The Resurrected Life: Making All Things New

By Charlie Holt and Gregory O Brewer

New Life! It's something we all want, but how do we find it?

This unique 7-week Daily Devotional explores seven key areas of life transformation we experience as we learn to live The Resurrected Life Jesus won for us at Calvary. Used alone or as part of The Resurrected Life small-group study, this special Easter season resource provide

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bible Study Media, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 7, 2015
• ISBN: 9781942243120

Charlie Holt

The Rev. Charlie Holt is the president of Bible Study Media. Fr. Holt's passion is to see the worldwide Church reconciled, reformed and renewed for vital Gospel mission to the lost. To that end, he has served as an ordained pastor and priest for over 20 years. He is the author of The Christian Life Trilogy, Draw Near: Hebrews on Christian Worship, and he is the Director of the Hearts Alive children's curriculum project. He currently serves as the Associate Rector of Teaching and Formation at the Church of St. John the Divine in Houston, TX. He and his wife, Brooke, have three children. You can follow him on his teaching blog: Engaging Truth: www.revcharlieholt.com

Book preview

Foreword: The Rt. Rev. Gregory O. Brewer

The Resurrected Life

The Christian life is a series of journeys. Some journeys are taken entirely alone, guided only by the unseen presence of Christ working in our hearts and guiding our circumstances. Other journeys are taken with others—sometimes serendipitously and sometimes intentionally.

This series invites us into a short-term but intentional journey with others. And this journey is an adventure well worth taking. By embarking on this journey, you are committing to lively conversations, Bible study, and prayer. These commitments are not haphazard; they are purposeful, for Christians believe that it is through these activities that we often discover the presence of the Risen Christ.

That is not to say that these activities are easy. In fact, they can (and should be) deeply challenging. But if we enter into them prayerfully and intentionally, they can lead us into deep and positive personal change. The miracle is that God uses these activities to reveal His Son and help us, amazingly, to see where and how His Son is at work in us.

Fr. Charlie Holt invites us on this journey as a gentle and thoughtful guide. He is aware of the potential hazards of small group activity as well as its joys, and offers both leaders and participants clear boundaries and open-ended possibilities. I would invite you to join him and others in this adventure!

- The Rt. Rev. Gregory O. Brewer

Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida

Introduction: The Upward Call of God

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ changes everything—once and for all. In an instant, a cosmic metamorphosis takes place transforming our future from bondage to freedom, darkness to light, sin to righteousness, and death to life. God the Father would bind us to His Son in His death so that we might be united with Him in His Resurrection. Where Jesus went, we will go.

If you have just finished The Crucified Life, this book will feel like a change of pace. The Crucified Life is about dying to self and picking up our cross daily. The Resurrected Life is about how we walk in the light of our future Resurrection now. So what does it look like to live on the other side of the cross?

The Resurrected Life is a calling we have in Christ that sets us on an upward trajectory of transformation. Our citizenship is now in Heaven with the risen Lord Jesus. And it is toward Heaven that our life-orientation must turn: "We await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself (Philippians 3:20-21).

Only, many followers of Jesus do not even begin to make this transformational shift. Their gaze and focus stubbornly remains on this world and on this age. Even believers who can affirm the reality and historicity of Jesus’ Resurrection fail to integrate the new reality of Resurrected Life into their personal lives. While some things about our future in Christ remain a mystery, we can have partial knowledge and personal experience of a new and abundant life now: that is the goal of the Resurrected Life.

Honestly, I am quite aware of my own shortcomings in attaining this goal. I am still learning and growing in what it means to apply the abundance of the Resurrected Life to myself. I see through a glass dimly. I wonder and marvel at what I will one day be in Christ. So I write this devotion not from the perspective of an expert on reaching the goal of the Resurrected Life, but as one who wants all that Jesus has to offer.

This book is an invitation to begin an exciting journey of seeking more life and more abundance from God by walking in all that is new in Jesus. The theme of this devotional journey into the Resurrected Life is Making All Things New. Each week, we will think about the new reality that was unsealed and opened to us by the empty tomb that leads to:

all things new • New Life • New Temple • New Body • New Covenant • New Creation • New Day

Jesus promised, I have come that you might have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10). Abundant life is the prize of a life transformed by Jesus Christ. The goal, as Christians sojourning together, is to somehow attain to the Resurrected Life now as well as in the age to come. Like Paul, we each have to acknowledge that we have not already obtained this nor are we already perfect (Philippians 3:12). We are all works in progress.

But with Paul we say, I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:12-14).

So let us press on and, with the Apostle Paul, strain forward to what lies ahead!

I am faithfully yours in Christ Jesus our Lord,

Charlie Holt+

Week One

All Things New

And he who was seated on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new.

Revelation 21:5

Right panel of the Triptych of Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist, 1474-79 (oil on panel), Memling, Hans (c.1433-94) / Groeningemuseum, Bruges, Belgium / © Lukas - Art in Flanders VZW / Bridgeman Images

Day 1

Easter Day

Making All Things New

Read Revelation 21:1-7

Welcome to The Resurrected Life.

Today we begin a journey that takes us right to the heart of what it means to be a resurrected child of God. You may have just completed The Crucified Life series. Living a Crucified Life is a vital part of living the Christian Life. But it’s not the only part. Just as Jesus died on the cross and three days later rose from the dead, so we too must die to self (the Crucified Life) in order to live as a new person (the Resurrected Life.) A Crucified Life leads us to a Resurrected Life.

In The Crucified Life series we looked at what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Jesus calls each of us to pick up our cross and follow Him. Picking up our cross involves dying daily to the flesh and to the old self. Yet, the death of our old self is not the final goal. It is the pathway to a new and abundant life in Christ. Death-of-self precedes Resurrection to a new, vibrant life in God!

When I was a new believer in Jesus, I made weekly visits to a juvenile detention center to minister to teenagers being held for various crimes. One young man asked me many questions about the Bible, which he read for hours every day. One day he asked me a question that, as a new believer, I had never thought about: If the Bible says that the last day of the week is the Sabbath day, why do Christians worship on the first day of the week?

Good question. At the time, I didn’t have an answer for him. But since then, I’ve studied the question, and the answer is simple: In the New Testament, the day of worship changes to the first day of the week, Sunday, because that’s the day Jesus rose from the dead. In other words, every Sunday is a celebration of the Resurrection. That’s why we call Sunday The Lord’s Day. It is both the day of the Lord’s Resurrection and the day we celebrate our new Resurrected Life in Him.

In the very last chapter of the very last book of the Bible, Revelation, we read about God’s vision for the future of His people and for the whole Creation, spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ:

And he who was seated on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. Revelation 21:5

God’s plan in Jesus is to make all things new. This is not just a vision of what will happen on the last day—it is also a vision of what the Lord has already begun to do. Notice the present tense of Jesus’ words: I am making all things new.

This making all things new began with the Resurrection of Jesus. On the day He rose from the grave and conquered death, a new creation broke forth. Just as we read in the first chapter of Genesis when God said, Let there be light, so on the Lord’s Day, a new light burst forth from the tomb in Resurrection power and glory. Jesus Christ is alive!

If I had the opportunity to go back and talk to that young man in the juvenile detention center, I would tell him what I discovered: Christians worship on the first day of the week because that’s the day Jesus rose from the dead. And Jesus’ Resurrection reminds us that He not only defeated death for our future, but He wants to give us a new start and a new life right now! What better news to a person behind bars? What better assurance that no barrier can ever keep the power of God from rescuing us and giving us a new life today—not a jail cell, not barbed wire, not the grave itself.

Beloved of God, the same is true for you. God is giving you a new start and a new life in Jesus Christ.

As we begin this journey into the Resurrected Life, take note that today is the first day of the week, Sunday, the celebration of Jesus’ Resurrection. What’s more, it is Easter Sunday—the one day a year we set aside as a Holy Feast day in honor of that amazing event that changed history. Today, Jesus is doing a new thing in your life. He is saying to you personally, Behold, I am making all things new for you. Are you ready for that new life? Let the adventure begin.

Reflect:

Do you like new things? New adventures? Why or why not? What excites you the most about Jesus making all things new for you? What frightens you about it?

Day 2

Easter Monday

He is Not Here

Read Matthew 28:1-10

If you ever have the opportunity to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, I encourage you to do it. One thing you will learn is that there are two possible locations where Jesus’ Resurrection could have taken place: the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the Garden Tomb. Most historians believe that the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is constructed on the actual spot where Jesus’ Resurrection took place. However, the Garden Tomb is a wonderful place where a visitor to the Holy Land can experience what an outdoor rolling-stone tomb is like.

When I visited the Garden Tomb, there were many groups from various churches gathered in clusters around the garden. Some were listening to devotional teaching, some were celebrating communion, and others were singing hymns and offering prayers to the Lord. There was a sense of God’s Spirit in that place.

After explaining the two possible sites of Jesus’ Resurrection, our tour guide invited us to come and enter what could very well be the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea where Jesus was laid after He was crucified.

Who would like to come and see the place where Jesus’ body lay? the tour guide asked as he leaned against the open door. One couple raised their hands to be the first to venture inside the expansive tomb. As they stepped across the threshold, the tour guide jumped back from the wooden door, releasing the spring. The door slammed shut with a startling crash, closing the couple in the tomb! The guide’s face broke into a grin like the Cheshire cat’s. On the outside of the door was a sign that read, He is not here—For He is risen.

More than any other moment during my trip to the Holy Land, that one instant of the door slamming and the sign declaring, He is not here, ignited my heart. I had gone to the Garden Tomb seeking to encounter the presence of Jesus Christ. Only the tomb was empty. He was not there. He hadn’t been there for over 2,000 years—ever since an angel in white declared to the women who sought Him:

He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Matthew 28:5-6

The fact of the empty tomb remains a mind-blowing, heart-stirring reality for those who truly comprehend the news. The gospel of Matthew describes the emotion of the women this way: So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples (Matthew 28:8).

Fear and great joy! These two emotions do not seem to go together. Yet these are indeed the two feelings stirred by the announcement of Jesus Christ’s Resurrection from