Hope As An Anchor
Hope as an Anchor
Pastor Jim Dewar - First Baptist Church Bancroft
Our family moved to Bancroft from Fairdale, WV on January 7, 2015. We have served churches in pastoral ministry in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, West Virginia and now Iowa. We are also a Military Family. I served in the US Navy for 8 years 8 months and also served and retired from the US Naval Reserve. We are grateful for the opportunity to serve the Lord here at First Baptist Church, Bancroft and are also thankful to get to know many people in and around the community of Bancroft. At First Baptist Church we recently celebrated our 130th anniversary and are glad to serve the Lord in Gospel ministry here in Bancroft.
A favorite Bible verse of mine is Hebrews 6:19 “Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;” The book of Hebrews equivocates the Hope of the Christian Faith to that of an Anchor. Being a Navy man, I am very familiar with the use and purpose of an anchor as it relates to the mission of a ship. I don’t think you have to be in the Navy, however, to get the point. The anchor keeps the boat or ship anchored and in one place when not moving through the water. So as the anchor is to the ship or the boat, we can have Hope that is Sure and stedfast because of what Christ has done. Having just celebrated Easter we are reminded of what Christ did during that time.
1) The first thing to remember according to First Corinthians 15:3 “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;” We learn here in this verse that Christ died for our sins. What kind of death did Christ die? It was a death of the cross. I learned many years ago there is an acrostic for the word CROSS - Christ, Redeemed, Our, Sinstained, Souls. Dying on a Cross was the most shameful way to die, as the Bible says in Galatians 3:13 “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. He became a curse for us when He redeemed our souls. His life for ours. We read in Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” No one is exempt here! All are sinners and Christ died for our sins. Because of our sinfulness, we are all in need of the redemption and forgiveness that only Jesus Christ can give.
2) In I Corinthians 15:4 we read that Christ was buried. This reminds us of the scene in the Gospel of Luke where we read of Joseph of Arimathaea and how he begged for the body of Jesus after His crucifixion and took him down and wrapped him in linen and laid him in the sepulchre, Luke 23:50-53.
3) Also we read in I Cor. 15:4 that Christ rose again the third day. The fact of Christ’s resurrection gives us the HOPE we have not only in this life, but the afterlife. In Luke chapter 24:2-3, when the women came to bring spices to annoint the body of Jesus they found that the stone over the tomb was rolled away and Jesus was gone. This left them perplexed according to Luke 24:4. Then after the angels appeared to them, they spoke to them in Luke 24:6 saying that Jesus was not there but that He was risen. Then they were reminded in Luke 24:7 of what Jesus had spoken previously. “The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.” They were reminded of Jesus’ own words when He spoke about His crucifixion and His resurrection. Luke 24:8 says they remembered his words. Our hope is in the finished work of Christ on the cross for our sins and His resurrection over the grave. Because of this we can have “Hope as an anchor”.