A Facebook friend and fellow servant of the Lord, John Dobbs, wrote the following for his church bulletin and I thought it would be great to share: Pentecost! Pentecost is known in the Old Testament as the Festival of Weeks and comes from a teaching in Leviticus 23:16 which called on the Israelites to count seven weeks or fifty days from the end of Passover to the grain offering. This Festival is the second great feast in Israel’s yearly cycle of holy days. It was originally a harvest festival but in time turned into a day to commemorate the giving of the law on Mt. Sinai. For Christians, Pentecost has significant meaning. Seven weeks after the resurrection of Jesus, during this Jewish celebration, the Holy Spirit was poured out as prophesied by Joel. We are very familiar with the account we read in Acts 2 and it’s Gentile echo in Acts 10 at the home of Cornelius. Churches of Christ do not typically observe any special activities related to Pentecost, probably because we emphasize the second half of Acts chapter 2 significantly throughout the year. Early church father Origen (c 248 AD) wrote, “He who can truly say, ‘He has exalted us and made us to sit with him in heavenly places in Christ,’ is always living in the season of Pentecost.” Since we are united with Christ in baptism and the Spirit abides within us, each day is an experience of vitality and new life in the Kingdom. When we feel detached from God we should spend a moment considering the wonder of the Pentecost story. The message is clear. God’s Spirit lives within us and empowers us to be beacons of His light in a dark world that does not know Him. We need not wait seven weeks for God’s presence and strength is for today. John Dobbs

Northside Church of Christ | Harrison, AR

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Timeline Photos

Sign Ups to help begin this Sunday at the table in the foyer.

CYCLE 3 (and this is a BIG one!) [Gospeling in the Acts] Transition, Acts 1; Part 3 Today’s Reading: Acts 1:9-14 After Jesus told His disciples, according to Acts 1:8, that they would receive power from the Holy Spirit and then they would become witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth, Jesus was “taken” by a cloud and out of their sight. The way the scene played out must have jogged their memory of the time in the upper room when Jesus had told them that He must go away or the Spirit would not come (Jn. 16:7). Their gazing into the heavens, after He was taken must have left them awestruck. Perhaps, just perhaps, they were anticipating the Spirit to come immediately. Obviously, we don’t know. Two men in white clothes appeared to the disciples questioning them why they were standing there looking up. There is no doubt that these men were angels of God. They were there for comfort and assurance. Notice that what they told them is in keeping with the rhythm that we discussed in the last post: “This Jesus, who has been taken from you into Heaven, will come in the same way that you have seen Him going into Heaven (v. 11).” Jesus would return in a similar way as He left—to the same beat; to the same tune. When He would return again would be the final act of creation with no more power which results in exile. It would be then that the grand cycle of “creation -> exile -> creation” would be complete. All things would be restored, as Peter would later preach (Acts 5:21). In the same way that God made all things, descended in presence upon the tabernacle, and was incarnated as Jesus (tabernacle in the flesh), God would descend once more for His glory to be revealed to and through His people and His creation. The image of His ascension is parallel to the Son of Man in Daniel 7:13,14. But the point of it all seems to say, “God has continuously, in rhythmic fashion, made His presence known to the world. He will appear one last time and then all things will be restored (cf. 1 Cor. 15:28).” The rhythmic song is in its final verse. Someday, we will experience that final rhythmic beat and we will all sing to the same tune, a tune in harmony with Genesis 2 and Revelation 5. We will talk about this again soon, but let’s step back into the rhythm where we left off from the last post. We left off yesterday with the second cycle of “creation -> exile” which concluded with God confusing the language and separating the people of the world into nations. I indicated, before a rude cliff-hanger, that this dividing into nations was significant: “This is a significant move toward the next cycle, because God will… And here is where we pick up: God will lift a single man out from the nations and create an everlasting kingdom of priests from him. In other words, this nation would be the resolution for the brokenness and idolatry in the world. It is significant because God is now using one lineage to bless the entire world, to be light in darkness, to bring clarity back into a world disrupted with confusion and in the exile of idolatry. The way that God would bring all wrongs to rights would be through the mediation of a nation of people, who would be a priestly people for the world. Paul described for Timothy how Jesus was the mediator between man and God (1 Tim. 2:5). And He is. But before Jesus assumed this role, God was seeking to accomplish this through this nation of priests. The intent, as in the original creation, and in the recreation (see the rhythm?), was to bless the creation through His chosen people. But just as in the case with Noah, God wouldn’t just pick anybody or any nation. His next act of creation must be in and through someone who would reflect His glory. And with that, we are now to our next cycle, which I must admit took me longer to spell out than I anticipated (I’m enjoying this too much!). 3) Abrahamic Covenant -> Slavery in Egypt: Man was intended to reflect the glory of God. By the time of Babel, this was all but lost. Hope remained though in a man by the name of Abram (Abraham) who is noted as a man in faith who gave glory to God (Rom. 4). The contrast is apparent. Instead of the “glory to self” attitude of Babel, we see a chosen man who would give glory to God—the vocation of being an image-bearer. With Abraham, God acts in a creative way, promising that through him all the nations of the earth would be blessed (Gen. 12:1-3). In other words, His family would be a light to the world to invite the world to take up their original vocation. This promise would later take the form of an act of creation in a covenant where God comes down, and in the midst of darkness, passes through divided animals (kind of gruesome) in the form of fire, and gives His solemn oath to deliver on His promise. The rhythm is almost too perfect to believe it—but so was the promise. Yet, Abraham had faith. He trusted. We must skip some or we won’t have the time or space: Abraham’s family would eventually be known as Israel, named after the God-given name to Abraham’s grandson, Jacob. Jacob had 12 sons, and through the providential working of God through the son Joseph, the family took up residence in Egypt, Goshen to be precise. A unique promise came to Joseph’s father Israel (Jacob) in a dream. As in creation and recreation, the rhythm beats once again, but somewhat different. Instead of God calling upon humans to “be fruitful and multiply” God moves in a gracious manner, saying to Israel, “I will make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will make of you a company of peoples and will give this land (Canaan; not Egypt, JH) to your offspring after you for an everlasting possession (Gen. 48:4).” In an odd twist, similar to his own blessing, Israel then gave his blessing to the second son of Joseph, Ephraim. This will be important at a later time, because the Northern 10 tribes of Israel were also called “Ephraim (e.g. Ez. 35:16).” Of note, Judah would be the tribe to the south out of which would come David and eventually Jesus (Gen. 49:9-10). Joseph’s descendants (the people of Israel) faired extremely well in Egypt. They multiplied greatly, filling the entire land, became exceptionally wealthy among the Egyptians, and were exceedingly strong as a people. Perhaps they became too big for their own britches! A new Pharaoh arose in Egypt who did not know Joseph or Joseph’s God. In another twist of rhythmic irony, this new Pharaoh said “Come, let us deal shrewdly with them.” It was another form of de-creation as in Babel, another form of exile that was now being thrust upon the family of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They became slaves, hard-working miserable slaves, and eventually subject to genocide. Isaiah, many years later, would pick up on these cues and relate them to another exile and also to “the suffering servant (prophetically of Christ).” That God had not disappeared is evident in His merciful descent. Here He comes again, riding on a white horse so to speak, calling upon another man—a helper through whom He would perform another creation act. He heard their cries, saw their pain, and came down to deliver them from their “exile.” God’s attention has now been funneled onto the descendants of Abraham—they are His people of promise for the world. Israel must walk through the dark though, before being raised up to new life. This darkness comes to its head when God stretches out His righteous arm against the power of Egypt and her idols (rulers and authority). Israel will experience the plagues along with Egypt in the same way Noah experienced the devastations of the flood. TAKE WITH YOU: Perhaps we are beginning to get the picture as to why the earliest Christians, steeped in Jewish history, had such a longing for Jesus to come again. God’s creative acts always follow a dark suffering. There’s plenty more to come as we invest ourselves in what has now become the story of Israel. I hope that you are beginning to get the picture that Israel is God’s answer for the world after the Babel fiasco and that Jesus is the answer for broken Israel. Understand, followers of Jesus belong to Israel, to Abraham’s inheritance (Gal. 3). We have been grafted in through Jesus (Rom. 11). Israel’s story is our story. We need to be familiar with this story to understand the meaning of the Gospel—to understand the Gospel sermons in Acts too.

The following are my own interpretative thoughts based on the remarks by Rick Marrs on a lecture concerning Song of Solomon: “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden?” (Gen. 3:1) The serpent put a BIG question mark on the question: Does God really have your best interests at heart? Does God really have the goods to be the superior and you be the inferior? If you are truly in the image of God isn’t there something you can eat, do, or drink or learn that would make God unnecessary and you could be your own god? Where you can decide what is best for you; good, bad, healthy, harmful? And when they ate, suddenly everything ruptured. The relationship between God and His humans and the relationship between man and woman—the relationships enjoyed in Genesis 2—ruptured. What God offers for us through Christ is the opportunity to find our comfort in Genesis 2. The problem, however, is that we have become more comfortable with Genesis 3 and the power struggle to be god—god over God and god over each other—than we have with the idea of finding our comfort in Genesis 2 where no one but God is trying to be God. This presents a struggle in our understanding of relationships. So, when we read Ephesians 5 with the backdrop of Genesis 3 about the relationship between husband and wife and Christ and the church, we struggle over “authority.” But when we read it against the backdrop of Genesis 2, the struggle for authority disappears, providing us with an understanding of mutual love and respect. All of a sudden then, “Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children (Eph. 5:1)” and “No one ever hates his own flesh but provides and cares for it, just as Christ does for the church (Eph. 5:29)” takes on significant meaning.

CYCLES 1 and 2 (creation to de-creation) [Gospeling in the Acts] Transition, Acts 1; Part 2 Today’s Reading: Acts 1:6-11 I’m hoping that by next week we will step into the apostolic sermons in Acts. I also hope that you are not skipping past these introductory and transitional posts. As we have discussed before, the opening of the book of Acts highlights how the disciples wanted to know about the Kingdom (Acts 1:6). Their question was worded correctly, asking, “When will you restore the Kingdom?” I also believe that their question is offered with a genuine anticipation of what the resurrected King had expounded unto them as recorded in Luke 24. In other words, their question was not from a wrong understanding about the Kingdom, but rather an anticipation that had been stymied by Jesus’ explanation of the Gospel. There is no doubt that they would continue to struggle with the meaning of it. Peter certainly did. But I believe, and I think I’m right, that their question was offered with much more enthusiasm than they ever had when they pondered on the kingdom any time before the resurrection. We could say that their inquiry was because Jesus’ resurrection gave new life to their troubled souls. And that would be right. But their enthusiasm must go much deeper than that. These were men who knew the puzzling story of Israel and had now been blessed to understand how the pieces fit together through King Jesus. On top of that, they now understood the incredible task of being involved in the restoring of the Kingdom. They would be a foundation of this kingdom (Eph. 2:20)! How exciting!? They would be front and center for the ushering in of the Kingdom--the Kingdom which would be Israel in its finest; and they would be longing for the complete and total restoration when their King would return. In our last post, I shared with you an 8-point cycle of cycles which describes the revolving story of creation and exile which would be solved in Jesus. Today I wish to expound briefly on the first two of these. Any student of the Bible might recognize that there is a lot of repetitious themes through the Bible. And yes, there certainly is. However, much of what we might see as repetition might better be described as rhythm. It’s not necessarily repetitions that you might observe, but something somewhat different while singing to the same beat. This rhythm flows through the Bible like an undercurrent in the sea. It’s not always on the surface. Sometimes, you have to go deep to find it. But the truth of the matter is that it is there—and it’s not coincidental. Some call these “echoes” and I think that’s a good way to describe it too. To give you an example, one such rhythmic beat is at the heart of Israel: the Exodus/Passover. So, for example, is there any wonder that the new Israel, the church of Jews and Gentiles united in the Messiah, rhythmically compares the Gospel to the Exodus/Passover— and baptism and Lord’s Supper too? That is a rhythm. Separate events, somewhat different, but sung to the same beat/tune. Paul and Peter both sing to this tune repetitively and it will show in their sermons. With that thought in mind, I hope we will be able to draw out some rhythm as we hash out these 8 cycles of creation and exile. 1) Creation -> the evil hearts: This first cycle sets the tone for the rhythm that we feel through the Bible. This is not only the beginning of the first cycle. It is the beginning of the larger single cycle that all of the other cycles move in harmony to resolve. In the beginning God created to pour out a love to share. To develop this communal love, God created a cosmic temple called a garden. Heaven came down and touched the earth. He made man in His image and placed him in this organic temple to manage it with God. God also made woman in His image to be man’s helper in this task. They would serve in roles such as priests, reflecting the glory of God to the creation and reflecting the praises of creation to God’s glory. These first “image-bearers,” however shirked their God-given mandate by usurping God, when instead of communing at the table of His love and honor, they communed at the table of deception. Because of their disobedience they were ushered out of the garden. Humans would continue their roles of multiplying and caring for creation outside of Eden and God would still be a part of their lives; but with an exception: the ground would be cursed and humans would be susceptible to the power of sin. Adam and Eve’s descendants eventually lapse under the growing power of sin; and in such a way that violence eventually saturated the earth and “death” reigned as king, keeping humans and the creation in a “death-grip” exile. God was finally grieved over His creation because of the wickedness of man and within a period of patience, destroyed everything with a flood. 2) Recreation -> de-creation: Though the flood was disastrous, the flood was also creative and restorative. It was like a resurrection for the natural order of creation. The ground had been cursed, and God, in His creative ingenuity, immersed the creation in water, and then brought it up to life by the Spirit, revoking the curse on the ground through His “image-bearer” Noah; whose name, by the way, means “comfort”. God then made a covenant with the creation not to destroy it, told Noah and his family to be fruitful, multiply, and manage the creation, and then God rested (God’s pleasure in Noah’s offering is a rest). Now, creation waits in fear of men, groaning until Jesus returns (Rom. 8). In this recreation, however, sin still evokes a power over the human heart and leads God’s intended “image-bearers” to a further decline, even worse than an earth filled with violence. Noah gets drunk off of his vineyard stock, Ham rapes him, and the story just goes downhill from there. The absolute low point of humanity is experienced at Babel (it is no coincidence that Israel’s lowest exile was in Babylon), when God’s initiative of “Let us make man in our image,” is replaced with man’s initiative of “let us make a name for ourselves.” So instead of being the bearers of God’s image, humans chose to bear their own image to their own glory. Thus, we have a human initiated de-creation—a human-chosen exile. The whole story surrounding Babel is a reversal of creation’s intent. People moved over the dry valley further east of Eden, spoke the word of creative intent, made an image of themselves, and created a temple touching the heavens from the earth for communion with their man-made gods. As horrible as was the pre-flood world, the rhythm of Gen. 11 conveys the greatest exiling problem: IDOLATRY. Nothing is as much a mockery of God’s creative intent than is idolatry. So God, in an iconic move said, “Let US confuse their language.” God came down and confused their language, dividing the people into nations. This is a significant move toward the next cycle, because God will… …I’m not telling. You’ll have to wait. Until the next post, grace and peace to you all! Jason

I thought it was ironic that on one day after the sermon I preached on Sunday that I would read these words: "Human skill and ingenuity were designed to work for God's purposes in the world, not to generate alternate gods for people to worship instead. Sin is not simply the breaking of God's rules. It is the outflowing of idolatry." I said the same thing but this was much more eloquent.

A REVOLVING STORY [Gospeling in the Acts] Transition, Acts 1 Today’s Reading: Acts 1:1-5 Our discussion today is not necessarily a look into the first chapter of Acts, but rather an expansion catapulted from the opening lines of the book in conjunction with our introductory studies. “I wrote the first narrative, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day He was taken up, after He had given orders through the Holy Spirit to the apostles He had chosen. After He had suffered, He also presented Himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God (Acts 1:1-3).” Luke opens Acts by describing His first written work, the Gospel According to Luke, as a narrative of what Jesus BEGAN to do until He ascended into heaven. As a transition into the book of Acts, Luke then summarizes how Jesus, after His suffering, appeared to the apostles alive and taught them concerning the Kingdom of God. Luke’s insertion of the word “suffer” should draw our attention back to the “suffering servant” of the well-known Isaiah 53 passage. This is Luke’s way of asserting that Jesus as Messiah, the Lord’s Right Hand, suffered in place of Israel, and in extension, of the world. He then appeals to the core message of Jesus throughout His entire ministry—the Kingdom of God/Heaven. This Kingdom is what the suffering servant was ushering in through His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. The good news of the Kingdom is the same as the good news of Christ. They are one and the same. This good news is the resolution to the story of Israel as we discussed in our introductory material, especially on Luke 24. I’ve mentioned on several occasions in this study how the story of Jesus resolves the story of Israel. Perhaps a good question right now—and one, that to be honest, has been formulating in my mind—is, “What was resolved?” To be as genuine as I can be, I admit that for the past several weeks, I knew that something was amiss—something that needed to be answered. As the writings of the Old Testament seem to be searching for an answer, I just couldn’t put my finger precisely on it. God would restore all things through Israel. That was an eternal promise. Israel was faithless to the covenant in many ways. That is a sad fact. But, whereas Israel may not be faithful, God IS faithful. He would be true to His promise. So, how could He honor His promise through a faithless people? The answer of course is Jesus. But the question is still there. What would Jesus resolve? And the answer, I believe, can be described as reoccurring cycles of creation and exile within a larger single cycle of creation and exile resolved in Jesus. Think about a watch, the kind that is wound up and operates through the turning of many cogs and gears. If the hands of the watch face made one complete revolution that would be a picture of the larger cycle of the narrative. The hands would begin at creation, work through a period of exile, and then return to creation—or a new creation. Inside of the watch are the multiple working gears that are cycling round and round in a symphonic harmony by the maker’s design to eventually restore the hands of the face of the watch back to the beginning—to the creation’s intent. The main cycle goes like this: Creation --> cycles of creation and exile --> New Creation. This is picturesque of the face of the watch. Observing the story of the Bible by looking at the beginning and the end testifies to this. In the beginning was a garden where the image-bearers reflected the glory of God to the creation and where creation reflected its praise back to the glory of God. At the close of the story, the city of God becomes the place of this fellowship with the Lamb at its center. Humans are once again reflecting the glory of God as witnesses and reflecting the praise of creation as worshippers. What happens in-between the creation and the new creation is picturesque of the inner working of a watch—multiple cycles working by the master’s design and purpose. I like to describe these cycles in eight periods of creation and exile. Creative acts of God are disturbed by the idolatrous acts of humans resulting in an exiling act of God. Each exile promises of a new creative act of God until the final creation work is accomplished in Jesus. This is not exhaustive as there are many small cycles of redemption within each cycle, but I believe this does a fair job of describing this revolving story within the greater cycle of restoration. 1) Creation of World --> evil hearts (days of Noah) 2) Flood and New World --> proud hearts (Babel) 3) Abrahamic Covenant --> Slaves in Egypt 4) Deliverance through Moses --> Wandering in Wilderness 5) Arrival through Joshua --> Failure of Unity (king Saul) 6) Davidic Kingship (unity) --> Babylonian Exile 7) Incarnation of Jesus (God with us) --> Jesus as Exile 8) Resurrection of Christ --> Joyful Groaning New Creation where the Christ restores all things TAKE WITH YOU TODAY: If there is anything that I could encourage you to do today in preparation for the coming study in the book of Acts, it would be to think on these cycles. If you have the time, take a minute or two and read Nehemiah 9. This chapter does a fine job of relating the story of Israel. As we enter into the sermons in the book of Acts, this story and its cycles will come out bold and clear. The Gospel that the apostles preached will be good news of how the overarching theme of "creation --> exile" is resolved through the creative act of the death, burial, and resurrection of the Christ--finally completed when Jesus returns. Just in case you might be a bit confused over the cycle period, I will take a day or two to briefly expound upon each. Grace and peace to you all! Jason

Is the resurrection important? I know you believe it is, but think about this: Nobody, not even the apostles, were thinking on Friday or Saturday that the crucifixion had anything to do with "our sins." The resurrection gives meaning and understanding to the crucifixion.

INTRODUCTORY SUMMARY [Gospeling in the Acts] Introduction, Summary of Introduction Today’s Reading: Acts 1:7,8 The direct commission of Christ to His apostles, which of course is indirectly passed along to us, is basically this: “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel (Mark 16:15).” Luke’s account of this commission begins with how Jesus “opened their minds to understand the Scriptures…that Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and remission of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem (Luke 24:45-47).” Luke’s extension of this is followed up as recorded in Acts 1: Concerning the coming of the Kingdom, Jesus tells His apostles, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth (vv. 7,8).” Let's approach these texts with "The Gospel the apostles were commissioned to preach..." The Gospel the apostles were commissioned to preach included a broken story: Israel is the means by which God would restore all things to Himself. This promise was offered in the midst of a broken world, and whereas the promise was and is real, the story of Israel would remain incomplete until God worked in a magnificent way to complete it. So long as God’s presence was missing from Israel, she would remain in exile like the rest of the world. The Gospel the apostles were commissioned to preach included the resolving story: It was necessary for Jesus, the true image bearer of God (God Himself), to dwell among men as God’s tabernacling presence, die for the sins of Israel and for the world, be buried, and raise again on the third day. Only a living God-King could lead a kingdom of believers out of exile to fulfill the promise to Israel. The Gospel the apostles were commissioned to preach included a saving story: As an outflow of the resolving story of the Gospel, the Gospel would offer forgiveness and remission of sins. This saving story would offer a summons to identify with a resolved Israel through faith, repentance, and baptism. The Gospel the apostles were commissioned to preach had a beginning: The Gospel would be proclaimed beginning in Jerusalem when the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles in power. The Kingdom of God would then be ushered in, accompanied by the preaching of the Gospel—the story of Jesus bringing to a resolution the story of Israel. The Gospel the apostles were commissioned to preach would extend beyond Jerusalem: It is significant that God’s divine presence would no longer be isolated to Jerusalem or Judae. With the Holy Spirit tabernacling in the lives of the apostles and in each new disciple, God’s Holy Spirit would spread the glory of God through His people. His people would become like miniature tabernacles to Samaria and eventually to the entire world. Like priests of God, all disciples would mediate the communal love of God to the ends of the earth. They would be image-bearers through Christ, worshipping God and witnessing God. TAKE WITH YOU TODAY: This Gospel is defined in 1 Cor. 15:3-5, and as we have been discussing, it can be expounded on by these 8 points of summary: 1) It is a story 2) It is a story with HisStory 3) It is a story of a Person 4) It is a story of a Person who is King 5) It is a Career story of the King 6) It is a story that offers Salvation 7) It is a story of a Resurrected Life 8) It is a Future story of a Final Restoration As we enter into the sermons in the book of Acts, these summary points will invade the pages of Acts of the Apostles. They may not all come out clear and precise, but in each of the records, these points can be found. What I hope that you will see is something we often miss. We often miss it because it is very natural for us to want to personalize the Gospel. It is indeed intended for persons (for you and I), but what is remarkable is that the Gospel preached by the Apostles focuses on God’s work to restore all things to Himself. Where the Gospel becomes personal is when it invites us into its story. I have one more day of introductory material that I wish to share with you before we dive into the sermons in Acts. I wish to share with you a revolving cycle that should help us to understand the message of the Gospel that the Apostles preached. Grace and peace to you all! Jason

…THE POWER-PACK [Gospeling in the Acts] Introduction, 1 Cor. 15: Part 2E Today’s Reading: 1 Cor. 15:3-5; 15:12-28 Today’s thoughts wrap up our observations of 1 Cor. 15:3-5 and I plan to eventually following up with a summary of what we have discussed up to this point. We first likened 1 Cor. 15:3-5 as a power tool and likened the sermons in the book of Acts as various views of an explosive diagram of this power tool. Today, we are returning to this imagery. And what I wish to describe in our pair of observations for today is that if 1 Cor. 15:3-5 is like a power tool, then today’s pair of observations is like the power pack to that tool. You probably have some type of power tool at home. It could be an electric screwdriver, a drill-driver, a chainsaw, or perhaps a pneumatic nailer. Whatever it is, you know that your tool is useless without a power supply. These power tools look very industrious. But looks do not always equate to useful. I wouldn’t want to try this, but if I tried really hard, I think I could make a power tool work without power. But that would be fairly silly though, wouldn’t it? A power tool is meant to have power! It is only as useful and as efficient as the pack that gives it its power. The same is true with the Gospel. The Gospel is meant to have power. It IS power. And be sure of it, if there is no power, it’s not because the Gospel doesn’t have it. It’s because the proclamation of the Gospel leaves the power pack off. The fact that Jesus was raised from the dead by the Spirit and will one day gloriously return by the word of the Father must not be negated or simply pushed to the side. These two works of Jesus are of utmost importance in providing the Gospel story of Jesus with energy and vibrancy. To put it simply: Jesus’ resurrection and return are the power-life of the Gospel. So, I offer this question of which I’m fairly certain you can answer: “Is the Gospel taught in its fullest sense if the resurrection and return of the Christ is not in it?” While it is true that a sermon can focus primarily on the crucifixion, a Gospel proclamation lacks its most essential ingredient of power if the resurrection and return is not offered as a resolving solution to death. Here is 1 Cor. 15:3-5 one more time before we share our final two observations: “that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve (1 Cor. 15:3-5).” 1) It is a Story of Life Paul pays particular attention to the fact that Jesus’ work does not conclude with the cross. The Gospel story neither finds its end game at the cross nor do our sins find their utmost removal there. The story of Jesus as a resolution to the story of Israel does not conclude on a Friday afternoon. This grand story is an empty story unless there is an empty tomb. Paul wrote in just a few verses later in chapter 15, “if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation is without foundation, and so is your faith (1 Cor. 15:14).” And again, “if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless, you are still in your sins (v. 17).” Notice three things that result in the negation of the resurrection: 1) The reason why Paul is saying that our faith is useless is that Jesus must be the first fruit of the resurrection. If He is not raised, He is not God and we are incapable in our own ability to be raised. There is no life now or later in Jesus without the resurrection, and therefore, nothing for us to place our trust and hope. 2) If He is not raised then we are still in our sins. We often place a high amount of credibility on the cross as the place where justification is offered through Jesus (Rom. 5:9). But it is also true that the resurrection is credited with the offer of justification (Rm. 4:25). Which is it? It’s not an either/or. It’s a both/and. When Paul speaks of the cross or the blood (or that Jesus was raised), many times He is using such terms as synecdoche (a part that stands for the whole). And then 3) Paul says that his Gospel proclamation has no foundation without the resurrection. Once again, Paul connects the events of the Gospel to the story of Israel just as He did in verse 5 when he applied, “according to the Scriptures.” As has been mentioned in past posts, “according to the Scriptures” is not shorthand for “to fulfill those prophecies of the resurrection.” That’s how this phrase is often mistakenly understood. So maybe we should ask, “What is the foundation according to Scriptures of the Gospel and how is this foundation connected to the resurrection?” And once again, we understand that the foundation of the Gospel is the story of Israel. This story finds no resolve in a dead King of the lineage of David. Only an ever-living King can be the fulfillment of an everlasting royal promise. I’ll leave it that for this observation, though we could fill volumes of books about it. 2) It is a Future Story of a Final Restoration Our final observation actually stretches from 1 Cor. 15:5 across to verse 28. Whether verse 28 belongs to the statement of faith of the early Christians or not is heavily debated. What is not debated however, is that verse 28 is the expected conclusion to the Gospel—or the final destination to which the Gospel is pointing. Here it is: “And when everything is subject to Christ, then the Son Himself will also be subject to the One who subjected everything to Him, so that God may be all in all.” In the words of Scot McKight, “One thing is clear and certain: the story will end with God the Father being God for all in all and through all, and His Son will be glorified as the One through whom God is glorified.” The entire story of Israel finds its conclusion from creation to consummation, from the garden to the city, from the tree of life to the Lamb of life. It is the story which parades from the first man through Abraham to Moses, Joshua, David, and then to Jesus to eventually restore all things in God Himself. TAKE WITH YOU TODAY: Francis Chan produced/endorsed a video that is available on YouTube about a big red tractor and a little village. I posted it on our Facebook page Tuesday afternoon. If you missed it, here is a link that you can follow. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf-4IsinRI0 The parable is of a little red tractor that the villagers would push in order to plow a field. They were able to get the work done, but it was laboring work. But then one day, Farmer Dave fixed the engine and plowed the fields in one night. I’ll leave it at that and let you watch it. Basically, it is a parable about the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives IF we will permit Him to do His work. Not too disconnected to the meaning of this parable is the same idea I am expressing about the power pack of the Gospel. The death of Christ is impactful. Make no mistake about it. But as fundamental as is the crucifixion and as important as Christ’s death is to the forgiveness of sins, the Gospel is incomplete (and inefficient) if we leave Jesus on the cross. It’s like a power tool that can be used by manual labor when a power supply is provided by God. Let us proclaim a Gospel with power because that’s what it is. The resurrection and return are not matte and frame to the picture of the crucifixion, but rather significant aspects of the great Gospel picture. Grace and peace to you all! Jason

"You don't have to understand music theory or acoustics to be moved by a wonderful violin solo. You don't have to understand cooking before you can enjoy a good meal. In the same way, you don't have to have a theory about why the cross is so powerful before you can be moved and changed, before you can know yourself loved and forgiven, because of Jesus' death." --NT Wright "The Day the Revolution Began"