Prisoners of Hope (2)The Story of the Prisoners of Hope

Points covered in this talk1) Introduction: Historical back ground

2) Warning

3) Living Hope

4) The Trinitarian Hope in the Old testament

5) The Cry

6) The Trinitarian Hope in the New Testament

7) The consummation

8) Applications

Zech 9:9

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!

Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!

Behold, your King is coming to you;

He is just and having salvation,

Lowly and riding on a donkey,

A colt, the foal of a donkey.

Zech 9:10I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim

And the horse from Jerusalem;

The battle bow shall be cut off.

He shall speak peace to the nations;

His dominion shall be ‘from sea to sea,

And from the River to the ends of the earth

Zech 9:11

“As for you also,

Because of the blood of your covenant,

I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.

Zech 9:12

Return to the stronghold,

You prisoners of hope.

Even today I declare

That I will restore double to you.

Zech 9:13

For I have bent Judah, My bow,

Fitted the bow with Ephraim,

And raised up your sons, O Zion,

Against your sons, O Greece,

And made you like the sword of a mighty man.”

St. Cyprian's treatise On the Value of Patience

Dear brethren, we must endure and persevere if we are to attain the truth and

freedom we have been allowed to hope for; faith

and hope are the very meaning of our being

Christians, but if faith and hope are to bear their fruit,

patience is necessary.

St Paul’s Warning

And let us 1not grow weary while doing good, for 2in due season we 3shall

reap if we 4do not lose heart. Gal 6:9

St. Cyprian's treatise On the Value of Patience

Paul warns us not to grow weary in good works through

impatience, not to be distracted or overcome by temptations and so

give up in the midst of our pilgrimage of praise and glory,

and allow our past good deeds to count for nothing because what

was begun falls short of completion.

Living Hope

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the

resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 1 Pet 1:3

The Trinitarian model in the Old Testament

“Come near to Me (Son), hear this: I have not

spoken in secret from the beginning; From the time that it was, I was

there. And now the Lord God (Father) and His

Spirit (Holy Spirit) Have sent Me.” Isa 48:16

The Cry !!!

Nor is there any mediator between us,

Who may lay his hand on us both.

Job 9:33

The Trinitarian model in the New Testament

The Mediator has come

To them 1God willed to make known

2what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is 3Christ in you, the hope of glory. Col

1:27

St Cyril of AlexandriaCommentary on the Gospel of St John

After Christ had completed his mission on earth, it still remained necessary for

us to become sharers in the divine nature of the Word. We had to give up

our own life and be so transformed that we would begin to live an entirely new kind of life that would be pleasing to God. This was something we could do

only by sharing in the Holy Spirit.

The Consummation

14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle

wall of separation, 15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of

commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two,

thus making peace, 16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body

through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. 17 And He came and preached peace to

you who were afar off and to those who were near. 18 For through Him we both have access by one

Spirit to the Father. Eph 2:14-18

applications1. Why we long for relationship?

2. Why we the society suffers from individualism ?

3. Why depression is on the rise?

4. The Trinitarian life the is the solution