Within You

A series on Isaiah 9:6 – The Child of Prophecy
 – King of Kings
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Daniel 2:24-49 

[Jesus was a child of prophecy. The Christmas story in the Bible was predicted in many Old Testament prophecies but the centerpiece of these is Isaiah 9:6. It was written nearly six hundred years before Jesus’ birth. In this series we’re going to look at the meaning and implications of this amazing prophecy.]

  

In 1961 a movie titled “King of Kings” was released. It was an epic production about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. 

The person of Jesus came alive on the screen showing “the power, the passion, the greatness and the glory” of the King of kings. But there were many great and powerful kings before Jesus.

 

King Nebuchadnezzar was the second king of the Babylonian Empire. Early in his reign he had dreams that disturbed him so much that he was unable to sleep. His magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers couldn’t tell him what he had dreamed, let alone its interpretation. The king became furious and ordered the execution of the wise men which included Daniel, a Jewish exile in Babylon.

 

But the Lord revealed both the dreams and the interpretation of them to Daniel. Once he learned this, he went before Nebuchadnezzar and told him that his dreams were about the future. He explained that no man could do what the king was asking, but that the God in heaven had revealed it to him.

 

Daniel described what the king had seen in his dreams as an enormous statue of a man that was awe inspiring. Its head was gold, its chest and arms were silver, its belly and thighs were bronze, its legs were iron, and its feet were iron and clay.

 

Continuing, Daniel related that the king had also seen in his dreams a rock that was cut from a mountain, but not by human hands. And the rock smashed the statue to pieces which were then blown away like dust in the wind. Following this, the rock became a great mountain that filled the whole earth.

 

After describing the king’s dreams, Daniel interpreted them. The statue represented four successive kingdoms. The head of gold was Nebuchadnezzar. But after his kingdom comes to an end another kingdom will take his place, then a third and finally a fourth kingdom. Each kingdom will replace the one before it.

 

Finally, Daniel explained what the rock represented. The one that was cut from the mountain and had crushed the statue.

 

⁴⁴ “During the reigns of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed or conquered. It will crush all these kingdoms into nothingness, and it will stand forever.           NLT

 

For centuries, the Jews had been expecting a Messiah who would fulfill this prophecy of the rock by building a political kingdom. As Isaiah 9:6 states, “The government will rest on His shoulders”. But that wasn’t what Jesus did. Instead, he came to build an eternal kingdom… the Kingdom of God.

 

In Luke 17 we read that on one occasion the Pharisees asked Jesus when the Kingdom of God would come. Here is his answer.

 

^20b Jesus replied, “The Kingdom of God can’t be detected by visible signs. ²¹ You won’t be able to say, ‘Here it is!’ or ‘It’s over there!’ For the Kingdom of God is already among you.”   NIV

 

In this verse the Living Bible translates “among you” as “within you”. Think about that for a minute. This means that as a believer in Christ that the King of king’s lives within you wherever you go and whatever you do. Paul put it like this.

 

²⁰ I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.      NIV

Copyright 2024 Joseph B Williams

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www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

 

 

The Sign

A Series on Lent
The stories of Passion Week – Jesus
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
John 19:1-37 

[Lent is a 40-day season of personal reflection with the purpose to prepare your heart to celebrate the Lord’s Resurrection at Easter. In this series on Lent, we will be looking into the stories of Passion Week. How the people who were directly involved were impacted and how that applies to us today.]

 

Twice a week I’ve been going to a Silver Sneakers exercise class at a nearby gym. When walking through the weightlifting room I often see many of the same people working out.

 

For some, it’s easy to tell that they work out regularly. Their biceps are huge, their chest is broad, and their thighs are thick. Apparently, they take to heart some signs in the gym that proclaim: “NO PAIN. NO GAIN”!

 

Jesus was subjected to intense pain – physical, emotional and spiritual. During his trial before Pilate, the Roman guards mocked him as the king of the Jews. They placed a crown of thorns and a purple robe on him. They slapped him in the face. Finally, they flogged him, which is the usual punishment preceding crucifixion.

 

Several times during the trial, Pilate tried to convince the chief priests to drop their charges. He told them multiple times that he found “no basis for a charge against him”. Yet the chief priests persisted. They were relentless and would stop at nothing to get what they wanted… Jesus crucified.

 

Finally, there was a climactic confrontation between Pilate and the chief priests. They must have worked themselves into a fighting frenzy because they proclaimed a political alliance that would hurt them in the synagogue. Here’s what happened when Pilate presented Jesus as their king.

 

^14b “Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews.

¹⁵ But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!”

“Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked.

“We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered.              NIV

 

Jesus had come to replace the sacrificial system that had been in place since the time of Moses. The chief priests saw Jesus as a threat to their position of power, and found a way to eliminate him. But in so doing, they actually facilitated the very change that he came to make.

 

¹² With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever.                        NLT

                                                                                    Hebrews 9

 

While Jesus hung from the cross suffering a painful death, the Roman guards callously gambled to win his clothing. Mary, Jesus’ mother, stood nearby possibly over hearing their course conversation. Following this, Jesus said something that could send chills down your spine.

 

³⁴ And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (Which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).                  NIV                  Mark 15

 

Like the sign at my gym, Jesus had his own sign.

 

¹⁹ And Pilate posted a sign on the cross that read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” ²⁰ The place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek, so that many people could read it.    NLT

 

Figuratively speaking, the sign can still be read today in significantly more languages. The truth of the sign remains unchanged. However, it’s not a sign for us to just read, but to change our life as a follower of Jesus, the King of kings.

 

For he is risen. He is risen indeed!

 

Copyright 2024 Joseph B Williams

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

 

 

An Elvis Sighting

1 Corinthians 15:3-8

 

 

I saw Elvis Pressley… alive! Really! Of course it was 1962 at the Seattle World’s Fair, and he was in a golf cart with a crowd of people surrounding him. But I did see him.

 

However, as we know, Elvis died on August 16, 1977. Since then, thousands of people have claimed to see him alive. There is even an Elvis Sighting Society. No doubt many fans wished that Elvis had never died; but wishful thinking doesn’t make it true.

 

If you get a chance to see the movie Risen, you should go. It is the story of a tribune who is assigned by Pilate to find the body of Jesus so that his

followers can’t claim that he has risen from the dead. The tribune approaches his task much like a modern day CSI TV detective, analyzing and evaluating all the evidence. As a result, his life is changed forever.

 

^3 “I passed on to you what I received, which is of the greatest importance: that Christ died for our sins, as written in the Scriptures; ⁴ that he was buried and that he was raised to life three days later, as written in the Scriptures; ⁵ that he appeared to Peter and then to all twelve apostles. ⁶ Then he appeared to more than five hundred of his followers at once, most of whom are still alive, although some have died. ⁷ Then he appeared to James, and afterward to all the apostles. ⁸ Last of all he appeared also to me—even though I am like someone whose birth was abnormal”.                GNT

 

Like the fictitious tribune in Risen, hundreds of people saw the resurrected Jesus shortly after his crucifixion. As a result, not only were their lives changed, but the world was changed forever.

 

Elvis was known as the King, but Jesus is known as the King of Kings. Unlike Elvis, the King of Kings continues to appear to people today through the lives of believers. This is not like an Elvis sighting based on wishful thinking. It is the movement and the presence of the Living God. Nothing else can explain it.

 

 

He is risen…

…He is risen indeed.