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Jesus is Lord

May 3, 2018 /

Jesus

Jesus is Lord. The earliest and most succinct words of confession. They echo Thomas’ declaration upon seeing the risen Jesus, “My Lord and my God”  (John 20′:28) and Peter’s stunning confession “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16) To say “Jesus is Lord” is an exclusive statement. There can be no other. All other powers, authorities, rulers, and nations are secondary to the authority and lordship of Jesus.

Over these past few weeks following Easter, we have been looking at the implications of the resurrection of Jesus. Our guide has been the writings of Dr. Stephen Seamands, and his book, Give Them Christ: Preaching His Incarnation, Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension and Return. We have explored many topics.

Jesus’ resurrection gives us confidence that the promises of God are true. He is wholly trustworthy and reliable. Even in the darkest of times, we know that righteous has and will be vindicated. God always gets the last word.

The resurrection of Jesus gives us hope that all is being and will be made new. For God so loved all of creation that he gave his son that all of creation might be saved.

The resurrection of Jesus means to be a Christ is to be one who has been saved from the penalty of sin, set free for the power of sin and who lives a life of holiness following the example given to us by Jesus. Our personal salvation is a charge to live a life worthy of the good news of Jesus.

Finally, this week we witness the resurrection of Jesus manifesting the Lordship of Jesus to the world. When we say Jesus is Lord we declare God’s unconditional and absolute claim.

First, Lord (Kurios) indicates the ‘unconditional claim of God in the face of the whole universe.’ Such a claim . . . includes cosmic lordship. As the one through whom all things were made (Jn 1:3; Col 1:16) and are held together (Col 1:17), he has absolute power over all created things. Furthermore, it includes moral lordship over the conscience of every human being. He has the right to place moral demands on us. It also includes community lordship. He is the King of Israel (Jn 1:49) and the head of the church (Col 1:18) and exercises divine lordship over the community of believers. Lordship, therefore, extends over every sphere of creation, every knee and tongue, every height and depth. No cosmic, societal, communal or personal space stands outside it. He is Lord of all, period. Consequently, . . . ‘There is not one square inch of the entire creation about which Jesus Christ does not cry out, ‘This is mine! This belongs to me!’ Second, lordship signifies . . . God’s absolute claim on us. He is Lord in all things and in every situation. Thate means there can be no other lords. He will tolerate no rivals. (Seamands 111)

The implications of Jesus’ absolute and unconditional claim of lordship upon all of creation cannot begin to be understated. In our debate and disagreements, we often seek to demonstrate that Jesus is on our side. To do so is to make Jesus submit to our intellect. In what ways might we instead invert our lives to be in total submission to him?

Jesus is Lord.

Blessings,
Stephen

 

 

Citations:

Seamands, Stephen A. Give them Christ: preaching his incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and return. IVP Books, 2012.

Righteousness Vindicated

April 21, 2018 /

stone pillars

What’s the use of living a righteous life? Why bother wasting all of your energy trying to follow God and his commands? How can anyone even know what the right thing to do is anyway? Where was God when it mattered most? Are God’s promises even worth the paper they are written on? We prayed, why didn’t God come through and rescue Jesus? What’s the point to holiness? Why stand out in a crowd? Why live a life that is anything other than ordinary? See where it got Jesus? Dead, on a cross, like a common criminal.

While we will never know, these might have been some of the questions swirling in the heads of Jesus’ followers as they watched him arrested, tortured and killed. Questions steeped in doubt and confusion as to the reliability of God, Jesus, his word, and promises.

Over these past few weeks, following Easter, we have been looking together at the wider significance of Jesus’ resurrection. We have already seen that Jesus’ resurrection means freedom from the penalty of sin and our personal salvation. We have also seen Jesus’ resurrections means creation healed and the broken relationships between people and God, each other, themselves, and creation redeemed. Still, the significance of Jesus’ resurrection is even greater.

For Jesus’ followers, still consumed by questions, everything would change three days after Jesus’ death when he would be raised to life and walk, talk, and eat with them. As Jesus was raised from the dead, righteousness was vindicated. The character of God was tested in the public square and proven to be true and reliable by Jesus’ resurrection.

In the book of Deuteronomy, as the people of Israel is being formed into a nation Moses is giving the people instructions on how to live and who they should follow. He cautions the people to be careful of words spoken by one claiming to be a prophet:

“If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a sign or wonder, and if the sign or wonder spoken of takes place, and the prophet says, ‘Let us follow other gods'(gods you have not known) ‘and let us worship them,’ you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer . . . That prophet or dreamer must be put to death for inciting rebellion against the Lord your God. . .” (13:1-3, 5)

Jesus is a prophet who predicted his own death and resurrection three days later. Even more, Jesus was the one predicted by the prophets of old. In Luke 24, shortly after his resurrection, Jesus would join two travelers confused by the events of the past week on the road to Emmaus. As they walked along, Jesus, “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in the Scriptures concerning himself” (vs. 27). Wouldn’t it be great to have a transcript of this conversation? As they walked along Jesus demonstrated to these travelers the faithfulness of God throughout history.

Jesus’ resurrection gives us confidence in the promises of God and true and reliable and the words of Jesus are faithful.

Blessings,
Stephen

All Things New

April 14, 2018 /

Sun over Daytona Beach

Easter is over. Target has marked the last of their pastel-hued sugar infused egg-laying bunnies 90% off and life has returned to its savage monotony. Yet the significance of Easter of far is from over. Last week the question was raised, what if the resurrection of Jesus that we celebrate at Easter means far more than just our individual personal salvation? Over the next few weeks, we are using a book by Dr. Stephen Seamands, Give Them Christ: Preaching His Incarnation, Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension and Return to help us explore the great depths of meaning found in Jesus’ resurrection.

In John 11 we hear the story of the death of Jesus’ friend Lazarus. As would be expected Lazarus’ sisters, Mary and Martha, are grief-stricken and confused. Confused because Jesus didn’t come and heal their brother like he had healed so many others. In response to their questions Jesus says, “Your brother will rise again” (vs. 23). The words sound to us like the words of comfort we give so often at funerals. “One day you will see them again . . .” Martha agrees with Jesus, assuming he is talking about a future resurrection when God will set all things to right, but Jesus is not talking about some random day in the future, Jesus is talking about today. Jesus is pronouncing than an event, he is telling them the resurrection is a person, it is him, and the day of resurrection has come. The day has come when God will make right all that has been broken by sin, our “alienation from God, from each other, from ourselves, and from the land” (Snyder and Scandrett 78). The day every Jew ached with longing for had come.

“What was so stunning, then, to the early Christians about the resurrection of Jesus was not that God raised the dead. Like Martha, they already believed in a general resurrection when God would raise the righteous at the last day. What stunned them and sent them reeling was the timing of it. In the case of Jesus, the general resurrection, which was supposed to happen on the last day, had moved forward from the end into the present. What was supposed to happen on the final day had happened now” (Seamands 105).

Jesus’ resurrection does not mean all has been made new yet. The final redemption of creation is still to come. Still “the resurrection of Jesus has . . . set in motion the final redemption and transformation of all creation” (Seamands 108). The resurrection of Jesus means creation healed from the penalty of sin, death, the power of sin, and ultimately the very presence of sin.

Therefore, as Christians, we are people of mammoth hope. We are able to step into the absolute darkest of situations in life with extravagant hope because we know the power of sin has been broken and the day is coming when all of creation will be made new by Jesus and the very presence and effects of sin will be no more.

In summary, the resurrection of Jesus means not only personal salvation but also the salvation of all of creation. But even these just scratch the surface as we will see in the weeks to come.

 

 

Blessings,
Stephen

 

 

Citations:

Seamands, Stephen A. Give them Christ: preaching his incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and return. IVP Books, 2012.

Snyder, Howard A., and Joel. Scandrette. Salvation means creation healed: the ecology of sin and grace: overcoming the divorce between Earth and Heaven. Kindle Ed., Cascade Books, 2011.

Photo by Ravi Pinisetti on Unsplash

Grace in the Wilderness

March 8, 2018 /

wilderness

Driven by the Holy Spirit to the place of desolation, for forty days Jesus would be in the wilderness. In the wilderness, Jesus would be tested by Satan. His identity as God’s son, the one whom God loves and is well pleased, would be challenged. From the wilderness, having been tested and approved Jesus would emerge to proclaim the good news that “the Kingdom of God has come near” (Matthew  4:17).

Like Jesus, we too experience the wilderness in our lives. The wilderness is the place where all that is non-essential is stripped away. In the wilderness, that which is most important comes into laser focus. How often have you heard the question asked, “If you only had a week to live, what would you do?” The question and intimacy of near death are wilderness experiences. In the wilderness, we are challenged to align our priorities with those things that really matter. So maybe . . .

Instead of spending six hours on the phone with Comcast sales, pick-up the phone and mend a bridge that has been broken.

Instead of racing through the drive-thru, invite a long forgotten family member to dinner.

Instead of insisting on being right, forgive the one who has offended you.

Instead of building bigger barns and amassing more stuff, give it away to those who have need.

Instead of mortgaging your future, invest in the future of others.

While no one likes being in the wilderness it can be a place of blessing and grace. God will often put us in the wilderness to cause us to strip away the many distractions in our life that keep us from seeing Him clearly and depending on Him fully.

Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (NIV). But what is the good that God is working out in the life of those who love him? Is it health, wealth, perpetual happiness, a new BMW in the driveway, a six-figure raise? Paul tells us the good God is working in the very next verse. The good is that you might “be conformed to the image of his Son.” In Matthew 5:48 Jesus exhorts, “Be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.” To be perfect is to be whole and complete, to be fully everything God created you to be. In short, it is to be conformed into the image of his son, Jesus.

In the wilderness, God will work to cleanse you and make you holy and righteous. Therefore, as one friend says, “any day is a good day to rejoice” even days in the wilderness.

Blessings,
Stephen

Standing Strong in Difficult Times

March 1, 2018 /

Jesus Suffering

Temptation
Testing
Struggles
Crisis
Death
Pain
Suffering
Confusion

We all face them. We all experience them. Why? We are in a world broken by sin and we have an enemy actively working to destroy us. Satan has a wonderful plan for your life. His plan is to kill you, to steal from you, and to destroy you (John 10:10). What he cannot take from you he will lie to you to get you to give it up. After all, he is a liar and he is the father of lies (John 8:44). How do you know Satan is lying? His lips are moving.

How do we stand strong in difficult times? Follow the example of Jesus. In Matthew 4 and Luke 4 Jesus demonstrates the first thing about standing strong when being tested to one’s limits: Know who you are. Prior to Jesus being led by the Holy Spirit into the desert where he is tempted by Satan to abandon his divine mission Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. As he is coming out of the water the heavens open and we hear a voice say, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). Jesus’ knowledge of himself as God’s son, the assurance of his father’s love and pleasure provide the foundation on which Jesus stands in his times of testing. It is our foundation as well. Do you know who you are?

  • You are Christ’s friend. (John 15:15)
  • You are a joint heir with Christ, sharing His inheritance with Him. (Romans 8:17)
  • You are God’s workmanship – His handiwork – born anew in Christ to do His work. (Ephesians 2:10)
  • You are chosen of God, holy and dearly loved. (Colossians 3:12 / 1 Thessalonians 1:4)
  • You are an enemy of the devil. (1 Peter 5:8)
  • You are a child of God (John 1:12)
  • You have the right to come boldly before the throne of God to find mercy and grace in time of need. (Hebrews 4:16)
  • You are the recipient of eternal life. (John 3:16)
  • You have been redeemed and forgiven of all your sins. The debt against you has been canceled.  (Colossians 1:13-14)

And so much more!

One of Satan’s greatest lies is to cause us to doubt the love of God and our identity as children of God during times of suffering and testing. We stand firm in these times by remembering who we are and who God is and never letting go.

Do you know who you are?

Blessings,
Stephen

What do you want to be when you grow up?

February 22, 2018 /

man and child on railroad tracks

What do you want to be when you grow up? It’s a fun question when you are four but by the time you reach my age the question gets a little annoying. I recently asked a group of kids how old they thought I was. Most put me in my sixties. Aren’t kids great? I am NOT that old! While I may not like being asked what I want to be any more the truth is I still have the same heart of four-year-old that dreams of what could be. We all do. It’s just as we get older we push it down deep out of sight. Wherever, you have stuffed them it is time to drag out those dreams and dust them off.

If you want to achieve your dreams or become someone or something there is a basic principle of life you need to follow: act like those who have it. It is really that easy.

Do you want to be wealthy? Then find out what wealthy people do and do it. I.e. don’t have a car payment. Pay cash for everything. Don’t buy what you can’t afford. Never use a credit card.

Do you want to be an Olympic snowboarder? Then find some snow and start practicing. You won’t get there surfing the cushions of your couch. Potato chip grease makes a terrible board wax.

Do you want to run a marathon? Then train like a marathon runner.

Do you want a college degree? Then go to class. Complete the assignments. Do the work.

Do you want to run your own business? Then find a successful business owner and learn how they did it and what they do.

Do you want to lose weight? Skip the midnight infomercial products and find someone who lost weight and do what they did. Hint: It probably involved eating less and exercising more.

Do you want a marriage that lasts a lifetime? Don’t ask your single friends what to do. Don’t get advice from your neighbor who has been divorced eight times. Go find that couple that’s been married fifty, sixty years and find out how they did it and then do what they do.

Do you want to have a vibrant spiritual life? Find a saint. Someone who has lived through life’s best and worst and do what they do.

What do you want to be when you grow up? Whatever it is there is someone who is already there.

Blessings,
Stephen

 

We need each other

January 31, 2018 /

Perhaps you saw the recent announcement from Britain’s Prime Minister, Theresa May, of the appointment of a Minister of Loneliness. The announcement was met with significant contorting of faces. Despite a study coming out at the end of last year indicating as many as 14% of Brits battle chronic loneliness the idea of an official government appointment to address it seemed just odd.

empty chair

Even so, some studies indicate as many as 43% of Americans suffer from regular loneliness. The impact of this reality upon us are not hard to miss. Exacerbated depression, premature death, isolation, hopelessness, and so much more. What’s the cure? Really only one thing: face-to-face community. We can send all the birthday greetings on Facebook we want or mail an “I’m thinking of you card,” or even send a quick checking-in text. But nothing is really as effective as sitting across from another person and sharing a cup of coffee (or tea for our British friends).

What happens when we are across from one another? Life is transferred. A parent hears they are not crazy for the incredible frustration they are feeling. A widow senses she is not alone. A child hears they are loved. A man knows he has what it takes. A woman is empowered to speak truth. New skills are gained. Life is lived when we share who we are with those across from us.

Blessings,
Stephen

On Mission

January 25, 2018 /

the mission launchesThe Milk Can returns! After a needed break we are back. In 1 Corinthians Paul says some things are spiritual milk and other things spiritual meat. The Milk Can remains a quirky look at life and an encouragement for your week.

 

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As Christians, our calling is to live as Jesus lived demonstrating and proclaiming that the Kingdom of God has come and is coming. God is always making things new. We are engaged in the mission to alert the world to the rule and reign of God through Christ. Therefore,

  • We feed the hungry because in the world to come there will be no starvation.
  • We release the captive because in the world to come there will be no prisoner.
  • We give sight to the blind because in the world to come there will be no blindness.
  • We welcome the stranger because in the world to come there will be no strangers, no one unwelcome.
  • We mourn with those who mourn because in the world to come there will be no more sadness and grief.
  • We call for justice because in the world that is to come there is no injustice.
  • We share Christ because in the world to come there will be no unbelief.
  • We speak hope to those who have no hope because in the kingdom to come there will be no hopelessness.
  • We are pro-life, in every way, because in the kingdom to come there will be no death.
  • We are generous because in the world to come there will be no shortages.
  • We celebrate different languages spoken because in the world to come all languages will be spoken around the throne.
  • We love because in the world that is to come there is no one unloved.

The challenge for each one of us is to ask, in my job, how can I alert the world to the rule and reign of Christ? What would it look like for a person doing my job to demonstrate the rule and reign of God through Jesus?

Blessings,
Stephen

Do something new

January 11, 2017 /

Start something new this year. Go where you have always wanted to go. Try what you always wanted to try. Failure isn’t fatal. You may not have everything you need. You may have more fear than faith. You may not have a functional plan. There may be more doubts than answers. Your friends may try to have you committed. But do it anyway…

Anything worth doing

Blessings,
Pastor Stephen

It’s Election Day

November 8, 2016 /

Keep Calm and Kingdom On

Psalm 46
God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.

The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Come and see what the LORD has done,
the desolations he has brought on the earth.
He makes wars cease
to the ends of the earth.
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
he burns the shields with fire.
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”

 The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress. (NIV)

As Christians, we go through life differently than others. We can go through life with an impenetrable optimism. Jesus is King. He was yesterday. He is today. He will be tomorrow. Whatever happens, as Christians let us “Keep Calm and Kingdom On” and never lose our eternal optimism for the Kingdom of God until, as the song says, “earth and heaven are one.”

Keep calm and do the work of the Kingdom!

Pastor Stephen

 

The New International Version. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011. Print.

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