Alive - by Dave Smith

More documents

Recommendations

Info

The book is also the basis for a small group video series, ‘The Wellbeing Journey’ by HOPE UK and KingsGate Community Church. 6 I talk about this in more detail in Dave Smith, God’s Plan for Your Wellb eing, p15. 7 DA Carson, The Gospel According to JOHN (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Apollos, 1991) p646. 8 Dave Smith, 40 Days with Jesus, pp58–59. 9 J Blank, Krisis (Freiburg: Lambertus, 1964), p178; op cit, B Milne, The Message of John (Leicester: IVP, 1993) p298. 10 I originally made these observations in Dave Smith, 40 Days with Jesus, pp71–72. 11 An example of this is found in John 14:4–6. 12 Paul Beasley-Murray, The Message of the Resurrection (Nottingham: The Bible Speaks Today, IVP, 2000) p102. CHAPTER FOUR: LIVING IN FREEDOM 1 Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom (London: Abacus, 1995). 2 www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/education/failures.htm [Accessed December 2023]. 3 Dave Smith, 40 Days with Jesus (Farnham: CWR, 2014) p80. 4 As David Ford explains in The Gospel of John (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2021) pp418–19: ‘There is no hint of a negative judgment on them, and a positive view is that, just as Jesus has been present in the enclosed, special Sunday gatherings in Jerusalem in John 20, so he is present in Galilee as the disciples go to work and carry on ordinary life.’ 5 Dave Smith, 40 Days with Jesus, p81. 6 Dave Smith, 40 Days with Jesus, p85. 7 I first read about these similarities in David Ford, The Gospel of John, p419. 8 Dave Smith, 40 Days with Jesus, p91. 9 Andrew Ollerton, The Bib le: A Story That Makes Sense of Life (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2020) page 211 of 323, Kindle ed. CHAPTER FIVE: FULFILLING OUR PURPOSE 1 Quotes sourced from www.goodreads.com [Accessed December 2023]. 2 ‘A sense of purpose helps you live longer’, 27 June 2019, www.clearvuehealth.com/b/purpose-longevityhealth/ [Accessed December 2023]. 3 I shared this illustration in God’s Plan for Your Wellb eing (Farnham: Waverley Abbey, 2020) pp168–69. 4 I read about this in Nicky Gumbel, Bib le in One Year, Day 57. 5 Tim Keller, The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness (Chorley: 10Publishing, 2012) pages 21–22, Kindle ed. 6 Rick Warren, Purpose Driven Life (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2002) pp17–18. 7 John RW Stott, The Message of Acts (Leicester, IVP, 1990) pp171–72. Stott helpfully expands on what these various ‘goads’ may have been. 8 If we examine the three accounts we see slight but significant differences in the retelling which can be explained by Luke’s own creativity as an author, and by the fact that the accounts are told in three different contexts: the first (Acts 9) is Luke’s narrative, the second (Acts 22) is Paul’s address before an angry crowd in Jerusalem and the third was Paul testifying to King Agrippa (Acts 26). 9 Caravaggio, The Conversion of Saint Paul (1600–1601). 10 Scholars, particularly critical ones, tend to consider that what Paul directly says about himself in his letters is to be treated as having stronger evidential value than what Luke says about Paul in Acts or where he even quotes him. Aside from the importance of going directly to the source himself, there is a consensus that both due to their early composition (no more than 15–25 years after the actual events) and to the fact that they are written by a previous opponent, Paul’s letters are considered to be the most important source for the historicity of the resurrection. 11 Not only is 1 Corinthians one of the earliest New Testament documents (written only 15–20 years after the events of the first Easter), but 1 Corinthians 15:3–7 is widely considered to have been composed much earlier, not by Paul himself, but by the early Church, maybe within months of Jesus’ death. This is clearly indicated both by how Paul begins: ‘For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance’ and by the use of phrases that are not found elsewhere in his writings: ‘that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures’ (1 Corinthians 15:3–4, my emphasis). Then follows a summary of some of the key post-resurrection appearances: to Cephas (Peter),
the Twelve, to ‘more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living’, then to James and ‘all of the apostles’ (15:5 7). The reference to the 500 is remarkable. Paul, is, in effect, saying, ‘if you don’t believe go and speak to eyewitnesses’. So, too, is his mention of James, the halfbrother of Jesus, who was most likely a sceptic who came to faith through an appearance of the risen Jesus ending up as a key leader in the church in Jerusalem and someone who was eventually martyred for his faith. As we saw in the introduction, this is one of the ‘minimal facts’ to be considered in relation to the historicity of the resurrection. 12 How then do we account for the different type of Jesus’ appearance to Paul, in Acts, than to the disciples in the four Gospels? In the latter, the emphasis is on the actual physical body and words of Jesus, and the seeming ‘ordinariness’ of his appearance. Whereas in Acts 9, 22 and 26 there’s no mention of the body of Jesus (at least explicitly); rather, there is a bright light and a voice. Some commentators have suggested that Luke was deliberately describing things in a way that highlighted the links between Saul’s encounter and that of other prophets and leaders in Israel’s history. It seems to me that the simplest explanation is due to the different timing of these appearances. Jesus’ appearances to his disciples took place during the 40 days while he was still on earth and before his ascension to heaven. Paul’s encounter took place with the risen and ascended Jesus appearing to him somehow from heaven – hence the blinding light, rather than the focus on Jesus’ form. 13 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_and_taxes_(idiom) [Accessed April 2023]. 14 ‘What Billy Graham had to say about his homegoing’, 17 February 2020, billygrahamlibrary.org/blog-whatbilly-graham-had-to-say-about-his-homegoing/ [Accessed April 2023]. 15 See Andrew Ollerton, The Bib le: A Story That Makes Sense of Life (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2020) page 287 of 323, Kindle ed. 16 Tom Wright, Surprised b y HOPE (London: SPCK, 2007) p166. 17 CS Lewis, The Great Divorce (London: Fount, 1977) p17. 18 Andrew Ollerton, The Bib le: A Story That Makes Sense of Life, page 283 of 323, Kindle ed. 19 Timothy Keller, Every Good Endeavour (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2012) p30 has some excellent thoughts on this whole subject. 20 I originally shared this in God’s Plan for Your Wellb eing, p171. 21 www.brainyquote.com/authors/letitia-wright-quotes [Accessed April 2023]. 22 If you want a much fuller account of Paul’s life, see Tom Wright, Paul: A Biography (London: SPCK, 2017). 23 For more on this, see God’s Plan for Your Wellb eing – I have a whole ‘chapter’ on Vocational Wellbeing, pp168–187. CONCLUSION: FULLY ALIVE, FOR THE REST OF OUR LIVES 1 Dave Smith, 40 Days with Jesus (Farnham: CWR, 2014) p59. 2 Quoted in Nicky Gumbel, Questions of Life (Eastbourne: Kingsway, 1993) p43. APPENDIX A: HISTORICAL SOURCES ABOUT JESUS 1 Cited in Michael Licona, The Resurrection of Jesus (Downers Grove, Illinois: IVP, 2010) p243. 2 Cited in Michael Licona, The Resurrection of Jesus, p244. 3 For this quote, and a consideration of Josephus as a source, see Michael Licona, The Resurrection of Jesus pp235–44. 4 Peter Williams helpfully expands on this: ‘It is rarely appreciated that for us to have four Gospels about Jesus is remarkable. That is an abundance of material to have about any individual of that period. In fact, even though Jesus was on the periphery of the Roman Empire, we have as many early sources about his life and teaching as we have about activities and conversations of Tiberias, emperor during Jesus’s public activities.’ Can We Trust the Gospels? (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2018) p41. 5 Michael Licona, The Resurrection of Jesus pp201 contains a useful summary of the scholarship on the ‘canonical Gospels’ as biographies. APPENDIX B: HISTORICAL FACTS ABOUT JESUS 1 HOPE Together and Partners, Talking Jesus Report, 2022, p8. 2 www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/210910.Napol_on_Bonaparte [Accessed December 2023]. 3 apologetics315.com/2013/06/h-g-wells-on-the-historicity-of-jesus/ [Accessed December 2023]. 4 https://theinwardturn.com/quotes-from-queen-elizabeth-ii/ [Accessed December 2023]. 5 For more details on Jesus’ fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy, see Josh McDowell, The New Evidence that
Page 2 and 3:
Dave Smith invites us on a journey
Page 4 and 5:
and fulfilled. A life where it’s
Page 6 and 7:
I want to say a huge thanks to a nu
Page 8 and 9:
Instagram a while back: ‘You wake
Page 10 and 11:
eyond our physical and psychologica
Page 12 and 13:
4. A future life in heaven Widely a
Page 14 and 15:
only £150?’ The wife replied,
Page 16 and 17:
3. On the first Easter morning, the
Page 18 and 19:
second question of how Jesus’ res
Page 20 and 21:
At 2.20pm, 5 April 1982, I ‘fell
Page 22 and 23:
used to refer to romantic or sexual
Page 24 and 25:
and controversial biblical characte
Page 26 and 27:
teach us about the seeming absence
Page 28 and 29:
testimony of female witnesses would
Page 30 and 31:
16 Jesus said to her, ‘Mary.’ S
Page 32 and 33:
What’s clear is that this was not
Page 34 and 35:
THE ETERNAL DIMENSION OF LOVE One o
Page 36 and 37:
know how much, in Christ, we are
Page 38 and 39:
FURTHER REFLECTION 1. In the light
Page 40 and 41:
It was a day not to be forgotten in
Page 42 and 43:
group that didn’t survive: ‘The
Page 44 and 45:
an all-loving, all-powerful God who
Page 46 and 47:
25 He said to them, ‘How foolish
Page 48 and 49:
By the end of the journey, their
Page 50 and 51:
deliverer had just suffered the mos
Page 52 and 53:
of Paul’s conversion on the road
Page 54 and 55:
HE’S WELCOMED Despite Jesus being
Page 56 and 57:
Presumably there was something abou
Page 58 and 59:
FURTHER REFLECTION 1. Take a moment
Page 60 and 61:
The longing for inner peace is univ
Page 62 and 63:
For example, it may be that as you
Page 64 and 65:
True peace was at the heart of God
Page 66 and 67:
sense of release, turn your palms u
Page 68 and 69:
esponse to a perceived threat or po
Page 70 and 71:
Spirit.’ The word ‘righteousnes
Page 72 and 73:
To fulfil this new purpose, we must
Page 74 and 75:
encounter may be of special encoura
Page 76 and 77:
Spirit) when his followers are meet
Page 78 and 79:
prospect of our long-lost peace and
Page 80 and 81:
CHAPTER FOUR LIVING IN FREEDOM
Page 82 and 83:
• Sweetheart died in 1835. • Ha
Page 84 and 85:
est predictor of future behaviour i
Page 86 and 87:
completely implausible to think tha
Page 88 and 89:
FISH Afterward Jesus appeared again
Page 90 and 91:
PAUSE AND PONDER If you are current
Page 92 and 93:
Bible, he also speaks specifically
Page 94 and 95:
vital that we don’t let it stop u
Page 96 and 97:
‘own’ the problem. Outwardly, P
Page 98 and 99: ock on which he would build his Chu
Page 100 and 101: Peter clearly took Jesus’ advice
Page 102 and 103: FURTHER REFLECTION 1. Are you strug
Page 104 and 105: I’ve always been a bit of a dream
Page 106 and 107: Neither - Emmons had hit the wrong
Page 108 and 109: our meaning, our purpose, our signi
Page 110 and 111: 1. A TRANSFORMED MOTIVATION Saul’
Page 112 and 113: you may be aware of the Lord drawin
Page 114 and 115: that was going on in his mind or he
Page 116 and 117: living life as if there was no eter
Page 118 and 119: fallen asleep in Christ are lost. I
Page 120 and 121: of what that this will look like. T
Page 122 and 123: PATHWAY So far we’ve established
Page 124 and 125: sanctified by faith in me’ (Acts
Page 126 and 127: just that we can meet with the rise
Page 128 and 129: CONCLUSION FULLY ALIVE, FOR THE RES
Page 130 and 131: utilise the prayer of invitation th
Page 132 and 133: Even if you are convinced in the re
Page 134 and 135: his death under Pilate and his gath
Page 136 and 137: APPENDIX B: HISTORICAL FACTS ABOUT
Page 138 and 139: to the fact he was about to suffer
Page 140 and 141: TOMB As we look at the accounts of
Page 142 and 143: • To groups of men and groups of
Page 144 and 145: them by others. The apostles died f
Page 146 and 147: ENDNOTES INTRODUCTION: FULLY ALIVE
Page 150 and 151: Demands a Verdict (Nashville, Tenne
Page 152 and 153: FURTHER ALIVE RESOURCES Now you hav
show all

Alive - by Dave Smith

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?