December 4, 2013 Sermon on Advent Wednesday
Sermon by Pastor Paul G. Eckert
Text - Hebrews 11:11-12

    Our Wednesday Advent series is about hope and families - today
mainly Abraham and Sarah’s family.  But I will also refer to Zechariah
and Elizabeth, and to Mary and Joseph.  I’ll start out, though, by
reading a poem Alexander Pope wrote in 1733.  Here it is:
                  “Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
                    Man never is, but always to be blessed:
                    The soul, uneasy and confined from home,
                    Rests and expatiates in a life to come.”
    Did you understand that?  It isn’t very easy for me to understand,
especially when it says the soul expatiates.  What does that word
mean?  A dictionary I consulted says that it means “you continue to
hope that something will happen, although it seems unlikely.”
     Does that mean that hope has to stay hope because it never will be
fulfilled?  If so, that is not the kind of hope we ‘ll be talking about in
our Wednesday Advent services.  But I will use the opening three
words of that poem in a positive way as my sermon theme, and then
for each part I’ll use one of those three words.  So here is the theme:
HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL
I    HOPE  (11ab)
    1. Hope was needed.
        a) Our sermon text speaks of the family of Sarah and Abraham. 
        b) They had no children, and both were past the age when they
could expect to have children.  Humanly speaking it was past hoping.
    2. Hope was promised from the beginning.
        a) Let’s go back farther than Sarah and Abraham, back to Eve
and Adam.  They had listened to the devil, fallen into sin.  But God in
His grace promised that a Savior would come.  He said, “I will put
enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring
and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
        b) Was there an answer to their sin?  Yes.  God gave hope with
the promise of an offspring to come to defeat the devil for us.
    3. This seemed to be an impossible hope.  (11a)
By faith Abraham, even though he was past age - and Sarah
herself was barren - .
        a) The Savior’s genealogical line was promised through Sarah
and Abraham.  But physically that could not be expected.
        b) Sarah’s conniving didn’t accomplish anything either.  Listen
to this from Genesis 18: “The LORD said, ‘I will surely return to
you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a
son.’”  Sarah laughed at this, and before this already had shown her
weakness by trying to arrange a child by having her husband have a
wrongful relationship with a maidservant.  Can you imagine that?   
    4. Clearly fulfillment of hope had to come from God.   (11ab)
By faith Abraham, even though he was past age - and Sarah
herself was barren - was enabled to become a father because he
considered him faithful who had made the promise. 
        a) Did a virgin birth finally come about in Bethlehem because of
Sarah’s or Abraham’s conniving to have a child?  Clearly not.
        b) Conniving and doubting were finally set aside by Sarah and
Abraham.  Trusting God’s promises replaced that, as our text says:
they “considered him faithful who had made the promise.”  Now
their hope could be a solid hope, not just an expatiating hope.   
        c) God Himself was behind all of this.  The Savior’s advent
would come according to God’s plan and timing.
II    SPRINGS  (11-12)
    1. Hope still was needed.  (11-12)
By faith Abraham, even though he was past age - and Sarah
herself was barren - was enabled to become a father because he
considered him faithful who had made the promise.  And so from
this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as
numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on
the seashore.
        a) Abraham and Sarah had a son, Isaac.  But Isaac was not the
promised Savior.  He was the next in the genealogical line that led up
to the Savior, a long genealogical line.  If interested you can read the
names in Matthew chapter 1 and Luke chapter 3.
        b) For the many years of waiting hope was still needed.
    2. But the promise continued.
        a) We heard of that in our Scripture reading before at the
lectern.  (Luke 1:5-25)
        b) That spoke of John the Baptist when an angel said to
Zechariah, “Your wife will bear you a son, and you are  to give
him the name John.  ---  he will be great in the sight of the Lord.
--- to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
    3. This promise too was met with doubt.
        a) There is a similarity here with Abraham and Sarah.  Zechariah
said, “How can I be sure of this?  I am an old man and my wife is
well along in years.”  That sounds like doubt, not hope, doesn’t it.
        b) Here let’s see a similarity not only between Sarah and
Abraham and Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth.  Let’s look at
ourselves.  Please don’t doubt what God says about sin and its
consequences.  Please don’t doubt God’s promises of forgiveness of
sins because of Jesus.  Please don’t doubt His promise to be with you
also at times when you may feel abandoned.
    4. Instead know that God will spring into action.  (12)
And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came
descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless
as the sand on the seashore.
        a) Isaac was born, continuing the long line to Jesus’ birth.   
        b) John was born, to prepare the way when Jesus came.
        c) God doesn’t just promise.  At His time He springs into action.
III  ETERNAL 
    1. The fullness of time came.
        a) Time continued for Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, and
Isaac, and so on, until God’s chosen time, the right time, had come.
        b) Galatians 4 says: “When the time  had fully come, God
sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those
under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.”
    2. The goal was and is our eternal life.
        a) Like Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, we will die.
        b) But also like them and all who believe in the Son of God we
will live.  That’s why God sprang into action, to give us eternal life.
    3. Let this hope be certain.
        a) The first reactions of Sarah and Elizabeth were doubt.
        b) May our hope never have doubt but always be certain, like
that of Mary when she was told of Jesus’ coming birth.  She said,
“May it be to me as you have said.”
    4. May we too rejoice in God’s promises fulfilled.
        a) Hope - we have it; it is definite; it is true.   
        b) Hope - God did spring into action to fulfill it.
        c) Hope - it is ours now, and will be enjoyed in eternity.

    Yes, indeed!  In Jesus, whose birth we again are celebrating this
Advent and Christmas season, HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL.