PRAYER OF CONSECRATION

Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. 

Jesus, I belong to you.

I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.

Jesus, we belong to you. 

Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. 

Acts 26:1–6

Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You have permission to speak for yourself.”

So Paul motioned with his hand and began his defense: “King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate to stand before you today as I make my defense against all the accusations of the Jews, and especially so because you are well acquainted with all the Jewish customs and controversies. Therefore, I beg you to listen to me patiently.

“The Jewish people all know the way I have lived ever since I was a child, from the beginning of my life in my own country, and also in Jerusalem. They have known me for a long time and can testify, if they are willing, that I conformed to the strictest sect of our religion, living as a Pharisee. And now it is because of my hope in what God has promised our ancestors that I am on trial today.”

CONSIDER THIS

Today’s text has me asking myself a question: Is my faith anything at all like Paul’s faith? I don’t mean that in terms of intensity or boldness or quality. That’s a poor measure of faith anyway. The big question concerning faith is: What is the object of faith? What do we have faith in? Jesus? Yes. That everything is going to work out? If I’m honest, my faith can often be more about my avoidance of suffering and my success in life than it is about the bigger picture Jesus is bringing about.  

Paul’s faith was in Jesus for sure, but it was way beyond the successful outcome of his painful struggles. Paul’s faith led him to a certain hope in a much larger and more particular outcome. It was not just “going to heaven when he died.” No, Paul’s hope was in the endgame: the resurrection of the dead. He placed his faith in Jesus for one reason alone: Jesus was raised from the dead. Paul’s faith in Jesus did not result from Jesus coming through for him in the past or because Jesus lived within his heart. While these things were true in Paul’s experience, Paul’s faith was not in his experience. Paul’s faith was in the certainty of a particular event in the future.

Paul’s hope was not in his hopefulness that the resurrection of the dead would one day happen. In the resurrection of Jesus, the future was no longer in the future. It had begun. Paul hoped decisively and unflinchingly in a future event because he had already witnessed it happen in the present. I want you to read Paul’s words below slowly, deliberately, and out loud so your ears can hear them.

But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. (1 Cor. 15:12–19)

Paul didn’t believe in the resurrection of the dead because Jesus was raised from the dead. He believed in Jesus because he believed in the resurrection of the dead. Trust me, that’s not a circular argument. 

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. (1 Cor. 15:20–26)

Friends, this faith we share is not primarily about our personal experience of God, as important and essential as that is. No, the vision is infinitely larger. We hope in the final upending of sin and death and evil. And we aren’t hoping it’s going to happen someday. No! It actually began happening on a certain day: the day Jesus was raised from the dead. Sin has lost its power. Death has lost its sting.

“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Cor. 15:55–57)

No matter how much longer it may take, we are in the endgame. Jesus is Lord. Seated at the right hand of the Father, he sends his Spirit in wave on wave on wave of the ever-present, pregnant possibilities of the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. We live in the age of the Spirit, where nothing is impossible with God.

Paul’s faith was all about the endgame. I don’t know about you, but too often for me, faith is mostly about hoping God will solve my problems today.

Sure, he cares about our problems and he can solve them and he will give sufficient grace when he does not solve them. It’s all just so much bigger than my little victories in my little battles. Jesus is forging a faith in us that runs deeper than the ups and downs of our experience—even our experience of him. Here’s where we are going: Our faith is less anchored in the hope that God is going to work out all our life’s problems to our satisfaction and more anchored in the fact that Jesus has already won. He has now worked out the intractable problems of sin and death—in the present and for eternity. Faith is activating that victory in the present, which empowers me to persevere by his Spirit toward winning the war even when everything tells me I’m losing all the battles. 

This is the heavenly vision Paul is bringing before King Agrippa . . . and before us.

Will we see it? Will we go for it?

THE PRAYER OF TRANSFORMATION

Lord Jesus, I am your witness. I long to be like you. 

I receive your righteousness and release my sinfulness.
I receive your wholeness and release my brokenness.
I receive your fullness and release my emptiness.
I receive your peace and release my anxiety.
I receive your joy and release my despair.
I receive your healing and release my sickness.
I receive your love and release my selfishness.

Come, Holy Spirit, transform my heart, mind, soul, and strength so that my consecration becomes your demonstration; that our lives become your sanctuary. For the glory of God our Father, amen.

THE JOURNAL PROMPTS

Does your faith tend to rise and fall based on the level of difficulties and hardships in your life or even on your experience of feeling the presence of God with you? How important does the fact of the resurrection of the dead and the new creation figure into your faith? If not, why not? If not, so what? And, what now?

THE HYMN

Today we will sing “The Doxology” (hymn 682) from our Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer’s Praise. Get your copy here. 

For the Awakening,
J. D. Walt

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