Let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. Believers have God's promise that when we faithfully obey Him and don't give up, we will enjoy the very best returns.
Let the Lord encourage your heart as Joe Vasek, pastor of Northeast Baptist Church of Danbury, Connecticut urges us to stay the course.
Three Headlines That Should Lead Every Newspaper
There are three headlines that deserve to be on the front page of every newspaper on the planet every single day of human history:
The first is God became a man.
The second: Jesus Christ died for your sins.
And the third: Jesus Christ conquered death.
Jesus Christ conquered death.
Have you ever pondered the scope of that thought? Jesus Christ conquered death. Death has been defeated.
The Apostle Paul said, "Death is swallowed up in victory. Oh death, where is thy sting? Oh grave, where is thy victory?"
Death is no longer a fearful thing. It no longer holds any power over us. Because Jesus conquered death, our physical death is now actually a good thing, because it means we're finally getting rid of the albatross of this sinful body. Our soul and spirit are finally leaving the pain, the sorrow, and the struggle of this sin-cursed world to go to live forever with our Creator and Redeemer.
The Unique Claim of Christ
In the history of the world, no one has ever claimed that he was going to conquer death, and no one ever followed through on that claim. But Jesus did.
In fact, the Old Testament of the Bible, written before Jesus was born, predicted and made it imperative that the promised Messiah would rise from the dead. Then Jesus, during His life on earth, told those closer to Him that He would rise from the dead. Most of them refused to hear it, but He told them.
And the message of the Church from the very beginning was, "Jesus Christ rose from the dead."
Death and Resurrection: Inseparable Truths
The death of Jesus on the cross and His resurrection from the dead are inseparable. Without the resurrection from the dead, Jesus' death on the cross was meaningless, incomplete, and ineffective. Without Jesus' death for our sins, His resurrection from the dead was pointless and impossible.
When we refer to Christ's death for our sins, we're including the fact of His resurrection. And when we refer to Christ's resurrection from the dead, we're including the fact of His death for our sins on the cross.
Jesus' resurrection from the dead was the game changer for all of humanity for all time.
Biblical Testimony of the Resurrection
Listen to some of the statements that the Bible makes about the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
Peter preached to the crowd on the day of Pentecost: "You men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by Him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know. Him being delivered by the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain, whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that He should be holding of it."
I love that. It was impossible for death to hold the Son of God. Praise God!
In Acts chapter 10, Peter is sharing the gospel with a Roman officer named Cornelius and to a group of people gathered in Cornelius's home. Peter says, "We are witnesses of all things which Jesus did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they slew and hanged on a tree. Him God raised up the third day and showed Him openly. Not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with Him after He rose from the dead. And He commanded us to preach unto the people and to testify that it is He which was ordained of God to be the judge of the quick and the dead. To Him give all the prophets witness that through His name, whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins."
The Apostle Paul spoke of Christ's resurrection from the dead when he preached his very famous sermon on Mars Hill in Athens: "God now commandeth all men everywhere to repent, because He hath appointed a day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men in that He hath raised Him from the dead."
Paul writes in Romans 4, "To whom righteousness shall be imputed, if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification."
Romans 10:9 says, "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."
2 Corinthians 4:14: "Knowing that He which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus and shall present us with you."
Ephesians 1:19-20: "According to the working of His mighty power which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places."
Philippians 3:10: "That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings being made conformable unto His death."
The Central Message
The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the constant message of the apostles, the central topic of the New Testament.
The fact that Jesus paid for our sins and conquered death is the most important, most relevant factor in the life of every human being.
No one else in the history of the human race has ever claimed that they would conquer death for themselves, let alone for every other human being. And no one else in the history of the human race ever went ahead and did it.
Why? Because no one else in the history of the human race has ever been God in human flesh.
Our Response
Christian, death is conquered. Death is conquered.
Never stop praising God for that and never stop telling other people about it.
Stay the course.
We pray that today's program was a blessing to you. If you have any questions or comments, we'd love to hear from you. You can email us at staythecourse@nbcdanberry.org.
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