Christ is Our Hope

MEMORY VERSE: “It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him: if we suffer, we shall also reign with Him.” —II Timothy 2:11,12

ACTS 1:10, 11

HOPE is made up of desire and assurance. We do not hope for that which we do not desire, and we have no genuine basis for hope unless we have been given assurance from some reliable source. Certainly the brethren in the Early Church desired the return of Christ, and they had been given assurance both by him and through the representatives of God that he would return, so they had reason for expectancy, and rejoiced in this precious hope.

A little reflection will help us to appreciate more fully the position of these early believers—a position which differs little from that of all the Lord’s fully consecrated people throughout the age. They had accepted Jesus as the promised Messiah, but he had been cruelly taken from them and put to death. On the third day thereafter God raised him from the dead. He visited with his apostles a few times after that, and then, on one of these appearances he was taken up into a cloud and they saw him no more. Then “two men” stood by them and said, “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.”—vss. 10,11

So, even though they saw Jesus no more, this statement served to assure them that he would return. But these were believers who were convinced that Jesus was their Messiah. It must have appeared quite differently to those to whom the believers witnessed who had not accepted Jesus as the promised Messiah.

In many instances we can imagine that the first reaction of these would be to remind the disciples that their so-called Messiah had been put to death. They would counter this with the assertion that he had been raised from the dead. But when asked where Jesus now was, if he was alive, their only answer would be that he had been taken up into heaven. Certainly this would not be very convincing to a nonbeliever, so the disciples found themselves in a skeptical world, with few paying much attention to their message, for their Master, their Redeemer, their Savior, their Messiah, could not be seen.

I PETER 1:3-9

The disciples themselves were disheartened when Jesus was crucified, but as Peter explains, through the abundant mercy of God they had been “begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” Now they understood that their inheritance was to be a heavenly one, and until they received this inheritance they were being “kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”—vss. 3-5

Peter knew that their faith in God’s plan would be tested—“tried by fire”—but that the keeping power of God would sustain his people. He mentions those who had never seen Jesus: “Whom, having not seen, ye love, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable.”—vss. 6-8

I JOHN 3:1-3

“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.” (vs. 1) Many in the Jewish world knew Jesus, but not as the Son of God. Indeed, they considered it blasphemy that he should claim to be the Son of God. Nor does the world know us as the sons of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ—not only to a heavenly inheritance, but to rulership in his kingdom.

We cannot as yet comprehend all that is involved in this. All we know is that we will be like Jesus since his resurrection; and this constitutes a glorious hope: “And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure.” (vss. 2,3) We should never overlook the fact that our glorious hope should have a transforming effect in our lives.

Our memory verse is also to the point as related to our hope. It reminds us that if we suffer and die with Christ, we will live and reign with him. And this is truly a blessed hope, which should encourage us to faithfulness in following in the footsteps of Jesus.

QUESTIONS

Explain why the hope of Christ’s return meant so much to the brethren of the Early Church.

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