So many Bible studies on hope are merely theoretical. These studies ask what difference our Christian hope should make to OUR lives every day?

Hope 1 – Hope in my life

1. Ask the Group, “What is hope?”

2. Read the following expanded definition of hope to the Group
“Hope is the combination of expectation and desire. I might love to visit Australia but since I have no expectations whatsoever of being able to do so this summer I cannot say “I hope to go to Australia this summer.” I expect to go to the dentist next week but since I have no desire to make that visit it would be incorrect to say that a visit to the dentist is something I hope for.”

Now ask the Group each to consider for themselves, “What are you hoping for in your life?” Expand the question by inviting the Group to think about their own lives and ask:
What circumstances would you hope will be different in the future?
What relationships would you hope will be different in the future?
What aspects of your character would you hope will be different in the future?
What do you hope to achieve in the next five years?
What do you hope to achieve in the rest of your life?
Invite the Group members to share their hopes, dreams and aspirations.

3. For the specific examples of hopes folk have shared, ask “What can WE do to make these things possible? Are our hopes based on what we might achieve by our own efforts? What are we looking for God to do to bring these hopes to reality? Pray for these now or later.

4. Read Ephesians 1:18-21. What is the hope to which God has called us?

5. Our Christian hope starts with and rests on the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Read 1 Corinthians 15:12-22. Paul writes “If Christ had not risen from the dead …..” What would be the consequences Paul suggests, if the resurrection had not happened. What other consequences can we think of? What difference does the resurrection of Christ actually make to our daily lives in the here and now?

6. Read Colossians 1:3-6 and Romans 15:13. What blessings does a living hope bring to us? How has your Christian hope affected your life in the last few weeks?

Hope 2 – Hope for the world

1. Invite the Group to look ahead and consider:
How would you hope our world will be different in 5 years, 10 years, 25 years, 100 years?
How would you hope our town will be different in 5 years, 10 years, 25 years, 100 years?

2. What can WE do to make these changes possible? What are we looking for God to do to make these things happen?

3. Many people believe that in our post-modern world, “Every day in every way things are getting better and better.” The Biblical picture is NOT of evolutionary optimism but rather of increasing rebellion against God. Read Matthew 24:1-25. What pictures does Jesus give us of the end of the world, and the way the world is going now? What signs can we see of Jesus’s words being fulfilled in the world around us?

4. Read Romans 1:18-32. Is Paul’s picture of our fallen world optimistic or gloomy?

5. Read Revelation 9:13-21. What picture of the end of the world do we find here?

6. In the light of these Scriptures, what hope can we as Christians offer to this fallen world? When people around are cheerfully assuming that everything is getting better and better, it is not an option to remain silent about the truth that the world is on a downward slide to disaster. The old-style message “Prepare to meet thy doom” is more relevant than ever!

7. Read Romans 8:18-25. What hope does the Bible promise for the created world? When will this hope be realised? What hope does this give US in today’s gloom-filled world?

Hope 3 – Hope for the church

1. Invite the Group to look ahead and consider:
How would you hope North Springfield Baptist Church will be different in 5 years, 10 years, 25 years?
How would you hope the world church will be different in 5 years, 10 years, 25 years?

2. What can WE do to make these things possible? What are we looking for God to do to make these things happen?

3. Read Matthew 24:9-14. What picture does Jesus give us of the kind of life Christians can expect in the future?

4. Read Revelation 6:9-11 and 13:5-10. What pictures do we find here of the destiny of Christians and the church?

5. The dominant Bible pictures of the Church in the last days are NOT of the kingdom of God gloriously breaking in or of a triumphant church, but rather of a suffering persecuted church. Can you think of some of the ways in which triumphalism is distorting the gospel message? (e.g. the whole health, wealth and prosperity heresy assumes that we are guaranteed to experience the blessings of heaven here and now.) What dangers are there in an over-triumphant “rosy-spectacled” view of the Christian life?

6. Facing such grim prospects, what hope does the Bible offer for the church today?

Hope 4 – Hope in times of suffering

Studies 2 and 3 have demonstrated that the Bible pictures of the world and the church as history draws to a close are not cheerful! In particular “the normal Christian life” is not likely to be easy, comfortable and filled with victory but rather hard, painful and sharing the sufferings of Christ.

Studies 2 and 3 were deliberately downbeat and discouraging! We will only experience the fullness of Christian hope when we are also experiencing the fullness of suffering for Christ.

1. “Christian hope” means relatively little to us in North Springfield because our lives are easier and more comfortable than the lives of most Christians who have ever lived. Discuss

2. How has the gospel given hope to suffering believers through history? You might want to share stories about Christian martyrs through the ages, or the persecuted churches in USSR, China or various Islamic countries over the last century and still today.

3. We have much to learn from the suffering of Negro slaves and the faith and hope expressed in Negro spirituals. What do this lullaby and this song tell us about Christian hope? (Remember, hope is not only understood but also experienced as a feeling!)

Hush little baby, don’t you cry,

You know your Mama was born to die.
All my trials, Lord, soon be over.

I’ve got a little book with pages three,
And every page spells liberty
All my trials, Lord, soon be over.
Too late my brothers,
Too late, but never mind;
All my trials, Lord, soon be over.

If living was a thing that money could buy
You know the rich would live but the poor would die
All my trials Lord, soon be over.

There grows a tree in Paradise,
And the pilgrims call it the Tree of Life;
All my trials, Lord, soon be over.
Too late my brothers,
Too late, but never mind;
All my trials, Lord, soon be over.

I’m gonna lay down my burden, down by the riverside,
Down by the riverside, down by the riverside
I’m gonna lay down my burden, down by the riverside,
I’m gonna study war no more

I ain’t a gonna study war no more, I ain’t a gonna study war no more
I ain’t a gonna study war no more, I ain’t a gonna study war no more
I ain’t a gonna study war no more, I ain’t a gonna study war no more

Well, I’m gonna put on my long white robe,
(Where?) down by the riverside (Oh)
Down by the riverside, down by the riverside
I’m gonna put on my long white robe,
(Where?) down by the riverside I’m gonna study war no more

I ain’t a gonna study war no more, I ain’t a gonna study war no more
I ain’t a gonna study war no more, I ain’t a gonna study war no more
I ain’t a gonna study war no more, I ain’t a gonna study war no more

Well, I’m gonna lay down my sword and shield,
(Where?) down by the riverside
Down by the riverside, down by the riverside
I’m gonna lay down my sword and shield,
(A-ha) down by the riverside I’m gonna study war no more

I ain’t a gonna study war no more, I ain’t a gonna study war no more
I ain’t a gonna study war no more, I ain’t a gonna study war no more
I ain’t a gonna study war no more, I ain’t a gonna study war no more

4. Read 1 Corinthians 13:13. Paul memorably links “faith, hope and love.” Why?
Read Hebrews 11:1. What is the relationship between faith and hope? See also Romans 4:18-21.

5. Read Colossians 1:27. What does “Christ in you, the hope of glory” mean? What difference does “the hope of glory” make to our daily lives?

6. Read Romans 5:1-5. What does Paul mean here by “the hope of the glory of God”? How does such hope strengthen us in times of suffering? Encourage the Group to share their own experiences of times when Christian hope has strengthened them personally.

Hope 5 – Hope of Heaven

1. What are you looking forward to most about heaven?

2. What is heaven going to be like? Read Revelation 21:1-5, 22:1-5 and 7:9-17.

3. Read 1 Peter 1:3-9. What is the “living hope” which God has given us? How does this hope sustain us in times of suffering and testing?

4. Back in our first study we defined hope before as “a combination of expectation and desire”. Even this does not make clear the Bible sense of the word hope. Sometimes when we say “I hope to do something” we are only expressing a vague aspiration of something we might possibly do. But in the Scriptures our hope in God is a matter of certainty, and some translations express the idea of the “hope of heaven” with the much stronger “happy certainty of heaven” and the “happy certainty of sharing the glory of God”.
How does the “happy certainty” of heaven affect our lives here and now?
(Again reflecting back on Question 1 in Study 4, it may be that the hope of heaven means less to us than it has to some Christians through the ages because our lives in the here and now are just too comfortable!)

5. Read 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. Why is grieving different for Christians? How does the happy certainty of heaven change our feelings about a loved one who has died?

6. How does the happy certainty of heaven change our attitudes towards our mortality and our own inevitable death? Read Philippians 1:20-25. Do we share Paul’s attitudes that For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain, or I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far ? If not, why not?

Hope 6 – The Jesus Hope: the return of Christ

1. Ask the Group, “What difference does it make to your life day by day that Jesus Christ is going to return?

2. Why do Christians believe that Jesus will return? See John 14:1-6; Acts 1:9-11; Matthew 24:30-31; John 21:22-23.

3. Read Titus 2:11-14. How should our hope in Christ’s return affect our daily living here and now?

4. Read 1 John 3:1-3. Just HOW does our hope of Christ’s return purify us?

5. Read 2 Peter 3:3-15. What does this passage tell us about what will happen at the end of time?

6. How then should we be living as Christians today (2 Peter 3:11-14). In what ways can our lives “speed the coming” (verse 12) of the day of God?

7. What have you learned together in this series about the hope we have as Christians. How has it changed your life? Pray about these things.