An Offer You Can't Refuse

Well whether you are a visitor of a member, save the rapture all of us will die one day. We can do all we can to avoid it, we can prolong our life with better living, medicine, and technology…but Death is an enemy that we all must face one day. I saw an amazing statistic that said that 1 out of every 1 persons will die. I’m starting to think that my chances are pretty good. David once said, “there is only one step between me and death.” We all will die…and death is no respecter of persons. It takes the powerful and the meek, the actor and the banker, the rich and the poor, and both young and old alike.

But when we come to Easter, we hear the wonderful words we started off this service with, “He is not here, He is risen!” Because of the empty tomb we know that this life is not it, that something does lie beyond death’s door, and it’s no longer the great mystery it once was because Jesus Christ has defeated death once and for all, and He’s been there and has come back to life. And because He lives, we shall live as well.

I understand that a possum is supposedly an intelligent animal. Now we may disagree with that with the number of dead possums on the road. Someone once asked , “Why did the chicken cross the road?” And the answer was , “To prove to the possum it could be done!” But really a possum is an intelligent animal. When it comes up to a hole, it will not go in to that hole unless it sees two sets of tracks, one going in and one going out. If there’s only one set of tracks then that means that whatever was inside there is still there, but if there’s two set of tracks, then it knows that it is safe to go in.

When we come to the grave of Jesus, we see two sets of tracks, one going in and one going out. And now we know that it’s safe to go in, and Jesus has conquered not only death, but the fear of death as well. Hebrews 2:15 says that Jesus came to, “free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”

I told you that I had a chance to speak to Clarissa’s preschool classes. I actually got to do that twice last week, one lesson was on the crucifixion, the other was on the resurrection. And as we spoke on the resurrection and the hope we have, a little girl named Caelin Smith, the daughter of Brother Jody Smith of our cluster, raised her hand and with a small voice said, “My Me-Ma died two weeks ago.” and she put her hand down. My heart dropped and so I told her again how because Jesus is alive, her Me-Ma is alive and one day her body will be resurrected and she will see her Me-Ma again. And her little eyes lit up. Then another little girl raised her hand and said, “My hamster died!”

But what a great offer we have to know that death is longer the feared enemy, that there is life beyond death, and that we can have this living hope. This past Wednesday I got to preach at the nursing home, and it’s always a wonderful experience but this one was special for some reason. I guess because it was the Easter service for us there and the room where we preach at was packed full. And as we sang, there was a lady who looked to be in her 60’s who appeared to be a victim of a stroke. Her right side of her body was paralyzed, and her arm just hung uselessly by her side, and she was unable to talk in understandable words and she just sat there in her chair looking at me. Then we sang a song…I don’t know why I picked this song but I chose Victory in Jesus, and when we got to the chorus, the men and women…many who were inches away from death’s door began to sing loud and clear. “Victory in Jesus, my Savior Forever!” And that one lady began to just sing as loud as she could. You couldn’t make out the words, but you could make out the heart. And this crippled woman sang with hope. She knew her Savior, She knew she mattered to Him, He sought and bought her, She knew she had a clean slate, and she knew she had a home waiting for her.