Thought of the Week- May 15, 2023- authored by Clement Arde-Acquah

Jesus said to her “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this? (John 11: 25-26)”

Dear Brethren, grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with us and be upon us now and always. Amen.

Brethren, I will like us to reflect this week on a subject most of us wish not to think about, an unmentionable subject often viewed with fear or resentment. An awful subject which we must all endure and even our Lord Jesus Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith had to go through for our sake and that subject is Death. Death (in Greek Thanatos) is mentioned in the New Testament about 120 times and aside of our birth is one of the only two certainties of life. Death in the scriptures has two meanings: a) the separation of body from soul that is physical death and b) spiritual death that is our separation from God because of the sin of one-man Adam (Rom 5: 12).

Death is sad and painful and causes all of us to stop, think and be silent. Its pain becomes more pronounced if the one we lose is one close to us or is one we love. Some of us try not to think of death probably because we may not see our time on this earth as transitory or may see death as something that happens to someone else and therefore not something that can happen to us but unfortunately, physical death will come to us all one day. Despite the frightfulness of death, to the just, virtuous and upright Christian, death hold no terrors because it was defeated by our Lord Jesus Christ on that Easter morning about 2000 years ago. During the earthly ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ as recorded in the Gospels, we see three cases of the defeat of death and the physical resurrection of the dead and these are that of: a) the widow’s son at Nain (Luke 7: 11-16), b) the raising of Jairus’ daughter (Luke 8: 40-56) and the raising of Lazarus in Luke 11: 1-44 from where the Biblical quote at the beginning comes from. Despite the painfulness and sadness of physical death, we have a hope, a blessed assurance that, the sting  death (whether physical or spiritual) was done away with and this hope was given to us on that Easter morning when our Lord Jesus rose from death, showing us and giving us the hope that, the sting of death has been destroyed, that the grave has no power over us and that we need not fear death if we truly believe and trust in God. Christ’s resurrection destroyed death and gave us life and immortality as recorded by Paul in 2 Timothy 1:10.

Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:55 again tells us, when Lord Jesus Christ died, he descended to the dead and defeated death, before the immense power of God, that same power (in Greek – dunamis) by which God created the world, raised him from among the dead to become spiritually alive again and this should give all of God’s children the hope of being made alive again even though we suffer physical death.

If we are not certain of this hope, then we should be reminded of i when we stand and say the Apostles 'Creed or the Nicene Creed (the unequivocal statement of our belief or faith) in church every Sunday. In the Creed, we come across the statement that: “our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified, died and was buried and descended to the dead” -descended to the dead means Jesus really died, yes, he did really die but by the power of the Father Almighty, the same power that created the world in Genesis 1: 2, Jesus was resurrected and brought back to life again. Jesus thus became or becomes the first fruit of all the dead giving hope to all mankind. Christ’s resurrection mean we are not going be left in the grave and but will be made alive again. We therefore have a hope (in Greek elpis), a hope described in the seventh century by St. Bede in these words: “Christ is the morning star who when the night of this world is past, brings to his saints the promise of the light of life and opens everlasting glory”. Christ by this statement is the light to bring us eternal life.

Christ by his resurrection also, gives us a new hope and a blessed assurance or a sure and confident expectation of good things to come and that means we should make Christ our own. The blessed assurance of Christ’s resurrection should make all Christians confident and assured, to put our hope in the living God in whom we can rely, because of his faithfulness and his constancy in the past, present and in the future and this should inspire us and uphold us always even as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death in our daily lives.

Finally, the Christian hope which Christ's resurrection offers us is Eternal life, a foretaste of which we have in our life today, if we believe in God. Eternal life “is the life of heaven “which guarantees us fellowship with God when we live in holiness and righteousness with our Lord. Our Eternal life will continue eternally even when we are no longer in this body because Christ has already gone before us to prepare a place for us in his Kingdom. So, as Christians (the body of Christ), we need not grieve like people without hope, because Christ has already won the battle for us, and He is our hope.

Let us also be assured we have a redeemer who lives, and who he will sustain us now until the end of the age when he comes again, and his name is Jesus Christ. Amen.

Prayer:

Loving Father, to you the dead do not die and in death our life is changed not ended. Give your peace to all whom we have known but have lost awhile and give us the living warmth of your love as we mourn them.  Thank you for our Lord Jesus Christ who by rising from death defeated death and assured us of a life in you.  Father, release us from all fear and anxiety, give us the trust and confidence to embrace you as our Lord. Give us faith as we await your heavenly kingdom which is everlasting. We ask all this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Clement Arde-Acquah