He is Risen! He is Risen!
04/04/10 21:37
From Mary’s first
declaration to this present moment, the Church has
declared that its Founder is indeed –alive and
well! The Christian faith is supported by this one
truth and, as Paul rhetorically states, “And if
Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless
and so is your faith.”
It is not remarkable to me that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Neither is it remarkable that He has promised to raise all those who are in the faith. God has brought all things to life. He gave life to all and it is not unbelievable that God can give life to the dead. The wonder of it all is the fact that He has bothered at all!
Please give me a moment of your time. Someone once asked, “Why did God bother to create at all if He knew that mankind would go so wrong?” Why would an all-powerful, all-knowing, benevolent God create a world where there is so much pain and suffering?
And the answer? Jesus of Nazareth! I realize that Jesus is and was the image of the invisible God; He is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being; but He was also –all man. He suffered hunger, weariness, and pain. He suffered just as you and I would and yet, His whole life’s mission was to serve God in perfect holiness through obedience to the call.
He knew this from childhood; “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body Thou hast prepared for me… Then I said, ‘Here I am, I have come –it is written about me in the scroll. I desire to do Thy will, O my God; your law is within my heart.’” And again, “Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you even from my mother’s breast.”
While Jesus was ministering publicly to His brethren, He often told them that He had not come to do His own will, but the will of him who sent Him. Throughout His life, He cried out to God to save Him from death and God heard Him because of His reverent submission. Jesus knew that full obedience to God would mean death for Him, and so, He cried out to God to save Him from it.
Does that mean that Jesus was asking God to scrap the whole idea and let him live forever without tasting death? Absolutely not! Jesus was praying to be resurrected. Jesus was willing to taste death but He was also believing, (in faith) that God would raise Him up from it! Jesus had read and understood that which David had prophesied, “I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.”
So you see, the promises that Jesus lived by are the same that we are to live by and if God has raised Jesus to life, He will raise us as well. The resurrection of the dead is one of the most important doctrines that the Church must proclaim as loudly as she can. It is her life, her strength and blessed hope. It separates her from every other world view, and defines her practical creed. We live, because He lives. Easter is a celebration of God fulfilling His promise to Jesus Christ. We are called to rejoice –because He is risen!
Have a God blessed week. Pastor Jim
It is not remarkable to me that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Neither is it remarkable that He has promised to raise all those who are in the faith. God has brought all things to life. He gave life to all and it is not unbelievable that God can give life to the dead. The wonder of it all is the fact that He has bothered at all!
Please give me a moment of your time. Someone once asked, “Why did God bother to create at all if He knew that mankind would go so wrong?” Why would an all-powerful, all-knowing, benevolent God create a world where there is so much pain and suffering?
And the answer? Jesus of Nazareth! I realize that Jesus is and was the image of the invisible God; He is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being; but He was also –all man. He suffered hunger, weariness, and pain. He suffered just as you and I would and yet, His whole life’s mission was to serve God in perfect holiness through obedience to the call.
He knew this from childhood; “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body Thou hast prepared for me… Then I said, ‘Here I am, I have come –it is written about me in the scroll. I desire to do Thy will, O my God; your law is within my heart.’” And again, “Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you even from my mother’s breast.”
While Jesus was ministering publicly to His brethren, He often told them that He had not come to do His own will, but the will of him who sent Him. Throughout His life, He cried out to God to save Him from death and God heard Him because of His reverent submission. Jesus knew that full obedience to God would mean death for Him, and so, He cried out to God to save Him from it.
Does that mean that Jesus was asking God to scrap the whole idea and let him live forever without tasting death? Absolutely not! Jesus was praying to be resurrected. Jesus was willing to taste death but He was also believing, (in faith) that God would raise Him up from it! Jesus had read and understood that which David had prophesied, “I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.”
So you see, the promises that Jesus lived by are the same that we are to live by and if God has raised Jesus to life, He will raise us as well. The resurrection of the dead is one of the most important doctrines that the Church must proclaim as loudly as she can. It is her life, her strength and blessed hope. It separates her from every other world view, and defines her practical creed. We live, because He lives. Easter is a celebration of God fulfilling His promise to Jesus Christ. We are called to rejoice –because He is risen!
Have a God blessed week. Pastor Jim
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