Hope for the Hopeless

Think back to a day of great pain – a day of hopelessness, of despair. A day when you lost a loved one – or a loved one betrayed you. A day it seemed as if God didn’t care for you – or He didn’t even exist.

That’s the situation for the followers of Jesus after the crucifixion. They had left everything to follow Him – fathers, mothers, homes, employment. For they thought He was the long-promised Messiah, the descendant of David who would restore Israel and reign forever. They had seen His power; they had heard His words – no one had ever spoken like that! When the religious authorities tried to trap Him, time and again He turned the tables on them. So those authorities didn’t even dare to ask him anything else publicly.

Jesus had called His followers out of their simple, normal lives. He had raised their hopes in the inevitable advance of the Kingdom of God. And He told them they would judge the twelve tribes of Israel! Simple fishermen, a tax collector!

But now, they have seen this almighty King stripped, scourged, and scorned. They have heard the soldiers mock Him as King of the Jews. They saw Him hanging on the cross. They saw Him die. They saw His lifeless corpse.

This dashes all their hopes. All their dreams. Now they just look like fools for leaving everything and following an itinerant preacher – indeed, a madman.

So they despair – as you may well have despaired on your day of greatest pain.

That’s the women’s state of mind as they come to Jesus’ tomb early Sunday morning. In the midst of their despair, they intend to do what they can – to honor Jesus’ lifeless body.

But they find the tomb open! And Jesus’ body is not there!

Luke tells us two men – presumably angels – then speak:

“Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you … that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” (From Luke 24:5-7)

The women return to the apostles, reporting what they’ve seen. But Luke tells us, “These words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them” (Luke 24:11).

Peter goes to the tomb and finds it empty – but does not see Jesus.

Later that day two followers are walking away from Jerusalem. The risen Jesus overtakes them, but they do not recognize Him. Still very much in despair, they describe to Him what has happened and then summarize their present state of mind: “We had hoped he was the one to redeem Israel” (Luke 24:21). The implication: They no longer have that hope. The empty tomb has not raised them out of despair.

They go on to say that others went to the tomb and verified the women’s report, but conclude, “Him they did not see.”

What does Jesus then say?

He says what He says to us on our hardest days, when we lose all hope: “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!” (Luke 24:25)

Foolish! Why?

We all are foolish for at least three reasons when we despair:

  • First, because we have the prophets. Over many centuries the prophets tell us that God has advanced His great plan, overcoming human sin and human opposition, culminating in the descendant of David who lives a righteous life, suffers and dies for the people, rises from the dead, and promises to return to usher in His eternal Kingdom when “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14). Nothing can keep Him from fulfilling that plan.
  • Second, because we have Jesus. The two followers are in despair because those who went to the tomb did not see Jesus. And they are looking at Jesus when they say that! They see Jesus! Yet they are completely ignorant of His presence.
  • Third, because of what Jesus Himself said. The angels tell the women, “Remember how He told you.” He had said that a disciple would betray Him. He had said He would mocked, beaten, and killed. And He had said that He would rise from the dead. He told them all this ahead of time.

So, friends: In our times of great pain, we must hold on to these same three truths.

We too have the Scriptures and the evidence from biblical history that nothing derails God’s plan. Furthermore, we today have the privilege of seeing more clearly than those disciples how God is working out His great plan through church history and through missions.

We too have the presence of Jesus via His Holy Spirit. The night He was betrayed, Jesus told His disciples, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, … he dwells with you and will be in you” (From John 14:16-17). So when we feel abandoned – He is right there with us. We too must recognize Him, like those disciples in Luke 24.

Finally, we too have the words, the promises of Jesus.

Think about this: Suppose I promise to give you a million dollars on Monday, and then a thousand dollars Tuesday.  You would have reason to be skeptical about that promise! But suppose somehow I fulfill the first half of the promise – I give you a million dollars Monday!

What then do you expect to happen on Tuesday? If I fulfill the promise to give you a million dollars on Monday, surely I’ll give you the thousand dollars on Tuesday – you will have no doubt! I’ve kept the hard promise – surely I’ll keep the easy one!

Think, now: Isn’t the promise to rise from the dead the hardest promise to keep anyone has ever made? Jesus kept the hard promise. He lived up to His word. Shouldn’t we then believe the rest of His words, and trust Him to be speaking truthfully? He’s fulfilled the million-dollar promise – surely He’ll fulfill all the thousand dollar promises He made.

Jesus’ resurrection verifies all God’s promises.

These include:

  • “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
  • “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:3).
  • “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5, Joshua 1:5).
  • Via the Apostle Paul: Nothing in all creation “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (From Romans 8:39).

So this Resurrection Sunday: Commit yourself not to be foolish and slow of heart to believe:

  • Remember the story of the Bible, God’s great plan;
  • Remember that if you are in Jesus, you have the downpayment of your inheritance, the Holy Spirit within you;
  • Remember Jesus has fulfilled the most difficult promise; He will surely fulfill all the others.

We experience many sorrows and sins in this world. There are times for weeping, times for mourning. Jesus’ followers were right to weep at the crucifixion.

But Jesus is risen, just as He said! Therefore, we should never despair, for we have a certain, living Hope. Trust in His plan. Trust in His presence. And trust in His promises.

[This devotion was preached at the sunrise service of Desiring God Community Church on April 20, 2025]

 

Keep Your Soul Diligently Lest You Forget

How is your memory?

Some of us remember every movie we have seen. Others remember details of meals they have eaten.

But all of us tend to forget God. All of us tend to forgot who God is, what He has done, and what He tells us to do.

Thus the repeated warnings in Scripture:

  • Do not forget!
  • Set up memorials!
  • Remind yourselves!
  • Teach your children!
  • Remember!

This file includes a compilation of dozens of Scripture passages about forgetfulness. I encourage you to read them over and meditate on them. Here is one way to summarize these warnings and exhortations:

We Naturally Forget God Over Time and Over Generations:

Deuteronomy 4:9   Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children.

Psalm 78:5-7 He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children,  6 that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children,  7 so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments.

Wealth and Ease Especially Lead Us to Forget God:

Deuteronomy 8:11-14, 17-18  Take care lest you forget the LORD your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today,  12 lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them,  13 and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied,  14 then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. . . . 17 Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’  18 You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.

Hosea 13:4-6   But I am the LORD your God from the land of Egypt; you know no God but me, and besides me there is no savior.  5 It was I who knew you in the wilderness, in the land of drought;  6 but when they had grazed, they became full, they were filled, and their heart was lifted up; therefore they forgot me.

Forgetting God Leads Necessarily To Some Sort of Idolatry:

Judges 3:7  And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. They forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asheroth.

(In the Deuteronomy 8 passage above, the people’s own power and might become their idols, the source of their welfare.)

Thus, Forgetting God Leads to Our Deserving Punishment:

Jeremiah 13:24-25  I will scatter you like chaff driven by the wind from the desert.  25 This is your lot, the portion I have measured out to you, declares the LORD, because you have forgotten me and trusted in lies.

Ezekiel 23:35  Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because you have forgotten me and cast me behind your back, you yourself must bear the consequences of your lewdness and whoring.

Yet In His Mercy We Are Ransomed for Him, Redeemed by Him – And We Must Not Forget!

Isaiah 51:11-16   And the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.  12 “I, I am he who comforts you; who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass,  13 and have forgotten the LORD, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, and you fear continually all the day because of the wrath of the oppressor, when he sets himself to destroy? And where is the wrath of the oppressor?  14 He who is bowed down shall speedily be released; he shall not die and go down to the pit, neither shall his bread be lacking.  15 I am the LORD your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar– the LORD of hosts is his name.  16 And I have put my words in your mouth and covered you in the shadow of my hand, establishing the heavens and laying the foundations of the earth, and saying to Zion, ‘You are my people.'”

So the Lord Jesus Gives Us the Lord’s Supper to Help Us Remember:

1 Corinthians 11:23-25 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread,  24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”  25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

So May We Say With the Psalmist:

Psalm 119:93  I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Old and the New

(For a version of this devotion that is easier to print, follow this link.)

“So much of the Christian life is not learning new things but learning fundamental things in new ways.”

So wrote Tom Ascol, Executive Director of Founders Ministries, in a recent blog post. Several weeks ago he was struck by lightening – yes, literally – and is still recovering.

In this country, we have a passion for the new: New electronic gadgets, new books, new ideas, new leaders. We expect progress; we anticipate that all will improve.

The anticipation of progress is less common around the world and, from a historical viewpoint, is rather recent. Now, in many ways, believing that change is possible is helpful and necessary; indeed, a belief in change is fundamental to salvation.

But our fascination with the new has a downside also: We quite easily slip into an attitude of disdain for the old. C.S. Lewis labeled this “chronological snobbery,” which he defined as “the uncritical acceptance of the intellectual climate of our own age and the assumption that whatever has gone out of date is on that count discredited” (from Surprised by Joy chapter 13.)

Tom’s statement is an excellent summary of the right attitude towards biblical truth. We must remind ourselves and one another again and again of the great truths of the Gospel, of the great acts of God in history, of the great aspects of His character, of the great promise of Christ’s return. This is how we run the race of faith with endurance.

But reminding ourselves of these fundamental truths requires more than simply reciting a known fact. We must learn them in new ways, as Tom says. We must apply these eternal truths to the changing and challenging circumstances that overwhelm us in this life. (more…)