Death is Dead for a Dying Woman

Mike Leake

“God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it” (Acts 2:24).

This past weekend my wife and I had the opportunity to spend time with her grandmother.  Her grandmother is dying of cancer.  The doctors say that she has a couple of months left to live.  Our son, Isaiah (3), understands that “grandma is sick”.  Knowing this Isaiah requested that we pray that Grandma gets feeling better. 

After praying I realized that I need to explain to Isaiah that God is probably going to answer his prayer in a way that is much different than he thinks.  I explained to him that sometimes people get so sick that in order to heal them and make them feel better God has to take them to heaven.  I then explained a little about heaven (intermediate heaven I guess you could say) and how God was eventually going to fix all of our brokenness. 

I am not certain how much of this Isaiah was able to grasp.  I am also not certain that I what I said was the best.  All I know is that at that moment what I said was the best that I could do.

As I read through Acts 2 I realize that the redemption that I was speaking of is only possible because God, through Jesus, has put death in its grave.  This is the meat of Peter’s Pentecost sermon.  Jesus has dealt a deathblow to death itself and because of this he has ushered in the new age of the Spirit. 

The conclusion from the resurrection of Christ is simply this, “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”  Every other religious leader is dead in a grave somewhere.  Abraham. Dead. Moses. Dead. David. Dead.  Only Jesus has been resurrected thus proving that he is indeed the sovereign Lord and he is the Rescuer.  Yes, the very same Jesus that was crucified as a criminal. 

John Mark McMillen captures this well:

Yes, unless Jesus comes back before, my wife’s precious grandmother will pass into eternity.  But we know that because of the resurrection of Christ it is not death to die.  So, what I said to Isaiah still stands.  God has simply decided that it is time to redeem her completely. 

We all get sick, we all die, but it is only through Christ that death is dead in your dying.

The Only Kingdom Satan Fears

Mike Leake 1 Comment

“Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 

This isn’t a stupid question.  After all Jesus has been raised from the dead and He was now promising the outpouring of the Spirit.  These were signs that the messianic era was upon them.  And as such they assumed that this would mean that Israel would be rescued from Roman power and would be restored as a national powerhouse.

This wasn’t merely selfish.  They probably believed that God’s righteousness would reign and that His glory would begin to fill the earth.  Actually they were asking for the same kingdom that was previously offered to Jesus (Matthew 4:8-10).  Russell Moore posits what this kingdom would look like when he says:

Jesus [would be directing] the kingdoms of the world however he wanted.  No more babies would be miscarried.  No more women would die in childbirth.  Ended immediately would be all human slavery, all genocide, all disease, all poverty, all torture, and all ecological catastrophes…There would be no world of divorce courts and abortion clinics and electric chairs and pornographic images.  Whatever is troubling you right now would be gone, centuries before you were ever conceived.  This sounds like paradise.  (Moore, Tempted and Tried , 152)

This is in part what the disciples were asking for.  But Jesus responds, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority”.  (In other words a kingdom like this is still coming).  Jesus continues, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth”. 

There is something that must necessarily precede that coming kingdom.  That “something” is the proclamation of the gospel: the centuries long proclamation of believers spilling their blood and proclaiming the gospel with their lives and their lips.  This proclamation must precede that coming kingdom because it is not the kingdom that matters as much as the King.  Satan isn’t worried about a “Christian” nation/kingdom or king.  Satan is worried about the King of kings and Lord of lords.  Russell Moore explains far better than I could:

“Satan…doesn’t fear Christianity.  He certainly doesn’t fear “Christian values.”  Satan fears Christ.  Remember that Satan holds power only through accusation and condemnation.  As long as there is no atoning sacrifice for sin, Satan is quite willing to allow conformity to external law, even to the law of Christ ruling visibly over nations from Jerusalem.  The accuser simply wants his opportunity to indict his human would-be supplanting powers before the judgment seat, with no shed blood to redeem them back”  (Moore, Tempted and Tried , 152)

The kingdom that Satan fears and is set out to destroy is not the one the disciples were longing for in Acts 1:6.  The kingdom that Satan fears is the Spirit-empowered, gospel-birthed, kingdom that comes from Acts 1:8.  The kingdom the disciples imagine (and any kingdom we could dream of) pales in comparison to this one. 

Yet, I find myself here 2,000 years later longing more for an Acts 1:6 kingdom than an Acts 1:8 kingdom.  I find myself striving for that “kingdom to Israel” more than the one that conquers God-belittling idolatry even to the ends of the earth. 

Lord, move in my heart to strive for the kingdom that Satan fears.  Help me to not settle for sacred substitutes.  Thank you that you have given your Spirit that conquers my wayward passions and redirects me to focus on the only kingdom that Satan fears. 

He Has Overcome!

Mike Leake

One thing never ceases to amaze me:  I can spend hours studying Scripture, reading books about the Lord, writing papers about the gospel, preparing sermons exalting Jesus and yet my heart can slowly grow calloused.  I don’t drift into holiness and God-honoring affections.  Instead I slowly drift into God-belittling idolatry and complacency when I handle precious gospel truths. 

I am aware of this.  That helps.  But it is not enough to be aware.  I must also fight.  There is one thing that I do to fight for joy in Christ that I want to share with you.  I keep a mental file of “gospel awakeners”.  There are certain texts, certain videos, certain truths, that inevitably awaken me to the beauty of the gospel. 

Of course these could easily become golden calves that direct me away from worshipping Christ and instead cause me to worship the act of worship.  But I have found this practice very helpful in awakening my heart to the beauty of what Christ has done on my behalf. 

One particular truth that always seems to spark my affections is that Christ Jesus has overcome!  To this end I always find this video by The David Crowder* Band helpful:

Enjoy! 

He HAS OVERCOME!!!!

Earthen Vessels Offended

Mike Leake

I love Sam Storms.  This is from his excellent book Pleasures Evermore:

Some of you are offended that God is exposing you to slander and suffering and reproach and weakness.  You are offended at God.  You don’t want to be an earthen vessel.  “Why do the children of the King have to live and minister in weakness and rejection and shame?  Isn’t it our spiritual birthright to be led in God’s triumphal procession, exposed to the ridicule and abuse of the world.  Those are the people through whom God is dispersing the sweet fragrance of the knowledge of Christ.  It is our spiritual birthright to “die daily” (1 Corinthians 15:31)!  It is our spiritual birthright to daily carry about in our bodies the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus might ever be seen!  All this because God is zealously jealous for His glory and our love.  (302)

If you don’t own this book you need to.  Check out my review of it and buy yourself a copy.