http://vimeo.com/40005909
(A link to Sam Toh's Easter Sunday message)
Saturday, April 14, 2012
I Have Seen the Lord
By Sarah Lee
John 20: 1-18
Key Verse 20: 18
Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her. Let’s think about a question together: How real and important is the resurrection to me?
I. John’s account and what it reveals
John gives a detailed, personal account of Jesus’ resurrection. How do we evaluate this testimony? John begins: early in the morning, when it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance so she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don’t know where they have put him!”. The series of events that follow reveal the raw surprise of the disciples. Verses 3 to 10 are then told as if in slow motion steps. The disciples are running, John outruns Peter, John does not go in but bends over to look, Peter goes straight in, john finally goes in, both see the strips of linen, both retire to where they were staying. When someone is accused of committing a crime, they will often retell their side of the story in great detail: where they were at the moment of the crime, exactly what they were doing and in what order they did something. John’s account holds a similar structure. The disciples were later accused of taking Jesus’ body at night, but we see from John’s story that this could not be true. The reaction to run to the tomb and even the fact that John writes the disciples still did not understand from Scripture that Christ had to rise from the dead shows the unexpectedness of Mary’s news. In verse 8, John reveals more about his thought. It says he “saw and believed”. After seeing the strips of linen and the burial cloth left behind, we can assume that what the disciples believed was Jesus’ body was indeed missing. The first part of this passage, John’s perspective is open-ended. It requires us to consider: Did Jesus rise from the dead? Or was his body stolen? John’s narration starts from Mary’s discovery of the open tomb, to the disciple’s reaction to the news, and ends the first part with a lack of closure. Perhaps the disciples honestly felt confused and not quite certain of the implications of Jesus’ missing body.
The second part consists of going into more detail with Mary’s account. Look at verse 11 and 12: Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
When we think of Mary, do we understand her sorrow or her feeling of loss? Can you think of a time when you lost something so valuable and dear to you? For me, it was the chance to break a school running record. As many of you already know, I am passionate about running. When I run I experience a sense of success and victory after races. Running helped me feel in tune with God and with who I was. I had trained very hard and built up a confidence and strength in my ability to break the record. I believe Mary had that same confidence and strength because of her relationship with Jesus. Jesus had driven seven demons out of Mary and she knew Jesus understood her deeply. But now, feelings of grief and failure began to flood in her. Jesus’ missing body meant that Mary could not even perform her final act of love for him and bring closure to his undignified, horrific death. When I missed the school record by 2 seconds, I felt the same devastation and loss that Mary felt. My world was shaken, I felt weak and meaningless. What does this do to our perspective? For me, I doubted my fitness and I thought about God’s sovereignty. For Mary, Jesus’ missing body did not mean victory over death, it brought desperation and confusion.
Mary, John, and Simon Peter were real people. It is easy to think of them as characters in some fantasy novel with the right amount of drama and supernatural phenomena. But their experiences with Jesus are real and are told to us through John’s story. Let’s think back to the question raised at the beginning: How real and important is the resurrection to me? We can think deeply about this when we look at John’s story. John does not force his story onto us. Rather, he tells it simply and honestly. According to verse 9, John and Peter still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead. And Mary remained weeping out side of the tomb. We should try to understand that each of these individuals are just like you and me. Just because they lived in Jesus’ time did not mean they fully understood or realized the message behind the resurrection. And as John tells his account, we must make our own decision to learn from these personal encounters with Jesus and grow in understanding of the message.
What does John’s account further show us? John’s account shows that Jesus loves and cares for each one of us –and he understands each one of us and knows our name. It’s easy for us to think: Jesus rose ago 2,000 years ago, that was then. But no, Jesus is just as alive as he was when he appeared to Mary and as he appears to many today. We see Jesus’ resurrection manifested both visually through the strips of linen and acoustically: Jesus calls us. These things we can hear, see, perhaps touch. But Jesus also gives us something more important than just evidence that he rose again. Jesus gives us the intangible: faith and perspective about our lives.
II. Jesus’ Two Questions
Jesus asked Mary two questions: 1) why are you crying? 2) Who is it you are looking for? How would most of us respond to these questions? Mary’s answer is clear in verses 13 to 15: Jesus had been taken away from her and she did not know where they had put him. Before Mary met Jesus, her life must have been frustrating. Mary may have been looking for answers to questions like: Why am I here? What is the point of living? Why do I feel empty? Each one of us has our own life problem. There are things that we don’t want anyone to know about us and we try to keep it buried deep inside. How does Jesus’ resurrection change that for us? Let’s look at Mary’s experience. Mary was in such grief that she could not even recognize Jesus standing right before her. How could she think Jesus was the gardener after all the time she spent with him? It seems almost comical that Mary could be so blinded by her grief. But I don’t think she is that much different from any one of us. How many times have I been blinded by my own ideas, emotions, and expectations? My selfishness blocked my perspective in very shameful, embarrassing way. One night, I came home from school very tired and stressed. I ate dinner and decided I was going to take a nap right before I started homework. My mother came into the room and had her laptop with her. She is currently studying for her PhD in Nursing and often has to write long papers that need grammatical revision. I felt so much irritation that I snatched the laptop from her, and from my laying position on the bed, began to pound out revisions and make angry comments about how none of her writing made sense. I felt controlled by impatience and rebellion. After 30 seconds of angry revising, my mother grabbed her laptop from my abuse and told me to forget about it. The shame and regret for my action flooded in immediately and all I could do was remain in my bed and begin crying. My father came down to my room a short while later and told me in a very concerned voice that mom was crying. He told me that he has seen my mother mad and emotional before, but he rarely sees her cry. In that moment I felt disgusted because of the hurt and offense I directed towards my mom. Why couldn’t I revise her paper willingly and patiently? I apologized to my mother soon after and told her I would revise her paper whenever she needed me to.
Sometimes we behave in ways we don’t expect or that make us feel regretful later. We may cry because of our many mistakes or feel angry and frustrated with life. Things feel stained by our own imperfection and sin. So, we try to make up for it somehow by looking for solutions through pleasure, competition, materialism, friends, intimate relationships, or drugs. Jesus asks us why are you crying? Who are you looking for, what are you looking for? I might tell Jesus that I am crying because I often feel like a failure. I might tell Jesus that I am crying because I am proud. I might tell Jesus that I am crying because I am jealous. I am looking for love, I am looking for success, I am looking for peace. Do I believe that through his resurrection, Jesus made all things perfect and reconciled? Advice columns today might tell you that we are looking for satisfaction and happiness and it’s OK to find these things however you want to. It feels like we’ve been given a lot of freedom in our society. But at the end of the day, this freedom has often felt like suffocation. Jesus knows who we are and what we are looking for—but are we willing to look to Jesus for this satisfaction?
III. Jesus’ message
Jesus called Mary by her name and immediately she turned toward him and cried out “Rabboni!” Her eyes were suddenly opened and she could see Jesus standing there in front of her. While Mary was still in her grief and clouded perspective, Jesus pulled her out of the murkiness of her emotion. Mary’s life was transformed when she heard Jesus call her name. It is a very interesting thing that ever since I was little, my father’s voice always pierces through my deepest sleep. When we are about to run on a late schedule for school, my father will often stand at the top of the stairs and call my name, “Sarah”. Immediately I wake up and respond as if I have been awake already. I once pointed this out to my father and he suggested it was because he would call my name while I was still in my mother. Whatever the case may be, it brings up a point: if my earthly father is capable of speaking to me through the deepest realms of sleeping, how much more can God’s voice penetrate my core? For Mary, hearing Jesus call her by name shook her out of her grief and helped her see Jesus right before her.
Do you believe God created you with a perfect plan in mind? Do you believe he knows how many hairs you have on your head? How many times you have used the word “like” in a sentence? What you really feel deep inside?
Jesus calls each one of us by our name. Why does he call me? Why does he call you? Things don’t end there. Jesus had something more to tell to Mary, to me, and to you.
In verse 17, Jesus gives Mary the most important message: “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
Mary found what she had been looking for, but Jesus told her not to hold on to him. There was so much more to Jesus’ resurrection than just his body being present again that Mary had to understand. We have been reunited to Father God. God can now be called our Father and our God. Jesus’ words give us life that wakes us up. It disciplines us, motivates us, encourages us, grows us, builds us up, teaches us, and gives us love and attention.
Jesus also gives us faith that is real. In The Business of Heaven by C.S. Lewis, Lewis writes:“..if what you call your ‘faith’ in Christ does not involve taking the slightest notice of what He says, then it is not Faith at all –not faith or truth in Him, but only intellectual acceptance of some theory about Him”
Today our society values reasonable, intellectual thinking. It demands evidence and facts in order for belief to be validated. But Jesus’ message is simpler than that. Jesus’ message is to claim God and our Father God now that we have been set free from death. Jesus wants us to go and make disciples, and to ultimately encounter Jesus and make a declaration likes Mary’s: I have seen the Lord.
Wow, this seems like really heavy, loaded stuff. Maybe you’re not at a point to make a personal declaration. Maybe you are still wondering if Jesus’ resurrection is real. Where ever you are, whether you are like a John, Peter, or Mary, remember that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. The power of Jesus’ resurrection remains as strong as it was then, today. By faith, we can accept this message and struggle to learn, grow, and understand it in its full power and weight.
Let’s read our key verse, verse 18 together: Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
Can we say Mary’s sentence together one more time? “I have seen the Lord!” Congratulations! You have just made the life-changing confession!! Unfortunately, just saying the phrase does not bring belief or immediate transformation. We need to see victorious Jesus standing in front of us. If only it was that easy…
Mary’s confession came from deep within her. Her grief was transformed into peace, freedom, and happiness because she heard Jesus call her name. She could declare: I have seen the Lord.
I, too, have seen the Lord. When I saw Jesus, I no longer felt the need to retreat to angry, emotional music or self-harm. The twisted idea of love and happiness fell from my eyes and all I could see was true grace and love from Father God. Life became full, meaningful. However, it did not mean my struggles ended after one encounter with Jesus. We have what may be called root sins from which all periphery sins branch. We must pull out these roots within us one by one in order to experience true freedom. These root sins are lust, pride, anger, greed, envy, indulgence, and laziness.
Did you know that girls and even I can also be lustful? Do you think we don’t get ideas when we see those hunky models on Hollister bags or other good looking men on the street? I struggle to keep my gaze straight and not even put useless thoughts into my mind. Sometimes I just want to indulge in the plot of a chick-flick and fantasize about my own love story. But now I am dead to my sin. We are now dead to our sins and it is all because Jesus conquered death and gives us that victory.
I want to finish with a final story that comes from one of my favorite books The Chronicles of Narnia. In it, a young boy named Eustace who has acted horridly and selfishly up to this point comes across a dragon’s cave. He witnesses a monstrous, haggardly dragon crawl from the cave, collapse, and die. Upon entering the cave Eustace discovers heaps of gold, jewels, and other treasures. In his delight, he dons a golden bracelet. Soon he is fast asleep in a mountain of golden coins. Upon waking, Eustace feels a throbbing on his wrist and discovers that he has transformed into a similar monstrous dragon. He realizes that the greed of men before him also transformed them into dragons and that death has become his certain fate. With this, Eustace frantically begins to rip the scales off of his arms. At first, it seems to work and he can feel the first, then second layer peel away. But as Eustace tries to penetrate deeper, he fails to shed any more of his horrible skin. Eustace’s companions soon come across him but do not recognize him no matter how much he puffs smoke and blows fire. Misunderstood and abandoned, Eustace collapses, prepared to die.
Then, a large lion appears before him. His paws are wide and strong, his mane full, and his stature commanding and full of greatness. The lion asks Eustace if he wants to be a boy again and tells him that his attempts to shed his own skin are futile. The lion is the only one who can remove the scales, but there is a cost. Eustace will have to experience great pain that comes with shedding his serpentine skin. The lion then takes his mighty claws and digs into the scales. The first layer is pulled away with a difference far greater than Eustace’s previous attempts. The depth of the first penetration is frightening but liberating. Soon Eustace finds himself back in his smooth, young skin.
Jesus is like the lion who frees us from the suffocating skin of sin we find ourselves bound in. It is difficult to come to Jesus as we are: so full of root sins. We cannot shed our sinful nature by our own power though. Jesus’ death and resurrection is the only thing that has the full power to free us from our enslavement to sin. When we make the declaration: I have seen the Lord, we invite Jesus to peel away the deepest layers of our sinful nature and become new beings.
The final verse in John’s gospel is verse 31. It says: But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah the Son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name. Jesus already died and rose again. He did it so that you and I could truly start living. I pray that we may hear Jesus calling us by name, and see him standing in front of us. Then we can make say from our hearts: I have seen the Lord!
John 20: 1-18
Key Verse 20: 18
Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her. Let’s think about a question together: How real and important is the resurrection to me?
I. John’s account and what it reveals
John gives a detailed, personal account of Jesus’ resurrection. How do we evaluate this testimony? John begins: early in the morning, when it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance so she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don’t know where they have put him!”. The series of events that follow reveal the raw surprise of the disciples. Verses 3 to 10 are then told as if in slow motion steps. The disciples are running, John outruns Peter, John does not go in but bends over to look, Peter goes straight in, john finally goes in, both see the strips of linen, both retire to where they were staying. When someone is accused of committing a crime, they will often retell their side of the story in great detail: where they were at the moment of the crime, exactly what they were doing and in what order they did something. John’s account holds a similar structure. The disciples were later accused of taking Jesus’ body at night, but we see from John’s story that this could not be true. The reaction to run to the tomb and even the fact that John writes the disciples still did not understand from Scripture that Christ had to rise from the dead shows the unexpectedness of Mary’s news. In verse 8, John reveals more about his thought. It says he “saw and believed”. After seeing the strips of linen and the burial cloth left behind, we can assume that what the disciples believed was Jesus’ body was indeed missing. The first part of this passage, John’s perspective is open-ended. It requires us to consider: Did Jesus rise from the dead? Or was his body stolen? John’s narration starts from Mary’s discovery of the open tomb, to the disciple’s reaction to the news, and ends the first part with a lack of closure. Perhaps the disciples honestly felt confused and not quite certain of the implications of Jesus’ missing body.
The second part consists of going into more detail with Mary’s account. Look at verse 11 and 12: Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
When we think of Mary, do we understand her sorrow or her feeling of loss? Can you think of a time when you lost something so valuable and dear to you? For me, it was the chance to break a school running record. As many of you already know, I am passionate about running. When I run I experience a sense of success and victory after races. Running helped me feel in tune with God and with who I was. I had trained very hard and built up a confidence and strength in my ability to break the record. I believe Mary had that same confidence and strength because of her relationship with Jesus. Jesus had driven seven demons out of Mary and she knew Jesus understood her deeply. But now, feelings of grief and failure began to flood in her. Jesus’ missing body meant that Mary could not even perform her final act of love for him and bring closure to his undignified, horrific death. When I missed the school record by 2 seconds, I felt the same devastation and loss that Mary felt. My world was shaken, I felt weak and meaningless. What does this do to our perspective? For me, I doubted my fitness and I thought about God’s sovereignty. For Mary, Jesus’ missing body did not mean victory over death, it brought desperation and confusion.
Mary, John, and Simon Peter were real people. It is easy to think of them as characters in some fantasy novel with the right amount of drama and supernatural phenomena. But their experiences with Jesus are real and are told to us through John’s story. Let’s think back to the question raised at the beginning: How real and important is the resurrection to me? We can think deeply about this when we look at John’s story. John does not force his story onto us. Rather, he tells it simply and honestly. According to verse 9, John and Peter still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead. And Mary remained weeping out side of the tomb. We should try to understand that each of these individuals are just like you and me. Just because they lived in Jesus’ time did not mean they fully understood or realized the message behind the resurrection. And as John tells his account, we must make our own decision to learn from these personal encounters with Jesus and grow in understanding of the message.
What does John’s account further show us? John’s account shows that Jesus loves and cares for each one of us –and he understands each one of us and knows our name. It’s easy for us to think: Jesus rose ago 2,000 years ago, that was then. But no, Jesus is just as alive as he was when he appeared to Mary and as he appears to many today. We see Jesus’ resurrection manifested both visually through the strips of linen and acoustically: Jesus calls us. These things we can hear, see, perhaps touch. But Jesus also gives us something more important than just evidence that he rose again. Jesus gives us the intangible: faith and perspective about our lives.
II. Jesus’ Two Questions
Jesus asked Mary two questions: 1) why are you crying? 2) Who is it you are looking for? How would most of us respond to these questions? Mary’s answer is clear in verses 13 to 15: Jesus had been taken away from her and she did not know where they had put him. Before Mary met Jesus, her life must have been frustrating. Mary may have been looking for answers to questions like: Why am I here? What is the point of living? Why do I feel empty? Each one of us has our own life problem. There are things that we don’t want anyone to know about us and we try to keep it buried deep inside. How does Jesus’ resurrection change that for us? Let’s look at Mary’s experience. Mary was in such grief that she could not even recognize Jesus standing right before her. How could she think Jesus was the gardener after all the time she spent with him? It seems almost comical that Mary could be so blinded by her grief. But I don’t think she is that much different from any one of us. How many times have I been blinded by my own ideas, emotions, and expectations? My selfishness blocked my perspective in very shameful, embarrassing way. One night, I came home from school very tired and stressed. I ate dinner and decided I was going to take a nap right before I started homework. My mother came into the room and had her laptop with her. She is currently studying for her PhD in Nursing and often has to write long papers that need grammatical revision. I felt so much irritation that I snatched the laptop from her, and from my laying position on the bed, began to pound out revisions and make angry comments about how none of her writing made sense. I felt controlled by impatience and rebellion. After 30 seconds of angry revising, my mother grabbed her laptop from my abuse and told me to forget about it. The shame and regret for my action flooded in immediately and all I could do was remain in my bed and begin crying. My father came down to my room a short while later and told me in a very concerned voice that mom was crying. He told me that he has seen my mother mad and emotional before, but he rarely sees her cry. In that moment I felt disgusted because of the hurt and offense I directed towards my mom. Why couldn’t I revise her paper willingly and patiently? I apologized to my mother soon after and told her I would revise her paper whenever she needed me to.
Sometimes we behave in ways we don’t expect or that make us feel regretful later. We may cry because of our many mistakes or feel angry and frustrated with life. Things feel stained by our own imperfection and sin. So, we try to make up for it somehow by looking for solutions through pleasure, competition, materialism, friends, intimate relationships, or drugs. Jesus asks us why are you crying? Who are you looking for, what are you looking for? I might tell Jesus that I am crying because I often feel like a failure. I might tell Jesus that I am crying because I am proud. I might tell Jesus that I am crying because I am jealous. I am looking for love, I am looking for success, I am looking for peace. Do I believe that through his resurrection, Jesus made all things perfect and reconciled? Advice columns today might tell you that we are looking for satisfaction and happiness and it’s OK to find these things however you want to. It feels like we’ve been given a lot of freedom in our society. But at the end of the day, this freedom has often felt like suffocation. Jesus knows who we are and what we are looking for—but are we willing to look to Jesus for this satisfaction?
III. Jesus’ message
Jesus called Mary by her name and immediately she turned toward him and cried out “Rabboni!” Her eyes were suddenly opened and she could see Jesus standing there in front of her. While Mary was still in her grief and clouded perspective, Jesus pulled her out of the murkiness of her emotion. Mary’s life was transformed when she heard Jesus call her name. It is a very interesting thing that ever since I was little, my father’s voice always pierces through my deepest sleep. When we are about to run on a late schedule for school, my father will often stand at the top of the stairs and call my name, “Sarah”. Immediately I wake up and respond as if I have been awake already. I once pointed this out to my father and he suggested it was because he would call my name while I was still in my mother. Whatever the case may be, it brings up a point: if my earthly father is capable of speaking to me through the deepest realms of sleeping, how much more can God’s voice penetrate my core? For Mary, hearing Jesus call her by name shook her out of her grief and helped her see Jesus right before her.
Do you believe God created you with a perfect plan in mind? Do you believe he knows how many hairs you have on your head? How many times you have used the word “like” in a sentence? What you really feel deep inside?
Jesus calls each one of us by our name. Why does he call me? Why does he call you? Things don’t end there. Jesus had something more to tell to Mary, to me, and to you.
In verse 17, Jesus gives Mary the most important message: “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
Mary found what she had been looking for, but Jesus told her not to hold on to him. There was so much more to Jesus’ resurrection than just his body being present again that Mary had to understand. We have been reunited to Father God. God can now be called our Father and our God. Jesus’ words give us life that wakes us up. It disciplines us, motivates us, encourages us, grows us, builds us up, teaches us, and gives us love and attention.
Jesus also gives us faith that is real. In The Business of Heaven by C.S. Lewis, Lewis writes:“..if what you call your ‘faith’ in Christ does not involve taking the slightest notice of what He says, then it is not Faith at all –not faith or truth in Him, but only intellectual acceptance of some theory about Him”
Today our society values reasonable, intellectual thinking. It demands evidence and facts in order for belief to be validated. But Jesus’ message is simpler than that. Jesus’ message is to claim God and our Father God now that we have been set free from death. Jesus wants us to go and make disciples, and to ultimately encounter Jesus and make a declaration likes Mary’s: I have seen the Lord.
Wow, this seems like really heavy, loaded stuff. Maybe you’re not at a point to make a personal declaration. Maybe you are still wondering if Jesus’ resurrection is real. Where ever you are, whether you are like a John, Peter, or Mary, remember that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. The power of Jesus’ resurrection remains as strong as it was then, today. By faith, we can accept this message and struggle to learn, grow, and understand it in its full power and weight.
Let’s read our key verse, verse 18 together: Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
Can we say Mary’s sentence together one more time? “I have seen the Lord!” Congratulations! You have just made the life-changing confession!! Unfortunately, just saying the phrase does not bring belief or immediate transformation. We need to see victorious Jesus standing in front of us. If only it was that easy…
Mary’s confession came from deep within her. Her grief was transformed into peace, freedom, and happiness because she heard Jesus call her name. She could declare: I have seen the Lord.
I, too, have seen the Lord. When I saw Jesus, I no longer felt the need to retreat to angry, emotional music or self-harm. The twisted idea of love and happiness fell from my eyes and all I could see was true grace and love from Father God. Life became full, meaningful. However, it did not mean my struggles ended after one encounter with Jesus. We have what may be called root sins from which all periphery sins branch. We must pull out these roots within us one by one in order to experience true freedom. These root sins are lust, pride, anger, greed, envy, indulgence, and laziness.
Did you know that girls and even I can also be lustful? Do you think we don’t get ideas when we see those hunky models on Hollister bags or other good looking men on the street? I struggle to keep my gaze straight and not even put useless thoughts into my mind. Sometimes I just want to indulge in the plot of a chick-flick and fantasize about my own love story. But now I am dead to my sin. We are now dead to our sins and it is all because Jesus conquered death and gives us that victory.
I want to finish with a final story that comes from one of my favorite books The Chronicles of Narnia. In it, a young boy named Eustace who has acted horridly and selfishly up to this point comes across a dragon’s cave. He witnesses a monstrous, haggardly dragon crawl from the cave, collapse, and die. Upon entering the cave Eustace discovers heaps of gold, jewels, and other treasures. In his delight, he dons a golden bracelet. Soon he is fast asleep in a mountain of golden coins. Upon waking, Eustace feels a throbbing on his wrist and discovers that he has transformed into a similar monstrous dragon. He realizes that the greed of men before him also transformed them into dragons and that death has become his certain fate. With this, Eustace frantically begins to rip the scales off of his arms. At first, it seems to work and he can feel the first, then second layer peel away. But as Eustace tries to penetrate deeper, he fails to shed any more of his horrible skin. Eustace’s companions soon come across him but do not recognize him no matter how much he puffs smoke and blows fire. Misunderstood and abandoned, Eustace collapses, prepared to die.
Then, a large lion appears before him. His paws are wide and strong, his mane full, and his stature commanding and full of greatness. The lion asks Eustace if he wants to be a boy again and tells him that his attempts to shed his own skin are futile. The lion is the only one who can remove the scales, but there is a cost. Eustace will have to experience great pain that comes with shedding his serpentine skin. The lion then takes his mighty claws and digs into the scales. The first layer is pulled away with a difference far greater than Eustace’s previous attempts. The depth of the first penetration is frightening but liberating. Soon Eustace finds himself back in his smooth, young skin.
Jesus is like the lion who frees us from the suffocating skin of sin we find ourselves bound in. It is difficult to come to Jesus as we are: so full of root sins. We cannot shed our sinful nature by our own power though. Jesus’ death and resurrection is the only thing that has the full power to free us from our enslavement to sin. When we make the declaration: I have seen the Lord, we invite Jesus to peel away the deepest layers of our sinful nature and become new beings.
The final verse in John’s gospel is verse 31. It says: But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah the Son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name. Jesus already died and rose again. He did it so that you and I could truly start living. I pray that we may hear Jesus calling us by name, and see him standing in front of us. Then we can make say from our hearts: I have seen the Lord!
The Hope of the Resurrection
By Mary Lim
1 Corinthians 15:35-58
Key Verse 49
“And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.”
The Corinthians at the time began to fall away from God; they started to mix their own thinking and knowledge into the word of God: They were excusing sexual immorality, using spiritual gifts improperly, and misinterpreting the gospel. So Paul wrote this letter in order to help them regain the truth and to go back to the gospel of Jesus. Though Paul addresses very specific problems in the earlier chapters of Corinthians, Paul closes with the core of the gospel because he knew that the root of their problems came from forgetting Jesus’ death and resurrection.
Last night, Anna talked about the gospel. One fact that we have to accept in her message is verses 3-5 which says “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures...” Then, John talked about the importance and truth of the resurrection. In verse 22 it says, “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” Which leads to my message: the hope that the resurrection gives us.
Paul begins with a question in vs.35 that he thinks the Corinthians will ask: “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” Paul knew their inner hearts. He knew how attached they felt to the world and how they did not want to die. In this way, we can all relate to the Corinthians. Our life may seem like the only thing that matters now, however, Paul clearly knew the uselessness of desiring things of this world. Immediately he calls it foolish to ask these kinds of questions. Because he was so anchored in his faith, the answer was obvious to him. Logically, we may ask things like, “How can we be raised from the dead if our hearts stop pumping blood through our bodies and if our organs stop working?” or “If we are decomposing under the ground, how is it possible for our bodies to reform into a full body again?” But Paul knew they were not thinking from a spiritual standpoint, only from a worldly perspective. The question should’ve been, “How can we attain the heavenly body?”
Nevertheless, Paul answers this question. He first addresses how our bodies are raised using the analogy of a seed. Verse 36b says “What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.” Here, Paul simply says that we cannot be resurrected unless we die. But Paul does not only mean death in a literal sense. He also means putting to death our worldly desires and needs. Basically, he means that we need to overcome our sin. Paul answers how to overcome sin later in the passage.
He goes on to answer the second question: “With what kind of body will they come?” In verses 37 to 38 it says, “When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.” Try to visualize the transformation from a small, tiny seed, into a 300 ft tree happening in one second. It’s unimaginable. But this is what our resurrected bodies will be like. The small, tiny seed is our earthly body. The tree, is our heavenly body. The insignificant seed is incomparable to the plant. We can’t even imagine what our resurrected bodies will be like compared to our earthly bodies.
Though the seed and the plant are two completely different beings, the plant originates from the seed, as do our spiritual bodies. In this way, our spiritual body will be determined by how we live our earthly lives.
From verses 39-41, Paul stresses how the earthly body and heavenly body are two different beings. He compares the flesh of a man to the flesh of an animal, and the splendor of the moon and the splendor of the stars. Paul is trying to explain that saying that the earthly body is the same as the heavenly body, is like saying a bird is the same as a fish, and is like saying how the splendor of the moon is the same as the stars. In verse 40, Paul writes, “There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another.”
Why does Paul repeatedly emphasize how the earthly body and heavenly body are its own state of being? Those, though they are related, are like two different things?
Before Adam and Eve ate the fruit from the knowledge of Good and Evil, man was sinless, and therefore, lived eternally according to God’s plan. However, after acting against God’s will, they became tainted with sin, tainting the rest of mankind from that point on, with sin. From verses 42 to 44, Paul parallels the earthly body with the heavenly body. It says, “So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.” Our bodies are perishable, dishonorable, and weak because of sin. Paul first calls our bodies perishable because we are extremely vulnerable. If we were to touch something a sick-person had just coughed on, we can get a cold. If we were to eat expired foods, we can get food poisoning. If we were to stay too long in direct sunlight, we could get cancer.
This reminded me of an episode in the show Community when Jeff, a middle-aged health fanatic, gives up on maintaining his healthy lifestyle because his doctor tells him he has high cholesterol. Despite his efforts to stay healthy, he realizes that his body inevitably will deteriorate with age. Men are also dishonorable and weak-minded. How many times can you remember deciding to stick to your New Year’s resolutions but end up breaking all of them within the first week? How many instances can you remember running away from something because you were afraid?
How many times can we remember sinning despite knowing what was right?
When we are resurrected, our bodies will be imperishable, glorious, and powerful. We will be without sin. Not only will we be sinless, but also eternal. No longer will our bodies feel inadequate and vulnerable. All our worries, of college and school, will be washed away. All our insecurities and weaknesses will disappear. We will never again fear death.
I think the greatest change from our earthly body and heavenly body will be our hearts. For me, the trait that I hate myself the most for is my constant selfishness. But my heavenly body will be selfless. I would be free of my fear of rejection and failure, and I won’t need glasses with my perfect 20/20 vision.
Try to envision your own, heavenly body. Maybe you're that person who on the outside seems outgoing and happy, but on the inside feels inadequate compared to other people; like you're just not talented enough, or smart enough, or good enough at anything. Maybe you're that person whose struggling with one sin that you are hiding from other people. Or maybe you're that person who just feels so indifferent and unmotivated to do what you know you're supposed to do. Despite our differences in our inner struggles, God can transform each of us. You will no longer feel inadequate, but self-sufficient. You won't shame and guilt, but forgiven. You will no longer feel unmotivated, but full of purpose.
But how does this happen? How does our earthly body, that is full of sin, transform into a heavenly body? In the beginning of the passage, Paul emphasized how the earthly body and heavenly body are two different things. So how do we cross that barrier? Verses 47 - 49 say, “The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the man from heaven.” Our bodies are made of the dust from the ground. Dead skin cells fly off from our flesh. We originated from the earth. Verse 50 says, “...that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” However, though Jesus too was a man, he is of heaven. And because he is God, only he can save us from our sins. And so, we come to the very foundation of our belief: that Jesus came down as a sinless man in order to die on the cross to forgive us of our sins and conquer death, so that we can have a second chance. This is how we can conquer sin. This is how we can have a resurrected body. If we truly believe in the gospel, that Jesus was dead, buried, and raised, instead of having a body that will eventually die away, we shall bear the image of Jesus.
What if we were all like Jesus? He was so full of empathy and unconditional love for others, he had full control over his mind and heart, he was humble, he was full of wisdom, and finally he had the ability to conquer death. So we too, can conquer sin and death and rise from the dead because of him.
In verses 51-52, Paul writes, “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed - in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.” First, Paul calls this a mystery. A secret.A puzzle that not many people know. Paul wanted the Corinthians to hold unto this hope like a treasure, that when Jesus comes again, we will all be completely transformed.
But we also have to make a change in our current lives. We can’t just sit around and do nothing, we have to continue to grow in faith. Just as how well you nurture the seed determines how well the plant will grow, we have to continue to grow in our earthly bodies in order to obtain the heavenly body. When my sister told my family how she accepted Jesus, she said that when she read the bible, she felt like she was reading it for the first time, even though she grew up hearing the same things over and over again. She said that there was a point in her life where everything made sense, where she gained a new, fresh light on the bible. Though we may have heard messages on these passages many times, we can look at the bible in a new light and renewed mind each time we approach it.
It was very difficult for me to accept this passage. I had to directly confront my indifference and unbelief and examine my heart. I realized that the main thing that was keeping me from believing was my skewed mindset. I tried to use my human logic, I tried to reason my way into believing. But I realized that believing with human logic is impossible. Thinking from a worldly perspective, Jesus’ resurrection seems so strange and surreal. However, we are sinful and therefore cannot see the truth. Human logic is very relative; what we may think is the truth, may be simply a concept that we have accepted to be truth early in childhood. Why is it, that when we learn from our teachers at school we readily accept what they say, but when approached with the bible, we reject Jesus? I told my dad how idealistic and unreal Jesus’ love for me and his death and resurrection seemed, however he told me to have spiritual logic. I had to change my way of thinking and accept the bible as it is. In Mark 9:14-32, a father asks Jesus to heal his demon possessed son. Then the man says "If you can do anything, take pity on us and help us." Jesus responds, "IF you can? Everything is possible for him who believes." And then the father replies with a strange paradox, "I DO believe, help me overcome my unbelief." So, I prayed. I asked God to help me overcome my unbelief, and he’s helping me. Gradually, like my sister, I began to understand. I recently started bible study with Sarah Kim, and though I’ve constantly told her that I couldn’t believe, each time I went to study with her I felt like I was reading the bible for the first time. I realized that there is only one truth. Whether we accept that truth or not is up to us. I truly believe that God is transforming me now, slowly, but surely.
Verses 54b to 57 says, “then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Though death may seem like the end, if we simply believe Jesus’ resurrection, we will have eternal victory over death.
Paul ends by saying, “Therefore my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” Everything we do will not go to waste. What we strive to do in this lifetime for God up until our very death can be done with the hope that we will be resurrected. Resurrection answers the “So What” aspect of our belief. If death was the end, what would be the point of our belief? What would be the point of accepting Jesus and preaching the bible? But, because Jesus died for us, forgave us of our sins, and rose again from the dead, we have life after death. With this promise from God, we can live our lives free from the fears of the unknown, and dedicate our whole lives to him. But what does it mean practically to give ourselves fully to the work of the Lord? Matthew 6:21 says, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." It means to reset your priorities, so that whatever you do will be for God. School can turn into a category separate from church, however, we can study with the hope that God will use this time in our lives for in his plan for us. We can hold unto the hope that our bodies will be renewed and without sin when Jesus comes again.
Life after the Resurrection
By Charlie Kim
If you had forty days with Jesus, how would you spend your time with Him? Would you take a picture with him and make it your Facebook profile picture? Maybe you would ask him to play one on one basketball with you. Or maybe you would take him to the latest movie in theaters, like The Hunger Games. Personally, I would love to take long walks on the beach with him and listen to him tell campfire stories about heaven. Thinking about it now, it would be amazing; it would feel like a dream.
Ah, it’d be like forty days in heaven. Forty days of being truly alive. Let’s take a look at the real deal: how the disciples spent forty days with Jesus.
Sometimes as teenagers, all we want in life is to feel alive. When we are young, we hold onto the truth easily and give our all as if there was no tomorrow. But as we grow older, many of us nurture skepticism, doubt, and uncertainty of our beliefs as if we were watering weeds in our heart’s garden. Maybe we grow tired of hearing the same things. Maybe we begin to resent responsibility. Maybe we just become plain-old lazy. Whatever it is, our heart’s soil grows hard, thorny, path-like, and we begin to feel dead inside.
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
“Jesus promises the gift of the Holy Spirit”If you had forty days with Jesus, how would you spend your time with Him? Would you take a picture with him and make it your Facebook profile picture? Maybe you would ask him to play one on one basketball with you. Or maybe you would take him to the latest movie in theaters, like The Hunger Games. Personally, I would love to take long walks on the beach with him and listen to him tell campfire stories about heaven. Thinking about it now, it would be amazing; it would feel like a dream.
Ah, it’d be like forty days in heaven. Forty days of being truly alive. Let’s take a look at the real deal: how the disciples spent forty days with Jesus.
In Acts, it says that after Jesus’ death and resurrection, “he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.”
“Jesus gave them many convincing proofs that he was alive.” Can you believe it? All of your questions about the resurrection, answered. Yeah, sure, maybe there wasn’t a lot of time for basketball, or time to catch a movie. Instead, it must have been like a college course, “Jesus’ death and resurrection 101.” What’s important to see is that from this point on, Jesus’ main disciples had simple and clear resurrection faith. Like when Jesus appeared to Mary at the tomb, Mary was called by name and her faith in Jesus was restored. Like when Jesus appeared to Thomas who was doubtful, Thomas touched Jesus’ wounds and believed. The disciples became ‘sure of what they hoped for’ and ‘certain of what they did in fact see’. Focused Bible studies, times for prayer and fellowship, the disciples’ time with Jesus was centered on faith in the Resurrection and hope in the kingdom of God.
Jesus’ time had finally come at the end of the forty days, and just as soon as he came into their lives he would be leaving them again. But he wasn’t going to leave without giving them some guidance. Jesus wasn’t going to leave without giving them a part of Him. What was that part? Let’s look at verses 4 and 5.
“On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: ‘Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
Baptism with water, ok. But baptism with the Holy Spirit? This may have been a bit confusing to the disciples. So when the disciples met together they seized the opportunity to ask Jesus,
“Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
Here, we can see the disciples were still stuck on the earthly kingdom. Jesus understood this. So he answers, as he always does, with grace and truth. “Don’t worry about the time and place. But know this: you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” In Communistic and all third world countries, in the Americas, both the North and South, in all fifty states of the US, in Chicago and in all CPS High schools, you will be my witnesses.
Wow. For the disciples there must have been a thousand more questions that still wouldn’t have been enough to satisfy their uncertainty. As a senior, I am only beginning to understand Jesus’ command. And as anyone else would, I too have many questions. Yet Jesus reassures me when he says, “Don’t worry.”
Lord, when will this all happen; this summer maybe? “Don’t worry, I know best.” Where should I go to college? “God knows best.” What should I do? What will I do? “You will be my witness from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.” How can I do this? “Wait for my gift. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.”
God, honestly, I’m scared. I don’t know if I can do this.
“Charlie, I will come back in the same way you have seen me go into heaven. And that’s a promise.”
God, honestly, I’m scared. I don’t know if I can do this.
“Charlie, I will come back in the same way you have seen me go into heaven. And that’s a promise.”
When Jesus answered them and was taken up into heaven they were uncertain. But two angels were there to assure the disciples. This really touched their hearts. He made a promise to each of them, just as he has made a promise to each of us. That just as he left, he would come again.
What we can learn from this is, whatever our question may be, Jesus will answer us in the same way, “Have faith in me and the Holy Spirit will guide you.” Jesus has promised us the Holy Spirit. When Jesus commands his disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the baptism, he is telling them, “You will be my witnesses through the gift of the Holy Spirit.” It is like he is saying, “Do you remember my sermon on the mount? The Holy Spirit was with me and it will be with you. Do you remember when I fed the five thousand? The Holy Spirit was with me and it will be with you. Do you remember when I died on the cross and rose again? The Holy Spirit was with me and it will be with you. Do you remember the forty days we just spent together? The Holy Spirit was with me and it will be with you.”
In this first part of Acts 1, Jesus is promising the Holy Spirit. All we have to do is trust in him.
“The power of the Holy Spirit”
Peter had heard all of this. But what had caught his attention were Jesus’ words, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you…” Power. What did this “power” really mean? Peter definitely wanted power, but somehow he knew Jesus didn’t mean some sort of physical, social, or political power. In Acts, he knew Jesus meant another kind of power.
But not too long ago, Peter had wanted that other kind of power, a worldly power. Let’s think about Peter’s life before the Resurrection.
Throughout the gospels, we find a Peter who was like Jesus’ right hand man. For all of Jesus’ miracles, Peter was there; he felt like he was on top of the world. For all the times Jesus was in the temple courts, Peter was there, cheering Jesus on. But when it came time for Jesus’ death and resurrection, Peter was afraid because he thought he would lose his sense of power. So in Gethsemane, Peter was willing to kill, not for Jesus, but for this false sense of power. During Jesus’ trial before the religious leaders, Peter was so ashamed that he denied Jesus three times. After Jesus’ death on the cross, Peter was so afraid that he hid in an upstairs room. All power that he thought he had in Jesus faded away before his insecurities. He was alone again, just a fisherman out at stormy sea.
But one day, as Peter and his friends were fishing, Jesus appeared to him. When they could not catch anything, Jesus guided them, and they caught a large number of fish. As soon as Peter realized who it was, he proclaimed, “It is the Lord!” Then he jumped out of his boat half naked and met Jesus on the shore. This Peter, who jumped out of the boat, was a new Peter who took a leap of faith. This Peter, who met Jesus on the shore, was a new Peter who believed in Jesus’ promise that He would come again. This image of Peter finding Jesus again was a real image of resurrection faith.
After the resurrection, Peter was alive again. So when the day of Pentecost came and “suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven,” Peter wasn’t afraid. Now, Peter knew what Jesus meant by “power.”
“They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them…”
Peter understood when Jesus said, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.”
“Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome; Cretans and Arabs – we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our tongues!”
This is just utterly amazing! Haha, get it? “Utterly”? I mean, I can speak English, a little Spanish, and absolutely no Korean. But to hear about the power of the Holy Spirit allowing these disciples to speak in tongues of nations I can’t even pronounce is amazing.
But of course, there always has to be a group of non-believers. “Bah, these men are drunk.” When the crowds responded to their speaking in tongues with doubt, Peter could have been shaken. He could have easily been afraid. He could have had a flashback to the night he disowned Jesus three times. He could have had a relapse to the time when he felt all alone in that upstairs room. But he didn’t. He didn’t because he was filled with the Holy Spirit. And so what did Jesus say to do next? “Witness.” Peter remembered this and that’s exactly what he did.
In Acts 2:32-36, Peter says, “God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you see and hear. Therefore, let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
“When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?”
Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.”
The disciples would go on to do some amazing things: heal the sick, drive out demons, and see visions. But they would also be persecuted. Stephen, the first martyr, was stoned to death at the feet of Paul himself. Peter was crucified upside down. And Paul was put in jail, stoned, and despised by his old friends. By the end of their lives, they would die for their faith in Jesus. They could only do this because they had Resurrection faith. This was the power of the Holy Spirit.
Senior year is the best year in high school, hands down. All your classes are chill. More people know you, or at least you think more people do. You feel like you can do whatever you want. You’re on top of the school. You feel you have a new kind of confidence, a new power over your life.
Without even knowing it, I have been trying to fit this image of a high school senior. Lately, I’ve wanted the approval of those around me. I’ve been acting a certain way around certain people because I thought they would like me more. If I didn’t feel accepted I felt worse. So I acted or spoke a certain way to be accepted. I’ve been trying to hold on to a false sense of power.
But because of this I have lost myself. How did this happen? In a word, I have been trying to live someone else’s life. Because I have been trying to live by the standards of society, I have let go of God and the Holy Spirit. I’ve forgotten God’s blessing. These past few days, we have been thinking about the resurrection of Jesus and what it means. What I learned from this conference is that if there is anything I want in life, if there is anything I want in this world, it is to be alive. But we have to remember what it is that makes us alive. Our hobbies or interests don’t make us truly alive. Our job doesn’t make us truly alive. Our classmates, peers, even our friends, don’t make us truly alive. We have to remember it is by Jesus that we are made alive.
Senior year is great, and high school in general can be an amazing time. Sure, sometimes we have our ups and downs. But when we forget God, we slowly dig a hole for ourselves. We become slaves to school, popularity, girls, guys, and we lose ourselves. When this happens we have to remember the gift Jesus has given us. We have to remember the power of the Holy Spirit. If you are feeling alone or depressed, remember the power of the Holy Spirit so that God can pull you out of it. If you believe that you don’t have Resurrection faith, ask for the power to believe. If you want to share the gospel with someone close to you, pray that you will have power to be Jesus’ witness.
“The Church Alive”
Acts 2:15-17 describes a community of believers who lived by the Holy Spirit.
“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
At school, there is fellowship. On sports teams, there is fellowship. In class, there is fellowship. Among friends, there is fellowship. At home, there is also fellowship. At church, there is fellowship. And in HBF, we have fellowship.
What distinguishes each of these fellowships? For believers, it is the message of Christ.
Colossians 3:16-17 says,16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
The essential ingredient for the Corinthians, for the author of Acts, and for all of us is the message of Christ. For us to enjoy our lives to the fullest in love and fellowship, we need to “let the message of Christ dwell among us richly.”
Honestly, when I see HBF, I see a part of my family. Some of my best friends I have made in HBF and they are still very close to me. Through HBF, I have gained a lot of friendships, love, and support. But HBF isn’t just a name. HBF is a church. And we are a church when we “let the message of Christ dwell among us richly.” I pray that we can “teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through… the Spirit.” This means looking out for one another, loving one another, and supporting one another, through the Holy Spirit. Then we can be truly alive as a church.
Conclusion: “Alive through the Holy Spirit”Sometimes as teenagers, all we want in life is to feel alive. When we are young, we hold onto the truth easily and give our all as if there was no tomorrow. But as we grow older, many of us nurture skepticism, doubt, and uncertainty of our beliefs as if we were watering weeds in our heart’s garden. Maybe we grow tired of hearing the same things. Maybe we begin to resent responsibility. Maybe we just become plain-old lazy. Whatever it is, our heart’s soil grows hard, thorny, path-like, and we begin to feel dead inside.
But if we were to look honestly at ourselves, at our lives thus far, and at the lives of those around us, we have nothing left to do but to be thankful and full of joy for what Jesus has already done for us. We have heard quite a few messages. But the central message is the same. Jesus has died once and for all for our sins. He rose from the dead, and makes us alive. We need only to accept this and remember Him.
If you take one thing from this morning, I pray that it is that God is with you through the Holy Spirit. Life after the resurrection is hard at times, but in the end it is beautiful. In the message of the cross is the message of new life. If we live by the Holy Spirit, our life is full. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we are made truly “alive.”
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
IT IS FINISHED
By Josephine Wang
John 19:16-42
Key verse 19:30
Approaching this message, there were already things that I wanted to do. The crucifixion message, one we all know is crucial to the Christian faith, is also a message that we are all familiar with. It’s also one that is very direct and perhaps self-evident. Because of this, I did not want to splay my arms across for you so that you can look at my arms and sort of conceive the importance of the cross, and the pain, and maybe Jesus. I wanted to skip that torture stuff, because…I heard it before and I felt that maybe the cross message was too sensational or sentimental, an emotional assault to guilt trip people or have them feel something. But Jesus never asked for empathy while suffering. He never asks us to pity him, poor Jesus, but know why he had to go through this.
Last semester, my grades were suffering and it was all because of my laziness. I couldn’t even deny this fact that my laziness resulted in my grades. That night before the report cards were out, I prayed to God and begged him, please, please, some miracle, Lord. But, simultaneously I knew that I deserved this. My grades were not the fault of cosmic forces. It was my stupid fault. My stupid sinful self. Then I thought, Josephine, you have the audacity to cry out to God for these petty things? Children are dying and begging God, please just one crumb and you, who has been showered with blessings, are begging for something so insignificant, so selfish. The grades, the numbers are JUST representations of your effort, and yet here I am, the night before! begging God. Even if I was deserving to pray to God this prayer, why the night before? It was such a desperate prayer, and so shallow. Because of these truths, during those two hours of prayer I cried out, “and Jesus? You died for this? Why did you die for me? I’m so worthless. Why did you die for these exact petty sins? Why did you kill your life for this stupid shallow me?” I had absolute self-loathing. Was this all I amounted to? But, this is what the Bible says: when the disciples asked how to pray, Jesus told them to say “Give us each day our daily bread”. And when the women wept for Jesus, he told them “Do not weep for me”. I never understood why. Did Jesus not see what was before him? What and who he was dying for? Now I understand, his crucifixion is not about sorrow.
PART I. This is the crucifixion story:
So, “finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified”. Despite his conviction of Jesus’ innocence, he gave into the feral cries of the crowd, their savagery that thirsted for the unreasonable killing of Jesus Christ. From the beginning, Jesus’ death is so apparently innocent, and the crowd’s anger so mindlessly passionate, yet, Jesus (verse 17) “carr[ied] his own cross, [as] he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha)”. As he was beaten down and made to carry his frightening device of torture and murder, Jesus was not only made less human, but he was made less valuable, less worthy, less beautiful, and less intelligent. There walks the blasphemous fool, carrying the burden of his stupidity. However, even in Jesus’ shame, God constantly reminds us of his intent. Thus, the place of Jesus’ crucifixion, the Skull, is appropriately a personification of death and as a fulfillment of prophecy Jesus was crucified alongside two others, criminals, trivializing Jesus’ efforts into pettiness, maximizing his humiliation.
It’s kind of astonishing to look back on this scene of Jesus’ crucifixion. It feels so driven with such animalistic malice, largely due to the crowd’s ignorance. However, despite this, God was able to display his glory through the fulfillment of the scriptures, for a notice was (verse 19-22) “fastened to the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. 20Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. 21The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that this man claimed to be the king of the Jews.” 22Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.” Although previously, Pilot tried to repress the truth of Jesus’ identity, now that he is faced with the undeniable truth that Jesus will have to undergo unjustified torture, he stubbornly insists his decision because he always knew the truth. It was God’s intention that everyone know that it was not that “this man claimed to be the king of the Jews” but that Jesus is the “the King of the Jews”. Because he is, there is triumph in Jesus’ death. It was not a tragedy, a mockery of Jesus’ life, but a glorious testament of God’s presence.
The fulfillment of scripture continues as soldiers took his clothes and said (verse 24) 24 “Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.” This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said, “They divided my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.” So this is what the soldiers did.
So. Jesus was crucified in unjustified hate, was naked, and had the nerves in his wrists hackneyed. Despite his inability to fully inhale, he remembered his mother. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Dear woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, (verse 26-27) “Here is your mother”. Jesus understood his mother’s heart, he knew that Mary would bury the agony of her children’s pain in her heart. To the end, he remembered and was filial, obedient to God in every commandment and prophecy. Hence, Jesus’ next statement, later, (verses 28-30)“knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty”. Jesus withheld his thirst, struggled to keep his consciousness, until it was God’s opportune and appointed time. Only with the fulfillment of all these things could Jesus say, “It is finished”. There is relief in this phrase that Jesus said with his dying breath. However, I do not believe that it was said in relief because he could finally escape the pain but because he was able to be victorious.
PART 2. It is finished
The Bible keeps emphasizing that the scripture was fulfilled. This is further revealed when Jesus’ legs were not broken and when Jesus’ pierced side drew out blood and water. This fulfillment of scripture reveals that Jesus did indeed die. Thus, throughout this passage there is truth after truth, fulfillment after fulfillment. God made sure that every one of them was carried out, despite the ignorance of the people performing them, despite the pain that Jesus had to endure. In addition to this, John writes, (35-37) “the man who saw [the flow of blood and water] has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe”. Jesus fulfilled these scriptures, one by one, so that you may also believe that all this was done to atone for our sins, just as God had promised, the scripture had promised, just as he had done. And, almost as a lyrical symbol of the retribution Jesus has brought us through his death, he was buried in a garden, the exact origin of man’s sin. There is life in the death of Jesus Christ. There is renewal in the death of Jesus Christ. Most importantly, throughout the death of Jesus Christ, during and in the death of Jesus Christ, God was always there.
When I see the sin in my life, I feel so mediocre and worthless. I feel as though I am destined to be confined in my sin. I made too many mistakes, I am too much of a hypocrite. However, Jesus said, “It is finished.” Once I was able to accept Jesus’s declaration, I was also able to accept God to guide my life. Sin is oppressive: I wanted to die because of it and once I even blasphemed against God by saying, “kill me now”. But…Jesus already overcame it all and he comforts me. [Sometimes I feel as though I am in a foreign place, whether it be in my own body or home. I have found my true home in the words of God. This is where I feel profound and where I feel safe. This is what I have found once coming to Jesus.]
Now, God is saying to you, over and over again: I planned this all. I did it all. Come to me. Even before Jesus uttered his final words, God said it over and over again. It is finished. It is finished. Our sins are very real. Our sins result in death. But, the scripture was fulfilled, it is finished. No more self-loathing, no more barriers, no more sin. Jesus did it all. Now, come to Jesus.
Monday, April 9, 2012
Alive by the Resurrection
By: John Mederich
KV: 15:22 “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.”
When you hear the phrase “the resurrection of the dead,” what is the first image that comes to mind? Let’s close our eyes for ten seconds and form a visual for the resurrection. Now let’s open our eyes, but let’s keep that image in our heads. Our imaginations probably painted some wacky pictures. Personally, this phrase evokesan image of zombies crawling out of graves and taking over the world. This is not exactly the most accurate illustration of resurrection, so what accounts for my strange perception?
I find that the media largely influences my view of resurrection. Perhaps it is because Hollywood commercializes on this theme of being raised from the dead. Countless films recycle this theme such as The Crazies, Dawn of the Dead,and Zombieland.Even televised series such as The Walking Dead profit off this idea. However, the media’s depiction of resurrection is flawed. The purpose is not so that zombies can infest the world and rid it of humanity. Contrary to the movies, the bible depicts the resurrection as a beautiful display of Christ’s love for us. By rising into heaven, Jesus conquered death and paved the way for us to enter into his eternal kingdom. Christ warmly welcomes us to the gates of heaven, but he only admits those who believe in his glorious resurrection. But what if we do not know what it means to believe in the resurrection? How will we ever know if we qualify to meet with our risen savior? Fortunately, in this passage Paul clarifies what life is like without the resurrection and indicates evidence of Christ’s renewal. He then offers a practical solution for how to live as believers.
Through recognizing the truth in Christ’s rebirth and by renewing our faith let’s be made alive in Christ’s resurrection!
Part I: Life Without The Resurrection
The passage begins with verse 12 that states, “But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?”Here Paul addresses the Corinthians for their disbelief. Paul was troubled that the Corinthians were going around claiming that the resurrection was not real. Although their notion was false, it was not illogical. Resurrection is not the type of event that occurs every day. More than that, it is especially difficult to believe in something we cannot see with our own eyes.Yet, one does not have to physically see the resurrection to believe it. True faith is accepting what one cannot see.
Paul proceeds by pointing out the consequences that result from disbelief. Let’s read verses 13-15a in one voice:“If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead.” These verses concern our faith in Christ. A central question we should all ask ourselves is, “do I believe in Christ?” As Christians we should be able to proudly proclaim: “Yes I believe in Jesus.” It really is a waste of time to teach the bible and attend worship service if we do not believe. Why not use our time for something we are passionate about like art, music, or sports. Unless we accept that Jesus is risen we as Christians are living a lie. We profess that God is almighty but if we do not believe that he can raise the dead then our beliefs contradict our actions. Paul implies that unless we believewe let lies about a risen savior govern our existence.
Paul continues his argument regarding disbelief in verses 15b-17.He claims that if we do not believe in Christ then our sins have not been atoned for. He says, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.”No number of good deeds can ever outweigh the burden of our sins. Even donating our life fortunes to the Salvation Army is not enough to save us from eternal condemnation. This is because only Jesus has the power to save us from our sins and until we recognize that we are truly hopeless.
Paul says in verse 18, “Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.” Paul uses the phrase “fallen asleep” as a metaphor to compare the physical body’s resting state to death. This comparison serves to show that without the resurrection there is no reward for those who have struggled to live by faith.This is why Paul says in verse 19, “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” What Paul says isquite simple. We as Christians are something to be laughed at if we place our hope in something that cannot save us without the resurrection.
Part II:The Truth Of The Resurrection
We all need to reflect on whether we truly believe in Christ’s resurrection. Do you believe that Jesusrose into heaven? What makes acceptance of the resurrection so difficult is what we may perceive as a lack of evidence for it. Yet, there is undeniable support for the fact of Christ’s resurrection.
Take Paul the apostle for instance. Paul was a notorious persecutor of Christians before he met Jesus. However, when he had a personal encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus he was convicted of his former ways and became a renowned gospel worker. Paul’s life is just one testament to the resurrection. Countless other witnesses and martyrs profess the resurrection of Christ too. If there were no essence of truth in the words of Christ’s disciples then people would have completely disregarded his teachings. However, the fact that the message of the resurrection has been passed downfrom two thousand years ago all the way to today signifies that Christ is still living and working in the world.
The message of the resurrection is a very personal topic that we must all struggle with. I recently came across a saying by G.K Chesterton. It says, “Just going to church doesn’t make you a Christian anymore than standing in your garage makes you a car.” Similarly, growing up in a Christian household or regularly attending HBF does not mean that weare true Christians. It is only when we accept the resurrection of Jesus that we can witness the power of Christ in our lives.
Let’s recite verses 20-21 together: “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.” Here Paul emphasizes that when we accept the resurrection of Jesus then we can inherit spiritual resurrection. This is because Jesus was the firstfruits, or the first person to die and rise again. Jesus is like a farmer who sows his seed andgives rise to an abundant harvest of seeds. His resurrection empowers all of us to conquer death and achieve spiritual rebirth.
Let’s read verse 22 together:“For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.”This verse entails that mankind is destined to die but through Christ can have newfound spiritual life. God created us with the intention that we would live forever in his heavenly kingdom.Death is not the end of the road. It is just the beginning of our everlasting life with Jesus.
Verse 23 states, “But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.”This verse indicates the succession of resurrection. First Christ resurrected, and once he returns we will be raised into heaven too.
Following Christ’s second coming he will restore the kingdom to God. Paul says,“Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. Paul continues to illustrate how Christ will defeat his enemies. He says, “For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For he “has put everything under his feet.”[a] Christ’s power prevails over all and puts death beneath him. Paul clarifies saying,“Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.”After Christ puts the world beneath him then God his Father will be above all. God will have full dominion to make us alive once again.
Part III: Life in The Resurrection
When we’ve accepted the resurrection as truth, Paul encourages us to show that we’re alive in Jesus.We can show our new lives in Christ by living with resurrection faith. So, what is resurrection faith? Well Paul makes it quite evident how we shouldn’t live. In verses 29-32 he says, “Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them? And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? I face death every day—yes, just as surely as I boast about you in Christ Jesus our Lord. If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus with no more than human hopes, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised,“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.’”In these verses Paul juxtaposes how faithless people live with how we should lead our lives. The faithless live in the moment instead of looking forward to life after death. Therefore, spiritually reborn people should make the most of each day to serve Christ.
Paul lived with practical resurrection faith by dyingevery day to follow Christ. He died by choosing to stop sinning. However, avoiding sin is very challenging to do on our own. This is why Paul suggests in verse 33 to alleviate the bad influences from our lives. Let’s recite verse 33 together:“Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.’” Hanging out with the “cool crowd” may seem harmless. You’re not trying to do anything bad, you just want social acceptance. However, Paul warns that we should not surround ourselves with such people. They have the potential to corrupt us and hinder our faith. We can adopt foul mouths and develop evil thoughts if we are not careful. By avoiding such people and instead surrounding ourselveswith Christian influences we can avoid sin and strengthen our faith.
Paul concludes with verse 34 that says, “Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God—I say this to your shame.”Here Paul challenges us to stop sinning.In order to fully witness the power of the resurrection we need to let Jesus govern every aspect of our lives. This is only possible if we rid ourselves of sin.
At this point I’d like to share my struggle to live by faith. I suppose my life story as a Christian begins sometime in 2009. The summer of 2009 I made the decision to follow Christ. That summer I had attended the international summer bible conference in Germany. I was so moved by all of the missionaries who labored for Christ’s sake in Europe. I was really inspired by their life testimonies that revealed their struggles to turn from sin. They made the decision to do God’s work despite the religious oppression in their respective countries. I returned to America with a newfound purpose to serve Christ everyday.
However, I quickly fell back into my sinful ways. I began to feel like a hypocrite to my faith. Some time later I was sitting at a conference hearing a message on the resurrection. Despite considering myself a Christian my entire life, I found that I was unable to accept that Jesus died and rose for me.I recallpicturing the resurrection but not being able to accept it. The resurrection was just so surreal and illogical for me to understand.
At that point I started to question my very identity as a Christian. I began to ask myself, “what’s the point of being a Christian if I can’t accept the resurrection?” This caused me to adopt a very apathetic mentality following that conference. I felt detached during subsequent Sunday messages and HBF praise nights. I lost my enthusiasm for bible study and I grew angrywith myself, church members, and especially God. I really stopped caring about my faith as a whole and continued to indulge in my sins. I thought that being apathetic to the gospel would allow me to have an easier life. However, this lifestyle only caused me to feel empty, lonely, and worthless. The more I neglected God and distanced myself from him, the more difficult my life became. My apathy toward God carried over into my academic and personal life. My effort at school and in sustaining friendships waned.
It wasn’t until last year’s HBF conference that I was convicted of my unbelieving attitude. Witnessing how God worked in the lives of my HBF peers really encouraged me to achieve spiritual rebirth too. I was tired of letting sin take hold of my life. I was filled with hope that I could also accept the resurrection and be made anew. At that conference I nailed any sense of my disbelief to the cross and allowed the message of the resurrection to dwell in my heart.
As I stand here, though, I do not profess myself to be the perfect Christian. Yes, I accepted the message of the resurrection, but I still struggle to live with resurrection faith.
Conclusion:
So, right now I would like to propose a challenge for all of us. When we return to our busy lives at school and work let us not forget what Christ did for us. We can show that we have not forgotten Him by reminding ourselves of the gospel we received. His victory over death grants us hope for eternal life. Let’s live each day in remembrance of Him by dying to our sins. Let’s open our hearts to Christ and let him make us alive.Let’s recite verse 22 one more time: “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.”
KV: 15:22 “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.”
When you hear the phrase “the resurrection of the dead,” what is the first image that comes to mind? Let’s close our eyes for ten seconds and form a visual for the resurrection. Now let’s open our eyes, but let’s keep that image in our heads. Our imaginations probably painted some wacky pictures. Personally, this phrase evokesan image of zombies crawling out of graves and taking over the world. This is not exactly the most accurate illustration of resurrection, so what accounts for my strange perception?
I find that the media largely influences my view of resurrection. Perhaps it is because Hollywood commercializes on this theme of being raised from the dead. Countless films recycle this theme such as The Crazies, Dawn of the Dead,and Zombieland.Even televised series such as The Walking Dead profit off this idea. However, the media’s depiction of resurrection is flawed. The purpose is not so that zombies can infest the world and rid it of humanity. Contrary to the movies, the bible depicts the resurrection as a beautiful display of Christ’s love for us. By rising into heaven, Jesus conquered death and paved the way for us to enter into his eternal kingdom. Christ warmly welcomes us to the gates of heaven, but he only admits those who believe in his glorious resurrection. But what if we do not know what it means to believe in the resurrection? How will we ever know if we qualify to meet with our risen savior? Fortunately, in this passage Paul clarifies what life is like without the resurrection and indicates evidence of Christ’s renewal. He then offers a practical solution for how to live as believers.
Through recognizing the truth in Christ’s rebirth and by renewing our faith let’s be made alive in Christ’s resurrection!
Part I: Life Without The Resurrection
The passage begins with verse 12 that states, “But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?”Here Paul addresses the Corinthians for their disbelief. Paul was troubled that the Corinthians were going around claiming that the resurrection was not real. Although their notion was false, it was not illogical. Resurrection is not the type of event that occurs every day. More than that, it is especially difficult to believe in something we cannot see with our own eyes.Yet, one does not have to physically see the resurrection to believe it. True faith is accepting what one cannot see.
Paul proceeds by pointing out the consequences that result from disbelief. Let’s read verses 13-15a in one voice:“If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead.” These verses concern our faith in Christ. A central question we should all ask ourselves is, “do I believe in Christ?” As Christians we should be able to proudly proclaim: “Yes I believe in Jesus.” It really is a waste of time to teach the bible and attend worship service if we do not believe. Why not use our time for something we are passionate about like art, music, or sports. Unless we accept that Jesus is risen we as Christians are living a lie. We profess that God is almighty but if we do not believe that he can raise the dead then our beliefs contradict our actions. Paul implies that unless we believewe let lies about a risen savior govern our existence.
Paul continues his argument regarding disbelief in verses 15b-17.He claims that if we do not believe in Christ then our sins have not been atoned for. He says, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.”No number of good deeds can ever outweigh the burden of our sins. Even donating our life fortunes to the Salvation Army is not enough to save us from eternal condemnation. This is because only Jesus has the power to save us from our sins and until we recognize that we are truly hopeless.
Paul says in verse 18, “Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.” Paul uses the phrase “fallen asleep” as a metaphor to compare the physical body’s resting state to death. This comparison serves to show that without the resurrection there is no reward for those who have struggled to live by faith.This is why Paul says in verse 19, “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” What Paul says isquite simple. We as Christians are something to be laughed at if we place our hope in something that cannot save us without the resurrection.
Part II:The Truth Of The Resurrection
We all need to reflect on whether we truly believe in Christ’s resurrection. Do you believe that Jesusrose into heaven? What makes acceptance of the resurrection so difficult is what we may perceive as a lack of evidence for it. Yet, there is undeniable support for the fact of Christ’s resurrection.
Take Paul the apostle for instance. Paul was a notorious persecutor of Christians before he met Jesus. However, when he had a personal encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus he was convicted of his former ways and became a renowned gospel worker. Paul’s life is just one testament to the resurrection. Countless other witnesses and martyrs profess the resurrection of Christ too. If there were no essence of truth in the words of Christ’s disciples then people would have completely disregarded his teachings. However, the fact that the message of the resurrection has been passed downfrom two thousand years ago all the way to today signifies that Christ is still living and working in the world.
The message of the resurrection is a very personal topic that we must all struggle with. I recently came across a saying by G.K Chesterton. It says, “Just going to church doesn’t make you a Christian anymore than standing in your garage makes you a car.” Similarly, growing up in a Christian household or regularly attending HBF does not mean that weare true Christians. It is only when we accept the resurrection of Jesus that we can witness the power of Christ in our lives.
Let’s recite verses 20-21 together: “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.” Here Paul emphasizes that when we accept the resurrection of Jesus then we can inherit spiritual resurrection. This is because Jesus was the firstfruits, or the first person to die and rise again. Jesus is like a farmer who sows his seed andgives rise to an abundant harvest of seeds. His resurrection empowers all of us to conquer death and achieve spiritual rebirth.
Let’s read verse 22 together:“For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.”This verse entails that mankind is destined to die but through Christ can have newfound spiritual life. God created us with the intention that we would live forever in his heavenly kingdom.Death is not the end of the road. It is just the beginning of our everlasting life with Jesus.
Verse 23 states, “But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.”This verse indicates the succession of resurrection. First Christ resurrected, and once he returns we will be raised into heaven too.
Following Christ’s second coming he will restore the kingdom to God. Paul says,“Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. Paul continues to illustrate how Christ will defeat his enemies. He says, “For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For he “has put everything under his feet.”[a] Christ’s power prevails over all and puts death beneath him. Paul clarifies saying,“Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.”After Christ puts the world beneath him then God his Father will be above all. God will have full dominion to make us alive once again.
Part III: Life in The Resurrection
When we’ve accepted the resurrection as truth, Paul encourages us to show that we’re alive in Jesus.We can show our new lives in Christ by living with resurrection faith. So, what is resurrection faith? Well Paul makes it quite evident how we shouldn’t live. In verses 29-32 he says, “Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them? And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? I face death every day—yes, just as surely as I boast about you in Christ Jesus our Lord. If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus with no more than human hopes, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised,“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.’”In these verses Paul juxtaposes how faithless people live with how we should lead our lives. The faithless live in the moment instead of looking forward to life after death. Therefore, spiritually reborn people should make the most of each day to serve Christ.
Paul lived with practical resurrection faith by dyingevery day to follow Christ. He died by choosing to stop sinning. However, avoiding sin is very challenging to do on our own. This is why Paul suggests in verse 33 to alleviate the bad influences from our lives. Let’s recite verse 33 together:“Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.’” Hanging out with the “cool crowd” may seem harmless. You’re not trying to do anything bad, you just want social acceptance. However, Paul warns that we should not surround ourselves with such people. They have the potential to corrupt us and hinder our faith. We can adopt foul mouths and develop evil thoughts if we are not careful. By avoiding such people and instead surrounding ourselveswith Christian influences we can avoid sin and strengthen our faith.
Paul concludes with verse 34 that says, “Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God—I say this to your shame.”Here Paul challenges us to stop sinning.In order to fully witness the power of the resurrection we need to let Jesus govern every aspect of our lives. This is only possible if we rid ourselves of sin.
At this point I’d like to share my struggle to live by faith. I suppose my life story as a Christian begins sometime in 2009. The summer of 2009 I made the decision to follow Christ. That summer I had attended the international summer bible conference in Germany. I was so moved by all of the missionaries who labored for Christ’s sake in Europe. I was really inspired by their life testimonies that revealed their struggles to turn from sin. They made the decision to do God’s work despite the religious oppression in their respective countries. I returned to America with a newfound purpose to serve Christ everyday.
However, I quickly fell back into my sinful ways. I began to feel like a hypocrite to my faith. Some time later I was sitting at a conference hearing a message on the resurrection. Despite considering myself a Christian my entire life, I found that I was unable to accept that Jesus died and rose for me.I recallpicturing the resurrection but not being able to accept it. The resurrection was just so surreal and illogical for me to understand.
At that point I started to question my very identity as a Christian. I began to ask myself, “what’s the point of being a Christian if I can’t accept the resurrection?” This caused me to adopt a very apathetic mentality following that conference. I felt detached during subsequent Sunday messages and HBF praise nights. I lost my enthusiasm for bible study and I grew angrywith myself, church members, and especially God. I really stopped caring about my faith as a whole and continued to indulge in my sins. I thought that being apathetic to the gospel would allow me to have an easier life. However, this lifestyle only caused me to feel empty, lonely, and worthless. The more I neglected God and distanced myself from him, the more difficult my life became. My apathy toward God carried over into my academic and personal life. My effort at school and in sustaining friendships waned.
It wasn’t until last year’s HBF conference that I was convicted of my unbelieving attitude. Witnessing how God worked in the lives of my HBF peers really encouraged me to achieve spiritual rebirth too. I was tired of letting sin take hold of my life. I was filled with hope that I could also accept the resurrection and be made anew. At that conference I nailed any sense of my disbelief to the cross and allowed the message of the resurrection to dwell in my heart.
As I stand here, though, I do not profess myself to be the perfect Christian. Yes, I accepted the message of the resurrection, but I still struggle to live with resurrection faith.
Conclusion:
So, right now I would like to propose a challenge for all of us. When we return to our busy lives at school and work let us not forget what Christ did for us. We can show that we have not forgotten Him by reminding ourselves of the gospel we received. His victory over death grants us hope for eternal life. Let’s live each day in remembrance of Him by dying to our sins. Let’s open our hearts to Christ and let him make us alive.Let’s recite verse 22 one more time: “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.”
Sunday, April 8, 2012
The Resurrection Dance
Happy Easter everyone!
Here's a link to the video I mentioned in my message today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5dSIL358NM&feature=share
Here's a link to the video I mentioned in my message today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5dSIL358NM&feature=share
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)