Good Morning Friends,
Honestly, I get a little irritated when people are not thankful with what they have and always want more and more. Part of me wants to be kind and please people. Another part does not want to risk being taken advantage of. But given the balance of things I think it is wise for everyone to address the issue of how to be both compassionate and satisfied and the thing is that believing in life after death helps this to happen. And it is more than sharing a Coke so that everyone in the world would know but it is similar for as Christians we are not to be content until the whole world has tasted the experience of Jesus and believe that when he returns we will be raised in the victory celebration. We need to be part of something larger than ourselves. So, this morning I ask you to ponder the challenge of continuous improvement and the opportunity imbedded in today’s question really being about being godly in an ungodly world.
So, How Does Belief In Our Resurrection Relate To The Experience Of Worldly Wealth And Contentment?
Scripture: Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ—whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.
1 Corinthians 15:12-20 (NRSV)
Soon afterwards he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him, as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their resources.
Luke 8:1-3 (NRSV)
Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.”
Hebrews 13:5 (NRSV)
For he (Abraham) looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
Hebrews 11:10 (NRSV)
Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them; I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had spent in doing it, and again, all was vanity and a chasing after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 2:10-11 (NRSV)
In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
John 14:2 (NRSV)
Message: Without the resurrection Christianity falls apart. That’s why the soldiers were paid off to spread a rumor that Jesus’ disciples came and stole the body. People have set out to prove Jesus never rose from the dead and ended up becoming Christians because the evidence proves that he did. The resurrection of Jesus is the most crucial event in Christian history. It not only matters but it also reveals some things. The fact that Jesus is in heaven preparing a place for us is exciting. If you were going to visit someone and they told you, ‘I’ve got the guest room all set up for you. It has all the things you like’, that would make you feel special, wouldn’t it? That’s what Jesus is doing. He may be preparing your custom place right now! We have waiting for us an eternal inheritance. And that should prompt in us an action in the Spirit now. Part of the answer, rests in the gifts of God shared not the achievements of people horded. Throughout human history, people have been searching for contentment and satisfaction, but when they think they have found it, the feelings have been fleeting and temporary. Some have found financial wealth in being good and others in being bad. The desire to be rich is a problem for it pits others wellbeing against one’s desire to have more. Mostly people have been looking in all the wrong places. What Abraham, Solomon, Luke, Paul and the faithful disciples of Jesus all discovered was that contentment must always to be paired with godliness. They had in common the experience, that following one’s own desires ends up being an empty practice. But being faithful to something greater than one’s self is the way to a lasting contentment. When we put God first, fearing to displease Jesus and seeking to please the Holy Spirit always, we are on the way to true and eternal satisfaction. Socrates put it this way when he said, “Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.” Think about that for a moment. The reality is that there are several verses directly from literature and more specifically the Bible that connect to this lesson. Having great wealth never made Solomon happy. But this is not to say we are not to act in faith. Abraham had faith to leave when God told him to leave and to stay where he was told to stay but that in the end he was really looking forward to a city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. Believing in this place God is making for us is believing in the resurrection of the Body in Christ now in the Spirit and in completion when Jesus returns. Friends, it is always right to have the ambition of a stronger relationship with God. We are to fight the good fight, but it is never to be about us in our striving, but about God and the divine plan for us to share in the victory. Here, contentment is a feeling that envelops us when we are truly thankful for what we have and are no longer seeking to acquire more for ourselves but more for God’s purpose of linking our Spirit filled actions now as the building blocks of a resurrected Body to enjoy forever.
And So, when Jesus said, “I go now to prepare a place for you,” He was not just talking about going to heaven but also going to the cross. He was talking about making a new temple, a new priesthood, and a new way of living as God’s family now too. In some sense, in and through our collective experience, Jesus has already returned. He returns in us. We are the ongoing incarnation of Jesus Christ. We are His hands and feet the world. We are the Body of Christ on earth now not just in the sweetness of the resurrection to come. What Jesus has in mind when he says he is going to prepare a place for us is the Jewish wedding tradition where after a man and woman were betrothed to be married, the man would go off and build a home for his new bride. The construction of this new home would take several months, or even up to a couple years, and the bride-to-be did not know exactly when the groom-to-be would be finished. Her only option was to wait and to be prepared. So, likewise it is for the Called-out Assembly of God. Friends, if you do believe in God, do not let unbelief of the resurrection unravel your faith. Negative thoughts affect one’s walk with God. If we are to help transform the world, we need to reflect the mind of Christ while living in the Spirit. And the Spirit is the reality of the resurrection. So, realize that you came into this world with nothing and will leave it with nothing of earthly substance but perhaps with the joy of knowing the importance of people’s freedom to use their God given gifts to store up treasures for the Body. So, put the will of God before your own and in doing so find contentment balanced with creative ways of attacking social wrongs. Never prioritize personal wants before Kingdom needs. While it was necessary that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, without the resurrection his death would have been in vain. In God’s great mercy we have been given new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. Something wonderful is waiting for us. Since Jesus rose from the dead, we too will rise from the dead. Jesus is coming back to take us to heaven to be with him forever but allowing us to share in the resurrection now when we act as part of the Body of Christ.
Pray we realize that Jesus’ resurrection reveals that we too are to be raised to life. Pray we realize that our coming to life in the Spirit is so that we might join in the Messianic victory with Jesus. Pray our resurrection and the Parousia of Christ become one. Pray we realize that the path of true contentment must always be walked with God. Pray we are content with what we have but never with who we are. Pray we become more grateful and more generous…more holy. Pray we take control of our attitude. Pray we realize the potential social, financial and relational costs of being discontent in our disbelief. Pray we realize that each of us is unique and important to God so we can stop comparing ourselves to others as a way of gaining contentment. Pray we begin to understand the incredible satisfaction gained through a relationship with Christ. Pray we have the fearless heart of contentment balanced with an unending desire for the gifts of God in the people of God to be fully discovered. Pray our contentment and desires are molded by God to leads us on a path of eternal love. Pray we fight the good fight. Pray we heed the call to a new kind of victory.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 