Properly Placed Hope in the Living One
April 18, 2022      |     By: Jonathan Brickley      |      Category: Sermons      |      Location: El Dorado
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Christ’s resurrection accomplished hope for us!  According to Psalm 42, hope is the issue at hand when our soul is downcast.  Properly placed hope ("happy certainty") in Christ Jesus is essential. Jonathan begins teaching in Luke 24 about the how the disciples on the road to Emmaus went from disappointment due to hoping in what they could see to “all joy and peace in believing” by hoping in the Risen One!  Romans 5 shows the progression of disciples being changed into Christ’s likeness: Suffering - Perseverance - Character - Hope.  "Get Your Hopes Up" (literally)!!  The morning finishes with the church singing ‘Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken’.

Psalm 42:5 (NIV)
5 Why my soul are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your HOPE IN GOD, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God”

HOPE - is the issue. “Happy Certainty”

“Expectation of good. To Wait for salvation with joy and full confidence. To TRUST in.

Luke 24:17 - “They stood still, Their faces downcast…”. (no joy, no peace)

Luke 24:17 (NIV)
17 He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?” They stood still, their faces downcast.

Luke 24:21 - “….but we had hoped that He was the one who was going to redeem Israel”

Luke 24:21 (NIV)
21 but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place.

— But their “hope” was put to death with what they saw with their natural eyes (Spiritual eyes shut)

Jesus calls them “Foolish” and “Slow to believe all the prophets have spoken”

- First “Suffering” (death/burial) the Stumbling Block. - THEN - “Glory” (Resurrection Life” (24:25-26)

Luke 24:25-26 (NIV)
25 He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken!
26 Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?”

- Then (after He took the bread / blessed it / broke it / gave it) - Their SPIRITUAL eyes were opened
“and they recognized him” and he “disappeared from their (natural) sight”

- then they ran (no longer standing still) - through the darkness to the others saying (v34) “IT IS TRUE! The Lord Has Risen...!”

Luke 24:34 (NIV)
34 and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.”

Romans 15:13
13 May the God of your hope so fill you with all joy and peace in believing [through the experience of your faith] that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound and be overflowing (bubbling over) with hope.

DIFFERENT and BETTER

Ephesians 3:20
20 “God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, and above all, you could ever ask, imagine, or think, according to His power at work in you. To Him be the glory.”

“GET YOUR HOPES UP” - Literally

Romans 5:2-5
… And we boast in the hope of the glory of God (the manifestation of His excellence & power)….we also glory in our sufferings, because we KNOW that suffering (hardship, distress, pressure, trouble, affliction, tribulation) produces perseverance (patient endurance); perseverance, (produces) proven character (spiritual maturity), and character, (produces) hope (happy certainty, confident assurance).  And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts (He flooded our hearts with His love) through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Romans 5:2-5 (NIV)
2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.
3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;
4 perseverance, character; and character, hope.
5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Growing in the LIKENESS (Pattern) of Jesus Christ
Suffering & Death = Proof of Christ Being the Messiah
Suffering & Death = Proof of Our Sonship / Discipleship / Christ-likeness

Suffering - Perseverance - Character - Hope

FAITH - HOPE - LOVE

Jesus I My Cross Have Taken
Jesus, I my cross have taken
All to leave and follow Thee
Destitute, despised, forsaken
Thou from hence my all shall be
Perish every fond ambition
All I’ve sought or hoped or known
Yet how rich is my condition!
God and heaven are still my own

Let the world despise and leave me
They have left my Savior, too
Human hearts and looks deceive me
Thou art not, like man, untrue
And while Thou shall smile upon me
God of wisdom, love, and might
Foes may hate and friends shun me
Show Thy face and all is bright

Go, then, earthly fame and treasure
Come disaster, scorn and pain
In Thy service, pain is pleasure
With Thy favor, loss is gain
I have called Thee Abba Father
I have stayed my heart on Thee
Storms may howl, and clouds may gather
All must work for good to me

Hasten on from grace to glory
Armed by faith, and winged by prayer
Heavens eternal days before thee
Gods own hand shall guide us there
Soon shall close thy earthly mission
Swift shall pass thy pilgrim days
Hope shall change to glad fruition
Faith to sight, and prayer to praise

Revelation 1:9-18
He Is “THE LIVING ONE”. - Because He lives - WE live!
Jesus now holds the keys to death and Hades. - Because He has Authority - WE have authority.

Revelation 1:9-18 (NIV)
9 I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
10 On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet,
11 which said: “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.”

12 I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands,
13 and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest.
14 The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire.
15 His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters.
16 In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.

17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last.
18 I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

Psalm 9:7-10, 18 (NIV)
7 The Lord reigns forever; he has established his throne for judgment.
8 He rules the world in righteousness and judges the peoples with equity.
9 The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.
10 Those who know your name trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.
18 But God will never forget the needy; the hope of the afflicted will never perish.