Sermon Snippet – Faith, Hope, and Love
INTRODUCTION – I trust that you will hear nothing new today. Our celebration of Easter – the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, God the Son – stretches back almost 2,000 years. As a framework for our consideration of this central teaching of Christianity, I was drawn to I Corinthians 13:13: “And now abideth faith, hope, charity [love], these three; but the greatest of these is charity [love].” Let us contemplate how “these three” are exemplified in the Easter account.
1. FAITH
On that first Easter, Jesus, risen from the sealed, guarded tomb, walked along the road to Emmaus, a town about seven miles from Jerusalem (Luke 24:13-16, 26-27, 32). Some of you may recall that I once preached a 39-point sermon based on verse 27: “And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself.” Jesus, in meticulous detail, fulfilled the Old Testament (Matthew 5:17-18), including in His death on the Cross (Psalm 22 is just one example). Jesus said that He had to suffer these things (“ought” is a strong Greek word that indicates an absolute necessity). Our faith, then, is based on facts, on evidence. We believe certain things, including the Crucifixion and Resurrection, because we have good reasons to believe – fulfilled prophecy being paramount.
2. HOPE
I hope that you have a good day; I might make it a bit better if I am not too long-winded. However, Biblical hope is much stronger than a maybe or a perhaps; it is a certainty. Earlier than the Emmaus Road appearance of Jesus, early on Easter morning, women came to His tomb to appropriately prepare His body (there had been no time on Friday, and Saturday was the Sabbath, when work was forbidden by the legalistic leaders). John 20:1-10 tells us the surprised response of the closest disciples to Jesus’ Resurrection: they run to see the empty tomb and run to spread the news. They had been as despondent as people can be; they were without hope. Now, there is a spring in their steps. This is not an artificial, manufactured hope; real “hope maketh not ashamed” (Romans 5:5a) – that is, Biblical hope does not disappoint. The tomb was truly empty.
3. LOVE
“Charity” is active love, demonstrated love. Such love is found throughout the Resurrection account. For example, the risen Savior reaches out to a doubter (Thomas – John 20:24-28). Later, He provides needed forgiveness and encouragement to a denier (Peter – John 21:15-17). Jesus pours out His personal love on both the doubter and the denier. His love ever seeks the best for us…
CONCLUSION
… no matter how and how often we have failed. We need to learn about faith, hope, and love – “these three” – and we need to live in all three. By entering into a relationship with Jesus, by trusting in Him as Savior, each one of us will really live: we will live with purpose and expectation now, and we will forever. There is nothing new in this message…but everything in our lives can be new and should be new because Jesus is risen from the dead in order to give us eternal life. He is risen; He is risen indeed. May we be certain today that one day we will rise to live with Him in heaven.