April 2012: New Life

April 2012 began with Holy Week and Easter, so our theme was about the New Life which arises from the resurrection. In Holy Week we looked at passages about Living in Hope (Psalm 118) and “can these bones live” (Ezekiel 37) which Jesus might have drawn strength from, before looking at the fear, joy and worship of the women on the first Easter morning (Matthew 28). We found that being born again (John 3) is not a case of seeing is believing (John 20), but something arising from a baptism into death (Romans 6) which leads to proclamation of the whole message about this new life to others (Acts 5), and, sometimes to a new task (Ezra 9).

  • To use the word Hosanna (Save! Now!) as an expression of praise, is a marvellous expression of living in hope and trust in a God who has responded faithfully to the cries of “Save! Now!” in the past (Psalm 118). Our ability to live in this hope and trust is fuelled by bringing to mind both the ways in which God answered people in the bible, and also the ways in which God has answered us in the past.
  • On the night before he died, Jesus knew that he was to die. He confronted his own death. He may have thought of the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel 37:1-14, and being asked the question “can these bones live?”. I wonder if his answer was “O Lord God, you know”. I wonder if he heard the voice of the Sovereign Lord saying “I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life”
  • The first people to meet the risen Jesus (in Matthew’s telling of the story in Matthew 28:1-15) are women who come to the tomb to look for Jesus. They are not afraid to face up to the reality of the death of Jesus and in doing so they meet with Him. If someone had tried to chisel “The End” on the stone which was rolled across the mouth of Jesus’ tomb, then it would be obscured by the legs of the angel who was sitting on it (having rolled it away from the mouth of the tomb). We do well to face up to the reality of those things which seem like “The End” of life as we know it, as we search for the risen Lord, because, in doing so we may meet with Him. We will meet Him in “The End”. And we need to go back to Galilee - we need to go Home and encourage others to do the same.
  • One of the questions which not-yet-believers have is “How can I believe in something which I cannot see”? This is a real problem if we believe that seeing is believing. However, when Thomas wanted to touch the risen Lord in John 20:26-31, Jesus said “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed”
  • In baptism we have died with Christ and have been raised with Christ (Romans 6:1-13). Our new life has begun, but is not yet complete. We have Eternal life, but are not fully grown. We are free, but are learning how to be free. We are learning to believe that we are not in the Adam world but in the Jesus World. We are not where sin rules – we are where righteousness rules.
  • Like the disciples, in Acts 5:12-33, we are challenged to “tell the people the full message of this new life”. For some of us a part of the message which we are prone to miss out is the call to obedience. In the great commission in Matthew 28: 18-20 Jesus calls us to “teach them to obey everything I have commanded you”. Being obedient to our calling will not make for what may be considered by many to be an easy life (as the disciples found out in Acts 5), but we remember that Jesus, in Matthew 11:28-30, says that “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
  • Having received new life from God, we may be called to continue in our existing circumstances with our existing responsibilities. However God sometimes grants new life to people with a view to them undertaking a new task for him. This was certainly the experience of the exiles in Ezra 9:1-9 who believed that “Though we are slaves, our God has not deserted us in our bondage. He has shown us kindness in the sight of the kings of Persia: He has granted us new life to rebuild the house of our God and repair its ruins, and he has given us a wall of protection in Judah and Jerusalem”
  • When after Easter we realise that our actual lives do not match up to the potential of the new life which we have been offered by Jesus, it is good to remember in John 3:1-21,that God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world. No. God’s intention was that we might have eternal life, through believing in Jesus. When we receive this new life, when we are born again, we won’t know exactly what is going on. It’s like a wind blowing. You hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.