Greetings and welcome back! Let’s get started on our lesson for today.
Before beginning this lesson, I ask you to stop for a moment and pray if you haven’t already. I am praying for you as I write these lessons. The reason is that God alone can change our hearts, God alone can remove the veil from our minds and show us the gospel (2 Corinthians 3:16-17), and God alone can give us faith to believe it. So we must seek the Lord for heart change and for the transformation that comes to those who believe the gospel.
We’ve been studying this passage from Isaiah in recent lessons:
Isaiah 61:1-3 NIV The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, (2) to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, (3) and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.
We’ve seen that Jesus came to mend broken hearts, proclaim freedom for captives and to release those who are in prisons of darkness. Yesterday we saw an illustration of this from the Old Testament when Abraham went into the darkness to rescue his captive nephew, Lot; Abraham rescued and recovered every single person and thing that had been taken.
We discussed that this was a picture of Jesus Christ who went to the cross on a rescue mission, entered the darkness to retrieve us, and died to save us. He rose from the dead three days later and ascended to heaven, taking us with Him. His rescue was thorough and complete, retrieving us out of Satan’s kingdom, and putting us in the Kingdom of God.
At the end of the previous lesson we asked the question, how do we experience the results of this rescue personally? How does Jesus actually mend our broken hearts? How does He set us free? How does He lift the cloud of darkness off of us?
Well, it would not be good news if I told you the way to experience the power of Christ in liberating you and lifting the cloud off of you was to work your way out of your prison or to try and blow away the dark cloud of depression on your own. It would not be good news if God told us to obey the Law, shape up, live right, feel better, put on a smile and be happy. No, that would be horrible news. That’s the news the world gives, and it is almost as if they are mocking us in our prisons, insulting us in our darkness, not understanding the depths of our pit of despair.
No, in Christ there is far better news than the world offers. And what is this good news? How do we actually experience the work of Christ in our hearts, becoming recipients of all His love to mend us and His power to free us?
It is through faith! It is seeing:
the cross and believing that what Jesus accomplished there is for you.
the blood He shed was to cover your sins.
the death He died was as your Substitute.
the life He sacrificed was because He loves you and would rather die for you than live without you!
Yes, it is by believing the good news that we become partakers of God’s power, that we experience, personally, all the work that Jesus came to do. We may find ourselves in the darkest pit of despondency, the blackest hole, the deepest pit; but when we look to the cross, we find our Savior there ready and able to break us free from the debilitating power of depression.
May I encourage you to take a moment and just listen and watch this song? Pay attention to the second verse, especially. It starts about one and a half minutes into the song.
Question 1. What are your thoughts on the There is a Hope song?
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Harris writes, "That Christ is the hope. I can be well and hopeful just knowing He is with me."
Tori writes, "It is amazing because it is that little ember of hope that burns in us, and allows us to know that there is more. More to the life that we see now, more to our circumstances, more to our problems. Even to have a little ounce of hope to hold on, as God with time makes His power and presence more evident, and the hope more stronger, for God to give us just that hope for us to hang on is powerful. Jesus is our hope, the word of God is our hope and even if we do not believe it so powerfully with time we will and it has enough power to keep us hanging on. I am still discovering God, and I am sure it will be a lifelong journey, but it is this hope that maybe God DOES actually love me, that maybe everything written in the Bible IS real, that even when I do not know or understand it all, I believe, I have hope because I hear God's promises and I realize more and more what our savior did."
Marty writes, "Christ is my hope. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus Christ, His righteousness. I have hope because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross. He is my light and my salvation."
Scot writes, "Keeping my focus on Jesus Christ and his finished work on the cross is the key to freedom from sin and depression. I must keep a singular focus on this truth!"