Letter 4/1

April 1, 2010
Pastor Steve Mathewson
  

Pastor Steve’s Weekly Letter For Thursday, April 1, 2010

I am loving the sunshine and the warmth on this first day of April! As I write this, I have my office window open and am enjoying a slight breeze. The shrubs just outside my window have exploded with green. Spring has sprung! While I love my work, I look forward to getting outside at the end of the day.

Since this is holy week, I invite you to think with me about the significance of Jesus’ death. I was especially moved by our reading for March 28 in John Piper’s little book, Fifty Reasons Why Christ Came to Die. Reason #40 why Christ died is so that we would be with him immediately after death. I found myself saying “Amen!” after each sentence in the first paragraph:

“The Bible does not view our bodies as bad. Christianity is not like some ancient Greek religions that treat the body as a burden to be gladly shed. No, death is an enemy. When our bodies die, we lose something precious. Christ is not against the body, but for the body” [page 98].

If this is true, then what about Christians who have died? Are they in a bad situation? No! The best is yet to come. But listen to John Piper described the believer’s experience of life after death:

“The Bible celebrates the in-between time, when our souls are in heaven and our bodies are in the grave. This is not the final glory, but it is glorious. We read, ‘To live is Christ, and to die is gain’ (Philippians1:21). ‘Gain’! Yes, the loss of the body for a season.   In a sense, ‘unclothed.’ But more than anything else, ‘gain’! Why? Because death for the Christian will mean coming home to Christ” [page 99].

Final glory will involve new bodies. We will receive these when Christ returns! That will be the focus of Easter Sunday. I plan to preach this Sunday on 1 Corinthians 15:50-58. It is the final movement in an incredible chapter about Christ’s resurrection and our resurrection. Please take some time to read the entire chapter this week. Then, on Sunday, we will focus on verses 50-58. The title of Sunday’s sermon is “How Jesus’ Resurrection Impacts Your Life.” Remember that we will have a Question and Answer session with Don Carson from 10:00 to 10:45 a.m. in our worship center. You can ask any question about the resurrection!

Remember, too, that we have a Good Friday communion service at 7:00 p.m. tomorrow. We will sing together, think briefly about one Old Testament text which points forward to Jesus’ death, and observe communion together. If you have time, read Genesis 15 and think about how it might point forward to Jesus’ death. The connection may not be obvious. But I wonder if it was one of those texts which Jesus discussed with his disciples on the road to Emmaus when he began with “Moses” – the author of the first five books of the Bible, including Genesis! – and explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself (see Luke 24:27).

On the personal side, we are looking forward to having family join us this weekend. Our daughter, Anna, and her husband, Grant, arrived last night from Minneapolis. Our son, Ben, and his fiancée, Nicole, will arrive tomorrow. They will bring my mom with them, too. The only person who will be missing on Easter Sunday will be our daughter, Erin, and her husband, Manny. That’s ironic since Erin’s birthday falls on Easter Sunday this year! We will have to celebrate it without her. On an even more personal note, Priscilla and I recently learned that we will become grandparents in October! Anna is expecting! The girls say that they’ll think of something for our grandchildren to call Priscilla (such as “Nana”) since “Grandma” sounds too old for her. Funny, they don’t seem concerned about our grandchildren calling me “Grandpa.” Hmm. I wonder what to make of that! Anyway, I’ll see you on Sunday when we get to celebrate the fact that Christ is risen. He is risen indeed!