Saturday, April 23, 2011

Easter Sunday- Resurrection Day Sermonette

Risen with Christ
April 24, 2011

"If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." (Colossians 3:1)

The wise believer revels in the fact of Christ's resurrection. Some things in Scripture may be easier to identify with and apply, including Christ's substitutionary death, but it is the resurrection which gives us power to live victoriously. "Like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:4).

We have been "crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed" (Romans 6:6). Nevertheless, we are risen with Him, as our text and elsewhere (Romans 6; Ephesians 2:1-10; etc.) clearly teaches. This resurrection is an inward one, of course, but our bodily resurrection is also guaranteed by Christ's bodily resurrection, should we physically die. "Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus" (2 Corinthians 4:14).

Power to serve Him effectively comes through His resurrection, for we have access to the "exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead" (Ephesians 1:19-20). We have authority over all human and demonic institutions through Him who even now operates as head of the living church of His followers.

Perhaps the most precious of all benefits of the resurrection is that "we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens" who is sympathetic to "the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:14-16). JDM

h/t: J D MORRIS, INSTITUTE FOR CREATION RESEARCH

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Sunday Sermonette

The First Day of the Week
April 17, 2011

"And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight." (Acts 20:7)

Given the fact that everything about God's Word was specifically inspired by its Author, it is appropriate that this important phrase, "the first day of the week," occurs exactly eight times in the Bible. The first six of these (Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:2, 9; Luke 24:1; John 20:1, 19) all stress the fact that it was on this day that the greatest event in history (since the creation) had taken place. The creation of the universe had taken place on the first day of the week, and now its Creator had conquered sin and death itself on that day. In the Bible, of course, the number "seven" represents completeness, so "eight" represents a new beginning--a new creation, a resurrection.

The last two references tell us just how the early Christians remembered this day. Our text verse tells us this was a day on which the disciples assembled together, had a preaching service, and then "broke bread." This was not a special assembly called just for Paul, for he had already been waiting there six days (see previous verse). This was about 25 years after the resurrection itself and the Jewish believers were evidently still observing the seventh day as a rest day, but then they also observed the first day of the week as the time to commemorate the Lord's death in "breaking of bread" to celebrate His resurrection, and especially to hear the preaching of His Word. The final reference tells us one other vital thing they did: "Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him" (1 Corinthians 16:2). The first day of the week should always be a time of remembering Him in these joyful ways, for He is our living Lord and Savior. HMM

h/t: HENRY M MORRIS, INSTITUTE FOR CREATION RESEARCH

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Sunday Sermonette

Flesh and Bones
April 10, 2011

"Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have." (Luke 24:39)

One of the speculations of modern liberals who deny the resurrection is that the disciples saw some kind of apparition, or even were having hallucinations, when they "thought" they saw Jesus alive after His death. But a supposed "hallucination" is never seen by an entire group of people at the same time, as Jesus was seen, again and again.

Jesus Himself answers those who say it was a "spiritual" resurrection. His spirit never died, so His spirit could not be resurrected. At first the disciples did, indeed, think they were seeing His "ghost," but then He showed them the scars of the spikes that had pierced His hands and feet, and He also ate part of a fish and a honeycomb before them (vv. 37, 40, 42). They could no longer doubt the reality of His bodily resurrection. It is sobering to realize that He will always bear those scars, even in His glorified body. The Scripture says that when He comes again, "they shall look upon me whom they have pierced" (Zechariah 12:10). "Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him" (Revelation 1:7).

It is also significant that Christ did not use the more common phrase "flesh and blood" when He spoke to the disciples, but "flesh and bones." His blood had been shed on the cross as the price of our redemption (1 Peter 1:18-19).

In our own future resurrected bodies which shall be like His (1 John 3:2; Philippians 3:21), blood will no longer be needed. Blood is essential now for "the life of the flesh is in the blood" (Leviticus 17:11), but in that day "the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" (1 Corinthians 15:52) to be like Him forever. HMM

h/t: HENRY M MORRIS, INSTITUTE FOR CREATION RESEARCH

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Sunday Sermonette

The Father of Spirits
April 3, 2011

"Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?" (Hebrews 12:9)

Human parents transmit physical characteristics to their offspring, but our spiritual attributes come from God, for He is "the Father of spirits." Paul recognized that all men are "the offspring of God" (Acts 17:29), and that each man is still "the image and glory of God" (1 Corinthians 11:7).

Thus our spirit/soul nature, as distinct from our body of physical/mental flesh, has come from God, who created it and united it with our body, evidently at the moment of physical conception in the womb. It is obvious that the "image of God," man's spirit/soul nature, could not be transmitted genetically via the "genetic code" and the DNA molecules, for these are simply complex chemicals programmed to transmit only the physical and mental attributes of the ancestors to the children. Nevertheless, the spirit/soul attributes of each person also seem to be associated inseparably with the body from conception onwards, continuing so until separated again at death, when the spirit goes "to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord" (2 Corinthians 5:8), leaving the body behind.

In the meantime, however, the "image of God" in man is marred by its incorporation in man's "sinful flesh," for "the body is dead because of sin" (Romans 8:3, 10). By this union of flesh and spirit, man inherits Adam's fallen nature as well as his mortal body, and both are in need of salvation. Christ "gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity" (Titus 2:14). Therefore, we, like Paul, can pray that our "whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thessalonians 5:23). HMM

h/t: HENRY M MORRIS, INSTITUTE FOR CREATION RESEARCH