Hope In Tigard

This podcast episode is the audio from a recent Bible Study at Hope Lutheran Church on the topic of Christian parenting. This study serves as the foundation of what we will do in the future of our children's ministry! Listen in! If you would like to follow along with the Bible Study's work sheet, it is linked below. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mkGnNPcN443YzV50Rw6jjL8sBBOA2RwZ/edit?usp=share_link&ouid=110524154002744775312&rtpof=true&sd=true

The early church must have been something to behold. Something so apart, so other from the way anyone else was living. In the days and weeks following Jesus' resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, those early Christians lived differently. Luke wrote about what that life was like in Acts 2: 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.Have we lost that? Are we, as a modern church, falling short of this church utopia? Should we, as Hope Lutheran Church, be on a quest for this? I'll give you my answer. No. And I'll tell you why. Because Jesus has risen from the dead. And so when he sees us, his church, he sees perfection. 

Easter changes everything. It means that sin and death have no power over us, it means that since Jesus has risen, he will rise too, it means that since he kept his promise, we can know that he will keep every promise to us. Easter changes everything. It even changes the purpose for our lives. Matthew wants us to see that. See, Easter wasn't the ending of his book. He wanted us to know that since Easter has changed everything, we now have a purpose to bring that Easter message to the world. It's a purpose that is a command and a promise. The command is that we go into all the world and make disciples of all nations. The promise is that he will be with us always to the very end of the age. Command and promise. We follow his command and we trust his promise.