Several years ago I was talking to a friend who had started a pretty stringent month-long diet. When I asked him how he was sustaining it he said, “I’ve learned that I can endure just about anything for thirty days.” In my life I have found this to be generally true. For a specified amount of time I can avoid certain foods, change my habits, or live in a foreign country if I know that it is temporary. On the other hand, I get overwhelmed when it comes to making a decision that will result in some kind of permanent discomfort. When a difficulty is temporary, its power is largely broken.

In the art world, famous paintings are sometimes restored by experts. The reason this happens is that their paintings fade and erode over time. Because of this, their original brilliance is not seen. What was once an amazing and beautiful painting becomes obscured by deterioration. The job of the restorer is to make the painting what it once was. It returns from a faded image to a clear and profound work of art. While all of us can see profound beauty in the earth, we would all admit that there are problems as well. We have beautiful oceans, but we also have tidal waves. We have glorious mountains, but we also have avalanches. We have snow, but people get frostbite. We have sun, but people get sunstroke. We have rain, but we have floods. Our planet is wonderful, but it is also broken. Scripture explains that this is because our planet is under a curse. It was not always this way, but since sin entered the world, all of creation has been impacted by this curse. But the great redemption that God has accomplished through Jesus not only restores human beings, but also the creation as a whole. What was once beautiful – and now faded – will be restored to its original beauty, and then made even greater! This final lesson will explore life everlasting, God’s promise of a New Earth. Allow yourself to take in the profound promises that God has made, and ask yourself how your perspective toward God – and the world – changes when you look forward to the life everlasting that He is bringing about.

If you are familiar with the Star Wars movies, you are aware of the different sense that you are left with after the different episodes. One of the most striking contrasts is the difference between Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Episode VI: The Return of the Jedi. The Empire Strikes Back ends with the heroes escaping. It is a great relief, but there is also a looming sense of unfinished business. The Return of the Jedi, however, ends with victory. The heroes don’t simply escape from the villains; they defeat them. They are free and victorious and full of joy. While the story that ends with escape brings relief, the story that ends with victory brings joy. Christians often look to the future with an expectation of escape. Our hope is based on the idea that we will go to heaven to be with God after we die. This thought certainly brings relief. However, it is certainly not a story filled with victory. The true biblical story, however, ends not with escape, but with victory. The future of Christians is not that we are taken away from the earth and away from our bodies, but that we experience a final resurrection. Death does not get the final word. God brings life and victory to His people. This lesson explores the Scriptural teaching about the final resurrection. Specifically, it explores the connection between Jesus’ resurrection and the resurrection of His people. As you walk through this lesson, take time to consider where you place your hope when you think about the future. Are you living in a story that ends with escape or one that ends with victory?

There are many examples in the news of someone with a great deal of money extending a helping hand to those with less. One story that comes to mind is of a wealthy individual who paid off the mortgage of a homeowner who simply helped fix the wealthy person’s car out on the highway. The good Samaritan mechanic expressed that an overwhelming burden had been lifted knowing the debt he owed had been paid in full. Realizing the debt he owed helped him to appreciate even more the debt that had been paid. In Colossians 2 we see how truly far reaching God’s forgiveness is. The passage paints a picture of our true state before God and what our condition was before He forgave us. Sometimes it’s easy to minimize where we stood before Christ’s death on the cross. These verses help us appreciate the how much of a debt was paid for us by showing us the debt that was owed.

When I was growing up, we went twice every Sunday to a small church in the heart of Paterson, New Jersey, for services and Sunday School. Weekdays we went to catechism, Vacation Bible School, and Men’s and Women’s Society gatherings. Our church was small, a mission church in a ghetto, surrounded by tenement buildings, industrial buildings and millions of people. Our mission was simple: reach out in love and bring in our neighbors. Each Sunday we recited the Apostle’s Creed out loud. When I was little, I thought that the communion of saints had to do with the drinking of the wine and the eating of the bread with fellow Christians at that church. As I grew up, I came to realize that communion had a different meaning; one of gathering together, worshiping together, and being together as Christians. The communion of saints gave us the love to reach out to our community. This included the African American people who joined our church of Dutch immigrants. It meant all of us together were the church, as opposed to the church simply being the building or the programs. And so we set out to integrate our church in the 1950’s and to love to our neighbors and bring them to Christ. The integration was a slow, uneven process, but love for our neighbors was constant. We were imperfect people, but we understood that we were to witness as a community. We persevered and today the church still exists and is now a multi-ethnic community, triple the size of our 1952 congregation. This lesson will explore what it means for God’s people to be one body. As you reflect on this subject, open yourself to how God is calling you to participate more fully in the body of Christ.

Recently while driving my kids to a group hike, we passed a beautiful Catholic church building in Monrovia. The sign outside said “Parish of St. Luke.” My son joked that at first he thought it said “perish” and that seemed like a strange name for a church. I launched into a description of a parish, which is the geographically defined area served by a local church, usually either Catholic or Anglican. In a way it’s like a school district, where anyone within those bounds would know which were their church building and their clergyman. The idea that any Christian within a certain geographic area would automatically attend the same local church services is foreign to our American evangelical experience. Ease of transportation, variety of denominations and many other factors contribute to this. One downside is that we can lose sight of our membership in the “universal church” or, as it’s called in the Apostle’s Creed, the holy catholic church. This universal church includes all the body of Christ, across local church affiliations, denominations, all around the world and even across time. As you walk through this lesson, allow yourself to be challenged in how you view the nature of the church of Jesus Christ, as well as your place as a member in it.

Every so often a movie comes out with an unexpected twist in the plot that surprises everyone. These unexpected or “surprise” changes in the flow of the movie generate a lot of discussion from the viewers. Many will watch the movie a second or third time to find the clues they might have missed in earlier viewings. Once you know the “surprise” those clues seem more obvious. **SPOILER ALERT** After all, who couldn’t see that Darth Vader was the father of Luke Skywalker? As we look at Acts 2 and the coming of the Holy Spirit, there were some obvious statements by Jesus that he would be leaving in order to send the Holy Spirit (John 15 and 16; Acts 1). The disciples were given the promise of the Holy Spirit by Jesus Himself. He was very clear on what the role of the Holy Spirit would be. But hearing a promise is not the same as experiencing that promise. The story told in Acts 2, for some of us today, is a familiar one. But for the disciples and those who were present, the coming of the Holy Spirit was definitely a “surprise”. It was not the norm for that day and time. Despite the unexpected turn, the disciples quickly see the power that indwells them and people see and respond to the message the Holy Spirit brings. In short, this is the beginning of the Church. It’s a body of believers who have been empowered by the same Spirit who raised Christ from the dead, and who convicts hearts for the need for repentance.

When I was a teenager, my parents would occasionally leave for a weekend and let me, my older sister, and my younger brother stay at home by ourselves. We would relax and have fun on Friday and Saturday. On Sunday, however, we would scramble to clean up the house. While we didn’t know exactly when they would return on Sunday, we wanted to make sure we were ready for them. If the house was in good condition, then we knew that they would be happy with us. If they returned to a mess, we knew that they would be upset. They were coming home soon, and their return would involve judging us for how we handled the house during their absence. I confess that I was not usually excited about my parents returning from their weekends away. This was not because I didn’t love them. It was simply because I didn’t like the idea that I would be judged. The fact is that very few of us like being judged. Because of this, most of us don’t automatically get excited about the idea of Jesus return for the purpose of bringing judgment. On the one hand, we love Jesus. On the other hand, we hate judgment. Our perspective might change, however, if we think a little more about judgment. A judge doesn’t simply dole out punishments. A judge sets things right. A judge brings justice and order. While we may not like being judged, most of us love it when order is returned to something that was once chaotic. When we look at the disorder of the world, most of us long for someone to fix things. The one who has promised to fix things is Jesus, the final judge. This lesson will delve into both the return and the final judgment of Jesus Christ. We look forward to these events with sobriety and with hope. We are made sober by the reality that Jesus will bring judgment, and we are made hopeful by the promise that order will finally be restored.

Whenever I officiate a memorial service, friends and family share their thoughts and their memories about the deceased. They swap stories, sometimes laughing and sometimes crying. At the end of the time, the impact is always the same: The deceased is gone, but not forgotten. The impact of their life will continue even though they are no longer with us.

Jesus is no longer walking the earth in his physical body. He is gone. After His death and resurrection, He ascended into heaven. But while He is gone, He is not forgotten. This is not simply because the memories of Him are still with us. It is because He continues His work of uniting God and man even in His absence from our midst. He lives on not simply in our hearts, but He lives on in reality and He continues to serve His people.

This lesson will explore the ascension of Jesus. While it may seem like an afterthought in comparison to Jesus’ death

and resurrection, the ascension of Jesus opens our eyes

to Jesus’ ongoing work on behalf of His people. He is gone, but surely not forgotten. And it is also certain that He has not forgotten us.