God wanted Jesus to enter the tomb for several reasons in fact, one of which has received too little attention.
First, while undercover operatives LEARN the secrets they’re to steal, Jesus KNEW all that death held for humanity, and KNEW it held no power over him. Indeed, the Glorified Christ assured his servant John, “I hold the keys of death and hades” Revelation 1:18. Second, secreting his Son for the few hours in the grave proved to be the ONLY TIME Jesus spent AWAY from his public ministry. Third, while Isaiah predicted Christ’s assumption of all human infirmities, diseases and sins, 53:4, 6, Matthew 8:17, that left but one experience he lacked in being LIKE us…the one experience humanity has always feared most by having NO answer to it. Hebrews 2:9-18, especially 9, 14-18 addresses that experience. Had God willed, Jesus could have miraculously descended from the cross after paying the penalty for human sin, which he achieved particularly in the 3-hour span preceding his death. What a phenomenon he would have been! And how universally he would have been hailed and worshipped. And it would have left him one experience shy of being perfectly like humanity. Since…keep that word in mind…SINCE humanity, alone of God’s creation, FEARS death, Jesus perfectly identified with us by DYING. He came as Savior to forgive, so his sacrifice forgave the sins of the world. His death proved that he also understood what it meant to him to die. And his resurrection proved that death had no power over him, and therefore, has none over us if we follow Christ! In summary:
THEN…PRAISE GOD…UP FROM THE GRAVE HE AROSE! Fini
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Jesus lectured the men arresting him in Gethsemane…”Every day I sat in the Temple courts teaching, and you did not arrest me” Matthew 26:55. His chains rattling, Paul defended his preaching to King Agrippa, “I am convinced that none of this has escaped his attention, because it was not done in a corner” Acts 26:25.
God wanted Jesus in the tomb the way nations put spies into the intelligence networks of other nation2—but for an entirely different reason…. End Part II We know of moles as “burrowing insectivores…with tiny eyes, concealed ears and soft fur”, Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary – Tenth Edition, p. 749.
We also know of espionage moles as planted agents of a government in another government’s intelligence system. Aldrich Ames served as such until his arrest in 1992 as a Soviet mole. The intention is to secure information that another government wants kept secret. Even corporations have moles, seeking information from competitors in their fields of endeavor—purely for the financial profit involved. Those moles who serve as spies can be motivated by political conscience, money, sex or a sense of perverted adventure—being involved in treasonous activities while creating a sense of political loyalty. Jesus came into history in Bethlehem, Judea, after many Psalms and prophecies predicted his arrival. But he always served as God’s Visible Spokesman, never in an undercover role, with an illegal purpose or to establish a secret organization for only a few initiated into its mysteries. End Part I A disclaimer: it isn’t always how a message is preached that determines its effectiveness. It may depend on how carefully it’s received by the listener Matthew 11:15.
For brevity, consider that God holds preachers accountable for the content of their messages. Initiative in preaching, then, lies with the messenger, not the people. They may not initially want mind-stretching messages. But hearing such remains the best way to help disciples prioritize faith in Christ and remove obstacles to deeper commitment to him. Once listening to such messages, believers may be forced to tolerate lesser preaching, but they’ll value what demands more of them. If they desire FEWER demands, they’re in danger of being thorny soil. Thus, the preacher must think more deeply about what he preaches. And listeners must develop the desire to hear something that takes time to mature them in belief and behavior. In summary, Christians would spiritually prosper without the interference of SO MUCH STUFF going on in their lives. And the best corrective of the thorny soil person is preaching that by its power as God’s Word urges obedience to God, not satisfies listeners with self. If STRONG, thoughtful Bible messages won’t change listeners who retain restraining influences that reduce the effectiveness of faith in Christ, WEAK preaching never will. And by preaching better messages the spokesman will at least have discharged his God-appointed duty. Jesus accepted rejection of his word. We need not despair when ours is rejected. As he continued proclaiming God’s truth in powerful ways, we can at least improve our messages to be better instruments of the Holy Spirit’s use. Finale Note: if I can, I’ll avoid lengthy, multi-part blogs. V In Matthew 13:18-23 Jesus summarized four reactions to Gospel teaching: Negative, Superficial, Conflicted, Productive. This blog won’t consider Productive.
The Pharisees embodied the Negative, opposing Jesus from his first public appearance, John 2:18, to his Last Week of Ministry. Often listening to and seeing him for 3½ years, they still couldn’t decipher where he got his authority. Judas embodied the Superficial. In Avoiding the Judas Complex, this writer suggested six reasons why Judas fell from enthusiasm for Christ to disillusionment with Christ until…a year before Calvary, he had become a Satan John 6:70-71. However, countering the Calvinism so prevalent in Bible scholarship today, Judas had originally been a member of the Twelve. Note carefully that in Acts 1:16-17, Simon Peter said, “he was one of our number….!” He had the perfect opportunity to precede Calvin by saying, “he never was one of our number.” But Peter said he WAS! Demas embodied the Conflicted II Timothy 4:9-10. Whatever drew him to Thessalonica from his companionship with Paul—family, a girl, night life, etc.—conflicted his mind. And that led him to consider present pleasure more important than eternal satisfaction. Demas warns American Christians: we can diminish our interest in Jesus simply by having TOO MANY competing interests in our daily life. Worse than that, we can LOSE interest in Jesus by feeling the need of present pleasure to God’s lasting presence. End Part IV Next: In Finale—how preachers can help their people guard against this response. Through no fault of their own, by being born into a polytheistic culture, and adopting its perspectives, the soldiers had no mental or spiritual capacity to fathom Christ’s bodily resurrection. A quarter century later offered no further capacity Acts 26:8. And where is that capability in culture today, world-wide? Where people don’t think they have sinned, let alone need forgiveness?
Once recovered from the shock of:
Which means that all of them had too much STUFF in their minds to consider the spiritual ramifications of the Master’s bodily resurrection! What of Americans vis à vis Jesus Christ Alive From the Dead? They’re already running ragged with daily:
All that they have allowed daily life to become naturally:
Let alone take time to let the Holy Spirit’s still-small voice develop their spiritual instincts. All because we enjoy the good things we have as a result of Christ’s life, death and resurrection without exciting us to love, worship and obey the Benefactor! End Part III NOTE: Computer problems made this blog a day later. VH
I’ll omit details that Christian novelists would certainly include in Christ’s resurrection appearances. Let’s instead consider the strict authenticity of the Living Christ’s garden rendezvous with Roman soldiers. Remember that they entered the Private Reserve at the behest of the Roman Governor, to satisfy religious authorities determined to prove Jesus an imposter by not rising from the dead. The duty seemed a 48 hour “milk run” in the cemetery. What could be easier, quieter and less demanding? They didn’t expect, desire or prepare for a spiritual encounter with Jesus. We understand the women walking in darkness that Sunday morning to anoint the body of Jesus Luke 24:1. They expected it to be there. We understand John and Peter running to the tomb when Mary Magdalene reported the body GONE. They couldn’t find it, but John believed Jesus LIVED John 20:1-9. The relevant point: both ladies and men involved had a personal interest in Jesus lacking in the soldiers. That interest gave the believers a quantum advantage over the guards. Which proves that Christianity has unquestioned evidence of Christ’s bodily resurrection: Jesus appeared to the very people who KNEW him PERSONALLY. Simon Peter addressed that issue to Cornelius in Acts 10:39-41. Prepared to KNOW Jesus Lived Again by living with him for 3 ½ years before he died, they couldn’t be deceived. Some may wonder if that didn’t weaken proof of Christ’s resurrection. Absolutely not. Had he appeared to strangers:
Jesus confronted many unbelievers in HIM, but not without their religious or spiritual preparation. For example, Saul of Tarsus hated the very NAME of Jesus of Nazareth, due to his zeal for Moses. But acquaintance with the NAME prepared him to know who the Person he called “Lord” was when looking up from his prone position Acts 9:3-5. Therefore, you had to have:
It’s very interesting: the very men first to see the Risen Christ and:
Their initial panic at the angelic visitor to the tomb shook them into stupefied silence:
Perhaps glancing at them as he moved away from the tomb towards them, it would have been characteristic of Jesus to look benevolently at them, offering forgiveness, the first fruits of his forgiveness, only to see they couldn’t translate the look into the peace he offered them. So away he went. Recovering their senses and mobility they at once fled en masse …not to Pilate who ordered them to duty, but to the Jewish priests who sought their services. In that decision the first men to KNOW Jesus Christ Lived lost their chance to change life from unbelief to faith, skepticism to devotion and hard traditionalism to GOD’s Great Grace. Indeed, by seeking self-preservation over TRUTH and hardening their minds to spiritual freedom, both soldiers and leadership lost their chance at eternal life. Which has lessons for us. End Part I We know Jesus created the heavens and the earth by God’s command, as Genesis 1:1ff declared and John 1:3, Colossians 1:16 and Hebrews 1:2 affirm. For a simple reason. Genesis 1:2 says the Spirit of God hovered over the waters. Since the Spirit proceeds from the unity of God the Father and his Only Begotten Son Jesus. The Trinity is revealed in the first two verses of the first book of the Bible. Then affirmed by Jesus to the disciples before his death in John 14:8-14, 15:15-18 as an example and to them after his resurrection Matthew 28:18-20.
John 1:1 declares Jesus as the Word of God, by whom God speaks to the world, whether by prophets, priests, kings, judgments, prosperity, victory, defeat or in PERSON. In every appearance of himself through Christ, God revealed something dramatic about himself. Such as his Singularity, or his Sovereignty over all history, nations and enemies. Or as obedience to God always shares his victories, as David proved, or, as Pharoah demonstrated, rebellion against God always experiences his wrath, and does nothing to weaken his victories. This fact emboldens Christians now, as it encouraged faithful Bible heroes. Christians have more than our share of failures and disappointments. Even now we live in mortal bodies with high aspirations and low behavior; in societies world-wide of increasing depravity despite Gospel preaching reaching a minority of the unsaved. America has seen a disgusting plummet in Biblical values in a nation now turned into a potpourri of world faiths. Do not despair, Christians. Lift up your hearts. Raise your voices in Praise to God. For as he relied on his own will to confront enemies through Abraham, David and Nehemiah, he still relies on HIS OWN WILL to conquer satanic enemies against Christianity. We persevere in discipleship, produce the Fruit of the Spirit in our lives, witness to those who want to learn and even to those who don’t want to learn. But GOD wins the victory over all his enemies by the Son he sent to forgive believers, the Spirit he sent to each believer’s mind and heart, the message of Grace he sent to restore repentant sinners and of Wrath that destroys all who dare oppose God! What, then, “can the righteous do when the foundations are being destroyed?” Psalm 11:3. Psalm 11:1, 7 tell us. Persevere in discipleship. Do the best we can to serve Jesus. BUT TRUST in God, not our efforts. For he remains in Heaven, sovereign. He sees all that happens on earth, His will succeeds and misses nothing, no matter the opposition. The wicked are cast into Hell, no matter their strength. Amen Horatio Alger, Jr., authored Luck and Pluck, one of an excess of 100 novels. In each he encouraged clean-living and perseverance as the means of success when choosing a career. His personal life featured neither virtue. His pleasure-driven habits left him penniless at the end. Life History of U.S, Vol. 7, p. 134 (side-bar)
A fault never necessary or inevitable in Christ’s disciples. We CAN say one thing while living another, but our laziness or inattention will be to blame, ignoring the inherent harmony our spiritual DNA provides. As Luther’s stirring lyrics in Ein Feste Burg ist our Gott declare:
We can fail, but:
This has a powerful connection to the person:
He can blame only himself, not:
Old Simeon anticipated that individual when:
Therefore, Christians point:
Christian, WE continue to be the:
Nevertheless, WE’RE still the good guys in the White Hats compared to the unforgiven Black-Hat sinners. |
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