Jesus is...

Jesus makes seven "I am" statements recorded in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, according to John.
I am the bread of life (6:35,48; cf 6:41,51)
I am the light of the world (8:12)
I am the door (10:7,9)
I am the good shepherd (10:11,14)
I am the resurrection and the life (11:25)
I am the way, and the truth, and the life (14:6)
I am the vine (15:1,5)

"I am," recalls the words of God to Moses out of the burning bush: "I AM WHO I AM." As such, by each of these statements Jesus tells us about his mission: to bring life, to be light, to be the door, to lay down his life for the sheep. And, by each of these statements Jesus also tell us about his person: that he is the second Person of the eternal, triune God, Creator of heaven and earth!

The message of the “I am” statements is that it is only in Jesus, it is only in union with Jesus, it is only by participating in Jesus, it is only by believing in Jesus, that we receive true life in all its facets and on the last day, resurrection.

Proclaim the peace of the risen Jesus

God is the ultimate peace maker. And he paid the final price for peace as he sent his only and beloved Son to become our Prince of Peace. The prophet Isaiah eloquently spoke about the joy Jesus Christ would bring by revealing the good news about God’s peace:

Isa 52:7: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns’” And when Jesus was born angels filled the sky and praised God saying: “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to all whom God favours” (Luke 2:14).

Notice how God’s peace and God’s salvation is mentioned in the same breath by Isaiah. In restoring God’s reign in our lives and on earth, we experience heavenly peace through the salvation that God brings. The angels confirmed that it is Jesus that the prophets spoke about.

In the very next chapter Isaiah describes God’s suffering Servant as “a man of sorrows, acquainted with bitterest grief” (Isa 53:3). He suffers not because he did anything wrong, but “he was wounded and crushed for our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace. He was whipped, and we were healed!” (Isa 53:5). God would restore peace on earth through Christ who carried the punishment for our sins and thus restored our peace with God. People who are at peace with God become family with others who were blessed in the same way. God’s people also have a new respectful relationship with all that God created.

Jesus entered the world as the one who would accomplish the assignment of the suffering Servant. In his resurrection he guarantees that this peace would be maintained through the coming of his Kingdom that he received as he was exalted to sit at the right hand of God.

By God’s grace and mercy we serve the Prince of Peace. His light shines through us and his message comes through us. In Christ the prophetic message also speaks about us, when we are faithful in proclaiming the Good News: How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns’ (Isa 52:7)

The risen Jesus gives you peace.

Rom 5: 1. Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Rom 14: 17. For the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Matt. 5: 9. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

Various words describe experiencing the joy of living in the Kingdom of the risen Lord. Life, forgiveness and reconciliation are only three of many words that begin to teach about the layer upon layer of the sum total of what happens when we enter into the resurrection life of Jesus.

But “peace” seems to summarise what is essential to sharing in the life of the risen Jesus. That is if we know that biblical peace is much more than the absence of war and enmity. When OT believers greeted each other with “shalom” that we translate as peace, it had a positive message of being whole, complete and content – as the faithful share in the wholeness and divine bliss that God also enjoys.

One can still see a small speck of Paradise if you take time to look for it. Looking at God’s footprint left in unspoiled nature gives a glimpse of the peace that God intended for us when he created the perfect garden, called planet earth, for us to live in. This is why I simply cannot stay away from the Knysna forest and unspoiled beaches of the southern Cape. And where the dust of commercialisation has not covered too much of this footprint, the beautiful Bushveld and its natural wealth of game and tranquillity also speaks about Paradise: completeness found in being in tune with God, with our garden home he gave us and with one another.

The prophets foretold that the Messiah would be a Prince of Peace and that his Kingdom would restore God’s initial intent for us to share in the peace that the human mind cannot comprehend, yet the human soul can experience in his presence.

But the majority of us cannot run away from the man-made rat race, the less than perfect urban concrete and steel cages we erected to facilitate our technology driven and money run lives. Would peace for us only be a dream and forever unfulfilled desire and need?
Well, we will perfectly and completely only return to God’s Peace Paradise when God’s dominion becomes perfect when the risen Christ returns.

But where we as his followers brings about justice and righteousness through proclaiming the Gospel, the footprint of God’s work will also become visible in our contentment within a restored relationship with Christ, with God, with our Christian family and our family at home.

When we live the peace with God that Jesus brought through his sacrifice and his triumph and his exultation, then we, God’s children, become God’s peace footprint in a warring, struggling, conniving society. The wholeness and completeness that the resurrected Christ brings to our lives and relationships with God, people and nature, is called being the salt of the earth, being the light of the world, yes, being the hope of the despondent!

Now we know why Jesus said: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. (Matt 5:9)

Eastertide teaches us to let go!

To fully find life again, Mary Magdalene had to let go! (John 20: 11 – 18)
The preacher Bill Coffin said that the hope of the resurrection is “to convert us from something less than life to the possibility of full life itself.”

This is what happened to Mary. Her experience of the joy of resurrection life begins when Jesus said her name, “Mary” and then said, “It’s time to let go.” In letting go, we can be converted to the possibilities of full life again.

In letting go in a resurrection world, we can again experience life after pain and sadness and we can expel bitterness. We can find the possibility of full life itself.

These words describe Mary Magdalene.
She cries at the tomb, because she is so sure that Jesus is dead.
She cries for him and she cries for herself and her loss. Yet when Jesus said her name, he is not dead any more, and neither is she!

We need a Saviour to dry the whole world’s tears. And we have a Saviour, the almighty Christ, who dries our tears - one person and one name at a time! Jesus calls us by the name to let go and to start living again. Believe it, because Christ is risen. Christ is risen indeed.

Eastertide: Pray in the Name of the risen Jesus

How do you pray in the Name of Jesus?
In several passages from the Gospel according to John, Jesus instructs us to pray in his Name. For example:
“I will do whatever you ask in my Name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my Name you ask me for anything, I will do it.” (John 14:13-14; see also 15:16; 16:23-24, 26)
This command has led many Christians to end their prayers with words such as “in Jesus name” or “through Jesus Christ our Lord”, before they say “Amen.”

We can only approach God in the Name of Jesus, because we are under the authority of the living Lord. We come into God’s presence, not in our merit, but because the risen Jesus is our Head and King. We are welcome in God’s presence not as a result of who we are, but simply because we belong to Christ.

If we are to pray in the Name of King Jesus, our prayers should be about the agenda of King Jesus. This means that our minds and hearts must be formed and directed by Scripture. It also means that we have to set aside quiet times to listen to the quiet voice of the Holy Spirit who speaks the will of Jesus. When we pray in the Name of Jesus, we do not only approach God under the authority of Jesus, but we come to the Father with the desires of Jesus.

Praying in the Name of Jesus has very little to do with the words we use to end our prayers. Yes, it is a good practice to end our prayers saying, “in the Name of Jesus” or “through Jesus Christ our Lord”. But if we believe that to say this is some sort of magic formula that ensures that God will do what we ask, we should stop saying these words until we are in tune with the Lord and his desires. Self-centred prayers cannot be fixed by a formula of words at the end. There is no example or command in the Bible of how to end our prayers. And the Lord’s Prayer does not say “in Jesus Name” at the end.

But the Lord’s Prayer says – Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. And this is what it means to pray in the Name of Jesus. To come by his authority, with his will, before his Father. To pray in his Name means to desire the heavenly rule of the Son of God to break visibly into this world, on this planet, in my life and where I am called to make a difference.

If saying “in the Name of Jesus” at the end of our prayers helps us to remember that we seek the will of Christ in prayer, we have the freedom to do so. But it is not mentioning the Name of Jesus at the end that makes it a Christian prayer, but by surrendering to his will throughout my prayer that it becomes an approach of the Father in his Name.
It is not so much the words I say at the end of the prayer that makes the difference, but it is my relationship with the risen Lord and my obedience to him throughout my prayer, that makes it a prayer in his Name.

What members of the Centurion West Presbyterian Church said about their experience of Eastertide

I asked few members about their experience of Eastertide in our congregation and this is what they said:

One of the elders said: Holy Week and Eastertide celebrations at our church is a time to remember more intensely that Jesus died for our sins and to celebrate his resurrection from death. It is a time to honour him, recognizing that we can only hope to have eternal life through him. It also is the confirmation of all that Jesus preached and taught during his ministry.

A Steward said: When Christians commemorate Jesus’ way to the cross, the price he paid for the salvation of sinners like me, and his glorious resurrection, gives rise to a sense of thankfulness to God, our Saviour, Friend, Father and Helper. It is a privilege to be part of a congregation where one experiences the love and care of fellow Christians during Eastertide. “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another,” Jesus said.

A student at our Bible School said: To me celebrating Eastertide means that Jesus loved me (a sinner) so much that he conquered death so that I can have eternal life with him - to be able to call him Father and Friend. It helps me to have a relationship with him and to grow to fullness until the day he will come and fetch me to be with him. It is his gift to us all – yet his grace & mercy we will only fully understand when we will be in heaven with him.

A leading elder said: To me, reaching others with the message of Easter- the hope that is the result of the death and resurrection of Jesus - is the crux of Christianity. Our Eastertide services encourage us to celebrate the salvation through the death of Jesus, in order to rejoice because he rose again and lives to intercede for us.

Easter lasts more than a day!

We celebrated Easter on Easter Sunday on 24 April.
But all Christian worship testifies to the resurrection of Christ. Jesus rose on the first day of the week. And we worship on the first day of every week, Sundays, to say to the world that we serve a risen Saviour. Sunday worship speaks on every Sunday of the importance of the resurrection to every Christian and all of humanity.

But because the resurrection of Jesus is the pinnacle of our faith, we also have 50 days, until Ascension Day and Pentecost Sunday that we call Eastertide – a Season of focused learning about the impact on our lives when we say that we serve a risen Saviour. Not to mention the eternal impact!

Fifty days of Easter? What would we do for 50 days? Surely we so not suggest fifty consecutive Easter egg hunts, or fifty “leg of lamb dinners” in a row. And celebrating Eastertide is not duplicating Easter Sunday fifty times over in Church. No, it’s taking time to reflect upon and delight in the truth of serving a living Lord.

The basic truth of Easter is simple: Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Therefore the implications of the resurrection are more than we can learn about during a 20 minute sermon on Easter Sunday! So we need the 50 days of Eastertide to reflect deeply on the many-sided meaning of our Lord’s resurrection.
Here are some themes to think and learn and pray about during Eastertide:

• You can meditate upon what the resurrection says about who Jesus Christ really is – the all powerful and righteous Son of God - (Psalm 16:10; Acts 2:25-28).
• You may try to find the meaning of the truth that “our death has been swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:54-56).
• You should ask what does it mean that the power and might of the risen Jesus is available to Christians today (Ephesians 1:15-23).
• You will have to think of how the resurrection of Jesus assures of our own resurrection (1 Corinthians 15).

Eastertide allows us to think deeply and to pray diligently about what the resurrection of Jesus means to me personally, to us as God’s people, and to the whole world.
Let’s celebrate and learn exuberantly!

Testimony of the Tombstone

Testimony of the Tombstone of Jesus. (Matt. 28: 1-8)
The stone that was rolled into the opening of the tomb, in order to seal it, did not stay there. An angel of the Lord came to the tomb to roll it away.

The stone symbolized the bondage of death. Rolling it away is a symbol of the life that Jesus Christ gives us. Listen to the stone’s testimony! It cries out that Jesus conquered death.

But why was the stone rolled away? If you think that the stone was rolled away for the Lord to come out, you are wrong. Jesus had no need for the stone to be rolled away. We find, later on in the accounts of his appearances, that when the disciples were hiding in a locked room, the resurrected Jesus just walked right in. He needed no door. No wall could hold him. In his resurrection body, he could not be bound by the stone, a symbol of death. The stone was not rolled away for him to come out.

The stone was rolled away so that we could look in. It was rolled away that the followers of Jesus could see that he is not held by the tomb, because he is alive! The empty tomb is important evidence of the resurrection of Jesus. The empty tomb even today is evidence to all that Jesus is not dead, yes, that he is alive.

The significance of the stone rolled away is explained by the angel, "He is not here; he has risen, just as he said." Jesus Christ lived, died, was buried, and rose again from the dead to become our righteousness with God. With a mighty arm, God the Father reached down and broke the bondage of death and through the power of the Holy Spirit called his Son from the grave. Jesus arose, and the stone was rolled away that we can look in and see and know that it is true.

And so he became the Lord of all. And he became the Lord of those whom he has saved.
As you see the empty tomb – are you ready to surrender to him?
To obey, follow and love him with all your heart and strength!

Eastertide: looking for the living Lord.

Eastertide: looking for the living Lord.

On Good Friday some women "stood at a distance" on Golgotha Hill, watching the crucifixion and death of Christ (Lk 23:49; 24:10). Later, they followed Joseph, an influential man who received permission to bury Jesus, and saw the tomb and how Christ's body was laid in it by Joseph. (Lk 23:55). "They went home and prepared spices and perfumes." (Lk 23:56) As soon as he Sabbath is over, they decided, they would give their Teacher and Friend, a proper burial.

Then it is daybreak on Sunday. To their great surprise the tomb is empty. There is no body.
All of a sudden there is a bright light. Standing before them were two men in gleaming white robes (Lk 24:4). They were angels, sent by God. The women trembled in fear and fell to the ground (Lk 24:5). And then they heard the question, the message of the angels, the message of God: "Why do you look for the living among the dead?" You hear the reproach: why are you doing something so foolish? Why are you doing something so unnecessary? "Why do you look for the living among the dead?"

But where should we look for Jesus? Where will we find the living Lord?
We see the living Jesus in the church at worship: a church singing, praying, praising, and testifying reveals the living Jesus. We see the living Jesus when, like the women, we spread the glad tidings that he has risen indeed. (Lk 24:9,10).

When believers are "like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose," there you see the living Christ (Phil 2:2). When believers "do nothing out of selfish conceit, but in humility consider other better than themselves", there you see the living Christ (Phil 2:3). When God's children use their material and spiritual gifts to help others, there too you see the living Jesus.

Finally, we should be looking for Jesus — the living Jesus — in our heart. If only we believe, then Jesus lives in us, making and shaping and moulding us in his image.
How beautifully the old hymn expresses the need to have a relationship with the living Lord. When we do, we will find the living Christ - in our hearts, involved in every aspect of our lives!

I serve a risen Saviour, he's in the world today;
I know that he is living, whatever people say;
I see his hand of mercy, I hear his voice of cheer,
and every time I need him he's always near.

He lives, he lives, Christ Jesus lives today!
He walks with me
and talks with me, along life's narrow way.
He lives, he lives, salvation to impart!
You ask me how I know he lives?
He lives within my heart!!!

Easter and Eastertide...

Easter is about Resurrection!
Easter has become a popular time for holidays. Precious family time, or time of rest, is enjoyed. Families enjoy egg hunts, picnics and get-togethers.

But what about the real meaning of Easter? Do we give it enough thought and time?
The Bible tells us the real meaning of Easter is the resurrection of Christ. That is why for 6 Sundays after the first Easter Sunday we continue to celebrate this most important of all Christian truths, that Jesus rose from the dead - and we call it Eastertide.

Indeed, all Christian worship testifies to the resurrection of Christ. The fact that Christians worship on Sunday, the first day of the week, instead of on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, testifies that the resurrection is the fundamental truth of the whole of Christianity.
Jesus rose on the first day of the week. And we worship on the first day of every week, to say to the world that we serve a risen Saviour. Sunday worship speaks on every Sunday of the importance of the resurrection to every Christian and all of humanity.

We should ask - what if Easter had never happened? The depressing reality of what life would be like had Christ not risen from the dead, is that life would be despair. Only in the resurrection of Christ can we be filled with hope for the future and for eternity. Without his resurrection, life would be hopeless and our faith and prayers pointless and in vain.

But Jesus is alive. He did conquer and we are redeemed!
Let’s continue to celebrate Eastertide with joy, vigour, commitment, faithfulness and much love.

Fourteen Stations of the Resurrection Booklet!

I am not going to continue to publish our devotions on the fourteen Stations of the Resurrection here, but as from tomorrow move on to other thoughts on Eastertide.

But I published a booklet that contains devotional thoughts and prayers on all fourten stations at the following link.
Please down load it there, free of charge, to read the rest of the series:

http://www.centurionwest.co.za/articles.htm

We are told about all these appearances that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ of God, his eternal Son, who died for our sins, and triumphed over our sins and enemies to save us for his Father and his Kingdom and to be witnesses of his glorious resurrection!

Jesus has risen indeed!
And we too shall rise in and through his victory!

Seventh Station of the Resurrection.

Jesus gives the disciples his peace and the authority to proclaim the forgiveness of sins.
Seventh Station of the Resurrection.

John 20: 19b, 20b-23: "Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, 'Peace be with you'... The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, 'Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.' And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained'".

The peace of Christ is with me always. He has called me to be his own, that I may tell others of him and of everything he taught. He gives me the confidence of his life and the hope of his resurrection, the power of his Spirit and the joy of his presence. He is with me always. I pray that I will know him, and bring others to see his authority to forgive and his love that saves.

Prayer: Lord, teach me how to teach this truth, give me the words to say and give me strength that I may honour you with my ministry. You made me your messenger to proclaim the forgiveness of sins. You truly bring good news to my life and through my life to all who receive your forgiveness in faith. Amen.

Sixth Station of the Resurrection

Jesus appears to the disciples in Jerusalem.
Sixth Station of the Resurrection.

"'Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have,' And as he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet" (Luke 24: 38-40).

Jesus is truly alive! He was dead, but now he lives. Even when I think he left me, he is still here beside me and proclaims his Word to me. His promises are forever true. My troubles and distress will never change the reality that he is alive and that he triumphed over death.

Prayer: Grant me hope through the Word that shows me your hands and feet and thus brings me your life. Thank you for your life and that you share your life with me. Amen.