Week Commencing Sunday 8th May 2022

Devotional Materials. Week Commencing Sunday 8^th May 2022

Call to Worship

“On the evening of that first day of the week…Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you!’. After he said this he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.” John 20:19-21

“Jesus said ‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.” John 11:25, 26

Stuart Townend

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xM-fpXayUg

Opening Prayer

Living God we worship you with joy in our hearts and thanksgiving on our lips. When the powers of evil had done their worst, crucifying your Son, and burying him in death, you raised him to life again: an act of power giving hope to the world.

Lord Jesus, we rejoice that death could not keep you in its grip; that you were raised to life, alive for ever more. You greeted your friends and now you stand amongst us in your risen power.

Spirit of God, you are always giving life to the people of God, giving birth to children of God. Remodel us in the image of Jesus, fill us with his love and enable us with his risen power, that we might be faithful to his way, used by you in the redeeming of your world

(The Baptist Union)

Hymns

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nug_dP8ubJ0

“At Your feet we fall” MP 45 (Piano)

David Fellingham

“O Lord, hear my prayer” MP 908 (Piano)

Jaques Berthier

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-2WZFf_uAc

Prayers

Forgive us, Father, when we are rooted to the earth, unable to see beyond the present, blind to the glory of your presence. We become engrossed in what is happening now and forget all that you yet have in store for us.

We are so concerned with what is immediate, temporary, and short lived that we leave ourselves no time for the things that are eternal and full of your love.

Lift up our heads, Father, that we may see Christ in all his glory and all things in true perspective. We ask this with the forgiveness of our sins, in your name. Amen

(The Baptist Union)

Blessed God, who brought our ancestors out of bondage through the Exodus, we ask that you continue to guide your people out of oppression. We pray for the men, women, and children around the world whose lives have been devastated by the social and political instability and violence that overwhelms so much of our world. From Ukraine and Russia to Myanmar, Somalia, the Democratic of Congo, Syria, Sudan, Hong Kong, China, and Korea – the list continues. Lord God, we pray that you would protect them, keeping open lines of communication so that families remain connected.

With so great a cloud of witnesses, we ask for wisdom on how to be your hands and feet upon the earth. Thank you for making us holy through the blood of our atonement lamb, Jesus Christ. Teach us how to sacrifice for the protection, integrity and honour of our brothers and sisters around the world.

God, you gather the lambs in your arms and carry them close to your heart (Isaiah 40). You are the Shepherd who watches over us, who leads us beside quiet waters and makes us lie down in green pastures. When we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, no one can make us afraid. You are our refuge. We pray for our Ukrainian and Russian brothers and sisters. No matter where they may be forced to flee, we know that nothing – neither life nor death, angels nor demons, present nor future, height nor depth – will separate them from your love.

(The Evangelical Alliance)

Reading. 1 Corinthians 15: 1-14

Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. ² By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. ³ For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance : that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴ that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, ⁵ and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. ⁶ After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. ⁷ Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, ⁸ and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. ⁹ For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. ¹⁰ But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them-yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. ¹¹ Whether, then, it is I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.

¹² But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³ If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. ¹⁴ And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 

Hymn

“All I Once held Dear” MP 799 (Piano)

Graham Kendrick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h7RPTRsrng

Sermon. ”The Implications of the Resurrection”

Over Easter we of course looked at the death of Christ and the significance of His atoning sacrifice there. We have also looked at Jesus second and third resurrection appearances to His disciples on subsequent Sundays.

Today I want to draw together the general implications of the Resurrection for our lives. In doing so I am largely relying on points made by Michael Green from his books ‘The Day Death Died’ and ‘Man Alive’

When the Apostle Paul discusses the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15 he shows that if Jesus did not rise from the dead, Paul’s preaching was a waste of time, our faith is futile, we remain unforgiven and we have misrepresented God (12-19). But since Christ has risen He has brought us forgiveness through the cross (3) and broken our fear of death (54). We also see His resurrection is the pledge of our own (22). Christ’s resurrection gives us purpose in the present (58) and by His resurrection power Christ empowers/changes our lives for the better (57).

Let’s look at these implications in some detail:

The Resurrection shows that death is not the end.

For centuries men and women have wrestled with the question: is death the end? There are plenty of arguments and speculations. But only one certain way of finding out. That is if someone died and had come back- not just to die again, but as the undisputed conqueror of death.

Jesus Christ has achieved this. He has returned from the grave and has demonstrated that there is indeed a life after death.

No longer need we fear death as Dylan Thomas advised:

‘Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; rage, rage against the dying of the light…

Rather, Jesus has gone beyond the death barrier and returned to show that a new life awaits His followers. He has promised: "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. (John 14:1-3)

So the resurrection of Christ is the pledge of our own resurrection.

Christ has risen to a new quality of life, and He will bring His followers there too. Paul could say ‘Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.’ (1 Cor.15:20). Where there are fruits, there is also a crop to come.

The Resurrection shows that death is not the end.

The Resurrection shows Jesus is the Son of God

Jesus made many remarkable claims. He claimed the right to forgive sins (Mark 2:10). He claimed He would separate ‘sheep’ and ‘goats’ at the last judgment (Matthew 25:31ff). He claimed to be the Light of the World, the Bread of Life and the Resurrection (John 8:12; 6:48; 11:25).

Many did not believe Him, so He made His credibility hang on the resurrection. Refusing their request for a compulsive sign, Jesus said, ‘An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign; but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.’ (Matthew 12: 38ff).

That God the Father raised His Son from the dead vindicated all that Jesus had said about Himself- He was the promised Messiah- the divine King to come and Saviour.

By raising Jesus from the dead God the Father was showing everyone the Salvation Christ espoused was indeed God’s only way of Salvation needed for all men and women.

The Resurrection shows that Jesus atoned for our guilt and sin on the cross

The Apostles, when they were forcibly brought before the Sanhedrin, declared “The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead – whom you killed by hanging him on a cross…that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins” (Acts 5:30, 31).

We know what it is to sin and feel guilty. Perhaps greed, sexual immorality, anger or dishonesty. We know what it is to experience shame because of our sin.

Scripture, insists we are guilty, whether we feel guilty or not. We are all responsible before a Holy God whom we have disobeyed. Our guilt is the consequence of our sin and this is what Jesus Christ dealt with at the cross.

The cross was the centre of the good news the apostles preached. But how could a crucified Christ atone for sins?

David Ewert writes ‘For a Jew, a crucified Jesus meant two things: that he was not the Messiah, for instead of leading Israel to victory he went down into ignominious defeat; and, that Jesus was under God’s curse, Deuteronomy 21:23 stated that a hanged man is accursed by God. The fact that Jesus arose again is the assurance that He did cope with the load of sin and guilt on our behalf: He had been bearing our sins there on the cross (Matthew 20:28; 1 Peter 2:24; 3:18). When Peter spoke the good news to those gathered in the house of Cornelius, he recalled that the Jews had put our Lord to death and hung him on a tree (Acts 10:39). But this was not the end. “God raised him from the dead on the third day” (10:40). And what did all this mean? “Everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name” (10:43). Our guilt is gone.”

Paul and Barnabas also preached this good news of the gospel at Pisidian Antioch (Acts 13:33-38), and Paul wrote in the same way to the Romans (4:25) and Colossians (2:13-15).

Ever since, believers have found assurance in the resurrection that God has removed their sins and guilt. John Bunyan, in Pilgrim’s Progress wrote: “He [Christian] ran thus till he came to a place somewhat ascending; and upon that place stood a cross, and a little below in the bottom, a sepulchre. So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian came up to the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from his back; and began to tumble; and so continued to do, till it came to the mouth of the sepulchre where it fell in, and I saw it no more.”

The Resurrection shows that Jesus atoned for our guilt and sin on the cross

The Resurrection offers us continual companionship

Paul was aware of this. Though he lay in prison he was able to write ‘rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice…The Lord is at hand (Philippians 4:4ff). When he thought about the enormous forces of opposition which he and his mission for Christ had stirred up, he took comfort from this fact that the living Lord was with him and would be to the end: ‘who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?’ (Romans 8:35). Christ offers us His constant presence.

Loneliness is a terrible disease. This feeling of homelessness and estrangement. Loneliness afflicts people though they are members of various clubs, attend sports events with other people, join parties or crowd theatres and concert halls.

As we turn to the Scriptures, we see how Adam and Eve rebelled against God, and so became aliens, losing paradise, their home. They pushed God out of their lives, for they wanted to live independently of God.

Having fallen from God they blamed one another. Alienation of persons entered. Adam from Eve, Cain from Abel and so on. In The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis pictures hell as the place where people live great distances from one another, for the same selfishness that drives them away from one another continues its work there.

Jesus experienced unimaginable loneliness on the cross- even his relationship with His Father was cut off. He cried out in anguish, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Jesus Christ has lived ‘in our shoes’, experienced what we have experienced, but far worst. He understands us. Now He is our great High Priest who intercedes for us (Hebrews 7:25). So we will never be abandoned and left to ourselves, for this same Jesus rose from the dead; he is alive. The parting words of the risen Christ to his disciples were “I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

Jesus also said ‘I have called you friends’ (John 15:15). Somebody expressed it this way: “Jesus is the only person with whom I can communicate in every situation, knowing immediately that he has understood me completely…I find it difficult to believe that he loves me and care about the smallest as well as the largest details of my life; that he is willing and able to forgive me time after time…But experience shows me that all this is true and I am assured it always will be.”

The risen and ascended Lord is present with us by the Holy Spirit. In his farewell talk to His disciples, Jesus promised: “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever – the Spirit of truth… I will not leave you as orphans [desolate]; I will come to you” (John 14:16–18).

The Resurrection speaks of Christ’s constant companionship. He says ‘I will never fail you nor forsake you.’ (Hebrews 13:5)

The resurrection brings meaning and purpose.

Some look for a cause to live for, something in which to invest their life. But, as David Ewert has observed ‘The reason for much of the apathy in the lives of people today is to be found in the fear that nothing we give ourselves to will last. Either a world holocaust or death, that grim reaper, will destroy our life work. ..To find meaning in what we do we must be sure that our work will abide. This assurance will be ours if we believe in the resurrection.”

At the end of 1 Corinthians 15 a great chapter on the resurrection Paul exclaims, “Where, O death, is your victory?” adding: “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58).

So our work here is not futile in the light of eternity. Neither are our sufferings futile. Even though we are mocked or face other forms of persecution for following Christ. Paul, writing about his sufferings in Asia, says, “We felt that we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead” (2 Corinthians 1:9). In the same letter Paul admits death is at work in his life, but he does not cease to speak the good news, “because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus” (4:14).

Before Dietrich Bonhoeffer was led to his death by Nazi guards, he spoke to his fellow prisoners on 1 Peter 1:3, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead”. And as they took him away, Bonhoeffer said “This is the end – but for me the beginning of life.”

David Ewert writes “Take away the resurrection and the foundation for Christian ethics also crumbles, and all efforts to do right are vain. Why should we try to live upright and godly lives if death ends everything? “If the dead are not raised, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die’” (1 Corinthians 15:32).

The Resurrection brings meaning and purpose.

Conclusion                                                                                                                                          PTO

Finally I would like us to see that the Resurrection is the promise of power to live the Christian life. Christians overcoming temptation, and knowing His strength in their weakness

In Ephesians 1:19ff- Paul prays the Ephesian believers may know ‘what is the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe, according to the working of his great might which he accomplished in Christ when he raised him from the dead.’ (See also Philippians 4:13).

The resurrection is the promise of God’s power within, to change us and enable us to live for Christ.

The point is well illustrated by Michael Green and I finish with his words, “Look how Jesus changed the 12 from a dispirited rabble into a task force. Look how He rescued Peter from despair and made him the leader of the early church. Look how He appeared to more than 500 disciples, and turned them into a church. Look how He turned James, a member of His own family circle, from an uncommitted sceptic to a respected Christian disciple who was called on to lead the Jerusalem church. Look how He appeared to ‘all the apostles’, including Thomas, and changed him from a hard- nosed pessimist into an ardent worshipper. Look how He changed Saul of Tarsus, the most dangerous enemy the earliest church had, into the greatest missionary teacher the world has ever known.

It is the impact of the risen Jesus which did all that! It still happens today.”

Hymn

May the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, rest upon us. May he give us the light to guide us, courage to support us and love to unite us, now and for evermore. Amen.

David Barnes 4/5/22