Real Hope

1 Thessalonians 4:13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.


13 Οὐ θέλομεν δὲ ὑμᾶς ἀγνοεῖν, ἀδελφοί, περὶ τῶν κοιμωμένων, ἵνα μὴ λυπῆσθε καθὼς καὶ οἱ λοιποὶ οἱ μὴ ἔχοντες ἐλπίδα.

I think it is pretty obvious that Paul uses "asleep" as a euphemism for "dead." Paul uses the subjunctive mood with the phrase ἵνα μὴ λυπῆσθε. This is the mood of possibility. It is not something that has happened yet, but it might happen. That is why it is translated as "may not grieve." This is one of the instances where it has a weak imperatival force to it. Paul is telling them not to grieve. He contrasts them with οἱ λοιποὶ οἱ μὴ ἔχοντες ἐλπίδα. This could be thought of as "the remaining." In other words, this is everyone else. Everyone who is not a Christian goes through life μὴ ἔχοντες ἐλπίδα. Note that ἔχοντες is a participle. This gives a continuous force to it. He is saying that everyone who is not a believer goes through life in a continuous state of hopelessness.

Of course, hope is big business. That concept got someone elected president. But if our hope is in any person then we are closer to this.I don't care if that person is a Republican or Democrat. There is no hope is a person apart from Christ.

This is a truth that we need to believe deeply. We say we do, but the way we live indicates otherwise. How zealous are we for evangelism? If our zeal is weak then it is because we do not believe this deeply. Do we despair when a brother or sister in Christ dies? We should be sad and miss them, but we should never despair because if they are in Christ then they have real hope. It's the same hope we have if we are in Christ.

But where this gets really tricky is the other side. Every funeral I've ever attended has promised that the deceased is in heaven. But how can someone say that unless he is sure that the person trusted Christ for his salvation? Otherwise, that person was living in hopelessness and will continue to do so for eternity.

It all begins and ends with Christ. He also is everything in between. You want real hope? It's in Christ and nowhere else.

True Hope

Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

13 Ὁ δὲ θεὸς τῆς ἐλπίδος πληρώσαι ὑμᾶς πάσης χαρᾶς καὶ εἰρήνης ἐν τῷ πιστεύειν, εἰς τὸ περισσεύειν ὑμᾶς ἐν τῇ ἐλπίδι ἐν δυνάμει πνεύματος ἁγίου.

This is part of Paul's closing. I tend to gloss over verses like this because they don't seem to pack a whole lot in them. They are just part of how he ends his letters, so why bother reading them closely? But as I looked for a verse to write on this morning this one kind of stood out. There is no exegetical nuance to draw out as far as I can tell at first glance, but there is some great stuff in here for the Christian life.


The most important question we must ask is about the nature of God. Tozer says that what a man thinks of God is the most important thing about the man. What does Paul think of God? This verse does not encapsulate all of Paul's theology, but we can learn something here. Paul refers to God as "the God of hope." He also finishes this verse with a mention of hope that we can have through the power of the Holy Spirit.


I am not going to get into all of Paul's argument, though one could preach a sermon on this and get into soteriology. The point is that God is the God of hope. The Holy Spirit has the power to fill us with hope. What is this hope all about? It comes from Christ. Because of Christ we have hope in this age and in the age to come. We have the promise of His provision in our lives. That does not mean we will be healthy or wealthy, but it does mean that God will provide what we need.  We must accept that it is possible that we need to physically die as part of God's plan.


How do we come to grips with that? We have hope in the age to come. We know that because of Christ we will ultimately spend eternity in fellowship with God. Frankly, that is all the reward we need. 


What does the Holy Spirit have to do with this? The Holy Spirit is the one who transforms us from being dead in our sins to alive in Christ. He also sustains us as we live as followers of Christ. The Holy Spirit is vital in our pursuit of God.


So as I look at this "throwaway verse" I join Paul in this prayer for both myself and for anyone who may be reading this. May we have true hope that only comes from God.

The Hope of Israel

 Acts 28:20 For this reason, therefore, I have asked to see you and speak with you, since it is because of the hope of Israel that I am wearing this chain."

20 διὰ ταύτην οὖν τὴν αἰτίαν παρεκάλεσα ὑμᾶς ἰδεῖν καὶ προσλαλῆσαι, ἕνεκεν γὰρ τῆς ἐλπίδος τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ τὴν ἅλυσιν ταύτην περίκειμαι.

This is Paul's address to the Jews in Rome.  He got there on Caesar's dime and then stayed at his own expense. It astounds me that he was voluntarily imprisoned so that he could preach the gospel.  This is how Paul operated.  Everything was about the gospel to him.

He was all about  τῆς ἐλπίδος τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ.  What is this hope?  It is Jesus.  He is the hope for Israel and for the world.  Apart from Him there is no hope.  But with Him we have a genuine hope.  It is not the hope of the fan who hopes that his team will win the championship.  This is a hope that we can be sure of.  Jesus is real and He is coming back.  That fact anchors our hope.

Is that your hope?  If not, what is your hope?  What gets you through the day?  What gets you through the trials?  I take great comfort knowing that the God of the universe who created everything cares about me.  I have a relationship with Him that I certainly do not deserve.  What about you?

A Celebration

1 Thessalonians 4:13-14
(13) But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.
(14) For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

I occasionally contemplate my own funeral. I've already told some of my relatives that I don't want a lot of crying at it if I should die before they do. I guess I'd like to be missed, but I would rather it be more of a celebration of who I was. I also would like for it to be a celebration of my going home to the Lord.

There are a couple of presuppositions in this idea though. First, I'm assuming that the Bible is true and trustworthy. If it is then I have a great hope for what happens after my body perishes. Second, I'm assuming that I've lived a life worthy of celebration. Sometimes I look around and see how I'm basically just living for myself in some way or another. Sure, I help out Amanda with the kids, but I wonder if it's more about me than her. Yes, I've ministered to others, but I knew that often in my heart it was more of a duty than a delight. Plus, I liked the approval and recognition that came from it.

This started out as a post just to fulfill my commitment to write something almost every day. However, it's turned into some good food for introspective thought. How are you living your life so that it will be looked upon fondly after your death? What legacy are you leaving? Where is your heart as you serve?

Is This My Church?

Check out this blog entry from C. Michael Patton. I wonder how much of this we have at Hope? The description of the production value of the worship time sounds familiar. Fortunately, our children's ministry still seems like it is focused on Jesus.

Like other churches in the Willow Creek Association, we have been doing a survey to say what we think about our church. Apparently Hybels & Co were surprised to find that the way they were doing things wasn't helping people grow. It turns out that the old traditional practices of Bible study, memorization, etc did more for people than another program at the church.

We're getting ready to start a 6 week study on transformation. The cornerstone to this is an inductive study of the Sermon on the Mount. All small groups are going to work on this together. The past two sermons have been extolling the virtues of Scripture. This has got me thinking.

I wonder if we make a big enough deal about Scripture from the pulpit? The messages are pretty good, but they aren't really teaching a whole lot. It's clear that our pastor is capable of good expository preaching. I think he handles the text he uses faithfully. However, I also know that I would prefer if he got a little deeper into the text. It seems like he finds passages that relate to what he wants to discuss rather than discussing what he finds from going through a text. I guess if this worked for Charles Spurgeon it is OK for Mike Lee too, but I still would like more exposition.

The answer to this problem is always "small groups." We are supposed to get deeper in our study in small groups. However, there are limits there too. I have been told not to get into what I'm learning in seminary. The groups are supposed to be open and it's supposed to feel like anyone could potentially lead one.

Maybe I'm getting a bias from seminary, but I think that there is value in education. I also think that our leaders should be equipped beyond being simple "facilitators." How are we supposed to really grow in grace and knowledge (2 Pet 3:18) without someone teaching us?

That being written, I know some small group leaders and they do a good job. There is nothing that says you need formal training as long as you have good materials. I've been out of the small group leader role for a while so I can't speak to how it is now, but I don't recall much formal training on how to rightly handle the Word of God. This makes me wonder just how important it is to the church.

I guess that there has to be a balance between making the small groups just about community and "what do you think the text means?" and the strict Sunday School structure of a Colonial Baptist. I'm not sure what the right answer is there.

The Mina Project

Our church had another sermon on money this past Sunday. I knew pretty much what the whole sermon was going to be because I had heard it before. I knew that we would hear the phrase "God owns it all". I thought about how we spend our money and I figured that I would get through a Sunday with very little conviction about the sermon.

Then at the end a surprising thing happened. Our church normally gives away about $35,000 during the Christmas season. Instead of doing it the usual way the church decided to give everyone 18 and over an envelope with an amount of cash between $10 and $500. The challenge is to use the money to help someone in the community. We can't spend it on ourselves and we can't give it back to the church. We do have to tell the church what we're doing with it, however.

This suddenly made the message a LOT more challenging. I'm pretty good at funding others and other organizations. I've flirted with the idea of being a missionary. However, this is where the rubber meets the road. What can I do with this money to the glory of God? How can I show the love of Jesus and make Him seem infinitely valuable through the use of this money?

Incidentally, Amanda and I each got $20. I'm glad it wasn't $500. I think God realizes that I need to start small with this. I'd welcome any ideas anyone has.

A Postmodern Apologetic

I had a great chat with one of my pastors today. I told him my conclusions after doing the research for my paper. Basically, I see the need for a postmodern apologetic, but I also think that at some point there needs to be a presentation of truth. I don't think he disagrees. We'll see what my professor thinks.

As I left his office and drove home I started wondering what that would look like. If we see the Emerging Church as being a place for postmoderns, but not necessarily staffed by postmoderns, then perhaps it isn't such a bad thing. I wonder if we're missing the point through all of the noise. No one doubts that Greg Laurie crusades are fine things for modern thinkers. However, I think we need to recognize that something different must be done for postmoderns. Is it possible to minister to postmoderns without becoming postmodern ourself? I think Hope tries to do that.

It's an interesting question to roll around in my head for a while. I really think I could do a thesis on this as I'm that interested in it.

The "Wow" Factor

My pastor preached on Moses tonight. He focused on the story of Moses' life and how he became a leader. Basically, you had someone who lived for 40 years in the lap of luxury, but who ended up having to run in fear after killing the Egyptian. Then he got settled as a shepherd for his father-in-law Jethro, but God called him to lead the Hebrews out of Egypt. Moses came up with just about every excuse he could think of, but God was ready for that and countered all of them. The application for us was that we need to step up as we're called. It was a good challenge to a church that has more than its fair share of "pew warmers".

That was good, but I felt like it was sort of old news. What was better was when he talked about the "wow" factor of ministry. He's been a senior pastor for over 20 years (maybe 25). He has seen God do some amazing things in people's lives. However, he said that after a while sometimes we tend not to marvel at what God is doing because we just get accustomed to seeing His grace in action.

I can very much relate to this. I spoke to him briefly after the end of the service and told him so. I've seen so many men's lives brought back from the pit of pornography that sometimes I lose wonder at seeing another marriage restored. I've read dozens and dozens of testimonies of people losing incredible amounts of weight. It's a shame when I take it for granted that a 350 pound women completely enslaved to food can lose 35 pounds in 8 weeks and keep moving forward. People who wouldn't miss a meal (or an in-between meal snack) start fasting and loving it. Only God transforms lives like that.

This is why I make a point of praying that I would marvel at God's Word and His work. I think we all could stand to sit in more awe of what He does.