Word of Life Church Podcast Pastor Brian Zahnd

Tanakh is a Hebrew acronym for the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings/Psalms. After his resurrection Jesus told his disciples, "Everything written about me in the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms had to be fulfilled." Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. If we want our minds to be opened to understand the Scriptures, there’s one essential key: The aim and end, the Alpha and Omega, the promise and fulfillment of all Scripture is…Jesus Christ!

The Apostle Paul speaks often of the mystery of Christ as the supreme revelation of God, but this in not a mystery we can place under our control. In his poem The Magi, William Butler Yeats aptly describes the incarnate Word born at Bethlehem as "the uncontrollable mystery on the bestial floor."

The landscape of our current culture seems to be filled with fury and it has left the condition of our souls vexed with anxiety. If we trust and follow Jesus, the one who cares for our soul, he will lead us, as the Good Shepherd, out of the landscape of fury and into pastures of peace.

Do you believe in ghosts? The disciples may have. Upon seeing the resurrected Jesus, they wrongly assumed he was a ghost. This opens the door for Jesus to assure them(and us) that he has risen indeed. If Jesus has been raised, then death has been defeated, and we need not fear. Therefore, Jesus continues to ask "Why are you frightened?".

One way to think about the resurrection is to see it as Jesus’ first step towards ascension. Another way is to think of the resurrection of Jesus like a wormhole, a tunnel through time and space. From this perspective, Jesus went into death creating a passageway from this broken down world into God’s new world where all things are new again. In stepping through that doorway into the place where God the Holy Spirit is making all things, we have the opportunity to participate with the Spirit. We participate by stripping off everything associated with our old sinful nature and putting on our new nature created to be like God. We strip off everything that doesn't look like Jesus so we can be like the God revealed in Jesus. A new life is waiting for you. Are you ready for it?