The Hope of Advent
Titus
2:11-15
Introduction: You have
probably noticed the decorations around the church (and around town!) have
begun to appear. We saw some decorations going up already last week, before
Thanksgiving! For many people, Christmas is a time for adorning the house
and decorating the carefully selected tree with the symbols that are associated
with Advent. Those traditions are ok, as long as we maintain our focus on
the One who is the reason for the season.
This week as we begin our month-long
Advent celebration, we focus on the “Hope” that came with the Advent of Christ.
We’ll turn to a passage in Paul’s letter to Titus that reminds us that sound
doctrine, right teaching of God’s word, is something that we can adorn, it visibly
impacts us and changes us. It gives us hope, while revealing the
beauty of the Gospel to those around us: “…in every-thing they
may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.” Some
translations say, “make attractive” the teaching. We want to show God off to the
world! When people see that we have hope in the midst of this chaos it
gets their attention because “hope” is something everyone desperately longs for.
The ESV reads…
…so that in
everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. 11 For the grace of God has
appeared, bringing salvation for all people,
12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions,
and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope,
the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to
redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own
possession who are zealous for good works.
15 Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority…
(Titus 2:10-15a).
Have
you ever faced a situation that seemed helpless? Such must have been the feeling
of John Aldredge and Anthony Sosinski. They were commercial fishermen, heading
out from Montauk, Long Island in the summer of 2017.
As they headed out to sea,
about 40 miles offshore, Anthony was sleeping below deck while John was working
to get things ready for the catch they would soon begin to haul in. John was
pulling on a handle with all of his might when it snapped, sending him
sprawling backwards, and right off the boat. As soon as he surfaced he began
screaming for help, but he knew there was no way for Anthony to hear him below
deck. And he didn’t. John watched the boat pulling away, over the crest of a
wave, and that was it, he couldn’t see it anymore. He was alone, treading water
in the open Atlantic, without a life vest, thinking this was the way he was
going to die. I can’t imagine what that must have felt like. A hopeless
situation? Or was it?
Have you ever been in a situation where
you began to lose hope, where it seemed there was nothing but darkness as you
looked ahead? What can give us perspective,
and hope, as believers in Jesus, we have a sure hope that is based on the
truth that Jesus Christ has defeated death, He knows us, and one day we
will see Him face to face. One little boy said “Hope is wishing for
something that you know ain’t gonna happen!” Biblical hope is different.
Hope means to anticipate something with a confident expectation that it is
coming. We find comfort in the promise that the suffering of this present
age is not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us
(Rom 8:18). It seems that Paul is saying that as we live in submission to God’s
revealed truth, we reveal the intrinsic beauty of who God is, and what he has
done in us and for us. For Paul theology is always practical and it must filter
from our mind to our heart, and to our hands and our feet. The truth He has
revealed empowers and motivates us to live by faith.
The Maine*
Idea: The first coming of Jesus revealed God’s grace and motivates
us to live faithfully in the sure hope of His return. We’ll take a verse
at a time…
I.
The Advent of Christ offers hope: “For the grace of God
has appeared, bringing salvation for all people…” (11).
Grace
has appeared, because the Grace Giver, the gracious Redeemer, burst upon the
stage of human history over 2000 years ago. Grace has appeared since He came of
his own free will, with a purpose, to give himself to provide salvation for all
who would believe. We are so familiar with the story we can almost
forget how astounding it is in the way that it unfolded. After 400 years of
silence, the God of all creation, the Lord of the universe who spoke in times
past through the prophets, spoke in His Son. He himself took on a
human nature, He came as one of us. The Jewish people in the first century
had a hope based on Scripture, hope that one day Messiah would arrive and save
His people. Contrary to expectations he came under the humblest circumstances
not to defeat armies and establish His earthly kingdom, but rather to make a
way for forgiveness and life.
Paul
goes on to say that grace appeared, “…bringing salvation for all people…”
Not to say that all people would be saved, but that the price has been paid and
the gift has been offered, the One Way of salvation through faith in Christ
has been extended to all classes of people, and to all races and nations.
In the context, Paul had just been talking to masters and servants, to husbands
and wives, to young and old, telling them to walk worthy of their calling in
Christ. Jesus is the one and only source of forgiveness and life, the
Way, the Truth, and the Life, the only name under heaven by which we can be
saved (John 14:6, Acts 4:12). The first coming of Jesus revealed
God’s grace and motivates us to live faithfully in the sure hope of His return.
The advent of Christ is the Advent of hope, and…
II. Hope
calls us to live differently: “…training us to
renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled,
upright, and godly lives in the present age…” (12).
First
of all, we are to live differently in terms of what we don’t do: “…teaching
us to renounce ungodliness and worldly lusts…” Sin is a choice. We
have certainly seen that in our series on Jonah. The prophet willfully turned
his back on God and rejected His Word. As we live our lives in this fallen
world, our hope in Christ is something that motivates us to live more and more
in the light of eternity. Increasingly our forward focus on Jesus and
what He has prepared for us will enable us to say no to sin: “I
have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ
lives in me. And the life I live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God
who loved me and gave himself for me…” (Gal 2:20). We have hope!
Positively, we are called to live in a way that manifests the fruit of the
Spirit, the presence of God in our lives: “…we should live soberly,
righteously, and godly in the present age…” Did you know that you are
living, already, in the future? We have, right now, eternal life. We are living
in this world, but we are citizens of heaven. We walk in this present age, but
we already are partakers of the age to come. As Paul told the Colossians “He
has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom
of his beloved Son…” (Col 1:13). Our sure hope about the future motivates
us to live differently, to adorn, that is, “make attractive,” the
doctrine of God. And so, the first coming of Jesus revealed God’s grace and
motivates us to live faithfully in the sure hope of His return.
III. Hope
calls us to live expectantly… “…waiting for our
blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus
Christ…” (13).
Hope
involves waiting confidently, expectantly. The word “hope” usually has a
different connotation in modern English, it’s something we desire or want or
long for, but we don’t necessarily have confidence that it will happen.
We “hope” it will, but there may be doubt, our “hope” might be no more
than wishful thinking. One child said, “Hope is wishing for something you
know ain’t gonna happen.” Well biblical “hope” is different. It implies
anticipation, confidence, faith, based on God’s revealed Word, an
assurance that God is good, and a sure expectation that God’s story is going to
unfold according to His plan.
Waiting
for what? The first coming of Christ revealed grace, God’s unmerited favor,
and provided the basis of the gracious salvation provided in the Cross. His
second coming will reveal more fully his unveiled glory. We see a glimpse of
His glory now, but wait until we see what John saw in Revelation 1:13-18,
“…and
in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a
garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden
band. 14 His head and hair were white like wool, as
white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; 15 His
feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the
sound of many waters; 16 He had in His right hand
seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance
was like the sun shining in its strength. 17 And
when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me,
saying to me, "Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. 18 "I
am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen.”
Waiting for who? The language here is quite emphatic, “…our Great
God and Savior, Jesus Christ…” He is our Savior. Because of Him we
have hope. He is God, so our hope is sure. Think of that: The first coming of
Jesus revealed God’s grace and motivates us to live faithfully in the sure hope
of His return.
IV.
The Advent of Hope was costly and purposeful: “…who gave himself
for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for
his own possession who are zealous for good works.” (14).
Christmas is a time for giving, but there is no doubt that the true gift
of Christmas was presented 2000 years ago. The gift-giving can distract us from
the greatest gift of Christmas, which came at such cost….
In an
episode of the comic strip “Peanuts,” Charlie Brown cracks open his piggy bank.
He says to Lucy, “Look, I’ve got $9.11 to spend on Christmas gifts.” Lucy
is not impressed as she says, “You can’t buy something for everyone with $9.11,
Charlie Brown.” Charlie Brown says, “Oh yeah? Well I’m gonna try!” “Then” Lucy
continues, “they’re sure gonna be cheap presents.” Charlie says
with absolute conviction, “Nothing is cheap if it costs all that you have.”
On the very first Christmas, God gave us
all that He had: Himself, in the person of his Son, Jesus. Thirty-three years
later Jesus would give us all that he had: his very life. Now it is our turn to
give a gift to Jesus, and it should, likewise, cost all that you've got.
Ultimately it was not a present under a
tree, but the One who was given, hung on a tree. He
“gave himself for us,” that not only means that He came for us, but
that he came to die for us. He gave himself to redeem us from
the penalty of sin. “Redeem” translates lutroo, “free by
paying a ransom.” We were guilty, condemned sinners, unable to free ourselves.
There is an old famous story of A.J.
Gordon who was the great Baptist pastor of the Clarendon Church in Boston. It’s
worth retelling…
“One day
he met a young boy in front of the sanctuary carrying a rusty cage in which
several birds fluttered nervously. Gordon inquired, "Son, where did you
get those birds?" The boy replied, "I trapped them out in the
field." "What are you going to do with them?" He said, "I’m
going to play with them, and then I guess I’ll just feed them to an old cat we
have at home." When Gordon offered to buy them, the lad exclaimed,
"Mister, you don’t want them, they’re just little old wild birds and can’t
sing very well." Gordon replied, "I’ll give you $2 for the cage and the birds."
"Okay, it’s a deal, but you’re making a bad bargain." The exchange
was made and the boy went away whistling, happy with his shiny coins. Gordon
walked around to the back of the church property, opened the door of the small
wire coop, and let the struggling
creatures soar into the blue.”
That’s redemption. The wages of sin is death. That is what we deserved. Jesus
paid the price that we couldn’t pay. He did what we could not do for
ourselves. He who was without sin, was made sin for us, that we might become
the righteousness of God in Him. The Advent of Hope was costly, it was also
purposeful. He gave himself to make
possible a new life, to give us a new heart. Remember that beautiful passage in
Ezekiel 36:25-27,
“I
will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your unclean-nesses,
and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I
will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will
remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of
flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and
cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”
For
that hope to be ours, a price had to be paid, God’s justice, His wrath against
sin, had to be satisfied. Jesus, the Son, came to be the Lamb who would take
the penalty, and by grace through faith, we receive His righteousness.
That grace was revealed in the first coming of Jesus and motivates us to live
faithfully in the sure hope of His return.
V. Hope
engages us in mission: “Declare these things; exhort
and rebuke with all authority…” (15).
Paul
admonished Titus to declare the truth, to speak about the hope we have
in Christ, not apologetically, but confidently. It was a mission that Paul
himself embraced and lived, and it was something that he expected to see in his
disciples. We too are called to be his witnesses, to boldly stand up for Christ
and to speak the truth in love, with passion and conviction. One of the key
themes we’ve seen in our study of Jonah is his initial unwillingness to share
the message of God with unbelievers. I think the implication of the book is
that by the end Jonah gets it, and his readers are invited to accept the call
as well. Have you looked for opportunities to share that message of Hope with
those in your sphere of influence? The call to share the message of hope that
Jesus offers is a key aspect of the ongoing mission of the church. The
first step in making disciples is telling people the truth about Jesus, about
who He is and why He came. Look around, the fields are white for the harvest.
We are surrounded by people who desperately need Jesus. At this time of
the year people are perhaps more open to hear what we have to say about the One
who gave himself to give us hope.
What
is God saying to me in this passage?
The first coming of Jesus revealed God’s grace and motivates us to live
faithfully in the sure hope of His return.
What
would God have me to do in response to this passage?
As you might have figured out, John Aldredge survived his harrowing
ordeal when he fell overboard.
He didn’t panic. First, he
realized that he could invert his boots, trapping some air inside, and he put
them under his arms as a flotation device. He had a flicker of hope… at least
he could keep afloat. Four hours later, Anthony, back on the boat, woke up, and
found the broken handle. He realized what must have happened and called the Coast
Guard. John made it alive until morning, and tried to keep his hope alive. He
was close to despair when he spotted a fishing buoy, which he was able to reach
and latch onto. A surge of hope! Only about an hour later, a Coast Guard helicopter
flew nearby and spotted him, waving and splashing! By the time he was pulled aboard, about 12
hours had passed since John went overboard.
Truth
be told, John didn’t have a reasonable expectation of rescue. But he never lost
hope. As we enter the Advent season this year may I ask you, do you have
hope? I don’t mean wishful thinking or
denial, but real hope, firmly grounded in the truth that God is,
and He has spoken in the Son, assurance that He became a man, He lived among
us, He bore our sins on the tree, He rose from the grave and He will return. That
is biblical hope, that is our sure hope!
The Lord’s Table reminds us why
He came, and we celebrate what He accomplished. If you are unsure about where
you stand with Jesus, there is no need to doubt. The gift of Christmas has been
purchased: salvation, life, a sure hope for tomorrow. Jesus didn’t
brave the lines on Black Friday to buy some Christmas presents to place under a
tree, He faced the Cross on Good Friday, to purchase the gift of life and hope.
But like any gift, it must be received, …whoever believes in Him will not
perish, but have everlasting life… whoever calls on the name of the Lord will
be saved. His gift is received by faith: Life and Hope in Jesus. AMEN.
No comments:
Post a Comment