Sermon notes from Sunday 17 December 2017
Luke 2 verses 8 - 20
The angels here in this portion of scripture left the very splendours of heaven and came with a message to us here on earth. It tells us how they came down to the hillside that night and how the shepherds quaked with fear. Remember the shepherds were used to dealing with wild animals yet they became afraid when the angels appeared. The angels recognised that fear and told them not to be afraid. Here was a message of hope for a people in a world without hope. That is the thing we don`t have in this world - hope. We do not have a hope. Here was a hope that came from God`s own heart transmitted through the angels. Men and women are perishing today because there is no hope in this world. People are hoping in all sorts of things - the name they have, the good deeds they do, the church they attend, yes even the eldership they hold in those churches. 1 Timothy 1 says "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope." The hope we have today is not in a creed, not in a book of laws, the good life I am trying to live. My hope is in the Lord and in his saving grace. Imagine if there was no Christmas, we would know nothing of that Christ that was born, we would have no hope.
There was a time when we had no hope. Paul takes his paintbrush through his pen in Ephesians 2. He takes them back to a time in the past. Maybe we forget about this but Paul didn`t want his readers to ever get away from that. If we did that we might get bigheaded and think more of ourselves as a result. Paul takes the readers right back to the time before they were saved. Psalm 113 verse 7 "He raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill." The dunghill was a place of refuse, everything was brought there and dumped. The Lord shows us we were on the dunghill, we were useless, helpless and without hope until he came down to that place and picked us up out of it. "That he may set him with princes, even with the princes of his people." (verse 8) We had no hope within or without. God in his riches shows us our great need and sets us among princes. "And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." He forgives us of our sin and he justifies us for ever. "Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." We once thought we were on our way to heaven and home but Paul tells us "at that time ye were without Christ." Imagine what it is like without Christ. "Ye were strangers from the covenants of promise having no hope." What a tragedy to have no hope and without God in this world. We might have thought life was not too bad, that there were some good things in life but Paul tells us that you were without Christ and without hope. What about now? In John`s gospel we read "the thief cometh not but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy, I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." (John 10 verse 10) He wants to give us spiritual life, life more abundantly that we will enjoy in this scene of time. Remember the woman who came out of duty into the synagogue one day. When the Lord entered into the synagogue that day he looked at her - why - because she was doubled in 2. Jesus beckoned her to come to him. This lady could not straighten up. The Lord pointed to the source of her problem. Jesus said "Satan hath bound this woman." How long had she been like this? 18 years. What sort of hope would she have had? There was no hope until the day she met Christ. Is that not the way we were? Until you knew something of his miraculous plan of salvation. Perhaps you had never thought deeply of his death on the cross, never thought of taking him as Saviour. Think of the man who brought his son to Jesus one day. This man`s life was destroyed by the power of Satan. His son was possessed by a demonic spirit. This spirit would cast him into the fire and waters because he wanted to destroy him. One day the man brought his son to the disciples but they could do nothing for him. I`m sure his head was down after that experience until he took him to Jesus. All hope had gone. That is the way we were. To have that wonderful announcement made of this great hope made. There is hope in death for us. You and I did not have that hope. We were unsaved. Now we have hope in life and death. Remember Mary and Martha`s home. Jesus often felt welcome in that home. Sickness entered that home. Lazarus their brorther was sick. Mary and Martha could do nothing, they had to watch him slip away. They sent for the Lord. He was the hope they were looking for. Jesus didn`t come. Lazarus slipped away. They knew if the Lord would come he would raise him to his feet again. Mary and Martha both said to Jesus when he did arrive "if thou hast been here my brother would not have died." What a hope to have in the jaws of death. A hope that the unbeliever does not have. Death is a sober, solemn thing, it is the last great enemy. We will all face it. You and I will walk through the valley of the shadow of death. What about the hope you have? Paul could say to the Thessalonians who were concerned about those who had died before them, `believers we have a hope for them who have died already`. "I would not have you ignorant brethren that you sorrow not even as others which have no hope." (1 Thessalonians 4 verse 13) Hope continues beyond the grave today. Mary and Martha watched as hope slipped away. Lazarus` death didn`t shake their confidence - they knew Jesus would raise Lazarus again at the coming again of the Lord Jesus. You and I have a hope in life but also in death. When death comes that is not the end. For the thief on the cross it was different. As he looked at Christ on the cross he was convinced in his mind and heart that here was someone dying not for the sins of himself but for each and every person. The moment he cried out to God he rested in hope that he would go in death to the paradise promised to him by Christ himself. That is the hope the angels pronounced here to the shepherds in verse 14.
There is the hope of a great reward. In 1 Corinthians 9 Paul gives an insight into the work he loved. He was in the ministry of saving grace. That is what he believed in. He encouraged the believers through the hope of eternal life. "For our sakes, no doubt, this is written, that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope." He was taking the language of the farmer. There was work to be down in the ploughing up of the land. That is a job for the expert. The apostle Paul says that man that ploughs should plough in hope. He has hope in his heart. There is another man that thresheth and he has to thresh with that same hope. Paul is talking about our work in the church of Jesus Christ. There is a great hope beyond the grave and that is the reward we will receive. As you and I preach and witness for God we are doing it for the great reward we will receive. What is our hope. "For what is our hope or joy, our crown of rejoicing? Are not ye even in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?" (1 Thessalonians 2 verse 19) Paul had witnessed among the Thessalonians, he had won them for the Lord. What is the great hope I have in my heart? One day when we are gathered around the throne of heaven that you will be gathered there too. What is our work all for down here? For the reward that God will give us one day
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