Wednesday, December 6, 2023

Luke 21:33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.

Preparing for Christ’s Coming

Of the great gifts that God gives, they can be narrowed down to two kinds, those of the earth and those of the spirit. When evaluating the two, which is the more durable and long lasting: the very universe itself or the very Word of God? Looking at the first of the two, the earth itself, it seems like this gift that is God’s creation and all the things that come from it will last a long, long time, a gift that keeps on giving. Yet our verse foretells catastrophic events. These events will transpire on the day of Judgment, the second advent of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Very strange things will take place right before the Lord Jesus returns in glory. The celestial bodies, the age-old sun, moon, and stars, will begin to do things that are unexplainable. The sea and waves of the oceans will do very distressing things. The titans of nature will toss about in a way that will frighten the people. Men’s hearts will faint at the sight of all these unexplainable supernatural phenomena. Then following the celestial and nautical heralds will be the coming of the Lord Jesus to judge the nations, to bring all things to an end. He will come back in the same way He went up, namely by cloud in all His power, the power to shift sun, moon, and stars, the power to toss wind and wave. And He comes with all His glory, that is the full sum of all His attributes. The people will witness this day as a startling one. This will be a frightening day for those people who aren’t ready for it, that is don’t have faith in this Savior, the faith that they would otherwise have if they had the better of God’s two gifts, the more durable and reliable, namely His Word which never passes away.

Seeing then that this Word is the most precious of gifts, Jesus tells Christians that at the end of days we should lift up our heads and straighten our backs, meaning rejoice, for your redemption is at hand, that is our deliverance from such a tragic world. The Lord Jesus shall come back to bring you home! Jesus encourages us Christians to look further at these signs of the end with joy, and He does so by likening them to foliage, fig trees and all manner of trees. When you see these trees budding in the spring, you know that summer is near. You know that the cold and discomfort of winter is over and the warm and pleasant joys of spring and early summer are near at hand! So it is with these signs of the end of days. At that time, your discomforts in this world are over and your joys are at hand! The Kingdom of God is near, that is the Kingdom of God prepared in its fullest splendor. All manner of nations brought to the kingdom of His grace will be taken up to the kingdom of His glory at the end of time. Jesus reassures this and all His splendid and comforting words by then saying that heaven and earth, the stars and the sea will pass away, but what will remain forever is the Word of Jesus Christ, the very thing that makes us look at the end of the world as simply the pleasant change from winter to spring, the very thing that makes us part of God’s kingdom, the very thing that will keep us in that kingdom until we get to be in the full glory of His reign of Heaven. The Word then tells us of the Christmas promise of the blessing that is our Savior. And that because the Word endures forever, the promise of the Savior who was born, died and rose again on high, all for you and me, will remain for all people, all nations, and it will be the very thing that will prepare us for the Kingdom’s full coming. It will be the one thing that can make a person go from fainting at the end times to rejoicing at the end times. It will gather in all for that splendid day when winter ends and summer begins.

Wednesday, September 27, 2023

Matthew 9:22, 24 “Be of good cheer, daughter; your faith has made you well… Make room, for the girl is not dead, but sleeping.”

When Death Doesn’t Work the Way It Should

Parents aren’t supposed to bury their children. The elderly and those with chronic health problems often question why the Lord has not yet taken them. This is the enigma Jesus encountered one hectic afternoon when on His way to help a man who’s just lost his daughter, He’s touched by a woman who’s suffered twelve years from a flow of blood.

Why would God end the life of a little girl but leave a woman longing for death to linger in pain? It would seem not even death works the way it ‘should.’

No, neither sin nor of its many consequences make one bit of sense. But the good news is that the inconsistency of death means it doesn’t stand a chance against Jesus: “If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand” (Mark 3:25).

As the Author of life and the Lord over death, He healed both girls, young and old.  As the Savior who suffered and bled for your sin and left His grave empty, He now makes sure death truly does not work as it ‘should.’

Through faith in Him, your last breath is now the portal to heavenly bliss. Your grave is a temporary resting place for your earthly remains. And on the last day, He will transform your dust into a glorious body with one word: “Arise!”

When death doesn’t make sense, trust Jesus to make whatever you must endure work out for your eternal best.

Devotion

Tuesday, May 10, 2022

Acts 1:3 …[Jesus] also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them [“the apostles whom He had chosen” v. 2] during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God…

The Rest Is His-story

We read a while back that modern textbooks of ancient history, in dealing with Jesus, usually give a condensed account of His life. They may relate how He suffered and was crucified on order of the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, but they shun dealing with the Easter phenomenon—Christ’s bodily resurrection from the dead.

The same article said secular history books give scarcely a clue as to what actually “fired the sudden and extraordinary growth of the first century Christian church.”

So you and I have learned to look to the Bible, to God’s His-story book—the divinely inspired book of the Acts of the Apostles. Right at the outset it tells how Jesus, knowing that His disciples could have no lingering doubts about His resurrection, “presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs.”

Revisionist secular history aside, the fact of our Lord’s bodily resurrection was truly a world-changing event. The Holy Spirit used that blessed knowledge to change the once timid and fearful disciples into bold and courageous witnesses in and to a world of sinners.

For example Peter, who during the passion history had denied even knowing Jesus, now proclaimed to the “rulers and elders of Israel…the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead…”

And there is much more in the book of Acts about what fired the Church’s sudden and extraordinary growth —including Peter’s exclusive truth proclamation that “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven, given among men by which we must be saved.”

Or, as it is said: “The rest is His-story…”!

These are the facts as we have received them,

These are the truths that the Christian believes,

This is the basis of all of our preaching,

Christ died for sinners and rose from the tomb.

These are the facts as we have received them,

Christ has fulfilled what the scriptures foretold,

Adam’s whole fam’ly in death had been sleeping,

Christ through His rising restores us to life.

(Worship Supplement 2000, 759:1-2)

Devotion

2 Peter 3:10 The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.

It's Going To Happen

If you have ever been on a commercial airline flight you have heard the preflight safety instructions given by the flight attendants before takeoff. But do you remember what those instructions were? Could you carry them out if there ever were an emergency midflight?  Perhaps not. If you’re like most passengers you don’t pay much attention to where the exit doors are or whether you have to push or pull to open them. You may recall something about oxygen masks dropping down from somewhere, but you’re likely a little hazy about why or how to use them. And where are the flotation devices in case of a water landing? We don’t concern ourselves a great deal about those details because we don’t really anticipate ever having to need them. Statistically, there is little chance that the flight you’re on is going to have a problem. But what if it did? What if the likelihood of an inflight emergency were 100%? Would you then pay attention to the instructions? Absolutely! Who wouldn’t?

There is such an event on the way. Jesus warns that the Last Day is a sure thing. It is going to happen. “The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare” (2 Peter 3:10). But how many people pay attention? Like passengers with earbuds firmly in place, listening to music or talking to seatmates during the safety briefing, many ignore the Lord’s words. Do we? Yet His instructions are vital to survival. For Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

In Jeremiah 26 the Lord warns Judah of the impending judgment which would fall upon the nation if they did not listen to His call to repent and turn back to Him. Tragically, they didn’t listen and as a result, Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed and the people were taken into captivity. It’s a small preview of the judgment coming on the Last Day. The safety instructions are simple: Trust Jesus. His perfect obedience is our righteousness before God’s court. His payment in blood on the cross has made peace between a guilty world and the holy God. “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Let’s put aside everything which would distract us from that message and give the Lord our full attention before the Last Day arrives. Our lives depend on it!

The lesson

I Thessalonians 4:13-18

Instruction Concerning the Resurrection of the Dead at Christ’s Second Coming

13 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who have fallen asleep,[d] so that you do not grieve in the same way as the others, who have no hope. 14 Indeed, if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, then in the same way we also believe that God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus.

15 In fact, we tell you this by the word of the Lord: We who are alive and left until the coming of the Lord will certainly not go on ahead of those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them, to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore, encourage one another with these words.

1. 1 Thessalonians 4:13 A few witnesses to the text read are falling asleep.

I Corinthians 15:35-58

The Resurrection Body

35 But someone will object, “How can it be that the dead are raised? With what kind of body are they going to come?”

36 You are being foolish. What you sow is not made alive unless it dies. 37 And what you sow is not the body that will be, but a bare seed, perhaps of wheat or some other grain. 38 But God gives it a body of the kind he wanted it to have, and to each of the seeds he gives its own body.

39 Flesh is not all the same kind. Instead, people have one kind of flesh, animals have another kind, birds another, and fish yet another. 40 There are also celestial bodies and bodies on earth, but the glory of the celestial bodies differs from that of the bodies on earth. 41 There is one glory of the sun, another of the moon, and another of the stars; in fact, one star differs from another in glory.

42 That is the way the resurrection of the dead will be. What is sown is perishable; it is raised imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44 It is sown as a natural[h] body; it is raised as a spiritual[i] body.

If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living natural being.”[j] The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 However, that which is spiritual is not first; rather, first comes the natural, then the spiritual. 47 The first man is of the earth, made of dust. The second man is the Lord[k] from heaven. 48 As was the man made of dust, so are the people who are made of dust, and as is the heavenly man, so the heavenly people will be. 49 And just as we have borne the image of the man made of dust, let us[l] also bear the image of the heavenly man.

The Change to Immortality on the Last Day

50 Now I say this, brothers: Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, and what is perishable is not going to inherit what is imperishable. 51 Look, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the blink of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 But once this perishable body has put on imperishability, and this mortal body has put on immortality, then what is written will be fulfilled:

Death is swallowed up in victory.[m]

55 Death, where is your sting?

Grave, where is your victory?[n] [o]

56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

58 Therefore, my dear brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

1. 1 Corinthians 15:44 The Greek adjective translated natural comes from the term for soul.

2. 1 Corinthians 15:44 The Greek adjective translated spiritual comes from the term for the spirit or Spirit.

3. 1 Corinthians 15:45 Genesis 2:7

4. 1 Corinthians 15:47 Some witnesses to the text omit the Lord.

5. 1 Corinthians 15:49 Some witnesses to the text read we will.

6. 1 Corinthians 15:54 Isaiah 25:8

7. 1 Corinthians 15:55 Hosea 13:14

8. 1 Corinthians 15:55 Some witnesses to the text read Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?

Notes:

indirect proof

Assume the opposite: 

Reach a contradiction: 

State the conclusion

Deductive Logic

Major  --> Minor --> Conclusion

Correct logic

People have souls --> You are a person --> you have a soul

Incorrect because Major is wrong

All boys are tall --> Fred is a boy --> Fred is tall.

Incorrect because minor is wrong

People have souls --> Bo is a person --> Bo has a soul

Incorrect because minor and conclusion switched

People have souls --> John has a soul --> John is a person