“Resurrection… Hope!” (April 2024 Update)
Nothing is worse than a feeling of hopelessness! When the doctor comes out of the operating room and says, “I’m sorry. There’s nothing more we can do.” It is a feeling of hopelessness. Sometimes, we have tried everything and nothing works – in fact, things even got worse. And this feeling of hopelessness can overwhelm us. That’s how the disciples felt on the sabbath after Jesus was crucified. They had put all their hopes on Jesus. Not just their hopes – the hope of Israel and the hope of all mankind rested in the person of Jesus. But now, all those hopes were gone. Their long-awaited Messiah was dead. Their teacher and their friend was in the tomb. All hope was lost!
That’s how all the disciples and the followers of Jesus felt after the crucifixion. We see this most clearly in Luke 24:21 where the two disciples on the Emmaus Road meet Jesus. There they express their shattered hopes to him: “But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened.” But the resurrection changed their hopelessness into hope again!
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In Luke 24, we see a number of ways that our hope is restored. First, hope comes from evidence (vv. 1-12). What began to restore their hope was the evidence that Jesus had risen. While they were still not certain, evidence laid the foundation for their belief. In verses 22-24, they tell this to Jesus: “Yes, and certain women of our company, who arrived at the tomb early, astonished us. When they did not find His body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said He was alive. And certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but Him they did not see.” They recounted the evidence of the resurrection. First the women saw the empty tomb, then a few of the disciples went and saw the same thing. The evidence of the resurrection is overwhelming. We see it here. We see it in John 19 when Thomas says that he will not believe unless he could touch the nail prints and the spear wound. We see it in 1 Corinthians 15 when Paul tells us that over 500 saw Jesus at one time and that most of them are alive until now.
When we see the evidence of the resurrection, hope is restored. In fact, there is a book called Who Moved the Stone by Frank Morrison. The book began as Morrison attempted to examine all the resurrection evidence to disprove the resurrection. But the more he researched, the more he became convinced that Jesus did rise from the dead. And Morrison became a believer. Hope comes from the evidence that Jesus is risen.
Second, hope comes from the Scriptures (vv. 21-27 and 44-45). Jesus also gave hope by pointing them back to the scriptures. In fact, everything that happened, he says, was already prophesied in the Scriptures. The scriptures give us hope because they have been proven to be accurate time and time again. And fulfilled prophecy is just one of the many proofs that scripture is 100% reliable. Hope comes from evidence but also from the Word of God.
Third, hope comes from forgiveness (vv. 46-49). After explaining about his resurrection, Jesus then points them to the great hope that the resurrection gives to all – forgiveness of sins! But notice a couple of things. First, Jesus says, “It was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day….” For forgiveness, it was necessary for Jesus to die. Without the cross, the resurrection just shows us the power that Jesus had over death. But Jesus had to die to pay for our sins. But if Jesus dies and stays in the grave, it means that he did not pay for our sins. The resurrection proves and confirms that every sin laid on Jesus was paid in full! Because of the resurrection, we can know that forgiveness has been purchased for us!
Second, Jesus says, “that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” The hope that we have received because of the resurrection is not to be kept to ourselves. It is a hope to be shared with all nations – every nation, tribe and language in the world. That’s why he says to them: “You are witnesses of these things.”
Finally, Jesus says, “Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.” We have hope because of the evidence of the resurrection. We have hope because of the faithfulness of the Scriptures. And we have hope because of the promise of forgiveness of sins. But we also have hope because His Spirit dwells in us and empowers us to be able to tell the world about his death and resurrection and the free gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus! That’s why the resurrection gives us such a great and glorious hope!
Teaching Ministry …
Last month, I had a short break from classes but still had a number of teaching opportunities – all in the week before Easter! First, I taught the first half of Church History (Early Church to the Reformation) at Lightbearers. Lightbearers is a unique disciple-making ministry here in Fayetteville. They have a 9-month program where they provide a year of theology and Bible study for students as a foundation before entering university. They asked me to teach their Church History class this year. It was great with Katya and the girls even having an opportunity to be with me for the class.
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Then on Friday, I was asked to preach at the Good Friday Service at Faith Baptist Church in Huntsville. On Sunday, I preached at the Nursing Home in Fayetteville. It was a busy week but a great joy to be able to preach and teach!
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Now, I’m in the process of preparing to teach two classes in May (one class goes until June 21). I’ll be teaching Research and Writing at Kyiv Theological Seminary from May 13 until June 21. Then (while still teaching the class in Kyiv), I will be teaching Prayer and Worship at Ukrainian Baptist Seminary in Lviv with David Snead. We have been teaching this class for nearly 7 years now. Pray for preparations and for those that will be helping me to teach the classes. This class will be taught on campus, and I will be joining the students via Zoom.
Both seminaries continue to train and teach students even during the war. I continue to be impressed by their desire to continue ministry and theological education even while the war is going on. Both seminaries have made changes to allow students to study online and both have made campus modifications so that classes can continue even when missiles are raining down on their cities. Kyiv Theological Seminary has recently remodeled basement space into beautiful bunker-class rooms so that classes will not need to be interrupted during air-raids. Also, Kyiv Theological Seminary has been hosting a number of seminars to help with ministry during the war. They recently held a training seminar for chaplains serving in the armed forces. And Kyiv Seminary has the only chaplain degree in Ukraine so far. Pray for these schools as they continue to minister in times of great difficulty.
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Ministry Plans and Financial Needs …
It is still hard to believe that we have been in the US now for over 2 years and that our time at the seminaries in Ukraine is drawing to a close (it will be 29 years this fall!). While I still have classes until next November (and some mentoring of new professors in 2025 and maybe 2026), we are in the process of shifting our efforts to help with missions and theological education stateside.
We are planning to help Global Serve International (GSI) with missionary care and with theological training in the coming year. They wanted us to start as soon as last month, but I have too many classes this spring. So, we have told them that we will begin to help in the summer and will help more as I have fewer classes in Ukraine to teach. In case you missed our last update, GSI only sends missionaries to closed (restricted access) countries where missionaries are not permitted. Each missionary works with an unreached people group, learning the language and planting new churches among those people groups. Our job would be to provide pastoral support and counsel for these missionaries on the field and also to provide theological training for those preparing to go.
While we will be helping GSI, we will still be working through Teaching Resources. Basically, we are partnering with them so that we can help provide some help and resources that they are currently lacking. So all of our funding needs to come through Teaching Resources just like it always has. The only change is that we are transitioning our US office to be nearer us. So we have a new mailing address for donations (Teaching Resources International, PO Box 100, Goshen, AR 72735.
Additionally, as time permits, I will be teaching at LightBearers more in the coming year, and I have also been asked to teach missionaries in Northwest Arkansas through Union School of Theology in the fall. They provide Masters Degree level training for missionaries and other ministers. Their goal is for students to finish their degree debt-free! That is especially important for the missionaries that we will be sending out.
Our finances are still a little lower than we need to live in the US. Everything here costs 4-10 times as much as in Ukraine. And we have a number of monthly supporters who are shifting their gifts to other missionaries and ministries since we are now stateside. So we are needing to increase our support by about $800-1000 per month. In short, we need to add some additional families to our regular monthly support team. If you are interested in being part of our support team, information about making donations can be found at the end of this update.
Thank you for your prayers for us as we make this important change for our ministry. We want to continue to be fruitful for the Lord in every good work, as long as He gives strength and opportunity!
Address Change (reminder)
We are in the process of transferring the main mailing address to an office nearer to our home. It would be helpful if you can start sending your gifts to Teaching Resources International, PO Box 100, Goshen, AR 72735. Everything will be the same as before except that we are in the process of moving our main office to this area (we actually live closer to Goshen than Fayetteville). The Post Office will forward all mail but only for 6 months. So, try to change the address for your giving.
Family …
During March, we were able to get some water control work done outside the house. Inside, we are working on building closets. We still have a lot of trim work and finish work inside and we have decks to do outside. But time has been short with all the teaching the last two months.
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But we also had time for some fun activities. We joined a small group of homeschoolers for a Saturday Easter Egg Hunt. And we drove to near the center of the eclipse totality (almost 4 minutes) to watch the eclipse. And we spent time clearing our woods so the kids could play. We had a busy month. We didn’t get our garden started but we hope we can catch up next month.
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Pray for Ukraine …
Please continue to pray for Ukraine. Things are getting more difficult as Russia knows that Ukraine is running short of weapons and ammunition. So, they are sending waves missiles to further reduce Ukraine’s air defense systems. And they have started new offensives in the east where they are sending hundreds of tanks and soldiers into Ukraine’s defenses. It is taking everything Ukraine has to hold them back.
Please pray for our students in Ukraine. The war has greatly affected everyone. More people are interested now in spiritual things. Pray that the gospel will be clear, and that people will come to faith because of Jesus and not just because of the war. Also, please continue to pray for our students, friends and colleagues as they minister in Ukraine.
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Thank you again for your support and prayers! When we look at the situation in Ukraine, we tend to lose hope. But when we look at our risen Savior, we are reminded that our hope is not in “horses or chariots” but in the Lord. We pray that is where you find your hope also!
By His Grace,
Jim and Katya, Kristina and Nadia
If you missed previous updates or just want to read some short theological reflections, you can find these at our website at https://teachingresources.org/ .
Also, some have asked about how to support us. You can send checks to Teaching Resources International, PO Box 100, Goshen, AR 72735 (note: new address) or pay through PayPal on our website. Just put “#1000 Ehrhard” in the memo so our treasurer knows where to allocate the funds.
Some have asked about our personal address now that we are in the states. Our new address is 14680 Magnolia Ridge, Fayetteville, AR 72701.