Have you ever stopped to think that if the story of Jesus’ resurrection is true, then everything changes in life?
Jesus’ followers meet Him on a mountaintop in Galilee in Matthew 28. Some worshipped Him, some doubted. Some were ready to believe and worship Jesus as the Risen King, others weren’t so sure.
Jesus tells them “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” He just helped eliminate the doubts of the doubters. He is risen, they can touch Him, talk to Him, hear Him, eat with Him and walk with Him among who knows what else. He is alive.
Because He is alive, all authority has been given to Him to rule over this universe. He conquers sin and death by rising from the dead. He is handed authority over the spiritual realm of the universe as He defeats Satan’s plan at the Cross and in the Resurrection. By rising to life, He asserts His authority over the physical universe so that death is shown to be powerless in front of Him.
With that authority He demands our allegiance. He tells His followers to go make other followers by baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Baptism is the act of initiation into the kingdom of God that Jesus is establishing. It is the first act of obedience for those who wish to follow Jesus.
But being baptized is not enough. Jesus commands His followers to teach the following generations of Jesus followers everything that He has taught them. This teaching is more than information, it is a lifestyle that matches Jesus’ lifestyle. Too often Christians have reduced what it means to follow Jesus down to mere assent to a basic level of information. But this is not enough. If we would be followers of Jesus we need more than information, we need to live out and obey His commands.
Jesus taught His followers information, but then He demonstrated it in action. Sometimes He did the reverse, by demonstrating the lifestyle and then teaching the information that made sense of His actions. To obey Jesus means we are commanded to match His teaching in both doctrine and practice; information and lifestyle. The words of Jesus must be seen in our lives not just heard from our lips.
This requires transparency as we let others see what God is doing in our lives as we seek to follow Jesus. It requires a willingness to go wherever in the world Jesus would send us. It requires a confidence that He is risen from the dead and is with us wherever we go and whatever we do just as He said in Matthew 28, “I will be with you to the very end of the age.”
Jesus has been granted all authority in heaven and earth. He sends His followers to the ends of the world because He has authority there. He commands His followers to baptize in His Name and teach His commands because He has authority granted to Him by the Father, authority that is demonstrated by His rising from the dead.
Will we believe the facts that the tomb is empty? Will we have confidence in Jesus’ authority? Will we obey Him, by going where He sends us, introducing others to Him and seeing them baptized in His Name? Will we obey Him by living and teaching the things that He teaches in the way that He lives?
These are the questions that smack us between the eyes as we consider the implications of Jesus’ resurrection. What will we do with that information? How will Jesus resurrection and authority apply to our lives?
Showing posts with label Jesus Christ. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jesus Christ. Show all posts
Monday, April 16, 2007
Monday, April 9, 2007
Easter Reflections
Some thoughts about Easter after a day to reflect on the message of Jesus’ resurrection in the gospels:
Matthew 28 is almost, but not quite the shortest chapter in the whole gospel of Matthew. I realize that the chapter divisions were not part of the original writings of Matthew and were added over a thousand years later. But to see it put so starkly with chapter divisions is amazing.
The reason I think it is stark is because we can look and see all the verses Matthew devotes to telling the story of Jesus’ betrayal, arrest, trial, execution and burial. 75 verses of Matthew 26 and 66 verses of Matthew 27 detail all of those horrible events. Yet only 15 verses tell the most amazing part of the story, Jesus’ resurrection.
Matthew’s account forces our minds to focus on the simplicity of the truth. It’s the Joe Friday version of the Resurrection. Just the facts, please.
And what a set of facts they are! Just before dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary get up to “go look at the tomb.” On their way an earthquake happens. The ground shakes just as it did in the afternoon on Friday when Jesus died. This earthquake signals the completely opposite story, Jesus is alive.
The earthquake is brought by an angel rolling the stone away from Jesus’ tomb and then casually sitting on it. Yet there are guards posted around this tomb. They are supposed to be keeping the tomb from being opened and Jesus body disappearing. But they cannot prevent the tomb from being opened by the angel.
In fact when the angel appears the guards get frightened out of their wits and fall over as if they are dead men. They faint completely away. Nothing has prepared these battle-hardened and courageous soldiers for what they are seeing. The scene Matthew paints is that they are at their posts with their weapons ready only passed out in fear.
The women come upon this scene, see the guards down and the tomb opened and no doubt think someone has attacked the guards, opened the tomb and stolen Jesus’ body. Then they hear the good words of the angel telling them to not be afraid, He is risen just as He said he would rise. Hurry, go tell His disciples of all this news.
And they run off. But to make sure they have the story right because things could be kind of confusing, after all how can a dead man live, they run into Jesus who says Hello, Greetings. They fall at His feet and worship Him. They are convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that He is alive! They have met the Risen Lord!
Now the guards get back into the picture. They come to, get up and some of them head for the city to report everything that has happened. They know the facts of what happened and they report them to the chief priests and rulers of the people. Those leaders do not like this set of facts and invent a story to explain why Jesus’ body is no longer in the grave.
That story requires people to believe some incredible things happened. First, that the guards fell asleep. Any Roman soldier falling asleep on their post or failing to carry out their assignment would be punished by death. No Roman soldier is going to willingly spread the story that he slept on duty unless he wanted to die.
Second, the guards didn’t just fall asleep but they slept so hard that the disciples could move a two-ton rock without waking them up. The rock moves without any noise being made to disturb the guards’ sleep. No noise from the disciples, no crunching of the ground and pebbles as the rock moves. Right.
Third, the guards are supposed to have slept right through the earthquake. Everyone in the city had to have known about it. You can’t hide an earthquake that is strong enough to move a huge rock. The ground is going to shake; people are going to wake up. But yet these guards were so sound asleep they missed the earth shaking?
Fourth, into all of this sleeping by the guards, the disciples just got lucky. They found everyone asleep, they moved the stone away without a bit of noise and they got Jesus’ dead weight out of the tomb without making any noise to wake up the guards. At night, in the pitch darkness no less as the moon begins to set behind Jerusalem. What an amazing coincidence that the disciples just happened to be there at the right time to get Jesus’ body out of the grave. How lucky can you get?
Matthew is just giving us the facts. Facts that show us the truth that Jesus is alive. He was seen by the women running back into the city. The guards saw the angel move the stone and open the tomb as casually as if he had been rearranging his living room furniture. The story is made up by the rulers that has no grounding in reality but is incredibly hopeful in its deception. If the small lie doesn’t work, go for the big one, right?
It is just the facts. We can believe that Jesus rose from dead. The facts are there from those who were present at the time to report the news. Even those who didn’t like the news understood the story and needed to find a way to spin it to their liking and hopefully keep everyone on the same page.
Believe it! He Is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!
Matthew 28 is almost, but not quite the shortest chapter in the whole gospel of Matthew. I realize that the chapter divisions were not part of the original writings of Matthew and were added over a thousand years later. But to see it put so starkly with chapter divisions is amazing.
The reason I think it is stark is because we can look and see all the verses Matthew devotes to telling the story of Jesus’ betrayal, arrest, trial, execution and burial. 75 verses of Matthew 26 and 66 verses of Matthew 27 detail all of those horrible events. Yet only 15 verses tell the most amazing part of the story, Jesus’ resurrection.
Matthew’s account forces our minds to focus on the simplicity of the truth. It’s the Joe Friday version of the Resurrection. Just the facts, please.
And what a set of facts they are! Just before dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary get up to “go look at the tomb.” On their way an earthquake happens. The ground shakes just as it did in the afternoon on Friday when Jesus died. This earthquake signals the completely opposite story, Jesus is alive.
The earthquake is brought by an angel rolling the stone away from Jesus’ tomb and then casually sitting on it. Yet there are guards posted around this tomb. They are supposed to be keeping the tomb from being opened and Jesus body disappearing. But they cannot prevent the tomb from being opened by the angel.
In fact when the angel appears the guards get frightened out of their wits and fall over as if they are dead men. They faint completely away. Nothing has prepared these battle-hardened and courageous soldiers for what they are seeing. The scene Matthew paints is that they are at their posts with their weapons ready only passed out in fear.
The women come upon this scene, see the guards down and the tomb opened and no doubt think someone has attacked the guards, opened the tomb and stolen Jesus’ body. Then they hear the good words of the angel telling them to not be afraid, He is risen just as He said he would rise. Hurry, go tell His disciples of all this news.
And they run off. But to make sure they have the story right because things could be kind of confusing, after all how can a dead man live, they run into Jesus who says Hello, Greetings. They fall at His feet and worship Him. They are convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that He is alive! They have met the Risen Lord!
Now the guards get back into the picture. They come to, get up and some of them head for the city to report everything that has happened. They know the facts of what happened and they report them to the chief priests and rulers of the people. Those leaders do not like this set of facts and invent a story to explain why Jesus’ body is no longer in the grave.
That story requires people to believe some incredible things happened. First, that the guards fell asleep. Any Roman soldier falling asleep on their post or failing to carry out their assignment would be punished by death. No Roman soldier is going to willingly spread the story that he slept on duty unless he wanted to die.
Second, the guards didn’t just fall asleep but they slept so hard that the disciples could move a two-ton rock without waking them up. The rock moves without any noise being made to disturb the guards’ sleep. No noise from the disciples, no crunching of the ground and pebbles as the rock moves. Right.
Third, the guards are supposed to have slept right through the earthquake. Everyone in the city had to have known about it. You can’t hide an earthquake that is strong enough to move a huge rock. The ground is going to shake; people are going to wake up. But yet these guards were so sound asleep they missed the earth shaking?
Fourth, into all of this sleeping by the guards, the disciples just got lucky. They found everyone asleep, they moved the stone away without a bit of noise and they got Jesus’ dead weight out of the tomb without making any noise to wake up the guards. At night, in the pitch darkness no less as the moon begins to set behind Jerusalem. What an amazing coincidence that the disciples just happened to be there at the right time to get Jesus’ body out of the grave. How lucky can you get?
Matthew is just giving us the facts. Facts that show us the truth that Jesus is alive. He was seen by the women running back into the city. The guards saw the angel move the stone and open the tomb as casually as if he had been rearranging his living room furniture. The story is made up by the rulers that has no grounding in reality but is incredibly hopeful in its deception. If the small lie doesn’t work, go for the big one, right?
It is just the facts. We can believe that Jesus rose from dead. The facts are there from those who were present at the time to report the news. Even those who didn’t like the news understood the story and needed to find a way to spin it to their liking and hopefully keep everyone on the same page.
Believe it! He Is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Friday, April 6, 2007
Good Friday...
He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree,that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.
By His wounds you have been healed.
1 Peter 2:24
Thursday, April 5, 2007
The Last Supper
As they were reclining at table and eating, Jesus said,"Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me, one who is eating with Me."
Mark 14:18
So after receiving the morsel of bread, he immediately went out.
And it was night.
John 13:30
And as they were eating, He took bread,
and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them and said,
"Take, this is My body."
And He took a cup,
and when He had given thanks He gave it to them,
and they all drank of it.
And He said to them,
"This is my blood of the covenant,
which is poured out for many.
Truly, I say to you,
I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine
until that day when I drink it new
in the kingdom of God.
Mark 14:22-25
Monday, April 2, 2007
It is Not Supposed to Be Funny
Last night my church put on a drama skit called The Trial during our Sunday evening worship service. It was the culmination of weeks of practice for the 12 people involved in the skit. Overall they did a fairly good job considering only one or two of them have a sense of drama or acting in telling a story. However, no one is going to say they are ready for the big stage as actors or costume designers.
The drama was about the trial of Jesus and was taken as much as possible from the words of Scripture in the four Gospels. One of the ladies in the church had been working on it for a few years putting together the different pieces from the different Gospel accounts to create a harmonized version that told the story of Jesus’ arrest and trial in a simple way.
Given that we are a small church, this was an ambitious undertaking. The hope was that we would use this play as an outreach to the friends and family members of the people of our church. When I looked around, I noticed that the church was fairly full and about one-third of those people were visitors. So I thought it was reasonably successful in being in an outreach.
The idea was to keep the play simple and yet the storyline faithful to the Gospel accounts. In reading the script ahead of time and watching the practices, I thought they had done a fairly good job in keeping to that goal. It wasn’t the Jesus Film or The Passion of The Christ, but for our church and our location it was pretty good.
Yet during the play something unusual happened. After Jesus is arrested and brought to the house of Caiaphas to be tried before the chief priests and rulers, He is beaten by the guards who blindfold Him and tell Him to prophesy who hit Him. It is the first of several beatings in the play that ultimately culminate in Jesus’ scourging as commanded by the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate.
In the play last night every time Jesus was struck people would chuckle. It started early as a little tittering here and there, but by the end people were laughing great big belly laughs every time the actor playing Jesus was hit. When it was just a little tittering I thought that was weird, but by the end I was appalled. It was as if the people weren’t seeing the story played out on stage.
Now I admit no one on that stage was going for an Oscar or a Tony award. It may be that the people were amused by the scene of a very popular elder in the church being struck by another well-liked elder. But when the action was taken off stage but with sound effects continuing to demonstrate the brutality of the beating given to Jesus, the laughing got louder. When the two actors playing Jesus and the Roman soldier came back on stage and the one playing Jesus was covered in stage blood with torn clothes and bloody purple robe on his shoulders, the audience lost it laughing so hard.
How horribly tragic.
Even my almost ten-year-old came up to me right after the play and said, “Dad, that wasn’t a drama. It was a comedy!” What a thing to have left as an impression upon a kid who knows better. The story of Jesus’ trial and suffering became a comedy of laughter for many people. This should have caused us the greatest shock and sadness as we realized what was happening on stage.
The most horrific event in human history should not be seen as a comedy. It is not a laughing matter that Jesus suffered and died in our place. We shouldn’t laugh at His beating or give people a reason to laugh about it as if it were some great form of entertainment like the Romans feeding Christians to the lions.
The seriousness of our sin problem gets downplayed when Jesus’ suffering is seen as entertainment. We dishonor Christ when we laugh or cause other people to laugh about His standing in our place to be punished for our sin and to defeat sin. I am appalled that such a dishonoring of the suffering of Jesus Christ took place in church. I understand when such things happen elsewhere, though I do not like it. But in church? It should never happen.
The suffering of Jesus Christ is no laughing matter. It is not a comedy, people.
Lord, forgive us for making light of your suffering and death. Forgive us for laughing when we should have been crying. Help us to see with better eyes the seriousness of our sin and the greatness of your sacrifice on our behalf. In your precious Name we pray, Amen.
The drama was about the trial of Jesus and was taken as much as possible from the words of Scripture in the four Gospels. One of the ladies in the church had been working on it for a few years putting together the different pieces from the different Gospel accounts to create a harmonized version that told the story of Jesus’ arrest and trial in a simple way.
Given that we are a small church, this was an ambitious undertaking. The hope was that we would use this play as an outreach to the friends and family members of the people of our church. When I looked around, I noticed that the church was fairly full and about one-third of those people were visitors. So I thought it was reasonably successful in being in an outreach.
The idea was to keep the play simple and yet the storyline faithful to the Gospel accounts. In reading the script ahead of time and watching the practices, I thought they had done a fairly good job in keeping to that goal. It wasn’t the Jesus Film or The Passion of The Christ, but for our church and our location it was pretty good.
Yet during the play something unusual happened. After Jesus is arrested and brought to the house of Caiaphas to be tried before the chief priests and rulers, He is beaten by the guards who blindfold Him and tell Him to prophesy who hit Him. It is the first of several beatings in the play that ultimately culminate in Jesus’ scourging as commanded by the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate.
In the play last night every time Jesus was struck people would chuckle. It started early as a little tittering here and there, but by the end people were laughing great big belly laughs every time the actor playing Jesus was hit. When it was just a little tittering I thought that was weird, but by the end I was appalled. It was as if the people weren’t seeing the story played out on stage.
Now I admit no one on that stage was going for an Oscar or a Tony award. It may be that the people were amused by the scene of a very popular elder in the church being struck by another well-liked elder. But when the action was taken off stage but with sound effects continuing to demonstrate the brutality of the beating given to Jesus, the laughing got louder. When the two actors playing Jesus and the Roman soldier came back on stage and the one playing Jesus was covered in stage blood with torn clothes and bloody purple robe on his shoulders, the audience lost it laughing so hard.
How horribly tragic.
Even my almost ten-year-old came up to me right after the play and said, “Dad, that wasn’t a drama. It was a comedy!” What a thing to have left as an impression upon a kid who knows better. The story of Jesus’ trial and suffering became a comedy of laughter for many people. This should have caused us the greatest shock and sadness as we realized what was happening on stage.
The most horrific event in human history should not be seen as a comedy. It is not a laughing matter that Jesus suffered and died in our place. We shouldn’t laugh at His beating or give people a reason to laugh about it as if it were some great form of entertainment like the Romans feeding Christians to the lions.
The seriousness of our sin problem gets downplayed when Jesus’ suffering is seen as entertainment. We dishonor Christ when we laugh or cause other people to laugh about His standing in our place to be punished for our sin and to defeat sin. I am appalled that such a dishonoring of the suffering of Jesus Christ took place in church. I understand when such things happen elsewhere, though I do not like it. But in church? It should never happen.
The suffering of Jesus Christ is no laughing matter. It is not a comedy, people.
Lord, forgive us for making light of your suffering and death. Forgive us for laughing when we should have been crying. Help us to see with better eyes the seriousness of our sin and the greatness of your sacrifice on our behalf. In your precious Name we pray, Amen.
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