Happy Easter!
Well, today is 3 weeks in quarantine without sugar, walking 3 miles a day, no meat, dairy or flour. I feel great!! No alcohol and a vegan diet. A 2-hour home exercise bike every day. Lost 14 lbs. and gained muscle mass. I have no idea who posted this on Facebook, but I am proud of them.
Seriously, one of the benefits or silver linings of the virus is the number of people who are getting out of doors, walking, biking, running, breathing in the beauty of nature and receiving mega doses of vitamin D from the sunshine. The sun’s ultraviolet B rays hit cholesterol in the skin cells providing energy for vitamin D synthesis to occur. This involves extra oxygen from the liver and extra oxygen from the kidneys, but that is more than you wanted to know and more than I wanted to read about online.
The point is the beauty of being out of doors tends to turn our attitude to thanksgiving for the creation that we have received from God.
But we can travel the world, see the most beautiful sights in the world and still remain flat and uninspired in our worship. The last chapter of Matthew pulls back the curtain of complacency and like the other resurrection passages can enable us to see the risen Christ in all his resplendent glory.
There are two appearances of Christ listed in Matthew 28, first to the women in verse 9 and to the disciples in verse 17. Both times, when they saw Christ, they worshipped Him!!
If our worship is not exhilarating, perhaps we do not see Him as He truly is.
The King of Kings
The Creator of the universe
The One in whom all things hold together
Our Savior
Our Messiah
Our Lord
Our Shepherd
Our Door
Our Way
Our Truth
Our Life
The True Vine
The Light of the world
The Bread of life
The Alpha and the Omega
The Lamb of God
Do we truly see Him resurrected? The women worshipped Him; the disciples worshipped Him.
Do we worship him as resurrected? He is risen. He is risen indeed! We all know that the Resurrection represents the fact that Jesus rose from the dead. That He is living present tense in 3 places today. Do we have fearful worship?
Miracle of miracles, that someone would come from death to life.
It is a sidebar to note that it was Jesus who raised from the dead three people –
A widow’s son described in Luke 7,
A 12-year-old daughter described in Luke 8
Lazarus, described in John 11
In the description leading up to raising of Lazarus, prior to his doing so, Jesus said, about himself, “I am the resurrection and the life –
So, as we look at the Gospels, as we look at the New Testament Scripture of the Resurrection accounts in Matthew 28, in Mark 16, in Luke 24, in John 20. We hear in each a description of the condition of Jesus.
Matthew 28:1-10 What specifically was said about Jesus? 28:5 “But the angel said to the woman, Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus, who was crucified. 28:6, (the angel continues) He is not here, for he has risen, as he said.
Then at the end of verse 7, He is going before you to Galilee, there you will see Him. So we read, He was risen, He would be seen!
Verse 9, And behold, Jesus met them and said, Greetings! And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshipped Him. Jesus said to them (v. 10) Do not be afraid, go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee and there they will see me. So, He was Risen, He was Seen, He was Worshipped.
So the disciples went to Galilee (v. 16) then they saw Him and worshipped him, and some doubted (v. 17.)
Notice that in Matthew 28:6, they were told He was risen and that you will see Him. But notice twice in Matthew 28 that when they saw Him, (v. 9 and v. 17) they saw Him physically as a man and worshipped Him as God.
They went from believing in Him only to believing Him and worshipping Him!!
When Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness in Matt. 4, the devil said, “All the kingdoms I will give you if you bow down and worship me.” But Jesus said, for it is written, “You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.”
When Jesus rose from the dead, the women and the disciples realized that He was not some specter, not some ethereal spirit, not some angel, not just a possible visual apparition, but God in the flesh – the only wise God.
Before the resurrection, there are three occurrences in the gospels where the word worship is used about Jesus. When the wise men came to Jesus as a baby, they worshipped Him. But fear was involved, because Herod the Great wanted to destroy the baby Jesus. So, the wise men did not return to Herod but left another way.
The second occurrence was when Jesus came on the water to a boat during a storm. The disciples were astonished!! Then Peter decides to meet Jesus by walking toward Jesus on the water as well. First the disciples think they see a ghost (Matt. 14), then they are also afraid when Peter almost drowns. In addition to all of this in Matthew 14, there is a storm. So, Jesus walks on the water, Peter tries to walk on the water and there is a storm. There is great fear. But Jesus rescues Peter, Jesus calms the storm – then they worship Him.
Yes, during Palm Sunday people cried Hosanna, but the Pharisees greatly feared His power. I want you to notice that just as fear was involved in the worship of the baby Jesus, just as fear was involved when Jesus calmed the storm and rescued Peter, just as there was fear of Him on Palm Sunday, so in the resurrection appearances there is great fear before worship.
Matthew 28:5 The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid.” It is interesting to note that in Matthew 28:8 the women departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy.
The wise men worshipped the baby Jesus, Matthew 2:11
The disciples worshipped Jesus in the boat, Matthew 14:33
They worshipped Him at his ascension into Heaven, Luke 24:52
The blind man worshipped Him, John 9:38
But when Jesus healed the blind man, at the inquisition the blind man’s parents deflected the leaders’ question for they feared being thrown out of the synagogue. The healed blind man was thrown out of the synagogue but ended up worshipping Jesus.
Before His ascension, the disciples saw Him and were frightened and startled and troubled (Luke 24: 37,38) but they ended up worshipping Him (v. 52).
So one can make the argument that when one senses the majesty of Jesus, there should be appropriate fear that should lead to worship. One can make the argument that true worship acknowledges that this risen Christ is truly alive today in our midst to be worshipped.
But where is He? I pose the question – Where is the living Jesus now that He has ascended? Most of you will readily say accurately that He is in Heaven. Yes, He is….
By the way when Jesus cried out and gave up his spirit, His spirit went to preach to the captives in hell and was then in Paradise, or Heaven with the cross until his spirit returned to be resurrected. (John 19:30)
(Mark 16:19) So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into Heaven and sat down at the right of God.
At Caiaphas’ house, before the assembled Sanhedrin, Jesus told them, “From now on the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God.” (Luke 22:69)
Where is Jesus in addition to being in Heaven at the right hand of the Father?
Jesus is in us. (2 Cor 13:5)
Examine yourselves, test yourselves, do you not know that Jesus Christ is in you?
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Gal 2:20)
Christ is in the body of Christ, the church.
The Bible says, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” (Matt 18:20)
“For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.” (Rom 12: 4-5)
Yes, Christ is in He, and Heaven, yes Christ is in us, and Christ is in the church, His body.
Yes, Romans 12:5 says we are one body in Christ.
This phrase in Christ applies to many aspects of our Christian lives.
I Cor 1:4 We receive grace in Christ
Rom 3:24 Our redemption is in Christ
Gal 2:17 We are justified in Christ
Eph 4:32 We have forgiveness in Christ
Rom 8:1 There is condemnation in Christ
II Cor 5:17 We are a new creation in Christ
Rom 6:23 We have eternal life in Christ
Phil 6:23 We have eternal life in Christ
Phil 4:19 God supplies all our needs in Christ
Eph 1:3 We have every spiritual blessing in Christ
Col 1:28 We will be presented to God perfect in Christ
Rom 8:32 Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ
J.I. Packer in his book, Quest for Godliness compares the old English Puritans who lived and suffered from 1550 to 1700 with the Redwoods of California. Those Puritans were giants whose roots were incredibly deep in the Bible, and whose branches reached to the heavens, and whose trunks were so strong and durable that they could endure the forest fires that scar but don’t kill them. But Packer looks out over the pragmatic American landscape of our quick fixes for life’s problems and our impatience with depth, complexity and pain and says, “Affluence seems for the past generation to have been making dwarfs and deadheads of us all.”
If we see life in Christ like a redwood, we will be unshakeable in the storms and useful in times of incredible suffering.
If our worship is indifferent, if you are not joyfully excited about Easter, maybe you are not seeing Jesus as He really is. Maybe He is not startling you with His power, with His majesty.
True Christianity is a prayerful, life-changing experience when we are in such awe, and poor in spirit, that we have a healthy fear of Him.
One remedy is to look at where Jesus is not. He inhabits 3 places. The first is in Heaven. The second is in us. The third is in the church, the body of Christ.
What was said about Jesus
Risen
Seen
Worshipped
What we can say about the worship of Jesus
Well, today is 3 weeks in quarantine without sugar, walking 3 miles a day, no meat, dairy or flour. I feel great!! No alcohol and a vegan diet. A 2-hour home exercise bike every day. Lost 14 lbs. and gained muscle mass. I have no idea who posted this on Facebook, but I am proud of them.
Seriously, one of the benefits or silver linings of the virus is the number of people who are getting out of doors, walking, biking, running, breathing in the beauty of nature and receiving mega doses of vitamin D from the sunshine. The sun’s ultraviolet B rays hit cholesterol in the skin cells providing energy for vitamin D synthesis to occur. This involves extra oxygen from the liver and extra oxygen from the kidneys, but that is more than you wanted to know and more than I wanted to read about online.
The point is the beauty of being out of doors tends to turn our attitude to thanksgiving for the creation that we have received from God.
But we can travel the world, see the most beautiful sights in the world and still remain flat and uninspired in our worship. The last chapter of Matthew pulls back the curtain of complacency and like the other resurrection passages can enable us to see the risen Christ in all his resplendent glory.
There are two appearances of Christ listed in Matthew 28, first to the women in verse 9 and to the disciples in verse 17. Both times, when they saw Christ, they worshipped Him!!
If our worship is not exhilarating, perhaps we do not see Him as He truly is.
The King of Kings
The Creator of the universe
The One in whom all things hold together
Our Savior
Our Messiah
Our Lord
Our Shepherd
Our Door
Our Way
Our Truth
Our Life
The True Vine
The Light of the world
The Bread of life
The Alpha and the Omega
The Lamb of God
Do we truly see Him resurrected? The women worshipped Him; the disciples worshipped Him.
Do we worship him as resurrected? He is risen. He is risen indeed! We all know that the Resurrection represents the fact that Jesus rose from the dead. That He is living present tense in 3 places today. Do we have fearful worship?
Miracle of miracles, that someone would come from death to life.
It is a sidebar to note that it was Jesus who raised from the dead three people –
A widow’s son described in Luke 7,
A 12-year-old daughter described in Luke 8
Lazarus, described in John 11
In the description leading up to raising of Lazarus, prior to his doing so, Jesus said, about himself, “I am the resurrection and the life –
So, as we look at the Gospels, as we look at the New Testament Scripture of the Resurrection accounts in Matthew 28, in Mark 16, in Luke 24, in John 20. We hear in each a description of the condition of Jesus.
Matthew 28:1-10 What specifically was said about Jesus? 28:5 “But the angel said to the woman, Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus, who was crucified. 28:6, (the angel continues) He is not here, for he has risen, as he said.
Then at the end of verse 7, He is going before you to Galilee, there you will see Him. So we read, He was risen, He would be seen!
Verse 9, And behold, Jesus met them and said, Greetings! And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshipped Him. Jesus said to them (v. 10) Do not be afraid, go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee and there they will see me. So, He was Risen, He was Seen, He was Worshipped.
So the disciples went to Galilee (v. 16) then they saw Him and worshipped him, and some doubted (v. 17.)
Notice that in Matthew 28:6, they were told He was risen and that you will see Him. But notice twice in Matthew 28 that when they saw Him, (v. 9 and v. 17) they saw Him physically as a man and worshipped Him as God.
They went from believing in Him only to believing Him and worshipping Him!!
When Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness in Matt. 4, the devil said, “All the kingdoms I will give you if you bow down and worship me.” But Jesus said, for it is written, “You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.”
When Jesus rose from the dead, the women and the disciples realized that He was not some specter, not some ethereal spirit, not some angel, not just a possible visual apparition, but God in the flesh – the only wise God.
Before the resurrection, there are three occurrences in the gospels where the word worship is used about Jesus. When the wise men came to Jesus as a baby, they worshipped Him. But fear was involved, because Herod the Great wanted to destroy the baby Jesus. So, the wise men did not return to Herod but left another way.
The second occurrence was when Jesus came on the water to a boat during a storm. The disciples were astonished!! Then Peter decides to meet Jesus by walking toward Jesus on the water as well. First the disciples think they see a ghost (Matt. 14), then they are also afraid when Peter almost drowns. In addition to all of this in Matthew 14, there is a storm. So, Jesus walks on the water, Peter tries to walk on the water and there is a storm. There is great fear. But Jesus rescues Peter, Jesus calms the storm – then they worship Him.
Yes, during Palm Sunday people cried Hosanna, but the Pharisees greatly feared His power. I want you to notice that just as fear was involved in the worship of the baby Jesus, just as fear was involved when Jesus calmed the storm and rescued Peter, just as there was fear of Him on Palm Sunday, so in the resurrection appearances there is great fear before worship.
Matthew 28:5 The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid.” It is interesting to note that in Matthew 28:8 the women departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy.
The wise men worshipped the baby Jesus, Matthew 2:11
The disciples worshipped Jesus in the boat, Matthew 14:33
They worshipped Him at his ascension into Heaven, Luke 24:52
The blind man worshipped Him, John 9:38
But when Jesus healed the blind man, at the inquisition the blind man’s parents deflected the leaders’ question for they feared being thrown out of the synagogue. The healed blind man was thrown out of the synagogue but ended up worshipping Jesus.
Before His ascension, the disciples saw Him and were frightened and startled and troubled (Luke 24: 37,38) but they ended up worshipping Him (v. 52).
So one can make the argument that when one senses the majesty of Jesus, there should be appropriate fear that should lead to worship. One can make the argument that true worship acknowledges that this risen Christ is truly alive today in our midst to be worshipped.
But where is He? I pose the question – Where is the living Jesus now that He has ascended? Most of you will readily say accurately that He is in Heaven. Yes, He is….
By the way when Jesus cried out and gave up his spirit, His spirit went to preach to the captives in hell and was then in Paradise, or Heaven with the cross until his spirit returned to be resurrected. (John 19:30)
(Mark 16:19) So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into Heaven and sat down at the right of God.
At Caiaphas’ house, before the assembled Sanhedrin, Jesus told them, “From now on the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God.” (Luke 22:69)
Where is Jesus in addition to being in Heaven at the right hand of the Father?
Jesus is in us. (2 Cor 13:5)
Examine yourselves, test yourselves, do you not know that Jesus Christ is in you?
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Gal 2:20)
Christ is in the body of Christ, the church.
The Bible says, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” (Matt 18:20)
“For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.” (Rom 12: 4-5)
Yes, Christ is in He, and Heaven, yes Christ is in us, and Christ is in the church, His body.
Yes, Romans 12:5 says we are one body in Christ.
This phrase in Christ applies to many aspects of our Christian lives.
I Cor 1:4 We receive grace in Christ
Rom 3:24 Our redemption is in Christ
Gal 2:17 We are justified in Christ
Eph 4:32 We have forgiveness in Christ
Rom 8:1 There is condemnation in Christ
II Cor 5:17 We are a new creation in Christ
Rom 6:23 We have eternal life in Christ
Phil 6:23 We have eternal life in Christ
Phil 4:19 God supplies all our needs in Christ
Eph 1:3 We have every spiritual blessing in Christ
Col 1:28 We will be presented to God perfect in Christ
Rom 8:32 Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ
J.I. Packer in his book, Quest for Godliness compares the old English Puritans who lived and suffered from 1550 to 1700 with the Redwoods of California. Those Puritans were giants whose roots were incredibly deep in the Bible, and whose branches reached to the heavens, and whose trunks were so strong and durable that they could endure the forest fires that scar but don’t kill them. But Packer looks out over the pragmatic American landscape of our quick fixes for life’s problems and our impatience with depth, complexity and pain and says, “Affluence seems for the past generation to have been making dwarfs and deadheads of us all.”
If we see life in Christ like a redwood, we will be unshakeable in the storms and useful in times of incredible suffering.
If our worship is indifferent, if you are not joyfully excited about Easter, maybe you are not seeing Jesus as He really is. Maybe He is not startling you with His power, with His majesty.
True Christianity is a prayerful, life-changing experience when we are in such awe, and poor in spirit, that we have a healthy fear of Him.
One remedy is to look at where Jesus is not. He inhabits 3 places. The first is in Heaven. The second is in us. The third is in the church, the body of Christ.
What was said about Jesus
Risen
Seen
Worshipped
What we can say about the worship of Jesus
- As an infant
- On the Sea of Galilee
- With the blind man
- As with the women and the disciples after He was risen
