Our digital aids to teaching began during the Covid pandemic. 'Going digital' was our response to the cargo embargos which abounded during Covid times (meaning we could not send physical books and resources to our recipients). In many respects the pandemic proved the catalyst for our digital resource website, with the UK lockdowns giving us the time to get this underway. All our digital resources can be accessed by visiting:
www.sovereignworldtrust.org.uk/resources
We had already recognised the need for digital resources as we were increasingly seeing recycled mobile phones, tablets and pcs from more affluent countries finding their way to the developing world. So while we appreciate that not all third world pastors and Christian leaders can easily access our resources, our digital teaching letters proved so popular with our worldwide recipients that we have continued them since Covid.
Our latest teaching and sermon series from Trust Director, Chris Moffett, is the Christian's Hope for the Future. This consists of 12 sermons or teaching aids on the subject of HOPE.
Welcome to our teaching and preaching series on HOPE, the promise of Jesus' return. In this, our first instalment, we look at what difference this promise should make to our lives today. Luke, the writer of the two-part history (Luke-Acts) tells us that after Jesus Christ was raised from the dead He appeared many times to many people in different places, over a period of forty days. There could have been no doubt about the reason why the tomb was empty...
In the previous study we thought about the promise of Jesus’ return. We saw that this will be the climax of God’s programme on earth. We saw that although the promise is sure, God has not revealed to us precisely when it will happen. But knowing that Jesus will return brings us two things: peace and confidence in a troubled world and the motivation to align ourselves with his purposes.
The promise of Jesus' return only brings comfort and makes sense if all believers who have died are raised from the dead. This is precisely what scripture teaches. Paul makes it clear that it is not just those who are alive at the time who will see Him. The dead in Christ will be raised with a new resurrection body. So, Christians live with hope, which is not merely a sincere human wish, but rather a confident expectation that God will fulfil His promise. We persevere and we pray...
We have seen that scripture records the sure promise that the risen Lord Jesus who reigns in heaven, will return to earth. Although the world and God's people have experienced and will experience times of trouble birth pains before this happens, these will be far outweighed by the glory that will be revealed. This is the Christian hope for the future. It is not merely a pious or sincere wish. It is a certainty because it is something God has purposed to do. Jesus’ resurrection was simply the first instalment - the first fruits of God’s plan for His creation... Read more...
In the first four parts we have seen that The Christian's hope for the future is the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. This was something that the first Christians expected though the details of when, according to Jesus, are only known by God the Father. Meanwhile we live in the gap - a period which is not always easy - a time of birth pains. Christians will be raised and given a new resurrection body, quite different from their former earthly corruptible body. There will be a great reunion between Christ and those who have died and those who are alive at the time of his return. Read more...
A straightforward reading of the New Testament shows that the first followers of Jesus expected Him to return very soon, even though Jesus had made it very clear that only His Father knew the time that would be. Later New Testament writings show that Jesus' followers came to recognise that it was it was probably not quite as soon as they had first expected. They needed to give more attention to living a good life in the here and now.
The stories at the beginning of our Bibles declare that God's intention for humankind was (and indeed still is) to live in a relationship of trust, obedience, and dependence on God, exercising dominion (which implies care) over the earth. For this we are created.
In our world today there is both Judaism and the Church, two separate faiths following the same God of Abraham. Jews have likewise spread all over the world, adapting their faith to an era without a Jerusalem temple, maintaining their identity and very often facing persecution and discrimination. This is an astonishing and surprising story. How could this have happened and is that what God intended and planned? Has God given up on his ancient people? Does God intend there to be two separate groups - Israel and the Church? Read more...
We have been thinking about the Christian hope for the future and by hope we mean confident expectation rather than sincere wishful thinking. This confidence is grounded in the truth that the God of the Bible, first revealed to the Jewish people and then through Jesus their Messiah-King to the rest of the world, created all things and controls and overrules history. History is moving to the climax purposed and planned by God.
In Matthew chapter 24, as Jesus and His disciples walked from the temple, He made the prediction that one day the it would be totally destroyed. "Do you see all these things?" he asked. "Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another. Every one will be thrown down." The disciples assumed that Jesus was referring to the end of the age and asked Him the 'when will this be' question. Read more...
We are nearing the end of our series on the Christian's hope. The Bible looks forward to a time when all sin and suffering will be eradicated including Satan and his hierarchy of accomplices.
In our preceding 11 studies we have been thinking about the Christian's hope for the future. In doing so, we have looked back to God's past dealings with mankind as well as forwards. The Christian faith, which we live out day-by-day in the present, is connected both to what God has done in the past and what He will do in the future. Our salvation, rooted in what Jesus has done for us, is something we experience in the here and now, but it will be fully revealed in the future.
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