The key word in today’s message is hope, and the conviction of truth that is as deep as life and eternity is that Christ is the only hope!
Christ—the Only Hope | Sermon by T.T. Crabtree
Text: “We have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people—the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you” (Col. 1:4–6 NIV).
Scripture Reading: Colossians 1:3–8
Hymns:
“Crown Him with Many Crowns,” Bridges
“The Solid Rock,” Mote
“Victory in Jesus,” Bartlett
Offertory Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us the opportunity to bring our tithes and offerings to you this day. May you be pleased with the gifts we bring. Amen.
Introduction
The key word in today’s message is hope, and the conviction of truth that is as deep as life and eternity is that Christ is the only hope!
The claim that Christ is the only hope is a bold claim because it eliminates all other claims to hope. It is a timeless claim because it has been believed for centuries.
It is also a very serious claim because to believe it is to accept certain responsibilities.
I. Christ is the only hope for salvation.
A mine shaft collapsed and a rescue team was immediately organized to dig out the entombed men before their air supply was exhausted.
As the rescue team approached the doomed miners, they thought they heard a tapping on the rocks.
As they paused to listen, in Morse code came the question repeatedly: “Is there any hope? Is there any hope?” People living under the weight of sin may ask, “Is there any hope for salvation?”
A. Christ is the only hope for a salvation desperately needed. The Bible says that without Christ people have “no hope” and are “without God in the world” (Eph. 2:12).
They are spiritually lost, “condemned already” (John 3:18). Not tomorrow, not next year, not at age twenty-one, not at death, but now, already condemned! People are spiritually trapped in sin.
“The heart is deceitful . . . and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9). Out of the human heart proceeds all types of sin (Matt. 15:19). The nature of the human heart is to sin and rebel against God and spiritual authority.
People are also trapped in the agonizing results of sin. “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). People are trapped in human weakness and despair.
The cry of the apostle Paul was, “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom. 7:24). Christ is the only hope!
B. Christ is the only hope for salvation divinely provided. In answer to a seeking heart, “What must I do to be saved?” is the reply, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:30–31).
The Lord Jesus Christ is the Savior. There is much confusion at this point. Salvation is not in a parent’s faith, in religious principles, in a church, in culture, in outward symbols, or in a good life. Salvation is in a person, Jesus Christ!
Jesus Christ is God’s provision (1 Tim. 1:15), God’s deed (1 Cor. 15:3), and God’s gift (Rom. 6:23). He is the living Savior and Lord.
C. Christ is the only hope for salvation personally received. What are we to do? How are we to respond? Upon hearing “the hope of the gospel,” which is Christ, we are to believe him.
We are to acknowledge the truth of Christ; accept the facts of his life, death, and resurrection, then trust ourselves to him in personal surrender.
John 1:12 says, “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.”
Several years ago an air force sergeant moved to Sherman, Texas. He and his family were saved before they were transferred to another base. He said, “We came to Sherman so poor; we are leaving so rich.” Christ is the only hope!
II. Christ is the only hope for life’s needs.
Paul spoke of the hope of the gospel “that has come to you . . . [and] is bearing fruit and growing . . . among you” (Col. 1:6 NIV). Christ touches lives now and transforms them. He gives power to live now, not just for heaven. Many testify to what Christ is doing in their lives today.
J. B. Phillips’s book God Our Contemporary has a chapter titled “The Inadequacy of Humanism,” in which Phillips described secular humanism as a bleak and cruel creed.
It denies the Christian faith and the need for any moral or spiritual authority outside humanity.
Humanism restricts life to this earth; it denies God and says there is no life beyond this one. So it offers no hope to the severely handicapped, no power to guide and strengthen someone defeated by emotional conflicts. It has nothing to offer for the crises of life.
Secular humanism would have been useless some time ago, when in one week’s time I ministered to two families who lost teenage sons, to a man whose mother died in her sleep, to the family of a five-year-old girl who died of a brain tumor, and to a wife whose husband was killed in military service. Secular humanism had nothing to say. It was cold and cruelly silent. But Christ was not!
Matthew 11:28 says, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden.” John 10:10 says, “I am come that they might have life; and . . . have it more abundantly.”
And Philippians 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me.” Christ is the only hope!
III. Christ is the only hope for eternity.
The hope of Christ is an eternal certainty by pointing beyond life now to life forever. Colossians 1:5 speaks of “the hope stored up for you in heaven” (NIV).
A. The hope of Christ is the hope of his return. He personally promised it (John 14:3), the angels divinely announced it (Acts 1:11), and Paul the apostle victoriously described it (1 Thess. 4:16). Jesus is personally, powerfully, and suddenly coming again. This is hope!
B. The hope of Christ is the hope of the resurrection. Christ has abolished death (2 Tim. 1:9–10), and resurrection is promised in 1 Corinthians 15. Death is not the end for the believer because Christ is our hope.
C. The hope of Christ is the hope of deliverance from judgment. Hebrews 9:27 says, “People are destined to die once and after that to face judgment” (NIV).
Christ bore our judgment on the cross. Though judgment is certain, in Christ we need not fear for we have passed from death unto life.
Conclusion
Christ is the only hope. What an audacious yet wonderful claim! Do we believe it? Then we must proclaim it, share it, and testify to it everywhere we go.