storiesofvalue

Dear Morning Devotion Group:  The current devotional series: “Jesus: What You Need to Know” has concluded.  Our next series, “Pray Here” will be in preparation for a special congregation-wide alignment at Northside Christian Church this fall (by the same title).

“Pray Here” will explore many aspects of prayer, but as the theme suggests it will focus mostly on key moments common to all of us that challenge our prayer life.  The introduction to the series will begin tomorrow.

For now, you can get a head start by listing (on paper or in your mind) the places in your life where you believe prayer can be most challenging.  I look forward to this journey with you.

Blessings,

Larry Jones

I know the very thought Jesus is growing His kingdom on earth through us is unimaginable.  I mean, the world can seem so out of control and so far away from God, and we can feel very insignificant. But don’t be fooled! Remember, things are not always as they seem.

I love the picture the apostle Paul paints of Jesus in Ephesians 4.  Let me set this picture up before I read it:

In ancient times, when conquerors rode into Rome after a great conquest, throngs of people would gather to greet them.  Normally, the parade would start with the treasures of war, taken from the enemy.  Next would be the prisoners of war, paraded before the people.  Third, the conqueror would appear in a chariot drawn by four horses, and behind him would march his army.  After the march, pagan conquerors would offer a sacrifice to the gods and days of feasting and partying would begin.

Now let’s turn to Ephesians 4:7-8 and read Paul’s word picture: But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.  This is why it says: “When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men.” Do you see it?  Paul is using the word picture of a conqueror riding into the city.  The word used for “grace” in vs. 7 is “gifts”. When Jesus conquered Satan on the cross and defeated death by exiting the tomb He gave us the opportunity to redeem portions of our lives that had been used by Satan and repurpose them for the kingdom of God.  Not only this, but Jesus is always giving people in His kingdom special gifts to use to expand His kingdom on earth.

This is why we don’t need to worry about our ability to overcome some of the strongholds Satan tries to establish in our lives.  We serve the King of Kings, and He will give us what we need to be victorious, if we let Him.

Did you know it matters how we view our kingdom citizenship?  Did you know other people are watching?

I want to share an experience I had a few weeks ago to make a point here.  As you probably know, many church leaders are opponents of the state lottery.  I think one reason for this is because ministers see the back side of gambling after it has destroyed marriages, families and businesses.  I personally don’t play the lottery because I think the belief we can leave funding for our children’s education to chance cheapens its importance.  But that’s a topic for another time.  Late one Sunday afternoon I had been exercising and stopped by a 7-11 for a drink.  I didn’t look much like a preacher.  I was sweaty, was wearing old exercise clothes and smelled…a lot.  While I was standing in line a man in front of me turned around with a grin and said something I didn’t understand.  I asked him to repeat himself and he said, “The Preacher-man is playing the lottery!”  Sure enough, I looked over the counter at the lotto machine and there was an older minister there with a clergy collar on, putting money in the lotto machine.  I will have to admit, it was funny seeing someone who represented a group that often opposes the lotto latched onto a lotto machine on a Sunday after church.  On the way out of the store the guy in front of me was still laughing, so I told him I was a preacher and I thought it was kind of funny too.  He started laughing harder and said, “That makes it twice as funny!”

I thought about why it matters that we are kingdom citizens, and how we can bring the Lord glory through our lives.  Then I realized there are different ways to approach our commitment to Jesus.  Permit me to share them here:

Some people see the Lord’s kingdom as a membership.  We have lots of memberships in our lives.  We can be a member of boy scouts, girl scouts, a fitness club, a civic club, a credit union or a travel club.  Most memberships come with a monthly or yearly fee.  I am a member of AAA, and for the life of me, with the cars I drove when our children were growing up, I don’t know how AAA is still in business.  A membership mentality of God’s kingdom creates the delusion we are in control of the kingdom.  We come with expectations of God, and when things don’t turn out the way we planned we threaten to cancel our membership.

Some people see the Lord’s kingdom as a state fair.  We pay our entry fee, ride a few rides, eat some cotton candy, and watch a few shows.  In this sense, the kingdom is something we turn to when we need to feel good about life.  But when the fun ends and God challenges us to make changes in our lives that are difficult, we leave the fairgrounds to look for another place to get our rush.

Finally, some people see the Lord’s kingdom as their residence.  It is where we live.  It is where we will die, and in the case of the Lord’s kingdom, be raised back to life.  In my kingdom home, God is my Father, and Jesus is my Elder Brother who died for me.  I have many brothers and sisters to whom I am accountable, who need my care.  I am always home.  I might leave my house in the morning, but I am always a member of the household of faith.  In Ephesians 2:19, the Apostle Paul writes, “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household.”

One of the biggest misperceptions of the kingdom of God is that the only place we do kingdom work is when we are serving our church.  Don’t get me wrong.  I believe in serving the Lord’s body.  In fact, I have given my whole life to leading the church.  But this is just one kind of kingdom work.  Did you know when you enter the doors of your company or business on Monday morning you are taking the kingdom of God with you?  You are as much at home in your cubicle or your corner office as you are in your chair in worship.  You are a citizen of the kingdom.

It doesn’t matter whether we are at work, in our neighborhood, or a thousand miles away on vacation.  We are always at home as members of the household of God.  If we view our citizenship in the kingdom of God as a membership, we aren’t going to let God take the lead because we are going to think we are in control.  If we view it as a state fair, we are going to ignore some of God’s greatest challenges when life gets hard.  But if we know we are always at home, we are going to ask God to help us build His kingdom on earth.

This is why it matters that Jesus is our conquering King of Kings: To follow Him is to be a part of His kingdom, and to be a part of His kingdom means we are unleashed citizens tearing down strongholds of Satan and expanding His kingdom on earth. We are a part of His conquest!

The term “King of Kings” is not necessarily a spiritual one.  It means exactly what it suggests; that someone is the supreme king over all other kings.  It was used of the Assyrian kings, the Persian kings, and even Daniel the prophet referred to Nebuchadnezzar as a “king of kings.” In our culture, we use the word “king” as a superlative.  We have a King of Rock, a King of Pop, Burger King and Mattress King.  We even have “Hot Dog King!”  But no earthly king can hold a candle to Jesus.

In the early 1800s, archeologists were in the process of moving a statue of Egyptian King Ramses II to the British Museum.  Actually, all they transported was the upper portion of the statue.  To fuel excitement over the statue’s arrival, English romantic poet Shelly wrote a poem using Ramses II’s other name, “Oxymandias.”  It went this way: “I met a traveller from an antique land who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, and wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, tell that its sculptor well those passions read which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed: And on the pedestal these words appear: ‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’ Nothing beside remains. Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare the lone and level sands stretch far away.”

Sooner or later, nothing remains of earthly kings who call themselves “king of kings”, but Jesus is different.  In Revelation 17:14 the apostle John sees a vision of Jesus making war a group of kings who have sworn their allegiance to satanic forces.  He writes, “They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings–and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers.”

Later, in Revelation 19:16, we find a picture of Jesus after He has fought an ultimate battle against the evil forces of the world.  There John writes, “On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: Kind of Kings and Lord of Lords.”

In Colossians, the apostle Paul makes it clear Jesus has reigned over every other potentate since the beginning.  He writes, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.  He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:15-17)

There was never any doubt about the outcome of the spiritual battle between Jesus and Satan, or even the physical battles He fought in His earthly ministry.  The same is true today.  Jesus is the King of Kings and His kingdom is the kingdom of God.  He calls us out of Satan’s deluded kingdom of darkness into His kingdom of light.  If we answer and make a change in our lives, we will be under His rule and He will reign in our lives and in our hearts.

I want to reference another day of victory involving Jesus.  While the first one was intended to show Jesus’ humble desire to be one of us, the next one will prove Jesus’ authority over all everything, everywhere, for all time.  We may not have been there for the last victory celebration, but we will be there for the next.

After Jesus rose from the dead, He spent 40 days on earth making many appearances to His disciples.  Then, He returned to His Father.  On the day He left, Jesus’ closest disciples gathered with Him on a mountain and received their final instructions.  They were to stay in Jerusalem where they would be filled with power and unleashed for the work of the early church.  At that time they would be Jesus’ witnesses in Jerusalem, Samaria and the far reaches of the earth.

On the day Jesus left, He ascended into the sky.  In Acts 1:9 we read, “After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.  They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.  “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”  

I like thinking about these two important events together: Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem and His second appearance at the end of time.  While they are separated by centuries, and unique in focus, both proclaim Jesus place as the King of Kings and ruler over everything.  One takes place a few days before Satan power was dismantled on the cross, and the last will commemorate his final defeat.

Jesus’ victory celebrations say something about His Kingdom and our place in it.  It could be you have never thought about your place in the kingdom of God, or you have only thought of God’s kingdom as something in the future.  But make no mistake: if we are in Christ, we are in His kingdom now, and as kingdom citizens, nothing in our lives will ever be the same.

In mid-august, 1783, very near the end of the Revolutionary War, Sir Guy Carleton received orders from London to evacuate New York City.  Carleton was unable to give the Continental Army an exact day for his evacuation since Loyalist refugees were flooding in.  But finally, the date was set for November 25^th, and some 29,000 Loyalists were evacuated.  George Washington waited outside the city where he prepared for a triumphant march, but his march was delayed.  It is believed the British greased the flag pole in Battery Park, so the Patriots were initially unable to climb it to take down the British flag.  But after creating some wooden cleats, the Patriots were able to take down the flag and Washington rode into the city.

In most historic triumphal entries the enemy was either subdued or gone by the time generals, emperors or kings arrived.  These stand in stark contrast to the event we call the “triumphal entry” by Jesus.  Here is the Biblical account in Matthew 11:1:  “As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples,² saying to them, ‘Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me.  If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.’ This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:

‘Say to the Daughter of Zion, “See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”‘ The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the colt, placed their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.  The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, ‘Hosannato the Son of David!’ ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ‘Hosanna in the highest!’ When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, ‘Who is this?’ The crowds answered, ‘This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.'”

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, he came “gentle and riding on a donkey.”  He didn’t come in a chariot drawn by four horses like a Roman emperor, and He wasn’t surrounded by dignitaries and generals.  He rode a donkey, and a borrowed donkey at that.  He wasn’t surrounded by armed soldiers, but rather by common people holding palm leaves.  There was no evacuation; no formal surrender, and no flag lifted.  And yet, Jesus was indeed the conqueror.

I don’t, in any way want to suggest the resurrection power of Jesus is just about surviving difficult times.  It is also about living with joy, even in the midst of our trouble. In, fact, the resurrection power of Jesus is what drives us on as believers and the church.

You  may be familiar with the Irish Christian Band Rend Collective. I like something a member of the band said recently in an interview: “We made a recent theological breakthrough as a band and it has changed everything about our approach: seriousness is not a fruit of the spirit …but joy is. There is an irrepressible laughter in the heart of God and this record is an attempt to reflect this as a worshipping community. We think joy is an underemphasized aspect of God’s character. He is the One who invented and even commanded holidays and feasting; who celebrated the first wedding with Adam and Eve; who sings over us and rejoices over us. Jesus’ first miracle was to provide wine to keep a party alive. In His telling of the parable of the Prodigal Son, He uses an extravagant party as a picture of grace. Hebrews even tells us that Jesus suffered the cross ‘for the joy set before Him.’ The culmination of all history is described in terms of celebration – the marriage of Christ and His church.”

Not long ago I conducted a funeral service in our church facility.  I met an older lady in a fashionable hat who was standing near our guest table.  She told me about the walks she used to take with the deceased in a nearby trailer park he managed.  On their walks they talked about scripture, but also about the need people have to know the joy of the Lord.  This dear lady had a special ministry to families affected by HIV/AIDS.  She handed me a card with her name on it, along with the name of her ministry, the “Blessing Hands Outreach Ministry.”  There was a scripture on the card (Deuteronomy 15:10-11), which read: “Give generously to him and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. ¹¹ There will always be poor people in the land.  Therefore I command you to be open-handed toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land.” I will always remember how much joy she displayed as she was telling me about her ministry, even as she came to honor her friend.

Some people think Christians have joy because they are ignoring reality.  I say, the exact opposite is true. The reality is we are here for a short time, and once we realize we were put here by God for His purposes, then we start to see all of our experiences in life differently.  We give, share and love because we want others to know the good news.

This life is not all there is, and while we are here, we can have a relationship with God that brings us joy.  We don’t have to be crushed by our sins, but we can crush sin and its trouble with the name of Jesus.  He has risen from the dead, and has proclaimed victory over sin and death.

There are a lot of events that can happen in our lives to make us think God has rejected us, or His grace isn’t big enough to cover our sins.  But the resurrection is a powerful moment in history that constantly reminds us otherwise.

A few days ago, Jane and I went out to eat.  We had one of those plastic gift cards Jane’s parents had sent her for her birthday.  I was happy to eat on Jane’s birthday present!  When it was time to pay, we gave the waiter our card and in a few moments he returned to tell us the bad news: the card was empty.  I had heard about empty gift cards and I know that’s why we save those little receipts that prove the funds were put on them.  I didn’t have the receipt, so I handed the waiter some cash.  But while he was gone, I accessed our account on my phone, and behold!  The money was there.  I alerted the waiter and he returned my cash.

An occasional crisis of confidence in the Lord is a normal part of our walk with Him.  I think it is one of the ways Satan tried to wear us down.  He knows He can’t defeat God, so he tries to discourage us.  However, the resurrection reminds us our future is secure, and our present relationship with God is made right.  We have salvation “on account”, and because we know things are going to be fine when we get to heaven, and we are covered with grace now, we don’t have to let Satan trip us up.

One of the most loved songs about Jesus’ resurrection “Because He Lives” by Bill and Gloria Gaither.  In a testimony about the song Gloria Gaither talks about the climate out of which the song came.  It was the 1960, and our country was experiencing great upheaval and disillusionment.  The Vietnam War was bringing the pain and suffering of our troops into our living rooms every evening, and people were claiming God was dead.  Gloria writes the following: “In this climate, Bill and I sought to write songs with lasting answers to the turmoil of the human spirit. But in the fall of 1969, several things happened to test the reality of our own convictions. We realized we were expecting another baby. Though we had always intended to have another child, we weren’t planning on a baby so soon. My body hadn’t quite recovered from the last pregnancy. Making matters worse, Bill contracted mononucleosis, which left him exhausted and depressed. This combination of national turmoil and personal trouble discouraged us, and we occasionally asked each other; ‘If the world is like this now, what will it be in fifteen or sixteen years for our baby? What will this child face?’  While pondering and praying about these things, we came to realize anew that our courage doesn’t come from a stable world, for the world has never been stable. Jesus Himself was born in the cruelest of times. No, we have babies, raise families, and risk living because the Resurrection is true! Our baby arrived safe and sound, and we named him Benjamin, which means ‘most beloved son.’ A few weeks later ‘Because He Lives’ was born in our hearts and poured from our souls”.   Perhaps, you will recognize these words from the Gaither’s song, “Because he lives, I can face tomorrow.  Because he lives, all fear is gone. Because I know he holds the future, life is worth the living just because he lives.”

We have a lot of experiences in lives that eat away at our confidence in God.  We have struggles at home, at work, at school, and within our souls.  We have feelings of disappointment, discouragement, abandonment, rejection and fear.  For a lot of us, our biggest tests come when we are waiting on an answer from God or He isn’t working in the way we hoped He would.  If we aren’t careful, we can slip into a pit of fear and Satan can torment us and steal our joy.  That’s when we remember the empty tomb, which tells us our victory is secure!  God has not left us, and there is nothing Satan can ultimately do to us to destroy us.

We can’t claim to worship Jesus as our Lord, and we certainly can’t claim to be redeemed by Him and discount the resurrection.  There are two good reasons this is true:

First, Jesus said He would rise from the dead.  In Matthew 16:21 we read, “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, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”  Since Jesus predicted His own resurrection, if He did not rise, then we would have to conclude He was lying or insane.  And if He was lying or insane, how can we believe anything else He said?  Many years ago, C.S. Lewis authored the classic book “Mere Christianity” in which he made this now famous statement: “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

Secondly, the resurrection validates what Jesus did on the cross.  The empty tomb appears in a sequence of truth: At the cross Jesus proclaimed victory over Satan by paying our debt and setting us free from the prison of sin, and when He emerged alive from the tomb Jesus proclaimed victory over the penalty of human death.  By this very public display, Jesus was able to validate something that was not that easy to see; His victory over sin at the cross.  This methodology was similar to Jesus’ healing of the lame man in Capernaum (Mark 2:1-12).  Jesus eventually healed the lame man, which was something everyone could see, to prove He had the power to forgive his sins, which could not be seen.

The Apostle Paul addressed the subject of validation in his first letter to the Corinthians.  Evidently, there were people in Paul’s day who believed it was possible to follow Jesus without clinging to the resurrection.  In 1 Corinthians 12-20 Paul wrote, “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?  If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.  And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.  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.  For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either.   And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.  If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.  But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

When Jesus rose from the dead He established Himself as the Victor over Satan.  It became evident to everyone He had been victorious all along, even if for a moment His death on the cross suggested otherwise.  This fact has huge implications for each of us when we face circumstances beyond our control.  Jesus was victorious over sin and death, and He gives us victory over all of Satan’s devices.

Some of you have been watching the NCAA men’s basketball playoffs over the past couple of weeks.  As you may know, when the tournament brackets are drawn up, four teams receive a #1 seed and one team is considered the overall #1 team.  This doesn’t guarantee a win, but it does suggest who is most likely to win, based on the best analysis.

If we had analyzed Jesus’ power over Satan during His ministry, and projected who was going to win the ultimate conflict, we probably would have ranked Jesus #1.  Not only was He an incredible teacher, but He had the power to heal disease, calm angry storms, cast out demons and raise the dead.  How could He not do anything that needed to be done?

Then came the cross, and for the first time Jesus’ disciples had to face the reality He might not have been One they thought he was.  Even Jesus’ enemies at the foot of the cross rubbed it in.  They yelled out, “He saved others!  Why can’t He save Himself?” As Jesus died on the cross, it must have seemed like the biggest upset in history! But things are not always as they seem.  When it comes to Jesus’ battle with Satan, He was actually handing him a huge defeat at the cross.  By dying in our place, Jesus was breaking the power Satan had over us and ending His game of oppression.  Yet, as they took Jesus down from the cross, He didn’t look much like #1.  That’s where the resurrection comes in.  In fact, what Jesus did on the cross didn’t come into full focus until He rose from the dead.

It is important that we recognize something about the resurrection.  Jesus’ resurrection isn’t one of those optional pieces of scripture we can take or leave.  We can’t claim to worship Jesus as our Lord, and we certainly can’t claim to be redeemed by Him and discount the resurrection.