Category: Gospel (Page 7 of 7)

When I was young I never thought about getting old.  Days were long.  Years were a road stretching without end over the horizon.  I’m not young anymore.  Aging and disability are constant companions.  Death blocks the horizon.

So I’m most interested in what the women found at Jesus’ tomb.  It was early dawn, the first day of the week, our Sunday.  They carried spices to properly prepare Jesus’ body for burial, Joseph and Nicodemus having hurriedly buried him Friday before sundown.

They found that the stone covering the entrance had been rolled aside.
So they went in, but they couldn’t find the body of the Lord Jesus.
They were puzzled, trying to think what could have happened to it (Luke 24:2,3—NLT)

Here starts the skeptics’ theories.  Somebody stole his body.  (Mary Magdalene herself presumed this—John 20:2.)  Jesus never died, just passed out until the tomb’s cool air revived him.  The women (having a notoriously poor sense of direction!) went to the wrong tomb.  I won’t refute each theory in detail.  I’ll just note how interesting that most skeptics contentedly accept the historicity of Jesus’ death, but dismiss resurrection
with an arrogant wave of the hand.  (Suppose that’s because accepting the miracle they’d be compelled to bow before Jesus’ authority?)
I prefer believing the whole gospel account.  That doesn’t make me smarter (or dumber, depending on your viewpoint); it makes me a recipient of God’s mind-revealing, heart-softening amazing grace.  It takes away cynicism layered on by life and makes me once again a child who simply stands in wonder at the empty tomb  . . .

Suddenly, two men appeared to them, clothed in dazzling robes.
The women were terrified and bowed low before them.
Then the men asked, “Why are you looking in a tomb for someone who is alive?
He isn’t here!  He has risen from the dead!” (Luke 24:4b,5—NLT).

Death undone!  Why go to his grave?  He has risen!  The good news announces that . . .

• All authority belongs to him.  “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Jesus—Matthew 28:18, ESV).
• Risen and ascended, he has poured out the Holy Spirit to live in us.  “Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing” (Peter preaching—Acts 2:33, ESV).
• He is transforming us into the likeness of Christ.  “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.  For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 5:18, ESV).
• God will raise us from the dead.  “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11, ESV).

The same day the women found the tomb empty, two disciples walked from Jerusalem to Emmaus.  Jesus caught up with them, “but God kept them from recognizing him” (Luke 24:16, ESV).  He asked what they were talking about.  About Jesus crucified and his empty tomb, they answered.  And ” . . . we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel” (Luke 24:21, ESV). Jesus said,  ‘You foolish men! So slow to believe all that the prophets have said! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer before entering into his glory?’ (Luke 24:25,26, NJB).

Sometimes I’m stuck in a tomb of depression.  I’m looking for Jesus in my darkness.  Wrong place.  The One who is alive isn’t there.  He’s risen!  Other times I’m a fool, thinking that age and illness deaden my dreams, faith itself wavering.  But Jesus risen is my hope.

That’s why this climax to the gospel narrative carries such significance.  That’s why reading these accounts is so transformative.  That’s why celebrating Resurrection Sunday turns me again into a little child full of wonder.  And that’s why the words of this triumphant hymn grab hold of my heart . . .

Chris the Lord is risen today, Alleluia!
Sons of men and angels say, Alleluia!
Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia!
Sing, ye heavens, and earth reply, Alleluia!

Lives again our glorious King, Alleluia!
Where, O death, is now thy sting? Alleluia!
Dying once he all doth save, Alleluia!
Where they victory, O grave?  Alleluia!

Love’s redeeming work is done, Alleluia!
Fought the fight, the battle won, Alleluia!
Death in vain forbids him rise, Alleluia!
Christ has opened Paradise, Alleluia!

Soar we now where Christ has led, Alleluia!
Following our exalted Head, Alleluia!
Made like Him, like Him we rise, Alleluia!
Ours the cross, the grave, the skies, Alleluia!

Sing in faith, in hope and in triumph.  Click on the link below, then on the first video, and against every skeptic and every doubt, rejoice in our Risen Lord!  I WILL RISE!

https://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=ApxNv8aH9NlFLWE0gamRxo2bvZx4?p=%22I+Wil+Rise%22+Youtube&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-318&fp=1 

Good Friday was bad for Jesus.  (Though, for one of those counter-balancing biblical  statements see Hebrews 12:2 that surprisingly tells us Jesus endured the cross “for the joy that was set before him”.)

Early Friday morning.  The Jewish Council binds Jesus and takes him to the Roman governor Pilate.  The night before in Gethsemane garden a sword-armed mob from the chief priest had arrested him.  His disciples ran.  After the Jewish Council at a special midnight meeting found Jesus guilty of blasphemy (for calling himself Christ), they showed up with the sunrise at Pilate’s door because Rome had banned Jewish executions.  They need Pilate to complete the crime.  Their outrageous charges mean nothing to the governor, who would have freed Jesus had it not been for an agitated mob crying “Crucify him!”  Fearing a riot (and a political black mark from Caesar), Pilate surrenders.

Friday 9 a.m.  Jesus is spiked to a cross, a condemned robber on either side.  The charge, intended to discourage copy-cat crimes, is nailed over his head:  “THE KING OF THE JEWS”.  Passers-by laugh at him.  Chief priests mock him.  The thieves revile him.

Friday Noon to 3 p.m.  Darkness.  It’s as if the created heavens are convulsing at the Creator’s crucifixion.

Friday 3 p.m.  Jesus’ pitiful scream pierces the darkness:  “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  He breathes his last.  Jesus becomes another Jewish corpse sagging on a bloody cross.

Described medically, crucifixion was sadistically cruel.  Described spiritually, apart from the Holy Spirit’s enlightenment, it was beyond belief.  The prophet Isaiah described Jesus’ crucifixion like this:  “the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6a).  The apostle Paul explained it this way:  “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).  Those statements—except for their familiarity—are mind-blowing.  The Lord took all my sins off me and put them on Jesus!  He made sinless Jesus to be sin for our sake—so we sinners could become God’s righteousness!

Good Friday, bad for Jesus, was infinitely good for us who believe gospel news like this . . .

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed (Isaiah 53:4,5).

For while we were still weak,
at the right time Christ died for the ungodly (Romans 5:6)

. . . but God shows his love for us
in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8)

Christ loved us and gave himself up for us,
a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God (Ephesians 5:2).

. . . [Christ] has appeared once for all at the end of the ages
to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself (Hebrews 9:26).

. . . we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ
once for all (Hebrews 10:10).

For Christ also suffered once for sins,
the righteous for the unrighteous,
that he might bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18)

Worthy are you [Lamb of God] . . . for you were slain
and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on earth (Revelation 5:9,10).

This is why on Good Friday we soberly reflect on Jesus’ suffering.  It’s why we rejoice worshipfully at Jesus’ sacrifice.  And why we bow in awe at the throne of our providential God who turned Friday the Bad into Friday the Good.

Labor Day.  Ah, rest!  No school.  No work (just barbecuing or sale-shopping or catching up on long-left-undone household chores).  Thank you, government, for marking the first Monday in September to recognize American workers’ contribution to the country’s prosperity!  We all get a
day off!  But Tuesday will soon dawn and we’ll trek wearily back again to work or school.

This short-lived, superficial holiday rest is one reason why Jesus’ words are so welcoming . . .

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Jesus–Matthew 11:28-30).

Soul-rest reaches far more deeply than body rest on a Beauty Rest.
It’s rest from . . .

• having to keep religious rules or moral laws to get right with God
• having to prove to yourself that you have self-worth
• having to show that you measure up in others’ eyes
• having to achieve success in life according to society’s scorecard
• having to discover inner peace by buying some pop guru’s secret method
• having to escape from stress by falling into potentially self-destructive addictions
• having to follow a philosophy that you already know can’t deliver what it promises

Only Jesus gives soul-rest.  The invitation is, “Come to me . . . ” 

Weary and weighted down by falling short of getting right with God?  Of never being sure you’re worth so much?  Of always being last-pick to play on the team?  Of always having to congratulate somebody else for winning?  Of getting stressed that the secret method to inner peace doesn’t work for you?  Of eating too much or drinking too much or smoking too much to escape the “too much” of your life?  Of following ideas that you already know won’t give what you want?

I’m tempted to say, “Try Jesus.”  But we don’t try Jesus.  We come to Jesus admitting we’re too weary to try anything else that demands anything more from us.  We come to Jesus so weighted down that, honestly, we come crawling.  We come to Jesus finally being convinced there’s no one else to whom we can come.  We come to Jesus with nothing to offer but our own failures and sins.  We come to Jesus so desperate we’re ready to follow wherever he leads.  We come to Jesus like frightened little children grasping his strong hand.

And, when we come to Jesus like that, we discover five gracious gifts:

1. He welcomes us with love that says, “I’ve been waiting for you.  In fact, I’ve been chasing you.  I’m so glad you’re here.”
2. He forgives all our sins and shows us his nail-scarred hands to prove that the Father’s just and holy wrath against us is satisfied and his righteousness is ours.
3. He puts his yoke of discipleship on our shoulders–then promises to give us the power it takes to walk in his ways.
4. He guarantees no one can snatch us out of his hand or separate us from his love.
5. And with a big smile in his eyes he whispers, “This is only the beginning.  You haven’t seen anything yet!”

Come, ye sinners, poor and needy, Weak and wounded, sick and sore;
Jesus ready stands to save you, Full of pity, love and power.

Come, ye thirsty, come and welcome, God’s free bounty glorify
True belief and true repentance, Every grace that brings you nigh.

Come, ye weary, heavy laden, Lost and ruined by the fall;
If you wait until you’re better, You will never come at all.

I will arise and go to Jesus; He will embrace me in his arms;
In the arms of my dear Savior, O there are ten thousand charms.

(“Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy”–Joseph Hart)