Chapter 17 The Life of the World to Come

We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

1. Christians live a life of hope based on the resurrection of Christ and the promise of eternal life with Him.
2. What you believe about what the future holds influences the way you live in the present.
3. The Creed connects the eternal with the present by pointing us forward, giving us a trumpet call to live a life of hope, of faith in Christ that shine optimistically in this dark world.  Not in a foolish, dreamer or Pollyanna-ish way, but in a firm belief in the promises of the One who gave Himself for us.
4. Death doesn't have a "grip" on Christians because in Christ's resurrection, death has been overcome.  There is nothing to fear, only cause for joy & hope.
5. If death is the final weapon, the enemies of Christianity are always frustrated because it has no sting for a follower of Christ.
6. Paul summarizes things perfectly in Philippians 1:21  ...to live is Christ and to die is gain.
7. Verses:
   Phil 3:7-14  But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.  Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
   Rev. 20: 6  Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.
   Acts 24: 14-16  However, I admit that I worship the God of our fathers as a follower of the Way, which they call a sect. I believe everything that agrees with the Law and that is written in the Prophets, and I have the same hope in God as these men, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked. So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man.
   1 Peter 1: 3-9  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, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.