The Resurrection and Service

With the wonder and amazement of Easter Sunday, the cross, and the empty tomb, still fresh on our minds, it is natural to wonder, “Now what?” Matthew chapter twenty offers us an excellent course of action. In this chapter we see that the women who went to attend to Jesus’ body found an empty tomb. Jesus instructs the women to tell the disciples to meet Him in Galilee. It is amazing what happens at their reunion.

 

When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Matthew 20:16-20)

Notice that when the meet, Jesus immediately gives them an assignment, The Great Commission. The power of the resurrection leads to service. Easter should give believers assurance, comfort, and amazement. Jesus also empowers us to carry His assignment for us, to tell others and change the world.

Famous Last Words

Sometimes we can learn a lot about a person in history by what they said immediately before dying. Sometimes the words are inspiring, sometimes the words are a little ironic, but the final words of famous people are often fascinating. P.T. Barnum the entrepreneur’s last words were “How were the receipts today at Madison Square Garden?” Even at the end, profits were important to him. Napoleon’s last word was, Josephine. Ahhh, that is so romantic. Charles Darwin reportedly said, “I am not the least afraid to die,” on his deathbed. I wonder how the afterlife is going for him so far. Julius Caesar said, “et tu brute,” saddened by the betrayal of his close friend.

Perhaps the most important word spoken by Jesus was the final word that he spoke, “tetelestai”, which is roughly translated “It is finished.” When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”(John 19:30) Some of the power of the word tetelestai is lost in translation. The Greek word implies completion, perfection, and full satisfaction. Another phrase to convey the meaning of tetelestai, is one that I find the most powerful, “Paid-In-Full.”

I would suggest that the last word that Jesus spoke was the most important word ever spoken. There have been many important words said throughout history, creation was even spoken into existence. But no words are more important to mankind than Paid-in-Full. Jesus, the Son of God had come to earth, lived a perfect sinless life, and now just before the spirit left His earthly body, He declares that it is completed and paid in full. Sin and death had lost their power over mankind. The debt that man could never begin to pay was paid completely and eternally. Try to reflect on this statement when you struggle and when you are discouraged. Paid-In-Full. When you lonely and afraid. Paid-In-Full. When you are suffering. Paid-In-Full. No motivation speaker has ever come close to saying something this beautiful and motivating. The reality of an insurmountable debt being Paid-In-Full is such good news that it changes lives and brings hope to the hopeless. This is the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Christianity is a singing Faith

I came across a verse from a Psalm of David today. The meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are mantled with grain; they shout for joy and sing. (Psalm 65:13) It is amazing to me how many times the bible mentions joy and singing in the same sentence. I believe that humans were given the ability to sing for the sole purpose of singing praises to God. God did create us to praise him. We were, in fact, made to worship. I have often wondered why I have not ever heard contemporary Hebrew or Buddhist music. Islamic fundamentalists do not even believe in singing at all. To me this is strange. Humans seem to sing about almost anything that brings us joy, why would we not sing of the most joyful truth we can ever know?

To me, the reason why Christianity is such a singing faith, is because Christians are the only ones who have anything of joy to sing about. All faiths are not created equally. Real and lasting joy is not found in any faith but Christianity, in spite what you may have been told. The following is an excerpt from John Piper, speaking about singing and Christianity:

The fact that Christianity is a singing religion bears witness, not only to the way we’re wired as human beings, but to the kind of God we have: namely, a God who is one day, according to Zephaniah 3:17, going to sing over us. He is going to lead a choir and celebrate the fact that we are his. And we’re going to join in singing that he is ours, because God is so valuable and so beautiful and so multi-faceted in his perfections that to leave out the emotional component–and not let it spill over in poetry and song–would be to leave out a key element in worship.

I really don’t have a lot of patience, frankly, even with Christians who want to put a lid on music and singing, or put it back five centuries, or limit it to one kind of instrument, or take away all instrumental music and just let it be voice.I think that all of that is hopelessly defeatist, because we humans have explosive souls; and the reason we do is because God is explosively beautiful and great and glorious. He is going to call out from us song and music of every kind, and we might as well just let it out and try and bring it into its deep, powerful significance with truth. (John Piper)

Psalm 40:3 says, “He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the lord.” In this Psalm, David seems to have an idea that the song that God put in his mouth would cause others to trust the Lord. If he is right about this, then we must sing of our joy. Notice that David did not say that God put a new song in his heart, but in his mouth. God intended for this song to be shared with the world.

Praise opposition

Giving sincere praise to God has always been an activity that has met tremendous opposition. When Moses repeatedly went before Pharaoh, urging him to, “Let my people go,” he asked that they be freed so that they could freely worship God.

In a recent post, Love is Loud Part three, I examined the reaction of the pharisees to the sincere praise of Jesus’ disciples at the triumphal entry of Christ. The pharisees were appalled by the joy, the volume, and the sincerity of the praise. The pharisees asked Jesus to go and scold his disciples, “how can they act so rowdy and undignified?” A completely different question could have been offered to the Pharisees, given all that the disciples had witnessed, “How can they help but give excited, and sincere praises to God?”

The reactions that people have when they witness others praising God have not changed very much. We still hear from people with hearts like the Pharisees. Recently someone even started a sentence with, “I might be like the Pharisees, BUT.” (refer to Matthew 5:20 for a Biblical response to this sentence lead-in) The point is that we think that praise of anything is excessive and ridiculous if we do not value the object of the praise the way those giving the praise do. For instance, some people would scream, jump up and down, and then faint if Hannah Montana came to their house. I would order a couple of boxes of thin mints, assuming she was helping raise money for the Girl Scouts. I am almost certain that I could not pick her out of a line-up(especially without the wig). I do not get what the commotion is about. That does not mean that she is undeserving of the praise, just that I don’t get it.

King David was a worshiper. Yet even with David, we find people who just did not get why David was so excited, extravagant, and sincere in his praise of God.

David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the LORD with all his might, while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpet. As the ark of the LORD was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, she despised him in her heart. When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!” David said to Michal, “It was before the LORD, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the LORD. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.” (2 Samuel 6:14-16 and 20-22)

This is an amazing passage of scripture. David’s enthusiasm and manner of praise caused Michal to DESPISE him in her heart. She, no doubt, rationalized that her reaction was not a spiritual problem but just trying to maintain orderliness, dignity, and decorum.

When we will worship God in the way that he deserves, we too will encounter fierce opposition. The world does not get what the big deal is about. Beyond not “getting it,” they will despise us for our love for God. Jesus told us this in John 15:18, “if the world hates you, remember it hated me first.”God deserves our enthusiastic and sincere praise, regardless of the opposition that it causes. This is what he made us to do. I love King David’s response to the praise opposition. It is a reaction that we should all adopt. “I will be more undignified than this.” If you think my praising God is overboard, or excessive, you haven’t seen anything yet.

Bound for the Promised Land

Today, most spiritual teaching places an emphasis on having full and meaningful lives here on Earth. This is an unfortunate trend since Earth is only a temporary home for us. Rick Warren makes a great point in his best selling book, The Purpose Driven Life, We are not completely happy here because we’re not supposed to be. Earth is not our final home; we were created for something much better.

The song, On Jordan’s Stormy Banks, tells of Joshua leading the Israelites across the Jordan River into the Promised Land. The chorus of the song, “I am bound, I am bound, I am bound for the Promised Land,” also looks toward Heaven, the Eternal Promised Land.  1Corinthians 2:9 says, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” Most of us can conceive” some pretty lavish things, but consider that the nicest things we can dream up do not hold a candle to how great our eternal home will be. The words, “I am bound for the Promised Land,” are probably the most joyful words that a believer can sing about.