Young People’s Blog

“Then the same day at evening…came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you…Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord” (John 20:19-20).

The disciples had a very difficult time when the Lord Jesus was crucified. They had not expected this to happen, but it was all in God’s plan for their salvation. However, when He had risen from the dead, the Lord Jesus came right into the room where they were, and said to them, “Peace be unto you.” They knew who He was, and His presence meant peace to them.

As I write this in March 2022, the world is in serious turmoil because of the Russian invasion of the Ukraine. So far there has been bloodshed on both sides, and many people are deeply concerned that it will end up in another World War. While we all may suffer somewhat from all this, you and I can listen to the Lord’s voice saying, “Peace be unto you.” Whatever happens in this world cannot touch our eternal security, nor the joy we have in Christ. Let us be happy like the disciples, when we can see the Lord. Of course, we cannot see Him with our eyes, but by faith we can trust Him, and see Him looking after us. All this is going to work out God’s purposes, and we can rest in that.

“And Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly” (Jonah 2:1).

Jonah had to be put in a very serious position before he felt the need to pray. When the storm was going on and the sailors were praying to their false gods, Jonah was sleeping. Even when the captain of the ship woke up Jonah and urged him to pray to his God, there is no record that he did so. No, Jonah was running away from the Lord, and was not in any spiritual condition to pray. Even when Jonah told the sailors to throw him into the sea, and he was expecting to be drowned, he did not pray.

But then, when he found himself in the fish’s belly, with no hope of rescue except from the Lord, he finally prayed. It would have been an awful place to be in, but at last Jonah was restored in his soul, and prayed.

Jonah was no different from you and me, for we too can get away from the Lord, and want our own way. The Lord may have to put us in a very hard situation, to bring us back to Him. But it is worth it, for Jonah not only learned his lesson, but wrote the book of Jonah so that we could learn the lesson from his experiences.

“And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, He went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed” (Mark 1:35).

In the gospel of Mark we see the Lord Jesus pictured to us as the perfect Servant. If you read Mark’s gospel, you will find that the Lord Jesus is always busy, doing the work His Father had given Him to do. Many people came to Him to be healed of their diseases, and even some of His own disciples came to Him and said, “All men seek for thee” (Mark 1:37).

But something was very important, and the Lord Jesus got up very early in the morning in order to do it. He felt the need of prayer, and He wanted to be alone to do it. He not only got up early, but went to “a solitary place” where He could be by Himself. His time of prayer prepared Him for the day ahead.

This is a good example for you and me. We need time to pray, and we need time alone with the Lord. We may have many things to do, but prayer time is not wasted time. It is most important. People made demands on the time of the Lord Jesus, but He would not allow anything to interfere with His time of prayer.

“But think on me when it shall be well with thee, and shew kindness, I pray thee, unto me, and make mention of me unto Pharaoh … Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him” (Genesis 40:14,23).

Joseph had been very kind to the Pharaoh’s chief butler when the butler was in prison. He had noticed that both he and the chief baker were sad, and had interpreted their dreams for them. But when Joseph asked for a simple favor from the chief butler, he forgot all about Joseph, and said nothing to Pharaoh.

The Lord Jesus has done much more for us than Joseph did for the chief butler, and He has asked us to remember Him. He gave everything for us, for He suffered under the judgment of God for sin, and then died in order to save us. Have we remembered His request to remember Him? Before He went to the cross, the Lord Jesus showed His disciples how He wanted them to remember Him, by partaking of a loaf of bread and a cup of wine. Joseph felt it when the chief butler forgot all about Him, and the Lord Jesus feels it if we forget about all He did for us.

“Jesus saith unto her [Martha], Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?” (John 11:40).

Lazarus had lived with his sisters Martha and Mary, but Lazarus had gotten very sick and died. He had been put into a tomb and had been there four days. His tomb was in a cave, with a stone over the entrance. But the Lord Jesus had come and was going to raise Lazarus from the dead. When Martha was still hesitant, the Lord Jesus reminded her that if she would believe, she would see the glory of God.

You and I might have said to her, If you can believe, you will see your brother rise from the dead. This was true, but the Lord Jesus always had before Him the glory of God. Yes, Lazarus would soon be alive again and his two sisters would be very happy. But more than that, God would be glorified, and many would follow the Lord Jesus because of this wonderful miracle.

God always has His glory and honor before Him, first of all. When the Lord Jesus died on the cross, it made a way for you and me to be saved. However, even more important than that is the fact that God was glorified, because the Lord Jesus won the victory over Satan and over sin. It is important for us to look at God’s side of things, and not only at how they affect us.

“And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with Thee, Thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art Thou come to destroy us? I know Thee who Thou art, the Holy One of God” (Mark 1:23-24).

“The devils also believe, and tremble” (James 2:19).

When the Lord Jesus was on earth, the Jewish leaders refused to believe that He was the Son of God. The crowds would admit that He was a great prophet, but  the leaders insisted that He was only a man. This was very serious, for the Lord Jesus gave every possible proof to them that He was the Son of God.

However, it is instructive for us to notice that the demons always knew who He was. They never had any doubt that He was the Son of God, and they feared Him. Also, they instantly obeyed Him when He commanded them to come out of someone. This was also a proof that the Lord Jesus was who He claimed to be, for surely Satan would not have honored Him as the Son of God if this were a false claim.

There is a solemn lesson for us in all this too. It is not enough to believe who the Lord Jesus is; we must be willing to repent of our sins, and to accept Him as our Savior. The demons know who He is, and they tremble before Him, but there is no repentance in their hearts. There are those today who know the Lord Jesus is the Son of God, but who are not saved. How sad!

“O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:55,57).

In our first verse today, it talks about the “sting of death.” No living creature wants to die, and man is just the same. He fights for life, unless he is in so much pain and suffering that death is preferable to more suffering. But with human beings there is a sting to death that an animal does not have. The reason for the sting of death is that man has a spirit, the God-conscious part of his being, and this spirit tells him that there is a God. It also tells him that he must meet God, and answer for how he has lived his life. The sting of death is what we read about in Hebrews 9:27—“It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”

That sting is removed for the believer, for his sins are all under the shelter of the blood of Christ. Judgment is behind him, not ahead of him. Death simply takes us from this life into eternity—into the presence of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Truly God gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

“But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept” (1 Corinthians 15:20).

When the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, we see in today’s verse that He became the “firstfruits” of them that slept. What does that mean? It means that He was the first man to rise from the dead with a glorified body, never to die again. Those who died and were raised from the dead, like Lazarus and the son of the widow of Nain (Luke 7:11-18), got old and eventually had to die again. But the Lord Jesus will never die again.

His resurrection is the absolute guarantee that you and I, as Christians, will also have glorified bodies, fit for heaven, and that will never decay or get old. If we die before the Lord comes, we will get our changed bodies when He comes. If we are still alive when He comes, we will be changed “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye” (1 Corinthians 15:52). The resurrection of the Lord Jesus is the assurance of our salvation, and the assurance of our resurrection with glorified bodies. “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22).

“And the angel answered…I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay” (Matthew 28:5-6).

The resurrection of the Lord Jesus is one of the most wonderful events in the history of this world. Prior to His resurrection, others had been raised from the dead in both the Old and the New Testaments. But no one had ever raised Himself from the dead, as the Lord Jesus did. No one had ever come back to life and left the grave as He did. As God, He could say of His life, “I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again” (John 10:18). When the Lord Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11), he came out of the grave “bound hand and foot with graveclothes” (John 11:44), but the Lord Jesus came right out of His graveclothes.

Also, He did not need anyone to remove the stone, so that He could get out of the tomb. No, as God He would simply go through that stone. The angel rolled away the stone so that the women and the disciples could see inside the tomb, and even go inside. But the angel did not need to roll away the stone so that the Lord Jesus could come out. He had already risen!

“Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless” (Matthew 22:12).

Something rather strange happened to me recently. My wife and I went to visit our son and his family, and I picked up a shovel to clear some of the snow from his porch and front walk. While I was doing this, a well-fed cat, wearing a collar, suddenly appeared, and was very friendly to me—walking beside me and occasionally rubbing against my leg. When I entered the house the cat boldly walked right in! I thought perhaps they had gotten a cat since my last visit, but no, it was not theirs. Yet the cat behaved in every way as if it belonged there.

It was the same with the man in our verse who did not have a wedding garment. In those days the host often provided a special wedding suit for those who would attend, and it was important to wear it. So you and I, if we are to be in heaven, must have on the “wedding garment” provided by the Lord Jesus through faith in Him. But the man in our verse came in boldly without a wedding garment.

That cat did not belong in my son’s home and had to be shooed out the door. So also, the man without a wedding garment was taken out and cast into outer darkness. It is important to get our wedding garment before we have to leave this world.