AM sermon preached at Central Christian Church Easter April 12, 2009
“Putting Doors in Walls”
[SHOW VIDEO AT CLOSE OF COMMUNION SERVICE]
[AFTER VIDEO’S OVER PROJECT SERMON TITLE SLIDE AND LEAVE UP ON SCREEN WHILE I BEGIN SPEAKING]
It’s not over, even when it’s over. That’s at the heart of my message this Easter Sunday morning because if Easter teaches us anything it teaches us that with Jesus it’s not over even when it’s over. We remember that on Friday after they took Jesus down from the cross and laid His lifeless body in the grave, Jesus enemies thought it was over---why even Jesus closest friends thought it was over. But it wasn’t over because Friday gave way to Saturday and Saturday rolled on over into Sunday and according to Matthew 28:5-6, when the women went to the tomb to complete the embalming process of Jesus body they were greeted by an angel who said to them [SCRIPTURE SLIDE] "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.”
The reason Easter is a celebration is because Jesus is alive. He’s alive and He wants us to be fully alive. Irenaus said “the glory of God is a man fully alive.” And Howard Thurman said, “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive because what the world needs is people who’ve come alive.”
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Some of you have noticed the words “I have come that you may live now and forever” on the wall to your left. That’s a paraphrase of John 10:10. Those words express the idea that Jesus didn’t just come to save us from our sins so we can live in heaven forever---I mean He did come for that reason but that’s not the only reason He came---He came so He could help us to live life now the way it’s supposed to be lived. Jesus wants us fully alive now! But most people aren’t fully alive. Most people just go through the motions of life---just existing but not really living. To see why so many people settle for less than God’s best we have to go back to the first couple, Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve were in this perfect environment---and God more or less said to them---all the doors of the world are open to you---enjoy your life, take on different adventures, have fun…you can do whatever you’d like except this one thing---you can go through any door you want to except one. One door is off limits. There’s one tree you can’t eat from---and what did Adam and Eve do?—They went straight to that door and disobeyed. They sinned. And immediately their sin became a wall---a barrier which came between them and God. Adam and Eve regretted their actions but they could not turn back the clock and erase them. It was then that the shame and fear set in. Check out what the Bible says Adam said to God after he’d stepped through the forbidden door--- [SCRIPTURE SLIDE] when I heard you walking through the garden, I was frightened and hid!" Gen 3:10 CEV
You and I have also disobeyed God---we haven’t eaten from the same tree Adam and Eve ate from but in our hearts and minds we know we’ve eaten forbidden fruit. We know we’ve disobeyed God. We know we’ve sinned---and we can sense how our sins have us erecting a wall of guilt, shame and regret. That wall causes us to be distant from God and afraid of Him. [SERMON POINT SLIDE] The Easter story is that Jesus became the door of forgiveness in that separating wall of sin. When Jesus gave His life for us---when He died on that cross on that Friday nearly 2000 years ago---He opened the way for you and I to be forgiven. He became the door in the wall of sin so that anyone who wants to get back into a right relationship with God can.
A lot of people want to downplay the size of the wall of sin they’ve built. They tell themselves and others that basically they’re good people and they carry around this false sense of security. It’s as if they think make a hole in their wall by chipping away at it by doing a few good deeds now and then---or maybe they’re thinking it’s not really all that high and if they just get a good running start they can hurdle the thing. Wrong! They’d have about as much luck trying to high jump their way over the Great Wall of China. Not gonna happen. For you see, sin isn’t simply a matter of the wrongful things we actually do with their bodies---we can also sin in our thought processes. When we begin to get hold of that idea my how much larger our wall suddenly looms. Now the good news is---those people who’ve been thinking they can get through to the Father can get to the Father, only they’ll have to do it the same way everyone does. They’ll have to change their thinking about needing Jesus to be their Savior---and they’ll have to go through Jesus. Jesus made that really clear when He said [SCRIPTURE SLIDE] “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6
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The good news of Easter is that anybody now matter what you’ve done, no matter how far you’ve wandered, no matter how badly you’ve messed up, no matter how high and wide your wall of sin has become---anybody if they’ll stop trying to tear down that wall and stop trying to climb over it on their own power---anybody can turn their past, present and future over to Jesus and know the joy of being forgiven and being restored to a right relationship with God. Easter is about Jesus becoming the door of forgiveness in the separating wall of sin. It’s also about Jesus becoming the door of reconciliation in the wall of our broken and strained relationships. [2ND SERMON POINT SLIDE]
There was a recent movie out called The Bucket List and the characters that are played by Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman are told they’re terminally ill so they make a list of all the things they want to do before they kick the bucket. The Bucket List is a lot of fun, it’s a fun movie. They do things like sky diving, race-car driving and they travel the world. It seems to me that most of us don’t have the money to do all those extravagant and crazy and expensive things that the characters do in the movie.
Like many other ministers I’ve had the privilege of walking with many people at the end of their life when they found out they had one month to live or a few months left on this earth and you know it’s almost never the big things that they have regrets over. I’ve never heard anyone on their death bed say “if only I would have gone sky diving my life would have been totally complete and fulfilling.” I’ve never heard that. But it’s the little things that we neglect to do over and over again that we have regrets about---especially in our relationships.
Kerry Shook writes about a conversation he had with a pastor friend---His friend said, “Kerry, I’ll never forget being called to the bedside of a very wealthy acquaintance of mine as he was about to die.” He said, “This guy had millions in the bank. He had multiple houses and cars, but his kids hated him and his family had just fallen apart. All his money couldn’t buy him out of this problem. His death was imminent. The full realization of the fact that he had wasted his whole life was hitting him full force.” He said, “What can I do? I’ve blown it.” Then friend asked, “Kerry, what do you say to a guy at that moment? Cheer up. It’s no big deal.” His friend finished, “There’s just not much to say. Of course I told him how to trust Christ so he could be in Heaven forever, but how sad that he came to the end of his life with all those regrets and he couldn’t do anything about it.”
Sin not only affects our relationship with God, it affects all of relationships. When we sin we not only build a wall between ourselves and God we also build walls in all of our other relationships too. Go back to the Garden of Eden for a moment. Remember what Adam said to God after he’d said “I was afraid so I hid?” When God asked Adam about the cause of his fears and actions---Adam said “the woman you put here with me---she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it.” Can we say wall? I mean we’re talking doghouse, right? It’s a reality of life, a consequence of sin folks, when we mess up our relationship with God, the spillover soaks into our other relationships.
Like Adam and Eve--You have an argument in your marriage and it results in a slammed door and a wall goes up in your marriage. Or on the job---you have conflict with a co-worker – a wall goes up at work or you have trouble with a teenager – a wall goes up between parents and teenagers. We build these walls in our relationship and they make us feel distant. Sometimes we’re like Adam in that when we mess up, we put up some kind of makeshift barrier or we hide behind something thinking in that way that we’re protecting ourselves when the truth is the barriers we’ve erected are hurting our relationships and our hiding from the reality of our situation is preventing any healing from taking place.
We guys are especially good at putting up these kinds of walls. This truth is illustrated in a kid’s story called “The Knight In Rusty Armor.” In that story this knight goes out and fights these great battles---but he becomes so used to wearing his armor that when he comes home he doesn’t know how to take his armor off and his family can’t get close to him. A lot of times I think we guys are guilty of acting that way---we come home and we don’t know how to take off the armor and be real and warm with our family. Now while guys do that kind of thing more frequently, guys aren’t the only ones who sometimes fail to lower the walls and let other people in.
The good news of Easter is that Jesus, the One who has become the available door of forgiveness in the separating wall of sin is also available to become the door of reconciliation in the wall of our broken and strained relationships. It works this way---once we’ve stepped through the door of forgiveness---once we’ve gotten our relationship with God back on track and that barrier between us and God has been torn down… we find that God creates a distaste in us for all the other relationship barriers that are there in our lives. The Holy Spirit Who came to live in us when we became Christians began a remodeling process in our hearts the moment He arrived and part of that remodeling involves changing the ways we think of and interact with others. He causes us to see others the way He sees them. He helps us to want to love them the way He loves them. And as process moves forward in us we begin feeling an unrest directed towards our broken and strained relationships. Next thing you know we want to reach out a hand. We want to be the first to call. We want to offer or ask for forgiveness. We want to reconcile with others. It wasn’t in us before to feel that way or to attempt to do it. But now it is. And with Jesus’ help we can.
In the first chapter of Ephesians we read---
[SCRIPTURE SLIDE] “… how incredibly great His power is to help those who believe Him. It is that same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead….” Eph 1:19-20a (LB) [BLANK SLIDE] You see the good news of Easter is that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is available to help you in your marriage----to help you in your relationship with your kids or your parents---to help you with the people at your work. Again you see Jesus came so you can live the full life now ---so you can live life the way it’s supposed to be lived with healing in your relationships and without regrets.
There’s one more wall we need to talk about. It’s a big wall and most people don’t talk about it much. It’s death. [3RD SERMON POINT] It’s a universal problem we all have because everybody dies. Only a fool would go all through life unprepared for something he knows is inevitable. We may live here on earth for 60, 70, 80 years. Some may not make it past their teens or twenties. No guarantees. We live. We die. But then eternity is forever! Because of Easter, because Jesus lives again we don’t need to be afraid of death.
Jesus became the door of life in death’s wall of hopelessness. [SCRIPTURE SLIDE] John 17:3 says “This is the way to have eternal life – by knowing You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one You sent to earth!” Jesus is risen. He’s alive and because He is, He replaces our fear of death with the sure hope of eternal life with Him in heaven.
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According to the polls---A lot of people believe in the resurrection. George Gallup did a poll that said 84% of Americans believe Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus’ resurrection is a historical fact. I mean it wasn’t done in secret. The whole city of Jerusalem knew about it and eventually the whole Roman Empire. It was big news. If Fox News or CNN would have been around they would have had it live. There are at least 15 historical references to Jesus meeting people after He rose from the dead. Over 500 people talked to Him after He was raised. Jesus rose from the dead. The real question is what difference does it make in my life today? It makes all the difference in the world if you let it. Jesus, if you will let Him, will restore you to having a right relationship with God. Jesus, if you let Him, will become for you a door of reconciliation helping you to bring new life and health into your relationships. And ultimately Jesus, if you let Him, will become your Savior and will pass with you through the valley of the shadow of death so that you arrive in heaven. Jesus will do all this and more but only if you let Him.
[SLIDE] Holman Hunt painted the now famous and often plagiarized painting of Jesus standing at the door and knocking[SLIDE]. You can see from the pictures on the screen [SLIDE] that a lot of artists painted pictures using the idea portrayed in Hunt’s painting as a springboard. [SLIDE] What’s really interesting in each of the pictures we’re seeing is that the door Jesus is knocking on [SLIDE] is not what we’d think of as an ordinary door---[SLIDE] I say this because an ordinary door would have something on it which isn’t present on Hunt’s door---[SLIDE] an ordinary door would have an handle on the outside. But there’s no handle on Hunt’s door [SLIDE] and that’s because Hunt wanted everyone who looked at his picture to understand that we have to open the door of our hearts from the inside.
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Ephesians 3:17 says, “Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite Him in.” (MSG)
[SCRIPTURE SLIDE] And Romans 5:1-2, “ … We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that He has already thrown open His door to us!”
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I really do believe with Jesus in us it’s possible for us to live our lives in such a way that when we come to the end we have very few regrets. Now I certainly don’t think anyone purposefully sets out to live a life that leads to a lot of regrets. No one has ever said to me “my goal in life is to have a thousand regrets when I die and I’m up to 569 right now. But don’t you worry---cause I’m still working on it.” I’ve never heard anyone say anything that. It’s just that we get stuck in what I call the someday syndrome and it becomes a trap. We say someday I’m going to get to that. Someday I’m going to do that. Over the last couple of years I’ve kind of developed a habit of saying “Someday when things settle down.” I’ve said it dozens if not hundreds of time. “Someday when things settle down we are really going to do those things that are most important to us.” “someday when things settle down I’m going to take my days off---I’m going to work on the house---I’m going to play more golf.” Have you ever said something like that?
Who are we kidding? It never settles down. Listen friends, if we don’t learn to enjoy life in the middle of the stress and the chaos, we’ll never learn to enjoy life. If we don’t learn to do the things that are most important in the middle of our stressful lives, we’ll never do the things that are most important because this is life. When are we going to wake up to the fact that someday is today. This is our someday. This is all we know we have. Some of you have been saying someday when things settle down we are really going to focus on the kids. Someday when things settle down we’re going to put God first. Not unless you decide to put God first and to do those important things in the middle of your stressful life because things will never settle down. What I want to do today is point you to the one of the most powerful words in the English language---it’s mentioned twice in this verse.
PAULETTE PLEASE COME UP AT THIS POINT…
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2 Corinthians 6:2 “I tell you, NOW is the time of God’s favor, NOW is the day of salvation.”
The word of course is----NOW. NOW is the time. NOW is all we have. We’re always looking for someday. We’re always looking for that miracle someday, but the miracle is in the moment. [BLANK SLIDE]
PLEASE START PLAYING INVITATION HYMN SOFTLY IN BACKGROUND…
The miracle is always in the moment because that’s all we have. Remember what that verse in Romans 5 said—it said “We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that He has already thrown open His door to us!” In another way our invitation hymn says the same thing. It says when we come to Him----He receives us just as we are. And so if you’ve never done it before, I’m going to ask you to open the door of your heart to Christ now, in this moment. If you’d like to do that---if you’d like to welcome Jesus into your life and would like to be baptized into Him---or if you’d like to rededicate yourself to following Him more closely or you’d like to formally place membership with Central---I’d encourage you to come forward now---as we stand and sing “Just As I Am.” [SONG SLIDES]
NOTE TO THOSE WHO READ AND OR CHOOSE TO MAKE USE OF ANY OR ALL OF THIS SERMON: I am sharing this sermon with the hopes it will be an encouragement to others. I apologize for any blatant typing errors! If you find any I’d appreciate hearing from you so I can correct them. I try to give credit where credit is due, noting writers and or sources to the best of my ability. I have for years been drawing from a wealth of sources including this website. I recognize that my mind and writing processes are fallible. I may occasionally fail to properly identify a source. Please do not take offense if you see anything of this nature. I never intend to plagiarize. Having said that I want you to feel free to draw from my message. When appropriate I hope you will give credit as I do. But most of all I hope Christ will be lifted up and God will receive the glory in all things.
