HOPE WAS WRITTEN

Series: Hope Is Alive | Pastor Daniel Norris

            Text: Matt 2:3-6; 1 Peter 1:3–5 (ESV)

            Matt 2:3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. 5 They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet…

            Scripture told them Jesus would: 

            • Born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2)
            • Born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14)
            • From the tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:10)
            • From David’s royal line (2 Samuel 7:12–13)
            • Before the Temple falls and while Rome rules (Daniel 9:25–26)

            Hope was written into your story long before you ever needed it!

            That first Christmas defied the odds…

            • The odds of winning the lottery one are in three hundred million.
            • Finding a four-leaf clover, 1 in 5,000   
            • Becoming a pro athlete, 1 in 6,000  
            • Being struck by lightning, 1 in 15,300 

            Peter Stoner, a respected mathematician and astronomer, calculated the odds of one man fulfilling just eight Old Testament prophecies.

            One in a quintillion 

            Jesus didn’t just fulfill eight prophecies. There are more than three hundred Messianic prophecies in Scripture.  Jesus fulfilled every single one. 

            Before your darkest moment or your deepest failure, 
            hope was already written into your story.

            1 Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

            #1 Your breakthrough was written long before your breakdown

            “…he has caused us to be born again to a living hope…” (vs 3)

            What is a living hope?  It is a resurrected hope!

            Luke 7:11–17.

            A widow is leading the procession for her only son.

            Her husband was gone.

            Her only son was dead.

            Her past was buried, and her future was being carried away in a coffin.  She had lost all hope.

            13 And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” 14 Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.”

            a. “Do not weep.”

            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. 1 Thessalonians 4:13 (ESV)

            B. “Young man, I say to you, arise.”

            “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” (Romans 15:13, ESV)

            Abound – excessive, more than enough. 

            A living hope is a resurrected hope.

            #2 Your future was written long before your failure.

            “[We]…are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed…” (vs 5).

            Peter knew this personally. He knew what it felt like to fail miserably.

            “Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.” John 21:2–3 (ESV)

            Jesus has a way of meeting us in the middle of our worst moments.

            Failure is never final when hope steps into your story. 

            Peter tells us this living hope is three things:

            This living hope is, “an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading” (vs. 4)

            • Imperishable → it cannot decay.

            “So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11. ESV)

            • Undefiled → it cannot be corrupted.

            “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord,” (Romans 8:38–39,ESV)

            • Unfading → it never loses its glory

            “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”  (James 1:17–18, ESV)

            “When you come face-to-face with Jesus Christ, He can rewrite your story.”

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