Our Hope: The Appearing of Jesus Christ
by: John Piper*
http://www.crossbooks.net/CommunityLibrary/doc1340.html
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Titus 2:11-13: "For the grace of God has appeared for the salvation of all men, training us to renounce irreligion and worldly passions, and to live sober, upright, and godly lives in this world, awaiting our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and to purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds".
We began this series by asking, "What is the special character of Biblical hope?" And we answered, Biblical hope is not finger-crossing. It is a confident expectation of good things to come. Hebrews calls it the "full assurance of hope" (6:11).
Then we asked, "Why can sinners like us be confident that a holy God will work for us and make our future bright?" And we answered with two words: grace and gospel. Paul says that "God, our Father loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace" (2 Thessalonians 2:16). And he urges us not to shift from the hope of the gospel (Colossians 1:23). So the grace of God and the good news of Christ crucified for sins and raised from the dead are the reasons that sinners like you and me can hope in God and have a confident expectation that the future will be good for us.
Then after the question "What?" and "Why?" we asked the question, "How?" First, "How can I hope in God when by nature I do not trust God or love God or want to obey God?" And we answered: "New birth." "By God's great mercy we have been born anew unto a living hope" (1 Peter 1:3, 23). God overcomes our rebellion and gives us a new heart--a heart that by its very nature loves to hope in God.
Then, the second "How-question" was, "How are we to hope in God if we don't know his promises?" The answer is Romans 15:4, "Whatever was written in former times was written for our instruction that by the endurance and encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope." We do know the promises of God--the whole Bible--the Scripture--was written to give us hope. Take up and read!
Now today, after taking last Sunday to apply some of this to "holy women who hope in God" (1 Peter 3:5), we pick up and ask more specifically what it is that we can hope for. We will spend five messages answering that question.
Today's answer is taken from Titus 2:13.
