(Pre-service intro)
We are celebrating an event that over a billion people around the world are gathering this day to celebrate: An event more people will bet on than the Super Bowl
An event more people will cheer than the Oscars
An event more people will partake of then the O.J. trial. (Now that’s a miracle.)
It is an event ROOTED IN TIME AND HISTORY, AND YET TIMELESS IN ITS IMPACT.
This week you may have seen cover stories in magazines noting the most recent archeological findings related to some of the very details of this event, and reminding us just how rooted in time and history is this event.
YET LIKE A STONE TOSSED INTO THE WATERS, THE RIPPLES CONTINUE OUTWARDS.
Like any event in time it relates to all that came before it and all that will follow…so it is with this most DEFINITIVE INVASION OF GOD.
For years of prophecy were revealing that God had HIGHER PLANS FOR HUMAN HISTORY. And at one definitive point in time one entered into the fulfillment of that prophecy, one whose authority bowed to no one, but to the Creator and Father of all who he came to make known, one whose power defied that of both political and religious leaders and instead showed his power in touching and transforming the most simple and sinful of all, and any who in humility and hunger had ears to hear. To them he preached of a new Kingdom…the Kingdom of God, not a new political order, but the very reign of God over the powers of evil behind the order of all things. And in many acts of power he revealed signs of this Kingdom.
Lives around him were being filled with hope. But the climax of this great invasion surprised them all. Suddenly a triumphant entry into Jerusalem was leading the appearance of tragedy…talk of suffering and betrayal…an arrest…a trial filled with mockery …and finally a most hideous crucifixion. THERE IN THE GRAVE THEIR HOPES WERE SEALED BY A STONE.
…But then, early that third day, THE DAWN REVEALED THE POWER OF GOD BEYOND ANYTHING THEY HAD KNOWN.
Only now could they begin to understand the cross…God hadn’t lost to the opposition, but used the opposition to reveal his opportunity…and they partook of it. The defeat was actually a door and they entered, the tragedy was part of the triumph and they shared in it, the ultimate sacrifice had released the ultimate power, and they embraced it. Amen! Amen!
The Easter celebration is simply this: WE LIVE IN A WORLD IN WHICH GOD GETS THE LAST WORD. Whatever stones have sealed your hopes, I pray you may know God’s power to move them. Even stones of uncertainty for those of you searching. We welcome you as openly as Christ Himself.
(Intro to drama)
In celebrating the resurrection of Christ, we are reminded in Scripture that this event was never merely an impersonal concept of power, but a personal encounter.
“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, [4] that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, [5] and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. [6] After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. [7] Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, [8] and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.” 1 Cor. 15:3-8
The apostle Paul, once a religious leader known as Saul, who was compelled to silence the testimony concerning Christ, himself was encountered and changed. He discovered that although those first encounters were themselves unique by the nature of being rooted in the actual time and history the testimony carries on, and so does the power of God to encounter each of us with His resurrection presence and power by the Spirit.
The apostle Paul prays for us all, “I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can see something of the future he has called you to share…I pray that you will begin to understand how incredibly great his power is to help those who believe him. It is that same might power that raise Christ from the dead”. Ephesian 1:18-20 (LB)
His emphasis on you. This power comes not to a planet but people, not to the universe, but YOU.
How might we understand this power? …Catch something of this future?
Perhaps the best introduction to his power, was itself introduced to those most unlikely…those who took part in his death.
A guard who was a part of those who came to arrest Jesus, and there had been one of Jesus’ followers who foolishly cut of the guards ear in defense of Jesus.
A prisoner named Barabus, himself awaiting death, having been found guilty of insurrection and murder.
A centurion official, whose responsibility it was to watch over this controversial figures death.
Each of these God had begun to “cut in on” unexpectedly, to trust in the hope and power at hand.
HOW THEIR SOULS, ONCE AWAKENED, MUST HAVE STIRRED THAT NIGHT AT THE LOCAL CLUB.
[DRAMA]
Each life saw something of the future, something of the power of God and was summoned by it. They discovered a divine intervention…a divine presence at hand. The resurrection would confirm that power. AND WHAT IS THIS POWER THAT COMES TO CALL OUR LIVES?
1. The power to RELEASE US: BY DEFEATING THE POWER OF SIN AND SHAME
Like Barabus, we all stand guilty before a good God.
Though not as prisoners who have been publicly condemned, but prisoners of our own honest conscience.
We can change the names or cover the whispers of our conscience, but sin and shame are now an inevitable enemy in our human existence.
Ill: A lawn of weeds…dug it out…came back sprayed it dead … it came back !! (We know why they call it “Devils grass”…it’s nature is rebellious!)
So with life, try as we might…our nature sprouts impurity…Shouldn’t surprise us…
For the separation of humanity from God is depicted way back in the garden…We have a broken relationship with God, both in the depths of our souls and the actions of our hearts. This is precisely the reason Christ came.
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Romans 3:23-24 (NIV)
> Redeemed means “to buy back through exchange,” He bore our cost.
“He has forgiven all our sins…and canceled every record of debt we had to pay. Christ has done away with it by nailing it to the cross.” Co. 2:14 (JB)
If we exchange our lives with his.
HOW MANY SINS ARE LEFT UNFORGIVEN?
HOW MANY SECRET RECORDS AWAIT US?
NONE… NOT ONE !! Jesus words on the cross, “It is finished” =“Paid in full,” and the resurrection serves as a receipt.
If you feel condemned by your past, ashamed of not being all you believe you should be, Jesus says “Come to me all who are weary, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you…my yoke is easy…my burden is light.”
If we will give Him our lives, and receive Him as Lord of our own, we can enjoy the freedom he offers. For the resurrection attests that he indeed has defeated those powers forever.
Second and similarly, the guard saw something of the power of God, not just to release us from the past, but
2. THE POWER TO RESTORE US, BY DEFEATING THE POWER OF EVIL
As moved as he was to have his ear restored…he may have been even more moved by the power of Christ’s heart in the process. As the Bible says “do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” He had seen many rulers, but none were any different.
This man… this Christ…he doesn’t use power for powers sake. Only such a supernatural nature could make something of this mess. How much greater would the resurrection reveal that God has the ability to overcome evil with good… “to work all thing together for good.”
Over a hundred years ago, in a Scottish seaside inn, a group of fishermen were relaxing after a long day at sea. As a serving maid was walking past the fishermen’s table with a pot of tea, one of the men made a sweeping gesture to describe the size of a fish he claimed to have caught. His hand collided with the teapot and sent it crashing against the whitewashed wall where its contents left an irregular brown splotch.
Standing nearby, the innkeeper surveyed the damage. “That stain will never come out,” he said in dismay. “The whole wall will have to be repainted.” “perhaps not.”
All eyes turned to the stranger who had just spoken. “What do you mean?” asked the innkeeper.
“Let me work with the stain.” said the stranger, standing up from his table in the corner. “If my work meets your approval, you won’t need to repaint the wall.”
The stranger picked up a box and went to the wall. Opening the box, he withdrew pencils, brushes, and some glass jars of linseed oil and pigment. He began to sketch lines around the stain and fill it in here and there with dabs of color and swashes of shading. Soon a picture began to emerge. The random splashes of tea had been turned into the image of a stag with a magnificent rack of antlers.
At the bottom of the picture, the man inscribed his signature. Then he paid for his meal and left. The innkeeper was stunned when he examined the wall. “Do you know who that man was?” he said in amazement. “The signature reads E. H. Landseer!” Indeed, they had been visited by the well-known painter of wildlife, Sir Edwin Landseer.
> God wants to take the stains and disappointments of our lives and not merely erase them, but rather turn them into a thing of beauty.
So it was to those Jesus came to…
Traitorous tax collectors became testimonies of God’s generosity
Harlots became heroes.
Fisherman, well set in their profession but lacking any greater sense of meaning, are made fishers of men.
Jesus came to offer not just eternal life, but abundant life. “Not just to add days to our lives, but life to our days.”
If you have found your life story is stuck, the resurrection testifies that God can join you in finishing the story.
Finally…
3. THE POWER TO REVEAL ETERNITY,
BY DEFEATING THE POWER OF DEATH AND FUTILITY.
Death is a strange reality in our culture. Perhaps because we are the leaders of modernity who have learned to control so much we are inclined to avoid the final futility of all our endeavors.
As a result we have been called a “culture of youth” (and often turn away from our older members)
We seek thrills to escape the telling mundane whispered in our souls
We pay great salaries to sports figures and celebrities …so we can live vicariously through them.
Do we find freedom from death? …or maybe just slavery to our fears of a different kind. For death is inescapable.
My hairs are graying, my gut is loosening and my aches are growing…
Saw T-shirt “He who dies with the most toys…still dies.”
In an Indiana cemetery there lies a tombstone which reads:
“Pause stranger, when you pass me by
As you are now, son once was I
As I am now, so you will be
So prepare for death and follow me.”
An unknown passerby, read those words and scratched beneath them:
“To follow you I’m not content
Until I know which way you went.”
THE QUESTIONS OF DEATH that is what CAPTURED THE CENTURION. When he heard “It is finished” it sounded more like a beginning …an invitation. And so it was that the power of death itself, what the Scriptures refer to as the “last great enemy” was itself destroyed by the one who held its power and with it, fear and futility of life for those in Christ.
“Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” Hebrew 2:14-15 (NIV)
As a little boy and his father were driving down a country road on a beautiful spring afternoon. Suddenly out of nowhere a bumblebee flew in the car window. Since the little boy was deathly allergic to bee stings, he became petrified. But the father quickly reached out, grabbed the bee, squeezed it in his hand, and then released it. But as soon as he let it go, the young son became frantic once again as it buzzed by the little boy. His father saw his panic-stricken face. Once again the father reached out his hand, but this time he pointed to his hand. There stuck in hi skin was the stinger of the bee. “Do you see this?” he said. “You don’t need to be afraid anymore. I’ve taken the sting for you.” And this is the message of Easter. We do not need to be afraid of death anymore. Christ faced death for us. And by His victory, we are saved from sin. Christ has taken the sting! 1 Corinthians 15:22 ask: “Where, oh death, is your sting?” Christ has taken the stinger for us. He has risen! Fear is gone. New life is ours.
And so it is that the Resurrection establishes the defeat of our greatest enemies…sin, curses, and death, and God is still, through Christ and by his Spirit
releasing prisoners,
restoring lives,
and revealing eternity.
In the same way that the Star Spangled Banner picture that “the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air” gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.”
So, Christ came as the definitive invasion of God upon the powers and principalities of this world…AND STAKED THE CROSS AS HIS FLAG of and so the resurrection gives proof through our nights, that the Cross is still there, defeat at hand.
How can we enter…receive this power?
Not through an earnings program, or an enhancement program. It is an exchange program.
Christ came to us who are living only to die, and showed us how to die to live.
As we die to ourselves, to claiming absolute control of our lives, we can receive his life at work in us. That is what it means to invite Christ to be our Lord and Savior. C.S. Lewis “Die before you die. There’s no chance after.”
