Let There Be Hope | 1 John 2:28-3:3,8
Is there any hope? We are living in an age of hopelessness. Christmas is the time of year that can often be great when things are going great (holly, jolly) or very painful when things are going not so great. Christmas tends to magnify either the good or the bad in our lives. As I’ve said previously, we are living in a mental health crisis in America. There are 34,000 suicides a year: 94 a day or 1 every 15 minutes. For every successful attempt there are more than 100 attempts. It is the third leading cause of death among teenagers. 51% of 18–24-year-olds said that several times over the past two weeks that they felt down, depressed, or hopeless. 59% of young Americans say that they have trouble sleeping at night. To so many, things seem dark and bleak. Recently, I spoke to highly intellectual, academic who has worked in the highest levels of government both in America and around the world as a consultant. He is a secular Jew. We had a long conversation and after discussing the current affairs of the world, and our nation’s political woes. I asked him, “Do you see the world heading towards utopia (perfection) or dystopia (great suffering)?” He said, “Dystopia.” I said, “Do you have any hope that things will get better?” He said, “No.” I said, “How does that honestly make you feel?” He said, “Sad, empty, and foreboding.” Unfortunately, without any hope, life is “sad, empty, and foreboding.” But it is behind the dark background of our broken world that the message of Christmas and the gospel shine as a beacon of hope in a hopeless world. Christmas tells us that the hopes and fears of all the years are met in Jesus Christ.
This is the message that the 90-year-old Apostle John wanted the next generation to know personally. He wants them to know who Jesus is, have assurance of their salvation and to experience the joy, peace, hope, love, and life that he is experiencing. He’s old and he’s gone through a lot of terrible things in life, and he knows that knowing Jesus is the secret to having hope in a miserable world. In Chapter 3, we see that Jesus came to give us hope through the security of our status and the certainty of His coming.