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He Presented Himself Alive

In the 50 days from Passover to Pentecost, Jesus was busy!  The first 40 was spent the work of the gospel (Titus 3:5) and in convincing proofs that He indeed had overcome death (Acts 1:3).  In the last 10, He came into His Kingdom while His followers waited for His promise of power and mission to be given (Acts 1:4-8), a promise and mission that would include all those whom He would call to Himself (Acts 36-39).

I.  Acts 1:3.  After His suffering, which would include the events of Passover, Jesus “presented himself alive … by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.”  His purpose was two-fold and can be seen in these two examples: Luke 24:13-27 and John 20:19-28.  Jesus’ work during this period is included in the 1 Corinthians 15:1-7 description of the gospel.

II.  Acts 1:9-11.  Jesus ascending alive into heaven (Luke 24:50-51) answers two questions: where did He go and why did He go?  The first is important for believers to know and explain to others where the One who has conquered death is today and to know that He will return (Hebrews 9:28).  The second shows His work as Priest, Savior, and Intercessor (Hebrews 7:23-25) and His role as He comes into His Kingdom with authority over all, even the church (Ephesians 1:19-23).

III.  Acts 1:4-8.  While Jesus came into His Kingdom, His followers waited in Jerusalem for the fulfillment of His promise to them of power and mission (Luke 24:52-53).  It was fulfilled by the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon them (Acts 2:1-4) and the first gospel message that instructed so many from all over the known world that Jesus was indeed alive and had conquered death for all those who obey the gospel (Acts 2:36-41), which includes us if we indeed die with Christ to live with Him (Romans 6:8-11).

Given the gift of the Holy Spirit when we believe, confess ‘Jesus as Lord’ (cut to the heart), repent, and are baptized into Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins, we too accept the mission to spread the message that Jesus is alive to the ends of the earth.  How are you doing with it?

 

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How Long Will You Go Limping …?

Elijah describes those who should have been God’s people in his day as “limping between two opinions.”  That is a good way to describe those in the church that have grown complacent and compromised in their faith and the lost but searching that we’d like to reach with the gospel.  In the contest he forces between the impotent false gods the people were worshiping and God Himself, Elijah shows God to be GOD! with tremendous power.

I.  1 Kings 18:11-39.  Just how difficult those in power had made it for God’s people who were truly seeking to worship God in spirit and in truth is evident when Elijah tries to send Obadiah, one of the Lord’s prophets, to force the contest with Ahab and Jezebel.  Obadiah relates how the faithful are being persecuted and how prevalent enforced idolatry is in the culture.  In the contest on Mount Carmel, true power is displayed from God, the people see this, and their decision to choose God cancels out the power those in power believed they had over the people as the false prophets are put to death.

II.  Acts 2:22-39.  In Jesus’ time on earth, those in power feared the opinion of the people as well (John 11:45-48), and when it began to turn towards hailing Jesus, they sought to put Him to death (Luke 22:1-2).  With a “hard saying” Jesus, like Elijah, sought to make the spiritually limping among those who should have been God’s people choose between opinions (John 6:25-69).  Most left Him then but not “the twelve” at that time, Peter wisely answering, “Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.”  After Jesus’ death and resurrection, the gospel confronts us with the same choice.

III.  Romans 10:9-15.  The only way that the lost will be reached with that choice (call on His Name) is if those who have already obeyed the gospel (Romans 6:3-5) go (are sent) … so the power of the gospel is presented as a choice (is preached and they hear it) … because they believe it.  First, we must truly believe it ourselves (John 8:24).  Far too often, Christians fear the opinion of the people controlled by those in power and our love grows cold (Matthew 24:9-13).  Instead, we must love through obedience (John 14:15) and sacrificial living (Romans 12:1-2) to love the limping as Jesus did (John 13:34-35).

Are you limping between two opinions?  See the power of God in dying on the cross for your sins and being raised from death for your eternal life.

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Have You Counted the Cost?

In the story of Dr. Faustus, a man exchanges his soul to the devil for all that the world has to offer, but eventually payment comes due!  How many believe themselves walking on the narrow path that leads to eternal life but because they have compromised with the world, find their feet on the broad road that leads to destruction?

I.  Matthew 7:13-14.  The first verse of the hymn, “Have You Counted the Cost?” challenges us to examine our walk with Christ:

There’s a line that is drawn by rejecting our Lord, Where the call of His Spirit is lost,

And you hurry along with the pleasure mad throng, Have you counted, have you counted the cost?

Our whole duty is to fear and obey God (Ecclesiastes 12:12-13).  Why?  Judgment is coming.  We will be judged by every word of the Word (John 12:48).  His Word is a living standard by which we must give an account (Hebrews 4:11-13).  Even if we’ve obeyed the gospel and on that narrow road, we must make every effort to obey (Mark 8:34) and not be compromised with the world (1 John 2:3-6).  Do you cross His line?

II. Matthew 6:19-21.  The second verse challenges us to examine where we are storing our treasure:

You may barter your hope of eternity’s morn, For a moment of joy at the most,

For the glitter of sin and the things it will win, Have you counted, have you counted the cost?

We are either storing up treasure for this temporary life or for eternal life (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).  Some justify disobedience because the trials of life are difficult, but we must persevere instead (1 Peter 1:3-7).  Sin does attract us (Mark 8:35), and Satan knows exactly which lure to use for each of us.  Obedience or disobedience in this temporary life has eternal consequences (Revelation 21:22-27).  Do you barter your hope?

III.  Matthew 4:5-7.  The third verse asks us if we test God when we’re put to the test:

While the door of His mercy is open to you, E’er the depth of His love you exhaust,

Won’t you come and be healed, won’t you whisper, I yield, Have you counted, have you counted the cost?

Time is the gift that God gives us to repent (2 Peter 3:9).  Unlike Jesus who recognized that His time of testing was not an excuse to test God, we often give in when struggles are hard.  God’s patience, kindness, and mercy are intended to return us to Him (Romans 2:3-8).  Our giving in is denying Him (Mark 8:38).  Rather we should submit our lives to Jesus (James 4:7-10) and live through the gospel.  Is the door open to you?

The chilling chorus compels us each to answer to questions:

Have you counted the cost, if your soul should be lost, Tho’ you gain the whole world for your own?

Even now it may be that the line you have crossed, Have you counted, have you counted the cost?

 

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They’ll Know We are Christians …

Loud is the world in its various forms and cluttered is our landscape with signs and advertising. It’s so hard to escape the bombardment–and still we fill our quiet time with TV in our homes and the radio in our cars.  Yet God tells us, “In returning and rest (or repentance) you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength …” Isaiah 30:15.  Must we compete with the world to reach out with the gospel?  And how do we be IN the world without being OF the world?  They hymn, “They’ll Know We are Christians” helps us to know:

I.  Ephesians 4:1-6.  They’ll know we are Christians by our warfare.  As the first stanza goes:

We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord, We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord, And we pray that our unity may one day be restored

Unity in Christ is a big factor in being to wage war not as the world does but with divine power to demolish strongholds and take thoughts captive for Christ (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).  When Elijah was struggling after Jezebel threatened his life, God restored him with hot food and quiet rest, told him he was not alone, and reminded him that He was found not in the ways the world defined power but in “thin silence” (1 Kings 19:9-13).

II.  1 John 1:5–2:6.  They’ll know we are Christians by our walk.  The second stanza continues:

We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand, We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand, And together we’ll spread the news that God is in our land

First, we must walk with God in the light because His very nature is light.  Then, we find Jesus’ blood washing us clean as we walk in fellowship with others who are also walking in the light.  This means walking in obedience to truly know God and walking as Jesus did as an imitation of Him.  Only then are we in a position to teach the gospel as it comes from the same compassion for the lost that Jesus had (Matthew 9:35-38).

III.  Luke 18:35-43.  They’ll know we are Christians by our worship.  The final stanza declares:

All praise to the Father, from whom all things come, And all praise to Christ Jesus, His only Son, And all praise to the Spirit who makes us one

After a blind beggar, who had faith to be made well, was healed by Jesus, he “followed him, glorifying God.”  The passage concludes with the people who saw this giving praise to God as well.  We must give praise continually to God (Psalm 99:1-9).  When we live our lives as a living sacrifice, others see our spiritual act of worship (Romans 12:1-2) and give God praise and glory too.  This subtle advertising is the best billboard for the gospel.

The song concludes by telling us that it is by our love–even for those hardest to love–that the world will know that we are followers of Christ … just as Jesus told us (John 13:34-35, Matthew 5:43-48, 1 John 3:11-24):

And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love, Yes they’ll know we are Christians by our love.

Do they know that you’re a Christian?

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From the Beginning

Since God is eternal without time, then what we know of time from creation to consummation is the smallest speck of dust on forever.  And yet, the humanists of our culture have cancelled creation to rid our existence of sin and consummation to rid us of judgment.  In their arrogance, they have declared themselves gods over a never-ending present time when we can all “do what feels good” without repercussions. Anyone who disagrees with them is cancelled or persecuted in other ways.

I.  Matthew 19:3-9.  When the Pharisees tested Jesus on the subject of divorce, He gave us a strategy of how to deal with the humanists in our culture today.  Twice, He referred them back to how God intended for things to be “from the beginning.”  For all of their insistence that their legalistic righteousness and standards they had established were the ones to follow (Romans 10:1-4), Jesus let them and the Jews who had believed Him know that slavery was found in sin and freedom in truth (how our culture has this backwards!).  Though they insisted that God was their Father, Jesus told them that their works and their inability to bear His words revealed their true parentage (John 8:31-47).

II.  Matthew 24:36-39.  The One who is from eternity confirms in these few verses the attitude of the culture before Noah and how similar it is to the attitude of the culture before He comes again.  He confirms the judgment on Noah’s world by a global flood by comparing the judgment to come on this present world.  Thus, Jesus confirms the salvation and covenant God made with Noah and his family we read about in Genesis 6-9 by comparing it with the salvation and covenant He makes with us through the water of baptism into Christ (1 Peter 3:18-22).  And yet through Peter, God also tells us that scoffers–mockers, humanists, evolutionists–will cancel us in the last days (2 Peter 3:3-7).

III.  John 1:1-3.  The eternal Christ is in the perfect position to tell us how things were “from the beginning.”  After all, He is God while being with God, and it is through Him that all things were made.  He was there “from the beginning” because He was “in the beginning.”  Here’s where the Pharisees or certain Jews of Jesus’ time on earth in the flesh are so like the humanists of our culture today.  Although they are finite in their limited existence, they nevertheless shake their fists at God when they declare themselves to be gods.  In their arrogant attitudes, they make earthly standards and then insist that all others adhere to them–or else (Romans 10:1-4).  It will not go well for them in the end.

Still, we need to know that the everlasting God (Psalm 90:2) is in control of our seemingly out of control world.  And we need to let Him and His Word control our attitudes more than the culture does.

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You Troubler of Israel

Are those striving to live for God the problem in today’s world or those who have left His standard for their own?  The wicked king Ahab tried to label the prophet Elijah a “troubler” but was quickly told that it was his evil that was troubling the nation.  Who’s the real troubler in our humanistic culture today?

I. 1 Kings 18:17-19.  In his 1989 hit, Billy Joel famously sang, “We didn’t start the fire.”  This is where Ahab and the leaders and influencers in our humanistic culture believe they can call those who live by the Lord’s commandments “troublers.”  After all, Ahab didn’t introduce the worship of foreign gods; that was Solomon and Jeroboam before him.  He was just a product of the culture he inherited (1 Kings 16:30-33).  In the same way, humanists believe that Christians stand opposed to their commandments to live within the fire we’ve all inherited.

II. 1 John 1:5-10.  Billy Joel’s song continues, “No, we didn’t light it, but we’re trying to fight it.”  Ahab and today’s humanists excuse their actions because their intentions are good, but they do not step into the light to let their deeds be known for their darkness (John 3:19-21).  Thus, they judge evil as good and good as evil (Isaiah 5:18-23).  No excuses will do (Luke 14:18-24), and they truly believe that they render a service to the gods of their making (John 16:1-3) while they persecute God’s people.  We can know them by their fruit (Matthew 7:15-20).

III.  Romans 1:18-32.  Judgment is coming for our humanistic culture whether they acknowledge it or not (Matthew 7:13-14).  As those who profess to follow God, we must be careful not to get caught up in it and live a compromised, lukewarm faith like Ahab believed about himself in his time.  The “tolerant” who follow the false religion of Humanism today believe that only man can be man’s savior and so government is god, and so they are intolerant of any who deviate from their politics and edicts, labeling them like Elijah was–troublers!

Are you a proud “troubler” according to the culture?  Or does the world not even know that you once professed to oppose them when you obeyed the gospel?  Have you compromised with the culture and think yourself better than those around you by degree of worldliness?  What would you have to change to no longer live by the excuses you make and be called a “troubler” by the world?

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Up from the Grave He Arose

Last July, six year-old Bridger Walker threw himself in front of a mean dog to shield his little sister from certain death.  After the dog tore open his face, he still got her to safety.  When asked why he did it, he said that as the big brother, “If someone had to die, I thought it should be me.”  Isn’t this what Jesus determined at Gethsemane and Calvary that He must do for us?  Just as the scars that Bridger carries are a reminder of the love he has for his sister, Jesus, being fully God, shields us from certain death by rising from the grave.

I.  Luke 24:1-7.  At the tomb, Jesus conquered our death problem.  Because we’ve all sinned (Romans 3:23), we’ve all earned death, but the gift of eternal life can now come to us because Jesus conquered death (Romans 6:23).  He was fully man to be our sacrifice, yes, but He was fully God to be our Savior.  We no longer need to be held in slavery to our fear of death because Jesus conquered (Hebrews 2:14-16).

II.  1 Corinthians 15:1-26.  At the tomb, Jesus had to be fully God to be our Savior.  The leaders of every other world religion died; only in Christianity do we serve a risen Savior.  Jesus reveals His divinity by promising to raise Himself from the dead (John 2:18-22).  On Pentecost, Peter confirms this by stating that God raised Him (Acts 2:22-24).  Because Jesus was fully God, the gospel can save us.

III.  1 Corinthians 15:42-57.  We can rise with Jesus who was fully God to be our Savior.  We, who die in Christ, will also live in Him.  Because death has been conquered, we can have victory in Jesus.  But we must obey.  Jesus’ work at the cross and at the tomb is ours to obey (Romans 6:3-5).  Because Jesus overcame death, He became our source of eternal salvation if we obey (Hebrews 5:7-9).

As noble as Bridger Walker’s saving of his sister was, Jesus’ conquering of death for all who obey the gospel is a better salvation story.  Have you obeyed it?

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Certainly This Man Was Innocent!

From Gethsemane through Calvary, we can see how Jesus, being fully man, became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him (Hebrews 5:7-9).  Because of sin, man owed a debt to God he could not pay, so God became a man to pay man’s debt to God.  In the gospel, Jesus was fully God to be our Savior, yes, but He was fully man to be our sacrifice.  This is seen in the Centurion declaring, “Certainly this man was innocent!”

I.  Luke 23:44-46.  First, the curtain that was torn.  In Leviticus 16:2-13, Moses was told to tell Aaron that he (and subsequent high priests) was not to just go behind the curtain of the tabernacle (and later the temple) where God’s presence was or he would die.  He needed first to make atonement for his own sins and then enter only once a year with blood to atone for the sins of the people.  The law was a shadow of the reality to come, however, and the man, Jesus, is the perfect and sinless High Priest that now enters heaven itself through the curtain which is His body with His own blood to perfectly atone for man’s sin once for all (Hebrews 10:1-23).  This was the point of the incarnation (Luke 2:10-12; John 1:14-18).

II.  Luke 23:46-49.  Second, the gentile Centurion.  Part of the Roman occupying force, this Centurion, no doubt in charge of a hundred men on crucifixion duty, was carrying out the death sentences for criminals from his superiors and keeping the peace while doing so.  A good soldier who did not get involved with the civilian affairs in this foreign land, he likely was used to the pleas and protestations from the condemned and the crowd.  Never did he see One like a lamb led to slaughter (1 Peter 1:17-19), and though he knew nothing of the Law or the significance of this great moment he was witnessing for him (Ephesians 2:11-16) or the fulfillment of very old prophecies (Genesis 12:13), this Centurion exclaimed what he did.

III.  Galatians 3:11-14.  That Jesus would be born to die for our sins though innocent Himself was predicted (Matthew 1:21; John 1:29) and the result explained (2 Corinthians 5:21).  We all were dead in our sins (Romans 3:23) and had no way to pay back our debt suddenly had a way through a man’s victory at the cross (Romans 6:23) because Jesus took our curse upon Himself on the tree.  He went through a terrible ordeal to do this for us (Psalm 22:1-19), but His work as fully man on the cross resulted in our sacrifice for sins (Isaiah 53:3-8).

Are you, along with the Centurion, certain of this man’s innocence to be the sacrifice for your sins?

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Night, with Ebon Pinion

Loneliness was the first thing God found in His creation that was not good (Genesis 2:18).  Today, it continues to be one of mankind’s biggest struggles and leads us to many sins, addictions, and negative coping mechanisms.  Being fully man, how did Jesus handle loneliness?  A glimpse into Gethsemane reveals the answer.

I.  John 17:5-12.  Just before Gethsemane, Jesus points to the fellowship He shares with His Father that He also hopes for us (John 10:30; John 11:42).  Yet, as He gets to the garden, His circle shrinks from eleven (Judas had left) to three to just Him, whose heart was sorrowful to the point of death (Matthew 26:36-38).  They had all insisted that they would stand by Him before He went (Mark 14:27-31), but after they all deserted Him (Mark 14:50).  As He bore the guilt of all our sins on the cross, even the Father would forsake Him (Matthew 27:46).

II.  Luke 22:39-46.  Jesus was fully God, yes, but to be our sacrifice on the cross, He had to face all temptations and struggles as fully man (Hebrews 2:14; Hebrews 4:15).  Having conquered the devil’s snares in the desert at the beginning of His ministry (Luke 4:13), the opportune time came for Satan to try again while all earthly support had been stripped from Jesus–Gethsemane.  Jesus leaned on the fellowship He shared with His Father in prayer, but the answer was a cup of anguish placed before Him that His Father would not remove.

III.  Hebrews 10:5-10.  So, in this body prepared for Him and all alone except for the Father, whose will it was to crush Him for our transgressions (Isaiah 53:10-12), Jesus wrestled in the flesh with remaining a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1-2) that did His Father’s will or living for His own will.  It is the same choice that is before us as we promised with our confession of ‘Jesus as Lord’ and our baptism to trust and obey.  Yet, is this what we do when life strips us of all earthly comforts and places a cup before us we don’t want to drink?

Do we, along with Jesus who made it possible for us to do so, say, “Not my will, but yours, be done”?

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Sought Him with Their Whole Desire

After the moral decline of Solomon’s reign and Reheboam’s unwise decision that split God’s people, his grandson, Asa, made a courageous move to rid Judah of its idolatry and return them to God (2 Chronicles 14).  What will God do for His people when a good leader gets those in his sphere of influence to seek Him with their whole desire?

I. 2 Chronicles 15:1-15.  Asa was given an ‘if’ by God, but unlike Solomon (1 Kings 3:14), Jeroboam (1 Kings 11:38), and Reheboam (1 Kings 12:7), he rose to the challenge.  He entered into a covenant with the people he led to seek God with their whole desire, and because they did, God gave them rest, peace, and possession of the land.

II. Hebrews 13:7-17.  We are to examine our leaders and imitate their faith.  This would include Jesus, who suffered–meaning that we may need to suffer as well.  Knowing their difficult position, we should make their job easier by obeying them.  Jesus seeks us (Luke 19:10).  But, do we want to be found (Luke 15:4-5)?  We must also seek God (Matthew 7:7-8), who promises that we will find Him.  Yet, we all are leaders in our sphere of influence (Matthew 25:20-27).  Let us love God fully (Luke 10:25-28), seeking Him with our whole desire.

III. Ephesians 6:10-13.  To seek God with our whole desire and get others to do so as well, we must take a stand by donning the armor of God.  At the time of captivity, God searched for someone who would stand in the breach but found none (Ezekiel 22:30).  God needs good leaders like Asa who will help a whole generation find Him.  The church is not a club that does some good in the world.  It is the spiritual vehicle to lead us to eternity (Hebrews 12:22-29).  It is where we seek Him with our whole desire here, to spend eternity with Him there.

Are you seeking Him with your whole desire?