The Message of Hope is the Message of Christmas

Editor’s Note: This is a presentation given by my pastor, Rev. Jeff Kersey of Mt. Horeb United Methodist Church, on December 4, 2022. It’s a message of hope that we all stand in need of.

You and I can live 40 days without food, 3 days without water, and 8 minutes without air, but we cannot last but seconds without hope. When hope is gone, life as we know it is gone.

Victor Frankl, Holocaust survivor, and psychiatrist who was at Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II wrote these words: “One of my friends in the camp dreamed that the war would end on March 30^th. He was convinced it was a real revelation. But when the news came from the front that the war was not going to end on March 30^th, on March 29^th he began to run a temperature. On March 30^th he lost consciousness. On March 31^st he died. His loss of hope had lowered his body’s resistance to all the diseases in the camp.” Frankl went on to write that life only has meaning when we have a hope that suffering, circumstances, and even death cannot destroy.

One of the signs of our times is an increasing amount of despair, darkness, and hopelessness. People are searching for hope in all the wrong places; in rebellion, in relationships, in religions, in finding the right book that will give them the message they want. Dr. Robert McNair Wilson, a British cardiologist, wrote, “Hope is the medicine I use more than any other. Hope can cure anything.”

There’s only one source of real hope. That source is found in Jesus Christ. Before Jesus was born the Israelites were looking for a rebellion. They were looking for a rebel messiah that would overthrow the political regime, the Roman Empire. But God had a different plan for hope. We read about it in Luke’s Gospel:

“That night there were Shepherds staying in the fields nearby guarding their flocks of sheep. And suddenly the angel of the Lord appeared among them and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them and they were terrified. But the angel reassured them, “Don’t be afraid. Don’t give up hope. I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The savior, yes the Messiah, the Lord, has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David. And you will recognize Him by the sign; you will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth lying in a manager. They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph and there was the baby lying in the manager. After seeing Him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened, and what the angel said to them about this child. All who heard the shepherd’s story were astonished.”

Sometimes we are disappointed when hope doesn’t show up when we want it to. Hope doesn’t always come at the best time, but hope always comes at the right time. Paul said it this way in Romans chapter 5: “When we were utterly helpless, hopeless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.” God always shows up on time.

What is hope? Dr. Judith Rich puts it this way: “Hope is a match in a dark tunnel, a moment of light, just enough to reveal the path ahead and the way out.”  This community and this world need to see evidence of hope. That hope overflows through us by the power of the Holy Spirit. Christian hope is not based on optimism. It’s not based on your odds improving. Hope is based on a person; God in the flesh, Emmanuel, God with us. Someone has said that hope is a verb – something you’ve got to make happen. “I’ve got to find some hope … I’ve got to make some hope happen in my life … Where can I find some hope?”

If you’re a Christian you believe that hope is a noun, because hope is a person, and that person is Jesus Christ – the source of hope and life. It is my prayer that we will overflow with hope, and when that happens, we will have a fresh focus on Jesus, and we’ll know that Jesus really is the reason for the season, not just this season, but all the seasons of our life. Whenever hope overflows, we are filled with God’s power.

One of the great ways the early church grew was through signs, miracles, and wonders. And I believe that when God’s people are filled with hope, they are filled with God’s power. When we have God’s power, we experience signs, wonders, and miracles. The wonder of Christmas is truly a miracle; that God came in the form of a baby who was born in a manager. When we’re filled with hope we discover God’s purpose. One purpose we all have is to make this world a better place for the glory of God. And then when we receive hope, we can face the future with hope that never dies.

Throughout this weekend there have been people here or listening online that in the past year have lost someone very close to them; they passed on into eternity. As Christians with hope, we know that because of the power of the resurrection we will see those people again. That was not a final goodbye, it was just looking forward to when we see them again. As we go through the difficult times of life right now, we have hope because we know that God is with us. As we look to the future, we know that our future is in God’s hands because God has provided a way through His son Jesus Christ.

I love these words from Ephesians 1:18, and I pray this for all of us. Paul says, “I pray that your heart will be flooded with light.” As I watch people walk in and out of these doors, I know some of you walk into this place feeling hopeless. Maybe you feel like life is just too hard. I want this experience today to shine light into your life so you can see the hope of God. That’s been our prayer – that anyone listening who is without hope finds that hope in Jesus Christ. Hebrews 6:19 says, “This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary.”

No matter how difficult it gets, the anchor of hope in Jesus Christ will hold. Our hope is not in the promise that our situation will change. Our hope is in the promise that God will never change. Our God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He is a solid anchor.

Someone said, “Jesus could be born a thousand times and it would not matter if He’s not born in me.” We can preach about hope and speak about hope, but hope won’t matter until you receive hope. It is my prayer that today you’ll receive the hope of God into your life by receiving Jesus Christ into your heart.

If you’re a Christian here today, God is calling all of us to do the same thing those shepherds did; to go and tell the world there is hope … to go and tell the world that Jesus Christ is born … to go and tell the world that God loves them, and spread the good news of Christmas.

So my prayer today is that you’ll be inspired to go and be messengers of hope. And if you came here searching for hope not knowing you would find it, because of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, light has been given to you so that you can see the hope of God.