Grace Life

Series: Maintaining this Hope Last week we established how each arrival of Jesus coincides with an entire church age and experience. His first coming, at His birth, was for the suffering of death. So we went through the New Testament examining how this was also to be the experience of the first age of the church and is actually part of our calling. Then we looked at the return of Jesus for His church which is associated with glory! Jesus asked the Father during His hour of temptation and trial in Gethsemane to allow all of us who know, love and trust in Him to be with Him where He was going in heaven - that they might behold His glory which He had together with the Father from before the beginning of the world. He also told his disciples that we were destined to share in that same glory at His return. It will be on THAT day that we receive the fullness of our salvation which includes the redemption of our bodies. This entire process is outlined for us in Romans 8 where I want you to turn now, before we start examining the details of our bodily redemption in 1 Cor. 15. So Jesus’ return for His church will be in glory nd we, as His bride will be glorified together with Him on that day!

Series: Maintaining this Hope As I told you a few weeks ago there are several words associated with the arrivals of Jesus and I told you that there were several arrivals the scriptures speak of - His birth being the first. I also told you that each “appearing” of Jesus coincides with an "AGE" in the church. WE ALWAYS FOLLOW OUR LORD IN ALL THINGS. Jesus’ first appearing was associated with His suffering and so the first age of the church is one of suffering as well. Now we ended our last teaching by beginning to read in 1Cor. 15 about the rapture and the resurrection of the body and we will get back to that in our next teaching, but in reviewing that message I thought it wise to back up a little and fill in some gaps. The resurrection of the body is taught in connection with suffering which agrees with the 1st appearing of Christ Jesus. The Redemption of the body coincides with our glorification which happens at His return. We will be glorified together WITH HIM!

Series: Maintaining this Hope We are looking primarily at the word Maran atha today especially in connection with the love the church has for the Lord Jesus. Surprisingly the word Phileo comes up in relation to our desire for His return which is a friendship type of love. Without question the believer is to agape love the Lord, but I find it very significant that we are also to be fond of Him...sharing in His desires and adopting as our won His purposes. To stand with and behind Him in all things. There are some ways in which this word presses home on a stronger relationship in that it is a kind of love that goes beyond family love. Wise Solomon said that there are friends who stick closer than a brother - THAT is phileo love and THAT is the type of love which crys out form the heart - Maran athan - Lord Jesus, come!

1Jn. 3:1-3 tells us a very important key to living the Christian life in a manner worthy of our God and Savior and it is nearly as simple as it could possibly be. These verses talk about God's love for us, our being placed as it were in His family and called His dear children. That one day we will see Him face to face - no longer through the obscuring veil of the flesh but as he really is and ON THAT DAY - we will be 100% conformed to His image. Thenthe passage tells us this treasure - "All who maintaint his Hope in themselves purify themselves even as He is Pure." We are beginning, with this verse as our starting point, to examine the elevated status of this teaching in the early church and how a continued and excited awareness of His return was a major point of continual focus in their doctrine, gatherings and lives.

Last week, during the span between Christmas and New Year’s day when we did not meet I posted a “selfie-style” video where I brought us back face to face with the questions of a year ago and the reasons behind a year of teaching, “Do we REALLY believe”. The recording above is taken from our discussion time a week later. In it we disucssed some of our thoughts, our hangups and some possible solutions for moving forward. I hope that anyone who listens will be encouraged in their walk – especially if they are realizing that they have begun to let the fires cool in their passion and pursuit of Jesus. God Bless!

Series: Maintaining this Hope Last week we went through Romans 8, drawing special attention to illusions and outright mentions of the rapture which is the "event" which introduces the redemption of our bodies. Thsi week turned to 1 Corinthians 15 to go further into this subject of dying and rising with Jesus. How this church age is one of suffering which immediately predates the coming of our Lord and our age of glory. As an intro to 1 Corinthians 15 we spent a little time explaining the "how tos" of walking my the Spirit as was mentioned last week in Romans 8...so this is a rather well rounded teaching. We truly hope it blesses you!

Series: Maintaining this Hope We’ve realized that we need to focus more on the return of Christ.  The Apostles spoke and wrote about it OFTEN, encouraging the church  to think about it, long for it and anticipating it, because it does at least 2 indispensable things in the Christian life... • has a purifying effect within us • it offers us great hope. The last two weeks we looked at Romans 8 and the progressive work of God in our lives as we learn to walk in the Spirit by fixing our attention on God’s Word by His Spirit, and long for the Lord's return. Part of that longing according to Romans 8 was our ANTICIPATION of our GREAT Hope - which included the Redemption of our Bodies at the return of the Lord. Now, we all can think of NATURAL reasons why this is something to look forward to, but who can offer me some spiritual reasons why this is our Great Hope? So we ended last week at the beginning of 1Cor. 15 in verses 12-19 so that is where we will pick up today.