PASTOR MIKE’S MEDITATIONS

December“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the certainty of what we do not see.”
~Hebrews 11:1.

As we enter into the season of Advent, we do so as people of hope. Our faith comes from an assurance that God is a God who fulfills his promises. Unfortunately, it isn’t always immediately apparent as to how. The certainty of our assurance is not always based on what we see, but in whom we believe. What we see around us right now could in fact lead to a lot of uncertainty and the accompanying fear and anxiety that comes with it. Hope in Christ comes from outside ourselves and is rooted in the reality of what Christ accomplished in his coming to this earth.
As I spoke on from Romans 5 this past Sunday, our hope comes from the peace we have with God as a result of the reconciling work of Christ. Our sin has separated us from God, but Christ brings us and God together by serving as our mediator and Great High Priest. God has resolved our past failures by forgiving us through Christ’s sacrificial death.
As a result of what Christ has done, we also have access to the Father. There is hope is knowing that we can come to the Father through Jesus the Son at any time. Christ has given us prosogogon access or openness to the Father. He has opened the door to relationship with God and we can access it at any time. We have hope in the present because God is present and available to us.
Biblical hope is also about the future. In Romans 5 Paul talks about rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God. That means that we take joy in knowing that one day we will see Christ face to face, we will experience his glory. In Revelation, it talks about the fact that in the new heaven and the new earth, there is no sun because the Lord is the source of light. His radiance will shine so brightly that we will not need any other source of light. In the midst of our present darkness, we can look forward in faith and hope that we will one day be with the Light of Life for all eternity.
That doesn’t mean that biblical hope is about things being easy. Rather, Paul is crazy enough to call us to “rejoice in our sufferings.” It is not that we take joy in our hardships themselves, but in what they produce. Suffering produces perseverance, perseverance character, and character hope. Many of you know by now that one of my favorite Greek words is thlipsis, which means tribulations or pressures that produce. Christ said that in this world we will have such troubles and that we will experiencing them increasingly as the time draws near for Christ’s return. So, the question is, what are your present troubles or challenges producing in your life? Is it anxiety, fear, irritability, or anger, or is it perseverance, character, and ultimately hope?
Finally, we found in Romans 5 that our hope is rooted in Christ, having poured out his love into our hearts. Our hope finds inward assurance as we find the love of Christ alive in our hearts motivating us to reach out to others in love that is demonstrated or proved when put into action. That is what Christ has done for us. He “demonstrated his own love for us in this, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
So, this Advent let us find our hope in Christ. He has accomplished peace between us and God, gives us access to God, enables us to rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, hope that our present sufferings can produce godly characteristics, and that His love is indeed alive in us!



With You on the Journey,
Pastor Mike 2020