Death Has Died To Rise No More

Because the tomb is empty
His light shines forth,
and death no longer controls the day

Because  the Light-bringer is risen
His light will never fade
and death has died to rise no more.

Easter Truths

Some things to meditate on this Easter Season - 9 Things You Need to Know About the Resurrection by Joe Carter

This week news broke that a quarter of self-proclaiming Christians in Great Britain do not believe in the Resurrection according to a study by the BBC. For those of you who will celebrate the Resurrection this Easter Sunday, that figure may be shocking. For every reader of this blog, there are 9 things you need to know about the Resurrection.

1. Belief in the Resurrection is the core doctrine of the Christians faith. If you do not believe in the Resurrection, then you do not have a relationship with God in and through Jesus Christ.

“…If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved (Rom 10:9).
“And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile, you are still in your sins!” (1 Cor 15:17).

2. The Resurrection gives everyone else who dies hope for eternal life. The Bible teaches that since Jesus lives as a result of the Resurrection, all those who have a relationship with Him have hope that they too will live with Him in eternity.

“But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive” 1 Cor 15:20-22).
Jesus said, “…I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself: that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:2-3).

3. The disciples who became apostles did not understand it initially. As followers of Jesus on earth, Jesus taught the disciples about the Resurrection but they did not understand him until after the actual Resurrection.

“Now as they came down from the mountain, He commanded them that they should tell no one the things they had seen, till the Son of man had risen from the dead. So they kept this word to themselves, questioning what the rising from the dead meant” (Mark 9:9-10).
“Then some of His disciples said among themselves, ‘What is this that He says to us…’” (John 16:17).

4. The religious leaders of the Jews were afraid of the Resurrection. The religious leaders did not appreciate Jesus’ message that threatened their power and upset their system of religion. They were afraid of a risen Messiah or Savior.

“…So they went and made the tomb secure, sealing the stone and setting the guard” (Matthew 27:62-66).

5. The Resurrection provided the disciples joy and a foundation for belief. When teaching the disciples about the Resurrection, Jesus said that their sorrow of His death would be turned into joy – joy that no one can take from you. John recalled these words as He encouraged people to believe in Jesus.

Jesus said, “Most assuredly I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. … Therefore you now have sorrow, but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you” (John 16:20-22).

6. The Resurrection was attested by eyewitnesses. Paul lists many of those who saw the resurrected Jesus.

“Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time” (1 Cor 15:1-8).

7. The Resurrection demonstrated Jesus is the Son of God. Paul saw the Resurrection as proof-positive that Jesus was the Son of God.

“…concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead” (Rom 1:3-4).

8. The Resurrection provides the basis for our salvation. Jesus went to the cross because of our sins and a wrath-bearing sacrifice was necessary. He was raised from the dead to provide for our justification or salvation.

“…It will be counted to us who believe in Him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (Rom 4:24-25, ESV).

9. The Resurrection provides you the power to live a God-honoring life. The power of the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead as demonstrated by the Resurrection is the same power that abides in you and gives you hope for true life change, which is living a life that honors God.

“But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you” (Rom 8:11).
“…and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly place…” (Eph 1:19-23; cf. Eph 3:20-21)).
“…that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection…” (Phil 3:10).

Change of Status

The Body Glorified

“For me it is the virgin birth, the Incarnation, the resurrection which are the true laws of the flesh and the physical. Death, decay, destruction are the suspension of these laws. I am always astonished at the emphasis the Church puts on the body. It is not the soul she says that will rise but the body, glorified.

― Flannery O’Connor, The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O’Connor

If Easter Happened Today....

...which is why He came "in the fullness of time" and not now.

Book Review: "The Resurrection In Your Life"

The Resurrection in Your Life, by Mike McKinley- A Book Review

There are lots of books about the cross. The author of this book even wrote one. There are, however, relatively few books about the resurrection. That niche is relatively vacant. This work fills a need for such books.

McKinley is a Baptist pastor in Virginia. This book, like his other one, is adapted from a series of sermons preached to his congregation. Lot's of pastors do the same thing, and it can be good or bad for their readers. When done well, this method adds a degree of easy readability to hard and difficult subjects, and/or create a feeling of intimacy between author and reader. When done badly, sermons adapted to books are not easy to read. After  all, speaking styles and writing styles are necessarily different forms of communication. This book falls into the well done category.

The thesis of the book is that the story of our lives, the meme the that makes sense of our existence, is formed by the story of Christ. That story doesn't end with a crucified, dead Savior, but with victory over death, the final enemy.  He says: "The resurrection turns everything we know on its head. Death leads to life, weakness and suffering give way to glory, crushed dreams give way to living hope." I found it interesting that he also says Christ's fulfillment of his promise to rise again, guarantees that he will keep all of his other promises to us.

Each chapter of the book ends with the lyrics of a poem or hymn dealing with the them of that chapter. This feature adds a devotional quality to the book.

I recommend this book as a short, easy to read, yet informative and inspiring, exposition of the meaning of Christ's resurrection for the daily life of believers.

Full Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book for review purposes. See my Book Review Policy.

Nothing But A Gardener

HT: Challies.com

Easter Greetings From Iranian Prison

From his prison hospital bed in Iran, American Pastor Saeed Abedini sent Easter greetings and prayers through a letter smuggled out by his wife:

Crucifying the resurrected “self” with Christ and resurrects our dead faith with Christ.

Happy Resurrection Day.

On the Eve of Good Friday and Easter I was praying from my hospital room for my fellow Christians in the world.  What the Holy Spirit revealed to me in prayer was that there are many dead faiths in the midst of Christians today. That Christians all over the world are not able to fully reach their spiritual potential that has been given to them as a gift by God so that in reaching that potential, the curtain can be removed and the Glory of God would be revealed.

Some times we want to experience the Glory and Resurrection with Jesus without experiencing death with Him.  We do not realize that unless we pass through the path of death with Christ, we are not able to experience resurrection with Christ.We want to have a good and successful marriage, career, education and family life (which is also God’s desire and plan for our life). But we forget that in order to experience the Resurrection and Glory of Christ we first have to experience death with Christ and to die to ourselves and selfish desires.

Jesus said to His Disciples:  “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. (Matthew 16:24)

Let us continue to pray for our brother and his family, and for all persecuted Christians everywhere.

HT: Thinking Out loud

Everything Sad Comes Untrue

From @DailyKeller

Colony of Heaven

Some great N. T. Wright quotes for Easter:

“Jesus's resurrection is the beginning of God's new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven. That, after all, is what the Lord's Prayer is about.”

― N. T. Wright, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church


“Easter was when Hope in person surprised the whole world by coming forward from the future into the present.” 

― N. T. Wright, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church

Captivated

Book review of Captivated: Beholding the Mystery of Jesus' Death and Resurrection, by Thabiti Anyabwile:

I recently read a simple yet profound little book by Thabiti Anyabwile, an African-American who pastors a church on Grand Cayman Island ("suffering for Jesus"!). I have followed his blog for a while, and was pleased to have an opportunity to read his new book. The book is based on a series of sermons he presented on the death and resurrection of Jesus. It has the limitations of a book translating oral sermons into written text, but is still one of the better examples of such books that I have ever read.

There were two chapters in the book in particular that stood out to me. Chapter 2 presents Psalm 22 as an in depth emotionally powerful presentation of what Jesus experienced for us in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the Cross. I saw some things in that Psalm that I had never noticed or perceived before. Chapter 5 discussed the encounter with Jesus by two disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24. Anyabwile says that this story shows us that physical senses, knowing the historical facts about Jesus, and knowing the Bible are not enough for salvation without a personal revelation of Jesus to our hearts and souls. Thee two chapters alone would make this a good read.

In summary, this is not a great or classic book, but it is a good book, worth a read, to help us meditate on and be grateful for what Jesus accomplished for us on the Cross. It is well suited as an aid to meditation during the Lenten and Easter seasons.

A video trailer for the book is shown below.

(Full disclosure: I received a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. -see my book review policy)

Virgin Born...and Raised

"The virgin birth cannot be considered in abstraction from the triumphant consummation of Christ’s life in his resurrection, for it is there that the mystery of his person is revealed. In fact the birth of Jesus of the virgin Mary and the resurrection of Jesus from the virgin tomb (‘where no one had ever yet been laid’) are the twin signs which mark out the mystery of Christ, testifying to the continuity and the discontinuity between Jesus Christ and our fallen humanity.

The incarnation is not only a once and for all act of assumption of our flesh, but the continuous personal union of divine and human nature in the one person of the incarnate Son, a personal union which he carried all the way through our estranged estate under bondage into the freedom and triumph of the resurrection.

Thus it is in the resurrection that we see the real meaning of the virgin birth, while the virgin birth has much to tell us about the resurrection. These are then the twin signs testifying to the miraculous life of the Son of God within our humanity, the one at the beginning and the other at the consummation of the earthly life of Jesus."

— Thomas F. Torrance Incarnation: The Person and Life of Christ (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2008), 96

HT: Peter Cockrell, Of First Importance

Celebrating Ascension Day

Are you celebrating "Ascension Day"? Maybe we all should celebrate today. From Jared Wilson:

Today is Ascension Day, traditionally marked on the 40th day after Easter Sunday. The doctrine of Christ’s ascension has many implications. Here are just five.

1. Jesus is really alive.

The reality of Christ’s ascension, inextricable from the resurrection event, tells us that he did not raise from the dead only later to die again like Lazarus, Jairus’ daughter, the widow of Nain’s son, Eutychus, or Tabitha. Jesus’ body will not be found because he took its glorified tangibility to heaven.

2. Heaven is thicker than earth.

We tend to think of heaven as the ethereal place of disembodied spirits. And in a way it is. But Elijah is there. And Enoch. And so is the risen, glorified, incarnate Christ. Jesus is there, taking up material space. He is touchable, present. Clearly, heaven is not less real than earth but more. It is a thicker reality than our four-dimensional space, more vibrant, more colorful, more real.

3. God’s plan for human dominion of earth is being realized.

The first Adam and his helper Eve were charged with filling the earth and subduing it. They screwed it up. But God’s plans cannot be thwarted. Man will reflect God’s glory in dominion over creation. In the Incarnation, then, God sends his only Son to right the course, reverse the curse, and begin the restoration of all things. The second Adam does the job, and even in his glorification, the incarnational “miracle of addition” (see below) persists, fulfilling God’s plan for man to reflect divine glory in dominion over creation. The God-Man, who is the radiance of the glory of God, rules over the earth and is even now subduing his enemies. “The ascension means that a human being rules the universe” (Tim Keller). Just as God planned.

Risen!

Better Than Jonah

The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.   (Luke 11:32 ESV)

For Jonah was a servant,
but I am the Master,
and he came forth from the great fish,
but I rose from death.
He proclaimed destruction,
but I have come preaching the good tidings of the kingdom.
The Ninevites indeed believed without a sign,
but I have exhibited many signs.
They heard nothing more than those words,
but I have made it impossible to deny the truth.
The Ninevites came to be ministered to,
but I, the very Master and Lord of all,
have come not threatening, not demanding an account,
but bringing pardon.
They were barbarians,
but these – the faithful -
have conversed with unnumbered prophets.
And of Jonah nothing had been prophesied in advance,
but of Me everything was foretold,
and all the facts have agreed with their words.
And Jonah indeed, when he was to go forth,
instead ran away that he might not be ridiculed.
But I, knowing that I am both to be crucified and mocked,
have come nonetheless.
While Jonah did not endure so much as to be reproached for those who were saved,
I underwent even death, and that the most shameful death,
and after this I sent others again.
And Jonah was a strange sort of person
and an alien to the Ninevites, and unknown;
but I a kinsman after the flesh and of the same forefathers.

- from a sermon by John Chrysostom

Hat Tip: Trevin Wax

Death is Dead

Remember Lazarus, the guy Jesus raised from the dead in John 11? Do you also remember that Jesus' enemies later threatened to kill Lazarus because of his testimony (John 12:9-11)? Excuse me, but how do you threaten someone with death when he as already been there and knows who holds power over the grave?

Here's Ravi Zacarias on that subject (via Tony Reinke)

Have you ever wondered what you would do to frighten Lazarus after he’d been raised from the dead? What would you do to threaten him? “Lazarus, I’m gonna’ kill you?” Caligula says, “I’m going to kill you.” He says, “Ha, ha, ha.” He says “Stop ha, ha, ha-ing. I’m going to kill you as I’m killing all the Christians.” He doubles over in uncontrollable laughter, comes up for air and says, “Caligula haven’t you heard? Death is dead! Death is dead!”

How do you frighten somebody who has already been there and knows the one who’s going to let him out? …

Behind the debris of the fallings of our solemn supermen and imperial diplomatists lies the gigantic figure of one person, because of whom, by whom, in whom, and through whom, mankind may still survive. The person of Jesus Christ.

Death is dead - An important thing to remember! Where is its sting? Jesus took it.

The Story Line

"Out of the cross comes the resurrection. Out of weakness comes real strength. Out of repentance and admitting you are weak comes real power. Out of giving away and serving others comes real strength. Out of generosity and giving your money away comes real wealth. That’s the gospel story line."

   - Tim Keller

Our World Prison is Split

The Third Day
The immovable stone tossed aside,
The collapsed linens,
The blinding angel and the chalky guards:All today like an old wood-cut.
The earthquake on the third day,
The awakened sleeper,
The ubiquitous stranger, gardener, fisherman:
Faded frescoes from a buried world.
Retell, renew the event
In these planetary years,
For we were there and he is here:
It is always the third day.
Our world-prison is split;
An elder charity
Breaks through these modern fates.
Publish it by Telstar,
Diffuse it by mundovision.
He passes through the shattered concrete slabs,
The vaporized vanadium vaults,
The twisted barbed-wire trestles.
A charity coeval with the suns
Dispels the deep obsessions of the age
And opens heart-room in our sterile dream:
A new space within space to celebrate
With mobiles and new choreographies,
A new time within time to set to music.
— Amos Niven Wilder
(NT Scholar and brother of Thornton Wilder)

Hat Tip: The Anchoress

From Good Friday to Easter Sunday

From my Easter weekend Twitter feed:

 A Good Lord went through a Bad thing on Good Friday for Bad people in order to make us Bad people Good. #GoodFriday @bg_simmons

Remember that what appears to be Hope dashed is actually Love poured out. Redemption is sneaky like that. #GoodFriday RT @JamieTheVWM

If you're God's child, you don't have to fear never measuring up. Jesus perfectly measured up on your behalf. RT @idshift

The solution to sins slavery is not to sin less; the solution to sins slavery is the cross of Christ that kills the sinner. RT @pastortullian

"The resurrection was God’s way of stamping PAID IN FULL right across history so that nobody could miss it." RT @DailyKeller

For Christians, funerals are not goodbye - just "so long, see you in the morning." #resurrection @bg_simmons

"The resurrection was God’s way of stamping PAID IN FULL right across history so that nobody could miss it." RT @DailyKeller

Every other religion says "just do it." Jesus says "It is done." @bg_simmons

Easter - The ultimate reboot: CTRL-ALT-DEL for the universe. #Easter @bg_simmons

The Promise of Our Future

The promise of our future is found in an empty tomb.  He is not there. He is Risen....He is Risen Indeed!

Therefore, we will rise also. Death is defeated,; it no longer has its sting.

Wishing you a blessed and joyous Easter Sunday.

Hat Tip for Picture: Cross-Eyed