MORE THAN SURVIVORS
LUKE 24:36-53
Now in its 14th season, Survivor is a reality game show, in which an assortment of people are “marooned” in a remote location in a battle for cash and prizes. The show uses a system of progressive elimination, allowing the contestants to vote off other tribe members until only one final contestant remains and wins the title of "Sole Survivor."
In some ways this show has become a parable of our time. We live at a time when survival seems to be the goal of living. We live in an attempt to not be voted off the island. We battle along against a flood of emotions and circumstances that seem to threaten our very survival, and leave us overwhelmed and drowning in a flood of despair, guilt, regret and loneliness.
Without the Resurrection, at best, we have a dead deity draped on a cross. At worst, without the Resurrection, Christianity degenerates into a moralistic religion of righteousness. That is a “grave” picture of mere survival.
But with the Resurrection new life is breathed back into shattered dreams. With the Resurrection, Christianity is an opportunity to experience new life and new living both for now and in the future. It lifts us above the level of mere survival to a life that is fulfilled and meaningful, lived with purpose.
The Resurrection is the crucial event in Christian history because of the incredible difference it makes in the lives of Christ-followers. But what is it about the Resurrection that makes it such a pivotal event upon which Christianity ultimately rises or falls? The answer to that question can partly be seen in the record of those who witnessed the Resurrection.
This morning we are going to look at 17 verses that end the book of Luke, and from those verses, we will see how the Resurrection has the power to lift us up above the drudgery of despair to a life lived to the full.
1) The Resurrection restores our hope (vs. 35-40)
La resurrección restaura nuestra esperanza
Before we look at verse 35, let me set the stage. Beginning at verse 13, the story is told of two men who are going back home. In their own words they describe the shattered dream that they have experienced. “The chief priests and our rules handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped …” We had hoped, but we hope no longer. We have given up our dream … and we are going home.
But a startling revelation was waiting for them. Because the one with whom they shared their shattered dreams was soon to breath new life back into their dreams. The Jesus whom they had given up for dead was alive.
Just like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, the disciples closeted away in hidden spaces had lost their hope. That is where verse 35 picks up.
“Then to two from Emmaus told their story of how Jesus had appeared to them as they were walking along the road and how they had recognized him as he was breaking the bread. And just as they were telling about it, Jesus himself was suddenly standing there among them. He said, ‘Peace be with you.’ But the whole group was terribly frightened, thinking they were seeing a ghost!
Can you see the hopelessness in the disciples’ response? Jesus is in the house and all they can think is Amityville Horror – a house possessed.
Someone has said, “We can live forty days without food, eight days without water, four minutes without air, but only a few seconds without hope.”
In his book Man’s Search for Meaning, Victor Frankl, successor of Sigmund Freud of Vienna, argued that the “loss of hope and courage can have a deadly effect on man.” As a result of his experiences in a Nazi concentration camp, Frankl contended that when a man no longer possesses a motive for living, no future to look toward, he curls up in a corner and dies.” Any attempt to restore a man’s inner strength in camp,” he wrote, “had first to succeed in showing him some future goal.”
We all have had shattered dreams that have crushed some sense of hope. It may have been in the loss of a loved one, a treasured relationship that was broken, the loss of a job, a letter of refusal in response to your high school of college application, or perhaps a sin that we have committed that we just can’t believe God would forgive, and in that moment your dreams shattered and lay broken on the floor. It seemed as if your whole reason for living had instantly vanished, leaving you with no reason to go on.
That is how these disciples felt. But the Resurrected One reached across that brokenness and restored their hope.
‘Why are you frightened?’ he asked. ‘Why do you doubt who I am? Look at my hands. Look at my feet. You can see that it’s really me. Touch me and make sure that I am not a ghost, because ghosts don’t have bodies, as you see that I do!’ As he spoke, he held out his hands for them to see, and he showed them his feet.”
Hope delivers us from the despair that nothing we do matters.
When we arrived in Chicago nearly 18 years ago, I had a lot to learn about the urban environment and urban ministry. Pastor Ernie, our friend from New Hope Christian Missionary Baptist Church, became my early instructor. He was the black man that allowed me to ask all my stupid white man questions. One of those questions was why in some neighborhoods African-Americans let their property go unmaintained, why they didn’t take care of their homes. His answer was short and simple. They don’t believe that things will ever get any better so they don’t see any reason to keep it up … they have lost hope.
And yet it is in hopeless situations like that when the power of the Resurrection is unleashed, and hope is renewed that lives are transformed in simple ways. Are you aware that actual studies have shown that when the Gospel impacts the core of a neighborhood at its heart it actually becomes cleaner? Hope has been restored … there is now a reason to live.
It is this resurrected hope that initiated the transformation of these rag-tag hideaways into a determined forced that transformed the world. And when hope is restored other transformations follow.
2) The Resurrection refreshes our joy (vs. 41-42, 52)
La resurrección actualiza nuestro gozo
“And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, ‘Do you have anything to eat?’ They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence.”
The idea that Luke is presenting in these two verses is a sense of “It’s too good to be true” – not denial – but an overwhelming sense of joyous amazement that completely catches them off guard. So Jesus pinches them to let them know it’s really true.
In verse 52, it says:
“They worshiped him and then returned to Jerusalem filled with great joy.”
My question is this: When did a healthy, well-exercised sense of humor get sacrificed on the altar of adulthood? Who says becoming a responsible Christian means a long face and an all-serious attitude toward life?
Many of us project lives of such seriousness that you would never know that the cloud of hopelessness and despair had been lifted from our lives.
In many of our homes – dare I say most? – laughter has left. Joy that was once a vital ingredient in family life has departed, leaving hearts that seldom sing, lips that rarely smile, eyes that no longer dance, and faces that say no. Tragically, this is true in Christian homes as well as non-Christian … maybe more so.
Tough times are upon us, no question. The issues we all face are both serious and real. But are they so intense, so all-important, so serious and all-consuming that every expression of joy should be eclipsed?
Sorry, I can’t buy that. Some critics would be quick to point out that our times do not lend themselves to such an easygoing, joy-driven philosophy. They would ask, “Under the circumstances how could I be anything but grim?” To which I reply, “What are you doing under the circumstances?” Correct me if I’m wrong, but with a post-Resurrection mindset, isn’t the Christian life to be lived above the circumstances? Shouldn’t the reality of Resurrection eternally alter our perception and perspective on our circumstances. If we have experienced the Resurrection, a new spirit of joy and amazement at life will be breathed back into us.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a pivotal Christian thinker of our time, said, “Joy is the surest sign of the presence of God.” This Jesuit priest-theologian-anthropologist had a good deal in common with the Presbyterian sages who penned the Westminster Confession of Faith. The bottom line for you and me is simply this: grimness is not a Christian virtue. There are no sad sack saints. If God really is the center of one’s life and being, if Christ really did conquer the grave and death, joy is inevitable. If we have no joy, we have missed the heart of the Good News.
But don’t get me wrong. Joy is not equated with naïve happiness. I am not proposing the preposterous notion that Christians paste on a plastic smile, and naively laugh our way through our difficulties. Joy takes our pain and trails seriously, but is exhibits a contented joy because of the life renewing hope of the Resurrection.
Without exception, people who consistently laugh do so in spite of; seldom because of their circumstances. They pursue joy rather than wait for it to knock on their door in the middle of the day. Such infectiously joyful believers have no trouble convincing people around them that Christianity is real and that Christ can transform a life. Joy is the flag that flies above the castle of their hearts, announcing that the King is risen.
3) The Resurrection renews our mission (vs. 44-49)
La resurrección renueva nuestra misión
Vs. 44:
“Then he said, ‘When I was with you before, I told you that everything written about me by Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms must all come true.’ Then he opened their minds to understand these many Scriptures. And he said, ‘Yes, it was written long ago that the Messiah must suffer and die and rise again from the dead on the third day. With my authority, take this message of repentance to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem: ‘There is forgiveness of sins for all who turn to me.’ You are witnesses of all these things. And now I send the Holy Spirit, just as my Father promised. But stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven.’”
Now don’t miss this: This house full of hopeless disciples holding up in their hideaway in 47 days become a force, with the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, to start a world transforming movement that lasts to this very day.
Perhaps, this is the stage where we see the biggest difference between Survivor and our lives as disciples who are meant to do more than survive. On Survivor the goal is to be the Sole Survivor. In Survivor, you attempt to systematically remove the competition. However, as followers of Christ, our aim is to be an instrument of rescue for other would be survivors.
You see, the Resurrection is not just an event just for us. It is an event that is meant to be shared. It is an event that needs to be spoken into the lives of millions of others that are still sorely suffering in the midst of their hopeless and joyless lives.
And that responsibility rests squarely on the shoulders of those who have experienced the life renewing side of the Resurrection. Jesus statement, “You are witnesses of all these things” is just as true of us as it was to disciples to which he spoke them.
Recently, I was asked to assess the effectiveness of the outreach ministry of FCC. Here is my assessment … until we, as a congregation, every last member, owns the responsibility of outreach, FCC will never grow as it could. Highly effective churches leverage every member’s confession of a Resurrected Christ into a commitment to share that Christ with others.
Have you been actively fulfilling your mission over the last week … last month … year? Are you going out of your way to offer others a taste of the hope and joy that comes from Christ? Are you giving the Holy Spirit every opportunity to use you to touch another soul with the life-giving power of the Resurrection?
The Resurrection restores our hope. It refreshes our joy, and it renews our mission. Finally, …
4) The Resurrection revives our worship (vs. 50-53)
La resurrección restablece nuestra adoración
Vs. 50:
“Then Jesus led them to Bethany, and lifting his hands to heaven, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up to heaven. They worshiped him and then returned to Jerusalem filled with great joy. And they spent all of their time in the Temple, praising God.”
Literally, vs. 52-53 read, “And they returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were constantly worshiping God in the temple.”
Here Resurrection joy finds its outlet in worship. He is risen … this is not cause for glum worship. The Resurrection overwhelms and overflows into joy-filled celebration of a new life found only in the Resurrected One. This is the fresh breath of air that lifts our worship up from the drudgery of the mundane to a soaring celebration of Christ.
How is your worship? Does it need some life breathed into it – does it need resuscitated from the mundane? It’s easy to look at others when our worship becomes distracted – but the key is the attitude of the worshiper. Revived worship is worship that is obsessed with celebrating God – worship that is so intent on Him that the distractions around it don’t disturb.
You see, the circumstances that drove the disciples into hiding hadn’t changed so much. The people who killed Jesus still had it in for his followers. But daily the disciples ran into their midst because of an overwhelming desire to celebrate God.
Now, notice the adverb that describes the extent of their worship … constantly … an unending, incessant, relentless, unremitting, unstoppable, endless string of minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years each calling me to spend just a little bit more time blessing God. I love how the New Living Translation has phrased it … “They spent all their time in the Temple praising God.” That hits at the core thought of the verse. Worship becomes the heart and soul of our lives. Revived worship that springs from celebrating the Risen One cannot be restricted to our twentieth and twenty-first century obsession with a time piece. It encompasses every minute of our lives.
This week, I heard someone ask, “Worship is going to be the primary activity of heaven, and if we don’t have time for it while we are alive, why in the world would we want to go to heaven?”
Can I get personal a minute? Revived worship doesn’t set limits on how long we worship because no amount of time is ever enough for us to declare our love for God. Revived worship can’t be restricted to a defined number of songs because no number of songs is sufficient for us to express our love and appreciation to God. Revived worship does not obsess about the length of the sermon because the worshiper is preoccupied with wondering over the Word of God.
What is the limit on your worship? What is the chance that God would say to you, “Leaving so soon? I was hoping that you would stay around for a little while longer.”
Conclusion
The Resurrection is more than how we entered worship today. The Resurrection is an event that reaches out to us … and our hearts that have been sucked dry by the silent desperation of our times are restored, refreshed, renewed, and revived by transforming hope, an overwhelming joy, a sense of mission, and a consistent worship.
Are you surviving the challenges of life? Are you “getting along”, or just “getting by”, maybe with the breath knocked out of you, but you will survive? For you, I hope for more than survival. God has big plans for you. Resurrection is our annual reminder that we have been created for a life that is more than mere survival.
Resurrection assures us that we were created for more than an overwhelming flood that has placed us on the verge of extinction. God doesn’t want us to just make it through. The message of Easter is that God offers us victory and hope for the toughest of life’s challenges.
