Tag: resurrection

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From Resurrection to Giving on Resurrection Day

And we move from a wonderful chapter of the evidence and the application of the resurrection of Christ and of ourselves to what we do on Resurrection day, on Sundays, on the Lord’s day and as Paul calls it ‘the first day of every week’.

“Now about the collection for the Lord’s people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. 2 On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made. 3 Then, when I arrive, I will give letters of introduction to the men you approve and send them with your gift to Jerusalem. 4 If it seems advisable for me to go also, they will accompany me.” (1 Corinthians 16 v 1-4)

How do we move from the heights of Resurrection to that of giving money?

What does Paul expect to happen in our church services on Sunday? Is it in alignment with what is happening in 2025? He had already told the Galatian churches to do this.

  1. Giving should involve a focus on the poor. This was the collection for the mission in Jerusalem. Whether individuals should be giving restrictively to the poor or they give to the Church and collectively the amount is sent to the poor that may not be as important  as to make sure that the Church members all put God first for His mission whether to the poor in the city and town they’re in and beyond to the nations of the world.
  2. Giving is for everyone. “Each one of you …” The rich and the poor. Those who have much and those who have little. In fact personally I have found it is those who have the least who give the most proportionally.
  3. Give proportionally. The beauty of the tithe (10%) is that it is proportionate to what we have. We give in keeping with our income.
  4. Giving should be planned. Don’t wait for the collection and see what’s in your pocket. Get ahead. Fill in a standing order form and/or set money aside before you spend it.
  5. Giving needs to be entrusted to those who count it, bank it, administrate it, send it and then ultimately use it.

Are you ready to give this Sunday?

There are so many initiatives for giving. Here’s one that is still going well and has been a blessing to so many since it was created in 2014.

https://www.elim.org.uk/Articles/531023/Pound_by_Pound.aspx

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The Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus, part 12

I didn’t think we would reach 12 parts and I just stayed with the title even though we moved from the evidence of Jesus to the evidence for our resurrection and then to all that this means for us now. But this has to be the best chapter for understanding the powerful resurrection that Jesus has brought.

Paul concludes this section and takes us right back to the beginning, when in verse 2 he wrote, “By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.”

He is confident that because Christ has been raised and every believer will be then it will all have been worth it.

“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 v 58)

Throughout this chapter Paul has argued for the reality of Christ’s resurrection. He clearly gives evidence that Christ’s resurrection happened but that it becomes the very foundation for our faith.

He ends by calling us to stand firm. In a world which changes so quickly, values are being diluted all the time and faced with constant challenges we are called to be immovable, rooted in the truth of the resurrection.

Let nothing move you means that nothing, no challenge, no persecution, no doubt, no worldly temptation should shake you from this core belief.

We are not to simply stand still in our hope and faith but we are to be actively participating in the mission of God. Wholehearted commitment and total dedication is what Paul means for us to give ourselves fully to the work of the Lord.

We will not be disappointed in the end. We will look back and say we have lived a life which had meaning and that was full because our labour was not in vain.

So today hold on. Remain. Work. It matters. Do it all in the light of the resurrection of Christ and of yours!

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The Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus, part 11

Death is our ultimate enemy. It either comes without warning or it announces its arrival and slowly creeps towards us in an almost torturous way. Either way we have not managed to defeat it. The truth is for many of us death hurts. It hurts those who are left behind. In what is a prophetic evidence for the resurrection of Jesus and ourselves, Isaiah looks forward to a day in the future when mourning is over because death is swallowed up by victory. When every believer has received a new resurrected, imperishable and immortal body then Isaiah’s prophecy will be fulfilled in its entirety.

“On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine—the best of meats and the finest of wines. 7 On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; 8 he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth. The Lord has spoken. 9 In that day they will say, “Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the Lord, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.” (Isaiah 25:6-9)

The hurt that death brings for those still alive, the sting, the pain of numbed children, broken men, burdened and tired women, these are who God focuses on in this last days meal.

Paul knows this passage very well and quotes from it:-

“When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” 55 “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15 v 54-57)

God in this last days battle which chapters 24-27 in Isaiah reveal, pauses and with compassion, stoops down to wipe away each tear of grief and brokenness. With joy, relief and expressions of worship the people say, “This is our God.”
Death can be a fierce enemy. It can destroy not just the body but relationships. It can be feared, it wants to be feared. Pretence will not stop the pain that it always brings.
But it does not have the last word!
Death is defeated, it is no longer an enemy, for life and hope comes. This is what Isaiah saw. This is what Paul speaks of.
This is what Christ our Saviour brings. He is our resurrection and life. We live in this reality. This is our experience.
Surely this is our God!

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The Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus, part 10

This amazing chapter moves from the resurrection of Jesus to our resurrection and it will return as Paul continues to give us amazing promise after promise. Here’s another:-

“I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” (1 Corinthians 15 v 50-54)

All of your weakness and decay and all that is fragile and limited will not enter the realm that God has prepared for you. Isn’t that amazing?! If you are waking today and life is just one struggle then look ahead to what is before you.

There is a mystery (v51), a divine secret that is beyond our understanding:- Some Christians will be alive when this event happens. (Paul uses sleep as Jesus and the other apostle did for those who have passed away; it’s a much better description!) The alive Christians and those that are ‘asleep’ will be instantaneously, miraculously, transformed  and our mortality is swallowed up by LIFE.

God has prepared a complete transformation for His people and yet our humanity though fundamentally different will still be recognisable.

This means today we live with hope. We may have struggles, limitations and we may grieve for those who have died. But sorrow lasts only for a night. There is a morning, a sounding of the trumpet when all things will be changed but our very essence, our personality, our core identity remains. We will not be replaced but renewed.

At the sound of the trumpet transformation will come. And victory, complete, total, overwhelming victory will be ours! Amen!

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The Evidence for the Resurrection part 9

Paul is continuing on from his metaphors of earthly and heavenly bodies and moves us to think of Adam and Christ.

“If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. 48 As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.” (1 Corinthians 15 v 44-49)

We are now of Adam, we bear his image, we have Adam’s weakness and his mortality. But through the resurrection we will bear Christ’s image and characterised by a body of glory, wholeness and immortality.

What does this mean?

  1. Our physical reality is not abandoned for some ghostly existence in the after-life but rather a perfecting of what is now.
  2. Our limitations now with regards to weakness and decay give way to strength and glory.
  3. We become something greater because we bear the image of Christ not Adam.

At the time of Paul the world had thoughts of some disembodied immortality. But Paul knows differently. His gospel is the complete transformation of our bodies to that of Christ’s.

The gospel isn’t about simply eternal life but entering into something completely transformative and gloriously new. Whatever current limitation you have it is temporary. Whatever decay and disappointment you are experiencing Paul’s teaching offers a compelling alternative – bodies transformed by the power of resurrection. Amen!

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The Evidence for the Resurrection  of Jesus part 8

I am preparing this devotion having received the following message from an Elim Global Pastor in India:

“We are in great pain at this time we are building church in Gollaigudem village near Eluru town where pastor Abraham is pastoring the construction has come to roof level and all of a sudden some fanatics came and warned us to stop the church construction in this area we approached government authorities and asked help to reduce from fanatics but they gave deaf ear and next day yesterday morning 4 am some 15 people came and with machines and demolished all the building. We are so much pain please pray for church in India to be protected by God and please pray for our local church pastor Abraham and for his family.”

These messages from Paul on the resurrection of Jesus and us are of enormous encouragement to the persecuted and suffering Christians around the world. The story above of what is being experienced in India reveal the painful experience of being under persecution. But what the enemy destroys God will raise. Whether that happens to buildings or not it definitely happens to the bodies of Christians who die.

“But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” 36 How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38 But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. 39 Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. 40 There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendour of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendour of the earthly bodies is another. 41 The sun has one kind of splendour, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendour. 42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. (1 Corinthians 15 v 35-44)

My father has sadly had to move into a care home because his Alzheimers means he regularly falls to the floor. It is a struggle right now. But there will come a day when his earthly body will no longer fall to the ground for he will be raised imperishable, in glory and power, as a spiritual body. There will come a day when what breaks now will break no more; what is diseased now will be healed; what is destroyed now will be indestructible. There will come a day where there will be no limitations that the earthly body has now.

Evidence?

Paul gives an agricultural metaphor for the evidence. Just as a wheat seed bears little resemblance to the full plant it becomes, our resurrection bodies will be dramatically transformed from our current state to something glorious while still maintaining a continuity of identity.

Inside every acorn is an oak tree ready to come forward and inside every born again Christian is a heavenly body ready to be raised on that final day.

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The Evidence for the  Resurrection of Jesus part 7

In following Paul’s teaching on the resurrection of Jesus we are clearly stepping into the application of that which is our own bodily resurrection. The fact that we too are raised is the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. The fact that Jesus was raised is the evidence that we will be also. Paul reveals two more evidences; the first is regarding the Corinthians and the second refers to Paul himself.

“Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them? 30 And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? 31 I face death every day—yes, just as surely as I boast about you in Christ Jesus our Lord. 32 If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus with no more than human hopes, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” 33 Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.” 34 Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God—I say this to your shame.” (1 Corinthians 15 v 29-34)

So it appears that the Corinthians were believing that it was possible to be baptised on behalf of someone who had died. Paul is highlighting that if those who are doing so also do not believe in the resurrection of believers then what is the point of baptising the dead? If the Christian dead are just dead then there is no reason to be baptised for them. It is a nonsense. Not only is the practice nonsense. The reason for doing so is also a nonsense.

Now let’s see the evidence around Paul. He is in danger every hour; he faces death daily; he has fought severe opposition (wild beasts); why would he do all that with only a simple hope that there just may be a resurrection? More than that, if there is no resurrection then we are not going to get judged so we might as well do whatever we want to do on earth, right? No!

Paul closes this particular argument by calling for them to not be corrupted by the company they keep. Wherever the Corinthians got the idea about no resurrection from it had impacted them negatively and Paul calls for them not be misled anymore.

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The Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus, part 6

There is more evidence and it will be seen when it is all too late.

“But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For he “has put everything under his feet.” Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. 28 When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.” (1 Corinthians 15 v 20-28)

Paul sees the resurrection of Jesus as like that of the first part of the crop that comes before the true harvest emerges later. We rejoice when we see the firstfruits because we know it is the evidence of the crop to come. When the crop arrives then it will show that what had been seen first was indeed the firstfruits.

  • Paul is therefore saying that there will come a day when the follower of Jesus will be raised from the dead. On that amazing day it will be the ultimate evidence that Jesus was indeed resurrected. Nevertheless it will be too late for the critics.

Paul says there is a waiting time, which we are in now. We are waiting with expectancy for our own resurrection. There is a certainty within the wait although it can be hard and contain suffering. Yet suffering is only one side of the coin as the spiritual battle between darkness and light is taking place and we can see this happening in the many stories of people’s lives.

  • Paul is therefore saying that even the waiting period is evidence of the resurrection because every time we see Christ defeating demonic influence in a person’s life then it is a declaration that Jesus is not dead and it points to a day when every enemy of God is brought down.

Paul says the last enemy to be defeated is death. There was a preliminary event that took place at the resurrection of Jesus when ‘the saints who had died rose from their graves and went into Jerusalem (Matthew 27:52-53). Death could not hold them back. Their families and friends would have had quite a shock that day!

  • Paul is therefore saying that death, the last enemy, has indeed been destroyed. Attend a humanist funeral and a Christian funeral and you will see the difference regarding death. For the Christian it is a joyous moment as the focus is never on death but the centrality that the person is raised and is already with God. So if death is defeated then why do we die? It is because we go have to let go of this earthly body for the resurrected body we receive. It is evidence of the resurrection of Jesus.
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The Evidence for the resurrection of Jesus part 5

We come to the reason why Paul is writing about the resurrection of Jesus. He leaves the big issue till the end of his letter. The Corinthians had begun to reject the application of the resurrection of Jesus. They were preaching that the Church would not be raised from the dead. Paul is aghast! He then presents what is the most powerful arguments for the centrality of Christ’s resurrection to the Christian faith.

“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. 15 More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” (1 Corinthians 15 v 12-19)

Ever played Jenga? I’m sure you have. Jenga comes from the Swahili word to build or construct. Each player takes a wooden tile from the tower as gently as possible without letting it collapse. Paul builds a logical reasoning for the resurrection which is still true today.

  • If there is no resurrection for us then Christ has not been raised.
  • If Christ has not been raised then the entire Christian faith like Jenga, collapses. This game is over.
  • You cannot have one or the other.
  • If Christ is still dead then all our preaching is a nonsense.
  • If Christ is still dead then every believer who has died is also just dead. They have gone forever.
  • If there is no resurrection then all our beliefs as Christians and all our experiences of God are simply a lie.
  • If that is the case then the 2.4 billion Christians today are still unforgiven and more than that, they have wasted and are wasting their entire lives on the greatest delusion the world has ever known.
  • If the body of Jesus had been found in Jerusalem or some other place in the region at any point then the stack of cards come crashing down. The gospel cannot survive the dead body of Jesus being found.
  • Our daily approach in life, to suffering and to death is a reality not a doctrine to defend. Remove the resurrection or its application or any part of it and the love, faith and hope that is our hearts as a living reality is utterly worthless.

This is Paul’s powerful logic for the resurrection of Jesus. The reality of which everything and everyone is transformed by that one event.

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The Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus, part 3

I am not sure how many days this will take and I am excited every day to wake and read more evidences for the resurrection of Jesus. Paul gives us some clear proofs and that being that this was not only a belief of the Church in their generation but people knew it because they had met the risen Jesus!

“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.” (1 Corinthians 15 v 3-8)

Let me extend with evidence from other Scriptures as well as using what Paul has stated here.

The resurrected Jesus appeared to:-

Mary Magdalene, John 20:14

Joanna (wife of Chuza), Luke 24:10

Mary (mother of Jesus, widow of Joseph of Nazareth), Acts 1:14

 Mary (mother of James and Joses/Joseph), Matthew 27:56

Salome (mother of James and John), Mark 16:1

The gospel writers then write of the following:-

Cleopas and another disciple on the road to Emmaus,

Cephas (Peter),

11 disciples and others,

10 apostles and others with Thomas absent,

Thomas and the other apostles,

7 apostles,

500 disciples,

James,

Apostles at the Mount of Olives for their commissioning,

Acts 13:30-31 “But God raised him from the dead, and for many days he was seen by those who had travelled with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses to our people.”

On 13 different occasions the risen Jesus appeared to a total of 552 people.

Look at v6 in our verses this morning: “most of whom are still living”. They can be checked out.

“I’m not making this up!” “I know these people will back up this story!”

These people really did believe in the resurrection of Jesus not only because many had seen the empty tomb but they had met the risen Jesus. But this was Jesus who touched them and who ate with them.

They didn’t just believe it they knew it!