Easter 2016
Happy Easter, everyone.
Some of you know the traditional Easter Greeting…
One person says, He is risen
the other person says, he is risen indeed.
But a lot of people don’t know where that came from.
The saying is based on scripture,
but people started using it as a greeting,
almost 2000 years ago,
and it was passed down by the Eastern Orthodox Churches,
the churches that started a couple thousand years ago,
in places that are now Greece, Turkey, and Russia.
And of course you didn’t just say the greeting to each other,
you had to kiss the other person on the cheek 3 times,
one for each member of the trinity.
So lets all practice that greeting,
and you can do the kissing part if you want,
but no tongues allowed…
Ready… HE IS RISEN,
How many of you filled out a March Madness bracket?
My wife Kathy has one every year at her work,
and if you win its about a 100 bucks.
so I join in with her every year,
I fill out my bracket,
and I have high hopes every year,
and then I lose every year.
This year I did something different.
I subscribe to the online version of The Wall Street Journal,
and this year, they had a bracket picking application.
thats got all the stats for all the teams built into it,
So you can put in your priorities for defense, offense,
tournament experience, and few other options,
and then it picks your teams for you,
based on all the stats.
So I'm thinking, whoh buddy,
I've got an advantange nobody else has,
this is my year,
I'm gonna win this thing for sure this year.
I was so excited,
my hopes were really high.
Let me just say that,
once again, I am hopeless.
At least when it comes to the basketball tournament.
Anyone heard of Warren Buffet?
Third richest man in the world?
2 years ago Warren Buffet offered a billion dollar prize,
to anyone who could correctly pick all the winners
for the March madness brackets.
You're wondering, how could he risk a billion dollars on that?
What if somebody gets really lucky?
Well, Buffet is no buffoon.
He knows that the odds are incredibly high.
In fact, mathematicians can’t even agree on
how to calculate the odds.
but some mathematicians have put the odds at,
1 in 9 million trillion.
So, after Warren Buffet offered this prize,
11 million people filled out a bracket,
to try and win the billion dollars,
and all of them were out, within 31 hours
of the start of the tournament.
This year Buffet isn't making the billion dollar offer.
But he is offering a $million a year for life,
to anyone who works for any of his companies
who picks all the winners correctly,
up to the sweet 16.
So you don’t even have to get the whole tournament right,
just the first two rounds, up to sweet 16,
and you’ve got a million a year for life.
So there are 360,000 employees of his companies,
who had high hopes this year…
Of course, there's no record of anybody
ever picking all the teams right,
even through the sweet 16,
so again, Buffett is pretty safe.
He does offer a consolation prize though,
the person who gets the most right, gets 100,000 bucks.
that’s a nice consolation.
Have you ever hoped for something,
despite long, long odds.
Like the guy who went for an interview for a job driving a delivery truck.
In the interview, they asked him why he wanted the job.
He said,
Because my dad drove a delivery truck,
and I hope to make a million dollars, just like my dad.
They said, your father made a million dollars, driving a delivery truck?
The guy said,
No, but he always hoped to.
Sometimes our hope doesn’t have much basis.
This morning,
I want to talk about 2 types of hope:
Hope for Something
vs.
Hope in Someone.
First, there’s the kind of hope where
you’re hoping for something
When you’re hoping for something,
you’re hoping a particular circumstance
will turn out the way that you want it to.
Hope I get that job.
Hope I get that house.
Hope I get that girl.
Or even better,
I hope I get that girl,
who has a house and a good job.
Now, of course,
Sometimes the thing we’re hoping for,
is for something not to happen,
something we want to avoid.
And of course the granddaddy of all those hopes,
is simply to avoid death.
So we say things like,
I hope it’s not cancer.
I hope she makes it.
I hope the test comes back okay.
But whenever we hope for something,
its always very temporary,
because circumstances in our lives,
are always temporary.
For example,
Even if our hope to avoid death
is fulfilled today, or this week or this year,
we all know that one day,
even that hope will disappoint us.
If it’s not cancer,
it'll be something else.
The mortality rate has been running,
right about 100%.
So, the simple truth is that,
One day,
every thing we hope for
will eventually disappoint us.
Every thing we hope for,
Every circumstance,
every situation that we’re hoping for
is going to wear out,
fall apart,
melt down,
give out,
or go away.
And when that happens,
the question then
is about your deeper hope …
about your foundation hope …
or your fallback hope
when all your other hopes are disappointed.
When you’ve lost the something you were hoping for—
then the ultimate question is,
have you met the Someone you can put your hope in?
That’s the message of the whole Bible right there,
it all points to One Man …
the son of God …
not because He’ll be able to give us
this thing,
or that thing
or whatever thing it is we were hoping for—
because all those things and circumstances
will eventually end—
No, the bible points to the son of God,
as the One person that we put our hope in,
so that our hope never ends.
I want tell a story from the Old Testament.
and don’t worry,
we’ll get back to the Easter story.
but first there’s this story
from early on in the history of Israel…
Moses led them to the Promised Land,
Joshua helps them get settled there,
but they don’t yet have a king.
This is before the time of David and Solomon.
and during this time
they’re struggling to survive as a nation,
because they keep turning away from God,
and ignoring God,
so God basically says,
Well, if you’re gonna ignore me,
and do your own thing,
then don’t ask me to bail you out
as soon as times get tough.
And of course, times got tough very quickly.
The Philistines invade
and Israel is forced to go into a battle with the Philistines,
to defend their homes,
and they lose the battle.
After the battle, the leaders get together,
and they’re asking
What happened?
Where was God?
We were counting on Him.
Why didn’t He give us what we were hoping for?
Have you ever had a time in your life,
where you were pretty much ignoring God,
till something bad happens,
somebody gets sick,
or has an accident,
or loses a job,
or the relationship ends,
or the kid makes a bad choice,
then you throw up a quick prayer, and say,
God rescue me from this situation.
I need your help, now.
But God doesn’t show up,
and doesn’t rescue you.
That ever happened to you?
And then you’re ticked off,
and saying, God where were you,
I thought you were on my side,
I thought you were watching out for me,
How could you let this happen?
Well, that’s where Israel is, in this story,
they’re in big trouble,
they lost the battle,
but then somebody gets a bright idea
and says:
Let’s go back into battle with the Philistines, tomorrow,
only this time,
we’ll use our secret weapon.
This time we’ll bring the Ark of the Covenant
into the battle.
The Ark of the Covenant was a box
where they kept The stone tablets
with the Ten Commandments.
And some of the manna from their 40 years in the desert.
If you ever saw the movie,
Raiders of the Lost Ark (picture)
that was an idea of what it looked like.
But to the people of Israel,
the ark wasn't just a box.
It was like the “Presence of God.”
The way they thought about it
it was like “God in a Box.”
In fact it became almost like an idol to them,
like they thought God
actually lived in that box.
And they were sure,
If they brought the Ark into battle,
God would never let the enemy capture
the Ark of the Covenant.
That would be like capturing God,
and God certainly wasn’t going to let that happen.
So they thought,
If we take the ark into battle,
“God will have to give us what we’re hoping for.”
He’ll have to make us win.
The truth about God is:
He doesn’t live in a box,
And you can’t manipulate Him
into giving you what you're hoping for.
But that’s what the Israelites try to do.
They go into battle a second time,
this time, carrying the ark with them,
and it’s a disaster.
They lose seven times more soldiers in the second battle
than they did the first time around.
Worst of all,
the Ark of the Covenant is captured.
This is unthinkable.
This is like losing the “Presence of God”
from their whole nation.
This is such a huge deal,
that when the ruling priest of Israel,
named Eli, hears about it, he collapses,
breaks his neck and dies.
When his pregnant daughter-in-law,
hears about it,
she immediately goes into labor,
dies in childbirth,
but before she dies
she says that she wants her son named Ichabod.
which means,
“the glory is gone.”
She’s saying:
the ark is gone,
so the glory is gone from Israel,
God is no longer with us.
You ever felt like that?
Maybe you once felt close to God.
Maybe you once had faith,
but its not the same anymore,
the glory is gone,
God doesn’t seem to be blessing me anymore,
he’s not with me.
I don’t feel him working in my life.
And we lose hope.
But it’s when the people of Israel
have lost everything they’ve been hoping for,
its then,
that God goes to work.
The Philistines carry the Ark of the Covenant
to one of their capital cities, called Ashdod.
where the temple of the Philistine god is …
a god called Dagon.
The priests of Dagon take the Ark inside
and place it next to the statue of Dagon.
Then all the Philistines cheer,
because they think that Dagon has won
over the God of the Israelites.
Its clear to them that
Dagon is the more powerful God.
So they have a big feast.
They chant their favorite chants.
They tell their battle stories.
And everybody goes home, for the night.
But something happens in the temple during the night.
The priests come back at dawn,
on the second day,
and the Bible says:
I Samuel 5:3
When the people of Ashdod came in early the next day,
there was Dagon fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord.
The priests are a little bit shocked,
because it looks sort of like
Dagon has bowed down to worship the real God.
It looks sort of like
the God of Israel is really the powerful one,
the Lord of Lords.
But in any case,
Dagon’s priests realize
this does not look good
to have their god bowing down before another God,
So they quickly dust off Dagon,
and prop him back up.
All day long, on that second day,
Philistines come into the temple
to celebrate their victory
and offer sacrifices
and sing songs to their great god Dagon.
Then it’s night, again,
and the priests turn off the lights and they go home.
Again, something happens in the temple during the night.
The next morning, the third day,
the priests come in,
and they find that once more,
Dagon has fallen on the ground before the Ark of the Lord.
Not only that,
this time his head and his hands have been cut off
and laid across the threshold of the temple,
and all that was left of Dagon
was a stump.
Wouldn’t you love to know how Dagon lost his head?
The Bible doesn’t tell us…
I guess whoever wrote this
didn’t have a head for details…
I know, that wasn’t funny,
I should have quit while I was ahead.
But of course the priests are horrified,
that their God is now a stump,
then to make it worse, on that 3rd day,
a plague starts to sweep over the city,
experts think it may have been the bubonic plague,
and the whole city falls into a panic,
and the people said,
get that ark out of our city, right now, today,
or we’re all gonna die,
So they send the ark away,
and it eventually made its way back to Israel.
And though we don’t know all the details, of this story,
we do know that
this is a “Three Day Story.”
The first day is a very dark day.
the battle is lost, the ark is captured.
It looks like the God of Israel is defeated
and the glory is gone.
Looks like the enemy has won.
That’s the first day.
Some days are like that.
Maybe you feel like you’re there right now.
Maybe you feel like
a part of your life is just sort of dark,
and defeated.
Your marriage feels pretty dark,
or maybe you feel like you're never gonna get married.
Your kids are like one setback after another,
and you're feeling defeated.
Your finances are difficult and getting worse,
you don’t know how you're gonna dig your way out of the hole,
And the doctors office called,
and you need to go in for another test…
sometimes it feels like one thing after another,
dark and defeated.
That leads to the second day,
and the second day
is a day of doubt and confusion.
Its full of questions.
What is God doing,
is he doing anything?
is he really at work behind the scenes,
is he really going to work it all out?
I'm trying to trust him,
but I don’t see it yet,
I don’t see anything happening,
God, where are you,
what are you doing?
The second day,
is a day of doubt and confusion.
Some days are like that.
Maybe you feel like that’s where you’re at today.
You have doubts and confusion
about your relationship with God,
Or doubt about what he wants you to do,
doubt about whether he's gonna provide,
or what he’s doing in your life, if anything.
And you’re not sure he’s going to work things out.
But if that’s where you are,
hold on.
This isn’t a 2 day story.
The story isn’t over yet.
This is a 3 day story.
On the third day,
the story takes a radical turn.
The idol is overturned.
The enemy is sent into panic and defeat.
The time of captivity is over.
God is going to come home to His people,
because the third day
is God’s day.
That’s the day of hope.
Our God is a “Third Day God.”
You see this pattern over and over in the Bible.
Often the people of Israel are told
that God is going to answer them,
but first they’re going to have to wait.
Deliverance is coming.
God is at work,
he’s gonna come through,
and make it all work out,
but the waiting period in so many of the stories
is 3 days.
When a hero named Joseph was in prison,
a fellow prisoner had a dream from God,
and Joseph interpreted it, and told him,
God says, You’re gonna get set free from this prison,
and restored to your job and your life,
But its not gonna happen for 3 days.
When Israel was trapped in slavery,
Moses asked Pharaoh:
Let us go 3 days into the wilderness.
When Moses leads the people of Israel to Mt. Sinai,
God tells Moses, get the people ready,
because on the 3rd day from now,
I’m coming, I’m going to appear to them.
Later on,
when Israel was threatened with annihilation,
A teenage girl named Esther
says that she will fast for three days,
Then she will go to the King
to seek deliverance for her people.
When Jonah is swallowed
and is in the belly of the big fish …
anybody want to take a guess how many days he’s there?
3 days before he’s released.
When the people of Israel were afraid
to go into the Promised Land,
God said to them:
Don’t be afraid.
Don’t be discouraged.
Three days from now you will cross the Jordan here to go in and take possession of the land the Lord your God is giving you for your own.'"
Its no accident that all these stories,
had a 3 day waiting period,
till God brought deliverance,
till God showed up in power.
God was preparing us for the ultimate 3rd day,
the ultimate day of deliverance.
And so we see this same story over and over.
Right now, things are messed up.
Right now, hope is being crushed.
Right now, hearts are disappointed.
But a better day is coming,
a third day is coming.
In the book of Hosea,
the prophet says it like this:
Hosea 6:1-2
Come, let us return to the Lord. After two days, He will revive us. On the third day, He will restore us, that we may live in His presence.
So, the reason we’re all here this morning,
is that one day,
God came to rescue His people,
The Bible says,
John 1:14
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
The word for dwelling here,
is the same word that they used for tabernacle,
and what did they keep in the Tabernacle?
the Ark of the Covenant.
Then John says,
We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son
When the Israelites lost the ark,
they said "The glory has departed."
But now its telling us that
the Glory of God is back with us,
and it came to stay.
But again,
the glory took 3 days to really show itself.
It took Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
There’s a pastor named Tony Campolo
who tells a great story called,
“Sunday’s a comin.”
He starts by telling how,
In 1948 Harry Truman ran for re-election
as the 33rd president of the United States.
and all the public opinion polls
predicted that his opponent Dewey would win
in a landslide.
The Chicago tribune had already published as their headline,
Dewey defeats Truman.
Life Magazine had already printed their issue
proclaiming Dewey's victory.
and Dewey was already writing his victory speech.
But despite what looked like certain defeat,
despite all the commentators,
newspapers and polls
that said he didn’t have a chance,
Harry Truman turned sure defeat
into a great victory...
The same thing happened with Jesus' victory
2000 years ago...
It all started on a dark, dismal Friday,
Jesus was in the upper room with the 11
because, Judas had just left to betray him,
the first step in a downward spiral of events,
that led to horrible death.
Then Jesus left the upper room,
and took his disciples to a lonely garden –
and he told them,
"my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.
he was so overcome with desperation
at what he knew was coming
That he threw himself face down to the ground
praying to his Father with such intensity
it was as if he was sweating drops of blood....
Jesus knew that soon
he would carry the weight of the whole world’s sin
on his shoulders,
and that sin would separate him from his father
for the first time ever.
Then Judas comes and gives Jesus that kiss of betrayal –
and the soldiers come and bind Jesus,
taking him away
the disciples flee into the night....
It looked like everything was lost,
The enemy of this world had won the day...
but it was only Friday
and Sunday’s a coming...
Then came the mockings and beatings –
the temple guards blindfolded Jesus –
and took turns beating him with their fists,
And as they hit him, they said,
"come on Jesus, if you are really a prophet
tell us who is hitting you..."
but that was Friday, and Sunday’s a coming...
Next they tie him to a Roman whipping post –
and give him 39 lashes with the lead tipped whip
They could only give 39,
because 40 was thought to kill a man.
As Jesus hangs there
blood pouring from his body –
in unbelievable pain...
those Roman and the Jewish leaders –
think they've won,
they think that Jesus is over, done with,
no more problem, defeated.
but that was Friday and Sunday’s a coming...
The crowd is shouting for his death.
The crowd who less than a week ago
when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday ...
was shouting
Hosanna to the son of David
blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord –
Now the crowd has changed.
Now, when Pontius Pilate asks them,
"what shall I do then with the one you call king of the Jews?"
they shout "crucify him! Crucify him! –
It looks like it's the end,
no one is on his side any more,
He's defeated.
but that was Friday and Sunday’s a coming!
They force Jesus to carry his cross
through the streets of Jerusalem....
Up and down those winding dirt roads....
he’s stumbling, he's half dead already,
The streets are lined with thousands of people,
jeering and mocking,
or at best just looking away.
It looks like the end,
It looks like certain defeat....
but that was Friday and Sunday’s a coming....
And then Jesus is stripped naked
and they nail him to the cross....
Spikes through wrists and feet,
Every breath an agony
as hundreds around him are laughing at him,
mocking him,
ridiculing him –
insulting him,
Jesus hangs suspended between heaven and earth,
blood pouring from his wounds,
and he cries out,
"My God, my God why have you forsaken me..."
then breathes his last breath
and says "it is finished"....
Hangs his head and dies....
The sky turns black –
there’s a terrifying earthquake,
it looks like Jesus is done for,
gone forever, defeated.
The Pharisees and religious leaders are celebrating,
parties thrown throughout the city
as they celebrated the death of Jesus....
Satan and his demons are throwing another party,
their enemy is dead,
but it was only Friday, and Sunday’s a coming....
When it looked like deepest darkness had overcome,
When it looked like the enemy had won,
when it looked like the end of all hope,
The truth is,
the darkness was already lifting
and victory was on its way....
Jesus Christ was about to burst forth from the grave
with great power and glory,
because Sunday’s a coming...
Friday was a dark day.
it looked to be a terrible defeat
The second day, Saturday,
was a day of doubt and confusion,
But this isn’t a one day story,
and its not a two day story,
the story of Jesus is a “Three-Day Story.”
And on the third day,
the disciples discovered that
there was greater news
than anything we were hoping for.
They discovered
not just something to hope for,
but Someone to put their hope in.
Someone that even death could not defeat,
What on Friday
looked to be a terrible defeat
turned out to be the greatest victory of all time....
You see, the Third Day is God’s day.
The Third Day is the day when
prisoners of Pharaoh get set free.
The Third Day is the day
the people come to the mountains
and the mountains shake
The third day is the day,
when rivers are parted
and people go into the Promised Land.
The Third Day is the day
when teenage girls like Esther
stand up to powerful kings.
The Third Day is the day that prophets like Jonah
are dropped off at the beach by giant fish.
The Third Day is the day that
idols like Dagon come tumbling down,
and God starts coming home to His people.
AND The Third Day is the day stones are rolled away.
and resurrection comes,
and new life happens,
and the person we hope in,
defeats death, for you and for me.
You see,
you never know what God is going to do,
because God is “God of the Third Day.”
The only other question about Easter is:
What are you and I going to do about it?
Are we going to keep on, the rest of our lives,
hoping for things,
which will ultimately disappoint us?
I don’t know what you’re hoping for,
but the real question this morning is:
What are you putting your ultimate hope in?
What do you build your life on?
A lot of people are putting their ultimate hope
in some thing,
or some circumstance,
Maybe it’s money.
Maybe it’s success.
or security.
or power.
Maybe it’s romance or affection.
All those things will eventually let you down.
In fact,
some of you have already experienced that.
In a crowd like this
there are all kinds of problems represented here.
There are people here with marriage problems.
Some of you may be thinking about
a separation or divorce.
Some of you have recently buried a loved one
and the grief is still there.
Others are having problems with kids.
Others would like to get married
and you’re lonely and it just hasn’t happened.
There are people here
who are going through financial and job problems.
And some of you are facing
serious health problems,
and you don’t know how its going to turn out.
There are people here dealing with
stress and guilt and grief.
Maybe it feels like
your life just hasn’t turned out
the way you wanted,
But the good news of Easter is that,
If God is more powerful than death,
then he’s more powerful
than any situation you’re facing.
No problem is beyond God’s power.
No circumstance is out of his control.
He can cause a resurrection in your life as well.
You can put your hope
in the one place on earth
where no power can touch it,
no circumstance,
no disappointment,
no accident,
no guilt,
no regret,
no mistake …
not death itself,
You can put your hope in the Son of God himself,
who died for our sins,
and then was raised from the dead on the third day.
We're gonna close now, so I'd like the worship band to come up.
But guess what ---
Its not Friday anymore,
Today is Sunday.
And that means you and I can join the party going on.
We can celebrate with Jesus, right now
the victory he won over death,
so that we never have to fear death again.
If you haven’t joined into the party yet,
if you haven’t joined God’s family,
if you haven’t become a follower of Jesus,
and made him the director of your life,
then you can do that right now.
Why don’t you join in the party today,
and celebrate with us.
PRAYER –
You're not here by accident this morning. Some of you here, God brought you here specifically for this moment, and you can even sense it. You know, on the inside, there’s something happening. What is that? That is the power of a loving God drawing you toward Himself, because you recognize, I do need Him. I need His grace. I need His mercy. I need His forgiveness. That’s why I’m here today. It is my time to say, “Yes, I’ve sinned against You. I need Your forgiveness today. By faith, I give my life to You.”
So, I'm gonna give you an opportunity right now,
Those of you who would say, “Yes, I need do need God. Yes, I need His grace. By faith I surrender today, and give my life to God through Christ,”
I want to pray for you, so would you lift your hands high right now and say, “Yes, I do need God”?
Lets everybody pray this out loud together, whether its your first time or not…repeat it after me…
Pray,
“Heavenly Father, I am a sinner and I do need a Savior. Jesus forgive me. Change me and make me brand new. I believe that You died for me, and You rose again, so I could live for You. Fill me with Your Spirit so I can follow You, so I can know You, and so I can serve You, for the rest of my life. Thank You for new life. Today I give You mine. In Jesus’ name I pray.”
