Revelation 21:3-5 And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.”
The second primary type of hope that Christians possess is (2) reasonable, circumstantial hope as we partner and work with God to improve and make things better in our lives. Things in our lives don’t just get better automatically. What the enemy, the devil meant for evil in your life is not inherently good; it’s evil. But, God, in His Word, tells us that He takes what the enemy meant for evil and turns it for good. So, hope initiates when a Christian partners with God to turn evil for good. By the mighty hand of God, but that is hard work in discipleship for real, lasting hope. True hope that you can build your life upon is not to be confused with wishful thinking. Jesus’ core message that He repeated over and over was that He was bringing the kingdom of Heaven to Earth. Heaven is the only place where sin, death, disease and destruction are no more. Heaven is a place of hope and it is every Christian’s highest hope for their lives. Jesus offers hope for eternity and tangible hope for today. 1 Corinthians 15:22 says, “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.”Christ offers the hope and the promise that we can live full and hopeful lives on this side of eternity and even after death with Christ forever in Heaven.
1 Corinthians 15:3-10 “For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
A key tenet of Easter is that Jesus died on the Cross for the sins of humanity, was buried, and raised on the third day in accordance with Scripture. This is the Gospel message in a summary nutshell. The coming of the Messiah, His death as an atoning sacrifice for redemption of lost sinners and his resurrection from the dead to conquer death was planned by God, prophesized by the Prophets, and executed perfectly. No one could ever qualify to be God’s Messiah sent to the people for the remission of sin. Scholars have calculated the odds of anyone fulfilling the prophecies of the promised Messiah and it is mathematically impossible. On top of all that, Jesus Christ had to live a sinless life on earth to qualify as the spotless Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. Jesus is the only way to Heaven.
Another key tenet is that the resurrected Christ appeared to the Disciples, then to over 500 followers at one time. Eleven of the twelve Disciples died a martyr’s death for faith in the resurrected Jesus; the twelfth Disciple John was attempted to be martyred but miraculously spared and exiled on the Isle of Patmos. Nobody willfully dies a gruesome martyr’s death for something that they know is a lie. They saw Jesus resurrected and proclaimed that fact to their death. Also, one person may have a hallucination of seeing A risen Jesus, but five hundred people having the same hallucination of the same thing at the same time is impossible. And, at the time that the Apostle Paul wrote this letter to the Corinthian church, most of the people who witnessed the resurrected Jesus were still alive and disbelievers could talk to them in order to verify the truth. Add to this, the explosion of Spirit-filled faith and the spread of Christianity and the fact of the bodily resurrection in God plan of Salvation is clear. Yet, many people disbelieve, even today.
Let's continue Pastor Kyle's message on being made alive in Christ on the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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