Living in Hope: The Redeemer Lives and Baptism

Job is a believer. He's a believer. This is a testimony of faith. It's one of the most sublime expressions of faith in the Old Testament. Job is a believer and that's how I want to look at it for myself today. [00:23:38]

I'm thankful for the wealth of scholarship and reflection on Job down through the centuries. I'm thankful for the poignency the poignency of parts of Job, chapters of Job that I would love to spend time talking about. [00:24:05]

I'd love to spend time talking about chapter 42 where after this after this um uh encounter with God, Job says, you know, I've been believing all my life on the testimony of others by report, but now I see you face to face. That personal encounter makes God real and alive for Job. [00:24:52]

God meets him and basically says Job look how beautiful creation is in Job chapter 38 and onward is this beautiful praise of creation really God doesn't really answer Job directly he basically says look at all the beauty in the world look at the moral order of the world and can't you see that there must be a good God behind it [00:24:58]

Job in this uh this passage, he suffered loss. He suffered the loss of his land, his cattle, his family, and then he suffers terrible disease and discomfort. He's in distress. And on top of this, being in distress, having lost many things, one voice comes to him and says, "Job, things aren't looking good. You're headed for the grave in a bad way. You're backing into the grave one step at a time, and it's pretty ugly. So, what you should do, Job, is just get one last shot in at God. Curse God and die." Job will have none of this. [00:25:25]

And then he has these friends who aren't really friends, but they represent that strain of thought I was telling you. Kind of a prosperity gospel really. They say to him, "Job, come here. Let's just go over to the sideline and can I have a word with you? Somewhere somehow you must have really done wrong because of all this stuff that's happening to you. So one voice said, "Give up." And this voice says, "Give it up. Confess." And Job says, "No, I know that my redeemer lives, my advocate lives, and that at the last he will stand upon this earth. And even though my body be destroyed, yet shall I see God whom I shall see and not as another or as one translation puts it, not as a stranger." [00:26:24]

God will know him and he will know God. And it won't be a complete surprise because already in this life, Job has been trusting God. This is a faith. This is a love that God that Job sees in Job that casts out fear. And we know that fear can be such a negative driver of life. Job knows that God will come to his side. He doesn't know exactly how things are going to play out, but he trusts that a redeemer will come. And we can feel, can't we, the confidence in Jo in Job's Job's cry. [00:27:08]

We can feel the confidence when he says, "I'm a believer." He knows that he can head into his future, whatever it holds, confident in God. And that's what we're holding before ourselves today. We should hold that before ourselves every day. And that's what we hold before those who will be baptized today. [00:27:47]

Now, we don't know. We don't know how prophecy really kind of works. It certainly couldn't have been the case that Job had a little video recorder in his mind or TV and he saw that one day on the shores of Galilee, Jesus wearing sandals and a robe would walk. Not that but by the inspiration of God people were enabled to give testimony to God that would one day be fulfilled. [00:28:18]

So the promise of resurrection happens in the Old Testament not just to Job but in Hosea we read a key passage. God after two days will revive us. On the third day, he will raise us up that we might live before him. In Daniel, there's a prophecy that sounds very much like a prophecy of the general resurrection of the righteous. [00:28:48]

What happens in Jesus Christ is that God himself gives this confidence. The redeemer that Job prophesied came among us. Came among us and created a deep hope in us that is more than just whistling through the dark as if we were walking through a graveyard at midnight. And what we do here Sunday by Sunday is not just jin up each other to have courage to get through life's inev inevitable struggles. [00:30:42]

We do give one another comfort and courage. But we focus on this deep confidence we have that we are united with Jesus Christ in his death and resurrection. That's what our confidence is. We move into the future knowing that we've been organically united to Jesus Christ in his death and resurrection. [00:31:16]

Quite simply, God in Jesus Christ has come to our side and he's gifted us to share in his death and resurrection. That's how he's the redeemer. In just a few moments, just a few moments, you'll hear the words about being buried with Christ in his death and sharing in his resurrection. It's part of our liturgy. [00:31:45]

And so we when we speak in the Christian church and use a phrase over and over again about living in Christ so that that isn't just Christian jargon or a cliche that loses its meaning. in Christ means that our true identity is that new self. And so when you hear people saying live into that identity which is secured, that's what's meant to give us the confidence to say no to sinful ways and to live to that new life that's ours in Christ Jesus. [00:34:32]

And all of this is grace. All of this is grace. And grace comes first before moral striving for holiness and righteousness. We need those things. Holiness, righteousness, being decent human beings, humanizing the world, making it a more tender place, a more gracefilled place. All of that matters. That's part of our commission. They're held together in Jesus Christ. But grace comes first. [00:35:15]

So Christians move into the future with hope and trust and confidence. Knowing that life isn't pointless, but it has a direction. Not going through life like whistling in the dark. Not living in the darkness of any depravity, but living as you heard today as children of the light and singing God's praises. For we know that the redeemer lives. [00:36:15]