Hope of Our Calling
Session 1
Estimated reading time: 9 minutes
Hope of Our Calling: Session 1
We’re going to look at the sequence of the events of the End Times, which is a very misunderstood topic. We’ll try to clarify some of it today. We’ll start by looking at the events associated with the end of the current administration, the administration of grace.
Many years ago, I heard an acronym for grace that always blessed me.
Philippians 3:12–14 KJV :
12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. 13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
“Press toward the mark,” we are reaching out with outstretched neck.
In the Aramaic translation, we see an interesting word repeated.
Philippians 3:12–14 APNT :
12 I have not yet received [the victory], nor yet been made perfect, but I am running, so that I will attain what Jesus Christ attained [for] me.
13 My brothers, I do not consider myself to have attained. But one [thing] I know, that I am forgetting what is behind me and I am reaching out before me.
14 And I am running toward the goal, so that I would receive the victory of the high calling of God in Jesus Christ.
We are moving along our course, our curriculum that God has for us.
1 Corinthians 9:24–27 KJV:
24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. 25 And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. 26 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: 27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
We all have different lives, we are doing different things. And we don’t want to be telling others to do something that we would never do. Again, let’s look at a translation from the Aramaic.
1 Corinthians 9:24–27 APNT:
24 Do you not know that those who run in a contest all run, but one receives the victory? So, run that you may obtain.
25 Now everyone who participates in a contest controls his mind in every way. And those are running to receive a crown that is corruptible, but we, one that is incorruptible.
26 Therefore, I so run, not as for something unknown, and I so fight, not as one who beats the air,
27 but I subdue my body and I subject [it], so that when I have preached to others, I myself will not be rejected.
We don’t know when Jesus Christ will come back, it could be at any time. In the meantime, what do we do?
Hebrews 12:1–3 KJV:
1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.
Strip it off. Let it go. Learn the art of traveling light.
Let’s look at the translation in the Jerusalem Bible (available online here).
Hebrews 12:1–3 JB:
1 With so many witnesses in a great cloud on every side of us, we too, then, should throw off everything that hinders us, especially the sin that clings so easily, and keep running steadily in the race we have started.
2 Let us not lose sight of Jesus, who leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection: for the sake of the joy which was still in the future, he endured the cross, disregarding the shamefulness of it, and from now on has taken his place at the right of God’s throne.
3 Think of the way he stood such opposition from sinners and then you will not give up for want of courage.
We face many things in life. We have sorrow—but that’s not a sin. 1 Thessalonians 4:13 shows us that one of the great things about this hope is that we sorrow not as others who sorrow and have no hope. This doesn’t mean we’re robotic, with no emotions.
So who are we?
Romans 15:13 KJV:
Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.
1 John 3:1–3 KJV:
1 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. 2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. 3 And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
A more literal translation of verse one is “that we should be called the sons of God—and we are!” There’s a day coming when we shall be like him! We should see ourselves as we really are, more and more throughout our lives.
We’re not trying to perfect our inner self. It’s already perfect. It was perfect when it was given to us.
Something that has benefited me enormously over the last few years is studying identification. Our identification with Christ. It’s absolutely been one of the most phenomenal subjects I’ve studied in the last ten years.
Romans 8:9–15 KJV:
9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. 12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. 13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. 15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
Romans 8:18 KJV:
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Ephesians 2:4 KJV:
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 APNT:
13 But I want you to know, my brothers, that you should not have sorrow concerning those who are asleep, even as others who have no hope.
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose, so also God will bring with him, by Jesus, those who are asleep.
15 Now this we say to you, by the word of our Lord, that we who remain at the coming of our Lord who are living will not overtake those who are asleep,
16 because our Lord, with a command and with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, will come down from heaven and the dead who are in Christ will rise up first.
17 And then we who remain who are living will be caught up with them as one in the clouds for the meeting of our Lord in the air and so we will always be with our Lord.
18 Therefore, comfort one another with these words.
1 Corinthians 15:51–58 KJV:
51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. 55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
We run the race. We condition ourselves according to the Spirit of God within us. We don’t look to ourselves for strength; we look to God. We’ve all tried so hard to do it ourselves, but we don’t have to.
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