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Mark 16:3-4

The Worry Problem

We often look for Jesus in all the wrong places. The modern “Historical Jesus” movement seeks to find him as a regular figure of history but not the messianic figure of the Old Testament. The women who came to anoint Jesus’ body were asked, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?”  As the Gospel of Mark tells the story, we get to eavesdrop on the conversation the women had as they made their way through the graveyard to the tomb in which Jesus’ body was placed. Mark 16:3 tells us, “They were saying to one another, who will roll away the stone for us and from the entrance of the tomb?” It was assumed that Jesus was dead. Of course, they were eyewitnesses to his crucifixion. At least we know that his mother, Mary, was. They expected to encounter a major problem in the accomplishment of their goal of anointing Jesus’ body for his death. They went to the graveyard expecting to find Jesus in his grave. They expected his body to need to be anointed. They worried about how they would get into his tomb.

We often worry about things we shouldn’t. I don’t know about you, but when I don’t have anything to worry about, I worry about that! Worrying can become a bad habit. George Mueller suggested that faith and worry are antithetical. If you’re in the midst of one, you are out of the other. Worry accomplishes nothing. It’s like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn’t get you anywhere. Like the two Marys, we often worry about things that we shouldn’t worry about. Mark 16:4 says, “When they looked up, they saw that the stone was already rolled away.” I love the last little comment, “It was very large.” Yep, faith in Jesus’ resurrection can solve a lot of life’s problems. Does death worry you? Jesus rolled that stone away. Paul argues that since Jesus did indeed rise from the dead, we, too, as he promised, will go to be with him when we die. He said, “Absent from the body means present with the Lord.”

The reality of Jesus’ resurrection solves the ultimate issue in life, death. But that truth works its way into our daily lives in this world as well. I have some very “large” problems! Don’t you? I have many “large” issues to deal with, don’t you? I have  “large” relationship issues, don’t you? They are like alligators rising up to devour me! Who’s going to roll those stones away? Guess what! It’s already been taken care of. Jesus said, “…don’t worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” In the context of that verse in Matthew chapter 6, we read, instead of worry, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,” and all the things we worry about are already taken care of. As far back as the days of King David, we read about how faith in God solves our worry problem. The Psalmist tells us, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.” Psalm 46:1-3

Luke 24:5

Looking For Jesus?

After Jesus’ crucifixion, the women came to the tomb carrying their embalming fluids and ointments. Mark 16:1-2 tells us, “When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices so that they might go and anoint him.  And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb.” Two things strike me in this verse. First, they waited until the Sabbath was past. According to their religion, they could not do what they wanted to do on the Sabbath. It was a day filled with rules and regulations that Jesus often refuted. Secondly, the need to anoint a dead body was a religious rite laid out similarly in the Jewish religious ritual.

In spite of all that Jesus said about the sabbath laws, the women continued to direct their lives according to religious rituals. But when they got to the tomb, they found the stone had been rolled away, and an angel appeared and asked them a very profound question. It’s recorded for us in Luke 24:5: “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” Moses, the lawgiver, was dead. We don’t know where he was buried, but we know that he was dead. All the Jewish religious leaders from the time of Moses to this day were dead also. Some were probably buried in this graveyard because it was the tomb of one of the religious leaders, Joseph of Arimathea. Jesus is not like them. The modern movement to find the “historical” Jesus looks for Him amongst the dead. He’s not there. Don’t bother looking for him there. Unlike Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the rest of the religious leaders of the Old Testament, Jesus is not to be found amongst the dead. You’ll never find the real Jesus there. Jesus’ resurrection changes everything.  Jesus is not to be found amidst dead religious rituals. He can only be experienced through a living relationship. He doesn’t want us to look for Him in ancient cemeteries but to experience Him every day of our lives. That’s what the resurrection was all about.

It wasn’t the life, miracles, or even the death of Jesus that gave birth to the Christian church, which still exists today in its many and variegated forms. The apostles had gone back to their old ways of life after the crucifixion. Even Peter, James, and John can be found in a fishing boat just a few days after the resurrection. The two disciples who were on their way to Emmaus expressed their disappointment that Jesus wasn’t the one that they hoped he was. They said that he had died. But, when Jesus appeared to his disciples after his resurrection, He gave birth to the church as we know it. They all believed it. They believed it so much that the twelve apostles all suffered martyrs’ deaths when all they had to do was deny that Jesus rose from the dead and that they made up the story. They would not do that. They died convinced that Jesus rose from the dead. The evidence was too strong for them to deny it. Wolfgang Pannenberg said, “The evidence for Jesus’ resurrection is so strong that nobody would question it except for two things: First, it is a very unusual event. And second, if you believe it happened, you have to change the way you live.”

 

Matthew 11:21-23, Various

Woe To You!

When we toured Israel, we visited Capernaum and Bethsaida on the same day. Jesus concentrated His ministry along the north shore of the Sea of Galilee near these two cities, both of which appear frequently in the Gospels. Matthew refers to Capernaum as Jesus’ “own city” (Matt. 9:1). Jesus lived in Capernaum for a time and called His first disciples from the villagers and fishermen nearby (Matt. 4:12–22; Mark 1:16–20; Luke 5:1–11). Located on the north end of the Sea of Galilee, about three miles east of Capernaum, Bethsaida played a key role in Jesus’ Galilean ministry also. Three of Jesus’ disciples—Peter, Andrew, and Philip—came from Bethsaida (John 1:44; 12:21). Jesus performed a healing miracle in Bethsaida (Mark 8:22–26) and fed the hungry multitude of five thousand nearby (Luke 9:10).

The stubborn, prideful hearts of the citizens rejected His teaching.  Matthew 11:21-23 gives us Jesus’ response to these two cities. It says, “Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable on the Day of Judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.” The vast expanse boasts only excavated ruins as far as you can see. Neither of these two sites boasts thriving cities. All that remains at both sites are ruins.

They remind me of Shelley’s poem, “Ozymandias.” It reads as follows: I met a traveler from an antique land who said: “Two vast and trunk-less legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand, half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown and wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command tell that its sculptor, well those passions read which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, the hand that mocked them and the heart that fed. And on the pedestal, these words appear: `My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings: Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!’ Nothing besides remains. Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare; The lone and level sands stretch far away”. Looking at Bethsaida today gives you that feeling. The only thing that remains of the city that was too proud to hear Jesus is broken pieces of pottery and a candle holder or two. Woe to you!

Philippians 1:21, Various

To Die Is Gain

After church one Sunday, about ten years ago, we arrived at the Josie Harper Hospice House about 10 minutes too late to visit Kathy’s mom. Jenney (Jean) Shively passed away around 1:15 on Sunday afternoon. When we arrived, she was still warm and had been posed in a very peaceful position. Her body had wasted away over the last couple of months by renal failure, and we watched her progressively deteriorate. Although we had been preparing for it for some time, it still didn’t seem real when it happened. We were disappointed that we weren’t there when it happened, but that’s something in God’s hands, not ours. We prayed together beside Jean and reminded ourselves and each other about what happens when a believer dies. It is one thing to be in perfect health and read passages like Philippians 1:21, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” It’s another thing to stand beside the bed of a loved one who just passed away and reflect on those truths. Whatever that verse means, it means there is something better (gain?) beyond this valley of the shadow of death for those who believe in God.

Today, there is more and more interest in the New Age theories of what happens to us when we die. Deepak Chopra (The main popularizer of Transcendental Meditation in the Western world), in his bestselling book “Life After Death,” said, “Whatever it is that occurs at death, I believe it deserves to be called a miracle. The miracle, ironically, is that we don’t die. The cessation of the body is an illusion, and like a magician sweeping aside a curtain, the soul reveals what lies beyond.” No one standing beside the deathbed of a loved one, or anyone who has suffered the untimely loss of a loved one would ever say “death is an illusion.” Chopra is wrong! Death is real, and we will all die. The Scriptures have laid out that truth for us for: “It is appointed to man, once to die.” Everyone dies! It’s an undeniable truth that shocks us every time we see it happen. It’s not a miracle either.  It’s the way of all flesh. Our souls have no magic in and of themselves, as Chopra suggests. Chopra, instead of giving the dying hope, has destroyed the hope of many in his denial of the biblical hope that is found in Jesus Christ. The miracle is what’s promised by God through our faith in His one and only Son.

There was nothing miraculous about watching Jean’s body perish day by day, defiled by the poisons her organs could no longer process, and seeing her life slowly fading away.  We know that those sufferings are over for Jean, and we find our comfort not in ourselves or in the human soul, but our comfort is in the God who formed us from the dust, sent His son to die for us, and gave us His Word.  We have the hope we find in Peter’s words. He wrote in 1 Peter 1:3-4, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you…” At the time of Jean’s death, I was doing a sermon series on Heaven. I realized that while I was preaching on it, she was already there. While I was studying and trying to grasp and communicate what the Bible teaches us about heaven, Jean was experiencing it at the time. What happens when a believer dies? Jesus answered that question while he was dying himself on the cross of Calvary. He responded to the expression of faith by the criminal on the cross beside him. He said, “This day, you will be with me in paradise.” That’s where Jean is right now! All believers will be there at the moment of their death. Yes, for me, to die is gain.

Luke 24:39, Various

Reincarnation Or Resurrection?

Reincarnation is the belief that our souls pass on from one body to another until we’ve arrived at karmic equity, at which time we’re absorbed into “God” either personally or impersonally. But resurrection says that after death, the same physical body will be made incorruptible. Rather than a repetitive series of bodies, one after another, resurrection calls to live forever the same body that died. Christianity doesn’t see man as a soul in a body but as a soul-body. Geisler says, “While reincarnation is a process toward perfection, resurrection is a perfected state. Reincarnation is an intermediate state, while the soul longs to be disembodied and absorbed in God, but resurrection is an ultimate state in which the whole person, body and soul, enjoys the goodness of God. Quite a difference, huh?”

Many Christians accept the New Age concept of a soul residing in a body rather than the biblical concept of soul-body continuity. We will have real physical bodies after our resurrection. After all, Jesus did. In Luke 24:39, after his resurrection, he called his disciples to “See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” Further, he was recognized for who he was in life as well. He even ate fish! You could not do that without a real physical body. However, as Geisler goes on to explain about the resurrection body, “But it had some differences too. He could appear and disappear at will (Luke 24:31; John 20:19, 26). And He ascended into the clouds without a jet pack (Acts 1:9–11). These differences show that the raisings of Lazarus (John 11:1–44) and of the widow’s son (Luke 7:11–17) were not resurrections but only revivification of their mortal bodies (since they both died again). So, the resurrected body was material but immortal. It was physical, but imperishable (1 Cor. 15:50–54).”

When Paul talks about our existence in heaven, he says we will be “changed.” He says that Jesus’ resurrection is a picture of our resurrection. It speaks not of a disembodied state but of a perfected literal body. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul says, “We shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye” (51-52). When the body is resurrected, it is a perfected body with all the qualities and characteristics of Jesus’ resurrected body: perishable becomes imperishable, and mortal becomes immortal. The weaknesses and imperfections of our current body will be no more. We will have a perfect body! The burdens, pains, and weaknesses of our bodies in this world move us with a longing not to be bodiless but to live in a resurrected, glorified body. According to Paul, “…while we are still in this tent (physical body), we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed (be a disembodied spirit), but that we would be further clothed (given a new body) so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always of good courage.” The Holy Spirit is God’s pledge and promise of our physical resurrection into life everlasting! (2 Corinthians 5:4-6)

2 Corinthians 5:21, Various

Karmic Purgatory

Reincarnation is the view primarily proposed by the Hindus and Buddhists that the suffering in this life is the result of wrong living (sin?) from a previous life. We live now as a reward or punishment for a past life. When we die now, our soul returns to this world as an animal, mineral, vegetable, or human. It proposes that this process will continue until all are saved, yet salvation is most often described as absorption into the whole. When the scales of our behavior balance, we enter nirvana, a state of nothingness. The latest Pew Forum survey of religious beliefs puts the overall percentage of Americans who believe in reincarnation at 24% (men 21%, women 28%). Strangely enough, Blacks (34%) are almost twice as likely to believe in reincarnation as Whites (21%), with Hispanics in the middle (29%).

Geisler describes the problem: “Explaining suffering as results of karma from a past life never gets to a real explanation. For each previous life, there would have to be another life before that to account for its suffering. One could keep going on like that forever but would never reach an explanation. He would just be putting it off indefinitely. It would be like covering a hot check by depositing a check in one bank from an account in another bank and covering that withdrawal with a check from another bank, and so on. Ultimately, some banker is going to ask you, ‘Where is the money?’ And when he does, you had better have it in the account that the last check was written from. There has got to be a payoff somewhere. Reincarnation doesn’t have a payoff when it tries to explain evil. It just keeps passing bad checks.”

To me, this is just another kind of purgatory where people must pay for their own sins before they can enter into the presence of God (heaven).  Surely, one cannot fail to see the difference between personal atonement, paying for one’s own sins, and substitutionary atonement, having the penalty paid by another.  Jesus became our substitute because “God so loved the world” (John 3:16). Paul explains the Christian view in 2 Corinthians 5:21. He writes, “For our sake, he (God) made him (Christ) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him (Christ) we might become the righteousness of God.” The law of karma insists on the reincarnation of our soul until we’ve paid for all our sins. But the Bible is clear that Jesus paid all our “karmic debt” as he suffered and died on Calvary’s cross. To the Ephesians, Paul explained, “It is by grace we are saved through faith; it is not of works…” (Ephesians 3:8-9).

 

1 Kings 18:19-20

The Sounds Of Silence

Mt. Carmel is where Elijah slew the prophets of Baal. Elijah called for a meeting. In 1 Kings 18:19, Elijah tells Ahab, “Now therefore send and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel, and the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.” All the people gathered as the two opposing parties faced off. Verse 21 continues, “And Elijah came near to all the people and said, ‘How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.’” Eight hundred fifty pagan prophets against one lone figure astride Mt. Carmel. I remember the Three Dog Night song from 1968, “One is the Loneliest Number.” It’s incredibly difficult to stand alone against the tide of public opinion. In verse 18 of this chapter, Ahab greets Elijah by calling him “the one who is troubling all Israel.” According to Ahab, if Elijah had just joined the crowd worshipping Baal, everything would be just fine. But Elijah was a lone voice against the majority. In verse 20, we read, “Then Elijah said to the people, ‘I, even I only, am left a prophet of the LORD, but Baal’s prophets are 450 men.’ Elijah said to Ahab, ‘I am not the one who is troubling Israel—you are!’” I think it’s interesting that the same group, Three Dog Night, that sang “One is the Loneliest Number” also sang the song warning, “Eli’s Coming, you better watch out”

In America, the liberal church and press are always blaming the evangelical, conservative church for causing division in the church and in the country. But who is really causing the division? America was soundly founded upon the biblical principles of the Scripture and stood strong on those convictions. Who brought the strife? I have been ridiculed for leaving my former denomination, but I always argue, “No, they left me!” I know many others who face the same criticism.  The Bible-believing Christian today stands alone in many ways against the tsunami of liberalism. Once strong churches have left the orthodox doctrines of the Christian faith and have gone the way of all flesh. But they blame those who wish to hold on to the integrity of the content of the Christian faith as being the rabble-rousers and trouble causers. But I must ask, “Who moved?”

Elijah faced a world in which the orthodox faith of his people was deteriorating into a plethora of ideas and personal opinions of its citizenry. In 1 Kings 18:21, we read, “And Elijah came near to all the people and said, How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him. But the people did not answer him a word.” Notice the last phrase: “The people did not answer him a word.” Elijah’s challenge stands the test of time! Yet, most of the world is still silent!

 

Job 19:25-26, Various

Life After Death

I did a long study once on life after death. I not only looked at biblical material and research done by believers but also considered secular research as well. In my studies about life after death, I’ve become bored with the liberal scholars who suggest that the idea of life beyond the grave is a modern invention and was not even part of the Old Testament religious system. Listen, you all, no matter what you’ve heard in your secular philosophy of religion class or your Old Testament Class at some University; it’s clear in the Bible that there was an awareness of life beyond the grave from the very beginning. It was the loss of this clear teaching that aroused sin in Lamech as well as those living in the time of Noah who perished in the flood. It was the loss of that reality at the tower of Babel that brought man’s self-idolatry and worship of the pleasures of this life. It was to Abraham that God began to renew the world with Faith! God chose Abraham to be the one to restore the conviction of life beyond the grave.

It has been proven time and again that monotheism is not the product of an evolutionary development of human religious systems. A recent discovery at Ebla assures us of its existence long before the evolutionary chart suggests it emerged. It has roots in the oldest book of the Old Testament, the Book of Job. Job asserts his faith in God amidst the greatest trials one can imagine and says, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.  And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God…” (Job 19:25-26). Geisler (See “When Critics Ask”) argues that the phrase repeated in Genesis “gathered to his people” most “certainly seems to indicate more than merely being buried close to his kinsmen.” This phrase is used for Abraham (Genesis 25:8), Isaac (Genesis 35:29), and Jacob (Genesis 49:33). This last passage indicates that it wasn’t Jacob’s burial that was being discussed but his death. It reads, “When Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed and breathed his last and was gathered to his people.” The gathering took place immediately upon death. Further, in Deuteronomy 32:50, Moses is said to have ascended the mountain where he passed away and was gathered to his people. As the book of Jude affirms, there is still no record of a burial site for Moses.

Jesus’ life, death, burial, and resurrection were purposefully God’s plan to bring us back to a true understanding of the depth of God’s love for us all in the assurance of life beyond the grave. It was Christ’s message from the beginning and His ultimate promise at the end. John expressed it this way (1 John 2:24-25), “Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father.  And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life.” In the Gospel itself, Jesus is quoted as saying (John 11:25), “He who believes in Me, though he may die, yet shall he live.” Jesus has promised eternal life to believers, free from all tears, sorrow, and pain (Rev. 21:4). That is why when it comes to death, Christians are a people of hope.

 

 

 

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