Tag Archives: Apostles’ Creed

God’s People, part 163: Ascended

March 8, 2019 Rev. Todd R. Lattig Leave a comment

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
“Then Jesus led them to Bethany, and lifting his hands to heaven, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up to heaven. So they worshiped him and then returned to Jerusalem filled with great joy. And they spent all of their time in the Temple, praising God.” (Luke 24:50-53, NLT)

When we think of God’s people, we tend to think one of two things. We might think of the Israelites who were God’s “chosen people”, or we might think of specific characters in the Bible. Either way, we tend to idealize the people we are thinking about. For instance, we may think that God’s people are super faithful, holy, perform miracles and live wholly devout and righteous lives. Unfortunately, this idealism enables us to distance ourselves from being God’s people, because we feel that we fall short of those ideals. As such, I have decided to write a devotion series on specific characters in the Bible in order to show you how much these Biblical people are truly like us, and how much we are truly called to be God’s people.

Part 163: Ascended. In today’s Scripture we have an account of Jesus’s ascension as provided by Luke. Both the main Scripture reading and the second Scripture reading come from texts that were written by Luke. In Acts, Luke elaborates a little more on the ascension and the disciples’ reaction to it, as the Acts of the Apostles was written to account for the ministry and struggles of the early church. The Gospel of Luke, on the other hand, just gives us a synopsis of the ascension as a brief conclusion of the Gospel. It is important to note that Luke wrote the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles back to back as a two-volume collection.

To many people today, it may seem insignificant that Jesus ascended. In other words, people might wonder why it matters so much that he ascended into heaven. What gives if that was a literal event or if it was more metaphorical? The same people might wonder why it is such a big deal if Jesus physically rose from dead as well. “Perhaps”, they might think, “those things were metaphors that provided people with hope that there was hope in the midst of death on some sort of “spiritual” level. Perhaps, the ascension is also a metaphor as well. Does it really need to have historically happened for it to not be meaningful?

First, the answer to the last question is no, it does not have to have historically happened for it to have meaning. Stories such as the Lord of the Rings are deep with meaning even though they never historically happened. Fables such as the Tortoise and the Hare are not historical accounts, but are rich with meaning. So, it is true that something does not have to be historical to have profound meaning.

With that said, the disciples and the early church were not looking to convey deep, personal meaning to people. What I mean by that is that the earliest Christians were not writing the Gospels as some sort of meaningful fiction that the readers could walk away from feeling spiritually fed. Yes, they understood that reading the Gospels would nurture and feed, but not just for the sake of doing so.

Instead, these accounts were written as a witness to identity of a historical figure. Was Jesus merely another crucified Jewish traitor in a long, bloody history of crucified Jewish traitors? Was he merely a failed rabbi and revolutionary? Or was there more to this man that met the eye. The disciples who had spent three years in itinerant ministry with him…who traveled with him, who learned from him, who witnessed his sacrifice, who witnessed his physical resurrection, and his ascension…they were witnessing to the IDENTITY of Jesus.

He was not merely another man. Sure, he was human who lived in a specific time and place in history; however, he was so much more than that. He rose from the dead and, in doing so, conquered sin and death. How? Because the wages of sin are death. Jesus took on those wages on the cross, but he resurrected, appeared to his disciples and, when the time was right, ascended into heaven where he sits with God Almighty.

Jesus was no ordinary man. Though human, he was also fully divine. That is HIS IDENTITY and it is that identity that gives us the assurance that God will conquer sin and death in us too, through faith in Jesus Christ who died, rose and ascended before us. If that is just a “metaphor” Jesus is no more than Heracles/Hercules, Achilles, Perseus, etc.

The disciples who witnessed Jesus resurrect and ascend were adamant witnesses to the REALITY of Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension. What’s more, they went to their deaths proclaiming that REALITY. The question for us is this: Do we think ourselves to be so knowledgeable to be able to discount the mystery of IMMANUEL: God with us? The challenge for us is to humble ourselves and trust in the One who is the Son of God, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, and the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world. Have faith and believe that Jesus who conquered sin and death on the cross, who rose to life and ascended to heaven, can be a conqueror, miracle worker, and Savior in your life as well. He is risen, and ascended, indeed!

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
“At His Ascension our Lord entered Heaven, and He keeps the door open for humanity to enter.” – Oswald Chambers

PRAYER
Lord, give me the strength to overcome the trappings of this world and to see you as you truly are, revealed to me by the faithful witness of Scripture and those who came before me. Amen.

Devotional

God’s People, part 161: Risen

March 1, 2019 Rev. Todd R. Lattig Leave a comment

Read John 20

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
“The women were terrified and bowed with their faces to the ground. Then the men asked, “Why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive? He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! Remember what he told you back in Galilee,” (Luke 24:5-6, NLT)

Part 161: Risen.

I believe in God the Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord,
Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
Born of the Virgin Mary,
Suffered under Pontius Pilate,
Was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended to hell[i].
On the third day he rose again,
And sitteth at the right-hand side of the Father,
From whence He shall come
To judge the quick[ii] and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost[iii],
The holy catholic[iv] church,
The communion of saints,
The forgiveness of sins,
The resurrection of the body,
And the life everlasting. Amen.

The above is the Apostles’ Creed, where the basic doctrines, the essentials if you will, are laid out for every believer to memorize, recite, and know. It is a measure, a rule, for all the faithful to know and to profess. This short creed helps the faithful, devoted believer to keep from straying off of the path of orthodoxy. It keeps people in line with the tradtional Christian faith as passed down from the Apostles onward.

Make no mistake, this creed was not written by the apostles; however, it bears witness to the apostolic faith. By apostolic faith, I mean the faith passed down from the apostles to all Christians throughout the millennia. Here are the core, essential tenets of the faith as outlined in this simple creed: Belief in God the Father, who created the heavens and the earth; Belief in Jesus Christ the Son, who was miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin Mary; Jesus physically suffered under Pontius Pilate, He physically died, and was buried; during the two days he was dead he went to the place of the dead. His death was final. He was really dead.

On the third day, he was physically resurrected from the dead, and now sits at the right-hand side of God. This creed affirms the Holy Spirit, the holy universal church, the ongoing communion of all the believers (aka saints), the forgiveness of sins, the physical resurrection of the body that will happen when Jesus comes again, and the everlasting life that comes through a life of faith in Christ. What’s more, it affirms the Holy Trinity, a most sacred and holy doctrine, rooted in both Scripture and apostolic tradition, that is not to be trifled with nor dismissed.

I recapitulate the Apostles’ Creed because it affirms the topic of today’s devotion: Jesus’ bodily resurrection. As was mentioned in the last devotion, it is important to avoid falling into heresies of the past. One of the biggest ones was the denial of Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection. There are other big ones too, however, this devotion (as did the previous one) deals with the the physicality of Jesus’ suffering, death, burial and resurrection. Why were the Apostles adamant about such physicality? Because it was getting denied at every front.

The Jewish authorities, along with the Romans, were declaring that one of Jesus’ disciples took the body out of the tomb and hid it in order to claim that Jesus “rose from the dead”. Thomas, one of Jesus’ apostles, initially refused that Jesus ACTUALLY rose from the dead. The Gnostics and other such groups claimed that Jesus was merely spirit and thus was never on earth PHYSICALLY, let alone died and rose again. Time and time again, people have tried to dismiss the awesome, scandalous, and mystifying apostolic claims.

Today, we see nothing different. Today’s self-interested deniers of Christ’s physical resurrection do so for a variety of reasons. Some are atheists, often driven by modern scientific understandings of the natural world, who do NOT want to believe that God exists, much less Jesus Christ. Others may not be atheists, but are equally skeptical for modern scientific reasons. Others, more egregiously, are supposed believers in God and Jesus, but are afraid that the doctrines are antiquated and are caught up in the same scientific understandings found in this modern era.

There are a whole host of reasons why people deny Christ’s resurrection and, subsequently, the resurrection of the dead; however, there is ONE reason why they should not: the Apostles witnessed the resurrection with their own eyes and gave up their lives to proclaim it. I do not know people who would die for a hoax or a prank. The only reasonable explanation for their actions is that they REALLY believed what they saw.

That does not PROVE that the resurrection happened; however, it gives one a GOOD REASON to have faith and believe. But it does come down to faith. Will we believe in the Christ whom death could not conquer, or will we deny the Christian claim and, subsequently, the power of God in Jesus Christ? The challenge for us is to not be enslaved by modernity which will become ancient in its own due time; rather, let us hold true to the classic faith which has, and will continue to, stand the test of time.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
“Paul the apostle recounted that Jesus appeared to more than 500 of His followers at one time, the majority of whom were still alive and who could confirm what Paul wrote.” – Josh McDowell

PRAYER
Lord, help me to hold fast to my faith and to witness to the apostolic Christian faith in you with all of my heart. Amen.

[i] or the place of the dead, that is Hades, or Sheol. This does not mean the place of eternal torment and suffering known as hell.
[ii] or the living
[iii] or the Holy Spirit
[iv] universal

Podcast

Episode 1 | I Believe: God

Audio February 28, 2018 Rev. Todd R. Lattig 2 Comments

Listen to this week’s Life-Giving Water Message, where Rev. Todd Lattig discusses the nature of belief as well as the Christian belief in God. This particular episode not only marks the inaugural podcast, but it also marks the first part in a a six week series on the Apostles Creed.

A biweekly devotional