Will it always be like this? Will I always be stuck? Will I always be single? Will the city always be broken? Will people I love continue to get sick and die? Will violence always be present? Will my deepest longings ever be fulfilled?

And there are two other questions we’ve been exploring throughout this series. Here’s the first one:

Can I actually have hope for things to be different?

There are so many things we can hope to be different. We should pray for things to be different. Daily we should be praying that line that Jesus gave us in his model prayer, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” And we should be working towards things being different. It’s why I gave us the midwife manifesto on November 13 and talked about how we really can and we really should change the world. But there’s the second question of hope, which is this one:

Can I actually have hope if things remain the same?

If the things in my life that I long to be different don’t change, do I have to get rid of my hope or is there truly a good reason for me to have hope? This is the kind of question we’re going after today. As we wrap up this entire series, I’m calling this message, “Anchors for our Hope”.

When the writers of Scripture want to infuse hope into people who are living in the middle of terrible circumstances, they don’t actually promise their audience that their circumstances are going to improve. They tend to point to some event in the past and to some future reality to give them anchors for their hope. I want to give you two examples of this framework, one from Peter and the other from Paul.

1 Peter 1:3-6 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this your greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.

Present Reality: Suffering grief in all kinds of trials

Past Event: Resurrection of Jesus

Future Reality: Inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade

Present Reality: Rejoice with a Living Hope

2 Corinthians 4:13-18 It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Present Reality: Hard pressed, perplexed, persecuted, struck down (v.8-9)

Past Event: Resurrection of Jesus

Future Reality: Their own resurrection

Present Reality: Don’t lose heart. Though outwardly you are wasting away, inwardly you are being renewed daily. Our future glory far outweighs what will make our current trials seem like light and momentary troubles. Fix your eyes on what will always be, not just on what seems like it will always be.

Now I want us to spend the rest of our time in a text that I believe has the power to awaken our imaginations as we consider where all this is headed – where we are headed, where our world is headed, and where God Himself is headed.

Revelation 21:1-8 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars – they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

What a vision! Here are some things that are true for those of us who genuinely belong to Jesus.

We will not go up to heaven; heaven is coming down to earth.

And we will not float on clouds; we will actually work. If you want to get a picture of what we’ll be doing for all of eternity, Genesis 1-2 provide pretty significant clues. God will give us a vocation that comes with assignments. And our current vocations matter so much.

“If the God of the Bible exists, and there is a True Reality beneath and behind this one, and this life is not the only life, then every good endeavor, even the simplest ones, pursued in response to God’s calling, can matter forever.” Tim Keller, Every Good Endeavor

“If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next.” C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

The whole point of your life, this one and the next, is to be with God.

In the beginning, God dwelled with Adam and Eve. He talked with them and He walked with them in the cool of the day.

In Exodus, God gives instructions on how to build the tabernacle so that He can dwell with His people.

The prophet Isaiah tells us the virgin will give birth to a son and call his name, Immanuel, which means, “God with us.”

John 1 tells us that Jesus became flesh and made His dwelling among us.

And when Jesus prepared to leave earth, He told his disciples, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will send the Holy Spirit to be with you.”

There will be no more tears, mourning, pain, or death.

Just pause and imagine this for a moment. Cancer? Gone. Anxiety? Nope. Relational conflict? Not a chance. Physical handicap or disease? Nope. Slavery? Oppression? Injustice? No. No. No.

The pain that feels so permanent now will be shown to be temporary then.

Jesus is going to make EVERYTHING new.

Our deepest longings will be permanently fulfilled.

“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same.” C.S. Lewis, ^{Mere Christianity}

Thirsty for this? Come get water – at no cost. Jesus has paid the price so that you don’t have to. But you do have to decide if you want to live with Jesus. To live with Jesus means He is God and you are not…He determines where you go and what you do and what you don’t do.

People can get so excited about a place called heaven and people can scream “unfair” about a place called hell. But the big deal about heaven is the presence of Jesus. And the big deal about hell is the absence of Jesus. Hebrews 6:19a says this:

We have this hope as an anchor for the soul.

Do you have this anchor for your hope?

John 17:3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

Your life with Jesus can begin now and go on forever. Will you give him your life today?

Implications/Applications:

Give Jesus your whole life.

Find hope in what’s coming.

Share this truth with others.