Resurrection power and the glory of God

Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?”

John 11:40

With this question and call to believe God, Jesus does what only God can do. He raises His friend Lazarus from the dead. His reminder to Martha to believe is the last thing He says to comfort family before bringing them the unthinkable power of God. They all firmly believed Jesus. Yet their grief was also very real. It was a grief so strong that Jesus wept beside them. And then He turned death into resurrection because Jesus is the resurrection and the life (John 11:25-26). Martha was firmly convinced Jesus was the Messiah… the Son of God. He would soon prove His deity and power beyond all sorrow. And because Martha believed, the glory of God would soon be all that anyone would remember… beyond all the pain, sorrow, death, and loss! Resurrection power shows God’s glory.

All through scripture there are hints at Jesus as the resurrection and life. Enoch never dies but is snatched away into God’s presence. Later, so is the prophet Elijah. Elijah brings a widow’s son back to life. So does the prophet Elisha. And even the bones of a dead and buried Elisha display the power of God to resurrect a corpse thrown upon them. The prophet Ezekiel foretells the resurrection of the Exiled Israel in the vision of the Valley of Dry Bones. There the bones join together to form skeletons, flesh, organs and skin are grown on them again, and a nation is raised from being wiped out. God specializes in bringing life again. And in Jesus all of that is focused in the gospel for God’s glory. Every person who believes the gospel is born anew and raised to new life. Every Christian baptism pictures an old dead life raised to walk anew in Christ. Resurrection power shows God’s glory!

Thank You, Jesus, that You are my resurrection and life. I am alive in You! I am dead to sin, alive to God in Christ. I will live forever with You. You are my resurrection and life… for the glory of God! Amen

What to do when the world hates you

Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.

1 John 3:13

John’s admonition which was true two thousand years ago when instructing the first generation of disciples is still true in this present generation. We should not be surprised that Christ and His people are hated by the world. Just as Cain hated and killed his brother Abel because God saw Abel as righteous, so a wicked world, afflicted and consumed with the worship disorder of selfish desire that rages against God will also hate and seek the destruction of Christians. Evil always hates what is good.

So I am not surprised that honoring Christ as holy is hated by the world. Christians are portrayed in the world as self-righteous, willfully ignorant, backwards, intolerant, hateful, racist, sexist, and narrow-minded. Jesus and His church are mocked, maligned, maliciously ridiculed, vandalized, litigated, and hated by many with power and influence in our culture. Even as religious freedom is celebrated in virtually every other pagan and world religion, at least in the West, Christianity is now suffering under tightening revisionist history and a general disdain from institutions as far-flung as the press and media, from the legal system, from academia, and from the entertainment industry in particular. The world hates us. We should not be surprised.

What should our response by to this hate? We do not go on the attack and we do not hate back! We love sinners with Christ’s love and keep faithfully proclaiming the gospel, no matter what it may cost us. Jesus sets our example. His words call us to action against a world that hates us: “But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father Who is in heaven. For He makes His sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”

Like our gracious God we are unchanging in our love and care for those who need Jesus… even when they hate us. We know that the grace of God ultimately wins and we are not surprised that we are hated until that day.

righteousness and love

By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

1 John 3:10

There are two signs

I have been born from above:

When I do what is right

and I live in love

I turn from my sin

live by faith, not by sight

and with His Spirit within

learn to do what is right

I turn from my self

see my Savior’s love

And transformed by His grace

My brother I love

Righteousness rules what I think

And love fills up my heart

So in Christ I am complete

And from His truth won’t depart

Righteousness and love

mark the life that I live

holiness and Christian family

the purpose to which I give

Jesus is righteous

He gives me His grace

God is love

so I seek His face

These two signs

which I can’t live in enough

change my heart and my actions

in righteousness and love

life IN Christ

And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.

1 John 2:28

Right now we are to abide in Christ. Our life is to be in, of, and for Jesus. He is our life and our reason for living. He is our Savior and our substance. We live in Jesus… right now… not is some dreamy distant future day that we hope will happen… but RIGHT NOW. Now… little children… abide in Christ.

One motivation for living in, of, and for Jesus right now is because He is returning. And on that day, if we have not lived in Jesus, we will know a shame of wasting our lives. Living in Jesus NOW gives us confidence for eternity. Abiding in Christ now gives us the experience of what our forever future will be. We want to truly live in Jesus right now because it is what He saved us to do forever.

Lord Jesus,

I want to live in You today. I rest on Your saving grace. I seek to follow You, know You, serve You, obey You, and live in You! I seek to center all I think, feel, believe, know, and do in You, my Lord. And I look forward to the day You will return because I will then never have another impediment to abiding in You! Draw me near as I seek to be close to You.

Amen

one flock, one shepherd

And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.

John 10:16

Jesus hints to His Jewish audience in this passage that He will be shepherding a flock drawn from others outside of Israel. He knew the gospel would go wide and deep into the world. He had already seen it do so in His own ministry. And even as the gospel of John records a growing opposition from the leadership of Judaism in Palestine to Jesus, it also records an acceptance of Jesus among the neediest, the displaced, and the sinful who simply turned to Him. And Samaritans and gentiles were among them. Jesus would transform an exclusive, bigoted society.

Jesus transformed His world by creating ONE FLOCK. This flock was made up of followers who though predominantly Jewish, were mostly common folk. Even His twelve disciples were rough cut and mostly rural… with the possible exception of Judas… and we know how that ended. The flock Jesus drew together reached to Samaria where no self-respecting pious Jew dared to set foot. It cared for lepers who were considered untouchable. This flock enfolded God-fearing gentiles. Jesus made that flock into one flock in unity around Him.

Jesus transformed His world by being ONE SHEPHERD. He is the center of the Christian faith. For millennia now popes, potentates, preachers, protesters, and pop stars have tried to steal the center spotlight from Jesus and have failed. Jesus is the only Good Shepherd. He is our Savior, our worship, and our God. And all our attention as Christians should be drawn to one shepherd. The scriptures teach about Jesus, our worship sings to Him, our obedience is for Him, and our goal is to be transformed by Jesus to be like Him for His glory!

sins forgiven

I am writing to you, little children,

because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake.

1 John 2:12

Knowing my sins are forgiven by God the Father because of the death and resurrection of Jesus His Son and confirmed by the indwelling of His Holy Spirit is the basis for my Christian faith. Without that fact… without that certainty… I am without any hope in this world. The reality of Jesus Christ as my Lord and my Savior gives me perspective, purpose, and meaning. There is no other hope or truth. There is no other comfort in a world soaked in evil and senseless in its rush to live godlessly. I know in the forgiveness of Jesus that I am forgiven, made new, and on the path of life.

All of this was done for all sinners everywhere. For all the world Jesus is the same hope and life-giving Savior. Other people enjoy the same assurance and hope I have in Christ as fellow members of His Body, the Church. And we are called to proclaim his saving forgiveness to all who have not yet believed in Him.

Lord Jesus,

You have forgiven my sin… the greatest need I have. And You are still saving others. Thank You for being a Savior Who loves this world… and me.

Amen

God is light.

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

1 John 1:5

God is light. It is no secret that God is light. You cannot hide the sun at noon day! Light was the first creation that God spoke into the universe. “Let there be light” is God’s first revelation. He made light and made Himself known in the light. The universe began with His burst of light. And that illumination continues to this very moment. God is light.

In Him there is no darkness. God does not hide Himself in shadow, though sometimes in our fog and twilight we feel distant from God’s light. God has no darkness… no sin… no wrong in Him. He is light and in His is no darkness at all. So even in dimming experiences, even when my soul is in night, God is not. Sin and sin’s suffering may be all around us, but one look at God and we will see light! 

Jesus is the light. He proclaimed Himself the light of the world (John 8:12). He calls us to walk with Him, walking not only IN the light but WITH the Light. And in Jesus all my life is lit up by bright grace, by His shining glory, by His redeeming work, by His glorious resurrection life. Thank God, He is light!