LIVING HOPE - 1Pt 1:1-9

Spring Retreat 2019 Morning Devotion 1 - By Yvonne Lee

KV: 3 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…”

In verses 1-2, Peter identifies himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ. This was very dangerous then as it would be now in a modern day Muslim country. You would be pronouncing your own death sentence. Yet, Peter proudly wore this title, an apostle of Jesus Christ. He also called his fellow Christians, God’s elect. At that time, Christians in Peter’s church were being thrown to the lions and burned alive in boiling pots of water by anti-Christians. Yet Peter called them, “God’s elect.” Out of all the world, they were chosen by God to be his elect. How great they are! However, in reality, according to verse 2, they were exiled from their communities and scattered and hidden like today’s underground church in North Korea. Though we in this room are not quite so persecuted, yet we face human rejection or are despised for our faith. Like them, we are God’s elect scattered throughout the high schools in the Chicago area: Lane Tech, Evanston, Northside Prep, Amundsen, Senn, Mather, Lincoln Park, Niles East, Niles North, and even Bell Elementary. And as verse 2 also says, we spiritual exiles have been chosen according to God’s foreknowledge, we are being sanctified by his Spirit to be obedient and are covered by Jesus’ blood. Through all these spiritual blessings, we truly experience grace and peace in abundance.

Verse 3 is our key verse and the title and theme of our conference. Let’s read this verse together very meaningfully. “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…” Sometimes we feel our Christian life is too hard and does not get us anywhere in this world. Rather, than praise to God our Father, all kinds of complaints come out of our mouths, anger fills our hearts, and sorrow and self-pity trap our minds in dark thinking. But when we know our identity -- who we are in Jesus, his precious elect, called by the Father, filled with the Spirit, covered with Jesus’ blood, we realize we have so much to praise God for!

We can praise God our Father that he sent his Son Jesus into this world to be one of us! Out of his mercy Jesus died for us though we did not deserve it! Jesus rose from the dead and opened the way back to the kingdom of God for us! Jesus gives us new birth into a living hope through his resurrection! We are purchased by Jesus’ blood from Satan and the realm of death and judgment and now belong to the kingdom of God and eternal life! Praise Jesus!




Let’s read verse 4. “...and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you…” High schoolers (and third graders) have hopes for good grades, popularity, and sports ability. For example, you may think if you get an A in biology or win the sports championship, this will make your life great. But these hopes fade fast and these things often don’t work out.



We also naturally inherit what was left behind by our parents or grandparents or the generation before us. But these things that we hope for and inherit all perish, spoil or fade -- sometimes as an astonishing rate. There is nothing in this world that lasts or we can hold onto. The people and things of this world are from the dust and return to dust. We cannot put our confidence in this world. This week I took my 8th grade students to the Holocaust Museum and I was reminded of how truly wicked, dark and evil this world is. We cannot put our hopes such a volatile world. But we have a living hope in Jesus and our inheritance never perishes, spoils or fades. It is always shining in heaven with God’s infinite glory and majesty. Where is our inheritance? In heaven! Revelations 21:21 says that heaven has pearly gates and streets of gold. Rev 22:1-3 says, the river of life flows from the thrones of God and Jesus. And on each side of the river grows the tree of life with leaves that bring healing for the nations. Where in the world can you find such a place? You cannot. This is the inheritance kept in heaven for you!




We may suffer in this world. But we are truly God’s elect and the most blessed people who have a living hope to inherit heaven! By really praising God and Jesus for this living hope, let’s read verse 3 again. “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…”




This living hope in Jesus is our real confidence. This living hope in Jesus helps us to persevere in our faith. This living hope in Jesus restores our joy!




In verses 5-9, Peter explains that the meaning of our trials in this world is to purify our faith and strengthen our living hope in Jesus’ kingdom. So trials are good!! Did you know that? People may not like you at school because you say you are a Christian. (I know because my friends feel uncomfortable when I bow my head before lunch and pray in the teacher’s lounge.)Trials are God’s way of polishing our faith and making it shine brighter in the world! Through trials, our love for Jesus grows. Instead of becoming too attached to this world and people in this world, through trials we learn to cry out to Jesus for his help, rely on him, and fix our eyes on Jesus. Then we love Jesus more and believe in Jesus more, seeing Jesus’ hand at work in our lives.




Let me tell you my side of the story. In 2012, I met M. Steven. His wife had died 2 years before, and he had 2 girls, ages 9 and 14. We spent one week together in Korea, and then he proposed. Then for 2 years we did not see each other, and we had a burning hope to get married. I joined the 5:30 morning prayer meeting at the center, driving 30 minutes each way, to pray for our house church to be established, and then went to work. Finally, in May 2014, we married in Seoul, blessed by God’s people from around the world. Afterwards, I spent the summer in Korea and returned to Chicago. We prayed for their US visas with a desperate hope for our family to be united as a house church in America. But it took 2 more years during which I continued to go to the early morning prayer meeting. I can’t mention all the trials, but here are a couple. We prayed for M. Steven to get justice and God answered our prayers, his assets were unfrozen, and his debt of $35 million was solved. In great agony, we prayed for US visas for them, but his police record of bribery made it impossible. In 2016, I went to the world mission report in Korea, taking a week off from work without pay. At the airport, many senior missionaries gathered to pray, and in a very loud voice, they prayed for M. Steven to get a US visa and go to America as a missionary. God accepted our crying out prayers at the airport, and exactly at that hour, the US government miraculously granted them US visas. First, our daughters came. Their hearts were broken by the power of death, like Mary and Martha. I suggested they take names after their mother who was called Living Hope Maria in UBF. Olivia sounds like Living (Hope), and Marie is for Maria. For the next year and a half, we were desperately hoping for M. Steven to join us. But during this time, family members were holding him in Korea with various human obligations. Yet God answered our prayers in his own way through a serious car accident in which I was unable to go to work for 3 months. M. Steven decided to go permanently to Chicago to take care of our family, leaving his elderly parents. After six months, we prayed for M. Steven to have a good job and to be successful in Chicago and serve HBF as a missionary. And immediately God answered these prayers and he got an excellent engineering job at his first interview. These trials refined our faith and helped us to set our hopes in Jesus and to do his will. We greatly rejoice in all these things through which God has helped us to overcome for his glory!




As I get older (I am 51), I worry about health, retirement and death. But I have no assurance of anything. Only the living hope in the kingdom of God can be my real hope. I repented through this passage that I still put my hopes so firmly in this world. I wanted to be recognized and well-liked at work; I want my children to be successful and spiritual at the same time; I want good health and want to prepare well for my retirement. I thought these things will make me confident and secure. But these wants are not real hopes at all. They do not give me real confidence or strength to persevere in the face of reality of so many personal or global problems and lead to a lot of stress. Rather I found that when I have living hope in Jesus, fixing my eyes on my heavenly reward, I can thank Jesus, praise Jesus, give glory to Jesus, and love Jesus. I am happy and free, trusting in his power and love. I can love others more and more. And, I can have a living hope in his kingdom in heaven which is forever and is far greater than anything we can imagine here. I can only ask Jesus my Lord to forgive me for holding onto hopes in this world and ask Jesus to help me to persevere through all kinds of trials putting my hope in Jesus, having confidence in Jesus’ love and power, and love others more for Jesus’ glory.




Let’s pray: Lord Jesus, thank you for giving us a living hope through your resurrection, Please help our HBF children to have a living hope in your kingdom and trust in you, not putting their hope in their own strength or ability to reach their dreams. Help them to trust in you Jesus, who shields them, loves them and will help them to pass through the fire, shining in their faith in their high schools. Thank you! I pray in Jesus’ name, amen

Young Man, Get Up!

Spring Retreat 2019 - Morning devotion 1 by M. Steven Lee
Luke 7:11-17

Key verse Luke 7:14 “Then he went up and touched the bier they were carrying him on, and the bearers stood still. He said, ‘Young man, I say to you, get up!’”

Don’t cry
Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. When Jesus approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out. He was a young man and an only son of a widow and her only hope. She could not find the meaning of life without her son.

A large crowd from the town was crying with her. They loved this widow and wanted to help her. But they could do anything to comfort her. Nobody could overcome the power of death. The only thing they could was crying with her.

Jesus saw her and his heart went out to her. Jesus understood her sorrow. Jesus said, “Don’t cry.” “Don’t cry” means Jesus would help the widow. Even death could not block Jesus. Jesus is God and in Jesus there is Life. It is very easy to sit and cry when we encounter our limit and high obstacles. But in Jesus, we don’t need to cry. In Jesus, we can ask his help rather than crying. Psalm 121 sings, “I lift up my eyes to the mountains - where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip - he who watches over you will not slumber.” (Ps.121:1-3)

Young Man, get up!
After Jesus told a widow, “Don’t cry”, he went up and touched the bier they were carrying her son on. They stopped and saw Jesus. People wondered, “What can he do?” The bier (or coffin) symbolizes desperation, the end, period. Nobody can overcome death. Even youth can’t do anything when he is in the bier.

But Jesus wanted to put new life in the young man. Jesus said to him who was laying down in the bier. “Young man, I say to you, get up!” When he heard Jesus’ voice, the dead man sat up and began to talk. The power of death obeyed Jesus and gave the boy his life back. Jesus gave the young man back to his mother. The young man did not need his coffin anymore.

I wanted to be rich and be recognized. I established a company with $20,000 USD and worked hard. I got 7 patents and my company revenue multiplied year by year. Many officials of Korean government recognized me as a good engineer. I controlled 80% of the electronic security market. 6 years later my company revenue was over $50,000,000 USD. I became a millionaire, I travelled to 21 countries to do business. I moved my company to the richest part of Gangnam. I became a idol of young people. Many people came to me and imitated me to get success.

But I was very arrogant and went far from God. I treated high government officials to drinking parties in Gangnam spending $10,000 USD easily every night. I stayed out drinking from one end of Gangnam to the other until 5 am, went to a coffee shop, and started work again at 6 am. I only saw my family on Sundays, and out relationship grew worse. One Christmas morning, I woke up after having passed out on a bench at a bus stop in Gangnam. Two young woman were laughing down at me, saying “Look at his expensive tie and messed up hair, and snowflakes falling down on him.” I was so humiliated, but I could not stop my wickedness from spiraling out of control.

In 2005, I sued the Korean government for infringing on my patent and I won. As a result, some government officials lost their positions. Some of them gave information to the police and I was the focus of a police sting involving government bribes in 2008. The police arrested me in my office and froze my assets and carefully watched my bank accounts. I spent 1 day in jail. Many of my colleagues and government contacts were also arrested. Still, I did not repent but only I tried to fight back in court while continuing my business. Yet many colleagues, bankers, and government officials avoided me, because they did not want to be caught also in the police sting. My company could not grow, but shrank. To overcome, I designed a new system, putting all my resources into this project. I made a contract with Korea Telecom, but they stole my technology and made a patent with it and made a lot of money. Though I was so frustrated but I did not return to God.

In 2010, the doctors stopped treatment altogether for my wife’s lung cancer. She was dying. Nobody could help me. I was desperate and cried myself to sleep. That night I had a dream in which a person stood far away from me. He was waving his hands to me. I felt he was calling me to come back to UBF. After this dream, my wife and I repented and I brought my family to Sunday worship service. Shepherd Phillip Lee and all co-workers welcomed us and accepted us with love. Shepherd Phillip announced: “Welcoming them with a handshake is not enough. Let’s welcome them with a big hug one by one.”

A couple months later, my wife returned to heaven, and my daughters were baptized. But I was in the coffin of money. One day, I stood up on a bridge and was looking down at Han river. I tried to jump in the river because of my financial issue. At this moment, from deep inside my heart, I heard Jesus say, “I’m your Shepherd. What more do you need?” I had nothing to say. I found I am so arrogant, selfish, and sinful. God already had sacrificed his one and only son Jesus on the cross to give me new life. But I was laying down in the coffin. I did not come out of the coffin.

I remembered Psalm 23:1 “The Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not lack anything.” And I repented of all my sins. Then God filled my heart with peace, love and grace. I had a huge debt of 35 million USD, but God gave me peace. After that, God led Yvonne to me. God resolved all my financial issues and brought me to America as a missionary. God prepared a good job for me and I am working as engineer. When I was in the coffin of money, I could not do anything. There was only one way - death. But when Jesus came to me and said, “I am your Shepherd,” his voice raised me up and I do not need the coffin anymore. Thank God who is the best Shepherd for all of us!

What kind of coffin do you lay down? Money, honor, victory of study, and so on? It doesn’t matter what kind of coffin, Jesus says to us, “Young man, get up!” When we hear Jesus voice, we can sit up. Jesus want us to get out of the coffin and have new life in Jesus. Through this Easter season, may God bless our life and give us abundant life.

One word: Young man, get up!

2 Corinthians 4

2019 Spring Retreat - Samuel Rayas

Morning everyone, I’m guessing some of you all got more sleep than others by the looks of things but regardless I hope you're ready to receive the word of God. Additionally, I hope these past days for you all have been full of spiritual growth, solidifying friendships, and finding a place of rest. I also want to thank Stephen, Annie and Mariee for taking time to prepare that classy remix of a song for me. Thanks for taking the time to sit down and practice guys.

Now, what you’ve all been looking forward to -- the message. Today we’ll be taking a closer look at 2 Corinthians, Chapter 4, Verses 1-18. My Key Verse is verse 14, “Because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. ” Before writing the message I was a bit confused on how to approach it, there really are a variety of ways, but I created three questions that would help break up the passage. By no means do you have to memorize the questions, but keep them in the back of your minds as the message continues. The first of these questions goes, What does it means to be a Christian?, The second, What are some of the challenges we will face? and lastly, What is our living hope? Three relatively simple questions yet Paul’s writing somehow encapsulates all of this. I’m certain that nearly everyone in this room has heard at least one of these questions before, I had, but it was only through this passage that the resounding answers were able to sink in. To conclude, I don’t think it takes a doctorate, any form of degree, having lived 40+ years, or fitting any sort of criteria to understand what Paul is writing to the Corinthians back then and how its significant to us nowadays. 

A Little Bit Of History: Why did Paul Write 2 Corinthians?

To completely understand why this book of the bible exists we need to know some history. How fun, I know, I’ll try to not bore you, no sad faces though :(. Paul is writing to the church in Corinth because he is concerned for their well being. The church had faced problems with sexual immorality, and Paul feared the infiltration of false teachers in the church proclaiming false god’s. Primarily, Paul wrote to encourage, give strength, and dispel any sense of doubt that the Corinthians would’ve had during the time of struggle and strife.

Analysis: Question 1

Understandably, Paul begins Chapter 4 writing to the church about how they should feel towards the ministry and the the work they do, even in times of trouble. Hence the title of chapter 4 including the phrase, ‘Present Weakness’. In verses 1-7 Paul does an excellent job dispeling any sense of insecurity within the Corinthians about their place church and its ministry in general. If we can read the first verse altogether, “Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart”. The first verse established the idea of have nothing to fear because God was on their side. And to not be discouraged from all the troubles that were in pursuit of them, because with God any challenge was bearable. Paul goes onto the next verses to reinforce the idea that any common doubts had no place within the ministry. Verse 2 can be interpreted as Paul giving the Corinthians a reason to lift up their heads, “We have renounced secret and shameful ways” since the use of “deception” or lies is not practiced then the ministry has nothing to fear. On the contrary they are held in higher regard because God sees them speaking truthfully. Not to get ahead of ourselves, but looking at verse 5, if we can all read it together,“For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.” The corinthians even though they were commended for speaking plainly they were not bound to doing it for themselves but rather for God’s glory. Going back to verses 3 and 4 they offered yet another reason to not lose heart. Verse 3 states even if the Corinthians were to persecuted or unable to preach, they shouldn’t fret because those in their way are in fact they are “perishing”. Verse 4 couples nicely with 3 as the Corinthians were to gain more insight into why they would be persecuted. The ‘god’ of this age, the word ‘god’ not being capitalized means that it is not our father in heaven but rather a false god, an idol perhaps. If the minds of unbelievers were blinded then they would not allow or accept the Corinthians to preach. While verse 5 helps to give the Corinthians a directive and purpose. Preaching Jesus Christ as the bridge between them and the father. They are only servants. Lastly comes Verse 7, can we read verse 7 all together. “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” Paul is telling the Corinthians that they have been given a gift, that being eternal life, and this gift of ‘living even though they have died’ does not boast their own power but rather God’s power over death.

What did we learn:
But how does Paul’s writing connect to us all right now? And What did we learn about what it means to be a Christian? In accordance to verse 2, setting forth the truth plainly, I think we can find joy in this act of setting forth the word the way it is. The act is done in front of people but really it is done in the sight of God as he watches us do so. Verse 3 teaches us to not passion or drive from anyone that stands in our way as they, unlike us might cease to exist after their earthly body has decayed. In response to verses 5 and 7 of serving God, we learn that we are servants, however a testament to God’s divine power. Remembering who we are in relation to God the father is what allows us just like the Corinthians to get a true sense of what it means to be a Christian. We should live out our lives as Christians in accordance to the knowledge of the resurrection, through these bodies we are able to glorify the lord since we’ve been given this treasure.

Real World: Story
To put this into a real perspective, when I was younger, no more than about 8 years old I remember my mom telling me that she would come back home soon because she would be out ‘fishing’, to my surprise she didn’t have any fishing gear. Naturally I asked her “How are you gonna go fishing without a fishing pole?” in my mind it wasn’t fair that she got to go fishing while I had to stay at home, besides it was late at night, how would she see? Laughingly my mom responded by saying ‘we aren’t actually going fishing, we’re trying to recruit students to study the bible’. I’m glad she didn’t say she was trying to tend to the lord's sheep that night. Up until studying this passage was the story of my mom going out to ‘fish’ a cute moment shared between us, but looking back I now see that my mom was going out to fish because of that treasure that was bestowed within her. She was trying to preach the gospel of the resurrection to others. And it is that treasure that we have all been given by God, that physical death is not the end of the road for us. The jars of clay which holds this treasure as described in verse 7 is an adequate analogy because our bodies just like jars of clay are nothing special. In those times you didn’t keep your best wine in the a jar made out of mud or soil. In the same respect why would God put the greatest gift into us? -- If only it was really to display his own glory through us, it’s not by our own power that we are able to be raised to life once again but by God’s “all surpassing”. That’s why living out our lives with respect to being vessels for God’s gracious gift of eternal life is what really constitutes as a Christians, we should live for God.

How to live for God: : Answer
I know this point is hard to come to grasp with, but I think we can all look to our parents, missionaries if you will, who act and live out their lives in accordance to the gospel. I used to ask myself why do any of the elders of the church emphasize fishing? Why do my parents care so much about losing or gaining students? Now I realize that it’s because they’ve been blessed with unconditional love known as resurrection life that they put so much attention to sharing the good news with others. For us on the other hand that may be inviting your friends to HBF, writing testimony, doing sports, going to school are only some of the ways in which we can live in relation to God’s gift of eternal life.

Of course things such as: prayer, reading your bible, being in fellowship, having 1 to 1, studying the word are essential parts of your walk of faith that keep you grounded in the word, but I think there is one step further and its’ having the right attitude to serve. to have the greatest impact is to have a sound heart and right attitude when coming to church or participating within our ministry. Proverbs 4:23 states “ Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” If someone were to attempt passing under the guise of being a christian they would fall short because even in the acts of attending church, praying habitually, and having the perfect outward appearance they would never constitute as being a truthful Christian because it wasn’t done with earnest passion for the church or for God.

In the end, we learn that being a Christian is not losing hope because we have the creator of the heavens on our side, not following false gods, serving the lord, and living first and foremost for God’s glory above all else.”

Second Question: What are some of the challenges we will face?
Knowing what it means to be a Christian, now comes the part dedicated to answering the question ‘What we will face, with the lives that we will lead? If we can read verses 8 and 9 altogether? Lets begin, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. The following verses are short and their abrupt nature is why the verses are so impactful. Reading each rendition of the trails that we will face such as ‘Hard pressed but not crushed’ ‘Perplexed, but not in despair’ ‘Persecuted, but not abandoned’ ‘Struck down, but not destroyed’ are almost echos of what it feels like living a Christian life now a days. Yet the main thing I took away from this point in the passage were the endings of each statement that are anteceded with the word ‘but’. We may come across and encounter these various problems, but Paul reminds the Corinthians that God never leaves them at the point of absolute solitude nor an inability to overcome.

As the passage continues, we run into yet another harsh reality presented to us, through verses 11 and 12, as “we who are alive are always being given over to death” and So then, death is at work in us” however, though these bodies of clay are decaying away it is not without purpose. On the other hand, as verse 10 tells us “ We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.” We, once again as children of God, servants, are the greatest tools to glorify God through our bodies. The idea of something beautiful being shown that has come from nothing feels like what God is doing with us all. Even if we are being given over to death each day its ‘for Jesus’ sake.’ As an even greater reminder for our significance within the church, and why death has no hold on us comes at the end of verse 12 as it tells us that ‘life is at work in jesus’ even if death is waiting for us later on. We may not be able to surpass the power of death or escape its grips but it is all for the glory of God in the end. Us being revived with Jesus in the latter of our lives will prove that just Jesus was resurrected, so will we be resurrected by the same power. If Christ was given the ability to come over death and if we overcome death then it goes on to prove God’s tremendous power.

Personally, I felt this this year in specific was one where I was constantly being challenged academically and I wanted to give up. When verse 8 states “perplexed but not in despair” I wouldn't have believed you a couple weeks ago. What I didn’t realize at the time was that I was trying to pass school with my own wits and effort and not looking to glorify God in any way. These past weeks I realized my mistake gravely. When I remember now, the times that I sincerely sat down and prayed I felt as though I could not only accomplish my goals, but felt as though my participation volleyball and the IB program was more than just doing well for my future and about having God’s mercy shown through my successes whether big or small. My mom always told me we amass nearly to nothing without God in our lives, and that it is only because we’ve been shown mercy that we are able to accomplish all our feats. Verse 11 helps coincide with this thought as well because through me I can glorify God because I am made in his perfect image. I can be an example for my classmates demonstrating God’s glory and not my own. Just like in the case of Lazarus, my body can be used to show God’s sovereignty. I learned that in this time of feeling like I was being completely crushed with academic studies, time dedicated to sports, and friends all I needed to remember that this wasn’t necessarily about me, but letting God’s glory come amist my trial. For all of us in this room I think many a time do we all feel overwhelmed, but just as Paul reminded the Corinthians do I remind you now that we are never rendered completely helpless because we have Christ with us. It’s hard understanding why God would allow this, for us to be hard pressed, persecuted, or struck down. However, they are opportunities to reveal ‘Jesus’ life ’that is at work in us.

Third Question: What is our living hope?
In the last parts of the passage in verses 14 and 15 does Paul reassure the Corinthians, and us. Let’s read verse 14 “because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus (God) from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you (Jesus) to himself (God).” This verse is a little confusing so allow me to explain it. Paul reassures us that we will be raised from death alongside Jesus by God, and because Jesus is part of the trinity, really Jesus is being presented with us to himself, through the form of God. I know confusing. However, this is the answer to our third question. Our living hope is Jesus, since we know that we will be resurrected just as Jesus did we can be assured that death will not be the end for us. For this reason I chose to make this my key verse. Additionally, verse 15 tells us that all of this will help in our ministry. This will cause overflowing of good news, reaching more and more people thus making our ministry grow even bigger. Lastly come verses 16,17, and 18. Verse 16 helps to reinforce our identity and trust in the lord. Once again to the jars of clay, we are wasting away but are being rejuvenated and given life through Jesus each day, even if the outside may say differently. 18 stresses the importance of focusing on eternal life, even though it remains unseens it is what is truly eternal and serves as another reminder that we do not live for the luxuries of earth. Finally, backtracking a little do we find ourselves with verse 17. And I think it’s the most suitable place to leave off for Paul in accordance to the Corinthians and for me to leave off for you all. Can we all read verse 17? “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” All of this to comprehend was left to the Corinthians to interpret and I’m sure that Paul foresaw persecution of the church in corinth to ensue but Paul reminds us all that these issues and problems are comparable to little blimps of lights within an entire spectrum. These problems that we face no don’t compare to what you will be blessed with much more up head. Having this mentality is hard if I’m being frank, but it does help knowing that what awaits you really is eternal and everlasting. That what we all look forward to is eternal life not something temporary or momentary.

Conclusion:
I want to conclude this message by telling you all, my peers, some that I’ve known since you were young, others that I’ve barely gotten to know that what awaits us all is eternal life and something far bigger than we can fathom. Jesus is our living hope that there is a quality of life that awaits us in the long run, these sufferings hurt, isn’t that why Jesus wept even if Lazarus was going to be resurrected? but like Paul tells us, the eternal glory outweighs all these troubles in the long run because we will be presented alongside Jesus. Whether or not you’ll fit into being the mold of a perfect “Christian” or whether I’m even right in my classification of what it means to be a Christian, it seems that one thing is certain, and that is we live for God’s glory and not our own. Life is treacherous and difficult, we may not understand why certain things happen, but know that God has a plan. Even if we are jars of clay or ‘dust we are’ and ‘to dust we will return’ we have been given the gift of eternal life. If you desire to read a little more about why sharing the gospel brings joy or why being a servant exist or comes to be then I advise you to read Psalm 116, its great. With all of this in mind let's remember that the potential trials that we will face, just like the Corinthians, are only light and momentary. Let’s approach each conflict knowing that we can glorify God in them and show Jesus life in us, even if the do trouble us. Remember that we don’t live for this world rather we live for the eternal by having a perspective that Jesus is our living hope, a sign that we are able to be with God the father for all eternity.

By Faith, We Have a Living Hope

2019 Spring Retrat - Daniel King

Key Verses: John 11:41b-42

So in this passage we have a continuation of the passage that Moses discussed in his message yesterday. Yesterday, we saw that Jesus made the decision to wait several days before visiting Lazarus, because Lazarus’ sickness was, in Jesus’ words, “for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” Today, we see Jesus finally visit a heartbroken Martha and Mary, but then demonstrate his own power by raising Lazarus from the dead. In some ways, this passage seems almost inapplicable to our own lives because us Christians don’t see God raising people from the dead today. However, there is actually a lot that we can unpack from this passage about faith, about God’s power and love for us, and about having a living hope in Jesus.

One of the biggest lessons we can take away from John 11:17-44 is that God often uses our most difficult, darkest moments to bring us closer to him. In this passage, we see that Martha and Mary are both deeply saddened by the death their brother Lazarus. Both had faith in Jesus, believing that if he had come, he could have saved Lazarus from dying. By waiting those four days before coming to raise Lazarus from the dead, Jesus demonstrated his amazing love and his power even over death. Jesus showed the sisters that he was in control even in this dark period in their lives, using Lazarus’ death to demonstrate God’s amazing love and power.

So let’s start with the first part of this passage, when Jesus arrives to comfort Martha and Mary. Verse seventeen states that when Jesus arrived, Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Many other Jews had already come to comfort the sisters, and so Jesus and his disciples were some of the last people to come and pay their respects. When Jesus finally does come and Martha goes out to meet him, she says in verses 21 and 22, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” Martha is clearly trying to hold on to her faith in Jesus, but it’s so difficult for her to do so because her brother has just died. She had faith that Jesus could have saved her brother while he was alive but did not believe Jesus could do anything once Lazarus was dead. She failed to see Jesus’ power, even over death. Martha had probably prayed while Lazarus was alive that Jesus would come and save him, but once Lazarus was gone, she lost all hope. Have you ever been in a situation where you lost all hope?

I think many people find themselves in the same situation that Martha does. As Christians, we pray and beg God to give us something we want or solve a problem we might have, and if God does not give us exactly what we want how we want it, we give up immediately. I will be honest with all of you, I have been very fortunate to not have experienced such a hopeless situation like that of Martha and Mary, or even that of others in HBF, but for me, this issue definitely did show itself during the college admissions process. This year, I was rejected by some of the top schools that I applied to, schools where I really hoped and prayed to get in. When I was rejected, it was difficult for me at first to accept that this was part of God’s plan for me. It was hard for me to believe that God had a great plan for me without those schools, because of my lack of faith in him, because I didn’t really believe that God could provide for me.

With Martha, the death of Lazarus so overwhelmed her that she thought everything was over, that there was nothing Jesus could do. Jesus did not give Martha exactly what she wanted, which was to save Lazarus from the dead while he was alive. Let’s take a look at what Martha says when Jesus tells her that Lazarus will rise again from the dead. Martha says in verse 24, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” While Martha seems to acknowledge Jesus’ power in a sense, she doesn’t seem to believe that Jesus has any power here on Earth at that very moment. She sees God as a sort of cosmic being, like Buddha or the force in Star Wars, who will raise up Lazarus at the end of time. She believes in him, but not really. Again, it is a lack of faith that really characterizes Martha’s interactions with Jesus.

It was with Jesus’ reassuring her in verses twenty five and twenty six of his power over death that she finally learned to believe in Jesus’ power and entrust the situation to him.

Let’s take a closer look at verses 25 and 26. Jesus says “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” This is one of the most important verses in the Bible. Jesus came to the Earth to bring life and salvation, and is asking Martha to believe in him. By saying this, Jesus is not only revealing his divine power, but also saying that death has no power over him. He is revealing not only his spiritual power but his physical power as well. This is really the turning point in the passage, when Jesus truly reveals himself to us. We are not only reassured of Jesus’ power, but also realize that we have a living hope in him, the promise of eternal life. When he asks if Martha believes this, he’s not only posing this question to Martha, but to all of us as Christians. Do you believe that you have a living hope in Jesus? Do you believe that God’s power is limitless both here on Earth and in heaven? Not only did Martha have to consider this, but all of us must consider this as well. It is those who believe in God who will experience his power over death, his promise of eternal life, and his spiritual and physical guidance.

Yet Jesus’s power over death is not only a spiritual power, but a physical one as well, as we see later in this passage. So later, we see Jesus talking to Mary after Martha tells her that he is there. The scene we get with Mary is quite different than what we saw with Martha. Mary does say the exact same thing that Martha did when she first met Jesus - “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Like Martha, Mary does not have faith in Jesus’ divine power, his power over death. However, unlike Martha, Mary comes letting out all of her grief before Jesus, weeping at his feet. She was sad and grieving broken-hearted, and she let Jesus know. And when Jesus saw her, he didn’t tell her to get up and stop crying, he didn’t tell her to stop worrying, he wept with her. (PAUSE) Jesus knew that Lazarus wasn’t going to stay dead, but he comforted Mary in the moment by empathizing with her and showing her that he cared. We can see how Jesus comforted both Martha and Mary when they had different ways of showing and expressing their grief, Martha by reassuring her of great power and Mary by simply weeping with her. In the same way, we all have different ways of dealing with our grief and bringing our problems to God. God feels your pain and will comfort you in the way he knows is best for you because he cares about you.

So from the first part of the passage, we see that the two main themes are that Jesus is the resurrection and the life and is all-powerful, but also that he loves and cares deeply enough for his children to comfort them and empathize with them in their suffering.

This brings us into the second part of the passage. Having comforted the two sisters, Jesus goes down to the tomb. The first thing he does is to order the stone to be taken away. You may or may not know this, but in Jesus’ time, the dead, usually those who were wealthy, were not buried in graves. They were buried in tombs, holes cut into the side of a mountain or cliff with a giant slab or disc of stone several feet wide to close the hole opening. According to some archeologists, these stones probably weighed around two tons. So when Jesus ordered the stone to be taken away, this was no easy feat. It probably required at least several very strong men to carefully roll the stone so that the entrance to the tomb would be opened.

But the bigger issue was not that the stone was physically difficult to move. It required faith on the sisters’ part to obey Jesus and remove the stone, to entrust the situation to Jesus. Martha brings up the point in verse thirty nine that there would be a bad odor in the tomb, because a dead corpse had been rotting in there for four days. But really, what Martha was saying was that there was no point in removing the stone, that there was no reason to because Lazarus was already dead.

Rolling away the stone was a test of faith. Jesus wanted the people to entrust the situation to him, to believe that in this dark and depressing period, Jesus could help them. And that required the people to set aside their doubts and obey Jesus.

The stone itself represents an obstacle to faith. It was the thing holding Martha, Mary, and the rest of the Jews there from fully believing in Jesus. They were bounded by the practical concerns of rolling away the heavy stone. When Jesus said to take away the stone, again, he was communicating this to all Christians. As high school students, each of us probably has not only one, but many heavy stones in our way that prevent us from experience the power of the risen Jesus. Maybe you have questions about whether God can truly help you, maybe you have other struggles and hardships that make you forget about God, maybe you have a sin that prevents you from fully coming to God. Of course God will still love you and continue to call out to you no matter what obstacles you may have to your faith. But God needs you to believe in him, he needs you to read his word and pray and grow in your relationship with him, before he can fully intervene in your life and give you a living hope in heaven.

Once they remove the stone, Jesus is now prepared to do his work. This is what he says in verses 41b and 42. These are actually the key verses of my message, so I’d like us to read this altogether. “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” It is after he says this that he commands Lazarus to come out of the tomb, and he does. Jesus doesn’t do any black magic or perform some sort of ritual to resurrect Lazarus. He raised Lazarus from the dead by simply commanding him to come out, highlighting Jesus’ power and authority over death.

Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead that the people would believe in him, that they would accept him as the Messiah. After Lazarus was raised, well there was probably shock and disbelief at first, but afterward there were probably lots of celebrations, joyful reunions, and many people coming to honor and exalt Jesus. But get this: Lazarus was going to die again. He would get sick and pass away a second time, and his sisters would have to rebury him and everyone would be grieving all over again. So some people might ask, what was the point of resurrecting Lazarus if he was just going to die again? Well, the point of Jesus’ miracle was not to magically take away all of the sisters’ problems; it was to demonstrate God’s love and power, so that the people would learn to put their faith in him. A lot of people misunderstand the point of the passage. Some people think that perhaps if we come to God like Martha and Mary did, he will use his divine power to magically solve our problems and give us whatever we need, like he did by raising Lazarus from the dead. If you’ve heard ever heard of the prosperity gospel, this is what they preach. Prosperity theology holds that God’s main concern is your material well-being, and if you believe in God, he will make you rich and successful. It sounds ridiculous, and it is. Yes, God can work to solve our physical and practical issues if we come to him, but that’s not his main goal. He wants us to put our faith in him, that we may have hope for the much greater treasure in heaven. Lazarus’ death and resurrection can be thought of as a precursor to Jesus’ own death and resurrection, the Easter story, the reason we have a living hope for eternal life in heaven.

So Jesus used this desperate, dark situation that Martha and Mary were going through to encourage the sisters to have faith in him and come closer to him. This is really the key point of the second part of the passage. God often does the same thing with us, using our problems and struggles to demonstrate his love and power. Although we might not see anything as extreme as someone being raised from the dead, God will work in us in other ways. So I was rejected from MIT and the University of Chicago, my two top schools. By God’s grace, however, I was accepted to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which has a great engineering program. All my life and especially throughout high school, I have always been anxious about what my future is going to be like, where I am going to end up. Those of you who know me probably know that I am very academically motivated, and part of this motivation comes from my sense of anxiety. I thought that getting admitted to a top school would serve as a validation of myself, the one way to ensure that I would be successful. As I reflected on this past year and the whole college admissions process, I realized that my anxiety was my stone, my obstacle to faith that has been preventing me from fully coming to God. Like Martha, I refused to entrust my situation to God and believed that I had to deal with everything by myself. I didn’t really realize until now, but God really has blessed me and been with me even though I didn’t really try to come to him. Especially as I head off to college next year, I hope to be able to grow in my faith and overcome my stone of anxiety. Although I don’t think I’ve fully overcome that stone quite yet, I pray that God will give me the strength and resolve to put my full faith in him so that I can share in the living hope.

So from this passage, there are several things we can take away. In the first part, we see that Jesus is the life and the resurrection, that he has both spiritual and physical power over death, but also that he cares and loves his children deeply, willing to share in our sorrows. In the second part, we see that Jesus used Mary and Martha’s desperate and seemingly hopeless situation to demonstrate his power and bring them to faith. It’s this faith that’s so important to Jesus, this faith that Jesus really is the resurrection and the life and the living hope, the theme of this Easter conference. To all my fellow HBF members, whether you are a fully committed Christian or you’re still a bit iffy about your faith, I encourage you to read the Bible and pray even just a few minutes a day, and learn to open yourself up to God at least a little bit. I hope that each of you, no matter what struggles or difficulties you might be going through, can experience the power of God in your own lives and learn to put your faith in him. Thank you.