hope

Our Great Resurrection Hope (part 3)

/ Richard Bargas / 1 Comment

In the events of Passion week, today is a silent day of mourning. The disciples went home with the horrible reality that Jesus was dead and his body was in a tomb. Now what? But the resurrection gives us hope! In Part 1, we learned that Christ’s Resurrection Guarantees the Christian’s Resurrection, and in Part 2, we saw that Christ’s Resurrection Reverses the Curse of Humanity. But the Apostle Paul gives at least two more reasons for us to draw hope, even on this day of grief as we await Resurrection morning. The third reason is…

Christ’s Resurrection Gives Hope for the Future (v. 23)

“But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:23, ESV)

Right now, we all see the effects of sin all around us. We feel it in our bodies. Sickness, disease and death are constant reminders of our fallenness.

Sin has a corrosive effect in society that has plunged us into spiritual darkness that it seems we will never recover from. Crime, war, famine, hatred, and all sorts of human suffering is never far away. We see it in our news feeds every day. We can’t ever seem to get a day of relief from the bad news.

We are desperate for some good news. The resurrection of Christ is the best news. It tells us not only that Jesus is alive, but that he is coming back to judge the world and he will raise us up from the dead and glorify our bodies to never die again.

Verses 50-57 describe this even in the future that we as Christians look forward to when we will be made imperishable and immortal. These verses say:

“I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

(1 Corinthians 15:50–57, ESV)

In 2015 the UC Berkeley Alumni magazine California ran an article about cryonics. Not sure what that is? Let me quote a small portion and you’ll understand,

“Before launching the first cryonaut, they had sandwiches and coffee. It was a Thursday afternoon in January 1967, in the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale. The ad hoc medical team—a physician, a chemist, and Bob Nelson, a voluble TV repairman and president of the newly minted Cryonics Society of California—huddled around the dead man’s bedside. In front of them lay the body of James Bedford, who earned his master’s degree from UC Berkeley in 1928. A retired psychology professor and vocational guidance expert, the 73-year-old had died of liver cancer an hour earlier. All of them, living and dead, were about to make history.

The team went to work. Adapting techniques from the field of cryogenics, which studies materials at low temperatures, they injected medical-grade antifreeze into his neck, diluting his blood. To minimize damage to his brain, they kept oxygen pumping through his system with a machine called an iron heart. Then they slipped the professor into a coffin-shaped capsule filled with dry ice. (Later, the capsule would be placed in a cylinder cooled by liquid nitrogen for permanent storage at -196°C.)

Four hours later the task was completed: They had frozen the first man.

At a triumphal news conference a few days later, Nelson, the TV repairman, explained the purpose of the professor’s “cryopreservation.” Bedford, he told the assembled reporters, “will be kept frozen indefinitely until such time as medical science may be able to cure cancer, any freezing damage that may have occurred, and perhaps old age as well.”[1]

Here we are, over 50 years later, and that Berkeley professor’s body still awaits the cure for cancer, and the science to be able to bring him back to life and heal him of his cancer. If it had been done before, then maybe there would be more hope in cryonics. But this has never been done before. Not even once. Not even close. We don’t have that sort of hope as Christians.

The hope we have is assured. It isn’t a shot in the dark. It’s not a gamble or a pipe-dream. Church, Jesus Christ is alive today! Jesus Christ went through death for us, and he rose again before us. He will come again and we shall be raised from the dead just as he was!

Christ’s Resurrection Gives Hope for the Future to those who follow Jesus Christ as Lord. But what about those who do not believe in Christ and do not follow him? What about death itself?

[1] https://alumni.berkeley.edu/california-magazine/summer-2015-confronting-future/deep-freeze-what-kind-person-chooses-get

Our Great Resurrection Hope (part 1)

/ Richard Bargas / 3 Comments

Today is “April Fool’s Day” which I think might be just an American sort of thing. I don’t know. It’s not even actually a holiday here, but is an unofficial day for playing pranks on one another. Some Christians have connected “April Fool’s Day” with atheism, a reflection of Psalm 14:1; and 53:1 that says, “The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” It is interesting that April Fool’s Day comes a day before Good Friday, the day which Christ was crucified. For millions of Christians, the crucifixion and empty tomb are reminders of our great hope beyond this life and this world But what about the atheist and the one who does not believe in Jesus Christ? Where is the world supposed to find hope?

A little over a month before he died, the famous atheist Jean-Paul Sartre declared that he so strongly resisted feelings of despair that he would say to himself, “I know I shall die in hope.” Then in profound sadness, he would add, “But hope needs a foundation.”[1]

Where do you find your hope? The Apostle Paul has written to the church where some have lost hope because they had been wrongly taught that there is no resurrection; that a person dies and is no more. Some people believe that today.

Look with me to 1 Corinthians 15:19. It says, “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.” (1 Corinthians 15:19, ESV) 

As followers and disciples of Jesus Christ, we believe that Jesus Christ is our great resurrection hope. If Jesus has not risen from the dead, we might as well all just wait to die. There is nothing left but despair and our feeble attempts to make our time left on this earth as pleasant as possible.

But Christ has risen. There is more to hope for than all this world can offer! On this Maundy Thursday leading to Resurrection Sunday, I’d like to share Four Assurances that Jesus’ Resurrection Gives Those Who are Followers of Jesus Christ. Here is the first one:

Christ’s Resurrection Guarantees the Christian’s Resurrection (v. 20)

“But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

(1 Corinthians 15:20, ESV)

The evidence is overwhelming which shows that Christ rose from the dead (1 Cor 15:3-8). In these verses we read that Jesus was seen by over 500 eyewitnesses, and some of them were still alive when the Apostle Paul wrote his letter to the Corinthian Church, about 20 years after Jesus’ crucifixion.

Along with this, Christ’s death and resurrection fulfilled dozens of Old Testament prophecies and Jesus himself told his disciples several times that he would rise from the dead after his death upon a cross.

And in verse 20, Paul is telling the church that Christ has not only risen from the dead, but that he is the first-fruits of those who have “fallen asleep,” a euphemism for Christian’s who have died already.

What is a “first-fruit” and why does this guarantee the Christian hope?

In the Old Testament laws, the Jewish people were commanded by God that at the end of their farming seasons, as they were getting ready to reap their harvests, the people of God were commanded to bring an offering to God called the “first-fruit.”

This offering was from every type of blessing they had received, and it included grain, produce, oil, wine, bread and dough, even the first born of animals.  Now, what I want you to understand is that these “first-fruit” offerings were just that—they were the first of the fruit of the land, given as an offering of thanksgiving to the One who had given them everything. It was also an offering given in faith that he would bring in the rest of the harvest that had not been completely ripened or been brought into the harvest. This offering was the way in which the Lord told his people that they were promised that there was more of the same to come.

The Apostle Paul used this imagery to describe Jesus’ resurrection as the first-fruit, the promise that there is more to come! Jesus, the Son of Man, died and rose again, the first of many who will one day rise again just as he did.

In Romans 11:16 Paul used this idea of first-fruits as well. He wrote, “If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches.” (Romans 11:16, ESV) 

Paul is saying that when a Jewish person offered up a lump of dough, the larger batch that it was taken from was made holy because of the connection between the two. Think about that for a second!

What Paul is saying in 1Corinthians 15:20 is that our status as Christians is changed by what happens to the first-fruit of Christ’s resurrection. Whatever he undergoes, we will also undergo. 

As one commentary says, “…in the specific case of the resurrection their resurrection is not merely parallel or similar to Christ’s but is preauthorized, promised, guaranteed, and initiated by it.”[2]

I once was at a bridal shower, and it reminded me of the engagement ring that our friend gave to his fiancé. I don’t know how much that young man spent on the ring, but it represents a promise of good things to come. 

The engagement ring is a promise not only that the groom will come for his bride, but that as he has spent much in providing the ring, he has much more to give. The ring represents love, and promise, and that more is to follow. It is not all, it is only a foretaste.

The first-fruits are like that. But it is a promise from God, who never breaks his promises, ever.

Christ’s Resurrection Guarantees the Christian’s Resurrection! We aren’t just hoping against hope. Christ’s resurrection is the first stage of a resurrection that will include the raising up and glorifying of all of Christ’s followers!

[1] https://bible.org/illustration/famous-athiest

[2] Roy E. Ciampa and Brian S. Rosner, The First Letter to the Corinthians, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2010), 762.

Don’t Cover Your Cracks with Plaster (weekend repost)

/ Richard Bargas / Leave a comment

A few nights ago I awoke with the aches and pains of a sickness I have been fighting for a few days. Unable to sleep, I started to reflect upon all the friends and loved ones that are struggling with pain and suffering to a much greater degree. I thought about those who are facing a crumbling marriage, the loss of a spouse, the onset of a disease that will take their life. I lay in the dark and considered the deep comfort that we have in Christ.

Read the rest of the post here: Don’t Cover Your Cracks with Plaster

Fearing God the Father

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“Praise the Lord!
Blessed is the man who fears the Lord,
who greatly delights in his commandments!” (Psalm 112:1, ESV)

There used to be a time when people would speak in reverential tones of certain men and women as “God fearing.” This person was known for living a life that was pleasing to God, and was utterly trustworthy and faithful. You would not find a God-fearing man or woman in the company of certain people, or involved in sinful activities and conversation.

God-fearing people were thought of this way because society in general knew what the Bible said. They knew what God expected of men, but they knew that most people only paid lip-service to what the Bible said. But a God-fearing man or woman was different.

Easton’s Bible Dictionary defines the fear of the Lord like this: “It is a fear conjoined with love and hope, and is therefore not slavish dread, but rather filial [fatherly] reverence.”

We notice here a mixture of fear and love, and it is connected to a fatherly love which is co-mingled with respect. Charles Bridges defined fear of the Lord in a similar manner. He wrote, “[The fear of the Lord is] that affectionate reverence, by which the child of God bends himself humbly and carefully to his Father’s law.”[1]

Bridges, like Easton’s definition, uses the Father and child imagery to help define the fear of the Lord, writing of the child of God and his heavenly Father. This image of God as Father is replete throughout the Bible.

Fear the Father as Creator

In Deut. 32:6 it says, “Do you thus repay the Lord, you foolish and senseless people? Is not he your father, who created you, who made you and established you?” (ESV). Just as a father provides, protects, and leads his family, so too the Lord had done the same for Israel. But shockingly, Moses’ words reveal that Israel was acting like an ungrateful and rebellious child that has no fear of breaking his rules nor of disrespecting him before the watching world.

The prophet Isaiah also testified against this lack of the fear of the Lord in Israel at a much later time. In Isaiah 1:2 the prophet brought the Word of the Lord saying, “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: “Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me.” (ESV). Notice what the Lord says here—he has reared and brought them up. This reality should have brought him that fear we are looking at. They should have loved and respected him, but they did not.

In Isaiah 64:8,the prophet used the father metaphor alongside another picture of God as a Potter. In this passage, it says, “But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.” (ESV). This text looks forward to the coming Millennial Kingdom when the heart’s of God’s people shall turn and embrace the Messiah that they have rejected.

We see in these words the recognition that the Lord has made them and he is free to do with them as he sees fit. One day Israel will humble itself before the Lord in national contrition and joyful submission. God can do what he wants because he is not only Father, but he is Potter, who has made the clay into whatever he sees fit.

Fearing the Father as Wisdom

Probably most familiar to us is this aspect of the fear of the Lord as the beginning of wisdom. Proverbs 1:7 says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction” (ESV). When we consider the fear of the Lord as Father and Creator, we can better see why to reject the Lord and His commands is foolish. A child, who has little strength, wisdom, experience, power, and influence is foolish to put off the care and counsel of a father who gives these to his children.

When the Lord spoke to Job and began prodding him to answer his questions, like a child who quickly has learned that he is over his head, he simply put his hand over his mouth. This is wisdom, knowing that the Father knows best and that our finite minds cannot begin to grasp his infinite plans for us.

Fearing the Lord as Judge

This is very different from the idea of fearing the Lord as Father and Creator. It is the fear that comes when a wayward child has been disobedient and has turned aside from the father’s ways. It is also the fear that does not come from a child of God, but from the fool that despises the Lord and his commands. It is not a true and pure reverential fear mixed with love, for there is no such love in the rebellious creature. This fear is a craven, slavish fear that the disobedient slave has when he fears his master will discover that he has been stealing from him secretly. Except our Lord is not blind to those that have offended him.

An example of the wayward who fear the Lord is found in Ezra 10, where the people have come to understand their disobedience in intermarrying with the pagan nations around them, something God had expressly forbidden Israel from doing. In verses 1-4 we read that the fear of the Lord (“trembling” in v. 3) has led to repentance and obedience. But the wicked fear the Lord in a different way, a way which is fearful of judgment to a point, but will not lead to any true changes in their lives.

Belshazzar did not repent when he saw the hand of God writing on the wall. He trembled in fear, but did not turn from his sin (Dan 5:9). When Paul preached the gospel before Felix, the Acts 24:25 says he was “alarmed” about the coming judgment, but he did not repent. And when James speaks about the demons believing and shuddering, we do not say that they have repented of their wickedness (James 2:19)!

Proverbs 28:1 says, “The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion” (ESV). The wicked flee from a judgment that will one day overcome them. They cannot escape the Lord’s righteous judgment. But the righteous do not flee the Lord even though we fear him. He fears him with reverence as our Father and Creator.

Fear and love meet in the fear of the Lord. He is our Father, Creator, and God. These should endear him to us and motivate our hearts toward worship. If they don’t, if we need manipulation, fear of judgment or punishment, we are not children, but slaves. Children don’t have that sort of fear of a righteous Father. They love him, respect him and desire to please him.

[1] Quoted by Bruce Waltke in NICOT, Proverbs 1-15, p. 101.

Don’t Cover Your Cracks with Plaster

/ Richard Bargas / 1 Comment

A few nights ago I awoke with the aches and pains of a sickness I have been fighting for a few days. Unable to sleep, I started to reflect upon all the friends and loved ones that are struggling with pain and suffering to a much greater degree. I thought about those who are facing a crumbling marriage, the loss of a spouse, the onset of a disease that will take their life. I lay in the dark and considered the deep comfort that we have in Christ.

The Christian life is not an easy one, and may even be fraught with greater struggles because of our commitment to follow Christ whatever the cost. But there is no accounting for the presence of Christ in the midst of these struggles.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the world is watching. Please do not show them a perfect, polished life free of any pain or sorrow. Such a life does not exist in this broken world. Show them that you too are cracked and flawed, just as they are. Show them that you too struggle with weaknesses and doubts. And then show them that our God sent his Son for us, to bring us safely to his promised land. He gives his Spirit so that as we sit in pain and doubt we will know his supernatural presence and find comfort.

As you listen to the song below, remember that we must sometimes fight for faith to know the joy of the Lord—and in the end, Jesus will be victorious. Like Job, we may not always understand, but we trust.