Gospel

Exchange

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

The essential nature of all trade is that of an exchange.  I will give my ten sheep in exchange for your one donkey.  Or, in more recent history, I will provide a certain number of currency units for the service you are offering.  Life is full of exchanges.

One of the most potent images of the gospel is known as the great exchange.  Martin Luther described the wonder of our salvation using the biblical image of a great marriage.  Jesus is the great King, full of life, grace, and salvation.  We are at the opposite extreme: full of death, sins, and damnation.  But when faith comes between us, a most glorious marriage occurs.  He takes all that is ours on himself, and we get all that is his as if it were our own.  What an exchange!

The most foundational exchange in Christianity is Christ’s life for ours.  He is the God-given substitute, taking our place and facing the just punishment for sin.  His death gives us life.  His life replaces our death.  In John 3, for instance, we see Jesus helping the impressive Nicodemus to see that all his achievements and standing meant nothing before God.  As remarkable as he was in human terms, he was still spiritually dead and needed to be born from above.  How could that happen?  Just like the Israelites needed to look at the brass serpent in Numbers 21:6-9, so would the Son of Man be lifted up in death, and those who believed in him, who looked to him, would live. 

But there are more exchanges to be found in the Gospel of John.  Consider the ongoing transformation that occurs as someone follows Jesus and serves him.  For instance, John the Baptist knew who Jesus was, pointed others to him, and served him faithfully.  At the end of John 3, we see some of John’s disciples bemoaning that the crowds had shifted from John to Jesus. Indeed, for a life defined by the ministry of baptizing, it must have been disappointing to see the flood of people dwindle to a trickle.  Not for John.  He knew that his role was that of best man at a wedding, but the groom was Jesus. The bride going to Jesus only made John immensely happy (see John 3:29).  So John uttered the beautiful words: “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30)  This is the gradual exchange of self for Christ that happens as we follow our Saviour.

We can see the self-for-Christ exchange contrasted at the start of John 12.  There, Mary is so captivated by Jesus that she pours an immensely valuable perfume onto his feet.  Meanwhile, Judas Iscariot, captured not by Christ but by his greed, can only express his dismay at the missed opportunity for further theft.  (See John 12:1-8.)  Mary was the picture of a disciple who knew Jesus’ giving and worshipped Jesus by selflessly giving everything in return.  Judas was the picture of someone exposed to Jesus but still gripped by the magnetic pull of self.  Following Jesus should shift us increasingly from the lure of self to the wonder of Christ.

And then we see Jesus with his disciples in the upper room.  In a world filled with hate, Jesus demonstrates a better way.  The radical way of selfless love stands in sharp contrast to the way of our world.  Today, as then, selfless love is repulsive to a world gripped by sin (Judas must have been struggling in that upper room until he left), but it is also strikingly attractive.  People in a culture of hate need to see true love.  How will they see it?  Only if the faithful followers of Jesus are marked with his defining characteristic.  (See John 13:35.)

Having exchanged death for life, self for Christ, and hate for love, the followers of Jesus are invited to also exchange comfort for calling.  In John 21, we see Jesus gently remind his disciples that he called them to fish for men, to feed the sheep, and to follow him even to their death – whatever that would involve. 

To be a disciple of Jesus asks much of us, but we cannot fully describe how much we receive in the process.  Giving up death, self, hate, and comfort is not easy.  But receiving life, Christ, love, and a calling is truly other-worldly and glorious.  Praise God that he is the God of exchange – an exchange that cost him everything, that gives us everything, and that changes everything!

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The Thirties – Part 9 (Final Thoughts)

/ Peter Mead / 2 Comments

As the allied leaders appeased Hitler in the later 1930s, ACG noted how this played into his hands. “The peace of Munich is a complete victory for Hitler.  The Munich pact replaces the Versailles Treaty. Germany has won the [First World] war after all. An unforgettable lesson has been taught to the whole world, namely that nothing can be expected from lawful agreement, arbitration and peaceful negotiations. All that matters is power and might. What you can grab by force and threat is yours by right. It is a lesson that will not be forgotten by the Germans within and without the Fatherland. It will continue to plague the world in years to come.” (p350-351)

The Allies simply needed to call Hitler’s bluff.  However, the British and the French gave up on their treaty with Czechoslovakia and tried to pursue peace.  Hitler lacked the strength and public support needed to wage a new war.  But sadly, his lies won him the extra time he needed. “The great Swedish Chancellor Count Axel Oxenstjerna was right when he said to his son: ‘Don’t you know, my boy, with what little intelligence the world is run?’  Oxenstjerna’s words are as true today as they were 300 years ago.” (p354)

As ACG came to the end of his book, preparing for publication in 1939, he wrote, “At the apex of the German pyramid stands a dictator drunk with success and surrounded by a horde of daring adventurers. He and they live in a world of their own. Germany, they believe and make others believe, has become the hub of the universe. . . . It is a sad commentary on our times that the forces of progress, suffering from a strange malady of inertia and moral paralysis, have permitted a dictatorship to bring limitless misery to millions of people who once were happy.” (p356)

It is pretty sobering to read the final pages, knowing all that was to follow in the subsequent six years of Nazi tyranny.  “I have no intention of defending that which can not be defended. I have testified in previous chapters to the all too many sins of omission committed by the democratic state, statesmen and national leaders, and their failure to take timely and energetic action against the enemies of democracy and progress. Yet to arrive at a conclusive answer one must not look around for individual scapegoats. It is necessary to realise the collective responsibility and the collective guilt of the German people; that collective guilt which can perhaps best be explained by the lack of political instinct and political common sense of the Germans.” (p360)  As we look at threats to society today, we could soon be writing the same thing of our nation, or of the west.

“If individual guilt and responsibility have to be apportioned, then certainly all those are guilty who allowed things to come to such a pass.”  (p365)  ACG referred to Reich Chancellor Bruening in 1930 and others who made influential decisions with devastating consequences.  But what about a broader view?  What about the population, the foreign leaders, community influencers like the church leaders, etc.? 

“The longer National Socialism rules in Germany, the greater becomes the danger of a new and all-devastating war.  It is the sacred duty of all those within and without Germany to whom justice and law, humanity, democracy and peace are not matters of mere lip service, to co-operate in the fight for the preservation of mankind.” (p368)  This is still true today . . . totalitarian, globalist takeover agendas are flagrant, and too many heads remain firmly buried in the sand. 

So, to come full circle, common decency dictates that we should not liken anything today to 1930’s Germany.  In light of what has happened in recent years and what may lie ahead of us, maybe it would be wiser if we did.

The Thirties – Part 8 (Points to Ponder)

/ Peter Mead / 1 Comment

In this series, I have considered ACG’s book, Inside Germany.  Published in 1939, it is a fascinating account of the Nazi takeover of Germany that brought the world to the brink of disaster.  In light of reading that book and reflecting on our own times, what are some takeaway points to consider as preachers?

1. Only one message can change hearts.  It is not a political message nor driven by headlines in the newspapers or social media.  It is the message of the Gospel, and it comes from the Bible.  We must preach the gospel as loud and clear as possible in tumultuous times.  It may be that the turbulent times stir previously comfortable hearts to a new level of openness.  When those moments come, we must offer Jesus to a needy world. 

2. Only saying one thing can be a sign of weakness.  I know that our ministry is to preach the Gospel.  However, we also have some clauses in our job description that relate to being people of the truth.  In an age of disinformation, misinformation, malinformation, etc., we must speak the truth.  In an age of censorship, controlled media narratives, and the silencing of independent thinking, we need to promote informed and free thought.  Suppose our default position in public speech is to hide behind what is culturally acceptable.  For now, we can quote Bible verses because it is still safe to do so.  Why do we think we will later become bold clarions of truth when the societal pressure to conform becomes so much greater once tyranny takes a tighter grip on our throats?

3. We need to grow in discernment.  Too many are proclaiming a media-shaped worldview with some Bible verses attached.  There is probably a church in your town that is already fully there – sounding like their pulpit is a marginally more religious version of a BBC TV presenter.  God has not called us to offer insipid commentary on society with the odd tip of the hat to contemporary ideology.  We were called to think and proclaim biblically.  So read the Bible, then read the culture through the lens of the Bible (and not vice versa). 

We wouldn’t only read theology books from one agenda-driven publishing house, so don’t read society simply through the lens of the mainstream media’s agreed narrative.  Neither should we only read society through just one or two social media voices.  Let’s look for trustworthy sources.  That doesn’t mean checking to see if they are on the BBC, even if it once did.  Censorship should be a red flag to any thinker.  Look for who is being paid and who is losing their livelihood.  Look for who stands to gain and who is being silenced.  Let’s look for multiple trustworthy sources of information and set an example of being informed, thoughtful, and biblical in our discernment.

4. Have the courage to speak when silence is easier.  Can I be candid?  There have been times during recent years when I have found that many Christian leaders seem to be hiding behind the mantra of only preaching the Gospel.  It is easy to quote John 3:16 on social media.  But how many churches have gone along with the media narrative every step of the way, only to wonder later why they didn’t question more?  The easy choice today can mean I have reduced my credibility in a year or two.

5. What is our territory?  We have to be careful with politicised issues.  But don’t fall for the simplistic idea that every political matter is off-limits to us.  Last week, I was in a room where some people were asked what it was like to live under Soviet rule.  One answered about how they could not trust anyone.  Another spoke about never showing gladness outwardly.  Then an older man said, “We can never explain to our children what it was like because it was a spirit.”  There was a spiritual reality behind Communist rule.  There was an evil spirituality in Nazi rule too.  And if there is a “spirit of the age” at work in the ideological agenda of our day, then we cannot say that preachers should stay quiet.  Politics may be largely off-limits, but speaking God’s truth in the midst of a spiritual battle certainly is our territory.

6. Having courage does not negate the need for gentleness.  Sometimes, people hear a call for courage as a call for bombastic shouting.  Not at all.  We represent Christ, and we need to convey the nature of his character, as well as truth, in society.  But we should not underestimate what can be achieved in this world with gentle forcefulness.  (See my post on Solzhenitsyn’s “Live Not By Lies” from January.)

7. Pray and pray boldly.  As well as saying little to challenge the media narrative, it is also easy to pray as if that media narrative dictates reality.  God can do immeasurably beyond all that we ask or imagine.  In our private and public prayers, let us boldly pray for God to bring down those who exalt themselves, for God to expose those whose plans are for evil rather than good, and for God to break open hearts that seem so solidified against him.  The Third Reich was supposedly going to last a thousand years, but it was done in twelve.  Many prayed for that.  The impregnable Iron Curtain was brought down in my younger years.  Many prayed for that too.  And so it is with every variation of Communism, globalism, or religious takeover. Let’s pray that God would bring it down so that more can be spared the suffering and freely come to know him.

The Echo of Easter

/ Peter Mead / 3 Comments

I recently imagined a global tour that could be called the “tour of the tombs.”  That might not sound too exciting, but it would include great cities in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and North America!  Were we to travel that itinerary, we would see the burial sites of philosophers and Pharaohs, Kings and Emperors, religious leaders and mass murderers.  It would be quite the tour!  And along the way, we would get an inadvertent “tour of the troubles.”  After all, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, etc., are all marked by political protests, persecution, death, wars, and terrorism.  The world of today is not so different from the world of our history books.

In the first century, the events of one Sunday led to one of the greatest books ever written.  Imagine being John, possibly the youngest of Jesus’ disciples.  For three years, being with Jesus had transformed his life.  He was there when Jesus taught, healed, and shook the world.  John was there when Jesus was arrested and crucified.  He was there the day Jesus rose from the dead and met with his disciples.  John was there when Jesus met the group by the Sea of Galilee, when he uttered the Great Commission, and when he ascended into heaven.

The three years were over, but for the next six decades, John served his beloved Jesus.  He saw the gospel spreading in Jerusalem and the persecution that arose.  He saw his brother and the other disciples systematically slaughtered over the following decades.  He lived beyond the destruction of Jerusalem, the dispersion of the Jewish people, and the rise of nasty Emperor Domitian.  John lived for six decades serving Jesus.  And it was for preaching Jesus that John was sent to the penal colony of Patmos in his old age.

Then, one Sunday morning towards the end of the first century, John heard the voice of the risen Jesus (see Revelation 1:9-11).  The voice commissioned him to write everything he saw so that the Revelation of Jesus might be sent to the seven churches John cared about in Asia Minor.

If you look at the introduction to that book, the book of Revelation (1:1-8), you will find that John believed it to be a uniquely special book.  In a dark and troubling world, it offered grace and peace from the eternal God, especially the risen and victorious Son, Jesus Christ.  John underlined how Jesus revealed the Father, has risen from the dead, rules over the kings of the Earth, has rescued sinners from this world, and, in the future, will return.  The Revelation of Jesus Christ was exactly what the aged John needed.  It is what we need, too.

So what was it that John saw?  When we read through Revelation 1:12-20, how Jesus is portrayed is striking. 

The risen Jesus is impressively powerful.  He is impressively dressed, with a God-like description of his features.  There is the eternal wisdom seen in the white hair, the penetrating eyes, the judging feet and mouth, the thundering voice, and the brighter-than-the-sun face.  It might be really obvious, but this is no description of a corpse.  Jesus is very much alive and impressively powerful.  If we think of the tour of the troubles in this world, what hope do we find in the many tombs of emperors and kings?  None.  But one tomb is empty, and death has been defeated – Jesus holds the keys of death and Hades!  We all need to be gripped by the wondrous vision of Revelation 1.  But don’t skim through the description too quickly.  Jesus is not only impressively powerful, but he also explains the cryptic imagery of lampstands and stars that appear in that vision, leading us to reconsider all those powerful features.

The risen Jesus is intimately present. I wonder how many times John had remembered Jesus’ words, “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20)  Surely, those words had meant a lot during the difficult days when the apostles were being killed, when the Middle East was being rearranged, when John’s ministry in Asia was being opposed, when persecution was rising, and when John suffered on the prison island, kept away from the people he loved.  Jesus had promised to be present, and he was.  And now, this entire book was pointed in the direction of those seven churches.  When John turned, he saw Jesus walking in the midst of the lampstands, that is, the churches.  Jesus was present with John and with the churches.

Specifically, Jesus wore the clothing of a high priest (Rev. 1:13).  We can surmise that he was praying for the churches.  His features point to the purifying work of this high priest (Rev. 1:14-15) – the penetrating eyes, the feet ready to stamp out sin, etc.  And his thunderous voice proclaims boldly to the church (Rev. 1:15-16).  It is interesting that this is no whisper, but like the sound of many waters pounding on the shore – it makes me wonder how many of those churches had closed their ears to the words of Christ by closing their Bibles.  How many churches today are doing the same?

Jesus is risen; he is alive.  The Easter truth transforms our experience of this troubled world.  And the vision described in Revelation 1 declares a vital message.  The risen Jesus is both impressively powerful, and intimately present in the church today.  We need not despair at what we see around us.  We can look back to the empty tomb.  We can look forward to the return of Christ.  And we can look up, knowing that our great High Priest is praying for us, purifying his church, and proclaiming his word to this day.  Easter echoes down through the years. He is risen.  He is alive.  He is powerful and present.

The Cost of Diversity

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

It is such a wonderful thing to look around a church and see the diversity of people that make up the body of Christ.  People from different backgrounds, with different stories.  Some seem to be likely participants in a church; others seem most unlikely! 

One person might say, “I was raised in a Christian home,” but next to them will be someone who might say, “I never went to church until recently.” Someone might say, “You would not believe what I used to be like,” while another will say, “I always thought I was a good person.” The church is a beautiful blend of backgrounds, personalities, cultures, and stories.

In Acts 16, Paul and Silas traveled through Turkey on the second missionary journey recorded in the book. Eventually, they arrived at the coast, and God directed them to cross over into Europe.  We are thankful they did!  Their first stop was Philippi.

In Philippi, we are introduced to three people who encountered the transformational power of the love of God.  In just these three people, we get a glimpse of the diversity to come as God builds the church in Europe. And there is also a challenge for us.

The first person we read about is Lydia.  She seems to have been a successful businesswoman from what we read of her home town and her trade (purple cloth).  Paul met her at the prayer gathering beside the river.  (If there weren’t ten Jewish men in the town, then there could not be a formal synagogue, so this gathering was the informal equivalent of a synagogue.)  We read that Lydia was already a worshipper of the Lord.  It is hard to imagine someone easier to reach with the Gospel!

In reality, even religious people who know the Bible are not easy to reach.  The text reminds us that it is always a miracle when someone accepts Christ because, we are told, “The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.”  Lydia was a person with a successful life and a genuine interest in God.  What a blessing it is to have this kind of person before us in ministry.  Still, let us remember to pray that the Lord will open their hearts – otherwise, the story will always end very differently!

The second person we read about is the slave girl.  This girl must have had a horrible life.  She was a slave, used by her owners for her demonic powers.  The brief glimpse we get of her in this passage shows that she seemed to be a genuine inconvenience to Paul.  Thankfully, God delivered her from the evil spirit.  We don’t know what happened next, as the story swiftly moves on.  It doesn’t seem unreasonable to imagine believers like Lydia taking care of her.

Europe still has many people that we might find inconvenient, in comparison to the Lydias.  So many people in our continent bring with them a lifetime of brokenness and baggage.  Reaching them might feel more like a spiritual power encounter than a pleasant conversation about spiritual things over a cup of coffee.  And discipling them will always be more complicated for the church.  What a blessing it is to have this kind of person before us in ministry. Let’s pray for eyes to see the broken and the hurting around us. Let’s pray for God’s power to set them free and change their story!

The third person we read about is the jailer.  This man was probably a retired Roman soldier who had served his twenty years and was now responsible for the local prison in this colony.  He was perhaps a hardened man who had seen a lot and was now content to live with his family and experience as little trouble as possible.  This man would be hard to reach.  Thankfully, God knew how to get through this man’s hard exterior and capture his heart.

Reaching this jailer proved to be a costly experience for Paul and Silas.  They were seized, dragged before the authorities and tried by a mob.  They were stripped, humiliated and beaten with rods.  Then their wounded backs were probably pressed against a wall as their feet were put in stocks by the jailer—a horrible few hours, and perhaps a lifetime of scarring to show for it.  Perhaps the jailer heard the Gospel from them as he locked them up.  Maybe he lay in bed wondering what they had to sing about.  And perhaps he had just drifted off when the earthquake shook him awake! Sure that they would have escaped, he prepared to end his life to save the higher Roman authorities the task.  But then Paul called out and brought him into the jail.  They were all still there, after all.  And at that moment, the jailer was turned spiritually upside-down!

If God could release a slave girl from demonic oppression, why did God not do another mighty miracle in the town square and impress everyone with his power?  Why all this suffering for Paul and Silas?  God could have sent a bolt of lightning down during the day, but instead, he waited and sent the earthquake that night.  Why?  Because that hardened jailer perhaps would have joined the crowds and prostrated himself before a display of God’s power, in fear and trembling, grovelling before this foreign god.  Yet God’s goal was not to show his power but to demonstrate his love. 

As the jailer stood before Paul and Silas, he discovered that their suffering was not under compulsion.  They chose to stay in that cell.  Their suffering was somehow voluntary.  That blew the circuits of his hard old heart.  Maybe this is what they meant when they spoke and sang about Jesus willingly suffering for sinners like him!

We should praise God for the diversity of people brought together in the body of Christ.  The “successful” people like Lydia, the people with lots of baggage like the slave girl, and the hardened veterans like the jailer.  Some might seem easier to lead to Christ – praise God when they are!  Some are more inconvenient to rescue and disciple.  And some will cost us a great deal of suffering to reach.

There is an actual cost to make the diverse body of Christ possible.  But ultimately, that cost is not ours, but Christ’s.  He suffered voluntarily to reach the hardest of hearts.  If we keep our eyes on him as we walk whatever path God sets before us, then maybe we can be like Paul and Silas. Perhaps we will also sing hymns of praise as we get the opportunity to represent the voluntary suffering love of God’s heart.

God’s Great Story and You – Part 4 … What is a Christian?

/ Peter Mead / 1 Comment

God’s Great Story and You! is a 4-part series I wrote for LookForHope.org – a website for people looking for hope in the midst of this COVID-19 crisis.  Please take a look at the site and spread the word so that others can find it.  Click here for part 1, click here for part 2,  click here for part 3.  And here is the final part:

What is a Christian?

The name was originally an insult – a “mini-Christ.” But today the word gets used in so many ways. To really understand what a Christian is, we need to be clear what Jesus invites people to be and what he offers to people.

A follower of Jesus. Jesus invited people to become his followers. That is, to become like apprentices, following him, learning from him, copying him, becoming like him. A Christian is a follower of Jesus.

The problem is that naturally nobody really wants to give up their lives and live for Jesus. Take the example of Nicodemus in John 3. Nic was at the top of the religious, social, economic and cultural totem pole, as it were. He was highly educated, influential, wealthy and successful. But when he came to Jesus to talk about the kingdom of God, Jesus told him that they couldn’t have that conversation until Nic was born again. He literally told the teacher of Israel that he hadn’t even started living as far as God was concerned. In the same passage Jesus says that where the Spirit of God is, you can see the effects (but the implication is that Jesus saw no effects in Nicodemus!)

The bad news for every human is that we have sinned, which means we are guilty and need forgiveness. More than that, we don’t have the Spirit of God uniting us to God in the way we were designed to be connected. And there is more, our hearts are hard, cold and dead toward God.

The good news is that Jesus came to die on the cross, to rise from the dead, and to offer us the solution to these, our deepest problems. Because Jesus died and rose, we can have our sins forgiven, we can have the Spirit of God come to live within us, and we can have our hearts transformed so that we start to love God and want to live for him. When we accept the offer of forgiveness and new life from Jesus, this is called salvation, or being born again.

In light of this amazing offer, what is a Christian?

A Child of God. The Bible speaks about this new life in terms of both birth and adoption. A Christian is someone who has been both born into and adopted into God’s family. We have the Spirit of God within us, meaning that we gradually grow to resemble the character of God and look more and more like Jesus. (But we are also desperately flawed and while we may look nothing like our God at times, our status is secure with him!)

Part of the Bride of Christ. The Bible speaks of Christians as the bride of Christ. This is an amazing image in that it speaks of the closest union possible between Jesus and his followers. The millions of people who have trusted Christ and accepted his offer of forgiveness and life are not just an army of servants, but actually constitute his bride. We are united to him by his Spirit, and we are his most treasured beloved.

A Christian is someone who knows they are not good enough and that they deserve the righteous judgment of God. A Christian is someone who believes that Jesus was who he claimed to be and believes that Jesus fulfilled the mission his Father gave him when he died on the cross and rose from the dead. A Christian is a forgiven sinner, more than that, they are a child of God, part of the bride of Christ, brought into a close and personal relationship with God through Jesus.

A Christian is a follower of Jesus – someone who is both transformed and in the process of being transformed. Christians are works in progress, but works in progress with absolute confidence – not in themselves, but in what Jesus did for them that first Easter, and confident that whatever this life may throw at them, the embrace of Jesus is waiting at the end of this chapter of our story!

God’s Great Story and You – Part 3…Why Does It Matter To Me That Jesus Rose?

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

God’s Great Story and You! is a 4-part series I wrote for LookForHope.org – a website for people looking for hope in the midst of this COVID-19 crisis.  Please take a look at the site and spread the word so that others can find it.  Click here for part 1, click here for part 2.  Here is part 3 of the series:

Why Does It Matter To Me That Jesus Rose?

In part 2 we saw how Jesus’ death on the cross achieved so much for us. But in order to see that his sacrifice had been accepted, that his victory had been won, that his mission had been accomplished…Jesus did not stay dead. The hero of the story walks out the tomb victorious and history has been completely changed by that fact.

After Jesus died on the cross, his followers did not assemble to plan the greatest ruse in history and spread a fake rumour about Jesus conquering death. They went into hiding as they mourned his death. They were shocked to meet him again. They didn’t see a ghost, or get a vague apparition. This was not the vain hope of Elvis fans that the king might still be alive somewhere. No, the risen Jesus purposefully met with them and rocked their worlds forever.

For instance, one of his followers, Mary Magdalene, met him on that Easter Sunday morning. She didn’t look up and recognise him until he spoke her name. That moment of recognition was powerful and deeply emotional. Then Jesus said something amazing, he told her that he would be going back to ‘‘my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ Jesus always spoke of God as his Father, but this is the first time he spoke of him as ‘your Father…your God.’ Jesus’ death on the cross had achieved what it was meant to achieve, and the resurrection confirmed it … God and humans could now enjoy a reconciled relationship! (See John 20:11-18)

That evening Jesus came to ten of his disciples and filled them with joy. He told them that he would be sending them out to continue his mission from his Father. But one disciple was missing. Thomas heard their report, but he was sceptical. He wanted proof. You probably should too. After all, claims of Jesus rising from the dead are nice, but we can’t live our lives and head into eternity based on fact-less claims. The next week Jesus came to them again, this time Thomas was there. Jesus didn’t rebuke Thomas for wanting proof. Instead, Jesus invited him to come forward and touch for himself. This was no ghost, no apparition, no vision. This was Jesus literally raised from the dead. We can’t touch him like that today, but we can investigate the evidence and test the fact of Jesus’ resurrection just like any other fact of history. In fact, if we do we will find the evidence is overwhelmingly in support of the fact that Jesus rose from the dead. (See John 20:19-29)

Because Jesus rose from the dead, this means that the claims of Jesus, and the teachings of Christianity, are built on the foundation of a fact that can be tested. We are not asked to blindly believe in fairy stories. The Christian faith is founded on fact.

Because Jesus rose from the dead, God has confirmed that all Jesus aimed to achieve on the cross was successful. He had paid for sin and satisfied the justice of God. He made a way for humans to come to God and defeated the enemy of our souls and death itself!

Because Jesus rose from the dead, death need no longer be the end of your story. Every other religious figure could teach his followers, but all of them ended up dead and buried. Jesus rose from the dead and so is in a category of his own. If he conquered death himself, then he can conquer death for his followers too.

Because Jesus rose from the dead, it means that this life is not all there is, but also that this life really matters. Christians have been willing to not only live for Jesus, but also to die for him, knowing that there is a life to come that gives great hope in this disease-ridden and violent world. No matter what happens, nothing can take away the hope of a Christian that reaches joyfully beyond suffering and death to the hope of being home with Jesus and more fully alive than ever.

At the same time, because Jesus rose physically, it means that human life is incredibly valuable. The world is not yet made right, but we can fight for what is right and good as we wait for God to purge sin and selfishness from this world and renew the wonderful creation again!

God’s Great Story and You – Part 2…What Does Jesus’ Death Have To Do With Me?

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

God’s Great Story and You! is a 4-part series I wrote for LookForHope.org – a website for people looking for hope in the midst of this CoronaVirus crisis.  Please take a look at the site and spread the word so that others can find it.  Click here for part 1.  Here is part 2 of the series:

What Does Jesus’ Death Have To Do With Me?

The symbol of Christianity is a cross. It may look shiny and perfectly shaped on a necklace today, but two thousand years ago it was a symbol of execution, agony and shame. Nobody would ever choose to die exposed and humiliated on a Roman cross. But Jesus did. Why?

The simple answer to that question would be that Jesus knew it was the mission given to him by his Father in heaven. But still the question remains, why did Jesus have to die?

If Jesus’ death was somehow significant, let’s begin by asking why is there death at all? Death was not part of God’s perfect design for this world. In the beginning God created everything as an overflow of that generous love and kindness that exists within the relationship of the Trinity. He created a world that was both diverse and unified, a world of abundance and colour and vibrant life. And the pinnacle of God’s creation was the creature made in his relational image—the humans. Male and female, diverse but unified, ruling everything as God’s representatives. It was so so good, but sadly that didn’t last long.

God did not force his creatures to love him. So when opportunity came, they desired to pull away from God’s good rule and try living as independent mini-gods, setting their own rules and living for their own desires. In that moment, as God had warned them, they discovered only the inadequacy of their own nakedness. Turns out humans separated from God are not the super-beings we would like to be. Curved in on ourselves we become black holes of selfishness, draining the life from everything around us as we ourselves have lost God’s life within us.

What did God do in the face of this rebellion and mess? He promised to send a human to rescue us and defeat the enemy who had led humanity into this living death. For centuries the Old Testament unfolds the story of God’s anticipated deliverer who finally arrived that first Christmas just over 2000 years ago.

Jesus was God’s rescuer, sent to stand in the gap between a good God and a rebellious humanity. He came to reveal God’s goodness to us, but more than that, he came to do what we could not do for ourselves and make a way for us to come back into relationship with God.

One time Jesus told the story of two men: a righteous religious man and a nasty traitorous tax collector for the occupying forces. Both of them went to pray. The righteous religious man prayed a prayer full of pride, describing how good he was in comparison to others. The traitor stood off at a distance, beat his breast in desperation and pleaded with God for mercy. Literally, he asked God to provide the kind of sacrifice that would cover for his sin, the kind of sacrifice that took place inside that temple every day. Jesus shocked his listeners by declaring that only one of these men went home justified, or declared righteous, in God’s eyes. And it wasn’t the “good” guy—it was the desperate sinner. (See Luke 18:9-14)

Fast forward a few stories and we find another tax collector (See Luke 19:1-10). This one is called Zacchaeus and he wanted to see Jesus, but couldn’t because he was short. He ended up climbing into a tree for a secret vantage point. To his shock Jesus stopped and spoke to him. The crowd hated Zac. But Jesus rescued him from their anger by showing kindness to him. Zac was blown away by Jesus’ kindness and his life was changed at the tree.

Later in Luke’s gospel we find that Jesus travelled to another tree, the cross outside Jerusalem. There he voluntarily died, taking the anger not only of the crowd, but also of God in heaven, against the sins of humanity. Jesus died hanging on a tree to set us all free from the righteous judgment of God against sin, to buy us out of our slavery to sin, to win a decisive victory over sin and death, and to reconcile us back to God.

Jesus offers us all a great exchange. He wants to give us all of his righteousness, goodness and life, in exchange for all our sin, wrong, death, shame and brokenness. He is willing to take our great debt on himself and die—in fact, he already did.

A New Not New Experience – COVID-19 Response

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

There have not been many times in my lifetime when things have been changing so quickly.  Maybe around 9/11.  Maybe when the Iron Curtain fell apart.  But this week the spreading realisation of the seriousness of the Coronavirus situation has been striking.

One day I am seeing Christians on facebook moan about college sports being suspended due to “a silly virus” and the next day they are commenting about the seriousness of the situation.  (Maybe some people should go back and delete some comments that could soon look very uncaring?)

What we are facing is new to many of us.  Uncertainty from one day to the next; travel being complex and restricted; health being under threat; questions over personal income; inability to gather freely for church; potentially inadequate access to healthcare; neighbours living without confidence; people worried about being able to get basic supplies and so on. 

This may be new to most of us, but it is not new for most people, in most of the world, for most of history.

And what does this mean?  It means a unique opportunity to shine like stars in a dark time.  The Roman Empire was all this and more, but the gospel spread like wildfire.  Living under communism with all its restrictions, such as in 20th century China, had many of these features, and unprecedented church growth.  Whether we go back centuries or think more recently, difficult times make for wonderful opportunity for Jesus followers to spill the love of God into a needy and disrupted world.

So what will this season look like for you and me?  Will we mourn the loss of sports, indulge in comfort binge watching of Netflix, complain about all the inconveniences to our usually so comfortable and indulged lives, pour energy into hoarding random grocery items?

Of course it will be a genuinely difficult season for many of us.  Loss of income will hit many. Loss of loved ones will hit some.  But what if we make this unique season an opportunity to proactively love God, love one another and love our neighbours?

Love God – Time in the Bible and prayer can become so routine when life is normal.  Why not let this time stir a greater appetite for time with our God?  Let’s get to know Him more, trust Him more, love Him more.

Love One Another – We may not be able to meet on a Sunday and in home groups, but church is still church even without the meetings.  In fact, it is a great opportunity to think through how we can love one another, shepherd one another, support one another, look out for one another, etc.  The way the church loves is supposed to be noticeable to a world full of people living “me-first.”  This is an opportunity for us to really look different.

Love Our Neighbours – The government will do what it can, probably.  Community spirit may kick in and be helpful.  But the greatest force for on-the-ground love and selfless care should be the followers of Jesus.  A confused, disrupted and increasingly hurting community is what we are here for – what can we do to be ready?  What steps can we take to be bold?  Wash your hands, wash their feet, and tell them the good news about Jesus.

This situation is new to us, but it is not new to God’s people.  Let’s fix our eyes on Jesus and embrace this taste of a more normal life in this broken and hurting world.