at all. There’s never any reason for grace. If there was, it wouldn’t be grace.”

There’s never any reason for grace.

His oldest son acted up one time. He went way beyond the bounds, just transgressed in a serious way.

And his dad was furious. He was ready to let him have it with a punishment that would be severe.

And right at the moment as he was about to apply punishment, his son looked him in the eyes and said, “Dad, can you cut me some grace?”

But he wasn’t ready for that, so he asked his son a question.

Parents often do this. They ask a question when they’re mad. They’re not really looking for an answer. They’ll say something like, “What were you thinking when you did this?”

And of course, they don’t want to know what the child was thinking. There is no answer the child could give that would cause the parent to say, “Oh, well now I understand your thought processes. Okay, it’s all right.”

Parents just do this kind of stuff, just stupidity.

Well, he asked his son this question — “Can you give me one good reason why I should cut you some grace?”

And his son said, “Dad, there’s never any reason for grace.”

That’s the truth about grace.

God offers us forgiveness as a gift of grace, salvation as a gift of grace, eternal life with God as a gift of grace. “…Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures…that he was raised on the third day…”

This is the gospel.

Now, we come to this great crossroads to which everyone comes. The question is — How do you respond to the gospel?

I’m not asking today, “What circumstance are you hoping for?”

A lot of people just live from one moment to the next moment to the next moment, but if the eternal was not in us we could not despair.

I’m asking today not what are you hoping for, but what will you hope in?

You can live, if you want, for your achievements and your accomplishments or your security or your possessions or your job or your money. You can do that.

I was talking to someone recently who uses kind of a code with a friend for all of that stuff we get all worked up about. He says, “It will all be in the trash one day.”

They’ll just remind each other, even if something they’re really excited about comes along, “It’s going in the trash one day.”

I have some visual expressions of this.

The first one is a house.

Everyone wants to get a house, especially where we live with the housing prices.

When Kathy and I moved to California from Chicago, we could not believe how much a house costs. It was just crazy. And It hasn’t changed much in the last 25 years.

There are some amazing houses around here, and we’ll talk about not just the house but a dream house. It’s what I dream about.

Every single house, the nicest and biggest and newest house — It’s going in the trash.

The next visual is a car.

There are some amazing cars in our area. People drive cars around here I never thought I would see growing up in the midwest.

Expensive, cool, exotic, fast, luxurious.

Now, it’s not a bad thing to have a really cool car. But it is good to remember it’s going in the trash can.

The next visual is a diploma.

There are amazing diplomas you can get around here. There are unbelievable institutions you can go to, and people really want to get into them and want their kids to get into them.

How badly people want to get one of these diplomas from just the right place.

It’s not bad to get one of these. It’s just good to remember it’s going to end up in the trash.

The next visual is money.

Oh, man, the money this area generates!

It’s not bad to have money, but it’s good to remember that it’s going to end up in the trash.
That’s the way it is. Everything we long for and live for.

Paul had this fascinating statement he made to his young friend, Timothy.

Command those who are rich in this present world

Hmm. I wonder who those are.

not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain,

Really? Wealth is uncertain? Really?

but to put their hope in God. (1 Timothy 6:17)

Hope in.

You can live for what is temporal. That is, live for yourself. Live for what’s going to end up in the trash.

Or you can live for God. You can live for what is eternal. You can become a follower of Jesus and experience the grace of God and forgiveness of sins and the hope of life with God forever beyond death.

Paul’s description of this decision is what he talks about with the church at Corinth.

He says, “This is the gospel on which you have taken your stand.”

The idea is, just as with my body, I’m standing on a foundation. It’s the same with my eternal existence, with my inner being, and with my soul.

I have to take a stand on something. We’re that way. God has placed eternity in the hearts of human beings.

What have you taken a stand for?

We all kind of understand this.

I’ve done many, many weddings. I’ve never done a wedding where the groom said, “I will marry her, but I’d like to remain seated. I’m afraid if we get married standing up, everyone will look at us.”

That’s kind of the point.

When you make a vow, when you pledge your faith, you take a stand. — “on which you have taken your stand.”

This changes a life forever.

And I want to invite you to do this today.

Maybe you think, “I can’t make a stand. I have too many doubts.”

Let me tell you something about faith that’s very important — you can have a lot of doubts and still have faith.

Maybe that’s you right now.

And maybe you wonder, “How much faith do I have to have?”

Jesus said, “A mustard seed will do it.” That’s a really small amount.

Your doubts may be really big, and your faith may be really small, but that’s okay with Jesus, because here’s the thing about hope. It doesn’t matter how big your hope is; it matters what you put your hope in.

You may have lots and lots of hopes, but if they’re all going to end up in the trash they won’t help you much.

So this is your moment.

I want to invite anyone who has not taken a stand before, and you know God is prompting you right now. Your heart is kind of pumping, but you understood Jesus died on the cross for your sin, and you want to belong to him, and you want that to move from just ideas in your head to your heart in the deepest place.

This is your moment.

I’m going to say a prayer. And I want to invite you if you’ve never committed your life to Jesus clearly before and if you’ve not received the gospel and if you’ve not put your hope in God before, this is why we’re here as a church, to enable people to do this.

I’m going to invite you to stand up as an expression of that commitment, to say with your body what you’re saying with your heart — “God, I’m going to take my stand with you from now on,” and make this your defining moment.

Say, “I’m not going to live for myself anymore. It’s not going to be about the house. It’s not going to be about the money. It’s going to be about you.”

Let’s pray.

I’m going to ask everyone right now, “Would you bow your heads and close your eyes?” This is just between each person and God.

This is your moment.

If you have never clearly committed your life to Jesus and never received the grace of God and the hope of the Gospel before and you want to do that now today and want to say really clearly, “God, I’m done living for myself and depending on myself. I’m trusting you. I’m committing my life to you. I’m putting my hope in you.”

If that’s you, I want to invite you to stand up right now to declare with your physical body the intent of your heart and your eternal being.

Right now, just stand up as a way of telling God, “God, I want to belong to you. I want to know for sure. I want to commit my life to Jesus. I want to put my hope in the gospel.”

There is no more important decision in the world than that determination to say, “Jesus, I’m going to follow you.”

Anybody else? If you want to, just stand up.

I’m going to say the words of a prayer. If you’re standing and this is your intent, you just pray this in your heart along with me.

God, I confess my sin, my mess-ups, and my need for you.

This day, God, as I stand before you in this room, I’m asking you to forgive me of my sins and give me a fresh start. Make me your child.

I declare my decision to make Jesus my friend and my leader and my guide and my forgiver from this day forward throughout my life on this earth and then with you forever.

As you help me, this day I take my stand.

God, thank you for everyone who is standing right now. Thank you for their decision to say they’re going to follow you.

I ask you to pour out great blessings on them.

God, will you lead them now to just the right people and to just the right resources.

Will you whisper your love and your delight in them.

And for the rest of their lives anytime there’s something that happens that makes them unsettled or uncertain or doubtful or afraid, would you help them to remember they have taken their stand.

God, bless them. We all pray this together and ask this and celebrate in Jesus’ name, amen.

Okay, you can all take a seat.

Everyone else, will you just celebrate the decision these folks have made today?

That’s the greatest thing in the world!

To those of you who have made this decision, I want to say I’m so glad for you.

You may have walked into this room without a hope, but you are not walking out of this room without a hope. You have a hope that will be with you until the day you die and then beyond.

We cheer you on.

We’re your spiritual family. You have a new life before you.

If you’ve never been baptized before, we’re currently planning our next baptism service. That would be a great Sunday to do it. Let me know if you’re interested in being baptized.

We’d love to cheer you on that day.

If you don’t have a group to support you in your faith, we would love to help you get connected to a small group of people who can love you and walk alongside you.

Alright, now the worship team is going to lead us in expressing our praise to the God who is the one in whom we hope, so let’s worship him now.