The Advent of Hope | Fearing The Storm
Hope does not fear the storm but looks ahead to the promised future.
Hope does not fear the storm but looks ahead to the promised future.
As we eagerly await the return of Christ, we look towards hope. God, coming incarnate in the flesh, provides hope for people that the sin in our lives will not be our end. Jesus is the hope that the evildoers will be dealt with on the cross and one day and sin and death will be defeated.
2,000 years ago, the Pharisees heaped requirements for salvation on people they could not possibly bear. Now, Kanye West proclaims his faith in Jesus Christ, produces an album called Jesus is King. Now, “sensible” Christians have heaped more and more requirements on Kanye to “prove” his conversion is real. My brothers and sisters, have we become the Pharisees?
In Luke 5:12-26, Jesus engages in two miracles of healing. First, there was the leper, who, under normal circumstances, would be unable to even approach Jesus. They were unclean and regarded as a leper largely because of their sins. Jesus called this same person to Himself in order to heal the sickness and disease. Moreso, Jesus ordered the leper to present himself to the priests to verify the miracle and the forgiveness. Immediately after this story, Luke continues with the well known story of the paralyzed man, lowered from the roof. Knowing that he was being watched by the Pharisees and the scribes of the law, Jesus took the opportunity to put the fullness of his presence and personhood to the crowd.
As the famed teacher had finishing speaking, he looks directly at Peter and told him cast out his nets. How could this be? They had been fishing all night and caught nothing of any substance for their evenings work. There were simply no fish. While Peter protested he still remaining obedient to the words of Jesus Christ. They made no sense to a fisherman, but to a God, the catch was merely an act of obedience. While he acted in obedience, the results were beyond the expectation of Peter’s imagination.
For all the attempts to relegate the authority of Jesus Christ, each one would submit the Sovereign King to outside authority, a move that Jesus did not need to make. Jesus is King over all. No one, whether spiritual force or personal presence is able to override the authority of the Lord. When the people in the synagogues heard Jesus teach, their spirit resonated with the understanding that they were hearing true authority. They were hearing the authentic word of God spoken by the mouth of God, made plain to them. Thus, as Jesus was approached with opportunities to heal, there was no issue in doing so. Jesus had the authority that belongs to God alone to heal sickness and command the demons and spiritual dark forces. Jesus had the authority to make the broken people whole.
With the thoughts of brokenness and emptiness we can easily seem to think that we are at the center of the Universe’s attention. This isn’t to trivialize our struggles, for they are indeed very difficult. Our brokenness is a real brokenness. In the larger scheme of the world and in creation, we see a larger brokenness that…
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