Easter Sunday Sermon April 1, 2018
Imagine if all of the mistakes you have made were completely erased. What would your life be like?
Every regret, every action, every word spoken that you regret, erased. Never happened. What would tha
t be like?
We might think that life would be awesome, or at least much better.
Now, imagine if all of the mistakes that you were made were forgiven. What would your life be like?
Those are 2 very different questions. And to answer them I want us to consider the power of what we celebrate on this day. I want us to think about the power of the resurrection.
I want us to think about the power of the resurrection because the power of the resurrection is the power to change.
The power of the resurrection is:
The power to let go of your past, to leave the past behind.
The power of the resurrection is the power to start over
The power of the resurrection is the power to keep going when you're out of power, out of energy.
It is the power to change your life.
We're going to explore this in the short time that we have right now.
The power to let go of your past, to leave the past
Time is a strange thing. Most of what happens to us in the day to day does really stay with all that long. But make a mistake, or have a traumatic experience, and we remember it quite well.
I recall driving with Barbara and some friends to a baseball game in Kitchener back in 1989. I was driving, and I was having an intense conversation with someone in the back seat, my friend, John Epp, who I used to work with at Evergreen.
I would turn my head to look at him while we were speaking. This went on for a while, and then the traffic came to a halt and I didn't stop in time because of being distracted.
I hit the car in front of us and caused some damage to the car, a friend's car.
Now I don't really remember anything else that year, but I do remember that day, that event. I remember the fear of realizing at the last second that I didn't have time to break, knowing I was going to hit the car in front of us.
I remember the embarrassment of doing such a foolish thing. I remember the regret. I remember it like it was yesterday. Do you think I recall much else about 1989? Nope.
Now, I wish that hadn't happened. And in the scenario of the question I started with, it wouldn't have happened. I would have no memory of that day, and no regrets because I wouldn't have done anything wrong.
Do you think I would have learned about the dangers of driving while distracted by an intense conversation? No!
Which means I most likely would have done that same thing some other day; some other year, I may well have had an accident for the same reason, maybe a more serious accident. I would not have learned a blessed thing.
Forgiven
The friend whose car I smashed that day forgave me. That meant that he bore the results of my carelessness. He had to pay to have the car repaired, because I was a student and had zero money. So my lesson cost someone else dearly.
Because I was forgiven, I didn't have to pay the cost. Someone else did.
And because I was forgiven, I acquired wisdom so that I could go forward and not make such mistakes again. That is the benefit of screwing up and then being forgiven.
The power of the resurrection is the power to let go of your past, to leave the past behind.
We all have hang ups, hinderances, heaviness. We have regrets, recriminations and mistakes we recycle in our minds over and over again.
The resurrection of Jesus the Christ means that He has triumphed over sin, over our mistakes, our regrets over the guilt of our mistakes. All that could be held against has been forgiven because of Jesus' death and resurrection.
That means we can let go of the regrets of our past. We can revisit them only to learn from them and to celebrate that we've been forgiven. That is the power of the resurrection.
The power of the resurrection is the power to start over.
A few months back at the start of January, how many here made some kind of resolution to change? How's that going? I was going to work out in my chilly, chilly basement. Yeah, right.
Maybe you want to shed some pounds. Maybe you want to finally break from your old addictions.
Maybe you want to stop dating cute jerks and finally find a decent person to settle down with.
Will power can last you at most six months, best case scenario. Then you’re back to your old addictions, that whole pattern of relationships, old stuff but you really want to leave behind you but can’t.
To quote Rick Warren, "most people are stuck in the past. They've got grief, they've got guilt, and they've got grudges. Habits hurts and hang ups. You can't get on with the present because your stuck in the past".
Because of the resurrection of Jesus, when we believe it and when we choose to follow Jesus as a result of believing it, our pasts are forgiven.
“Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. Isaiah 1:8
Because of the resurrection of Jesus you and I have the power to start over. God gives us ceaseless opportunities to be revived and refreshed. We can start again.
Are you feeling done for? Are you feeling like your stuck in a loop and stuck in the same old same old. Feeling stale and listless and pointless because the pile of regrets behind you is like a burden strapped to your back your back that keeps you from moving forward?
The power of the resurrection is the power to start over. And that's important because we all mess up a lot. Sometimes we wish we could just start over, hit delete, flip over and shake that old etchasketch.
The power of the resurrection gives you the power to start over. It's a fresh start, it's a new beginning, it's like being born again. It's a fresh start. It's a new life. That's the power of the resurrection. It's the power to start over.
The power to keep going.
The power to keep going. We run out of steam before we get to the end of the assignment. I have so much to do but I feel like giving up. The power of the res is the power to keep going, when your out of your own energy and God gives you
The power of the resurrection is your power to start over, to begin again to be....born again. That's what Jesus means when He says those well known words in John 3. "You must be born again".
We need to start over. We need to be spiritually reborn. We need spiritual life to come into us and that spiritual life is the power of the resurrection of Jesus.
The power of the resurrection is the power to keep going when you're out of power, out of energy. It is the power to change your life.
The power to let go of your past, to leave the past behind.
It is the power to change your life.
There are some here today who have tried everything else but God. And when the preacher stands up here and talks about the gospel they shut their ears. "Nothing's working in my life, but I'm not going to even consider God".
I get that. I used to be you. I was raised to believe there's nothing was dumber than to believe in God. But eventually I took a hard, honest look at my life. I had reason to stop and pause and wonder if I was mistaken.
I did that and discovered that God is real and that God is good. Completely, and I mean completely changed my life for the better.
But maybe one of you is thinking "Maybe the old way isn't working. Ok, if I'm honest it's obvious my old way isn't wrking".
I want to encourage you to consider the power of the resurrection and these differences that it will make in your life if you open up your heart to the love of God, the love that was demonstrated so clearly as Jesus willingly went to the cross, as Jesus willingly suffered the penalty for our sins.
The mission is here to support you as you change. Bridges, the courses and support groups and the staff, myself, Pastor Arleen, Janice, Joseph and more are here to journey with you and support you as your life changes as your life changes, as you get used to a better life.
And we know from experience that the deepest and most lasting changes happen when a person opens up their life to the limitless possibilities of a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
We believe in Jesus and trust in Him to guide our lives and to guide the mission because we know that life in God works.
We believe that on Good Friday, Jesus died. There, He paid for our sins, He bore the consequences for our mistakes and sins so that in eternity you and I don’t have to.
So may each of us consider the power of the resurrection.
The power of the resurrection to leave the past behind so we can be present now, the power of the resurrection, and the power of the resurrection to bring us ultimately into the presence of God forever. Amen.
