Tilling and Planting

Tag: The Empty Tomb

  • Victory in Jesus

    Victory in Jesus

    Intro

    The church in America has been infected with a defeatist mindset. I don’t know how long ago it started, but at some point the Church forgot it has victory in Jesus over the enemies of God. All too often we live like we have been defeated and won’t even bother trying to fight. We say things like, “That’s just the way it is” and other similar things. Many Christians don’t realize that we don’t have to settle for struggling with sin and muttering “I can’t wait to get to Heaven to not have to deal with this struggle.” They don’t realize that in Jesus we have victory over the devil and he has to flee from us when we tell him to. Some people might even claim that we are powerless to do anything. I beg to differ. The Bible tells a very different story. Check it out.

    Victory Over Sin

    The Bible says that Jesus was tempted and yet didn’t sin (Hebrews 4:15). Because of that Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross atoned for the sins of the every person ever born from the creation of the world until now. And beyond. Jesus’ supreme victory over sin enables us to live victorious over temptations and sinful lifestyles.

    Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Galatians 5:24 (NIV)

    No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. 1 John 3:9 (NIV)

    Now I hear you saying, “But, Cory, I’m saved, but I still sin. What gives?” And my answer is simple. Ask yourself this question, “Am I living in a sinful lifestyle with no intention of changing, or am I actively fighting my sinful tendencies?” If you are actively fighting, then don’t worry, you’re on the right track! When John says “they cannot go on sinning” he means that we as Christians cannot live a lifestyle of sin and enjoy it like we used to. This means that we have victory in Jesus to overcome our sinful past and the temptations that crop up.

    Victory Over Satan

    When Jesus rose from the dead, He also defeated Satan once and for all. When Satan tempted Jesus, He claimed to own the Kingdoms of the world and could give them to Jesus. All Jesus had to do was bow down and worship Satan (see Matthew 4:1-11 and Luke 4:1-13). But look at what Jesus said after He rose from the dead.

    Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Matthew 28:18 (NIV)

    Jesus reclaimed all the earth through the Cross and the Resurrection! And to top it off, this passage – referred to as the Great Commission – shows Jesus telling His disciples that He gives them His authority as well. Furthermore, during Jesus’ ministry, He sent out His disciples and gave them authority over demons and evil spirits. So, why then are so many Christians afraid of Satan and his minions? Jesus gave us authority over them. There’s nothing to be afraid of. If you suspect that there’s some demonic spirit affecting you or a loved one, tell it to go! They have to obey. If it doesn’t seem to work or you are just struggling with the idea, then seek out someone with experience.

    Victory Over Struggles

    I’ve already talked about the sin struggles and struggles against demonic enemies. So what other struggles could I be referring to? How about mental struggles. Stuff like fear, anxiety, depression, general pessimism towards life, negative attitudes, addictions, etc. All these things can (and do) plague Christians every single day. But they shouldn’t. These are all things that Christ gave us victory over on the Cross. God says 365 times (or 366 times, I’ve heard it both ways) in the Bible “Do not fear”. 2 Timothy 1:7 says that God doesn’t give out spirits of fear. He gives a spirit of a sound mind. A sound mind in this context is one of calmness. One that remains unbothered by what’s going on in the world. Yes, you should acknowledge that terrible things are happening, but you shouldn’t let it drive you into fear or anxiety.

    We are not slaves to the thoughts that hit our mind.

    We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:5 (NIV)

    In Jesus, you have the victory to take every thought you have and give it to Jesus and instead force yourself to think about holy, pure, righteous things (Philippians 4:8). Jesus gave this power to us. But so much of the time, we allow the news and other negative talk dominate our thoughts and minds. I’m so grateful that I don’t have to allow it. I can turn around and combat it with the Spirit of God that lives in me.

    How to Walk in Victory?

    The question that all this brings up is, how do I do this? How do I actually overcome the struggles in my life? I hinted at part of it in the last section. The mind. All these struggles I mentioned have at their roots a particular mindset. Whether that mindset is “I can’t control the thoughts that enter my mind” or “Satan is so powerful I’ll never overcome him” or even “I have an advanced stage of cancer, I need to prepare for the inevitable”. In all these cases, in order to start walking with the victory we have in Jesus, you need a mindset change. And here’s some practical ways to go about getting that mindset change.

    The Practical Side

    1. First, you need to believe it. Choose today that you are going to start believing that Jesus already gave you victory over these things. And remind yourself of this every day.
    2. Start every day reading the Word. Fill your mind with what the Bible says about who God is and who He says you are.
    3. Speak life into your life. Declare out loud (doesn’t have to be loud) what God says about you from the Bible. Some good ones to start with are “I am more than a conqueror”, “God is with me”, and “I walk by faith, not by sight”.
    4. Let go of shame. Do not allow sins and mistakes of the past rob you of joy or of being who God called you to be. Jesus already paid for those. Let it go.
    5. Walk in obedience. Obey what God says in his Word and obey what God has called you to personally. The more you walk in obedience, the less you’ll find yourself doing or thinking the things you struggle with.
    6. Surround yourself with people of faith. This goes back to a previous post of mine. It’s impossible to live this Christian life without a community of believers around you to build you up.
    7. And lastly, pray with boldness. Did you know that God says we can come boldly to His throne (Hebrews 4:16)? But all too often we come with hesitancy and pleading, begging God to do something. The early church did not pray that way. In fact, they prayed with boldness, declaring the victory of Jesus over situations – and it happened! So pray like you have the victory. Pray with boldness. And if you struggle with boldness, pray for boldness! Acts chapter 4 says that the church prayed for boldness and God answered that prayer.

    Wrapping Up

    As I wrap this up, I just want to say that I’m talking to myself just as much as I’m talking to you. I struggle with thoughts and temptations and (at times) fear. I struggle with physical issues that I’m seeking healing on, but haven’t seen yet. My mindset isn’t fully renewed to see myself walk in the full victory of Jesus. But I’m learning, I’m moving forward not backward. And at the end of the day, that’s all God asks from us. To move forward. And God will do the rest. He’ll get us there. So, get out there and walk with your head held high and a smile on your face. People might think you’re crazy, but we have a hope that the world doesn’t have. And we are victorious in every way possible. So why shouldn’t we smile?

    Outro

    If you enjoyed this post, please consider doing one or all of these things. First, subscribe if you haven’t. If you have, thank you! Second, spread the word. Send these to everyone you know and encourage them to read and subscribe. This blog is purely word of mouth right now. I rely on you, my readers, to help me get more readers. And third, please consider donating. It’ll enable me to continue to offer regular posts.

    Feel free to leave a comment with any questions about what I’ve written, any additional comments about the post, or if there’s a topic you’d like me to write about. Before doing that though, be sure to check out all my posts here and see if I’ve covered it already. And if you find I’ve done it already but aren’t satisfied or still have more questions, let me know!

    Thank you for reading this! I greatly appreciate each one of you. Until next time, God bless you all!

  • Jesus’ Triumph

    Jesus’ Triumph

    Intro

    After my last post I wouldn’t blame you if you felt a little depressed or defeated. The Son of God betrayed, beaten, crucified, died, and buried in a borrowed tomb. That’s rough. The disciples certainly felt depressed and defeated. They scattered while Jesus hung on the cross. Fearful for their lives, they dared not stick around. What they didn’t seem to recognize (despite Jesus’ predictions) was that Jesus was supposed to die, but that His death was not the end. In fact, with Jesus’ death came the greatest triumph in all of human history. Come explore Jesus’ triumph over death with me. (I realize Easter is over, but there’s much more to talk about.)

    Importance of Resurrection

    Thinking about the resurrection, what makes it so important? After all, Jesus’ death accomplished the sacrifice needed to pay for all our sins and satisfy the wrath of God. Furthermore, none of the animals from any sacrifices came back to life, they all stayed dead. So, why should Jesus come back? What makes His resurrection so necessary? While many reasons can be given, I’ll only present four here.

    Proof of Sufficient Sacrifice

    Jesus’ triumph over the grave by coming back to life was proof given by God that He accepted Jesus’ sacrifice as sufficient to cover our sins. God vindicated Jesus by bringing Him back to life because “the wages of sin is death” and Jesus lived a sinless life, therefore He didn’t deserve to die in the first place. And to make this argument stronger, Paul relates that without the resurrection, our faith is useless and in fact, we are still in our sins.

    And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith….And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 1 Corinthians 15:14, 17 (NIV)

    So, Paul saw the connection between the resurrection and the forgiveness of our sins. That’s a pretty big argument for the resurrections importance!

    Proof of Deity

    In addition to proving the sufficiency of His sacrifice, Jesus’ resurrection also proved His deity. Psalm 16:10 claims that God’s Holy One would never see corruption (or decay). By rising again, Jesus’ body never saw that corruption. Thus proving that He is God’s Holy One. Time and again, Jesus declared Himself the “Son of God” and equated Himself with God (don’t believe Jesus ever claimed that? check out my post on who Jesus is). And to take it a step further, Jesus predicted His own death and resurrection. So by rising again, He proved to everyone that He was indeed the Son of God. The long-awaited Messiah and Savior of the world.

    Death Has No Power

    Here’s a fun reason. When Jesus rose from the grave, death lost it’s power and was forever defeated. As Peter proclaimed in his sermon on the Day of Pentecost:

    But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. Acts 2:24 (NIV)

    Notice he said that “it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him”. This actually goes back to the fact that Jesus lived a sinless life and death had no right to hold Jesus.

    To make this even better, Jesus’ triumph over death extends to us as well. As His followers, He defeated death for us too! Hallelujah! If you keep reading Paul’s discourse in 1 Corinthians 15, he says that because Christ was raised, we too shall be raised from the dead. Now all believers who die a physical death will immediately go to be with the Lord in Heaven, but someday God will raise these physical bodies and recreate them into something glorious.

    So hold on, sickness, suffering, and death do not have the final word. Jesus does. And He defeated all those things on the cross and through His resurrection.

    Matter Matters

    This might sound confusing but let me explain. The resurrection means that this physical world (matter) matters to Him. And this is hugely important since just a few decades later, something called Gnosticism would start spreading. This teaching claims what we do in the physical doesn’t matter. Our spirits are perfect so we can live how we want and we’ll still go to Heaven. However, by rising again in a physical body, Jesus refutes this by proclaiming that the physical creation matters. It’s important to Him. This also gives us hope that creation itself which groans under the weight of sin (Romans 8:22) will be redeemed (Revelation 21).

    Resurrection Foretold

    The triumph of Jesus recorded in the New Testament as His resurrection was prophesied a number of times. Most people recognize that Jesus prophesied His own death and resurrection on several occasions (I’ll cover some of those later), but not everyone realizes that the Old Testament records prophesies of Jesus’ resurrection as well. They acknowledge OT prophesies of His death, but don’t always recognize the resurrection ones as well. I wish to open up your eyes to these prophesies and show you yet more evidence that Jesus was who He claimed to be.

    Old Testament Prophecies

    David utters a line in Psalm 16 that really makes no sense at the time he wrote it. I imagine it confused a lot of people. At least until more prophets started prophesying about a coming Messiah, then people might’ve started connecting it to the Messiah.

    because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay. Psalm 16:10 (NIV)

    I referenced this verse earlier and noted that the Messiah would not see any physical decay. Nor was His spirit left in the realm of the dead (called Sheol by the Jews). A pretty clear picture of rising from the dead here. And Peter in his Pentecost sermon makes reference to this very Psalm.

    Less specific than this one are simply various prophecies about the Messiah that demand His resurrection. What do I mean by that? Various prophecies place the Messiah as sitting on the throne of David, ruling the world, establishing peace and justice throughout the ages. He can’t do that if He’s still in the grave. Zechariah, for example, offers different images picture of a suffering Messiah who comes in humility and lowliness (think riding on a donkey) who is pierced and a Kingly, Ruling Messiah. These differing images demand a resurrection takes place between piercing and ruling.

    I don’t have time to go into all the prophecies of Zechariah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, or the other prophets, but they are all littered with these contrasting images of suffering Messiah and conquering Messiah that demand a resurrection.

    Jesus’ Prophecies

    As I mentioned already, you may be more familiar with Jesus’ prophecies about His own triumph over the grave by rising again. Real quickly I’m going to list some of them out here.

    From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Matthew 16:21 (NIV)

    When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.” And the disciples were filled with grief. Matthew 17:22-23 (NIV)

    “We are going up to Jerusalem,” he said, “and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.” Mark 10:33-34 (NIV)

    Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’? Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. John 16:19-22 (NIV)

    Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”

    They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken. John 2:19-22 (NIV)

    Wow, that’s quite a few times Jesus states that He’s going to die and rise again! And this isn’t even all of them! Makes me wonder how the disciples missed it. But sometimes when we get certain ideas in our heads, everything else just flies right over our heads. The disciples had the Kingly, conquering Messiah image in mind and thus couldn’t comprehend a suffering, dying Messiah.

    I’m going to go in a different direction for the next section. Get a little more apologetic if you don’t mind. And even if you do mind, I’m still going to do it.

    Contradictory Accounts?

    One of the greatest criticisms from skeptics of the Bible and the resurrection is the stark differences between the resurrection accounts found in the 4 gospels. None of them are identical and they even appear to contradict each other on some of the details. While I noticed the differences, I also inherently understood that the different writers recorded different pieces that they had available. Maybe they talked to different people or at the time of their writing only certain people were available (or alive) to get their account. Or perhaps the gospel writers wanted to focus on specific people or aspects of the resurrection. As you can see, just off the top of my head I listed several possibilities to explain the inconsistencies. And I’m sure there’s more.

    Harmonizing the Accounts

    However, this isn’t good enough for the skeptic. So, I found a harmonization of the 4 accounts. I can’t take credit for this so here’s a link to the original article.

    In Summation

    As you can see, we have a pretty strong example of a consistent, non-contradictory series of events that make up one cohesive resurrection story. And it’s very likely that this isn’t the only one out there. But regardless, what’s important is that despite the inconsistencies between the 4 gospels, it can’t be proven that the accounts contradict.

    Wrapping Up

    From everything I’ve said in these last couple of posts, it’s pretty clear that Jesus’ suffering had to occur in order for His triumph – the greatest in human history – to take place. Let us keep these things in mind with gratitude and rejoicing all year long – not just during this season.

    Outro

    If you enjoyed this post, please consider doing one or all of these things. First, subscribe if you haven’t. If you have, thank you! Second, spread the word. Send these to everyone you know and encourage them to read and subscribe. This blog is purely word of mouth right now. I rely on you, my readers, to help me get more readers. And third, please consider donating. It’ll enable me to continue to offer regular posts.

    Feel free to leave a comment with any questions about what I’ve written, any additional comments about the post, or if there’s a topic you’d like me to write about. Before doing that though, be sure to check out all my posts here and see if I’ve covered it already. And if you find I’ve done it already but aren’t satisfied or still have more questions, let me know!

    Thank you for reading this! I greatly appreciate each one of you. Until next time, God bless you all!