Lesson Eight

The Church, as the hope of the world:

a) The book of Revelation portrays the Church as the hope of the world along with Christ. But from the world’s standards the Church is at the bottom. Church is second to many of our priorities. Church has a bad rap in history. Church is outdated and old fashioned and irrelevant to where real life is happens.

b) Many embrace Christ but hesitate to embrace his Church. This breaks Jesus’ heart who gave his life for the Church. And more and more Christians today are attending Church less consistently, catering to what this life has to offer.

c) God reminds us in 1 Corinthians 1 that God used the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. God used uneducated men to preach Christ crucified in the power of the Gospel. This was a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks. But it’s the power of God. Where the world is chasing after human knowledge “to be someone,” the Church chases after Christ crucified “to be with God,” experiencing the power of gospel.

d) God is still using the Church when the world has turned their back on the Church. Be careful not to follow the world in this way of living. Make Church more of a central priority of your weekly activities. This is Jesus’ desire for his people.

e) The proof that the Church is the hope of the world can start to be seen in the halo effect calculator. When Government tried to shutdown the Church in Canada, they backed off when they discovered the halo effect amount. This is how much more money the government would need in the budget to replace the free services that the Church offers people. The halo effect of the Church’s impact in Canada is $193,000,000. Wow.

f) At the least the Church saves us tax dollars. Yet it does so much more!!!! Jesus said it best: “...I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail.” (Matthew 16:18)

g) Other topics discussed:

- The aseity of God’s holiness (Exodus 3)

- What is the image of God? (Genesis 1:27; 5:1)

- How to live from the inside out and not from the outside in (Matthew 22:36-40; Matthew 5:38-40; Romans 12:2)

- Priority and power “to be” over “to do” (Genesis 2:3; Exodus 20:8-11; Matthew 11:28-29)

- What is sin? What is the opposite of sin? (1 John 2:16; Philippians 2:7; 1 Timothy 4:7-8)

- Why God allows his Church to suffer in the world? (James 1:2-8)

- How to repurpose our sufferings (Genesis 50:20; Romans 8:28; Ephesians 6:10-20)