Holding Fast to Our Hope Hebrews 10:11-25; Daniel 12:1-3; Mark:13:1-13

Grace, mercy, and peace to you, from God our Father, who is faithful, and our Lord Jesus Christ, who is our hope.

Our message is based on our Epistle, especially verse 23, 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. 

In these last few Sundays of the Church Year, our lessons shift their focus to the last and coming times.

With all that’s happening in our world, it feels like we’re nearing the end of it all. 

We don’t know for sure; we don’t know when Christ will return and this world will end; but what we do know for sure, is that Christ will return, and this world will end.

This world is in the process of passing away, as Jesus tells us in Matthew 25:35, Heaven and earth will pass away… 

And we are in the [process of passing away. 

That can be kind of unsettling, but we can take heart in the second part of that verse, Heaven and earth will pass away… but my words will never pass away. 

In the midst of the chaos as this world passes away, the Gospel remains. And so we always have a word of hope to hold on to.

1 Peter 1:3-4 promises us, 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you.

There are many different hopes that we might have in this life. 

We can hope for a promotion or a pay raise; or we can hope for good health; we can hope that the treatments we’re taking will heal us, or heal our loved one; we can hope for the blessing of children or grandchildren; we can hope for true love, or that a broken relationship is restored; we can even hope in so grand a goal as peace on earth, and prosperity and justice for all.

So many hopes we can have in this life -- some can be good, and some not; some come to pass, and others don’t. 

But what all worldly hopes and dreams have in common is their shared limitation -- they’re all temporary, all in the process of fading away. 

None can match the heavenly hope God has given us in Baptism and that will be revealed in eternity, and will never fade away.

This is a hope we are sure to realize. Believing in and holding on to Christ, our heavenly hope is sure to come true. 

Jesus proved that by dying, then rising, then ascending to Heaven, and sending His Spirit to be our Helper.

Jesus went through it all before us, to open the way, to show us what will happen to us, what He will do for us, what the future will be for those who, by the power and gift of the Holy Spirit, put their trust in Him. 

It won’t all end in bitter death for us; instead, it will culminate in glorious life.

If there’s a better hope to hold on to than this, I’d like to hear about it. There is no better hope than this.

So as our text says, Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. 

The secular world would try to tell us that our hope in heaven is nothing more than a fairy tale. Jesus has proven otherwise; His resurrection proves that our hope is not in vain.

Just as there are many hopes in this world, there are many tragedies; some so heart-breaking. And it seems like there are more all the time.

Part of that might be that with digital technology, we hear more about tragedies around the world; and sometimes we even see them as they happen, as they’re broadcast on TV, or live-streamed online.   

But perhaps there’s something more going on, something beyond this natural world.

As Jesus’ return draws closer, it may be that the devil is becoming more desperate, knowing that his reign of terror is coming to an end. 

And so temptations intensify, and chaos abounds. 

As Jesus says in our Gospel, we need to be on our guard. 

But we need not fear. 

By His death and resurrection, Jesus has already defeated the devil, and won the victory for us.

Although there are many heart-breaking tragedies in this world, to refuse to believe, to turn down the Gospel, or to lose the faith is the greatest tragedy of all. 

All earthly tragedies will end, but this is the tragedy that will never end; it’ll just keep going on forever.

Our Old Testament reading makes this undeniably clear. God gives us a sincere, much needed warning, and a much needed promise.

When Christ comes again to end this fallen, temporary world, and replace it with an eternal world, our Old Testament says, at that time … those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake (that’s the universal resurrection), some to everlasting life (those who are in Christ), and some to shame and everlasting contempt (those without faith in Christ.). 

God is leveling with us completely; this is the way it will be, and nothing in heaven or on earth can change it, because God’s justice is right and true, and in the end, it will and must prevail. 

Our only hope is to be justified by faith in Christ; only He can save us from this tragedy.

Jesus bore all our sin and shame on the cross, and in that way fulfilled all justice for us, so that eternal suffering and shame would not be our destiny, but rather, that we would, as our Old Testament says, shine like the brightness of the sky above… like the stars forever and ever, that we would shine in heavenly glory!

So let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. 

When Christ is your Savior, when your faith and hope are in Him and Him alone, there’s no way this glorious hope won’t come true; it absolutely, most certainly will; God has ordained it -- He has promised that it will be so. And so it will be.

I’d like to end with a story that illustrates this, a movie about a hope that against all odds, comes true. 

Just as against all odds, with the world and Satan and sin and death all stacked against Him, Jesus prevailed so that our heavenly will most surely come true.  

In this movie, there’s a scene where, Andy, who has been falsely imprisoned for a murder he didn’t commit, confides to his friend, Red, that he’s dreaming of living out his days someplace warm along the Ocean. 

Red tells him to quit thinking that way, to give up that silly hope, because it’ll never come true; that when you’re sentenced to life in prison, hope is a bad thing to have; it’ll just drive you mad.  

What Red doesn’t know is that Andy has dug a tunnel out, and when morning comes, Andy is gone, on His way to Mexico.

After a while, Red is paroled, but is having trouble adjusting to the outside world. Then he remembers that Andy had told him that he would leave something for him by a tree in a hayfield with a stone fence. 

There, Red finds a small lunch box with money in it, and a note; money to get to Mexico, and a note to encourage him. It says, Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. 

Red takes it to heart; he takes a bus to Mexico, and as the movie ends, he’s reunited with his friend on a beach, along the warm Pacific Ocean.

A much more beautiful paradise waits for those whose hope is in Christ. 

Does anyone know which movie this is? The Shawshank Redemption.

If hope is the best of things, then heavenly hope is the best of hopes. 

We can’t make it in life without hope. 

We can’t make it to heaven without heavenly hope, so put your hope in Christ alone, and hold on fast, without wavering, to the confession of your hope, to the Gospel.

And be bold to share, as 1 Peter 3:15 says, the reason for the hope you have. 

Our risen Lord is our reason.

We share the good news because we all need, every soul on this earth needs, this hope that saves, and uplifts, and delivers, and sets us free.

And… what we share, and defend, and speak up for, and invest ourselves in, we’re more likely to hold on to. 

The Gospel is our power to hold on to this magnificent resurrection hope.

Hold on and never let go; don’t trade your Christian hope or surrender it for anything in this world, and it will come true; that’s God’s promise to you; heaven waits for you. 

And as you hold on to this sure and certain hope, the peace of God, which passes understanding will be with you, and will guard your heart and mind, in Christ Jesus, our glorious hope, and everlasting joy. Amen