A Visit with the Joneses

Carol Jones Saint: Hello, hello there. Come right in to spend a very special time of family devotions at Home Sweet Home. What a joy to have you here with us. I have a question to ask. Have you been going through any difficult times recently? Trying times? Well, it's almost a foolish question. It seems that everywhere in each of our cities and across our nation and around the world, there are so many terrible, tragic things happening.

Well, you will not want to miss one word of this visit because we have some special thoughts to share with you and a very helpful quotation which you will hear in just a few moments. The scripture verse that we're going to be thinking about in a special way is from Philippians 3:10. "That I may know him," meaning Christ, "that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death."

Well, before we get to the quotation, we're going to have some special music. Nila Penn will have moved over to the organ, and Burt went to the piano. And the song that they will be playing is the favorite, "He Lives, He Lives." And you sing right along with them.

Oh, that was beautiful. I think everyone was just singing right along with you.

Burt Jones: I could hear people singing all through Radioland. Yes indeed. And that's reminding us that the Apostle Paul said that I may know him and the power of his resurrection. And now Nila Penn at the organ and I'm going to play piano, and it's the song "At Calvary." We know the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings.

And thank you so much, Nila Penn, for stopping in to be our guest organist in this radio visit. You'll notice that in the Bible verse we are considering, Philippians 3:10, the Apostle Paul connects the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and the death of Jesus Christ. "That I may know him and the power of his resurrection," that is that I may live in him and the power of his resurrection, "and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death."

Now, we just played a medley of songs. "He Lives" talked about the resurrection, and then we talked about "At Calvary," speaking about his sufferings and his death. And that's very interesting. I read a quotation from the famed Mother Teresa recently in which she reminds us, "Never let anything so fill you with sorrow as to make you forget the joy of the risen Lord." Now you may want to jot that down because later in the radio visit, we're going to think a good bit about that.

Carol Jones Saint: All right, you better repeat it so we can jot that down.

Burt Jones: "Never let anything so fill you with sorrow as to make you forget the joy of the risen Lord." But now we sing a beautiful setting for you of "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" in which the death of Christ is connected with the resurrection of Christ through the beautiful refrain that has been written. Listen. Both the crucifixion and the resurrection talked about in this setting of "When I Survey."

"That I may know him and the power of his resurrection." "That I may live in him through the power of his resurrection" is actually what the Apostle Paul is saying. The power of Christ's resurrection is known experientially by all who rest upon his finished work on Calvary and his resurrection from the dead.

The power of the resurrection is known by those who receive in him the pledge of life immortal. As we come to know Jesus Christ in a personal way, we hear him say to us, for instance, John 14:19, "Because I live, ye shall live also." Isn't that great to receive in Jesus Christ the pledge of life immortal?

When we receive Jesus Christ, we hear him say, even as he said to Mary and Martha at the gravesite that day, "And whosoever believeth in me shall never die." Yes, it's great to know the pledge of life immortal. And then to those who receive Jesus Christ and live life through the power of his resurrection, it means that we have apprehended him as a living Savior. We do not see him on a cross. Now, he did die on a cross, but he's not on that cross now.

And we don't see him in a tomb. They did place him in a tomb, but he's not in that tomb now. We apprehend him as a living Savior, one who rose the third day and then ascended into heaven, where he sitteth at the right hand of God the Father and intercedeth for us. And then as we know Jesus Christ and the power of his resurrection, it means that we have been raised through him from the death of sin to the newness of life.

You see, when you are saved or when you're born again or when you find the Lord Jesus Christ in a personal way, through the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, you live in new life also. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Colossian Christians, "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things that are above." To be risen with Christ is to be a new person. To live in the power of the resurrection is to be a new person.

Listen to these words we find in Romans chapter six: "Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Isn't that great? Dead unto sin, forgiven through the blood of Jesus Christ who takes those sins away. But alive as new persons, resurrected ones through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Carol Jones Saint: What wonderful hope. What wonderful, wonderful hope we have in that promise.

Burt Jones: The hope of the resurrection. And because he lives, we too shall live.

Carol Jones Saint: And in other words, what this is saying is that tremendous power that raised Christ from the dead—and it had to be tremendous power—that is available to each one of us as a believer in Jesus Christ.

Burt Jones: That enables us to live the new life, not in our strength, but in his strength.

Carol Jones Saint: And furthermore, it helps us die in the Lord and gives us new hope for the death that might come to us and will come to us.

Burt Jones: Because he lives, we too shall live. Now, with all of this music in mind and with all of these thoughts in mind and with this scripture in mind, "That I may know him and the power of his resurrection," that is that I may live in him and through the power of his resurrection, listen again to that quotation I gave you just a bit ago, a beautiful quotation from the writings and the sayings of Mother Teresa, who is so famous everywhere in the world: "Never let anything so fill you with sorrow as to make you forget the joy of the risen Christ."

Carol Jones Saint: Oh, beautiful. I think sometimes people tend to get so bogged down in the business of life that they forget the joy of the risen Lord in the light of their own despair.

Burt Jones: So never let anything so fill you with sorrow as to make you forget the joy of the risen Christ. That is good to remember when you receive, first of all, the unbelievable news of the terminal illness in the life of a loved one or in your own body. Now, we try to be sympathetic and empathetic with people when they hear about terminal illness. But I'll tell you, there's something different when the doctor comes out and looks at you and says, "Your wife has cancer."

Carol Jones Saint: I read where a very famous person, a well-known person was told this and they said, the husband and wife, "It was like our whole world suddenly fell apart."

Burt Jones: Yes. Other people have had the feeling, "I'm going to commit suicide." These are the things that so fill us with sorrow.

Carol Jones Saint: And of course, even as terminal illness is terrible, also there are many people that have received the word that they are going blind or losing their sight. Or there's permanent disability, someone who's been in an accident and suddenly realizes the rest of my life is going to be spent in a wheelchair. Many older people have to even have a limb removed. And of course, even some cancers, a limb has to be removed. Or they might have MS, muscular sclerosis or muscular dystrophy or Parkinson's.

And all these things might not be terminal, that you're going to die the next hour or the next week, but they certainly are devastating things to hear that have happened to you.

Burt Jones: A minister friend of mine who heard that his wife had cancer, he said the thought that came to him as he thought of the plans they had made for tomorrow and the next day is, "When you hear that you have cancer, tomorrow is canceled." Well, in such an hour, remember: never let anything so fill you with sorrow as to make you forget the joy of the risen Lord. "That I may know him and the power of his resurrection." We live in the light and the power of the risen Lord.

I thought of another instance when suddenly you are informed of the death of a dear one or when you stand by that bed and you see that last breath that is breathed and you are forced to realize—and somehow you do know it, nobody really has to tell you—you know he's gone, she's gone.

Carol Jones Saint: Burt, you were telling us about an interesting thought that happened when Jim died.

Burt Jones: Yes. Just shortly before Jim had died, we were talking and he was saying he had been a Christian for many years and was a very wonderful Christian. But still at that moment of death, you are thinking many things. And he said, "How and what will happen when I die?" meaning what space is there and where do I go?

And it suddenly came to us as we had been reading these many scriptures in John and ones that Burt has read today: that if we are alive in Christ while we are living on this earth, the very moment that our heart stops and we are no longer present in this life, the very next breath is taken in the world with the Lord Jesus Christ, the resurrection, the resurrected Lord.

Carol Jones Saint: Eternal life.

Burt Jones: Eternal life. So there is just that fraction of a moment, perhaps, in which you're in one world and then in another. And this hope of the resurrection gave Jim the peace to die well. And the eternal life which begins here when we receive Jesus Christ, that continues after this mortal body is gone, and life still continues with him.

I think of this saying: "Never let anything so fill you with sorrow as to make you forget the joy of the risen Lord." I think of that as being very helpful to families when there comes the problem of the breakup of a marriage. Oh, what sorrow. The breakup of marriage. Maybe it's just been a marriage of nine months or five years or 17 years or 27 years. But oh, what tragedy.

Carol Jones Saint: And often people say that a divorce can be worse than a death because it involves rejection on both sides. The people feel so rejected.

Burt Jones: But remember, the risen Christ is still there, and he can give you the energy and the strength to go through it. And then I thought of another situation that they tell us is a very serious one, almost as serious as divorce and death: the loss of a career, of a position.

Many, many people today who have worked in the same company for 15 years, 22 years, 32 years service, suddenly told the company's closing or they're laid off and they have to retrain for another career. They had thought that would be their life for.

Carol Jones Saint: Tremendous depression. Devastating. So fill you with sorrow.

Burt Jones: Never let anything so fill you with sorrow as to make you forget the joy of the risen Lord. Listen now as I play for you on the great pipe organ at the First Presbyterian Church of the Covenant in downtown Erie, the largest pipe organ anywhere in northwestern Pennsylvania. "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today." "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today." Never forget the joy of the risen Christ, that joy of the risen Christ that enables you to live in the power of his resurrection and to know the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.

Carol Jones Saint: What a wonderful message in that song and what a tremendous arrangement of "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today." That should help each one of us despite the problems that we might be going through. I might mention that that arrangement of "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today" is included on the CD which we have available that's called "The Pipes Proclaim His Praise." And if you would like more information about the CD, you can email us at visitjoneses—as one word—visitjoneses@aol.com.

Oh my, I just hope and pray that the thoughts that we have shared in this visit, and especially this wonderful quotation, will help you in a special way. Never let the tears of sorrow so dim your eyes that you forget the message of our risen Lord. Our world has been through so much in recent years with 9/11 and with war and loss of lives and death and sorrow and tragedy. And how we need to hear the message of our resurrected living Lord.

As we say goodbye, I think your hearts are filled with praise. Let's join together in singing "He Lives, He Lives, I Know He Lives." Goodbye.