There’s a story about a man who arrived at a little league baseball game one afternoon. He asked a boy in the dugout what the score was. The boy responded, "They are beating us 18 to 0.” The spectator said, Boy, aren’t you discouraged?” The boy replied, "Discouraged? Why would I be discouraged? We haven't even gotten up to bat yet!” Hope always lives in the heart of a little leaguer even when things look bad! But it’s not just little leaguers that have undying hope. Christians literally have an undying hope! The apostle Peter described this hope at 1 Peter 1:3 as a “living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” Two thousand years ago, the Gospel tells us, sinful people crucified Jesus until He was dead as a doorknob. They buried Him and used every political, military, and religious means humanly possible to make sure He stayed dead and in the grave (Matt.28:62-66). But God raised Him from the dead (Acts 2:23-24, 32). But when some women showed to visit His tomb Sunday morning after His crucifixion the Friday before, they were told by an angel of the Lord, “He is not here; for He is risen” (Matt.28:6a). They were instructed, “Go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead” (Matt.28:7a). Verse 8 goes on to tell us these women “ran to bring His disciples word.” Mark’s account of the Gospel records that when they told the apostles, at first “...they did not believe” (Mark 16:11b). But it was true! And once they became convinced, they raced out to tell a hopelessly lost world that there is hope after all – “the Lord Jesus Christ our hope” (1 Timothy 1:1b)! And His disciples have been holding on to and held by and holding out that blessed and undying hope for some two thousand years, awaiting Jesus' second coming (Titus 2:13).
Hope – that powerful Bible word at the center of the Christian faith. Hope – that deep-down-inside fire that the devil's water can never, ever put out. Hope – that light that shines even during the darkest nights of our lives. An inspired man, referring to God's promises, declares at Hebrews 6:18a that, "it is impossible for God to lie.” He goes on to encourage readers to “lay hold of the hope set before us” (v 18b) and hurries on to add in verse 19, “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure & steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil.” The Christian hope is a heavy-weight thing. The Hebrews writer says, in effect, that hope is what keeps our souls anchored in the next world even as we struggle with sin and setbacks and sail through a sometimes-stormy-sea of heartbreaks and heartaches in this one! Hope – why does it have such a hold on Christians? Words from Titus 1:2 are a big part of the reason. There, as he began a short letter to his friend Titus who was preaching on the Mediterranean island of Crete, the apostle Paul wrote that Christians are “in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.” Read Titus 1:10-16 and you might think things looked hopeless. The gospel appeared to be behind 18 to nothing! But the apostle Paul believed in a power-packed Gospel chock-full of hope! Hope that could change not only people’s lives but change where they spend eternity! Jesus Christ is the one hope we all have for forgiveness of sins and getting out of an eventual grave alive (Ephesians 4:4). Face it friend, there is no other hope. Why would you let go of the one hope you have in a world that offers no hope at all? If you hold on to that hope, it will hold on to you!
By: Dan Gulley, Smithville TN
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