Title: Let's Get Up and Sing Hope
Contents
Wake up and sing of hope
? Bible Text: Jeremiah 29:10-13
10 Thus saith the LORD. When seventy years are completed in Babylon, I will take care of you, and I will fulfill my good word to you and bring you back to this place. 11 saith the LORD. I know my thoughts toward you, peace and not calamity. It gives you a future and hope. 12 If you cry out to me and come to me in prayer, I will hear your prayers. 13 If you seek me with all your heart, you will find me and find me.
1 Peter 1:3-4
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He hath begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, according to his great mercy, 4 to an inheritance that is incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading, reserved for you in heaven.
John 20:26-29
26 Eight days later, when the disciples were again in the house, Thomas was with them, and the doors were shut. But Jesus came and stood in the middle and said, "Peace to you." 27 Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands, and then put out your hand and put your hand to my side. Put it in the . So, do not become unbelievers, but believers 28 Thomas answered and said, My Lord and my God. 29 Jesus said to them, "Do you believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and believe."
I pray that the grace of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who overcame the power of death and rose from the grave, abounds on this earth, this nation, and the whole world. Jesus Christ overcame the power of death and rose again. After the fall of Adam, all mankind had to suffer death, but Jesus Christ overcame death and rose again to give us all new hope. The resurrection of Jesus showed that when a person dies, it does not end there, but that he can live again.
Today we are living in the midst of spiritual stagnation and economic depression. The Christian Church is being distrusted and rejected by the world. Relations between the South and the North are moving toward confrontation and conflict rather than reconciliation and peace. The cold wave of the economic crisis that started in the United States is creating a lot of unemployed people. Society is polarized and is experiencing extreme chaos. Ecosystems are changing due to global warming, and reports are coming out that the world will soon become an environment in which humans cannot live. There seems to be no tomorrow at all. It seems that the despair and suffering we suffer because there is no hope for the future is greater and more difficult.
In today's text, Israel forsook God, worshiped idols, and fell into greed and unrighteousness, committing all kinds of sins. As a result, Israel was under God's discipline. They became slaves to Babylon. Numerous Israeli leaders and intellectuals were taken prisoner and lived as slaves. He was punished for his sin. Instead of loving and caring for one another, they forsook God in a greedy desire to have more, and lost the preciousness of people and life, so they were punished by God.
All of the suffering we are experiencing today is due to the same sin. Because the church has failed to fulfill its role as the light and salt of the world, the church is being trampled down by the world like salt that has lost its flavor. The threat of war continues because of human greed for power. The economic crisis started because of man's heinous greed to own more, and now we are suffering terribly. This world that has abandoned the word of God and trampled on the preciousness of life is gradually turning into a dark hell. God's truth and justice are long gone. We are becoming a society where injustice and violence are rampant. Just as the people of Israel were under discipline for forsaking God, we are now experiencing such suffering.
Even if we are disciplined for our sins, we should not despair or give up. God disciplined Israel because of their sins, but he said that discipline was not the purpose. “This is the word of the LORD. I know my thoughts toward you, peace and not calamity. I give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11). It is said that God's punishment of Israel was to promise them a future and to give them hope.
How can I have a future and sing of hope? The prophet Jeremiah tells us to turn to God. “If you cry out to me and come to me and pray, I will hear your prayers. If you seek me with all your heart, you will find me and find me” (Jeremiah 29:12-13). He said that he would return to God, find him and find him, and he would meet him. All problems can be solved by simply turning to God. We must return to God and restore our relationship with God that has been destroyed by our covetousness. We need to re-establish the human-human relationship on top of the precious value of life. The relationship between humans and nature must also be restored. We need to repent and return to God to restore hope and faith for a new relationship order that is completely different from the one we have lived so far.
Who is the God to whom we must return? He loves us even to the point of sending his Son to die on the cross to forgive our sins. He not only crucified his Son, but raised him from the grave. He promises hope by showing the future to his children through the cross and resurrection. He is the one who turns despair into hope.
In the 20th chapter of the Gospel of John we read today, we see the disciples in despair after losing their beloved teacher. They were trembling with fear of death and with fear of attack by their opponents. While he was alive, Jesus preached about the kingdom of God, teaching eternal life. But now he has died and is buried in a tomb. So, the disciples were disappointed with Jesus' teachings and must have been in deep despair as they thought of the hardships they would suffer as a result of following him.
The risen Jesus came to these disciples. He appeared to the suspicious disciples. He even told Thomas to put his hands in the nail marks on his side and hands. After that, he told his disciples, “Do not be unbelievers, but become believers.” He also said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and believe.” The risen Jesus came to the despairing disciples, showed him his resurrection, and instilled new hope. He showed that the path the disciples walked was never in vain. The disciples, who were cowardly, became witnesses of the gospel when they met the resurrected Jesus. And something changed to the point of being martyred for the sake of the gospel.
That's right. Jesus Christ is the One who gives hope to those who live in despair. He has given us the hope of eternal life through his resurrection. Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me will live even if they die, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die" (John 11:25-6). Also, Jesus said, “The will of my Father is that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him has eternal life, and I will raise it up on the last day” (John 6:40, cf. 44, 54). He promised the hope of a glorious resurrection.
In this hope, Paul said, “As in Adam all died, so in Christ all will be resurrected” (1 Corinthians 15:21f; 1 Thessalonians 4:14). Also, Peter said, “Blessed be the He hath begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade” (1 Peter 1:3-4).
Therefore, we must now move beyond the order of death to a new life in which we live in the living hope of the resurrection. We must rise from despair and sing of hope. Instead of living in the old order of death, we should renew our faith in the new order of the kingdom of God and sing of hope for the future. <Sentence omitted> We must cast off the lusts of the flesh that have turned toward sin and live like a born-again child of God. We will be able to create a glorious age of grace by casting off all the sins that stem from human greed and being renewed.
As we celebrate Christ's resurrection, let us sing of hope for the future once again. In faith in Him, the world must find a new order of justice and peace. This nation, which is currently in confrontation and conflict, must open a new path for peace and reconciliation. Our society, which has been divided and distorted for political, economic, and cultural reasons, must find a new way of reconciliation and coexistence. A kingdom of justice in which morality and godliness are maintained above the Word of God must be realized. Instead of an economy that exploits and damages lives based on greed for money and material, a new economic order that can protect the precious value of life must emerge. In the risen Christ, this hope is not just a dream. For all believers who believe in the resurrection of Christ, it will surely come, and it is the future that is now coming. The resurrected Christ is commanding all the churches and believers on this earth to move forward with hope for a new siege and order.
Let's overcome today and live with firm hope for the future. Although our sufferings are great now, let us not forget that we will soon be transformed into glory in Christ. Paul said, “So is the resurrection of the dead, sown in corruption, raised incorruptibility, sown in dishonor, raised in glory, sown in weakness, raised in strength; sown in a natural body, raised a spiritual body. If there is a body, there is also a spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15:42-44). The apostle John said, “Beloved, we are now children of God. What is to come has not yet been revealed, but when he appears, we know that we will be like him, because we will see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). Paul affirmed, “He will transform our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body by the power of him who is able to subject all things to himself” (Philippians 3:21).
So let us not be discouraged no matter how difficult the circumstances around us may be. We should not say, “Let’s eat and drink today, because we will die tomorrow,” like those who have given up hope for the future (1 Corinthians 15:32). If we do not lose heart, we will reap the harvest in due time. In any situation, let us march in faith with hope. Let's kill the sinful nature and live a life where Christ lives and works in us.
Paul said in Romans 6:8-11: “If we have died with Christ, we also believe that we will live with him, knowing that Christ rose from the dead and will not die again, and that death will no longer have dominion over him. For his death was death to sin once for all, but his life he lived to God. In the same way, consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ.” To live this kind of life, Paul said, “I die daily” (1 Corinthians 15:31). He killed himself every day to reveal only God.
Let us overcome the spiritual stagnation, economic crisis, and social turmoil that lie before us with the resurrection faith. Let us be heralds of hope and comfort so that all people in this country who are living in crisis and suffering can find a new life in the hope of resurrection. No matter how difficult and difficult today may be, let's overcome the power of death and overcome it in anticipation of the power of the risen Him. May the grace of our risen Lord spread over you and this nation, and to the ends of the earth (*).