 |
||
BY GLENN PEASE
CONTENTS
1. TITUS THE TROUBLE SHOOTER
Based on Titus 1:1f
3. FAITH BUILDERS Based on
Titus 1:1‑16
4. FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE Based
on Titus 1:1‑16
5. THE BEAUTY OF ORDER Based
on Titus 1:5
6. SELF‑CONTROL IS THE KEY
Based on Titus 1:5‑9
7. POSITIVE LEADERSHIP Based on
Titus 1:5‑9
8. EXCELLENCE EXCLUDES EXCESS
Based on Titus 1:5‑9
9. CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE Based
on Titus 1:5‑16
10. TO THE PURE ALL IS PURE Based
on Titus 1:5‑16
11. SOUND DOCTRINE based on Titus 1:15‑16
12. CULTURE CONFORMED CHRISTIANS Titus 1:15‑16
13. CHRISTIAN EDUCATION OF WOMEN
Based on Titus 2:1‑8
14. CHRISTIAN EDUCATION Based
on Titus 2:1‑10
1. TITUS THE TROUBLE SHOOTER Based on Titus 1:1f
Somebody has to do the dirty work in life, and so all leaders need men
who are trouble shooters. George
Washington needed one when Benedict Arnold betrayed the colonies and escaped to
the British forces. Washington was
angry and was determined to get him back.
He choose Sargent Major John Champe for the secret and sensitive mission
of deserting to the British and kidnaping Arnold. Only Washington and Colonel Lighthouse Harry knew of the
plot. On Oct. 19, 1780 Champe deserted
his company and fled. It was very risky
in that he could have been shot by his own men.
The
British accepted him and put him in the Loyalist Legion made up of other
Americans who chose to be loyal to England in the war. Benedict Arnold was its leader. Everything seemed to be going smooth until
the Loyalist Legion was ordered into battle in Virginia. Champe was from Virginia and he refused to
fight his own people, and so he deserted again. Now he was a hunted man by both sides. He eventually got back to Washington's headquarters and explained
the whole mess. Washington had no
choice but to send him, his wife, and his four children to a hideout in the
wilderness. When the war ended it was
still not safe for him to return, for he was considered a traitor by both
sides, and could easily have been murdered.
He was moved to Kentucky, and it was not until long after his death that
congress in 1847 voted Champe a promotion for, "One of the most courageous
acts of the American Revolution."
As
Champe was a champion who got little credit, so Titus was a Titan, that is a
giant of the faith, in the revolutionary march of Christianity in the first
century. Titus was a trouble shooter in
the war to prevent traitors from dividing the forces of the church, and
weakening their ability to win the world out of darkness into light. Like Champe, he does not get much
recognition because his courageous acts of service are somewhat suppressed in
the New Testament record. In spite of
the fact that he was one of Paul's greatest friends and travelling companions,
and in spite of the fact that he is the most successful trouble shooter in the
New Testament, he is not even once referred to in the book of Acts. Some are convinced that Titus was Luke's
brother, and family modesty kept Luke from recording the acts of his own
brother. This, of course, is merely a
theory.
Had he
not played a major role in solving the problems of the church of Corinth we
would hardly know who he was at all.
The church at Corinth was in great distress. There was strong division and harsh criticism against Paul. The situation called for a trouble shooter
with gifts of wisdom and tact. It was a
delicate mission and Paul chose his friend Titus to tackle the job. He had earlier sent Timothy, but he was
young and lacked experience, so he next chose Titus. He sent him with his first letter to the Corinthians, and he was
able to calm the troubled waters and bring back to Paul a good report. Paul wrote II Cor. and sent Titus back with
it. In that letter we learn most
everything we know about Titus. Paul
refers to him 8 times in that letter.
Here is an example from II Cor. 2:12‑13. "When I came to Troas to preach the Gospel of Christ a door
was opened for me in the Lord; but my mind could not rest because I did not
find my brother Titus there. So I took
leave of them and went on to Macedonia."
No where
do we find the Apostle Paul so troubled and restless that he cannot stand still
and preach the Gospel. He had to hear
from Titus, and until he did he could not concentrate on his ministry. This is the only record we have of Paul
failing to go through an open door.
When he got to Macedonia he received one of the greatest blessings he
ever recorded, for Titus was there, and he had good news that was desperately
needed. We read in II Cor. 4:5‑6,
"For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest but we were
afflicted at every turn‑fighting without and fear within. But God, who comforts
the downcast comforted us by the coming of Titus."
His
coming was a great comfort because he had succeeded in getting the Corinthians
to repent and change their attitudes, and become friendly with Paul again.
Titus had been a successful trouble shooter, for that was his gift to be a
peacemaker. The Speaker's Bible says of him, "He was much more a man of
affairs than Timothy was. He settled many a quarrel, allayed many a trouble,
averted many a split. He was the conciliator and peacemaker of the early
church." He was able to do what others could not because it was his gift
to be a trouble shooter. If everyone could do it there would be no need for
those who are gifted trouble shooter. Paul
wrote II Cor. in response to this good report, and it is as positive as I Cor.
is negative.
Paul
was so comforted by the coming of Titus that it has become a part of the
language of comfort. James Smetham
wrote to a friend to thank him for the letter he received which came at a time
when he was depressed and in it he wrote, "Glad to get your friendly
letter. It was like the coming of
Titus. I think providence in these days
often sends Titus by mail." George
Ensor, the first English missionary to Japan said he baptized his first convert
and gave him the name Titus. He said,
"For God who comforts the downcast comforted me by the coming of
Titus." It was discouraging work,
and, like Paul, he was down, but then all was changed by the coming of this
friend.
Oh, gift of God, my friend!
Who face has brought the Eternal nigh.
No sermon like thy life doth tend
To turn my gaze toward the sky.
All of
us need the ministry and comfort of Titus.
We need that friend who will come into our darkness with light. We need good news when all we hear is bad
news, and that things seem to be getting worse. What a blessing to have the downward trend reversed, and hear
that God is at work, and the good does triumph over the evil. May God grant us all the comfort of the
coming of Titus, and may we all strive to be a Titus in bringing to others the
good news of life's joyful realities.
Being a
trouble shooter is not one of the gifts listed in the New Testament, but it is
nevertheless a gift, and a needed one, for trouble is inevitable in a fallen
world, and there is no such thing as
working with people without trouble.
Since the church is people oriented, there can be escape from trouble,
and so the trouble shooter is a vital person in the army of the Lord. No where was this true than on the island of
Crete. It was the largest island in the
Mediterranean. It was 250 miles long
and 50 miles wide. It was a big place
to work, but it was as bad as it was big.
It was not the kind of place a seminary student would want to take for
his first church. Most veterans would
even do anything to avoid getting assigned to such a place.
Paul
had a lot of confidence in Titus to leave him there. He was the only one who could handle the job like this. There were Jews from Crete at Pentecost and
they carried the Gospel back home, and that is likely how the church got
started on this great island. The seed
was sown and it was growing, but the weeds were thick. Paul visited the island and was impressed
with the depravity of the people. In
verse 12 he quotes one of their own poets named Epimenides who lived in
600B.C. He said of the Cretans that
they are, "Always liars, evil beasts and lazy gluttons." They were obviously something less than the
creme of the crop. That was 600 years
back from Paul's time and you would think there would be some progress, but in
the next verse Paul says this testimony is true. Things have not changed at all, for they are a crude crowd held
in contempt by all people.
Imagine going
to a people with such a rotten reputation.
Nobody but a tough‑minded trouble shooter would have any business
trying to organize a church in such a place.
Titus did it, and the churches there to this day honor the name of Titus
by naming their churches after him. He
was buried in Crete for centuries before the Venetians carried his body
away. The life an labors of Titus make
it clear that the road may be rough, and the circumstances intolerable, and the
odds overwhelmingly against you. But it
is still possible to plant and grow the church of Christ in the worse possible
settings. No place is hopeless if you
have the right personal.
In 1850
as many as 30 thousand children were abandoned in New York City. Their immigrant parents died on the trip to
America, or shortly after arriving.
These children had no family or relatives, and nowhere to go. They lived in the streets and ate out of the
garbage cans. It was a terrible problem
and all people could do is say that it was a shame. But then Charles L. Brace a 26 year old pastor with the gift for
trouble shooting got concerned. He
started what came to be known as the orphan train. He rounded up hundreds of these stray orphans and put them on a
train headed West. He announced in
every town along the way that if anyone wanted a son or daughter they could
have one. The response was
overwhelming. People were grateful for
the chance to have a child in their life.
Pastor Brace kept this train rolling until 1929, and over 100 thousand
children were given away. Two became
governors; one a U. S. Congressman, and one a Supreme Court Justice. Over 50 became doctors and lawyers.
A
hopeless situation was turned into a treasure of blessings for tens of
thousands of families because of one gifted trouble shooter. Thank God for the trouble shooters who have
turned burdens into blessings all through history. Not everyone can be like Titus, but the good news is, all of us
can be trouble shooters in some ways.
The book of Titus not only reveals to us the key trouble shooter of the
New Testament, but it also reveals to us the key tool of the trouble
shooter. The tool that can prevent most
of the troubles that Christians can get into, and that tool is the virtue of
self‑control.
You will not find another part of the Bible
where this virtue is emphasized like it is here in Titus. The two key Greek words for self‑control
are the dominant words in the council Paul gives to Titus. The elders are to be men who are self‑controlled. All the people who are trouble makers in the
first chapter are problems because of their lack of self‑control. In chapter 2 self‑control is repeated
over and over. It is characterize the
older men, the older women, the younger women, and the younger men. In other words, everybody in the church who
is going to be part of the answer rather than part of the problem is going to
have to develop the virtue of self‑control.
It is
a word with many synonyms and can be translated temperate, sober, or discreet. The word refers to the inner strength one
has over ones self to not be at the mercy of what happens externally, but to be
in control. The emotions and desires of
life do not lead this person around by the nose as a slave. He or she is disciplined, and they have
their life under control. The
undisciplined life where a person is manipulated and controlled by his emotions
and desires is the cause for the troubles of the world and of the church.
This
virtue so pushed by Paul was recognized by great minds all through history to
be the key to a civilized society. It was a classical virtue of the Greeks.
Socrates and Aristotle stressed it, and so did the Greek Stoics and the Jewish
Essenes. Everyone with intelligence
knows that if man does not develop control of his appetites for sex and food
and every other desire he will lose his superiority over the animal and descend
to their level. Even non‑Christians
have recognized that self‑control is vital to society to maintain
morality and order.
In Greek
mythology Phaethon was the son of Helios, the sun god. Every morning Helios emerged from the East
in a golden chariot to ride across the skies and light up the world. The chariot itself was drawn by 8 dazzling
white winged horses whose nostrils breathed forth flame. One day some of Phaethon's companions challenged his claim to divine parentage,
and he came to Helios to seek proof.
Helios assured his son he would grant him any wish. Phaethon requested that he be allowed to drive
the sun chariot. Horrified by this
request he begged his son to choose another way, for he knew he could not
control the powerful horses. Phaethon
was stubborn and held his father to his promise, and so with heavy heart he let
his son take the reins the next morning.
Once
under way the horses quickly sensed Phaethon's light and inexperienced hand on
the reins, and they began to run amok across the skies. Sometimes going too low and scorching the
earth, and sometimes too high leaving whole regions frozen. Finally in desperation Zeus was forced to
hurl a thunder bolt at the chariot and Phaethon was destroyed.
The
Greeks were saying by this story that control is essential to order in the
universe and in life. When things get
out of control there is security for anyone.
You don't have to be a Christian to know this, but all Christians are
called to practice control of their lives like no other people. It is not
just for monks, nuns, and specialists in self‑denial. It is for all Christians at all age
levels. It is the very essence of
Christian living, and it is that virtue that makes all of us trouble shooters
in our own lives.
When
something is universally valued then the Christian is all the more obligated to
live for that value that all men will recognize and honor. Aristotle the Greek said, "I count him
braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies, for the
hardest victory is victory over self."
Seneca the Roman said, "To master one's self is the greatest
mastery." Long before them Prov.
16:42 said, "A patient man is better than a warrior, and he who rules his
temper, than he who takes a city."
Heavenly and earthly wisdom agree that the real heroes of history, and
the people most to be admired, are those who have lived lives which were
governed by the virtue of self‑control.
A man
was walking through a super market with a screaming baby in the shopping
cart. A woman near by noted that the
man kept saying, "Keep calm Albert. Keep calm Albert." Finally in admiration for the man's patience
she said to him, "Sir I must commend you for your patience with baby
Albert." To which the man replied,
"Madam, I am Albert." If you
can't control the baby, then next best thing is to control yourself, and that
was what he was working at, and that is what we are all to work at. If you can't control life and circumstances,
you can still be victorious if you can control yourself and your reactions to
the circumstances.
Paul
stressed this in his letter to the Corinthians also. Christians need to approach life like a runner, or any other
athlete, with a commitment to discipline their lives to bring them under
control. In I Cor. 9:25‑27 we
read, "Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not
last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore, I do not run like a man running
aimlessly. I do not fight like a man
beating the air." Paul brings his
body under control so he is not a slave to it.
Self‑control puts you in charge of your body, and it serves you
rather than you serving it.
In 1962
Jim Beatty became the first man to break the four minute mile indoors. He had to go through enormous sacrifice to get
such control of his body. His, and the
experience of others, is described like this:
"Back of the feat of every man who has run the grueling sub‑four‑minute
mile is the story of endless hours of Spartan training and of punishing
discipline. With every agonized nerve
in his body screaming for rest, the runner drives himself on. Like a jockey whipping his steed to close
the gap as he nears the tape, the miler lashes his body to eke out its last
ounce of energy and gain the coveted prize.
He is discipline incarnate: The
triumph of the spirit over the flesh."
This is
what the Christian life is all about.
It is about the triumph of the spirit over the flesh, and the issue of
self‑control. For Titus to be a
successful trouble shooter on Crete he had to get Christians of all ages to
develop this virtue. This is the
challenge for every believer. In his
letter to Timothy Paul describes the opposite of self‑control. In II Tim. 3:1‑4 he writes, "But
mark this: There will be terrible times
in the last days. People will be lovers
of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their
parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without
self‑control, brutal, not lovers of good, treacherous, rash, conceited,
lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God."
In Gal.
5 Paul describes the opposite of the Fruit of the Spirit, one of which is self‑control. He writes, "The acts of the sinful
nature are obvious: sexual immorality,
impurity and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealously,
fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness,
orgies and the like." The point
is, the essence of the sinful nature is lack of self‑control. The essence of the righteous nature is in
the presence of self‑control.
The
difference between the trouble maker and the trouble shooter in this world is
not that one has evil thoughts and sinful desires and the other does not. They are equal on that score. Christian people have every thought and
every desire that enters the minds of non‑Christians. There is no folly or fantasy that Satan uses
to entice men that does not affect the believer in some way. The difference between the two is that one
has the power to control his mind, body, and desires, while the other is under
the control of them all.
Self‑
control is a fruit of the spirit and so it is from God, but the book of Titus
clearly stresses that it has to be learned.
Paul, over and over again, tells Titus you must teach the people to be
self‑controlled. It does not just
happen because you become a Christian.
Many Christians are poor Christians because they have not learned to be
trained and disciplined just like an athlete.
Paul was so into the importance of teaching this that when he got his
chance to come before the governor Felix and defend the Christian faith we read
what he spoke on in Acts 24:25:
"As Paul discoursed on righteousness, self‑control and the
judgment to come." Felix was
impressed with Paul, and talked with him after, but he wanted to favor the Jews
so he left Paul in prison.
Self‑control
was a part of Paul's fundamental teaching.
The reason is obvious, for there can be no distinctive Christian life
without it. The goals of the Christian
life cannot be achieved without self‑control. Titus could not get to first base in organizing the church on
Crete unless he could develop a group of Christians with self‑control. But with self‑control the church can
thrive in any environment, no matter how corrupt. They do not escape exposure to the corruption, nor do they escape
temptation, but they are not victims, for by the power of self‑control
they can even use their temptation for the life that pleases God.
In
verse 15 Paul says, "To the pure all things are pure but to those who are
corrupted and do not believe nothing is pure." This is a paradox. A story about the great inventor Thomas
Edison illustrates the point. The
entrance to his property was a heavy clumsy gate and one of his friends
wondered why a man of his standing would put up with this heavy thing, and
suggested something more modern and easy to use. Edison looked at him with a twinkle in his eye and said,
"Come with me. Let me show you
something." He took him to the
gate and showed him how it was geared into a pump and he said, "You see,
every man who comes to see me and opens or shuts this gate automatically pumps
a gallon of water into a tank on my roof." The visitor could be friend or foe, but all of them were
expending energy that Edison had under his control for his purpose.
So it is
in the life of a believer who has developed self‑control. He can use all things for good. To the person without self‑control lust
is destructive of marriage, morality, family, and society. But to the pure even lust can be pure, for
by self‑control it is energy channeled into that which is God's will, and
it enriches marriage and all of life.
By the power of self‑control all energy, even that which may be
stimulated by lust, can be channeled into doing good.
The
difference between a river and a flood is not just the amount of water and the
energy. The difference is that the
flood is out of control, but the river is channeled and can be used to produce
power for a purpose. The flood is
destructive because it cannot be controlled.
Get all that same energy under control and it can be used for good. So the Christian in a very non‑Christian
environment can be successfully righteous by the
power of self‑control.
Billy
Graham in his book Hope For The
Troubled Heart tells the story of the lone survivor of a shipwreck who was
marooned on an uninhabited island. He managed
to build a hut in which he put everything he had saved from the wreck. He prayed to God for rescue as he daily
scanned the horizon for a passing ship.
One day he returned to his hut and to his horror he
found it in flames. All he possessed
was going up in smoke. It was the
ultimate tragedy, and he sat in despair.
Shortly after that a ship arrived.
The captain said, "We saw your smoke signal and hurried
here." The ship wrecked man fell
to his knees and thanked God for the fire he had just been cursing as a
tragedy.
The
point of Graham in telling this story is that he recognizes the great need for
people to have hope. When bad things
happen it is important that we have hope that God can work in all things for
good. The world is full of bad things,
and today we do not have to wait for weeks and months to hear about them. We get the bad news the very moment terrible
events are happening. This much bad
news is affecting people around the world and producing a lot of the sense of
hopelessness.
Graham writes, "Perhaps the greatest psychological, spiritual, and
medical need that all people have is the need for hope. Dr. McNair Wilson, the famous cardiologist,
remarked in his autobiography, Doctor's Progress, 'Hope is the medicine I use
more than any other‑hope can cure nearly anything.' I remember years ago that Dr. Harold Wolff,
professor of medicine at Cornell University Medical College and associate
professor of psychiatry, said, 'Hope, like faith and a purpose in life is
medicinal. This is not exactly a
statement of belief, but a conclusion proved by meticulously controlled
scientific experiment.'"
This is
confirmed over and over again by Dr. Robert Veninga, professor in the School of
Public Health at the University of Minnesota.
He has written a book called A Gift of Hope. In it he gives dozens of illustrations of how hope is the key
ingredient for facing the trials and tragedies of a fallen world. I can share only a few examples. He says that when children are diagnosed as
diabetic they are overwhelmed. Disease
is supposed to be for old people and not kids.
They get depressed at the cruel injustice of it all. The treatment is not just diet and insulin,
but hope. They teach the children that
they can back pack, play football, and be fully involved in social
activities. They learn that prominent
personalities like Mary Tyler Moore, and former New York Yankee star Jim
(Catfish) Hunter are diabetics, and they live full and exciting lives.
When
hope crowds out their fears these children adjust rapidly and begin to enjoy
life again. He goes through a whole
series of family problems and tragic situations, and he shows that families
that survive any crisis do so because they give each other the gift of
hope. Jerry Lebenow was locked up for
three and a half years for a crime he did not commit. A woman was brutally killed and he was charged and found guilty,
he was sent to Stillwater prison. Three
years later the Supreme Court reviewed his case and found that he had not
received a fair trial, and that the evidence did not support his guilt. He was released to return to his
family. How could he suffer such an
injustice and not be bitter and hateful?
He had family and friends who kept encouraging him and giving him
hope.
Survivors in concentration camps did so because they never lost
hope. Those who did lose hope
died. Hope is a vital ingredient to
life. Dr. Veninga says there is nothing
in the world of medicine or psychology that can help people survive and be
healed that can match the power of religious hope. And this brings us to our text, for long before all of the
scientific and psychological research the Apostle Paul told the people of God
that hope is the foundation of even faith and the knowledge of the truth. These are the two vital goals the church is
to achieve in the lives of the believers.
It is to build up their faith and their knowledge of the truth, and he
says these both rest on the hope of eternal life.
Hope
is used about 180 times in the Bible, and so it is a major topic of the Word of
God, but I never saw it before that Paul is telling us here that hope is
foundational, and that even faith rests on hope. That means when he said these three remain, faith, hope and
love, but the greatest of these is love, that the second greatest is hope, and
so he has these three basic virtues in reverse order of their importance. Faith rests on hope. Let's focus on this.
I. THE FOUNDATION OF HOPE.
Paul is
famous for saying that we are saved by faith, but in Rom. 8:24 he says,
"For we are saved by hope."
Faith and hope are like two strands wound together to make a rope. We are saved by both together, for they both
link us to Christ who alone can save.
They just look in two different directions. Faith looks back to the past, and at what Jesus did for us on the
cross in dying for our sins, and also at the resurrection where He conquered
death and all the consequences of sin.
Hope, on the other hand, looks ahead to what Jesus has promised to do
for us because of the cross and the resurrection. He has promised to come again and to raise us up, or to change us
in a twinkling of an eye, and take us to the place He has prepared where we
will enjoy eternal life in His presence.
Paul is
saying that this hope we have of eternal life is the foundation even of our
faith. The point being, if we do not
have the hope of eternal life, what good is it that Jesus died and rose again? Paul says in I Cor. 15:19, "If only for
this life we have hope in Christ, we are to pitied more than all
men." The hope of eternal life is
so foundational that without it there is no meaning to our faith and knowledge,
for it is all worthless without this hope.
God
recognized the necessity of this hope and so Paul says that He promised eternal
life before the beginning of time. Here
we see the ultimate goal of God before He started the creation of the universe,
and the whole creation of reality and time as we know it. Here we see the purpose of God which gives
meaning to all of life. God promised
eternal life before He even made a living soul who could enjoy it. Before time God said that this hope will be
the key to meaning through all of time.
It will be the hope of eternal life beyond time.
Who in
the world did God promise this too if it was before time, and the creation of
Adam and Eve? It was a promise for us,
but the one who got the promise first had to be Jesus who would become a man
and make it possible for the rest of mankind to enter into this foundational
promise of hope. The hope of eternal
life was the motive that brought Jesus to earth to die for lost mankind. Do you think Jesus would have come to die if
the end result was that man would just be restored to live 200 or 500, or even
a 1000 years? It is not very
likely. It was the hope of eternal life
that made His sacrifice worthwhile.
Eternal life is a value beyond our grasp. We cannot conceive of its worth.
But it is the best God can give to a creature made in His image, and He
promised this would be the gift He would give to those who receive His
Son. Paul wrote, "The wages of sin
is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord." The end result of sin is
death, and the end result of salvation is eternal life. The focus of God from before time began was
this hope of eternal life. It was the
focus of Jesus coming to earth. Paul
now says it is the foundation for our faith as Christians.
The
one thing God wants for His people to have all through history is the hope of
eternal life. What does it mean to be
saved? It means that one has the hope
of eternal life. What is the practical
effect of Christ's coming into history?
How does His coming, His death, and His resurrection effect us in our
everyday lives? The answer is right
here in the hope of eternal life. That
is the bottom line that God was aiming for before time began, and it is the
goal of His whole plan that His people would have the hope of eternal
life. To be without God and without
hope in this world is to have life with no meaning. To have God as your heavenly Father, and to have Jesus as your
Savior, and to have this hope of eternal life is to have the meaning you need
to cope with and to conquer, and to be victorious in a fallen world.
The
second coming and the rapture of the church is called the blessed hope, for by
these events Jesus will usher us into that fulfillment of this fundamental hope
of eternal life. It is the foundation
of our faith. Let's look next at‑
II. THE FUNCTION OF HOPE.
Since
God made the hope of eternal life a promise before the beginning of time, He
expects this hope to be a foundation on which His people build their
faith. So the function of hope is to
reach out into the future and lay hold on it as a means of changing the
present. The function of hope is to
participate in the future now. It is to
taste of the things to come and let the future have an impact on the
present.
Henry
Ward Beecher describes how so many falsely think of hope as having no function
in the present, but only in the future.
He writes, "A hope is to some like a passport, which one keeps
quietly in his pocket till the time for the journey, and then produces it. Or like life‑preservers, which hang
useless around the vessel until the hour of danger comes, when the captain
calls on every passenger to save himself; and then they are taken down and
blown up, and each man, with his hope under his arm, strikes out for the
land: And so such men would keep their
religious hope hanging until death comes; and then take it down and inflate it,
that it may buoy them up, and float them over the dark river to the heavenly
shore. Or as the inhabitants of Block
Island keep their boats hauled high upon the beach, and only use them now and
then, when they would cross to the mainland; so such men keep their hopes high
and dry upon the shore of life, only to be used when they have to cross the
flood that divides this island of time from the mainland of eternity."
He is
saying that hope is not something we die with, but it is something we are to
live with, which makes life more enjoyable even with all its limitations. Hope is faith looking into the future and
being filled with confident expectation that the final goal of God will be
worth whatever trials we must endure.
And so it sustains us and motivates us to press on in faithfulness to
Christ no matter what the cost. The
function of hope is to keep us facing in the right direction and pressing
on. If we are always facing the sun,
the shadows will always be behind us.
Hope is
the key to progress in all of life. It
is hope for the harvest that keeps the farmer plowing and cultivating. It is the hope of improvement that makes
every creative person striving to invent better ways of doing things. Rob men of hope and you do not just take
away their future, you take away their now.
Their present is directly affected by their hope of the future. So the Christian life in the present is
directly affected by the hope of eternal life. Paul in Rom. 15:13 writes, "May the God of hope fill you
with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope
by the power of the Holy Spirit."
God is the God of hope, and the Holy Spirit has as one of His tasks to
fill us with hope so that the present life can be one of joy and peace.
We
usually connect the Holy Spirit with power, but hope is power, and if we are
filled with hope, we can have joy and peace even when bad things happen, and we
have to cope with the crisis of this fallen world. Hope functions in our daily life by doing at least these two things
I have discovered.
1. IT PREVENTS DESPAIR.
This is
major issue, and there is no solution except in hope. Suicide is a major public health problem, and the government
cannot solve it. Tens of thousands of
Americans kill themselves each year, and a growing segment of that figure are
teenagers. They are not a bunch of drug
addicts, or drop outs either. They are
often bright and high achievers loaded with talent. They are often from good homes, and sometimes even from Christian
homes. How can they sink into such
despair as to take their life at such an early age? The answer is that they do not grasp the Christian hope, which is
the foundation for victory over all the power of sin.
They
are like 14 year old Melissa Putney who became pregnant and solved her problem
by kneeling between the tracks with her hands grasped in prayer. The engineer of the Amtrak saw her, but at
100 miles an hour it was too late, and her life was ended. Dr. Veninga in A Gift Of Hope published her
suicide note that went like this:
"You always ask me if there is anything wrong. I said, 'No, I'm O. K.' Mom, I wasn't telling the truth. I was never O. K. I was very depressed. I ran away from all my problems. I am taking the easy way out. I am admitting to myself that I am a weak
person not able to handle the weight of life.
I'm very sorry to put you all through the troubles. I think everything I have to do is
done. I drank some wine and took some
pills. But before I did all that I
prayed to my Father God in heaven. I
asked Him to forgive me but He won't. I
don't blame Him for that. Please pray
that I won't be sent to hell, because then I won't be able to come back and
watch over you and help you. I want to
do that. Mom, please don't have a
nervous breakdown and be crying all the time.
I don't want you to. I want you
to live forever and ever, the way you want to, and I will always love you very
much. Please try and forgive me. I love you always and always, love,
Melissa."
If this
was an isolated case, we would not need to be overly concerned, but it is going
on everyday because youth lack the hope they need to escape despair. The girl had some degree of faith and
knowledge, but it was not enough, and it had no foundation in the hope of
eternal life. Jesus knew life in a
fallen world would lead people to despair, and even His own disciples would
feel it. That is why in the last two of
His beatitudes He made hope of heaven the foundation for surviving the
negatives of life.
Read
again these familiar words, but note how hope is the key. Matt. 5:10‑12 says, "Blessed are
those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. Blessed are you when people
insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because
of me. Rejoice and be glad, because
great is your reward in heaven."
When people treat you like dirt and life is so unfair, it leads to
despair unless you have a hope that is permanent. When hope is strong Christians can take the worst that life can
throw at them and overcome despair.
It is
quite shocking to read about the comets plowing into Jupiter and causing
explosions that would end life on our planet if they happened here. All God would have to do to bring about the
end of the world is to have a good size comet make earth its target. When I read such things there is a moment
of fear, but then my faith kicks in and overcomes the fear, for my faith is
based on the hope that even the end of life on earth does not change the
promise of God that there will be a new heaven and a new earth in which we will
dwell forever with our Redeemer. Fear
not those who can kill the body said Jesus.
He might have added that we need not fear what can destroy the whole
world, for if your hope is in God, you can be assured of eternal life.
We
need not despair at bad news, but can have the confidence of the poet who
wrote,