Hope Deferred, Hope Restored

Gtcotr/ws040324

 

Wise King Solomon catalogued words of great wisdom from the things he observed. These collected sayings encapsulate truth and still serve to guide our thoughts and steps today. God anointed Solomon like no other. God did not drop a storehouse of wisdom on Solomon but rather, Solomon was given an extreme gift of gleaning truth from the things he observed. The book of Proverbs provides daily guidance to me personally and to many others who have accepted the challenge of reading one chapter each day.

 

I have found that when I need wisdom, the voice in my head most often quotes a verse from the Book of Proverbs. These nuggets of truth give me direction, provide instruction, create or correct perspective, and lead me to lead with confidence or to listen with patience, depending on the message for the moment. I have come to trust in that quickened Word of God. 

 

This evening I would like to share a verse from Proverbs upon which we will launch the message tonight concerning Hope Deferred, Hope Restored.

 

Proverbs 13:12 ¶  Hope deferred makes the heart sick, But when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.

 

If you have ever placed your hope in something or someone only to be disappointed when it doesn’t work out the way you expected, then you know a little bit of how it felt for those who followed Jesus closely when they were forced to watch their dreams die on the cross. Talk about hope deferred. It was not what they expected. 

 

Dreams can suddenly be drained of all hope leaving us feeling weak and empty. It’s like waking up to realize the nightmare is real but you can’t go back to sleep. Hope deferred makes the heart sick and a wounded spirit, who can bear? (Proverbs 18:14)

 

Sunday we celebrated the Resurrection of Jesus. Let’s look in our Bibles at a familiar passage in the Gospel of Luke where two followers of Jesus are discussing their disappointments as they walk along the road to Emmaus. 

 

Luke 24 NKJV

13 ¶  Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem.

• These two are not among the eleven disciples/Apostles of Christ but rather two other men from the larger group who followed Jesus closely during His earthly life and ministry.

• One was Cleopas, (v.18), who was perhaps the uncle of Jesus, (John 19:25), or the husband of Mary the mother of James, or the father of Matthew.

• The 2nd man we cannot know. Some imagine him to be Simon Peter.

 

14  And they talked together of all these things which had happened.

15  So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them.

• Jesus is always close to those who are close to Him.

• He is easily touched with our hurts and our infirmities. (Heb 4:15)

• A broken spirit and a contrite heart He will not despise. (Psa 34/51)

 

16  But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him.

17  And He said to them, “What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?”

18  Then the one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to Him, “Are You the only stranger in Jerusalem, and have You not known the things which happened there in these days?”

19  And He said to them, “What things?” So they said to Him, “The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people,

20  “and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him.

21  “But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened.

• “But we were hoping …” Now all hope is gone. 

• That is how they saw it but that’s not how it really was.

• So many people get disappointed, and they imagine their dream is dead, their hope is gone, what the believed will never come to pass.

• If the dream in your heart is touched by the heart of God, it will not die.

• Despite the disappointments, the crop failures, the curves and conditions of the road, God will not let His dream for you die.

• Don’t allow your faith to stand or fall on circumstances. Put your faith in God. They continued …

 

22  “Yes, and certain women of our company, who arrived at the tomb early, astonished us.

23  “When they did not find His body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said He was alive.

24  “And certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but Him they did not see.”

• Some people will give you a good report and others a not so good report. Some say He is alive and some say we do not see Him.

• Whose report will you believe?

• Hope that is seen is not hope! (Romans 8:24&25)

o V. 25  If we hope for what we do not see, then we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.

o This is where Jesus steps in … 

o I love when Jesus interrupts my confusion to straighten out my thinking by reminding me of a story from the Bible.

 

25  Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!

• Jesus didn’t call them sinners, He called them foolish and slow to believe. 

• They were wallowing in hope deferred.

• They were swimming around in their disappointments.

 

26  “Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?”

27  And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.

• The word! The scriptures! The truth expounded, the truth revealed.

• Jesus explained the Bible to them … 

 

28  Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and He indicated that He would have gone farther.

• Jesus still wants and waits to be invited into your house.

 

29  But they constrained Him, saying, “Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.” And He went in to stay with them.

30  Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.

• What a marvelous message of Christ. We see it over and over again:

o Jesus Took the Bread

o He Blessed the Bread

o He Broke the Bread

o And He Gave the Bread

• He did the same with the fish and loaves.

• It’s a picture of what God with Jesus, who is the Bread of life.

• It is a picture of what Jesus does with us.

• The same loving gentle hand that takes us, blesses us, and breaks/multiplies us, so that He can give us.

• You can never be fully given if you cannot be truly broken.

 

31  Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight.

32  And they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?”

33  So they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together,

34  saying, “The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!”

35  And they told about the things that had happened on the road, and how He was known to them in the breaking of bread.

• They knew Jesus in the breaking of the bread.

• We also come to know Him deeper in the times we need Him most. 

 

When we walk with Jesus, hope deferred does not have to be the last word. Hope deferred can become hope rekindled. One word from Jesus, one revelation of Him, one invitation for Him to come in, one opening of the scriptures is all it takes for our hope to be restored. O the joy of being filled again with the hope we find in Christ. 

 

What can you do if you are swimming in disappointment, wallowing in hope deferred? Invite the risen Savior into your heart and mind. Put your hope in the Lord! (Psalms 42:11;43:5 – Why … put your hope in God!)