Living Hope

May 5, 2013 Background Scripture: 1 Peter 1 Lesson Passage: 1 Peter 1:3 – 16 You ever notice how some people can become depress in the midst of a good time because of the thought that “all good things must come to an end”? Can you imagine living a life where there is always something wonderful to look forward to rather than the end of a “good time”? No matter how low the dark clouds hang during the day or how long and painful the night might feel, there will always be that ray of golden sunshine beckoning us onward towards a bright future. This is not fantasy or make-believe for Christians. Christians live in a constant state of hope. This is what continuously propels us forward through all manner of circumstances whether those are good times or bad. Our destiny is firmly planted in a future that God has planned for us. We know this because this is what Jesus taught. He encouraged us to not worry about tomorrow or even the necessities of today. God provides for birds of the air as well as grass in the fields. Surely God holds us in higher esteem than birds or grass. Jesus also taught us to not heap up treasures for ourselves on earth because they are too easily destroyed or taken away from us. Rather, we are to store our treasures in heaven where they will be safe from thieves and robbers. In our lesson today, Peter reminds us of these promises. Peter wrote that we have a promised inheritance that cannot be taken away. Therefore, we should have joy in the midst of the trials of life. We are reminded that our ultimate goal is not to live forever in this sinful and fallen world but the salvation of our soul is the ultimate goal. We are saved to spend eternity with Christ in the presence of God. There, we will be able to live life as God created it to be before it was robbed of its essence through the sin of Adam. Our treasures that have been safely kept by God will be there for our enjoyment. Our current life in this world as Spirit-empowered Christians is the proof that God will bring all of His promises to fruition. We are living in a time that God promised thousands of years ago. Past prophets spoke of these times which we now live in. The Spirit of Christ was in them and guided them into this truth. As they spoke these spiritual truths, they were inspired by the same Spirit who now empowers us to live this current life. Even angels have been curious about God’s redemptive plan. Christians live in a reality that angels are curious about but cannot partake in. Angels who left their first estate are not redeemed but are destined to spend eternity in the Lake of Fire. Angels who never fell away need no redemption. The life and glorious promises of God for Christians is indeed a mystery for spiritual beings. Grace is a relationship that only exists between God and mankind. Yet, what we live and experience through the presence of the Holy Spirit in us is just a foretaste of what is to come. The fullness of grace will be revealed at the return of Christ. Knowing this should cause us to be serious, steadfast, and secure concerning our salvation and relationship with God through Christ. Our past lives were controlled by our sinful passions and ignorance of spiritual truths. Today we should live to please God seeing what things God has provided us now with even greater things promised for the future. We have a living hope. Robert C. Hudson April 24, 2013

The Lord Will Triumph

April 28, 2013 Background Scripture: 2 Thessalonians 2 Lesson Passage: 2 Thessalonians 2:1 – 4, 8 – 17 God is in control in heaven and on earth. Today, many believe that this world is on autopilot and speeding towards its own destruction. Here is a news flash: “This world will not destroy itself. God will destroy it when the time comes!” Universal destruction will not come as a result of man’s effort. If this were not the case, then it could have and would have happened many years ago. There have been two wars that were classified as “World Wars”. Even then, there were enough bombs and other weapons of mass destruction to completely demolish civilization. The world survived both wars. The end of life as we know it is not for man to decide. That is a decision that God will make and He doesn’t need man to decide when it should happen, or how it should happen, or to make it happen for Him. According to the book of Revelation, much of it will appear as natural disasters and not manmade catastrophes. This world will be judged by God because of wide-spread sin. God’s judgment will be followed by worldwide destruction under the absolute control of God. It will happen quickly but it will not happen without warning signs first. There will first be a great falling away by the church. In other words, the church will openly practice apostasy. This apostasy will not be isolated cases of local congregations following social extremists and practicing ungodly behavior. This apostasy will be widespread throughout the universal church that is the body of Christ. This will lead to the revealing of a man who is the epitome of abomination—the anti-Christ. He will believe that he is God or at least worthy to be worshiped as God. Today, the Holy Spirit keeps a restraint on this so that it does not happen yet. Again, God is in control. However, one day the Holy Spirit will remove the restraint and allow Satan to use the anti-Christ against the church. These things will signal the beginning of the end. This will set in motion the return of the Lord. He will not return as a meek and lowly Savior to give himself for the world but as a warrior to exact vengeance against all enemies of God. When it appears that Satan is at his strongest, Jesus will appear to soundly defeat him. The anti-Christ—who is Satan’s puppet—will be destroyed. But true Christians will be kept by the glory of God. Who are true Christians? True Christians are those who completely put their trust in the saving power of Jesus Christ. There is no other hope but that. No one can make himself acceptable to God through self-effort or will power. We cannot “get ourselves together”. We totally submit to God’s plan of salvation and that is the hope we live with. Our work beyond that is to submit to God’s will for our lives and to allow Him to be Lord of our lives. This is not done to receive salvation but it is done because we have been saved. The salvation that God places in us is brought out or manifested through this sanctification process. We thank God in prayer because He has chosen us to be His own. We thank God in prayer because we shall not be destroyed or condemned with the world. Jesus will triumph over Satan and his followers but Christians—not those who merely profess to be—but true Christians shall be spared and will glory in our savior’s victory. Robert C. Hudson April 19, 2013

The Lord will Return

April 21, 2013 Background Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 4:13 – 5:11 Lesson Passage: 1 Thessalonians 4:13 – 5:11 Where do you turn to find comfort in the moments of your deepest despair? What do you use to push yourself forward after circumstances in life cause you to want to give up? What comes next when situations turn for the worse and “make you wanna holler and throw up both your hands”? How do you cope with the unexpected death of a loved one? If you are a Christian, one fact seems to help in all of these situations: Jesus is coming back one day. This is more than just “by and by when the morning comes”. Neither is this just more of the “We will understand it better by and by.” Christians have a living hope. We have assurance. We know that this life is not all there is to it. If these things were not so, then why did we turn to God in the first place? We turned to God because we knew that there is more to existence than life as we know it. We experienced an overwhelming sense of emptiness and hopelessness. We understood that something was missing in our lives. Turning to God and accepting Jesus as our Savior and submitting to him as our Lord, brought us into a new reality. The emptiness was filled and the hopelessness was vanquished. Still, when life situations spin out of control, we need to be reminded of the living hope that is within us. The first century Christians apparently suffered from some of the same spiritual anxiety attacks. To make matters worse, there were some false teachers teaching that Christ had already taken back to heaven the ones who were going to go. In other words, if you were still on earth, then you missed the rapture and all hope was lost. How shocking was that news? If Jesus had raised all that were going to be raised and had taken them to their eternal reward never to return, then what good does it do to continue to try to live as a Christian? The other misguided teaching was that only those who were alive would participate in a future rapture. If this were true, then all those who have died since Jesus’ ascension would have died in vain—never to live again. As the Apostle Paul said in another letter, and I paraphrase, if there is no future resurrection of the dead, then we are the most miserable of all people. Our suffering and struggling against temptations that we would just assume give in to would all be in vain. Paul cleared up those misconceptions in our lesson today. There will be a future rapture of the church. Those Christians who are alive at the time of the future rapture will not be caught up before those who died trusting in Jesus. The dead in Christ shall be raised first. Then those who are alive will be physically changed and caught up into the clouds to join them. There is hope for Christians whether they are alive or dead when Jesus returns. They will all be raptured to meet him in the air. It is this promise that allows Christians to hope against hope. This promise allows us to be triumphant against all of the questions that were asked earlier. No one knows when the day of rapture will come. But all Christians have God’s promise that it will come. Christians are admonished to comfort each other by reminding one another of God’s promise of a future resurrection. This is our living hope: The Lord will return. Robert C. Hudson April 10, 2013

The Lord Sends the Spirit

April 14, 2013 Background Scripture: Acts 2:1 – 41 Lesson Passage: Acts 2:1 – 16 Before Jesus was crucified, he had given his disciples comforting assurance that they would not be abandoned when the time came for him to leave them. In fact, Jesus assured his disciples that the one who would take his place would stay with them forever. Jesus’ replacement would be a comforting presence in their lives. Jesus told them that he would not be visible; so the world would not be able to see him but because he would live on the inside of his disciples, his disciples would readily be aware of his presence. Jesus also told them about the ministry his replacement would be providing. He would convict hearts, convince minds, and cause people to become cognizant of the reality of a judgment day. His work would have a clear priority. He would testify of Jesus as the Savior of the world. He would serve as a personal assistant to the disciples in that he would bring back to their remembrance all that Jesus had taught them even though they might not have understood it at the time. He would work side by side with Jesus’ followers as they served in their respective ministries. All of this Jesus talked about in the Gospel of John Chapters 14, 15, and 16. After Jesus had suffered and died and was raised again, he reminded his disciples of the promise he made to them prior to his suffering of the replacement who would become their helper. He commissioned his disciples to spread the good news worldwide and win the lost back to God. But they were not supposed to attempt such a monstrous task without the assistance of the helper. They would never be able to accomplish the work in their own strength or by using their own knowledge. Jesus warned his disciples to remain in Jerusalem until he sent the helper back to them. Fifty days after Jesus ascended back to heaven the promise was fulfilled. Jesus’ disciples numbered about one hundred twenty. They had gathered for prayer and according to the book of Acts, they were of one mind or on one accord. This is a beautiful portrait of the pre-natal church prior to being birthed into the world. They were one organization that was about to become one organism. At this point, these individuals were bound together by a common love for Jesus and because they had witnessed his miraculous ministry. After this impending encounter, they would be spiritually connected by the same Spirit—the promised helper. This encounter would not be subtle. They would experience the arrival of the Holy Ghost to begin the process of baptizing believers into the body of Christ and empowering them for the work of evangelizing the world. They would do greater works than those they had witnessed Jesus do. People outside of the church would see the results of the Holy Ghost’s arrival although they would not be able to see Him. Because the disciples had been taught what to expect of the Holy Ghost, there was no doubt in their minds as to what took place. The promise had been fulfilled. The church was born as a light in a dark world. Jesus had sent the Spirit. Robert C. Hudson April 8, 2013

The Lord Appears

April 7, 2013 Background Scripture: Luke 24:36 – 53 Lesson Passage: Luke 24:36 – 53 The scene of today’s lesson opens with the two persons who encountered Jesus on the Emmaus road arriving back in Jerusalem the same evening of the encounter. They hurried back to tell the eleven disciples of their encounter but found them gathered and discussing Peter’s testimony of his own encounter with the risen Lord. So they added the details of what had happened to them and how they were made aware of his identity when he broke the bread as they sat down with him to eat. But as they were giving their testimony, Jesus appeared in their midst and pronounced peace upon them. Rather than quickly accepting his appearance as confirmation of their testimonies, they were afraid because they did not think it was Jesus but rather a ghost. Jesus’ response to their fear indicated that his physical appearance still bore the scars of Calvary; so certainly he still looked like Jesus. Perhaps their fear came about because of the manner in which he suddenly appeared rather than his physical appearance. If he indeed showed up in their midst without having appeared to walk in, then this would indeed be quite a frightening occurrence no matter what he looked like. He invited them to touch him and see that he still had a physical body. This was proof that he was the same Jesus and not a disembodied spirit that only reflected the image of the physical man he was prior to his death. Although we could speculate on how he moved differently or how he could suddenly appear or disappear, there was clear evidence before them that Jesus was still flesh and bones. He even showed them his scarred hands and feet that bore the reminder of the crucifixion a few days prior to this encounter. If this were not enough proof to spur on the good news message, Jesus then asked them for some food and he ate it in their presence. He then reminded them that everything he had spoken to them prior to this time about the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecy had taken place. He emphasized that all of those prophets were prophesying about him. Jesus was not one of the fulfillments of prophecy. He was the one and only fulfillment. There would be no others after him because he had fulfilled it all. All that was in Israel’s Holy Scriptures that we today call the Old Testament was pointing towards Jesus as the promised Messiah. Then he explained what they knew but did not previously understand. Everything that happened to Jesus was preordained by God. Nothing had happened outside of God’s will for His only begotten son, Jesus. God’s plan had been executed to divine perfection. These disciples were just as much a part of God’s plan as the events surrounding Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection. They were there as eyewitnesses. They must now prepare themselves for their true purpose in life. Their testimony would lay the foundation of the gospel message. But they would not be able to carry it forward to the ends of the earth under their own power. They were instructed by Jesus to wait in Jerusalem until he had sent the divine power to them from Heaven. Then he led them out of Jerusalem to one of the places where he often lodged, Bethany. From there he blessed them and departed. Robert C. Hudson March 28, 2013