Resurrection Power (4-8-12)

Acts 2:22-24 - "Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know— this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power."

In Acts chapter 2, when the apostle Peter brought the first gospel message after the ascension of Christ, he proclaimed that it was impossible for Christ to be held by the power of death. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is always a part of the gospel message because without the resurrection we have no gospel. Peter and Paul both preached the resurrection because they had both encountered the risen Christ and as a result of that encounter they were changed. The apostle Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 - "For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures." Paul calls the death of Christ for our sins, His burial and resurrection "of first importance." Without these 3 aspects the gospel is powerless and meaningless. And Paul even goes on to say in verses 17-19 of the same chapter - "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied." It is the resurrection of Christ that gives us a hope for eternity. If Christ has not been raised then we will not be raised either, but because He is alive and has risen from the dead we will also have the hope of resurrection after the death of our earthly bodies. It is His resurrection that gives us a hope and a confidence that we too shall be raised up.
Because of the power of God death could not hold Him. The greatest example of Gods power is the resurrection. Romans 1:4 says concerning Jesus - "who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord." And in Ephesians 1:18-20 Paul says - "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places." The greatest display of Gods power and one of the greatest proofs of Christs deity is the resurrection. the apostle Paul also says in Philippians 3:10-11 - "that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead." Paul desired to experience the awesome power of God, the power that raised Jesus from the dead, and he realized that the only way to experience Gods resurrection power is by knowing "the fellowship of His sufferings" and by "being conformed to His death". He talks about this again in Romans chapter 6 when he says - "How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus." Christ died for sins once for all and He has given us the opportunity to be united together with Him in His death, and as many as are united with Him in His death will also be united together with Him in His resurrection. Death could not hold Him, and neither can it hold those who have put their trust in Him.

1 Corinthians 15:54-57 - "But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Laid Down His Life (4-5-12)

1 John 3:18 - " By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren."

Just hours before His trial and ultimately His crucifixion, Jesus made this statement in John 15:13 - "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends." And John tells us that just as He laid down His life for us, we also ought to lay down our lives for one another. This doesn't merely mean being willing to die for one another, but also being willing to live for one another. To put our own interests aside and pursue what is best for our brothers and sisters in Christ. Shortly before making this statement, Christ gave us a very practical example of what laying down our lives looks like. John gives us an account of what happened on the night that Jesus was betrayed, and this is what we read in John 13:1-5 - "Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself. Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded." Just hours before Jesus was delivered up He was washing His disciples feet. He wasn't looking out for His own interests, He wasn't worried about what people might think of Him. He didn't consider Himself to be too important to wash their feet, or anything else that I would tend to think, He simply, out of a pure love and care for His disciples, took the place of a servant and laid down His life in a very practical way. What a thought! Their Creator was sitting on the floor girded with a towel and washing their feet. In John 13:12-17 we read - "So when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them."" Just as Christ laid down His life, both by putting aside His own interests, as we see in Philippians 2, and by physically dying on the cross and bearing the sins of the whole world, we also ought to lay down our lives for one another in very practical ways every single day. Matthew 20:28 - "just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."

1 John 4:11 - "Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another."

Gods Unchangable Plan (4-4-12)

Job 42:2 - "I know that Thou canst do all things, and that no purpose of Thine can be thwarted."

After Jobs encounter with God he confesses "No purpose of yours can be thwarted." God has a purpose and a plan for our world and nothing that man does will frustrate that plan. We call this God's sovereignty and we see it exercised throughout all of Scripture.
In Matthew 26:1-5, two days before Jesus' crucifixion, we read this - "When Jesus had finished all these words, He said to His disciples, “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man is to be handed over for crucifixion.” Then the chief priests and the elders of the people were gathered together in the court of the high priest, named Caiaphas; and they plotted together to seize Jesus by stealth and kill Him. But they were saying, “Not during the festival, otherwise a riot might occur among the people.”" In this passage we see a direct contradiction between the sovereignty of God and the plan of men. The Lord Jesus stated very plainly that it would be during the passover that He would be handed over for crucifixion, and then we see the chief priests and the elders plotting to kill Jesus, but they say, "Not during the festival, otherwise a riot might occur among the people." You know what happened, it happened just as Jesus said. He was delivered up during the passover, even though the chief priests and elders specifically plotted not to take Him during that time. It doesn't matter what mere man does, the purposes of God cannot be thwarted. God had a specific plan for the timing of the death of the Lord Jesus. Christ Himself said in John 10:17-18 - “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.” The Lord Jesus was delivered up for crucifixion in His perfect timing. They didn't want to take Him during the festival, but that was the Lords timing. I also think it's interesting that the reason the chief priests and elders didn't want to take Him during the passover was because a riot might break out, and that's exactly what happened. It was because of the riot that Pilate delivered up Jesus to death. The people were shouting out for Pilate to crucify Jesus, but he had no grounds for an execution, so he was asking the people "why, what evil has He done?" and saying "I find no guilt in this Man." but we read in Matthew 27:24 - "When Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but rather that a riot was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this Man’s blood; see to that yourselves.”" The very thing that the chief priests and elders tried to avoid was the very thing that God used to accomplish His purpose. Isaiah 14:27 says - "For the LORD of hosts has planned, and who can frustrate it?" And God also says in Isaiah 46:10 - "My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure." And that's what we see very clearly in this time leading up to the death of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Proverbs 19:21 - "Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but the counsel of the LORD, it will stand."

Fruit (4-3-12)

Matthew 12:33 - "Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit."

During the last week before the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, He would leave Jerusalem in the evenings and spend the night in a small town called Bethany. In the gospels we're given an interesting account of something that happened one morning as Jesus was heading back up to Jerusalem. Mark 11:12-14 says - "On the next day, when they had left Bethany, He became hungry. Seeing at a distance a fig tree in leaf, He went to see if perhaps He would find anything on it; and when He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” And His disciples were listening." We're told in this passage that the fig tree was in leaf, but then we're told that it had only leaves. Generally, a fig tree will produce it's fruit before it grows leaves. This fig tree, from a distance, was thought to have fruit, but upon closer inspection it became obvious that it wasn't fruitful at all. Outwardly it looked convincing, but it had no fruit. Jesus often compared our lives with the fruitfulness of trees. He said in Matthew 17:16-20 - "You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits." There are a lot of people who are just like that fig tree. They look good from a distance, but they have no fruit. The churches in this country are full of men and women like this. They come to church on Sunday, but on Monday through Saturday they are just like their unbelieving neighbors and co-workers. Twice in that portion from Matthew the Lord Jesus said "you will know them by their fruits." This is what separates us from the rest of the world. You'll notice that when the Lord Jesus came to that fig tree, it says "He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs." Jesus was looking for fruit out of season. Paul said to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:1-2 - "I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction." Jesus wants us to be ready to bear fruit in season and out of season. When we have planned and prepared to share the gospel or do some work of service for Christ, but also when we haven't planned anything and the opportunity presents itself to speak a word for Him. We're known by our fruit.

Mark 11:20-21 - "As they were passing by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up. Being reminded, Peter said to Him, “Rabbi, look, the fig tree which You cursed has withered.”"

Matthew 7:19 - "A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire."

The Humble Entry (4-2-12)

Zechariah 9:9 - "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey."

In the week leading up to the death of our Lord Jesus, His focus, as it was throughout His life, was on accomplishing the Fathers will and fulfilling the Scriptures. This verse in Zechariah talks about a humble King riding on a donkey. In all four of the gospels we're given the account of Jesus fulfilling this verse. This is the account given in Luke 19:29-38 - "When He approached Bethphage and Bethany, near the mount that is called Olivet, He sent two of the disciples, saying, “Go into the village ahead of you; there, as you enter, you will find a colt tied on which no one yet has ever sat; untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of it.’” So those who were sent went away and found it just as He had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” They said, “The Lord has need of it.” They brought it to Jesus, and they threw their coats on the colt and put Jesus on it. As He was going, they were spreading their coats on the road. As soon as He was approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen, shouting: “BLESSED IS THE KING WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
What a glorious scene! I'm sure that many of those in the crowd thought that Jesus was riding in to the city to take His place as King and overthrow the Romans, and yet Jesus knew that in just days He would be delivered up to death for the sins of the whole world. It's very likely that this crowd that shouted “Hosanna to the Son of David; BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Hosanna in the highest!”, was the same crowd that days later shouted “Crucify Him!”

In many Bible's this passage of Scripture is titled "The triumphant entry." It's true that Jesus came to triumph over sin and the grave, but His entrance wasn't one of triumph, but rather of humility. That's what Zechariah says - "Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey." A king didn't ride on a donkey, he rode on a white stallion, and yet in His humility Jesus, the eternal King, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords rode into Jerusalem on a beast of burden. I suggest that His triumphal entry is yet to come. At the end of the great tribulation period when all the armies of the earth unite under one banner with Satan as their leader and they come to challenge the Lord Jesus Christ, then He will make His triumphal entry into this world. This is what John tells us in Revelation 19:11-16 - "And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”" That's a triumphal entry.
These are, as far as I remember, the only two times in the Bible that we see Jesus riding on a beast. The first time He was riding on a donkey making His humble entry in Jerusalem preparing for His humiliating, terrible death in which He would be rejected by God and man and hung on a cross to bear the sins of the whole world. But the second time He comes everyone will see His awesome majesty, His terrible power, and His enemies will be wiped out. The first time Jesus triumphed over sin and the grave, but the second time Jesus will triumph over His enemies and set up His kingdom on this earth where He will rule and reign for a thousand years.

One Thing (3-26-12)

Philippians 3:13-14 - "Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

In Philippians chapter 3 the apostle Paul talks about the focus of his life. He begins the chapter by talking about his tendency and ability to put confidence in the flesh, since he was a very religious person before he came to Christ, and he talks about all his credentials according to the flesh, as the best among the Jews, a pharisee of pharisees. But he then goes on to say, "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 in order that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead." His life was completely turned around. He had been working in every area of his life to be the best that he could be, but after his encounter with Christ his life was completely different. Now he says "but one thing I do..." Paul's life now had a singular purpose, he was striving for perfection. He wanted his life to be completely devoted to God and growing closer to Him. Dedication to God means that anything that is not drawing you closer to God is put away. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:23 - "All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify." We are allowed to do a great many things, but we should be striving in our Christian lives to be single minded, to have our focus on one thing. That's all a part of escaping the lukewarm age that we're living in. If we're going to be living on fire for the Lord, then we need to have our eyes focused on Him only, and not be distracted by worthless things.
This single focus that Paul talks about is also talked about in the Old Testament. David says in Psalm 27:4 - "One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD And to meditate in His temple." Davids mind was focused on higher things. Just like Paul, he realized that he couldn't accomplish this dedication in his own strength. He asked for this one thing from the Lord. Paul said in Philippians 2 - "for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure."
Jesus also talked about this in Luke chapter 10. In this chapter the Lord was visiting the house of Martha and Mary, you know the story. Martha was busy with the preparation while Mary was sitting at the feet of the Lord Jesus listening to Him. Finally Martha said “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.” But Jesus said to her in verses 41-42 - “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” Our lives can become so cluttered with many things, but only one thing is necessary. May we learn from the examples of Paul and David and Mary to be committed to the Lord. Not perfect, but striving for it, seeking to put away every distraction that is not drawing us closer to our Lord.

Philippians 3:13-14 - "Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."