Who Have No Hope

1 Thessalonians 4:11-13 - Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody. Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.

Mark 4:11-12 - He told them, "The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that, " 'they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!' "

Romans 11:25 - I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.

1 Corinthians 15:57 - But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Philippians 1:21,23-24 - For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain…I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.

Conclusions:

• Christians in need because of their idleness are not obedient Christians
• The secret is proclaimed to all, but only those who have faith understand
• The secret seems to be that the kingdom of God had drawn near in the coming of Christ
• The so-called mystery religions of Paul’s day used the Greek word in the sense of something that was to be revealed only to the initiated
• Paul himself used mystery to refer to something formerly hidden or obscure but now revealed by God for all to know and understand
• Mystery is used of (1) the incarnation, (2) the death of Christ, (3) God’s purpose to sum up all things in Christ and especially to include both Jews and Gentiles in the New Testament church, (4) the change that will take place at the resurrection, and (5) the plan of God by which both Jew and Gentile, after a period of disobedience by both, will by His mercy be included in the kingdom
• God’s merciful plan to include the Gentiles in His great salvation plan should humble them, not fill them with arrogance
• Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ is victory over condemnation for sin that the law brought over death and the grave, through the death and resurrection of Christ
• Christ was the source and secret of Paul’s continual joy, for Paul’s life found all it’s meaning in Christ
• The gain brought by death is “being with Christ,” so that here Paul is saying that his ultimate concern and most precious possession, both now and forever, is Christ and his relationship to Him
• Being with Christ after death must involve some kind of conscious presence and fellowship

Application:

• When you are in need, is it because of idleness?
• Do you understand the secret?
• Does God's merciful plans to the Gentiles humble you?
• Do you have victory over the condemnation for sin?
• Is your ultimate concern Christ and your relationship to Him?
• Do you desire to depart and be with Christ?

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Conclusions derived from NIV Study Bible