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Disciple Magazine, Vol. 3, # 7, 4/11/2011—Printer-Friendly Version
Table of Contents:
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Disciple Magazine, Vol. 3, # 7, 4/11/2011—Printer-Friendly Version
Why We Make So Much of the Resurrection - - - - - 1
Reason, Emotion, and the 21st Century Church - - - - -3
Charles Haddon Spurgeon on Easter - - - - - - - - 4
Exegetically Speaking - - - - - - - - - - - - - 6
Following God - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -10
Words to Stand You on Your Feet - - - - - - - - 10
Jewels from Past Giants - - - - - - - - - - - - 12
Marks of the Master- - - - - - - - - - - - - 16
Advancing the Ministries of the Gospel- - - - - - 17
Book Reviews- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 17
News Update - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 18
Sermon Helps - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 19
Puzzles and ‘Toons- - - - - - - - - - - - - -21
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Disciple Magazine, Vol. 3, # 7, 4/11/2011—Printer-Friendly Version
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Disciple Magazine, Vol. 3, # 7, 4/11/2011—Printer-Friendly Version
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Why We Make So Much of the Resurrection of Christ
By Joe McKeever
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Disciple Magazine, Vol. 3, # 7, 4/11/2011—Printer-Friendly Version
“God has resurrected this Jesus. We are all witnesses of this. Therefore, since He has been exalted to the right hand of God and has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit, He has poured out what you both see and hear…. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know with certainty that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:32-33, 36).
“The Jesus Memorial Society will come to order!
“The first order of business will be a report from the treasurer on our last bake-and-rummage sale to raise money for the historical marker. As you know, we’re placing a commemorative sign at the Jerusalem gravesite of Jesus in order to remind all 300 of our members worldwide as to His final resting place.”
Without the resurrection of Jesus, that’s how it would be: a few sad history buffs honoring an outstanding figure from the past. The Church stands or falls on the resurrection. It all does.
From the first sermon preached by a disciple of Jesus—Acts chapter 2—the Lord’s resurrection has been the clincher. His crucifixion was the crux, to employ a little redundancy, and became the central focus of all Gospel preaching. But without the resurrection of our Lord, His followers would quickly have deteriorated into a Jesus Memorial Society and His life and ministry would be of interest only to cultural archaeologists today.
I once asked the disciples of a Middle Eastern guru what they did with Jesus’ resurrection. Their answer troubles me to this day, because it’s so characteristic of this modern age. Their guru was teaching that God has lived on earth in every generation. Some of His better known personae included Abraham, Moses, Mohammed, Krishna, Jesus, and—surprise, surprise—at the moment, the guru himself.
I said to the disciples, “All the religious leaders you mentioned died and lie in graves somewhere. But Jesus was raised from the dead. No grave contains His body. It seems to me that would put Him a zillion miles above the other religious leaders, and that He does not deserve having His name mentioned in the same breath as theirs. What do you do with the resurrection of Jesus?”
The spokesman said, “Sir, we don’t believe anything from 2,000 years ago has any meaning for us today.”
I was stunned. The only response I could come up with at the moment was, “So, truth doesn’t mean anything to you.”
Have you ever thought of a better response days after you needed one? A better answer to that remark would have been: “The point of Jesus’ resurrection is that He is still alive.” And the implications of that—that Jesus is still alive and well—are enormous. Consider the overwhelming effect of the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here are four prominent ones; you’ll think of a dozen others, I’m sure.
I. The Resurrection of Jesus Reestablishes His Identity
Who was Jesus? Better yet, who is He? During the years of His earthly ministry, Jesus left no question as to who He thought He was. Among the many titles He called Himself and allowed others to call Him, were the “I AMs” of John’s Gospel (John 8:58; 13:19; and 18:5, 8). No title could have been higher, no statement of identity stronger, than the name by which God chose to reveal Himself to Moses (Ex. 3:14).
Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though He were dead, yet shall He live” (John 11:25). He said, “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved” (John 10:9). He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me” (John 14:6).
Everything about Who Jesus is stands or falls on whether He is still lying in some grave somewhere, by now nothing but dust, or alive and well and comfortably in place on Heaven’s throne. For good reason, the disciple Thomas fell before the risen Savior and called Him a name that prior to the resurrection would have seemed blasphemous: “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28). Make no mistake about it, friend. If Jesus did not bodily rise from the dead as He predicted again and again, then He is not who He claimed to be and it’s all over.
II. The Resurrection of Jesus Reinterprets His Ministry
Why was Jesus here? What was He doing on earth? The disciples took a three-year course assembling their answers to that question. Most were continually revising their understandings based on new developments and insights. Nothing necessitated a reordering of their understanding of the Lord’s ministry, of course, like the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.
Again and again throughout the Gospel, we read confessions from the Lord’s followers like this one: “As they were coming down from the mountain, (Jesus) ordered them to tell no one what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. They kept this word to themselves, discussing what ‘rising from the dead’ meant” (Mark 9:9-10).
And this: “Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, saying, ‘The Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men, be crucified, and rise on the third day?’ And they remembered His words” (Luke 24:7-8). And later, to the same two men: “He said to them, ‘How unwise and slow you are to believe in your hearts all that the prophets have spoken! Didn’t the Messiah have to suffer these things and enter into His glory?’ Then, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He interpreted for them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures” (Luke 24:25-27).
Clearly, after Jesus’ resurrection, His disciples had a lot of thinking to do. This put an entirely new light on everything the Lord had said and done. It cleared up areas in which they been confused—the Lord’s death on that Roman cross above all others. It answered questions that had nagged at them over the three years. The resurrection filled spaces in their learning. Now, it all began to make sense. The Lord Jesus went to the cross as the perfect sacrifice for sins, He was buried, and on the third day, God raised Him to life. That clearly was the plan from the beginning; now it made sense to them.
The entire life and ministry of Jesus pointed to the cross and beyond. Far from the cross being an interruption of God’s plan and the empty tomb being a side note, this is what His ministry had pointed to since that first day John the Baptist had called out His prescient greeting: “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).
III. The Resurrection of Jesus Reinforces His Claims
He promised so much; can He be trusted? Not only did Jesus make claims regarding His own identity that the resurrection substantiates, but He claimed to give gifts of eternal dimensions to those trusting in Him. Whether He can or not is determined by whether He is alive or dead. It’s that simple.
Take His claim that “Whoever believes in the Son of God has everlasting life” (John 3:15, 16, 36). If the Guarantor of this promise is no longer living, the promise is invalid. It’s no more complicated than that. If Jesus rose from the dead, He should have no trouble giving eternal life to anyone He chooses. As He said, “Because I live, you too shall live” (John 14:19).
On the very day in which He spoke, Jesus promised that the dying thief would “be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). Since the Lord was in the process of dying Himself, the promise seemed as audacious as any ever made. Only one with nothing to lose—like the dying thief, like you and me—would grab for such a promise and hold onto it with all his might.
The resurrection of Jesus makes the fulfillment of all His promises to His people seem like child’s play. “Nothing to it.” No wonder Scripture assures us the promises of God are all “yes and amen” in Christ (2 Cor. 1:20).
The Apostle Paul, on trial for his life for preaching the resurrection, put it to his accusers in the starkest of logic: “Why is it considered incredible by any of you that God raises the dead?” (Acts 26:8). If God is God, then to raise anyone from the dead should not difficult for Him or hard for us to accept. As with everything in life, it all comes down to a matter of our faith in Jesus Christ, our faith in God. Either God is God and able to do “exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Eph. 3:20), or we are hopelessly lost and on our own, adrift in this aimless universe without a beginning or ending. What we do with the resurrection of Jesus makes an eternity of difference.
IV. The Resurrection of Jesus Reverberates with Heaven’s Promises
What will happen to us? Jesus is “the firstfruits of those who sleep,” according to 1 Corinthians 15:20, 23. His emergence from the tomb thrills us, His followers, not only for what it says about Jesus, but for what it promises concerning our own destiny. Get a good look at the resurrected Jesus with His disciples. Look closely, because what you are seeing is a preview of coming attractions. This is how you will be (remember that 1 John 3:2 says, “We shall be like Him”).
1) We will have a real body. “A ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have” (Luke 24:39).
2) We will have a recognizable body. “Why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I Myself” (Luke 24:39). Yes, it was the same Jesus. Those scars were still fresh, put there only a couple of days earlier by Roman soldiers. And yet, there was a difference. “They were prevented from recognizing Him” (Luke 24:16). I’m not sure what that means, but it makes me believe there was some kind of difference in the appearance of the pre and post-resurrection bodies in some way.
3) We will have an appetite for real food. “‘Do you have anything here to eat?’ So they gave Him a piece of broiled fish, and He took it and ate it in their presence” (Luke 24:41-42).
4) We will have a glorified body. In the account of Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, we read: “The appearance of His face changed, and His clothes became dazzling white” (Luke 9:29). Referring to this moment, the Apostle Peter said, “We were eyewitnesses of His majesty” (2 Pet. 1:16).
Some of us think of Heaven as less than real, something ethereal, as though you put out your hand to touch someone and it goes right through them. How silly that is, as if this world were real and Heaven less so! If anything, Heaven is far more real, more solid, more wonderful, and of course, infinitely longer lasting, than anything earth has to offer.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ steadies our faith, anchors our hopes, settles our questions, and excites our passions. “Wow. Just think what God has in store for us! If earth is this good, how much more wonderful Heaven will be.”
This Sunday, when the Lord’s followers congregate for worship, it will not be to commemorate a figure of history, no matter how august His personage. What makes this assembly special is that among those present will be the Great Unseen One. Jesus Himself will be there, risen, glorified, and reigning.
What a Lord we worship!
Joe McKeever is a retired Southern Baptist pastor from New Orleans, Louisiana. He blogs regularly at www.joemckeever.com.
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Disciple Magazine, Vol. 3, # 7, 4/11/2011—Printer-Friendly Version
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Reason, Emotion and the 21st Century Church
By Shea Oakley
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Disciple Magazine, Vol. 3, # 7, 4/11/2011—Printer-Friendly Version
In our postmodern era it has become fashionable for certain segments of the American church to denigrate reason as no longer being an important part of the authentic Christian life. Some have opined that evangelical Protestantism has too long been a captive of the Enlightenment’s idolatrous elevation of human rationality during the 17th and 18th centuries; the theory being that the Western church has been unwittingly co-opted by the basically secular worldview expressed in modernity.
In reaction to this, a greater emphasis on emotion is sometimes promoted as a vital corrective. One might say that Systematic Theology is out and The Sacred Romance is in. We are now being advised in certain quarters to think less about God’s order so that we can be free to feel more of His Presence. We find ourselves gauging what we consider to be reality by how we are feeling at any given moment. This attitude has always been a temptation for Christians, but it seems to hold more influence now than ever. We are asked to allow our very perception of who God is, and what his disposition towards us may be, to be determined by our emotions. This may seem natural to us, but it is potentially catastrophic in our spiritual lives.