Jesus is coming back. What does this mean for the Kingdom of God? Where will we go after he returns? What part of us will go with him? There are a lot of books dedicated to these questions and a lot of differing opinions as to what will happen when Christ returns. In this episode we will look at a few passages on Jesus's Second coming and see what the imagery says about the hope we have today. 

I really like how NT Wright describes heaven in his introduction to the participants guide of “Surprised by Hope: The Hope of Heaven”:

Heaven will not be a boring place, off in distant space, where we play harps, sit on clouds, and sing the same stanza of the same song forever. Heaven is God’s space, filled with peace, justice, and beauty. Heaven and earth are overlapping realities and the resurrection of Jesus has connected these two spheres more closely than we know.

Heaven is the control room of earth and God’s sovereign rule is present today. As we learn to walk with Jesus and live as God’s people in this world, the kingdom plan of God continues to unfold and be revealed. We are not waiting to fly off to heaven one day, but heaven is breaking into our present circumstances with each passing moment. If we pay close attention, we will see that heaven and earth are overlapping today.

One of the ways God brings his kingdom, “on earth as it is in heaven,” is through his people. You and I are invited to be vehicles God can use to bring his love, justice, and beauty to a world desperate for all of these things. The hope of heaven is not something we are waiting for, but it is what we enter each day as we follow Jesus and let his heavenly plans unfold in us.

What do you believe happens after we die? Is that our final destination? Does our soul live forever or is it joined with our physical body in the resurrection? What does Jesus's resurrection tell us about ours? 

In this episode we will look briefly at what Paul says about the resurrection of Christ and our resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15, 2 Corinthians 5, and 1 Thessalonians 4. I've written some reflections and questions to wrestle with in our church Blog. 

When you think of Christian hope, there are a few things that likely come to mind. What happens after we die? Does that matter for here and now? What is heaven? What will it be like? Where is heaven? What is salvation? What is the church? What is the resurrection? What does any of this have to do with today?

When I bring up what happens when we die, I often get the response that it doesn’t matter too much because we will find out when we get there. In one since there is truth in that because we have no idea what things will fully be like (as Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 13:8-12). On the other hand, what we believe about what happens when we die shapes what we believe God is doing in the world today and how we should live our lives.

There are two types of hope found in scripture. First, hope is what lies ahead and is promised by a God who loves to bring hope to each of us. Second, hope is about how the Kingdom of God is breaking into our present-day realities where hope then spills out into the world today. We’ve tended to lean into the first aspect of hope while ignoring the second. What we believe about what happens in the world determines what we believe God is doing and what we are called to do in the world. We will be looking at a lot of scriptures in the coming weeks to establish a biblical foundation for hope but here are a few to investigate for this week: Isaiah 11, Revelation 21-22, and 1 Corinthians 15.

Over the next seven weeks we are going to cover these topics of hope following the video series by NT Wright, “Surprised by Hope.” You can watch the videos here. If you do not have Right Now Media, you can access it here. You can purchase a participants guide here. Use this for your personal studies or as a small group study (now or in the near future). I recommend you watch these videos each week and study what the Bible says about the hope we have. I’ll continue to provide my blog and podcast to help prepare for Sunday’s lesson. Let’s dig deep and reconnect with the foundations of the Christian faith and the hope we have to offer the world.

June 19            – Hope for the World

June 26            – The Hope of the Resurrection

July 3               – The Hope of Heaven

July 10             – The Hope of Jesus’s Second Coming

July 17             – The Hope of Salvation

July 24             – The Hope of the Church

July 31             – Reclaiming Hope in the Church

We’re finishing up our study on the need for creating a “rule of life,” a structure built to aid in helping us abide in Christ. This structure is essential for connecting you to the vine and producing the fruit God desires. One of the first steps to building this structure is to recognize any structures that get in the way of you abiding in Christ. This is one of the hardest parts about spiritual formation. When Jesus says, “his yoke is easy and his burden is light,” he means it. The part that is hard and heavy is taking the yoke of the world off. When Jesus invites us into life with him he also invites us into death with the world. To take on his yoke we must first take off the yoke of the world. Then we will see that his yoke is easy and burden light.

When developing a Rule of Life, it is important to have a balance of practices that add things to your life and practices that take away things from your life. As we wrap up this series, I want to focus on one final practice that I am heavily reevaluating in my own life: unplugging.

In a world of instant indulgence, we can easily become distracted by anything and everything. Paul says in 1 Cor 6:12, that while he has the right to do anything he will not allow anything to master him. He then goes further in 9:27, saying he beats his body and makes it his slave, so that he can run well. Fasting brings balance to life and helps us keep our cravings from taking hold of us. This practice helps us better abide in Christ so that doing his will is all the food we need to nourish us (John 4:32&34).

Pray without Ceasing is the call of those who are in Christ to find rest in God to then engage a restless world. 

Solitude is the place where one is alone with God. It is the furnace where transformation takes place. It is the solid ground where one finds their footing in order to then turn and help others. Silence is therefore solitude put into action. Silence is the home of the word. Silence gives strength and fruitfulness to the word. We can even say that words are meant to disclose the mystery of the silence from which they come. We live in a wordy world. What does it look like for God's people to put into practice James's call to be quick to listen and slow to speak? 

The world spends billions of dollars every year to capitalize on one of the most profitable commodities in our culture and you give it away for free every day. They are doing everything they can to keep your attention and sell it for profit. They have structures in place to keep your attention for as long as possible and shape you into certain kinds of people. If they are willing to invest so much in your development why wouldn't you spend a little bit of time deciding on your own who you want to be. The habits you engage in shape you into the person you are becoming. Developing a "Rule of Life" is like building a trellis for a vineyard. It is the structure on which you will grow and bear fruit. 

Ryan's Ramblings Blog

Mon - 14.1-11

Tues - 14.12-26

Wed - 14.27-52

Thurs - 14.53-72

Fri - 15.1-41

Sat - 15.42-47

Sun - 16

A scholar from Oxford named Thomas E. Schmidt did some incredible work detailing the parallels between Jesus’s crucifixion in Mark’s Gospel with the coronation of Nero. We cannot say with 100% certainty that this was Mark’s intent but it fits within the themes I see in Mark’s Gospel where he seems to draw parallels between Jesus and Nero to show who the true Son of God is. Here’s a link to Schmidt’s work if you want to dig deeper. https://www.baslibrary.org/bible-review/13/1/11

For our purposes, here is a quick rundown of what took place at Nero’s coronation. I’ve placed the corresponding verses of each so you can follow what Mark might be doing with how he writes the events of Jesus’s crucifixion:

1.  The Imperial Guard gathers to hail Caesar as lord and god. (15:16)

2.  On Caesar they place: Royal robes, a wreath crown, and a scepter. (15:17-18)

3.  He is then lead through a procession (lined with incense alters). (15:20)

4.  Following Caesar was the sacrifice (in Nero’s case, a bull), and he carries the instrument of death. (15:21)

5.  They arrive at Capitoline Hill (Named “head hill” where a human head was found buried when Rome was founded); Caesar is offered an expensive wine mixed with myrrh, but he refuses it, pouring it out. (15:22-23)

6.  The bull is sacrificed, and Caesar demonstrates he has the power of life and death by pronouncing death or life on a host of prisoners. (15:24)

7.  The emperor ascends the steps of the temple with the High Priest on his right and his commander on his left. (15:27)

8.  The people sing the praises of Caesar, acclaiming him as “lord and god.” (15:29-32)

9.  The people then wait for a sign from heaven (According to history, there was an eclipse in Nero’s coronation). (15:33)