MELVIN M. NEWLAND, MINISTER
CENTRAL CHRISTIAN CHURCH, BROWNSVILLE, TX
A. This is Easter, & today many churches are experiencing their biggest crowd of the year. I wonder why? Why do some people go to church on Easter when for the most part they never go to church at any other time of the year?
ILL. A friend told me about his childhood. His family didn’t go to church much, but they always went on Easter Sunday. His father didn’t usually go, but mom & the children always made it a point to go on Easter.
Every year the mother would buy the children new Easter outfits, & that was an expensive adventure for them because they didn’t wear their Easter clothes to school. And if you went to church only once a year, by the time next Easter rolled around they were too big to wear last year’s outfits again.
My friend always wondered why his mom & dad went to the expense of buying them new clothes & taking them to church on Easter Sunday when it wasn’t all that important to go the rest of the year.
Well, after analyzing that question, I have come up with an answer. Some people come to church on Easter Sunday morning because everybody, with a very few exceptions, wants to go to heaven.
Now, we don’t necessarily want to live forever in an imperfect environment, but almost everybody would like to live forever in a perfect environment. And that is the hope of Easter.
B. The message of Easter is that Jesus Christ conquered sin. Jesus Christ conquered death. And because He has conquered death we have the promise of eternal life in a perfect environment.
Now the reason that is so important to us is because it is our heritage. We are descendants of Adam & Eve. They were created in the image of God to live forever. If Adam & Eve had never sinned they would still be alive on earth today. And they would still be living in the perfect environment of the Garden of Eden.
But when they sinned, all of that changed. Adam & Eve started growing old & they started wondering, "What happens after I die?"
C. Job is the oldest book in the Bible, & maybe Job was the first one to verbalize that question. In Job 14:14, he asks this question, "If a man dies, will he live again?"
Then he continues, "All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal to come." You see, Job’s hope, 2000 years before Jesus, was that "If I die, then I will be renewed."
In Job 19:25-29, Job expands on that when he said, "I know that my Redeemer lives, & that in the end He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see Him with my own eyes - I, & not another. How my heart yearns within me!"
Long before the life & death & resurrection of Jesus Christ, Job said, "If I die, I will live because I know that my Redeemer lives. And even though my skin is destroyed, in my new body, I will see God!"
D. In Daniel 12:2, Daniel tells us a little more. He says, "Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake."
What is Daniel talking about? He is talking about the resurrection. We fall asleep in death & are buried in the dust. But he says, "We will awake." Daniel was confident of that long before the resurrection of Christ.
But then Daniel continues with these words, "Some will rise to everlasting life, others to shame & everlasting contempt."
In John 5:28, Jesus says, "Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice & come out." That is resurrection. Then He adds, "those who have done good will rise to live, & those who have done evil will rise to be condemned."
SUM. My father used to say that there are two sides to every question. There are two sides to every argument. There is the good side & the bad side. There is the right side & the wrong side. And folks, there are two sides to the resurrection.
One of those sides we seldom mention on Easter. We often ignore it. But this morning I want to emphasize both sides of the resurrection, & I intend to do it by retelling a story that Jesus told in the 16th chapter of Luke.
It is a story that you have heard many times. It is the story about the rich man & Lazarus. As I read this story to you, you need to be looking for 3 things. First of all, I want you to look at 2 different kinds of life. Secondly, I want you to see 2 different kinds of death. And thirdly, I want you to see 2 different kinds of resurrection.
I. THERE ARE TWO DIFFERENT KINDS OF LIVES
A. First of all, there are 2 different kinds of lives represented in this story. Jesus begins the story in Luke 16:19 by saying, "There was a rich man who was dressed in purple & fine linen & lived in luxury every day." That is one kind of life.
Jesus is painting a picture of a man who has everything that the world has to offer. He has money. He has fine clothing. He lives in a fine house. He has everything money can buy. His life seems to be so perfect, except for one thing that is missing - he does not know God.
B. On the other hand, there is a beggar. Vs. 20 says, "At the gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores & longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came & licked his sores." The beggar has nothing. He has no money. He has no food. He has only rags for clothing, but he does have God.
Jesus emphasizes the contrast for a very important reason. He is not telling us that all rich men are going to go to hell. Nor is he telling us that all poor men are going to heaven. There will be rich men & poor men in both heaven & hell.
But he is saying this, "If you have everything the world has to offer, but you don’t have God, then you’re not rich. You’re poor. And if you have nothing of the world, but you do have God, then you are not poor. You’re rich."
SUM. There are two different lives represented here, just as far apart as two lives could possibly be.
II. THERE ARE TWO DIFFERENT KINDS OF DEATH
Then there are two different kinds of death. Because, you see, the life that you live will determine the death that you die.
Jesus describes these two different kinds of death in vs. 22. "The time came when the beggar died & the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died & was buried."
For the poor man, Lazarus, death came as an angel of mercy. Death came as a welcome visitor. Because he was poor & his body diseased, because there really wasn’t much to look forward to in life anyway, when death came it was a promotion. Instantly things got better. So he welcomed death with open arms.
But for the rich man death came as an enemy, as a thief in the night, because all he had was what he had on earth. All he had was a house. All he had was clothing. All he had were material things. And when you die you can’t take material things with you. So the moment death came, the rich man became poor, & the poor man became rich because of different kinds of resurrection.
III. THERE ARE TWO DIFFERENT KINDS OF RESURRECTION
A. Vs. 23 tells us about the rich man, "In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up & saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, ’Father Abraham, have pity on me & send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water & cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’"
In that one verse alone we see 2 different kinds of resurrection. One was raised to punishment, & the other one was raised to eternal life. You see, everybody is going to be raised from the dead, & we will be raised in 2 different ways to 2 different resurrections.
There is an important verse in the 25th chapter of Matthew. Jesus has just talked about judgment, & the separation of the sheep & the goats. He has just talked about those who will be saved & those who will be lost.
Then He adds this thought in the very last verse. He says, "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."
What is He saying? He is saying that the 2 different kinds of resurrection have one similarity - both of them are eternal. Both of them last forever.
We have difficulty thinking that way because everything we deal with is temporary. We can change almost anything we want, whenever we want. You can change your hairstyle if you don’t like it. You can buy another car. You can move if you don’t like where you are living. What we have it is only temporary anyhow, so we can change it.
But Jesus says that these 2 different resurrections share one thing in common, they are both "forever." Once resurrection takes place, there will be no more changes. Everything will remain the same.
Now listen, folks. If something is going to last forever, you’d better be sure that you like it, because you’re never going to change it. It will be that way forever & forever. So to help you make your decision, let me just compare the two kinds of resurrection.
B. What is hell like? In Matthew 25 we are told that it is a place of darkness, eternal darkness. Vs. 30 says, "Throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness." Hell will be a place of darkness. There will be no light there because God will not be there.
If you took God out of the world, if you took God’s people out of the world, if you took the church of Jesus Christ out of the world, it would be hell on earth because God is the eternal source of light.
There will be no light in hell because God will not be there. It will always be dark. I hope you like the dark, because it will last forever. It will always be dark. There will never be any light.
There will be eternal pain there, "where there will be weeping & gnashing of teeth" - pain so intense that you grind your teeth & clench your fists. Eternal pain - there is never any relief. It keeps getting worse & worse.
There will be no rest in hell. It will be as if you’re shoveling coal, & just the time that you get tired of shoveling coal & you think that you can hit the time clock & go home & rest for a while, you’re handed another shovel & you shovel some more. You shovel for all eternity, because there is no rest in hell!
There is no hope in hell. If you were only going to be there for 10 years there would be hope. You would think, "This is a pretty bad place, & I just really don’t know if I can take it for much longer, but I only have to be here for 10 years. If I can make it for 10 years then I can get out of this place." That’s hope, you see.
Or if you were only going to be there for 100 years, the hope grows dimmer, but you say, "If I can endure for 100 years then I can get out of this place." Or if you are only going to be there for 1000 years, the hope is dimmer, but still there is hope. But hell is eternal! It lasts forever. There is no hope in hell!
C. In Revelation 22, we read about the other resurrection. John is privileged to see for a moment into the very corridors of heaven, & he begins to describe it in vs. 5. He says, "There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever & ever."
Heaven will be a place of light. Have you noticed the difference when dawn comes? Maybe after a cold winter night when the winds seem to blow without mercy, or after a night when your child was sick all night long? Finally the sun comes up & everything seems better. There will be eternal light in heaven, no more night, because God is the eternal source of light, itself.
It will be a place of great bliss. One of my favorite verses is Rev. 21:4. It says, "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for all these things have passed away." There will be no pain in heaven, because it will be a place of eternal bliss.
In hell there will be no hope, but in heaven there will be fulfilled hope. Paul says, "The greatest of these is love - faith, hope, love, but the greatest is love." Why do the others pass away? Because my faith is fulfilled in heaven, & my hope is fulfilled in heaven. But love continues to be the rule in heaven, & that will last forever & ever.
D. On Easter Sunday we come to church to hear about a garden, & women who excitedly make their way, wondering how they will roll away the stone. And apostles who run & find an empty tomb. We like to talk about how our despair is replaced with hope because Jesus left the grave & conquered death.
And it’s all true. But I sometimes fear that Easter audiences go home feeling that all is well with their soul because they came & heard a little sermon about an empty grave in Jerusalem, & they didn’t hear the other side of the story.
I don’t want to be a preacher who sends you home on Easter Sunday, making you feel good about something about which you ought to feel bad. If you are headed the wrong way with your life, then you need to realize it, & do something about it before it is everlastingly too late.
God is anxious to receive you, & forgive you, & save you for all eternity. But at the same time I want you to realize the alternative. There is a day of resurrection coming. All will rise from the dead - some to punishment, & some to everlasting life.
ILL. A friend of mine told this story, & I want to pass it on to you in his own words. He said, "My dad was a hard father. And it has only been in recent years that I have developed an appreciation for his strong discipline."
"Dad & I got along fairly well until I turned 16. When I turned 16 & got my driver’s license we locked horns because I didn’t have my own car & the only car I had was his, & he wasn’t always in the mood to let me use it."
"On one particular occasion my dad had just bought a new 1954 Ford. It was green with 4 doors. I’ll never forget it. It was his pride & joy. I asked him if I could use it one night, & dad had this wonderful ability of making you feel so guilty every time you asked him for anything that you weren’t sure that you wanted to ask him in the first place."
"But on this occasion, he said, ’All right, you can have it.’ So I took dad’s car & I picked up my favorite girl friend who now happens to be my wife, & we went out on a date. We went to a movie, & after the movie was over we decided to drive out in the country to look at the scenery."
"Now that was back in the days before bucket seats & consoles in the middle, when girls could sit close to guys as they drove. We had worked out a little system where she shifted the gears as I pushed on the clutch, so that I could drive with only one hand."
"As we were driving along, looking up at the stars, I became a little preoccupied & lost sight of the road. And I ended up in the ditch with my dad’s brand new 1954 Ford. I found a kind farmer who pulled me out & we assessed the damage. We found that there weren’t any scratches or dents - just a lot of dust & dirt."
"So I quickly drove back downtown to a friend who was working in a filling station that night. We ran it through the car wash & cleaned it up & it looked as good as new. I took it home & thought, ’Dad will never know.’"
"Two days later he raised the hood, & he saw mud & gravel where I had forgotten to look. Very quickly there was an accounting that took place as my dad took me out & raised the hood. ’Where did all that come from, you reckon?’ Well, I told him the truth, & I was convinced that I was about to experience all the fury of hell."
"Then Dad did a most amazing thing. He put his arm around me & told me about a time he & mom went out driving on a country road, & he forgave me." (From Dennis Slaughter, Minister, Valley View Christian Church, Dallas, TX)
CONCL. You know, there is another one this morning who waits anxiously to forgive. He has hurt more than any of us have ever been hurt. He doesn’t want anybody to go to hell. He wants everybody to go to heaven. So He went to the cross to make it possible for us to live forever in that perfect environment. And He offers Himself.
"Here I am," He says. "I know who you are, what you are, & I am ready to forgive. But you are the one who has to take that first step."
There will be a resurrection for everybody. I can promise you that. Some will be raised to punishment. Some will be raised to a glorious eternal life, & that decision is completely in your hands. You are the one who decides. God has done all that He can do to make it possible for you to be saved.
We offer His invitation now to you, & we invite you to respond to the gift that God has given through Jesus Christ our Lord.
