Vertical Hope

Good morning.

Today's sermon is from the book of John, chapter 12, verses 12 to 19.

John 12:12–19

And as you were able, would you stand with me for the reading of God's word?

The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.

So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Even the king of Israel.

And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Zion.

Behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's cult.

The disciples did not understand these things at first.

But when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him.

The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness.

The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they had heard that he had done this exact sign.

So the Pharisees said to one another, You see, that you are gaining absolutely nothing.

Look, the world has gone after him.

It's the reading of God's word.

The grass withers the flower face.

The word of our God, the word of our God will stand for it.

The word of our God, the word of our God will stand for it.

Maybe see this time kindergartens are just missed for kids' friends.

I'm a little disappointed I can't preach my sermon in Daniel's accent.

I'm not even gonna try.

Do you remember the uh story by Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby?

Uh many of us might have had to read that in grade school.

I don't I don't know if students, if do they make y'all read that anymore?

There's a few nods.

Yes, okay.

Uh well, if you're my age or older and you've forgotten what the Great Gatsby was about, uh it's kind of based in the 1920s.

And uh Jay Gatsby is a wealthy, kind of mysterious, uh peculiar man, and uh he moves out to Long Island or based on Long Island, and he uh um finds his former crush in love, Daisy Buchanan.

She's out there and she's married, and so he wants to win her back, right?

So every Saturday night he throws these elaborate parties.

Um he tries to use his wealth, he tries to use his status, he tries to use his influence uh to win her over.

Uh, and through a series of you know tragic incidents, and uh, well, if you haven't read the book yet, he he gets killed.

Sorry.

Uh but Scott Fitzgerald was kind of roughly writing that a little bit of the experiences he had in Long Island in the early 20s, and it kind of became um a story showing how when we put our hope, right, in this sense, maybe the American dream, or more specifically, it's just in circumstances, right?

They let us down, right?

They don't give us what we desire.

But we all do put our hope, right, in circumstances, or maybe it's a person.

And when I say hope, right, I don't mean wishful thinking, right?

Kind of like I hoped uh last week Auburn would be at Florida, right, in the final four.

That was wishful thinking.

Um that's oftentimes what we think of when we say hope, right?

I hope uh I get a good grade, or I hope it doesn't rain, or we have good weather on our vacation, right?

You're you're just kind of wishful thinking.

But biblical hope, and then what we're trying to define today, is assurance, right?

When the Bible uses the word hope, it's not wishful thinking.

It's not hedging the bed.

It is a future confidence.

It is assurance in what has been said will happen.

Now, I'm not saying this morning, and please hear me, that it is sinful or wrong for you to want a circumstance to change.

All right.

We pray all the time for people like the walls or the black wells that the Lord would heal them, that their circumstance would change.

Right?

So please don't hear today's sermon, uh, hey, it's wrong for me to desire a different circumstance.

That's not what I'm saying.

But what I'm saying this morning is, is your hope, is your assurance or your confidence in the future based on circumstances and things of the world?

Or is it based on Christ?

Right, so we'll look at it as two categories, right?

Horizontal, horizontal kind of hope, and vertical hope.

All right, so horizontal hope is always found in circumstances.

Paul David Tripp says hope kind of has three elements.

It's got a desire, it has an object, and it has an expectation.

A desire, right?

I've said this before, is an anticipation of pleasure.

Okay?

So whatever you desire, right, whether it's a good meal or again, an outcome for your sports team, the reason you desire anything is because you are projecting that in the future that outcome will bring you some form of joy or pleasure.

Okay, so horizontally, if we look at what's happening in the triumphal entry, right, many of these Jews are here now, right?

Passover's coming, so they're all coming to Jerusalem.

But if you remember, Jesus has just raised Lazarus from the dead, right?

Like that's just happened.

People are aware of that.

So you've kind of got this perfect storm, if you will, of hope.

And that, hey, Jesus raised Lazarus who's been dead for four days.

Clearly, he's got some special powers.

Now he's coming into Jerusalem.

We've heard about the Messiah coming in, right?

There, uh, it's quoting Zechariah 9:9.

Zechariah 9:9

And so you see them what?

They have palm branches.

Right, and they're laying down these palm branches that are almost kind of like a national flag, if you will.

So for many of them, right, their desire is that, hey, we're gonna have a national deliverance.

This is gonna be a political, a military act, that Christ comes in and they finally overtake Rome.

Our desire, and you can't blame them, right, is that they would be free from Roman rule, that they would get to experience freedom, right?

In any sense, they're saying, Hosanna, right?

Which means salvation is here, like hooray, salvation has come.

But I think as we're gonna see, right, is we see on Friday, that clearly their desire was for national kind of deliverance because in six days they're gonna be like crucify him, right?

Because their hope was the salvation of just some earthly form of freedom, to be able to have their own theocracy again.

Are your desires shaped by circumstances?

Are your desires shaped by your standard of living?

What is it that makes you feel discontent?

What is it that you keep asking, like, I need more of?

What circumstance is that for you?

Do you have a feeling of I can't have this satisfaction until this circumstance changes?

I can't have fulfillment until this circumstance is different.

Do you have those, whether they're maybe they're conscious thoughts or subconscious thoughts or actions, is it based off the circumstance?

Now, if desire is anticipation, the object is what you put your hope in to accomplish that.

Right?

If you remember in the movie Indiana Jones, um The Last Crusade, right, came in in 1989.

It's with Harrison Ford and Sean Connery.

Uh Sean Connery is uh kidnapped by the Nazis who are trying to find uh the Holy Grail, the cup, uh for the Last Supper, which is right here.

Um and if you remember, right, they they they finally get to it.

And Harrison Ford is in there with um the other kind of Nazi ruler, uh, and then his, I don't know, that other woman's name.

And they're all these cups, right?

There's tons, there's hundreds of cups.

And she picks out this gold one, right?

It's got diamonds on it, and she's like, this is fit for a king, right?

So he puts the scoops up the water, has you know, eternal life, and drinks it, and then immediately ages and dies.

Uh, and then it's Harrison Ford's turn, right?

And so he finds this old wooden, just unassuming cup and uses it to go save his dad.

But right, a whole part of that movie, right, was the Nazis were fine, like the holy grail, the object, the cup itself, is what would give them eternal life?

Right?

Their circumstance.

It's like if we have this, we'll have hope.

And so for you all, what gives you hope?

What gives you assurance?

Is it the stock market?

Right?

And when the stock market crashed, and I told Sam I was gonna bring that up this morning after our deacon meeting.

Has the stock market just really, really wrecked you?

Has it really caused you to be unnerved?

Now look, I'm not saying it again, it's not sinful for you to feel the stresses, right, of the impacts that that can have.

But do you find yourself obsessing over it?

Does your 401k make you say that whatever happens, we will be okay because of our 401k?

It's easy to fall back on something like that.

If I lose my job, if this happens, well, look, we we'll be okay.

It won't be ideal, but we'll be okay.

Right?

And again, I'm not saying you don't need to have a 401k.

But isn't it easy when you really start thinking about how much comfort that you get in knowing that you have enough because of a worldly circumstance?

Which the reality, I guess, that the stock market would tell you something isn't guaranteed anyways, right?

But maybe it's not just that, maybe it's your job.

Maybe your health provides you hope.

Maybe the college or school you want to get into or you're in is giving you hope.

Right?

Maybe it's not a circumstance, maybe it's a person outside of Christ, right?

Maybe it's a boyfriend or a girlfriend or a future spouse.

It's whatever you say in your mind, if I have this, I will be okay, or I feel okay.

If it's outside of Christ, then that is a horizontal hope.

That's based on a circumstance, not the person of Christ.

Now the object will shape your expectation.

This might be a hot take, I don't know.

Uh last summer we went out to Yellowstone and went to Old Faithful.

How many of you have been to Old Faithful?

Okay, it's a bit underwhelming.

It is, I mean, it is underwhelming, right?

It's huge.

You got this huge boardwalk, and there's just thousands of people.

And you get there, and while you're sitting there, you're watching geysers go off all around you.

But you're like, this one, this one is gonna be great.

And then you're like, I'm expecting rumbling, like hissing, I mean, some act of God, and it just starts to kind of come up, and then it goes up, it doesn't make any sounds really, and then it goes back down for a minute and a half.

And you're like, we just waited an hour.

And while we waited, we watched the very same things happening right around here.

I would love to take a poll of how many people go to the to go to old faithful twice.

Like, who are those people?

I mean, why do I share that story?

My expectations weren't really met.

I put a lot of I put a lot of future, a desire of a pleasure and watching this water come out of the ground and this object of old faithful, and it disappointed me.

It was a beautiful day, so I mean it was fine.

But how do you feel when your expectations aren't met?

Right?

I feel disappointed, I'll get angry, right?

I get frustrated.

Why?

Because this circumstance or this object was supposed to make me feel a certain way, and I don't.

And so now I'm angry.

Right, James 4.2 talks about you desire and do not have, so you fight and quarrel.

Right?

A little bit of that is like you wanted this and you wanted it from this certain circumstance or object, and you didn't get it.

So now your just natural reaction is to be angry or fight or quarrel.

A horizontal hope is always gonna leave us disappointed.

Because whatever circumstance or object or person outside of Christ in your life that you're putting this future confidence in, it was not designed to do that.

It's always going to disappoint you.

It's always going to let you down.

How often do you get mad at God?

Now, I'm not talking about you grieving or feeling sad about a very hard situation, right?

That's not that's not necessarily getting mad at God.

You know when you're mad at God, it's you blame God.

Now, was it God who disappointed, who didn't deliver, or was it a circumstance that you replaced as God, that took on God, and now you're just you're lashing out.

It's amazing how often that can happen to me.

But God can't disappoint.

He doesn't underperform, he doesn't underwhelm, he doesn't break his promises.

And so our vertical hope is not a circumstance, it is Jesus Christ.

Is your desire for Christ?

That's very hard for me to really think on because I love the gift more than the giver.

And that can happen often.

Do you really desire when you think of the person of Jesus Christ, does it bring you a future pleasure?

Do you anticipate pleasure when you think about the person of Jesus Christ?

And that's why I say it's hard.

Because honestly, Anta, I I'm just I'm more consumed with whatever he can provide for me, or whatever he can get me, or ever he can make my life be of some form of comfort or control that I can feel good in.

But see, that's missing Christ, that's moving back into the circumstances.

But a vertical hope, a future confidence is always found in Christ.

Like being able to truly say, like, Hosanna, hooray, salvation is here because of Christ.

Not because of the circumstances that might or might not happen in my life.

How much gratitude does thinking of Christ bring you?

Right?

Gratitude, right, and appreciation for what has been done and accomplished.

Right?

I mean, sanctification, in essence, is making you more like Christ.

And the gift that is, is being more like the object and desire, the person whom you have confidence in.

Sanctification is not meant for you to be like, man, I'm I'm just a failure, and I should be better than I thought I would be at this point in life.

No.

Sanctification is God's just loving gift to us to make us more like the person whom which you have all of your future confidence and assurance in.

It is to strengthen our faith.

It's to grow more content in Christ.

To say the things of the earth, the circumstances are temporary.

But this is growing me into something eternal and permanent.

One of my favorite verses in Hebrews 11, talking about Moses, verses 24 through 26, by faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.

He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt.

For he was looking to the reward.

That is someone who is desiring Christ.

The future anticipation for Moses was found more in the reward of Christ than the treasures of Egypt.

Like I can't wrap my head around, I mean, I'd be like, I love this life.

And he saw through the circumstances that my confidence and assurance can't be found in the treasures of Egypt.

It can only be found in the person of Christ.

And he wasn't gonna be there for another 2,000 years.

But he looked forward and he found that.

Christ is the object, of course, in Colossians 1, right, holds all things together.

Or in Hebrews 1, talks about he upholds the universe by the words of his power.

Do you find that Christ, God in the flesh, holds your life together?

Or do you think you hold your life together?

Who is the one determining your life?

Is it you and your choices that are securing the outcomes you want?

Or is it the one who all things hold together by?

It's very hard for me to not just trust in me and trust in my decisions and learn from my decisions that when I say this or do this, this outcome usually happens and this is better for me.

And how little God is part of that equation.

And how little I'm reminding myself, actually, I can plan all this out I want, but it's the Lord who directs the steps.

It's the Lord who determines the outcome.

If Christ is our object, then our hope is what is defined by him, and our expectations are found in him.

How many times has God exceeded your expectations?

Right?

I remember when I moved to Mobile, not knowing anyone there, and just the Lord blew away my expectations of the community I met there and the fellowship I had and the growth I had.

Had.

And then I moved to Columbia, Missouri.

Again, blew away my expectations, right?

Of the ministry I got to do there, the people I got to me there, getting to meet Beth.

Every December, my expectations get blown away by the gratitude and the generosity that you all show towards our budget.

Every year, my mind is absolutely blown.

And here's the thing, right?

Our limited expectations as created beings can never exceed a perfect holy God's plan.

Right?

Think about how often you limit yourself by basing your own expectations off of what you think God is capable of doing.

As if they're equal.

And I get reminded of that every December, and it's a wonderful reminder.

Tim Keller tells a story about a general, and he was having a wedding.

And so he asked the emperor for a huge sum of money to throw this wedding.

And all the people were like, oh my goodness, like that was kind of tacky, and you're gonna get in a lot of trouble for this.

And the emperor granted him his request.

And they asked him, Well, why would you do that?

He goes, Well, he has honored me by asking such a large expectation.

He expected me and who he knows of me to be generous, and he asked.

And so it was an honor.

And so I think about that at times.

How much am I honoring the Lord by what I expect of him?

Is it a small expectation or is it big?

Because all things hold together by him.

Here's what you don't expect, though, right?

Or the things that he doesn't promise.

He didn't promise you health.

He doesn't promise you wealth.

He doesn't promise us freedom.

He doesn't promise us comfort.

So it's not fair for you to expect those things from him because that's not what he promised.

Are your expectations in Christ found in things that are eternal?

Right?

Are they found that are temporary?

Right?

Are they found in things where moth or rust or age will destroy?

Are your expectations and he is able to do far more abundantly than I ask or think of the power that resides in me?

The Holy Spirit that resides in me and has secured my inheritance.

Is that your expectation?

He didn't promise that you wouldn't suffer.

But what you can expect is that he won't abandon you in that suffering.

Right?

In Romans 5, 3 through 5, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that the suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character.

Character produces hope.

And hope does not put us to shame.

Because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

There's no shame, means your suffering and the trials that you go through, they're not wasted.

Right?

They weren't unplanned, they weren't accidents.

There's no shame in that you went through something that God did not ordain in your life and plan out since the foundation of the world for your good and his glory.

You can always expect that.

You might not understand it.

And it might be really hard, but it does not put us to shame when our hope is found in Christ.

You can expect the Spirit, right?

To guide you through those difficult times.

And John 14, right, talks about he's the helper.

He's helping you.

He hasn't abandoned you.

He hasn't left you, right?

In John 14, later on, he goes, I haven't abandoned you as orphans.

I will come again.

That's the expectation.

I'll never leave you or abandon you.

That's why we're coming back next Sunday, right?

Because the expectation is he's returning.

If that's not the expectation, we should be all the most pitied.

And we absolutely don't need to be wasting our Sunday mornings here.

But he's coming back.

Amen.

Do you expect to be blameless when you stand in front of God?

Do you expect to be white as snow on the day of judgment?

Do you expect that you'll be fully righteous and glorified?

Do you expect to hear well done, good, and faithful servant?

Why?

Why would you expect those things?

Because of the person of Jesus Christ.

There will be no humiliation, no condemnation, no disappointment, no discouragement.

Right?

This Palm Sunday, may we be reminded that our hope, the assurance of our future, is in the work and person of Jesus Christ, not our earthly circumstances.

Let's pray.

Father, I mean I could stand up here and confess many ways about how I truly think the confidence that I have in my future is so found in circumstances in life.

I am so quick to run to earthly things, to give me a peace of mind and a comfort.

Thank you that even in our misguided moments of trying to find peace and hope and assurance and things, you you're still there.

You don't abandon us.

You don't leave us, you don't turn your back on us.

I thank you that next week, when we come back here, we can truly be reminded of that expectation that you will one day return and redeem and restore all things.

And it's in your name we pray.

Amen.