Touching Base! Part 81

Tim’s, Clips and Guitars
(This article can also we found on our website at
http://www.bethelkingston.com under the tab called “Blog”)

This Touching Base is a useful tool for small group discussion, personal reflection or in a one-on-one conversation. We believe that if the Sunday teaching is discussed outside of the morning services, it will be an opportunity to go deeper and build healthy community because God’s Word needs to be discussed in community.

On Sunday, we answered a very simple yet very profound question, “Why does the resurrection matter?” If someone came up to you and asked you that question, what might you say? How would you answer them in a way that would make sense, and would connect with their heart?
On Sunday, I used three objects to illustrate how I would answer that question. Think about these objects, discuss with your group (or ponder alone) and once again realize why the resurrection matters.

Object #1
Tim Horton’s Cup

Most people have played the game of rolling up the rim to win. Most people also have read those all too familiar words “Play Again!” 2000 years ago there was no Tim’s but there was a tomb and when the rock was rolled back, guess what it said? Read Matthew 28:1-10 and discuss the emotion, dialogue and thoughts of this experience. Read Romans 1:1-4. What does the resurrection demonstrate about Christ?

The Tim Horton’s cup illustrates the confidence in the message the disciples had (and that we are to have) in Christ. The resurrection validates the person in whom we have believed. The message behind the rolled-back rock rocked the disciple’s world, energized them, and became the message they were willing to die for. Do you have this confidence?

Object #2
Paper Clip

On Sunday I shared the story about Kyle MacDonald who began “trading up” in July 2005. Starting with a paper clip, he traded up to a wooden novelty pen shaped like a fish, then to a ceramic knob. Next up was a two-burner camping stove. The stove was then traded up for a small petrol¬ powered generator. You get the idea right? Well on July 12th, 2006, precisely one year after he undertook his journey, Kyle accepted the keys to a three-bedroom house at 503 Main Street in Kipling. A paper clip to a house - nice trade-up!

The paper clip illustrates the incredible hope that we have as believers that, one day, this life (as good or bad as it may be for us right now) will be traded up for something much better. Read John 14:1,2 and see how our story might be similar to Kyle’s? According to 1 Corinthians 15:19 what life does Christ give us hope in? How did Moses (Hebrews 11:26) demonstrate this hope in how he lived? Read 1 Corinthians 15:20 and notice the word “firstfruits”.

Firstfruits – This is an Old Testament word (e.g., Ex. 23:16, 19) used here in the sense of a preliminary instalment of what will be both an example and a guarantee of more to come.

As you read the larger context of I Corinthians 15 who is the “more to come” referring to?

I think if we don’t have this hope of a great trade-up, we can be tempted to take the life given to us as a gift and turn it into a god. We worship “the dash”! “The dash” is what separates our birth date from our death date. It represents the life we live. For some, this life is all there is so “let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.” (I Corinthians 15:32)

What does worshipping the dash look like?

What are you learning about this dash the older you get? (On Sunday I shared some of my observations)

Object #3
The Guitar

You will note that when you read of the resurrection in the New Testament, it doesn’t just talk about how this resurrection established the disciples’ confidence in Christ, and thus motivated them to be heralds of this message to the point of death. It doesn’t just talk about the resurrection as giving us hope beyond the dash. The resurrection is also connected to our transformation now in this dash. The resurrection means that we have the power to change today!

Read and discuss Philippians 3:10, Ephesians 1:19.

The guitar that is out of tune represents our lives before we come to Christ. The guitar tuned (or being tuned) represents what God wants to do with our lives. He wants to tune our lives up to reflect the image of Christ. His power is available to us for that tuning process.

Read and discuss the following:

“Imagine for a moment that you possess the sheet music of the most beautiful piano concerto ever written, but you have never heard the whole piece perfectly performed. Then one day you meet the composer’s son who is himself a great pianist. This man knows his father’s music by heart. As he sits down to play with the orchestra, the music is so achingly beautiful that you begin to weep. At last you are hearing the most magnificent concerto in the world being played exactly as the composer intended. This is a rough analogy of what Jesus has done for us, not merely telling us but showing us what human beings, created in God’s image, were meant to become.” Sitting At The Feet Of Rabbi Jesus, Spangler and Tverberg. p.32)

Paul reminds us that no matter how well-tuned we become, we still look forward to the day when, like Christ, we will be raised imperishable, raised in glory, raised in power, raised as a spiritual body. (1 Corinthians 15:42-43).

Do any of us groan for that ultimate transformation? See Romans 8:22, 23.

Take some time to pray for those who need to experience the power of the resurrection in their life. Maybe they need to come to Christ and need the power of God to convince them of His truth? Maybe they are a Christian, bound and falling?

Does the resurrection matter? What do you think?

Mark

If interested in joining or starting a small group contact markkotchapaw@gmail.com