Does God ever make judgments on our behavior in this life?  Are these sometimes immediate?  If you ask a lot of Christians some will say ‘yes’ and others will say ‘no.’ What does the Bible and our experience say about these things?

First, let’s look at the Old Testament.  In Genesis 3 the consequences for the sin of our parents were immediate and long term. We still suffer from their decision to this day.  God had warned them, but the devil lied to them, they trusted the devil and disobeyed God and they were expelled from Paradise and felt shame in their bodies.  The long-term consequences were that death entered our world and people could be separated from God for all eternity.

Fast forward to the book of Obadiah, the shortest book in the Old Testament.  Through the prophet, God tells the nation of Edom exactly what punishments they will face because of their sins.  They had laughed at and were happy about the punishment that Israel was experiencing for the unfaithfulness.  They also took advantage of Israel’s trouble for themselves.  If you read through the book of Amos you will also clearly see that God is punishing the nations for their various misdeeds.  This theme runs throughout much of the Old Testament.

But what about the New Testament?  Many Christians today will assign those actions to the God of the Old Testament and then say God doesn’t do those things anymore.  Yet Jesus clearly warned the cities of the day of impending judgments against them because they refused to believe in Him.  However, some will then assign these judgments to the last day.  But then consider what Jesus said about Jerusalem because they failed to recognize that He was the Messiah.  Matthew 23 is filled with warnings from Jesus, and He said in v. 38, “And now, look, your house is abandoned and desolate.” – NLT.  He expanded on this in Luke 21:20-24 in which Jesus described the coming destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman armies in 70 AD.  This was the direct result of their refusal to believe in Him.

God also makes personal judgments against people in the New Testament.  In Revelation 2:18-29, Jesus tells exactly the punishment He was going to inflict on a woman who was leading His servants into sexual immorality.  John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, also believed God’s judgments could be immediate and personal.  John wrote an extensive letter defending his beliefs to the Bishop of Exeter, for the bishop had attacked many of the Methodist beliefs and practices of the day.  He told of a man, who had been cursing and blaspheming all week and who had boasted he was going to go to church and no one “would stop his mouth.”¹  But he never got the chance.  He took ill on Friday and was buried on Sunday.  Wesley believed it was the hand of God that struck a hardened sinner and wrote in his defense, “I do look on this as a manifest judgment of God on a hardened sinner for his complicated wickedness.” 

None of us likes the idea that some of the troubles we experience in this life may actually be judgments from God.  Yet the Bible teaches us in both the Old and New Testaments that there are consequences for our actions and they may come in this life, sometimes very quickly.  We may ask, “How can a loving God do such things to us?”  There is no doubt that God loves all people, but people keep ignoring His love and His call to repentance and faith in Jesus which results in eternal life. God always has the eternal view in mind and never wants anyone to perish in their sins.  Consider the following verses.

Ezekiel 33:11, “As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of wicked people. I only want them to turn from their wicked ways so they can live. Turn! Turn from your wickedness, O people of Israel! Why should you die?” – NLT.

Isaiah 55:7, “Let the wicked change their ways
    and banish the very thought of doing wrong.
Let them turn to the Lord that he may have mercy on them.
    Yes, turn to our God, for he will forgive generously.” – NLT.

And 1 Timothy 2:3-4, “This is good and pleases God our Savior, ⁴ who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth.” – NLT.

It is clear that God loves all of us, but we need to be the ones to respond to His love with repentance from our sins and faith in Jesus to forgive our sins.  Faith in Jesus means that we live in obedience to Him and seek to please Him in all we do.

¹ p. 38, The Works of John Wesley, Volume IX, Zondervan.  Reproduced from the authorized edition published by the Wesleyan Conference Office in London, England, in 1872.

For New Living Translation (NLT):

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

For the Good News Translation (GNT):

Scripture quotations marked (GNT) are from the Good News Translation in Today’s English Version- Second Edition Copyright © 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.

Thoughts on 1 John 2:15-27 where the Apostle gives us two very important warnings. The first is not to love this world or the things of this world.  The second is a clear warning about antichrists. It is vitally important that as Christians we heed these warnings.

Warning about the Love of the World

The world as it is used here is not the planet we call home. We are always to love and care for it as we were told in Genesis 1 and 2. The world John is referring to is a system of thought and life that excludes God from any meaningful role in our lives. We try to become gods creating a humanistic sense of what is morally right and wrong.

John defines the love of the world into three categories: 1) a love of physical pleasure, 2) a craving to own or possess everything we see, and 3) pride in our achievements and possessions.  God is not against pleasure or having nice things for Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 6:17 that God richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment.  However, that same passage tells the rich in this world not to be proud of their wealth or trust in it.  Rich Christians are to trust in God and use their money to do good, and share with others in need, thus storing up treasures in heaven as a good foundation for the life they will experience after the resurrection.  All of us are called to be generous and share what we have, but Christians who are wealthy have a special opportunity and obligation to Jesus.  He said in Luke 12:48, “When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required.” – NLT.

As for the wealth of this world.  It will pass away.  The things we take so much pride in today will decay and become outdated or unusable.  For instance, when I was young, we wanted to have the latest vinyl record of our favorite singers.  Then came 8-track tape players for your car which was highly prized.  Now those things are 50 years out of date.  Years from now the latest technology will also be outdated.

Often people take pride in their buildings.  Yet we see how quickly such things can be destroyed by a tornado, hurricane, flood, storm, earthquake, fire, or war.  Jesus told us not to store up our treasures here on earth where moths and rust can destroy, and thieves can steal them from us.  He taught us to store our treasures in heaven where they are kept safe for us and last forever.

In 1929 when the Great Depression hit wealthy men lost entire fortunes.  Money was swept away as if it had never been there.  All of the wealth this world can provide is fragile and temporary.

We must also be careful not to allow the attitudes of the world into the church.  Some churches will take great pride in the wealth they can display in their sanctuary.  But a more common worldly attitude that can easily infect us as Christians is pride.  When someone has a “lust for power or position” in the church with a desire to be admired by others, that is pride.  Others take pride in their righteous behavior.  In opposition to a lust for power or position, we are to be servants of one another to help each other grow in the grace of God.  As for our righteous behavior, why does a person brag about behaving the way Christ taught us?  Pride in position, power, or righteousness can become major stumbling blocks for those seeking to come to know Jesus and those who are weak in the faith. 

Warning about Antichrists

Adam Clarke, a great commentator of the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries said about 1 John 1:18, “Any person, thing, doctrine, system of religion, polity, which is opposed to Christ and the spirit and spread of His gospel, is antichrist.” We have many religions and political systems that promote ideas and doctrines contrary to the gospel of Christ.  The Bible calls these “antichrists.”  The International Bible Commentary defines “Antichrist” as “one who assuming the guise of Christ opposes Christ…” This is different than false Christs who were people who pretended or falsely believed they were the Messiah.  (p. 1578, IBC).

The Apostle John identifies where these antichrists came from in v. 19 as people who were in the church but have left it. By their actions, they proved they were never really with us.  Leaving church can be physical or spiritual.  But the spiritual leaving is the most concerning and dangerous. 

Saint Paul admonished us in Romans 16:17-18, “And now I make one more appeal, my dear brothers and sisters. Watch out for people who cause divisions and upset people’s faith by teaching things contrary to what you have been taught. Stay away from them. ¹⁸ Such people are not serving Christ our Lord; they are serving their own personal interests. By smooth talk and glowing words they deceive innocent people.” – NLT.Jesus said He would cause division in this world, even within families in Luke 12:49-53. The cause of much of this division is people who appear to be Christ-like but are in reality working in opposition to Christ.

The Spirit of God within us provides us with some protection against “antichrist” people and false prophets or “false Christs.” Remember the difference: an antichrist appears to be Christian, but they actually work against Christ and His Kingdom.  They often twist or deny the clear teaching of Scripture.  A false Christ is usually a delusional person who thinks they are the Christ.  A false prophet preaches a different Gospel whether or not they identify as a Christian. God’s Spirit will often raise “red flags” in our hearts and minds about such people.  The Holy Spirit teaches us and points out the errors these people are trying to promote.  John says we know the truth because of the Holy Spirit in our lives in vv. 20-21. In v. 27, he says the Holy Spirit teaches us and gives us everything we need to know.  So, we can know the difference between the truth and a lie.

Protect What You Have

John writes in v. 24, So you must remain faithful to what you have been taught from the beginning. If you do, you will remain in fellowship with the Son and with the Father. – NLT.  The “if” in this passage is a conditional word.  Our salvation is conditional upon remaining in the faith we were once taught.  John continues saying in v. 26, I am writing these things to warn you about those who want to lead you astray.  -NLT.  There are multiple forces in this world and they even arise within the church that try to lead us astray from the truth of Christ as it was delivered to the Apostles.  God wants us to keep our salvation because it gives Him great joy to give us the Kingdom and bless us as His children.

Conclusion

 Again, John is writing to us because we are Christians.  He makes that assumption about us.  He warns us against falling in love with the things of this world and its attitudes.  He also warns us against those who try to lead us astray.  He reminds us that we’ve been given the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth and protect us from the lies of deceivers and imposters.

Are you watching to see that you are not led astray?  Are you listening to the warnings given to you by God’s Spirit?  Often He speaks directly to us and often He speaks through others to us.  Are you watching over what you believe to ensure it aligns with what the early Apostles taught?  If you do these things you will be blessed and keep your faith securely anchored in Christ.

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

A Message based on 1 John 1:1-10.

Introduction

First John was written to believers in Jesus Christ.  In chapter 5, verse 13, John says, “I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life.” One of the greatest struggles we have in our life in Christ is the feelings of doubt we wrestle with from time to time.  Our enemy likes to suggest those thoughts in our minds.  In this letter, the Apostle John gives us objective truth to examine so that we may know for sure that God has given us eternal life.

The Apostle John answers the question: “How can I know for sure that I am a Christian?”

One of the greatest words of advice I was given on the night I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ was this, “The good feeling you have right now will go away.  But remember we live by faith in the Bible, not our feelings.”  That was the summary given to several of us in the youth group by our Youth Advisor Betty Hunt.  She has long since gone home to be with the Lord, but I have never forgotten the love and advice she gave to us as young believers and seekers of Christ.

1. The Strength of the Testimony

John’s authority to write about Jesus is, “We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life.”  (v. 1).  In the first four verses he says how this was revealed to “Us”.  He says us because he is writing on behalf of the first disciples.  By this time the Apostles had been scattered across the world to share the message of life.  Some, most, or all had been martyred by the time John wrote this.  Indications are it was written near the end of his life.  John survived the persecutions of Nero and others, but the time eventually came for him to be taken home to Jesus. 

The Apostles walked with Jesus across the Holy Land for three years.  They heard His teaching, saw His miracles, and His complete control over nature.  They saw Him die on the cross and witnessed His resurrection from the dead.  They testified that Jesus Christ is the Word of God made flesh that brings light and life to the world.

• Why They Proclaim It

John’s motivation is a holy love from God for us.  He writes so that you may have fellowship with us. Then he says their fellowship is with the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  John wants us to participate in this holy fellowship with God and one another.

The second reason John is thrilled is due to the idea of more people going to heaven.  Some translations read “your” instead of “our”.  Our is the better word because we are in fellowship with all of the saints that have gone before us.  We in turn want others to come to the saving knowledge of Jesus so that they can experience the joy God has planned for them.

• The Proclamation

The message: God is light and there is no darkness in Him.  Light represents goodness and dark represents evil, so we declare there is no evil in God.  John declared it then and we declare it now.

We live in a world filled with pain, violence, and evil.  People are looking for perfection and paradise and God offers it to them for free in Christ.  Yet, they will not come to Him or believe in Him.  In some parts of the country, houses sell for astronomical prices because people believe they are buying a slice of paradise.  But once they “buy paradise” they quickly find the darkness of evil follows them.  They do not find the perfect paradise they seek.

People look for perfection in a mate, a job, a home, a city, or in the country.  But they won’t turn to God who can and will satisfy the deepest needs of our souls.  Apart from God, every joy we have is temporary.  Yet David said in Psalms 16:11, “You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever.^” – NLT.  God provides more pleasure and desires us to experience it forever in His presence.  Yet the people of this world chase fantasies and lies about who they are and what will bring them lasting joy.

• The Condition of Our Condition

In 1967 a song was recorded by the First Edition called, “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)” and was intended as a warning against using the drug LSD.¹  I remember the song very well.  In vv. 6-10, John gives us five “If we” statements to check our spiritual condition.

1. If we continue to practice sin while claiming fellowship with God, we are lying.  We are not practicing the truth.
2. If we are living in God’s light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.
3. If we claim we don’t have any sin, we are deceiving ourselves and not living in the truth.
4. If we confess our sins to God, He is faithful and just and will cleanse us from all evil (wickedness).
5. If we say we have not sinned, we are saying God is a liar and His Word has no place in our hearts.  This is the condition of the self-righteous.

Not one of us is without sin.  On the way out of Egypt God appeared and threatened to kill Moses because he failed to circumcise his son as God commanded.  Samson kept falling for the prostitute Delilah.  David committed adultery and murder.  Solomon fell away and worshipped other gods.  Peter discriminated against the Gentile believers and was confronted by Paul for it in Gal. 2.  The Christians at Corinth had major sin problems including sexual immorality, lawsuits against one another, bitter divisions, and treating Holy Communion disrespectfully.  In every case, these people repented, confessed their sins to God, and found forgiveness and cleansing.

When the Holy Spirit points out a sin in your life, confess it to Him immediately and you will immediately receive forgiveness and cleansing.

Conclusion

God wants us (those of us who have put our faith in Jesus Christ to save us) to have eternal life.  So, He gives the message to us through eyewitnesses: the people who heard what Jesus said, saw what He did, and touched Him with their hands.  God often speaks through our conscience, but the purpose is to bring us out of darkness and back into His light.

If the guilt persists there are three possible reasons: 1) it is false guilt, you feel guilty about something that is not a sin; 2) it could be that you have no intention to repent which is not a true confession; and 3) it could be the devil trying to discourage you and keep you from enjoying your relationship with Christ and other believers.

The reason John writes this message is so that we may have fellowship with other Christians and with God, and that we may know that we have eternal life.

We can trust the certainty of the message in that God tells us our condition.  We are saved through the blood of the Lamb so that we do not make a practice of sinning, that is doing the things God says will keep us out of heaven because they are evil in His sight.  Temptation is always around us and we may still do wrong sometimes.  When we do, we repent, confess our sins to Jesus, and move forward, trusting in His power to overcome that sin.  We are always dependent on the cleansing of the blood of Jesus, His mercy and forgiveness, and the power of the Holy Spirit to keep us living as we ought to live.  God is light and there is no darkness in Him.  Are you walking fully in the Light of Christ?

¹https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_Dropped_In_(To_See_What_Condition_My_Condition_Was_In)#The_First_Edition_version.

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

On Monday, April 8^th we were blessed to witness a partial eclipse of the sun with protective eclipse glasses.  It was 97.9% covered in our area.  I also watched the reports on ABC-TV as they stationed reporters at various points in the path of the moon’s shadow.

I was amazed and disappointed at how many people came to view this as a “spiritual experience” without any reference to God.  They would say things like,

• “This really shows us that we are part of something bigger.”
• “The universe is so big and we are just a small part of it.” 
• “This really unites us as a people.” 
• “If we stay united we can succeed.” 

People spent thousands of dollars on travel and motels just to be in the position to watch the moon cover up the sun.  It was almost like an act of worship.  One reporter pointed out that while the sun is much larger than the moon, the two objects appear to be the same size because of our distance from the sun and the relative closeness of the moon to the earth.

Emotionally, it did not impact me.  I’ve enjoyed astronomy since I was a teenager and I knew the science.  It also does not seem to have a lasting impact on those who saw it.  It was just time to move on to the next thing in life.

There are two great truths the people of the world missed judging from their responses.

First, we are part of something much bigger than ourselves.  But it is not an impartial “the universe” or some “mystical unknown spiritual force.”  We are part of God’s design, a part of His plan and we were given a major role in His design for the universe.  In Genesis 1:26 God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.”

Far from being a small part of God’s universe, we were given charge of this planet at God’s command.  Genesis 2 expands on many of the wonderful things that God placed under our control and the one restriction God placed on us, to not participate in the knowledge of good and evil.  We knew the good given to us by God and we were His image-bearers in this world.  The problem came when our first parents chose to violate the one restriction God gave us and participated in the knowledge of good and evil, which broke our relationship with God.

God sent Jesus to restore that relationship through His death and resurrection.  But so many people refuse to believe in the high position God created for all people.  That “high position” was designed by God and will be restored for everyone who repents their sins and puts their faith in Jesus.  We are His children by right of creation, we rebelled and went astray.  God has provided a path of restoration to our high calling.

People are missing so much when they think of the universe as some impersonal force.  No!  The universe was created by God and is sustained by Him.  He provides dwellings for the heavenly beings in heaven and the earth was given to us.  This God loves us and shows us the extent of that love in the death and resurrection of Christ. People miss so much when they refuse to believe in all God has for them in Christ!

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

A Message on Luke 24:35-49

Jesus had appeared to two of His disciples as they were on their way from Jerusalem to Emmaus a village thought to be north of Jerusalem and within walking distance.  At first, they were unable to recognize Him. Jesus revealed Himself to them when He broke bread with them at supper and then disappeared from their sight.  They were filled with joy and headed back to Jerusalem within an hour to find the other disciples.  They were exchanging stories when Jesus suddenly appeared among them.

At first, they thought He was a ghost.  After all, one moment He wasn’t there, the next He was.  After assuring them He was not a ghost, He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.  Then He told them they would proclaim God’s message of salvation to the world, but they were to wait until the Holy Spirit came upon them.  Christ rose from the dead in an indestructible body.  You could see, hear, and touch Him.  He conquered death and it could no longer hold Him.  He commissioned the disciples to tell others about Him. As His disciples we need three things to fulfill that commission: 1) Understanding of the Scriptures; 2) We have to Tell the Story to others; and 3) We need the Power of the Holy Spirit. 

Understanding the Scriptures

We need to embrace Scripture.  Embracing is not just knowing it, it is loving it, and living it.  The Old Testament contains multiple prophecies that point us directly to Jesus being the Messiah, the Savior of the World.  The Old Testament also points out our sins and shows us our need for salvation. 

Two mistakes are commonly made when seeking to understand the Scriptures.  The first mistake is to believe that by legalistic obedience to the Law, we can be made right with God. The Pharisees and many teachers of the Law of the first century made this mistake.  Yet David said he was born a sinner from the moment he was conceived in his mother’s womb. (Psalms 51:5).  In that Psalm he turns to God requesting that a pure heart be created within him and that his sins be blotted out.  He did not depend on his “works of the Law” rather He turned to God for mercy.  He found that mercy in the love of God.

The second mistake people make about the Old Testament is to believe that it is irrelevant to Christians.  Yet before the New Testament was written the Old Testament was the Scripture for the early Church.  Jesus said the Old Testament Scriptures pointed to Him and that He did not come to do away with them, but to fulfill them.  Most Christian churches recognize that both the Old and New Testaments make up the Scriptures for the church and they provide the “final rule for faith and practice” in our beliefs and behavior.

A good knowledge of the Old Testament is of immense value in understanding what Jesus did for us as recorded in the New Testament.  Psalms 22 and Isaiah 53 give us a foretelling of the suffering Jesus would go through on the cross when He died for our sins.  They also speak of His joy in the resurrection and that His sacrifice would make many righteous.  Embracing the Scripture makes it part of our being.

We have to tell the story.

How are people going to know of Jesus’ love and salvation for them, if we don’t tell them? We have to tell the story.  The first disciples told others and wrote it down for us, so that we may believe.  Every Christian must tell the story of Jesus and the new life He offers to the people around them. God has arranged your friendship and acquaintances in such a way that you are uniquely positioned to tell them about Jesus. If we truly love our friends and acquaintances, we need to tell them the Good News of salvation and eternal life in Christ.  Hell is too hot to enter and heaven is too good to miss.  Jesus taught us everyone is going to end up in one place or the other and He is the door to heaven, He is the bridge to eternal life.

The tragedy was averted for many people in the recent bridge collapse in Baltimore when those who saw what was happening shut down the traffic on the bridge.  Six people were killed.  How many more would have been lost if they had not been stopped?  People keep trying to build a bridge to God but the reality of our sins keeps hitting the structure causing it to collapse.  But God has built a bridge through the cross of Christ that will never collapse, because Jesus, the sinless Lamb of God offered Himself as the sacrifice for our sins.  Jesus is the bridge that leads us safely home to heaven.  Trying to take any other bridge will only end in eternal death.  If we love people, we need to try with everything in us to get them on the bridge of Jesus Christ.  We have to tell the story of what He did then and what He is doing in our lives today.

We Need the Holy Spirit

We cannot successfully tell the story to others without the Holy Spirit abiding in us.  The Spirit gives us the right words and timing.  Jesus said, “And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment. ⁹ The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me. ¹⁰ Righteousness is available because I go to the Father, and you will see me no more. ¹¹ Judgment will come because the ruler of this world has already been judged.” – John 16:8-11 NLT.  The devil blinds people’s minds so they cannot see the truth of the Gospel.  The Holy Spirit opens up people’s minds so they may be saved.  We are in a spiritual battle for the souls of men and women which we cannot fight on human strength alone, but our God is infinitely stronger than the devil.  This is why prayer and the fellowship of the saints are so important.  Jesus, the Messiah, spent many hours in prayer for the lost that they might believe.      

We need the Holy Spirit to empower us.  We cannot resist temptation alone. We need to drink from the water of life daily.  We need the light of Christ constantly in every part of our lives.  When the Light of Christ is there, the darkness cannot be there.  Light and dark are mutually exclusive.  Let Christ dwell in every area of your life.

Conclusion

If we love Christ and love people, we do whatever we can to help them find the road to heaven.  Jesus said, “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell (the road that leads to destruction) is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. ¹⁴ But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.” ­ – Matthew 7:13-14 NLT.  Let us focus our prayers, energies, and witness to help others find the narrow way.

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

One of the things that really amazes me is how often the Holy Spirit will bring out the same lesson from different people at the same time.  For instance, this past Sunday in part of my sermon I said,

“God chooses to dwell inside us. In ancient times people thought their gods dwelt in temples.  God commanded Moses to make a Tabernacle for their wilderness journey.  Later, God moved upon the hearts of David and Solomon to build a magnificent Temple in Jerusalem.  But God has a different temple that He desires.  He wants to live inside of us, both individually and corporately.  Jesus cleared the Temple of the money changers and merchants in John 2:13-22 because they were cheating the people trying to worship God.  The Jewish leaders demanded a miracle to prove that God had given Him that authority.  He said to them, “All right. .. Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” He was speaking of His body.

“1 Corinthians 6:19-20 tells us, “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So, you must honor God with your body.”  – NLT.  God wants to dwell with us and in us.”  (Link: https://wordpress.com/post/pastorandymaxwell.home.blog/8015).

On Monday and Tuesday, Dan Wilt wrote the same ideas in the Wake-Up Call Devotionals from Ephesians 3:14-21 using different words and different Scriptures.  You can sign up for these excellent daily devotionals at: https://seedbed.com/wakeupcall/#. 

I do not know Dan personally, nor does he know me, yet we are both servants of Christ.  Neither one of us knew what the other was going to say.  Yet in Christ, it is the Holy Spirit who speaks the same message through all of His people.  The glorious privilege offered to people of all nations is this, if we put our faith and love in Jesus Christ, God the Father will send the Holy Spirit as our advocate, counselor, teacher, and guide.  (John 14:15-17 and 16:5-15.).  The even greater promise is that we become one with God as Jesus prayed for in John 17:20-21.  Jesus said to the disciples in John 14:17, “He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.” – NLT.  On the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit baptized and filled all of the believers who had been waiting for Him.  He came to live inside of them.  In his sermon on that day, Peter said, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹ This promise is to you, to your children, and to those far away—all who have been called by the Lord our God.” 

This is the great privilege meant to be enjoyed by every believer in Christ, that He lives inside of us by the Holy Spirit. If we will be still and listen to Him, He will guide and direct us daily. Trust Him and let Him guide you daily.

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

A message based on John 20:11-18.

If you examine world religions you will find they have certain things in common.

1. Prayer to something greater or higher than themselves.  They may pray to ancestors, many gods, or just one God.
2. Most if not all practice fasting in some form or another.
3. They have sacred buildings such as churches, synagogues, temples, mosques, etc.
4. They have altars – a place to offer prayers, sacrifices, offerings, or burn incense to God.
5. Most have moral codes, behaviors considered right and wrong, and a way to get right with God usually by human effort. 

We have a God Who Experienced Death on Our Behalf

What makes Christianity unique among all the world religions is that we have a Savior who died for the sins of His people, and three days later rose from the grave.  In Jesus, we have Emmanuel, “God with us.”  A few other religions of the world will claim their leader rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, but they offer no proof.  We have the witness of the people who watched Him die and then saw Him alive.  He walked among them for 40 days before they saw Him ascend into heaven. We have an open tomb that has been empty since Jesus left it.  Jesus broke the chains of death and opened the door to eternal life with God.

In most religions, you must pay for your sins in some way.  Some religions teach that if your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds you will go to heaven but you can never know for sure that you will go to heaven.  Some religions have an endless series of reincarnations until you get it right.  God tells us these ideas are dead wrong.  He pronounces us all dead in trespasses and sins so that He can have mercy on everyone who will put their faith in Jesus.  God the Father laid all of our sins on Jesus, God the Son, and He took the punishment for our sins.  No other religion has a god like that.  We do not depend on our work.  We depend on the work Jesus Christ did on our behalf.

We Celebrate a God Who Saves Us Forever

We celebrate Jesus Christ who crushed the power of death, hell, and the devil. Hebrews 2:14-18 tells us that He became human so that through His death He would break the power of the devil, who held the power of death.  Jesus came for the express purpose of destroying the works of the devil and setting his captives free.  He is the one who saves us. The devil held the power of death, but Jesus took it away from him by His resurrection.  Jesus said in Revelation 1:18, “I am the living one. I died, but look—I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave.” – NLT. 

Many people have tried in vain to deny the resurrection of Christ from the dead.  But the evidence is overwhelming. Some have set out to disprove Christ’s resurrection and have become disciples of Jesus because the evidence was overwhelming that Christ rose from the dead.  They’ve written books from scholarly and journalistic points of view and proved beyond a doubt that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. St. Paul shared this evidence with the Christians in Corinth as some were saying there was no resurrection from the dead.  (Some say that today too.)  “I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. ⁴ He was

buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. ⁵ He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. ⁶ After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. ⁷ Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles. ⁸ Last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time, I also saw him.”  (1 Corinthians 15:3-8 NLT.) Because Christ arose from the dead, we know that even if we die, we too shall rise from the dead to new life.

We Celebrate a God Who Is Personal

After Jesus rose from the dead, the angels asked Mary Magdalene at the Garden Tomb, “Woman, why are you crying?”  She explained why she was there, turned, and saw Jesus but did not recognize Him.  He asked, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”  (John 20:13, 15.) Thinking He was the gardener, she asked if He had carried the body away.  Then Jesus speaks her name, “Mary.”  She recognized Him immediately when He called her by name. She recognized the sound of His voice when He called her name. Jesus knows each one of us by name.  In most religions, God is distant, aloof from the world and we have to work to get His attention.  But in Christ, we have a God who reaches out to us, personally by name.  He loves each one of us as individuals.

God chooses to dwell inside us. In ancient times people thought their gods dwelt in temples.  God commanded Moses to make a Tabernacle for their wilderness journey.  Later, God moved upon the hearts of David and Solomon to build a magnificent Temple in Jerusalem.  But God has a different temple that He desires.  He wants to live inside of us, both individually and corporately.  Jesus cleared the Temple of the money changers and merchants in John 2:13-22 because they were cheating the people trying to worship God.  The Jewish leaders demanded a miracle to prove that God had given Him that authority.  He said to them, “All right. .. Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” He was speaking of His body.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 tells us, “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So, you must honor God with your body.”  – NLT.  God wants to dwell with us and in us.

When we come together as a church, 1 Peter 2:5 says we are living stones built together in God’s spiritual temple.  It is a corporate reference in that God lives in us, both as individuals and as a group. The temple God wants most is to dwell within our hearts by faith.  Our God is not distant but closer than we can think or imagine.

Conclusion

Christianity is unique because we have a wonderful God who loves us individually, calls us by name, and offered Himself as a sacrifice for our sins so He can have mercy upon us and give us eternal life.  Christ is unique in that He experienced the power of death, defeated it, and now He holds the keys of death and Hades.  Jesus opened these doors for us so we can live forever with Him.  This is why we celebrate Easter. 

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.