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Month: April 2018

Righteousness Vindicated

April 21, 2018 /

stone pillars

What’s the use of living a righteous life? Why bother wasting all of your energy trying to follow God and his commands? How can anyone even know what the right thing to do is anyway? Where was God when it mattered most? Are God’s promises even worth the paper they are written on? We prayed, why didn’t God come through and rescue Jesus? What’s the point to holiness? Why stand out in a crowd? Why live a life that is anything other than ordinary? See where it got Jesus? Dead, on a cross, like a common criminal.

While we will never know, these might have been some of the questions swirling in the heads of Jesus’ followers as they watched him arrested, tortured and killed. Questions steeped in doubt and confusion as to the reliability of God, Jesus, his word, and promises.

Over these past few weeks, following Easter, we have been looking together at the wider significance of Jesus’ resurrection. We have already seen that Jesus’ resurrection means freedom from the penalty of sin and our personal salvation. We have also seen Jesus’ resurrections means creation healed and the broken relationships between people and God, each other, themselves, and creation redeemed. Still, the significance of Jesus’ resurrection is even greater.

For Jesus’ followers, still consumed by questions, everything would change three days after Jesus’ death when he would be raised to life and walk, talk, and eat with them. As Jesus was raised from the dead, righteousness was vindicated. The character of God was tested in the public square and proven to be true and reliable by Jesus’ resurrection.

In the book of Deuteronomy, as the people of Israel is being formed into a nation Moses is giving the people instructions on how to live and who they should follow. He cautions the people to be careful of words spoken by one claiming to be a prophet:

“If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a sign or wonder, and if the sign or wonder spoken of takes place, and the prophet says, ‘Let us follow other gods'(gods you have not known) ‘and let us worship them,’ you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer . . . That prophet or dreamer must be put to death for inciting rebellion against the Lord your God. . .” (13:1-3, 5)

Jesus is a prophet who predicted his own death and resurrection three days later. Even more, Jesus was the one predicted by the prophets of old. In Luke 24, shortly after his resurrection, Jesus would join two travelers confused by the events of the past week on the road to Emmaus. As they walked along, Jesus, “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in the Scriptures concerning himself” (vs. 27). Wouldn’t it be great to have a transcript of this conversation? As they walked along Jesus demonstrated to these travelers the faithfulness of God throughout history.

Jesus’ resurrection gives us confidence in the promises of God and true and reliable and the words of Jesus are faithful.

Blessings,
Stephen

All Things New

April 14, 2018 /

Sun over Daytona Beach

Easter is over. Target has marked the last of their pastel-hued sugar infused egg-laying bunnies 90% off and life has returned to its savage monotony. Yet the significance of Easter of far is from over. Last week the question was raised, what if the resurrection of Jesus that we celebrate at Easter means far more than just our individual personal salvation? Over the next few weeks, we are using a book by Dr. Stephen Seamands, Give Them Christ: Preaching His Incarnation, Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension and Return to help us explore the great depths of meaning found in Jesus’ resurrection.

In John 11 we hear the story of the death of Jesus’ friend Lazarus. As would be expected Lazarus’ sisters, Mary and Martha, are grief-stricken and confused. Confused because Jesus didn’t come and heal their brother like he had healed so many others. In response to their questions Jesus says, “Your brother will rise again” (vs. 23). The words sound to us like the words of comfort we give so often at funerals. “One day you will see them again . . .” Martha agrees with Jesus, assuming he is talking about a future resurrection when God will set all things to right, but Jesus is not talking about some random day in the future, Jesus is talking about today. Jesus is pronouncing than an event, he is telling them the resurrection is a person, it is him, and the day of resurrection has come. The day has come when God will make right all that has been broken by sin, our “alienation from God, from each other, from ourselves, and from the land” (Snyder and Scandrett 78). The day every Jew ached with longing for had come.

“What was so stunning, then, to the early Christians about the resurrection of Jesus was not that God raised the dead. Like Martha, they already believed in a general resurrection when God would raise the righteous at the last day. What stunned them and sent them reeling was the timing of it. In the case of Jesus, the general resurrection, which was supposed to happen on the last day, had moved forward from the end into the present. What was supposed to happen on the final day had happened now” (Seamands 105).

Jesus’ resurrection does not mean all has been made new yet. The final redemption of creation is still to come. Still “the resurrection of Jesus has . . . set in motion the final redemption and transformation of all creation” (Seamands 108). The resurrection of Jesus means creation healed from the penalty of sin, death, the power of sin, and ultimately the very presence of sin.

Therefore, as Christians, we are people of mammoth hope. We are able to step into the absolute darkest of situations in life with extravagant hope because we know the power of sin has been broken and the day is coming when all of creation will be made new by Jesus and the very presence and effects of sin will be no more.

In summary, the resurrection of Jesus means not only personal salvation but also the salvation of all of creation. But even these just scratch the surface as we will see in the weeks to come.

 

 

Blessings,
Stephen

 

 

Citations:

Seamands, Stephen A. Give them Christ: preaching his incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and return. IVP Books, 2012.

Snyder, Howard A., and Joel. Scandrette. Salvation means creation healed: the ecology of sin and grace: overcoming the divorce between Earth and Heaven. Kindle Ed., Cascade Books, 2011.

Photo by Ravi Pinisetti on Unsplash

But if Jesus is Raised

April 5, 2018 /

He is Risen

Dear Friends,

A few days ago many of us gathered in our churches for Easter celebrations and the retelling of the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection. At my church we enjoyed a tremendous breakfast prepared by the men of the church, the children made and launched rockets (yes, you read that correctly) and our church family and many guests joined together for a great Easter worship service.

Of all the holidays and festivals in the church, for Christians, none is more important than Easter. Without Easter Christmas is nothing more than a weird and tragic story of a child being born. It is impossible to overstate the importance and significance of the resurrection of Jesus to Christians and human history. As Paul says, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17 NIV). But if Christ is raised, well then that changes everything.

While it is helpful to speak in generalities and say that “everything” has changed but what is the specific significance of the resurrection? Many of us would answer that Jesus died to pay the penalty for our sin so that we might have eternal life and get to go to heaven when we die.

This answer is basically accurate, but it is also significantly inadequate. The resurrection of Jesus means so much more. Over the next several weeks, with the help of a book by Dr. Stephen Seamands, Give Them Christ: Preaching His Incarnation, Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension and Return, we are going to dive deeper into the meaning and significance of the resurrection.

Before we get there, I want to ask you a question: What would you say is the significance of the resurrection of Jesus?

Please feel free to send an e-mail or post a comment. I would love to hear what you have to say.

Blessings,
Stephen

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