HOPE FOR THE FUTURE Sermon preached by Pastor C. John Steer Autumn Ridge Church January 5-6, 2019

Transcription

1 1 HOPE FOR THE FUTURE Sermon preached by Pastor C. John Steer Autumn Ridge Church January 5-6, 2019 Scripture: Jeremiah 29:1-14 Text: Jeremiah 29:11 In the movie The Shawshank Redemption Morgan Freeman plays the role of a convict wrongly imprisoned for 40 years before new evidence freed him. The prisoner says to his friend, Hope is a good thing. Maybe the best of things. I agree and that s why I have chosen hope as the theme of my final sermon series this January. We begin by looking at that tremendous text from Jeremiah. You probably know it by heart. Let s say it together. I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11) So this splendid statement offers us HOPE FOR THE FUTURE. It is a lovely promise for the New Year. We often see this text embossed on a photo of a beautiful sunset. Or a mountain range. These rural settings seem appropriate because the text fills us with a wonderful sense of peace. But this promise of God takes on new meaning when we dig deeper into the context in which it was given. So let s look at THE SETTING OF THIS HOPE. This 29 th chapter is a letter from Jeremiah in Jerusalem to the exiles far off in Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar had captured Jerusalem in 597 BC and had marched off all the fit and important people to Babylon, the capital of his own country 900 miles away. So this is a promise given to folk who are homesick, mistreated, and miserable. We can imagine the excitement of these exiles when they received this letter from Jeremiah. They hope he is going to tell them that God is going to deliver them soon. Some of their own prophets are saying, Don t worry, chaps. You will be home in two years. But Jeremiah knows that is not true. In the verse that precedes our promise he writes, This is what the Lord says: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. (v.10)

2 2 So God is going to deliver them, but not for seventy years. That s a lifetime of three score years and ten. So this promise is spoken into a setting of great suffering. When we are in trouble we want quick answers. We want God to deliver us right now. But sometimes he doesn t. He says, Wait seventy years. And we say, But that s a bad idea. And God says, No, it s a really good one. My plans are not to harm you but to give you hope and a future. Then God goes on to tell these exiles something else rather shocking. They thought it was the Babylonians who had taken them into captivity but God explains, I have carried you into exile. (v.7) Exile is God s perfect plan for his people right now. So with that background let s listen again to this promise of hope for the future. Perhaps we will hear some different notes in the song. I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11) What do we learn here for the New Year? Well, we see that God has plans for us. They are not our plans for ourselves or our plans for God, but God s plans for us. He knows these plans and has done so for all eternity. This doctrine is known as God s foreknowledge. But God doesn t keep these plans secret. He reveals them to us so we can know them. One of the most marvelous things is to be in the plan of God. This prevents us from wasting our life. The most important part of God s plan is the plan of salvation. God knew our need so he sent Jesus to give us a future. So are you part of his plan? Are you saved? Has Jesus become your Savior? That is the starting point of God s plan for you. Notice that God s plans are good. God refers to them as my good promise. (v.10) They may not always seem good in the heat of the moment, but these plans reflect God s character and he is good. How are they good? Well, these are plans to prosper us and not to harm us. Now the health and wealth crowd love to jump on this word prosper. They want to narrow the meaning of this word to wealth and health. So if I am not wealthy or healthy I am not in God s plan. But while the word can certainly mean material comfort and physical health, it is far wider in its scope. For this word prosper is the lovely Hebrew word shalom. Shalom embraces well-being, contentment, wholeness, health, safety, and rest. Shalom means order, harmony, and happiness. Shalom means that all is well. We can experience shalom when our bank account is empty or our health is miserable.

3 3 The only basis for real and lasting shalom is the work of Christ on the cross. We cannot be at peace until we know Jesus. In our sin we are at war with God. But Jesus came to make peace between God and humanity. Then God s plans are good because they offer us hope and a future. That s a grand thought as we start a New Year. Now this promise is not a guarantee that God s people won t suffer. But even when we do, there is a hope and a future in store for us. The prospect of this hope and future can sustain us in our darkest hour. In a carefully choreographed propaganda video released in 2015, Isis militants beheaded 21 Christian men on a Libyan beach. In their final moments the men are seen praying to Jesus. There are probably few things worse than being beheaded by terrorists. Yet the actions of those Christian men indicated that even in those last dreadful moments of their life, they had a hope and a future. For they knew that their death would not be the end, but the beginning of life in the presence of Jesus. So when we have moments of tragedy and suffering this year, which most of us will, we need to remember that these have come from the hands of a loving and gracious God who wants to use them to give us a hope and a future. What is the connection between suffering and hope? Paul tells us For suffering brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Romans 5:3-5) Next let us notice THE SURPRISE OF THIS HOPE. God has some surprising words for these exiles when he tells them about his plan for them. For it is to, Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. (v.5-6) So God s good plan for his people is to settle down in their new home. They are not to resent the next seven decades but redeem them. They are not to be troublemakers but peacemakers. They are to start businesses and do agriculture. Then God wants his people to do some matchmaking, perhaps by starting a singles group at the local synagogue so they can marry and have children. All this is to be done in Babylon, a city 50 miles to the south of modern day Baghdad in Iraq. Now the word Babylon is used in scripture as a designation of Satan s territory. Babylon was a city devoid of God s influence. So Yahweh sent his people there as missionaries. They were to live out their lives in a God-glorifying way.

4 4 For those seventy years were not to be wasted. Those seventy years were to provide a significant part of scripture for us. Both Daniel and Ezekiel gave us extraordinary books that came out of this period of exile. For they were two of the men who were marched off to Babylon. So without the exile our Bible would be a lot thinner. Sometimes we are in a situation that doesn t make sense to us. Perhaps we are in a job we hate, or a neighborhood we dislike, or a relationship that gives us little joy. We beg God, Get me out of here. God replies, I will eventually, but settle down. Make the best of it. Discover my grace in your situation. Be a witness to the world around you. Notice next what these exiles are asked to do. They are to, Seek the peace and prosperity of the city (that s Babylon) to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper. (v.7) Let s remember that the Babylonians were the Jews sworn enemies. They should have been calling down fire from heaven upon them. After all, the Babylonians had done terrible things to them. They had destroyed their city, ransacked their Temple, ruined their economy, removed their leaders, and enslaved their population. So let s rise up and kill every Babylonian we can find. But God says, No. I want you to pray that this city will prosper, that the Babylonians will enjoy my peace. One of the best ways to seek the peace of a city is through prayer. Prayer is the Christian s civic duty. This is the only verse in the entire Old Testament in which God s people are explicitly told to pray for their enemies. Praying for the Babylonians is a foretaste of the forgiveness of Jesus Christ who tells us, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. (Matthew 5:44) The exiles were not to think of themselves as victims and the Babylonians as the enemy. Rather God s people were to recognize that they had a vital role in the future of Babylon. For as Babylon prospered so would they. We can look at our society today and think of ourselves as outsiders and be tempted to regard those with different moral values as the enemy. But they are not. So we don t hate them but pray for them. For God has placed us here to be salt and light. How many tensions would be alleviated, how many problems solved, if we Christians would pray for the welfare of our opponents. We should, because prayer is the bedrock of our confidence in God.

5 5 This command to pray must have been encouraging. Some of those exiles probably thought they could only pray in the Temple in Jerusalem which had now been destroyed. But God hears prayers everywhere. Our prayers in church are no more powerful than the ones we offer in our car or in bed at night. This promise reveals God s concern for the city. That is appropriate for the future of the world is urban. More than half of the world s population now lives in a city and that figure will rise to 80% by It is not always easy to live, work or worship in the city. Thomas Jefferson viewed cities as pestilential to the morals and health and liberties of men. We know that many of the great cities of our nation are blighted by dilapidated housing, crime, drug addiction, and prostitution. The natural tendency is for Christians to abandon the city. But let us remember that God loves the city. The new heaven and earth is described as a city. God places us in cities for a supernatural purpose. What should God s people do when our zip code places us in Satan s precincts? Jeremiah tells us that God wants to build his city in the middle of Satan s city. Yes, God wants us to engage the needy areas of our city. Last year we opened a free medical clinic in Oak Terrace Trailer Park. It is one of the poorest areas of Rochester. Wouldn t it be something if Autumn Ridgers were to move there. What a great opportunity for you young singles. Imagine three single girls moving into one trailer and three single guys into another. You would get to know the people by having a permanent presence there. That s what this promise is all about. It s not running from the city, but embracing it. So we have seen the setting of this hope and the surprise of this hope. Now let s examine THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS HOPE for us today. We have to be careful claiming Old Testament promises. This was clearly made to Israel in a particular situation. So we have to ask, Is the promise for us? The answer is, Yes. Because the church is the new Israel. So we inherit these wonderful Old Testament promises. But let s notice this is not an individual promise but a corporate one. This is a promise for all the exiles and all the church of Jesus Christ. This is something we are to do together. We are facing a year of some uncertainty as a congregation. How marvelous that we can grasp this promise together and rejoice that God knows all about our future. For he has plans to prosper us. Yet there is also an individual element to the promise. For the very next verse tells us we are to apply the significance to ourselves.

6 6 For God says, Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." (v.12-13) So here is an invitation for us to seek God. Maybe we enter a new year uncertain as to God s existence or his ability to help us. If so we are encouraged to engage in some serious seeking. What does that seeking look like? Well it certainly involves praying. It will include reading scripture. Perhaps it will include reading books on apologetics or talking to Christians who have explored the path before us. When we do that sort of seeking, we have God s promise that we will find him. Sometimes in the place we least expect to. One Christmas when we lived in California I bought Gretchen some diamond earrings. I was told the best place to go was the diamond district in Los Angeles. This was a large room occupied by about 20 diamond dealers. I picked one of them at random and explained my mission. The elderly salesman asked my budget. When he heard the figure he brought out these tiny diamond chips. Another customer came and stood beside me at the counter. His budget was higher. He was looking for one carat diamonds, and then two carat diamonds. Then the man asked to see everything the diamond merchant had. While he was holding about a dozen huge diamonds in his hand he suddenly took off. He ran out the door and disappeared down the street. I thought it was an interesting way of doing your Christmas shopping. I paid for my diamonds and that Christmas Gretchen was thrilled to receive her earrings. She has cherished them ever since. But on New Year s Day last Tuesday she was in a terrible panic because she had lost one of her diamond earrings. She went around the house searching frantically. But there was no sign of the missing earring. Then she said It s possible I accidentally knocked it down the sink. So very carefully I removed the trap under the sink and poured the content into a bucket. Initially there was only dirty water. But then there was a little plonk and the earring fell out. My dear wife was thrilled and therefore so was I. We both agreed it was a wonderful start to the year and we decided that throughout 2019 we are going to be on the lookout for diamonds in the drain. That s what Jeremiah is telling the exiles to do. They feel their life is down the drain. But they have forgotten that God is with them in the drain. If they seek him they will find him. And finding God is a lot better than finding diamonds. Let s notice that God s plans are for the future. One of the dangers of grumbling about what God is doing now is that God probably has not finished doing it yet.

7 7 By its very nature a plan is something that will not be completed until sometime in the future. And once it is completed it will not be a plan anymore. It will be history. This is why the Christian lives by faith. A Christian is someone who trusts the promises of God for the future and acts on them in the present. In other words, a Christian acts on God s promises before they are fulfilled, for faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. So with great hope for our church and ourselves for the future we say together our Victory Verse for this week. I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11) So let us remember that this verse is not given against the backdrop of a sunset but of a slum. God has plans for the desperate cities of our world, and you and I are part of those plans.