Five good reasons for hope

“What does hope mean?” This is how Chief Apostle Jean-Luc Schneider commenced his sermon on Friday, 20 January 2017 in Sarh in Chad. To begin with, he had read Hebrews 10: 23: “But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God.”

Our hope

“To hope is to be sure that something is going to happen, to wait for it, and look forward to it happening soon.” This was the Chief Apostle’s answer to the question posed at the beginning. “What do we hope for?” The Chief Apostle listed five points.

• The return of Jesus Christ: “We believe, we are sure: the Lord will return. We expect Him and look forward to His return.”
• Our own resurrection: “When the Lord returns, we who are still alive will be changed. God will give us a glorious body, and we will be perfect and blameless.”
• The resurrection of the dead in Christ: “They will receive the same glorious body as we. – We want to see those again who are already in the other world.”
• Eternal life: “We will be very close to Jesus in His kingdom. There will be no more suffering, injustice, or misfortune.”
• The final victory of Christ: “Good will triumph over evil. Our hope is that no one will have to suffer from evil any more.”

Good reasons

“The nature of hope is to wait for something we do not yet have or see,” the Chief Apostle said. Yet we are confident, “Because He who has promised us this future is faithful.”

• The return of Jesus Christ: “He who said, ‘Behold, I am coming quickly,’ is Jesus Christ. He cannot lie. He is almighty. No one can keep Him from doing what He wants.”
• Our own resurrection: “We are all still so weak. But we have our hopes set on the grace of the Lord, which He will grant us at His return.”
• The resurrection of the dead: “He who promised us that the dead will rise again is the One who raised Christ from the dead.”
• Eternal life: “We hope for fellowship with God. And from time to time we even get a foretaste of it: when we pray, when we are in divine service, when we celebrate Holy Communion.”
• The final victory of Christ : “Evil entered the world because human beings no longer obeyed God. There will be no more evil in the new creation because everybody will obey Jesus.”

Living hope

“We have to show this hope,” the Chief Apostle said with reference to the Bible text and the verses following it. “In Hebrews we can read how we can prove that we have this hope.”

• Staying in the congregation: “We want to prepare ourselves for the return of the Lord, and for this we need God’s word and Holy Communion.”
• Continuing in the fellowship: “The hope that connects us is much stronger and greater than everything that could ever separate us.”
• Supporting one another: “Let us encourage each other by abiding in love. The best way to encourage my brother to love is to love him.”
• To be happy when others receive grace: “The proclamation of the forgiveness of sins is valid for all who are there. What happens in the congregation after divine service? Are we truly happy that every single one received forgiveness? Or do we take offence that God forgave our brother, our sister?”
• Testifying to the people around us: “Don’t be shy. Proclaim the glad tidings and awake a desire in people to join us. Not by making long speeches, but by showing our love and expressing our joy.”