“He is not here, but He is risen…”
A Christian missionary to a Muslim country was talking to a Muslim. The Muslim said: “We have a tomb that contains the body of Mohammed; you Christians do not have that.” The missionary replied: “That’s the point. Mohammed is dead, but Jesus rose from the dead and His tomb is empty.” The resurrection of Jesus authenticates at least three aspects of the Christian faith. The resurrection authenticates Jesus’ claims for Himself. Jesus did not go about Palestine loudly proclaiming, “I am the Messiah,” but He did make that claim. One example of this claim is found in a statement that Jesus made to the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s Well in John 4. In John 4:25 the woman mentioned the Messiah and in verse 26 Jesus replied, “I that speak to thee am He.” There are other places in the gospels where Jesus made this claim, but this incident is sufficient to prove this point. When Jesus arose from the grave, His messiahship was authenticated. Keep in mind that Jesus never attempted to prove who and what He was, but the events spoke for themselves. The resurrection authenticates our claims about Jesus. First, we need to establish that the resurrection is a well-documented fact. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:5-6 :“And after that He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: after that, He was seen of above five hundred brethren at once…” There were at least five hundred and twelve witnesses to the fact that Jesus arose from the grave. Besides that, His body, obviously, was never found. If a body had been found, I would not be writing this article. Second, everything that we teach and preach depends on the fact that Jesus is still alive. In 1 Corinthians 15:13-14 Paul wrote: “But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen. And if Christ be not risen, then our preaching is vain, and your faith is also vain.”In verse 20 Paul wrote: “But now is Christ risen from the dead…” Third, 2,000 years later we still have a Messiah to proclaim. Jesus is alive, and because He is alive, people can have eternal life through faith in Him. The resurrection makes our message valid, and will continue to do so until Christ returns. The resurrection authenticates the importance of Christ’s Church. When Jesus ascended to the Father, He did not leave a group of individuals with no idea of what to do. He left His church to carry on in His stead. In all four gospels, Jesus challenged believers to witness to the world. In Acts 1:8, Jesus told His disciples that they would be witnesses in “Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Jesus left His church together and He left His church with a missionary purpose. He told His church, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” As Christ’s church, we do not serve a martyred Jesus; rather, we serve the risen Lord. Why is church important today? The church is important today because she is the church of the Living Lord, and has the responsibility of witnessing to people about Jesus and winning them in Him. The fact is that the tomb is still empty. The claims of the Bible about Jesus are authentic. Our claims about Jesus are authentic, and the message of the church is still authentic. These facts should enable us to have a happy Easter. Bro. Joe
0 Comments
“God forbid that I should glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”
“A man’s (or woman’s) steps are established by the Lord, and He takes pleasure in his way. 24. Though he falls, he will not be overwhelmed, because the Lord holds his hand.” (CSB)
In me teenage years, I wondered why my parents were so careful “to mind my business” – so to speak. They tried to “establish my steps,” but since they were not God I got loose from time to time. I wish I had listened and followed my parent’s guidance. That is why this text is so important. We need to allow the Lord to establish our steps.. These words really captured my attention as I read this psalm: “A man’s steps are established by the Lord, and He takes pleasure in his way.” Notice that the first “He” was capitalized. This means that when the Lord establishes our steps, He takes pleasure in the way we are walking. I like to think that the Lord takes pleasure in the way I am walking, but I know that He doesn’t always. That’s why I’m glad that He is holding my hand, because when I take errant steps, He is there to hold my hand and catch me when I fall. This is reminiscent of Simon Peter when he asked Jesus to let him walk in the water. You remember that Peter was doing fine in walking on the water until he began to look at the wind and the waves and took his eyes off of Jesus. His first steps out of the boat were ordered by the Lord, but the other steps, Peter took on his own. The wonderful thing about this is what happened next. Peter cried out to the Lord to save him, to keep him from being overwhelmed by the waves. I have been on the high seas in turbulent waves, and I know how dangerous they can be. Jesus did a remarkable thing. He reached out and took Peter by the hand and lifted him out of the turbulent water. That surely hits home with me, and I hope that it hits home with you. It almost makes me weep with a mixture of joy and shame when I remember how many times over the years Jesus has had to reach out, take my hand, and rescue me from life’s “turbulent waves.” I can’t imagine life without that outstretched hand. The remarkable thing is that His holy hand is outstretched towards us all of the time, and all we have to do is reach out and take it. Many times, as I have attempted to minister to people, have I just wanted to take their hands and put them in the hands of Jesus, but this always had to be their decision. Maybe you need to reach out and take the hand of Jesus. I have written this article for some reason and you might be the reason. You might be going through some tough times right now. Read this closely: Jesus knows what you are going through and He will take your hand and lead you through whatever it is that is troubling you now. Let the Lord establish your steps today, and it will be His pleasure to take you by the hand and lead you through. Do it!!!! Bro. Joe (I brought this one out of the archives from August 28, 2014. Presently the old Couch Potato has a bad case of writer's block. I hope that you will enjoy this article from the past. It encouraged me today and I hope it encourage you.)
“Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him; but I will maintain my own ways before Him.” I do not want to leave the impression that Job went through all that Satan put him through with no complaining at all. He was a good man, but, like all men, he was not perfect. But one thing is clear in the Book of Job, and that is that Job did not deny God, nor did He waver in his faith. If we put ourselves in Job’s place, we can’t even imagine how we would react. Of course, Job was not happy during his trial. He did not face it, always smiling, always positive, but he did face his trial in faith and trust in God. He teaches us to trust. What do I mean? Job trusted God in spite of personal loss. Think of all Job lost. He lost possessions. He lost all of his children. He had been proud of his children and was concerned that they live good lives. Now they were all dead. He lost the respect of his wife who told him to “curse God and die.” That was hardly a statement that showed that she supported Job in his predicament. What would be worse than losing the respect of the person with whom you had ten children and a seemingly happy home– until tragedy struck? Job lost the respect of his community. He had been a leader among the people, and the people had great respect for him and hung on his words. Now even the youth were making fun of him. Worst of all, Job’s three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar, lost respect for him because they thought that he had committed some great sin and was being punished by God. They were never told that Satan was doing all of the nasty work. But through it all, Job held on to his trust in God. Job 23:10 is a good example: “But (God) knows the way that I take: when He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” Job trusted God in spite of personal afflictions. Today we would say that Job had lost his health. I guess one of the most painful things that can happen to us is to lose our health. When we are afflicted we will react either positively or negatively. An old cliché reminds us that when we lose our health “we will become bitter or we will become better.” In the final analysis, Job became better. If we will put ourselves in Job’s place, thinking of all that he lost and of the pain and misery that he went through, we will say that we do not know exactly how we would react. Either one of the things that happened to Job would be traumatic, and that’s putting it mildly. We can’t put ourselves in Job’s place, but we can stay close to the Lord, pray and read His word, etc. in order to prepare ourselves to face the contingencies of life. Job trusted God in spite of the fact that God was silent. Throughout most of the book of Job, God did not intervene in Job’s difficulties. In fact, God never explained to Job what had occurred between He and Satan. Through it all, Job had to hear the false accusations of his great sins. God did not come to Job’s defense. He did in the end, and his friends had to pay for their cynical advice, but not until Job had come through the worst and had “come forth as pure gold.” We need to learn from Job that though God is silent, He is not absent. He has promised to go with us through all of the things that we go through in life. He will not shout, but He will be present and He will do what we need for Him to do. Rejoice! Bro. Joe “But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship Him.”
We who attend church every Sunday need to take a fresh look at worship and what it means to our lives. (Of course, this also applies to those who do not attend church every Sunday.) Are we just warming a pew, or is our weekly worship making a difference in our reverence for Christ, and in our daily lives? Jesus’ answer to the “woman at the well” in John 4, gives us a definition of what true worship is. The elements of true worship…. One thing that we should take into our public and private worship is a recognition of the worthiness of God. God is, indeed, worthy of our worship, and we need to approach worship with the understanding of His worthiness. God’s worthiness is seen in His greatness – His omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. We need to approach God in worship with reverence for His holy name. This doesn’t mean that when we talk to Him in worshipful prayer that we need to change our voices into a “holy tone.” We need to talk honestly with Him, but with the understanding that He is Almighty, sovereign God. Our worship should certainly include adoration for Him. The Christmas hymn, “O Come all Ye Faithful,” tells us, “O come let us adore Him, O come let us adore Him, O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.” Real worship will certainly include communion with Him. When we worship God, we speak to Him and we wait for Him to speak to us. We need to take all of these elements into our worship closet at home and to our public worship at church. The essentials of true worship…. Jesus said that we should “worship the Father in spirit.” Among other things, this means that we worship Him with everything that is within us. We take all that we are and surrender ourselves to Him in adoration and praise. I would add that we need to worship the Father in Spirit as well. (The capital 'S' refers to the Holy Spirit.) Without the Holy Spirit, there would be no worship. We need to throw ourselves into worship in spirit and in Truth. This might mean that we become demonstrative in our faith, but, if you are like me, it means that your heart, mind and soul are drawn closer to God in quietness and reverence. There is no one way to worship the Father in spirit. We should also worship Him in truth. This can mean a lot of things. It can mean that we worship Him because we know that He is the “Way, the Truth and life.” But it also means that when we worship Him we are honest and truthful in our confession and in our worship of Him. We don’t have to fake feelings that we do not have. The Lord had rather have the truth out of you as you worship Him. We should also worship the Lord in sincerity. I mentioned that we do not have to fake our feelings when we worship God. He wants us to bring our depression and other negative things in order for worship of Him to help us to live better lives. This will happen if we are sincere in our worship. The effects of true worship…. When we truly worship the Lord, He supplies our deepest needs. We should leave private and public worship with a sense of relief that we have done business with God and that He has met our needs in worship. We certainly need to pray that God will meet all of our needs, spiritual and physical, as we worship Him – and He will. When we truly worship God, we leave the worship experience as better people. In other words, true worship of God will make a difference in our lives. It will make a difference in how we treat people and how we relate to people. We often leave a negative impression of what Christians are because we don’t act differently from the world. Like they did with the apostles, people should “take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus.” Surely, if we truly encounter Jesus in worship, He will make a difference in our lives. I doubt that we scratched the surface of true worship, but the three things written here should have a positive effect our worship experiences. Bro. Joe “Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to His power that works in us. 21. Unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end, amen.”
We need to understand that when we serve the Lord, whatever that service is, we are not in it by ourselves. In our flesh we are limited as to what we can do. In His infinite wisdom, God has shown me what I can do in my flesh, and that is mainly to make a mess. Whatever your task is as a Christian, you cannot do it by yourself. You need the power of God. I think that this is the crux of the problem in a lot of church work today. We go about church business as though it is simply our business, not realizing that it is not simply “our” business. Before Jesus was crucified, rose and ascended, He promised His disciples that He would send the Holy Spirit to work within them. That promise was not just for the disciples, it is for us as well. If you are a Christian, you have the Holy Spirit living within you, and he is not in you just to give you some holy thrills. He is in you to enable you to do whatever it is that God wants you to do. He is in you to help you live the Christian life. We depend every day on that “power that works within us.” If we are not depending on Him, then we are not getting done for the Lord what He wants done. You might say, “Wait a minute, do you mean that when I keep the nursery at church that I need the power of the Holy Spirit to help me do it?” I will assure you that if my job at church was keeping the nursery, I would need every bit of the Holy Spirit to help me do it. Don’t you think that tending babies is a gift from God? Not everyone who tends babies is serving God, but if you are doing it in His kingdom work, it is a gift from God. That’s why we don’t need to take any task that we do in the church or the community lightly. God does not take anything that we do for Him lightly. Read this very carefully: What the church needs today is for all of its people, whatever their tasks, to depend on the Holy Spirit, who can give them the power to serve. Of course, that doesn’t just apply to the things that we do at church. It also applies to the things that we do seven days a week. We need to depend on the Holy Spirit when we are at work. Don’t you think that God wants to use you on a daily basis? The problem is that you might feel surrounded and intimidated by those who work with you. We need to always be reminded about what is recorded in 1 John 4:4: “You are of God. Little children, and have overcome them: because greater is He that is in you than he who is in the world.” There is no need to feel intimidated, because we are not in it by ourselves. If you want to live beyond yourself, remember that you belong to God and that He has empowered you with His Spirit. If God has something that He wants us to do, no matter how menial it may seem to us, it is important because God wants us to do it. Do not belittle your service to Him. Sometimes our service might be to just be quiet Christians, quietly living out our faith before the world. Just remember as you face life’s daily challenges, that God is working in you “according to His power that works in us.” God’s power is never menial, and it is never unimportant. Let’s just go out into the world, into the church, or wherever, with the understanding that God’s power it at work in us. Bro. Joe “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”
Unless you are a very fortunate person, or unless you are a person who has more faith than most people, you will walk through the valleys of life. David called it the “valley of the shadow of death.” Life’s valleys do not normally physically kill people, but they can kill their dreams and expectations. We probably all have examples of how this has happened to us. Sometimes we do not intend to drift into a valley, but we do anyway. How can we get out of the valley? Our text reminds us of one important fact that we let escape us in our valleys, and that is that God is in our valleys with us. You have probably heard the song, “The God of the mountain is still God in the valley.” I imagine that our text was the force behind that song. If you are a Christian, there is nothing that you face in life alone. It is possible that you need to be reminded of this at this time in your life. You might be facing personal problems, family problems, or even church problems, and you are at your wit's end. I read one time that “if you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.” It is a fact that you are not in this valley alone, for “the Lord is with you, His rod and His staff, they protect you.” Hey, come on; believe that God is with you in your valley. The Bible also reminds us of the importance of faith in Jesus when we face everything that we have to face in life. This is particularly true when we are in the valleys of life. The writer of the hymn “Just as I am, without one plea” illustrates the importance of faith in delivering us out of our valleys. “The hymn was written by Charlotte Elliott, who was an invalid for more than fifty years. Often as she watched those about her busy with so many important tasks she became discouraged. But her faith helped her to rise above despair. This hymn is a testament of the faith she had when gave meaning to her sheltered life.” (A Treasury of Sermon Illustrations, edited by Charles L. Wallis) You will probably remember this the next time you hear this hymn. In Prayer, seek Jesus in faith today. Talk to Him about your valley. Confess you unbelief and lean on Him I have one more point to make about getting out of valleys: When you get out of your valley, help someone else get out of their's. There is nothing that can cleanse and strengthen our faith like helping someone else. You can begin by praying for them. Get out of that valley. Well, do it! Bro. Joe “Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy (love) and judgment (justice) and wait on thy God continually.”
When I read this verse, I saw a message that should apply to God’s people of all ages. It is originally written by the prophet Hosea to the Northern kingdom of Israel, which had turned away from God and was under God’s judgment. “Therefore” lets us know that a message of judgment had been written before, and now here is what they were to do. The principle given here in the Old Testament has not changed. We still need to heed this message. What is the message? Hosea wrote that they should turn to God. It occurred to me when I read this that Hosea was not calling upon them to turn to religion, but to God. Religious practice was not a problem for Israel. They had plenty of religion, for they worshipped Baal, and all of the other gods of Canaan. They had been warned over and over again about turning to the worship of the Canaanite gods. Their Baal worship included prostitutes. I don’t think that I have to give you details on what this meant. It is the same today. There are many religions that people can turn to, but religion is not the issue. Hosea told them to turn to God, the God who brought their ancestors out of Egypt, saw them through forty years in the desert, enabled them to take the “Promised land,” and called them His people. There is no religion that has a Savior who sacrificed His life in order for people to be saved. Salvation is found only in Jesus; therefore, Hosea would write to us today, “Therefore, turn to your Savior, Jesus Christ.” It is only through Jesus that we can be forgiven and cleansed from our sins. It is not even enough to turn to the church until we have turned to Jesus Christ. Jesus is our gateway into the kingdom, and He is our gateway into His church. Hosea wrote that when they turned to God, they should “keep mercy.” This meant that they should practice mercy towards other people. Modern translations of this word for mercy is love. Mercy and love are one and the same. It is for sure that if we do not love people, we will not act mercifully toward them. The big issue of mercy in the Old Testament was the treatment of widows and orphans. Widows and orphans did not have the social safety nets that they do today. They were at the mercy of the people, and if the people did not love them and treat them mercifully, they would suffer. Israel was not acting mercifully toward widows and orphans or anyone else. There is a sense in our own society that we have become more callous towards people. We do have social safety nets, but individually we are sometimes not very merciful toward each other. We should be loving and merciful in the church at all costs. When we are not, we become stumbling blocks to people who do not know Jesus. Indeed, we should heed Hosea’s message and take it as our own. Hosea wrote that when they turned to God, they should “(keep) judgment.” This meant that they should practice justice. Indications were that the courts in Israel had become corrupt and that it was not unusual for wealthy people to be able to pay their way out of legal entanglements and poor people had to take whatever the court wanted to hand out. But we can’t really do a whole lot about what the courts do. The message for us here is that we should practice justice in our own lives. We should act justly toward other people in our dealings with them. As Christians, our “word should be our bond.” If people can’t trust followers of Jesus Christ, who can they trust? One of the greatest compliments that I can give a person is that I would buy a used car from them. This means that I know that if there is something wrong with that car they will tell me. We should be as good as our word, and if we turn to Jesus and practice mercy and love toward others, we will be as good as our word. Bro. Joe "But without faith it is impossible to please (God): for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that dilligently seek Him."
Faith in Christ is the key to everything in the Christian life. The eleventh chapter of Hebrews is known as "The Hall of Faith," because it lists a number of Old Testament saints whose lives portrayed that they had faith. I think that the chapter is pointing that a relationship with God has always been the result of faith. In fact, it was faith in the promise of Christ that they were saved. Hebrews 11:13 will show you what I mean: "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on earth." Faith in Christ is all-important for our salvation and for our sustenance. We are saved by grace through faith, but beyond that we are sustained by faith. Hebrews 11:1 gives us the essence of faith: "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Faith makes possible that which seems impossible.It makes real that which seems unreal. Without faith we cannot see the need to be saved, nor can we understand the works of God. We should just have faith in a great big God, with Whom "all things are posslbe." I have faith in a great God Who is with me all of the way, and works it all out according to His will. Do not understand me to be bragging about my faith. I am bragging about a great God Who made faith possible. He made it possible for you too. If you realize that, this blog has acheived its purpose. I truly hope that you have been saved by faith in Christ. Salvation is impossible without faith in Christ. I also truly hope that your life is sustained by your faith in Christ. Make no mistake about it, if you are saved by faith, you can surely be sustained by faith. You can face whatever you have to face in life with your faith in Christ. I'm not saying that you will never be afraid again, nor am I saying that things will always turn out the way you want them to because of your faith. I'm saying that by faith, Jesus will enable you to face all of life, the good and the bad, with poise and a good attitude. If you haven't already, placed your faith in Christ do it now. If you have, take full advantage of that faith as you live each day. Bro. Joe (From the archives)
"Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is thy neighbors." I learned a lesson about coveting early in my life. When I was about ten years old, my neighbor got a new cap pistol. It was a great cap pistol. You have to understand that in 1949 a cap pistol to a ten year old boy was like a computer game to a ten year old today. It was "love at first sight." I had to have that cap pistol. When my neighbor wasn't looking, I absconded with the cap pistol, took it across the street to my house and hid it in my underwear drawer. At last, it was mine. But I discovered that it did not belong to me, rather, I belonged to it. I did not enjoy that cap pistol one bit, because I couldn't take it out of the drawer to play with it. If mama and daddy saw it, they would want to know where I got it. If I played with it outside, my neighbor would see it and know that I had stolen it. (It didn't occur to me at the time that I had broken two commandments - coveting and stealing.) So about a week later, I stealthily went to my neighbor's house and laid it down on his front porch and quietly sneaked back home. At last, I was free from that blooming cap pistol. At en years old, I did not know what coveting meant, but I knew the effects of it. The fact that I remember this incident so clearly all of these years later, means that it made a profound impression on my mind. I wish that I could say that I never coveted again, but I can't. (However I did not steal another cap pistol, or anything else for that matter.) To live one's life wishing that one had what his neighbor has is a miserable way to live. I think you know what I mean. You could probably confess to coveting. Don't be like one fellow who said, "But at least I have never coveted my neighbor's donkey." The fact that his neighbor did not have a donkey must not have occurred to him. The key to overcoming covetousness is to put "things" in their proper perspective and in their proper place. There is nothing that our neighbor owns that we have to have to make our lives complete."Things" do not complete us. We need to have Paul's attitude as written in Philippians 4:11-13 after he had received a monetary gift from the Philippian Church: "Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. 12. I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound: everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 13. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." There is the answer to overcoming covetousness. Selah Bro. Joe |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
All
Archives
September 2021
|