The Joy of Our Blessed Hope - Titus 2:12–13 Titus 2:12–13 says that the grace of God teaches us “to live self-controlled, upright and ...
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| The Joy of Our Blessed Hope - Titus 2:12–13 |
Titus 2:12–13 says that the grace of God teaches us “to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ.”
Hope is most times used to mean a wish or strong desire; its strength or efficacy is determined by the strength of the person's desire. But according to the Bible, hope is the confident expectation of what God has promised and its strength is in His faithfulness and our belief that whatever he says, he will do, this is what our "Blessed Hope" is.
Pastor Greg Laurie of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California coined out the following using “HOPE” as an abbreviation for:
H - Holding
O - On With
P - Patient
E – Expectation
Our “blessed hope,” can be said to be the assurance that Jesus Christ will return as promised by Him in John 14:3, by His angels on the day of his ascension to heaven in Act 1:11 and the apostles’ letters to the early churches which all pointed to the fact that Jesus will return in his glory.
1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 talks about the return of Christ from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God where the dead in Christ will rise first and those of us who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air to be with the Lord Forever.
This is the greatest hope that we have as believers and Apostle Paul admonishes us to "comfort one another with these words"
Apostle Peter let us know in his epistle according to 1 Peter 1:3–5 that the resurrection of Jesus Christ has birthed us unto a lively hope, “to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you, Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time”
We are guaranteed life after death where we would all be reunited to live eternal with our saviour. If not for this assurance, we would have been the most miserable set of people on earth according to 1 Corinthians 15: 19.
Blessed Hope of Victory
The blessed hope we have brings us joy and cheers us through the trials of this world. Apostle Paul says in Romans 8: 18 that "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us"
We live in a world that has been corrupted by sin and we are always at the receiving end of the consequences of the evil that is being continually perpetrated in the world but our hope is that, the sufferings and tribulations are ephemeral and would come to an end when our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ appears in the sky to take us home.
Though we suffer persecution, sickness or even death in this world, our faith in Christ Jesus through his resurrection gets us assured of an eternal victory over all of our challenges most especially death according to 1 Corinthians 15:55-57 which says;
“55 “Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Romans 5:5 says that "hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." Our joy is that our expectation in this blessed hope is real, it's sure and certain and cannot by any means be cut short, Hebrew 6:19.
The Hope of Eternity with Christ
1 Corinthians 15:51–52 says, "Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed."
It was this hope that made the early Christians persevered in the face of persecution and chose martyrdom; from Stephen the first martyr who was stoned to death, James the first bishop of Jerusalem was stoned to death, Peter was crucified, Paul was beheaded and Polycarp was burnt to death in a stadium where he openly refused to renounce his faith in Christ Jesus. They knew that death in itself was a passage to glory and for the hope of eternal reign with Christ, their lives didn't matter so much to them, what a blessed hope.
Apostle Paul made us realised in Philippians 3:20 that our citizenship is in heaven; it does not matter how long or short we live on this earth; our ultimate eternal home is heaven. Jesus said in John 14:3 that He was going to prepare a place for us so that where He is we might also be where there will no longer be sickness, tribulation or death but joy eternal; we would live with our Saviour and King and worship him day and night with His angels; eternity with Christ, this is a great hope that we have as believers and this should constantly gladden our hearts no matter what befalls us on this earth.
Conclusion:
1 Corinthians 15: 19 says "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable" but we are not miserable because our hope does not end in this sinful, terrible and hopeless world.
What a great joy it will be when we get to heaven and see our Lord and Saviour face to face; when all of our sorrows and troubles will be over, when we shall once again see all of our loved ones who have gone to be with Christ, where we shall all meet to reign with Christ eternally. This is our blessed hope that we must always acknowledge and continually celebrate.
We should never forget our ultimate target which is heaven and that’s the only substantive hope that we have.
We should continually look forward to that day when our Lord and Saviour will appear to take us home, what a glorious day it will be.
I pray that God will grant us the grace to be focused and steadfast as we patiently await the return of our Lord and Saviour; Jesus Christ Amen.
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