hopeless love - fact not feeling

At the National Youth Conference, Pastor Barlow shared with us two messages that I thought would be good to summarise here. Not only because I will have to do a quick sharing on them for the Camp Echo, but also because these two messages were the ones that I think, impacted me the most.

Hopeless Love

The scene was set at Jesus' crucifixion. After a few years of watching Jesus perform countless miracles and learning from His great ministry, all appeared to be over as three women gazed up at their Teacher, Lord, and Friend, hanging lifeless on the cross. Joseph of Arimathea chose to honour Jesus when He was silent and dead, and unable to acknowledge the kind gesture of funding a tomb. The three women continued to show their love for Jesus going to His tomb to anoint His dead body. Though they were doing the 'right thing' they failed to realise that a risen Saviour would not need His body anointed, or a tomb to be laid to rest in. The dedication of the three women and Joseph of Arimathea was loyal and involved, but lacked one very important thing - hope.

The hopeless love that they had did not believe that Jesus would rise from the dead. They lived, like so many of us today, on the wrong side of the resurrection. But as we realise the truth of Jesus' resurrection, as Christians, we can believe this and have hope that He not only has redeemed us, but that He is coming back again to bring us to Heaven.

Fact, Not Feeling

Jesus lives, despite what we feel in our heart. His resurrection was God's approval for the sacrifice of Jesus for our sins - without the resurrection, Christianity is just another human way to get to God. But why should we hope in the resurrection? Is there much proof for it?

The Sabbath day was changed by the early church from a Saturday to a Sunday ('the first day of the week')to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus (which happened on a Sunday). There would be no change in Sabbath Day if it weren't for such a miraculous event.

People often believe that enemies of Jesus, stole His body so they could foil any resurrection attempts. But if this was the case, all they would have had to do would be to bring out the dead body of Christ from it's hiding place to disprove all the perceived rumours that Jesus had resurrected.

Some people believe that the disciples of Christ stole the body of Jesus. But this was too unlikely as they were already feeling so defeated and discouraged that He had died. Moreover, if they had hidden the body and they knew 'the truth' they would not have died for the cause of Christ later when they faced martyrdom for being Christians.

It is often thought that the whole 'tale' of the resurrection is one that was thought up and written down as a narrative to give Christians hope, but if this was the case, why would the first eye witnesses of the resurrected Jesus be women - who were known in that time to be un-credible witnesses (not even the disciples believed them when they were told! Luke 24:11).

However, despite the evidence for the resurrection, some people will still choose not to believe because of the moral implication - that they will be accountable someday to a living God who will judge them for their every action. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil (John 3:19).

Regarding disappointment, disappointment comes from expectations not being met. If our expectations are wrong, we can be disappointed - even by God. We should therefore try to have our expectations in line with God's will. When disappointed, don't give into the temptation of isolating yourself from church - you need good christian fellowship to help reprove, rebuke and exhort. These things will help us grow!