Advent – Love Does
Hope All Things
A Sermon by Pastor R. D. Johnson
Preached at the Ann Arbor, MI Free Methodist Church
Scripture Text:
I Corinthians 13:7c
December 18, 2011
Sermon #0281
On July 17, 2009, on an atheist website under the category ‘General Atheism’, Luke
Muehlhauser answered this question, “Do atheists have less hope?”
He wrote, “Christians have hope … a lot of hope. It’s false hope, but it’s a lot of it. Do
atheists have less hope…? Yup.
Atheists have less hope than Christians have in the same way that adults have less hope than
young children on Christmas Eve. The adults know that special gifts do not come from a jolly
man in the sky with infinite resources. Young children – and Christians – have not yet
grasped this. But this does not mean atheists are without hope. It just means we hope for
more realistic goals. It also means we face reality square in the face, figure out how reality
works, and use that knowledge to better mankind.
One example is Norman Borlaug. Instead of praying that the hungry would be fed, instead of
telling the hungry comforting fantasy stories about eternal bliss, Norman got busy. He got a
Ph.D. in plant pathology and genetics, and used his scientific training to figure out how to
modify existing plants so that they would produce more food per acre and better resist
disease. As a result of his work, poor countries can afford to feed much more of their
population on the same amount of land, and Norman’s crops have saved nearly a billion
lives.”
So I researched Norman Borlaug (who died about 2 months after this article was written.
(1914 - 2009) U.S. agricultural scientist and plant pathologist, a Ph.D. from the University of
Minnesota. For helping lay the groundwork of the Green Revolution, he was awarded the
Nobel Prize for Peace in 1970. His numerous honors include the Presidential Medal of
Freedom (1977) and the Congressional Gold Medal (2007) which he was awarded for
“saving over 1 Billion lives”.
What this atheist wrote was true, amazingly true, 1 in 6 people on the planet have him to
thank for their very lives! But Mr. Muehlhauser continues, “As an atheist, I have hope that
this is the kind of thing humans can achieve if we decide to move beyond superstitious
incantations and delightful fantasy stories. I’m a dreamer. I dream of a better world, and I
think we can make a better world if we decide to figure it out, together.”
It turns out Norman Borlaug did NOT accomplish this by ‘moving beyond superstitious
incantations and delightful fantasy stories’. In an article about his funeral, he was described
as a devout Lutheran, whose faith was the motivation for his mission to use science to feed
people. This according to his daughter, who is quoted in the article. It also explains that he
regularly attended church when not out working in his "mission field".
Video: ‘Imagine’ written by John Lennon in 1971 (died Dec. 8 1980)
‘You may say I’m a dreamer’?
“It just means we hope for more realistic goals.” Luke Muehlhauser wrote. I ask you what is
a more realistic goal? Hope in God lived out through feeding the world? Or imagining all the
people living life in peace? NOT the fulfilling Peace of Christ we looked at last week, but the
empty peace that is simply ‘not’ war and ‘not’ greed and ‘not’ selfishness.
Steven from Bundaberg, Australia posted to the Imagine song, “This is nothing more than an
'Imagine there's no God and we can all do what we like' - song. People are far too selfish to
exist together in harmony without laws with sanctions. Let me quote a Keith Green song that
tells it how it is. "..so many laughing at Jesus, while the 'funniest' thing that He's done, is love
this poor stubborn, rebellious world, while their hate for Him just goes on...." God wants to
SAVE you from your sins and take you to heaven, not join a religion. John was just imagining
heaven. Ironic.”
The Hope of Christmas is NOT simply a Christian’s childish fantasy hope that one day an
eternity of bliss will begin for us. A Christian’s Hope is for this life and this world as much
as it is for the next. And an atheist’s hope is NO HOPE AT ALL.
I Corinthians 13:7 tells us, “Love hopes all things”
We Hope for Life
For an atheist there is no intrinsic value in life. We may randomly assign value but it’s not
true value because to them people are just products of random chance. Life exists because it
does, not because it was meant to, or designed to.
In 1985, Arthur Porges’ science fiction story "1.98" included a comment that the monetary
value of the human body was $1.98. If we allow for inflation, that would put the current
monetary value at about $5.00
93% of your body (excluding skin) is a combination of Oxygen, Carbon and Hydrogen. The
current value of the chemicals that comprise your body is $1. Your skin, however, for an
average sized person, and based of the current selling price of cowhide, is worth almost $4.
So you are worth $5 when you die. While you live you are worth whatever work you can do
– production value. So when your production value is low (i.e. unborn babies, physically
and/or mentally impaired, or old) you become worthless.
But this naturalistic summation of life is impossible to believe, even for Atheists! We can
live like others have no value, but something cries out in each of us to be valued. We guard
our lives because we ‘know’ there is value to it. We worry and stress most about our lives.
The problem is that sin causes us to value ourselves higher than we should. Paul wrote in
Romans 12:3, “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of
himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment…” We love
our life, value it, but our sin nature is self destructive. We sin to protect ourselves and that
very sin destroys us. This is why Jesus taught His disciples, “The one who loves his life will
destroy it, and the one who hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.”
(John 12:25, ISV)
And he said to his disciples, "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what
you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the
body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither
storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the
birds!
– Luke 12:22-24
God values us even more than we value ourselves. He came to restore us to life.
This baby in a manger – In Him was life and the life was the light of men. (John 1:4)
Because of this Christ Child, and because of the Promises of God, we hope for life!
For this reason the Bible demands that a Christian be pro-life: protecting the unborn and the
children, feeding the hungry and starving, caring for the elderly and dying and most
importantly sharing with everyone the promise of Eternal Life that we have in Jesus.
Paul wrote in Acts 20:24, “But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to
myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus,
to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.”
We Hope for Liberty
Atheists believe that humanity can free itself from war and selfishness, hate and greed
through science and progress. But reality denies this belief just as reality denies evolution.
The world is CLEARLY NOT moving towards a state of order and peace, but is in fact deevolving, and becoming more chaotic, more greed, more hunger for power, more selfcentered. Laws are necessary to keep most people in line with an imagined civilized society.
This flaw in Atheism does not stop people from believing it, it simply forces them to turn
their fingers away from their own responsibility to pass blame to someone else for the
trouble. This is the same thing that happened in the garden when God called Adam and Eve
to account for covering their nakedness.
John Lennon wrote, “Imagine there’s no heaven, it’s easy if you try. … Nothing to live or die
for and no religion too”
Do you see it? He blames religion for the problems in the world rather than accepting his
own sinfulness. They all do this. Most notably Christopher Hitchens, a very outspoken
Atheist writer and journalist who died this past Thursday of cancer.
“I am absolutely convinced that the main source of hatred in the world is religion, and
organized religion,” he wrote. I wonder then, what is the source of his great hatred for
religion? In his 2007 book ‘God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything’, Hitchens
took on major religions with his trenchant atheism. He argued that religion was the source of
all tyranny and that many of the world's evils have been done in the name of religion.
Adam blamed Eve instead of confessing the part he played in their trouble. Eve blamed God
for creating the serpent to avoid having to accept that the responsibility for the trouble was
hers. Christopher Hitchens blamed God, and hated Him, rather than admitting his own sin.
The truth is that it is NOT God who initiates hate and tyranny. In fact it’s just the opposite,
it’s the sinfulness of man that misuses the name of God to justify his hatred and tyranny! If
religion was the source, then only religious people would be evil, but if people are the source
then both the religious AND the atheist could be hateful and evil.
It’s not religion that causes evil. It’s the sin within mankind, the pride, the greed, the envy,
the lust, the hunger for control. God is not the source but the scapegoat of tyranny and evil.
Jesus taught His disciples, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to
sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son
sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
– John 8:34-36
Jesus did not come to conquer the world, but to take possession of the hearts of people. He
did not teach His disciples to battle human enemies but to fight the spiritual battles against
the Devil and his demons who rule this world. He came to set the captives free! He came to
liberate us AND those who we might see as our enemies. He came as a doctor for the sick.
Atheists desire to be free just as we do, but they believe they can take it. We believe it was
given. They agree that the world is a prison but they blame religion for creating it and
keeping us in bondage. They believe mankind can break free. We believe the prison is sin,
and Jesus removes the chains and sets us free. And in trusting Jesus we also hope for the
ultimate freedom, even from our own flesh. Eternal life without even the memory of sin!
We Hope for Love
We hope for life. We hope for liberty. And we hope for Love.
Luke Muehlhauser agreed that a Christian has much more hope than an Atheist, but he said
our hope is false. We hope that God Loves us, but there is no God. There is a major logical
flaw in this comment. We hope for love, all people do. John Lennon had this hope, but he
believed mankind could just, somehow, produce it. Christopher Hitchens I am sure hoped for
it, but he believed that religion was the reason it cannot be realized or experienced. Yet we all
know every person falls short of the love we desire to be loved with.
We know intuitively that it should be there specifically because it isn’t.
Example: A keyboard without batteries
 Someone who had never seen a keyboard would not desire to hear it played
 Someone who had heard a keyboard before SHOULD wonder WHY it wasn’t playing
o One dismisses it as broken and walks away (there is no God or who cares)
o One investigates the device and notices an empty compartment underneath
 Some decide they ‘know’ what should go there to make it play
 Others hear from someone who plays keyboards what ‘batteries’ are.
God is Love
It is a very sad things that the world – atheists in particular – cannot see the measure of love
demonstrated by God in Christmas.
Conclusion
‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life,
Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’
Happiness finds its fullness in the Love of God. It is this truth that fuels our Hope: For God
so loved the world that gave His only begotten Son (born one small child in a little town of
Bethlehem) that whosoever believes in Him will not perish (set free from the bondage and
penalty of sin – free to follow Jesus our Wonderful Merciful Savior), but have everlasting
life. (John 3:16)
John Lennon would have you imagine a peaceful world, created by dreamers who by the
power of their wills could become perfect in love for one another. But the impossibility of
that dream is proven by the fact that Jesus had to die for the sins of the world. If the peace
John longed for required the death of God, then there is no hope that people could wish it into
existence.
The dream was realized however, made possible by the death and resurrection of Christ. In
His work we find the foundation for the Hope we have. It is sad that John Lennon and many
others could not imagine there IS a heaven and it is everything he was dreaming of.
Christopher Hitchens would have you forsake your faith in Christ and abandon the Bible
because they are the cause of all that is wrong with the world.
A man confided in his friend that he wanted to kill someone he considered his enemy who had
wronged him terribly. He even showed his friend his gun. His friend told him the Bible says
do not kill and that vengeance belongs to the Lord. He explained to him that Jesus loved him
AND his enemy, that the Bible says God will punish those who do not turn from their sin but
will forgive those who do. The man looked down at his gun then back to his friend. After
considering what his friend had said, he replied, “well then get rid of it.” “The gun,” his
friend asked? “No,” he answered, “the Bible!”
It is sad that Christopher Hitchens hated those who believed in God and would tell others
about Him, sad that he so badly twisted the message of the Bible that he could believe God
was evil and sad that now when it is too late he knows better.
The hope of Christmas is not for everyone. The hope of life, the hope of eternal freedom and
peace, and the hope of everlasting Love can only be imagined by those who will turn from
sin, stop relying on themselves and humbly submit to the lordship of Jesus. His will not mine.
Imagine this as you consider what you have heard from the Spirit of God this morning.
Video: ‘I Can Only Imagine’ by Casting Crowns