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Post-Easter Thoughts
I hope you had a great resurrection celebration!
Some initial reflections on yesterday’s services:
-The gospel was simply, clearly presented. Preaching on Easter is an interesting activity because you have to fight the inclination to “complicate” the sermon. Many who gather in churches are familiar with the resurrection story, and in an effort to not disappoint them, many pastors try something fancy and out of the norm. That can be effective at times, but this is also the one Sunday when people gather who are not as familiar with the gospel message. No matter the familiarity, the gospel message has power for the saved and unsaved, so on a resurrection celebration, you just preach the “old familiar story” and pray it changes lives. I felt we did this yesterday through the different elements of the service. I thought it was clear how one can be saved.
-The elements of our service were effective in exalting Jesus! Everything we did was intentional, not just something we put in for the sake of doing something special for Easter. It was special, but it was planned to intensify the message of Jesus in an intentional way. Thanks to everyone who participated! The music, choir, drama, special instrumental, and even those who purchased lilies to decorate the platform– it all went together to make a special day.
-The sunrise service was a great start to the day with cooperation between churches. I might have heard the best rendition of His Eye Is On the Sparrow sung by two young ladies at this service, and the opportunity to worship with people from other churches was great. not to mention the breakfast was incredible!
Great Resurrection Resource from Mike Licona
Mike Licona is the head of apologetics at the North American Mission Board (NAMB). He came to Central about a year ago and spoke about defending our faith. His knowledge and ability to communicate knowledge makes your head spin!
He wrote a book on the resurrection that was released recently that has already been praised as the starting place for anyone who wants to study the resurrection. I wrote about that here.
Now, there is a great video series available featuring Mike Licona talking about the resurrection. This would something for your own knowledge and to share with others, especially at this time of year.
Mike Lincona’s New Book on the Resurrection
Mike Lincona has a Ph.D. in New Testament Studies which he completed with distinction from the University of Pretoria. He is on staff at the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention and is Research Professor of New Testament at Southern Evangelical Seminary. Mike was interviewed by Lee Strobel in his book The Case for the Real Jesus and appeared in Strobel's video The Case for Christ. He has written numerous books.
On May 23 this year, Central had the pleasure of hosting Mike Lincona for a time of learning and asking questions. Dr. Lincona is an apologetics guru, and our hour and half with him just wasn’t enough! I was very impressed with how intelligent he was not only in Christian beliefs but in many other religions’ beliefs. His ability to articulate what he has researched and to apply that knowledge in understandable ways to questions that were asked was outstanding.
When he was with us, he mentioned that he was working on a new book that would be released later on. One of his “specialties” is the resurrection of Jesus, and that’s what his new 718 page book is all about!
The book is called The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach, and will be released on November 8, 2010. It can be pre-ordered now. Here’s how Amazon describes the book:
The question of the historicity of Jesus’ resurrection has been repeatedly probed, investigated and debated. And the results have varied widely. Perhaps some now regard this issue as the burned-over district of New Testament scholarship. Could there be any new and promising approach to this problem? Yes, answers Michael Licona. And he convincingly points us to a significant deficiency in approaching this question: our historiographical orientation and practice. So he opens this study with an extensive consideration of historiography and the particular problem of investigating claims of miracles. This alone is a valuable contribution. But then Licona carefully applies his principles and methods to the question of Jesus’ resurrection. In addition to determining and working from the most reliable sources and bedrock historical evidence, Licona critically weighs other prominent hypotheses. His own argument is a challenging and closely argued case for the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus, the Christ. Any future approaches to dealing with this “prize puzzle” of New Testament study will need to be routed through The Resurrection of Jesus.
Monday Morning Rewind: Love Lifted Me!
Last week was a very busy week for me, as it probably was for most pastors–the week leading up to Easter (that’s why I wasn’t able to get around to last Monday’s Rewind). But the conclusion of that week was such a wonderful celebration yesterday morning of the resurrection of Jesus! We had a great group of people gathered at Central yesterday to worship, and I preach out of 1 Corinthians 15:50-58.
Many people today fear death; many people feel hopeless in different situations; many people live without joy like they’re defeated. That’s what my message addressed through this Scriptural text, with this main point:
Through Jesus Christ, we can have victory in and over death and the darkest of times in our lives. That’s the beauty of the resurrection of Jesus! Read the rest of this entry
Monday Morning Rewind- The Return of Jesus
What are Monday Morning Rewinds? Click here to see my original post explaining them.
Yesterday’s sermon was the continuation of the series I’m preaching through 1 Thessalonians. This sermon dealt with the return of Jesus in the context of 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. The main point was not just for us to understand that Jesus will return, but to know why it is so important for our daily living. You can listen to this sermon here and find the accompanying PowerPoint slides (in PDF form).
Paul obviously was dealing with this topic because the Thessalonians were struggling with grieving like those who have no hope. Hope has been a major theme in these letters, and as Thessalonian people were passing away, the people were grieving like they forgot the hope they have in Christ.
So Paul taught them what is going to happen when Jesus returns. Even though this is a future event, it is important for our lives today because it is full of hope! Paul taught about the resurrection of bodies. When Jesus returns, He will raise the bodies of those true believers who died into the glorified bodies for the rest of eternity. Scripture teaches that at death, the body sleeps but the soul of the person goes on to be with the Lord (only for those who received Him as Savior during their life) (2 Cor. 5:8; Phil. 1:20-24).
Some of the Thessalonians might have thought that if someone was already dead before Christ returned, that person had no hope of heaven. This is not correct thinking–in fact, Jesus will first raise those bodies. Then those who are alive will be raptured (or “caught up”) in the clouds with Jesus. All bodies will be changed at that time and those people will spend eternity with Jesus.
In a world where many questions are asked about life after death, Paul reminds us in verse 15– “For this we say unto you by the Word of the Lord…” God has given us a revelation by His Word!! There’s no need for human speculation when we have a divine revelation.
So what will happen when Jesus returns? Verses 16-17 say it in this order:
- The Lord will descend from heaven
- There will be a loud command from the Lord (like with Lazarus)
- The voice of an archangel will sound
- The trumpet of God will sound
- The dead in Christ will rise
- Those left who are in Christ will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord
- With glorified bodies, the dead and alive in Christ will live eternally with Him.
Why is this important for living today?
1- Don’t grieve as those who have no hope for those in your life who were saved by Jesus and have passed away. They are with the Lord, and one day we will be reunited with them!
2- Live with urgency now. 1 Cor. 15:52 tells us that this will happen in the “twinkling of an eye.” We’re not guaranteed anything beyond right now. There are people who will spend an eternity in hell because they’ve never given their lives to Jesus. Knowing that Jesus could return now, are we taking advantage of every opportunity we have to share the gospel with others?
3- All of the things we deal with in this life are small compared to the eternity we’ll spend with Jesus! We have hope in Jesus, so why worry about all the things of this life?
I really like this song by Jeff Johnson called Glorious Day. This video has the song playing with the lyrics (although they are not all correct), and its very applicable to this topic. Enjoy!
