Those Who Bring Good News

Who are those people who were instrumental in sharing the good news of Jesus with you?  Who took the time to take an interest in you and an interest in your spirituality?  For a lot of the people who came to obedient faith in Jesus in the mid-1^st century Mediterranean world, it was the apostle Paul.  Many of those taught by Paul, taught others and so the gospel spread rapidly across the length and breadth of the Roman world. 

Over 500 years earlier, other messengers brought good news to God’s people.  As Jerusalem lay in ruin due to Babylonian destruction, a message of hope rang out.  “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.’  Listen!  Your sentinels lift up their voices, together they sing for joy; for in plain sight they see the return of the LORD to Zion.  Break forth together into singing, you ruins of Jerusalem; for the LORD has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem.  The LORD has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.” (Isaiah 52:7-10).  Good news like this is meant to be shared! - Shay

Jesus Part Two

Usually, sequels aren’t as good as the original.  The book of the Acts of the Apostles could just as easily be called Jesus Part 2, but it’s a sequel that lives up to the original.  In Acts, Jesus is still at work in the world, only he does his work through his people who are empowered by his Spirit.  In Luke’s gospel, as Jesus engaged with his fellow Jewish countrymen, the action flowed from Galilee to Jerusalem.  In Acts, the movement of the narrative flows from Jerusalem, into Judea, Samaria, and eventually the very ends of the Roman world.  In fact, Acts wraps up with the Apostle Paul powerfully proclaiming the good news that Jesus is Lord right under the nose of the would-be-lord of the world, Emperor Nero, in the capital city of Rome.    

Acts reminds us that though Jesus has ascended to the Father, he's still at work in our world.  And as the gospel continues to spread to the ends of the earth, we’re reminded that Jesus Christ is Lord, even in those places where he’s not yet been named publicly as such.  As Acts tells us in the first chapter, Jesus will return someday, just as he departed.  And as Acts 17 reminds us, God is not far from anyone of us.  He's placed us in the times and places of his choosing so that we might grope for him and find him.  There's no greater freedom in this life than the freedom that comes through making Jesus our Lord and our Master.  The latter part of the Christ-hymn in Philippians 2 says this: “God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  And I would echo John’s words from Revelation 22, “Amen.  Come, Lord Jesus!” – Shay   

But in Fact Christ has been Raised...

Is it worth it?  Is living the Christian life worth it?  If Jesus was not raised from the dead, then no, it’s not worth it.  It’s a waste of time, energy, and money.  If Jesus was not raised from the dead, then the biggest scam in the history of the universe has been meted out on millions and millions of people for the past 2,000 years.  If Jesus was not raised, then all of our loved ones who have died have absolutely no hope.  They are dead and buried, never to breathe and live again.  Their rotting corpses are just that - rotting corpses never to rise again.  We may as well live and do whatever we want to do.  We should get as much as we can while we can.  Meaningless!  Everything is meaningless without the resurrection of Jesus.  We’re wasting our time if Jesus’ body did not rise on the third day.

But, thank God, the tomb is empty!  Jesus did rise, the first-born of the new creation.  The world changed the moment his lifeless body breathed again.  His resurrection gives us hope and meaning for the future.  In fact, the resurrection is our future.  We too will breathe and live again.  Our bodies will rise again to live eternally in God’s renewed creation.  As Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 15.  “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died…thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” – 1 Cor. 15:20 & 57-58.    

But the reality is, there are days when we forget this truth.  It's easy to be distracted by all the good things that this life has to offer and it's easy to be overwhelmed by all the tragedies of this world.  We might find ourselves swinging between these two extremes, forgetting that no matter how good or bad this life can be at different times, this present life isn't worth comparing with the eternal life to come.  Wherever we may find ourselves today, let's be encouraged by Paul's words in Romans 8:38-39: "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." - Shay   

The Faith of Jesus

There’s a phrase used in the New Testament, particularly by Paul which has often been understood to refer to a believer’s faith in Jesus.  The phrase is typically translated “faith in Jesus Christ”, but can also be translated as “the faith of Jesus Christ”.  In addition to referring to the believer’s faith in Jesus, this phrase almost certainly also refers to the faithfulness of Jesus himself.  This reminds us that in his own life Jesus demonstrated trust, faith, and obedience to his Father.  Our faith in Jesus is important, but even more important was Jesus’ faithfulness to the will of God.  It’s through his faith and righteousness that we are made right with God. 

Have you ever considered that as Jesus approached his death, he did so in faith?  What I mean is that Jesus had to trust God to take him through death and into resurrection.  For the man Jesus to remain obedient to God, he had to walk by faith and not by sight, just as much as we do, and never so much as he did when he freely laid down his life.  It wasn’t easy for Jesus, as his prayer in the garden clearly reveals, but he was nevertheless willing to submit his will to the will of the Father.  So, yes, our faith in Jesus Christ is important, but not nearly as important as Jesus’ own faith and faithfulness.  - Shay  

Jesus, Son of God: What does it mean?

In the Old Testament, the nation of Israel was collectively referred to as God’s son (Exodus 4:21-23; Hosea 11:1-9).  The term son of God was also a title given to the king of Israel or Judah at his enthronement (Psalm 2).  Sometimes, the term “sons of God” referred to heavenly beings, such as in Job 38:1-7.  So in what sense do we find both continuity and discontinuity with the Old Testament usage of this phrase and the New Testament’s identification of Jesus as the “Son of God”? 

Well for one, if Israel was in a sense, God’s son, Jesus was even more so.  Israel was called to be the faithful light to the nations, but unfortunately, they mostly failed in this vocation.  Jesus however sums up the entire story of Israel in his life and ministry, but where Israel failed, Jesus was faithful and overcame (see Matt 1-7, especially 4:1-11). 

The kings of Israel and Judah were meant to represent God’s people before God and the world, but they too largely failed in this vocation.  However, Jesus as God’s true Son was the just and righteous king who came to set up a kingdom for the world, but not of the world (John 18:28-37). 

And if the heavenly beings participate and share in the glory of God through his acts of creation and redemption, how much more does Jesus (John 1:1-5)?

Jesus fully and faithfully sums up and brings to completion each of these Old Testament notions of God’s son, but he does so in ways that far transcend that limited understanding.  It was only after the resurrection that Jesus’ followers could fully comprehend who Jesus truly was and what exactly he had come to accomplish (Romans 1:1-4).  This is topic worthy of further exploration. – Shay     

His Story is Our Story

I’m a firm believer in studying the entire story of God and his people as it is recorded for us in what we call the Bible.  Not only should we read and meditate on the words of the New Testament, we need to understand the Old Testament story to fully appreciate the New.  However, we should never stray too far from the New Testament in our study of the Old as ours is a story that’s not only going somewhere,  but in a sense, has already arrived through the person of Jesus Christ.  Of all the good places to spend time in the New Testament, there’s no better place than our four gospels.  Each of the four evangelists had a specific purpose in recording the life and times of Jesus and each records these events from a unique perspective.  To fully appreciate that perspective, one is best served in reading these gospels in their entirety and in context, rather than jumping around or trying to “harmonize” them.  In fact, harmonization does more damage than good in understanding the story that each writer is trying to tell.  But regardless of how we go about studying Jesus’ life as recorded for us in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the important thing to remember is that his story is our story!  

If we are to truly be Christ’s church in the world, then the anchor of our lives and faith has to be securely rooted in the gospel of Jesus.  He is the founder of our faith and the one who will finally bring our lives to completion.  If we are to be transformed into his image, then we need to immerse ourselves in his life and teachings.  Because we are his disciples and follow in his footsteps, we need to take time to learn from this one who is meek and gentle, and yet, firm and demanding.  As we continue through the gospel portion of the story, let’s fix our eyes on this man who fixed his eyes on his Father and was obedient all the way through death and into resurrection life.  He has gone ahead of us, but he hasn’t left us behind.  He’s given us his Spirit to enable us to become citizens of his new creation.  In the meantime, may our lives reflect Jesus back into this present age.  May our lives be “little gospels”, so to speak.  May God’s will be done in our lives, both corporately and individually, as we await the renewal of all things. – Shay   

The Biggest Questions in the History of the World

I asked our Bible class yesterday morning who they believed to be the 10 most influential people to have ever lived, excluding people whose lives are recorded in the Bible.  I can't remember all of the various answers, but some of the names mentioned were Mother Theresa, George Washington, Gandhi, Confucius, Charles Darwin, Abraham Lincoln, Adolf Hitler, and Helen Keller.  I then asked the class to think of how different our world would be if Jesus of Nazareth had never been born.  This question is really too big to even get our heads around.  So much of the world that we take for granted is directly or indirectly related to the impact of a seemingly insignificant craftsman turned rabbi from a backwater region of an insignificant province on the edge of the Roman Empire.   According to an article in Time Magazine http://ideas.time.com/2013/12/10/whos-biggest-the-100-most-significant-figures-in-history/ , Jesus actually is the single most influential person to have ever lived. 

How and more importantly, why did this young Jew make such an impact on the world?  Regardless of one's religious convictions (or lack-there-of), this is a question that's worth pondering.  Prior to and even after the life of Jesus, there were many would be messianic figures who arose in 1st century Palestine.  The fact that we even refer to it as the 1st century shows how much of an impact Jesus has had on history.  He's the pivot on which our entire dating system in the Western world turns.  He wasn't the only person who lived in his era who harbored messianic pretensions.  But how many others of these would be messiahs have had the impact on the world that Jesus did?  How many of these others can you name without a google search?  What's also interesting is that Jesus' vision of the Kingdom of God shared some continuity with the expectations of his fellow Jews, but in many ways, his vison not only transcended his contemporaries' hopes and dreams, it completely turned them upside down.  And yet, his impact on not only his own generation, but countless generations since is virtually incalculable. 

The historian, the philosopher, the theologian, and I would argue, the average person really has to come to grips with this amazing man, Jesus of Nazareth.  Who was he?  What was his hope for his people, the nation of Israel?  What was his vision for the world?  How did the kingdom that he hoped to establish differ from the other kinds of kingdoms of the world?  And if he ultimately failed in establishing his kingdom, as many of his contemporaries would have said, then why are we still talking about his impact on the world rather than the impact of Tiberius, who reigned in Rome at the same time?  How did a crucified criminal wind up making a bigger ripple in the subsequent centuries than did the ruler of the world's largest empire? Why are the other would be messiahs of the 1st century just a footnote and Jesus is the pendulum on which the door of history swings?  I believe these are the biggest questions in the history of the world. - Shay