“O that you would tear open the heavens and come down!” (Isaiah 64:1)

“Is there a God? If so, what is He like? And if He spoke to us, what would He say?” Who wouldn’t want to know the answers to these questions? Throughout the history of the human race, people have speculated and come up with all kinds of suggestions. Many of us have often wished that God (if He is there) would reveal Himself to us, especially in times of trouble. This is perhaps what the prophet Isaiah had in mind when he exclaimed, “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down!” (64:1). We all, at times, can identify with the poet who cried, “How long, O LORD? Will you hide yourself forever?” (Psalm 89:46).

The Bible makes the astonishing claim that God has not left us in the dark with our questions. The same prophet who yearned for God to make Himself known was also given this message: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). This prophecy was fulfilled when Jesus was born.

Though born in poverty and obscurity to Jewish peasants, Jesus of Nazareth grew famous for his miracles, his teachings, and his compassion. He healed people who were blind, lame, and sick; He showed His power over nature by calming storms; He even brought the dead back to life. He taught a startling system of ethics that enjoined His followers to love their enemies and pray for those who spitefully used them (Matthew 5:44). And everything He did overflowed with compassion, for He had indeed come to us as a display of God’s love.

However, what most scandalized His critics was not any of these things, but what He said about Himself: “He who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Jesus was not just another great teacher. He claimed to be “Immanuel,” which means, “God with us.” He descended from heaven to live among us, to show us what God is really like, to teach us what it means to be human; and ultimately, to die for us.

“God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

As Jesus’ popularity grew among the common people, so His notoriety increased among the religious leaders. Jesus had not met their expectations and had in fact frequently opposed them by pointing out the way they would say one thing and do another (no one, we should realize, hated hypocrisy more than Jesus). These religious leaders conspired to convince the Romans to kill Him.

What Jesus’ opponents never realized was that God would ultimately use their evil intentions to bring about good. Jesus Himself proclaimed that His life was not being taken, but He was giving it for the sake of others: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep” (John 10:11). As Jesus hung dying on a Roman cross, He knew that He was fulfilling another prophecy spoken by God through Isaiah:

Surely He has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows…

He was wounded for our transgressions;
He was crushed for our iniquities;
upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and by His lashes we are healed…

Out of the anguish of His soul He shall see and be satisfied;
by His knowledge shall the righteous One, my Servant,
make many accounted righteous,
and He shall bear their iniquities…

He poured out His soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet He bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53)

Many great men have died heroic deaths, but this death was unique. Jesus had lived sinlessly yet died as a criminal, bearing our sins before God and suffering the punishment that we all deserve.

This was not the only unusual aspect of Jesus’ death.

“I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared…” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)

People just don’t come back from the dead. The early Christians knew that, which is why they never expected to see Jesus again after He was tortured, crucified, and buried by Roman soldiers. And that is also why they were shocked to see Him alive three days later. Yet there was no denying it: His tomb was empty, He appeared before them—even letting them touch the wounds in His hands and side—and He opened their hearts to understand that all of this had been God’s plan, as foretold in the Scriptures. The apostles’ encounter with the resurrected Christ transformed them into people compelled to spend the rest of their lives proclaiming what they had seen, not desisting even under threat of death. Indeed, nearly every one of them would be killed as a martyr for spreading this message.

We firmly believe, with these earliest Christians, that Jesus died and rose from the dead, and that by doing so He became victorious over sin and death and shows beyond doubt that He was truly who He claimed to be: the Son of God. We also believe that the resurrection of Jesus gives us hope that death is not the end for us, either. Jesus offers us the chance to have a new beginning.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ: new creation! The old has passed away; behold, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5.17)

Nothing can more significantly change a person’s life than coming to know Jesus Christ. If hearing the story of Jesus leads someone to put his trust in Christ, turn away from the things that have marred his past, and proclaim his allegiance to Christ through baptism, that person is “rescued from the domain of darkness and brought to the Kingdom of His beloved Son” (Colossians 1.13). He begins a new life characterized by God’s love, becoming part of God’s story to fix the brokenness of the world and re-create what has been lost.

“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers…And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:42-47)

There is a tension in our culture to which none of us is immune. We all yearn to be individuals—to find out who we really are, and to pursue what we think is right, even if it means refusing to conform. At the same time, there is something deep within us that longs for a place where we belong, to be among people where we are loved and accepted.

God has created the church to fulfill both of these longings. The church is one body with diverse members, each uniquely created to serve a particular function that blesses the rest of the body. We don’t (and never will) agree on everything. But we are united by our common desire to be obedient disciples of Jesus, who taught us to love God and to love each other. We want to allow God to create among us the same sense of community that He created in the early church. We want to be a family of people who share life together. We know we haven’t yet arrived, but we hope and pray that that’s where we’re headed.

Then Jesus said to them all: “Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” (Luke 9:23)

When Jesus was sentenced to death, the Roman soldiers shoved a wooden cross onto His back and forced Him to drag it through the streets of Jerusalem to the hill where they would nail Him to it. Yet this gruesome scene was not a scene of defeat, but of love. He died so we could live. And this scene is not one strange incident in Jesus’ life, but the culmination of His life, lived for others. He came “not to be served, but to serve”; He gave His time to the brokenhearted; on the night before His arrest, He kneeled before each of His disciples and washed their feet. Taking up His cross was His way of pouring out God’s love through self-sacrifice. That’s the example He gives us to follow. None of us will ever be asked to suffer like Jesus did, but being His disciple means loving Him like He loved us, which means loving those around us, giving ourselves to them as He gave Himself for us. This is what it means to be a Christian, and this Christ-like, courageous kind of love is that to which we aspire.

Intrigued? Join us this Sunday for worship and Bible study or call or email us to let us know that you are interested in learning more about the life-changing message of Jesus.