SONGS WE SING: HE LIVES
John 14:1-6, Hebrews 9:11-15, Psalm 139:7-8
#helives
SING ‘HE LIVES’
SERIES INTRODUCTION
This morning we are continuing a sermon series that will go from now until right before Easter. The series is called: “The Songs We Sing.” Part of worshipping God is singing. It has always been that way. The Bible isn’t a songbook, but there are at least 185 songs in the Bible. There are songs about battles, coronations, funerals, cities being sacked, and seas splitting up. There are songs that praise God for His attributes. 150 of those songs are in the book of Psalms, but there are also two other books full of songs in the Old Testament: The Song of Solomon and Lamentations.
A powerful song we find in the Bible happens in Judges 5 after a great battle where a general named Sisera faces off against the people of Israel and ends up with a life ending headache. God is with Israel and totally wins the day and shows for Israel that is just how the manna crumbles. The judge Deborah sings of God’s victory. I love how the song ends:
READ JUDGES 5:31 (ESV)
“So may all Your enemies perish, O Lord! But Your friends be like the sun as He rises in His might.”
Part of worshipping God is singing. As worship, it matters what words are sung to God. The best worship songs focus on praise for God’s character. The best worship songs help us lament what is going on inside us and connects our feelings to God. The best worship songs focus on praise for God’s character and then lift us up because of Who God is in our lives.
SONG WE SING: HE LIVES
The hymn “He Lives” (number 164 in our old dusty hymnal) was written by a man named Alfred Ackley who lived from 1887 to 1960.
CONTENT…imperfectdust.com/blogs/news/hymn-highlight-the-story-behind-he-lives [adapted]
Alfred Ackley was born in 1887 in Pennsylvania and showed great musical potential as a child. His father was a musician and taught him all he knew. Alfred went on to study music in New York City, and eventually went to the Royal Academy of Music in London where he played the cello and piano. He also learned to compose music.
Alfred later returned to the United States to attend Westminster Theological Seminary. After he was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1914, he became a pastor in Pennsylvania, but he never stopped writing hymns and music.
Eventually, Ackley was called to preach in California. It was while preaching in California that he encountered a young Jewish man that challenged Alfred Ackley by posing the question, “Why should I worship a dead Jew?” Ackley responded with passion by saying, “He lives! I tell you, He is not dead, but lives here and now! Jesus Christ is more alive today than ever before. I can prove it by my own experience, as well as the testimony of countless thousands!” That wasn’t really the end of it.
Later that week, with this conversation still circulating in his mind, Ackley woke and began shaving to prepare for church that day. He was listening to a special Easter broadcast on the radio as he dressed when he heard a well-known preacher address the listeners.
What he heard him say made him furious!
“Good morning!” The preacher began. “It’s Easter! You know folks, it really doesn’t make any difference to me if Christ be risen or not. As far as I am concerned His body could be as dust in some Palestinian tomb. The main thing is, His truth goes marching on!”
Ackley shouted at the radio set and some say he threw it across the room causing his wife to hear the commotion. His wife checked on him and encouraged him to pen out his frustration in the form of music. After returning home from preaching a passionate Easter Sunday sermon, Ackley did just that.
He wrote the words and composed the music to the classic hymn we know and love today as “He Lives.” In some hymnals it is also known as “I Serve a Risen Savior.” The lyrics answered the question of that young Jewish man posed to him and challenged the preacher on the radio with Truth.
“HE LIVES” LYRICS (OPTIONAL)
Verse 1:
I serve a risen Savior, He’s in the world today. I know that He is living, whatever men may say. I see His hand of mercy, I hear His voice of cheer, And just the time I need Him, He’s always near.
Verse 2:
In all the world around me, I see His loving care, And tho’ my heart grows weary I never will despair; I know that He is leading thro’ all the stormy blast, The day of His appearing will come at last.
Verse 3:
Rejoice, rejoice, O Christian, lift up your voice and sing Eternal hallelujahs to Jesus Christ the King! The Hope of all who seek Him, the Help of all who find, None other is so loving, so good and kind.
Chorus:
He lives, He lives! Christ Jesus lives today! He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way. He lives, He lives, salvation to impart! You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart!
TRANSITION
When we sing this particular song in worship, over and over again, we are declaring one particular truth in different words. Over and over again with present tense action words we declare that Jesus is still around and doing Godly activity, He lives. We say words like: Risen Savior, He’s in the world today, He is living, I see, I hear, He’s always near, I see, He is leading, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today, He walks, He talks, He lives. When we sing this particular song, we use all these action words to say that Jesus lives.
The chorus states: “He lives, He lives! Christ Jesus lives today! He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way. He lives, He lives, salvation to impart! You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart!”
This hymn brings me to two very important questions:
#1 Since Jesus is alive, what is He doing?
#2 What if I don’t feel Him in my heart?
I feel like both of these questions deserve our attention as we think over this classic hymn.
QUESTION #1: SINCE JESUS IS ALIVE, WHAT IS HE DOING?
This first question stirred in me, because I am a pessimist by nature, what Jesus ISN’T doing since He is alive and well:
Jesus ISN’T walking around the planet from hospital to hospital healing.
Jesus ISN’T out and about solving world hunger with one boy’s lunch.
Jesus ISN’T traveling the world making peace wherever He finds conflict.
Jesus ISN’T running a carpenter shop in Nazareth.
Jesus ISN’T doing any of those things because the hymn is a metaphor in some ways. Yes, Jesus is alive, but Jesus isn’t physically present on the planet, but is physically alive in the spiritual realm of Heaven. Yes, I said physically alive in the spiritual realm of Heaven.
READ MARK 16:19 (ESV)
“So then the Lord Jesus, after He had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.”
READ LUKE 24:51-53 (ESV)
“While He blessed them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven. 52 And they worshiped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53 and were continually in the temple blessing God.”
READ ACTS 1:9-11 (ESV)
“And when He had said these things, as they were looking on, He was lifted up, and a cloud took Him out of their sight. 10 And while they were gazing into heaven as He went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, Who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him go into heaven.”
Jesus is not physically present on the planet Earth, but is physically present in Heaven which leads me back to the first question: Since Jesus is alive, what is He doing?
The first question is answered by Scripture in two passages that came to my mind as I prayed over this question. You may have some other answers based on some passages, but two New Testament passages came to my mind.
PASSAGE 1: JOHN 14
READ JOHN 14:1-6 (ESV)
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me. 2 In My Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
Jesus is speaking to His disciples the night before He was to be arrested, falsely tried, and cruelly executed on a cross. He knows that trouble is on the way for Him and them. He is encouraging the disciples in the whole section of John 13-17.
Jesus is speaking to believers in John 14. They believe in God. They believe in Jesus. They believe that Jesus is the way to God. They believe that Jesus is the Truth of God in the flesh and that everything He taught them is true. They believe that Jesus is the only source of eternal life. Because they believe in Jesus, Jesus promises them something which answers our question.
Since Jesus is alive, what is He doing? John 14:2-3 shares with us that Jesus is preparing a place for us in Heaven. The death and resurrection would usher in a new phase of the Kingdom of God. His ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2) absolutely ushered in the Church age upon the Earth. We are to be about our Father’s business and continue the ministry that Jesus began.
All the while… Jesus is preparing a spiritual reality for us that we can barely imagine. The snapshots that we have of Heaven in the Bible are only a small hint of the goodness that eternity is for believers in Jesus. Since Jesus is alive, what is He doing? Jesus is preparing God’s Heavenly home to receive us when we arrive.
There is another passage that comes to mind.
PASSAGE 2: HEBREWS 9
READ HEBREWS 9:11-15 (ESV)
“But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. 15 Therefore He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.”
The author of Hebrews is describing what Jesus does now for us with several truths or themes in the background. Jesus Christ is our Ultimate High Priest. Jesus Christ is the blood spilt and paid for our sins. Jesus Christ offered Himself willingly for us on the cross. All of that wording and metaphor and truth can be found in the Old Testament Law and Prophets pointing to the spiritual fact that Jesus is not just lounging around in Heaven, but is our mediator of the new covenant.
Since Jesus is alive, what is He doing? Jesus Christ was, is, and shall be our mediator of the new covenant. You and I sin. We continually ongoingly sin. Every believer who has lived sinned their whole lives until they died. You and I, even though we believe, will sin until we die. Jesus continually ongoingly mediates for us on our behalf between us and God. Jesus makes our relationship with God the Father possible. Jesus forgives. Jesus makes it right. Jesus reconciles us to God every single time we repent. I know how I sin… that is a full-time job.
SUMMARY
Since Jesus is alive, what is He doing?
* Jesus is preparing God’s Heavenly home to receive us when we arrive.
* Jesus reconciles us to God every single time we repent.
TRANSITION
We have answered the first question and now it is time to move on to the second. The hymn makes it very clear that Jesus lives in our heart. This is a clear statement from the New Testament from passages like Romans 8:10, 2 Corinthians 4:6-7, Galatians 1:15-16, Galatians 2:20, Galatians 4:19, especially Ephesians 3:17, Colossians 1:27, and 2 Thessalonians 1:10 that Jesus is part of us.
Most clearly, Ephesians 3:17…
READ EPHESIANS 3:17 (ESV)
“so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love”
QUESTION #2: WHAT IF I DON’T FEEL HIM IN MY HEART?
Our second question does not surround the truthfulness of the statement “that Jesus lives in our heart” exactly, but rather: What if I don’t feel Him in my heart? I feel like that is an important question. I think that question comes from an honest place. I think that question comes from a place of struggle. It is an important question.
The answer to the question: What if I don’t feel Him in my heart? is… persevere in faith.
The Bible emphasizes that even when you and I don't "feel" Jesus' presence in our heart, He is still with us. A relationship with God the Father through the blood of Jesus the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit is not solely based on emotions. Emotions are a part of it because human beings have emotions. A relationship with God the Father through the blood of Jesus the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit is not solely based on emotions, but on faith.
Why is this true?
The Bible warns against relying solely on feelings as a measure of anything. Our heart and our feelings are not a great barometer for our connection to God.
Our hearts can be deceitful.
Our emotions can lead us astray.
Our whims can be fickle.
The Bible shares this truth with us in Jeremiah 17 (among other places)…
READ JEREMIAH 17:7-9 (ESV)
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. 8 He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.” 9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”
Our heart is not always reliable. The Bible describes the human heart as "deceitful above all things, and desperately sick" meaning our feelings can be unreliable indicators of our spiritual state.
Faith over feelings.
Trust over feelings.
Commitment over feelings.
Perseverance over feelings.
Decision of faith over feelings.
True authentic persevering faith is not based on emotions only, but on trusting in God's promises, even when we don't feel His presence. That leads us to a connected thought. Where is God when we don’t feel Him? Does He abandon us? The Bible also shares with us that God is a constant presence for those who believe in Him. Psalm 139 shares with us the constant presence of God…
READ PSALM 139:7-8 (ESV)
“Where shall I go from Your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from Your presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, You are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, You are there!”
Psalm 139 reminds us that in the highest of highs and the lowest of lows that God is ever-present with us because He is our God and we are His people. We have been purchased by the blood of Jesus and adopted into God’s Kingdom as sons and daughters of God Most High.
He. Is. With. Us. No. Matter. How. We. Feel.
Faith over feelings.
Trust over feelings.
Commitment over feelings.
Perseverance over feelings.
Decision of faith over feelings.
SUMMARY
What if I don’t feel Him in my heart?
Lean forward into your faith and make the decision to persevere in the decision you have made to be a person of faith knowing that God has not moved one inch from you.
CONCLUDING ILLUSTRATION [adapted from the famous poem]
One night a person dreamed a dream. They were walking along the beach with the Lord Jesus because Jesus likes the beach and had a few friends who were fishermen. Across the dark sky flashed scenes from their life. For each scene, the person noticed two sets of footprints in the sand; one belonging to them and one belonging to the Lord Jesus.
After the last scene of life flashed, they looked back at the footprints in the sand. They noticed that at many times along the path of life, especially at the very lowest and saddest and worstest times, there was only one set of footprints.
The person was troubled, so they asked the Lord about it. "Lord, You said once I decided to follow You, You'd walk with me all the way. But I noticed that during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life, there was only one set of footprints. I don't understand why, when I needed You the most, You would leave me."
Jesus began to sing in a voice that was beyond angelic: “I live, I live! I, Christ Jesus lives today! I walk with you and talk with you along life’s narrow way. I live, I live, salvation to impart! You ask Me where I was in those times? I carried you from within your heart.”
PRAYER
INVITATION
Jeremiah 17:7-8 says: “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. 8 He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.” Believing in Jesus Christ is a lifelong decision that enables us to grow roots in God and have a firm footing in this life and assurance for the next life. If you need to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, I invite you to come forward today to have a chat with me about Jesus. Please come as we sing. I invite you.