Resurrection and the Life

Happy Tuesday, everyone.

It is March the 14th. I'm Ryan Hill. I'm John Galantis. You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com. If you have any questions for Dr. Shah or suggestions for future episodes, send us a text at 252-582-5028, or you can email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com.

That's right. You guys can help us keep this conversation going by supporting this radio show, sharing it online, leaving us a good review on iTunes, Spotify, anywhere you get your podcasting content from. We're going to leave a link in the description so you can do just that. But before we do, I want to read the verse of the day again.

Go for it. I read it yesterday, and I feel like I'm kind of on top of the world. I'm going to read it. This is Romans 8. Love Romans 8. And verse 11 says, And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit who lives in you.

I love that. That resurrection spirit, the power that rose Jesus from the grave, is the same power that lives in us. We often discount that.

We think about the Christian life as just sort of going through the motions and marking off our Christian checklist like, Hey, I read my Bible. Hey, I said my prayers. Hey, I went to church.

But we have the Holy Spirit of God living within us. That's a huge deal. When I got saved in 2007, my youth pastor at the time gave me a Bible, and he wrote that on the inside cover. That was why I wanted to read this one because he wrote that. He said, You know, it was great that you got saved this weekend, but you should know for the rest of your life, like the same Spirit that rose Jesus from the dead lives in you.

And he underlined, That's awesome. And I just never forgot that. And it kind of helps me because I know that eventually our bodies are destined to die because of sin.

That's the whole consequence of the fall. But for the time that we have here on earth, the Spirit is living in us, and He gives us life to serve and to build that kingdom here on earth. Absolutely. And that relates perfectly with our topic today. You know, if you've been listening to the show for the last few episodes, we've been going through the I Am statements of Jesus and the Gospel of John. This relates to the sermon series that Dr. Shah preached not long ago titled Sufficient.

And as we've said, if you are interested in those messages, you can find all of them on his blog, AbbadonShah.com, or you can go back and watch the messages themselves on our church's website, ClearviewBC.org. But before we do jump into that, I want to ask you a question right now, because this is something that I've been mulling over in my head for a little while. I asked your wife this a long time ago, and she said that she would do it.

I figured I'd pose it to you. You get a million dollars. I'm talking like a million buckarooneys. But you have to take a can of Chef Boyardee ravioli into the Louvre. And it's not protected. It's like they're taking it down for restoration. You have to eat it and sneeze sauce onto the Mona Lisa. Global treasure ruined.

You sneeze ravioli onto the Mona Lisa. I tell you what, it's got the cover. It's got the protective cover. But people are still furiously upset.

It has the protective cover? It's on the wall. The painting is not ruined. The painting itself is not ruined, but it's going to cause upheaval. Political upheaval. It's going to be all on the news. That's how you even got a can of ravioli in there.

People are going to lose their jobs over this. It's going to be bad. You just are eating a can of Chef Boyardee ravioli. I just have this mental picture in my head like, yeah.

You're not a terrorist or anything that's going in there trying to destroy it. You're just eating it, enjoying your lunch, and you're just like, achoo, and sneeze sauce all over. Oh, gosh. I have a pit in my stomach just thinking about that. But if the painting is not ruined, I wouldn't like it. I would be mortified, embarrassed, but I'd probably take it. Because I was thinking about it. The painting getting ruined, that thing is worth more than a million dollars. It would probably ruin you for life. That's my thing. I might get a million dollars, but I'm going to owe way more than that.

I'll say the protective covers on it. People are just really, really angry. I would not like it.

I can't stand for there to be any kind of angst or stress around me, but I'd probably take it. If someone sneezes ravioli onto the Mona Lisa, it's not only the people in the museum are angry. That's making the news.

People are going to talk about that. You're a meme. You're the ravioli Mona Lisa guy. They'll probably paint pictures of you as the Mona Lisa with a can of ravioli.

I'm labeled the Louvre Loser. I'd probably take it, though. All right. Well, I've got to get my checkbook. That's kind of crazy. Just make that out to Ryan, R-Y-A-N. Can I at least take a couple of dollars out of your million to get the can of ravioli? That's fine.

You can deduct that from the million. We had a question of the day coming in from Nicole R. She wants to know, asking Dr. Shah, knowing what you know now, what would you say to yourself when you first started ministry? Oh, I'm excited to hear this answer. Yeah, that's a good question. Because there's so many things that Dr. Shah has invested in me.

I know the same is true for you, too, Jon, over the years, especially when we first started out. I'm really excited to hear what his answer will be. Yeah, that's going to be awesome. Stay tuned to the end of the episode. We're going to grab Dr. Shah.

We're going to answer that question toward the end, so you've got to watch the entire thing to hear the answer to that question. We're going to dive into our topic today. If you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text to 252-582-5028, or visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com. We'll be back after this. Hey, everyone.

My name's Elli. And I'm David. We want to take a minute and let you know how we can actually serve you as you're listening to Clearview Today. The Bible paints an extraordinary picture of who we are as a church body. The mission of Clearview Church is to lead all people into a life-changing, ever-growing relationship with Jesus Christ. A huge part of leading people is praying for them. A big reason that Christians have unanswered prayers in their life is because they're not praying.

You know, 1 John 5.15 says, and if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of him. If you're listening to the Clearview Today Show, we want to know how we can pray for you as well. There's a number of ways that you can get in touch with us at Clearview and share your prayer requests. But the best way is by texting us at 252-582-5028. You can also send us an email at prayer at clearviewbc.org.

Or you can download the Clearview app on iTunes or Google Play. You know, on that app, there's a dedicated prayer wall that helps us to get to know what's going on in your life, how we can pray for you, and how we can take any necessary steps to get you moving in the right direction. Thanks for listening. Now let's get back to the show. Welcome back to Clear View Today with Dr. Abidhan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

You can visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com. If you have any questions or suggestions for future episodes, send us a text at 252-582-5028. Dr. Shah, welcome to the studio today. I've got to say, that number is blowing up with responses to these episodes on the I Am Statements. People are loving it. Well, we want you guys to be able to respond to it, too, especially if you're new.

This is the first time you've ever tuned into the show. We want to welcome you, let you know who's talking to you today. Dr. Abidhan Shah is a Ph.D. in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show.

You can find all of his work at his website. That's AbidhanShah.com. Before we get started, I feel like I need to issue a public apology to the Nickelodeon and Viacom corporations. Yesterday, I said some pretty inflammatory and hurtful things about their Hanukkah special, their Rugrats Hanukkah special.

Turns out, I was dead wrong. In 1992, I'm reading this off the Wikipedia page, Nickelodeon executives pitched the idea of a Hanukkah special to the production team. The concept was revised and became the 1995 special, A Rugrats Passover, which told the story of Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt. Then, after production of the Passover episode wrapped, the crew returned and did the Hanukkah episode later. I conflated the two in my mind to be one episode.

I was wrong. But I will say, that mistake influenced my understanding of Hanukkah for about 30 years, which is pretty bad. Well, you know, I think the lesson learned there is maybe don't rely on Nickelodeon for your timeline of the Bible. That's right. You do not want to get your biblical knowledge from Nickelodeon.

That's why Dr. Shah has a PhD and I have a very skewed understanding. I honestly thought the Israelites were like babies leading other babies out of Egypt. I don't think that's quite that much. I don't think it happened quite that way. I'm sorry, Nickelodeon. Well, Nickelodeon, just in case you're watching, and for the rest of you as well, we are in our series talking about the I AM statements of Jesus through the Gospel of John. We've dealt with a few of them over the past few episodes.

If you haven't watched those, make sure you go back, check those out. Or if you're using a podcasting app, make sure you go back and listen to those episodes because it's going to inform our discussion today. But we are talking about the next I AM statement of Jesus, where Jesus says to his listeners, I am the resurrection and the life. That's right. So this is part of our sufficient series. We're learning how Jesus is sufficient for today. And again, that's also one that we've heard so much about, you know, the message titled Today, right? And the whole point of that message was, don't worry about yesterday, it's done. Or don't dwell on yesterday, that's done. Don't worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow is yet to come.

You can only focus on today. And Jesus is sufficient for today. If I say Jesus is sufficient for yesterday, then I mean, it's all weird. I mean, how is it sufficient for yesterday?

I'm not there. He may be sufficient. I think he is sufficient for yesterday, but I'm not there. Sufficient for tomorrow.

Of course he is. But I'm not there. So why do I need to worry about yesterday and tomorrow? Just like the manna, right? Don't store up manna for tomorrow.

It's going to breed worms. So just focus on today. That's why God said today's the day. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

So based on that idea, and I hope this will be a blessing to people. When we think about Jesus being sufficient for us, don't focus on your past or your future. Focus on the things that you need now. I'm the bread of life. You need sustenance. He's the bread of life. I'm the light of the world. You're walking in darkness.

You're about to walk into a difficult time of your life. He is sufficient for you. I am, let's see, the door of the sheep, right? He is the right shepherd who comes rightfully to his sheep.

And he's also the door through which the sheep can go in and out and find pasture. Don't worry about safety tomorrow. Today is, his safety is available for you. He is the door for today. Don't worry. Don't dwell on yesterday because that door has already been opened and shut.

It's over. And then I'm the good shepherd. We focused on that last time, how Jesus comes after the 99 today.

I'm sorry. He comes after the one today, leaves the 99 behind. So, you know, with the same understanding, we need to look at the next I am statement, which is the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he may die.

That can happen to you. He shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me, this is the present tense, he shall never die.

Wow. That's a message of hope if I ever heard one. And that's, that's such a radical thing to say. Like the person, like I get, I get the whole thing where he's like, I'm using that I am statement so that the people will know he's equating himself to God. But even if you took that out, claiming something like that, you've got to have some authority behind you.

You know what I mean? To say that if you live in me, you're never going to die. Whether you equate yourself with God or not, which of course he did, to say that implies very heavy authority on Jesus. Right. Now, unlike the other I am statements, there is no particular feast or festival that was going on at the time that we can say, okay, so resurrectional life is tied to this. Now we could say maybe the Passover, but that's a little kind of a stretch. And I believe the next two I am statements definitely deal with the Passover, which is I'm the way, truth and life, and I'm the true vine. They are connected to the Passover.

Yeah. You can make a case that resurrection of the life is connected to the Passover or even connected to the last one. I think they are, they're also connected to the Old Testament, but in a different sort of way. And the way after studying it in the Greek text, after studying the literary breakdown, and after also studying the theological truth, okay, the themes that are standing, you know, they're coming out of the passage. I found that this statement can be explained with two pairs of words.

Okay. The first pair is love and glory. And the second pair, wolf and sheep. Love and glory, wolf and sheep. Now let me go ahead and upfront give it to you so that you will not be like going like, what are those four words again?

And what are the pairs again? And how, okay, so here's how it works. He whom God loves, he shows his glory. So that is the connection between those two words. He whom God loves, he shows his glory. Makes me think of his relationship with Moses.

God hides him in the rock and then passes in front of him. Right. But when it comes to wolf and sheep, death is the wolf that comes after the sheep. And Jesus is the one who has vanquished or, you know, handled, defeated the wolf.

Yeah. So those are the two pairs of words that I feel like help us understand this passage better. And they're all, again, coming from the Old Testament. So focus on the first one, love and glory. What happened in Mary and Martha's life?

What happened in their life? Lazarus died. But before he died, right, while he was in the throes of his sickness, whatever that sickness was, they sent for Jesus saying, Lord, behold he whom you love. The Greek word is phileo.

Lord, he whom you love is sick. And in verse five, it says, now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. The word for love there is agapao. So there's a word for love, phileo.

Then there's a love, agapao. And the whole idea is this, that Jesus loves his sheep. Remember in John 10 with the good shepherd, he talked about how much it says, I'm the good shepherd. I know my sheep. I'm known by my own as the father knows me, even so I know the father and I lay down my life for the sheep. The word phileo or agapao is not mentioned, but the idea of love is there. You don't just lay down your, you don't lay down your life for sheep that you're just paid to protect.

One paycheck is worth that. Right. Right. So the idea of love is there, even though the word is not used and what's happening in this family's life, two sisters and a brother, their brother is dying. And it even tells us that he whom Jesus loved. So you know, they are, they are his sheep. Shepherd loves his sheep. Nonetheless, the sheep is dying. And the shepherd refuses to immediately rush back and rescue the sheep.

Yeah, go ahead. Well, I was just going to say that, you know, at first glance that flies in the face of what we think love does. We, we have the idea of like, if the shepherd sees the sheep in trouble, I mean immediately, whatever the sheep needs, the shepherd's going to run to them. But if the shepherd hangs back, you know, we trust that the shepherd is going to do what's best for the sheep. So that, I mean, there's kind of, there's kind of a tension here. We're quick to vilify Martha here, but I can sort of understand, I think from a human level, I can understand her frustration because he's saying, you know, I'll lay down my life for the sheep. It's like, well, will you so much as come and visit, come and help?

He's like, no, no, not going to do that. There's a purpose behind it, but you know, from her just basic level of understanding, she doesn't see that. On this side of scripture, we know that, we have that context, but Martha didn't. Yeah. So it's one thing when the, when the shepherd is saying, I'll lay down my life for you.

It's like, if you come, neither one of you have to die. Right. Yeah. And what Jesus said in verse four, he said, this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the son of God may be glorified through it. So don't think that you're not being loved or God doesn't care for you, but that he's going to use this sickness to glorify God, to glorify the son of God.

That's right. Is it a stretch to apply that to situations in our lives? Like, you know, this thing that's happening to you, although it is bad, although it is painful, although it, you know, it is not a desirable place to be. God has a greater purpose. God has a greater plan in this, in this moment of suffering and heartache and even death. This is exactly where we need to apply it.

Yeah. Cause I tend to think of like the Romans 8, 28, like God's going to work it all together for my good. And he is, he is going to, right, right. To those who love God. But it's also a matter of, I never tend to look at it like, how is God going to be glorified in this? It's always like, okay, if I just stick this out and I tough it out, somehow I'll benefit. The focus is still on me instead of where it should be is somehow God is going to be glorified in this.

Yeah. You know, this got really real, I guess I should say to me is when I went to see chief Cordell's chief, Steve Cordell, just for the benefits of our listeners, viewers, he was our fire chief in the town of Henderson, North Carolina. And last year, right after Christmas, he knew something was wrong. He had a horrible headache. He was seeing these lightning flashes, you know, in this corner of his eyes and the peripheral. And you know, he, he went and checked out and then, then nothing came out.

Nothing was clear cut. And then, you know, they told him, it's time for you to go to the big hospital. And he did and come to find out he had a brain tumor.

Right. So now, you know, he did his, his chemo. He did all that he needed to do. And then thank goodness he came out looking great, a huge scar, but it felt like he was okay. And then come about October, maybe November, all of a sudden those, those headaches came back. He had a horrible wreck. He, you know, he was out of character and went back to check on it, came back with, yeah, it's back. It was a very rough time.

In fact, January, I'm still, I am still recuperating from January. I know other people who were much closer to him, his family, you know, you can just imagine the pain and the struggles they're going through. And for him to be going through that, it was very tough.

But here's what happened. One, one Sunday night, I went by to see him. This was right before our young adult ministry.

You know, I lead that on Wednesday, Sunday night. I went by to see him about five o'clock and our ministry begins about five, fifteen or so. So I said, let me just quickly go see him. I went by to see him.

And this is one of the first times I went by to see him since he got sick. And God laid on my heart to ask him that question. What are you thinking of chief? What is the Lord showing you? And when I said that, he turned his head because he was, he was in a bad place. He was, you know, he, he, he just, he would fidget with some like a remote control.

He would just press buttons on a calculator. But when I said that to him, chief, what is God showing you? When I asked him that question, he stopped everything, turned towards me and said, his power and mercy. And that really hit me because what a powerful statement he was making. He was saying right now in the midst of my most difficult trial, I'm trying to balance God's power, that he is all powerful and he can heal me. He can do anything and mercy, which means he doesn't have to, but I need his mercy, but he doesn't have to.

Nothing is owed to me. God can walk away from this whole thing and he would still be justified and good. So when he said that to me, I was like, man, you know, when you watch him, you think this guy is struggling. He's not there in his head. The things he's sitting there messing with remote control that doesn't work. But when I asked him that question, what is God teaching you? Power and mercy.

You know what that means? This man in the midst of his difficult trial was seeing the glory of God. That's how you see the glory of God. I love just that crystal clarity in that moment.

It's just like everything just kind of is stilled. And we get a glimpse into, you know, this lucid moment for Chief Cordell where he says, this is what God is showing me. This is what I'm dealing with.

This is what I'm struggling with. And it lets you know, you know, he's not gone mentally like we might think. He's still very much present. He's still very much grappling with this spiritual, I guess, turmoil in his life. Neither is he's struggling with bitterness and resentment towards God or anybody else. Mercy. Because if he had said grace, it almost seems like, yeah, God owes it to us. Because he's a gracious God.

He has to show me grace. Mercy is something he doesn't have to do. That's right.

That's right. I deserve what I'm going through. As a sinner, I deserve death. But in his mercy, he shows compassion.

And I want to say, Dr. Shah, that what you said earlier kind of stuck with me that, you know, this is an emotionally draining thing to go to. Just because you're a pastor and just because you understand these deep spiritual truths of God's glory doesn't make it any more emotionally, not appealing, but it's not any easier to go through emotionally. I think about Jesus, who's the Son of God himself, who did have the power to stop it. But that doesn't mean that he wanted Lazarus or Mary and Martha to have to go through this. It's not about preventing the bad thing from happening. It's about, he knew God had to be glorified in this.

And to do this will end up net positive. But going through this bad part is still, that's why it says Jesus wept. And that always struck me as funny because I was like, you could stop it. It doesn't have to be this way. But then just hearing you talk about it, it's not about just preventing the bad things from happening. That's not the goal of God's presence in our lives.

Right. And the weeping is not, he's not weeping like this, this false sense of, oh, he's dying. My friend is dying. No, he's gone. Unless you make him sort of schizophrenic. Like one moment he's gone, another moment he's not. No, no, he's one person, right? What's happening here is that his weeping is towards people who see all this happening and they still don't believe in him. Because if you notice later on, it's a sense of aggravation on his part.

He's aggravated with the people for not trusting him. So love and glory, you know, Robert Murray McShane said it this way, you will never find Jesus so precious as when the world is one vast howling wilderness. Then he's like a rose blooming in the midst of the desolation, a rock rising above the storm. Beautiful. Isn't that awesome? Beautiful language. So sometimes we go through those difficult times.

Why? Because God is showing us his glory. That's what Romans five is all about. We glory in tribulations. That's what James one is all about.

Count on all joy when you fall into various trials. So all that is part of this thing. But if I were to take it for the next minute or two, one step deeper, Lazarus' miracle or Jesus' miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead is also about wolf and sheep. You know what Jesus says over here in going back to John chapter 10, you know, he talks about how the wolf comes to destroy. We looked at it last time, how the wolf represented the Romans that came in AD 70 and destroyed God's people, the temple and all that and scattered them.

But in this context, if you bring in the Good Shepherd story in the context of Lazarus' raising from the dead, it is also about the wolf being the death. Yeah. Oh, right.

Right. Wolf is referring to death. We were meant to live forever, but the wolf comes to take us away.

Yep. I think even using language like that is so helpful for people because a lot of times you hear Christians sort of muster up this super spiritualism like death is a part of life. It's, you know, it's just transition from one life to the other. But there's a reason that death stings the way that it does. And you brought that out in your message, Dr. Shah, is that it is unnatural. It is we are knit with eternity within us. Ecclesiastes 3.11, God has put eternity in our hearts.

Absolutely. Like I imagine that if I took like a wolf, like what you're saying, we're so used to death. Death is so normal for us that we have accepted it as just inevitable. It's just part of life.

And you can even find beauty and whatever and poetic justice, however you'd find it. But if I took a wolf and I brought it to my house and I start training it like a dog, eventually I'll forget that this is a dangerous animal. I'll be like, yeah, this is my dog. And this is, but one day that wolf is going to bite me. It's going to, cause it's still a predator.

It's not harmless. Right. Yeah. So also death is a wolf and that comes to every life. And the only way we can survive is if we have a shepherd who can conquer and defeat death. And that's what Jesus did when he went into that grave. You know, why is that important for him to be buried?

Have you ever thought about that? He just died, but buried and then rose again in a sense. He went down into that pit to defeat the wolf of death. Yeah. And he came out victorious.

Yeah. See what first one 15 says. So when the corruptible has put on incorruption and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written. Death is swallowed up in victory. Oh death, where is your sting? Oh Hades, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. That makes resurrection and life hit a lot harder. Yeah.

I love that. It's not only that, you know, Jesus experienced those things, but he is those things. He is resurrection and life.

And he has the keys of Hades and death. Yep. That's beautiful, man. What a great reframing of how we think about and approach death because that I love when, when we bring out that, like we grieve as those who not as those who are without hope. And this is, this is why we can do that because Jesus has already not just overcome, like he's made it through death, but he's beaten death.

That's right. Man, I'm hyped now. We've got to wrap the episode, but I'm hyped. If you guys enjoyed today's episode, or you have questions or suggestions for future episodes, send us a text at 252-582-5028. Or you can visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com and you can partner with us financially on that same website. We're grateful for you for partnering with us, for teaming up with us as we seek to impact the nations with the gospel of Jesus.

Right. And since you guys stuck around through the whole episode, we're going to hear the answer to the question we asked up top. We got it from Nicole R. Knowing what you know now, what would you say to yourself when you first started ministry? Knowing what I know now, what would I tell myself? I was always a curious student, always had to learn, always had to, things didn't just come naturally to me. So if I were to go back, I would say, learn even more.

Whether it comes to the Bible or to life or relationships, learn even more. I love it. That's amazing. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Clear View Today.