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An archive of Jacob Nannie's Sermons & Teachings
This lecture is the second lecture in the 10-week series of the Belong core class,
one of Christ's community's four core classes. This lecture is titled "A Family Lineage of Hope"
and is tracing what it means to be a people filled with hope from Genesis through Revelation to our
modern day, what it means to embody hope, and what it means for us, the church, to be the hope
of the world. So enjoy the lesson. Well, I'm curious to know what examples pop into your head
or stories pop into your head or feelings pop into your head when you hear the word
expect or expecting. What comes to mind when you hear expect or expecting? Baby. Yeah.
Expecting. Yeah. Anyone else? Anything different? I think a baby pie came came to mind for all of us.
Also made me think of my last girlfriend. She told me not to
ever expect anything from her because if I expect something from her it's going to be disappointing.
Okay, sure. So there's some negative examples maybe when we hear that word.
One of the things that I think of when I hear that word is starting my car in the morning. It's
a simple thing. Every morning that I get up, I expect my car to start, right? Do you guys expect
your car to start when you get up in the morning? Like, yeah. Yeah. And whether or not we've been
through circumstances where it doesn't start, we might be in those circumstances or maybe we have
not had that before. But all of us at some point, we kind of forget the bad things with cars once we
have a better car and we expect our cars to start in the morning. Okay. So how would that change?
Let's say you all expect your car to start in the morning. That's one story that comes to mind when
I hear the word expect. But how will the stories that pop into your head change if I said the words
expect God? Would that change what you thought of? Will that change how you feel about the word
expect? Will that change the examples that you think of? Because it does for me, right? So
totally honest here, when I get up in the morning and I go to start my car, I'm not expecting that
God will ensure it starts. I'm expecting it's going to start based on my past experiences.
And I'm a pastor and everything, but I just don't, you know, I'm not like God is faithful, my car is
going to start in the morning. It's not where my head's at, even though it should be. So I don't
necessarily expect God to start my car in the morning. I don't have trust necessarily in that
moment. He's going to start my car. I have trust that my car is going to start. I have expectation
that my car is going to start because it did so yesterday and the day before that and the day
before that. And one time it didn't start, but that was just one time out of a thousand.
I'm having my expectation placed in past experience. But hope or expecting God,
those things are different kinds of expectations. And so the type of hope that we have as Christians,
the expectation we have as Christians is not a hope, it's not an expectation, which I'm going
to use those two words interchangeably quite a bit. But our Christian hope is not based on past
experiences. It's not based on past experiences. It's not based on current experiences, not based
on future experiences. Rather, it is a confident hope that is rooted in the faithfulness of God.
All right, so that's the one sentence to write down tonight. The family of God is a community
of people whose confident hope is rooted in the faithfulness of God. That's what our hope is.
That's where our hope comes from. And when we say we're a family lineage of hope, when we say we're
a family of hope, what we mean is that we are a community of people who have confident hope in the
faithfulness of God. The family of God is a community of people whose confident hope is rooted
in the faithfulness of God. This is a hope that the people of God have experienced since the beginning.
Since the beginning, the people of God have been filled with hope. In the
Old Testament, the family of God expectantly hoped for the promises of God.
And we're going to go through each one of these. In the New Testament, the family of God experienced
hope in the person of Jesus. And in the church, the family of God embodies hope by the power of the
spirit. They expected hope in the faithfulness of God. The New Testament experienced hope in the
person of Jesus, and the family of God in the church today embodies hope by the power of the spirit.
And so because of this, we are not alone in the hope that we share with the family of God. Instead,
we come from a long family lineage of hope, all throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament.
And even in church history up through till today, we belong to a family that constantly
and confidently expects the faithfulness of God. And it all starts with Abraham, right?
Abraham was mentioned earlier. In many ways, Abraham, all the way back in Genesis,
is the kind of the father and the model of what it means to be someone who is
hopeful, to have someone who has biblical hope, someone who has hope in the faithfulness of God.
God made Abraham many promises in Abraham's lifetime. So a couple here, I think big ones,
right? God promised Abraham that he would be a great nation. God promised Abraham that he would
bless Abraham and that Abraham would be a blessing to people, not just that Abraham would be blessed,
but Abraham's life will be a blessing to other people. God promised that he would have a great
number of descendants. God promised that he would possess land, he'd be given land. And one of the
most peculiar promises that God gave Abraham in his old age is that he would have a son. So many
times God is promising things to Abraham. And Abraham is a model of having faith, having hope
in those promises of God. Like, what would, how would you respond if God told you today,
you're going to be turned into a great nation?
That's right. That's right. That's right. Yeah. Those are natural human responses, right? And I'm
sure Abraham had struggled with that as well. But his base response is that he was confident
and expected God to be faithful to what he promised. Abraham is a model of what it looks
like to have confident expectation in the faithfulness of God. This is what Paul mentions
about Abraham in Romans chapter four. So Romans chapter four, starting in verse 17, he says,
"As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations and the presence of the God in
whom he believed, the one who gives life to the dead and calls things into existence that do not
exist. He, Abraham, believed hoping against hope. Abraham believed hoping against hope so that he
became the father of many nations because of this, because of his hope, according to what had been
spoken. So will your descendants be. He did not weaken in the faith when he considered his own
body to be already dead, right? He hoped against hope. His body was dying, but he didn't weaken in
his faith in God because of that, since he was about 100 years old. And also the deadness of
Sarah's womb. He did not waver in unbelief at God's promise, but was strengthened in his faith
and gave glory to God because he was fully convinced that what God had promised he was able
to do. Therefore, it was credited to him for righteousness. Amen, right? That's what hope
looks like. That's what expectation looks like. God, Abraham, saying I'm dying, my body's old,
I'm 100 years old, but because you're faithful, you can do what you promised to do. Abraham was
fully convinced that God was able to do all that he promised Abraham. Abraham hoped against
hope. His hope in his own ability and body was dead, but his hope in God and what God can do
was fully alive. Do you have that type of hope? Do you have hope in the transience, the limits
of your own being and ability in the world you live in, or is your hope in the God who can do
all the things that he has promised to do? And take note of what Abraham did. God didn't promise
these things and then Abraham sat down and waited for them to happen. He had to faithfully expect
God would do these things, but also take steps as if God was going to do those things. And so
the question for us is, some of us, a lot of us say we have hope in God and God's faithfulness,
but are we acting in that hope? Are we living that hope out? Are you stepping out when it
doesn't make sense for you to step out because you are so dependent on God and expectant that
he will fulfill his promises? It's a question to ponder. Now this hope, it continues in the
story of the Exodus. Even in the face of defeat and despair, did you need to go back? Okay. Even
in the face of defeat and despair, the people of God had hope. They were enslaved to the Egyptians
for 400 years. They had confident expectation that God would remain faithful. God had promised
that Abraham's descendants, all the way back in Genesis 15-13, he promised that his descendants
would face 400 years of slavery. But God also promised Abraham that he would judge the nation
that enslaved his people and would lead them out of slavery into a life of abundance. And so the
Israelites, they had confidence even in the most harsh circumstances, even when generations of
confidence died off, they still had confidence because of the family lineage of hope, literally.
They had confidence that God would fulfill his promise and do what he said he would do,
which is to judge Egypt and save his people of Israel. And then from the Exodus onward,
all throughout, Israel would continue to go through cycles of defeat and despair. They would go
through cycles of prosperity and exile, but all the way through, the people of Israel as a whole
maintained their hope. The people of God patiently and confidently expected that God would fulfill
his promise to them in and through the Messiah, right? And that promise of the Messiah was
actually even in the beginning in Genesis, in the beginning of Genesis. And we see this promise of
the Messiah chiefly post-Exodus in the prophets. So here's a couple of examples.
In Isaiah chapter 9, 6 through 7, there's a confident expecting of a wonderful counselor,
a mighty God, an everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, who will establish an everlasting kingdom.
People who are in exile are expecting this. People who are struggling are expecting this Messiah.
Jeremiah 31, confidently expecting a new covenant that God will make with his people,
writing his law in their hearts and forgiving their sins completely. And Ezekiel, confidently
expecting a future spiritual renewal where God will give his people a new heart and a new spirit,
enabling them to follow his laws. And Daniel 7, 13 through 14, I love that, that's my favorite
passage, I think, in all the Old Testament. Where Daniel has this vision of like these four beasts,
right? Sorry, I'm going to go into it a little bit. Four beasts are terrifying. I mean, if I saw
those in a vision, I would be terrified. But then at the end, there's one like the Son of Man who
goes up to the ancient of days and all the dominion is given to him. And he sets an everlasting
kingdom and thousands worship him. Daniel 7, 7 points to confidently expecting one like the Son
of Man who receives an everlasting kingdom. And Zechariah 9, confidently expecting the arrival of
a righteous and humble king riding on a donkey who will bring salvation to Jerusalem. So all
throughout the prophets, all throughout the Old Testament, the people of God confidently expected
that God will fulfill his promise to bring a Messiah who's going to restore all things. What
all the people of God hoped for in the Old Testament ultimately was the coming of God's
Messiah. And all the promises of the Old Testament find their fulfillment in the person and the work
of Jesus Christ. One of my favorite passages in the Gospels, more recently, this kind of came back
to mind as we were preaching through Mark the first time back in the spring. One of my favorite
passages is Luke chapter 4 verses 16 through 21. It's where Jesus came to Nazareth where he had been
brought up. As I understand it, I didn't notice that before, or where he had been brought up.
People knew this Jesus, right? As usual, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath day and
stood up to read and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. And along the scroll,
he found, he found the place where it was written, "The Spirit of the Lord is on me
because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to
the captives and recovery of sight to the blind and to set free the oppressed to proclaim the year
of the Lord's favor." He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. And
the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on him and he began by saying to them, "Today,
as you listen, this scripture has been fulfilled." What a crazy moment. And also, I noticed today,
too, like he began by saying, what did he say after that? "Today it's been fulfilled." And then
probably a great sermon of how that is true. But all of that, all of that hope comes in fulfillment
in the person of Jesus, right? The Lord is on me to preach good news to the poor. All the poor in
Israel looking forward to this Messiah. All the captives were looking for this Messiah forward.
All the blind were looking for this Messiah. All the oppressed were looking to be set free by
this Messiah. They all wanted God's favor. And in Jesus that is fully in revelation, is fully
fulfilled. Jesus fulfilled all that the law and the prophets spoke of him in the fullest
sense. He preached good news to the poor, literally. He freed captives. He freed those who
are captive to demonic possession, those who are captive to illness, those who are captive to their
own politics, to their own religion, to the world and the flesh and the devil. He gave sight to the
blind literally and spiritually. It's all over the gospels. And he set free those oppressed by sin,
death, and the devil. That is hope fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus Christ. The world
experienced hope. Experienced hope. And this hope came to a head when Jesus rose from the dead. And
that resurrection is what we look forward, we look back to and forward to as New Testament
post-resurrection Christians. In the church and forevermore we embody hope. The Old Testament
expected it. The New Testament experienced it. Today we embody it. And so our definition of
hope is slightly different, just a little bit, slightly different than that of those in the
Old Testament and the gospels. Because our definition of hope is a confident expectation
in the faithfulness of God, grounded in the resurrection of Christ. So our hope is grounded
in God's faithfulness and also grounded in the fact that there was a resurrection, that Jesus
said all, did all he said he would do, including rising from the dead. And to the point where Paul
says that there's no resurrection, there is no hope. Where our belief is in vain, our preaching
is in vain. And so because of that, because we have seen with our spiritual eyes, maybe our
intellect as well, looking at church history, looking at the Bible, looking at archaeological
evidence, there's an abundance of evidence that Jesus rose from the dead, both in our hearts and
also physically. Because of that, because we're sure of that, because we believe in it, because
we believe God is faithful, we're called to live out this hope radically. We also live with
confidence in the faithfulness of God. We also live with the expectation that God will be faithful.
And thus our hope must be a living hope, as 1 Peter 1 verse 3 says,
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his great mercy,
he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead." A living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Scholar Thomas Schreiner says that a living hope is one that is genuine and vital in contrast to
a hope that's empty in vain. A living hope. So here I want you to ask yourself this and maybe
even take some time to write it down, to ponder it. Do I live this way? Do I live
with a genuine and vital hope that God will be faithful?
Or another question that you could ponder is this, and I love asking it this way.
How do I live in a way that expects God to be faithful to what he promised?
How do I live in a way that expects God to be faithful to what he promised?
And while you're thinking about those things, here's a third thing to think about.
Well, I'm going to do this third one because this is the most important. It kind of captures both,
okay? So it's not a question, this is a task. Write down right now an example of what you would do
if you were someone who had a radical faith in God.
What would you do different tomorrow if you radically had hope in God?
How would you live in a way that expects God?
What would you do different tomorrow? If you think of someone who you say, okay,
this person lives radically and they radically have faith and hope that God will do all he said
he would do. And because this person has this hope, they do the X, Y, and Z, okay? That's great.
What would that person do if they were you? Tomorrow, if you had radical hope in God,
what would you physically do with your life?
I personally wrestle with this often. When I'm in public,
I feel like God directs me to speak encouragement to people.
I have plenty of time to tell some stories. Like there's one time I was at a coffee shop back in
California. I had a friend who worked at a friend of Christina's who worked at this clothing store
down just like literally two shops down from the coffee shop. I didn't know if she was working that
day or not. I was there doing I think some schoolwork and just enjoying my day, had no
thoughts of this person at all probably for the past week. And I was like, man, I just really all
of a sudden, just all of a sudden feel like I should go tell this specific thing to Leslie.
I didn't know she was working today. And one of the rare times where I'm like, that's crazy,
I'm just gonna go do it. And so I went and I said, hey, I feel this is weird for me,
it's probably weird for you. I feel like God's telling me to tell you this. And she
broke down in tears. That was me in that instance being faithful to God's calling. And I feel like
that often. I feel like God's calling me to encourage people. But I don't do it often.
Right? That's not a good thing. It's not a good thing to ignore that still small voice.
Or I feel like God's asked me to ask people probing questions that get them to think about
God. Or God's asking me to pray for people. Or even sometimes as crazy as it sounds,
I really do feel like sometimes God calls me in instances in the moment to heal people,
not because of me but God using me to heal people. That one I've never answered. And I always kick
myself wondering, man, what if I did there? I don't know if you guys were here. I told a story
in a sermon months ago. There was a guy at the same coffee shop and I should go back to that
coffee shop and get something special about the coffee there. But there's a guy that got at the
coffee shop frequently was there. He's there all the time. He was a veteran. I think he was
homeless. But he was deaf, either partially deaf, like almost all the way deaf, or he was all the
way deaf. And more than once, I'm like, man, I really I don't know what it is. I don't know
where this is coming from. I don't know if I believe in healing even happening today.
But I feel like God's saying, if I go pray for this man to receive hearing, he will right now.
But I was too scared. I was too scared to do it. I did not want to look like a fool.
And then I went like a week later, I think, okay, if I get that feeling again, I'm going to do it.
I have, I built up all the courage to do it. And as I went to the coffee counter to get the coffee,
there was a picture, like a poster there for this man's memorial. So in the time that had passed,
he had passed away. I was like, now I'll never know. And not because that would make me someone
great, but because I missed out now on the opportunity to offer God's wholeness to someone.
And I missed out on the opportunity to see God at work in a really tangible way.
Sometimes I feel like that, like God's calling me to heal people. And as extroverted as I am,
I think I'm an extrovert. I think I'm, you know, I talk too much sometimes. I'm social.
That scares me. Those are scary thoughts. It's scary to be like, what if God's calling me to
do this? I don't want to look like a fool. That's why I told my pastor back in California all the
time. I don't want to look like a fool. And he tells me even to this day, I called him last week.
I said the same thing. He said, you need to look like a fool. You need to be willing to look
foolish. And he always reminded me of Isaiah. Isaiah was called to walk naked for three years.
Could you imagine the conversation Isaiah had with himself and with God? Like,
and if this is not God, this is just three years of just foolishness. But it's through obeying God
and not just obeying God, but having expectance that he will be faithful, that you
see God at work, but also start to tune into that still small voice.
Now, as I start the journey of responding to what God is calling me to do,
not saying no, being willing to look like a fool, I know more what is and isn't from God.
But if I never have expectancy that God will be faithful, I'll never know what to expect from him.
If I never have trust that he's going to do and lead me in the right paths,
I won't know how to tune into that voice. And so I've asked myself recently, and I mean this
very recently, within the past two weeks, probably, what would a follower of Christ,
right, when God, when I feel like, man, I think God's telling me to go talk to this person, I ask
myself, what would a follower of Christ who radically expects God in hopes and his promises,
what would that person do? And all the time, the answer is that person would just go do that.
What's the harm? Someone might get mad at you for interrupting their day. Okay, that's fine.
And I've been doing that. And people have been encouraged, again, not because I'm a great person,
not because I have something special to share with them in and of myself. But because God is at work,
and I'm starting to do what I see the Father doing, like we talked about last week,
in the most random situations, people are encouraged.
So I ask again, what is one example, if you haven't written it down yet, write it down.
What is one example of something that you could do, can do, will do differently, if
you were the type of person who radically expected God in hope and his promises?
The truth is that we can have that radical hope. That's not an ideal. That's not, we're not hoping
for a radical hope. We can have that. We can have confidence and expectation in the faithfulness of
God. Because we have borne witness to the fact that God has done all he said he will do in the
life, death, and resurrection of Christ. I kind of blow my own mind sometimes. I'm like, Jacob,
you believe that God raised Jesus from the dead, but you doubt that he can encourage someone
through you like today. That's not, doesn't make sense logically. Like you believe in this crazy
thing called the resurrection, but you struggle to believe that God will actually use you in this
life. You can have radical hope in God, faithful in the faithfulness of God, that he will do what
he's going to do. He will do what he said he will do. We know what God has done and we know what he
will do as the kingdom of God breaks into this world because he's promised it through his son.
We, when we embody this hope, we become the hope of the world.
When we live radically dependent, expectant, and hopeful in the promises of God,
we become the hope of the world.
When we embody hope, when our hope is so transparently there because of the way we live,
we become a safe refuge, the church does, and maybe even you personally, we become a safe
refuge for those who are tired and weary of the current state. There's a lot of stuff that
happened this past week in the U.S., violence, people are tired of those types of things
happening in the world. And when we embody hope, when we live in a way that expects the
faithfulness of God to act now and forever, we are a safe refuge for people who are weary and tired
of the current state of things. We become a place for people to belong,
for the poor to belong, for the captive to belong, for the blind to belong, for the oppressed to
belong. We become a place of belonging when we embody that hope that we have in the faithfulness
of God. And because of the confident expectation that the church has in the faithfulness of God,
she is able to get to meaningful work that operates as an offensive attack against the enemy,
against the world, the flesh, and the devil. Abraham was not called to have hope in God.
His calling was not to sit there and wait for it. His calling was to go out and act.
In your readings this week, you went through Matthew, I forget which chapter it is, but
where Jesus says the gates of hell will not prevail. The gates, I don't know if you know
how gates work, they don't usually launch offensive attacks, right? A gate's not coming
to get after you. A gate's there to keep you out, to keep you from defeating what's in it.
And so Jesus is saying that the gates of hell will not prevail when we go out and offer that
hope to the world. The hope that we have defeats the oppression and the captivity that hell offers.
As the church embodies hope, she becomes the hope of the world.
She gets to work meaningful work in the world, offering hope and wholeness in God.
So the family of God is a community of people whose confident hope is rooted in the faithfulness
of God. In the Old Testament, the people of God hadn't expected hope. In the New Testament,
the people of God experienced hope. And in the church, the people of God embody hope.
Through living embodied hope, the church is the hope of the world. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you that you are a God who can, who does, accomplish all that you say you will do.
You are not slack regarding your promises. You are faithful. We thank you that in that faithfulness
you sent your son Jesus through whom we have experienced rich, deep hope, hope embodied.
And we ask you Spirit to empower us to have that embodied hope among us. Radical dependence,
a radical hope that is living and embodied as we go out into the world.
Pray this in the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit. Amen.