New Year's Day Sermon at The Family Church

For the New Year's Day sermon at The Family Church here in Gainesville, Pastor Aaron Read spoke about the "Hope of Glory", based on the following passage from Colossians 1:27 in the New Testament (presented in the New International Version, courtesy of Bible Gateway):

²⁷ To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

As Pastor Aaron explained, the glory here is that of God, as experienced by Moses of the Old Testament, and in the New Testament by three of Jesus's disciples during the Transfiguration as well as with Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus.  He also stressed that Jesus came to reveal God's glory to his creation...Jesus is God's glory in human form.  Well, that's the glory part...how about hope?

Pastor Aaron talked about a young man who recently committed suicide due to a "loss of hope"...and here he made a distinction between what the world commonly means by "hope" and how it is presented Biblically.  In the world, as Aaron continued, hope is often expressed as a feeling, wishful thinking, or blind faith...and is based on people, career, politics, sports, appearance...you name it.  But according to the Bible, the true hope that will provide a firm foundation in one's life is that based on Jesus...this hope is living, strengthening, not disappointing, is an anchor in times of difficulty, and purifying...

I always enjoy hearing Pastor Aaron giving Sunday morning messages...he brings to them a down-to-earth approach that I can identify with.  As for the word "hope", I don't see anything wrong with using it, either in the worldly or Biblical sense.  For we all hope things turn out well in each of our own lives and for those we love, and on many different fronts.  It is instead the use of the expressions "hopeless", "no hope", "loss of hope", or "without hope" that really needs correction...with the living hope as an anchor, they will never need to be used...

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