Good News From The Graveyard

• Nowhere in Scripture are we told to set aside a day to commemorate this special day called Easter. NO WHERE!

• Likewise, nowhere nowhere in the scriptures are we told to set aside a day to commemorate Christmas. NO WHERE!

BUT CHRISTIANS THROUGH THE DECADES OF TIME HAVE SET ASIDE THESE TWO SPECIAL DAYS BECAUSE OF WHAT THEY MEAN TO THEM.

All over this nation today in every Bible-preaching church preachers like myself are preaching on the resurrection of Christ Jesus.

Illus: This makes me think of a fellow who only came to church on Easter.

• Every Easter you could count on him being there. But one Easter he did not come and a Christian man in the church decided to check on him.

• When he did this man told him he decided he was going to stop attending church on Easter.

• A man in the church asked him why he quit coming to church on Easter.

• He said I quit coming to church because the preacher only has one sermon. Every time I come to church he preaches that one sermon on the resurrection of Christ.

All over this nation every Bible preaching preacher are preaching on the Resurrection of Christ.

It is not because it is the only sermon they have, it is because everything in Christianity HINGES ON THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST and should be preached often.

It is the most important sermon that will ever be preached from this pulpit or any pulpit in this nation.

Illus: In the year 1770, the British were sent to Boston.

A silversmith named Paul Revere, and a friend of his named William Dawes, found out about a mission the British troops had, to steal the guns and gun powder from the Americans living in Lexington and Concord.

They decided to act quickly.

We are told by some historians that at 10:00 at night, Revere and his friend got their horses and started off to Lexington. They wanted to warn the people that the British were on their way.

Paul Revere is credited for those famous words, “The British are coming! The British are Coming!”

Some historians say that is not an accurate account. They say that as Revere and Dawes were traveling to warn the people, the British soldiers caught them and quickly arrested them. However, while they were being arrested, a man named Dr. Samuel Prescott got past the British soldiers. Prescott got to Concord, and the town’s people were ready for the attack.

These historians say that Samuel Prescott was the hero, but everybody has always given Paul Revere the credit for his midnight ride.

WHAT CAUSED THE CONFLICT?

The historians say that the reason Paul Revere receives the credit for delivering this life saving message, was because of a poem written by a man named Henry Wadsworth Longfellow called, “The Midnight Cry of Paul Revere”.

Longfellow named Paul Revere as the man who warned the people of Concord that the British were coming. So, even today many believe that Paul Revere is the main hero.

We probably never will know who delivered that very important message.

But the most important message that has ever been delivered is the message of the resurrection.

Never has so much depended on this one solitary message that, CHRIST AROSE FROM THE GRAVE AND IS NO LONGER THERE.

WHY IS THIS THE MOST IMPORTANT MESSAGE THAT HAS EVER BEEN DELIVERED?

• If He did not rise from the dead, we do not have a Savior, and we still remain in our sins.

• If He did not rise from the dead, He is the biggest deceiver that has ever existed in the history of mankind.

• If He did not rise from the dead, every nickel and dime we ever gave toward the spreading of the gospel was a waste.

• If He did not rise from the dead, every missionary that left his home to carry the gospel to the four corners of the earth, wasted his time.

• If He did not rise from the dead, every church building that has ever been built for the preaching of the Bible, and for worship, was a waste of time and money.

• If He did not rise from the dead, then every hour that ministers have spent studying God's Word, and preparing messages, was a waste of time.

Again look at I Cor. 15:16-19. We read, “For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.”

Without the resurrection we all would be hopeless!!!

Illus: This reminds me of a young boy received his 7th grade report card that showed the grading scale on the back of it. A, B, C, D, F, but this young man did not receive any of those grades.