Easter: A Matter of Life and Death?

Bill Shankly the famous Liverpool football manager once quipped, “Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it's much more serious than that.” Maybe not. As I write elite football matches across the UK have been suspended. Evidently Mr. Shankly didn’t envisage the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic  that is currently ravaging the world and causing havoc to sporting fixtures. By the time you read this (written on 16 March*) the government will no doubt have put additional measures in place to try and halt, or, at least manage the spread of the virus. After all, at least for some, this is a matter of life and death.

People are getting jumpy. The constant stream of news updates on our TVs and phones means there’s no escaping the Coronacrisis. Some are panic buying, although the shops are doing their best to keep shelves stocked with food and essential goods.  In the midst of all this, celebrating Easter may seem a bit frivolous. Some might say, ‘This is no time for bunnies, bonnets and choccy eggs.’ Although, a little innocent diversion may not go amiss in these stressful times.

But the Christian message of Easter is not a bit of fluffy escapism to take our minds off things.  As we ponder the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ we are reminded that God himself has entered our world of suffering. In his book, Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind, the historian Tom Holland writes, “To be a Christian is to believe that God became man, and suffered a death as terrible as any mortal has ever suffered. This is why the cross, that ancient instrument of torture, remains what it always has been: the fitting symbol of the Christian revolution.”

The “Christian revolution” as Holland calls it overturned the values of the ancient world. The poor and needy were no longer regarded as expendable when plagues swept through cities. The Emperor Julian was deeply opposed to the Christian faith. Yet he grudgingly had to admit that followers of Jesus would look after all the sick, not only their believing friends. This attracted even more people to the faith, much to Julian’s annoyance. Today we take it for granted that vulnerable people will receive the care they need when disease strikes.

The cross of Jesus is a symbol of love and self-sacrifice. Jesus said to his followers, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” Jesus came into our world of suffering and brokenness to die for our sins that we might be forgiven by faith in him. But suffering and death did not have the last word. On the first Easter Sunday Jesus arose from the dead and met with his disciples. They were left distraught by his death, thinking all was lost. On appearing to his followers Jesus spoke words of reassurance that calmed their troubled souls, “Do not be afraid”, “Peace be with you.” We need to hear those words afresh in these anxious days.

What happened at Easter really was a matter of life and death. More serious than that, by his death and resurrection Jesus offers the hope of everlasting life to those who put their faith in him. The believer can be confident that nothing can separate them from the love of God. As the apostle Paul wrote, “For I am sure 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 [including viruses!], will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

See our YouTube channel or Facebook page for our Good Friday and Easter Sunday messages. 

* For April's edition of Trinity Magazine, Dilton Marsh & News & Views, West Lavington 

The Good News of Easter

Yes, there are Easter Eggs in the shops, which is good news of a sort. Easter bunnies and bonnets are fun too, if you like that kind of thing. The good news I have in mind is quite different. Easter brings us face to face with the most important events in the Christian faith. Yes, Christmas is a biggie. Then believers celebrate the birth of the Lord Jesus. But why was the Son of God born into our world as one of us? Easter points to the reason. Again and again in his teaching Jesus told his followers that it wasn’t going to end well. He was going to be betrayed, condemned and crucified. His friends couldn’t take it in. If Jesus was the long-promised Deliverer, wasn’t he supposed to overthrow his enemies, rather than be killed by them?

But that’s exactly how it turned out. It was meant to. Jesus did come not as a teacher of moral principles, or a spiritual guru, or a political activist. He was a Deliverer. He brought deliverance by laying down his life for his enemies. Christ died for our sins, paying the price for our rebellion against God. At the cross of Jesus we see God’s just demands met and his love for us revealed to the full. As Paul writes in the Bible, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Although broken by sin, human beings are not worthless. God values us so much that he sent his Son to die in our place. That’s good news.

Jesus’ followers didn’t see it quite like that. They thought all was lost when Jesus died. After all, what good was a dead Deliverer? They were right. Jesus’ friends, however, seem to have forgotten that he did not merely predict his death. He told them that after three days he would rise again. That is why his tomb was empty the first Easter Sunday morning. That is how he was able to appear before his followers and show them he was alive. The resurrection of Jesus demonstrated that he was the Son of God. His death really had paid the price of sin. By faith in him we can be forgiven and be put right with God. Jesus lives. The power of death had been broken. All who belong to Jesus will be raised up and make like him when he returns in glory. On that day everything sad will come untrue. All because of Easter. If that’s not good news, I don’t know what is. 

Easter Sunday Services 

Providence Baptist Church
10.30am & 6.00pm

Ebenezer Baptist Church
4.30pm

*For News & Views and Trinity parish magazines 

In brief: Easter in Pisidia

Substitution 
Friday: "though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed." (Acts 13:28)
Preservation 
Saturday: "but he whom God raised up did not see corruption." (Acts 13:37)
Resurrection
Sunday: "But God raised him from the dead" Acts 13:30)

Easter: The Biggest 'April Fool', Ever?

 

This year Easter Sunday coincides with April Fool’s Day. Over the years there have been some famous April Fool hoaxes. My favourite is probably the BBC’s  spaghetti tree broadcast. Some people were taken in and believed  that pasta grew on trees. A close second is the Beeb’s feature on a colony of flying penguins. You’d think that having Terry Jones of Monty Python fame, rather than Sir David Attenborough fronting the programme was a bit of a giveaway, but it does look pretty convincing. Look it up on YouTube.

But was the biggest April Fool hoax ever the Christian belief that Jesus rose from the dead, leaving his tomb empty? The resurrection story is one of the most contested facts in history. Fake news, or what? As with any historical claim, one thing to consider is the reliability of the eyewitnesses. By ancient standards the first eyewitnesses to the empty tomb weren’t reliable at all. Their testimony in a court of law was worthless. Why? Because they were women. Chauvinistic, I know, but that’s how things were back then. If the Gospel writers wanted to fabricate the claim that Jesus rose from the dead, why make women key eyewitnesses? It is testimony to their honesty that all the Gospel accounts record that women were the first to see that Jesus’ tomb was empty.

It took the empty tomb and personal encounters with the risen Jesus to convince the apostles that he was alive from the dead. His original followers thought all was lost when Jesus was crucified and then laid to rest. The last thing they expected was to see him again. And what they saw was no dream, or vision. Jesus said to his followers, “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” The disciples had forsaken Jesus when he was arrested and crucified. In the wake of his death they hid themselves away in case the authorities come for them too. But soon after we find them boldly telling everyone who would listen that Jesus had risen from the dead. Many of the apostles laid down their lives for that claim. Which at least suggests that they genuinely believed it. The word for witness in Greek is ‘martyr’. The apostles were martyrs who testified that Jesus was alive. Who would knowingly die for a lie?

The Gospel accounts invite our careful scrutiny. Look up Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24 and John 20 on www.biblegateway.com. The credibility of the eyewitnesses is a strong argument that Easter was no April Fool’s hoax. It happened. Jesus laid down his life for the sins of the world and then rose from the dead. This is not ‘fake news’, but Gospel truth. “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9).

* For Trinity Parish Magazine, Dilton Marsh and News & Views, West Lavington

Easter: bad news/good news?

People sometimes give us a choice over whether we want to receive bad news or good news first. Bad news to get it out of the way, followed by good news to cheer me up a bit is my preferred order.

 

At first glance the Christian message of Easter seems like bad news. Jesus, a man renowned for loving words and deeds was condemned as a criminal and crucified. Jesus’ followers thought that was the end of him. Disillusioned, it seemed to them that the kingdom of grace and justice he proclaimed was just another false dawn.

 

What they failed to see was that the death of Jesus was no accident.  It was God’s appointed way of bringing in his kingdom. Jesus had said as much, telling his followers that he had come to ‘give his life a ransom for many’. In other words, Jesus paid the price of sin by dying for us on the cross. Now we can be forgiven and put right with God through faith in Jesus.

 

And his death wasn’t the end. Jesus rose from the grave on the first Easter Sunday morning and appeared to his followers, showing them that he was alive from the dead. It was the last thing they expected. They could barely believe it, but it was true. The same Jesus who was crucified, was alive. 

 

First the bad news: the world crucified the King of Love. Then the good news: the King of Love was crucified for world and rose again from the dead. That is the glorious message of Easter. 

*For News & Views & Holy Trinity Parish Magazine 

Jesus: A Reason for Hope

Hope realised

‘Well, you can always hope’ we sometimes say. Especially when things look quite hopeless. Hope can sometimes seem such a fragile thing when set against the stark reality of life with its disappointments and disasters. ‘You’re hoping’ is another one, by which we mean, ‘Get real and expect the worst’. Such pessimism might be excused given what’s happening in the world right now, with Russia flexing its muscles and the threat of Islamic terrorism looming large across the world.

It seems that human beings fail to learn the lessons of history and are doomed to keep on repeating its mistakes. But the situation is not hopeless. God promised that he would send someone to rescue us from sin and suffering. And that someone is Jesus. When he came into the world he specialised in giving hope to the hopeless. He healed people of incurable diseases. He promised forgiveness to people overwhelmed with guilt. He spoke of eternal life to people who lived in fear of death. The deepest human hopes were realised by Jesus.

Hope ruined

Jesus’ followers began to hope that their Master was the One who would make the world a better place, where kindness prevailed over cruelty and love over hate. But people turned against him. They took the very embodiment of hope and nailed him to a cross. As he hung and suffered there Jesus cried out, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’

When Jesus’ followers took his lifeless body down from the cross and laid it in a tomb their hopes perished with him. At least that’s how it seemed to them at the time.

Hope reborn

On the first Easter Sunday morning some of Jesus’ disciples went to visit his tomb. To their surprise and amazement thy found it empty. The body of Jesus had gone. Some thought that his remains had been stolen away. But Jesus had not been a victim of grave robbery. Rather, he had been raised from the dead. Later that day he appeared to his followers and showed them the marks of crucifixion in his hands. He explained that his death on what we call ‘Good Friday’ was not a tragic accident. It was all part of God’s plan that Jesus would lay down his life for the sins of the world. He was forsaken by God that we might be reconciled to him.

Jesus lives. He has broken the power of death by his death and resurrection. The Christian has been ‘born again to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.’ (1 Peter 1:3). Life in this world can sometimes seem quite hopeless, but those who believe in the living Lord Jesus have a reason for hope.

Easter and the Trinity

Easter is all about what Jesus did to save us from sin, right? Kind of. Easter only makes sense when understood as the united action of the Trinity in the drama of redemption. It was the one God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit who determined that Easter would happen in order to save his people, chosen by the Trinity before the foundation of the world. They were chosen, not on the basis of foreseen faith or works, but simply because they were loved by Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who wanted to draw lost sinners into the warmth of their embrace. In eternity the Father gave this elect people to his Son, appointed him as their Saviour, gifted him with the Holy Spirit for the work of redemption and promised him glory on its accomplishment. 

The Father sent his Son into the world as Man, born of Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Father upheld, taught and guided his incarnate Son by the Spirit and enabled him to live a life of righteous obedience on behalf of his chosen people. At the cross Christ offered himself up to God through the eternal Spirit to atone for our sins, in order that we might be justified, reconciled to God and set apart as his holy people. Through the Spirit of holiness the Father gave Jesus power to lay down his life and power to take it again. And so he arose on the third day according to the Scriptures and was appointed the Son of God with power. At his resurrection Jesus, the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit who bestows life, glory and immortality upon God's new humanity. 

The Father applies the salvation accomplished at Easter upon his chosen people by uniting them to Christ by his Spirit. In Christ sinners die to the old life of sin and are raised to a new life of holiness, they are justified by faith alone and given grace to persevere to the end by the empowering presence of the Spirit. The Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead will also give resurrection life to the mortal bodies of his people. And so God's chosen people will be raised with incorruptible spiritual  bodies, conformed to the image of his Son and be made partakers of the divine nature. They will live in the new creation in the presence of their Saviour God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and experience the intensity of his loving communicative action for all eternity.  

Thank the Trinity for Easter! 

Easter Hope

Compared with Christmas, Easter seems to be the poor relation of Christian festivals. I know we have Eggs, Bunnies and Bonnets, but Easter doesn't attract the same frenzied attention as the Christmas period. That is understandable. Remembering the birth of a Child is a more obvious cause of joy and gladness than recalling the death of a Man.

But what we commemorate at Christmas time, the birth of Jesus Christ was not an end in itself. Christians believe that the Son of God was born into our world as man to bring us back to God. For that to happen Jesus had to suffer and die on the Cross for the wrong things that we have done. He wasn’t forced to die in our place. He willingly laid down his life that we may be forgiven and put right with God. That is the measure of his love for the world.

Jesus was crucified and buried on Good Friday. But that is not the end of the story. Jesus rose again from the dead on the first Easter Sunday morning. He showed himself to his amazed followers, convincing them that he was alive from the dead. ‘He is risen!’ is the glad message of Easter.

Now those who believe in Jesus can have a restored relationship with God and the hope of everlasting life. ‘Jesus is risen!’ He is the reason for our hope. 

* For the Easter edition of The White Horse News. 

John Calvin on the Lord's Supper

The first Communion meal was celebrated by Jesus and his disciples on the night in which our Lord was betrayed, or "Maundy Thursday". John Calvin wrote with great insight on the Lord's Supper. He viewed Communion in the light of the believer’s union with Christ. The risen Jesus is bodily in heaven, but we receive the saving benefits of his body and blood through the Holy Spirit. In the Lord’s Supper we have real communion with Christ by the presence of Spirit. As we eat the bread and drink the wine, we feast upon the Saviour by faith.

The sacraments are defined by the Word and made meaningful in the light of the Bible’s teaching. The Lord’s Supper was given as a visible representation of the body and blood of Jesus. What is taught in Scripture concerning Christ is richly symbolised in the bread and the wine. As the people of God eat bread and drink wine together at he Commuion meal the Lord accommodates himself to our weakness to assure us of his love and increase our faith.

Calvin was concerned that Zwingli’s view of the Lord’s Supper focussed too much on the human side. Zwingli emphasised the importance of our faith, our remembering what Christ has done for us. For Calvin, the Lord’s Supper is much more about Christ communicating his life to us. He said, “the flesh of Christ is like a rich inexhaustible fountain, which transfuses into us the life flowing forth from the Godhead itself. (Institutes Book IV, XVII, 9). He reflects on the Lord’s Supper,

But though is seems an incredible thing that the flesh of Christ, while at such a distance from us in respect of place, should be food to us, let us remember how far the secret virtue of the Spirit passes all our conceptions and how foolish it is to wish to measure its immensity by our feeble capacity. Therefore what our mind does not comprehend let faith conceive – namely that the Spirit truly unites things separated by space. The sacred communion of the flesh and blood by which Christ transfuses his life into us, just as if it penetrated our bones and marrow, he testifies and seals in the Supper, and that not by presenting a vain or empty sign, but by here exerting an efficacy of the Spirit by which he fulfils the promises. And truly the thing there signified he exhibits and offers to all who sit down at that spiritual feast, although believers only who receive this great benefit with true faith and heartfelt gratitude beneficially receive it. For this reason the apostle said, “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ? (Book IV, XVII, 10).

In Calvin we have a rich and deeply biblical understanding of the Lord’s Supper. "For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes." (1 Corinthians 11:26).

Easter Expectations

We are approaching "Palm Sunday", the occcasion when Christians remember Jesus' "triumphal entry" into Jerusalem. It all seemed to be going so well. Crowds hailed Jesus as the King of Israel. He appeared to be riding the crest of a wave of public acclimation and popularity. But by the Friday of that week the people turned against him and demanded that he be crucified. You might think that Christians would rather like to keep quiet about what happened on that first Good Friday. It appears sad and embarrassing that the founder of the Christian faith went from conquering hero to absolute zero in the space of six days. What went wrong? The answer is that nothing went wrong. The reason why Christians look forward to Easter with eager anticipation is that we believe that Jesus' death on the cross was not a tragic accident of history. We believe that he died for our sins so that those who trust in him might be forgiven and put right with God.

Also, death was not the end for Jesus. On Easter Sunday morning God raised him from the dead. Easter is worth celebrating because Jesus is alive! His death and resurrection brought new hope to the world. There isn’t a lot of hope around at the moment. News stories focus on our increasingly broken society, the current economic climate and gloomy predictions of environmental catastrophe. But the forces of selfishness, disorder and destruction will not be allowed to have the last word. In Jesus God’s last word is “love”. And where there is love there is hope. Easter means that all who follow Jesus have a lot to look forward to. How about you?

* Originally published in White Horse News and News & Views.

In my place condemned he stood

An Easter message on 1 Peter 3:18

The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ lie at the heart of the Christian gospel. Everything centres around these central facts. Peter has been addressing the subject of Christians suffering for their faith, 1 Peter 3:14, 17. Now he relates our suffering for Christ to Christ’s suffering for us. If we sometimes have to suffer for doing good, then consider Christ who “suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust”. Here in this verse we have another one of those “Gospel soundbites” – a very brief and full statement of the truth that matters most.

I. Christ suffered for sins

We will never understand the suffering of Christ unless we grasp why he had to suffer – for sins. His death on the cross was a sin offering, Lev 4:2-3, Isaiah 53:10. What it is that makes sin so serious that nothing less than the suffering of Christ could save us? One of the early Archbishops of Canterbury was a man by the name of Anselm. He wrote a book called ‘Why did God become man?’ It was in the form of a dialogue between Anselm himself and a man called Boso. Anselm explained that Christ had to die to satisfy the honour of an offended God. Boso objected, “But that is far too harsh – did Christ really have to die so that we might be forgiven?” Anselm responded, “You have not yet appreciated the seriousness of sin.”

Sin is an offence to the infinite majesty of God. Sin detracts from his glory, Romans 3:23. Sin therefore deserves God’s terrible wrath and punishment. Some people have a problem with the eternal punishment of the wicked, but they have not grasped that when we sin against an infinite person, then we deserve infinite, unending punishment. When we sin, we break God’s law and defy him to his face. We refuse to acknowledge his sovereignty. We ungratefully despise his goodness and love. God will deal with sin justly. He would not be God if he simply ignored the problem and swept it under the carpet. Because God is holy love, he must deal with sin in a way that is right, whether in punishment or mercy.

Christ suffered for sins. That is why his suffering was so terrible. Films like Mel Gibson’s The Passion of Christ concentrate on Christ’s physical suffering. We should not minimise that. He suffered severe flogging. A crown of thorns was thrust upon his brow. He was nailed to a cross. He endured the most intense physical agony. But we have only looked at the surface of things if we focus on Christ’s physical sufferings. Earlier Peter wrote that Jesus “bore our sins in his own body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24). That signified he was under God’s curse. (Galatians 3:13). Jesus suffered the punishment due to our sin. Christ suffered the God-forsakenness of a sin-condemned man. At the cross there was no reassuring word from the Father, “This is my beloved Son I whom I am well pleased”. There was only in impenetrable darkness of Calvary. Tradition tells us that Peter helped Mark write his Gospel. The Evangelist was careful to record the strange and mystifying words of Jesus upon the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34). That is what Peter means by “Christ suffered for sins”. That is how seriously God takes sin. When his Son was made sin for us, he forsook him.

Now Christ endured his sufferings voluntarily. He gave himself to the suffering and forsakenness of the cross. As Rabbi Duncan put it, “Here was damnation and damnation taken lovingly.” His suffering was no futile gesture. Peter points us to the finality of Christ’s suffering for sin. He suffered “once”. The Epistle to the Hebrews repeatedly draws attention to this, 7:27, 9:28. Before Jesus died, he cried “Finished!” And it was finished. The work of redemption was accomplished because Christ had suffered for us once and for all.

We need therefore look no further than the cross for full and free forgiveness of all our sin. They have been punished in Christ and God is satisfied with the finished work of his beloved Son. Go to him therefore for fresh forgiveness and cleansing from sin. And if you are called to suffer for Christ’s sake then remember that whatever men may throw at you, they can never plunge you into hell. Christ suffered the torments of hell on the cross that you might not have to.

II. Christ suffered as a substitute: the just for the unjust

Christ did not die on the cross for his own sins. He suffered the “just for the unjust”. But where is the justice in that? I have heard of cases where drivers with 9 points on their licence have been caught by a speed camera. They don’t want to be banned from driving so they persuade a friend with a clean licence to say that they were driving the vehicle. The law views such actions very dimly. If caught, both parties may be had up for perjury and attempting to pervert the course of justice. The guilty man who broke the speed limit deserves his fine and driving ban, not his innocent friend. The very law of God demands that justice be done – Deut 25:1. So, how come Christ died as a substitute, suffering as the just for the unjust? If the speed-camera scenario is dodgy justice, then what of the cross?

The difference is Christ did not suffer for his friends in a private capacity, in an attempt to thwart God’s justice. We have to bear in mind the doctrine of the believers’ union with Christ. Why are we sinners? Because Adam sinned. We share in his guilt, Romans 5:12. Adam was the representative head of the human race. His actions therefore affect us all. Christ is the representative head of God’s new humanity. He died for the sins of those whom the Father had given him in eternity. Yes, they were unjust sinners, but Christ had come to act as their substitute. He died in the place of those who were united to him in God’s eternal purpose, John 17:2, 4. Those who say that the idea of substitutionary atonement a travesty of justice ignore the plain teaching of Scripture and have failed to take into account the believer’s union with Christ.

Christ suffered as a substitute, the just for the unjust. And thank God he did, because unless the just and holy Saviour died in my place, there would be no hope for lost sinners like us. Will you join this guilty sinner in saying, “In my place condemned he stood, Hallelujah what a Saviour!”?

III. Christ suffered for a purpose: that he might bring us to God

Someone once asked Noel Coward if he had ever spoken to God. He replied, “We have never been properly introduced”. The cross is our introduction into God’s presence. Through the cross, Jesus takes us by the hand and brings us to the Father. We can now draw near to him. Fellowship has been restored, the way of access opened. We can have communion and fellowship with God in prayer, Ephesians 2:18. We can offer him our worship and service. Let us then make much of the blood-bought privilege drawing near to God in Christ.

The Saviour will ultimately bring us to God in the glory, Hebrews 2:10. He will do so “having been put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit” (1 Peter 3:18). We have seen that Christ was put to death in the flesh when he suffered and died on the cross. But that was not the end of the story. He was made alive “in the spirit”. That is a reference to Jesus’ mighty resurrection from the dead. He now he has what Paul calls a “spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15:44-46). Christ is no longer “in the flesh”, subject to weakness and suffering. His bodily life exists in the life-transforming power of the Spirit.

Because Christ rose again, we too have the hope of resurrection life, 1 Peter 1:3. We shall be made partakers of his glory (1 Peter 5:1). Christ will bring us to God as resurrected and glorified human beings. Jesus did not die for us and rise again simply to “save our souls”. He will also raise up our bodies that they might be made like his glorious body. Isn’t that just amazing? The resurrection of Jesus is the reason for the hope that is in us in a hopeless and dying world. Do you share this living hope through Christ who suffered for sins and was made alive in the spirit? Are you trusting in him to bring you to glory and to God?

Our God is the end of the journey,
His pleasant and glorious domain:
For there are the children of mercy,
Who praise him for Calvary’s pain.
(William Vernon Higham)