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Mt. Baker Beacon
Vol. 03, No. 23 Jun 09, 2024
Your word is a lamp to my feet Mount Volume 03, Number 23 Published by Location: Sunday: Web site: Mt. Baker church
| In this issue: JESUS’ RESURRECTION - THE ASSURANCE OF OUR FAITH When some Christians at Corinth falsely claimed “that there is no resurrection of the dead” (NKJV), the apostle Paul pointed out in 1 Corinthians 15:12–19 what the logical consequence would be: that Jesus Himself didn’t rise. “And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty” (v. 14, NKJV). Christianity is confirmed by Jesus’ resurrection, and it’s refuted if He didn’t rise. If it’s true (1) that Jesus died at some point and (2) that He was alive afterward, then He must have risen from the dead. The historical evidence is clear that Jesus was executed. As even resurrection skeptic John Dominic Crossan said, “Jesus’ death by crucifixion under Pontius Pilate is as sure as anything historical can ever be. For if no follower of Jesus had written anything for one hundred years after his crucifixion, we would still know about him from two authors not among his supporters. Their names are Flavius Josephus and Cornelius Tacitus” (Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, p. 145). As for Jesus being alive afterward, 1 Corinthians 15:3–8 provides a list of witnesses including individual disciples, groups of disciples, and unbelievers (Paul and James). Even secular scholars grant that the list isn’t guilty of embellishment and that the statement is sincere. In the words of Germany’s prominent resurrection skeptic, the late Gerd Lüdemann, “It may be taken as historically certain that Peter and the disciples had experiences after Jesus’s death in which Jesus appeared to them as the risen Christ” (What Really Happened to Jesus, p. 80). The issue then is the interpretation of these experiences. How did the witnesses see Jesus alive after He was crucified? Not believing that Jesus was actually there to be seen, most skeptics today, including Lüdemann, argue everyone merely hallucinated. However, this contradicts the agreed‐upon fact that people experienced seeing Jesus in group settings. Hallucinations are made up in a person’s mind, not actually there for anyone else to see. If you hallucinate an apple in front of you, no one else will see it. If everyone else does see it, then the apple’s really there! The same applies to seeing Jesus. Since groups saw Jesus alive, He really was there to be seen. Furthermore, even unbelievers like Paul converted upon seeing Jesus risen. (Again, it’s unchallenged by secular scholarship that Paul was a persecutor‐turned‐Christian who said his radical transformation was because he saw Jesus.) How could he hallucinate something happening that he “knew” (at least in his mind) to be false? And if he could, how would a single hallucination change his entire life? A modern‐day equivalent would be if an outspoken atheist like Richard Dawkins were to suddenly hallucinate Jesus and become a Christian because of it. A mere hallucination cannot explain the radical change Paul underwent. The best explanation is that Jesus was really there to be seen. He died for our sins and rose from the dead, overcoming death. Likewise, we must die to our sins by joining His death, burial, and resurrection in baptism (Rom. 6:1–7). THE NOBLEMAN’S FAITH John 4:46-54 records the story of a nobleman who looked for Jesus so that He would heal his son who was near death. Some confuse the nobleman with a centurion who also sought help from Jesus to heal a servant who was deadly ill. This account is recorded in Matthew 8:13 and Luke 7:1-10. The two healings are very similar but are not the same. Both men were men of authority, one a nobleman and the other a centurion. Both were from Capernaum. Both wanted healing for someone they loved. However, there are differences in the accounts which indicate two different incidents. The nobleman was likely a Jew; the centurion certainly a Gentile. The nobleman looked for help for a son; the centurion looked for help for a servant. The nobleman asked Jesus to come to his house; the centurion told him not to come. The faith of the nobleman was weak, but the faith of the centurion was strong enough for Jesus to say that He had not seen such faith in all of Israel. The incident of the nobleman and his appeal to Jesus for help for his son is another illustration of John “filing in the gaps” or supplying information for posterity which would not otherwise be known. Quite frankly, the faith of the average raised-in-the-church Christian may more likely be like the faith of the nobleman than of the faith of the centurion. The nobleman personally sought help for the healing of his son, and while Mathew’s account of the centurion might indicate that he also personally sought help for his servant, Luke’s account of the same incident clearly shows that he sent Jewish rulers to ask Jesus’ help. The nobleman had a real need, an ailing son. And he knew who could heal his son for him. He felt, however, that Jesus’ presence in his home was needed for the healing to take place (John 4:47). The nobleman’s faith was first tested when he made his plea that Jesus would come down and heal his son. Jesus said, “Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe” (John 4:48). The nobleman was not deterred by this. He said, “Sir, come down, ere my child die” (John 4:49). Then Jesus put him to his greatest test. He said, “Go thy way, thy son liveth” (John 4:50). The record said, “The man believed the word that Jesus spoke and went his way.” Servants from the nobleman’s home came to meet him with a wonderful message: his son lives! When the servant was asked when the son had begun to recover, his answer was “yesterday at the seventh hour, the fever left him” (John 4:53). The nobleman knew it was at that hour that Jesus assured him “thy son liveth” and he and his house all believed. The nobleman’s faith grew and grew. So many of us have heard the gospel all our lives and we believe. Our faith is based on the testimony of others. But while we believe, we may wonder about how strong our faith is. We do what we do because we believe Jesus is the Son of God and that we must obey His words to be saved. We are baptized because that is what Jesus taught us to do (Mark 16:15-16). We assemble with the disciples on the first day of the week because we have the testimony of His apostles that is what disciples must do (Acts 20:7; Hebrews 10:25). We observe the Lord’s Supper and remember His death because we are so commanded (Matthew 26:26). Then our calm world ceases to be calm. We lose someone precious to us — perhaps a child or a spouse. We have a reversal of fortune and major expenses are incurred. We are personally struck with a terrible illness, or we live on into extreme old age and see our own bodies grow weak and frail, conscious of failing hearing, eyesight, and memory. But we continue to do as we have been taught. Why? Because we are so taught and what else can we do? Then, slowly life comes back to a degree of normalcy. We still pray and worship, and while we surely don’t have the centurion’s faith, we still believe in Jesus. Like the distraught father who said to Jesus regarding his ailing son, “If thou canst do anything, help us,” Jesus’ response was, “If thou canst? All things are possible to him that believeth.” We can hear the anguish of the father when he plead with Jesus: “Lord, I believe. Help thou my unbelief” (Mark 9:24). How we identify with him! We may not have the faith of the centurion. But remember that Jesus said He had not found faith like his in Israel. That included Peter, James, John, and the rest. But their faith grew. We may feel that we don’t have the faith of the martyrs to die for Jesus, but don’t forget, it takes faith also to live for Jesus. Remember, after Jesus had convinced Thomas that He had truly been raised from the dead, He told him, “Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed!” (John 20:29). Acknowledge that the nobleman did come to Jesus with weak faith yet remember when Jesus assured him, “Your son liveth,” he believed. Then, when the servant told him the fever had left his son at the seventh hour — the very time Jesus told the nobleman, “Your son liveth,” again the record said, “He believed, and his household.” The faith of the nobleman grew and grew. So should ours. Created by John Bass, last updated. 06/04/2024 The Mount Baker Beacon is a weekly publication of the Mt. Baker church of Christ, Bellingham, WA. |
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