Showing posts with label John. Show all posts

Monday, April 21, 2014

Easter Sunday

I'd like to wish you all a blessed Easter! This is a day late, but better late than never.
This one is the last of the series in the Holy Week series I have been sharing with you.

Have You Found What You’re Looking For? (Easter Sunday)

Like children scattering around a yard for Easter eggs, you and I are on a hunt.

We all hunt. Our thirsty souls rummage through every nook and cranny of this world, in search of shiny pleasures and saccharine delights.
Every such joy seeker, in pursuit of treasures that will not fade or rust or break or be stolen, must pay careful attention to Easter — not with a nod-off-through-the-sermon kind of attention, but with a real, earnest, eager attention riveted on Christ. If we miss the significance of the resurrection, we scamper past the greatest joy in the universe.

The Joy of Jesus

As the dark shadows stalked the soon-to-be crucified Christ, he turned his attention to joy. Throughout this Holy Week of his crucifixion, Jesus had foreshadowed his death for his disciples who struggled to make sense of it all. He addressed their concerns directly in John 16:19–24.

Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Is this what you are asking yourselves, what I meant by saying, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me’? Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.

When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.

In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full."

We rewind Holy Week to hear Jesus forecast the changes to come in his resurrection. He wanted his disciples to anticipate Easter Sunday as the cataclysmic dawning of true joy. And here’s what it all means for joy seekers.

A Blood-Bought Joy

Jesus spoke of this joy as he faced the torture of Good Friday. He faced denial, faced betrayal, faced beatings, faced splinters and nails and spears — he could not stop talking about joy! Only joy would keep him going. Joy was on his mind, joy was on his tongue, and joy was drawing him, not away from suffering, but into it (Hebrews 12:2).

Jesus went to the cross for joy: to buy joy, create joy, and offer joy.

As the world celebrated the savage killing of God, out of this sea of foaming rebel hostility emerged a blood-bought, inextinguishable joy.

An Unbreakable Joy

If the killing of the Author of life could not extinguish this joy Jesus speaks about, nothing can — and nothing ever will. No opposition from the world, no opposition to the gospel, and no cultural despising of Christ, will overcome the resurrection joy of Jesus.

As we have seen this week, the unquenchable joy of Easter was birthed in the greatest trauma and tragedy and evil the world has ever unleashed — the murder of the Son of God. Death, the Devil, demons and the coordinated rebellion of mankind all allied together cannot stymie this joy. Persecutors cannot steal this joy away. No power, no event, no enemy, can sequester the resurrection joy of Jesus Christ that burst out of the tomb with him.

Worldly joys are brittle in comparison. Sickness and poverty crumble joy, and the long process of aging and dying slowly strips life of all its worldly pleasures (Ecclesiastes 12:1–8). Death recedes all our joys, save one. Only one joy cannot be thwarted by death, because only one joy was purchased by blood.

A Newborn Joy

The resurrection joy of Jesus escapes the clutches of death because it’s the joy of the new creation, a joy broken free from the evil of this fallen world.

And this makes Easter breathtaking. As Jonathan Edwards boldly declared: “The resurrection of Christ is the most joyful event that ever came to pass.” And rightly did Charles Spurgeon say: “No man shall ever take from me the joy that Christ rose from the dead.” The resurrection is the most joy-filled divine event in biblical history worthy of our eternal adulation and awe and wonder. But it’s more than a breathtaking historical spectacle.

Jesus employed a common birthing analogy to introduce a radical cosmic birth. His death was the birth pangs of a new creation; his resurrection was the arrival of a new creation into history. In his resurrection, Jesus set in motion an unstoppable chain reaction that will one day culminate in the resurrection of the dead and the renovation of all creation.

Here’s the point. In the long history of joy in this fallen world, after ages of unsatisfied appetites and hunger pangs in the hearts of men and women and children, the resurrection of Christ marks a crescendo. Never has joy found greater expression on earth. In John 15:11, Jesus offered his disciples “full joy,” an invitation only possible from within the final stage in cosmic history. Such a stage was born on Easter morning.

Jesus wants his disciples to thirst for a post-resurrection joy as the arrival of a newly amplified joy, a long-awaited and long-anticipated joy, a never before fully seen or experienced joy in human history. The resurrection of Christ will bring the most spectacularly joy-filled event because it ignites an eternally abiding and forever unconquerable joy.

The Old Testament foretold of this joy, the birth of Christ announced this joy, Holy Week seemed to extinguish this joy, but the resurrection of Christ is the point in history when the unassailable torch of God’s joy emerged from the sea of foaming rebel hostility, rose up and lit the summit of an Olympic torch of joy that will burn for all eternity.

A Joy for the Asking

But as magnificently as this joy entered the world in this defining moment in cosmic history, this joy presses close to us. So Jesus taught his disciples to ask and seek for more of this joy. This is the open invitation of the Messianic age.

And this joy makes sense of the logic of John’s Gospel. Jesus said he must die and go to the Father, and would leave his joy with the disciples. Once he was with the Father, Jesus sent the Spirit to dwell in them (another unmistakable sign of the new creation). United to Christ, the disciples would now pray by the Spirit, to the Father, through the Son.

Easter reshapes prayer, spirituality, and joy. With this inauguration of a new creation, the disciples became adopted sons who could pray to a Father who is eager to pour out spiritual flourishing upon them in every way, leading to a full and satisfying joy which nobody can take away.
Which is great news for the disciples.

Inexpressible Joy for You

But Jesus’s bold resurrection joy promised to the disciples in John 16:19–24 is now offered to you and me. We are promised the same “joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory” (1 Peter 1:8).

In Christ, God delights to pour out this resurrection joy into your life, a joy that fills, and a joy that cannot be stolen from you. What do we do? We simply ask our gracious Father for more of it!

The Easter joy Jesus foretold has arrived, and it’s deeply personal. The resurrection is both a cosmic event, and it comes intimately close, reminding us of God’s work in our lives. “The point of Easter is that God is in the process of clearing this world of all heartbreak” (John Piper). Therefore, “Christ’s resurrection not only gives you hope for the future; it gives you hope to handle your scars right now” (Tim Keller).

Such a restoring and reviving joy was purchased for you and me in the resurrection of Christ.

Feast and Celebrate

Easter is for stark contradictions.

If Christ is still dead, death reigns, and all our joys are vain. So hoard every plastic Easter egg you find, because whatever you find inside is all the joy you have to grab. Or, as Paul says, “If the dead are not raised, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die’” (1 Corinthians 15:32).

But if death is dead, and if the dead are raised — if Christ is risen from the dead! — brothers and sisters let us feast and celebrate, for the dawning light of our inextinguishable and inexhaustible eternal pleasures have broken into the darkness, offering us a life of joy in Christ that cannot fade or rust or be stolen away!

Today, delight in the resurrection joy of Christ, pray it bigger in your life, and treasure it for all eternity.

This is the final post in Desiring God’s 2014 Holy Week series “The Final Days of Jesus,” inspired by the new book of the same title by Justin Taylor and Andreas Köstenberger. Holy Week illustrations provided in partnership with Crossway Books and Adam Greene. Previously in the series:

Tony Reinke (@tonyreinke) is a content strategist at Desiring God, blogger, the author of Lit! A Christian Guide to Reading Books (2011) and John Newton on the Christian Life: To Live Is Christ (2015), and hosts the Ask Pastor John and Authors on the Line podcasts. He lives in the Twin Cities with his wife, Karalee, and their three children.

Friday, April 18, 2014

The Escalating Conflict (Tuesday of Holy Week)

April 15, 2014 by Justin Taylor and Andreas Köstenberger Topics: The Life of Christ

http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/the-escalating-conflict-tuesday-of-holy-week

It is now Tuesday morning, March 31, A.D. 33. The disciples point to the withered fig tree that Jesus had cursed the day before. Jesus gives his disciples a simple lesson from it: have faith in God. In particular, he says, if they have undoubting faith they can throw even the mountains into the sea.

Now if the disciples had ears to hear they would recognize that Jesus is talking about more than seemingly magical powers that can curse trees and crumble mountains. He is talking about realities bigger than this.

Note that he closes this mini-lesson on mountain-moving, undoubting faith by saying, “whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses” (Mark 11:25). Jesus is reminding them that failing to forgive looms as a bigger obstacle to answered prayer than a mountain. The disciples will soon face great challenges to their faith and their ability to forgive. Will they remember this withered tree on the road from Bethany?

As they approach the Holy City, the events from the day before could not have been far from their minds. As Jesus enters the Temple Mount, crowds gather to hear him teach (Luke 21:38), and the chief priests, scribes, and elders waste no time in making their move. They will try to lay four traps to ensnare their adversary.

Trap One: Whose Authority?

By whose authority, they demand to know, had Jesus carried out his actions the day before (Mark 11:28)? Jesus doesn’t take the bait. Instead, he turns the tables on them with a question of his own: “Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man?” (Mark 11:30). If they respond “from heaven,” the next question is obvious: Then why don’t you believe the one about whom John testifies? If they retort “from man,” they risk alienating the crowds that hold John in high esteem as a prophet.

Jesus then offers three parabolic stories (about two sons, murderous tenants, and guests at a wedding feast), all driving home the point that they are rejecting grace and truth in the service of hypocritical self-righteousness.

Trap Two: Whose Allegiance?

The leaders try a new tactic. They send Pharisees (a Jewish sect known for its zeal for the law) and Herodians (those loyal to Herod’s dynasty) to ask him a question: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” (Matthew 22:15–22; Mark 12:13–17; Luke 20:20–26). If he answers “yes,” he shatters people’s expectations of him as a Messiah who will overthrow Roman rule. If he says “no,” he can be arrested for fomenting revolt.

But Jesus deftly evades the either-or dilemma: the denarius has Caesar’s image on it; as long as Caesar is in power, it is appropriate to pay taxes to him. And we are also to give God the things that are God’s; since we are made in God’s image, we owe everything — all that we have and all that we are — to him. Pay your taxes and worship God.

Trap Three: Whose Wife in the Resurrection?

After Jesus has silenced the Pharisees and Herodians, the Sadducees (a Jewish sect denying the end-time resurrection of the dead) try to ridicule Jesus’s belief in resurrection by asking a trick question about marriage in heaven (Matthew 22:23–33; Mark 12:18–27; Luke 20:27–40). Jesus tells them they do not understand the Scriptures (there is no marriage in heaven) or the power of God (God’s self-affirmation in Exodus 3:6, 15–16 shows that he is a God of the living, not the dead). Like the others, their smirk turns to marvel as they grow silent.

Trap Four: Which Commandment?

Now the Pharisees send forth an expert in the law to question Jesus: Which of God’s commands is the greatest (Matthew 22:34–40; Mark 12:28–34)? Jesus summarizes his answer in a word: love (to God and for neighbor: Deuteronomy 6:4–5; Leviticus 19:18). But Jesus discerns something different from this questioner, so he commends and implicitly invites him: “You are not far from the kingdom of God” (Mark 12:34).

Now it’s Jesus’s turn to initiate some questions with those who are trying to trap him. When he asks them a question about Psalm 110:1 and how the Messiah can be David’s Lord, “no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions” (Matthew 22:46). Jesus then launches a lengthy, scathing critique of the scribes and Pharisees, pronouncing seven woes of judgment upon these “hypocrites” and “blind guides” (Matthew 23:1–39; Mark 12:38–40; Luke 20:45–47).

This full-scale verbal assault removes all doubt concerning Jesus’s intentions, agenda, and aims. He has no desire to ally himself with the current leadership. He has come to overthrow their authority. There’s no way both sides can survive the escalating conflict. Either Jesus will assume power, or he must die.

Grace and Truth in Every Trap

With another tension-filled day behind them, Jesus and the disciples begin to head back to Bethany. They stop on the Mount of Olives to rest, giving them a wonderful view of Jerusalem as the sun begins to set behind it in the west. The disciples marvel at the size and the grandeur of these impressive buildings, but Jesus tells them that a day is soon coming when not a single stone will be left upon another. He goes on to explain that his followers will experience increasing persecution and tribulation, leading up to the final Day of Judgment. But their task is to remain vigilant and persist in faith.

Tuesday is now done. But Friday is coming. This is not the flannel-board Jesus some of us learned as children. This is the real, historical Jesus: fully in control as he responds with grace and truth to traps on all sides. He knows what he is doing. And he knows what is coming. Every word and every step is for the fame of his Father’s name and the salvation of those willing to pick up their cross and die with him.

This is the third post in Desiring God’s 2014 Holy Week series “The Final Days of Jesus,” inspired by the new book of the same title by Justin Taylor and Andreas Kostenberger. Holy Week illustrations provided in partnership with Crossway Books and Adam Greene. More on Holy Week:

Justin Taylor is Vice President of Editorial at Crossway Books and an elder at New Covenant Bible Church in St. Charles, Illinois. He blogs at Between Two Worlds and is co-author of the newly released The Final Days of Jesus: The Most Important Week of the Most Important Person Who Ever Lived.

Andreas J. Köstenberger is Senior Research Professor of New Testament and Biblical Theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina. He is co-author of the newly released The Final Days of Jesus: The Most Important Week of the Most Important Person Who Ever Lived.

Saturday, April 12, 2014

The Story of Palm Sunday

The story of Palm Sunday isn't one everyone is familiar with. It is the story of Jesus' entrance into the city of Jerusalem. These are the days leading up to His crucifixion.

Palm Sunday - Jesus' Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem

It was a springtime Sunday in about the year 30 A.D. The holy city of Jerusalem was crowded with pilgrims who had come for the annual Passover celebration.

Jesus had spent many months traveling through the towns and villages of Palestine. He preached about the kingdom of God and healed the sick wherever He went. Now the time had come for Him to claim His title as the Messiah - the Savior that God had promised to the Jewish people.

Jesus knew His mission was almost finished. As they traveled to Jerusalem, Jesus warned His disciples that He would soon be put to death, and after three days He would rise again.

As they came near Jerusalem, Jesus told two of His disciples to go into a nearby village and bring a donkey that would be waiting there. Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the donkey. Crowds of people spread their coats on the ground in front of Him. Some waved branches of palm trees, a sign of victory. The people shouted,

Hosanna!

Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord- the King of Israel!

Only a king would be greeted this way (2 Kings 9:13), and the people wanted Jesus to be their king. Most of the people did not understand what kind of king Jesus would be. They expected their Messiah to be a great political and military leader who would free them from the tyranny of the Roman Empire. But the kingdom of God is not of this world. It is a spiritual kingdom that is now growing in the hearts of people who put their faith and trust in God.

Cleansing the Temple

Jesus went to the temple once He got into Jerusalem, and He didn't like what He saw. This most holy of places had been turned into a marketplace. Merchants were selling animals for temple sacrifices. Money changers were exchanging the pilgrims' money for special coins used in the temple. Many of these people were cheating the pilgrims who came to celebrate Passover in Jerusalem.

Jesus turned over the seats of the merchants and the tables of the money changers, scattering their coins. He told them all to leave. He made a whip of some cords and used it to drive out the animals. He said, It is written, 'My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations', But you have made it a den of robbers!

Teaching and Healing

Jesus went to the temple every day. Blind people, crippled people and sick people came to Him, and He healed all of them. He told stories and parables to help people understand the kingdom of God and God's love for all people. The crowds of people who came to hear Him were spellbound.

An expert on the Jewish Law asked Jesus which of God's commandments was most important. Jesus replied, 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is just as important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the other commandments and the teachings of the prophets are based on these two.

Trust in God and Christian love (kindness and respect) for all people are the basis for everything Jesus taught us. These are the things that are really important in life.

Conflict with the Chief Priests and Elders

Not everyone was happy that Jesus was preaching at the temple every day. The chief priests and elders of the temple were angry and upset. The chief priests had given permission for merchants and money changers to use the outer courtyard of the temple, but Jesus had driven them out. They were afraid of a crackdown by Roman authorities because of the large crowds who followed Jesus. Worst of all, the people were putting their hopes and trust in Jesus. The temple officials felt their authority slipping away.

These temple officials came up with a plan to trap Jesus with His own words. They came to Jesus and demanded to know by what authority he was doing all these things. If Jesus said His authority was from God, they would accuse Him of blasphemy. If He did not claim authority from God, they could say He was just a crazy man.

But Jesus knew it was a trap. Instead of answering the question, He asked them another question: "Did the baptism of John come from heaven?" The temple officials realized this was also a trap. If they said "Yes", Jesus would say, "Then why didn't you believe him?" If they said "No" it would make the people angry because they believed John the Baptist was a prophet. So, they refused to answer.

As usual, Jesus had defeated his opponents at their own game! But the temple officials were even more angry and began to plot to have Jesus killed.

Lessons

For the Jews, Jerusalem was the holy City of God. When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, He fulfilled an Old Testament prophecy (Zechariah 9:9-10) and left little doubt that He was accepting the title of Messiah. Jesus was adored by the crowds of people who had come to Jerusalem for Passover.

But there was harsh conflict between Jesus and Jerusalem's religious leaders. They clashed on issues of prayer, holiness, life after death and paying taxes to the Romans. Above all, they clashed on the issue of Jesus' authority from God. These conflicts led to Jesus being crucified less than a week after entering Jerusalem.

Jesus did some of His most important preaching during this final week. He spoke of His second coming and told parables of the kingdom of God. Most of all He said we must put our total trust in God and put that trust into action with kindness for other people.

Questions

What is Palm Sunday?

Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter, is a celebration of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Some churches decorate with palms and distribute palm branches in memory of the greeting Jesus received from the pilgrims as He rode into Jerusalem.

Why Did Jesus Preach and Work His Miracles Among the Jews?

The people known as Hebrews, Israelites or Jews were God's chosen people. It was God's plan to bring salvation to the Jews first, then to the rest of the world through the Jews. Jesus was born a Jew and remained faithful to Judaism (the Jewish religion) throughout His earthly life. He worked and preached mainly among the Jews of Palestine, which is now the country of Israel.

Christianity began as a small sect of Judaism. It was only after many Gentiles (non-Jews) converted to Christianity that it emerged as a separate religion. God has not revoked His covenant with the Jews (Romans 11:25-29), but His salvation is now available to all people of the world.

What Does Messiah Mean?

Messiah comes from a Hebrew word meaning "the anointed one." In Old Testament times, important people like kings and priests were anointed with oil as a sign of their office. For hundreds of years, the Jews had expected God to send them a special king (Daniel 9:25-26, Isaiah 7:14-17,11:1-9, Micah 5:2).

Jesus avoided accepting the title Messiah until the very end because the people were expecting their Messiah to be a military and political leader instead of a spiritual leader. In Greek, the original language of the New Testament, christos means "anointed one", and that is where the word "Christ" comes from.