pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: resurrection


by 1 Comment

Bringing Christ 

Reading: Colossians 1: 24-28

One of the reasons Christ became flesh was to be like one of us.  Jesus Christ walked the earth in a human body and set for us an example of how we are to live.  Once we come to the point of accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior, then His Spirit comes to dwell in our fleshy bodies.  With the indwelling of Christ in us we know the hope of our eternity.  We know that once Christ dwells in us and lives in us, that one day we too will experience resurrection and will rejoice in the hope of eternal life in the heavens.  This is wonderful news for all believers.

Paul also writes of suffering.  He rejoices in what he has suffered in order to continue advancing the gospel.  Paul is always ready to suffer for others.  He is so willing to do so because Jesus Christ first suffered for him.  Through the ultimate suffering on the cross, Jesus provided the path to our hope of glory, to eternal life.

Once we come to have Christ in us and to live our lives in Christ, we begin to take on and then seek to emulate all aspects of Christ.  Suffering is one aspect of Christ that we, like Paul, are called to take on.  As His followers we too must be committed to suffering as Christ suffered.  It is a willingness to both suffer for and to suffer with those who suffer.  It is a willingness to have less so that another may have some.  It is a willingness to enter into relationships with those who suffer and to walk alongside them to alleviate some of the suffering.  It is a willingness to give one of the things we hold most dear: time.

In willingly offering ourselves in suffering for another, we bring Christ himself to those most in need.  As Paul wrote, we share Christ so that “we may present everyone perfect in Christ”.  It is living out our great commission to bring all people in all nations to kneel at the foot of the cross.  This day and each day may we embrace each opportunity God brings to suffer as Christ suffered, all for the building of the kingdom and all for the glory of God.


by Leave a comment

The Way

Reading: John 20: 1-18

Jesus’ life and story are marked by a few events that are very significant to our faith.  First, the incarnate birth – born partly human to a mother and partly divine to a heavenly father.  Born of a virgin, without sin since birth.  His birth and the events surrounding it indicate to us that Jesus is a unique and special gift from God.

At the end of His life, Jesus experiences two other significant events.  The resurrection and ascension come close together.  Between His holy birth and divine death, Jesus teaches and heals for about three years, providing us an example of how to live and love both God and our fellow man.

While Jesus did raise people from the dead during His earthly ministry, He raised them back to mortal life.  In the resurrection of Jesus, it was God who raised Jesus to immortal or heavenly life.  Jesus’ resurrection is significant for both of these reasons.  Just as God alone initiated Jesus’ human birth, God alone brings Jesus back home to heaven.  God welcomes Jesus back to His eternal home as Jesus returns to the Father.

The ascension, or returning to God’s right hand, is the second significant event at the end of Jesus’ earthly life.  Jesus tells Mary, “I am returning to my Father and to your Father, to my God and your God.”  In this statement Jesus declares where He is going and also includes us in the relationship.  God is our Father and our God too.

As Jesus returns to His rightful place beside God, He returns changed.  He has lived on earth.  He has felt what we feel.  He returns to heaven and now intercedes for you and me.  He now stands between God and us.  The perfect lamb who was slain now offers mercy and forgiveness and grace.  He who was without sin now provides the way for us who struggle with sin the way to eternal life.  He ascended so that one day we too could ascend.  For this incomprehensible gift, we say  thanks be to God!

 


by Leave a comment

The Power to Save

Today is All Saints’ Day, a day we remember the faithful who have died in the past year.  For our church, twenty pictures will be shown and twenty names read.  With the reading of each name we will remember the grace, faith, and love that each person shared with their life.  We will recall how we ministered and witnessed alongside each as well.  And we will again celebrate the victory won by each through their saving faith in Jesus Christ.

Today’s reading is the story of Lazarus.  Jesus arrives late at the scene – four days after he has died.  Mary, Martha, and many family and friends are grieving.  Mary voices what many are thinking, “If only you’d arrived sooner.”  They believe Jesus could have healed him.  Jesus is touched deeply.  He cries for his friends and is moved to do something extraordinary.  Jesus raises Lazarus to life.  Was it to alleviate the intense sadness felt by all?  Was it to give a glimpse of the victory to be won over death in Jesus’ resurrection?  Was it both?

On this day and in this story we are reminded that Jesus is there with us in our lives.  He cried and hurt for his friend Lazarus and for those who grieved for him.  In our grief He hurts right along with us as well.  We are also reminded that death does not have the last word.  For all the saints we recognize today and one day for us as well, Jesus has the power to save.  May we too all one day hear, “Well done good and faithful servant” as we each experience Jesus’ victory over death.

Scripture reference:  John 11: 32-44


by Leave a comment

Are We Willing?

If you set your calendars by the stores, Easter is over.  But the season of Easter lasts 50 days.  We are in the space between resurrection and ascension.  It is a season of life, surprise, delight.  Nature participates too.  I do not think it is coincidence that flowers are blooming and trees are starting to leaf out.

Instead of savoring this season, we allow ourselves to return to everyday life.  We too easily write off encounters with God’s grace and mercy and the Spirit’s activity in the world as odd occurences or coincidences instead of the faith moments they are.  If we are not tuned to the small and quiet workings of God, perhaps we miss them all together.

In Acts 3 the apostles perform an act in God that others cannot miss of ignore.  They heal a man who had been lame for as long as anyone around could remember.  Certainly the man healed was excited.  The religious leaders were confused.  Peter let them know that the man was healed in the power of and in the name of Jesus, the one they killed but God resurrected.  But the apostles deflected all the glory to God – they were just ordinary people serving a risen Christ. An event like this today would draw our attention as well.

Evidences of God’s grace, mercy, and love still abound today.  In our community a high school senior recently lost his life.  Both the faith community and the family of the boy killed gathered around the driver of the car and his family and prayed over them and offered them forgiveness.  It was and is a tremendous example of God being alive and well in our world today.  For us, we need to remember that they are just ordinary people living out the faith that He gives.  We too are ordinary people through whom God wants to do a mighty work.  Our question is: are we willing?

Scripture reference: Acts 3: 12-19


by Leave a comment

Resurrection Faith

It was said billions of times in churches and posted trillions of times on social media yesterday: “He is Risen!”  And after most times it was said or read, it was followed by, “He is Risen, indeed!” or “Amen.” Easter Sunday is full of celebration and joy over the resurrected Christ.  It is a wonderful day when we celebrate God’s gift of salvation.

On the day after Easter and each day forward the question is: how do I live out my resurrection faith?  Each day how do I experience and share the incarnation of God in Jesus and the resurrection that leads to eternal life?  On the first day of the week, Jesus appeared to His disciples and showed them His hands and side.  He gave them the Holy Spirit and sent them out into the world to continue His work.  In resurrection faith the disciples went out and rocked the world.

We too are empowered by the same Holy Spirit, called to share the good news of Jesus Christ so that all may come to know Him as Lord and Savior.  This is done in mostly small, personal ways: talking with our neighbor, listening to a co-worker at lunch, taking time to get to know the stranger in need.  It is about hearing another’s story and sharing our faith story.  It is all about developing a relationship with another so that we can share the relationship we have with Jesus Christ.

We are called and sent out by the same Christ that called and sent out the disciples.  Through the power of the Holy Spirit we too can rock the world.  This day and in the days ahead, may we each find ways to live out our resurrection faith.

Scripture reference: John 20: 19-23


by Leave a comment

He Is Risen!

Let us rejoice – He is risen!  All hope seemed lost but hope has returned forever.  Mary Magdalene found the tomb empty and went to tell the disciples.  Peter and John found the tomb empty as well.  Mary returned and stood outside weeping.  No one knew Jesus was alive.

When Jesus calls her name, saying “Mary”, she recognizes Him through her tears.  In an instant she knows – He is alive!  Tears turn to joy!  Jesus calls her by name and instructs Mary to go and tell the disciples.  Mary is the messenger and she tells them that Jesus is alive.  There is resurrection after death.  What seemed lost has new life.

Jesus called Mary by name and He calls each of us by name.  His call is the same to us as it was to Mary: go forth and share the good news.  He is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Hallelujah!!

Scripture references: Psalm 118: 24 and John 20: 1-18


by Leave a comment

Resurrection Eyes

How often could Jesus look down at the decisions we make and the actions we take and think to Himself, “Get behind me, Satan”?  How often do we disappoint our savior?  How often do we fail to live up to our full potential?

Peter was one of Jesus’ closest disciples.  Yet when the end was nearing and He told them so, it was Peter who rebuked Jesus.  Peter saw Jesus’ power and authority growing almost daily – why death now?  Peter was trapped and he could only see what Jesus was describing from earthly eyes.  Peter didn’t yet have resurrection eyes.

Sometimes we don’t either.  Ok, maybe often we don’t.  That is why we are often less than we could be.  That’s why we don’t always feed the hungry or clothe the naked.  Maybe faith is not the top priority.

Each day that we choose to walk with Jesus Christ, we are more than we used to be.  As we get to know Him more, we grow closer to Him.  It is a pretty neat little circle.

How do we come to see more and more with resurrection eyes?  How do we focus in more on God’s priorities and less on the world’s?  Time.  T-I-M-E.  In this season of self-examination, may we see ourselves more clearly and allow Him to lead us on His path.  When we walk His path, we see the things He sees.

Scripture reference: Mark 8: 31-33


by Leave a comment

Cleansed

One of the unique and powerful ideas found in the Christian faith is the idea of cleansing.  Early in the Bible God used water to cleanse the earth – only Noah and his family survived to flood.  The ides of water as cleansing agent is also picked up in the New Testament.  John the Baptist uses the waters of the Jordan River to baptize people.  People confessed their sins, were called to repentance, and were baptized.  The water washed them clean.

Our baptisms cleanse us too, but more so they mark us as members of God’s family.  For most Christian denominations baptism represents the formal declaration of belonging to Christ.  For many denominations it is also the point at which God’s grace starts to work in and shape our lives.

God’s grace becomes what washes us clean.  Through His death on the cross, Jesus conquered sin and death.  In His resurrection He showed all that sin and death hold no power over His followers.

Through our baptism and the inflowing of grace that follows, we are called to walk as children of the light.  Our call in the midst of a world that pursues so much else is to share our story of faith and the story of what He can do for all of mankind.  As we learn to surrender more and more to His good will, we grow to live more and more into the life we were first called to in our baptism.

Scripture reference: 2 Peter 3: 18-22


by Leave a comment

Resting Fully

Those who knew Jesus expected him to return very soon after the resurrection.  But Jesus never gave a date or a time – that was (and is) God’s will.  Yet the early believers expected Jesus to return any day.  Part this was probably a longing to see their good friend again.

As people in the early church began to die, some worry arose over the fact that Jesus had not returned.  They didn’t know their loved one’s fates.  But Paul assured them and assures us that final victory over death has been won by Jesus Christ’s resurrection.  Paul assured us that those who have died will rise and return in glory when He returns.  Those alive at the time of His return will then join the great cloud of witness.

As a human we grieve the physical loss.  But as a Christian we rejoice in knowing they have attained their place in heaven’s glory.  We also live each day without fear of death because we too know that our eternity is secure, resting fully with Christ!

Scripture reference: 1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18


by Leave a comment

Jesus is Alive!!

The fact that Jesus was born, walked  the earth, and died is not in much dispute.  The method of his death on the cross is also widely accepted.  Even Islam sees Jesus as a great prophet.  But for many, believing that Jesus was the Son of God, the Messiah, is somewhere they are unwilling to go.  Good man, great teachings, did a few amazing miracles even – but God’s Son, in the flesh?

Without the resurrection, maybe Jesus is just these things.  But for the Christian, the empty tomb is the ‘proves it’ moment.  Because Jesus conquered death and rose to eternal life, the resurrection is our sign that Jesus was indeed God’s Son.  Many in the Bible spoke to and for God.  Many in the Bible performed miraculous signs.  A few were even raised from the dead (although just back to an earthly life).  But Jesus, our Lord and Savior, ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God.

Shortly after His death, Jesus appears to several people.  He comforts his closest followers and friends with the fact that he has conquered death, that the grave could not hold him.  What he said about rising again was true!  It was important for the disciples and others to see Jesus, so that as they write the Gospels and went on to spread and grow the early church, they went forth with an unshakable belief.  As Christians, we believe the witness given by Mary, by the disciples, and by others.  As the Bible unfolds past the Gospels, we see the Spirit of Jesus living on, continuing to change and shape lives.  As is living examples today, we too experience the presence of Jesus’ Holy Spirit working in our lives and in our worlds.  Indeed – Jesus is alive!!