Tag Archives: resurrection

A Pandemic of Love and Grace, April 20, 2020

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.

We have a phenomenon going on across the country and around the world that baffles me in some ways. I’m sure it depends partly on how much you trust the news, social media, and other sources of information. It also depends on where you live and how this pandemic touches people you might know. But there is a significant segment of the population that thinks the novel coronavirus is no big deal. They wonder why we are disrupting our lives so much and taking such extraordinary measures for something that so far in this country seems like a nasty flu epidemic.

Of course, when you try to explain the properties of a pandemic and how they spread to those unbelievers, they wish it away and tell you you’re crazy. They don’t want to believe the catastrophe that is happening in New York City or Baton Rouge or Italy or Spain or many other places around the world. More than two million people have died, as of this podcast, that have been identified as coronavirus victims. Scientists tell us more died of the disease, but the dead are not tested.

The social separation states imposed works. In this country, when people work hard to enforce the rules for separation to curb the spread, it seems to be working. Cases are down. Hospital beds are available. Death rates are lower than in other places around the country and the world. Breaking the chain works. But there will continue to be those who doubt what the leaders enforced.

Our economy is in shambles right now after just a month of isolation. That shows you just how fragile this global system has become. When we close our doors for just thirty days, we fall apart as a nation. How much longer can we sustain the separation and closures to allow the virus to burn itself out in this first wave to enable us to find cures for it? I’m not sure.

We already have an increasing number of suicides, domestic violence, hungry children, and the list goes on in the most vulnerable parts of our population. Those on the fringe of society are clearly at the highest risk during pandemics, and this one appears no different.

Still, some doubt the reality of what is happening around us. The coronavirus is a hoax, they say. It’s a ploy to gain power by one political party or the other, they say. It’s a means of getting rid of a race of people I heard one doubter of the pandemic say. Some of the comments I hear and read flabbergast me. I don’t know where they get their ideas.

The doubt in the beginning, though, I understand. I think many of us thought the coronavirus was only a news item when we first heard about the epidemic in Wahun, China. Only when it reached the nursing home in Washington state did many begin to realize the jeopardy of the situation. And only when New York City’s hospitals and morgues begin to overflow did we come to understand the danger the country faced and begin to take active measures to slow the spread of the disease.

Doubt. The same doubt Thomas had when the other disciples told him Jesus appeared to them behind locked doors the night of the resurrection. We don’t understand how he suddenly appeared or what kind of physics allowed it to happen. But we know they could touch him. He could eat and drink. They could hear him speak, and he could hear them talk. But Thomas wasn’t there. He didn’t see it and wouldn’t believe it. John tells us the story.

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.”

Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”

Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” (John 20:19, 24-29 NIV)

Thomas wouldn’t believe unless he saw Jesus himself. Some don’t want to believe what is happening with the pandemic unless it happens to them or someone they know personally. We have this big issue with trust sometimes that keeps us from realizing our full potential with God and others. Faith is a crucial part of life. Without faith, we cannot survive. It allows us to walk out the door and get in our car believing we will not be hit by another motorist when we drive down the street. It allows us to go to work, believing we will be paid for our labor. It keeps us motivated to raise our children, believing they will grow to become productive adults.

Faith is critical in our everyday lives. It is also vital in our spiritual lives. Faith for Thomas, and us, means believing in the truth that Jesus is alive. He rose from the dead, not as a disembodied spirit, but as a physical, touchable, breathing person. We don’t understand the physics that let him appear and disappear as the narratives tell us. We don’t understand the physics that let him feed more than 5,000 with a boy’s lunch. We don’t understand a lot of things. But we can exercise faith and believe.

Just as we can believe the devastation that the pandemic creates around the world without being in the middle of it, if you live in a part of the country or part of the world that has so far been only mildly touched by it, we can believe Jesus rose from the dead.

It was the disciples’ witness that gave them the courage to share the message of the resurrection. But it was the faith of the hearers of the message that continues to spread the message. Like the pandemic we see in our world today, there are a couple of truths we can learn. We don’t have to catch it to know it’s real. We can see it’s evidence around us.

The same is true of God’s grace. It doesn’t take a believer to see God’s grace, but experiencing God’s grace makes so much difference and solidifies the knowledge of his grace in our lives so we can never forget it.

Second, like the social distancing in our current pandemic, if we fail to share his love with those around us, how will his love spread? But live a virus, when we touch others with his love, he has a way of sparking love in them, and then one becomes two and two becomes four, and suddenly, we can see a pandemic of his love and grace when we exercise faith and spread his grace to those around us.

You can find me at richardagee.com. I also invite you to join us at San Antonio First Church of the Nazarene on West Avenue in San Antonio to hear more Bible-based teaching. You can find out more about my church at SAF.church. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed it, tell a friend. If you didn’t, send me an email and let me know how better to reach out to those around you. Until next week, may God richly bless you as you venture into His story each day.

Scriptures marked NIV are taken from the NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (NIV): Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION ®. Copyright© 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™. Used by permission of Zondervan

An Argument Worth Winning, November 11, 2019

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.

Have you ever gotten yourself into one of those debates you never wish you’d entered? One you know there was nothing you could do but dig a deeper hole for yourself? You know the kind. Sometimes they involve politics or science or family or religion or a host of other topics, but there is just no way out and absolutely no winning.

In those debates, facts are fuzzy at best. No one has the real scoop because no one was around when events took place or like traffic accidents, everyone there saw the event from a different angle and so saw the crash just a little differently. It’s like standing on the other side of the word mom. From one side it says MOM, from the other it says WOW. Who is right? Both maybe. But not really, because the person who wrote the word in the first place is the right one.

After the fact, when the author is gone, and we happen on the word years later with no context, we wouldn’t know who is right. Either of us could walk up to the word and debate all day long about whether it says MOM or WOW and never know until some other intervention brings light to the events that happened that day that caused the writing and how the author penned it into the medium onto which we stare.

That’s how a lot of debates happen with scripture. We weren’t there when authors put words down. Jesus said things we don’t understand. He debated concepts from the old covenant with the scholars of his day that they didn’t understand and wouldn’t accept what he said. But Jesus spoke with authority because he knew facts they didn’t. He saw things from a different perspective. But Jesus’ view was infallible because he was there from the beginning. He was part of the inspiration process for the words in the first place.

Luke records one such debate in chapter 20 of his first book to Theophilus we call the gospel of Luke. Here is what he wrote.

Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; then the second and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.”

Jesus said to them, “Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.” (NIV)

The debate between the Sadducees and the Pharisees stayed heated over the topic of the resurrection. The Pharisees believed in a final resurrection of the dead; the Sadducees did not. The Sadducees based their beliefs only on the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament, the Books of the Law. The Torah doesn’t mention the resurrection, so obviously, it must not exist according to the Sadducees.

The Pharisees accept the entirety of the Law and Prophets as inspired scripture in which the resurrection can be found and so believe in it. The debates became heated to the point fistfights broke out in the council at times. Amazingly enough, the two groups joined together to try to trap Jesus in his words to condemn him in his teaching. And on this day, the Sadducees took their turn at trying to trap Jesus with their questions.

Let’s use Moses’ rules about marriage to trap Jesus in his teaching about the resurrection. If people rise from the dead, what brother of seven, married to the same woman, will be her husband?

In our Christian faith today, we think this a stupid question. But think about the impact of the answer when first presented. First, the debate over a final resurrection raged within the temple, and the people just listened with no real answer. There might exist some hope of such, but the prevailing thought at the time said that when you died, you went to Sheol, the place of the dead. You existed, but it wasn’t a happy place. Sheol represented all that is anti-life; a place of silence where there is no praise of God; a place where God’s presence is not felt. ^[1]

The Sadducees thought that was the end. You headed to Sheol and stayed. There might be a difference between the righteous and wicked in their experiences in Sheol, but that was the final resting place for everyone. The Pharisees, however, thought Yahweh, Jehovah, would rescue the righteous from Sheol at the judgment. The righteous dead would experience a bodily resurrection from the dead at the end of time.

Jesus ended all debate about the resurrection for all time. First, he answered the Sadducees by pointing out their ignorance about the topic. He pointed out the fact of the resurrection but significantly changed from the current thought of what it meant. The resurrected no longer tied themselves to the Mosaic law but operated under the laws God set, more like the angels in heaven.

Second, he often talked about his own death and resurrection. His disciples and others who heard him didn’t understand at the time but remembered after they found his tomb empty on that first Easter morning. Jesus consistently announced the fact of his resurrection as the first event of many to come. A bodily rising from the dead in a form recognizable to all who saw him.

Third, it happened. Jesus, Paul says, became the first fruits of the resurrection. God ordained a day on which Jesus will return to take with him all those who believe in him for salvation. Paul tells us all the dead will rise first, then we who are left will be taken up with them in the air. I’m not sure I understand what that will look like except that the disciples saw a bodily resurrected Jesus appear with them behind a locked door. He walked with two men on their way to Emmaus and ate with them. More than five hundred people saw him after his resurrection in a physical form that defies what we know about physics.

Jesus demonstrated what those resurrected bodies could do. We don’t understand it. Many couldn’t believe it then and don’t believe it now. But his resurrection is the cornerstone of our faith. If Jesus did not come out of that tomb on that Sunday morning, the disciples would have abandoned the message. The Jewish Council and the Romans would have branded Jesus one more renegade, trying to overthrow the status quo. We would still stand condemned in our sins.

But the resurrection is real. Jesus did it. We believe. He forgives. We have hope in him. Those who believe will live with him forever in resurrected bodies like his resurrected body.

Read about him. Hope in him. Believe in him. And live.

Scriptures marked NIV are taken from the NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (NIV): Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION ®. Copyright© 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™. Used by permission of Zondervan

[1] Sheol: The Abode of the Dead: A Study of the Imagery of Sheol (שְׁאוֹל ) in the Book of Psalms, BIBSPACES: ‘Moving in Christ,’ https://bibspaces.wordpress.com/2017/06/13/sheol-the-abode-of-the-dead-a-study-of-the-imagery-of-sheol-שְ%D7%81או%D6%B9ל-in-the-book-of-psalms/

Thomas might have been from Missouri, April 29, 2019

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.

Missouri is sometimes known as the “Show Me” state. I’m not sure when that began or who caused the first citizens of the state to be so disbelieving, but whatever and whenever it happened, folks from outside the state who told Missourans something are often met with the famous words, “Show me.”

Those words don’t apply to just Missourans, though. We have become some of the most skeptical, yet some of the most gullible people on the planet. Polls of high school students show that more believe in the truth of Star Wars than in the truth of a landing on the moon. Somehow we manage to believe the stories of Hollywood writers with all of their technological film effects, but we don’t believe the live feed from the surface of the moon when that grainy black and white signal came from 250,000 miles above us.

It’s really incredible what people will believe and what they will not believe even when faced with the facts. I’m often amazed at the number of people who really act like the figures in that old Gieco commercial which depicts a rather homely man coming to date see a rather pretty young lady. They get into a discourse at the bottom of the stairs to her porch and she comes out with some incredibly stupid statements. He asks where she learned these startling things and the answer is the Internet so they must be true. Then Gieco shares its savings commercial which is probably truer than the Internet statement the girl just blurted out.

But we have a tendency to believe some crazy things because of the source. It’s from the Internet, so it must be true, right? Well, there is a little formula about Internet research I learned well before the Internet invaded every household and classroom across the globe. It’s like this. If the site is a .com site, it is a commercial site and its owners are engaged in making money. Be wary. If it’s a .edu site, it’s written by some professor who wants to make his or her mark on the world and will sometimes tell you things just to make you think. Be wary. If it’s a .org site, that owner is a non profit with a cause and whatever that cause might be, right or wrong, that will be the flavor of the site. Be wary. And if it is a .gov site, well… you know politics. Don’t believe anything you see there without lots of other independent evidence.

When I heard that formula for researching the Internet, those were the only endings available on websites. Now, of course, you can find .me, .food, .church, .whatever you want to make up as an ending for a site if you’re willing to set up the server farm for it. The same rules apply. Usually, normally, most of the time a website and the information on it is there with someone’s purpose and their agenda in mind.

I’ll be honest, my website that carries the blog and podcast you listen to is no different. I have a purpose and an agenda for putting the information there. You are free to agree with or disagree with me and my agenda, but I continue to provide this podcast to share thoughts that I think God would have me share from my study of scripture and how it applies to our lives today. There it is. If I didn’t believe that, I wouldn’t spend the time and energy and money I do in preparing, recording, editing, and all the steps involved in having this ready each week.

I want to share the Gospel. This is a way I have found to do that effectively as it is heard in countries around the world. Thanks to all of you who listen and share “A Little Walk with God,” a couple of thousand people a month including people in Russia, China, Vietnam, Australia, and several other countries download the podcast and listen to it each week. That’s pretty cool. That’s why I continue to do it. I get to share God’s word. I have an agenda. You can believe what I say or not. You’re choice. I hope, though, you research what I say and find it true and meaningful to you.

So, Missourans. Show me. I won’t believe it unless I see it. Sound familiar? I guy who got the nickname Doubting Thomas said those words. John recorded them in the 20th chapter of the Gospel by his name. For those who might not remember the details of the story, it goes like this.

The two Mary’s had found Jesus’ tomb empty. They ran and told Peter and John. Peter and John raced to the tomb and found the tomb empty. The four were told by angels that Jesus had risen from the dead as he said he would. His disciples were still hiding because of their fear of the Romans and religious leaders. They had just killed Jesus and the disciples were his closest companions and shared in proclaiming the message Jesus shared across the country.

This news caused the fearful disciples to get together to talk about this news, though. They locked themselves behind closed doors and that same night, Jesus just appeared to them. He broke bread with them and talked to them. Then he just disappeared. A ghost? Ghosts don’t have flesh and blood. Jesus did. A physical person? Yes, but very different because he just appeared and disappeared. Unbelievable, right? Thomas wasn’t there. And that’s just what he said.

You guys were drunk. You guys are crazy. You guys don’t know what you’re talking about. You guys are just stressed out and wanting to believe what Peter and John told you this morning, but it didn’t happen. Jesus might be gone from the tomb, but to see him in flesh and blood when the doors are locked and then have him just disappear? No way. Show me.

Verse 26. A week later Jesus’ disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.”

Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”

So, here we are. Jesus gives a special blessing after this to those who believe without seeing him in the flesh the way those disciples did that night. But do you believe? Do you really believe in the resurrection? The truth is most of the world does not. Most of the people in the United States, which not that many years ago was known as a Christian nation, do not believe in the resurrection. In fact, I’m finding there are a lot of Doubting Thomases sitting in Christian churches.

It’s easy to be like the Missourans and cry out, “Show me!” It’s easy to be like Thomas and say, “I won’t believe in the resurrection unless I can see for myself.” But that’s not how faith works. Faith is believing in what you cannot see. Faith is accepting as truth what you may not understand. It’s like flipping the lightswitch expecting the lights to come on even though you don’t know how the electricity is generated from hundreds of miles away, stored, passed safely through the lines to your house, and causes the bulbs to glow when that switch is flipped. We don’t need to understand all there is to know about electricity to believe the lights will come on, we just flipped the switch believing they will. That’s faith.

I don’t need to understand how the medicines I take work, either. But I believe the doctor who gives them to me and because I take them, it makes a difference in my quality of life. But the resurrection? It’s the same. We don’t need to understand how. We don’t need to be like Thomas and see the scars in Jesus’ hands and side. We just need to believe in the testimony of the thousands who have trusted in him through the centuries and place that same trust in the truth of the gospels. Will I ever understand how the resurrection happened from a scientific perspective? Never. Do I need to understand it? Never. I just need to believe it. And talk about the change in my quality of life? The legacy of peace that Jesus promises comes pouring through.

You can find me at richardagee.com. I also invite you to join us at San Antonio First Church of the Nazarene on West Avenue in San Antonio to hear more Bible based teaching. You can find out more about my church at SAF.church. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed it, tell a friend. If you didn’t, send me an email and let me know how better to reach out to those around you. Until next week, may God richly bless you as you venture into His story each day.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved. In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

What will our bodies be like? February 25, 2019

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.

Paul had many people ask him about what heaven would be like since Jesus met him one day on the road to Damascus and he saw a glimpse of what will come. He saw the risen Lord and just a taste of what heaven might be like when time comes to an end. He learned from Jesus’ apostles that we would be changed when he came to take us home with him. So as is common with us, we wanted to know what we would be like. We live in these frail bodies and we suffer all kinds of things in this world. Will we still have the pain, the scars, the memories, and the nightmares that plague us here?

Paul had some interesting things to say to us on that account. We go back to Paul’s letter to the congregation in Corinth as he tries to help them understand just how confused and unknowing they really were. We ask the same question, though, don’t we? We want to know what the other side of life will look like. We want to know for sure if there really is a heaven and hell. We want to know what life will be like when we cross to the other side of eternity.

The people in Corinth were especially concerned because Jesus said he was coming back soon. It had been years since he left. Some of their congregation died. Jesus hadn’t come. The Romans made life difficult for the Christians. The Jewish leaders made life difficult for the Christians. The pagans who believed in a pantheon of gods made life difficult for Christians. The whole world made life difficult for Jesus’ followers just like he said they would. So what happened? Should they still wait? Was Jesus’ promise real? Was he really coming back? And if so, what would really happen to them?

Here are Paul’s words of encouragement to them.

35 Now I know what some of you are thinking: “Just how are the dead going to be raised? What kind of bodies will they have when they come back to life?” 36 Don’t be a fool! The seed you plant doesn’t produce life unless it dies. Right? 37 The seed doesn’t have the same look, the same body, if you will, of what it will have once it starts to grow. It starts out a single, naked seed—whether wheat or some other grain, it doesn’t matter— 38 and God gives to that seed a body just as He has desired. For each of the different kinds of seeds God prepares a unique body. 39 Or look at it this way: not all flesh is the same. Right? There is skin flesh on humans, furry flesh on animals, feathery flesh on birds, and scaly flesh on fish. 40 Likewise there are bodies made for the heavens and bodies made for the earth. The heavenly bodies have a different kind of glory or luminescence compared to bodies below. 41 Even among the heavenly bodies, there is a different level of brilliance: the sun shines differently than the moon, the moon differently than the stars, and the stars themselves differ in their brightness. …

50 Now listen to this: brothers and sisters, this present body is not able to inherit the kingdom of God any more than decay can inherit that which lasts forever. 51 Stay close because I am going to tell you a mystery—something you may have trouble understanding: we will not all fall asleep in death, but we will all be transformed. 52 It will all happen so fast, in a blink, a mere flutter of the eye. The last trumpet will call, and the dead will be raised from their graves with a body that does not, cannot decay. All of us will be changed! 53 We’ll step out of our mortal clothes and slide into immortal bodies, replacing everything that is subject to death with eternal life. 54 And, when we are all redressed with bodies that do not, cannot decay, when we put immortality over our mortal frames, then it will be as Scripture says:

Life everlasting has victoriously swallowed death.[j]

55 Hey, Death! What happened to your big win?

Hey, Death! What happened to your sting?

Have you ever thought about what that change might be like? Jesus talked about how a seed must die before a plant can grow from it. So picture, if you will, an acorn. We know oak trees come from acorn’s the seed that produces those magnificent trees. I’m sure you’ve seen a few of them. Hard shelled things about ¾ of an inch across. Although there are a variety of different nuts we eat, the acorn is one we don’t. If you examine that small receptacle of life, would you ever think a giant oak would grow from that little seed? A tree looks so different from the seed from which it sprouts. So does a corn stalk look different from a single kernel of corn. Or a watermelon seed different from a watermelon. Pick any seed and tell me if you could guess what its plant would look like when mature. I don’t believe you could.

Jesus and Paul tell us this flesh that houses our eternal spirit is just a seed. When it dies, a spiritual bodies emerges from it just as an oak emerges from an acorn. What will our spiritual bodies be like? I can’t tell you. Will we look the same? I don’t think we will. I think we will know each other as we are perfected by his resurrection power. I think we will understand perfectly. I think we will see God in his triune perfection. Paul says we will be changed in the blink of an eye. Paul doesn’t describe that change except that we will be clothed in a new, spiritual body. An immortal one. One that can never decay or die. We will have a body that will live through eternity without pain or sadness or deformity or anything but the perfection of the image of God he placed within each of us.

What will we look like? Will we really care? Does the acorn care what the tree looks like that comes from inside its tiny shell? Does the apple seed care how many apple live inside it? Does a wheat germ care how many grains of wheat will come from it when the farmer plants it in the ground? So why should we care what this new spiritual body will be? Suffice it to say our spiritual bodies will be exactly right because God will grow them. He planned this millenia ago. We can trust him to make the spiritual body that springs from the seed of our fleshly body exactly what he plans.

I cannot even imagine what it might be like. Just like I could never imagine what plant would come from a particular seed if you placed it in my hand. I think our spiritual bodies will be as different from our fleshly bodies as a plant is from the seed from which it comes. Does that bother you? It doesn’t bother me. It’s one of those things I figure God has taken care of and I don’t need to worry about it. I trust him to know what he’s doing. I can’t make an oak tree. All I can do is plant an acorn. I can’t create a field of wheat. All I can do is plant some seeds. I can’t create a spiritual body. All I can do is prepare my fleshly body for the next step. I can give myself to God. I can follow his commands to the best of my ability. I can ask forgiveness from him. Then I can let him do his work in me and when time ends, he can change me into something I never dreamed. He will give me a spiritual body something we cannot now imagine.

Will we all be the same? I don’t know. Will we be able to distinguish one person from another? I think so since Paul talks about bodies, plural. Will we remember anything of this body when we put on the next? I don’t know. Does it really matter? Will we care about this life after we move into the next? I’m not sure we will if we find ourselves in heaven with God. I think we will be so engaged in worship and the work he gives us to do in heaven (I really believe he has work for us to do there, also), we won’t think about or worry about what happened here. The only thing we will remember from this side of eternity is that sacrifice he made for us so we could be with him. Everything else from this side of life will just fade away.

The Corinthians wondered what was happening to these frail vessels that kept dying while they waited for Jesus’ return. Paul let them know Jesus was still coming. His delay didn’t mean he wasn’t coming back. It means God is gracious and wants us to share his story to influence as many as possible to come into his kingdom. His delay is because of his mercy and grace. He wants as many as possible to come to him. Paul also wanted them to know our frail, sickly bodies weren’t the things that would survive and follow us into heaven. These things that deteriorate and decay are just seeds and one day from this fleshy seed will sprout a spiritual body like nothing we can begin to imagine.

Do you ever wonder what will become of this lump of clay you reside it? Don’t worry about it. Just like with the acorn and the oak, you can’t begin to imagine the new you. Be ready and then be blown away by the magnificence of God’s creative act in you.

It’s not just a story, February 18, 2019

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.

Paul gives us an interesting observation as he writes to the congregation in Corinth. Near the end of his letter, in what is now chapter 15, he tells us the importance of Jesus’ resurrection. Here are his words, inspired by God.

12 Now if we have told you about the Christ (how He has risen from the dead and appeared to us fully alive), then how can you stand there and say there is no such thing as resurrection from death? 13 Friends, if there is no resurrection of the dead, then even Christ hasn’t been raised; 14 if that is so, then all our preaching has been for nothing and your faith in the message is worthless. 15 And what’s worse, all of us who have been preaching the gospel are now guilty of misrepresenting God because we have been spreading the news that He raised Jesus from the dead (which must be a lie if what you are saying about the dead not being raised is the truth). 16 Please listen. If you say, “the dead are not raised,” then what you are telling me is that Jesus has not been raised. Friends, 17 if Jesus has not been raised from the dead, then your faith is worth less than yesterday’s garbage, you are all doomed in your sins, 18 and all the dearly departed who trusted in His liberation are left decaying in the ground. 19 If what we have hoped for in Christ doesn’t take us beyond this life, then we are world-class fools, deserving everyone’s pity.

20 But Jesus was raised from death’s slumber and is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep in death.

Sometimes it’s good for us to stop and remember the story. Sometimes we need to understand how important the truth of these words. Sometimes we need to stop in the business of our lives and think about what we believe and be ready to believe it regardless how foolish it may sound to an unbelieving world.

Without faith in what happened at a place called Golgotha, in that pivotal city of Jerusalem, and the then the events over the next several days, Christians certainly would be certifiably crazy. You probably know the story well. You probably heard it or versions of it most of your life. Whatever religion you might have been exposed to in your childhood, you probably at least heard rumors about this story of a man called Jesus.

A man whose followers proclaimed he was not just a religious person able to perform miracles, but a man they proclaimed he was the son of God. In fact, they went so far as to say he was God incarnate. God in the flesh. He preached and taught throughout the region for just over three years, radically altering what many believed about what God expected of us. He taught that God wanted a personal, intimate relationship with each of us. He would forgive anyone who believed he came to live with us in the person of this man Jesus. All who asked for forgiveness and followed him would find forgiveness.

The story says this man Jesus became an enemy of his own religious leaders and an enemy of the Roman state. The tried him in a kangaroo court and crucified him. Then the story becomes an impossible one without faith. This man, Jesus, whom the Romans executed on a cross, died there. Romans knew how to execute people. If they said he died, he died. In fact, if the biblical account if accurate, it’s a miracle Jesus even made it to the site of the crucifixion after the beatings and flogging he endured. But he did and he hung on the cross and he died.

From an unbeliever’s perspective, the fairy tale gets better. The dead guy lays in a tomb for three days in the heat of the middle eastern sun and then he appears alive to two women who come to finish the burial ritual they couldn’t finish the day he died because of the rapid approach of the sabbath. Then he appears to two men walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus, unrecognized until he sits down to eat with them. Then he appears behind a locked door to ten of his disciples. A week later he appears to all eleven of his disciples, again, behind locked doors. For forty days after his resurrection, he appeared off and on to different people around the city until his ascension where nearly 500 of his followers saw him lift off the ground in a cloud.

Without faith in the truth of the story, wouldn’t that make a great fairy tale? Without the assurance of the truth because of God’s spirit prompting us and helping us realize how much he wants to have a relationship with him, doesn’t that sound like some far off fantasy? How could anyone believe such nonsense? Who would ever fall for such a fantastic story? What would make people die for such a ridiculous story?

That’s what the scoffers say. That’s how the unbelievers think. That’s the reaction you get from the average man on the street, today. But what about you? What evidence can you propose to get to the truth and know that the story is real? How do you know the Bible is true?

It is an interesting question and one that deserves some answers. C.S. Lewis is a famous Christian author who set out to prove the story was so much trash. What he discovered was the truth. The evidence that shouts at us to show us the Bible is true and what it says can be trusted and believed. He has a series of books whose titles begin “The Case for…” and give the evidence of the truth behind the Bible, the crucifixion, Easter, Christmas, and many other topics. He painstakingly researched each and discovered evidence you could take to court.

Just start with the canon itself. Many unbelievers touted scripture must be the fiction of some religious leaders, but look at how it has come into our hands. Just the quality of artifacts from antiquity bears witness to the Bible’s authenticity. Scholars talk about the Iliad and Odyssey as ancient with a dozen or so fragments of the text from the fifth and sixth centuries surviving. But with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls and other fragments, we have more than 5,000 fragments and whole letters dating from three and four hundred BCE. And all the copies are nearly identical. In fact, the differences are not in the text, but in the marginal notes.

The Bible is and has been the number one seller for so long that none of the publishers, sellers, and analysts list it among the books sold anymore. Not because it doesn’t sell, but because it sells so far above the number two selling book that the numbers of books sold make everything embarrassing by comparison. Millions of copies are distributed every year. The top selling books sometimes reach a million copies in a year. Not often, but sometimes in a year. The Bible? Millions, plural, year after year after year. And as of October 2017 the full Bible has been translated into 670 languages, the New Testament has been translated into 1,521 languages. No other book has ever achieved such a global outreach. Impossible, right? Not if the living God is behind it.

So that explains the written word just a little. It must be more than a fairy tale if it continues to circulate like that from the beginning of its writing. But how about those willing to give their lives for their belief? Today we see handfuls of terrorists blowing themselves up to attain their 72 virgins in heaven. Not sure that will happen for them, but that’s a different podcast. It’s interesting that the vast majority of those willing to do so are under the age of 25. I don’t want to be disparaging of young people, but the medical community tells us that our brain isn’t fully developed until about age 25. So quite frankly, I’m more than a little concerned about the training those young folks are getting. You never seem to see the imams or clerics or older wiser men strapping explosive to themselves.

But in Christian circles, we don’t see dozens of people strapping explosives to themselves. We see people spreading Jesus’ legacy of peace he left with us. As a result, Christians are hated. We are persecuted. In many areas of the world, we are executed for our faith. Over the last ten years, different organizations have determined that more than a million Christians lost their lives because of their faith. They refuse to renounce their faith. They refuse to let go of their belief in the one who forgives sin. The story for them is very real. They are willing to give their lives before they change their belief.

Why would that many people willingly give up their lives for something that wasn’t true? Why would so many people willingly follow a fairy tale? The answer is, they wouldn’t. No one would give up as much as Christians have if the story were not true. If it were just a story, the truth would have come out long ago and the martyrdom would have stopped. People would agree with the majority of the world and let the story go. No one would accept the sacrifices Christians accept if the story were not true.

But Paul was right. “… if there is no resurrection of the dead, then even Christ hasn’t been raised; 14 if that is so, then all our preaching has been for nothing and your faith in the message is worthless… But Jesus was raised from death’s slumber and is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep in death.” We can believe because the story is not just a story. Jesus, the son of God, lived, died, was buried, and rose again.

So what will you do today because the story is not just a story, it is the truth upon which we stand?

The impossible story, March 26, 2018

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Bible Reading Plan – www.Bible-Reading.com; The Story, Chapter 27; You Version Bible app Engaging God’s Story Reading Plan Days 183 through 189

This week we read about the unbelievable for too many people. It’s the thing that makes them pause and say, “It just can’t be true. It’s not possible. The story is just a story.”

What are we talking about? This week we read about the resurrection. We read the reaction of those closest to him who also recoiled at the thought that it was possible even after watching him do the impossible and them telling them it would happen. We watch Joseph and Nicodemus gently remove Jesus’ broken body from the cross and take it to Joseph’s newly finished tomb. We watch from afar as they race the clock before the sun sets to do some minimal burial preparation of Jesus’ body because nothing can be done on the Sabbath.

We hear of the disciples cowering in locked rooms discussing what they will do now that their king has died. The one they put their trust and hope in lies in a tomb. How could it happen? How could he be the One to rescue them if he is buried in a grave? What happened? Just a few days before, the crowds waved palm branches and cried out their Hosannas. Now he’s dead.

Then we see the Sanhedrin worry about these rebel disciples and the revolt that might arise if they steal Jesus’ body from the tomb and declare that he really did rise from the dead. We watch them plead with Caesar to put his seal and a guard on the tomb so no one would tamper with the body and continue the “farce” this teacher kept up.

We listen to the story of that first Easter morning when the angels meet the two Marys at the tomb and announce that their Messiah rose just as he said he would. We try to empathize with Mary Magdalene as she grieves and begs the “gardner” to tell her where he has taken her master’s body.

But the realization of what has happened begins to dawn on Jesus’ followers. Jesus calls Mary by name and she recognizes her risen Lord. She races back to tell the disciples the good news. Peter and John race to the empty tomb and find the linens collapsed on the bier. Those linens contain no body. The guards recovered from their faint race to tell the priests what happened. The Sanhedrin make up a story to protect the guard.

Two disciples walk toward Emmaus, puzzled by the events of the day, don’t recognized their master walking with them until they sit down to eat and he reveals himself to them. Have you ever wondered about that? I have. I think they were looking for a bloodied, crucified, disfigured man. The one they last saw hanging on the cross. Broken. Bruised. Bleeding. Flesh hanging in strips from the flogging he suffered. Instead they saw the risen Lord. Refreshed. Restored. Resurrected. Perfect. Except for the scars in his hands and side so he could later show Thomas.

Would I have reacted any different? Would I have thought Jesus anything other than a ghost when he suddenly appeared behind closed doors if I were one of the disciples that night? Would I have recognized a restored Jesus if he walked with me on the road to Emmaus? Would I have thought Jesus rose from the dead instead of being stolen by the gardner?

I sometimes we look at “doubting Thomas” and give him a hard time. I think I’d be a lot like him. It takes faith to believe in the impossible. Jesus told them some incredible things over the three years he was with them. He also told them some hard things. “You must eat my flesh and drink my blood to have any part in me.” How do you accept that in the culture you’ve lived in all your life?

If you live you lose your life, you must lose your life to gain it? How does that make sense when you hear it for the first time?

But there it is staring at you. The empty tomb. The reports of the disciples. The more than 500 people who saw him over the next 40 days. The fact that no matter how hard the religious leaders tried to squash the story, people kept it alive. Not just that, thousands upon thousands have been willing to die for this One person. No other figure in all history has changed the world the way this one man did.

All the things people through the centuries have tried to do to stop the message or discredit the story have only served to strengthen it. The risen Lord. The impossible story. It isn’t just a story. It truly is God’s story. His plan to bring us back into a face to face relationship with him. He is a holy God. So much higher in his thoughts and ways that the only way we could come near to him was for him to come to us and become the perfect sacrifice for us.

Hard to believe? So is the perfect balance of nature around us. So is the uniqueness of a snowflake. So is the diversity of humanity around our world. So is the warmth and light of the sun. So is the miracle of birth. All those things are impossible. So is it so impossible that God so loved us that he came to live among us in human flesh so that whoever believes in him will not perish but will live eternally with him?

Impossible? He tells us and shows us in his actions it is not. All things are possible with him. The empty tomb on the first Easter morning is just one more demonstration of the impossible to show us his love for us and his desperate desire to restore an intimate, personal, face to face relationship with each of us. All we have to do is believe.

You can find me at richardagee.com. I also invite you to join us at San Antonio First Church of the Nazarene on West Avenue in San Antonio to hear more about The Story and our part in it. You can find out more about my church at SAF.church. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed it, tell a friend. If you didn’t, send me an email and let me know how better to reach out to those around you. Until next week, may God richly bless you as you venture into His story each day.

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The emotions of childbirth (John 16:19-22), April 12, 2017

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.
Childbirth is filled with emotion. It starts out painfully, but ends with great joy.
Scripture
1. John 16:19-22
2. Jesus: Are you trying to figure out what I mean when I say you will see Me in a little while? I tell you the truth, a time is approaching when you will weep and mourn while the world is celebrating. You will grieve, but that grief will give birth to great joy. In the same way that a woman labors in great pain during childbirth only to forget the intensity of the pain when she holds her child, when I return, your labored grief will also change into a joy that cannot be stolen.
Devotional
1. If you’ve never witnessed a childbirth first hand, I have to tell you, it’s an incredible event.
  1. My wife is a Registered Nurse and the first several years of her career worked in neonatal care
  2. Witnessed a lot of births
  3. Cried every time
  4. I saw my own children being born
  5. Words can’t describe the experience
2. But for my wife
  1. Both kids were a month late
  2. Don’t let mothers do that today
  3. Both were good sized kids over 8 and 10 pounds
  4. Pregnancy and especially labor with those two was not fun for her
  5. Neither labor was short 36 and 24 hours of intense pain; no C-section
  6. An emotional roller coaster, though
  7. Pain followed by indescribable joy
3. That’s what the disciples were about to go through
  1. Master arrested, tortured, and crucified
  2. Buried in a borrowed tomb
  3. But then comes Easter
  4. That joy cannot be stolen
4. Unlike those Jesus raised from the dead:
  1. Widow’s son died again
  2. Jairus’ daughter died again
  3. Lazarus died again
  4. Jesus rose never to die again
5. Easter is just around the corner, but we can celebrate every day
  1. He is still alive
  2. He lives in us
  3. We can celebrate Him when He lives in us
If you want to learn more about my church, you can find us at SAF.church. If you like the devotional, share it with someone. If you don’t, tell me. I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow for “A Little Walk with God.”

That was no magic show (John 11:43-44), March 15, 2017

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.
Do you like magic shows? I’m always fascinated by them and like to see if I can catch the magician in some mistake that reveals his secrets. 2,000 years ago, that was no magic show at Lazarus’ tomb, though
Scripture
1. John 11:43-44
2. After these words, He called out in a thunderous voice.

Jesus: Lazarus, come out!

Then, the man who was dead walked out of his tomb bound from head to toe in a burial shroud.

Jesus: Untie him, and let him go.

Devotional
1. A couple of months ago, I saw the Illusionists. It’s a group of magicians that do a variety of tricks on stage that really boggle the mind.
  1. A couple of the acts were pretty weird, like running sharp objects through his body. I didn’t care so much for that.
  2. Escape from a water chamber similar to Houdini’s water chamber, but without the straightjacket
  3. One that really fascinated me was a man who just manipulated playing cards.
    1. Hidden in pockets
    2. Appeared from thin air
    3. Thousands of cards
2. We enjoy watching things we can’t figure out
  1. Enjoy trying to catch the magician in his tricks
  2. Try to find the wires or hidden pockets or figure out the strange technology they used to fool you into thinking something magical has happened
  3. Their skills are sometimes incredible
3. 2,000 years ago those around the tomb didn’t see a magic trick
  1. No incantation
  2. No technology, wires, or mirrors
  3. No double to take Lazarus’ place
  4. Jesus prayed, thanked His Father for hearing His prayer
  5. Called in a loud voice
4. The dead man walked out of the tomb bound from head to toe in a burial shroud
  1. Jesus brought life into a dead body
  2. Arms bound to sides
  3. Legs bound together
  4. Enough life to get up, walk out of the tomb wrapped from head to toe, probably hopped out
  5. Took away the stench of death, too
  6. Untie him, and let him go.
  7. Free him from the shroud as I freed him from death
  8. No magic, just power over death
If you want to learn more about my church, you can find us at SAF.church. If you like the devotional, share it with someone. If you don’t, tell me. I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow for “A Little Walk with God.”

Effective prayer (John 11:39-42), March 14, 2017

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.
Is silent prayer effective? Yep. Is vocal prayer effective? Yep. Is prayer effective? Yep. When it’s for the right reason.
Scripture
1. John 11:39-42
2. Jesus: Remove the stone.

Martha: Lord, he has been dead four days; the stench will be unbearable.

Jesus: Remember, I told you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God.

They removed the stone, and Jesus lifted His eyes toward heaven.

Jesus: Father, I am grateful that You have heard Me. I know that You are always listening, but I proclaim it loudly so that everyone here will believe You have sent Me.

Devotional
1. I know people that are scared to death to pray out loud.
  1. They are afraid they’ll say the wrong thing.
  2. They think someone might think poorly of them because of the words they say.
  3. They get their tongues tied and nothing seems to come out right
  4. They’re afraid they’ll forget something they really want to say
2. I know others who think you really need to pray out loud to keep focused during prayer
  1. It’s too easy to let your mind wander
  2. It’s easier to gather your thoughts
  3. It helps you articulate your praise to God
  4. It helps you focus on others instead of yourself
  5. It forces you to think more clearly about what you’re doing
3. Jesus shows us that prayer is effective no matter how we pray as long as it’s for the right reason.
  1. “Father, I’m grateful You have heard Me.”
  2. But He hasn’t said anything out loud yet. He has obviously prayed, but communicated silently with His Father.
  3. “I know You are always listening”
  4. “I proclaim it loudly so that everyone here will believe You have sent Me.”
  5. His vocal prayer is heard so others will know His specific prayer to the Father for Lazarus’ resurrection
4. What was all of this about?
  1. Everything Jesus did was to bring glory to God
  2. He stated before He left for Bethany that His delay and actions would bring glory to His Father
  3. All His prayer requests sought direction to give the most glory to God
  4. His actions aimed glory to God and not Himself
5. Jesus came to Bethany to bring glory to His Father
  1. He would raise Lazarus from the dead
  2. He would show He was one with the Father since only God had the power to give life
  3. He would point all of those action toward one purpose and one cause
  4. Bringing glory to His Father
If you want to learn more about my church, you can find us at SAF.church. If you like the devotional, share it with someone. If you don’t, tell me. I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow for “A Little Walk with God.”

Can you believe? (John 11:23-26), March 13, 2017

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.
Sometimes the things people say are just really hard to believe. Can you imagine what it was like for Mary and Martha when Jesus asked them to believe we truly never die?
Scripture
1. John 11:23-26
2. Jesus: Your brother will rise to life.

Martha: I know. He will rise again when everyone is resurrected on the last day.

Jesus: I am the resurrection and the source of all life; those who believe in Me will live even in death. Everyone who lives and believes in Me will never truly die. Do you believe this?

Devotional
1. Some people try everything they can to cheat death.
  1. Trillion dollar industries
  2. Cosmetics
  3. Exercise regiments
  4. Vitamins
  5. Cryonics
2. Imagine when Mary and Martha heard these words for the first time
  1. “Believe in Me and live”
  2. “All who believe will have life everlasting”
  3. Easy until looking death in the face
  4. “Everyone who lives and believes in Me will never truly die”
  5. “Do you believe this?”
3. Two different major sects among mainstream Jews
  1. Pharisees believed in resurrection after death
  2. Sadducees believed death was final and there was no resurrection
  3. Listened to Jesus and believed what He said, believed there was a judgment and resurrection
  4. Couldn’t put together the thought of moving between the two
  5. Couldn’t think about His power over death
4. Still the question hung in the air
  1. Do you believe everyone who lives and believes in Me will never truly die?
  2. Mary and Martha watched their brother take his last breath
  3. They washed his body and wrapped it in linen clothes filled with spices
  4. They put their brother in a tomb four days earlier
  5. He will never truly die? What do you call what happened?
5. We have 2,000 years of testimony from people who have lived the assurance of Jesus’ message.
  1. Still we have trouble believing
  2. Yet Mary and Martha voiced the words and took Jesus to the tomb with the expectation of Jesus doing something spectacular for their brother
  3. If they could believe that we never truly die when we believe in Him, without having knowledge of His resurrection, don’t you think we should be able to believe
If you want to learn more about my church, you can find us at SAF.church. If you like the devotional, share it with someone. If you don’t, tell me. I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow for “A Little Walk with God.”