Hope in Unexpected Places

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Transcript:

But the last song we sang together was I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day. In the last few years, that has become one of my favorite Christmas songs. It’s one that I didn’t, I mean, I heard growing up, but we didn’t sing it a lot.

We still don’t. And I think part of the reason for that is we, it just doesn’t seem, it almost seems less Christmassy than the other Christmas songs, if we can put it that way, because it doesn’t talk about the birth. when you had us sing this and then you talked about it just a little bit, I thought I’m going to share the story, if y’all don’t mind, because I heard this story right after I went to Arkansas, the first Christmas I was there, and then shared this story with them.

And it made the song mean so much more to me. That’s why it’s one of my favorites now. And I had people tell me afterwards, you know, I’ve never really thought about that song as being of much importance, but it really is.

It was written, the words were written by Henry, I never can get his middle name, is it? Wordsworth Longfellow, who was a great American writer in the 1800s. And if I’m remembering the story correctly, when he wrote the, what started out as a poem, when he wrote the poem, it was during the middle of the Civil War.

And Longfellow was from New England, and so when the Civil War came, as most families in New England did. His family came down on the side of the Union, and he had a son who went to enlist to fight in the Union cause. And the Christmas when Longfellow sat down and put pen to paper to write these words, he was sitting in a military hospital with his son who had been critically injured in a battle during the Civil War.

And I don’t recall offhand what battle it was or what the injury was. Part of me is remembering the story saying that he was blinded in the fighting. Part of me is thinking he lost a limb.

I don’t remember what the injury was, but I remember that he was in a military hospital and he was in bad shape. And as any father who loves his child would do, he was there with his son and he was brokenhearted over the condition that he saw his child in. Madeline bumped her head Friday night and drew blood on the forehead and it just tore me up.

I can’t imagine being in a military hospital with your child who’s just been injured in a battle. And you know, at that point, you’ve got to think, and it doesn’t matter how righteous the cause is, you’ve got to think, why? Why did my child have to be injured?

Why did my child have to be killed for whatever it was. And he sat there and he became depressed. And he heard the bells playing.

Some of you may remember the days, I don’t know how long ago it was, so you may not, but some of you may remember the days when churches had bells and they would play out for the town, it was time to go to meeting, as they say on the Andy Griffith show. And we’ve lost that, So it’s unfamiliar to us. But the bells would play out, the hour, or they’d play out that it was time to go to church.

Well, the bells would sound out announcing Christmas Day. And he heard it, and the first time it brought to mind all the things that Christmas is supposed to be about. And so he wrote, I heard the bells on Christmas Day, their old familiar carols play, and wild and sweet the words repeat of peace on earth, goodwill to men.

That’s what Christmas is supposed to be about. Not just peace on earth, goodwill to men, in the sense that we’re all supposed to get along with each other. But a bigger peace than that, which we’re going to talk about in just a few minutes.

I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself. But the peace that God brings us. And that’s what it’s supposed to be about.

God sent his son. And yes, Jesus said, I didn’t come to bring peace, but a sword. And what he meant by that was family would be divided.

Some would accept him, some would not. Communities would be divided. Husbands and wives, children and parents would be divided over whether he was or was not who he claimed to be.

But the Bible often uses the sword as a symbol of division. Like when it talks about rightly the word of God is sharp, is quick and sharp like a two-edged sword. Dividing the bone and the marrow.

And it’s not talking about a weapon of violence, it’s talking about a tool of division. But the Bible also does say that he came to bring peace. So when he said, I came not to bring peace, but a sword, he’s not talking about instigating violence and conflict.

He’s just talking about people would be divided over who he was. And what he really came to bring is that one day there would be peace between us and there can be peace with God now. But Longfellow looked around, he didn’t see that.

And he writes in the second verse, I thought how as the day had come, the belfries of all Christendom had rolled along the unbroken song of peace on earth, goodwill to men. And he thought as he heard these bells chiming, that that same song, maybe not the same words, but that same song, that same refrain of peace on earth, goodwill to men, had been sung unbroken for 1,800 years. That since the birth of Christ, Christians have kept alive the message, and even some who just call themselves Christians.

But the Christian world, Christendom if you want to call it that, used synonymously with the Western world, had kept alive this idea of peace on earth, goodwill to men through birth of Christ, but we haven’t always lived up to it. And as he thought about how this song had continued on for 1,800 years, and yet there really hadn’t been peace on earth, he kind of, he looks at his son and becomes bitter. And I think that’s an entirely reasonable response.

I don’t know that he’s bitter at God, but he’s bitter at the world. And I could see where he would get that. And he writes, and in despair, I bowed my head.

There is no peace on earth, I said, for hate is strong, And mocks the song of peace on earth, goodwill to men. And it’s easy to get to a point of feeling like the world makes a mockery of what Jesus came to do. Not just in mocking his offer of salvation, but in mocking the peace that he desires all of us to have.

We can’t keep peace between nations. We can’t keep peace in our families. The hate is strong and mocks the song.

But then he continued to listen. And I don’t know if Longfellow was an evangelical Christian. I don’t know if he’s somebody who shared our idea of faith.

I know a lot of writers around his time in New England were transcendentalists and sort of believed in a different understanding of God than we have. But clearly he was a man who was at least familiar with the biblical stories. And he listened, and I have to believe that in some way God spoke to him that morning because he listened to the bells, and there’s a melting here.

There’s a thawing of his heart after these feelings of bitterness. Then peeled the bells more loud and deep. God is not dead, nor doth he sleep.

Doesn’t matter how long God is mocked. Doesn’t mean he’s not real. Doesn’t mean he’s not going to fulfill his promises. The wrong shall fail.

The right prevail. With peace on earth, goodwill to men. The ugliness that he was looking at all around him.

The ugliness that his son had fallen victim to. He said it’s not going to last forever. Because God has said peace on earth, goodwill to men.

God’s angels proclaimed peace on earth, goodwill to men. And he said the wrong will fail and the right will prevail. And he said until ringing singing on its way, the world revolved from night to day.

There’ll be a change. There will one day be a change. The Lord will set everything to right.

And it will be like the world going from night to day in the glory and in the light of his presence. A voice, a chime, a chant sublime of peace on earth, goodwill to men. And that ties in pretty nicely with what I’m going to talk about this morning.

I’ve got notes up here that I’m not going to use. I had a message prepared in the series that we’ve been doing on Luke chapter 1 and talking about the events shortly before the birth of Christ. But I want to share with you something that I got the opportunity to share last night, and it should only take us a few minutes. I was invited to speak at our school’s Christmas banquet last night to the staff, to the school board.

That was kind of frightening. And I told them last night that I had, I didn’t change my mind and decide I was going to share this with you all until we were sitting out there singing, so I hope it makes sense to you. But I shared with them that I had struggled all week with what I was going to talk about, and I had a message prepared.

I had a message that I thought God had given me. And then as he so often does, I got to a point where right before, I felt like God was sort of leading me in a different direction. Because Friday, when I was at school, I was at lunch with the high school kids, and I got a call from a friend of mine who’s a pastor in Goldsby.

And he was letting me know about a mutual friend of ours, who I have to guess is in his mid-30s, and so is his wife. And his wife had had surgery on Tuesday to check out a possible heart condition, and they decided that what was causing her to faint and such was not her heart. They ruled out a life-threatening heart condition.

And evidently she had recovered nicely from the surgery. We had a political meeting Thursday night, and that’s actually how all three of us know each other. And his wife was doing so well Thursday night that he actually let some friends come stay with her, and he came to the meeting because she was feeling good.

She told him to go. And I know he wouldn’t have left if he thought she was in bad shape. I got the call Thursday at lunch that she had passed away that morning, Friday morning.

I thought, that doesn’t make sense. Why? She was fine the night before.

The woman was in her mid-30s, again, I think. Left three small children. And even though I’m sad about her, I’d only met her once.

It was back in the summer. Didn’t know her real well. I was torn up for him.

So I was thinking how terrible to lose her. And the teacher I was working with said, and right before Christmas too. And I said, I hadn’t even thought about that.

But my heart broke for him and for his children. And I’ve been there in similar circumstances thinking this just came out of nowhere. And now I’m all these kids have.

And what am I going to do? And thinking about everything that he’s going to be dealing with over the next few days and weeks and months. And trying to raise his kids and trying to do it on his own.

And thinking how am I going to do this? And even as a believer, that would feel like a hopeless situation, just being thrust into this and now you’re all alone with these kids and what do I do now? And I left or I got ready to leave school at 4.

30 on Friday and I just sat in my car and cried, prayed for him and cried and I didn’t stop crying until I got a phone call. Oh, yeah, the real world’s out there and I’ve got things I’ve got to get back to, but I just sat there and wept for the man. And then we had a Christmas program for Benjamin at his school, or at our school, Friday night, sort of last minute.

We went to that and saw him in his program not sing. He did the hand motions, but he wouldn’t sing. Then we went next door and watched the high school kids doing their basketball game, and my kids had fun with that.

It was a pretty good evening. I got them home. I fed them.

I put them to bed, and then my phone buzzed, and it was my mother, and she said, Did you hear about Buford? And Buford Francis was one, he was for a while a deacon at our church in Fayetteville. He and his wife were some of my best friends at that church.

And toward the end of my time there, I really was talking to them every day, sometimes two, three times a day. And I can honestly tell you there were days I would not have made it through as a father or as a pastor without being able to lean on Buford and Rose Francis and knowing that they were praying for me. And we were planning to go back sometime later this month after school lets out and try to see everybody, him included.

And he had passed away. 83 years old. Had a good long life.

83 years old. Had just celebrated his 59th wedding anniversary. And I thought about his poor wife.

And I was sad for her. And I was sad for me. Because I loved that man dearly.

And it all just hit me a little too much. And I thought, if this is how I feel, if this is how I feel as a believer. and knowing that God’s in control, and knowing that the other people in these stories involved are believers, and they know too that God is in control.

If I feel this sense of sadness and loss and desperation, and they must as well, then how is it for the world outside? How is it for the world outside these four walls? We live in a world where people really can’t be blamed for giving up hope, can they?

There’s a lot of sadness and there’s a lot of ugliness that takes place in our world. Some of you are going through or have gone through or have kids that are going through things that I can’t even imagine. Started working at the school and even a Christian school, I hear about some of the things that go on in these kids’ lives and it just breaks my heart.

I think how much, how much can people endure? People can’t be blamed if they’re losing hope. And the world, to some extent, to some extent, especially in the part of the country we live in, The world, to some extent, still looks to the churches and says, there are going to be answers, aren’t there?

You know, in human terms, we don’t have answers for them. What I mean by that, to give you an example, I was listening to a radio show the other day, and a man called in just wanting to talk to the host because his parents were about to lose their house, about to be evicted after some health problems and financial problems. And the host was crying and said, I don’t have any earthly answers for you. All I can tell you is turn to your church, turn to God, seek him.

But I don’t have any earthly answers. We as human beings don’t have always earthly answers for the hurts of the people around us. Our world is crazy.

It’s out of control. And, you know, we look at the news and there’s ISIS. They’re overrun.

And we’ve talked about this some. They’re overrunning the Middle East. We’ve got riots in Missouri. Missouri.

Not California, although there may be some there too. Not one of these crazy states out on the coast. There are riots in Missouri. The world, the big world that we all live in is out of control and can feel hopeless.

And for a lot of people, their little world that they live in feels hopeless because of family things, because of financial things. Is there really hope? Do we have hope to offer them?

We don’t have any earthly answers. I can’t fix everybody’s financial problems. I can’t fix everybody’s family problems as much as I would like to. But there’s hope.

There is hope. Now that I’ve gotten you feeling sufficiently the despair that I was feeling on Friday. There is hope for us.

We know that. And there’s hope for us to be able to offer to the world outside. I want to look, if you turn with me, to Luke chapter 2 for just a couple minutes.

Luke chapter 2. Shortly after Jesus was born is where the story picks up here. And you’re probably familiar with the story.

But it says in verse 21 of Luke chapter 2, Luke 2, 21, And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called Jesus, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb. So eight days after his birth, it was time, according to the Jewish law, for him to be circumcised, for him to be named, for him to be dedicated to the Lord. It says in verse 22, And when the days of her purification, according to the law of Moses, were accomplished, They brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord.

As it is written in the law of the Lord, every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord. So there was a time, and I don’t understand all of this, but there was a time after childbirth during which women were considered ceremonially unclean, which meant they couldn’t go to the temple, they couldn’t do certain things. I’ve never been through childbirth.

I’ve experienced it on the other side three times, And I don’t know why you’d want to go anywhere eight days after childbirth anyway. So the whole ceremonially unclean thing, I would think would be fine. Because how they have you up walking the day after a C-section, I’ll never understand.

But they went after the time of her purification, after these eight days, to dedicate him, to present him to the Lord in the temple. It says in verse 24, And to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons. So for every child that was born, they had to offer this sacrifice.

And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And the same man was just and devout. This was a good man and a man dedicated to the Lord.

It says, waiting for the consolation of Israel. We know what that word consolation means, even though we don’t use it a lot, because we hear the word to console someone. It means to comfort them.

He was waiting for God to comfort his people. He was waiting for God to fulfill his promises. He was waiting for hope in Israel, says, and the Holy Ghost was upon him.

Now, this idea of consolation, there were about 400 years when God didn’t speak to his people the way he had been all along. Now, they call it the silent years. I don’t know if that’s the best terminology for it.

I don’t know how accurate that is. But, I mean, it fits. It makes sense.

For 400 years, God didn’t speak through the prophets. Up to that point, God had always had at least one, it seems like, anointed man in each period of time that he would speak to and who then would go speak to the people of Israel on God’s behalf. Someone who could speak authoritatively and say, thus saith the Lord.

They had their questions, what should we do here? What should we not do? And the prophet would say, this is what God says.

Or even if they weren’t asking the question, God would just say, they need to knock that off. And you had the prophet who could come in and say, God said you need to do this. This is not just my opinion, but God said.

And so for all these thousands of years, they’d had this lifeline where God spoke to the people through the prophets. And did God deal with individuals during this 400 years? I’m sure he did.

Did God speak to the individual? Did God speak through his word? I’m sure he did.

But God didn’t speak through the prophets. And for all these years, God had also been promising a Messiah. He’d been promising a deliverer, a savior for the nation of Israel.

and so they’re waiting for this and they’ve been receiving more and more promises and it’s like if I were to go along and I haven’t done this but if I were to tell my kids okay for Christmas you’re getting something really shiny and the next day I told them and it has purple on one side and it has a round thing on it I’m giving them hints I’m foretelling for them and I don’t mean to trivialize Jesus. That’s not what I’m saying. By saying the Messiah is like a Christmas present.

By the way, I have in mind a truck. And I told them for days, a little detail about it here and there, and then for two or three weeks before Christmas, I just quit talking about it altogether. They’re going to get antsy and wonder if they’re still getting their Christmas present.

That’s just how the mind works. Wait, is this still going to happen? So for all these years, God had been a bit at a time telling them things about the Messiah.

And then for 400 years, no prophet steps forward to tell them anything else about this deliverer, this person who was going to come and save them, set them free. They didn’t understand what kind of saving he meant, but this person who was going to come and deliver them. And they’ve been promised this deliverer, and all the things that were going on in prophecy were coming to pass.

God had sent the Babylonians in to take them captive 500 years beforehand, and the Babylonians had come through, and God had promised deliverance from that, and sure enough, those prophecies came through as the Persians came in and cleaned house of the Babylonians and let the Jews go back. They still ruled them, but they let them go back to their homeland. And you know, the Jews were probably sitting there thinking, when is it going to be our time?

Surely the Messiah is coming soon. When is God going to free us from these pagan countries around us? And then came more upheaval. And the Greeks came and tossed the Persians out, and things got worse for the Jews because there was a ruler called Antiochus Epiphanes who came in and sapped the temple and sacrificed a pig on the altar and desecrated everything that was holy and punished the Jews for their worship.

And you know, the Jews were thinking, when is God going to send this deliverer? When is he going to say something else to us? Is that Messiah thing, is that still happening?

And then the Greeks sort of weakened and the Romans came in. The Romans weren’t fun to live under. And all this time they’re thinking, God, some of them may have doubted God’s promises.

Some of them may not have doubted God’s promises, but thinking, is it going to happen in our lifetime? Are we ever going to see this happen? God, is there something here for us to hope for?

Because our existence for 400 years has been beyond difficult. And is this deliverer still coming? And so they were waiting for the consolation.

They were waiting for the comfort of Israel. And they were all waiting for God to send the Messiah. But this man Simeon was waiting in expectation.

He specifically was looking and saying, I know it’s going to take place in my lifetime because God has told me so. And so while everybody else is waiting, yeah, it’s going to happen someday, this man is waiting saying, it’s going to happen. It’s going to happen soon.

And it was revealed to him, verse 26, it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought the child Jesus to do for him after the custom of the law, Then took he him up in his arms and blessed God. And so God had told him already, you’re not going to die until you see the Messiah. So while everyone else who’s not listening to God, they’re just in despair, waiting for the consolation of Israel.

This man is waiting in expectation, realizing that there’s hope because God has made promises and God always keeps his promises. And so it says, he blessed God and said, Lord, now let us, thou thy servant, depart in peace. according to thy word.

Lord, now let me die in peace. And he gives the reason why in verse 30. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation.

This hope that they had been without. This hope that they had looked forward to. This hope that probably many had despaired of ever seeing.

This hope that many had lost hope in. He finally saw the salvation of God. And he was so overcome with joy that he said that’s all I need.

That’s all I need to be able to see. At this point I could die and that would be fine with me because I’ve seen the salvation of the Lord. I’ve seen the hope that’s come for Israel.

I’ve seen God’s promises fulfilled. Which thou has prepared before the face of all people. He was not just for the consolation of Israel but he said that God had prepared him to be hope, to be consolation for all people.

A light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel. And Joseph and his mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him. What I want you to see from this this morning, what I want you to understand, is that the Israelites, apart from God’s promises, were without hope.

And if any group of people has suffered in the history of the world, it’s been the Jewish people. Apart from God’s promise of the Messiah, they were without hope. And some had no doubt despaired, waiting on the consolation of Israel.

Is it coming? Is there anything for us to hope for today? Folks, our world is in much the same kind of situation.

The big world and the world of the individual. Maybe some of you feel that way this morning. I know all of us know people who are in that circumstance. Is there hope?

I’m here to tell you this morning that just as they waited on the consolation of Israel and God brought hope into their world, God interrupted the silence with the cry of a baby who was hope personified. He was the salvation of the Lord. That the same God who fulfilled his promises then is the same God who fulfills his promises now.

And the same God who offered hope to them is the same God who offers hope to us today. And the hope that he offers is the same that he offered then. Our eyes, our eyes, we’re able to look back in history and our eyes have seen the Lord’s salvation.

Folks, we can’t promise a lost and dying world. We can’t promise a world outside filled with ugliness and despair that everything’s just going to get better. I hope it does.

I would like to think it would. But we can’t promise people that their lives are going to improve significantly. We can’t promise people that the pain and the sadness, the things that cause those, will go away.

We can’t promise people that they trust Christ, that they see the Lord’s salvation and everything becomes perfect. But we can promise them that there is hope in this tiny baby that was born. 2,000 years ago.

There is hope in this baby who was born not just to stay in a manger and be a pretty picture on a Christmas card, but in this baby who was born to grow up, to live a sinless life, to shed his blood and to die, to pay for our sins and to be the consolation of Israel and a light to the Gentiles, the Lord’s salvation. Our biggest problem that we have. The reason for all the ugliness in the world is sin.

The reason for all the ugliness in the world is that mankind collectively has turned its back on God. And if the world is like hell, then it’s a hell of our own making because our sin is the reason for all of it. And yet this promise, this hope that God gives us is that this baby was born to restore our relationship with him, to bring us peace with God.

And there’s hope in the peace that we can have with God. That no matter how dark the day is, we don’t walk through it alone because we have a Savior who not only promises to walk with us through the dark days here in this life, but also promises us joys untold in the life to come. We have the privilege.

It’s not a responsibility. It’s not an obligation. We have the privilege of being able to share this whole with a world that’s desperately in need of some good news.