Thursday, April 19, 2012

Is There Hope?


In the Book of Ezra we find the children of Israel returning to the land after seventy years of exile.  They had fallen away from God and given themselves over to idolatrous worship and pagan practices.  But God, in His mercy had decreed through Cyrus King of Persia to release the Jews with his blessing to return to the land and rebuild the temple.  Ezra was spearheading the restoration of worship when he discovers that the people haven’t separated themselves from the evil practices of the pagan peoples.  Not only that, they have begun to intermarry with the people of the land (Ezra 9:1-2).  Ezra is broken in heart over it, rips his clothes, weeps, and finally just crumples down astonished at what has happened.  After all, this was what had gotten them into trouble with God in the first place.
Continuing in chapter 9 on over into chapter 10 we find Ezra weeping, praying, confessing, and totally broken over the sin of God’s people.  Reading in verse 15 of chapter 9 he states, “O LORD God of Israel, you are righteous: for we remain yet escaped, as it is this day: behold, we are before you in our trespasses: for we cannot stand before you because of this.”  He feels hopeless and condemned because of what has occurred.  And I think he probably felt personally responsible since he was a scribe, which was a teacher of the law to God’s people.
Ezra is a defeated, demoralized, discouraged man.  He has no hope and in the midst of we read ‘Ezra 10:2 And Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answered and said unto Ezra, We have trespassed against our God, and have married foreign wives of the people of the land: yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing.’  Notice a few words in his statement of faith.

1  He says, “yet”.  He’s saying, “Ezra, it’s not over, it’s not finished.  The final nail has not been driven in our coffin.”  Sometimes we think we are past restoring or maybe ‘fixing’, but God isn’t finished with us yet!

2.  He says too, “in spite of this”.  In other words, as Paul said in Romans 5:20 ‘But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:’


3.  Shecaniah said ‘there is hope’.  Where would we be without hope?  Where would we be without a light at the end of the tunnel?  Where would we be without a future?

Let me share a story I read a few years back.  I think it illustrates the hope we have in Christ.
The school system in a large city had a program to help children keep up with their school work during stays in the city’s hospitals. One day a teacher who was assigned to the program received a routine call asking her to visit a particular child. She took the child’s name and room number and talked briefly with the child’s regular class teacher. “We’re studying nouns and adverbs in his class now,” the regular teacher said, “and I’d be grateful if you could help him understand them so he doesn’t fall too far behind.”
The hospital program teacher went to see the boy that afternoon. No one had mentioned to her that the boy had been badly burned and was in great pain. Upset at the sight of the boy, she stammered as she told him, “I’ve been sent by your school to help you with nouns and adverbs.” When she left she felt she hadn’t accomplished much. But the next day, a nurse asked her, “What did you do to that boy?” The teacher felt she must have done something wrong and began to apologize. “No, no,” said the nurse. “You don’t know what I mean. We’ve been worried about that little boy, but ever since yesterday, his whole attitude has changed. He’s fighting back, responding to treatment. It’s as though he’s decided to live.”
Two weeks later the boy explained that he had completely given up hope until the teacher arrived. Everything changed when he came to a simple realization. He expressed it this way: “They wouldn’t send a teacher to work on nouns and adverbs with a dying boy, would they?”
The bottom line for us is that God would not have sent His Son to die for us if there were no hope.  Think on that….

Thursday, April 5, 2012

What Does The Resurrection Mean?

In one of his lighter moments, Benjamin Franklin penned his own epitaph. He didn't profess to be a born-again Christian, but it seems he must have been influenced by Paul's teaching of the resurrection of the body. Here's what he wrote: The Body of B. Franklin, Printer Like the Cover of an old Book Its contents torn out, And script of its Lettering and Gilding, Lies here, Food for Worms, But the Work shall not be wholly lost: For it will, as he believed, Appear once more In a new & more perfect Edition, Corrected and amended by the Author.

Ah, the Resurrection.  What does it really mean?  Oh, we know that it means that Jesus rose from the grave having conquered death.  That He is greater and stronger than death itself and that He has power over death.  We have been taught the ramifications of that being that we who have received Jesus Christ as their Savior are going to have a resurrected body one day.  That we will be caught up together to meet Him at His return or if we go by the way of the grave ourselves we will return with Him (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). 
So tell me dear Preacher, what does it mean for me today?  Why does it give me hope?  Well, let me list some things that it does mean to us:


1.   We will one day have a New Body.  An immortal, glorified body.  One that doesn’t age, isn’t susceptible to sickness, knows no pain, one that death can’t touch, one that will be like our Lord’s body.

2.  We will one day have a New Home.  Because Jesus is alive He has gone to prepare a place for us (John 14:1-3).  Think of it, a home in Heaven!  We see so many beautiful homes today, but the one Jesus is building is beyond compare.  Paul said it this way in 1 Corinthians 2:9 “But as it is written, Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love him.

3.  We have a Better Inheritance.  Sometimes those who have gone on before leave us something of value to remind us of their love.  1 Peter 1:3-4 states, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you,”.  When my Mother died she left each of her children a small amount of money.  It was all she had left, but our Lord has an inheritance set aside for each of His Children, and He rose from the grave to guarantee we would not be left out of His Will.

It reminds me of that old hymn we used to sing:
It will be worth it all
When we see Jesus
Life’s trials seem so small
When we see Christ
One glimse at His dear face
All sorrow will erase
So bravely run the race
Till we see Christ

Think about that this Easter as we worship the one who rose from the grave!