Hope of the Promise

2/12/23

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Sermon Transcript

Good morning. If you still have your Bibles open to Acts 26, please keep them there, keep your thumb there rather, and flip back for a moment to Numbers chapter 7. Numbers chapter 7 may win the award for the strangest chapter in the Bible. Why? Well, For starters, it’s a very long chapter. Numbers chapter 7, just that one chapter is longer than 16 entire books of the Bible. Very long. But its length is not why it’s strange. The strangeness comes when you sit down and read it. Starting in verse 12 of Numbers 7, the same six verses are repeated almost verbatim over and over and over and over again, 12 times. No one who has ever read Numbers chapter 7 could possibly fail to notice it. Some people have called Number 7 the strangest chapter in the Bible. Some people have called it the most boring chapter in the Bible. I think when we look more closely at Numbers chapter 7, what we will find is that it’s one of the most beautiful chapters in the Bible. What is Number 7 all about? does it repeat the same thing over and over and over again and how is it related to the cross of Christ? If you think those sound like interesting questions for our lesson this morning, I’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news is we are going to talk about those today. We’re going to talk about them tonight. So you need to come back at 5 p.m. to hear about Numbers chapter 7. Today we’re going to talk about the hope of the promise in Acts chapter 26. In fact, the title of my sermon is “The Hope of the Promise,” which is taken from Paul’s statement there that was read just a moment ago in Acts chapter 26, verse 6.

And I want to begin this sermon with what may seem like a very odd question in that context, but it’s a question that’s been asked many times and gotten many different answers. Here’s the question, what is the difference between people and animals? Well one answer that immediately comes to mind is that people are able to ask that question and animals are not. But as Christians I think we know a much more important answer to that question. We are created in the image of God, animals are not. We have an eternal soul, animals do not. But how does a modern secularist believing neither in God nor in an eternal soul, how do they answer that question? What difference do they see between people and animals? Well Daniel Gilbert’s a psychologist and he’s written a fascinating book called Stumbling on Happiness. Stumbling on Happiness. And according to him what distinguishes people from animals is our ability to predict the future and our interest in predicting the future. “The human being,” he says, “is the only animal that thinks about the future.” Now at this point, someone is probably going to tell me that their dog always looks forward to dinner. But here is how Gilbert responds to that objection. Here’s what he says. “Unless a chimp weeps at the thought of growing old alone or smiles as it contemplates its summer vacation, I will stand by my statement. We think about the future in a way that no other animal can, does, or ever has, and this simple, ubiquitous, ordinary act is the defining feature of our humanity,” Gilbert writes. But why is his book called Stumbling on Happiness? Well, he argues that we spend our time imagining what it would be like to be this way or that way, and that to do that, we try to exert some control over our futures in an attempt to be happy. But he says we’re really bad at predicting the future, which he says explains our unhappiness. If we focus on the future to make us happy, but we’re not able to predict the future, and that makes us unhappy, what’s the solution? Well, in the late 1960s, a Harvard professor thought he found the answer. He took LSD. He resigned his position at Harvard. He went to India. He met a guru. He changed his name. He came back and wrote a very popular book at the time entitled “Be Here Now.” And the message of his book is very succinctly summed up by its title, “Be Here Now.” He said the key to happiness, the key to fulfillment, the key to enlightenment was to stop thinking about the future and instead just to be here now. He said we should just live like the animals in what has hauntingly been called a permanent present.

Now modern man, of course, credits evolution with this remarkable difference between men and animals. But what man attributes to evolution, the Bible attributes to God. It is God, not evolution, who created man. It is God, not evolution, who placed eternity into the heart of man, Ecclesiastes 3:11. And our key to happiness is not just to be here now, but rather is to focus, to plan for our future, to rest on the promises of God that we one day will enjoy. But absent those promises, that Harvard professor turned guru would be exactly right. It’s what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:32, “If the dead do not ride, then let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.” Let’s just be here now, absent the promises of God. To paraphrase Paul, if we will never be raised to enjoy the promises of God, our future blessings, then why not just be here now? Why not just live in a permanent present? Why not? Because a permanent present has no place for pilgrims. And that’s what we are. We are pilgrims on our way to a better country, on our way to a future country, on our way to a promised country. Now we know from Matthew 6:34 that a Christian must not be anxious about the future, but that does not mean a Christian must not think about the future and plan for the future. We are pilgrims and a pilgrimage makes no sense absent a future hope, absent a future home, absent a future land. Now the Bible is full of what we might call these future words. One example of a future word is the word pilgrim. Another example is the word hope. The word hope makes no sense in a permanent present. What meaning can hope have to someone with no concept of later? After all, as Paul reminds us in Romans 8:24, “hope that is seen is not hope.” Hope always involves a future unseen component, always. Another future word is the word promise. When we think about the great promises in the Bible, what meaning would they have had to someone with no thought of the future. Can you imagine the situation had Abraham sought to just be here now? How could such a person look for a better country? How could such a person seek a land of promise? Hope and promise. Those two future words are our focus today and they come together in Acts chapter 26 where in verse 6 Paul says, “And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers.”

To help us understand what Paul meant in verse 6 of Acts 26, I think we need to consider a parallel statement that Paul made in verse 6 of Acts 23. In that chapter Paul found himself before the Sadducees and the Pharisees and in verse 6 of that chapter Paul said he was on trial because of the hope and the resurrection from the dead. And so where in Acts 26 we have hope and promise, in Acts 23:6 we have hope and resurrection. Why the difference? Well, one difference for the court. The reason, one, one reason for the difference of course is that Paul in Acts 23 was talking to Sadducees and the Pharisees. Pharisees believed in the resurrection, Sadducees did not. So Paul knew that the easiest way to get them to arguing with each other would be to mention the resurrection and Paul does that there. But I think we can look a little bit deeper than that and I think when we do what we’re going to find is that for Paul the promise was the resurrection. We know how central the resurrection was to the preaching of Paul. In fact, the Resurrection was so central to the preaching of Paul that when Paul was preaching to the Stoic and Epicurean philosophers in Athens, He spoke about the resurrection so much that the Stoics thought Paul was talking about two gods, Jesus and Anastasius, the Greek word for resurrection. That’s how often Paul talked about the resurrection in Acts 17. And as for our hope, Paul told us in Romans 8:11 that our hope of the resurrection is based on the resurrection of Christ. That’s why we have a hope in our own resurrection because of the resurrection of Christ. So Paul’s hope in the promise, Paul’s hope in the resurrection was based on the resurrection of Christ and Paul never quit talking about it. And what about those who have hoped in Jesus in this life only, that is apart from the resurrection? Paul tells us in 1st Corinthians 15:19 that “they are of all men most miserable.” Well, but I thought living in a permanent present was the key to happiness? Not so. Paul tells us in 1st Corinthians 15 that living in a permanent present is the key to misery, misery. And Paul of course was not the only Apostle to link our hope to the resurrection. Listen to Peter. 1 Peter 1:3-5, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.” Just listen to all the future words. Hope, resurrection, inheritance, reserved, kept, last time. Those words make no sense to anyone who just wants to be here now. Those words were written for pilgrims looking for a better country. But Acts 26:6 tells us something else about those promises. It tells us the promises Paul had in mind were promises to the fathers, to the patriarchs. Where were the patriarchs ever promised the resurrection? Let’s question. We’re going to find out so much about the plan of God and the promises of God.

At the beginning of Genesis chapter 12, God makes four foundational promises to Abraham. Genesis 12:1-3, “Now the Lord had said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father’s house, and to a land that I will show thee, and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great and thou shalt be a blessing. I will bless them that bless thee and curse thee and condemn him that curses thee and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” The four foundational promises in Genesis chapter 12 are the promise of a nation, the promise of a land, the promise of an heir, and the promise of worldwide blessing. And much of the rest of the Bible goes about fulfilling those promises. By the way, if you ever want to talk to a real expert about the promises of God, someone who knows all about them, who’s experienced them firsthand, you need to talk to Eleazar of Damascus. Who is that? Well, Genesis 13:2 tells us Abram was very rich and Genesis 15:2 tells us that Eliezer was set to inherit it all. You can just picture Eliezer, can’t you? Abram is 99. He’s childless. He’s rich. And I am set to inherit it all. What could possibly stand in my way? Well, the promises of God stood in its way. Isaac stood in its way. Like I said, if you want to talk to a real expert on the promises of God, you want to talk to a real believer, Eleazar is your man. You could also talk to Abraham though because Paul tells us in Romans 4:20-21 about Abraham’s hope and the promises of God. “He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able to perform.” Abraham had hope in the promise. So in Genesis 12 we have four foundational promises: nation, heir, land, worldwide blessing. Where is the in that list? That’s our question. And I think what we’re about to see is that the resurrection is central to each of those four foundational promises of God to Abraham. Our hope in the resurrection in fact is the key to all of God’s promises. Absent the resurrection, those promises are meaningless. In 2nd Corinthians 1:20, Paul tells us that all of the promises of God are yes in Christ, and that is true because of the resurrection of Christ. It is true because we serve a living Savior with whom we will one day spend eternity. Let’s briefly look at each of those foundational promises to see how the resurrection is central to each of them.

First we have the promise of an heir. Abraham was 99. Abraham was childless and yet he believed in God’s promise of an heir and true to that promise Isaac was born when Abraham was 100 and Sarah was 90. But in Genesis 22, Abraham’s faith was tested and God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his promised son. You know, modern commentaries sometimes say that the resurrection from the dead is a first century Christian invention that finds no place in the old covenant. I would point them to Genesis 22:5, where Abraham, knowing full well what he was about to do, told his companions that he and Isaac would go yonder and worship, and that he and the lad would both come back. Hebrews 11:19 is even more explicit. Abraham knew that God was able to raise Isaac from the dead. And he knew that if Isaac died, then God would raise him from the dead to fulfill his promises. That is the faith of Abraham and the promises of God. But that’s not all, as with many promises, the promise of an heir was a twofold promise. First, there was the fulfillment in the birth of Isaac. But second, there was the fulfillment in the birth of Christ from the seed of Abraham as the heir of all things, Hebrews 1:2. The resurrection is central, central to the promise of an heir.

Second, we have the promise of a great nation. And again, we have a twofold promise, twofold promise. From Abraham’s seed through Isaac and then through Jacob, we have the great nation of Israel. But as great a nation as Israel was, Israel was not an eternal nation. Not physical Israel. For that we must look to the promised eternal kingdom of Daniel chapter 2. Daniel 2:44, “And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. And the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms. It shall stand forever.” That eternal kingdom of Daniel chapter 2 is the church. It is the Holy Nation of 1 Peter 2:9. It is the immovable kingdom of Hebrews chapter 12:28. The eternal kingdom of Christ and the Church of Christ are one in the same. And the promises of an eternal kingdom, an eternal kingdom, make no sense absence of resurrection. Our resurrection is required for us to enjoy an eternal kingdom for all eternity and that comes through that promise to Abraham so long ago. Galatians 3:29, “If ye be Christ then are ye Abraham’s seed and what heirs according to the promise.”

Third, we have the promise of Abraham to Abraham of worldwide blessing through his seed, worldwide blessing. That blessing of course was the gift of God’s Son through the seed of Abraham, a gift that came not just because of God’s love for Israel but because of God’s love for the whole world, John 3:16. That gift was a worldwide blessing but that gift becomes just a cruel hoax absent the resurrection. You know the German theologian Rudolf Bultmann, he once said that all of the essentials of Christianity would remain unchanged if the bones of Jesus were discovered in Palestine tomorrow. How wrong can someone be? Just how wrong can someone be? What would Paul have to say to poor Rudolph? We know what Paul would say because he responded in 1st Corinthians 15 to the Rudolph Bultmanns of his own day. Absent the resurrection, our faith is vain. Absent the resurrection. We are dead in our sins. There is no worldwide blessing in that. Paul tells us that we in the church are enjoying the great promise blessing to Abraham the blessing of worldwide promise. That’s a blessing and a promise for us in the church. Galatians 3:7-9, “Know you therefore the day which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, in these shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of the faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.” That’s us. That’s us. The resurrection is central, central to the promise of worldwide blessing.

We have one more foundational promise to go, the fourth, the promise of land. And I’ve saved that one for last for two reasons. First reason is that at a first glance it might seem like that’s one that doesn’t need a resurrection. But let’s look again, let’s look again. We know that God promised a specific piece of land to Abraham and And then to the Jewish nation as a whole. And that it was to that piece of promised land that the nation of Israel set out from Egyptian slavery on their wilderness wandering. And we know from Joshua 23 that all, all, underline it, all of those land promises were fulfilled long ago. And we know something else. We know that that land would be lost if the people ever became faithless. What God told them. That’s exactly what happened. The northern tribes were carried off into Assyrian captivity, never to return. Southern tribes were carried off to Babylonian captivity, eventually allowed to return to rebuild the temple and the city. But once again, we have a two-fold promise. The land promise is a two-fold promise, and that may seem surprising to some. I think I think we’ve all too often skipped over the land promise as something that just applied to old Israel, old physical Israel, given to them, fulfilled long ago, nothing to say to us today. What does the Bible say? In Hebrews chapters 3 and 4, Paul talks about the promised land. He refers to it as the promised rest, promised rest. After so many years of wondering, could any word have better described that promised land than a land of rest, land of rest? But the promise of rest did not end there. In Hebrews 4:9, the writer tells us that “there yet remains a rest to the people of God.” There is a rest that remains for the people of God. Yes, the physical land promise was fulfilled long ago, but that is not where that promise ended. That was a twofold promise, like the others. A promised land of rest remains for the Christian, Hebrews 4:9, and that promised land of rest makes no sense absent a resurrection. The resurrection is central to the promise of land, to the promise of rest.

I told you I’d save that final promise for last for two reasons. The second reason I saved it for last is that as I prepared this sermon it dawned on me that there is an aspect of that often neglected land, promised land of rest that has so much to say to our modern society. And in fact of all the promises in the Bible there are few that have more to say to modern man than that one, the promise of rest. You know I haven’t heard many sermons on rest, which is kind of surprising when you consider how important it was to God, how important it is to God. God himself rested in the very first chapter of the Bible and based on that seventh day of rest God established the Sabbath day of rest for his chosen people. Exodus 20:11, “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” You know, just as an aside, anyone ever tells you the word day in Genesis 1 means something other than a 24-hour day, take them right there to Exodus 20:11. It’s the same word used for the Sabbath day, it’s used for the days of creation. You know I think that sometimes we may have failed to fully appreciate the importance of the Sabbath day under the Old Covenant. That was not just a side issue for God or for the people of God. God placed the Sabbath day front and center and God referred to it over and over and over again in His Word. The prophets talked about it over and over again, the Sabbath day, as early as Leviticus 26. God warned the Israelites that their failure to honor the Sabbath day would lead to disastrous consequences. Leviticus 26:34-35. And it did. He said, you are not honoring the Sabbath day, so I’m going to do something that will cause the land to honor the Sabbath day, I’m going to take you off that land. And he did. Jeremiah and Ezekiel would later point to the people’s failure to honor the Sabbath day as a reason for their exile and their captivity. Jeremiah 17:27, Ezekiel 22:8. We know that the Sabbath day, the day of rest, was of utmost importance to God. But was that just something in the old covenant? Is there any sort of Sabbath rest today? Now, we certainly know that the Sabbath day itself is not part of the new covenant. Part of the old law nailed to the cross. But, but. Both Ezekiel and Isaiah refer to the Sabbath in their prophecies about the church. Both of them do. Ezekiel 44:24. “And in controversy, they shall stand in judgment and they shall judge it according to my judgments.” “And they shall keep my laws and my statutes and all my assemblies. And they shall hallow my Sabbaths.” It’s a church. Isaiah 66:23. “It shall come to pass that from one noon moon to another and from one Sabbath to another shall all flesh come to worship before me,” saith the Lord. Is there nothing left today of the Sabbath? We know that something remains of it. In fact, something much greater than the Sabbath remains. How do we know that? Because of Colossians 2:16-17. “Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in question to food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of things to come. But the substance belongs to Christ.” Sabbath was a shadow of things to come. Substance belongs to Christ. Hebrews 10:1 tells us the same thing. The Sabbath day was a shadow of something to come, but a shadow of what? What is the reality in Christ that was foreshadowed by the Sabbath? Certainly we know from Hebrews 4:9 that there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, our heavenly reward. But is the promise of rest only a promise of future rest? Is there no promise of rest for the people of God in the here and now? We’ve seen some twofold promises today. I think the promise of rest is yet another one. Paul told us in 1 Timothy 4:8, that “godliness has promise of the life that now is and which is to come.” There’s a promise for the life that now is. I think that’s also true of the rest that comes from godliness. How else can we understand that great invitation in Matthew 11? “Come unto me all ye that are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. And you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Was that a promise only of a future rest in heaven? If so, why does it come with a yoke? If so, why does it come with a burden? The promised rest in Matthew 11 comes with a promised yoke. It comes with a promised burden. And where there’s a yoke and where there’s a burden, even a light yoke and a light burden, there is work. The promise of rest is not just a promise of future rest. Our work ends. It’s a promise of rest for right here and right now while we are wearing the easy yoke of Christ. We know that Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. Listen as Jesus tells us the purpose behind the Sabbath day. Mark 2:27-28. “And he said unto them, the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.” God knows the importance of rest to our spiritual well-being. He made the Sabbath day for man. Is rest no longer important under the new covenant? Do we suddenly no longer need rest? If there is not a promise of rest for the people of God in the here and now, then how can we understand that great psalm of rest, Psalm 23? “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, he maketh me lie down in green pastures, he restores my soul.” That beautiful rest beside the still waters was present tense for David, and it should be present tense for us as well.

How, how do we enjoy a promised rest today? Well, let’s turn that question around. What causes restlessness? Worry, fear, anxiety. What does the Bible say about that? 1 Peter 5:7. “Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you.” What happens when we do that? What happens to our restlessness? What happens when we suddenly experience the freedom from those cares and those anxieties that we have cast upon God, resting in the fact that God cares for us. Doesn’t God turn our restlessness into rest? And with that, I think we’ve come full circle back to where we started. Remember that psychologist? Remember that Harvard guru? I think they were on the right track our worry about the future is a great source of restlessness and unhappiness. But the solution is not just to be here now. The solution is not to just ignore the future. That’s the key to misery. Paul’s already told us that. The solution is to cast those cares and those anxieties upon God. The solution is to trust and obey. Children of God don’t ever need to worry about their future, never. Our future is in the hands of God, Almighty God. Modern man desperately needs to hear that message. If I had to point to one characteristic of our our modern world that shows its ungodliness, I would point to its restlessness. When we look at modern man with iPhones buzzing and text messages flying, don’t we see the same restless, hopeless person described in Job 7:6? “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle and are spent without hope.” What a very modern portrait from an ancient source. You know, a recent advertisement said, “You can rest when you’re dead.” But sadly, they’re not going to find rest when they’re dead. As Paul explained in Ephesians 2:12, “they are without hope. They are strangers to the covenant of promise. They have no hope in the promise.” They are struggling under the hard yoke. And it is out of that world, that restless world that Jesus calls us, “or the tumult of our life’s wild, restless sea.” Jesus is our anchor in that troubled and restless world. He can say, “Peace, be still,” to calm that raging sea. But we will never find rest apart from Him, never. We will never find rest in that ocean, absent our anchor. Restlessness is the curse of our time, but we can find rest by standing on the promises of God, by having hope in the promises of God. By resting in the promises of God today, we will one day enter that promised land of rest prepared for the people of God. And if heaven will be eternal rest, then do you think hell will be eternal restlessness? And if so, then today when we see restlessness about us, either in the world or maybe even in ourselves, aren’t we seeing a foretaste of hell? And when we rest content in the promises of God, aren’t we seeing a foretaste of heaven? That promised land of eternal rest. In Jeremiah 6:16, God said to his people, “stand ye in the waves and see and ask for the old paths. Where is the good way and walk there in and ye shall find rest for your souls.” That message has not changed. Those who are seeking rest for their souls will not find it in any modern source. They will not find it in alcohol. They will not find it in drugs. They will not find it in psychology, they will not find it in some guru, or some new age religion. They will not find it in humanism, they will not find it in themselves, they will not find it in philanthropy, they will not find it in the Christless, feel-good religions that are so common today. True rest is found only by those who seek it in the old path, as Jeremiah just told us. True rest in this age and in the age to come comes only through Jesus Christ. How did the people respond to God’s command to walk in the old paths in Jeremiah 6:16? In the same verse we find their response. They said, “We will not walk herein.” The message is the same today. And sadly, so is the response for so many. But our mission is to direct people to those ancient paths where they can find true rest for their soul, where they can find hope in the exceeding great and precious promises of God through Christ Jesus. “Be still and know that I am God.” The psalmist wrote in Psalm 46:10. Just think for a moment about that short two-word command. “Be still.” Stop scurrying about, mindless of God, mindless of eternity. Stop shouting heedless of the still, small voice of God. “Be still and know that I am God.” We all know the steps to salvation. Hear, believe, repent, confess, be baptized, live faithfully unto death. But have we skipped one? One that must precede all the others? One that is so hard to do in our modern world? One that may explain why the gospel today so often falls on deaf ears? “Be still and know that I am God.” How else will anyone ever hear the gospel? We cannot teach someone the gospel until we have that person’s attention and it is so hard today to get someone’s attention. Perhaps the first step to salvation is to be still and know that I’m God.

We’ve talked much today about hope. Hebrews 6:19 describes the hope set before us in an anchor of the soul. Where there is an anchor there is water. Is it a coincidence that the wicked in the Bible are compared with the restless waves of the sea? Isaiah 57:20. Our world today is under the grip of a terrible pandemic, but it is not COVID. The pandemic afflicting the world today is hopelessness, hopelessness. Jesus Christ is the cure for that disease. He is the only cure. There is no other. Either you are in Christ or “you are strangers from the covenants of promise. You have no hope. You are without God in this world.” It is only in Christ that anyone can ever have hope in the promises of God. Only in Christ. So how, how does someone outside of Christ become in Christ? How? How? Let the Bible answer that question. Galatians 3:27, “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” “As many of you.” Romans 6:3, “Know you not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?” “So many of us.” That’s it. That’s the only way. And the set of those in Christ is the same as the set of those who have been baptized for remission. That’s what those two verses just said. Baptism is the dividing line between those outside of Christ and those in Christ. That’s what those two verses just said. And no one, no one who has read and studied God’s word could ever be surprised that you must go through water to reach the land of promise. If you are outside of Christ today, you have no hope in the promise. But that can all change today. That’s the good news. That’s the gospel. The waters of baptism await. The invitation of Christ is yours. “Come unto me, all ye that are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” We can help in any way today. Please come while we stand and while we sing.