Hope and Healing: Considerations
Pastor Rollan
Focus: It does not matter what you have experienced or what you have done, there is the hope of redemption and healing to be found in Jesus.
Consider Our Common Need
Consider the Historic Christ
Consider Biblical Faith
Consider Our Common Need
We all, to varying degrees, are in need of the hope of redemption and healing.
For what do we need hope?
Whether now or later, we need the hope that our lives can get better than they are now.
Luke 1:1-17 ESV
“Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught. In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years. Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, "Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared."
*There was a long period of disappointment and likely discouragement that Zechariah and Elizabeth experienced - the good news is that they would find hope and healing in their latter years.
Zechariah and Elizabeth had been waiting for decades to bear a child - living under the weight of the emotional questions and with the cultural scorn that accompanied Elizabeth’s barrenness.
We can miss God and suffer when we interpret our lives simply through chronos rather than kairos moments.
*There was a kairos moment necessary for all components of God’s plan to arise to bring about the redemption of humanity.
In Greek, the word kairos meant an appointed time for a special purpose.
Think about it:
In the New Testament, the word kairos is used 86 times, as opposed to chronos (which refers to a specific amount of time) which was used 56 times.
The Roman Empire which would facilitate the propagation of the gospel.
At exactly the right time, God came to deliver a miracle.
There is hope and healing released to our lives when we understand that in his story of redemption, God is the Lord of our kairos moments.
God had both the old and the young in mind when he would bring about his redemption.
Hope and healing would come to Zechariah and Elizabeth’s aged hearts.
Hope and healing would lay ahead of youthful Mary as she bore Christ in her teenage years.
It would be the birth of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ that would heal their hearts and fulfill God’s word in which his people had long hoped.
It does matter where you have been or what you have done, there is the hope of redemption and healing to be found in Jesus.
This includes redemption for a lifetime of committed sins.
There is the hope of restoration for wrongs done as you both receive and offer forgiveness.
From what do we need healing?
Problems arise when throughout our lives, we look for our sense of value, accomplishment, peace and satisfaction outside of God.
“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”
-St. Augustine in the first paragraph of his autobiography Confessions
Hope and healing are available in every stage of life, even later in life.
Is there a historic justification for this?
Consider the Historic Christ
The historic Jesus of Nazareth lives today, as he did 2000 years ago, to provide that very real hope of redemption and healing to the world.
How does Jesus provide these things?
Luke 1:67-80 ESV
“And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace." And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.”
Your latter years can be your best years if you choose the hope and healing found in Jesus.
We recommend Emotionally Healthy Discipleship as a tool in personal growth and development.
What I’ve been learning about fear, always readying myself for the challenges to come tomorrow so that it steals my being in the present, enjoying and celebrating today.
*My posture towards my post-embolism existence (many survivors of medical conditions and their families have to deal with anxiety and distress after injury) is an example of having to learn to live with the hope of serving the Lord without fear.
Aged professional athletes often wish they had enjoyed the evolving moments of their success rather than always being about “the next thing.”
This is why Jesus exhorts us in his word:
Matthew 6:34 ESV
"Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
What is it that you’ve experienced that has caused you to look at the future with fear - even in Christ?
Fear of being betrayed? Being alone? Health challenges? Not finding your purpose? Never having enough?
It would be because of the historic Jesus going to the cross to suffer in our place, that he was giving us the confidence that what he was determined to bring his people into was hope and healing.
Prophesying 700 years before the arrival of John the Baptist and Jesus, Isaiah the prophet would proclaim by the Holy Spirit:
Isaiah 40:3-11 ESV
“A voice cries: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken." A voice says, “Cry!" And I said, "What shall I cry?" All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. Go on up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, "Behold your God!" Behold, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.”
In kairos moments, God both lifts us and allows us to be brought low so that we might find our identity and salvation solely in Jesus.
God raises us up in every valley to lift our eyes to the hope of forgiveness, but makes every mountain and hill low to turn us from our sins to the cross where Jesus paid the price for our rebellion against God that was killing us.
Could this be your kairos hour to meet Jesus the Christ today?
Consider Biblical Faith
True Biblical faith and hope in the risen Jesus can revolutionize your life by providing the healing that you truly need.
I changed Prince’s latter two Scriptural references to ESV for clarity and understanding:
“In Hebrews 11, we find the definition of faith - the only word explicitly defined in the Bible. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). Here, we see a relationship between faith and hope. Faith is here and now; hope is for the future. Faith is a material thing - something so real that it is called a substance. It is in our hearts. On the basis of faith, we can have a legitimate hope for the future. But hope that is not based on legitimate faith is just wishful thinking.
Romans 10:9-10 ESV
“Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”
In the New Testament, believe is a word of motion. It is not a static thing or an intellectual position. It is something in your heart that leads you to something new. Faith is a verb of motion: by faith we believe unto righteousness and salvation. You can have intellectual faith and never be changed. You can embrace all the doctrines of the Bible with your intellect but remain completely the same. But when you have faith in your heart, it leads to salvation.
Faith is in the present; hope is in the future. Biblical faith is in the heart; hope is in the mind. Paul spoke about both with an interesting picture: ““But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation”
(1 Thessalonians 5:8 ESV). Two items of armor are mentioned in this verse. Faith is a breastplate, which protects the heart, and hope is the helmet, which protects the head. Faith is in the heart; hope is in the mind.”
-Derek Prince from his sermon Laying the Foundation, Vol. 1 Through Repentance to Faith