There’s Hope for You!

There’s Hope for You!
John R. Petrilli
One day a hospital program teacher was assigned to visit a particular child. She took the child's name and hospital room number and went to see the boy. No one mentioned to her that he’d been badly burned and was in great pain. Upset at the sight of the boy, she stammered, "I've been sent by your school to help you with nouns and adverbs." When she left she felt she hadn't accomplished much.
The next day a nurse asked her, "What did you do to that boy? Ever since yesterday his whole attitude has changed. He's fighting back, responding to treatment. It's as though he's decided to live." Two weeks later the boy explained that he had completely given up hope until the teacher arrived. Everything changed when he came to a simple realization. He expressed it this way: "They wouldn't send a teacher to work on nouns and adverbs with a dying boy, would they?"
That little boy recovered and blossomed because he’d found hope. He was going to be fine as long as he knew he would survive. It’s been said that a man can live without food for a few months, without water for a few days, with artificial respiration for a few hours, but can only survive a few minutes without HOPE. While there are some things that can give us hope for the short term, there’s only one kind of hope that can carry us right through this life and on into the next.
In this season of hope we can find real hope as we revisit the ancient scene where, on an early morning, in a quiet garden, the most incredible event of all-time took place. This event, more than any other, is THE reason for us to take courage and find hope where there doesn’t seem to be any.
THERE’S HOPE FOR YOU TODAY, NO MATTER HOW HOPELESS THE SITUATION YOU FIND YOURSELF IN.
“Jesus of Nazareth was a man of God, a prophet, dynamic in work and word, blessed by both God and all the people. Then our high priests and leaders betrayed Him, got Him sentenced to death, and crucified Him. And we had our hopes up that He was the One, the One about to deliver Israel.” Luke 24:19-21, Message
This is how the two disciples who met a disguised Jesus on the road to Emmaus described the events of the first Easter weekend. They were sky high on Jesus. He was everything they could have hoped for or ever dreamed of. Jesus was going to finally deliver them from all forms of tyranny, or so they’d hoped. But once He’d been publicly executed, the dream died, along with all the hopes they had placed in that dream. Three spikes and a spearhead brought it all to an abrupt end. He was dead and gone, and with Him, all their hopes and dreams. Now they found themselves drowning in grief and disappointment, having embalmed and interred the body of their best Friend. All this had already happened on Friday and Saturday, BUT this was Sunday. In a few seconds the risen Jesus would reveal Himself to them, and their hopes and dreams would find new life! They were in for the surprise of their lives! Just when all hope seemed lost, the Hope of Israel showed up on the scene, alive and well! If you feel like all hope is lost, then take courage, for you are a prime candidate for the gift of eternal hope!
THERE’S HOPE FOR YOU TODAY BECAUSE OF A GAME-CHANGING EVENT OF HISTORICAL PROPORTIONS.
“If there’s no resurrection, there’s no living Christ. And face it, if there’s no resurrection of Christ, everything we’ve told you is smoke and mirrors, and everything you’ve staked your life on is smoke and mirrors. If all we get out of Christ is a little inspiration for a few short years, we’re a pretty sorry lot. But the truth is that Christ has been raised up, the first in a long legacy of those who are going to leave the cemeteries.” 1 Corinthians 15:14, 19-20, Message
We gamble every day by placing our trust in any number of people and things. But the biggest gamble anyone can ever make is with where they will spend their future destiny after they’ve left this life. One renowned scholar from the first century hung his hope on one crucial event, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He understood that the hope of the Christian faith rose and fell on the veracity of the resurrection. This man whose name was Paul took tremendous pains to itemize the details surrounding the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He states that it was verified by well over 500 contemporary eyewitnesses who were alive at the time and saw then risen Christ with their own eyes. Paul also states that He had seen the risen Christ, as had many of the other key leaders and followers in the early church. Contest the resurrection as others have and will continue to do, the question remains, “If Jesus never rose, then why didn’t the authorities exhume and produce the dead body?” Because there was no body to dig up or recover.
The resurrection isn’t some clever story contrived by a group of deluded disciples ... it’s HISTORICAL FACT. As Third Day’s lead vocalist Mac Powell sings the lyrics to Rich Mullin’s song “Creed”:
I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son! I believe in the resurrection! It is the very truth of God, and not the invention of man! I did not make it, but it is making me!
Over two millennia, millions have gambled on the resurrection as their source of hope for eternal life. If they are right, they now enjoy endless bliss in the presence of God. So what will you place your money on? The hope-LESS speculations of skeptics, or the hope-FUL promise of eternal life which God has declared through the resurrection of His Son (Romans 1:4)?
THERE’S HOPE THAT WILL EMPOWER YOU TO LIVE TRIUMPHANTLY TODAY!
“Because Jesus was raised from the dead we’ve been given a brand new life and have everything to live for, including a future in Heaven – and the future starts now!” 1 Peter 1:3, Message
If you’ve ever found yourself relocated somewhere that was completely foreign to everything you were used to, that’s how it was for the people these words were originally penned to. They were in really bad shape. Dislocated geographically, culturally, occupationally, and spiritually, they were long on trouble and short on hope. Like some of us, many were jobless, some were homeless, and others were penniless. Humanly speaking, they didn’t have a whole lot to live for. The apostle Peter understood that their literal survival depended on their possession of hope, so he directed their attention to the empty grave Jesus had left behind. If they could catch a “ray of hope” at the proverbial “end of the tunnel”, they’d make it through the crises of social isolation, peer rejection, and dire economic distress. The resurrected Jesus Christ offered that hope and they took it. So can you!
Fact of the matter is, true hope isn’t affected by our circumstances. Actually, the darker things become, the brighter that hope beams. This Easter you can find the source of true hope, and discover your purpose for life in the living hope of the resurrection. Jesus’ resurrection from the dead shows that this life isn’t all that there is. His victory over death and the grave proves that a wonderful life awaits all who put their trust in His death for the forgiveness of their sins. And as a new person in Christ, God will change the way you see the world, enabling you to overcome this world rather than being overcome by it! (2 Corinthians 5:17; Rom. 12:2; John 16:33)
Like that badly injured little boy who found hope from his teacher, there’s real hope for you. God sent His Son to die in your place, to pay your sin debt, so that you could have hope that extends far beyond this life and on into the life to come. All you need to do is ask Jesus to forgive your sins and save you. May the hope of the Jesus’ resurrection from the dead become a living reality in your life today. Happy Easter/Resurrection Day to all! 