The Empty Tomb

In light of a talk I’ll be giving on the 23rd of April, I thought I’d get some reading done on Jesus’ resurrection. I found a couple of really great articles that I thought I’d share!

Jesus’ Tomb is Empty! and The Resurrection is Credible & Historical by Justin Holcomb
Evidence for the Resurrection of Christ: A Challenge for Skeptics by Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli
Evidence for the Resurrection by Josh McDowell
Historical Evidence for the Resurrection by Matt Perman
Historical Evidence for the Resurrection by Christopher Louis Lang
Evidence for the Resurrection from Existence-of-God.com

I also found some free PDF books by Josh McDowell: Christianity: Hoax or History?, Resurrection Growth Guide:  The Resurrection Factor, Reasons Skeptics Should Consider Christianity, and Skeptics Who Demanded a Verdict.

http://www.marshillchurch.org/v/nrb7h5bxbr1d

born of the Virgin Mary

(This is part five of a multi-entry blog series exploring the Apostles’ Creed.)

We’ve covered the Father, Son, and the Spirit in the previous entries. This entry focuses in on something very specific about Jesus; he was:

“Born of the Virgin Mary,”

The interesting thing about this statement is that Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would be born of a virgin over 700 years before Jesus was born (Isaiah 7:14). Many people claim that the term used in this verse could also translate to “maiden” or simply “woman.” But what about the narrative in Luke where Mary specifically says she is a virgin in Luke 1:26-37? An angel appears to Mary and tells her she will have a child; Mary is perplexed and says, “How can this be since I am still a virgin?” (Luke 1:34) Some people might try to claim that the word virgin here can also mean “maiden.”

My first question is this: Why would Mary be surprised and say, “How can this be since I am a woman”? Does that make any logical sense? I’m pretty sure that, since Mary was engaged to Joseph, she knew where babies came from or at least understood that babies came from women.

Additionally, if you do some homework and look at the literal Greek, Mary says something like “How can this be since I have not known a man” which was an idiom for “How can this be since I have not had sexual relations with a man.” Mary had not “known” a man and that’s why she was surprised that she was going to have a baby.

Another verse that addresses Mary’s virginity is Matthew 1:18, which says that Mary was found to be with child “before they came together;” which is another way of saying they had not had sex. We also read that Joseph and Mary did not have sex until after Jesus was born (Matthew 1:24-25).

So why did Jesus have to be born of a woman and of God? Couldn’t Jesus have just floated down from Heaven? I’m going to rip off Wayne Grudem for just a minute here. In his book Systematic Theology (Chapter 26: “The Person of Christ”) he was a wonderful job explaining the significance of the “doctrinal importance of the virgin birth.” He says there are three reasons this is important:

1. “It shows that salvation ultimately must come from the Lord.” As Grudem states here, salvation is not the result of human good works and efforts. Salvation is the direct result of the will and power of God and can only come to us as a gift. This was made possible in the person of Jesus.

2. “The virgin birth made possible the uniting of full deity and full humanity in one person.”  While it is possible that God could have sent Jesus to earth in a different way, this is the best way. Jesus could have floated down to earth, fully human and fully God; but then it would have been hard for us to understand how he could have been united with humanity since he had none of the same origins as us. On the other hand, Jesus could have been born of two human parents and then been filled with godliness early on in his life or even in the womb; but then it would have been hard for us to understand how Jesus could have been fully divine in he had all of the same origins as us.

3. “The virgin birth also makes possible Christ’s true humanity without inherited sin.” What’s interesting about this is that, according to tradition, original sin is passed from Adam and through the father to the children. Since Jesus did not have a human father, He did not inherit any original sin. (Additionally, although I will readily admit I don’t remember where I read this, in Jesus time you were not considered Jewish unless your mother was a Jew.) From Mary, Jesus inherited full humanity but was free from the legal guilt and moral corruption of Adam.

Was it necessary for Jesus to be fully human? You betcha! Once again Grudem does a great job answering this question, although I won’t go into detail for each point, but Jesus was fully human for representative obedience (Romans 5:18-19; 1 Corinthians 15:45, 47), the be a substitute for sacrifice (John 3:16; Hebrews 2:16-17), to be the one mediator between God and men (1 Timothy 2:5), to fulfill God’s original purpose for man to rule of creation (Matthew 28:18; Ephesians 1:22; Revelation 3:21), to be our example and pattern in life (1 John 2:6, 3:2-3; 2 Corinthians 3:18; Romans 8:29, 1 Peter 1:21; Hebrews 12:2; Philippians 3:10; Acts 7:60; 1 Peter 3:17-18, 4:1), to be the pattern for our redeemed bodies (1 Corinthians 15:42-44, 49; Colossians 1:18), and to sympathize as a high priest (Hebrews 2:18, 4:15-16). Just to name a few…

So, to conclude, we find that God united humanity and divinity in the unique person of Jesus Christ. He did this through a woman named Mary, who was considered a highly favored servant of God. Jesus inherited full divinity from His Father and fully humanity from His mother. He did this so that Jesus could be a substitute for our sins, and example for our lives, a preview of our resurrection, and a mediator (literally a “bridge”) between us and our Heavenly Father.

The main character: God

This is part five of a multi-entry blog series titled “Lessons I Learned in the Desert.”

One of the things that struck me as I went through the “Read the Bible in 90 Days” challenge was how quickly the Bible narrative seemed to move along after someone died. Abraham, for instance, is a pretty big deal in Genesis, but when he dies in Gen 25:8 the story doesn’t come to a screeching halt. Instead, after briefly giving the details of Abraham’s burial, the story nonchalantly picks right up and continues.
 
Another great example is Moses. Moses was the man! He lead God’s people out of Egypt, parted the Red Sea, lead the Hebrew’s through the desert, saw God face to face (Ex 33:11), and was the mediator of the Mosaic Law. In short, if anyone was a big deal in the Old Testament, it would’ve been Moses, right? In fact, he was central in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. However, in Joshua 1:1-2 we see that as soon as Moses dies the story just keeps on going!

It almost seems odd. What gives? Were these guys unimportant? Did they not matter? I think the answer is not that they were unimportant; it’s not that they didn’t matter. It’s just that they weren’t the point. The story isn’t about Abraham. The story isn’t about Moses.
 
The story is about God.
 
God is the central character of the Bible. It’s all about Him. He’s the main character. Supporting actors and actresses may come on stage for a moment, but they never, ever take center stage. The spot light always has been, and always will be, rightfully aimed at God. History truly is, as the cliche goes, His story.
 
I’ve talked to a lot of people who have problems with the Old Testament. They wonder how God could kill people, which He does a lot of in the Old Testament. They wonder why God would order His people to kill other people, which He does a lot of in the Old Testament. They ask questions like, “What right does God have to take human life?” Read that question again, does that even sound logical? People who ask questions like that, whether they realize it or not, have decided that man is sovereign and God is secondary.
 
Who are we to question what “rights” God has? God is God and has any and every right to do whatever He wants. When we, the created being, question the rights of our Creator, we unwittingly assume that God has to answer to us, as though we are a higher authority than Him. History is about Him, not us.
 
Once accepted, this realization is actually quite freeing. It means that my life isn’t even about me in the first place, it’s about God. As Rick Warren puts it in the beginning of The Purpose Driven Life, “It’s not about you.” Life is much simpler and much less stressful when viewed against the backdrop of all human history!
 
The most amazing fact is that, although history is all about God, He still loves us enough to die for us. God, the main character and hero of the story, sent Jesus to rescue us from the mess we’d gotten ourselves into. I can’t even imagine such love. It’s beyond us! It blows my mind that the central character of all history knows me and loves me. It should blow your mind, too!
 

Communion Message

This is the Communion Message I gave a week ago at the campus-lead church service:

Good morning church, my name is Daniel Delgado and I’m going to give a communion message. Today is a campus-led service, so this will be a little longer than most communion messages. I hope we’ve all been touched by the stories that were just shared with us. I also hope that we’ve all seen a common theme of lives changed, hearts set right, and souls liberated. And it’s with the theme of liberation that I’d like to look at communion. The word “communion” comes from the Latin word “communio,” which means “sharing in common.” I think that, as Christians, there are many things we share in common. But arguably, the most important is the fact that we’ve all been liberated from sin and communion is a time to not only remember that, but also to celebrate our liberation! I’m not sure if this is a new take on communion or not, but I’d like to share it with you. Let’s open our bibles to Mark 14:12-16:

12On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?”

13So he sent two of his disciples, telling them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. 14Say to the owner of the house he enters, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ 15He will show you a large upper room, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.”

16The disciples left, went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.

We’ve all heard this before and we’ve all had the chance to get bored with it and think we’ve got this passage figured out. But have we dissected it yet? Have we really rolled up our sleeves and dug deep into this passage? Or have we simply taken it at face value? I think if we look carefully, we find that there are a couple questions that beg to be asked:

What is the Feast of Unleavened Bread and what is the significance of Passover?

Well I’m glad you asked, the Feast of Unleavened Bread is a celebration established by God in Exodus 12:17-20. This is when the Jews celebrate God liberating His people from slavery in Egypt.

This is like the Jewish Independence Day. Now in America, when we think Independence Day, we think red, white, and blue, fireworks, and barbeques. But for the Jews, this holy holiday is a time of reverence, fasting, and remembering what God has done. This holiday is a little more holy to the Jews of Jesus’ time that the 4th of July is to modern America.

And as we all know, freedom isn’t free, so who paid the price for the Jewish freedom? Well, in order for the Egyptian Pharaoh to set the Jews free, it took ten plagues, culminating with the death of the entire first born population in Egypt. This was especially devastating because the first born was supposed to carry on the family legacy; they received a double-portion of the family inheritance, and were also first in line to inherit the throne in royal families. The loss of an entire generation of firstborns had catastrophic effects to Egypt. Also, up until now, the plagues hadn’t affected Pharaoh—just his subjects—but this hit close to home because now his throne had no heir. There was no on to carry on his legacy. After this the Pharaoh didn’t want to have anything to do with the Jewish people.

From then on, this holiday has been celebrated by the Jews. So here are some key points.

* God’s People were slaves.

* God sacrificed the firstborn.

* God’s people were set free so they could worship God.

* God commanded the Jews to celebrate this liberation with the Passover Feast.

Do you see where I’m going with this? Let’s look at communion. When Jesus, at the Passover Feast, established the Lord’s Supper, he was telling us that The Firstborn over all creation was preparing to die for us to set us free from our bondage to sin. We all know what happens next, Jesus is betrayed and crucified within 24hrs of establishing communion. Coincidence? I doubt it! But it was necessary for Him to die if we were ever going to be set free. It was a cost that had to be paid if God’s people were ever going to see liberation from slavery.

I can’t help but marvel at the connection between the Passover Feast and communion. And as we take communion today, I want us all to think about what we share in common. Communion connects us all. It’s one body, broken into many pieces and becomes a part of us. We all, like God’s people so long ago, have been liberated from slavery.