Abc - The Building Blocks Of Faith - Consummation Series

Today we continue our series entitled, The ABC’s of faith. The larger idea is based on the idea that we learn over time through an exploration process of success and failure. Everything we come to know and understand is built over time on the foundation of trial and error.

We learned last week, the wooden blocks we have all played with were an idea in 1594, a practical concept 100 years after that, and only then it would take another 175 years to be mass practiced and produced as the blocks we know and love from Brooklyn, New York.

Last week, we talked about the cross and this week we complete our “C” alliteration by building on the ideas of creation, corruption, catastrophe, confusion, Christ, and the cross by talking about the most important aspect of our Christian witness: Consummation

On this Easter Morning, I’d like for us to get to the core truth of Easter and to do that we must ask the question, “What is the impact of Jesus’ rising from the dead mean for humanity? AND Why is Jesus’ rising from the dead considered Good News?”

To begin with, Let’s work backward from the end of the story. An end, told to us in the book of Revelation, where the apostle John shares a revelation of what happens at the end of the physical world as we know it. Each person is judged on a scale according to their good and bad deeds. It’s a scene many only glance at because of the difficulty we have with God who will judge the living and the dead (Revelation 20:10-15, Revelation 21:6-8). After all, we all believe we are pretty good people and good people go to heaven right? Isn’t it logical to think if I behave on earth, then a good and loving God would be fair by letting me into heaven?

But how good is good enough? Is it graded on a curve? Do those who never heard of Jesus, or those who were brought up in abusive households, or those who are mentally ill, get a pass? Isn't good enough subjective, varying by degrees based on an individual's feeling of what is right and wrong?

We could say isn't that what the Bible is for Afterall, aren’t the ten commandments and all the other commands in the Old Testament the dividing line between heaven and hell? The simple answer is no. The Old Testament commandments and laws are a complicated system of laws and sacrifices created to provide a social and civil framework of the nation of israel. They were never meant to offer a promise of heaven.

On the other hand, The New Testament is full of references to heaven and hell and it’s references are clear on our condition when judged by Jesus:

We all have sinned and fall short (rm 3:23),

There is no one who is righteous, not even one (rm 3:10),

For the wages of sin is death (rm 6:23)

and if that weren’t enough, Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by observing the law; rather through the law we become conscious of sin (rm 3:20).

So if the pretty good people don’t go to heaven and we all are flawed, what’s the criteria for being with Jesus?

There’s a wonderful story from Luke 23 where Jesus and two criminals are hanging on crosses near one another. One of the criminals is hurling insults at Jesus and the other utters his belief in Jesus and repents of his own misdeeds to which Jesus offers the thief a place in paradise or heaven with Him. Now this is a scandalous moment for those on the side of “good people go to heaven” because the thief knew He wasn’t good and Jesus welcomed Him because of his belief.

Jesus never subscribed to the idea: Good people go to heaven. To call Jesus Lord and Savior you are subscribing to an entirely different idea: Forgiven people go to heaven.

Our primary tenet is that God came to earth as Jesus, lived, performed miracles, made unique claims about God, was crucified on a cross by the Romans and rose from the dead after three days. Those who were there believed Jesus was the “lamb of God” who came to be sacrificed for the sins of the whole world. In so doing, he affirmed the millennium old belief and jewish teaching that forgiveness from God requires sacrifice. So what sacrifice could be large enough to make up for all of humanity’s sins - past, present and future? Only Jesus (God incarnate) could bring about a solution so complete. A solution He willingly completed by dying and if that weren’t enough, He rose.

He Has Risen! He has risen indeed.

Why did He rise?