Jesus is our hope

Jesus is Our Hope

When I was 12 years old, my father said to me, “Rick, it’s time for you to learn what it means to work. 

You’re old enough to understand what it means to pay bills and make money. You need to get a job.”

I asked my dad, “Where am I going to get a job?”

My father was ready with an answer. He said, “Go to the cemetery and apply for a job.”

In obedience, I did exactly what my father asked me to do. I remember the day I made my way up the street to the cemetery, walked through the cemetery gate, into the midst of all the graves, and knocked on the door of the administrator’s office. I told the cemetery director, “I’m here to apply for a job” — and he hired me!

I worked at the cemetery for two years. Every day after school, I would leave the school and walk directly to the cemetery, where I’d mow the grass on the graves; edge the grass around the tombstones; and collect dead flowers that people left on the graves. I’d even help in digging graves and burying the dead. For that two-year period of my life, I lived and worked among the dead every afternoon after school.

That experience was a very good one at that young stage of my life. Working among the dead made me think about life and realize that, no matter how long a person lives, life doesn’t last very long. It was part of the Lord’s training to prepare me for ministry.

In those two years, I had many experiences with grieving families while I worked at that cemetery. One thing that deeply impacted me was the difference between believing and unbelieving families at the time of death. When a Christian family buried a loved one who had been a believer, I noted that they were full of faith and had a very limited amount of sorrow. In fact, they often sang and found things to laugh and joke about with each other as they shared memories of their deceased loved one. It was evident that they had a sense of victory based in their faith that physical death is not the final word.

But when I encountered an unsaved family who were burying an unsaved loved one, it was a very different story and tragic to observe. For those who had no faith in the power of Jesus’ death and resurrection, I saw such hopelessness because for them, the grave seemed so final. They were engulfed in sorrow because they had no hope of a resurrection. 

But as for us, who are believers, we do have hope. For us, there is a future resurrection! And according to Hebrews 6:2, the resurrection of the dead is a central and fundamental doctrine of our faith. We can certainly see why this would be true in the Early Church. Especially during the time when the book of Hebrews was being written, believers were being killed for their faith. They were literally giving their lives for Christ, and the hope of a future resurrection was central to their faith. It is also especially true for those of us who are part of this last-days generation of believers. The world is growing darker, and we’re having to navigate the many challenges of this end-time season we have entered into. But through it all, we have a blessed hope! The resurrected Christ is returning soon for His Church!

When we accepted Jesus into our lives as Lord, we obtained the hope of eternal life that is steadfast and sure, and our futures are bright. Down across the centuries the storms of time continue to rage. The pathway of life continues to have its difficult places, its trials and afflictions, its times of sorrow and heartache, its times of pain and suffering, its times of darkness and discouragement. But if our faith is firmly in Christ, then we can say, with the Apostle Paul, “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed” (2 Cor. 4:8-9). For beyond the storms we can see the clearing; beyond the clouds we can see the sunshine; beyond the night we can see the breaking of the day; and yonder in the unfolding future, we can see the coming of Christ with the holy angels and the ushering in of that great eternal kingdom where God dwells with His people and not only wipes away all tears from their eyes, but where there is no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things will have passed away and all things shall have been made new.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth 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” (1 Pet. 1:3-5).

Sources: https://harrisonhouse.com/blog/rick-renner-jesus-resurrection-power; http://www.dkfsermons.com/christTheHopeOfTheWorld.html