Are you prepared to be encouraged, provoked to worship and generally open to be more grateful for what has been achieved for you, forever, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, by which we have been born new into a living hope.
A PASTORAL LETTER
Dearest family,
I’m sitting at the gate at Dulles trying to get a letter to you all. On Sunday I promised that I would get you all the scriptures I referenced in that concentrated catechism on the resurrection in the epistles that helped us to complete the sentence: BECAUSE JESUS WAS RAISED … Are you prepared to be encouraged, provoked to worship and generally open to be more grateful, more thankful for what has been achieved for you, forever, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, by which we have been born anew into a living hope.
BECAUSE JESUS WAS RAISED…
• Acts 2:33: We have life in the Holy Spirit. (Do you need a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit?)
• Acts 13:33: All God’s promises are true and the promise of salvation in particular is fully fulfilled (Are you struggling to believe God’s promises for you?)
• Acts 13:38: The logic of Jesus’ resurrection for Paul is the assurance about the gift of forgiveness because Jesus has fulfilled the punishment that law would execute. (Are you in need of forgiveness?) • Acts 17:31: We will give an account of how we have responded to Him when we too are raised (Do you need to keep short accounts with him now given that you will give an account then?)
• Roms.4: 25 - 5:1-3: We know that Christ’s sacrifice on the cross was accepted by God and that we too are accepted. (Are you struggling with your acceptance by God?)
• Roms.6:4: We too may now also live a new life. (Are you manifesting the old life?)
• Roms.8:11: We can now be free of the wretched domination of our lives by our physical appetites, by our flesh, and live according to the rule and life of the Spirit in victory (Any bondages, any appetites you need freedom from?)
• Roms.10:9: We can be assuredly saved for there is no salvation without the belief and confession that Jesus is raised (Do you confess your faith with assurance?)
• 1 Cors.6:14: There is a power available for deliverance from body-based sin, especially sexual, because the same power that raised Jesus will also raise our bodies from that which destroys it and kills the spirit. (Do you need his resurrection to influence and infuse your sexuality?)
• 2 Cors.1:9: God is proven trustworthy and reliable to be depended upon for if He delivered Jesus from death and Jesus trusted Him to do so in fulfillment of His promise, then we too can depend on his deliverance (Any challenges and struggles to trusting God with anything? Anything you cannot believe he can come through on for you?)
• 2 Cors.4:14: We can know the living presence of God in our lives right now as well as forever, it is a living presence (Any hardship and pressure that needs relief?)
• Ephs.1:20: We can be assured now of the exceeding greatness of his power towards us. (Tempted to believe His help works for others but not you – His goodness is always towards someone else but you?)
• Cols.2:12: We no longer need to keep dragging out our days and years in a state of deadness in our trespasses and sins but can be made alive together with Christ, assured that he atoned thoroughly and completely for our sin, for all the wrong that we could rightly be accused of, and we can be forgiven, and on top of all that, the principalities and the powers, those things that work against our faith and spiritual success, whether sins or systems, whether institutions or iniquities, have been disarmed (Do you feel unprotected, vulnerable?)
• Cols.3:10: We can have a whole new orientation of mind and we can set our mind on things above because our death-ridden mind has been freed and we can put to death all the junk, the fornication, uncleanness, evil desire, covetousness; we can rid ourselves of anger, malice, blasphemy, filthy language and thoughts, lies (Any wrong thinking about yourself or the Lord? What are the networks of ungodly thoughts that invade your mind and dreams?)
• 1 Thess.1:10: We can be delivered from the wrath to come (Are you confident in your eternal future? If not why not?)
• Philips.3:10: We can attain the resurrection of the dead. (Are you focused on what’s to come or are you shocked by the this-worldliness of your values and ambitions?)
• 1 Pet.1:3: We have an assured hope and a secure inheritance that will never fade away (Can you trust the Lord for his eternal care for you?)
• 1 Pet. 1:21: We too can have the same faith and hope in God as Jesus did. (Do you think that you are limited in your capacities to trust God and just have to live with it?)
• Hebs.7:25: We have a 24/7 intercessor who advocates for us so we are on God’s radar. God is into finished business – wants to save completely. (Have you given up on anything in your spiritual life? Do you need to recover a faith and hope in God’s commitment to perfect and finish what concerns you?)
• 1 Cors.15:
o We are not still dead but made alive because miracles do happen and our natures can be changed.
o Preaching is not useless Our faith is not vain but true and transforming
o God is not a liar but true to every word and promise
o We are not still in our sins but utterly forgiven
o The dead in Christ have not perished
o We are not to be most pitied and patronized, but rather we have lives that should be the envy of
all
• Roms.6:7: Death has no more fear. control and dominion over us
• 1 Cors.15:54: death has been swallowed up
• 2 Tim.1:10: Death is abolished
• Hebrs.2:14: He has destroyed him who has the power of death.
• Rev. 20:14: death shall be cast into the lake of fire
• Rev.21:4: there shall be no more death (Do you have a fear of dying?)
Can you stand any more good news? Alright, just one more paragraph.
BECAUSE JESUS WAS RAISED…
• Mt.16:16: we know we serve a living Lord
• Jn.6:57: we know we are sons and daughters of a living Father
• Hebrs.10:20: we know we walk in a living way
• Jn.4:10: we drink living water
• Jn.6:51: we eat living bread
• Hebrs.4:12; 1 Pet.1:23: we have the living word of God
• Roms.12:1: we offer ourselves in worship and service as living sacrifices
• 1 Pet.1:3: we have a living hope (Is something dead in your life that you need the power of Jesus
to recover and raise?)
The story of the church is recorded in Acts 1:3 in these words: “He showed Himself alive.” The final message to the church is spoken in Rev.1:18: “I am the living one – I was dead and behold I am alive forever and ever!” According to the scripture, Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father so that everything that has been mentioned above can take effect, or to put it simply, so that we too may live a new life. By the tomb of Lazarus, in the face of all that was our death, on the eve of the cross, Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life! DO YOU BELIEVE THIS?” Well, do you? Because Jesus was raised…. according to the scriptures…
I have mentioned so many blessings of the resurrection that touch on so many areas of our lives. Was there one in particular that rang true with you? Was there an application of the resurrection to something specific in your life? Where does the truth of the resurrection need to be freshly experienced by you? Where does it need to be manifested in your life? What difference is the truth of the resurrection of Jesus making to your life? Christ is Risen!
Pastorally yours,
Stuart