Hope: A Common Starting Point

So I pray that God, who gives you hope, will keep you happy and full of peace as you believe in him. May you overflow with hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 15.13 [NLT]

The message is the same but methods must change. Often times, older ways of sharing hope found in Jesus Christ were designed for people who, though were not believers, believed in the authority of the bible, the church and even God – they just needed the good news explained. The worldviews in the last 25+ years have changed dramatically and as followers of Christ, one has to recognize that people have a different starting point now in their spiritual journey.

Many people have not been raised in a Christian environment, have pluralistic worldviews that contain within themselves contradictions and so the authority of the Bible, Jesus Christ as the only way for salvation is hardly believable for them. Ironically, it is very similar to the 1st century paganism of the Roman Empire where the early followers of Jesus and churches were confronted with the same pluralistic issues. One thing that never seems to change though - as worldviews shift, empires rise and fall and scientific advances are discovered - is the incessant human longing for genuine hope.

This desire and longing for hope leads people to search for it in dreams of success, power, money, relationships, discoveries, a better world, self-improvement and even religion.

This is quite understandable and absolutely necessary to grasp if one wants to help people discover hope - genuine hope in Jesus Christ.

Blaise Pascal, the great seventeenth-century mathematician, wrote of "the God-shaped vacuum" in every person. Augustine concluded, "Our hearts are restless until they rest in thee." — Paul Little, Know Why You Believe

God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end. - Ecclesiastes 3:11 [NLT]

KEY: EVERYONE is on a spiritual journey with DIFFERENT starting points and STOPPING points to find genuine HOPE.

Examples in the OT: Abraham and Sarah, Moses, David
Examples in the NT: The twelve, Saul to Paul, Peter’s growth with the Gentiles

People were made by God and for God so there is a divine restlessness already within us. Not all people are aware of their need for God. We look to other things or relationships. Followers of Jesus are commissioned [Matt 28.19-20] to help people on their spiritual journey with the hope of people committing their lives to "living hope" - Jesus Christ.

My job was to plant the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God, not we, who made it grow. - 1 Corinthians 3:6 [NLT]

In my humble opinion, “success” in sharing the good news is joining someone in their spiritual journey and being used by God to help them discover and experience God's love and truth – some plant, some water, some harvest.

But my life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about God's wonderful kindness and love. - Acts 20.24 [NLT]

Leadership Discussion Questions:

1. So how would people who don't follow Jesus rate your hope flow? Is it healthy? Or is it hindered?

2. How does the understanding that everyone is at a different place in their spiritual journey help or hinder your approach to reach out to them? Need to do anything different?

3. What are the potential challenges for the follower of Jesus in "walking alongside" someone in their preChristian journey? How does this impact training methods and depth of biblical knowledge?

For further resources: Richard Peace, Holy Conversations.