1 Corinthians 1:17-31

From a worldly perspective, Christ’s death signaled His defeat. After all, dying in agony on a cross hardly seems like the path to victory. But it was! And He did it all for us. Because Jesus triumphed over death, we can be victorious in life. Just consider what He won for us by sacrificing Himself on the cross.

Our Eternal Salvation: The cross was the means of our salvation. Without it, we’d have no hope of heaven. If Christ hadn’t died in our place, we’d have to stand before God and receive the just punishment for every sin we’ve ever committed.

Power over Sin: Jesus not only paid the penalty for our sin; He also brought us present victory over it. When He was crucified, our old sinful nature died with Him (Rom. 6:6). The power of the “flesh” was broken, and Jesus now lives His triumphant life through us. That means we are no longer enslaved to sin and can choose obedience to God.

Defeat of Satan: At the crucifixion, the list of decrees against us was nailed to the cross, and the Devil lost his power over our lives (Col. 2:13-15). None of his accusations can stick, because God holds nothing against us anymore. And now every time we yield to the Spirit within us, Satan is defeated once again.

Christ met all our needs on the cross. By making us a part of His family, He gave us a sense of belonging. When He died in our place, He affirmed our value. And by coming to live His life through each believer, He gives us the ability to live a victorious, obedient life

There is a great amount of anticipation leading up to Easter Sunday. Even for those who are “Christmas and Easter” church-goers or for those who simply sit at home and dream of Easter baskets, chocolate rabbits, and colored eggs, anticipating Easter, on the one hand, is like waiting for the door to finally be unlocked, unhinged, and opened onto a verdant spring meadow. On the other hand, Easter is stepping out onto that meadow and closing the door behind on the long, cold, dreary winter.

Yet, for many, the day comes and goes and then what? Easter is over again until next year. For many, winter still hovers above and the grey of death has not given way to the springtime. The candy is eaten, the brunches are over, and everything seems to return to normal. All that anticipation ends in just one day—with grand celebrations and powerful sermons, and perhaps with even a first playful roll in the springtime grass—and then it’s over. Or is it?

The celebration of Easter is insignificant if the celebrations do not point to the continuing reality of the risen one. Indeed, in many church traditions, the season of Eastertide, which lasts until Pentecost, asks this very question: How do we perceive the continuing presence of the risen Lord in our reality? Indeed, how do we? Is it simply the annual remembrance of a historic event from long ago?

If we’re honest, many of us do wonder what difference the resurrection has made in the practical realities of our lives. We still argue with our spouses and loved ones; we still have children who go their own way. We have difficulties at work or at school. We still see a world so broken by warfare, selfish greed, oppression and sin. Like the two men on the road to Emmaus recounting the events surrounding Jesus, perhaps we wonder aloud at what we hoped Christ would be.(1) Things seem pretty much as they were before Easter Sunday, and the reality of our same old lives still clamor for redemption.

This is often the way we feel if we have only understood resurrection as an event long past that only speaks to a future yet to come. We feel this way if we do not connect Jesus’s prayer for God’s will to be done “on earth as it is in heaven” with the reality of the cry, “He is risen, as he said.” The glimpse into the kingdom of God that we get in the life and ministry of Jesus is ratified through the resurrection. New creation, new life, resurrected living is now a possibility for those who follow Jesus.

The risen Jesus told his followers, “As the Father has sent me, I also send you.” Jesus’s resurrection is not a promise for escape from the world or a life free from trouble, but rather it commissions those who would remember his resurrection to be his “raising” agents in the world. He sends us out with the extraordinary news that the dead can be raised to new life for death and evil do not have the last word! And as we begin to live in light of the resurrection, we can gain insight into its significance for the practical realities of everyday lives. As N.T. Wright has concluded: “Jesus is raised, so he is the Messiah, and therefore he is the world’s true Lord; Jesus is raised, so God’s new creation has begun—and we, his followers, have a job to do! Jesus is raised, so we must act as his heralds, announcing his lordship to the entire world, making his kingdom come on earth as in heaven.”(2)

We are sent out beyond Easter Sunday into Eastertide because everything has changed.

Margaret ManningMargaret Manning is a member of the speaking and writing team at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Seattle, Washington. 

(1) Luke 24:21a.
(2) N.T. Wright, Surprised By Hope (New York: Harper Collins, 2008), 56.

Morning    “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint.”

Psalm 22:14

Did earth or heaven ever behold a sadder spectacle of woe! In soul and body, our

Lord felt himself to be weak as water poured upon the ground. The placing of the

cross in its socket had shaken him with great violence, had strained all the

ligaments, pained every nerve, and more or less dislocated all his bones.

Burdened with his own weight, the august sufferer felt the strain increasing

every moment of those six long hours. His sense of faintness and general

weakness were overpowering; while to his own consciousness he became nothing but

a mass of misery and swooning sickness. When Daniel saw the great vision, he

thus describes his sensations, “There remained no strength in me, for my

vigour was turned into corruption, and I retained no strength:” how much more

faint must have been our greater Prophet when he saw the dread vision of the

wrath of God, and felt it in his own soul! To us, sensations such as our Lord

endured would have been insupportable, and kind unconsciousness would have come

to our rescue; but in his case, he was wounded, and felt the sword; he drained

the cup and tasted every drop.

“O King of Grief! (a title strange, yet true

To thee of all kings only due)

O King of Wounds! how shall I grieve for thee,

Who in all grief preventest me!”

As we kneel before our now ascended Saviour’s throne, let us remember well the

way by which he prepared it as a throne of grace for us; let us in spirit drink

of his cup, that we may be strengthened for our hour of heaviness whenever it

may come. In his natural body every member suffered, and so must it be in the

spiritual; but as out of all his griefs and woes his body came forth uninjured

to glory and power, even so shall his mystical body come through the furnace

with not so much as the smell of fire upon it.

 

Evening   “Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins.”

Psalm 25:18

It is well for us when prayers about our sorrows are linked with pleas

concerning our sins–when, being under God’s hand, we are not wholly taken up

with our pain, but remember our offences against God. It is well, also, to take

both sorrow and sin to the same place. It was to God that David carried his

sorrow: it was to God that David confessed his sin. Observe, then, we must take

our sorrows to God. Even your little sorrows you may roll upon God, for he

counteth the hairs of your head; and your great sorrows you may commit to him,

for he holdeth the ocean in the hollow of his hand. Go to him, whatever your

present trouble may be, and you shall find him able and willing to relieve you.

But

we must take our sins to God too. We must carry them to the cross, that the

blood may fall upon them, to purge away their guilt, and to destroy their

defiling power.

The special lesson of the text is this:–that we are to go to the Lord with

sorrows and with sins in the right spirit. Note that all David asks concerning

his sorrow is, “Look upon mine affliction and my pain;” but the next petition is

vastly more express, definite, decided, plain–“Forgive all my sins.” Many

sufferers would have put it, “Remove my affliction and my pain, and look at my

sins.” But David does not say so; he cries, “Lord, as for my affliction and my

pain, I will not dictate to thy wisdom. Lord, look at them, I will leave them to

thee, I should be glad to have my pain removed, but do as thou wilt; but as for

my sins, Lord, I know what I want with them; I must have them

forgiven; I cannot endure to lie under their curse for a moment.” A Christian

counts sorrow lighter in the scale than sin; he can bear that his troubles

should continue, but he cannot support the burden of his transgressions.

 

For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong.

Acts 27:23

Image BlockedStorms and darkness, combined with imminent risk of shipwreck, had brought the crew of the vessel into a sorry predicament; only one man among them remained perfectly calm, and by his word the rest were reassured. Paul was the only man who had enough heart to say, “I urge you to take heart.” There were veteran Roman soldiers on board, and brave sailors, but their poor Jewish prisoner had more spirit than all of them. He had a secret Friend who kept his courage up. The Lord Jesus sent a heavenly messenger to whisper words of comfort in Paul’s ear, and as a result his face shone, and he spoke like a man at ease.

If we fear the Lord, we may look for His timely intervention when our case is at its worst. Angels are not kept from us by storms or hindered by darkness. Seraphs do not think it is beneath them to visit the poorest of the heavenly family. If angels’ visits are few and far between at ordinary times, they will be frequent in our nights of tempest and storm. Friends may leave us when we are under pressure, but our awareness of the members of the angelic world will be far more apparent. Strengthened by loving words brought to us from the throne via Jacob’s ladder, we will be able to do daring feats.

Dear reader, are you facing an hour of distress? Then ask for particular help. Jesus is the angel of the covenant, and if you earnestly seek His presence, it will not be denied. The encouragement which that presence brings will be remembered by those who, like Paul, have had the angel of God standing by them in a night of storm, when anchors slipped and shipwreck threatened.

O angel of my God, be near,

Amid the darkness hush my fear;

Loud roars the wild tempestuous sea,

Thy presence, Lord, shall comfort me.

The family reading plan for April 10, 2012

Proverbs 28 | 2 Thessalonians 2