Were you in a school play? Were you a lead role? Or maybe you were a supporting role? Perhaps a part of the crew?
If you ever go to a play or musical, you know that the lead roles get their picture in the program, along with usually a paragraph with their bio. But if you were a part of the supporting cast, or worked behind the scenes, maybe your name was one line in a program. Maybe you weren’t mentioned at all.
It is vital to remember this because in this week’s posts we’re going to talk about a man who would become one of the most important leaders in the church. He was in the lead role. While his story is amazing, we’re going to pay close attention to his supporting cast. We’ll meet a couple of them by name, but many of them are just listed as a group. So often in a story, we focus on the main characters, but the behind-the-scenes people are equally important, as will become readily apparent in our posts this week.
If you’d like to follow along, feel free to open a Bible to Acts 9. When we paused the Acts series a month ago, we had studied chapters 6 and 7, and the tragic killing of Stephen. In that story, the author of Acts introduced us to another man who quickly became the arch-enemy of the church. In chapter 7, verse 58, we read that while the Jews were stoning Stephen, they laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named, Saul. Just a few verses later, as Stephen dies, we read that Saul gives approval to Stephen’s death. That was only the beginning of his treachery.
As we continue reading in chapter 8, we learn that a great persecution breaks out against the church, causing most of the Christians in Jerusalem to flee for their lives. Specifically, take note of Acts chapter 8:3, where we read that Saul was fueling this persecution, dead set on destroying the church.
In rest of chapter 8 we learned how the church, led by the Holy Spirit, pursued the mission of Jesus beyond the walls of Jerusalem.
Today we come to chapter 9. Saul is back in the story, and he, too, is thinking beyond the walls of Jerusalem but for the opposite reason. While the Christians fled the city, trying to get away from him, look at what Saul is doing in verses 1-2.
Saul is laser-focused on destroying the followers of Jesus, so he mounts up a posse and heads to the city of Damascus with letters of verification from the high priest in Jerusalem, eager to round up Jesus’ followers and bring them as prisoners back to stand trial in Jerusalem.
On the road near Damascus, Saul is in for the surprise of his life. Look at verses 3-9.
This is a famous story that Saul will come back to many times, and for good reason. But our attention is on the supporting cast.
Look at verse 7. We don’t know anything about men in Saul’s posse, except that at the moment Jesus breaks into the scene, they heard the sound of voice, but they didn’t see anyone. Imagine their bewilderment! I wonder if they told their family and friends about this for years to come, as it would have been an astounding moment.
Rather than focus on whatever feelings of fear or terror they might have been experiencing at that moment, though, they are willing to sacrificially put that aside and act on their loyalty to Saul, because we learn they help Saul complete the basic mission Jesus gave him: Go to Damascus, get more instructions there.
Check back in for tomorrow’s post as we learn more about those instructions, and we meet our first nominee for best supporting actor in this story!
How do you feel about the statement: “God is not in control?” Maybe you disagree. Maybe you look around the world and think, “It sure does NOT seem like a world where God is control.” Maybe the thought that God might not be in control is scary to you. Maybe you want some reassurance that he is in control precisely because the world is so messed up.
In this week’s series of blog posts on the question, “Is God in Control?”, I’ve suggested that God does not control the universe in a meticulous way like a grand puppet master. Instead, he has authority, while creating us with free will. It might seem frightening to think we live in a world where God is not fully in control. I believe, however, that, if I am right, and God is not fully in control, he made a fantastic choice, and I am so thankful for it. Here’s why:
When we read Romans 8:28, it shows us that God is working within things that aren’t going as they should. If all was in his control and happening just as he would dream and hope it would, then he would have no reason to promise us that, “All things work together for good…” He wouldn’t need to be working anything together. It would be an unnecessary promise.
God has authority and power and enough goodness and love for me and for you to turn the brokenness of this world for good. Whether that is a world-wide pandemic or a mess of our own making. Jesus came and walked this earth and healed sickness; he did not come and cause sickness. He had compassion and was moved to tears when people (his real treasure whom he chose to die for) felt pain. And Jesus on earth was an earthly representation of God. So what we say about Jesus is also the character of God.
We conclude where we started. The verses supposedly about God’s control have turned out to not actually be about his control, and yet they are still beautiful verses that can be a gift to us in times when we are feeling like life is out of control, when there is pain and difficulties. In these verses God gives us a powerful reminder that we need to dwell on when we are struggling: We can rely on him in the midst of the fear and pain.
As we continue with the difficult reality of life that is the coronavirus pandemic, I urge you to go to God. If you are wondering how to spend time with him, consider writing him your thoughts in a journal. Listen for the Spirit to talk with you. Talk with your family and friends about him. Hear him give you words of comfort as you read these verses again.
Isaiah 41:10 “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
Psalm 46:1 “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
Philippians 4:6-7“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
It is in his goodness that we have free will. It is out of love and relationship that we have free will. It is out of his goodness that he sits with us and cares for us in the midst of troubles and pain. There he offers his amazing strength and power and peace. There he hears our cries and answers them. There he works in the muck of this world for our good. His authority is a beautiful powerful thing. He has the victory, and after we are finished on this beautiful, but very broken, world, we have hope of eternity with our good God who loves and treasures us.
What good does Jesus’ authority matter when the world feels out of control? I often think I just want him to step in and make it all stop, to show us his power and make it all be done. I pray every day for him to intervene and stop the virus, asking him to help scientists create a vaccine, even if they don’t believe in him. I believe it is right to pray for this, all the while knowing that God might not intervene. I do want to add that I definitely believe that God does hear our hearts, and answer our prayers, and can help scientists with a vaccine to the pandemic, because he is in relationship with people; people are his heart. Even those who don’t yet believe in him. He isn’t causing harm to his treasure but loves to hear from us and to work with us to create good out of the muck of the world.
We could be in for months of this, and many more deaths. What is the distinctly Christian way to respond to those difficult thoughts?
Remember that the disciples were persecuted after Jesus went to heaven. Remember the passages in our series in Acts when they were jailed, falsely accused, beaten, and in Stephen’s case, stoned to death, for following Jesus’. It is quite reasonable to imagine the disciples lamenting, just the like the Psalms of Lament, “Lord, step in and make this stop. Rescue us!”
But he didn’t make it all stop. He also wasn’t the cause of it. The sinful human leadership was the cause of most of early church’s pain. Yet God did not step in and change that. Out of the persecution, he brought new revelation of who he was to them. He had also given them the Holy Spirit to be with them always, and he promised them an abundant life when they followed his ways and teachings. Abundant life does not mean a life free from pain. Finally he promised them future wholeness and a lifetime with him in eternity.
That is why authority matters. He is the final victory. In the end and through the mess, God is on our side. The good God is on our side! We need to let him and his ways and heart invade our minds, our actions, so we can see more of who he is in the mess of the brokenness of our earthly world. We can for sure pray for mercy and for more of “his kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven,” and we can work and make it our life’s passion to partner with him in that.
It’s maybe a little bit like teaching your child to ride a bike. This example breaks down if you look at it too closely, but bear with me. You kind of know, don’t you, that your child, once the training wheels comes off, will fall down and get hurt. They will probably turn the handle bar too quickly, while peddling too slowly, and the bike crashes to the ground. Some other kid might even run in front of them and cause a crash, injuring both of them. As they learn to ride the bike, there is so much that go wrong! Even we adult riders crash sometimes.
But when you are teaching them to ride, you are the authority. You give good guidelines. You show them the best methods. You explain the joy of it all and the dangers ahead. And when the inevitable hurt happens, you can teach them through the pain, as you are there with them. You are not causing bad to happen to them, though you are basically 100% sure that pain will happen in the process. When it does, you can love, comfort, encourage, teach and walk with them, helping them to learn from their skinned knees and bruised emotions.
Riding a bike brings pain, yes, but also great fun and joy! Learning a new skill adds layers of beauty to your child’s life, even with the potential of layers of pain and harm. You are not the cause that pain, but when it happens you will be right there and bring good from it with them.
That is a picture of God’s authority and presence in our lives too!
When we are going through a difficult time, such as the coronavirus pandemic, it can seem like God is nowhere to be found. Deism is a view of God that says that God created the universe, he set things in motion, but is now hand’s off. Like a bowler releasing her bowing ball. The bowler can do all sorts of things to direct the ball, give it angle, spin, and speed, but once that ball slides off the ends of her fingertips, the bowler has no more influence on the outcome of the ball. Is God like that with our world? Is deism right?
To answer that question, we need to consider Jesus. If we are to think and talk in a distinctly Christian way about God and his interaction with the world, then we would do well to look at Jesus. Jesus is God is the flesh. (John 1:1–14)
As we read the story of Jesus’ life in the four biblical accounts, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, we read who God is, what his heart beats for, what his character is. What do we notice? That God is hands off? No. The farthest thing from it. In the Bible we can learn so much about who God is by studying Jesus, but here are a few points that relate to our current pandemic:
Jesus personally entered our world and became one of us.
Jesus healed sickness, he did not cause it.
Jesus showed us how to live life, and he gave his life, to be the solution to the brokenness of the world; he did not cause it to be more broken.
Read John 9:1-7 for a fascinating conversation Jesus and the disciples have about a blind man they encountered, and I think you’ll see how the story relates to this post.
The disciples assume that either the blind man’s parents or the blind man himself had sinned, and thus God brought the blindness on the man because of sin. Jesus responds that they were thinking wrongly. Instead he shows that the man’s blindness is an opportunity for the work of God to be displayed in the man’s life. Then he heals the man, displaying that work of God. The point Jesus makes is not that God causes the pain, but that God can and does work in the middle of the pain as we reach out to him.
If you look around social media right now you will see that many consider sickness, such as the coronavirus pandemic, as sent by God to build our character or to judge us, assuming something very much like the disciples assumed about the blind man. But Jesus, especially considering his goodness, speaks directly against that view. God is good. Thus the Bible, when it answers the question about God’s involvement in the world, points to God’s authority rather than control.
In our previous series of posts on Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” But what does that mean?
Consider the analogy of human parents. We have authority in our homes, but not full control. Clearly. Right, parents? Or consider human bosses or management have full authority, but not full control. Children and employees have guidelines to follow, but they have the freedom to not follow those guidelines. The difference between control and Jesus’ authority is similar to that.
Jesus’ authority is perfect, good, loving, and just, but that is different than control. That is different than causing all things to happen. Even when his Spirit indwells and fills us, we don’t lose our free will. So we look to Jesus, our authority, to show us how to live.
Observe how he lived his life. He did not control the disciples. He allowed them to make their choices, some of which were very poor. Because he is so good, he took their poor decisions and made beauty grow out of them, when they were genuinely repentant. Perhaps the best example of this is when Peter denied Jesus. Peter was repentant, and Jesus restored him. (John 21) In his authority, Jesus taught the disciples, guided them, directed them, but they each had freedom to choose how they were going to respond to him. Know that he treats us the same loving way.
Also notice that Jesus did not promise ease. He knew that sickness, hurt, and persecution would come to them, because he knows we live in a broken, fallen, sinful world. He said, “In this world, you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world.” That is different than being the cause of pain. Instead he assures that he can help us to have victory in the middle of the pain.
It is very natural, though, to ask why an all-knowing, all-powerful, good God, doesn’t just step in and stop all of the negative, painful things from ever happening to begin with? If he loves us so much as he says he does, then you’d think he’d get in there and put an end to the pain, right? Wouldn’t you do that to the kids you love? Or would you?
Maybe you have seen adults who seem unable to handle “real life,” and what do we speculate about them? That perhaps their parents always rescued them, and never let them fail? A wise member of our congregation has often remarked to my wife, Michelle, “Sometimes natural consequences are the most efficient; let your kids learn the hard way sometimes.” When kids, including adult children, go through difficult time, it doesn’t mean their parents caused the pain!
So let’s follow that thought through to its logical end. I’m referring thought that if God loved us he’d step in and stop the pain/the sickness each time it happened. To choose to just step in every time anything bad happens, that would mean God is ridding the world of sin. It would mean he is removing not only all brokenness, but also the capability for brokenness to occur.
Do you see the ramifications of that? It would require God to do one of two things.
First, he would have to change human nature so that we can’t or don’t sin anymore. That kind of change to humanity would be basically the same as making us all robots. It would remove our free choice to follow or to disobey his desires. What I am talking about is the removal of free will. When we look around the world, from the beginning of time, that is simply not the choice God has made. Instead he wants us to have free will, including the choice to disobey him, even if that means there will be people who disobey him, and the consequences of their disobedience is destructive. He wants us to have free will because it opens up the possibility of a genuine loving relationship with him. That is part of what makes him so good. Because a genuine relationship with him is so so good. It is good for us, and it is good for him. He desires that and when we have a taste of it we just will continue to desire it more and more. He is a relational God!
What about the second option? For God to have a world where nothing bad happens, if he did not choose to remove free will, it would then require him to remove all the sinners and any potential sin out of this world.
What would that mean? God would have to remove all people. Obviously God has chosen not to use this option. He wants people, he creates people because he loves us and wants to be in relationship with us. Yes, this too is a risky move for God, because when he creates people with free will, God opens the door to pain. It is nearly identical to the close relationships in your life. Consider your spouse, your children, your parents, or your closest friends. Would you want them to have no freedom to do anything except exactly what you want them to do all the time? Parents, after a month of quarantine, you might be saying, “YES! I want that.” I think all of us parents feel each other’s pain these days, but the reality is that we would tire of that. Even the most advance artificial intelligence that seems real, we actually know is just programming. We can’t have a real relationship with an entity that does not have free will. Only human relationships with free will can be defined by true love.
If we take away free will, we also have to take away love. That is drill sergeant parenting, like an extreme boot camp kind of relationship. That is not God. That is not a loving, good father. God chose love. When we allow him to invade our hearts and our minds with his love, that love flows out of us in selflessness, caring and giving and showing love to our neighbor as ourselves. His love allows us to learn good things about him and to feel his presence in the midst of the muck that sin and brokenness bring.
So know this. People are God’s treasure. Our loving heavenly father does not bring harm to his treasure. He sent his son to die for us. In our broken, sinful world harm does come. Jesus promises to be with us in the middle of the pain, and he promises to ultimately have us live eternally with him in wholeness and all goodness. He promises that when we go to him in the midst that we will find peace that passes all understanding in the midst of hurt and pain that this world brings.
So, what good does Jesus’ authority matter when the world feels out of control? We’ll try to answer that in the next post.
Is God in control? People use that phrase a lot, but is there anywhere in the Bible that teaches that God is in control? In the previous post we looked at an article that said it was going to list verses that confirmed God’s control, but ended up not doing so. So are there other places in the Bible that teach that God is in control?
It depends who you talk to. There are biblical scholars who say without a doubt the Bible clearly teaches that God is in control of all things. There are also biblical scholars who say that the Bible does not teach that God controls all things.
First let’s look at an example of the people who say that God controls all things. A classic verse they point to is Ephesians 1:11, “In him [Christ] we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.”
Sounds pretty convincing, right? The question, though, is whether that means God is essentially the universal puppet master, controlling the strings of every single thing that happens. We would call this meticulous control. Perhaps that is how Paul is describing God in this passage.
Maybe, except that there are Christians who have a very different interpretation of Ephesians 1:11 and the other verses like, and I am one of them. In fact, the denomination Faith Church is a part of, the Evangelical Congregational Church, is part of a Christian heritage that understands these verses differently. We do not believe the Bibles teaches God as controlling all the trillions upon trillions of minute details of human existence throughout the ages. Instead we believe that what Paul is saying in a verse like Ephesians 1:11 is that God has a larger plan, in Christ, and he will accomplish that plan.
The presence of sin in the world is perhaps the clearest example of what I am talking about, that God does not meticulously control all things. God does not want sin. Sin is by definition that which goes against God’s will. If we believed that God was meticulously controlling all human behavior, then we would have to believe that includes sin. Notice how illogical and against God’s nature our beliefs would have to be if this were true: we would be saying that God decrees that sin is wrong, but because he is in control, he also causes sin to happen.
I disagree with that line of thinking, and thus I understand Paul’s teaching in Ephesians not as saying that God is in control of every detail, but that he has a master plan in Christ which he will bring to consummation.
What that leaves us with is the hope of God’s larger plan, while we live in the reality of sin, difficulty, disease, struggle, and pain, as a real part of our daily existence in the world. But we know that when our world is difficult, God is good. And he loves us.
Just knowing that God is good is often not enough, though, when we are in pain. When we are living with difficult realities, we can struggle to explain God’s role in them, or his relationship to us.
That’s why I think so many of us say, “God is in control!” Not because we believe that God is controlling every single detail of our lives, but because he is faithful and we can trust him in the midst of our pain. But even in the pain, it is important to think and talk rightly about God.
When we struggle with pain, such as the coronavirus pandemic, what is the right way to think and talk about God?
Let’s start by remembering what the Bible says about the world we live in. While it is so beautiful in so many ways, and we should strive to care for creation, we also need to recognize that it is a fallen world. There are at least three ways Christians talk about the falleness of the world.
First, something scientists call the second law of thermodynamics – this is a principle of heat transfer that says things, generally, move from order to disorder. The technical word for this is entropy. Things rot, they rust, they wear out, they break. It is the super-rare exception that a car, for example, would improve its working order. Cars break down and need tune ups. Our bodies heal, yes, but the normal tendency is that they age and break down. This is what Paul is likely referring to in Romans 8:21 when he says that creation is in bondage to decay.
Second, Satan is real and he is in the world, tempting, lying, and as we read in Scripture, devouring. And he is no joke. We should be cautious in our view of Satan’s influence. I so often hear that a person is going through a difficult situation because of Satan. But we really don’t know that Satan is responsible, do we? If your car is broken down, it’s almost certainly not because of Satan; it is because cars follow the second law of thermodynamics, and they break down. It seems to me that we are generally too quick to blame Satan, and maybe we blame Satan when it was actually our own fault. He is real, though, and powerful, and he does tempt and devour.
The third way to describe our world is talk about the broken and fallen nature of people. People use their free will in ways that are selfish and harmful. Sometimes we deal with pain of our own making. Sometimes the pain is brought on us by others. Sometimes it is both. Because we have free will, and we don’t always use it in a way that is in keeping with God’s Kingdom, it leads to pain. But does that mean God is hands off? Deism is a view of God that says that God created the universe, he set things in motion, but is now hand’s off. Like a bowler releasing his bowing ball. Is God like that?
In our next post, we’ll try to answer that question.
This year, I started doing a “Current Events” sermon once per quarter. It’s time for our next one! The way the current events sermons work is that I wait until the week of the sermon to decide what to preach about, because I want the current events topic to actually be current. Last quarter I had a bunch of options, and even in the middle of the week I wasn’t sure what to talk about. You can read the series of blog posts about that sermon starting here. This time the topic was rather apparent.
What have you been hearing about God’s role in the coronavirus pandemic?
Have you heard that God sent the coronavirus to America because our nation needs to be pushed down to its knees? Even if you haven’t heard that, some people have suggested it.
I find that idea troubling. I want to respond with, “Are you telling me that God sent a virus to punish America, and in the process he was okay with the virus killing thousands of people in China, Italy, and many other places around the world? All because he wanted to punish America?”
“Well,” the person might say, “Maybe he is trying to get the attention of the whole world. He started the virus, and he won’t allow it to be eradicated until the virus has accomplished his purposes for it.”
“Wait a minute,” I answer, “God would send a pandemic to kill thousands and thousands of people just to get our attention? Does that sound like God?”
Again the person might suggest, “Well, no, that doesn’t sound like God, and yet if God is in control, isn’t that what is happening?”
Ah, there we have it. Our topic for today: God is in control.
I can’t tell you how many times I have heard the phrase “God is in control” in connection to the virus. There are many similar statements Christians say when we’re going through hard times. Have you heard any of these?
“Through this virus God is taking away our worldly idols – celebrities, sports, entertainment, our money.”
“God never takes away something in your life without replacing it with something better.”
“So thankful that, even though I don’t know why God brought this virus on us, I know I can trust him and he has good lessons for me to learn.”
Do any of these statements represent a healthy way to describe God’s interaction with the world? More importantly, what does the Bible say about God’s involvement in the world? Does the Bible teach that God is in control?
I googled “Does the Bible say that God is in control?” and found that the internet has a lot to say about this topic! One article from Beliefnet lists 8 Bible verses the article claims show that God is in control. The point of the article is to give comfort to those struggling with difficult times, and I love that. But not a single one of the 8 verses listed say that God is in control.
Here are a few the article lists:
Isaiah 41:10 “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
Psalm 46:1 “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.”
Philippians 4:6-7 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Check the other examples yourself: 1 John 4:18, Psalm 94:19, Luke 12:22-26, Psalm 27:1, Revelation 1:17. Every single verse is amazing and truthful, but none of them say the words, “God is in control” or teach something like that. Instead they all say that God is strong, and because he is strong and loving he is with us in the midst of the trouble. While that is true and wonderful, and a needed reminder during this pandemic, it is very different from the idea that God is in control.
So is there anywhere in the Bible that teaches that God is in control? It depends who you talk to. There are biblical scholars who say without a doubt that the Bible clearly teaches that God is in control of all things. And there are biblical scholars who say that the Bible does not teach that God controls all things.
Check in to the next post as we’ll take a look at some of both.
I’m wondering if you’ve experienced an inner yearning lately for some good news. As I’m writing this, our world is in the grip of the coronavirus pandemic. Every day the news reports how many people have contracted the virus and how many people have died. This morning I watched the weekly CBS News morning show’s report on Fridays telling the life stories of five different people who passed away because of the virus. It is good to watch, and I’m very glad they’re not just focusing on celebrities. But inwardly I long for good news, especially for stories about a reduction is the number of new cases of the virus, or stories about the development of a vaccine. At this point, we have been through weeks and weeks of nearly nothing but bad news about the virus. I’ve gotten to the emotional place where I don’t want to turn on the news in the morning any more.
As we have seen this week, there are also two Easter stories, one bad and one good. One false and one true. We conclude this series of post by declaring that the resurrection of Jesus is true, and it makes a world of difference. It is hope for a new way of life, the Jesus way of life – the best way of life. Not a life of ease. When we return to the sermon series in the book of Acts, we’ll observe how Jesus’ disciples lived out his way of life as they followed his mission. They will show us how we too can make the Jesus story our story, living a life of goodness, walking in the ways of the one who modeled love, patience, kindness, sacrifice, selflessness.
Just as he said he would always be with his disciples, by his Spirit he will walk with us through our lives, and over and over and over again he tells us “do not be afraid”. Fix your eyes on him and all that he is. Remember his goodness. Remember his truth. With him there is no need to fear. We can always have hope. We can always know we are not alone.
That’s a good news story.
My family and I have really enjoyed a new YouTube show that has been created since the virus shutdown. It is called Some Good News hosted by the actor John Krasinski. It is incredibly uplifting to hear stories of so many people doing so much good during this time of crisis.
Here in Conestoga Valley I have a good news story to share. It is the story of a man staying in a local hotel who called churches in the Ministerium this past week. His wife has a serious medical condition and his work has been intermittent due to the shutdown. So he could not pay his hotel bill every day. Faith Church joined with other churches who were each paying one night for them. That’s a story of abundant life in Jesus.
Also, the Ministerium is working together to create a Go Fund Me campaign for people in need, and so far the community has raised thousands of dollars. That’s another story of Christians helping out. Christians we have some good news to share.
These good news stories are rooted in the ultimate good news story, that because Jesus is risen, there is hope. Whether life is filled with abundance, or whether is doused in pain, there is hope in Jesus. So let us choose to believe in him and follow his way of life.
If you’re wondering how to do that, I’d be glad to talk further. Just comment below, and let’s discuss it further!
Do you ever wonder if you are doing what Jesus wants you to do? Have you felt confused or concerned that perhaps you aren’t doing the right thing? If so, you’re not alone. Many of us wonder, but often life is so busy, or we get stuck in a rut, that we don’t take the time to evaluate if we are doing what Jesus wants us to. If Jesus were to visit you, what would he tell you to do?
Our final scene change in Matthew’s account of the Easter story answers the question of what Jesus wants us to do.
After learning how Jesus rose to new life on that first Easter Sunday, we read in Matthew 28 verses 16-20 that Jesus appears to his disciples on a mountain in Galilee. What is striking about this section, first of all, is that finally the men are involved.
Just like the women followers of Jesus, as we saw in the previous post, the disciples worship Jesus, and yet some of them doubt. I appreciate how Matthew clearly depicts the humanity of the disciples. As the women had mixed emotions, joy and fear, the men are both worshiping and doubting.
Addressing their concern, Jesus starts by reassuring them, very similar to his first words to the women. To the women he said, “Do not be afraid,” and now to the disciples he says, “All authority is given to me.” With this comment about authority, Jesus reminds the men that He truly is the king. If you are ever wondering on whose authority should you live, there is only one person who truly has all authority. Jesus. It is authority, he tells the disciples, from heaven and earth. Yes, there are other authorities here on earth, but they pale in comparison. Jesus is the one true authority and if you want to know how to live, you will find the truth in him!
Notice the very next word, which starts verse 19: “therefore.” Because he has authority, he now confers upon them a new mission.
What is the new mission? Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them, teaching them all Jesus taught. In other words, those 11 men are to do what Jesus did for them. For the past three years, he made them into disciples and now they are be disciple-makers as well. Jesus gives his disciples what is called the Great Commission, “Men, tell my true story to everyone. We have a world to change!”
And what is more, his final words to them, as recorded by Matthew, are that he will be will them always! We know this is true based on what we studied in Acts 2, when he sent his Spirit to live with them.
That’s what Jesus wants us to do, tell his story, helping others become his followers, thus transforming the world. How are you fulfilling the mission of Jesus in your life?
As we have been following the telling of the Easter story in Matthew 28, we’ve learned that some women who were followers of Jesus, early on the Sunday morning after Jesus died, discovered an angel waiting in front of his empty tomb. Check out the previous two posts here and here to learn more. The angel gives them instructions to go tell Jesus’ disciples this news.
The women run to tell the disciples, and in his account, Matthew describes them as afraid, yet filled with joy. I love how real that description sounds. How many times have you yourself experienced that kind of mixed emotion? Maybe you’re starting a new job, and you’re excited, and yet feeling some nerves. I feel that way with my doctoral program. I’m excited when I get to read new books, excited when I think about learning, but I also feel dread because I know it will be hard work.
Let’s take a moment to imagine the mixed emotions in the hearts and minds of these women. In a whirlwind matter of hours, the Jews and Romans conspired together and killed their dear friend Jesus. Their ecstatic joy on Palm Sunday turned to doubt and frustration and confusion and fear just a few days later on Good Friday. Saturday was empty and dark and gray. Sunday the women wake up and head the grave thinking about placing extra spices on his body. Were they also wonder if his talk about rising again might be true? Were they afraid the Romans were out looking for them now too? And then they see the angel…the angel! Talk about a roller-coaster of emotions in a week’s time!
Filled with that mix of emotion, they rush back into the city to tell the story to the disciples. Just at that moment, right there on the road back to Jerusalem, Jesus himself appears to them. I find this astounding. Jesus’ first post-resurrection appearance is not to any of the 12 men who were his disciples. He does not appear first to Peter, James or John, the three men in his inner circle, arguably his best friends. He appears to the women. We have seen this time and time again in his ministry and in the teachings of the New Testament writers, in the Kingdom of God all are equal. There is no difference. Jesus is not afraid to be counter-cultural in the way he loves and in who he includes in the Kingdom of God – it’s the heart of the person that matters.
He greets them and they fall to the ground, grabbing his feet in worship. I know you and I aren’t used to that kind of worship. We’re more accustomed to a big hug when we see a close friends, or to raising our hands in worship. Maybe clapping and cheering when we’re excited. But not falling to the ground and touching someone’s feet. To them, that was an act of joyful worship. They had finally seen the risen Lord, and the angel’s story was confirmed.
As the women kneel before him, what are Jesus’ first words after greeting them? “Do not be afraid.” That’s twice now we’ve heard that, right? First from the angel. Now from Jesus! That’s helpful to us. In the midst of earth-shaking realities, whether it is Jesus’ death and resurrection, or whether it is a world-wide pandemic, Jesus says to us too, “do not be afraid.”
He then repeats what the angel had said, the mission: “Tell the story. Head to Galilee.” But now the story includes, “And guess what??? We saw him! He is alive!”
Look at verses 11-15. At the same time as the women are running to tell the story of good news to the disciples, Matthew shifts the scene back to the guards who had fainted outside Jesus’ tomb when the angel appeared. The soldiers having revived, are running back into the city at the same time as the women. The soldiers hurry to the temple and report everything they saw to the chief priests.
It makes me curious…when they heard about an earthquake and the angel, did any of the priests give even a couple seconds to consider that the true story might be true? Or did they think the soldiers were lying? Did they send a CSI team down to the tomb to investigate the soldiers’ story, rope off the premises and look for evidence? Or were the soldiers so convincing that the priests believed them right away? It is a bizarre situation. All we know from Matthew is that the priests and leaders are dead set against Jesus and his followers, so they create a false story to de-legitimize them.
The chief priests and leaders concoct a story that Jesus’ disciples stole Jesus’ body, and the chief priests pay the soldiers a large bribe to tell that story.
Notice that what the chief priests and leaders command the soldiers is basically the same command that angel and Jesus told the women: Tell a story. Story is quite powerful. Story shapes our world. It matters what story we tell. Now we have two stories in this passage. One true story, filled with hope for the oppressed, with joy for those who mourn and a vision for a whole new world. We also have a false, devious, selfish, destructive story, preserving power for powerful, wealth for the wealthy. Two competing stories.
Matthew tells us that this false story was widely circulated even to the very day he was writing. How long after this was he writing? Scholars guess it was in the vicinity of 20-30 years after the events of the resurrection. That means the false story persisted for a long time, and we know 2000 years later, that the false story is still around today.
Thankfully, the true story is still around too! More on that in our next post.
In our previous post, we followed Matthew’s account of what happened after Jesus’ death on that Friday and Saturday long ago. We started at Matthew 27:50, watching as Matthew gave us short rapid camera shots, from a variety of locations around Jerusalem. Now look at Matthew 28:1. Matthew turns the camera lens on the women who wake up early to go have a look at Jesus’ tomb. Have you noticed that, with the exception of Joseph of Arimathea who wasn’t even one of the 12 disciples, that none of Jesus’ male followers are yet a part of our story? I point this out not to denigrate the men. They’ll eventually enter the story, but when it comes to Jesus’ crucifixion on Friday, which we saw in the previous post, and now early on Sunday, Matthew focuses on the women.
I bring it up to highlight the fact that Matthew is doing something quite surprising here, given the culture of the First Century. He is placing women front and center in the most important story in the history of the world. But here’s the thing. Matthew isn’t just making this up. He is telling the story of what actually happened to Jesus. This might be obvious, but it needs to be stated: the women are there because Jesus had women followers. Jesus broke with the conventions of his society and culture, and he, a religious leader, talked with women, including women in his ministry. Now at the two most important events of salvation history, those women are front and center in the story. In Jesus’ Kingdom, then, men and women are of equal value, importance and role!
Look at verses 2-4 with me. The scene is at the tomb, and I imagine what appears to be a lightning bolt from heaven as the angel lands on the earth, right at the tomb, causing an earthquake. The angel rolls the stone away and sits on it. No mention of Jesus just yet. The camera now pans over to include the detachment of soldiers guarding the tomb, and they are shaking in fear. They lock eyes with the angel, and the soldiers fall over, having fainted.
My question is when did this happen? Right in front of the women? When you read the parallel accounts in Mark, Luke and John, they answer for us, that the earthquake and events of Matthew 28:2-4 are a flashback, occurring in the night, before the women show up.
To their shock, the women arrive and there is an angel sitting on the tombstone. Just sitting there, waiting. Shining like lightning. Comatose guards out cold, littered on the ground. Can you imagine the wide-eyed women taking this all in? I don’t know if they said, “What the heck?” back then, but something like that was going through their minds. Interestingly, while the soldiers had fallen over in fear, the women do not, even when the angel starts talking. Imagine that, what does an angel sound like? Whatever the voice of an angel sounds like, the women could understand. Notice what the angel says:
“Do not be afraid.” This is the first of multiple times when people receive this reassurance. Keep note of that. More on the way in future posts this week.
Next the angel says, “You are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here. He has risen just as he said. Come see for yourselves.” After his words of reassurance (“do not fear”), he now gives the women words of confirmation. Everything Jesus said had come to pass. There was no body in the tomb!
At yet, I have to ask, as they peeked in the tomb, did any of them doubt? If you’re like me, it is real easy to be skeptical. Like the phrase, “I won’t believe it, until I see it.” I wonder if any of the women thought, “Yeah, but couldn’t someone have stolen the body?” In fact, we know at least one of them were curious. If you read John’s account, that’s exactly what Mary Magdalene wonders.
Frankly I don’t blame her. Try to put yourself in her shoes. Your beloved friend who you were doing life with has been tragically killed. The emotion of that alone is huge. Add to it the fear that, just as the Roman governor quickly killed Jesus, he could order the same for you, and he had a reputation for being brutal. A couple days later, in all this emotion, you go to his grave, and there’s an angel there! And the angel talks to you and shows you the empty grave! I can’t imagine what those women must have been dealing with.
No matter what they were feeling, there’s no escaping that angel sitting on the stone in front of them. And when you’re face to face with an angel, you pay attention. If I was staring at an angel, in the middle of the most messed up crazy couple days I’d ever experienced in my life, I wouldn’t have a clue what to do. Perhaps they were like the proverbial deer in the headlights. Maybe their legs weren’t working anymore. So the angel has to tell them what to do. He says, “Now quickly, go tell the disciples that Jesus has risen and is going ahead to Galilee. You’ll meet him there.”
Do you see what the angel did there? He gave them the first mission assignment of the church: “Tell the story, head to Galilee.” We heard about a similar mission a couple months ago at the beginning of our sermon series through Acts. In Acts 1:8 Jesus tells the disciples to be his witnesses, his story-tellers. Here in Matthew 28, the very first mission that anyone receives after Jesus’ resurrection is nearly the same, when the angel instructs the women to go tell the disciples the story of what they have seen.
And what a story they have to tell: The tomb was empty! Jesus had said he would rise. After the crushing defeat of his arrest, beating, and crucifixion, there is a new hope. These women who had watched him die on the cross, now had this unbelievable story to tell. They saw an angel. That alone is wild. But what’s more, the angel told them Jesus was alive!
How will the women respond? In tomorrow’s post we find out.
Engaging Scripture 