Songs We Sing: "he Lives" Series

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?