“For with God, nothing will be impossible.” Luke 1:47
Today we want to briefly explore the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This historic event sets our faith apart from every other religion in the world. That risks sounding arrogant, its not meant to come across that way. Simply put, Christianity is the only faith in the world based on God’s means and ways of redemption. Its a dynamic partnership of God’s grace, and our faith (choice). Its the partnership between the Infinite God and finite man. God initiates the relationship and we respond. All other religions are based upon the efforts and ceremonies of men trying to ‘be good enough’ to appease God or be accepted by Him. Christianity stands out with a totally different paradigm, Heavenly initiated, flawless and brilliant. Christianity is centered around what Christ did and what Christ is still doing. All the other religions of the world are about men, what men do, what they are planning on doing. Like the Tower of Babel and confusion thereof men’s religions always become scattered, lead to confusion and eventually fail. Men’s religions fail because their core source is men, not God.
JESUS WAS STRIPPED SO THAT WE COULD BE CLOTHED
“They took the robe off of him…” Matthew 27:31
Recently in the past Passion/Passover week we realized Jesus went through extraordinary humiliation. Why didn’t the Roman’s just kill him with a sword? One thrust thru the heart and its over with…death. This is why Jesus went through a process of humiliation, suffering and nakedness= he fully entered into our lives of suffering, sin, struggle, shame and nakedness. Someday when you get a moment read the Gospel of Mark chapter 14-16.
The essence of sin is ‘trying to clothe ourselves.’ Recall Adam and Ever after their sin and failure in the Garden of Eden. They (like us) tried to find fulfillment, meaning and prosperity outside the boundaries and laws of God. This is the essence of sin , looking for life outside of God and Jesus Christ. What did God do for Adam and Eve? He came and graciously “made coverings of skin= God clothed their nakedness.” (Genesis 3:21) This is one of the most ancient prophecies of the Gospel of Jesus. Like Adam and Eve, none of us can ‘clothe ourselves’. King Jesus went through a torture ceremony on his way to the Cross. Every part of his being was affected, body, soul and spirit. Why? So he could experience our nakedness in every area (mind, will and emotions) and therefore restore us in every way. King Jesus was disrobed progressively in every way so that we could be clothed in every way. The Christian life is not about impersonating Jesus or ‘trying to be good enough’-at times, many of us have fall into the trap of trying to appear good (including myself). Rather the Christian life is a love life of dependance, of giving God all that we are (or all that we are not) and receiving all that He is, all that He has done, and all that He will do to you and thru you. “Indeed, having been clothed we will not be found naked.” (2 Corinthians 5:2-3 , reference to Jesus’ work and our new resurrected lives) The essence of God’s gift of Jesus to us is ‘an exchange’. He was disrobed in order to clothe us in love, power, humility, meaning, transformation and faith. He fully experienced humiliation in body, soul and spirit. We could speak at length for 25 pages on this subject- its the essence of the Christian life. He took our death, sin and disorder and gave us life, meaning and love forever. No other faith on the earth is like this Divine Exchange. All other faiths are based upon your “spiritual” disciplines, you working hard enough or being ‘good enough’. Why do people kill for their religion? Because there faith is based upon what men are doing (or themselves) not upon what Christ did.
ONE DAY OF GODS EFFORT IS WORTH MORE THAN A LIFETIME OF STRIVING
“Now to Him who is able to do abundantly above and beyond what we ask think or Imagine-according to the (resurrection) power working inside us..”Ephesians 3:20
Simply put, Christianity is the dividing line between darkness and light, Gods ways and mans ways, sin and death. The quicker we realize life on earth is not about us (or about me), the more free we become. This world is burdened, fighting and in hatred war because of these things: “My life.. my country….my rights… my money… my business….my career…..my church….my ministry, my resources, my language, my interest , my my my my…ad naseum. (yes even religion can pervert the true way and make it crooked). Whenever men are involved, its possible for our venture/business/ or church to get not only a little off but terribly off. But Jesus doesnt leave us there. Christ’s death and resurrection did way beyond what we can imagine for our lives now and for the future. There is hope, change and transformation now, not just when you go to Heaven. Remember when Moses stood at the banks of the Red Sea, the pursuing army of Egypt was coming to destroy them? This foreshadowed the work of Christ- Israel passed thru the Red Sea (baptism into death) and came to the other side (new life)- the enemies were now dead.
I want to talk about babies and children for a moment. Its the incredible glory of God that he spared the baby Moses (they were executing ALL the firstborn children in Egypt. Also the Christ child was spared from Herod’s evil decree = abortion would be the modern day equivalent). I declare to you the devil is working through people and even systems of government throughout the world, even here in Africa. We are supposed to believe that murderering a small person who can’t even speak is a “reasonable and civilized” practice. One of the ways you know Christ’ return is near is the appearance of this “child-death, child massacre” spirit. Its a spirit of death against children and the unborn. (Why are Sharon and I so passionate about helping the kids in Kenya? Because God wants to raise up young missionaries, deliverers and leaders from many tribes. Again, its a signature, trademark glory of God that He can take children and do miracles and major deliverance through them. Heaven’s signature is ‘beyond our mind, calculation and control”.
Its a subtle idolatry to try and make God like us= to reduce God into terms and comparisons (and idol of self). To bring God down to our level “God has to do it our way, my way or terms I understand and ways I appreciate.” Probably some of the greatest revivals and transformations will come through little children and youth (we are not disposing of elders or excluding- just making a point here). There is a murdering spirit on assignment against kids- it wants to convince us that throwing a little kids life out like a trash bag, like a plastic bag is “intelligent, helpful and civilized” Its devilish and demonic. Dont mistake the appearing of this ‘death spirit against the unborn and little children” as an accident. Satan always clothes his lies, death and hell as ‘life, liberty and happiness’- consider the temptation in the Garden of Eden. The devil will always try to convince that the way of the curse is sweet- “just throw away your future generation, discard your youth- after all its modernity and you are wiser.” Hitler rose to power in Germany promising Heaven and delivering only death and hell. We have to be ‘fruit inspectors’ in these days as Jesus commanded in Matthew 5-7. Satan’s best secret is described in the New Testament “he appears as an Angel of Light, pretending to do good”- yet he brings death, slavery and oppression. In these days we need to beware of political and religious leaders who arise and demand allegiance to themselves/their cause. The Bible warns that in the latter days leaders will arise even using Jesus’ name (Christianity as a cloak) to deceive and promote their sinister agendas. Those who love Jesus’ more than trends, fads and hysteria will burn bright and discern good from evil. I care about the environment, yet its worrisome that many people care more about animals and trees than unborn children. Beware of this trend in the latter times= death masquerading as goodness, wisdom and modernity. Thats how the genocide, racist and tribalist hatred works here in Africa and other parts of the world. “We need to get rid of that/this people group…”- its wicked, evil and has its source in hell. It doesn’t matter how many good looking and eloquent leaders endorse the policies or culture of death- it may be a Church leader, may be a politician or someone famous. Its still death and destruction towards a precious human life that Jesus’ loves. We need to pray for leaders and people who believe that killing people/shedding innocent blood will somehow turn into a blessing. We must pray that the God of Life opens their eyes and that repentance and the Love of Christ washes and fills their hearts.
While the culture of death is trying to spread throughout the whole world, we represent the Culture of Life= the Kingdom of God. While clever intellectuals are saying ‘mankind is getting better through its own wisdom’, why do some nations want to abort the country of Israel? That’s right, just like abortion of a baby, so the same culture of death is masquerading through political voices, “the Holocaust never happened…” or “Israel is the problem…” Whether its Rwanda where they called one tribe “cockroaches” or its the USA and its called a “feotus-just throw it away” or whether its a nation who suffered the most since the history of the world (Israel)- We reject the culture and philosophy of death that is trying to overtake the whole world. We stand for Life, Liberty in Christ and respect for all peoples. We even love the people who are deceived into thinking death of babies, nations and cultures is the answer. Our King Jesus is the God of Life, and the Resurrection is the message of New Life and Redemption from every sin, sickness and curse. Mankind has made itself sick and is not humble enough to come to Jesus for healing- therefore it invents policies of subjection that promise freedom yet deliver only disappointment and death. Policies of death are masquerading as life right now, throughout the world- don’t buy it, don’t believe it- pray against it and pray all people’s turn to Jesus Christ. Remember back to the book of Daniel that the anti-Christ spirit will attempt to change the “laws, times and seasons”. Its a sign of the times.
You don’t have to be a prophet or even a Christian to see that. Scientist declared global warming is the blame (summer/fall 2009) and the next season of winter was one of the coldest in history. The lesson is that the most intelligent men without God don’t possess the solutions we need, any more than a blind person will get a hole in one while golfing. Even as I type this the volcano in Iceland is erupting, yet in all our development, cleverness and human insight we can’t even control or minimize the consequences of the earth. In reality, we don’t control as much as we think we do- look at the Haiti earthquake and subsequent earthquakes around the globe.
GIVING UP OUR FINITE FOR HIS INFINITE (SALVATION)
During the final hours of Jesus life, all of our sins were boiled down into one historic moment. All of your sins and mine were compacted and transacted, literally ‘placed upon Jesus’ – all the lust, murder, adultery, perversion, hatred, war, self-centeredness, lying,divorce, incest, abuse, genocide …. every single sin from the beginning of creation until the end of the Book of Revelation. As we mentioned at the beginning of this article, the essence of sin is ‘trying to clothe ourselves.” Our money. Our sucess. Our answers. Our glory, our honor, our power= my will be done. Its also the essential nature of the devil who is the first Rebel. He managed to convince 1/3 of Heaven that there was such an idea as ‘sucess and glory and fulfillment apart from God.” It didn’t work out to well for satan and his servants. Many of us have tried- in fact go ahead and do an experiment. If you don’t believe Solomon (the richest and wisest man in all of history), if you dont’ believe the lives of those in the Bible, go ahead and try yourself. See what you come up with. Its very likely that you will feel as empty as Solomon who declared “All things are vanity and without meaning- knowing God and keeping His commandments is the only meaningful thing” John the Apostle goes onto say in the New Testament, “God’s commands are not a burden…” It echoes Jesus’ words, that great King of the Universe “I am gentle and humble in heart- my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” The answer is not in another relationship, another beer, another dollar, another job, another drug….. those are just men’s ways of trying to ‘clothe ourself’ , temporary medicine to feel good yet the realities of our brokeness and pain still remains. The devil has been trying to clothe himself and placate humanity since the beginning. Dear one reading this post, Jesus really is the answer. It was love and desire for friendship that drove Him to the Cross for us. He allowed himself to be stripped of all dignity and even clothing for our sakes. Dear human-just-like-me , Jesus desires to clothe you and I with a new life of meaning, love for others, forgiveness and power to see others changed. Its a kind of “worth” and acceptance by God not based upon what you do, what kind of money you have or what others say about you. Its this very real love of God that clothed the people we read about in the Bible. John the Apostle was so taken by it that 5 times in his own gospel he wrote referring to himself as “the Disciple whom Jesus loves…” When the Love of God clothes us dear one, you are never the same. Situations are never the same. Every situation (even difficult ones) begin to take on a new and hopeful light. In all truth, God has a life for us far beyond any adventure and beyond the bounds of normal human limitations. Life with Jesus Christ is a partnership with the limitless God of Creation and the Universe- its an invitation to go from finite to The Infinite. Sin and self have a ceiling of predictability and limited measure. Yet partnership with Jesus is a quest of transcendant glory- it will take you from just reading the Bible to actually living it out in signs, wonders and miracles that we see from Genesis to Revelation.
A SPIRITUAL ‘NUCLEAR REACTOR’
Christianity, at its core has infinite power as its source. This is what Paul the Apostle meant when he said “Oh may the eyes of your heart be opened…to know this exceedingly greatness of His Power towards us who believe=the power with raised Jesus from the dead.” Ephesians 1:18-20
One of the great truths of the Christian faith is “all things are possible”. You may be as low as a worm right now, but because of God’s power and love you may become a butterfly tomorrow or the next day. The things that ‘hold you down’ are only there if you accept them. One dismal feature of hell is the knowledge that situations never change= you are stuck with depression, abuse, hatred and unforgiveness. One glorious feature of Christ Jesus and His Heavenly Kingdom is perpetual change and transformation. “We are being transformed….from glory to glory.” (2 Corinthians 3:18) Thats a Heavenly trademark, friend. Its a continual life of learning and growing. You never have to stop and ‘arrive’ , thats a recipe for boredom and monotony if one existed. If you are tired of satisfying yourself and trying to clothe yourself, then theres a better way. Its the new life in Christ. You don’t have to try to be something your not or to appear better than someone else. The Early Church and early Disciples saw Jesus suffer and die….then He was raised from the dead! They knew there was a better way to live in this world. Their lives changed, they began not to fear things that the world feared (death, money, lack, public opinion). These disciples who even denied our Lord and failed personally in many ways- they were forgiven and moved on into their new day and destiny with Christ. They knew God would never leave them and that death wasn’t the end.
Walk closely with Jesus, the God of All Things are Possible, the God of the Resurrection. Love Him and Trust Him,(more importantly let him love you!) you will never be the same again. Quit trying to clothe yourself Adam and Eve- give up your own solutions. Let God put His own clothing on you, let Him re-orientate you in this world and give you and unchanging identity. God will take you as you are, and make you much more than you can ask, think or imagine. Yesterday doesn’t exist, neither does last month or last year. God will clothe you and plan your life better than you could plan it for yourself.
“I know the plans I have for you, plans to give you a Hope and a Future” = the God of Life speaking in the Book of Jeremiah chapter 29 verse 11.
