The pundits express their doubts as the presses roll. “Jesus’ bones have been found!” Jesus died and was buried with his wife Mary Magdalene and his son Judah in a tomb in Jerusalem. Christianity has been rocked to its foundations! At least so people heard on the Today Show and in any number of articles. Simcha Jacobovici and James Cameron claimed the evidence including DNA was conclusive and those who seem to glory in anything that seeks to destroy Christianity were smitten. On more careful examination however, this claim, which actually has been around for awhile, is just another unjustified conclusion based upon the assumptions and presuppositions of enemies of the cross of Jesus Christ. In formal logic, if the assumption is false, the conclusion is meaningless, even if perfect logic” was followed the whole way through. A similar problem has developed in terms of how scientists evaluate the same data on a number of critical issues. If one assumes that things have always existed as they have since the beginning, as Peter states men do in 2 Peter 3:4, in other words, “uniformitarianism”, evolutionary interpretations are given to the data we have. However, if one starts with the assumptions that God created our world and there was a global catastrophe in the time of Noah, entirely different interpretations are given to the data. The same is true concerning the current hotbed issue of global warming. Those who are man-centered attribute it to man’s activities. Those who are God-centered attribute it to natural cycles solely under the province of God. Since there is strong evidence that Mars is warming as well, one wonders if Al Gore is going to make a movie to show the irresponsible Martians! The Bible says that the earth is going to be destroyed by fire. Perhaps God is lighting the match as the end draws near. There is much information available on all of these subjects – an especially good article dissecting the claims of Jacobovici and Cameron is posted on AnswersRadio.com, the Answers in Genesis website linked to our own.

In 1785, the deist James Hutton, commonly acknowledged as the “father of modern geology”, wrote in “Theory of the Earth” that ‘the past history of our globe must be explained by what can be seen to be happening now … No powers are to be employed that are not natural to the globe, no action to be admitted except those of which we know the principle’. Charles Lyell and William Whewell and others built on Hutton’s unbelief which set the stage for Darwin. These men not only didn’t believe the Bible, they refused to even allow for the possibility that the data were explainable by the Bible. God holds views like these in contempt, and so must we.

The same spirit of this world refuses to acknowledge the supernatural in terms of miracles and especially in terms of the resurrection. People talk about a “spiritual resurrection”. But what would that mean? That the Spirit of Jesus died? When Jesus yielded his Spirit to the Father while hanging on the cross, did his Spirit actually die? Of course not! He committed his Spirit to God. The Spirit cannot die! Whether good or evil, spirits are here for eternity. That is what makes spiritual separation from God such a supreme punishment. Those who teach a “Spiritual Resurrection” have to believe that the Spirit of Jesus died, and that the spirits of the unsaved do not get resurrected, all foolish beliefs in the light of God’s unchanging word.

Many have outlined the consequences of there not being a real and physical resurrection of Jesus Christ. Rev. Edrick Corban Banks’ version is as follows”
1) We have nothing to preach
2) We have nothing to believe
3) We are lying about God
4) Our faith is a delusion
5) We are still lost in our sins
6) Our hope is for this world only
7) We deserve more pity than anyone else in the world

Likewise, many have easily refuted all the common lies that persist to this day that seek to explain away the resurrection of Christ – we deal with many of these lies in our Kingdom Gospel Drama – “He’s Risen! Now What!” (April 13, 2007, 11:30 am on WTMR, 800am). The simple fact is that there is no viable interpretation of the facts other than that Jesus arose physically from the dead just as he said he would.

The simple fact also is that those of us who know Christ personally through faith, who have experienced the forgiveness of sin, know that Christ is alive because they have the power of the resurrection in their lives. We have experienced a very real cleansing of sin from our lives and from our consciences. We have a clear conscience before God. We have a clear, open line of communication with God the father that was not possible before the reconciling work of Jesus Christ.

Easter Sunday celebrated the day when Jesus was found risen from the dead. Jesus has been alive ever since, interceding with the Father in heaven on behalf of people. Yes, the Lord Jesus wants people to not only come into an initial relationship with God, he wants them to be saved, sanctified, purified, and changed from the inside out. Because Christ was raised, we can also be raised to newness of life.

So, you might ask, “How should our lives be different because of the resurrection?” Good question. The answer – totally different! First of all, our previous lives are over! Every hope, every ambition, every practice, every desire that we had is now crucified with Christ! It is not only sin that is gone! It is our entire past life! God makes ALL THINGS new! So many Christians want to get rid of sin – except maybe one pet sin they want to hold onto for a while – but then simply add Christ to their life. They want to keep everything they had but have Christ make it all better. Not a plan. Paul says that he counted everything he was and all of his own “righteousnesses” as filthy rags. He gave up all in order to win Christ. Sounds rather radical, huh? But that in a nutshell is the gospel message. God wants new creations who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. This will happen only if “it so be that the spirit of Christ dwell in you”.

The message of Easter is that because Jesus Christ experienced real victory over death, and the Father accepted his atonement for sin, we too can have newness of life. We can have redeemed souls now, and glorified bodies like Christ when we die. The world doubts that a person can have new life in Christ. In a church we visited yesterday, Lighthouse of Deliverance in Lindenwold, NJ, a man came to the front of the sanctuary and turned around, pointing to the congregation. He said again and again words to the effect, “I was a crack addict. Jesus set me free. He is real.” Another man 65 years old walked slowly up the center aisle. Pastor Tony Harley looked at him, placed his hand on his head, and prayed in tongues over him. The man opened his mouth and praised God. The man’s 87 year old mother happened to be sitting directly in front of me. She turned around startled. “My Son!” she exclaimed. He had a stroke five years ago after drug use and had not spoken since! They moved the chairs so she could come to the altar to dance before God. At 87! Another of her sons who had been in a coma had previously come out of it. There were other miracles in the same service. And this was just one gathering of God’s people. Those whose lives have been resurrected by Christ and seen others who have met Christ have no doubts. He is Risen!

IT SEPARATES US FROM GOD
Our sin has separated us from God (Isaiah 59:2). As sinners, sin kept us from God. As saints, sin sets up a barrier to our unhindered relationship with God. Many Christians are lukewarm because of unconfessed and undealt with sin in their lives.

IT KILLS US SPIRITUALLY
The Wages of Sin are truly death (Romans 6:23). God cannot abide the presence of sin. Sin kills. Many people are spiritually dead because of compromise. You see, our faith diminishes when we sin. Whatever is not of faith is sin. When we sin, we believe less and less that the word of God is true. When we choose our evil behavior over God’s holiness, we express disbelief in who God is and in the value of a relationship with a Holy God. It does not take long for a person to become stone cold and apostate. We must not allow spiritual death to begin at all. We must resist sin by valuing the life of Jesus in us. God has put the Holy Spirit in us. As we celebrate him and are baptized in him, we exalt the life of Jesus and judge the life of sin. We experience true life and not death spiritually and in the end physically. There is a way that leads to death, and there is a way that leads to life. Choose life, not death.

IT KEEPS US OUT OF FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD
When we sin, we shy away from God. God also shies away from us. He cannot abide in the presence of sin. God wants full fellowship with us. When we sin, we cannot have the same fellowship with God that we can have when we are clean. To be out of fellowship with God is a tragedy. To think we are in fellowship with God while we are sinning is a deception. I John 1:5 says “If we claim to have fellowship with him yer walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.” To rectify this, we must follow I John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to purify us from all unrighteousness.”

ITS CONSEQUENCES ARE NEVER GOOD
Some people repent of sin and are forgiven, but the consequences remain. People redeemed from alcohol may never be able to drink any alcoholic drink ever again. Women may bear children out of wedlock who were conceived in a fornicating or adulterous relationship. Homosexual men who change their orientation may still suffer from aids. Robbers may need to make restitution. Murderers may have to serve the rest of their life in jail. While God may either prevent these consequences or bring healing and restoration, it is not always the case. Never commit any forbidden act – nasty consequences are part and parcel of that decision.

WE MUST HATE SIN
God says in Hebrews 12:4 that we have not yet resisted sin to the point of shedding blood. Jesus resisted sinful men all his life. He also had to resist in Gethsemane. He was being tempted not to go through with our salvation. He pled with the Father to take away the cup, but submitted himself to the Father. Christ hated sin. God hates even the garment stained by sin (Jude 23). Jesus is not soft on sin. He doesn’t “understand” sin. He makes no exceptions for ANYBODY. He hates all sin at all times. We must put on this same mind of Christ so we hate sin the same way.

WITH SIN OUT OF THE WAY, THERE ARE NO LIMITS TO WHERE WE CAN GO
When we overcome sin, we walk with God the way God did with Adam before the fall. Enoch walked with God. He never saw death. Elijah walked with God. He never saw death. David, Joseph, Daniel, John, Paul, and many others walked with God as well, and look at the accomplishments in their lives. Martin Luther, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Wesley, Charles Spurgeon, Dwight L. Moody, Billy Sunday, and many others walked with God and have left us a wonderful heritage. There are people alive right now who are walking with God. What is the common denominator? They all had no tolerance for sin. If you have no tolerance for sin, you can go just as far or further. Are the fleeting pleasures of sin worth defeat in your life? Are being deceived by the devil and paying the consequences of sin all that valuable to you? They aren’t to me and they aren’t to anyone else who has the slightest idea of the glorious life that has been reserved for us by God our Father and His only Son, Jesus Christ. Choose life, and reject sin. You will NEVER regret it!

When men think about God, they usually do so from their own perspective. They know God is great, but they still usually see him as FINITE. They know he created everything, and is above everything, and has vast knowledge, but they still believe there is an end to it somewhere.

I believe that is why man puts such tight limits on his own achievement. Man wants to do more, know more, and be more. Man wants to improve. Man wants more than he has. Man puts up aggressive goals for progress, and has achieved absolutely wonderful things. Who would have thought you could email someone a movie? Or text message someone while sitting in a meeting? Or have a car that can go almost 200mph?

As great as those things are, and as great as progress has been on some fronts, we seem stuck in the dust when it comes to spiritual things. He believe we can store a trillion bits of information on a microchip, but we don’t believe God can heal.

We can believe that Doctors can revive the dead with a defibulator but we struggle with Christ rising from the dead. We believe twins can come from a sperm and an egg in a Petrie dish, but not that God can bring his son from a virgin.

We put more limits on God than we do on man. We have it backwards! God is the one who is not limited! God is the one who can do anything!

People like to say you can do anything if you put your mind to it. You can’t. Only one person can be president of the United States at a time. Only one person per year can win the batting title. Only one team can win the Superbowl. There are winners and losers in life. As hard as we try, victory is not guaranteed in the affairs of men.

How different it is in God’s world! We can all be conformed to the character of Christ! We can all spend eternity with him! We can all be holy as God is holy! We can all receive incorruptible crowns. We can all be free from sin.

You see, God does not have limits. A certain percentage of the people in God’s kingdom do not have to earn minimum wage to keep the economy of heaven healthy.
There is no separation of masters and servants in heaven! All the quarters for people are servants’ quarters! Everyone in heaven is a servant to THE MASTER. That is why it is so difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. They have a hard time with God’s mercy and God’s concepts. They have a hard time with God removing all limits from those who are poor in the eyes of the world but who are rich in the sight of God.

Don’t let anything keep you from full acknowledgement of the unlimited power of God. Know that God can be 100% intimate with each human being he created. Know that God remembers every word you ever spoke and every idea you ever had. Know that God can do anything he wants through you, whether healing the sick, raising the dead, feeding the multitude, walking on water, or speaking his word in love to a hurting and dying world.

We can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens us. That is because God can do everything. And he wants to share his power! He has put the Holy Spirit within us, and there is no reason that we cannot operate in that power as long as we submit to Christ! We are the ones who limit what God can do through us. We are the ones who downplay the power of God in us. Nothing shall be impossible for us!

Remember the Tower of Babel? God said they were one and they would be successful. He frustrated their plans. God is building his precious body here on this earth. He is successful, and the glory of that body will far exceed the glory of the tower of Babel or any other human achievement. The glory will come when we operate in the unity that Jesus prayed for in John 17. Unity is very strong and very potent. We have yet to comprehend the exploits of a truly united and faithful church.

My friends, don’t limit God. Let his do with you whatever he wishes, and know that he who has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.

A lot of altar calls talk about doing business with God. However, I'm not sure many people actually know HOW to do business with God. A whole lot of people do not understand business period!

Sometimes there is disappointment in business deals because the expectations of the two parties differ so radically. The buyer wants to get the absolute best product or service but also pay the least possible fee. The seller wants to provide the least product or service he can provide while still getting the highest price. Usually the best deals are when both parties feel a little dissatisfied. The buyer thinks they paid too much and seller thinks he received too little.

In some ways, our transactions with God are like that. We want salvation, deliverance from sin, death, disease, poverty, low self-esteem, and everything else. But, we are willing to pay little or nothing for it. God knows we are unable to afford even ONE of his benefits, let alone all these. The price is infinite. That is why he sent his son Jesus to pay that price for us. Many people figure that lets them off the hook and there is nothing they need to do except accept Jesus Christ as their Savior.

Unfortunately for some, that is not the whole deal. They fail to read passages such as Romans 12:1 where we are to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God which is our reasonable service. A LIVING SACRIFICE. It's tough being killed while you are still alive! One Biblical passage talks about being killed all the day long! It can really be tough.

You see, even though Jesus paid it all, we are still expected to lay down everything. Does "take up your cross" sound familiar? It is not as though we can purchase God's favor. It is not by works of righteousness that we have done, but according to his mercy that he saves us. However, God expects us to give him everything. If we withhold from him, he realizes that we have no understanding what it took to save us. God does not appreciate it when we are ungrateful, just as a businessman who gives a very special deal does not appreciate it when the customer is ungrateful. You see, God's price is very high, but he delivers on everything he simply their "reasonable service". It is the same with forgiveness - we must forgive because we are forgiven. If we refuse to forgive others, Christ refuses to forgive us. It is no option for us. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He still requires everything of us. Any thing God asks for is only our reasonable service. An unreasonable God to do business with? No, a God who wants followers who understand how much he paid, and who are willing to live their lives as a sacrifice of praise to him

Get to know this Christ today. Do not reject him because of the price. Look at what he offers and give him whatever he asks of you. Know that everything you are and everything you have pales in comparison with what he was willing to give for you. God knows the value of what he is offering. He expects us to know as well and to respond to him accordingly.

One more thing. Everyone has to do business with God sooner or later. Many look at the terms and say "No Thanks!" The problem is, we have to do business with God sooner or later. Psalm 2 says "Kiss the Son, Lest He be angry." If we don't give our lives to Christ now, God will extract every last cent. It is in the not small print in his proposal to us. He says that it his proposal of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit is rejected, the full price for sin will be extracted from us, and since we can never paid it, we are doomed to a Christless eternity in Hell. How foolish it is to trade some "freedom" here for eternal bondage and suffering.

Are fleeting moments of pleasure which are followed by guilt really worth the price of eternal punishment? The credit card companies are being investigated because of predatory and abusive practices. Believe me, you would rather pay 30% interest, $49 late fees, $49 over the limit fees, and every other creative way there is to hit people while they are down rather than try to pay God the wages of sin.

The wages of sin are death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Most people have no problem obeying God when God is telling them to do something they want to do anyway. They may want to love their wife more, quit smoking, or lose weight.

It's the same for children, who will obey their parents when they would have done it anyway, or in marriage, when a wife obeys her husband because she agrees with him or an employee follows the boss's instructions because they concur with the decision.

It gets sticky, though, when our will is crossed by anyone. A child throws a temper tantrum when his or her will is crossed. A wife goes ballistic when her husband gives her a command she finds irksome. An employee undermines his or her boss when they believe their expertise was ignored. It is also a problem when Jesus Christ makes requirements of us that do not fit into our five year plan. It has been well said that if he is not Lord of all, he is not Lord at all! People accept Christ into their lives and begin their walk of discipleship. Sooner or later, the Lord will ask us to do something we do not want to do. He will ask us to witness to an associate. He will ask us to stop eating dessert. He will tell us not to spend more than $30,000 on a car when we had a Lexus in mind. He will tell us to turn off talk radio or a favorite TV show to spend time alone with him. He will tell us to go 65 instead of 80, even though we will not be going with the flow of traffic. He may even tell us to sell our business and move to Uganda.

It never ceases to amaze me that most people know nothing of what a "LORD" truly is! He is supreme, and his word is law. He is a God of love, but we forget that it was because of that love that Jesus Christ had to be scourged and mocked and crucified. Those things are not in accordance with our will. It may surprise you when I say this, but I do not have a problem with that. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayer, NOT MY WILL, BUT THINE BE DONE! Jesus' will was not to die like that! He really wanted there to be another way. Yet he submitted himself to the Father, and the rest is history. We do not think less of the love of Jesus for us because his will had to be subjugated to the will of God. Jesus was a real person and there is no way anybody would WANT to and would WILL to die as he died! Yet he accepted God's will and yielded up his body and his life for us. He laid it down, as no one could take it

So I tell you today, lay your will at the feet of God. Let him put the desire in you to do WHATEVER is required, and let your life be used of God to bring life to the world. He is a mighty God, and as Romans 12:1 says, being a LIVING SACRIFICE is only our REASONABLE service.