Tag: Jesus is alive

Looking for the Living Christ

Philippians 3 10
John 20
Acts 1
Acts 9
Church Tradition
Revelation 1
All these places point to a living Christ, if we take the Bible even slightly seriously.
But it doesn’t mean much if you don’t believe.
Today, we are going to do something different. When you are done reading this blog, turn off your phone, close your Bibles and listen to the Spirit of God. Jesus said he would give us the Spirit, and the Spirit of Truth will guide us into all truth. So listen to the spirit.
That’s a hard ask, but what I mean is pray. That prayer may be sitting quietly at your powered-off laptop, or it may be on a run in your neighborhood, or on a nature hike in the nearby park, or it may be as you weed your garden, or as you pick up your room at college. Wherever you find yourself, in whatever it is that connects you to the Lord, ask the question I have asked you over and over again.
Do you believe that Jesus is alive?
That is the central question, not merely of the Christian faith, but of the human condition.
If Christ be not raised, life is, to quote MacBeth, “A tale/ Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,/ Signifying nothing.”
And one more Bible study, one more daily reading will not fix that bleak picture of existence if you do not believe Christ is really and truly alive.
Today, pray for conviction that Christ is raised. Pray for the knowledge that he lives. Pray that Christ would live within you and be made real to you. Whatever it takes.
I have had my doubts. There are times when I felt the crushing weight of loneliness, as if we are the only beings in the universe. But now, having experienced the saving grace of God in my life, I am convinced. I know that Christ lives, and I have written every day with the desire that you too are convinced.
May you, my brothers and sisters, feel the wind of the spirit as Christ breathes on you.
May you dive into the waters of life and swim to the shore where Christ prepares a meal and forgives your sins.
May you see him rise up from the mount of olives to prepare a place and may you trust he will descend to that mount again.
May you find yourself knocked from your horse with the voice of Christ resounding in your ears.
May you stand firm, no matter the course of life, no matter the beast or demon that stand in your way and persevere in his calling.
May you have all this and more because Christ, the savior and redeemer, is alive through the Power of God.
So, I ask one more time, do you believe Jesus is alive?
-Jake Ballard

Deaths of the Apostles

Free Theme Days – Evidence for the Risen Jesus

Acts 2 24

Earlier in the week (two days ago, in fact) we talked about how the apostles were telling the truth about Jesus’ life and death and resurrection. We noted how, out of their many faults, they weren’t all crazy. We also noted how along with Paul, they weren’t gaining much from teaching this tale.
But COULD they have been lying? I assume, knowing their other faults, there is always the possibility that they COULD have been lying, enjoying the privilege of being leaders in a new religious movement. Some people just like power, after all. But there is a large difference between “they could have been lying” and “they lied”. What does the record of their lives show?
Church tradition is normally frowned upon in the Church of God. There are some very valid points to be made for why that is the case. Revelation and tradition have conflicted in the past, and even in many churches today, and we think that what God said is correct and a person’s interpretation of God’s words are not on the same playing field. But there are places where Church Tradition doesn’t conflict with scripture, and it is at least interesting to think about what a majority of Christians have said about the 12 men who followed the founder.
Twelve men followed Jesus from the get-go, and they were called disciples in the gospels and apostles in Acts. We’ve talked about them already, but today I want to touch briefly on how each one of them died. Each of these stories come from church tradition. There is little evidence for some, and undeniable evidence for others. Let’s see their deaths and then comment on them all together.
  1. Peter was crucified upside down, saying that he did not die in a way similar to his Lord.
  2. Andrew, like his brother Peter, was also crucified.
  3. James, the Son of Zebedee, was put to death with the sword by King Herod in Judea. (Acts 12:1-2)
  4. John, the Son of Zebedee, dies in exile, but of natural causes at an older age.
  5. Philip was put to death by a Roman Proconsul in Asia Minor after converting the Proconsul’s wife.
  6. Thomas traveled to India and was killed by four soldiers with spears.
  7. Matthew was stabbed to death in Ethiopia after bringing the faith to the people.
  8. James of Alphaeus was crucified while preaching in the southern parts of Egypt.
  9. Jude/Thaddeus was beheaded in Beirut.
  10. Simon the Zealot was killed after refusing to offer a sacrifice to an idol in Beirut.
  11. Bartholomew was flayed alive and beheaded.
  12. Matthias was burned to death.
  13. Paul, (this is a bit of a cheat, as he wasn’t one of “the Twelve,” but go with me) after appealing to Caesar and traveling to Rome, was killed by the Emperor by beheading.
That’s a pretty grim and dire list. Why bring it up? With the exception of John, every other Apostle of Jesus died in faith, and usually because they were preaching faith, after living a harsh life. Peter was crucified upside down. Do you believe that a man who stole a body would have allowed himself to be crucified upside down if he could produce a body and say “I MADE IT ALL UP! It was a hoax!”? No! Peter didn’t downplay his testimony because he was speaking the truth. Considering that Bartholomew and Matthias both died in places outside of Israel, only one of the twelve apostles died in their homeland.
They didn’t live high on the hog, off the fat of the land. They traveled to places they didn’t know, to people to whom they were sent (apostle means “one who was sent”) because they believed Jesus was alive and that message was important enough to seek out the lost.
John was in exile because he believed Jesus was alive. James, Philip, Thomas, Matthew, Jude, Simon the Zealot, Bartholomew, Matthias and Paul were all killed in various ways because they believed Jesus was alive. Andrew, James the Lesser and Peter were all CRUCIFIED because they believed… no, they KNEW… Jesus is alive. 
So, do you believe Jesus is alive?
-Jake Ballard