Sharing Hope in a Hopeless World

November 25, 2014 Year B

Are the nations “streaming” to God’s House? (Isaiah 2:2)

You look around at the culture and see Godlessness in a seemingly hopeless world.

Are the “many peoples” joining together to go to God’s house to get God’s instruction on a matter? (Isaiah 2:3)

You look around at the people and see people abandoning God’s house and His ways. Things seem hopeless.

Are the nations settling their disputes peacefully? Have the nations stopped “taking up swords” against each other? (Isaiah 2:4)

You look on the news and you see that the nations have not turned their swords into plows and their spears into pruning knives. Instead, you see them that they have turned their swords into missiles of long-range destruction and the desire for nuclear bombs of mass annihilation. The nations seem to be hopelessly grasping for war or the political threat of war as their solution.

Where is the church in all of this? Where are God’s people? What are we supposed to do?

God tells His people to “come and let us walk in the Lord’s light.” (Isaiah 2:5)

What does this mean?

“Look, the Gentiles have seen a great light.” (NT prophecy fulfillment to an Old Testament reference – find it)

The Lord’s light represents the hope which He brings to the world.

We are living in the “last days.” However, we are not yet seeing the fulfillment of these prophecies. Why? Because as God’s people, the church, we need to share the hope which we have with a hopeless world.

To the nations, we need to be “the Lord’s house”

To the many people, we need to be “the house of the God of Jacob.”

To the families, we need to be a place where people can settle their disputes peacefully, where they can turn their homemade swords of words and insults and speared tongues and turn families from training for war against each other.

James 4:1

“Walking” in the Bible refers to a relationship. If I walk with someone, I am in a special relationship with that person. I walk with them, I talk with them,I am spending time with them.

If we are going to BE THE CHURCH, as God has called us to be, then we need to learn to “walk in the Lord’s light.”

To put it another way, we need to be in a relationship with God, and share that relationship with others.

1. It means that we have to love one another in such a way that the nations want to stream to God’s house (Isaiah 2:2) . How do we do that?

John 13:34

2. It means that we have to start “walking in His paths”. (Isaiah 2:3)

We get the “teach us His ways” part real well. It’s the “walking in His paths” part which we have problems with. How many times does the Bible say: “walk in His path.”

3. It means that we need to work better on “settling disputes.” We need to go to God for arbitration. (Isaiah 2:4)

What is arbitration?

Arthur Sullivan and Steven Sheffrin in their book Economics: Principles in Actions, define arbitration in the following way:

Arbitration, a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR), is a technique for the resolution of disputes outside the courts, where the parties to a dispute refer it to one or more persons (the “arbitrators”, “arbiters” or “arbitral tribunal”), by whose decision (the “award”) they agree to be bound. It is a resolution technique in which a third-party reviews the evidence in the case and imposes a decision that is legally binding for both sides and enforceable.1

We need to stop ending our marriages in divorce and we need to make an effort to go to God for arbitration.

We need to stop arguing, fighting, hurting one another, leaving one another, and we need to go to God for arbitration.

Why is God’s arbitration so important?

Because God is the one who can provide hope to our hopeless families.

1 Sullivan, Arthur; Steven M. Sheffrin (2003). [http://www.pearsonschool.com/index.cfm? locator=PSZ3R9&PMDbSiteId=2781&PMDbSolutionId=6724&PMDbCategoryId=&PMDbProgramId=12881&level=4 Economics: Principles in action]. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458: Pearson Prentice Hall. p. 324. ISBN 0-13-063085-3. Found on Wikipedia [

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbitration] accessed on 27 November 2013.