These Easter messages were preached at Flagstaff Christian Fellowship through the years. Audio and manuscripts are available for each lesson (excepting audio for 2001).
Four additional Easter messages may be located in other message series:
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April 11, 1993
Special Easter Message
A man named Jones took his car to the mechanic for repairs. Jones ignored the signs posted in the garage that told customers to keep out of the working area. He kept looking over the mechanic’s shoulder, getting in the way. The mechanic had had a rough day, and he was getting frustrated. Finally he took Jones by the shoulder and led him out of the working area. He said, “Let’s play a game.” He drew a circle on the floor with a piece of chalk and said, “The rules of the game are that you stay inside this circle while I fix your car. I’ll bet you can’t do it!” “It’s a deal,” said Jones.
The mechanic went back to the car, but before he went back to work, he glanced up at Jones, Who had a silly grin on his face. The mechanic thought, “I’ve had it with this dumb yokel.” He felt like he had to relieve his tension. So he picked up a sledgehammer and smashed it into the fender of Jones’ car. He looked over at Jones, who was cracking up with laughter, still inside the circle.
That made the mechanic angrier yet. He smashed the car two more times with the hammer, and looked over again at Jones. Jones was doubled over with laughter, but still inside the circle. The mechanic was furious with rage. He started smashing Jones’ car all over with the hammer. Jones was rolling on the floor and holding his sides from laughter, but still inside the circle. The mechanic couldn’t believe it. He went over to Jones and said, “Why are you laughing while I’m smashing your car?” Jones got control of his laughter long enough to reply, “While you weren’t looking, I stepped outside the circle three times!”
You say, “Jones was crazy!” You’re right. Jones was crazy. He was taking seriously something meant to be taken lightly, and he taking lightly something that was rather serious. But many who would laugh at Jones and call him crazy are doing the same thing on a far more serious matter.
Let me explain: The Bible proclaims the fact (which we celebrate today) that Jesus was raised bodily from the dead, and that He appeared to a great number of witness over a 40 day period, giving many convincing proofs of His resurrection. Then He ascended bodily into heaven. The Bible also affirms that this risen Lord Jesus some day will return to judge all the living and the dead on the basis of their response to Him (Acts 10:42; 17-31).
That’s serious! What you do with the risen Christ now will determine where you spend eternity. Eternity means forever! Jesus said, “What will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his soul?” (Matt. 16:26).
And yet most people spend the bulk of their time and efforts trying to gain the things of the world, which will perish, while neglecting their own souls and the souls of others, which are eternal. They are doing just what Jones did—they are taking seriously something that isn’t very important, and taking lightly something that is really quite serious.
If Jesus Christ is truly risen from the dead, it’s the most important fact in all history. Tremendous consequences hang on your response to the resurrection. It’s extremely important on this Easter Sunday and every day of your life that you understand why the resurrection of Jesus matters so that you take it seriously. In 1 Corinthians 15:1-19 Paul shows us why the resurrection matters.
The resurrection is not a religious myth, which coincides with springtime to inspire us with hope and positive thinking. Rather, it is an historic fact that Jesus of Nazareth rose bodily from the dead. It was a physical, not just a “spiritual” resurrection. To be sure, Jesus arose with a resurrection body, which has different properties than our earthly bodies, as Paul explains (15:35-49). But it was a body that could be seen and touched, that could eat and drink.
There are people in our day who say, “Well, if it helps you to believe in things like the resurrection, that’s fine. If it’s true for you, that’s great. But it’s not true for me.” But they misunderstand the nature of verifiable truth. The resurrection of Jesus Christ isn’t something that’s true for some, but not for others. It’s like the law of gravity. You don’t have to believe that gravity is true for it to be true. It is true, whether you believe it or not. And it makes a great deal of difference whether you believe it or not if you’re standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon and decide to jump off! Even so, it makes a great deal of difference whether you believe in the truth of the resurrection.
How can we know that the resurrection wasn’t just the invention of Jesus’ early followers? Paul is not exhaustive, but he lists a few evidences for the resurrection in 15:1-11.
The Scriptures prophesied that the Messiah would be raised from the dead. In his sermon on the day of Pentecost, Peter quoted from Psalm 16 and showed how David referred to Christ: “You will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor allow Your Holy One to undergo decay” (see Acts 2:24-32). In our text, Paul refers to Christ’s resurrection as the “first fruits” (15:20, 23). In the Old Testament, the first fruits were presented to God on the day following the Sabbath after Passover (Lev. 23:9-14). Since Jesus the Passover lamb was lamb was slain on the Jewish Passover, His resurrection on the day after the Sabbath fulfills this scripture.
Other Old Testament Scriptures, when read in their context, clearly refer to the death and resurrection of Christ (Ps. 22:22ff. with Heb. 2:12; Isa. 53:10-12; Jonah, with Matt. 12:38-41).
Jesus Himself predicted on a number of occasions that He would be killed and raised up on the third day (Matt. 16:21; 17:9, 23; 20:19; 27:63; John 2:19). Since the Scriptures are accurate on hundreds of other prophecies, and since Jesus Himself is not known to lie, these prophecies lend weight to the fact of the resurrection. It was not a story that was made up after the fact by a bunch of dejected disciples. The death and resurrection of Jesus were in accord with God’s eternal plan.
Paul lists a number of people who saw the risen Savior. None of these were expecting a resurrection, especially not Paul. The sheer number of witnesses argues against the possibility of hallucination. The moral integrity of the witnesses—men who gave the world its highest moral teaching—precludes the possibility of fabrication. To doubt the resurrection of Jesus you have to say that all of these witnesses were deceived or deceivers.
Paul mentions his own transformation as exhibit A. He had been a persecutor of the church of God, but now he was pouring out his life on its behalf. We also know that Peter and the other apostles were transformed from depressed, fearful men after the crucifixion to joyful, courageous witnesses after the resurrection. It is hard to explain that change and their willingness to suffer for Christ even unto death, if they knew the resurrection to be a hoax.
And then there is the evidence of the changed lives of those who have believed through the witness of the apostles. The Corinthians had believed (15:11) and were transformed (6:9-11). Millions of others in every century and culture have testified to the life-changing power of the risen Savior.
The evidence is solid. We must begin by realizing that the resurrection matters because it is an historical fact: thus we must take it seriously.
The Corinthians were not rejecting the resurrection of Christ per se, but there were some that were saying that there is no such thing as the resurrection of the dead. Paul is showing them the logical consequences of the wrong belief. If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised (15:13), and if that’s the case, a number of other things follow, which make the entire Christian faith worthless:
“Our preaching is vain” (= “empty”). There is no substance to the gospel if Christ is not raised. Christianity may have some nice moral platitudes, but it simply takes its place among other powerless religions and ethical systems if you remove the living Lord Jesus.
Worse that that, all the New Testament writers would be lying if Christ is not raised. If they lied about something as crucial as that, how could you trust them as teachers of ethics? So you must throw out the entire Bible if Jesus Christ is not raised from the dead, because it would discredit those who wrote the Bible. Thus…
Apart from the reality of the resurrection, faith is no good. Have you ever heard, “It doesn’t matter what you believe, as long as you believe”? That’s absurd. That’s faith in faith. Faith is only as good as its object. You can believe with all your heart that your car will fly. You can drive it over the edge of the Grand Canyon at 80 miles per hour, firmly believing that it will fly. But your believing it doesn’t make it true. If your car had been designed to fly, then believing that fact would be necessary for you to benefit from that feature. But faith is only as good as its object.
Why is it worthless to believe in Jesus if He is not raised from the dead? Because we have a sin problem. God is absolutely righteous and cannot accept us into His presence if we have any sin. Christ died on the cross as the substitute for our sins (15:3). If He is not risen, then His death is no different than any other death, and faith in Him is worthless. We would still be in our sins (15:17). Jesus must in fact be risen if our faith is to be of any effect with regard to our sin problem.
Paul says that if Christ is not risen, then those who have fallen asleep (died) in Christ have perished. There is no ground for believing that your departed loved ones who had put their faith in Christ are in heaven, if Christ is not raised.
You hear a lot of false ideas about death. Many people have invented a god just a bit better that they are. Their theory about eternal life is, “If a person does the best he can and helps others and is a good person, then he’ll make it to heaven.”
Hear me carefully: Such an idea is diametrically opposed to the teaching of Jesus and the New Testament. Such thinking grossly underestimates the absolute holiness of God and the awful sinfulness of the human heart. It assumes that a person can be his own Savior, with just a little boost from God. Nothing is farther from the truth, and nothing could insult what Christ did on the cross more than that kind of thinking. If men and women can save themselves, do you think that Jesus Christ would have laid aside the splendor of heaven, taken on human flesh, endured the suffering He did at the hands of sinners, and died upon the cross?
The only reason He went to the cross is because that is the only way the justice and righteousness of God could be satisfied. It is the only way sinful people can be saved. If Jesus didn’t die on the cross for our sins and rise again on the third day, triumphant over the forces of evil and death, then there is no hope beyond the grave! Hope based on human theories about God and eternity is worthless. Our hope for eternal life for us and for our loved ones can only be built upon the death and resurrection of the sinless Savior who bore our sins.
Thus if Christ is not risen, the gospel is worthless; believing the gospel is worthless; and hope beyond the grave is worthless.
Have you ever thought, “Even if Christianity is not true—there is no God and nothing beyond this life—I would still want to be a Christian because of the good life it brings me now”? I have. Where else can you find a way of life that brings you as much joy and happiness as Christianity?
But we forget one factor, and we minimize another, when we think like that. We forget that we are not facing persecution on account of our faith. Paul was. If there is no God and no eternity, then why suffer for your faith? If Jesus is not risen, then why endure persecution? And we minimize the fact that we are called to live sacrificially and work hard for the cause of Christ. We American Christians are too soft. Biblical discipleship as Jesus presented it is costly. It involves giving of yourself, your time, and your money. It’s not the easy road. That’s why Paul says, “If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most to be pitied” (15:19).
What’s the bottom line if Jesus is not risen? Paul gives it in 15:32: “If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” In other words, live for yourself and for pleasure now, because that’s all there is. As Peggy Lee sang a few years ago, “If that’s all there is my friend, then break out the booze and have a ball.”
I’m concerned that some of you may be thinking, “I believe in Jesus and the resurrection,” and yet, if you were to stop and examine your lifestyle, you would find that it is described by verse 32. You are living for yourself, or perhaps for yourself and your family. Your goal in life is to pursue personal comfort, pleasure and affluence. Your dream is to get a little nicer house, a newer car, and a few other trinkets to make life more enjoyable.
And God? The church? They fit into that scheme. To the extent that God and His church make you feel good and increase your happiness, you get involved. But in the final analysis, the controlling value in your life is personal happiness. But that’s how a person lives if the resurrection of Jesus Christ is not true! A person who truly believes in the risen Savior seeks first His kingdom and righteousness.
Be careful! If you claim to have been a Christian for a long time, but Christ and His kingdom are not central in your life, you may have believed in vain (15:2, 10)! If the grace of God and the fact of the risen Christ are a reality in your life, then, like Paul, you should be denying yourself and following Jesus, no matter how hard that may be. Paul labored hard for Jesus Christ as a result of his meeting with the risen Savior (15:10).
“But,” you say, “that was Paul, but I’m not Paul.” True, but look at 15:58. Paul’s conclusion, in light of the fact of the resurrection of Christ and His coming back (which stems from His resurrection, 15:50-54) is, “Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.” That’s written to the whole church in Corinth—and in Flagstaff. Every believer—not just full time Christian workers—but every Christian, as a result (“therefore”) of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is to be involved in the work of the Lord. Work for the Lord is not in vain. It is the only source of true fulfillment.
Is the goal of your life to seek first the risen Savior’s kingdom? Or is it to work for your own happiness and fit in the Lord’s work when it’s convenient and doesn’t interfere with your happiness? Does the resurrection of Jesus Christ matter to you this morning? Or, like Jones, are you serious about something that really isn’t very important in the light of eternity—the things of this world: and not serious about something that is really quite important—the eternal destiny of your soul and of other souls for whom Christ died?
The resurrection of Jesus Christ matters because it is true and apart from it, the Christian faith is worthless.
A few years ago there was a TV game show called, “Let’s Make a Deal.” The contestants often had to choose between a prize that was visible to them or another prize which was concealed behind a curtain. The visible prize was usually a nice item, like and expensive stereo or TV set. Sometimes the unseen prize turned out to be an impractical gag gift, such as 10,000 boxes of toothpicks. But at other times the person chose the visible gift and discovered to their horror that they had passed up, behind the curtain, a new car worth thousands of dollars. Whenever that happened, you felt with the contestant that awful feeling in the pit of your stomach that comes from making a major wrong choice.
Each person here faces a far more serious choice: You can live for the things your see in this world and miss the unseen eternal prize or you can let go of the things of this world and pursue the eternal reward. God has told us in His Word that the eternal prize behind the curtain far outweighs any temporal prize you can pursue. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the sure evidence that what He taught is true. It is the central fact of history. If you base your life on it, you have a sure hope for time and eternity. If you pursue anything else, it will ultimately result in futility. Don’t be like Jones! Don’t take seriously something that doesn’t matter and take lightly the truth that matters most of all! Jesus is risen! You can build your life on that fact!
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 1993, All Right Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, © The Lockman Foundation
April 3, 1994
Easter Sunday
A woman who works for the Internal Revenue Service was responsible to communicate with delinquent taxpayers. On one occasion, to get in touch with a man, she had to call Anchorage, Alaska, and was patched through to a ham operator in the Aleutian Islands. Two hours later the ham operator raised the taxpayer’s home base and from there reached him at sea with his fishing fleet. After identifying herself as being with the IRS in Utah, there was a long pause. Then over the static from somewhere in the North Pacific came: “Ha! Ha! Come and get me!” (Reader’s Digest, [10/82.)
A lot of Americans shrug off the idea of God’s judgment like that delinquent taxpayer shrugged off the IRS. I suppose they would agree that someday there will be a day of reckoning, but that seems far, far away. So they ignore it and go on about their lives.
These same folks would probably view Easter as an innocuous spring holiday. If you said the word “Easter” and asked them to tell you what words popped into their mind in association with it, you might hear things like resurrection, Sunrise Service, hope, springtime, flowers, Easter lilies, new clothes, Easter egg hunts, Easter bunnies, dinner with family and friends. It would never occur to them to connect Easter Sunday and God’s judgment on their sin. Easter has such a positive, upbeat connotation. Judgment has such a negative, unpleasant connotation. They don’t seem to go together.
But the Apostle Paul made just such a connection. In Acts 17:30-34, he is concluding his sermon to the philosophers in Athens. Paul takes a logical approach. He is saying,
If the resurrection is true, then judgment is a certainty; if judgment is a certainty, then repentance is a necessity.
The message of Easter is that Jesus Christ is risen bodily from the dead. Paul says that if Jesus is risen, then He is the judge of the whole world. This puts a demand on every person--each one must turn to God from sin (“repent”).
The whole thing hangs on the assertion that ...
This is the foundation of Christianity. Paul said, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless ...” (1 Cor. 15:17). Christianity is not built on religious speculations, but on the revelation God has given of Himself in the person of Jesus Christ. The authenticating proof that Jesus is Lord and Judge is that God raised Him from the dead.
The proofs of the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ are many and they have withstood the attacks of critics for almost 2,000 years. I can’t go into detail, but I briefly mention some of the proofs:
(1) The empty tomb--This fact is not disputed, even by critics. If the tomb had not been empty, when the disciples started preaching the resurrection of Jesus, the Jewish leaders would have marched to the tomb, produced the body, and the disciples would have been laughed out of town. If Jesus was not raised from the dead, there are several explanations of the empty tomb, none of which are plausible:
--Jesus’ enemies stole the body. But, they had no motive for doing so, and they would have produced it to quench the disciples’ preaching if they had known where it was. Besides, the tomb was guarded to prevent any theft of the body.
--The Roman guards stole the body. But they had no motive to do so. They didn’t care about this Jewish religious trial. If they had stolen the body, they could have sold it for a lot of money to the Jewish leaders, but that didn’t happen.
--The disciples stole the body. This was the theory the Jewish leaders tried to promote (Matt. 27:63-66; 28:11-15). But, the Roman guards would have prevented this. They would not have risked their lives (the penalty for not properly standing their watch) for a bribe. The disciples’ couldn’t have moved the heavy stone and stolen the body out from under the noses of the guards.
Besides, the disciples were too depressed, confused, and fearful to pull off a daring grave robbery. And if they had, would they have gone out and preached the resurrection, even with threats against their lives? In fact, the initial thought of the women and disciples was that someone had taken the body (John 20:13, 15). If they had confirmed that fact, they wouldn’t have preached as they did later on.
(2) The post-resurrection appearances--There were numerous appearances of Jesus to many of His followers in a variety of situations over the 40 days between His resurrection and ascension into heaven. These many witnesses could not possibly have fabricated their story. J. N. D. Anderson wrote:
The most drastic way of dismissing the evidence would be to say that these stories were mere fabrications, that they were pure lies. But so far as I know, not a single critic today would take such an attitude. In fact, it would really be an impossible position. Think of the number of witnesses, over 500. Think of the character of the witnesses, men and women who gave the world the highest ethical teaching it has ever known, and who even on the testimony of their enemies lived it out in their lives. Think of the psychological absurdity of picturing a little band of defeated cowards cowering in an upper room one day and a few days later transformed into a company that no persecution could silence--and then attempting to attribute this dramatic change to nothing more convincing than a miserable fabrication they were trying to foist upon the world. That simply wouldn’t make sense. (Cited by Josh McDowell, Evidence That Demands a Verdict, p. 233.)
Anderson’s quote leads to a third proof:
(3) The changed lives of the witnesses--None of this depressed, confused, fearful band were expecting a resurrection. And yet they were all transformed into bold, committed witnesses who gave their lives to preaching that Jesus was raised from the dead. Paul himself was transformed from a vicious persecutor of the church and hater of Gentiles to the dedicated apostle to the Gentiles after he saw the risen Jesus Christ on the Damascus road.
That’s just a quick overview of some of the evidence for the resurrection. Maybe you’re thinking, “Well if the evidence is so convincing, why don’t more people believe it?” The answer is: People refuse to believe in the resurrection because it has moral implications. If Jesus is risen, He is Lord. If He is Lord, then I have no right to continue rebelling against God by running my own life. The main issue in unbelief is never intellectual; it is always moral. If Jesus is risen, then I must turn from my sin, because He is going to judge the world. If the resurrection is true, then ...
Paul notes three certainties (17:31) with regard to the judgment: A certain day, a certain standard, and a certain Man.
(1) A Certain Day--God “has fixed a day ....” We look around and see wickedness going unpunished and think that sinners get away with their sin. But the court date is set in heaven: God has a certain day when He will judge the world! If we ask, “Why does God wait?” the answer is, “Because He is patient and merciful. He is giving those who have sinned against Him an opportunity to repent” (2 Pet. 3:9).
At the Mount Saint Helens visitor center in Washington, a film tells the story of the awesome eruption of that volcano in 1980. It shows the now famous longtime resident at Spirit Lake, an old man named Harry Truman, who disbelieved the warnings that the mountain was about to blow. He’s famous now, but dead and buried under hundreds of feet of lava, because he made the fatal mistake of thinking that just because that mountain had never erupted in his many years of living there, it never would.
Many people make that eternally fatal mistake when it comes to the warnings of Scripture about God’s judgment. Paul points out that God “overlooked the times of ignorance.” Perhaps you have been ignorant of the demands of God’s absolute righteousness; you haven’t been aware of your own sin; you haven’t known about God’s means of forgiveness. If He had judged the world before now, you would have been lost. But don’t wait--the day is certain!
(2) A Certain Standard--“He will judge the world in righteousness.” Many think that God will grade on the curve, that only the scum of the earth will fail. Just last month I heard on National Public Radio about a recent Gallup Poll in which 60 percent of Americans say they believe in hell, but only four percent think there’s a good chance that they will go there. We don’t think we will go to hell because we compare ourselves with other people and we don’t stack up too badly. We assume that God grades on the curve, so everything will be okay.
Years ago, when poet Robert Frost taught at Amherst College, he detested semester exams and grading, but since it was mandatory, he complied. But he made the tests as easy as he could. Once he asked only one question: “What good did my course do you?” and requested brief replies. One student wrote, “Not a dam bit!” “Did you pass him?” asked a friend. “Yes,” said Frost, “I gave him a 90.” “Why not 100?” the friend asked. “He left the ‘n’ off damn.”
Many think that God will be an easy grader, like Robert Frost. Unless we’re horribly bad people, the judgment won’t be any sweat. But God’s standard is His own character--absolute righteousness! That character is reflected in the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount. Many people think that they live up to this standard. But have you ever thought about how impossibly high that standard is?
Take the first commandment: Can you look at your life and honestly say that you have not in the past and you do not now have any gods before the One True God? Or take the simple “Golden Rule”: Can you say that you always do unto others as you would have them do unto you? If not, you’ve broken the two commands that sum up God’s holy standard: You have not loved God with all your heart and you have not loved your neighbor as yourself. God’s certain standard is His own righteousness. Unless you somehow satisfy that standard, you have much to fear when that certain day of judgment comes around!
There is a certain day and a certain standard.
(3) A Certain Man--“Through a Man whom He has appointed.” That may seem strange--usually we think of God as the judge, not man. But the final Judge is both. The Lord Jesus Christ is the eternal God who took on human flesh through the virgin birth. Jesus said that the Father had given all judgment to Him, the Son, so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father (John 5:22-23). Jesus Christ is both the perfect standard for judgment, in that He lived a perfectly righteous life; and, the perfect Judge, who in His deity knows the very thoughts and intentions of our heart. Every wrong thought we’ve ever had will be exposed to His gaze!
Thus, since the resurrection is true, judgment is a certainty. And if you say, “All I ask is that God be fair with me,” you don’t realize what you’re saying! If God is fair, you will go straight to hell, because you have violated His righteous standard many times over. If you went into a court of law, even in our lenient justice system, with thousands of counts against you, how do you think you would fare? Never ask God for fairness. Every one of us, because of our sin, stands guilty many times over before God’s righteous standard.
What should we do? Should we run from God? Should we try to hide? Should we try harder? No, God has offered a remedy for our guilty condition:
“God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent.” The word “declaring” should be translated “commanding.” It’s a word of authority, not just a helpful hint. Repentance may sound like an outmoded term. But if God is commanding “all everywhere” to repent, then we had better be clear on what it means! “All everywhere” is fairly comprehensive. It includes religious people, even decent folks who attend Easter church services. None of us are exempt from the requirement to repent.
The Greek word comes from two words meaning “to change one’s mind.” But the Bible is clear that repentance is more than intellectual--it means to turn to God from sin. It is a total change of orientation. If I were driving to Phoenix and “repented,” it means that I would turn around and drive back toward Flagstaff. All of us, because we’re sinners, live for ourselves. We run our lives with the goal of pleasing ourselves. To repent means that we turn from self and sin to God. Instead of thinking that our own efforts will put us in good stead on judgment day (which is the ultimate in pride!), we turn from our works to God’s provision for sin in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who bore the penalty for us. Instead of living for ourselves, we now live to please God.
Repentance is not separate from faith, but is actually a vital part of genuine faith (17:30, “repent”; 17:34, “believed”). Repentance and faith are the two sides of the coin of conversion. In order to turn to God for forgiveness, you must believe that what He says is true: That you have sinned and that Jesus Christ died for your sins. If you truly believe that, your life will be drastically different than before. You can’t hold onto your sin with one hand and reach out for God’s salvation with the other.
In his excellent book, Faith Works (Word, pp. 74, 75), Pastor John MacArthur writes,
The Western church has subtly changed the thrust of the gospel. Instead of exhorting sinners to repent, evangelicalism in our society asks the unsaved to “accept Christ.” That makes sinners sovereign and puts Christ at their disposal. In effect it puts Christ on trial and hands the judge’s robes and gavel to the inquirer--precisely opposite of what should be. Ironically, people who ought to be concerned about whether Christ will accept them are being told by Christians that it is the sinner’s prerogative to “accept Christ.” This modified gospel depicts conversion as “a decision for Christ” rather than a life-transforming change of heart involving genuine faith, repentance, surrender, and rebirth unto newness of life.
MacArthur goes on to quote A. W. Tozer, who wrote:
The trouble is that the whole “Accept Christ” attitude is likely to be wrong. It shows Christ [appealing] to us rather than us to Him. It makes Him stand hat-in-hand awaiting our verdict on Him, instead of our kneeling with troubled hearts awaiting His verdict on us. It may even permit us to accept Christ by an impulse of mind or emotions, painlessly, at no loss to our ego and no inconvenience to our usual way of life.
The Bible is clear that there is a false kind of faith, a mere intellectual agreement with the gospel that does not include repentance. Such “faith” does not save.
In the early 1950’s notorious gangster Mickey Cohen attended a meeting where Billy Graham was present. He expressed some interest in the message, so several who were there, including Dr. Graham, talked to him about spiritual matters. But he did not respond until some time later, when another friend urged him to invite Jesus Christ into his life. He professed to do this, but his subsequent life gave no evidence of repentance. When his friend tried to confront him on this, Cohen protested, “You didn’t tell me that I would have to give up my work and my friends!”
He had heard that so-and-so was a Christian entertainer, and another was a Christian actress, and another was a Christian politician. He thought he could be a Christian gangster and continue to run with his pagan friends in his pagan way of life! (Adapted from J. Edwin Orr, Christianity Today [1/1/82], pp. 24, 25.)
That is not saving faith! I must recognize that I am guilty before God’s standard of absolute righteousness. Also, I must understand that I can never earn God’s forgiveness by my own good works. I can’t help God out, since I deserve only His wrath because of my sin. But God, being rich in mercy sent Jesus Christ to die for my sins, thus maintaining His justice, but also enabling Him to extend a free pardon to every sinner who will take it. So I turn to God from my sins to receive that pardon. As a result, I seek to live the rest of my life to please the God who so loved me and gave Himself up for me. That’s saving faith!
Paul saw three different responses to his message that day. Some began to sneer (17:32). They didn’t believe in the possibility of a resurrection of the dead, which means they didn’t believe in God who alone is able to raise the dead. I hope not, but it is possible that some of you are scoffing at what I have said. I urge you not to shrug off this most serious matter! Others procrastinated. They said, “We shall hear you again concerning this” (17:32). But so far as we know, they never got that chance. The text says that “Paul went out of their midst.” They missed the opportunity to repent and believe. I urge you not to put off repenting and believing, since you may not get another chance!
But some joined Paul and believed (17:34). That is what I urge you to do—to join us who believe by believing yourself in the good news that through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God offers a pardon for your sins. Having overlooked your time of ignorance, God is now commanding that you should repent. That’s what you need to do because the resurrection of Jesus is true!
Copyright 1994, Steven J. Cole, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, © The Lockman Foundation
April 16, 1995
Special Easter Message
A couple of years ago when we stopped by Zion National Park on our family vacation, we rented tubes for the kids to float down the Virgin River. It was great fun for them. Since I had sprained my ankle the day before, I sat on the bank with my ankle in the cold water, watching them float by. They finally prevailed on me to give it a try, and since it looked kind of fun, I limped upstream and launched off. What I didn’t realize is that some of the rapids could be kind of tricky to navigate, and I ended up getting dumped in the swift current a couple of times, which didn’t do my ankle any good!
I’d like each of you to picture yourself floating down a river. Some of you are in inner tubes, floating lazily along in the calm parts, enjoying the excitement of the rapids when you get to them. Others of you are going in more comfort, in a boat. Back at the place where you rented your tube or boat, there was an ominous warning sign that read, “WARNING! All who go down this river face the risk of going over a fatal waterfall, often without immediate notice. The company assumes no liability.” That sounded kind of scary, but since so many others were renting tubes and boats and having so much fun, you shrugged it off by thinking, “That’s probably just a disclaimer so the company won’t get sued.” So you launched off.
The river I’m speaking of is the river of life. Every one of us is floating down it, some just with the basics, some in style. The trip is generally enjoyable. Some get dumped in the rapids, but come up sputtering for air and get back on board. But every once in a while you see someone who hits the rapids, goes under, and never comes up. It troubles you for a while, but you figure, “I’m still floating and enjoying the ride.” So you put it out of your mind and keep cruising along. Once in a while you remember that warning sign back at the start and wonder what hidden dangers might be lurking around the next bend, but usually you shake the thought and keep floating along.
Suddenly you notice that the current has gotten much stronger. You’re moving quite rapidly downstream. And, you notice a noise that keeps getting louder and louder, until you can’t hear anything else. You see some who are trying desperately to paddle upstream, but it’s not doing them any good. Some others are simply yelling, “Help! Save me!” But you’ve heard from some others who were floating down the river that going over the falls is not all that bad. It’s just part of the natural cycle of things, and no one really knows what’s on the other side. So just accept it.
When it comes to floating down the river of life and facing the inevitability of death and of standing before God, the best advice you can get isn’t the philosophy of someone else heading downstream, who thinks that the falls aren’t all that bad. Nor is it best to follow the example of those who are rowing for all they’re worth to try to escape the inevitable or to deal with it in their own strength. Rather, what you need is someone who has already experienced the falls, who knows for sure what is on the other side, who can tell you how to get ready for it. You need someone with a sure word on how you can be ready to face God.
Jesus Christ is uniquely qualified to tell us what to expect in death and when we face God. He claimed to have come to this earth as one sent by God the Father. He died and was raised from the dead, and was seen in His resurrection by many reliable witnesses. He spoke authoritatively about how we can get ready to face the falls that surely lie ahead on the river of life.
One of those witnesses who saw the risen Lord Jesus was a man who formerly had been bitterly opposed to Him. After his encounter with the risen Christ, the apostle Paul later wrote that the entire Christian faith hangs on the truth of the bodily resurrection of Jesus. He said, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins” (1 Cor. 15:17). That statement implies that our sins are a problem that need to be dealt with before God, and that they are in fact dealt with in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the text before us (Rom. 10:9, 10), that same apostle tells us how believing in the risen Lord Jesus gets us right with God.
We get right with God by believing and confessing that Jesus is the risen Lord.
In the context, Paul is talking about his deeply felt concern for his fellow Jews who needed to be right with God, but who in fact were mistaken on this most crucial matter. When Paul says that his prayer to God is for their salvation (10:1), we need to understand what that word salvation means. It is not a mild term. It does not mean that folks need to change their course slightly or that they need a little boost from God to help them cope. The only people who need to be saved are those who are hopelessly lost or in grave danger, who cannot deliver themselves. So when the Bible talks about the need for salvation, it is referring to a desperate situation where, if God does not intervene, those needing salvation will be eternally lost.
As Paul has shown earlier in the Book of Romans (chap. 3), every person, from the raw pagan to the most religious person on earth, is under God’s just condemnation for his sin and is desperately in need of God’s salvation. The pagan may not even realize the trouble he’s in. He’s just floating through life, enjoying the trip, not thinking too much about the falls ahead. The religious person may realize the impending problem, but he’s confident that by his own good works and efforts, he can solve it. But Paul has shown that both types are in big trouble, because they have sinned against a holy God.
In the case of the religious type, Paul acknowledges that they have a zeal for God, but it’s not according to knowledge (10:2). Contrary to popular opinion, it does matter what you believe. You can be as sincere as the day is long in believing that your car will fly you across the Grand Canyon. You believe it so sincerely that you drive your car toward the rim at 90 miles per hour. Your sincere belief will plunge you to your death, because it is not based on the truth. You can sincerely believe that because you’re a good person, you will get into heaven, but if that is not the truth, you will plunge into destruction.
The Jews were sincere in thinking that their good deeds along with their Jewish birthright (after all, they were God’s chosen people) would make them right with God. The fallacy in their thinking was, they didn’t understand God’s righteousness, nor did they submit to it (10:3). That is precisely the error of many “good” people in our day: They underestimate the absolute righteousness of God. They fail to see that God is so holy that even the most righteous person on earth would be consumed if he stood before Him, just as a spaceship would be consumed if it attempted to land on the sun. They overestimate their own righteousness by mistakenly thinking that their good deeds can qualify them for heaven. So Paul wrote these verses to show how people who think they’re pretty good, but who really are heading for the falls, can get right with God--get saved. (It also applies to those who know they’re in big trouble, who know they need to be saved.)
The Apostle Paul formerly thought that he was right with God. He was zealous in his practice of the Jewish faith. As a Pharisee, he was meticulous in keeping the Jewish rituals and ceremonies. He says he was “... a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness of the Law, found blameless” (Phil. 3:5, 6).
But like many who are religious, Paul mistakenly thought that righteousness is an outward matter of keeping a bunch of rules and regulations. He took great pride in his ability to do all these things. But in reality, God’s law is a matter of our hearts before Him. His holy standards, rather than justifying us, actually condemn us. The very first commandment, “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exod. 20:3) convicts us all, because none of us have always put the living and true God in His rightful place in our hearts. The entire law, summed up in the two great commandments, to love God with all our being, and to love our neighbor as we do in fact love ourselves, does not exonerate us. It condemns us by revealing how far we fall short of God’s perfect standard.
So God’s law reveals His own perfect righteousness as well as the extent of our sin. It tells us of God’s judgment that we face because of our sin. Until this dawns on us, we won’t recognize our need of salvation. We’ll just cruise down the river thinking that things are fine, not recognizing the falls ahead. So the first step in getting right with God is to realize that, even if you’re a good person, a religious person, you’re wrong before Him.
This was the problem with the Jews of whom Paul is writing in these verses. They thought they could get right with God by keeping His law. In 10:5, Paul quotes Moses to show, “If you want to be right with God by keeping the law, then you’ve got to keep it perfectly. You’ve got to live by it entirely.”
The problem is, no one, not even the most religious person on earth, can do that. God’s law isn’t just an external matter. Even if it were, it would be virtually impossible to keep. But it’s a matter of the heart, and no one can do it. We’ve all pushed God aside and done what we’ve wanted to do. We’ve all had selfish, hateful, greedy, and lustful thoughts. And no amount of self-reformation can cure the problem or balance out the scales of God’s justice, because God has decreed that the wages of our sin is death. We’re all in that swift current, heading toward destruction, and it’s impossible by our own good works to row against it. Unless God intervenes, we will face His just condemnation for our sins. So if we realize that we are wrong before God and that we can never get right with Him by our own efforts, then we must look elsewhere for an answer. That answer is what Paul calls, “The righteousness based on faith” (10:6).
Jesus Christ perfectly fulfilled God’s holy law and satisfied, in His death, the penalty of the law that we all deserve. Thus, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (10:4). This verse means that when you stand before God someday, either you must present to Him the righteousness of Jesus Christ, in whom you are trusting for right standing before God; or, you can present your own “righteousness,” which isn’t going to cut it!
Verses 6-8 are a bit confusing. Without going into detail, Paul is quoting somewhat loosely from Deuteronomy 30:12-14 to show that even under the law, salvation by grace through faith was readily available to the Jews. Since no one, not even Moses, could perfectly keep the law, God has always graciously offered to justify the person who has faith in God’s provision for his sins. As Moses wrote of Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, “He believed in the Lord, and He reckoned it to him as righteousness” (Gen. 15:6).
Thus, to get right with God you must first realize that you’re wrong before God. Second, you must realize that you can never get right with God by your own works. Then, you must realize that Jesus Christ has done for you what you could not do for yourself, namely, He has made His perfect righteousness available to you by faith. How do we lay hold of Christ’s righteousness on our behalf, so that we can be saved?
In verses 9 & 10 Paul explains how we can avail ourselves of the righteousness based on faith. Verse 9 states the principle, following the order of the quote from Deuteronomy in verse 8 (mouth, heart); verse 10 explains verse 9 in its logical order (believing first, then confession).
To get right with God, you must believe in your heart that God has raised Jesus from the dead. This encompasses, of course, the fact that Jesus died and the purpose for which He died. As Paul states (1 Cor. 15:3), “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.” He was the fulfillment of what the Jewish sacrificial system pictured and pointed toward, namely, that for sins to be forgiven, there must be the shedding of blood, and that God accepts the blood of a proper substitute. Thus Jesus is the Lamb of God who shed His blood as the necessary payment to satisfy God’s justice. You must believe in this crucified and risen Jesus.
God put His stamp of approval on Jesus’ substitutionary death when He raised Him from the dead (Rom. 1:4). If He had not been raised, He could not save anyone from their sins. Thus Paul here mentions the resurrection, not to the exclusion of Jesus’ death, but because it includes His death and proves that it was acceptable to God as the just penalty for our sins.
Paul says that you must believe this truth of the resurrection. Faith is not some vague, nice notion that “for every drop of rain that falls, a flower grows.” Faith has specific content regarding what God has revealed about Jesus’ death and resurrection. At the same time, faith is rooted not just in some religious ideas, divorced from verifiable history. Rather, biblical faith is rooted in the historical fact of Jesus’ bodily resurrection. So, the kind of faith that results in “righteousness” (right standing with God) and “salvation” (being delivered from God’s judgment) is based on a well-established historical fact, not on religious speculation.
To be saved, you must believe this truth in your heart. Biblically, the heart is not just the seat of the emotions, but refers to our whole person--intellect, emotions, and will. Thus biblical faith is more than just intellectual assent, although it includes that. It involves committing your total person, indeed, your eternal destiny, to the crucified, risen Lord Jesus as your only hope of right standing before God.
A lot of people believe in Jesus as the risen Savior in the same way they believe that seat belts in their car save lives. They believe in the concept, that it’s true; but they never buckle up. That kind of belief in seat belts doesn’t save you in the crunch. And mere agreement with the notion that Jesus is the risen Savior doesn’t save you from God’s judgment. You must personally avail yourself of what Jesus did for you when He died on the cross and was raised from the dead, so that you are counting everything in this life and in eternity on Jesus’ sacrifice (and it alone) being sufficient to put you in right standing before God. That’s what it means to believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead.
Maybe you’re thinking, “Wait a minute! I thought that we are saved by grace through faith plus nothing. Isn’t confession adding something to faith?” But those who argue in this manner do not understand the nature of genuine faith. We are saved by grace through faith apart from works, but faith that saves always results in works that give evidence of the authenticity of the faith. Thus Jesus promised that everyone who confesses Him before men, He will also confess before the Father in heaven, but whoever denies Him before men, He will deny that person before the Father in heaven (Matt. 10:33).
What is it that we are to confess? That “Jesus is Lord.” This means that the man (Jesus) is Yahweh, God (Lord). The word “Lord” points to His absolute sovereignty as the rightful ruler of this universe. It includes the personal aspect as well, that He is my Lord or Sovereign, with the right to rule my life. The idea that you can accept Jesus as your Savior without accepting Him as your Lord is absurd. To confess Jesus as Lord is to confess Him as your Lord.
One of the first ways a person should confess Jesus as Lord is by being baptized. The act of baptism is a public confession that a person has believed in Christ as Savior and Lord and pictures being identified with Jesus in His death, burial, and resurrection. Then we go on confessing Jesus as Lord by living a life pleasing unto Him and by bearing verbal witness as we have opportunity (1 Pet. 3:15).
In verse 9, Paul says that the result of confessing and believing in the risen Lord Jesus is, “You shall be saved.” But in verse 10, he distinguishes the results by saying that we believe, resulting in righteousness, and we confess, resulting in salvation. He is looking at the fact that confession, both initially and ongoing, verifies and confirms the inner faith we have in Christ, and he is focusing on the future aspect of salvation, especially, as mentioned by Christ, our future deliverance from God’s judgment when He confesses us before the Father because we have confessed Him on this earth (see 1 Pet. 1:9; Matt. 10:32-33).
Some people were touring a mint where coins are made. They came into the room where cauldrons were filled with molten metal. The tour guide told them that if a person were to dip his hand into water and then have someone pour the hot, liquid metal over his hand, he would not feel any pain or suffer injury. Then, turning to a couple, he suggested that perhaps they would like to prove the truthfulness of what he had just said. The husband quickly replied, “No, thanks, I’ll just take your word for it.” But his wife eagerly said, “Sure, I’ll give it a try!” She thrust her hand into a bucket of water and then held it out as the molten metal was poured over it. Just as the guide had said, it harmlessly rolled off. The guide turned to the husband and said, “Sir, you claimed to believe what I said, but your wife truly believed.”
Do you claim to believe that Jesus is the risen Lord, or do you truly believe, as evidenced by the fact that in your heart you are trusting in Christ alone to deliver you from God’s judgment? Is your faith revealed in a life that confesses that Jesus is Lord? If so, then you are right with God and need not fear facing Him some day.
Copyright 1995, Steven J. Cole, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, © The Lockman Foundation
April 7, 1996
Special Easter Message
If you could receive the answer to any question, what would that question be? That’s another way of asking, “What is the most important question in the world for you?”
If you’re young and single, that question might be, How can I be popular? Or, How can I get a particular boy or girl to like me? If you’re facing graduation the question may be, What career should I pursue? Whom shall I marry? For those who have been married a few years, it might be, How can I have the kind of fulfilling marriage I long for? How can I properly raise my children? Or, How can I find a satisfying job? For those further along, it might be, How should I plan for retirement? What should I do with the final years of my life?
All of these are important questions. But none is the most important question you could ask. The reason is that the answer to all of these questions ultimately rests on your answer to another question: Who do you say Jesus is? You may be thinking, “That’s an abstract, irrelevant theological question if I ever heard one!” But, what you think of Jesus will determine whether you receive or reject Him as your Savior and Lord. If Jesus truly is the Lord and Savior, and you recognize that and follow Him, then you have a basis for answering all of the other fundamental questions in life. If you have not grasped the meaning of that most basic question, then you have no consistent basis to grapple with all of life’s other pressing questions. Also, your relationship with Christ affects not only your life on this earth, but your eternal destiny. So,
The most important question in the world is: Who do you say Jesus is?
Jesus put that question to His disciples as they traveled near Caesarea Philippi, about 25 miles north of the sea of Galilee. Jesus was seeking to bring the disciples to a more clear knowledge of who He is: the Messiah (Christ, = “Anointed One”) sent by God. In one sense, they had believed that from the beginning. When Andrew first told his brother Peter about Jesus, he said, “‘We have found the Messiah’” (John 1:41). But they still were confused about what that meant. Jesus had brought them to this point of outward confession. But, they still had a ways to go.
Mark 8:31 is a hinge verse in this Gospel. The first half of Mark emphasizes Jesus as the Son of Man who came to serve; the second half emphasizes that He came to give His life a ransom for many (Mark 10:45). From this point, Jesus began to teach the disciples about His coming death and resurrection. Three times in chapters 8, 9, and 10, Jesus tells the disciples that He is going to be killed and raised from the dead (8:31; 9:31; 10:33, 34), but the disciples didn’t get it. Jesus follows each of these predictions of His death with a call to discipleship, to self-denial and servant-hood. Mark wrote his gospel initially for suffering Christians in Rome. If they were going to endure persecution and be faithful to the Lord Jesus, it was crucial that they understand who Jesus truly is as He revealed Himself. The matter is just as relevant for us if we want a faith that remains strong, even through trials. So I want to explore with you some of the ramifications of this most important question, “Who do you say Jesus is?”
I mean, only one answer is correct. It is not, “Jesus, however you conceive Him to be.” A person may say, “For me, Jesus is always accepting and loving.” One popular TV preacher says he likes Jesus because He is always a positive person. But Jesus isn’t whatever you want Him to be. There is a single correct answer to the question. And that answer is not based on subjective feelings or personal opinions, but on objective truth.
This is important to affirm because we live in a day when people think that spiritual truth is not objectively true. Rather, they see it as existentially true. They do not view spiritual truth in terms of propositional revelation, where God has spoken to us in the Bible in language we can understand. Nor do they see spiritual truth in terms of verifiable history, centered in the historical Jesus of Nazareth, whose teaching, miracles, death and bodily resurrection are reported in the New Testament by eyewitnesses.
Rather, our generation views spiritual truth in terms of each person’s experience of it. As such, it is not verifiable. If it’s true for you, then it’s true. If your spiritual experience is different from mine, one is not necessarily right and the other wrong, even if they contradict one another. They can both be true, according to the existentialist view of truth, because spiritual truth is determined by personal experience, not by objective, verifiable means.
The way this filters into the church is that people are encouraged to “invite Jesus into their hearts.” They are promised that He will help them with their problems. But in many cases they have no idea who Jesus really is or what He came to this earth to do as revealed in the Bible. But, they prayed or walked the aisle. Maybe it was even accompanied by tears. At first, they felt better and thought their problems would go away. But then, some problems got worse and they didn’t understand why Jesus wasn’t “working.” So they fall away. At the heart of this sort of defection is a faulty concept of the nature of spiritual truth, especially concerning the person of Jesus Christ. The person who professed to believe never knew who Jesus really is.
Thus it’s important at the outset to affirm that the question, “Who do you say Jesus is?” has one correct answer and many incorrect or partially correct answers. It is not just a matter of personal opinion or preference, where any answer is as good as the next. A wrong answer can be eternally fatal!
This is always the case with objective truth. It divides people into opposing camps. Like Peter and the disciples, you may have to go against public opinion to arrive at the correct answer concerning Jesus.
I wonder if you’ve ever thought about how difficult it must have been for the disciples to commit themselves to Jesus as the Christ. For centuries, faithful Jews had been waiting and looking for God’s promised Messiah. Many lived and died without seeing that hope fulfilled. Sometimes prophets came on the scene, raising hopes that they might be the Messiah. But they died and the people kept waiting. Then, suddenly this young carpenter from Nazareth began preaching and performing miracles. Could He be the one? He certainly didn’t fit everyone’s image of what Messiah would be like. But the disciples committed themselves to Jesus as that long-awaited Messiah.
Remember, they didn’t have 1,900 years of church history to confirm their faith, as we do. They were the first ones to say, “This is the One!” And they had to say it in the face of public opinion that didn’t agree with them. This fact is underscored by the contrast between Jesus’ first question, “Who do people say that I am?” and His second question, “But who do you [emphatic in the Greek] say that I am?”
The disciples had to stand against three public currents to affirm their conviction that Jesus is the Christ. First was the Roman government, which didn’t care if Christians worshiped Jesus as long as they also affirmed Caesar as Lord. But the disciples insisted, “No, Jesus is the only Lord!” That narrow view cost many of them their lives. In the same way, if you take your stand with the disciples in affirming Jesus as the only way to God, you will have to go against the pagan culture of our day. People don’t mind if you hold your personal beliefs in Jesus, just so that you don’t contend that He is the only way! That’s too narrow and dogmatic. I saw a bumper sticker that said, “If you’re against abortion, don’t have one.” The idea is, “You can have your personal views of morality, but don’t tell me that my behavior is sin. If you want to believe in the Bible, that’s your privilege, but don’t judge me for my beliefs!”
The disciples also had to go against the opinions of the Jewish religious crowd, who had varying notions of who Jesus might be. Some heard His powerful preaching against sin and thought of John the Baptist. Others saw Jesus’ miracles and were reminded of the powerful prophet, Elijah. Others thought He might be another of the prophets. All of these were perhaps flattering, but inadequate, ideas of who Jesus really was. The disciples had to stand apart from the Jewish religious crowd to affirm Jesus as Messiah and Lord.
In a similar manner, you may have to go against the Christian crowd of our day. Many who call themselves Christians have ideas about Jesus which fall far short of affirming Him as Lord and Christ. Some see Jesus as the all-tolerant, loving One, who never speaks against anyone’s sin. They seek to get their denominations to affirm sins such as homosexuality and abortion. Others use Jesus to endorse their worldly views of feminism or politics. Still others mix Jesus with some brand of pop psychology. You have to stand against these popular views of Jesus to confess Him truly as Lord and Christ.
The third, and most formidable, group the disciples had to oppose was the Jewish religious leaders (8:31). The disciples were not formally educated in the Hebrew Scriptures; these men were. The disciples had no public influence; these men were the recognized leaders in Israel. They were the interpreters of Moses, the guardians of the Jewish law. Who did this bunch of uneducated fishermen think they were to go against the common judgment of this august body of scholars?
You will often have to join the disciples in pitting your view of Jesus against the religious scholars of our day. Even some who call themselves evangelical deny the trustworthy nature of all Scripture. They interpret Jesus in light of the most recent “scholarship,” which invariably comes from men with an anti-supernaturalistic bias. One flagrant example is the recent “Jesus Seminar,” where a bunch of supposed scholars got together and voted on which sayings of Jesus were authentic. How did they determine this? They begin by assuming the gospels to be myth unless proven otherwise. From there they proceed with other dubious assumptions combined with pure subjectivism. Using their methods and assumptions, we could probably conclude that the members of the Jesus Seminar really didn’t say what they claim to have said! This question, “Who do you say Jesus is?” divides people. You must take your stand with the disciples.
Peter’s answer, “You are the Christ,” is certainly correct. But, Peter had a different conception of what that meant than Jesus did. Peter meant, “You are the promised Anointed One who will sit on David’s throne, subduing the nations under Israel’s feet.” That is quite correct when understood of Messiah’s second coming. But, in regard to His first coming, the more correct answer was, “You are the One Anointed by God to be crucified as our sin-bearer and raised from the dead by the power of God.” Jesus had to fulfill Isaiah 53 and other Scriptures which point to Messiah’s bearing the sins of His people before He would reign on David’s throne. Peter was correct, but he needed to come to a deeper level of correct understanding.
There is even a deeper level of correct understanding revealed here: “You are the crucified, risen Christ who is the Sovereign Lord.” Jesus’ prophecy (8:31) makes it plain that He did not die as a helpless victim. The Jewish leaders who crucified Him did not thwart God’s plan for Jesus to reign on David’s throne. They were guilty of the terrible sin of crucifying their Messiah, but at the same time, Jesus willingly offered Himself as the sacrifice for our sins. He was in sovereign control, even in His death. Peter later grasped this as he preached on the Day of Pentecost, “This Man, delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death” (Acts 2:23).
One of the beautiful things about the Christian life is that you grow into deeper and deeper levels of understanding about the infinite, unfathomable, sovereign person of Jesus Christ. Do you know Him as your Savior? That’s great! You start there. But don’t stop there! There’s much more! If I could pick one place in history to return to, it would be to join those men on the Emmaus road that first resurrection Sunday, when the risen Lord Jesus, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures (Luke 24:27). All the seminary educations in the world could not compare with that one experience!
So, begin with knowing Jesus as the Christ, the Anointed One of God, the Savior. But go on discovering all that He is as the Sovereign Lord of the universe. The joy of the Christian life is growing to know our Bridegroom more intimately.
This point is revealed by the Lord’s strong warning that the disciples tell no one and by Peter’s subsequent rebuke of Jesus and Jesus’ rebuke of Peter. Peter’s notion of Messiah meant power and dominion, not suffering, rejection, and death. So, when Jesus began to speak plainly about His coming death, it jarred Peter so much that he took Jesus aside to rebuke Him. But Peter’s rebuke drew from Jesus the strongest rebuke He ever gave to one of His followers: “Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s” (8:33).
I think Peter was truly concerned about Jesus. He didn’t want Jesus to die. But his mistake was that he didn’t see things from God’s perspective. He wanted Jesus to spare Himself, not realizing that if He had done so, the cross, which secured our redemption, would have been subverted. It was the same temptation Satan put before Jesus when he showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and said, “All these things will I give You, if You fall down and worship me” (Matt. 4:9). So Jesus met Peter’s temptation the same way He met Satan’s: “Begone, Satan!”
The disciples were in sympathy with Peter, which is why Jesus addressed His rebuke so they all could hear (Mark 8:33). And that explains His strict prohibition that they tell no one that He was the Christ (8:30). Both the disciples and the Jewish people were looking for a political Messiah who would put a chicken in every pot and a donkey in every stable. But Jesus wasn’t sent by the Father to make everyone happy, so that they could go on living self-centered lives. He came to deal with the fundamental problem of the human race: sin. The essence of sin is our stubborn self-will that says to God, “I’ll run my own life, God. Just help me feel good when I need You.” The cross, where the Lord of Glory took the penalty we deserved, was the only divine solution for our sin problem.
A. B. Bruce said it well: “For the whole aim of Satanic policy is to get self-interest recognized as the chief aim of man” (The Training of the Twelve [Kregel], p. 180). For Jesus to have avoided the cross would have been for Him to seek His selfish interests. Satan would have triumphed. But Jesus came to do the will of the Father. That’s why He said, “The Son of Man must suffer” (8:31). He came to glorify the Father by being obedient, even to death on the cross. The “must” was the necessity of obedience to the Father’s will above all else.
So you can see how your answer to the question, “Who do you say Jesus is?” reveals the state of your heart. If your Jesus is an Aladdin’s Genie whom you use to make you feel good, then your heart is in bondage to self and sin, not subject to Jesus as Lord. You actually are following the Jesus Satan tried to establish, not the Jesus sent by the Father. The Jesus sent by the Father was delivered up on account of our sins and was raised so that we could be right with God (Rom. 4:25). We who follow Him are also to die to ourselves and live to God (2 Cor. 5:15).
Through the trials we encounter, God is seeking to break us of our sinful self-will and make us subject to His will. Instead of living to please ourselves, He wants us to live to please Him. So when He challenges our will, if we submit to Him, we grow to be more like Jesus. If we resist His breaking process, we’re setting our minds on the things of man, not of God.
So tell me what kind of Jesus you follow and I’ll tell you where your heart is at. The Jesus of the Bible is the Christ of the cross. If anyone wishes to follow Him, he must deny himself and take up his cross (8:34). He is the risen Lord to whom all must submit. Until we understand that, we haven’t grasped the primary reason Jesus came to this earth.
What’s your answer to Jesus question: “Who do you say that I am?” You may be standing with the multitude, saying, “Jesus is a fine example, a great teacher. But He is not the Sovereign Lord of my life.” That is a terribly mistaken answer. You may be standing with Peter, saying correctly, “You are the Christ,” but not understanding the sort of Christ He really is. That’s an improvement over the first answer, but it is inadequate. You must stand with Jesus who came as God’s Anointed to bear your sins, who was raised in triumph over sin and death, who calls us to follow Him in obedience to the will of the Father. As Peter later preached, “God has made Him both Lord and Christ--this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts 2:36). If you stand there, ready to do God’s will no matter what the cost, you have correctly answered the most important question in the world: Who do you say Jesus is?
If Jesus is not your sin-bearer and your Lord, I encourage you to read the Gospels with the prayer, “God, show me who Jesus is. If You show me that He is my Savior and Lord, I will follow Him.”
Copyright 1996, Steven J. Cole, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, © The Lockman Foundation
March 30, 1997
Easter Sunday Message
If you have lived for very long at all, you have been disappointed by God. I am not implying in any way that God was somehow at fault. He is perfect in all His dealings with us. But because of our limited understanding and perspective, we felt as if God let us down. It may have been through the untimely death of a parent, a child, a mate, or another loved one. Maybe it was through a painful divorce that took place in spite of your fervent prayers against it. Perhaps you lost your job and were gradually worn down as every door slammed shut in your face. Maybe it’s a personal matter that you have prayed about for years, but God has not answered. Whether major or minor, we all have had times when we were disappointed by God.
That is exactly where two weary travelers were at as they trudged along the dirt road from Jerusalem to Emmaus on that first Resurrection Sunday. Jesus tragically had been crucified and His disciples were confused and shocked. It seemed like a colossal triumph for the Jewish religious leaders and a sad defeat for this great man in whom they had put their hopes. As these two travelers walked along talking about these things, a stranger caught up with them. He was really not a stranger--He was the risen Lord Jesus--but the text states that “their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him” (24:16). The passive voice of the verb suggests that God had closed their eyes from recognizing Jesus. There were some lessons about trusting in the written Word of God which these men needed to learn before their eyes were opened to recognize the living Word who was present with them.
Jesus asks the two men (or, it could have been a man, Cleopas, and his wife) some questions to draw them out. Remember, whenever the Lord asks questions of someone, it’s not because He is lacking knowledge! He wants the men to reveal their need so that they are ready for what He wants to teach them. They reveal their deep disappointment both by their sad demeanor (24:17) and their plaintive words, “But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel” (24:21). Even the fact of the empty tomb, which should have given them great hope, just added to their disappointment. “We were hoping ....” These men had been disappointed by God!
The Lord does two things with these men before He opens their eyes to see who He is: He rebukes their lack of faith in the Scriptures, which spoke of Him; and, behind their faith was a lack of knowledge, which He supplies by explaining to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. You cannot properly believe in that of which you’re ignorant. But, knowledge alone is inadequate; it must be coupled with faith in Jesus Christ. These two elements, then, are the key to replacing disappointment in God with hope:
If you have been disappointed by God, you will find hope by knowing and believing in the risen Savior.
These two men from Emmaus knew more about Jesus than most of us do, because they had personally heard Him teach, had seen many of His miracles, and probably had witnessed the crucifixion. But even so, their knowledge of Jesus was lacking in some crucial areas, which the Lord graciously began to supply.
The men knew that Jesus was “a prophet mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people” (24:19). That assessment of Jesus was correct in so far as it went; it just did not go far enough. Jesus was not just a prophet; He was the Prophet, the one predicted by Moses (Deut. 18:15) who was the fulfillment of all that Moses and the other prophets wrote about. Just as the prophets in the Old Testament spoke for God, so did Jesus, only more so. They were mere men who could only speak the word of the Lord as He chose to reveal it to them. But Jesus was God in human flesh, one with the eternal Father. The apostle John referred to Jesus as the eternal Word. Just as our words reveal our unseen thoughts, so Jesus, by His words, His works, and His Person, revealed the unseen God (John 1:18).
Of Himself Jesus proclaimed, “My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me. If any man is willing to do His will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak from Myself. He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the one who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him” (John 7:16-18). Not even the greatest of the Old Testament prophets could make such bold claims! Yes, Jesus was “a prophet mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people,” but He was more than a prophet; He was the very Word of God, one with the Father, who said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).
The men from Emmaus also had partial knowledge when they stated, “We were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel” (24:21). Luke is using irony, since through the cross Jesus had in fact redeemed, not only Israel, but people from every nation. But these men were thinking of the Jewish hope that God would send His Messiah who would deliver Israel from all her enemies and usher in an age of prosperity and blessing.
Jesus had said of Himself that He came “to give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). The Greek noun translated “ransom” is related to the verb, “redeem,” and means the release of something or someone held captive by the payment of a price, or by a substitutionary offering (see Leon Morris, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross [Eerdmans], chap. 1). Paul uses the verb with reference to Christ when he says that He “gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds” (Titus 2:14). Peter uses the same word when he says, “Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ” (1 Pet. 1:18-19).
This concept of Jesus Christ offering Himself as the redemption price for our sins has several implications. First, it shows us that God demands that the just penalty for sins be paid. In His absolute righteousness, God cannot just dismiss the charges against us. The wages of sin is death, eternal separation from God. The penalty must be paid or God is not just.
Second, it shows us that we are in great need. Without a Redeemer, we are in bondage to sin, unable to free ourselves. If left unto ourselves, we would face God’s just judgment and eternal condemnation for our many offenses against His holiness. You may be oblivious to your need, but that does not diminish the fact or the urgency of your condition before God. The very words the Bible uses--Savior, lost, redeemed--are extreme words.
The imagery that would have come to the mind of a person living in biblical times when the word “redeem” was mentioned would have been that of slavery. The slave was in a horrible situation. He was a piece of property to be used for the purposes of his master. He could not do what he wanted with his life. He was totally at his master’s mercy, even if the master decided to work him to death or to kill him in anger. As such, the slave was desperately needy and helpless. His only hope was that a wealthy benefactor would pay the price of redemption and then grant him his freedom. Even so, if you are outside of Jesus Christ, you are enslaved to sin, hopelessly lost, and unable to do anything about your desperate situation.
Third, the idea of Jesus as the Redeemer shows that He offered His own blood as the necessary sacrifice for the sins of all who will trust in Him. When Jesus, beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, explained to these men the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures, He no doubt began with God in the garden shedding the blood of the animals so that Adam and Eve could be properly clothed in His holy presence. He told them that Jesus was the seed of the woman who would crush the serpent’s head (Gen. 3:15). He explained how the ram caught in the thicket which God provided so that Abraham could spare Isaac pictured His sacrifice for sinners. He took them through the sacrificial system of Israel, and showed them how it all pointed forward to Him. No doubt, among many other Scriptures, He took them to Isaiah 53:6-12:
All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away; and as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due? His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet He was with a rich man in His death, because He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth. But the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the booty with the strong; because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors.
No doubt Jesus explained how the Christ had first to suffer death as the guilt offering for His people, and then enter into His glory through the resurrection. It must have been the most marvelous conversation in all history, to hear Jesus explain the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures!
Jesus would have explained how He was not only the crucified Redeemer, but, also, He was the risen Redeemer! The Scriptures had predicted both His death and resurrection. But also He had predicted His own rising from the dead after three days before it all came to pass. These two men seemed to remember something of the significance of “the third day” (24:21), but they didn’t get it quite yet. The empty tomb should have tipped them off, especially when accompanied by the testimony of angels who reminded the women, “Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again” (24:6-7). But these men were not expecting the crucifixion, much less a resurrection, and they were hesitant to believe the testimony of a bunch of impressionable women!
The point is, these men who were disappointed by God needed a fuller knowledge of who Jesus Christ is as revealed in the Scriptures. Did you notice the repetition of the word “all” in our text? These men were “slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken” (24:25). Jesus, “beginning with Moses and all the prophets ... explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures” (24:27). They had believed in the part of the Scriptures that foretold Messiah’s glory, but they had overlooked the parts that tell of His suffering.
We’re so much like them. We love the parts of the Bible that promise blessings, but we somehow don’t notice all the parts that talk about suffering. A few years ago, I was going through a time when I was being slandered and unfairly criticized. As I was reading through the Psalms during that time, I noticed for the first time the many references that David made to his being slandered. Those references had been there all the dozens of times I had read the Psalms before, but I didn’t notice them until I was in that situation. And, I realized, many of those references about David were really speaking about the Son of David, Jesus Christ, who was maligned more than any man. So in my time of trial, I came to know more of Christ through reading the Word.
So if you find yourself disappointed by God, get into your Bible and ask God to reveal more about the Lord Jesus to you as you read. “Since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted” (Heb. 2:18). If you have been disappointed by God, you will find hope in knowing the risen Savior more deeply.
Faith is built on proper knowledge. Biblical faith is not a blind leap in the dark. You would be foolish to believe in something you know nothing about. If you do not know what the Scriptures say about the Lord Jesus Christ, read your Bible and ask God to open your eyes to the truth. As Jesus said (John 7:17), if you are willing to do His will, you will know of the teaching whether it is of God or whether Jesus was just speaking on His own authority. But then, once you know, you must commit yourself in faith to the person and work of Jesus Christ.
We often excuse unbelief as a common weakness, but the Lord views it as a terrible sin for which we are responsible. Jesus here rebukes these men quite strongly: “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe ...!” He often confronted the disciples with the words, “O you of little faith” (Matt. 6:30; 8:26; 14:31; 16:8). When we doubt God and His word of promise to us, we are calling into question His love, His faithfulness, and His power.
The apostle John argues, “If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for the witness of God is this, that He has borne witness concerning His Son” (1 John 5:9). He is pointing out the common fact, that we believe in sinful, fallen men every day of our lives. When you ate your breakfast this morning, you did not run a chemical analysis to make sure that it had not been poisoned at the food processing plant. When you drive your car, you trust that the mechanic has not sabotaged your brakes. When you deposit a check in the bank, you trust that the teller is not going to put your money in her account, or that the bank isn’t depositing it in a secret Swiss bank account. We trust men every day; shouldn’t we trust God?
The sin of unbelief is also seen in that we are much more prone to trust in ourselves than to trust in the living God. If you ask people, “Why should God let you into heaven?” the vast majority will reply that He should let them into heaven because they are basically good, sincere people and that they believe in Him. The bottom line is, they are trusting in their own goodness, sincerity, and even in their own belief, but they are not trusting in Jesus Christ alone for right standing before God. But the Bible makes it clear that even the best of us have nothing in ourselves to qualify us for heaven. We must renounce all faith in ourselves and trust in Jesus Christ alone to be saved from hell. And yet we sinfully persist in faith in ourselves rather than faith in Christ.
The British preacher, Spurgeon, pointed out that the sin of unbelief is seen in that we are more prone to believe Satan than we are to believe in God. Satan comes and whispers in your ear that the Bible is not true, or that God is not loving and merciful, that He doesn’t care about you and your problems, and you are quick to believe those lies rather than to trust in God’s provision in Jesus Christ (Spurgeon’s Expository Encyclopedia [Baker], 15:69).
The testimony of these dejected men from Emmaus is only one of many witnesses to the truth of the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. God has given us solid evidence on which to rest our faith. It is not only foolish, but it’s a sin for which we are liable, if we reject the witness of God and instead believe in ourselves or in the lies of skeptics. If you have been disappointed by God, you will find hope by putting your trust in the risen Savior.
I want to conclude with four observations and applications:
(1) The Lord is near to you in your disappointment even though you do not know it--Be encouraged! These men on that dusty road thought that Jesus was dead and gone, when in fact, He was the one walking with them as they talked, though they did not recognize Him at first. When you’re disappointed or discouraged, you may think that the Lord is a million miles away, but if you are one of His flock, even though you are being faithless and do not see Him, He is there with you. He has promised never to leave us or forsake us.
(2) The Lord is ready to listen to your troubles--Tell Him! Jesus drew near to these men and asked questions in order to get them to talk about their disappointment. Even though God knows all our needs, He invites us to pour out our hearts before Him: “Casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you” (1 Pet. 5:7).
(3) The Lord may have to rebuke before He heals--Be receptive! These men could easily have taken offense at Jesus’ strong rebuke and said, “Who does this man think he is, to call us foolish and slow of heart to believe?” But instead they were receptive, and as a result they were greatly blessed. Spurgeon says that when the Lord rebukes us, we should see it as His love, scarcely disguised, and reply, “Master, say on.” He says that if Jesus calls us foolish, we should wonder that He doesn’t say something worse about us (ibid., p. 60)!
(4) The Lord is waiting to be entreated by you--Ask Him to come in! As these men and Jesus approached their village, we read that Jesus acted as though He would keep going farther (24:28), but these men urged Him to stay with them, and He did. It was only then that their eyes were opened to see that it was the risen Lord at their table. Even though you may not see clearly, and the Lord must open your eyes to the truth--you cannot do it yourself--perhaps your heart, like the hearts of these men, has been burning in you even as I’ve been speaking. It is the Lord, though you did not recognize Him at first. He wants you to entreat Him to come into your life, to stay with you. When you entreat Jesus to come into your heart as Lord and Savior, He will open your eyes to see who He really is.
If you have been disappointed by God, it is not because God has failed. The solution is to know and believe in the risen Savior. Pour out your troubles to Him. Get into your Bible and learn more of Him. Entreat Him to abide with you. “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 15:13).
Copyright 1997, Steven J. Cole, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
April 12, 1998
Special Easter Message
If you’ve never failed God, this message is not for you. But if you’ve ever promised God something, but not done it; if you’ve ever resolved to overcome some besetting sin, only to blow it repeatedly; if you’re plagued with guilt over sins that have defeated you; then, today I offer you genuine hope from God.
Mark’s record of the resurrection inserts two short words that offer hope to all who have failed God: “and Peter” (Mark 16:7). The angel at the empty tomb tells the women, “But go, tell His disciples and Peter, …” Why did the angel add, “and Peter”? I am sure that the risen Lord told him specifically to include those words. Peter, who had miserably denied the Lord! Peter, who had boasted of his allegiance to Christ, but who had failed worse than any of the other disciples had failed!
“And Peter”—How those words rang in Peter’s ears! You can be sure that the angel said those words. Peter couldn’t have forgotten the scene. The women had reported to the disciples the news of the resurrection. There was Peter, slumped in the corner, in the gloom of depression. But at the words, “and Peter,” he perked up. “What did you say? Are you sure that the angel said, ‘and Peter’? Tell me again! Were those his exact words?”
Scholars affirm that Mark’s Gospel was written largely under Peter’s influence. Picture Mark, quill in hand, writing, “Go, tell His disciples.” There’s Peter looking over his shoulder, saying, “‘And Peter!’ Mark, my son, don’t forget to write, ‘and Peter!’” Remember, this is the same Mark who had failed Paul on the first missionary journey. Yes, you can be sure that the words are accurate. Those two short words say to us this Easter morning:
The risen Savior offers hope to all who have failed God.
From Peter’s life, I offer three insights on how the risen Savior can turn our failures into hope.
Since Adam’s first sin, the automatic human reflex to failure has been to try to hide from God. It’s irrational; it’s impossible; but we still try to do it. But, please observe:
You will recall that Jesus had predicted Peter’s denial prior to the event (Mark 14:29-31). Peter had insistently denied that he would do such a thing. But that which surprised Peter was no surprise to the Lord. He knew Peter better than Peter knew Peter.
Luke’s Gospel records the awful scene when Jesus was enduring the mock trial and Peter, in the courtyard outside, was denying Him. While Peter was still speaking, a cock crowed. Then Luke adds the chilling words, “And the Lord turned and looked at Peter” (Luke 22:61). What a look that must have been! It communicated more than words ever could do! Both love and reproof were bound up in that look. Peter went out and wept bitterly.
This is indicated in our text in the words, “and Peter.” The Lord didn’t pretend that Peter’s failure had never happened. He didn’t shrug it off or ignore it. He acknowledged Peter’s failure after the fact by those words, “and Peter.”
We cannot hide our failures from the risen Savior’s gaze. He knows more about us than we know about ourselves. He knows every rotten thought we have before we think it. He knows every terrible thing we say before we say it. He knows how we will fail Him next week and next year. He knows our failures as we are committing them. He doesn’t overlook them and He doesn’t want us to overlook them. He wants us to confess our sins, not cover them.
Has the Lord ever reminded you right in the middle of some sin that He is watching? I once read a story about the revivals in Ethiopia during the 1930’s and 1940’s. Food was scarce because of the war and the plundering by soldiers. One Ethiopian Christian had to leave his family to find work. He was coming home after a year with his entire wages of $25 when some robbers took his money. Angry, he shelved his Christian testimony and went to the house of a powerful witch doctor named Alemu, to get him to put a curse on the robbers.
For years Alemu had confined himself to the darkness of his house, not bathing or cutting his hair. As soon as the Christian man entered his house, Alemu sensed that a spiritual power was present. Before the man could speak, Alemu demanded the name of his god. Embarrassed, the Christian started to explain that he had come to ask for a curse to be put on the men who had robbed him. But Alemu was not interested. He only wanted to know about the spiritual power that had entered his house.
So, very embarrassed, the Christian man recovered his senses and told Alemu about Jesus Christ. When he told him that Jesus had been raised from the dead, Alemu became greatly excited. It was the simple answer he had sought so long—there was someone greater than Satan. He became a believer and went on to start a church and to become its leader. (Told by Raymond J. Davis, The Winds of God [SIM], pp. 19-20.)
Even if we think that we get away with our sin at the moment, the Lord will not let us forget it later. He has ways of bringing it to our attention until we deal with it. So the words “and Peter” tell us that failure cannot be hidden from the risen Savior’s gaze. We’re fooling ourselves if we think that we can hide it. We need to confess it to the Lord immediately. That is always the first step to recovery when we’ve failed.
You may be thinking, “Well, the news that I cannot hide my failure from the risen Savior’s gaze doesn’t fill me with much hope.” But hang on! The words “and Peter” also show us:
I can say that because . . .
I don’t mean to dump on poor Peter. It could just as easily have been you or me. We all would blow it just as badly if we were in the same situation. So I’m not criticizing Peter as if he was worse than we are.
But it would be hard to conceive of a way of blowing it worse than Peter did. He had spent three years almost constantly in the presence of Jesus. He had heard Jesus teach. He had seen Him perform miracles. He was in the inner circle of the twelve. He had been in the room when Jairus’ daughter was raised from the dead. He had seen Jesus in His glory on the Mount of Transfiguration. And if Jesus ever needed the support of human friends, it was during the dark night of Gethsemane and the events that followed.
To make matters worse, Peter knew that the last words Jesus had heard him speak were words of denial during Christ’s moment of need. It is an awful thing to live with the memory that your last words to a loved one were not what you wanted them to be. Peter spent a dark Saturday with the memory that the final words Jesus heard him speak were words of awful denial.
By including Peter’s example in Scripture, the Lord shows that there is hope for us even at our worst moments of failure! Some of you may know Christ as Savior, but you have done something awful. You are ashamed to tell anyone. You feel as if you can never face the Lord or His people again. But your failure is not worse than Peter’s. Those two words, “and Peter,” show us that there is no failure that can separate us from the risen Savior’s love. Even though Peter’s failure was as bad as any ...
God’s love is always greater than our failures. Note three things about our Lord’s love for Peter that apply to us:
We can all quote John 3:16, “For God so loved the world ….” But God wants you to know and feel that He loves you individually, in spite of your sin. “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). God is not like Linus, who shouts, “I love mankind; it’s people I can’t stand!” God loves people—individuals, sinners. He said, “and Peter.” On another occasion, He said, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” And He speaks to each one here today with the same individual love. If you have failed Him, then He is calling your name, calling you to Himself.
The Lord did not embarrass Peter by dealing with his sin in front of the other disciples. True, Peter’s sin was somewhat public, and so eventually the Lord restored Peter in front of the other apostles (John 21:15-17). But first the Lord met privately with Peter to deal with his sin in a private and personal manner.
We learn this from two verses. In Luke 24:34, the disciples tell the two men from Emmaus, “The Lord has really risen, and has appeared to Simon.” The other verse is in Paul’s defense of the resurrection where he states that after the Lord was raised from the dead “He appeared to Cephas [Peter], then to the twelve” (1 Cor. 15:5). We know nothing more about this meeting. It must have taken place sometime early on that first Easter Sunday. The actual words exchanged were too intimate to be included in the Bible. But in that private meeting, the Lord and Peter were reconciled.
That’s how each of us must deal with God. No one else can deal with God on your behalf. You must meet privately and personally with the Lord. You must confess your sin directly to Him and personally experience His forgiveness. He does not wish to embarrass you by parading your sin in front of others. If there is a need for public restoration because the sin was public, that may follow. But the primary thing is for you to meet alone with the Lord, because all sin is primarily against Him. His love is such that He deals personally and privately with each sinner.
The Lord did not say, “Peter, you blew it badly! We’re going to work out a system of penance where you can work off your sin over time. If you really try hard and get it together, maybe I’ll take you back.” God’s grace doesn’t operate that way. Penance is not a biblical concept. Grace is!
God’s grace is unmerited favor. That means that you cannot do anything to deserve it. You cannot earn it by good deeds. You cannot get more of it by extra effort. You cannot qualify for it by making promises for the future. If you do anything to merit it, then it’s something God owes you, not unmerited favor.
The only proper response to grace is to receive it. This very moment, if you will honestly turn to God in your heart and say, “Lord, I have sinned against You. I don’t deserve Your mercy. I realize that Jesus Christ died to pay the penalty I deserve. I ask for Your forgiveness”; He will forgive all your sin. His cleansing will sweep over you like an ocean wave.
Our human nature grates against the idea of God’s grace. We like to think that we got on God’s good side because He saw something just a little bit better in us. If God accepts us according to merit, then we can feel that we’re just a notch above others who aren’t “in the club.” But grace humbles us because the only way we can receive it is when we realize that we don’t deserve it.
But, because God’s love operates upon the basis of grace, it means that there is hope for every sinner, no matter how great his or her sin. No failure, no matter how bad, can separate us from the risen Savior’s love if we will simply turn to Him and receive it.
Thus we have seen that failure cannot be hidden from the risen Savior’s gaze; and, failure cannot separate us from the risen Savior’s love. Finally, …
A system based on human merit would have removed Peter from being an apostle, or at least would have demoted him to the lowest rung of the apostolic ladder. But God takes those who have failed the worst and makes them trophies of grace for all to see. It was Peter who preached on the Day of Pentecost when 3,000 were saved and the church was founded. Two observations on how God uses our failures in His service:
A story is told about a promising junior executive at IBM who was involved in a risky venture and lost over $10 million for the company. When IBM’s founder, Tom Watson, Sr., called the nervous executive into his office, the young man blurted out, “I guess you want my resignation?” Watson replied, “You can’t be serious. We’ve just spent $10 million educating you!” (In Christianity Today [8/9/85], p. 67.)
The Scriptures are abundantly clear that Peter’s education through failure was not wasted. One reason he failed was his pride: “Even though all may fall away, yet I will not” (Mark 14:29). But years later he wrote, “Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another” (1 Pet. 5:5).
In the garden Peter failed to watch and pray with Jesus. But later he wrote, “Be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer” (1 Pet. 4:7).
Peter hastily tried to defend the unjust arrest of Jesus by swinging his sword at Malchus. But later he wrote, “But if when you do what is right and suffer for it, you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God” (1 Pet. 2:20).
Peter was surprised into denying the Lord in front of a servant girl. But later he wrote, “Always [be] ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you” (1 Pet. 3:15). Peter had learned through his failure.
When I say that there is hope for those who have failed, I am not implying that we wallow in our failures. Failure doesn’t mean that we throw out the need for holiness. But God often uses our failures to teach us so that we grow in obedience to Him. If we, like Peter, will learn from our failures, then the Lord will use us in serving Him.
When the Lord predicted Peter’s failure, He told him, “And you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:32). Later the Lord told Peter, “Shepherd My sheep” (John 21:16). The Lord uses restored sinners to restore and strengthen other sinners.
Have you ever thought of how Peter must have felt about preaching in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost? There were undoubtedly those in the audience who had heard Peter deny the Lord on the night of the betrayal. Peter could have said, “I can’t ever preach before these people. They know my past.” But restored sinners must go to those who are not right with God and tell of the abundant grace of the Lord Jesus. The fact that God has restored you can bring great hope to those who may have known of your past sins.
The risen Savior offers eternal life and forgiveness of sins to you, no matter how badly you have failed God. But you must personally receive His offer of love by faith.
On New Year’s Day, 1929, Georgia Tech played the University of California in the Rose Bowl. In that now infamous game, Roy Riegels recovered a fumble for California. Somehow he became confused and ran 65 yards in the wrong direction. One of his teammates went after him and tackled him just before he scored for the opposing team. When California attempted to punt, Georgia Tech blocked the kick and scored a safety which was the ultimate margin of victory.
That strange play came in the first half, and everyone who was watching the game was asking the same question: What will Coach Price do with Roy Riegels in the second half?
The men filed off the field and went into the locker room. They sat down on the benches and on the floor. But Riegels put his blanket around his shoulders, sat down in a corner, put his face in his hands, and cried like a baby.
Usually a coach has a lot to say to his team during half time. But that day, Coach Price was quiet. No doubt he was trying to decide what to do with Riegels. Then the timekeeper came in and announced that there were three minutes before playing time. Coach Price looked at the team and said simply, “Men, the same team that played the first half will start the second.”
Everyone got up and started out, except Riegels. He didn’t budge. The coach looked back and called to him again. Still he didn’t move. Coach Price went over to where Riegels sat and said, “Roy, didn’t you hear me? The same team that played the first half will start the second.”
Riegels, his face wet with tears, looked up and said, “Coach, I can’t do it to save my life. I’ve ruined you, I’ve ruined the University of California, I’ve ruined myself. I couldn’t face that crowd in the stadium to save my life.”
Then Coach Price reached out and put his hand on Riegels’ shoulder and said to him, “Roy, get up and go on back; the game is only half over.” And Riegels went back, and those Tech men would later say that they had never seen a man play football as Roy Riegels played that second half.
Perhaps you have never failed in as colossal a way as Roy Riegels did. Normally our failures are not performed in a stadium before thousands of watching eyes. But each one of us at some time has badly failed God. The apostle Paul certainly had. He wrote, “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all” (1 Tim. 1:15).
Peter might argue with Paul about who was the biggest sinner. But neither would argue about how wonderful God’s amazing grace is toward all who have failed. The angel’s words, “Go, tell His disciples and Peter,” say to us, “The game is only half over.” The question is, will you accept the risen Savior’s pardon and go out and play the second half?
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 1998, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
April 4, 1999
Easter Sunday
Every thinking person sometimes wrestles with doubt. That’s true not only for thinking Christians, but also for atheists and agnostics. They sometimes wonder, “What if I’m wrong and Christianity is true?” And every thinking Christian sometimes wonders, “What if I’m wrong and Christianity is not true?” For some, the bouts with doubt are short and relatively minor. For others, the doubts are deep and disturbing. But wherever you’re at on the spectrum, if you’ve been a Christian for very long, you have gone through times when believing isn’t easy.
The sources of my struggles with doubt vary. Sometimes it stems from wrestling with certain troublesome theological issues. At other times the problem of unanswered prayer has tripped me up. And I’ve had to face doubts related to the age-old problem of suffering, especially when it hits home with people I know and love: Why would a good and all-powerful God allow His servants, who are already too few, to be struck down in the prime of life, while the wicked prosper?
While there are satisfactory biblical answers to all of these sources of doubt, there is one answer that undergirds them all. I usually come back to it when I’m struggling with doubt. The apostle Paul said that the entire Christian faith rests on one foundation, the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Cor. 15:13-19). If that fact of history is true, then our faith has a solid footing in spite of matters of doubt which we cannot, perhaps ever in this life, fully resolve. On the other hand, if Jesus Christ is not risen from the dead, then the strongest faith in the world is useless, because it rests on a faulty object.
The evidence for the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ gives us a solid footing in times of doubt.
If you want to examine a subject, it’s best to go to an expert. The most famous expert on doubt is a fellow whose name is always linked with it: Doubting Thomas. His story is told in John 20:24-29. Thomas was what I would call a sincere doubter. Not all doubters are sincere. Some use their doubts as a smoke screen to hide behind their pride, rebellion, or other sin, which is the real issue. If one area of doubt is cleared up, they will quickly duck behind another, because they don’t want to submit to the Lord. These people do not need more evidence to believe; they need to turn from their sin.
But some doubts are sincere. The sincere doubter is truly a believer in Christ and he doesn’t want to doubt, but he is plagued by honest questions. He is submissive to God and wants to do His will, but he can’t just close his eyes and take a leap of faith. He needs evidence to clear up the doubts. Thomas was that kind of sincere doubter. I maintain that …
There are many causes of doubt. I am going to limit myself to exploring some of the causes of Thomas’ doubts. I can relate personally to some, but not all, of them. Perhaps you will relate to them also.
Some Reasons For Thomas’ Doubts:
All of the disciples had failed Jesus on the night of His arrest and trial. Most notorious was Peter, who denied the Lord three times. All of the eleven had promised Jesus their loyalty, but they all deserted Him when He was arrested.
Thomas, along with Peter, had been outspoken in his loyalty to Jesus before the crucifixion. In John 11:16, when Jesus wanted to go to Bethany, near Jerusalem, to raise Lazarus from the dead, the disciples objected that it was too dangerous. But Thomas said, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.” He may have been a pessimist, but at least he was loyal to the point of challenging the others to be committed to the point of death. But then he had joined the others in running away when Jesus was arrested. That failure led Thomas into depression and doubt.
It wasn’t just Thomas’ failure, but failure coupled with his personality, that led him into deep doubts. Peter had failed in a big way, too. But Peter was a buoyant, optimistic sort who felt badly about his mistakes, but who could shrug it off and bounce back more quickly. But Thomas was a conscientious, loyal, but gloomy type who did not commit himself to something lightly. To commit himself to Jesus and then go back on his word affected Thomas much more deeply than Peter’s failure affected him.
We’re all wired differently and so it’s important to know yourself so that you can be on guard against your areas of weakness. Usually, by the way, our areas of greatest strength are also our areas of greatest weakness. A man like Thomas, who is loyal and conscientious, who takes commitments seriously, is also more prone to depression and doubt when he fails.
Thomas lacked understanding with regard to the Lord’s departure (see John 14:5). On the night before the crucifixion, Jesus told the disciples that He was going to prepare a place for them and that He would come again to take them to be with Him. He told them that they knew the way where He was going. But Thomas wasn’t the type to keep quiet if he didn’t understand. So he blurted out, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?”
I’m glad he asked because Jesus’ reply was, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me” (14:6). But if you put yourself back into that situation, with all of the confused emotions of that night, and with the disciples’ still limited insight into Jesus’ death and resurrection, you can see how Thomas would still be confused about what Jesus had meant. He lacked understanding, which led to doubt.
Some of my times of doubt have been due to a lack of understanding on doctrinal matters. I’m not going to share specifics, because if it’s not a problem for you, I don’t want to lead you into doubt by bringing it up! But, frankly, there are many hard teachings in Scripture, some of which we won’t resolve until we are with the Lord. We have to trust God, even when we don’t understand.
In John 6:60, many of those who had followed Jesus turned away when He taught some hard things. Jesus even asked the twelve if they would turn away also. Peter gave the great answer, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. And we have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God” (John 6:68-69). I have come back to that answer many times when I have struggled with doubt due to a lack of understanding. Where else can I go?
A third factor that caused Thomas such deep doubts was the disappointment and shock he felt as he watched Jesus die. Even though Jesus repeatedly told the disciples in advance that He would be crucified, it didn’t sink in. When Thomas saw the badly mangled body of Jesus on the cross, it sent him into shock. His emphasis on the wounds of Jesus (John 20:25) shows how deeply it affected him. The bloody holes in Jesus’ hands and feet, the gory spear wound in His side, and Jesus’ disfigurement from the scourging and the crown of thorns, haunted Thomas in the week after the crucifixion and fed his doubts.
In the same way, whenever we face deep disappointment and shock because of some tragedy or something that doesn’t go as we had expected, we’re vulnerable to doubts. A few years ago, a pastor friend who was my age was struck down with cancer. As I stood by his bedside the night he died, along with his grieving wife and two sons, I couldn’t help wondering, “Why, Lord? This is one of Your servants. He still has many good years left. His family is young. Why should he die so young, when so many wicked people live long, healthy lives?” Perhaps you’ve lost a loved one or faced a personal tragedy. It’s a short step from there to being right where Thomas was, to doubting the Lord: “If God really exists and is a God of love, then why is this happening?”
A fourth reason for Thomas’ doubts was his isolation from other believers. We don’t know for certain why Thomas was absent from the other disciples that first Sunday when Jesus appeared to them. But a likely reason was his morose disposition. The last thing he wanted at a time like that was to be around other people. So he wandered off by himself to brood over the horrible events of the previous few days.
Then to add to his misery, when he finally did see the others, they told him that they had seen the risen Lord! How would you feel if you missed church because you were depressed and doubting and we all told you, “Hey, you really missed a blessing! Jesus appeared to us last Sunday!” Great! That really encourages you, doesn’t it! But even though we often are bugged by other believers, the fact is, we need them. Whenever we separate ourselves from the fellowship, we make ourselves vulnerable to doubt.
I’ve not covered all the causes we have for doubting God or the Bible. Perhaps you have other things that have shaken your faith. But whatever the source of your doubts, the solution is the same: to come back to the basic fact of the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. If that is true, then even though you may not understand everything, you still, with Thomas, must bow and acknowledge Jesus to be your Lord and God.
I can’t give all the evidence for the resurrection in one message. Many books have been written on the subject. But there are five reasons in John 20 alone which prove Christ’s resurrection to be true history, not a myth or wishful thinking:
One incontrovertible fact, with which both the disciples and the Jews agreed, is that the tomb was empty. If not, when the disciples began proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus a few weeks later (which was the central point of their preaching), the Jewish leaders could have simply marched to the tomb, produced the dead body of Jesus, and the disciples would have been laughed out of town. But clearly they couldn’t do it because the tomb was empty.
There are several ways to account for the empty tomb. Jesus’ enemies could have stolen the body. But they had no motive for taking His body. It was to their advantage to leave it right where it was, which is why they had Pilate put the Roman guard and seal on the tomb. If they knew where the body was, they could have produced it and silenced the disciples’ preaching.
Another possibility is that the Roman guards stole the body. But again, they had no motive to do so. They weren’t concerned about this Jewish religious trial. The Jewish leaders, who were scrambling for ways to explain away the resurrection, didn’t accuse the soldiers of taking the body or of allowing it to be stolen.
A third possibility is that the disciples stole the body. This was the theory the Jewish leaders tried to promote by bribing the Roman soldiers (Matt. 28:11-15). But there are many reasons the disciples could not have moved Jesus’ body. The tomb was as secure as the Roman guard could make it. The soldiers wouldn’t have fallen asleep on the watch, because the penalty was death. The stone at the tomb was large and heavy. Even if the soldiers had been sleeping, the noise of a group of men moving the stone would have awakened them. Besides, the disciples were too depressed and confused to try anything like grave robbery in front of a Roman guard. Even if, through bribery, they had managed to remove Jesus’ body, they would not later have risked their lives to preach the resurrection.
Nor would they have suffered beatings and threats if it had been confirmed that someone else had taken Jesus’ body, which was the first thought of the women who visited the tomb early that morning (John 20:2, 15). All we know of the character of the witnesses as well as the fact that they did not yet understand the Scripture that Jesus must rise again from the dead (John 20:9) militates against them knowingly promoting a hoax. The empty tomb is a solid piece of evidence that God raised Jesus bodily from the dead.
Mary Magdalene didn’t look very carefully when she first came to the tomb. She saw the stone removed and assumed that Jesus was gone. So she ran to tell Peter and John, who ran to the tomb. John got there first and stood at the entrance looking in. Peter, in his usual blustery manner, went right in and saw (20:6, Greek = “to gaze upon”) the grave clothes. Then John entered, saw (Greek = “to see with understanding”) and believed.
The presence of the grave clothes proves that the body was not stolen. In their haste, grave robbers would have taken the body, grave clothes and all. If for some reason they had wanted to strip the body, they would have left the clothes strewn all over the tomb. But Peter and John saw them left in an orderly fashion, as if Jesus had passed right through them. Remember, these weren’t men who wished so much for a resurrection that they perhaps saw what they wanted to see. These were men who did not understand or believe at first. The evidence convinced them, even as their testimony of the evidence should convince us.
John lists four post-resurrection appearances of Jesus: To Mary Magdalene (20:11-18); to the disciples except Thomas (20:19-23); to the disciples, including Thomas (20:24-31); and, to seven of the disciples, by the Sea of Galilee (21:1-25). Paul mentions several other situations, including one appearance to over 500 at one time (1 Cor. 15:6-8). J. N. D. Anderson, formerly Professor of Oriental Laws and Director of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies at the University of London, wrote (Christianity Today [3/29/68], pp. 5, 6.),
The most drastic way of dismissing the evidence would be to say that these stories were mere fabrications, that they were pure lies. But, so far as I know, not a single critic today would take such an attitude. In fact, it would really be an impossible position. Think of the number of witnesses, over 500. Think of the character of the witnesses, men and women who gave the world the highest ethical teaching it has ever known, and who even on the testimony of their enemies lived it out in their lives. Think of the psychological absurdity of picturing a little band of defeated cowards cowering in an upper room one day and a few days later transformed into a company that no persecution could silence—and then attempting to attribute this dramatic change to nothing more convincing than a miserable fabrication they were trying to foist upon the world. That simply wouldn’t make sense.
The varied circumstances of the appearances and the different personalities of the witnesses militate against hallucinations or visions. Whether Thomas actually put his hand in Jesus’ wounds is not stated, but Jesus made the offer and Thomas was convinced (John 20:27). The post-resurrection appearances of Jesus are a strong evidence of His bodily resurrection.
As already mentioned, John calls attention to the fact that none of the witnesses was expecting a resurrection. Mary Magdalene thought that someone had taken Jesus’ body (20:2, 15). The disciples were fearful and confused. Thomas was depressed and doubting. But all were transformed into the bold witnesses of the Book of Acts because they became convinced that Jesus rose bodily from the dead. They were so convinced that the resurrection was true that many of them went on to martyrs’ deaths.
Study the Gospel accounts of who Jesus was, of what He taught, of the miracles He performed, of the prophecies He fulfilled. On more than one occasion He predicted His own death and resurrection (John 2:19-22; Luke 9:22). His encounter with doubting Thomas shows that His purpose was to bring Thomas into a place of full faith in His deity (20:27). When Thomas answered, “My Lord and my God,” Jesus did not rebuke or correct him for overstating things. Rather, Jesus commended Thomas’ correct perception and faith (20:28-29).
A merely good teacher, especially a devout Jewish rabbi, would never accept such worship from a follower. Everything in the Gospel accounts about Jesus’ person and teaching militates against His being a charlatan or lunatic. The only sensible option is that He is who He claimed to be, the Lord God in human flesh, the Christ of Israel, the eternal Son of God. He offered Himself for our sins and God raised Him bodily from the dead.
In Loving God ([Zondervan], pp. 61-70) Charles Colson has an interesting chapter titled, “Watergate and the Resurrection.” He makes the point that with the most powerful office in the world at stake, with all of the privileges of power, with the threat of imprisonment, ten men in the White House could not hold together a conspiracy for more than two weeks. He then applies his experience in the Watergate cover-up to modern criticism of the Gospel accounts of the resurrection—that the disciples were mistaken, that it was only a myth or that Jesus’ followers conceived a plot to cover up His death. He concludes:
Is it really likely, then, that a deliberate cover-up, a plot to perpetuate a lie about the Resurrection, could have survived the violent persecution of the apostles, the scrutiny of early church councils, the horrendous purge of the first-century believers who were cast by the thousands to the lions for refusing to renounce the Lordship of Christ? Is it not probable that at least one of the apostles would have renounced Christ before being beheaded or stoned? Is it not likely that some “smoking gun” document might have been produced exposing the “Passover plot”? Surely one of the conspirators would have made a deal with the authorities (government and Sanhedrin probably would have welcomed such a soul with open arms and pocketbooks!)....
Take it from one who was inside the Watergate web looking out, who saw firsthand how vulnerable a cover-up is: Nothing less than a witness as awesome as the resurrected Christ could have caused those men to maintain to their dying whispers that Jesus is alive and Lord (p. 69).
Does the evidence about Jesus’ resurrection clear up all our doubts about God and the Bible? No, nothing this side of heaven will do that. But it does provide a solid basis for intelligent faith in those times when we struggle with doubt. To whom else will you go? Jesus alone is the risen Savior. His desire for each of us who have not seen Him is that, like Thomas, we would be believing, not unbelieving. He wants each of us to recognize that He, our Lord and God, died in our place, taking the penalty we deserved for our sin. He wants us to join Thomas in believing worship, proclaiming, “My Lord and my God!”
If you wait to trust in Christ until all of your doubts are cleared up, you will go to your death alienated from the Savior. There is more than adequate evidence to support a reasonable faith that Jesus Christ is the risen Savior. The question is, Will you lay aside your doubts, which serve only as excuses, and trust in Jesus as your Savior and Lord?
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 1999, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
April 15, 2001
Easter Sunday Message
The Macedonian world-conqueror, Alexander the Great, approached a strongly fortified walled city with a small company of his soldiers. Alexander insisted that the king of the city surrender the city and its contents to this small band of fighting men.
The king laughed, “Why should I surrender to you? You can’t do us any harm.”
Alexander offered to give the king a demonstration. He ordered his men to line up single file and start marching. He marched them straight toward a sheer cliff. The townspeople gathered on the wall and watched in shocked silence as, one by one, Alexander’s soldiers marched without hesitation right off the cliff to their deaths! After ten soldiers had died, Alexander ordered the rest of his men to return to his side.
The townspeople and the king immediately surrendered to Alexander the Great without a battle. They realized that if his men were actually willing to commit suicide at the command of this dynamic leader, then nothing could stop his eventual victory.
If I had lived in that day, I think I would have volunteered to be one of Alexander’s fighting men. Total commitment to a cause worth dying for is in my blood. I was committed whatever the cost to preserve my fatherland and its traditions against those whom I thought were undermining it. I pursued that commitment with the zeal and tactics of a revolutionary.
As I saw it, the followers of the new sect called “The Way” had to be eliminated. There was no room for compromise. I searched out their names and addresses and entered their homes with my guards. We bound with chains both men and women who refused to recant their views and dragged them off to prison. Seeing their children crying as their parents were hauled out the door only made me think, “It serves them right, the dirty traitors!” We commanded many of them to be whipped with the 39 lashes, which left their backs torn into ribbons of bleeding flesh. Others were put to death with my approval. Many tried to escape, but I tracked them down with a vengeance, even to foreign cities.
It was while I was engaged in such activities that I had an unforgettable experience that radically changed the direction of my life. In fact, because of that experience, I went down in history not as a Pharisaic Jew named Saul of Tarsus, but as a committed Christian known as the apostle Paul. The event that changed the course of my life was when I saw the risen Lord Jesus Christ, whose resurrection you celebrate on this day.
It was the irrefutable fact of the resurrection of Jesus the Messiah that convinced me that I must surrender my life to Him. In fact, I would be so bold as to say that if Jesus is not risen from the dead, then the Christian faith is a worthless waste of time and you would do better to be a hedonist, living for the pleasures of this world (1 Cor. 15:17, 19, 32). If Jesus is not risen, then He is only a dead Jewish teacher and not the Messiah at all. He would only be a mere man, not the Savior of men, if He were not risen. But He is risen! There is solid evidence to prove that He is risen. I am here today to communicate a simple but life-changing message to you:
Because there is solid evidence for the resurrection of Jesus, you should respond with trust and surrender to His claims.
I want to share with you four lines of evidence that lend solid support to the fact that Jesus is risen:
The Jewish Scriptures prophesied that the Messiah would be killed and then raised from the dead. I had studied those Scriptures for years under Gamaliel in Jerusalem, but I had missed what they were saying. I admit that I was caught up with the notion of a political Messiah, which was prevalent in my day. The thought of a suffering Messiah was repugnant to me. But the prophets clearly taught that Messiah would suffer and die for the sins of His people. For example, Isaiah wrote (53:4-12)
Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.
He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away; and as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due? His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet He was with a rich man in His death, because He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth.
But the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the booty with the strong; because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors.
The death of Messiah is so clear there, I don’t see how I previously missed it. And, obviously He would be raised from the dead, or He would never see the “result of the anguish of His soul” and “be satisfied,” as the prophet states.
In his sermon on the Day of Pentecost, the apostle Peter had cited Psalm 16, where David says, “Because You will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor allow Your Holy One to undergo decay” (Acts 2:27). Peter insisted that David was writing about His descendant, the Messiah, whom God would not allow to undergo decay. He claimed that Jesus was the Messiah, and that he and the other apostles were witnesses of the fact that God had raised Him from the dead.
Being a devout Jew, I was there in Jerusalem for that Feast. I heard Peter’s words, but I thought, “He’s wrong! It can’t be! That uneducated Galilean doesn’t know what he’s talking about!” It was so opposed to all that I was living for at that time!
But as I later came to see, the simple message of the gospel, that Christ died for our sins and was buried and raised the third day was all “according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3-4). And so to this day, I testify to all “nothing but what the Prophets and Moses said was going to take place; that the Christ was to suffer, and that by reason of His resurrection from the dead He would be the first to proclaim light both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles” (Acts 26:22-23). That Jesus fulfilled all these prophecies that were written about His death and resurrection hundreds of years before His birth is an impressive evidence of the truth of His resurrection.
There was no question on either side about the stubborn fact that the tomb was empty. If Jesus’ body had still been in the tomb, when Peter and the others began proclaiming that He was risen, we could have silenced them very easily by producing the body. But, the Jewish leaders did not have Jesus’ body.
Instead, they argued that the disciples had stolen Jesus’ body from the tomb while the Roman guards were asleep (Matt. 28:11-15). I bought that line of reasoning for a while. But if you think about it, it doesn’t make sense. There are several reasons why the disciples could not have moved Jesus’ body:
Thus the empty tomb, as I later came to think about it, is a powerful evidence of Jesus’ bodily resurrection.
If the Jews or the soldiers or the disciples had stolen Jesus’ body, then there is no way to explain the dramatic change in the lives of those who claimed that He arose from the dead. None of them were expecting a resurrection. They were confused and frightened. They all doubted the earliest reports that He was risen. And yet after this they all were transformed into the bold witnesses that you read about in the Book of Acts, many of whom gave their lives for their faith.
I personally saw many of them refuse to renounce their faith in the risen Jesus under threat of physical harm and imprisonment. But none made such an impression on me as Stephen did. A number of us debated him publicly over these matters, but we were not able to cope with his wisdom and power. It was as if God’s Spirit was speaking through him! We had some men bring false witness against him and then put him on trial, thinking that he would soften his message (Acts 6:9-14). But instead, he accused us of crucifying God’s Messiah!
That was too much! The council pounced on that blasphemer, dragged him out of the city, and stoned him to death. I held their coats and watched with approval as the rocks smashed him to death. But there were two things about that incident that I couldn’t get out of my mind. First, while we were still in the council chambers, just before the elders rushed upon Stephen to drag him outside, he looked up into heaven with his face looking like the face of an angel (I saw it!) and said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:56). Then, second, as he was being stoned, Stephen’s last words just before his death were, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” Then he said, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” That disturbed me! It was as if Stephen was talking directly to the risen Jesus!
From that day on, I was furious in my persecution of the Christians (Acts 8:3; 26:11). I felt that it was my duty to prove that this sect was wrong. I was breathing threats and murder against all the followers of Jesus (9:1). But deep down inside, Stephen’s witness haunted me. I thought, “What if it might be true? No, it couldn’t be! But, what if it is?” Then I received personally the fourth line of evidence, which was for me at the time the first and most convincing proof that Jesus is risen.
Some of the Christians whom I imprisoned claimed to have seen the risen Jesus. Stephen also made that claim, as I mentioned. The apostles did, too. But I didn’t believe them.
Then, as I was going to Damascus with orders from the high priest to extradite any runaway Christians and bring them back to Jerusalem for trial, a blinding light from heaven knocked me down. Just before I went blind, I saw the risen Lord Jesus and heard Him speak to me (9:3-9, 17, 27). I could no longer deny it. Jesus really was risen from the dead!
Later I had occasion to talk with Peter and James, the half-brother of Jesus, about their contact with Him after His resurrection. I also learned that He had appeared to over 500 of His followers at one time, and I have spoken with many of them (1 Cor. 15:5-7). The eyewitness accounts were too varied and too many to explain away. And there was certainly no way that I could explain away my encounter with the risen Lord Jesus. Add it up and you will conclude that the eyewitness testimony is strong evidence that Jesus is risen!
If we had time, I could mention more reasons to persuade you. But these four lines of evidence—the prophetic Scriptures, the empty tomb, the changed lives of the witnesses, and the eyewitness testimony—are overwhelmingly convincing that Jesus is risen. He was crucified, but the grave could not contain Him. He rose again on the third day, just as He said that He would. Because there is such solid evidence to support the resurrection, …
Jesus made amazing claims during His earthly ministry. He said, “He who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life” (John 5:24). He said, “For this is the will of My Father, that every one who beholds the Son, and believes in Him, may have eternal life; and I Myself will raise him up in the last day” (John 6:40). I could go on and on quoting such amazing claims. These claims demand a response.
What does it mean to believe in or trust Jesus Christ? It means that you count His promises as true. You depend on Him and what He did when He died on the cross as your only means for eternal life. You do not trust in your own efforts or good works to save you, as I once did when I was a proud Pharisee. You depend only on Jesus’ death as your substitute for your sin.
You trust Him as you would trust a surgeon when you allow him to operate on you. You trust Him as you would trust a lawyer to defend you in court. You trust Him as you would trust a bridge to hold you up as you go across a deep chasm. You do not rely on yourself at all. You rely totally on Him as your only hope for forgiveness of sins and eternal life. But also, …
When Jesus appeared to me on that Damascus road, I asked, “What shall I do, Lord?” He said, “Go into Damascus; and there you will be told of all that has been appointed for you to do” (22:10). I did what He said then, and I have been doing what He says from that time on. What else can you do when you’ve been struck blind? At that point, you know who is Lord, and it isn’t you!
But it was not only my fear of the risen Jesus who struck me blind for those three days that caused me to surrender my life to Him. It was also His abundant love and grace. He rightly could have struck me dead for the crimes that I had done to His people. But He showed me love and mercy instead. How could I walk away from such abundant love?
But it is possible! Some to whom I’ve proclaimed the good news of the risen Savior have not responded with trust and surrender. Some reject the offer of forgiveness of their sins with various excuses. For example, Festus, the Roman governor, said that I was crazy (26:2-25). I think that he was convicted of his sin and had to say something to escape the compelling evidence of my argument. King Agrippa tried to use humor to shrug off the truth, saying, “In a short time you will persuade me to become a Christian” (26:28). I think that he was embarrassed in front of Festus, even though he sensed the truth of my testimony. Being a man of wealth and power, he probably felt that to surrender his life to Jesus would have been too costly. And so he walked away from the truth.
In my experience, those who do not respond with trust and surrender to the risen Savior are not lacking in evidence that He is the truth. Rather, they don’t want to turn from their sins and live under the Lordship of Jesus. But that’s irrational. When you see who Jesus really is, the risen Lord of all, bowing before Him as Lord is the only reasonable option.
In the nineteenth century, two young lawyers in England thought that they had good reasons for rejecting Christianity. They thought that only two things supported the foundation of the Christian faith: the alleged resurrection of Jesus and the alleged conversion of the apostle Paul. One of the men, Gilbert West, decided to write a book showing that Jesus never could have risen from the dead. The other man, Lord Lyttleton, said that he would write on the alleged appearance of Jesus to the apostle Paul. He would show that Paul could never have been converted as the Bible reports.
Some time later they met again, and one said to the other, “I am afraid I have a confession to make. I have been looking into the evidence for this story, and I have begun to think that maybe there is something to it.” The other said, “The same thing has happened to me.”
In the end, after they had done their investigations and written their books, each had come out on exactly the opposite side of when he began. Gilbert West wrote a book, The Resurrection of Jesus, arguing that it is a fact of history. Lyttleton had written a defense entitled Conversion of St. Paul. Both men had come to believe in the truth of the biblical accounts (James Boice, Tabletalk [4/92], p. 30).
How about you? Have you seriously considered the evidence? There are solid reasons to support the fact that Jesus is risen bodily from the dead. Have you shrugged off the evidence because you don’t want to face the implications for your own life? Yes, it would radically alter the direction of your life! You would have to give up your pursuit of sinful pleasure. You would have to follow Jesus wherever He directs you to go. You would have to do what He tells you to do. But He would replace your futile pursuit of happiness with solid joy and lasting pleasure that only those who follow Him know, both for time and for eternity.
Each of you is trusting in something for your eternal destiny. To trust in yourself or your good deeds is completely inadequate. The risen Lord Jesus asks you to trust Him to forgive your sins and to give you eternal life and to surrender to Him as the Lord of your life. He could rightly judge you on the spot for your sins, but in His grace, He offers you a full pardon and eternal life at His expense, because of His great love. The risen Lord who transformed the revolutionary Saul of Tarsus into the apostle Paul can transform your life as well.
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2001, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
April 20, 2003
Special Easter Message
The recent dramatic rescue of our soldiers who had been taken captive in Iraq brought great joy and relief to all Americans. It’s tragic when people are held captive by an evil enemy that finds pleasure in torturing and destroying them. Our joy overflows when the captives are set free.
The Bible declares that “the whole world lies in the power of” a wicked tyrant called “the evil one” (1 John 5:19). He is a murderer by nature (John 8:44), intent on destroying those whom he holds captive (John 10:10; 2 Tim. 2:26). Jesus Christ, “the Son of God, appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). He does that by rescuing people from Satan’s domain of darkness and transferring them to His kingdom, where they have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Col. 1:13-14). God uses us, His people, as His commandos, to go into enemy territory with the powerful weapon of the gospel to liberate those who are being held captive by the evil enemy.
The apostle Paul made one such commando raid into the city of Thessalonica. He came under enemy attack, but was able to rescue some. His daring mission set the city into an uproar. They accused him and his co-workers as being men who had turned the world upside down (Acts 17:6). He was forced to leave town after just a few weeks, leaving these newly liberated people to face the angry opposition of those who were content with the evil regime.
A short time later, he wrote them a letter, which we know as 1 Thessalonians. He begins by thanking God for what He had done in the hearts of these people and by commending them for the example of their transformed lives, which was being spoken of everywhere in that region. Before Paul could say a word, people would tell him how the Thessalonians had “turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come” (1 Thess. 1:9-10). We learn that…
The risen Jesus rescues from the coming wrath all who believe in Him and turn to God.
These verses contain three vital lessons:
I will admit that the idea of God’s wrath and judgment is not popular in our day, even among evangelical Christians. We would rather tell people that God loves them and has a wonderful plan for their lives. We downplay the notion that God is angry with them because of their sin and that they face horrible eternal punishment in hell if they die without being reconciled to God. If we were honest, most of us would admit that the notion of God’s wrath and eternal punishment is a bit embarrassing. So we dodge it and promote the gospel as a great way to have a happier life.
But in so doing, we misconstrue the biblical gospel and we water down the biblical picture of salvation as God’s rescuing us from certain destruction. It becomes more like starting a new diet or exercise program, guaranteed to make you feel better right away. But our text shows that…
Paul declares that God is “the living and true God,” and that Jesus “rescues us from the wrath to come.” He further describes this coming wrath in 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9, where he says that “the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, ...”
During His earthly ministry, Jesus Christ spoke more about the awfulness of God’s judgment than any other person in the Bible. He described it as a place of outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt. 25:30). He calls it a place “where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:48). He said that it would be better to cut off one’s hand or foot, or even to die by having a millstone hung around one’s neck and being cast into the sea, than to go into hell (Mark 9:42-45). We may not like these words, but if we deny or dodge them, we are not following Jesus, who repeatedly taught this awful truth.
Of course, God’s wrath is not like human wrath. Human wrath is usually an outburst against something or someone that frustrates us. Occasionally, human wrath may be “righteous indignation,” but even then it is tinged with our fallible propensity toward selfishness and misunderstanding. God’s wrath is His holy, settled, active opposition toward all evil, in line with His absolute knowledge of all motives and circumstances. If we do away with the concept of God’s wrath, we also then do away with His holiness and justice.
If someone broke into your house and raped and murdered your wife or daughter, and the judge said, “You shouldn’t have done that; try not to do it again,” we would rightly be outraged. That judge would be neither righteous nor just. In the same way, if God who is infinitely holy does not judge all sin with infinite punishment, He is neither righteous nor just. Most of us can agree mentally with this concept, and it even gives us a sense of relief to know that the evil terrorists of the world will meet with God’s perfect justice.
But at this point, many err by thinking that they will escape God’s judgment because they are not like these terrible murderers. They think, “I’m a decent, church-going American. I pay my taxes and obey the law. I don’t beat my wife and children. Sure, I’ve got my faults and I’m not perfect, but I’m not an evil person. I don’t need to fear God’s judgment.”
But our text indicates that there are only two kinds of people: those who have been rescued by Jesus from God’s wrath to come; and, those who have not. And, …
By nature, we all tend to look at our own works or at what we consider to be our good intentions, and we think that we’re good enough for heaven. But the Bible is clear that no one gets into heaven by his own efforts, good works, or good intentions. Our problem is that we compare ourselves to the wrong standard. If we compare ourselves to other people, we may come out on the right side of the curve. But God’s standard is His absolute holiness, beginning on the thought level. As Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount, if you’ve ever been angry with someone, you are guilty of murder in God’s sight. If you’ve ever lusted after a woman, you are guilty of adultery (Matt. 5:21-22, 27-28). Both sins make you “guilty enough to go into the fiery hell” (Matt. 5:22, 29-30).
Let’s assume that you are an unusually good person. You’ve only chalked up, on the average, one sin of thought, word, or deed per month since the time you were five years old. If you sassed your mother once that month, the rest of the month you had nothing but sweet, loving thoughts toward her. If you selfishly demanded your way, you only did it once that month, and did not at any other time think in a selfish manner.
At this record-breaking rate of righteous living, you will have chalked up 840 sins by the time you are 75. Can you imagine going into any court of law and pleading, “Judge, I admit that I’ve broken the law 840 times, but I’m far better than most people, so you should let me off”! How much less does anyone, even the best of us, stand a chance of acquittal based on our good deeds when we stand before the holy God whose standard is perfection?
The Bible declares that we are all by nature children of wrath because of our sins (Eph. 2:1-3). It warns that the wrath of God abides on all who do not obey the Son of God (John 3:36). Jesus did not come to earth and die on the cross just to help you live a bit more comfortable and happy life. He came to rescue you from the wrath to come! If He has not rescued you, then you are in imminent danger of that wrath! It is imperative that you understand how you can be rescued while there is still time.
Paul mentions the kind of reception [literally, “entrance”] that he had with the Thessalonians (1:9). We read about it in Acts 17:2-4, where it says that Paul went into the synagogue there on three successive Sabbaths and reasoned with them from the Scriptures, “explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, ‘This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.’” Some believed that message, but the majority opposed it and formed a mob to set the city against Paul.
The gospel (or “good news”) that Paul proclaimed may be summarized as follows: All of us have sinned against the holy God, thus incurring His wrath. God could justly condemn us all to hell. But being a God of great love and mercy, He sent His own eternal Son Jesus into this world to bear the penalty that we rightly deserve. He had to suffer death, which is the penalty that God imposed for our sin (Rom. 6:23). God accepted Jesus’ sacrifice, as evidenced by the fact that He raised Him from the dead. God’s justice was satisfied, in that Jesus paid in full the penalty for our sins. He can now be both “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26). You cannot be saved apart from hearing and understanding that message.
Hearing the gospel must be accompanied by faith (Gal. 3:5). The Thessalonians had “received the word” (1:6) with “faith toward God” (1:8). Paul says (2:13), “we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.”
Contrary to popular opinion, biblical faith is not a blind leap in the dark. It does not mean setting your brain on the shelf and believing a bunch of old Jewish legends. Rather, biblical faith is based on the testimony of eyewitnesses to Jesus’ life, teaching, death, bodily resurrection and ascension into heaven. Granted, we cannot “prove” these truths in the same sense that we can prove that 2+2=4, and so there is the need for faith. But it is not an unreasonable or blind faith, in that the evidence is trustworthy. We believe the testimony of men all the time, but the testimony of God concerning His Son is greater (1 John 5:9).
When Paul first preached in Thessalonica, he pointed to the evidence of the Scriptures concerning Christ’s death and resurrection (Acts 17:2-3). No doubt he took them to Psalm 22, which describes in detail a death by crucifixion centuries before that mode of execution was known on earth. He also took them to Isaiah 53, which predicts with great detail the suffering and death of God’s Messiah, “when He will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities” (Isa. 53:11). Both of those texts also imply the resurrection of the crucified Messiah, when God “will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the booty with the strong; because He poured out Himself to death and was numbered with the transgressors” (Isa. 53:12). Paul probably also pointed to Psalm 16:10, which predicted that God would not “allow [His] Holy One to undergo decay” (see Acts 13:34-35).
Beyond the evidence of Scripture, there was the further evidence of all of the eyewitnesses who saw Jesus after the resurrection (1 Cor. 15:5-6). There is also the evidence of the dramatically changed lives of the witnesses, including the apostle Paul. He was militantly against the Christian message until the day that he saw the risen Jesus on the Damascus Road.
Believing this message is not just assenting to the facts as presented in Scripture and by the eyewitnesses. Biblical faith involves an active commitment in which we renounce all trust in our own good works to save us from God’s judgment and a total entrusting of ourselves to Jesus as the only Savior from God’s wrath. Genuine saving faith is inseparable from repentance, which means turning to God from our sins.
Before, these people had hoped that their idols would placate God’s wrath. But once they heard the gospel, they threw away their idols, turned to God alone and trusted in Jesus’ death on the cross to rescue them from their sins. The word “turned” occurs often in the Book of Acts to describe the proper response to the gospel. Paul described God’s commission to him as opening the Gentiles’ eyes “so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins …” (Acts 26:18). He sums up his preaching as telling people “that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance” (Acts 26:20; see also Acts 9:35; 11:21; 14:15; 15:19).
Maybe you are thinking, “This is all very interesting, but I am not an idolater. I don’t bow down or pray to any statues. So this doesn’t apply to me.”
But the only choices are, you either serve God or you serve idols. An idol may be a literal statue. Even here in Flagstaff, we have a store that specializes in selling idols! But an idol is anything that usurps the rightful place of the living and true God in your life. At the root of all idolatry is the god of self. Many people leave this god on the throne and try to “use” Jesus to get what self wants, such as happiness, health, wealth, love, or many other things. But to leave self enthroned and to use Jesus as an Aladdin’s genie is not to turn to God from our idols. The Thessalonians did not just add Jesus to their existing pantheon of idols. They trashed their idols and turned to the living and true God alone.
For Jesus to rescue you from God’s wrath to come, you must agree with God’s judgment, that you have sinned against Him and that you deserve His wrath. You must understand and believe that God’s Son Jesus came to earth and paid the penalty on the cross that you rightfully deserved. Genuine faith is not just agreeing mentally with these facts, but also turning from all of your false gods to the only true God. If you have done that, your life will be demonstrably different. Everyone could see the dramatic change in the Thessalonians. Paul mentions two things that stood out after they turned to God from their idols:
The word translated “serve” comes from a word meaning to serve as a bondslave. A bondslave was not free to do whatever he pleased. If the bondslave wanted to go to the beach, he couldn’t tell his master, “I’m taking the day off. See you tomorrow!” He belonged to his master and lived to do his master’s will.
In our case, our Master gave His life to rescue us from certain doom. Thus we do not serve Him out of bare duty or obligation, but out of gratitude and love. And, thankfully, He is a loving and gracious Master, who has our best interests at heart. Serving Him is not drudgery, but a delight.
Also, we eagerly long for His return from heaven, when He will crush all of His enemies and set up His righteous kingdom on earth. Just as a young bride whose husband has gone off to the war longs for his safe return, so we who have been rescued from God’s judgment by Jesus long to see His face. As Paul later tells the Thessalonians (1 Thess. 4:16-18),
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.
Those whom Jesus has rescued from the wrath to come submit to Him as Master and eagerly look forward to the day of His coming. Those whom He has not rescued live for themselves and don’t give much thought to the day of His coming, which for them will be a day of wrath and judgment, unless they repent.
Picture a bunch of people on a luxury cruise ship, sailing in calm Caribbean seas. They’re lounging on deck, eating great food, and having an enjoyable time. Along comes a man selling sun visors. “Would you folks like to buy a sun visor? It will make your cruise much more enjoyable. They don’t cost very much.” So lots of folks try out the sun visors.
But lets suppose that before the cruise began, terrorists had planted a powerful time bomb on board that will blow the ship to shreds. You had just learned that it was certain that the bomb would go off and that everyone who didn’t escape while there was still time would be hopelessly doomed. Would you be on deck selling sun visors to make the trip more comfortable, or would you be warning the people to get into the lifeboats as quickly as possible before they were blown to bits?
God is not a terrorist, of course! But He is a holy God who must judge all sin. He has given due warning that He is going to judge this cruise ship called “The World.” But He has not left us without a means of escape. His Son Jesus is not a sun visor to make your cruise more comfortable. He is the lifeboat! But you must abandon ship to get into the lifeboat while there is still time.
The point of getting into the lifeboat is not that it will make you happier and more comfortable than you are on board the ship. You may look over the side and yell, “Ahoy, down there! Do you serve gourmet meals on the lifeboat?” “No, we have C-rations on board. But please jump off that ship before it’s too late!” “Do you have queen size beds on the life raft?” “No, we are somewhat crowded and uncomfortable here, but if you will get on the raft, you will be saved. If you stay in your stateroom on board, you will perish.” “I really enjoy the shuffleboard here on the ship. Do you offer shuffleboard on your life raft?” “No, but your ship is doomed. Flee to this raft while you can!”
Believing in Jesus doesn’t mean sitting on deck in your lounge chair, sipping a cool drink, and thinking, “I’m sure glad that I’ve got this Jesus visor to make my trip more comfortable!” No, believing in Jesus means that you take seriously His warnings about the coming judgment on this wicked world, so that you jump ship and trust totally in Jesus as your life raft.
Like the Thessalonians, today you have heard that God has pronounced wrath to come on this world. You have heard that He sent His Son Jesus to die for your sins and that God raised Jesus from the dead. He is coming again, either as your Savior or your Judge. Believing that message, you abandon ship and place your eternal destiny totally upon the risen Jesus. If you will do that, Jesus will rescue you from the wrath to come!
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2003, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
April 11, 2004
Easter Message:
A legend tells about a rich man who had a foolish servant. One day, the master became exasperated and said, “You’ve got to be the stupidest fellow I’ve ever known. I want you to take this staff and carry it with you everywhere you go. If you ever meet a man more stupid than you are, give him the staff.” The servant took the staff. He met some pretty stupid men, but he wasn’t sure if they were more stupid than he was so he kept the staff.
Then, one day he was called back to the castle and ushered into the master’s bedroom. The master said, “I’m going on a long journey.” The servant asked, “When will you be back?” The master replied that he would never return from this journey. The servant said, “Well, sir, do you have everything prepared for this journey?” The master said, “No, I’ve not made much preparation for it.”
The servant asked, “Could you have made preparation? Could you have sent something on?” The master said, “Yes, I guess I’ve had a lifetime to do that, but I was just too busy with other things.” The servant went on, “Then you won’t be back to the castle, to the lands, to the animals…?” The master said, “No, I won’t be back to any of it.” Then the servant took the staff that he had carried for many years and said to the master, “Here, you take the staff. I finally met a man who is more stupid than I.”
George Bernard Shaw had it right when he observed, “The statistics on death are quite impressive: one out of one people die.” In light of the certainty of death, you would think that everyone would be very concerned to prepare for the journey. And yet many push it out of their minds and focus on other things that really won’t matter on the day of death.
Easter Sunday is about the resurrection of Jesus, which brings hope. The message of the resurrection is that Jesus has conquered death and that in Him, we can have hope beyond the grave. But hope, to be valid, must be true hope. If hope is based on wishful thinking, it is worthless. If a doctor gives a cancer patient a sugar-coated pill with the promise that it is a miracle-drug that will cure him, the patient may have hope for a while, but it’s false hope, based on a lie. Genuine hope must be based on truth.
To offer true hope to you today, I must tell the truth, that the bodily resurrection of Jesus does not mean hope for all people. It offers hope to all who respond in repentance and faith in Him. But it brings ultimate despair to those who refuse to submit to Him, because Jesus plainly taught that He is not only the risen Savior, but also the risen Judge. Our text shows that…
Because Jesus is risen as both Savior and Judge, we all shall be raised, either to eternal life or to eternal judgment.
If anyone can speak with authority about life beyond the grave and God’s judgment, it is Jesus Christ. He claimed to be sent from God the Father and to be one in essence with the Father. Either He is God in human flesh, or else He is a first-class liar!
In John 5:19-47, Jesus makes clear, unmistakable claims to deity. John prefaces the discourse (5:18) by reporting that “the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.” Rather than saying, “You guys misunderstood; I didn’t mean to make Myself equal with God,” Jesus reinforced their perception with many bold claims that would be blasphemous in the mouth of anyone other than God.
He claimed to do everything that He saw the Father doing (5:19)! He claimed that the Father showed the Son all that He is doing (5:20)! He claimed to have the power and authority to give life to whomever He wishes (5:21)! He claimed that the Father had given all authority to judge to the Son (5:22)! He claimed that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father (5:23)!
As if these claims were not stupendous enough, Jesus continued, “he who hears My word, and believes in Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life” (5:24). Underscoring with “Truly, truly” the importance and truth of His words, Jesus piles on another remarkable claim: “an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live” (5:25). He is talking here about giving spiritual life to those who are spiritually dead. He explains further, “For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man” (5:26-27). Jesus was claiming that He inherently had the ability, not only to raise the dead physically (as He did with Lazarus, John 11:43-44), but also to impart spiritual life to the spiritually dead.
What mere man could make such claims? Even if Jesus were, as the Jehovah’s Witnesses claim, the first and greatest of all created beings, He would have been blaspheming to make such claims to deity, if He were not fully God!
When Jesus was on this earth, He did not walk around with a halo hovering over His head. His face did not radiate glory, except once at His transfiguration. His contemporaries knew Him as a carpenter, the son of Joseph and Mary. There were rumors that He wasn’t really Joseph’s son, but that He had been conceived out of wedlock (John 8:41). But they did not look on Jesus and automatically think, “Here is the Messiah, God in human flesh!” He looked like a normal man. He didn’t fit their idea of what Messiah would look like. And so when they heard this carpenter turned self-proclaimed rabbi make these claims, they were astounded.
So, while they were visibly shocked at the claims that He had just made, Jesus said, “Do not marvel at this” (5:28). Then He tells them another astonishing truth: A day yet future will come when He will speak and everyone who has ever died will come forth, some to a resurrection of life, but others to a resurrection of judgment. Having looked at the context, I want to focus on verses 28 & 29, which imply one truth and state another. They imply that…
If Jesus died and is still dead, then His claim was false. A dead man could not speak someday in the future so that every dead person in history would hear his voice and come forth from the tombs! Since we know that Jesus did in fact die, His claims here, if true, assume that He would be raised from the dead.
But, how can we know that Jesus’ claims were true? How can we know that He really is the risen Savior and Judge of all, and not just a man with delusions of grandeur? We would be here for hours if we examined all the evidence. Books have been written to substantiate the claims of Christ and the historicity of the resurrection (see Josh McDowell, Evidence That Demands a Verdict [Campus Crusade for Christ, 1972], vol. 1, chapter 10). If you have never done so, begin by reading the gospel accounts. They represent straightforward firsthand reports of Jesus’ life and ministry. You will find differences in the various accounts that are difficult to harmonize at points. But these very differences show that the authors were not in collusion to make up a fable. They were reporting events based on eyewitness testimony.
The eyewitnesses all report that the tomb was empty. There are three possibilities: the disciples stole the body, their enemies stole it, or Jesus was raised from the dead. If the Roman soldiers had taken the body, they could have made a lot of money by producing it when the disciples started proclaiming the resurrection. If the Jewish leaders had taken the body, they would have produced it and put a stop to the disciples’ claims, especially when they saw thousands of Jews believing the apostles’ message. If the disciples had stolen the body, they would not have devoted the rest of their lives to something that they knew to be a hoax, especially when they suffered persecution and even martyrdom on account of their testimony. None of them became rich or famous in their time through proclaiming the resurrection. If they knew it to be a false story, they would have quietly slipped out of town and returned to their old occupations.
If the resurrection were a cover-up, concocted by eleven desperate men, it would have been exposed. Charles Colson, who went to prison over the Watergate scandal, has a chapter in Loving God ([Zondervan], pp. 61-70) titled, “Watergate and the Resurrection.” He tells how difficult it was to keep the Watergate cover-up intact. He points out that even though no one’s life was at stake, “Yet after just a few weeks the natural human instinct for self-preservation was so overwhelming that the conspirators, one by one, deserted their leader, walked away from their cause, turned their backs on the power, prestige, and privileges” (p. 67).
Applying this to Jesus’ resurrection, Colson concludes, “Take it from one who was inside the Watergate web looking out, who saw firsthand how vulnerable a cover-up is: Nothing less than a witness as awesome as the resurrected Christ could have caused those men to maintain to their dying whispers that Jesus is alive and Lord” (p. 69).
Keep in mind that none of the disciples were expecting a resurrection. At first, they hid in secret, afraid for their own lives. But they were all transformed into bold witnesses who proclaimed the resurrection of Jesus in the same town where He had been murdered, to the very people who had murdered Him. You can’t explain their transformation by wish fulfillment or group psychology. When you consider the character of the witnesses and the variety and number of the witnesses, the only viable conclusion is that they are telling the truth. Jesus is risen!
I don’t have time to consider other facts, such as the testimony about the grave clothes, the sealed stone, other remarkable details of the accounts, and the many fulfilled prophecies that surround Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. Add to this the conversion of the apostle Paul (Acts 9, 22, 26), and his contention that the entire Christian faith rests on the fact of Jesus’ bodily resurrection (1 Cor. 15:1-19). Paul was transformed and suffered for the sake of Christ because he was convinced that Jesus rose from the dead.
In addition to this evidence, consider the person of Jesus Christ Himself. As you read the gospels, you do not get the impression that He was a religious charlatan. His words and life have the ring of integrity and truth. Even those who disagreed with Him could not find consistent grounds on which to convict Him of wrong. As C. S. Lewis and others have pointed out, to believe that Jesus was only a great religious and moral teacher, but not God, is not an option. The claims we have already considered here in John 5 are those that no mere man could make. Jesus was either a liar, a lunatic, or He is Lord of all, as He claimed. But no one could say what He said and be merely a great teacher.
The fact that Jesus is risen as both Savior and Judge has implications for all of us, as stated directly in the text:
“An hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth” (5:28-29). This resurrection is yet future and physical (as “tombs” shows), in contrast to the spiritual resurrection that Jesus spoke of in 5:25, “which now is.” Either this future resurrection is certain or Jesus lied. God has fixed the hour. The clock is ticking. You may not believe it, but your not believing it doesn’t make it false. Jesus’ words imply three facts:
Jesus said, “All who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth.” No exceptions! What a staggering claim! Of all the billions who have ever lived, Jesus says that all will come out of the grave at the sound of His voice. This includes everyone who lived before Christ and those who have lived since. It includes all Asians, Europeans, Africans, and North and South Americans. It includes every conceivable form of death. None will be missing at this great roll call. You and I could go into cemeteries and shout at the top of our voices until they hauled us away to the mental hospital, and not one body would arise. But Jesus will one day speak and all the dead will be raised from the tombs!
Jesus is plainly teaching that this life is not the end of our existence. Either there is life beyond the grave for every person or Jesus is wrong. And this life beyond the grave is not just for the righteous. He says that both those who did good and those who did evil will be raised. The teaching that the wicked will be annihilated is emotionally appealing, but it contradicts Jesus’ teaching. They will be raised for judgment and then “go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matt. 25:46). If eternal life is forever, then so is eternal punishment.
Again, we know that Jesus’ words are true because He is risen from the dead. Everything hinges on that fact. Also, although the ungodly refused to respond to Christ’s voice in this life, this will be a command that they cannot refuse. It will not be an invitation, where you can choose not to attend. It is a mandatory summons from the Lord of the universe. Everyone will be there!
Jesus describes these categories as, “those who did the good deeds,” and “those who committed the evil deeds.” Most of us would be more comfortable if Jesus had said, “Those who were pretty good” and “those who weren’t so good.” I could then compare myself with murderers, thieves, child molesters, and other wicked people and conclude, “I’m in the pretty good group, because I’ve never done those evil things!”
But Jesus didn’t say that. He divided everyone into two opposite groups: those who did the good deeds, and those who did evil deeds. There is no group for those who were pretty good, with an occasional slip up; or, those who were pretty bad, although once in a while, they did good things.
What does Jesus mean? Why does He say this? Leon Morris (The Gospel According to John [Eerdmans], pp. 321-322) explains,
Judgment, as always in Scripture, is on the basis of works…. This does not mean that salvation is on the basis of good works, for this very Gospel makes it plain over and over again that men enter eternal life when they believe on Jesus Christ. But the lives they live form the test of the faith they profess. This is the uniform testimony of Scripture. Salvation is by grace and it is received through faith. Judgment is based on men’s works.
John 3:19-21 sheds further insight on this:
This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.
The only deeds that are truly good in God’s sight are those that come from Him. The Bible testifies concerning the human race apart from Jesus Christ, “There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one” (Rom. 3:10-12). Even the good deeds of the believer are tainted by sin, because who can say, “I love God with all my heart, and I love my neighbor as much as I love myself”? So there has never been an entirely pure and perfect deed.
Thus for our works to be counted as good in God’s sight, we must come as sinners to the Light and allow Him to expose the evil in our hearts. We must trust in Jesus, who bore our sin on the cross, and be clothed with His perfect righteousness. We must trust His blood to cleanse our consciences from dead works so that we can serve the living God (Heb. 9:14). The only good deeds in God’s sight are those done from a heart that has been cleansed through faith in Christ. Those who believe in Christ are quick to acknowledge that He is the source of any good deeds that they may do. God gets all the glory for our salvation, including any good deeds, because He prepared them for us beforehand (Eph. 2:10).
Thus, Jesus’ words here show that there is a future resurrection for every person that will divide everyone into two categories.
There will not be any opportunity for repentance after death. Death will not change a person’s character. The good tree bears good fruit in this life; the bad tree bears bad fruit. How can we, who by nature are corrupt at the very root, become good trees? Jesus says that the one who has heard His word and believed in the Father who sent Jesus has (as a present possession) eternal life (5:24). Have you heard Jesus as the way, the truth and the life? Have you abandoned all trust in your own righteousness and trusted in Jesus alone as your only hope for heaven? If so, you have eternal life.
John Calvin (Calvin’s Commentaries [Baker], pp. 209-210) comments on 5:29, “For without the pardon which God grants to those who believe in Him, there never was a man in the world of whom we can say that he has lived well; nor is there even a single work that will be reckoned altogether good, unless God pardon the sins which belong to it, for all are imperfect and corrupted.” He goes on to refute the Roman Catholic error that we gain eternal life through the merit of our works. Then he concludes (ibid., p. 210), “And indeed we do not deny that the faith which justifies us is accompanied by an earnest desire to live well and righteously; but we only maintain that our confidence cannot rest on any thing else than on the mercy of God alone.”
And so each of us needs to ask, “Is my hope of heaven based solely on the fact that God sent Jesus to pay the penalty for my sins, and that He raised Him from the dead? Because He has cleansed my heart through His mercy, do I now desire to live in a manner that is pleasing to Him?”
Maybe you have heard the expression, “going first class on the Titanic.” It describes those who foolishly devote themselves to seeking after pleasure in this life only. This world and all who live for it are headed for judgment. Going first class on a ship that is certain to go down is not wise!
Jesus said, “Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal” (John 6:27). Again, what an astounding claim! Jesus offers to give eternal life to those who seek it. The day is coming when you will be raised, either to life or to judgment. In light of who Jesus is, if I may speak plainly, you would be stupid to live for this life, but to neglect the free gift that will prepare you for the life to come.
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2004, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
April 16, 2006
Easter Sunday
In our study of First John last Sunday we looked at the subject of assurance of salvation. The enemy of assurance is doubt, and so I thought it would be helpful on this Resurrection Sunday to take a look at the problem of doubt and how to overcome it.
Every thinking person sometimes wrestles with doubt. That is true not only for thinking Christians, but also for atheists and agnostics. Sometimes they wonder, “What if I’m wrong? What if there really is a God? What if there is life after death and I have to stand before God?” And, every thinking Christian sometimes wonders, “What if Christianity is not true?” For some, the doubts are relatively minor and fleeting. For others, the doubts are deep and disturbing. But wherever you’re at on the spectrum, if you’ve been a Christian for very long, you have gone through times when you struggled with doubt.
While there are many different sources of doubt (we’ll look at some in a moment), there is one answer that undergirds them all. I have often come back to it when I am working through my doubts. The apostle Paul said that the entire Christian faith rests on this single foundation, the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Cor. 15:13-19). If that fact of history is true, then our faith has a solid footing in spite of difficult matters that we may never understand fully in this life. But, if Jesus Christ is not risen from the dead, then the strongest faith in the world is useless, because it rests on a faulty foundation. In Paul’s words (1 Cor. 15:17), “if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.”
If you want to examine a subject, it’s best to go to an expert. The most famous expert on doubt is the man whose name is always linked with it, Doubting Thomas. Perhaps it’s unfair that he has to wear that label, since all the apostles doubted the resurrection of Jesus at first (Mark 16:11; Luke 24:10-11). But, Thomas was the last holdout, so he gets the title. His story shows us that…
To overcome our doubts, we must rest upon the reality of the risen Lord Jesus Christ.
Thomas was what I would call a sincere doubter. Not all doubters are sincere. Some use their doubts as a smoke screen to hide behind their sin, which is the real issue. If one area of doubt is cleared up, they will quickly duck behind another, because they don’t want to submit to the Lord. These people do not need more evidence to believe. They need to turn from their sin.
But some doubters are sincere. They truly believe in Christ, but they are plagued by honest questions. They are submissive to God and want to do His will, but they can’t just close their eyes and take a leap of faith. They need evidence to clear up the doubts. Thomas was that kind of sincere doubter. His story reveals that…
There are many causes of doubt. I am going to limit myself to exploring some of the causes of Thomas’ doubts. Perhaps you can relate to these sources of doubt as well.
Some Reasons For Thomas’ Doubts:
All of the disciples had failed Jesus on the night of His arrest and trial. Most notorious was Peter, who denied the Lord three times. All of the eleven had promised Jesus their loyalty, but they all deserted Him when He was arrested.
Thomas, along with Peter, had been outspoken in his loyalty to Jesus before the crucifixion. In John 11:16, when Jesus wanted to go to Bethany, near Jerusalem, to raise Lazarus from the dead, the disciples objected that it was too dangerous. But Thomas said, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.” He was a pessimist, but at least he was loyal to the point of challenging the others to be committed to the point of death. But then he had joined the others in running away when Jesus was arrested. That failure led Thomas into depression and doubt.
It wasn’t just Thomas’ failure, but failure coupled with his personality, that led him into deep doubts. Peter had failed in a big way, too. But Peter was a buoyant, optimistic sort who felt badly about his mistakes, but who could bounce back more quickly. But Thomas was a conscientious, loyal, but gloomy type who did not commit himself to something lightly. To commit himself to Jesus and then go back on his word affected Thomas deeply.
We’re all wired differently and so it’s important to know yourself so that you can be on guard against your areas of weakness. Usually, by the way, our areas of greatest strength are also our areas of greatest weakness. A man such as Thomas, who is loyal and conscientious, who takes commitments seriously, is also more prone to depression and doubt when he fails.
A second factor that caused Thomas such deep doubts was the disappointment and shock he felt as he watched Jesus die. Even though Jesus repeatedly told the disciples in advance that He would be crucified, it didn’t sink in. When Thomas saw the badly mangled body of Jesus on the cross, it sent him into shock. His emphasis on the wounds of Jesus (John 20:25) shows how deeply it affected him. The bloody holes in Jesus’ hands and feet, the gory spear wound in His side, and Jesus’ disfigurement from the scourging and the crown of thorns, haunted Thomas in the week after the crucifixion and fed his doubts.
In the same way, whenever we face deep disappointment and shock because of some tragedy or unanswered prayer or something that doesn’t go as we had expected, we’re vulnerable to doubts. You begin to think, “If God is a God of love, then why did this happen? Why didn’t He answer my prayers?” Before long, you’ve joined Thomas in doubting the Lord.
Thomas lacked understanding with regard to the Lord’s departure (see John 14:5). On the night before the crucifixion, Jesus told the disciples that He was going to prepare a place for them and that He would come again to take them to be with Him. He told them that they knew the way where He was going. But Thomas wasn’t the type to keep quiet if he didn’t understand. So he blurted out, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?”
I’m glad he asked because Jesus’ reply was, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me” (14:6). But if you put yourself back into that situation, with all of the confused emotions of that night, and with the disciples’ still limited insight into Jesus’ death and resurrection, you can see how Thomas would still be confused about what Jesus had meant. He lacked understanding, which led to doubt.
John 20:9 states, “For as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead.” In fact, none of them understood why Jesus had to die, let alone rise from the dead. Jesus rebuked the men on the Emmaus Road (Luke 24:25-27), “And He said to them, ‘O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?’ Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.”
Many of our doubts stem from the same cause: we do not understand the Scriptures. Frankly, there are many hard teachings in the Bible, some of which we won’t resolve until we are with the Lord. We have to trust God, even when we don’t understand. In John 6:60, many of those who had followed Jesus turned away when He taught some hard things. Jesus even asked the twelve if they would go away also. Peter gave the great answer (John 6:68-69), “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. And we have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.” I have come back to that answer many times when I have struggled with doubt due to a lack of understanding. If Jesus is who He claimed to be, where else can I go?
Thomas was not with the other disciples when Jesus first appeared to them. We don’t know for certain why he was gone, but a likely reason was his depression. The last thing he wanted at a time like that was to be around other people. So he wandered off by himself to brood over the horrible events of the previous few days.
Then to add to his misery, when he finally did see the others, they told him that they had seen the risen Lord! How would you feel if you missed church because you were depressed and doubting and we all told you, “Hey, you really missed a blessing! It was the greatest church service in the history of FCF!” Great! That really encourages you, doesn’t it! But even though other believers may irritate us, the fact is, we need them. Whenever we separate ourselves from the fellowship, we make ourselves vulnerable to doubt.
I’ve not covered all the causes that cause us to doubt. But whatever the source of your doubts, the solution is the same: to come back to the basic fact of the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. If that is true, then even though you may not understand everything, with Thomas you still must bow and acknowledge Jesus to be your Lord and God.
Many books have been written to substantiate the historic validity of Jesus’ resurrection. But let me briefly mention four reasons in John 20 that prove Jesus’ resurrection to be true history, not a myth or wishful thinking.
One incontrovertible fact, with which both the disciples and the Jews agreed, is that the tomb was empty. If not, when the disciples began proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus a few weeks later (which was the central point of their preaching), the Jewish leaders could have simply marched to the tomb, produced Jesus’ dead body, and the disciples would have been laughed out of town. But clearly they couldn’t do it because the tomb was empty.
There are several ways to account for the empty tomb. Jesus’ enemies could have stolen the body. But they had no motive for this. It was to their advantage to leave it right where it was, which is why they had Pilate put the Roman guard and seal on the tomb. If they knew where the body was, they could have produced it and silenced the disciples’ preaching.
Another possibility is that the Roman guards stole the body. But again, they had no motive to do so. They weren’t concerned about this Jewish religious trial. The Jewish leaders, who were scrambling for ways to explain away the resurrection, didn’t accuse the soldiers of taking the body or of allowing it to be stolen.
A third possibility is that the disciples stole the body. The Jewish leaders tried to promote this theory by bribing the Roman soldiers (Matt. 28:11-15). But there are many reasons the disciples could not have moved Jesus’ body. The tomb was secured by the Roman guards. The soldiers wouldn’t have fallen asleep on watch, because the penalty was death. The stone at the tomb was large and heavy. Even if the soldiers had been sleeping, the noise of a group of men moving the stone would have awakened them. Besides, the disciples were too depressed and confused to try anything like grave robbery in front of a Roman guard. Even if, through bribery, they had managed to remove Jesus’ body, they would not later have risked their lives to preach the resurrection.
Nor would they have suffered beatings and threats if it had been confirmed that someone else had taken Jesus’ body, which was the first thought of the women who visited the tomb early that morning (John 20:2, 15). All we know of the character of the witnesses as well as the fact that they did not yet understand the Scripture that Jesus must rise again from the dead (John 20:9) militates against them knowingly promoting a hoax. The empty tomb is a solid piece of evidence that God raised Jesus bodily from the dead.
Mary Magdalene didn’t look very carefully when she first came to the tomb. She saw the stone removed and assumed that Jesus was gone. So she ran to tell Peter and John, who ran to the tomb. John got there first and stood at the entrance looking in. Peter, in his usual blustery manner, went right in and saw (20:6, Greek = “to gaze upon”) the grave clothes. Then John entered, saw (Greek = “to see with understanding”) and believed.
The presence of the grave clothes proves that the body was not stolen. In their haste, grave robbers would have taken the body, grave clothes and all. If for some reason they had wanted to strip the body, the clothes would have been strewn all over the tomb. But Peter and John saw them left in an orderly fashion, as if Jesus had passed right through them. Remember, these were not men wishing so fervently for a resurrection that they perhaps saw what they wanted to see. These were men who did not understand or believe at first. The evidence convinced them, even as their testimony of the evidence should convince us.
John lists four appearances of Jesus after His resurrection: To Mary Magdalene (20:11-18); to the disciples except Thomas (20:19-23); to the disciples, including Thomas (20:24-31); and, to seven of the disciples, by the Sea of Galilee (21:1-25). Paul mentions several other appearances, including one to over 500 at one time (1 Cor. 15:6-8). J. N. D. Anderson, formerly Professor of Oriental Laws and Director of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies at the University of London, wrote (Christianity Today [3/29/68], pp. 5, 6.),
The most drastic way of dismissing the evidence would be to say that these stories were mere fabrications, that they were pure lies. But, so far as I know, not a single critic today would take such an attitude. In fact, it would really be an impossible position. Think of the number of witnesses, over 500. Think of the character of the witnesses, men and women who gave the world the highest ethical teaching it has ever known, and who even on the testimony of their enemies lived it out in their lives. Think of the psychological absurdity of picturing a little band of defeated cowards cowering in an upper room one day and a few days later transformed into a company that no persecution could silence—and then attempting to attribute this dramatic change to nothing more convincing than a miserable fabrication they were trying to foist upon the world. That simply wouldn’t make sense.
The varied circumstances of the appearances and the different personalities of the witnesses militate against hallucinations or visions. Whether Thomas actually put his hand in Jesus’ wounds is not stated, but Jesus made the offer and Thomas was convinced (John 20:27). The post-resurrection appearances of Jesus are a strong evidence of His bodily resurrection.
As already mentioned, John calls attention to the fact that none of the witnesses was expecting a resurrection. Mary Magdalene thought that someone had taken Jesus’ body (20:2, 15). The disciples were fearful and confused. Thomas was depressed and doubting. But all were transformed into the bold witnesses of the Book of Acts because they became convinced that Jesus rose bodily from the dead. They were so convinced that the resurrection was true that many of them went on to martyrs’ deaths.
So there are solid reasons to believe that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a real, historical event.
I’m so glad that Jesus didn’t remove Thomas from being an apostle because of his doubts! It’s helpful to see how the risen Lord brought Thomas from doubt to faith.
First, it is instructive that the Lord picked a time to appear to the other disciples when Thomas was not there. He could have waited until they were all together. Perhaps He wanted to let Thomas hit the bottom before He revealed Himself, so that Thomas would come to a deeper appreciation of his need for Christ. Sometimes He allows us to go through a time of struggle to show us our own weakness and our need to depend totally on Him.
Second, Jesus came to Thomas when he was back together with the other disciples. He was teaching Thomas his need for the body. He did not intend for us to separate ourselves from one another. He wants us to learn and grow together.
Third, Jesus confronted Thomas’ unbelief and challenged him to believe. Jesus’ words (20:27) reveal that He knew everything that Thomas had said when he was alone with the other disciples; “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.” He wants us to know that we’re really never apart from His presence, even if we are not aware of it. He confronts us for not believing in such a Person who knows our secret thoughts.
Fourth, Jesus pointed Thomas to Himself as the object of faith. He did not exhort Thomas to believe in the unseen God, but in the visible, risen, touchable Lord Jesus. If you are struggling with doubts, read the gospels and ask the crucial question: “Who is Jesus Christ?” Read about His miraculous birth, His penetrating teaching, His amazing, but documented miracles, and how He fulfilled many Old Testament prophecies. When Thomas exclaimed, “My Lord and my God,” Jesus did not rebuke or correct him for overstating things. Rather, He commended Thomas’ correct perception and faith (20:28-29). No devout Jew could have done that unless, as Thomas proclaimed, Jesus truly is Lord and God.
Jesus also gave further confirmation of His resurrection to Thomas and some other disciples by the Sea of Galilee (21:1-23). After that event, John wrote (21:24), “This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true.” There is adequate evidence to believe.
Fifth, note that Jesus promised blessing to all who did not see Him, and yet believe (20:29). That applies to every one of us. John goes on to say (20:30-31), “Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.” If you will believe in the risen Lord Jesus Christ, you will have eternal life in His name.
Does the evidence about Jesus’ resurrection clear up all our doubts about God and the Bible? No, nothing this side of heaven will do that. But it does provide a solid basis for intelligent faith in those times when we struggle with doubt. Jesus alone is the risen Savior. He wants each of us who have not seen Him to be believing, not unbelieving. He wants each of us to recognize that He, our Lord and God, died in our place, taking the penalty we deserved for our sin. He wants us to join Thomas in believing worship, proclaiming, “My Lord and my God!”
If you wait to trust in Christ until all of your doubts are cleared up, you will go to your death alienated from the Savior. There is more than adequate evidence to support a reasonable faith that Jesus Christ is the risen Savior. The question is, Will you focus on who Jesus is and trust in Him as your Savior and Lord?
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2006, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
April 8, 2007
Easter Sunday
Sometimes those who do not believe in God will say, “Just show me a miracle and I will believe.” The story is told of the noted atheist, Robert Ingersoll, who delivered one of his speeches attacking the Christian faith. When he was done, he pulled his watch from his pocket and said, “According to the Bible, God has struck men to death for blasphemy. I will blaspheme Him and give Him five minutes to strike me dead and damn my soul.”
Many in the crowd gasped at his audacious statement. Then there was silence as one minute went by. By two minutes, the crowd was growing anxious. At three minutes, a woman fainted. At four minutes, Ingersoll had a sneer on his face. At five minutes, he snapped his watch shut, put it in his pocket, and said, “You see, there is no God, or He would have taken me at my word.”
The story was later told to Joseph Parker, a British pastor, who said, “And did the American gentleman think that he could exhaust the patience of God in five minutes?” (Adapted from Paul Tan, Encyclopedia of 7,700 Illustrations [Assurance Publishers, 1979], # 334.)
But what if God had struck Ingersoll with a heart attack that stunned, but didn’t kill him? Do you think that he would have abandoned his atheism and believed in Jesus Christ? I think not. Because at the root of unbelief is the hatred of God and the love of one’s own sin. All the evidence in the world isn’t enough to persuade those who love their sin to give it up and submit to God.
We see this with the Jewish leaders in Jesus’ day. When they wickedly put Him on the cross, it wasn’t enough to do that despicable deed. In addition, they taunted Him (Matt. 27:42), “He saved others; He cannot save Himself. He is the King of Israel; let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in Him.”
But, would they have believed in Him if He had at that moment miraculously freed Himself from the nails and come down from the cross? The answer is given in Matthew 28:11-15; when they heard the testimony of the guards about the earthquake, the angel, and the empty tomb. They did not fall down in fear and say, “We were so wrong! Now we believe!” Rather, they paid the guards to spread a false story, so that no one would come to believe the truth of the resurrection. All the evidence in the world is not sufficient to change the minds of the unbelieving. The problem goes far deeper. Matthew’s account of the burial and resurrection of Jesus teaches us four lessons:
I heard about a prominent Christian leader who said that if you give him 15 minutes with anyone, he could get that person to make a decision for Christ. Other than being rather arrogant, that statement reveals a woeful misunderstanding of the hardness of the human heart! If you think that salvation is simply a matter of giving people the evidence or presenting a winsome four-point outline of the gospel and urging the person to make a decision to invite Jesus into his heart, you do not understand what you’re up against.
Paul describes the hardened hearts of sinners this way (Eph. 4:18-19): “being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.” Our text shows us that…
Although Jesus went about doing good and healing the sick and teaching people the ways of God, He was a threat to the power and position of the Jewish leaders. And so they arrested Jesus, trumped up obviously false charges against Him, spit on Him, beat Him in the face, and mocked Him. They were not even satisfied when Pilate scourged Him, which was a hideously torturous punishment that left a man’s back shred into ribbons of flesh. Because the Jews did not have the right of capital punishment (or they would have stoned Him), they insisted that Pilate condemn Him to die a horrible, cruel death on the cross.
They had plenty of evidence that Jesus was their Messiah. He performed many miracles, including opening the eyes of the man born blind and raising Lazarus from the dead (John 9, 11). He powerfully taught from the Scriptures that they claimed to revere. He invited them to examine the Scriptures, to see that they testified of Him. But they refused because their hardened hearts loved darkness rather than light.
Now, they add to their sins by calling Him a deceiver (27:63). Wanting to prevent anyone from believing in Christ, they ask Pilate to secure the tomb so that the disciples would not steal the body and then proclaim a resurrection. Matthew is using irony to show that they were the deceived ones! They, who had seen Lazarus after Jesus had called him to life from the tomb, thought that they could stop the mighty power of God to raise Jesus from the dead by placing a guard and a seal on the tomb! What a picture of the spiritual hardness of sinful hearts!
As I said, all of Jesus’ ministry bore witness to the fact that He was the promised Messiah. Even the events surrounding His death fulfilled specific Old Testament prophecies. Psalm 22 describes a death by crucifixion, even though that form of execution would not be invented until centuries later. Jesus cited that psalm in His cry (27:46), “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Even if they hadn’t yet made the connection, that should have driven them back to reread that psalm and connect it with Jesus. The darkened sky, the torn veil in the temple, the earthquake, the reports of resurrected people appearing all around Jerusalem, and even the testimony of the pagan soldiers (27:45-54), all bore witness to who Jesus truly was.
Then Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man, buried Jesus in his own tomb (27:57-60). That should have caused any Jew that knew the Old Testament to go back to Isaiah 53, which describes in amazing prophetic detail the death of Messiah as the sacrificial lamb. It reads (53:9), “His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet He was with a rich man in His death….” Seeing Jesus crucified between two criminals, and yet buried in the rich man’s tomb, the Jewish leaders, who knew Isaiah 53, should have repented and believed in Jesus. Yet when the guards reported the empty tomb, they responded by bribing them to cover up the facts!
The Jewish leaders don’t even stop to think about the implications of what the guards are reporting. Instead, they immediately go into damage control mode, concocting a silly story that the disciples had come and stolen the body while the guards were sleeping (28:13)! If the guards were sleeping, how would they know what had happened? Besides, grave robbery was a serious crime, punishable even by death. Would the depressed disciples be bold enough to break the seal, move the heavy stone, and attempt a serious crime under the noses of these supposedly sleeping guards? Would not their efforts have awakened at least one guard? And then would they, knowing that the resurrection was a hoax, have proclaimed that Jesus is risen, even at the risk of being beaten, imprisoned, and possibly killed?
Actually, the Jewish leaders’ attempt to suppress the evidence inadvertently provided us with further evidence that the resurrection is true! Their story is so full of holes that it is laughable! They couldn’t deny the plain evidence of the empty tomb. But, they weren’t really looking for evidence to believe. They were fabricating excuses to continue in their unbelief. They knew that if Jesus was really risen, then they had to repent of their sins and they would lose their position of prestige and power over the Jewish people.
The soldiers also were willing to brush aside the things that they had seen with their own eyes and to spread lies because they got paid off to do so. What sinners won’t do for a little bit of money! The soldiers had felt the earthquake, they had seen the heavy stone moved, they saw the angel, whose appearance was like lightning, and they saw the empty tomb, but they denied it all for a bribe! That reveals to us the true reason that people reject Christ:
Sir Edward Clarke wrote (in John Stott, Basic Christianity [IVP, 1971], p. 47; cited by John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, Matthew 24-28 [Moody Press], p. 314):
As a lawyer I have made a prolonged study of the evidences for the events of the first Easter Day. To me the evidence is conclusive, and over and over again in the High Court I have secured the verdict on evidence not nearly so compelling. Inference follows on evidence, and a truthful witness is always artless and disdains effect. The Gospel evidence for the resurrection is of this class, and as a lawyer I accept it unreservedly as the testimony of truthful men to fact they were able to substantiate.
Cliff Knechtle writes of a conversation that he had with a university student who claimed that the Bible was packed with mythology, even though he admitted that he had never read it. Knechtle challenged him to read both the Book of Isaiah, which contains prophecies concerning Christ, and Matthew, which records the fulfillment of those predictions.
Knechtle thought that he’d never see him again, but the next day, he approached Knechtle and said, “I read Isaiah and Matthew. It was interesting literature. I think it speaks the truth.”
“That’s great!” said Knechtle. “Are you ready to trust Christ for eternal life?”
The student replied, “No way. I have a very active sex life. I know that Christ would want to change that. I don’t want anyone to change that.” (Cliff Knechtle, Give Me An Answer [IVP], pp. 88-89, told by Lee Strobel, Inside the Mind of Unchurched Harry and Mary [Zondervan], p. 113.)
If you think that you have intellectual reasons for why you can doubt the truth of Jesus and His resurrection, you need to get honest with yourself and go deeper. Your real reason for rejecting Christ is that you don’t want to give up your sin. Your heart is far harder than you ever could imagine!
But perhaps we who have believed in Christ are smugly thinking, “Yes, the hearts of unbelievers are really hard, aren’t they!” But before we congratulate ourselves, we should notice:
The glaring question that begs an answer in chapter 27 is, “Where were the disciples?” You have Joseph of Arimathea and (according to John 19:39) Nicodemus, both of whom were on the Council, but disagreed with the decision to put Jesus to death. Up to this point, they had been secret disciples. But, now they come out of hiding to give Jesus a proper burial. But, where were the rest of the disciples? They were in hiding out of fear for their lives.
Even though Jesus had repeatedly predicted His own death and resurrection, the hearts of the disciples were prevented from understanding what He meant. It just didn’t fit with their idea of a Messiah. Even the faithful women who came to the tomb on that first resurrection Sunday didn’t expect to find it empty.
Before we say to the disciples, “For shame, for shame!” we need to look at our own hearts. How often I have been foolish and “slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken” (Luke 24:25)! In spite of the clear evidence of Scripture, my hardened heart often struggles with doubt!
Matthew 28:16-20 reports Jesus’ appearance to His followers in Galilee. This is probably the appearance to more than 500 at one time, which Paul reports (1 Cor. 15:6). If this were a fabricated story whose purpose was to sell the readers on the resurrection, surely the author would have omitted the last part of Matthew 28:17: “but some were doubtful.” The Greek word used may mean not that they denied the resurrection, but that they were hesitant to believe. It probably does not refer to the Eleven, who had already had several encounters with the risen Savior, including the famous incident with doubting Thomas. But, even so, the inclusion of that phrase makes the reader wonder, “Why would some be hesitant to believe?” D. A. Carson (Expositor’s Bible Commentary, ed. by Frank Gaebelein [Zondervan, 1984], 8:594) explains that Matthew…
… may be using this historical reminiscence to stress the fact that Jesus’ resurrection was not an anticipated episode that required only enthusiasm and gullibility to win adherents among Jesus’ followers. Far from it, they still were hesitant; and their failure to understand his repeated predictions of his resurrection, compounded with their despair after his crucifixion, worked to maintain their hesitancy for some time before they came to full faith. Jesus’ resurrection did not instantly transform men of little faith and faltering understanding into spiritual giants.
This should give those of us who have trusted in Christ encouragement and hope. Certainly, we should confess our doubts as sin and strive against them, in that they reveal the lingering hardness of our hearts. Yet at the same time, we can be encouraged that the Lord patiently bears with our weaknesses and spiritual struggles. As David proclaims (Ps. 103:13-14), “Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him. For He Himself knows our frame, He is mindful that we are but dust.”
Thus far we’ve focused on the hardness of the human heart. If we stopped there, we all would despair. But this account of Jesus’ resurrection also shows us the mighty power of God:
We see first that…
Even though all the powers of hell tried to keep Jesus in the tomb, they could not succeed. The Messiah had prayed prophetically (Ps. 16:10), “For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.” Peter cited that psalm of David in his sermon on the Day of Pentecost, pointing out that David’s tomb was still in their midst. Rather than writing of himself, David was looking ahead to the resurrection of Christ, to which all of the apostles were witnesses (Acts 2:25-32).
That God permits the wicked to carry out their evil schemes, for which they are responsible, and yet He uses those very schemes to fulfill His sovereign purpose, is a demonstration of His great power. The most evil deed in the history of the human race was to kill the sinless Son of God on the cross. Yet, in doing this, they were not thwarting God’s predetermined purpose, but rather, carrying it out and even fulfilling specific prophecies in doing so (Acts 2:23; 4:27-28). In this resurrection story, the evil scheme of the Jewish leaders to spread a false rumor about the disciples’ stealing Jesus’ body backfires on them, as God uses it to provide greater evidence to any thoughtful reader that the resurrection is true.
In Ephesians, Paul argues that it is nothing less than this same mighty power of God that raised Jesus from the dead that raises sinners from spiritual death to eternal life (Eph. 1:19-20; 2:1-6). If God leaves you in your hardness of heart, there is not a glimmer of hope that by your own power you can open your blind eyes to see the truth about who Jesus is. But, His power is greater than our weakness. His grace is greater than all our sin. Don’t look to anything in yourself. Rather, look to God, who raised Jesus from the dead, and cry out to Him to give life to your spiritually dead soul.
Jesus said (28:18), “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” Either Jesus is a deluded megalomaniac or He spoke the truth. If He spoke the truth, then He has the authority to grant eternal life (as He claimed, John 5:24-26) or to cast into hell (John 5:27). I strongly urge you to cry out to Him to have mercy on your soul. Like the blind beggar (Mark 10:46-52), keep calling until you’re sure that He has granted your request.
There is a third evidence of God’s mighty power:
As they go, proclaiming the good news of His triumph over death and sin, Jesus promises (28:20), “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Again, either He is a deluded megalomaniac, or He is God, because no mere man could make such an amazing claim! His resurrection backs up the truthfulness of His claim. His promise is a great comfort to every follower of Jesus. Even if they kill us, as they killed Him, we know that nothing can “separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:39). How should we respond?
Rather than making up excuses to remain in our sin or being hesitant to believe in spite of the evidence, we should be quick to believe. If you need to, pray with the man whose son needed healing, “I do believe; help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24).
We should be quick to join with the disciples in worshiping the risen Savior. It is significant that Jesus welcomed and did not rebuke the worship of the disciples. If Jesus were a mere man, even if He were a great prophet, surely He would have been horrified to have people falling down before Him in worship. Yet, clearly He receives and commends such worship (see John 20:27-29).
And, we should be quick to obey all that He has commanded us (Matt. 28:20), including His command to make disciples of all the nations. To seek first His kingdom and righteousness means that we will not spend our time and money as the rest of our self-centered American culture does. If Jesus is risen, then we must be radically obedient to His kingdom commands.
Because God’s power is greater than our hard hearts, we should be quick to believe, worship, and obey the risen Savior.
The noted historian and Oxford professor Thomas Arnold wrote (cited by MacArthur, ibid., p. 314; from Wilbur Smith, Therefore Stand: Christian Apologetics [Baker, 1965], pp. 425-426):
The evidence for our Lord’s life and death and resurrection may be, and often has been, shown to be satisfactory; it is good according to the common rules for distinguishing good evidence from bad. Thousands and tens of thousands of persons have gone through it piece by piece as carefully as every judge summing upon a most important case. I myself have done it many times over, not to persuade others but to satisfy myself. I have been used for many years to study the histories of other times and to examine and weigh the evidence of those who have written about them, and I know of no one fact in the history of mankind which is proved by better and fuller evidence of every sort, to the understanding of a fair inquirer, than the great sign which God has given us that Christ died and rose again from the dead.
The evidence is not lacking! The question is, will you believe it, worship the risen Christ, and obey the commands that His rightful lordship place on your life?
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2007, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
March 23, 2008
Resurrection Sunday
A Vietnamese pastor was thrown into prison, leaving his wife and children to fend for themselves. The family’s home was taken, so that the destitute wife and children were forced to live on an open balcony, exposed to the drenching rain. And yet, she was full of joy in the Lord for His comfort and care. She wrote,
When we experience misfortune, adversity, distress and hardship, only then do we see the real blessing of the Lord poured down on us in such a way that we cannot contain it….
I do not know what words to use in order to describe the love that the Lord has shown our family. I only can bow my knee and my heart and offer to the Lord words of deepest thanks and praise. Although we have lost our house and our possessions, we have not lost the Lord, and He is enough. With the Lord I have everything. The only thing I would fear losing is His blessing!
She concluded, “As far as my husband is concerned, I was able to visit him this past summer. We had a 20-minute conversation that brought us great joy….” (Cited by Richard Swenson, Margin [NavPress], pp. 188-190.)
That dear woman has the kind of hope in the midst of overwhelming trials that we all need, although few of us experience it. I confess that often in my minor trials, I’m prone to complaining. So I need—we all need—joyous hope in the Lord to sustain us through our trials. We need hope that is rooted in reality, not in wishful thinking or positive thinking. We need hope that will sustain us in the most difficult times.
The news of Jesus’ resurrection brought hope to people who were overwhelmed by despair and grief. You see the deep disappointment in the words of the men on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:21). Concerning the crucified Jesus, they said, “But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel.” “We were hoping….” But their hopes had been dashed.
The disciples were engulfed by gloom. They had left everything to follow Jesus, pinning all of their hopes on Him as the Messiah. But now, He was dead. On top of the shock of watching Jesus’ grisly death on the cross, Peter was wrestling with his own failure in denying the Lord. All of the disciples were guilty of abandoning Him and fleeing in fear.
We also see grief and despair in the tears of Mary Magdalene. The Greek word used to describe her weeping means loud, uncontrollable wailing. She was despondent that not only had Jesus died, but now they had taken away His body so that she could not give Him a proper burial.
It was to people overwhelmed by such a dark cloud of grief that the fact of Jesus’ bodily resurrection broke in with life-changing hope. The fact that Jesus is risen and ascended into heaven, soon to return for His own, can break into your life with genuine hope in the midst of your worst trials, if you will learn the lessons from this story.
It is significant that Mary Magdalene was the first person to whom Jesus revealed Himself after His resurrection (Mark 16:9). She was not an especially important person, and she was a woman. In that culture, women were not considered reliable witnesses in court. You would think that the Lord would have picked some men as the first witnesses of His resurrection. I probably would have picked Peter, or maybe John. If you wanted to pick a woman, most would have picked Mary, the mother of the Lord, or perhaps Mary of Bethany, who anointed Him just before His death. But Mary Magdalene was first.
That fact is even more arresting when you recall that Mary had a rather seamy past. Jesus had cast seven demons out of her (Luke 8:2). Seven is the biblical number of perfection, so perhaps we are to understand that Mary was under the total domination of satanic power. While there is no biblical evidence for the commonly held belief that she had been a prostitute, we can surmise that a woman under demonic power did not have a puritanical past. Jesus had rescued her from a horrible life of sin.
The fact that the Lord revealed Himself first to Mary Magdalene shines a ray of hope for every person struggling with sin and guilt. If the Savior rescued this insignificant, demon-possessed woman from her life of sin and chose her to be the first witness of His resurrection, then He can save you from your sin and use you to bear witness of Him to others! This story teaches us that…
Sorrows are turned to hope when we seek the risen Savior.
The background of the story is in verses 1-10. Mary had been to the tomb and discovered that the stone was taken away. She ran to Peter and John and excitedly reported (20:2), “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.” Peter and John immediately ran to the tomb. John got there first, but just looked in. In his usual blustery fashion, Peter entered the tomb and discovered the grave clothes without Jesus’ body. Probably at this point, John believed that Jesus was risen (20:8), but Peter was still wondering about what had happened (Luke 24:12). But neither man understood yet from the Scriptures that Jesus must rise from the dead (John 20:9). After viewing the empty tomb, both men returned home.
Meanwhile, Mary Magdalene had arrived and she remained by the tomb, weeping. She wanted to find Jesus, although at this point all she expected to find was His corpse. In her thinking, someone had added insult to injury by robbing the grave.
In this state of confusion, she stooped and looked into the tomb, where she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet of where Jesus’ body had been lying. They ask Mary (20:13), “Woman, why are you weeping?” Jesus will repeat the same question and add another (20:15), “Whom do you seek?” Neither Jesus nor the angels were asking those questions to gain information for themselves! Rather, they wanted Mary (and us) to think about the implications of those questions, because in doing so we will learn how seeking the risen Savior will turn our sorrows into hope. So let’s explore these questions:
“Why are you weeping?”
The point of this repeated question was to get Mary to process her sorrow in light of the fact that Jesus was now risen. Yes, watching the crucifixion had been indescribably traumatic. You have to work through the emotional shock of such an event. But, Mary was now weeping from sorrow because the tomb was empty, whereas that fact should have caused her to weep for joy! Mary’s experience reveals three reasons why we often go through sorrow, which we need to process in light of Jesus’ resurrection.
Mary was deeply disappointed, first by the shock of the crucifixion, but now by the fact that she wanted to finish embalming Jesus’ body. She was thinking, “If only God would let me know where they laid Him, I could finish embalming His body!”
So often, we’re just like Mary. We’re disappointed because we don’t know what we think we need to know to do what we think we need to do. We’re disappointed because God isn’t working as we think He needs to work. It seems that His promises aren’t true! But from God’s perspective, we’re asking the wrong questions and trying to accomplish the wrong tasks! We need to process our disappointments in light of the risen Savior’s love and care for us. We often don’t understand His sovereign perspective.
Mary thought that evil men had triumphed over God’s sovereign purposes. They had killed Jesus and now they had stolen His body. Twice she laments (20:2, 13), “they have taken away my Lord….” It’s an ironic complaint. If He is the Lord, no one could take Him anywhere without His consent! If God gives His angels charge concerning Messiah to guard Him in all His ways (Ps. 91:11-12; Luke 4:10-11), then surely God would not permit the crucifixion and then allow the body to be stolen against His sovereign will.
We often suffer needless sorrow because we forget that God is sovereign and that evil men can’t do anything to thwart His eternal purpose. Years ago, I heard a tragic story of a 28-year-old woman in California, who went to the mall one evening to buy a wedding present for a friend. She and her family were committed Christians, heavily involved in the cause of world missions. That night the mall was almost empty. Two evil men abducted this godly young woman and raped and murdered her. It was a senseless, brutal crime that snuffed out a life that had great potential for God’s kingdom.
While that woman’s husband and parents will wrestle all of their lives with unanswered questions of why God allowed this, I contend that there is no comfort apart from the facts of God’s sovereignty and Jesus’ resurrection. If those facts are true, then someday God will work it all together for good (Rom. 8:28). Although evil men crucified Jesus, they were only inadvertently fulfilling God’s sovereign purposes (Acts 4:27-28).
Of course we grieve when we lose a loved one. In many cases, we will feel the loss every day for the rest of our lives. It’s not wrong to weep over such losses (John 16:20). But the Bible says that although we grieve, we do not grieve as those who have no hope (1 Thess. 4:13). The hope that Jesus is risen and that He is coming again to take us to be with Him and with our loved ones who have died in Him, sustains us through our tears. While we may never understand why God allowed a loved one to die, we can know, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His godly ones” (Ps. 116:15). Whatever our loss, we must process our sorrow in light of the sure fact that Jesus is risen. Because He is risen, His promises are true! Those promises give us hope in our sorrow.
Perhaps the risen Lord is asking you the same question that He asked Mary: “Why are you weeping?” Maybe, like Mary, you’re inclined to think, “That’s a dumb question! Lord, don’t You see what they have done? I’m weeping because they….” The Lord gently says, “Wait a minute! The tomb is empty because I have risen. Now, why are you weeping?”
But, there is a second important question that the risen Lord asks Mary (20:15): “Whom are you seeking?” He asks it even before she has a chance to answer the first question, because the answer to why she is weeping is found in the answer of whom she is seeking.
Clearly, Mary was seeking a dead Lord (20:13, 15). Her devotion to Jesus is commendable, but really, what good would it have done for Mary to haul off the body of a dead Jesus and add a few more embalming spices? A dead religion that dresses up the corpse of a dead prophet does no good! Only a living Savior who has triumphed over the grave offers hope for our sorrows.
Mary knew that, of course. But she had forgotten that Messiah’s death was prophesied in the Scripture hundreds of years before He came. We don’t have time to read the entire chapter, but Isaiah 53 predicted Jesus’ death in miraculous detail. It says (53:5-6), “But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.”
David is equally explicit in Psalm 22, which begins with the haunting words that Jesus cried from the cross, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?” It goes on to describe in detail a death by crucifixion, hundreds of years before that was a known means of execution.
Jesus Himself said that He came to this world to lay down His life for His sheep (John 10:11-18). If you do not know Jesus Christ, crucified for your sins, you do not know Him at all. You must come to God as a guilty sinner and trust in Jesus as the only perfect sacrifice. If you trust in His shed blood, God will forgive your sins because of what Jesus did on the cross.
Just as the Scriptures predicted that Jesus would die, so they predicted His resurrection. In Isaiah 53, the prophet goes on to tell of how the One who was pierced through for our transgressions would also divide the booty with the strong. A dead Messiah who stayed in the grave could not do that! Only a risen Savior could.
In Psalm 22:22, after describing death by crucifixion and talking of God’s deliverance, Messiah proclaims, “I will tell of Your name to my brethren” Only a risen Savior could do that! Note Jesus’ words (John 20:17), “go to My brethren….” It is significant that this is the first time Jesus refers to the disciples as His brethren. Why did He do that? Clearly, He said this to fulfill Psalm 22! He is telling Mary to proclaim to His brethren that God has not left Him in the tomb. He is risen and He will ascend to His Father!
Jesus told Mary (20:17), “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’” This verse raises questions that I can only touch on here: Why does Jesus ask Mary to stop clinging to Him, when He accepted the touch of the other women on resurrection morning (Matt. 28:9) and He invited Thomas to touch Him a week later (John 20:27)? Why does He mention His ascension?
Merrill Tenney explains (The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, ed. by Frank Gaebelein [Zondervan], 9:191), “He was not refusing to be touched but was making clear that she did not need to detain him, for he had not yet ascended to the Father. He planned to remain with the disciples for a little while; she need not fear that he would vanish immediately. Ultimately he would return to God, and he urged her to tell the disciples that he would do so.” Also, the fact that Mary was clinging to Jesus shows that He was not a phantom. He was raised bodily from the dead and He ascended bodily into heaven, and He will return bodily in power and glory.
Note also that Jesus both links and yet distinguishes His relationship with the Father and theirs. Christ by nature is eternally the Son of God, whereas we are only sons of God by adoption. He by the incarnation as the Son of Man could call the Father, “My God.” We can only do so by grace through faith in Christ as our Mediator. But, in our deepest sorrows, it is a great comfort that we have access to the Father through our risen Lord Jesus Christ!
These two questions, “Why are you weeping?” and “Whom are you seeking?” raise two further questions. First, “What results from seeking the risen Savior?” The answer to this question is stated in my second main heading, and so I include it here:
Mary’s gloom was turned to joy when the Lord spoke one word: “Mary!” Her eyes may not yet have recognized Jesus, but her ears knew that voice! Jesus said that He is the good Shepherd, who calls His sheep by name. He knows each one and they know Him (John 10:3-5, 14, 27). He still seeks individuals. He still calls His sheep by name. You can take your sorrows to Him and have a private audience with the good Shepherd who knows your name.
And, He calls us His brethren! As I said, this is the first time Jesus has called the disciples His brethren (fulfilling Ps. 22:22). But it is instructive to note that when He sent this word to them, they were still reeling from their failure and guilt. Although Peter had failed most prominently, all the disciples had abandoned Jesus and fled in fear. Although Thomas is the most well-known for his doubting, all the disciples ridiculed the early reports from the women about the resurrection (Luke 24:11).
Yet it was these men that had failed and sinned that Jesus calls brethren. When they heard that word from Mary, I can imagine them asking, “What did He call us?” When she affirmed it, their sorrow would have been turned to hope.
Perhaps in your sorrow, you have doubted the Lord or even denied Him. If you will seek Him as Mary did, you will hear Him call your name and your sorrow will turn to hope.
Finally, “How shall we seek the risen Savior?”
*Seek the risen Savior honestly. Don’t try to cover your tears or get yourself together first. Mary didn’t. Jesus knows your every struggle. Come to Him just as you are, tears and all.
*Seek the risen Savior diligently. Mary was the first at the tomb and she stayed after everyone else had gone home. The Savior rewarded her desire to find Him. Later, Thomas was not with the other disciples when Jesus appeared, so he had to wait a week. Probably, he was too depressed to be around others, but he missed the Savior. Maybe you’re depressed, but don’t let that keep you from showing up where you might find the Savior. Seek Him diligently and you will find Him.
*Seek the risen Savior personally. Note verse 13, “my Lord.” The closeness of Mary’s fellowship with Jesus comes through in the way she recognized Him the instant He spoke her name. The only way you will ever find hope in your sorrows is to seek Jesus personally. There is no group plan. Your mate’s seeking Him won’t do for you. You must seek Him yourself. You don’t have to be anyone special—maybe just a demon-possessed girl from an insignificant town—for Him to save you and turn your sorrow into hope.
*Seek the risen Savior obediently. He isn’t an Aladdin’s genie, to meet your every wish. He won’t necessarily solve all your problems the way that you think He should. He is the Lord. He commands and His servants must obey. When Jesus told Mary to stop clinging to Him and go to His brethren, I’m sure that she would rather have stayed right there with Jesus. We don’t know whether He vanished before she left, but if He didn’t, it would have been difficult to obey His command. Leave this encounter with the risen Savior to go to a bunch of depressed men who wouldn’t believer her anyway? But, Mary obeyed.
Often, when you seek the Lord, He will not grant your request directly. Instead, He will command you to do something you may not want to do at first. But as you obey Him, He will turn your sorrow into hope.
During World War II, a secret message got through to some American prisoners in a German concentration camp that the war was over. But it would be yet three days before that word got to their German captors. During those three days, nothing changed in terms of their hardships in the prison. But their attitude changed from despair to hope. They knew that they would be released because the Allies had won the war.
Whatever your sorrows or trials today, you can have hope because Jesus won the victory over death. He has risen and He asks you the same questions that He asked Mary: “Why are you weeping?” “Whom are you seeking?” If through your tears, you will seek the risen Savior, He will turn your sorrows into hope. But you must seek Him honestly, diligently, personally, and obediently.
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2008, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
April 12, 2009
Special Easter Message
You may wonder what the parable of the prodigal son has to do with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is the normal subject for an Easter message. I grant that you will not find Jesus Christ, His death, or His resurrection in the story. It is there implicitly, because the story of the prodigal son (which, as Tim Keller and others have pointed out, should really be called “the prodigal sons” or “the prodigal God”) is about the essence of true Christianity. And true Christianity rests on the substitutionary death and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 15:1-19). We can only be reconciled to the Father through Him (John 14:6).
But in this short parable, Jesus does not go into many of the theological aspects of salvation. This does not mean that these truths are not essential. Rather, Jesus was making one main point and so He does not cover the gamut of theology here. That point is that God joyously welcomes repentant sinners into His presence.
What drew me to this well-known parable as our text for this Easter Sunday is the sentence that the father of the prodigal repeats twice. He first states it as his reason for throwing a party (15:24), “for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.” Then he repeats it in his plea to the older brother to come in to the celebration (15:32), “But we had to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found.” So it’s a story of great joy because a sinner has been changed from death to life. And as we know (even though it’s not explicitly in this story), such a change in any person is only possible because Jesus Christ died for our sins and was raised again to life.
The chapter begins by noting that many tax collectors (notorious scoundrels) and sinners were listening to Jesus, but the scribes and Pharisees were grumbling (Luke 15:2), “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” Jesus responds to their accusation by telling three stories. The first two are about a shepherd who finds his lost sheep and about a woman who finds a lost, valuable coin. In both stories, the lesson is the same, that there is great joy in heaven over one sinner who repents (15:7, 10).
Then Jesus tells the story of the lost son, which really is about two lost sons. When the first lost son returns home again, we again see the theme of great joy because this lost son has been found. But then Jesus concludes with the angry response of the older brother to the father’s joy. By doing so, Jesus skillfully confronts His critics, the Pharisees, by painting them into the picture and leaving them to consider the question: “Will you rejoice as God does when a dead sinner is brought to life, or will you remain alienated from the Father as you now are?”
Before we draw some lessons, we need to understand the dynamics of the story in its cultural setting. (I’m relying here on many of the insights of Dr. Kenneth Bailey, who lived for many years in the Middle East and studied this parable from the perspective of Middle Eastern culture [on “Expositapes # 2,” from Denver Seminary, no date]. Also, I’m drawing from Tim Keller’s The Prodigal God [Dutton], who also acknowledges his debt to Dr. Bailey.)
The parable begins with what Jesus’ audience would have considered a shocking incident: a young man asks his father to give him his share of the family estate. In that culture, when the father died the oldest son would have received two-thirds of the family estate and other heirs would have gotten one-third (Deut. 21:17). Sometimes a father might voluntarily divide up his property to his sons before his death. But it was unthinkable for a son to ask his still-healthy father to give him his share of the inheritance! It was an act of great disrespect towards the father. In essence, the boy was saying, “I don’t care about you and I don’t want anything further to do with you. You might as well be dead as far as I’m concerned. I just want your money!”
Also, in that culture the inheritance would consist primarily of the family land, handed down from generation to generation. It normally would have been sold only under dire financial straits, and then to a kinsman. But to sell the family property, take the proceeds and move out of the Promised Land to a distant Gentile country was shocking. People in the village would have wondered, “What’s going on in that family for this boy to do such a terrible thing?” It would have shamed the father and it would have made the boy a social outcast should he ever return.
And so the father’s response would have shocked Jesus’ audience. Normally, a Middle Eastern father would have slapped such an impudent son in the face. Then he would have driven the son out of the family and disinherited him. But the father didn’t do that. He simply complied by dividing his wealth between his sons. Without anger, the father endures this terrible humiliation and the pain of a son who rejects his love and wants to get as far away from him as possible.
Next, the younger son takes the money from selling the land (to sell it quickly, he probably only got a pittance of what it was worth), moves to a distant country, and squanders everything with loose living. Jesus does not stipulate whether such loose living involved prostitutes. That is the angry accusation of the older brother (15:30) and it may have been true. But we don’t know for sure.
Then two things happen: due to his own stupidity, the boy runs out of money. And due to God’s providence, a severe famine hits the country where he is living. But he is not yet low enough to return to his father and admit his mistakes. Rather, he attaches himself to a citizen of that country and is assigned what would be the worst job in the world for a Jew, to feed the pigs. The young man became so hungry that he was tempted to eat the carob pods that he was feeding to the pigs. He now hits the bottom!
Hard times have a way of making a man think more clearly! So the young man comes to his senses. He thinks about his father’s hired men. They all have more than enough bread, but here he is, dying of hunger (15:17). So he comes up with a plan. He recognizes that he has sinned against God (“heaven” is a figure of speech for God) and against his father. So, he determines to go to his father, confess his sin, and ask his father to make him as one of his hired men. Perhaps he is thinking that this arrangement would allow him someday to pay back the money that he had squandered so that the family could recover the sold land.
So, he gets up and heads for home. The young man would have been humiliated to show his face in the village, but he goes anyway. The father sees the boy coming from a long ways off. This can only mean that many times each day the father scanned the road to see if his wayward son might be coming home. When he saw his son, the father felt deep compassion for him. This caused him to do something else that would have been shocking to Jesus’ audience: he ran to the boy! In that culture, patriarchs did not run. It was undignified. To run, you had to pull up your ground-length robe and expose your bare legs, which was disgraceful. Boys might run and young men might run, but older men did not run. But this father throws aside his dignity and runs to his son.
When he gets to him, the father ignores the son’s stench, falls on his neck and tenderly kisses him. This would have been completely unexpected and shocking. In that culture, a wayward son might have been grudgingly permitted to come back into the village, but he would have been humiliated and scorned. The father would have been unavailable or distant and aloof. When David allowed his murderous son Absalom to return, he refused see him for two years (2 Sam. 14:24, 28). Then, when the boy did see his father, he would be made to grovel. The father coldly would have set forth the demands that the boy would have to fulfill to earn his restoration to the family. There would not be any show of affection. But this father hugs and kisses his son.
The son begins his rehearsed statement of confession, but he leaves off the part about becoming one of his father’s hired men. I think that he was interrupted by his father’s commands to the servants to bring the robe, the ring, and the sandals.
The father tells the servants (15:22-23), “Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; and bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and celebrate.” The best robe would have been the father’s own robe, worn only on the most important occasions. The robe, the ring, and the sandals all showed that the boy was being welcomed back, not as a hired hand or as a disgraced son who now needed to earn his way back into the family. He is welcomed back with full acceptance. He stumbled home barefoot and smelling like the pigsty, but the father effusively welcomes him in an outburst of undeserved, unexpected, joyous love. Then he kills the fattened calf, hires a band, calls in the whole village, and throws a party! What a scene!
If Jesus had ended the story here, His pharisaic audience would have shrugged it off. This story went against not only many of their cultural standards, but also against their religious ideas. No self-respecting earthly father would have done what this father did. And surely, God is not like this, is He? God doesn’t welcome filthy sinners into His holy presence, does He? He accepts those that keep His commandments, but He has nothing to do with sinners! We have to earn God’s favor, don’t we?
But Jesus doesn’t end the story there. He concludes by telling us about the other lost son, the older brother. He comes in from the field and as he approaches the house, he hears music and dancing. Rather than going in to check it out for himself—he may have feared that this would happen—he calls one of the servant boys and asks him what’s going on. When he explains the situation, the older brother is incensed and refuses to go in. The culturally proper thing would have been for him to go in, scowl at his no-good brother, and by his dour countenance show everyone how much he disapproved of the party. Later, in private, he could have confronted his father.
But instead, he humiliates his father in front of all the guests by refusing to go in to the party. Again, the father does something unexpected: he goes out and tenderly pleads with his older son, showing the father’s love for this son as well. But the older son is just plain rude. Rather than respectfully addressing him as “father,” he says (15:29), “Look! For so many years I have been serving you and I have never neglected a command of yours; and yet you have never given me a young goat, so that I might celebrate with my friends.” This is a shocking outburst. He’s saying, “Look, you owe me big time! I’ve never done anything to wrong you and yet you haven’t even given me a goat, much less a fatted calf, so that I could have a party with my friends.” He’s accusing his father of being unfair. He’s insulting his father of being prodigal (extravagant) by spending his wealth on this no-good son of his (he won’t call him his brother!).
The father responds with gentleness to this rude assault on his honor. He says (15:31), “Son, you have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours.” He has always had access to the father’s goods, but he has been so distant from the father that he has never utilized these abundant resources. The older brother’s self-righteousness and anger have prevented him from experiencing the father’s abundant bounty and from the joy of welcoming back his repentant brother. All he can do is sit outside and sulk and miss the party. The father ends with this appeal (15:32), “But we had to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours [not, “my son”!] was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found.”
We could draw many lessons from this profound parable, but I want to zero in on just one. Maybe it will shock you!
True Christianity is essentially not a matter of moralism, but rather of being alive to the Father.
I can only hit some highlights:
There are two ways to be dead or lost or alienated from the Father. One way is to be like the younger brother—to walk away from the Father’s love and move to a distant country.
He rejected the father’s values. He wanted freedom to explore other ways to live. He was tired of the narrow-minded religious mores. He felt restricted by the family’s religious heritage. In modern terms, he didn’t like going to church every Sunday and missing out on all the fun that he could have partying with the world. So by his open rebellion and loose living, he cut himself off from this incredibly kind, gracious, loving father. But,
You’ll miss the point of the story if you do not see that there are two dead sons, in terms of their relationship to their father. This “good” son at home didn’t love the father any more than the prodigal son did while he was in the distant country. He was lost precisely because of his own “goodness.” He was proud of the fact that he always did his duty. His pride made him feel that the father owed him something. He had rights that he had earned and if the father didn’t give him those rights, then he had a right to be angry! And, he didn’t cherish the love of the father. He just wanted to use the father to get what he wanted, his own party with his own friends and his own inheritance. He didn’t care about his father.
But true Christianity is not a matter of using God to get what you want, but rather of loving God because of who He is. True Christianity is not a matter of being an unhappy, dutiful son, but rather of joyfully receiving and enjoying the undeserved love and extravagant bounty of the Father. True Christianity is not at its heart a matter of moralism, but of being alive toward God, in a close loving relationship with Him, experiencing the joy of His grace. But how do you become alive to the Father?
The younger son finally, in his degraded condition in the pigsty, came to see his need for his father. He realized that because his father was a kind and generous man, even the hired men had it better than he did. And so, recognizing his need and his father’s goodness, he left the distant country and his rebellious way of life and returned to the father. He left his so-called “friends.” He left his attempt to make it on his own in the distant country. He left his loose ways. He returned to the only one who could help him—his gracious father.
The younger son did not make up excuses for the terrible things that he had done. He didn’t blame the father for being too strict or blame his religious upbringing. He didn’t blame his legalistic older brother, even though the older brother may have been one reason he took off. Rather, he openly confessed that he had sinned against God and against his father. And, he returned to his father just as he was.
The older brother, however, was blind to his alienation from the father. He didn’t see his need for his father’s extravagant love. He didn’t need his grace because he felt that he had earned his place in life. He was a dutiful son! The father owed him a few things! His unawareness of his sin caused him not to see his need for the father’s grace. “Just give me what I deserve!”
Many who grow up in the church are like the younger brother. They reject their godly upbringing and wallow in our immoral culture, trying to find happiness in sin. But there are also many like the older brother. They keep the rules, but they don’t love the Father. They don’t enjoy His grace. They don’t know His joy.
How can you tell if you’re an older brother? Are you angry with God? Do you feel that He is unfair towards you? Are you proud of your dutiful obedience? Do you think that God has not treated you as well as you really deserve? Do you despise and want nothing to do with those who are down and out because of their sin? Do you want God to judge them? If you see yourself in any of these questions, you may be an older brother! Like the lukewarm church of Laodicea, you need to see your true condition, that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked (Rev. 3:17). Also, you need to see what happens when you see your need and return to the Father:
True joy is not found in the distant country, partying with your worldly friends. True joy is not found slaving in the fields for God, while you’re angry and bitter because you think that He doesn’t treat you rightly. True joy is found when you see how selfish and proud and sinful you have been and you return to the Father in true repentance and brokenness. He joyously welcomes every repentant sinner to His banquet table!
It cost the Father dearly to provide the way of reconciliation for alienated sinners. Just as the father of the two sons bore humiliation and shame to be reconciled with them, so the heavenly Father sent His Son to bear the shame our sins on the cross. Just as the father of the two sons freely gave of his wealth, so the heavenly Father gave the most costly gift, His own Son. As you grow in your awareness of how much it cost the Father to welcome you into the family, it will not make you want to move to the distant country and live apart from the Father. It will not make you want to stay outside the party and sulk about how mistreated you’ve been. You’ll want to obey the Father joyously because of His abundant kindness towards you. But the motive for your obedience is not duty. It is the delight of being alive toward God.
If you were to ask people on the street what it means to be a Christian, most of them would say that it means believing in Jesus, going to church, and trying to be a good person. They view heaven as a reward that you earn. But they just described the joyless older brother! They have no concept of Christianity as a joyous relationship with a kind, gracious, and accepting Father, who at great cost sent His own Son to pay the penalty for our sins. They have no experience of the joy of knowing the risen Savior. They don’t realize that true Christianity is not essentially a matter of moralism, but rather of being alive to God in Christ.
You are either dead towards the Father or alive towards him. You may be a dutiful, moral church member, but you’re angry at God and alienated from Him. You’re either in the party with the Father or outside without Him. There’s no in between. Jesus ends the story without giving the response of the elder brother. It’s an open invitation to all religious older brothers who are proud of their morality, but alienated from the Father. Respond now to the Father’s costly, extravagant love and come in to the party!
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2009, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
April 4, 2010
Easter Sunday Message
Why be a Christian? Why not be an agnostic or an atheist? Why not live to pursue all of the sexual pleasure that you can get? Why not live to get rich, so that you can enjoy the good life? Why not be a Buddhist or a Hindu or a Muslim? Or, why not join the Baha’i religion, which combines the best from all of the world’s religions? Why be a Christian?
I was reared in a Christian home, so I never really thought about any other options until I got to college. As a philosophy major I was hit with all of the different paths in life that you can take. I had to decide whether I would follow the faith of my parents or whether any of these other options were the way to go.
As I thought about it, I realized that the answer to the question, “Why be a Christian?” (as opposed to anything else) centers in the answer to the question that Jesus asked His disciples (Matt. 16:15), “Who do you say that I am?” If Jesus is who He claimed to be and if the apostolic witness to Jesus is credible, then He is the eternal God in human flesh. I must trust in Him and submit all of my life to His rightful lordship. Everything centers on who Jesus is and what He came to do. And those facts confronted me with who I was, namely, a sinner who stood guilty before the holy God.
Peter’s second sermon in Acts deals with these matters. God had just used Peter and John to heal a man who had been lame from birth. A crowd quickly gathered, amazed at what had happened. Peter delivered this sermon, summarized here, that God used to save 2,000 souls (Acts 2:41; 4:4). Since he was talking to “men of Israel” (3:12), Peter used language and concepts that Jewish people could understand. I’ll try to explain his thought so that you can see how his message relates to you. To sum it up:
You should be a Christian because Jesus Christ is the only exalted Savior and Lord who will rescue you from God’s judgment if you will repent of your sins.
You must understand who Jesus is as the only exalted Savior and Lord. You also need to understand why He came to this earth, namely, to rescue sinners from God’s judgment. And, you must understand what you must do to escape from God’s judgment, namely, repent of your sins.
Peter’s sermon is full of the Lord Jesus Christ. Any reflection on his message confronts us with the crucial question, Who is Jesus Christ? Is He a mere man who had some good moral teachings? If so, I’m free to adopt whatever of His teachings I find helpful and ignore the rest. But if He is the only Savior and Lord, prophesied of in the Old Testament, crucified in accordance with God’s plan, but risen from the dead as He predicted, then He is also the coming Judge of the whole earth. This risen Christ imposes some inescapable claims on every life. You can ignore Him at your own peril, or follow Him as Savior and Lord. But everything hinges on Jesus’ question, “Who do you say that I am?”
Peter begins his sermon (3:12) by deflecting the glory for the miracle away from John and him, as if they had either the power or piety to make a lame man walk. Rather, Peter says (vv. 13, 16), “It was God who glorified the name of His servant Jesus by healing this man.” And in the same way, only God can save anyone from sin and judgment through Jesus Christ. I can’t save anyone by my preaching or my powers of persuasion. You can’t save yourself by your own determination or good works. Only God can save you and He does it through His risen, exalted servant, Jesus Christ. That way, He gets all the glory.
First, we’ll consider who Jesus is and then what He came to do.
Peter uses numerous titles that apply to Jesus, but they are all summed up in the phrase, “the name of Jesus” (3:16): “And on the basis of faith in His name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know; ...” Peter is referring to what happened as recorded in verse 6, “In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene—walk!” Jesus’ name stands for everything that He is. To the Jews, “the Name” was a way of referring to God. They would not even pronounce His name, “Yahweh.” Peter here exalts the name of Jesus.
Jesus comes from the Hebrew name, Joshua, which means, “Yahweh saves.” The angel told Joseph to name Mary’s son Jesus, because “He will save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). Jesus also points to our Lord’s humanity, since he was given that name at His birth, having been miraculously conceived in Mary through the Holy Spirit (see Luke 1:30-37).
Peter also refers to Jesus as the Servant of “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” (3:13). The word “servant” is used in the Greek version of Isaiah 52:13-53:12, where the prophet predicts that the coming Servant would be “pierced through for our transgressions” and that the Lord would cause “the iniquity of us all to fall on Him” (53:5-6). As the Lord’s Servant, Jesus did not come to do His own will, but rather to submit fully to God’s will, especially to offer Himself for our sins.
Peter also calls Jesus “the Holy and Righteous One” (3:14). Jesus was without any sin. He fulfilled what the Jewish sacrifices typified. In 1 Peter 1:19, Peter refers to Jesus as the “lamb unblemished and spotless,” who shed His blood to redeem us from our sins. Because Jesus was sinless, He could offer Himself as the substitute for sinners, without needing to make atonement for His own sins. “Righteous One” focuses on the fact that Jesus always obeyed God (Isa. 53:9; John 8:29, 46).
Peter also refers to Jesus as “the Prince of life” (Acts 3:15). The word “prince” means leader, author, or originator (see Heb. 2:10; 12:2). As the Prince or Author of life, Jesus originates life, both physically and spiritually. Just prior to raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus told Martha (John 11:25-26), “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.” Then He pointedly asked Martha the question each of us must answer, “Do you believe this?”
Peter refers to Jesus as God’s Christ, appointed for you (Acts 3:18, 20). “Christ” and “Messiah” both mean “Anointed One.” Jesus was not a self-appointed Christ. God appointed Him as His Anointed One. As such, He fulfills the many Old Testament Messianic prophecies (e.g., Psalms 2, 16, 22, 110).
Peter also shows (3:22) that Jesus is the prophet whom Moses predicted in Deuteronomy 18:15 (see John 1:21, 25; 6:14; 7:40). Not only that, Jesus was the one of whom all the prophets, from Samuel onward, had spoken (Acts 3:24). While Samuel himself made no recorded prophecy about the Messiah, he anointed David as king and spoke of the establishment of his kingdom through his descendent, which was fulfilled in Jesus (1 Sam. 13:14; 15:28; 28:17; 2 Sam. 7:12-16).
Furthermore, Jesus is the seed of Abraham through whom all the nations of the earth shall be blessed (Acts 3:25). Peter concludes (3:26) by stating again that Jesus is God’s Servant, whom He raised up (in the sense of 3:22, “appointed”) and sent to bless them by turning them from their wicked ways. Thus Peter, speaking to his Jewish audience, has shown Jesus to fulfill God’s promises to Abraham, Moses, and David.
The point is, Jesus Christ is unique in all of history. He fulfilled over 300 Old Testament prophecies, written hundreds of years in advance. As I mentioned in a recent message, the statistical odds of anyone fulfilling just eight of these prophecies is astronomical. It would be like covering the state of Texas two-feet deep in silver dollars, marking one, and having a blindfolded man pick that one (Peter Stoner, Science Speaks [Moody Press], pp. 99-112). And that’s just eight prophecies. If you take all 300, the odds defy comprehension. If Jesus is the exalted, risen Lord and Savior who is coming again to judge the earth, then you cannot ignore Him!
Jesus died on the cross. After showing who Jesus is—God’s Servant, the Holy and Righteous One, the Prince of Life, the Christ, the Prophet, and the seed of Abraham—Peter’s audience should have realized that while they killed Jesus, at the same time He laid down His life willingly. They were responsible for their sin of putting Jesus to death, and yet, at the same time, it had been announced beforehand by God’s prophets “that His Christ would suffer” and now God had fulfilled His word (3:18). As Isaiah 53 shows, God’s servant would bear the sins of His people. The apostles themselves did not understand this clearly until after the resurrection, when Jesus explained to them that the Christ had to suffer these things before He entered into His glory (Luke 24:26, 46).
The cross of Christ is the main thing that you must consider with reference to the question, “Why be a Christian?” The Bible clearly states, “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). Since we all have sinned, we all deserve God’s punishment. The death spoken of is not only physical death, but also what the Bible calls “the second death,” which it describes as eternity in the lake of fire (Rev. 20:14). On the cross, Jesus bore that awful penalty for all who will repent of their sins and trust in Him.
The cross humbles our pride, because it robs us of the glory of being our own savior. It also humbles us by showing that we aren’t pretty good people who just need a little boost from God to get into heaven. If we were, then Christ died needlessly. We are sinners, alienated from God and unable to do anything to save ourselves. If Christ had not died for us, we would be eternally lost.
Jesus was raised from the dead and ascended into heaven. Neither death nor all the powers of hell could hold down “the Prince of life” (3:15)! Peter testifies that God raised Him from the dead, “a fact to which we are witnesses” (3:15). If Jesus’ body had still been in the tomb or if the Jewish leaders knew the whereabouts of Jesus’ body, Peter and the other apostles would have been laughed out of town for making such a claim. The fact that Peter could boldly declare this and 2,000 people that day believed it proves that the resurrection was a historic event, not an imaginary tale. Jesus was raised bodily from the dead. This is the central fact of Christianity, without which everything else falls to the ground (1 Cor. 15:12-19).
Jesus is coming again to fulfill God’s promises to Israel and to judge all who reject Him. If Peter’s audience wondered, “If He is raised, where is He?” Peter explains (3:19-21), “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.”
Jesus is now in heaven, but He will return and fulfill God’s promises to Israel. But, if the Jews wanted Messiah’s kingdom to come, they needed to accept Jesus as the Messiah. You can’t have the kingdom without accepting the King! And if they doubted that Jesus is the predicted Messiah, then read the prophets! As I said, Jesus fulfilled the many Old Testament prophecies about Messiah as no one else could do.
The “times of refreshing” have both an immediate and a long range fulfillment for those who repent of their sins and trust in Jesus as Savior and Lord. Immediately, He floods your life with all the blessings of salvation. Your sins are forgiven. You receive new life. You enter into a relationship with the living God. As His child, you are invited into His presence to receive grace to help in all your needs. And, long range, you have the promise of a glorious eternity with Christ in a new heavens and new earth, in which righteousness dwells (2 Pet. 3:13)!
But there is also a sober note of warning. When Jesus comes, “every soul that does not heed” [obey] Him “shall be utterly destroyed from among the people” (3:23). He will come again as the Savior of those who believe in Him, but as the fearful Judge of those who disobey Him. You’re either on one side or the other.
Thus Peter shows us who Jesus is: the exalted Savior and Lord; and what Jesus did: He died on the cross for sinners, was raised from the dead, and is coming again, either for salvation for those who obey Him or judgment for those who do not. But we need to explore this theme of sin and judgment a bit deeper:
Peter is not diplomatic! He hits his audience squarely with the terrible sin that they had committed in crucifying Jesus. At the outset (3:13), he nails them for disowning Jesus when Pilate would have released Him. The word “disowned” means “to deny.” He repeats it in verse 14, where the word “you” is emphatic (3:14-15): “You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, but put to death the Prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead.” What a horrible thing, to kill God’s sinless servant and instead ask that a murderer be freed! Peter is showing how they were opposed to God Himself. And he is showing how stupid it is to oppose God. You can kill His servant, but God has the power to raise Him from the dead. The point is, you can’t oppose God and win!
While the Jews in Jesus’ day literally killed their Messiah, we’re all guilty of the same crime. Charles Spurgeon pointed out, “Every sin in the essence of it is a killing of God” (Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit [Pilgrim Publications], 14:198). Our sin put Jesus on the cross. If you do not repent of your sin and trust in Jesus as your Savior, that sin will condemn you at the final judgment.
Please understand: Jesus didn’t come and die on the cross to help you reach your full potential or to feel better about yourself or to have a happy family. He didn’t have to die to do any of that. He died to save you from the penalty of your sin by offering Himself as your substitute.
Ray Comfort illustrates this by picturing a guy on an airplane. The stewardess comes by and asks him if he would like to put on a parachute. She assures him that it will really make his flight more comfortable. He’s skeptical, but finally he puts on the parachute. But it doesn’t make his life more comfortable. He can’t lean back in his seat. It is heavy and the straps chafe his shoulders. It’s giving him a headache. The other passengers are laughing at him. Finally, in disgust he takes it off and throws it away.
But what would change this picture? The pilot comes on the intercom and says, “Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve lost power in all our engines. You’re all going to have to jump out of the plane at 10,000 feet. The stewardess is coming around with parachutes.” The parachute is not to make your flight more comfortable, but to enable you to make the jump without dying.
Christ did not die on the cross to make your life more comfortable. Following Him may make your life more difficult! But He died on the cross so that you can survive the jump. Trusting in His shed blood as the payment for your sin means that you are acquitted of your guilt before God’s holy throne of justice. Without Christ, you’ll have to make the jump without the parachute!
Perhaps you’re wondering what Peter means (v. 17) when he tells his audience that he knows that they and their rulers acted in ignorance. It’s a difficult verse, in that the Jewish leaders, at least, seemed to know full well what they were doing. Peter is not saying that their ignorance absolved them of guilt, because he goes on to exhort them to turn from their sins before they faced God’s judgment. Rather, he seems to be reflecting the Hebrew concept of unintentional sins of ignorance as opposed to sins of willful defiance (Num. 15:22-31; Lev. 4:2; 5:18; 22:14). For sins of ignorance, an offering was available to remove guilt (Heb. 9:7). But to turn defiantly away from the light that you received upped your guilt and left you without hope.
This means that unless you turn from your sins and trust in Jesus Christ today, you made a huge mistake by coming to church on Easter Sunday! You have exposed yourself to more of God’s light than you had before. This leaves you with more guilt on judgment day than if you had never heard these things! That’s bad news! But, I have some good news to leave with you:
After Peter’s indictment of his audience, you would expect him to say, “God is going to judge you for crucifying Jesus,” and walk off and leave them. That’s what they deserved. But rather, he exhorts them (3:19), “Repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away.” If they would repent, God would send Jesus to bring times of refreshing and to restore all things (3:19-21), a reference to the millennial kingdom. There will be a major revival among the Jews just before the return of Christ (Zech. 12:10; 14:9; Matt. 23:39; Rom. 11:26). Peter tells them that God sent His Servant Jesus “to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways” (3:26). Sin never results in blessing. Turning from sin to Christ opens the door to true and lasting blessing.
If God is so gracious as to offer forgiveness and His kingdom blessings to those who crucified His Son, then surely He offers grace to every sinner who will repent. The apostle Paul was the chief of sinners, but he says that he found mercy, so that in him as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life (1 Tim. 1:15-16). God sent His Servant Jesus to bless you, by turning you from your wicked ways!
What is repentance? It is a change of mind that results in a change of one’s entire life. It means to turn to God from your sin. Spurgeon (ibid., p. 195) said, “Repentance is a discovery of the evil of sin, a mourning that we have committed it, a resolution to forsake it. It is, in fact, a change of mind of a very deep and practical character, which makes the man love what once he hated, and hate what once he loved.”
Have you repented of your sins? Have you fled to the risen Lord Jesus Christ as your only hope of being rescued from God’s judgment? Has He wiped away your sins and blessed you by turning you from your wicked ways?
So why be a Christian? It all comes back to who Jesus is and what He did when He came to this earth. If Jesus is the exalted Savior and Lord, who was crucified for our sins, raised from the dead by God’s power, and coming again to judge the earth, then you need to repent of your sins ASAP!
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2010, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
April 24, 2011
Special Easter Message
This message is a modified rerun from Easter, 1998, but it’s a rerun worth giving again, because in this verse God offers hope to all sinners. So if you haven’t sinned since 1998, this message is not for you. But if you have sinned or failed God in any way, you might want to listen. Our text is God’s message of hope for all sinners.
Mark’s record of the resurrection inserts two short words that offer hope to all who have failed God: “and Peter” (Mark 16:7). The angel at the empty tomb told the women, “But go, tell His disciples and Peter …” Why did the angel add, “and Peter”? I’m sure that the risen Lord told him specifically to include those words. Peter, who had miserably denied the Lord! Peter, who had boasted of his allegiance to Christ, but then denied Him three times!
“And Peter”—How those words rang in Peter’s ears! You can be sure that the angel said those words. Peter couldn’t have forgotten the scene. The women had reported to the disciples the news of the resurrection. There was Peter, slumped in the corner, in the gloom of depression. But at the words, “and Peter,” he perked up. “What did you say? Are you sure that the angel said, ‘and Peter’? Tell me again! Were those his exact words?”
Scholars affirm that Mark’s Gospel was written largely under Peter’s influence. Picture Mark, quill in hand, writing, “Go, tell His disciples.” There’s Peter looking over his shoulder, saying, “‘And Peter!’ Mark, my son, don’t forget to write, ‘and Peter!’” Remember, this is the same Mark who had failed Paul on the first missionary journey. Yes, you can be sure that the words are accurate. Those two short words say to us:
The risen Savior offers hope to all who have failed God.
From Peter’s life, I offer three insights on how the risen Savior can turn our failures into hope.
Since Adam’s first sin, the automatic human reflex to failure has been to try to hide from God. It’s irrational; it’s impossible; but we still try to do it. But, please observe:
Jesus had predicted Peter’s denial prior to the event (Mark 14:29-31). Peter had insistently denied that he would do such a thing. But that which surprised Peter was no surprise to the Lord. Jesus knew Peter better than Peter knew Peter. And He knew about all your failures and sins before He saved you.
Luke’s Gospel records the awful scene when Jesus was enduring the mock trial while Peter, in the courtyard outside, was denying Him. While Peter was still speaking, a cock crowed. Then Luke adds the chilling words, “And the Lord turned and looked at Peter” (Luke 22:61). What a look that must have been! It communicated more than words ever could do! Both love and reproof were bound up in that look. Peter went out and wept bitterly. I wonder if we would fall into sin if we knew that the Lord is always watching.
This is indicated in our text by the words, “and Peter.” The Lord didn’t act as if Peter’s failure had never happened. He didn’t just brush it under the rug, as we tend to do. He acknowledged Peter’s failure after the fact by those words, “and Peter.”
We can’t hide our failures from the risen Savior’s gaze. He knows more about us than we know about ourselves. He knows every rotten thought we have before we think it. He knows every awful thing we say before we say it. He knows how we will fail Him next week and next year. He knows our failures as we are committing them. He doesn’t overlook them and He doesn’t want us to overlook them. He wants us to confess our sins, not cover them.
Has the Lord ever reminded you that He is watching even as you are committing some sin? I read a story about the revivals in Ethiopia during the 1930’s and 1940’s. Food was scarce because of the war and the plundering by soldiers. One Ethiopian Christian had to leave his family to find work. He was coming home after a year with his entire year’s wages of $25 when some robbers took his money. Angry, he shelved his Christian testimony and went to the house of a powerful witch doctor named Alemu, to get him to put a curse on the robbers.
For years Alemu had confined himself to the darkness of his house, not bathing or cutting his hair. As soon as the Christian man entered his house, Alemu sensed that a spiritual power was present. Before the man could speak, Alemu demanded the name of his god. Embarrassed, the Christian started to explain that he had come to ask for a curse to be put on the men who had robbed him. But Alemu was not interested. He only wanted to know about the spiritual power that had entered his house.
So, very embarrassed, the Christian man recovered his senses and told Alemu about Jesus Christ. When he told him that Jesus had been raised from the dead, Alemu became greatly excited. It was the simple answer he had sought so long—there was someone greater than Satan. He became a believer and went on to start a church and to become its leader (Raymond J. Davis, The Winds of God [SIM], pp. 19-20).
Even if we think that we get away with our sin at the moment, the Lord will not let us forget it later. He has ways of bringing it to our attention until we deal with it. So the words “and Peter” tell us that failure cannot be hidden from the risen Savior’s gaze. We’re only fooling ourselves if we think that we can hide it. We need to turn from it and confess it to the Lord immediately. That is always the first step to recovery when we’ve failed.
You may be thinking, “The news that I cannot hide my failure from the risen Savior’s gaze doesn’t fill me with much hope.” But hang on! The words “and Peter” also show us:
I can say that because…
I don’t mean to dump on poor Peter. It just as easily could have been you or me. We all would have blown it just as badly if we had been in the same situation. So I’m not criticizing Peter as if he was worse than we are.
But it would be hard to conceive of a way of blowing it worse than Peter did. He had spent three years almost constantly in the presence of Jesus. He had heard Jesus teach. He had seen Him perform miracles. He was in the inner circle of the twelve. He had been in the room when Jairus’ daughter was raised from the dead. He had seen Jesus in His glory on the Mount of Transfiguration. And if Jesus ever needed the support of human friends, it was during the dark night of Gethsemane and the events that followed.
To make matters worse, Peter knew that the last words Jesus had heard him speak were words of denial during Christ’s moment of need. It is an awful thing to live with the memory that your last words in the presence of a loved one were not what you wanted them to be. Peter spent a dark Saturday with the memory that the final words Jesus heard him speak were words of awful denial.
By including Peter’s example in Scripture, the Lord shows that there is hope for us even at our worst moments of failure! Some of you may know Christ as Savior, but you have done something awful. You are ashamed to tell anyone. You feel as if you can never face the Lord or His people again. But those two words, “and Peter,” show us that there is no failure that can separate us from the risen Savior’s love. Even though Peter’s failure was as bad as any…
God’s love is always greater than our failures. Note three things about our Lord’s love for Peter that apply to us:
John 3:16 declares, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” We must understand that God’s great love alone is not enough to forgive our sin. To forgive sinners and at the same time maintain His justice, the penalty for our sin had to be paid. Peter’s forgiveness, as well as ours, is free to us, but very costly to God. While Peter was denying Christ, Christ was dying for Peter’s sins. “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).
To experience God’s love and forgiveness, you must turn from your sin and put your trust in what Christ did for you on the cross. If you will believe in Jesus Christ as the One who bore your sins, God promises that you will not perish, but have eternal life.
The Lord did not embarrass Peter by dealing with his sin in front of the other disciples. True, the other apostles knew about Peter’s sin and so eventually the Lord restored Peter in front of them (John 21:15-17). But first the Lord met privately with Peter to deal with his sin in a private and personal manner.
We learn this from two verses. In Luke 24:34, the disciples tell the two men from Emmaus, “The Lord has really risen, and has appeared to Simon.” The other verse is in Paul’s defense of the resurrection where he states that after the Lord was raised from the dead “He appeared to Cephas [Peter], then to the twelve” (1 Cor. 15:5). We know nothing more about this meeting. It must have taken place sometime early on that first Easter Sunday, perhaps just after Peter ran to the empty tomb. The actual words exchanged were too intimate to be included in the Bible. But in that private meeting, the Lord and Peter were reconciled.
That’s how you must deal with God. No one else can deal with God on your behalf. You must meet privately and personally with the Lord. You must confess your sin directly to Him and personally experience His forgiveness. If there is a need for public restoration because the sin was public, that may follow. But the primary thing is for you to meet alone with the Lord, because all sin is primarily against Him. His love is such that He deals personally and privately with each sinner.
The Lord did not say, “Peter, you blew it badly! We’re going to work out a system of penance where you can work off your sin over time. If you really try hard and get it together, maybe I’ll take you back.” God’s grace doesn’t operate that way. Penance is not a biblical concept. Grace is!
God’s grace is unmerited favor. That means that you cannot do anything to deserve it. You cannot earn it by good deeds. You cannot get more of it by extra effort. You cannot qualify for it by making promises for the future. If you do anything to merit it, then it’s something God owes you, not grace.
The only proper response to grace is to receive it. This very moment, if you will honestly turn to God in your heart and say, “Lord, I have sinned against You. I don’t deserve Your mercy. I realize that Jesus Christ died to pay the penalty I deserve. I ask for Your forgiveness”—He will forgive all your sin. His cleansing will sweep over you like an ocean wave.
Our human pride grates against the idea of God’s grace. We like to think that we got on God’s good side because He saw something worthwhile in us. If God accepts us according to merit, then we can feel that we’re just a notch above others who aren’t “in the club.” But grace humbles us because the only way we can receive it is when we realize that we don’t deserve it.
But, because God’s love operates upon the basis of grace, it means that there is hope for every sinner. There is hope for you, no matter how great your sin. No failure, no matter how bad, can separate us from the risen Savior’s love if we will turn in repentance and faith to Him.
We’ve seen that our sin and failure cannot be hidden from the risen Savior’s gaze. Our sin and failure cannot separate us from the risen Savior’s love. Finally …
A system based on human merit would have removed Peter from being an apostle, or at least would have demoted him to the lowest rung of the apostolic ladder. But God often takes those who have failed the worst and makes them trophies of grace for all to see. It was Peter who preached on the Day of Pentecost when 3,000 were saved and the church was founded. Two observations on how God uses our failures in His service:
A story is told about a promising junior executive at IBM who was involved in a risky venture and lost over $10 million for the company. When IBM’s founder, Tom Watson, Sr., called the nervous executive into his office, the young man blurted out, “I guess you want my resignation?” Watson replied, “You can’t be serious. We’ve just spent $10 million educating you!” (In Christianity Today [8/9/85], p. 67.)
The Scriptures are abundantly clear that Peter’s education through failure was not wasted. One reason he failed was his pride: “Even though all may fall away, yet I will not” (Mark 14:29). But years later he wrote, “Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another” (1 Pet. 5:5). Failure teaches us humility!
In the garden Peter failed to watch and pray with Jesus. But later he wrote, “Be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer” (1 Pet. 4:7).
Peter hastily tried to defend the unjust arrest of Jesus by swinging his sword at Malchus. But later he wrote, “But if when you do what is right and suffer for it, you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God” (1 Pet. 2:20).
Peter got caught off guard and denied the Lord in front of a servant girl. But later he wrote, “Always [be] ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you” (1 Pet. 3:15). Peter learned through his failure.
When I say that there is hope for those who have failed, I’m not implying that we should abuse God’s grace by not turning from our sin. Grace doesn’t mean that we discard the need for holiness or the God-given standards for Christian leadership (1 Tim. 3:1-13; Titus 1:5-9). But God often uses our failures to teach us so that we grow in obedience to Him. If, like Peter, we will learn from our failures, then the Lord will use us in serving Him.
When the Lord predicted Peter’s failure, He told him, “And you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:32). Later the Lord told Peter, “Shepherd My sheep” (John 21:16). The Lord uses repentant, restored sinners to restore and strengthen other sinners.
Have you ever thought about how Peter must have felt about preaching in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost? There were undoubtedly those in the audience who had heard Peter deny the Lord on the night of the betrayal. Peter could have said, “I can’t ever preach before these people. They know my past.” But restored sinners must go to those who are not right with God and tell of the abundant grace of the Lord Jesus. The fact that God has restored you can bring great hope to those who may have known of your past sins.
The good news is that the risen Savior offers eternal life and forgiveness of sins to you, no matter how badly you have failed God. But you must personally receive His offer of love by faith.
On New Year’s Day, 1929, Georgia Tech played the University of California in the Rose Bowl. In that now infamous game, Roy Riegels recovered a fumble for California. Somehow he became confused and ran 65 yards in the wrong direction. One of his teammates went after him and tackled him just before he scored for the opposing team. When California attempted to punt, Georgia Tech blocked the kick and scored a safety which was the ultimate margin of victory.
That strange play came in the first half, and everyone watching the game was asking the same question: What will Coach Price do with Roy Riegels in the second half?
The men filed off the field and went into the locker room. They sat down on the benches and on the floor. But Riegels put his blanket around his shoulders, sat down in a corner, put his face in his hands, and cried like a baby.
Usually a coach has a lot to say to his team during half time. But that day, Coach Price was quiet. No doubt he was trying to decide what to do with Riegels. Then the timekeeper came in and announced that there were three minutes before playing time. Coach Price looked at the team and said simply, “Men, the same team that played the first half will start the second.”
Everyone got up and started out, except Riegels. He didn’t budge. The coach looked back and called to him again. Still he didn’t move. Coach Price went over to where Riegels sat and said, “Roy, didn’t you hear me? The same team that played the first half will start the second.”
Riegels, his face wet with tears, looked up and said, “Coach, I can’t do it to save my life. I’ve ruined you, I’ve ruined the University of California, I’ve ruined myself. I couldn’t face that crowd in the stadium to save my life.”
Then Coach Price reached out and put his hand on Riegels’ shoulder and said, “Roy, get up and go on back; the game is only half over.” And Riegels went back, and those Tech men would later say that they had never seen a man play football as Roy Riegels played that second half.
Perhaps you have never failed in as colossal a way as Roy Riegels did. Thankfully our failures are not usually performed in a stadium before thousands of watching eyes. But each one of us at some time has badly failed God. The apostle Paul certainly had. He wrote, “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all” (1 Tim. 1:15).
Peter might argue with Paul about who was the biggest sinner. But neither would argue about how wonderful God’s amazing grace is toward all who have failed. The angel’s words, “Go, tell His disciples and Peter,” say to us, “The game is only half over.” The question is, will you accept the risen Savior’s pardon and go out and play the second half?
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2011, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
March 31, 2013
Easter Sunday
Every thinking person sometimes wrestles with doubt. That’s true not only for thinking Christians, but also for atheists and agnostics. They sometimes wonder, “What if I’m wrong and there really is a God?” And every thinking Christian sometimes wonders, “What if I’m wrong and Christianity is not true?” For some, the bouts with doubt are short and relatively minor. For others, the doubts are deep and disturbing. But wherever you’re at on the spectrum, if you’ve been a Christian for very long, you have gone through battles with doubt.
The sources of my struggles with doubt vary. Sometimes it stems from wrestling with certain difficult theological issues. At other times the problem of unanswered prayer has tripped me up. And I’ve had to face doubts related to the age-old problem of suffering: Why would a good and all-powerful God allow His people to die in the prime of life, while the wicked prosper? How can a loving God allow sweet little children to suffer?
While there are different biblical answers to all of these sources of doubt, there is one answer that undergirds them all. I usually come back to it when I’m struggling with doubt. The apostle Paul said that the entire Christian faith rests on one foundation, the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Cor. 15:13-19). If that fact of history is true, then our faith has a solid footing in spite of matters of doubt which we cannot, perhaps ever in this life, fully resolve. On the other hand, if Jesus Christ is not risen from the dead, then the strongest faith in the world is useless, because it rests on a faulty object.
The evidence for the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ gives us a solid footing in times of doubt.
If you want to study a subject, it’s best to go to an expert. The most famous expert on doubt is a fellow whose name is always linked with it: Doubting Thomas. His story is told in John 20:24-29. Not all doubters are sincere, but Thomas was what I would call a sincere doubter. Some use their doubts as a smoke screen to hide behind their sin, which is the real issue. If one area of doubt is cleared up, they will quickly duck behind another, because they don’t want to submit to the Lord. These people do not need more evidence to believe; they need to repent of their sin.
But some doubts are sincere. The sincere doubter is truly a believer in Christ. He doesn’t want to doubt, but he’s plagued by honest questions. He is in submission to God and wants to please Him, but he can’t just close his eyes and take a leap of faith. He needs evidence to clear up the doubts. Thomas was that kind of sincere doubter. I maintain that …
There are many causes of doubt, but I’m going to limit myself to exploring some of the causes of Thomas’ doubts. I can relate personally to some, but not all, of them. Perhaps you will relate to them also.
Some Reasons For Thomas’ Doubts:
All of the disciples had failed Jesus on the night of His arrest and trial. Most notorious was Peter, who denied the Lord three times. All of the eleven had promised Jesus their loyalty, but they all deserted Him when He was arrested.
Thomas, along with Peter, had been outspoken in his loyalty to Jesus before the crucifixion. In John 11:16, when Jesus wanted to go to Bethany, near Jerusalem, to raise Lazarus from the dead, the disciples objected that it was too dangerous. But Thomas said, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.” He may have been a pessimist, but at least he was loyal to the point of challenging the others to be committed to the point of death. But then he had joined the others in running away when Jesus was arrested. That failure led Thomas into depression and doubt.
It wasn’t just Thomas’ failure, but failure coupled with his personality, that led him into deep doubts. Peter had failed in a big way, too. But Peter was a buoyant, optimistic sort who felt badly about his mistakes, but who could shrug it off and bounce back more quickly. But Thomas was a conscientious, loyal, but gloomy type who did not commit himself to something lightly. To commit himself to Jesus and then go back on his word affected Thomas much more deeply than Peter’s failure affected him.
We’re all wired differently and so it’s important to know yourself so that you can be on guard against your areas of weakness. Usually, by the way, our areas of greatest strength are also our areas of greatest weakness. A man like Thomas, who is loyal and conscientious, who takes commitments seriously, is also more prone to depression and doubt when he fails.
Thomas lacked understanding with regard to the Lord’s departure. On the night before the crucifixion, Jesus told the disciples that He was going to prepare a place for them and that He would come again to take them to be with Him. He told them that they knew the way where He was going. But Thomas didn’t understand, so he blurted out (John 14:5), “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?”
I’m glad he asked because Jesus’ reply was (14:6), “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.” But if you put yourself back into that situation, with all of the confused emotions of that night, and with the disciples’ still limited insight into Jesus’ death and resurrection, you can see how Thomas would still be confused about what Jesus had meant. He lacked understanding, which led to doubt.
Some of my battles with doubt have been due to a lack of understanding on doctrinal matters. I’m not going to share specifics, because if it’s not a problem for you, I don’t want to lead you into doubt by bringing it up! But, frankly, there are many hard teachings in Scripture, some of which we won’t resolve until we’re with the Lord. We have to trust God, even when we don’t understand.
In John 6:60, many of those who had followed Jesus turned away when He taught some hard things. Jesus even asked the twelve if they would turn away also. Peter gave the great answer (John 6:68-69), “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. And we have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.” I’ve come back to that answer many times when I’ve struggled with doubt due to a lack of understanding. Jesus is the truth. Where else can I go?
A third factor that caused Thomas such deep doubts was the disappointment and shock he felt as he watched Jesus die. Even though Jesus repeatedly had told the disciples in advance that He would be crucified, it didn’t sink in. The disciples had expected the Messiah to be a conquering King. A crucified Messiah wasn’t their expectation. When Thomas saw the badly mangled body of Jesus on the cross, it sent him into shock. His emphasis on the wounds of Jesus (John 20:25) shows how deeply it affected him. The bloody holes in Jesus’ hands and feet, the gory spear wound in His side, and Jesus’ disfigurement from the scourging and the crown of thorns, haunted Thomas after the crucifixion and fed his doubts.
In the same way, whenever we face deep disappointment and shock because of some tragedy or something that doesn’t go as we had expected, we’re vulnerable to doubts. Years ago, a pastor friend who was my age was struck down with cancer. As I stood by his bedside the night he died, along with his grieving wife and two sons, I couldn’t help wondering, “Why, Lord? This is one of Your servants. He still has many good years left. His family is young. Why should he die so young, when so many wicked people live long, healthy lives?” Perhaps you’ve lost a loved one or faced a personal tragedy. It’s a short step from there to being right where Thomas was, to doubting the Lord: “If God really exists and is a God of love, then why is this happening?”
A fourth reason for Thomas’ doubts was his isolation from other believers. We don’t know for certain why Thomas was absent from the other disciples that first Sunday when Jesus appeared to them. But a likely reason was his morose disposition. The last thing he wanted at a time like that was to be around other people. So he wandered off by himself to brood over the horrible events of the previous few days.
Then to add to his misery, when he finally did see the others, they told him that they had seen the risen Lord! How would you feel if you missed church because you were depressed and doubting and we all told you, “Hey, you really missed a blessing! Jesus appeared to us last Sunday!” Great! That really encourages you, doesn’t it! But even though we’re often bugged by other believers, the fact is, we need them. Whenever we separate ourselves from the fellowship, we make ourselves vulnerable to doubt.
I’ve not covered all the causes we have for doubting God or the Bible. Perhaps you have other things that have shaken your faith. But whatever the source of your doubts, the solution is the same: to come back to the foundational fact of the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. If that is true, then even though you may not understand everything, you still, with Thomas, must bow and acknowledge Jesus to be your Lord and God.
I can’t give all the evidence for the resurrection in one message. Many books have been written on the subject (see Josh McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict [Campus Crusade for Christ], Vol. 1). But there are five reasons in John 20 that verify Christ’s resurrection to be true history:
One incontrovertible fact, with which both the disciples and the Jews agreed, is that the tomb was empty. If not, when the disciples began proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus a few weeks later (which was the central point of their preaching), the Jewish leaders could have simply marched to the tomb, produced the dead body of Jesus, and the disciples would have been laughed out of town. But clearly they couldn’t do that because the tomb was empty.
There are several ways to account for the empty tomb. Jesus’ enemies could have stolen the body. But they had no motive for taking His body. It was to their advantage to leave it right where it was, which is why they had Pilate put the Roman guard and seal on the tomb. If they knew where the body was, they could have produced it and silenced the disciples’ preaching.
Another possibility is that the Roman guards stole the body. But again, they had no motive to do so. They weren’t concerned about this Jewish religious trial. The Jewish leaders, who were scrambling for ways to explain away the resurrection, didn’t accuse the soldiers of taking the body or of allowing it to be stolen.
A third possibility is that the disciples stole the body. This was the theory the Jewish leaders tried to promote by bribing the Roman soldiers (Matt. 28:11-15). But there are many reasons the disciples could not have moved Jesus’ body. The tomb was as secure as the Roman guard could make it. The soldiers wouldn’t have fallen asleep on their watch, because the penalty was death. The stone at the tomb was large and heavy. Even if the soldiers had been sleeping, the noise of a group of men moving the stone would have awakened them. Besides, the disciples were too depressed and confused to try anything like grave robbery in front of a Roman guard. Even if, through bribery, they had managed to remove Jesus’ body, later they would not have risked their lives to preach the resurrection if they knew it to be false.
Nor would they have suffered beatings and threats if it had been confirmed that someone else had taken Jesus’ body, which was the first thought of the women who visited the tomb early that morning (John 20:2, 15). All we know of the character of the witnesses as well as the fact that they did not yet understand the Scripture that Jesus must rise again from the dead (John 20:9) militates against them knowingly promoting a hoax. The empty tomb is solid evidence that God raised Jesus bodily from the dead.
Mary Magdalene didn’t look carefully when she first came to the tomb. She saw the stone removed and assumed that Jesus was gone. So she ran to tell Peter and John, who ran to the tomb. John got there first and stood at the entrance looking in. Peter, in his usual blustery manner, went right in and saw (20:6, Greek = “to gaze upon”) the grave clothes. Then John entered, saw (Greek = “to see with understanding”) and believed (20:8).
The presence of the grave clothes proves that the body was not stolen. In their haste, grave robbers would have taken the body, grave clothes and all. If for some reason they had wanted to strip the body, they would have left the clothes strewn all over the tomb. But Peter and John saw them left in an orderly fashion, as if Jesus had passed right through them. Remember, these weren’t men who wished so much for a resurrection that they perhaps saw what they wanted to see. These were men who did not understand or believe at first (20:9). The evidence convinced them, and their testimony of the evidence should convince us.
John lists four post-resurrection appearances of Jesus: To Mary Magdalene (20:11-18); to the disciples except Thomas (20:19-23); to the disciples, including Thomas (20:24-31); and, to seven of the disciples, by the Sea of Galilee (21:1-25). Paul mentions several other appearances, including one to over 500 at one time (1 Cor. 15:6-8). J. N. D. Anderson, who was Professor of Oriental Laws and Director of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies at the University of London, wrote (Christianity Today [3/29/68], pp. 5, 6),
The most drastic way of dismissing the evidence would be to say that these stories were mere fabrications, that they were pure lies. But, so far as I know, not a single critic today would take such an attitude. In fact, it would really be an impossible position. Think of the number of witnesses, over 500. Think of the character of the witnesses, men and women who gave the world the highest ethical teaching it has ever known, and who even on the testimony of their enemies lived it out in their lives. Think of the psychological absurdity of picturing a little band of defeated cowards cowering in an upper room one day and a few days later transformed into a company that no persecution could silence—and then attempting to attribute this dramatic change to nothing more convincing than a miserable fabrication they were trying to foist upon the world. That simply wouldn’t make sense.
The varied circumstances of the appearances and the different personalities of the witnesses militate against hallucinations or visions. Whether Thomas actually put his hand in Jesus’ wounds is not stated, but Jesus made the offer and Thomas was convinced (John 20:27). The post-resurrection appearances of Jesus are a strong evidence of His bodily resurrection.
As I already said, John calls attention to the fact that none of the witnesses was expecting a resurrection. Mary Magdalene thought that someone had taken Jesus’ body (20:2, 15). The disciples were fearful and confused. Thomas was depressed and doubting. But all were transformed into the bold witnesses of the Book of Acts because they became convinced that Jesus rose bodily from the dead. They were so convinced that the resurrection was true that many of them went on to martyrs’ deaths.
Study the Gospel accounts of who Jesus was, of what He taught, of the miracles He performed, of the prophecies He fulfilled. On more than one occasion He predicted His own death and resurrection (John 2:19-22; Luke 9:22). His encounter with doubting Thomas shows that His purpose was to bring Thomas into a place of full faith in His deity (20:27). When Thomas answered, “My Lord and my God,” Jesus did not rebuke or correct him for overstating things. Rather, Jesus commended Thomas’ correct perception and faith (20:28-29).
A merely good teacher, especially a devout Jewish rabbi, would never accept such worship from a follower. Everything in the Gospel accounts about Jesus’ person and teaching militates against His being a charlatan or lunatic. The only sensible option is that He is who He claimed to be, the Lord God in human flesh, the Christ of Israel, the eternal Son of God. He offered Himself for our sins and God raised Him bodily from the dead. He wants those of us who have not seen Him to believe in Him (20:29).
In Loving God ([Zondervan], pp. 61-70) Charles Colson has an interesting chapter titled, “Watergate and the Resurrection.” He makes the point that with the most powerful office in the world at stake, with all of the privileges of power, with the threat of imprisonment, ten men in the White House could not hold together a conspiracy for more than two weeks. He then applies his experience in the Watergate cover-up to modern criticism of the Gospel accounts of the resurrection—that the disciples were mistaken, that it was only a myth or that Jesus’ followers conceived a plot to cover up His death. He concludes (p. 69):
Is it really likely, then, that a deliberate cover-up, a plot to perpetuate a lie about the Resurrection, could have survived the violent persecution of the apostles, the scrutiny of early church councils, the horrendous purge of the first-century believers who were cast by the thousands to the lions for refusing to renounce the Lordship of Christ? Is it not probable that at least one of the apostles would have renounced Christ before being beheaded or stoned? Is it not likely that some “smoking gun” document might have been produced exposing the “Passover plot”? Surely one of the conspirators would have made a deal with the authorities (government and Sanhedrin probably would have welcomed such a soul with open arms and pocketbooks!)....
Take it from one who was inside the Watergate web looking out, who saw firsthand how vulnerable a cover-up is: Nothing less than a witness as awesome as the resurrected Christ could have caused those men to maintain to their dying whispers that Jesus is alive and Lord.
Does the evidence about Jesus’ resurrection clear up all our doubts about God and the Bible? No, nothing this side of heaven will do that. But it does provide a solid basis for intelligent faith in those times when we struggle with doubt. To whom else will you go? Jesus alone is the risen Savior. His desire for each of us who have not seen Him is that, like Thomas, we would “not be unbelieving, but believing” (20:27). He wants each of us to recognize that He, our Lord and God, died in our place, taking the penalty we deserved for our sin. He wants us to join Thomas in believing worship, proclaiming, “My Lord and my God!”
If you wait to trust in Christ until all of your doubts are cleared up, you’re not an honest doubter. Rather, you’re using your doubts as an excuse so that you can hold onto your sin. If you don’t repent, you’ll go to your death alienated from the Savior. There is more than adequate evidence to support a reasonable faith that Jesus Christ is the risen Savior. The question is, Will you lay aside your doubts, which serve only as excuses, and trust in Jesus as your Savior and Lord?
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2013, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
April 20, 2014
Special Easter Message
If you’ve been a Christian for very long, you’ve experienced a time when you wondered if the Christian faith is really true. Perhaps your struggle came after some huge disappointment or unanswered prayer. Things just didn’t go the way that you had hoped and prayed. Perhaps your doubts came after you heard or read an articulate atheist attack the faith. Or, maybe your Christian experience just didn’t measure up to the “abundant” life that others testify to, so you wondered why the abundant life didn’t seem to be true for you. You thought, “Maybe it isn’t true at all.”
We live in a time when the concept of “truth” has been squeezed into a relativistic framework. Thus Buddhism may be “true” for some people, Christianity is “true” for others, and Baha’i is “true” for yet others. Even though the teachings of these different faiths contradict each other, they can still all be “true” in a personal, experiential sense. For example, Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote (Who Needs God [Simon & Schuster], p. 196):
If religious claims to truth were statements of fact, then when they differed, at most only one of them could be true…. But religious claims can be true at levels other than the factual one. Religious claims can be true the way a great novel is true. It teaches us something valid about the human condition, even though the characters in the novel never really existed and the events never took place….
As an example, Kushner used Jesus’ resurrection (p. 197): “If believing in the resurrection makes my Christian neighbor a better person, more loving and generous, better able to cope with misfortune and disappointment, then that is a true belief, whether historically true or not.”
I agree that believing in Jesus’ resurrection should make us better people. But, does it matter whether it was historically true or not? The apostles would loudly reply, “Yes! It matters greatly! Everything about the Christian faith depends on the historical fact that Jesus died for our sins and was raised bodily on the third day.” The apostle Paul wrote (1 Cor. 15:14, 17), “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain…. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.” He concluded (15:19), “If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.”
The apostle John would agree. He brings his Gospel to a climax by showing multiple evidences of Jesus’ bodily resurrection, along with some practical ways that the truth of His resurrection should impact our lives. Since we’re in the midst of working our way through John’s Gospel, I thought it would be helpful to jump ahead and look at how John treats this watershed fact of all history. We can sum it up:
Because Jesus’ resurrection is a fact of history, there is good news for everyone.
In the middle of John’s treatment of Jesus’ resurrection, he breaks in with his purpose for writing the entire Gospel (John 20:30-31): “Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.” For John, everything depends on who Jesus is. John wants us to join him in affirming that Jesus is the promised Messiah (the Christ) and the eternal Son of God who took on human flesh (1:1-18). He came as the Lamb of God to die for the sins of all who will believe in Him (1:29; 3:16). But if Jesus did not actually rise from the dead, then He would not be the Christ, the eternal Son of God. That would mean that believing in Him would be to believe in a nice myth. For John that was unthinkable! Thus he labors to show:
We can see at least five lines of evidence that John sets forth:
John begins his account (20:1) with Mary Magdalene coming to the tomb early, while it was still dark, where she saw that the stone had been taken away. This was a large stone that was rolled in front of the tomb to secure it from grave robbers. Matthew (27:63-66) reports how the Jewish leaders feared that someone would come and steal Jesus’ body and claim that He was risen. So they went to Pilate and got a Roman guard to secure the tomb. They set a seal on the stone and were there guarding the tomb when an angel came and rolled away the stone (Matt. 28:1-4). The Jewish leaders later gave the guards a large sum of money and told them to tell anyone who asked that the disciples came at night and stole Jesus’ body while the guards slept (Matt. 28:11-15).
The problem with that story is that all the disciples were too depressed and fearful to pull off a grave robbery under the noses of a squad of Roman soldiers. And even if they had succeeded, they wouldn’t have then endured persecution, hardship, and eventual martyrdom to promote what they knew to be a hoax.
In addition to the stone being rolled away, there was the empty tomb. Mary Magdalene was not expecting the resurrection, but when she saw that the tomb was empty, she assumed that somebody had taken Jesus’ body. She immediately ran to the disciples to report (John 20:2), “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.” Her report caused Peter and John to run to the tomb and see for themselves. They both went into the tomb and confirmed that Jesus’ body was not there. If any of Jesus’ enemies had taken His body, they would have produced it the instant that the apostles began proclaiming the resurrection. So the stone rolled away and the empty tomb both bear witness to Jesus’ bodily resurrection from the dead.
When Peter and John ran to the tomb, John got there first, stood at the entrance, and saw the linen wrappings, but he did not go in. Peter, in his usual blustery manner, went right in and saw (20:6, Greek = “to gaze upon”) the grave clothes. Then John entered, saw (Greek = “to see with understanding”) the same thing, and believed (20:8).
The presence of the linen wrappings proves that the body was not stolen. In their haste, grave robbers would have taken the body, grave clothes and all. If for some reason they had wanted to strip the body, they would have left the clothes strewn all over the tomb. But Peter and John saw them left in an orderly fashion, as if Jesus had passed right through them. Remember, these weren’t men who wished so much for a resurrection that they perhaps saw what they wanted to see. These were men who did not understand or believe at first (20:9). The evidence convinced them, and their testimony of the evidence should convince us.
John cites four post-resurrection appearances of Jesus: To Mary Magdalene (20:11-18); to the disciples except Thomas (20:19-23); to the disciples, including Thomas (20:24-31); and, to seven of the disciples, by the Sea of Galilee (21:1-25). Paul mentions several other appearances, including one to over 500 people at one time (1 Cor. 15:6-8). The varied circumstances of the appearances and the different personalities of the witnesses militate against hallucinations or visions. Even Thomas, who at first was skeptical, became convinced when he saw the risen Lord (John 20:27). Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances are a strong evidence of His resurrection.
John shows that none of the witnesses was expecting a resurrection. Mary Magdalene thought that someone had taken Jesus’ body (20:2, 15). Neither John nor Peter at first understood the Scripture that Jesus must rise again from the dead (20:9). All the disciples were fearful and confused. Thomas was depressed and doubting. But all were transformed into the bold witnesses of the Book of Acts because they became convinced that Jesus rose bodily from the dead. They were so convinced that the resurrection was true that many of them went on to die as martyrs.
Study the Gospel accounts of who Jesus was, what He taught, His astounding claims, the miracles He performed, and the prophecies He fulfilled. On more than one occasion He predicted His own death and resurrection (Matt. 16:21; Luke 9:22; John 2:19-22; 16:16-20, 28). His encounter with doubting Thomas shows that His purpose was to bring Thomas into a place of full faith in His deity (20:27). When Thomas answered, “My Lord and my God,” Jesus did not rebuke or correct him for overstating things. Rather, Jesus commended Thomas’ correct perception and faith (20:28-29). A merely good teacher, especially a devout Jewish rabbi, would never accept such worship from a follower.
Everything in the Gospel accounts about Jesus’ person and teaching militates against His being a charlatan or lunatic. The only sensible option is that He is who He claimed to be: the eternal Son of God in human flesh, the Messiah of Israel. He offered Himself for our sins and God raised Him bodily from the dead. He wants those of us who have not seen Him to believe in Him (20:29).
I realize that it is impossible to prove any historical event in an absolute sense. But the evidence for Jesus’ bodily resurrection is strong: (1) The stone rolled away and the empty tomb; (2) the linen wrappings; (3) Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances; (4) the changed lives of the witnesses; and (5) the unique person of Jesus Christ, including His many astounding claims. All these evidences support the historical truth of the resurrection.
Oxford history Professor and author Thomas Arnold (1795-1842) wrote (cited in Josh McDowell, Evidence That Demands a Verdict [Campus Crusade for Christ], 1:198):
The evidence for our Lord’s life and death and resurrection may be, and often has been, shown to be satisfactory; it is good according to the common rules for distinguishing good evidence from bad. Thousands and tens of thousands of persons have gone through it piece by piece, as carefully as every judge summing up on a most important cause. I have myself done it many times over, not to persuade others but to satisfy myself. I have been used for many years to study the histories of other times, and to examine and weigh the evidence of those who have written about them, and I know of no one fact in the history of mankind which is proved by better and fuller evidence of every sort, to the understanding of a fair inquirer, than the great sign which God has given us that Christ died and rose again from the dead.
J. Gresham Machen (Christianity and Liberalism [Eerdmans], pp. 28-29) wrote, “The great weapon with which the disciples of Jesus set out to conquer the world was not a mere comprehension of eternal principles; it was an historical message, an account of something that had recently happened. It was the message, ‘He is risen.’”
So I want to counter Rabbi Kushner’s contention that the historicity of Jesus’ resurrection doesn’t matter, as long as it affects how we live. It matters greatly because it establishes who Jesus is. He is not a fictional character or just a great man whose legend was embellished by His followers. He is the Christ, the Son of God. You should believe in Him even if so doing results in suffering and martyrdom. But, John’s Gospel also shows that the historical resurrection of Jesus does affect how we live:
While women generally had a place of honor and respect in Old Testament Israel (Alfred Edersheim, Sketches of Jewish Social Life [Eerdmans, pp. 139-160), in Jesus’ time some Jewish leaders belittled women. They taught that it was at best a waste of time to talk with a woman, even with your own wife, and at worst a diversion from the study of the Torah that could possibly lead one to hell (D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John [Eerdmans/Apollos], p. 227)! They thought that it was better to burn the words of the law than to give them to women (William Barclay, The Gospel of John [Westminster], rev. ed., 1:162). To speak with a woman in public, even with your own wife, could lead to gossip and should be avoided. And, the Jews disregarded the testimony of a woman in court.
But Jesus affirmed and elevated women, both during His ministry and by the fact that they were the first witnesses of His resurrection. John (20:11-18) contains the encounter of Jesus with Mary Magdalene in the Garden after His resurrection. She was the first to see the risen Lord and to tell the disciples of her encounter. Contrary to popular belief, there is no evidence that Mary had been an immoral woman prior to her conversion. Scripture states that Jesus had cast seven demons out of her and she apparently had sufficient means to help contribute to the support of Jesus and the disciples (Luke 8:2). But the point is, Jesus chose her as the first witness of His resurrection. Her experience shows that the Lord welcomes women as His followers and He uses them greatly.
The disciples did not yet understand that Jesus must rise from the dead (20:9), in spite of Jesus’ repeatedly telling them this before His death. They just didn’t get it at first. As I said, this is actually an evidence for Jesus’ resurrection, because they had to be convinced against their fears and doubts. But the Lord graciously worked with them to build their faith.
John is the only Gospel to mention Thomas’ doubts before he saw the risen Lord. John uses that incident as the climax of his Gospel. When Jesus invited Thomas to touch the scars on Jesus’ hands and side, Thomas exclaimed (20:28), “My Lord and my God!” Rather than rebuking Thomas for calling Him “Lord and God,” Jesus affirmed his testimony by replying (20:29), “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see and yet believed.” Then John gives us his purpose for writing: he wants each of us to join Thomas in believing in Jesus as “my Lord and my God.”
The point is, Jesus wants you to move from no faith or weak faith to strong faith. But, note how He did this with Thomas: He appeared to the disciples when He knew that Thomas was absent. For a week, Thomas had to struggle with missing that crucial appearance. Think of how you would have felt! “Everyone else saw the risen Lord, but I missed it!” He probably thought that it was grossly unfair that Jesus appeared to them when he wasn’t there. But when Jesus did meet with the disciples again with Thomas present and showed His omniscience by repeating back to Thomas the doubts that he had expressed earlier, Thomas gave a much deeper confession than he would have a week earlier. The lesson is that the risen Lord doesn’t reject us or cast us off when we’re lacking or weak in faith. Rather, He takes each of us through different trials and difficulties tailored to our doubts to help us grow in faith.
This is one lesson from Jesus’ appearance to the seven disciples by the Sea of Galilee. They had gone fishing, worked all night, but caught nothing. From the shore, Jesus called to them, pointed out their lack of fish, and directed them to cast their net on the right side of the boat. When they did, they instantly caught a large haul of fish. Then, when they got to the shore, Jesus already had a fire going with fish on it, along with bread. The incident would have reminded them of the miraculous catch of fish early in their relationship with Jesus, when He told them that they would be catching men (Luke 5:1-11). So this incident would have re-focused them on their calling as Jesus’ ambassadors.
And, the bread and fish would have reminded them of the feeding of the 5,000, when the Lord used them to distribute the food to the hungry multitude. The lesson there was that when they yielded their insufficient resources to the Lord, they became sufficient in His hands to meet overwhelming needs. Now, as the risen Lord, He could and would do the same as they took the good news to the world’s spiritually hungry multitudes.
The same lessons apply to us. If you know Christ, you’re His ambassador to lost people in your world. And if you feel inadequate for the task, that’s exactly the kind of people He uses: inadequate people who yield everything they have to Him to bless and use as He pleases! That breakfast on the shore also pictures the fellowship that our Lord wants to have with us. Our daily fellowship with the risen Lord is the foundation for serving Him. The conversation that took place around that breakfast meeting provides a final lesson:
The final section of John’s Gospel shows how the Lord restored Peter to ministry after his three denials of Jesus on the night He was betrayed. Three times Jesus asked Peter whether he loved Him. Three times Peter answered, “Yes, Lord, You know that I love You.” Each time, Jesus replied, “Tend My lambs…. Shepherd My sheep…. Tend My sheep.” The Lord was letting both Peter and the other disciples know that even though Peter had failed miserably, the Lord still had a ministry for him to fulfill.
The final exchange in John’s Gospel (21:20-24) mentions the different futures that the Lord had for Peter and for John. It shows that He is the sovereign Lord who has a unique plan for each of our futures as we serve Him. My focus needs to be on doing what He has called me to do, not on what He may have called others to do. But the good news is, if you love the Lord, no matter how badly you may have failed Him in the past, He is gracious to restore you and use you in His service. Keep your love for Jesus burning brightly. He loved you enough to die for your sins so that you can spend eternity with Him in the glory of heaven. His resurrection is good news for all who have failed.
After Thomas’ confession of Jesus as his Lord and God, Jesus replied (20:29), “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.” Does that include you? Jesus promises to bless you if you will believe in Him as your Lord and God, who died for your sins and was raised from the dead. His resurrection from the dead is historically true, whether you believe it or not. But it’s through believing in Him as the crucified and risen Lord that He blesses you.
His blessing does not mean that you will be spared from struggles and trials. History indicates that almost all of the disciples were persecuted and finally suffered martyrs’ deaths. But when they died, they were welcomed into the eternal joy of their Master in heaven. Because His resurrection is historically true, He offers the same good news to all who will believe in Him.
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2014, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
April 5, 2015
Special Easter Message
We all want joyful lives, but if you’re like me, you don’t always experience it. So I’ve been asking myself lately, “How am I doing in the ‘joy department’?” “Do I experience consistent joy in the Lord?” “Am I full of joy?” I invite you to ask yourself those same questions. They are rooted in Jesus’ upper room discourse, which we’ve been working through. In John 15:11, He states, “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” He mentions “joy” in John 16:20, 21, & 22. Again in John 16:24, Jesus states that He wants our joy to be made full. He says it again in His prayer (John 17:13), where He speaks these things “so that they may have My joy made full in themselves.” He doesn’t want us to be a quarter-full of joy or half-full or even three-quarters full. He wants us full of joy!
The apostle Paul echoes the same thought (Phil. 4:4), “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!” He must be exaggerating: “Always, Paul?” “Yes, always.” He repeats it in 1 Thessalonians 5:16, “Rejoice always.” After love, the second fruit that the Holy Spirit produces in us is joy (Gal. 5:22). The Psalms have repeated commands and exclamations about joy in the Lord, such as Psalm 5:11, “But let all who take refuge in You be glad, let them ever sing for joy ….” Psalm 16:11, “You will make known to me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever.”
Verses like these prompted C. H. Spurgeon to remind his congregation that it is “a Christian duty for believers to be glad.” He said (Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit [Pilgrim Publications], 43:325), “Joy is the normal condition of a believer. His proper state, his healthy state, is that of happiness and gladness.” More recently, John Piper often hammers on that same idea. His oft-repeated theme is, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” A gloomy Christian is not going to attract others to want to follow our Lord. To be effective witnesses for God our Savior, we need to be full of His joy.
That doesn’t mean that we won’t have times of sorrow and grief. Anticipating His impending death, Jesus tells the disciples (John 16:20), “Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament ….” Jesus Himself wept at Lazarus’ tomb (John 11:35). He wept over Jerusalem because of its unbelief (Luke 19:41). Paul tells us (Rom. 12:15), “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.” He describes himself (2 Cor. 6:10), “as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.” He allows that when we lose loved ones in death, we grieve, but not as those who have no hope (1 Thess. 4:13). The psalmists often express their tears and depression as they struggled with problems (Psalms 42 & 43; Ps. 56:8). So being full of joy in the Lord does not exclude times of sorrow and sadness. It doesn’t mean that we all have to have exuberant, sanguine personalities. But, as Spurgeon, who himself wrestled with depression, said, joy and gladness should be our normal condition.
In our text, the Lord Jesus contrasts the temporary joy of the world with the permanent joy that He gives. We learn:
The world offers temporary joy, but Christ gives believers permanent joy through His death and resurrection.
When Jesus predicts that the disciples will weep and lament while the world rejoices, He was referring to the disciples’ grief over His death, while the Jewish leaders rejoiced that they had finally gotten rid of their enemy. The disciples’ sorrow was temporary, in that three days later they saw the risen Lord Jesus and rejoiced (John 20:20). But the Jewish leaders’ joy was temporary, too. Joy that results from sin is always temporary. Even if the Jewish leaders went to their deaths smugly happy that they had gotten rid of Jesus, at death their sinful joy was instantly changed into eternal grief as they stood before the Righteous Judge.
When you read that the world would rejoice over Jesus’ death, you have to ask, “Why?” How could people be happy over the death of a good man like Jesus? John’s Gospel has already answered those questions. John 3:19-20 explains, “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.” In John 7:7, Jesus told His still unbelieving brothers, “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.” Those who enjoy their sins are happy to be rid of someone who exposes their sins and makes them feel guilty.
But to find happiness in things that will result in God’s judgment is not wise! Hebrews 11:25 says that by faith Moses chose “rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.” He could have enjoyed a comfortable life in Pharaoh’s palace, but he gave that up and chose instead to live his last 40 years wandering in barren the Judean desert because he was looking to the eternal reward of heaven. Any pleasure that comes from sin is temporary at best. Any joy that comes from faith in Jesus Christ lasts for eternity.
But even if we’re not indulging in the passing pleasures of sin, it’s easy to find our joy in things that aren’t sinful in themselves, but they’re temporary. When life is going well, we’re healthy, we have a loving family and good friends, and we have adequate money to provide for our needs, it’s not hard to be joyful. And it’s not wrong to enjoy such provisions: God “richly supplies us with all things to enjoy” (1 Tim. 6:17). But the danger is that we derive our joy from our comfortable circumstances, not from the Lord. But circumstances can instantly change for the worst. So we need to make sure that the source of our joy and gladness is the Lord Himself and the gracious salvation that He has given to us.
Jesus promises the disciples (John 16:22), “No one will take your joy away from you.” That’s the kind of joy we all want. That joy was the result of the disciples seeing the risen Lord, who transformed their understanding of the cross. To understand that process, consider these four things:
Hebrews 12:3 says that for the joy set before Him, Jesus endured the cross. The cross itself was the worst imaginable horror for Christ, but He endured it because He loved us and He looked ahead to the eternal joy of bringing many sons and daughters to glory (Heb. 2:10). The worst part of enduring the cross for Jesus was not the physical agony, as horrific as that was. Rather, it was the fact that He who knew no sin would be made sin on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21). The eternal, unbroken fellowship between the Father and the Son would be temporarily broken during those dark moments on the cross when Jesus bore the penalty of sin for all who trust in Him.
God cannot just forgive sin without the penalty for sin being paid. If He did so, He would not be righteous and just. He has declared that the wages of sin is death, eternal separation from Him (Rom. 6:23). As the only sinless person who has ever lived, Jesus, the unique God-man, could bear that penalty of sin for others. For the joy of having those whom the Father gave Him with Him forever in heaven, Jesus bore the agony of the cross.
There are several reasons for this:
If we’re happy in our sins, then we can never find true joy in Christ. Perhaps some of the Jewish leaders who rejoiced that Jesus was crucified heard Peter preach on the Day of Pentecost. Many in the crowd that day were pierced to the heart when they heard how they had crucified their Messiah, who was now risen from the dead (Acts 2:36-37). As a result of Peter’s sermon, three thousand repented of their sins and trusted in Christ. But until they felt sorrow over their terrible sins, they didn’t feel any need for the Savior.
The first step toward permanent joy in Christ is to feel deeply unhappy with your sins. Jesus has just stated (John 16:8) that the Holy Spirit would convict the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment. It’s never pleasant to feel convicted about your sins, but without such conviction, you’ll never see your need for the Savior. And since sin always leads to pain in this life and judgment when we die, it’s far better to be convicted of sin and repent than to go on in sin and face judgment.
If you had cancer, but it was a form of cancer that had no painful symptoms or visible signs, you wouldn’t go to the doctor for treatment. The cancer would actually be killing you, but you would assume that you were okay until you started having painful symptoms. The pain would cause you to go see a doctor to find out what was wrong.
In the same way, most of us feel like we’re pretty good people. We aren’t murderers or terrorists or child molesters. We try to be nice to others and treat them as we’d want to be treated. We’re responsible, law-abiding citizens. So we don’t see our need for a Savior from sin. But when the Holy Spirit convicts you of your sin, you begin to see yourself as the Holy God sees you. You realize that you have not loved Him with all your heart, but instead have put many idols in His place. You see how you have loved yourself more than others. You’ve lied to cover your own shortcomings. You’ve cheated for your own financial advantage. You’ve committed adultery by lusting in your heart. You’ve been hypocritical by trying to keep up an image that you know is not true. The list goes on! But it’s only when you begin to feel sorrow for your many sins that you will begin to seek the Lord Jesus, who is the only source for true joy.
It’s easy to get comfy with all of the material things that we enjoy to the point where we don’t trust in the Lord. Most of us don’t even think about where our next meal will come from. If we’re hungry, we hit the fridge or go to the store to buy whatever we need. If we get sick, we take advantage of the best medical care in the world. We watch news reports of tragedies in other parts of the world, but we change the channel and don’t worry about such things upsetting our lives. In that kind of world, God is a nice accessory, but He isn’t essential.
But when God suddenly strips us of the things that we trust in for joy and comfort, we see our need to rely on Christ for permanent joy. John Calvin astutely observed (Calvin’s Commentaries [Baker], on Zech. 13:9, p. 403), “It is therefore necessary that we should be subject, from first to last, to the scourges of God, in order that we may from the heart call on him; for our hearts are enfeebled by prosperity, so that we cannot make the effort to pray.” He’s saying that we all need God to bring trials into our lives by stripping us of our comfort, because otherwise we won’t depend on Him in prayer.
Jesus said (Mark 8:34), “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” The cross wasn’t an implement of minor irritation that you needed to endure. To take up your cross meant that you were going to die that very day! To follow Jesus as Savior and Lord, you have to die daily to yourself. You have to die to your self-righteousness and good works as the means of salvation. You have to realize that you’re guilty before God and that you can’t remove that guilt. You have to be willing to turn from your sin and trust in Christ alone. Only He can save you from God’s righteous judgment when you trust in what He did on the cross.
Then you have to live each day by dying to your pride, selfishness, greed, lust, and other sins. But whatever it takes on God’s part to strip you of the things that bring you temporary joy, it’s worth it the instant that He floods your life with the eternal joy of knowing Christ. When you know that He has forgiven all your sins and that nothing can separate you from His love, then as Jesus says (John 16:22), “No one will take your joy away from you.”
So Christ’s path to joy went through the awful agony of the cross. And, our path to joy usually first goes through sorrow: sorrow for our sins; sorrow over the loss of things that we’ve been trusting in for our happiness; and the sorrow of dying to self so that we can truly trust in Christ.
To illustrate, Christ uses the analogy of a woman giving birth. When she’s in labor, she’s in great pain. The cause of her pain is the baby that is moving through the birth canal. But a few minutes later, the very thing that was causing her excruciating pain is now the object of her intense joy, as she holds that beautiful child in her arms and gazes in wonder at his face.
The main point of this illustration is that the very thing that would cause the disciples overwhelming grief the next day—seeing the Lord who loved them suffer on the cross—would later be the source of their permanent joy. After He was risen, Jesus explained to the disciples that it was “necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory” (Luke 24:26). He went on to teach them (Luke 24:46-47), “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”
In other words, as the disciples came to understand the significance and meaning of the cross, both for themselves and for others, it transformed the most horrible experience of their lives into the most glorious truth in their lives: their sins were forgiven and they could offer forgiveness of sins to all the nations.
John Bunyan, the author of The Pilgrim’s Progress, has a wonderful little book (in The Whole Works of John Bunyan [Baker], 1:67), The Jerusalem Sinner Saved. It’s based on Jesus’ instructions to the disciples that the good news of repentance for forgiveness of sins be proclaimed to all the nations, “beginning from Jerusalem.” Jerusalem sinners were those who crucified Jesus! Bunyan’s subtitle is, “Being a help for despairing souls, showing that Jesus Christ would have mercy in the first place offered to the biggest sinners.” Bunyan saw himself as a “Jerusalem sinner.” He titled his autobiography, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (ibid., p. 6). He knew that the message of the cross was one of grace and forgiveness to the worst sinners who repent and trust in Jesus Christ.
Is the cross of Christ the source of your greatest joy because you know that through His death, Christ forgave all your sins? Even though it was your sin that put Christ there, which should cause you terrible sorrow, it should also cause you the greatest joy as you realize that He satisfied God’s wrath toward you when He died as your substitute there. If you don’t have that joy in the cross, it can be yours right now if you will trust in Jesus Christ.
A secondary application of Christ turning the very thing that caused sorrow into joy is that He often uses our pain and suffering to show us our need for Him, where we find true joy. If He takes from you something that you were trusting in for your happiness, it is unbearably painful at the time. But if through that loss, Christ brings you into the eternal joy of knowing Him as Savior and Lord, He has turned your sorrow into joy. Finally,
In verses 16 & 19, Jesus tells the disciples that after a short while of not seeing Him, they will see Him again. Then in verse 22, He turns it around and says, not that they will see Him again, but that He will see them again. I’m not sure that the change of perspective is significant, because both ways of saying it refer to the disciples’ encounters with Jesus after He was raised bodily from the dead. The disciples saw Jesus and Jesus saw the disciples, not once, but repeatedly over the course of 40 days before they finally saw Him ascend into heaven.
Those encounters with the risen Lord Jesus transformed these confused, fearful, doubting men into the bold witnesses that we read of in the Book of Acts. When the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem flogged the apostles for preaching the resurrection of Jesus, we read (Acts 5:41), “So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name.” There is permanent joy! Except for John, they all went on to suffer martyr’s deaths because they refused to stop proclaiming that Jesus died for sinners and that He was raised from the dead. Nothing except for the bodily resurrection of Jesus can account for that permanent joy in the apostles’ hearts.
Do you have that same permanent joy? Perhaps you’re thinking, “If I could see Jesus risen from the dead, I’d believe and have such joy. But I’ve never seen Him.” Peter wrote to some Christians who were suffering severe persecution at the hands of the evil despot, Nero. He said (1 Pet. 1:8-9), “And though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.” They had not seen Jesus either, but because they believed in Him, they were filled with great joy in the midst of their fiery trials.
Were they gullible to believe in the risen Lord Jesus whom they had not seen? No, because they had the credible testimony of the apostles who had seen Him. They heard from the apostles who Jesus was, what He taught, and the miracles that He performed, which substantiated His amazing claims. They saw the changed lives of the apostles. It’s not a blind leap in the dark to believe such solid testimony!
You have the same testimony and even more. It is now written down in the pages of the New Testament. In addition to the witness of the disciples who were with Jesus, you have the witness of the apostle Paul, who was transformed from a violent persecutor of the church into a man who suffered greatly for Christ’s sake (Acts 9:16). The cause of that dramatic change was that Paul saw the risen Lord Jesus Christ. Your path to permanent joy begins the moment you trust in Christ’s death for your sins and His resurrection from the dead. Jesus wants you to greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory. That permanent joy comes through believing in Him.
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2015, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
March 27, 2016
Special Easter Message
Someday soon, you will see the risen Lord Jesus Christ. Either when He comes again in power and glory or when you die, you will see Him. Do you ever wonder what that experience will be like?
We often hear about people seeing Jesus through dreams or visions. When these experiences occur among Muslims who subsequently leave Islam and come to faith in Jesus as a result, the visions seem to be legitimate (although sometimes kind of strange). But when some Christians claim to have gone to heaven and returned or to have frequent visions of Jesus, their claims are much more suspect. I’ve told you before about John MacArthur’s pastor friend, who told John that he sees Jesus every morning while he shaves. John’s incredulous reply was, “And you keep shaving?”
The Bible doesn’t leave us to wonder what it will be like to see the risen Lord Jesus. The apostle John was exiled on the island of Patmos because of his witness about the risen Savior. One “Lord’s day” (probably Sunday), John was “in the Spirit,” which implies “being transported into the world of prophetic visions by the Spirit of God” (Alan Johnson, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, ed. by Frank Gaebelein [Zondervan], 12:424). In this unusual state, he heard a loud voice like a trumpet telling him to write down what he saw and to send it to seven churches in Asia Minor, which probably represent the church as a whole. John wrote this vision, along with the entire Book of Revelation, to give these persecuted churches both comfort and correction.
Turning to see who was speaking to him, John saw the risen Lord Jesus Christ. John, who had been close enough with Jesus to lay his head on Jesus’ chest at the Last Supper, on this occasion fell at Jesus’ feet like a dead man. He was terrified! The only experience that was perhaps comparable was when John, along with Peter and James, had seen Jesus in His glory on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matt. 17:1-8). In our text John describes Jesus’ appearance in detail. By studying this encounter, we can know what to expect when we see the risen Lord:
Seeing the risen Lord Jesus Christ will first be terrifying and convicting, but then comforting, if we have believed in Him.
John’s reaction was not unique. On other occasions recorded in the Bible when people saw either the preincarnate Lord or even an angel of God, the normal response was to fall on their faces in fear and often to wonder whether they would die (Josh. 5:14; Judges 13:20, 22; Isa. 6:5; Ezek. 1:28; 3:23; Dan. 10:8-9). Even so, …
To see the Lord in His glory will be frightening because He is so different than we are and it will convict us because in the blazing light of His presence, we will be acutely aware of our own sin.
John’s vision reveals seven characteristics of the risen Lord:
Since six of seven uses of this word in the Old Testament refer to the attire of the high priest in Israel (Robert Thomas, Revelation 1-7, An Exegetical Commentary [Moody Press], p. 99, citing Mounce), most scholars interpret Jesus’ robe and golden sash to allude to His role as our high priest. The high priest’s garments were distinctive and set him apart as holy (Exod. 28:4). If the average person saw the high priest in his garb, he would be reminded, first that the priest was holy in a sense that he was not; and, second, that he needed the priest to go into the holy of holies on his behalf and offer atonement for his sins.
In the same way, when we see Jesus as our high priest, we are reminded that we cannot approach the holy God in our own common clothes, tainted by sin. We can only come to Him through the robes of righteousness of our high priest and the atonement that He made for our sins.
Jesus’ head and hair were like white wool, like snow (Rev. 1:14). This imagery comes from Daniel 7:9:
“I kept looking
Until thrones were set up,
And the Ancient of Days took His seat;
His vesture was like white snow
And the hair of His head like pure wool.
His throne was ablaze with flames,
Its wheels were a burning fire.
Jesus shares the attributes of the eternal God. The white hair speaks of His wisdom and the respect due to Him as the omniscient Sovereign of the universe. White also symbolizes holiness. Jesus is just as eternal as the Father and He shares His perfect holiness. That terrifies and convicts us because we realize that we are mere creatures, subject to death because of our sins.
John reports that Jesus’ “eyes were like a flame of fire.” The same description is repeated in Revelation 2:18, where the context emphasizes that Jesus “searches the minds and hearts” (Rev. 2:23) and He knows all of the deeds that we do (Rev. 2:19). After reminding us that the word of God is able “to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12), the author of Hebrews reminds us (Heb. 4:13), “And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” That’s a rather terrifying thought—that you can’t hide anything, including your thoughts and motives, from the risen Lord!
Revelation 1:15: “His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace ….” In the Old Testament, bronze is often the symbol for judgment. The fact that His feet were glowing as if they had been in a furnace points to the Lord’s purity. He will judge all by the standard of His absolute purity, again a cause for terror and conviction.
Revelation 1:15b: “His voice was like the sound of many waters.” (The same description is also in Rev. 14:2 & 19:6.) In Ezekiel 43:2, the prophet relates, “And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the way of the east. And His voice was like the sound of many waters; and the earth shone with His glory.” If you’ve ever been near pounding breakers during heavy surf or the thunder of a powerful waterfall, you can’t help but be in awe of the majesty and power of the God who spoke creation into existence. When He speaks, we dare not ignore His word or we risk being swept away, as if by powerful waves on the shore.
Revelation 1:16: “out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword.” The Greek word refers to a large sword that the Romans used in battle. Revelation 2:12 & 16 threaten the church in Pergamum that the Lord may use this sword from His mouth against them if they do not repent. In Revelation 19:15, the sword from His mouth will strike down the nations when He returns so that He will rule them with a rod of iron. God’s word is the standard by which He judges both His church and the entire world. To the extent that we are ignorant of it or fall short of obeying it, we will be terrified and convicted when He comes in judgment.
Revelation 1:16: “In His right hand He held seven stars … and His face was like the sun shining in its strength.” As verse 20 explains, the seven stars are the seven angels of the churches (more on that in a moment). His right hand is the place both of power and of safety. The main idea is that He is the sovereign over the churches. The shining brilliance of His face, compared to the brightness of the sun, conveys His glory. Just as we can’t look directly at the sun without our eyes being permanently damaged, so no one who has sinned can look at the glory of the risen Lord without some sort of protection and not be consumed.
Thus we all will be terrified and convicted when we see the risen, glorious Lord because of who He is. But, also,
You can be the most righteous person on earth, as Job was, and yet if you get a glimpse of the Holy One, like Job (42:6), you will repent in dust and ashes. Romans 3:10-12 indicts us all:
“There is none righteous, not even one;
There is none who understands,
There is none who seeks for God;
All have turned aside, together they have become useless;
There is none who does good,
There is not even one.”
To plead your good deeds as the basis for getting into heaven would be like a mass murderer trying to get acquitted because he had helped out at a local charity. In Romans 3:19-20, Paul goes on to show that even the Jews who sought to keep God’s law would be condemned by that law: “Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.”
So when you see the risen Lord Jesus Christ (and you will!), it’s going to be terrifying and convicting—unless …
After John fell at Jesus’ feet as a dead man, he reports (Rev. 1:17) that Jesus “placed His right hand on me, saying, ‘Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.’” That’s incredibly good news, not just for John, but for all who have believed in Jesus! From John’s vision, as well as from Jesus’ comforting words, we learn four truths that deliver us from the fear of judgment and give us comfort and hope:
John reports (Rev. 1:13-14) seeing “one like a son of man.” The prophecy behind this is Daniel 7:13-14:
“I kept looking in the night visions,
And behold, with the clouds of heaven
One like a Son of Man was coming,
And He came up to the Ancient of Days
And was presented before Him.
And to Him was given dominion,
Glory and a kingdom,
That all the peoples, nations and men of every language
Might serve Him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion
Which will not pass away;
And His kingdom is one
Which will not be destroyed.
Jesus connected that prophecy to Himself at His trial when He replied to the high priest’s question of whether He was the Christ, the Son of God, (Matt. 26:64), “You have said it yourself; nevertheless I tell you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
“Son of Man” was one of Jesus’ favorite titles to refer to Himself. It has overtones both of deity and humanity. The entire Gospel of John makes the point that Jesus is God in human flesh. After stating that Jesus, the Word, is the eternal creator (John 1:1), John 1:14 adds, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” In John 5:27, Jesus claims that the Father gave to Him (the Son), “authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man.” At the climax of John, Thomas sees the risen Lord, who knew Thomas’ words of unbelief that he had spoken, he thought, in private. Thomas proclaims (John 20:28), “My Lord and My God!” And Jesus affirmed Thomas’ confession.
The deity of Jesus is further emphasized in John’s vision, where Jesus says (Rev. 1:17), “I am the first and the last.” In Revelation 1:8, the Lord God says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” Alpha and omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. In Revelation 22:13, Jesus claims, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” It’s a direct claim to His deity and it gives us hope and comfort if we have believed in Him because we can trust that what He has promised, He will do. Jesus’ humanity gives us comfort because we know that He is able to sympathize with our weaknesses (Heb. 4:15).
He tells John (Rev. 1:18), “I was dead ….” Each of the four Gospels gives extended attention to the death of Jesus on the cross for our sins. In Revelation 1:5, John states that Jesus is “the firstborn of the dead,” and that He “loves us and released us from our sins by His blood.”
Before Adam and Eve sinned, God warned that if they sinned, the penalty would be death (Gen. 2:17). As the holy Sovereign of the universe, God has the right to declare the penalty for our sins. That penalty includes not only physical death, but also eternal separation from God in the lake of fire (Rev. 20:15).
But because He is not only holy and just, but also loving and merciful, God instituted the sacrificial system to provide the death of an acceptable substitute in place of the sinner. The Jewish sacrificial system pointed ahead to Jesus Christ, the perfect and final Lamb of God, who alone can take away the sins of the world (John 1:29). Every sinner who trusts in Jesus’ shed blood can know that God has forgiven all of his sins (Heb. 10:10, 18). As Paul writes (Rom. 4:4-5), “Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.” But Jesus not only died for our sins; also,
Jesus says (Rev. 1:18), I am “the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.” In spite of Jesus’ repeated prophecies that He would die and be resurrected (Matt. 16:21; 17:9), none of the disciples was expecting His resurrection. But seeing the risen Lord on many occasions over the forty days between His resurrection and His ascension transformed these fearful men into bold witnesses, most of whom died martyr’s deaths because they proclaimed His resurrection. The apostle Paul, a persecutor of the church who was converted to one of its boldest witnesses, went so far as to rest the entire Christian faith on the fact of Jesus’ resurrection when he wrote (1 Cor. 15:17), “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.”
Jesus’ claim to hold the keys of death and of Hades means that He controls who dies and when you die. If your trust is in Him, you do not need to fear death. As Paul said (Phil. 1:21), “For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” It’s gain to die because to be absent from the body is to be at home with the Lord, forever free from all sorrow and suffering (2 Cor. 5:8; Rev. 21:4). So the resurrection of Jesus is of great comfort for all believers. But…
In verse 12, John says that he saw “seven golden lampstands,” and in verse 16 he adds that in the risen Lord’s right hand were seven stars. In verse 20 the Lord explains these symbols: “As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.”
It’s difficult to decide whether the seven angels are human messengers (the literal meaning of the Greek word) or pastors; or literal angels (there are strong arguments on both sides). I lean toward the view that they are angels, since this word refers to angels about 60 times in Revelation, but never to human messengers.
The picture of the churches as lampstands with the Lord in the midst shows that we are to be witnesses of the risen Lord. He is the Light of the world (John 8:12), but since He is now in heaven, we are to be that light to the nations (Matt. 5:14) as we proclaim the good news of His saving death and resurrection.
But, bearing witness of that good news is often costly. The letters to the seven churches that follow show that many will suffer, some unto death, because of their witness (Rev. 2:10, 13). Throughout history, including right now, countless numbers have suffered reproach, rejection, the loss of property, and the loss of life, because they have testified to the truth about Jesus Christ. But, our comfort is that He is the Lord of history. He knew the things that would take place after these things (Rev. 1:19). He knows and has ordained the complete number of those who will be killed because of their testimony about Him (Rev. 6:9-11).
Thus seeing the risen Lord Jesus Christ will be terrifying and convicting, but then comforting, for all who have believed in Him. But the Book of Revelation also reveals some horrible news for those who refuse to repent and believe in the risen Lord:
Although the glorious, sovereign, powerful risen Lord is a comfort to believers, He is a terror to the unrepentant. They will call for the rocks and hills to fall on them to protect them from the wrath of the Lamb (Rev. 6:16). Dying physically is not the final death. The final death is called the second death, when all the living and the dead whose names are not written in the book of life are thrown into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:11-15). Jesus repeatedly described it as a place of outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt. 8:12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30). You don’t want to go there!
And the good news is, you don’t have to go there! No matter how badly or how many times you have sinned against God, He offers eternal life to you as His free gift. John 3:16 promises, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” Why face God’s judgment when today you can receive His gift of complete forgiveness and eternal life?
The apostle Paul proclaimed to the Athenian philosophers (Acts 17:30-31), “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” Jesus’ resurrection is proof that the day of judgment is fixed. But if you repent and put your trust in Jesus, you don’t have to fear that judgment. But remember: You will see the risen Lord Jesus someday soon! Make sure that that meeting will be the source of eternal comfort, not of eternal terror!
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2016, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
April 16, 2017
Special Easter Message
The French philosopher, Blaise Pascal, argued that all people without exception seek happiness and that this is the motive of every action of every person—even, he said, of those who hang themselves! (Blaise Pascal, Pascal’s Pensées, trans. by W. F. Trotter [E. P. Dutton], p. 113, cited by John Piper, Desiring God [Multnomah Books], Tenth Anniversary Ed. p. 16.) The problem is, people think that sin will bring lasting joy and pleasure. But sin always deceives. It delivers pleasure at first (Heb. 11:25), but ultimately that passing pleasure rots into corruption (Gal. 6:8).
If I were to ask, “What word pops into your mind when you think of God, would you reply, “Joy!” “Pleasure!” You should! The Bible repeatedly teaches that full joy and lasting pleasure are found in only one place: in the presence of God. Psalm 34:8 invites us, “O taste and see that the Lord is good.” Deuteronomy 12:12 commands, “And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God ….” Verse 18 repeats, “You shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all your undertakings.” Deuteronomy 27:7 says it again: “You shall rejoice before the Lord your God.” In the New Testament, from prison Paul writes (Phil. 3:1), “Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord.” So that we don’t miss it, he repeats (Phil. 4:4), “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!” The Holy Spirit is the source of joy (Rom. 14:17; 15:13; Gal. 5:22). These and many more verses invite us to find full joy and lasting pleasure in God.
Psalm 16 is about experiencing joy and pleasure in God (v. 11): “In Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever.” The scholarly German commentator, Franz Delitzsch, wrote of Psalm 16 (Commentary on the Old Testament in Ten Volumes [Eerdmans], by C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, p. 217), “There reigns in the whole Psalm, a settled calm, an inward joy, and a joyous confidence, which is certain that everything that it can desire for the present and for the future it possesses in its God.” The message of the Psalm is:
To have full joy and eternal pleasure, make the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ your supreme treasure.
The psalm divides into two main sections: Verses 1-6 describe how to make the Lord your supreme treasure. Verses 7-11 show the results that follow: you will be satisfied with full joy and eternal pleasure in Him. But, also, all commentators agree that verses 8-11 speak prophetically of Christ’s death and resurrection, because both Peter and Paul quoted these verses of Him (Acts 2:25-28; 13:35). So I add a third point that all of God’s treasures are secured by the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ.
The first section (Ps. 16:1-6) shows five ways to make the Lord your supreme treasure:
Psalm 16:1: “Preserve me, O God, for I take refuge in You.” David probably wrote this psalm when his life was in danger: He needed rescue and a refuge. Rather than trusting in a physical stronghold (although he may have taken refuge in one), David trusted and took refuge in God. The truth is, we all need a place of refuge and protection, both in time and for eternity.
Temporally, we instinctively try to protect ourselves from harm and danger. We avoid risks that could kill us. We wear seat belts when we drive. We avoid smoking and eating junk foods that can cause disease. While we should do all of these things, we also should take refuge in God to protect us. Fasten your seat belt, but pray for safety. Take proper care of your body, but pray for health. We need the Lord’s protection constantly in this life.
But far more than temporal protection, we need an eternal place of refuge. The fact is, we’re all going to die and stand before the holy God in judgment. How can we avoid condemnation on that day? All of the good works you can pile up will not erase the fact that you have sinned and that the wages of sin is eternal separation from God. If you were guilty of multiple murders, but you tried to argue in court that you’re a basically good person who devoted your spare time to helping the needy, you’d still be convicted. Jesus said that all who have been angry with someone else are guilty of murder in God’s sight (Matt. 5:21-22). I don’t know of anyone who can honestly say, “I’ve never been angry!” So we all need a way to take care of our many sins before we stand before God.
The good news is: God has provided Jesus Christ as the Savior for all sinners who trust in Him. He is the refuge from God’s wrath for all who flee to Him. Jesus bore the curse of God’s wrath that we deserve for our sins, so that God could be both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Rom. 3:26). Paul wrote (Rom. 10:13), “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” That promise is for you! To have full joy and eternal pleasure, flee now to Jesus as your refuge and Savior. Then you will be safe on judgment day.
Psalm 16:2: “I said to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord; I have no good besides You.” Scholars translate the last phrase of verse 2 in one of two ways. The New KJV renders it, “My goodness is nothing apart from You.” This would mean that God does not need our good works, because they can contribute nothing to Him.
But most scholars understand the verse to mean (as in the NASB), “I have no good besides You.” As Psalm 73:25 proclaims, “Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.” It goes on to state (Ps. 73:28), “But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord God my refuge …” Sam Storms (enjoyinggodministries.com/article/satisfaction-psalm-16) comments: “Everything without God is pathetically inferior to God without everything.”
Can you truly affirm, “Lord, I have no other good besides You”? The only way you can truthfully say that is if you can affirm the first part of the verse: “I said to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord.’” David was a part of the larger covenant people of God. But that’s not enough. In modern terms, it’s not enough to be from a Christian family or to be a church member. You must personally be able to say, “Jesus, You are my Lord.” Only when you know Jesus personally as your Lord can you begin to know Him as your only good.
Jesus explained this by two parables (Matt. 13:44-46):
“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.”
Being a Christian means that the Spirit of God has opened your eyes to see Jesus as that treasure in the field. He is the pearl of great value. The joy of finding Him makes it worth giving up everything else to gain Christ. As Paul explained it (Phil. 3:7-8):
But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ….
Have you done that? Has God opened your eyes to see Jesus as your treasure and supreme good, so that you have said, “Jesus, You are my Lord”? That’s the only path to lasting joy and pleasure.
Ps. 16:3: “As for the saints who are in the earth, they are the majestic ones in whom is all my delight.” Making the Lord our only good (v. 2) does not imply becoming a monk in solitary confinement. Rather, it is to put God at the center of everything, including our relationships. David’s point in verse 3 is that his joy in God is enhanced because he has delighted himself in the company of God’s people, whom he calls “saints” and “majestic ones.” These terms describe God’s people as those set apart unto Him, whose character is excellent or upright. The idea is that the path to lasting joy and pleasure is not a solitary journey. We travel in the company of fellow pilgrims, growing in holiness and love as together we find joy in God.
Thus make the Lord your supreme treasure by making Him your refuge and Savior; by making Him your Lord and your supreme good; by making Him the center of your relationships.
David’s thoughts about God’s saints cause him to reflect on those who turn their backs on God and pursue idols (Ps. 16:4): “The sorrows of those who have bartered for another god will be multiplied; I shall not pour out their drink offerings of blood, nor will I take their names upon my lips.” The Hebrew verb here can be translated either “bartered for” (NASB), or “run after” (ESV, NIV). Either way, the idea is that they have forsaken the living and true God to go after idols. But those idols never provide fullness of joy, but rather multiplied sorrows.
That’s always the case when we pursue the idols of this world! The false gods of financial success, sensual pleasure, or personal peace always promise fulfillment, but result in sorrow. So make the Lord the exclusive object of your worship.
Ps. 16:5-6: “The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and my cup; you support my lot. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me.” In the same way, Paul says that in Christ we have obtained an inheritance (Eph. 1:11; Rom. 8:17) and that in the ages to come, God will show us “the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:7). It will take all eternity to discover our inheritance!
The idea behind Psalm 16:5-6 is that of God’s apportioning the land to the twelve tribes of Israel. But God did not give an inheritance of land to the priestly tribe of Levi. Rather, the Lord said to Aaron (Num. 18:20), “You shall have no inheritance in their land nor own any portion among them; I am your portion and your inheritance among the sons of Israel.”
As David reflects on this, his thought is that having the Lord as his portion is better than the best piece of land that anyone could inherit. John Calvin comments (Calvin’s Commentaries [Baker], on Ps. 16, p. 226), “For he who has God as his portion is destitute of nothing which is requisite to constitute a happy life.” C. S. Lewis wrote (The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses [New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996], p. 31): “He who has God and everything else has no more than he who has God only.” David’s primary joy is not in God’s gifts, but in the Lord Himself (Willem VanGemeren, Expositor’s Bible Commentary, [Zondervan] ed. by Frank Gaebelein, 5:157).
Can you honestly say, “I have made the Lord my supreme treasure”? You make that choice when you trust in Christ as your Savior, but then you should be growing to treasure Him more and more as you walk with Him (Phil. 3:7-16). What happens when the Spirit of God enables you to do this?
Psalm 16:7-11 lists four blessings that result when you make the Lord your supreme treasure:
Ps. 16:7: “I will bless the Lord who has counseled me; indeed, my mind instructs me in the night.” The Hebrew word for “mind” (lit. “kidneys”) refers to the innermost personal life (J. J. Stewart Perowne, The Book of Psalms [Zondervan], p. 194). “Night” is plural in Hebrew, so the thought is, “night after night the Lord has counseled and instructed me as I have meditated upon Him.” David may be referring to the night watches or to times when he woke up in the night and thought about the Lord. When you treasure God’s Word in your heart, you receive His instruction and counsel that will sustain you during nights of difficulty and trials.
Ps. 16:8: “I have set the Lord continually before me; because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.” Your responsibility is to set the Lord continually before you. In Paul’s words (Col. 3:1-2), “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.” When you do that, Isaiah 26:3 explains the result: “The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, because he trusts in You.” When you know that the Lord is at your right hand, even though you may be surrounded by powerful enemies, you will have the peace of knowing that they cannot touch you unless it is God’s will (2 Kings 6:8-17).
Ps. 16:9: “Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices; my flesh also will dwell securely.” Glory refers to the soul. By adding, “my flesh,” David means that his total being, inward and outward, is glad and joyful because God has caused him to live securely. When you reflect on your security in Christ (as Paul does in Romans 8), you can’t help but be glad and rejoice in the Lord. If God is your treasure then you’re His treasure (Deut. 26:18), and God never loses His treasure! Rejoice!
Ps. 16:10-11: “For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay. You will make known to me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever.” As we’ll see in a moment, these verses find their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ. But as applied to David, the idea is either that the Lord will preserve and prolong his life; or, although he will die, the Lord will not permit him to suffer eternal destruction. To undergo decay “is a metaphor for total isolation and abandonment from God’s presence” (VanGemeren, p. 158). Rather than that, by walking in “the path of life,” David had hope beyond the grave that he would enjoy full joy and eternal pleasure in God’s presence. That’s your hope if you know the Lord Jesus as your supreme treasure.
David’s satisfaction (seen in v. 11) stands in stark contrast to the sad experience of his son, Solomon. Solomon sought satisfaction in his work, but found it empty. He sought fulfillment through wisdom, but found it vain. He built a beautiful palace and landscaped it with a fabulous garden, but found no pleasure in it. He tried laughter and wine, but found these to be madness. He had sexual pleasures with 700 beautiful wives and 300 concubines, but they could not satisfy him. He had fabulous wealth, but it couldn’t buy him happiness. He chronicles all of this in Ecclesiastes. Although he finally found contentment in the Lord (Eccl. 12:13), he should have learned sooner from his father to make the Lord his supreme treasure!
But maybe you’re wondering, “If I don’t go after worldly pleasure and instead seek pleasure in God, how can I be sure of the eternal joy and pleasure that God promises? Maybe I’ll have a hard life of suffering and then die and that’s it. How can I know that I will have joy and pleasure forever with God beyond the grave?”
Both Peter and Paul (Acts 2:25-28; 13:35-37) cite Psalm 16 and assert that verse 10 did not find final fulfillment in David, in that he died and his body underwent decay. David wrote prophetically of his Son, God’s Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. After citing Psalm 16:8-11, Peter concludes (Acts 2:29-32):
“Brethren, I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. And so, because he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants on his throne, he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that He was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did His flesh suffer decay. This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses.”
The consistent apostolic witness was that Jesus’ death and bodily resurrection proved Him to be God’s promised Messiah and Savior (Acts 3:15, 26; 4:10; 5:30). Even when the apostles suffered persecution and faced martyrdom, they kept proclaiming that Jesus had been raised from the dead. Paul went so far as to say that if Jesus is not risen bodily from the dead, our faith is worthless; we’re still in our sins (1 Cor. 15:17). The entire Christian faith rests on the historical fact of Jesus’ resurrection. That fact means that God’s promise of eternal joy and pleasure in His presence is secure for those who trust in the crucified and risen Savior!
The current movie, “The Case for Christ,” tells the true story of the conversion of Lee Strobel. He was an atheistic legal affairs reporter for the Chicago Tribune when his wife unexpectedly came to faith in Christ. At first, he vigorously opposed her faith. But eventually, he decided to investigate the claims of Christ and His resurrection by applying the investigative skills he used as a crime reporter. Although the movie only pictures a few interviews, Strobel’s book (The Case for Christ [Zondervan]) tells how for over two years Strobel crisscrossed the country, interviewing 13 scholars. Rather than disproving the claims of Christ, eventually Strobel came to realize that the evidence supports the gospel accounts of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. He put his trust in Christ.
More than a century before, the same thing happened to Simon Greenleaf (1783–1853). He was a law professor at Harvard, who wrote the three-volume legal masterpiece, A Treatise on the Law of Evidence, which is still regarded as “the greatest single authority in the entire literature of legal procedure.” The U.S. judicial system today operates on rules of evidence established by Greenleaf.
While teaching law at Harvard, Professor Greenleaf stated to his class that the resurrection of Jesus Christ was simply a legend; as an atheist he thought miracles to be impossible. In a rebuttal, three of his law students challenged him to apply his acclaimed rules of evidence to the resurrection account. Eventually, Greenleaf took up the challenge, attempting to prove that the resurrection account was false. Yet the more Greenleaf investigated the record of history, the more stunned he was at the powerful evidence supporting the claim that Jesus had indeed risen from the tomb. He was so persuaded by the evidence that he became a committed Christian. (Greenleaf’s story taken from http://y-jesus.com/simon-greenleaf-resurrection.)
God’s promises of full joy and eternal pleasure are secured by the fact that Jesus died for our sins and He was raised from the dead, as the apostolic witnesses uniformly proclaim. But those promises only apply to you if you turn from your sins and trust in Jesus as the one who died for your sins and was raised from the dead. God offers you full joy and eternal pleasure in Jesus Christ. Sell all that you have to buy the field with that great treasure of Christ and you will have full joy and pleasures forever in Him!
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2017, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
April 1, 2018
Years ago, Dr. Paul Adkins, one of the nation’s leading lung surgeons, looked at his own chest X-ray and realized that he was looking at his own obituary (Reader’s Digest [11/82]). He was dead four and a half months later, at age 55, from lung cancer, the disease that he had attempted to treat in hundreds of other patients. The ironic fact was that Dr. Adkins himself had smoked up to a pack and a half of cigarettes daily for 40 years. His mother had smoked and lived to an old age, and so Dr. Adkins foolishly concluded that he could do the same. Even after he realized that he had lung cancer he continued to smoke, against the strong warnings of his colleagues.
If anyone knew the dangers of smoking, Dr. Adkins did, but he did not apply that knowledge to himself. Knowledge is worthless if we don’t apply it. The same is true spiritually. We can know the truth, but if we don’t apply it personally, it does us no good.
Polls show that one-third to one-half of Americans claim to be born again Christians, and yet there’s not much difference between how they live and how other Americans live. Professing Christians watch the same TV shows and movies as non-Christians do. They view pornography, engage in sexual immorality, and get divorced at about the same rate as other Americans. The apostle Paul would ask them, “Doesn’t the resurrection of Jesus from the dead mean anything to you?” In other words, Jesus is risen—so what? How should that fact affect your life?
Acts 26 relates Paul’s defense before the Roman governor Festus, King Agrippa II, his sister, Bernice, and many dignitaries at the Roman capital, Caesarea. Agrippa II was the son of Agrippa I (Acts 12). He ruled over Galilee and some other territories to the north. A popular but unproven rumor alleged that Agrippa and Bernice were in an incestuous relationship. She later became the lover of the Roman general and future emperor Titus, whose army destroyed Jerusalem in 70. Agrippa and Bernice had a sister, Drusilla, who was married to the previous governor, Felix (Acts 24). Drusilla later died in the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in AD 79.
This is the third time in Acts that Luke repeats Paul’s testimony of his conversion, which, along with the witness of the other apostles, is a strong evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Here Paul especially focuses on the commission that the risen Lord Jesus gave to him, to go to the Gentiles so that they might repent and turn to God (Acts 26:18, 20). His message to us is:
Because Jesus was raised bodily from the dead, you should repent and turn to God.
In other words, to say, “I believe in Jesus as my Savior,” but to go on living in the same way as this godless world, does no more good than for a lung surgeon to say, “I believe that smoking causes lung cancer,” but to go on smoking a pack a day. If we truly believe that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, our lives will show it. Repentance is not optional. You can’t separate it from genuine saving faith. It is the mark of genuine conversion.
Paul’s defense makes two main points: (1) The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is a fact; (2) Repenting of your sins and turning to God is the only reasonable response to this great fact.
Paul is speaking here to a skeptical audience, and so he presents his case inductively. He doesn’t state up front, “Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.” He would have been hooted out of the room. Even when he finally states this great truth, Festus interrupts to say that he’s out of his mind (Acts 26:24). So Paul begins with the possibility of resurrection in general. Then he describes his own encounter with the risen Lord Jesus, and the changes that took place in his life as a result. Then he relates the message that the risen Lord told him to proclaim. Finally he comes to the foundation for his message, namely, that according to the Scriptures Jesus died and was raised from the dead. He gives four proofs of the resurrection:
Paul begins by telling of his early life in Judaism and identifying himself with the hope of God’s promise to the Jews, namely, the coming of Messiah and His kingdom. That promise would have been worthless to the Jews from past generations if there were no resurrection of the dead. Yet it was for this Jewish hope that Paul’s Jewish kinsmen, the Sadducees, were accusing him. Thus he interjects (Acts 26:8), “Why is it considered incredible among you people if God does raise the dead?”
In other words, if you believe in the God of the Bible, you must necessarily believe that He has the power to raise the dead. And, as Paul will go on to assert, the fact that God raised Jesus bodily proves that He is the Jewish Messiah. Paul’s logic here is solid: If you believe in the God who created all things and who spoke life into existence, you must also agree that He has the inherent power to raise the dead.
Paul goes on (Acts 26:12-16) to recount his own dramatic encounter with the risen Lord Jesus on the Damascus Road. Skeptics might say that Paul only saw a vision or hallucination, not the actual risen Lord Jesus. If Paul had been the only one to make such a claim, perhaps we would have to concede the point, or at least not build our case on it. But in 1 Corinthians 15:5-8, Paul states that the risen Lord appeared to Peter and the other apostles, as well as to over 500 followers at one time, most of whom were still alive when Paul wrote. Floyd Hamilton states (in Teacher’s Manual for the Ten Basic Steps Toward Christian Maturity [Campus Crusade for Christ, 1965], p. 104, italics his),
Now it is perfectly possible for one man to have an hallucination, and two men might have the same hallucination by a singular coincidence, but that eleven men of intelligence, whose characters and writings indicate their sanity in other respects, or that five hundred men in a body should have the same hallucination and at the same time, stretches the law of probability to the breaking point!
Concerning Jesus’ resurrection J. N. D. Anderson wrote (“The Resurrection of Jesus Christ,” Christianity Today [3/29/68], pp. 5, 6),
The most drastic way of dismissing the evidence would be to say that these stories were mere fabrications, that they were pure lies. But, so far as we know, not a single critic today would take such an attitude. In fact, it would really be an impossible position. Think of the number of witnesses, over 500. Think of the character of the witnesses, men and women who gave the world the highest ethical teaching it has ever known, and who even on the testimony of their enemies lived it out in their lives. Think of the psychological absurdity of picturing a little band of defeated cowards cowering in an upper room one day and a few days later transformed into a company that no persecution could silence—and then attempting to attribute this dramatic change to nothing more convincing than a miserable fabrication they were trying to foist upon the world. That simply wouldn’t make sense.
Someone may be thinking, “That’s great for those who saw the risen Christ. But I’ve never seen Him. Why should I believe?”
You should believe because there is reasonable evidence to believe. We all believe in things we cannot see and in people we do not know. You trust that the people who package the food you buy at the store did not poison it. You trust that the mechanic who fixed your brakes did a good job. You trust the teller at the bank to deposit your money in your account and not steal it. If you trust the witness of men, the witness of God concerning His Son is greater (1 John 5:9). He will hold you accountable if you reject the eyewitness testimony that He has given regarding the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Paul had been relentless in persecuting Christians. He says (Acts 26:11) that he “punished them often,” “tried to force them to blaspheme” and was “furiously enraged” at them. And yet here he is, a prisoner for the cause of Christ, having endured much persecution himself because of his faith in Christ, but he’s not bitter or hateful toward his enemies. How did this hate-driven terrorist change into a man compelled by the love of Christ, willing to lay down his life to tell others about Jesus? The only explanation is that he had seen the risen Savior. All of the other apostles had also been radically transformed. Would these men have died martyrs’ deaths for what they knew to be a myth or hoax?
Paul affirms (Acts 26:22-23) that he is saying nothing except that which the Prophets and Moses had said would take place, “that the Christ was to suffer, and that by reason of His resurrection from the dead He should be the first to proclaim light both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles.” Probably Paul went into more detail here, quoting from Genesis 22, Isaiah 53, Psalm 16, and Psalm 22, all of which prophesied of Messiah’s death and resurrection centuries before these things took place.
Thus Paul’s point is that the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ was an historical fact. Such a miracle is possible because God exists. It is proved by eyewitness testimony and by the changed lives of the witnesses. It is supported by the Hebrew Scriptures. But, so what? What difference should this fact make?
Paul shows this both by his own example and by his direct preaching. When Paul believed in Jesus Christ, he did a 180-degree turnaround. From then on he preached (Acts 26:20) that all people “should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance.” Repentance involves a change of mind, but it is more than only a change of mind. It involves a turning of the whole person, including a change of behavior. Repentance is not separate from saving faith; rather, it’s a necessary part of genuine faith. If you truly believe that a prescription medicine will cure you, you don’t just set it on the shelf. You take the pill. If you truly believe that Jesus Christ is the risen Savior, you turn to God from your sins. Paul here says four things about repentance:
The risen Christ was the first to proclaim light (Acts 26:23). God sent Paul (Acts 26:18) “to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light.” Apart from Christ, all people, no matter how brilliant, are “darkened in their understanding” (Eph. 4:18). As Jesus said (John 3:19), they “loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.” Paul said (2 Cor. 4:4) that “the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.”
People in the darkness cannot see the blazing light of God’s holiness. If you had asked Paul before his conversion whether he believed that God is holy, there’s no doubt that he would have answered, “Of course!” He knew that fact intellectually. But only when the light from heaven brighter than the sun blinded him did Paul realize that God was far more holy than he had ever imagined. Previously, Paul had thought that his own good deeds as a Pharisee would qualify him for heaven (Phil. 3:4-6). But the instant the light of God’s holiness struck him to the ground, Paul, like Isaiah, was undone. He realized that his own good works were like filthy rags in God’s sight (Isa. 6:5; 64:6).
Suddenly, Paul saw that he was far more sinful than he ever had imagined. If you had asked Paul before his conversion if he were a sinner, he would have replied, “Of course, all men are sinners.” But like the Pharisee in Jesus’ story (Luke 18:10-12), he probably would have thought, “I’m glad that I’m not a really bad sinner! I tithe, I pray, I fast.” But when the light from heaven blinded him, Paul instantly realized that he could never qualify for heaven by his good deeds. All of his supposed good deeds could never atone for his many evil deeds.
Years after his conversion, Paul wrote (1 Tim. 1:15), “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost.” He did not say, I was foremost, but I am foremost! As C. S. Lewis pointed out (Mere Christianity [Macmillan], p. 87), “When a man is getting better, he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still in him. When a man is getting worse, he understands his own badness less and less.” Thus repentance is not just a one-time experience at the moment of conversion. It is the ongoing practice of every believer who walks in God’s holy light.
If sin and Satan blind people so that they cannot see the light of God’s truth regarding His holiness and their own sin, how can they change? The biblical answer is, only God can change them. As Paul said (2 Cor. 4:6), “For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” God brings this change through the preaching of the gospel. Thus the risen Lord told Paul (Acts 26:18) that through his preaching God would “open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.”
God not only opens the sinner’s eyes to the light of His holiness and to the darkness of the sinner’s sin, but also to the abundance of God’s grace in Christ, who bore the penalty that sinners deserve. Since Paul, the foremost of sinners, found mercy at the cross, that same mercy is available to you if you will repent.
Everyone by nature is born into this world as a captive in Satan’s evil domain of darkness (Col. 1:13; 2 Tim. 2:26). Both Jesus and Paul describe our condition as being slaves of sin (John 8:34-35; Rom. 6:17, 20).
How can anyone break free from so strong a master? Jesus said (John 8:36), “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” Paul says (Col. 1:13-14) that God “rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” God alone can free us from slavery to sin and make us slaves of righteousness (Rom. 6:17-23).
This means that if you have not experienced a definite change of masters, from Satan to God, from serving sin and self to serving the Lord Jesus in holiness, you need to examine yourself to see whether you have truly repented of your sins. Repentance means turning “from the dominion of Satan to God” (Acts 26:18).
Paul continues (Acts 26:18), “… that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.” Before repentance, we were under God’s just condemnation because of our sins (John 3:18, 36). But the instant that we repent and believe in Christ, God sets us apart (“sanctified”) and grants us forgiveness of sins and all of the riches that are in Christ. At that moment, we enter into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ (John 17:3). Rather than being afraid of God because of our sins, now we can come boldly into His presence through Christ’s blood to receive grace to help in our time of need (Heb. 4:16; 9:22-28). Thus if you have turned from your sins and trusted in Christ, you now enjoy God’s forgiveness and every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph. 1:3-8).
Thus repentance involves a change of understanding, from darkness to light; a change of masters, from Satan to God; a change of relationship, from condemnation to forgiveness and acceptance as heirs. Finally,
In Acts 26:20, Paul reports his obedience to this heavenly vision: He kept declaring both to Jews and Gentiles, “that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance.” Whether you have been a religious person (as Paul and the Jews were) or an unbelieving pagan (as the Gentiles were), the message is the same: Repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance.
The deeds follow repentance. As G. H. Lang put it, “None more firmly than Paul rejected works, before or after conversion, as a ground of salvation; none more firmly demanded good works as a consequence of salvation” (The Gospel of the Kingdom, cited by F. F. Bruce, The Book of Acts [Eerdmans], p. 493). Biblical repentance is not just a change of mind or an intellectual decision. It is a turning of the whole person from sin to God, resulting in a life of obedience to God from the heart (Rom. 6:17).
Then Paul personally addressed Agrippa (Acts 26:27), “King Agrippa, do you believe the Prophets?” Before Agrippa could respond, Paul answered his own question, “I know that you do.” Yes, Agrippa believed the prophets intellectually, just as many Americans “believe in Jesus” intellectually. But it made no difference in the way he lived. But Paul was not just preaching for intellectual agreement. He was preaching for repentance.
So am I! Repentance means that you believe in the risen Savior with such conviction that it turns around the way you live. Instead of living in darkness, you now live in the light of God’s holy presence. Instead of living under Satan’s domain, you now live under the Lordship of Jesus in line with His Word. Instead of living for yourself and sinful pleasure, you now live to please Jesus Christ.
Now Paul had Agrippa cornered. If he denied his belief in the Prophets, he would lose face with the Jews. If he agreed with Paul, he could see that the next question would be, “Why don’t you believe in Jesus Christ as the risen Savior?” He wasn’t ready to go there! So he skated out of this embarrassing dilemma with a mildly sarcastic humorous dodge (Acts 26:28), “In a short time you will persuade me to become a Christian”. The ESV translates it as a question, “In a short time would you persuade me to be a Christian?” And so to save face in front of this pompous crowd, Agrippa threw away his opportunity to receive God’s forgiveness and gift of eternal life! Don’t follow his example!
Probably almost everyone here believes that seat belts save lives. But that belief doesn’t do you any good in a crash unless you actually have your seat belt fastened. Those who buckle up are those who truly believe that seat belts save lives. Your belief is worthless if you don’t personally apply it.
Do you believe that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead? Good for you! You’re right so to believe, because it is true! But if that belief has not led to a life of repentance from sin, it won’t do you any good when you stand before God. Your response to the historical fact of Jesus’ bodily resurrection should be repentance.
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2018, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation