Dwight Fletcher | Stand firm in what you believe

TODAY WE celebrate the fact that Jesus died and rose and because of that, death isn’t the final word when we come to faith in Him. The final word is life and the resurrection of our bodies. This is a message of hope, not wishful thinking. As believers, when we believe this truth it generates a different approach to life, and to our faith.

Many persons in the past, and even now, undergo all manner of persecution and torture for Jesus. People faced death for Jesus’ Name and this is the truth that kept them. The final word is eternal life. The persecuted have refused to deny Him because of the hope they had, and persecution revealed what they truly believed. They preferred to die. “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down … 31 By faith … 35 Women received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.” Hebrews 11: 30-35 NIV.

Sometimes, we measure faith by what we have triumphed over, but sometimes faith is demonstrated by what we journey through and don’t give up on.

It’s important for us in these days to live faithfully, because we’re in a time when the forces of darkness are gaining momentum and are advancing against anyone who names Jesus as Lord and Saviour. The great plan is to silence the church. There’s a day of persecution coming, and we might be seeing the beginning of it. If this is it, we each will be asked on whose side we stand, so we need to start standing firm in what we believe now.

Our thoughts become our words, which become our actions. Our actions become our habits,s which become our values; and our values become our destinies. Adam Hamilton’s said, “What you believe about death changes how you face life.” Creed (Abingdon: Nashville, 2016).

When we die now, Philippians 1: 21-24 (NIV) tells us, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 22 If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labour for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! 23 I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; 24 but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.” It teaches us that if, as Christians, we die before Christ’s return, we go to heaven and exist without our resurrected bodies until the day of the resurrection. In 2 Corinthians 5:8 Paul wrote, “We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.”

There seems to be an intermediate stage where we live in heaven until the shout of resurrection is delivered by the Lord. “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 (NIV).

Jesus will return. He will come down from heaven, raise the dead in Christ first, then He will gather up His followers who are still living and we will be with God forever. The resurrection we celebrate today is about everlasting HOPE.