Category: Miscellaneous

If Christ Has Not Been Raised

On By Jarrett Ray FletcherIn Miscellaneous2 Comments

The days that follow Christian holidays can feel a bit odd. At Christmas, we celebrate the birth of Christ for a month, but on December 26, it feels as if meditating on the incarnation is out of season. The same goes for Easter and the resurrection. This isn’t all bad; seasonal meditation can be good. We need yearly reminders to stop and pause on both of the vital doctrines of our faith. But we cannot allow them to become merely seasonal. And we avoid that by remembering them all year long. Thus, I am choosing my first blog post-Easter to be about…the resurrection.

1 Corinthians 15 (hopefully) received much attention by the Christian world yesterday. As we read the passage in our local congregation, I was struck by how Paul emphasizes the reality and importance the resurrection. Specifically, I was moved by the things he said would necessarily be true if Christ had not been raised. He lists five things that are worth our consideration.

If Christ Has Not Been Raised

1. Our preaching is in vain.

“If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain…” (1 Cor. 15:14).

If Jesus’ body lay dead in a tomb, then all of apostles’ preaching was pointless. If Christ did not rise from the dead, then death is not conquered, eternal life is not guaranteed, and redemption is not accomplished. Remove the resurrection, remove the crescendo of the Christian message. All that is left are vain words and empty messages.

2. Our faith is futile.

“If Christ has not been raised…then your faith is futile” (1 Cor. 15:17).

Our faith is completely dependent on the resurrection. What faith would we have that he could raise us from the dead, if he could not raise himself? Why would we trust someone who did not do what he said he came to do (Matt. 17:22-23; Mark 9:30-32)? Why would anything else he said be trustworthy? If there’s no resurrection (his or ours), what’s the point of our faith?

Continue reading “If Christ Has Not Been Raised” →

A Children’s Easter Devotional Based on the Storyline of Scripture

On By Jarrett Ray FletcherIn MiscellaneousLeave a comment

Are you looking for a good Easter resource to use with your kids? I highly recommend to you a new free resource below from my friend Mark Shideler. It is a seven day study that reveals the storyline of Scripture and the meaning of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. It contains helpful summaries, discussion questions, and activities that reinforce each day’s theme.

I want to share an excerpt with you. Consider how Mark describes the purpose of God’s Law (how often do you see that in a kid’s devotional?) in Week 2:

Have you ever done something wrong? If we’re honest, we all have. But who decides whether something is “right” or “wrong”? God does! A long time ago, God gave the Israelites rules to keep if they wanted to show that they loved God. He called these rules His law. The law was for us, too (not just the Israelites). When we break God’s law today, we feel bad about it, and that feeling is called “guilt.” God’s law has A LOT of rules in it that are VERY hard to keep. In fact, it’s completely impossible for any person to keep all of God’s rules. That sounds pretty hopeless doesn’t it? But actually, that’s the whole point! See, God didn’t give the law so we would try to keep it and be perfect. He gave the law to show that we are all sinners who need a Savior. We have ALL broken God’s law, and our sin has to be punished. Breaking God’s law has consequences (just like breaking our government’s law does), and God has to judge sin because He always does what is right. One of sin’s consequences is that it keeps us from being friends with God because God is perfect. In fact, the Bible says our sin makes us God’s ENEMY! In order to be friends with God, we have to have our sins forgiven. Every time we sin or feel guilty, it should remind us that we need a Savior.

Mark proceeds to show how Jesus is the Savior we need, who lives a perfect life on our behalf (thus fulfilling the law), yet dies to pay the debt of our sin (another lesson in which Mark helpfully describes what a debt is), and defeats our greatest enemies of sin, death, and Satan. This is how Jesus has enabled us to be friends with God (the way Mark describes redemption in kid-lingo!).

This is an excellent resource that will not only bless children, but also their parents as they walk their kids through it! I will be using it with my kids, and I hope you do too!

Click the link below to download the free resource:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1NtGFK88hVDgikDzR2g759pXwoUY3KBBM?fbclid=IwAR0G8lZrArw2Cl57CGlxGHOa2G-22zZdB2enlrHEN6pHh3SvUiSuVIVtKmE

The Preeminent King Who Reconciles All Things

On By Jarrett Ray FletcherIn MiscellaneousLeave a comment

Our focus as a church this week was on the preeminence of Christ. Preeminence refers to the exclusive right of being first, supreme, or surpassing all others. The Son of God in the person of Christ is preeminent (Colossians 1:18). He is before all things (1:16) because He created all things (1:15-16) and holds all things together (1:17b).

Christ is also preeminent over the church (1:18). The church is made up of those whom Christ created; they are part of the “all things” He created in 1:16, who rebelled against Him (1:21) but have been reconciled back to Him (1:22). But how did this reconciliation occur? By the preeminent One “making peace through the blood of His cross” (1:20).

The beauty of the gospel captured my heart this Sunday. Colossians 1 presents the Son as the One who created all things and currently holds all things together. But it also presents Him as the One who reconciles all things by His own death. Only the One who created all things can reconcile all things back to Himself- and there was only one way for Him to do that- “by the blood of His cross” (1:20).

Here is the prominent reminder for us: everything that we need, from the greatest need of salvation to the smallest need of our next breath: Christ provides. He created all things. He sustains all things. He reconciles all things. By the blood of His cross.

How to Build Your Life on Christ

On By Jarrett Ray FletcherIn Miscellaneous3 Comments

Too often I walk away from corporate worship without giving thought to what God has taught me and how I should apply it. Yes, even pastors can be guilty of going through the motions. I am not disengaged; I will note an interesting point in a sermon, re-listen to a worship song, or pray for someone that I had a conversation with, but rarely do I give sustained thought and prayer to what God has taught me and what He wants me to do with it.

Therefore, I am starting a new blog series on Monday mornings where I will think and write about what God taught me on Sunday. Lessons may come from messages, songs, conversations, or Scripture readings. Not only will this give me an avenue to think, pray, and write, I hope it will also encourage you to think and pray through what God taught you as well!

This Sunday, we considered Matthew 7:24-27 and Jesus’ instruction to build our house on the rock. “House” is a metaphor for our lives and the “rock” is a metaphor for Christ. We can build our lives on Christ, the rock, or on the shifting sands of the world. Storms will come and beat against our houses, but only those whose house is built on the rock will stand.

But what does it mean to build our life on the rock that is Jesus? Two things. First, to build our life on Jesus means to have Him as the foundation of our life with God. We must recognize that there is no foundation other than Him that can reconcile us to God and keep us in intimate relationship with Him. Nothing and no one other than Christ can deal with our sin debt or provide us with the perfect righteousness that we need to stand before God.

Continue reading “How to Build Your Life on Christ” →

Grace for the Humble- 1 Peter 5:5-11

On By Jarrett Ray FletcherIn MiscellaneousLeave a comment

Once again, I have been tasked with teaching on a passage and topic that I have neither mastered nor have begun to gain proficiency in: humility. Some of you may have just breathed a sigh of relief. You’re already pretty humble- so you think- and so you’re poised for a nice pat on the back! But once you think you have humility, you’ve lost it. So I am here to help you regain it. For others, you may have groaned, because you struggle with pride, and now find yourself blessed to sit through a sermon on humility.

Most are somewhere in between, wondering what in the world I am about to say, but here’s what I can promise you: we all have something to learn today. Not because of what I say but because of what God says. We all have the opportunity to sit before God’s Word and to hear Him speak to us about a virtue that is absolutely necessary for His people.

So what is humility? It is an attitude of mind that realizes that we have no reason to be distinct, special, or important in God’s eyes. It is the recognition that without God, we are nothing. Even in comparison to others, in the grand scheme of things, we are all the same- creatures that are completely dependent upon God for life, breath, andevery good thing.

1 Peter 5:5 commands us to put on humility, “Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble’.” After exhorting the elders in verses 1-4, Peter encourages the entire church, “all of you,” to clothe themselves with humility. Why? Because God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

Thus we see the necessity of our subject this morning. God opposes those without it. The word oppose conveys the imagery of being set in battle array. God opposes the proud as if He is a battling army. Thus we are commanded to clothe ourselves with humility, a rare verb that refers to a slave putting on an apron before serving, as Jesus did before washing the disciples’ feet.

So, what do you want this morning? Do you want God to oppose you? To set His face and His power against you? Or do you want God to be gracious towards you? What determines whether we receive God’s opposition or His grace in our lives? Humility.

Continue reading “Grace for the Humble- 1 Peter 5:5-11” →

Old Testament Wisdom for New Testament Believers (Proverbs 4:23-27)

On By Jarrett Ray FletcherIn Miscellaneous1 Comment

“The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom ” (Proverbs 4:7a). If you want to be wise, get wisdom. Pretty simple, isn’t it? The entire book of Proverbs is filled with wisdom. So get the book, there you go- wisdom! But if you’ve ever read the book of Proverbs, you know it doesn’t come that easily.

Proverbs is a part of the rich wisdom literature of the Old Testament. Such literature is not conducive to interpreting at face value and immediately applying it to our lives. We have to slow down and understand the individual proverbs in their original context. We have to read them through the lens of biblical theology, and then apply them to the current context of our lives as New Testament believers.

In this message I want to help us “get wisdom” by studying a passage of Proverbs in the ways I just mentioned. Our text will be Proverbs 4:20-27,

Continue reading “Old Testament Wisdom for New Testament Believers (Proverbs 4:23-27)” →

Jethro, Moses, and Old Testament Disciple-Making

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Today I finished preparation for a panel discussion on disciple-making in the local church. I define disciple-making as the process of helping people follow Jesus through the context of relationships. The first section of the discussion includes setting the biblical foundation for making disciples. As I usually do when discussing discipleship, I planned to share the Great Commission from Matthew 28:18-20, highlight Jesus’ relationship with His own disciples, and point to Paul and Timothy as examples of Christian discipleship. It’s a pretty typical presentation of disciple-making, but I realized that I was missing a major component: the Old Testament.

Continue reading “Jethro, Moses, and Old Testament Disciple-Making” →

Ananias, Sapphira, and the Deadly Cancer of False Spirituality

On By Jarrett Ray FletcherIn Miscellaneous1 Comment

This morning I read the story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5:1-11. I have always understood this story as an example of God’s desire for us to be full of integrity in our financial dealings, especially with regards to our giving to the church. But this morning I had a new thought on the passage: what if the egregiosity of Ananias and Sapphira’s sin was not simply their blatant dishonesty, but their attempt to look more spiritual and more sacrificial than they actually were?

Continue reading “Ananias, Sapphira, and the Deadly Cancer of False Spirituality” →

Is Obedience Required in the New Covenant? The Role of Obedience in the Old and New Covenants

On By Jarrett Ray FletcherIn Miscellaneous3 Comments

Recently, our life group has been looking at God’s promise of a New Covenant in Jeremiah 31:31-34. This promise comes as a bright ray of hope in the midst of one of the darkest seasons in Judah’s history. It is a promise that things won’t remain the way that they are, that God will establish a New Covenant with His people that will draw them into a deeper relationship with Himself. That relationship will include God’s laws being written on their hearts and the total forgiveness of their sins. In our class, we looked at how Jesus establishes the New Covenant in light of Luke 22:20 and Hebrews 8-10.

During this discussion, I made a comment about obedience not being a necessary component of the New Covenant. I quickly retracted my words because my theologian-conscience-sirens started going off. But I wasn’t sure what to say in place of them. So I told our group that I would research, pray, and think about the role obedience plays in the Old and New Covenants. This blog is the product of my inquiry.

Here’s my thesis: Obedience was required of God’s people under the Old Covenant, but it is produced in God’s people under the New Covenant. Let me flesh that out.

Continue reading “Is Obedience Required in the New Covenant? The Role of Obedience in the Old and New Covenants” →

The Fear of God and the Blessing of Family

On By Jarrett Ray FletcherIn MiscellaneousLeave a comment

This will be a short post, but I want to give it a permanent place on my blog. One of the unexpected blessings I continue to receive as a pastor is the privilege of attending funerals of saints who have finished the race well. I have already been to one such funeral this week and will attend one more this weekend. These funerals remind me of what is important in life, namely faith and family (including both blood-relatives and church family).

At the funeral for Mr. Roy Ellis, a member of our church for over six decades who had five children, ten grandchildren, and seventeen great grandchildren, Psalm 128:1-4 was read:

“ Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord,

who walks in his ways!

You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands;

    you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.

Your wife will be like a fruitful vine

    within your house;

your children will be like olive shoots

    around your table.

Behold, thus shall the man be blessed

    who fears the Lord.”

Here’s what struck me as this verse was read in honor of this faithful husband, father, grandparent, and church member: God’s blessing for fearing Him is described in the context of the family. In other words, God desires to bless the man who walks in His ways, and one of His greatest blessings in life is family and enjoying God’s blessings with them. This blessing entails enjoying the fruits of one’s labor (v.2), but not for one’s self, but with his family- a fruitful wife and many children (v. 3). “Thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord.”

This, I believe, is the lesson, especially to men: don’t overlook the blessing of family. Don’t overlook the blessing of a wife. Don’t overlook the blessing of children. Rejoice in them, and praise God for them. THEY are His blessings to you. Be encouraged by this, and labor all the more to fear the Lord and walk with Him so that you may share the fruit of that labor with them!