I. INTRODUCTION
A. We all love a true story, don’t we?
1. It explains our fascination with reality TV shows ... we want to know what it’s really like behind the scenes of anything we think might be interesting.
B. I know for me, I love a true story ... I like to read, and much prefer true stories over fiction.
1. My favorite reading is autobiographies of presidents and other leaders, followed by biographies, because I love a true story.
a. In fact, whenever I’m in a bookstore, you’ll find me in those sections.
2. I was in a bookstore on Friday and couldn’t resist two great deals I found ...
a. “My FBI” by Louis Freeh, former Director of the FBI
b. “The Long Goodbye” by Patti Davis, on the final years of her experience with her father, President Ronald Reagan, as he was dying of Alzheimer’s disease.
C. As true a story as could be told is what we celebrate this Easter Sunday Morning.
1. Let’s read out loud together the story found in Luke 24.
D. I want to share with you today my assertion that Easter is actually MORE THAN just BASED ON a true story – it IS a true story.
1. Easter is MORE THAN just based on a TRUE story –
a. it is based on the Truth Himself, according to Jesus’ own words in John 14:6 when He said, “I am the way and the truth and the life.”
2. Easter is MORE THAN just based on a true STORY – it is based on HIS..STORY –
a. Everything we do in the shadow of time is based on BC (Before Christ) and AD, commonly thought to stand for “After Death”, but actually standing for the Latin term Anno Domini, which means "in the year of our Lord."
1) The B.C. / A.D. dating system is not taught in the Bible. It actually was not fully implemented and accepted until several centuries after Jesus’ death.
a) Purpose of BC / AD dating system was to make the birth of Jesus Christ the dividing point of world history.
b) However, when the B.C. / A.D. system was being calculated, they actually made a mistake in pinpointing the year of Jesus’ birth.
c) That is not the crucial issue. The birth, life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Christ are the "turning points" in world history ... that make
i) Easter MORE THAN just based on a true STORY – it is based on HIS..STORY –
E. I submit to you today that whether you know Jesus as your Lord or live your life as though you are your own lord,
1. Easter is MORE THAN just based on a true story – it’s based on YOUR story,
a. because YOU are the very reason He came to earth, lived as fully God and fully man, died on a cross and rose again three days later!
II. EASTER ... BASED ON A TRUE STORY — Consider the four pieces of every story ...
A. THE SETTING.
1. In the story we just read, the setting is in a garden like place, not unlike the cemeteries we visit today.
a. It wouldn’t have been as well manicured, and instead of the literal underground burials we know of today, Jesus’ tomb was crypt-like.
1) His tomb would have been cave-like in structure, hewn out of bedrock, with His body placed in a space called a loculus, which would have been carved into the wall with space enough to fit a body, much like what we see in mausoleums today.
b. The entrance to the tomb and very literally covered with a large boulder and sealed for security purposes.
1) Matthew’s account tells us that the guards were explicitly told to put a seal on the tomb, probably done with a cord and official wax so that tampering with the stone would be obvious.
2. Mark’s account of the approach of the two women to the tomb that Resurrection morning recounts them asking each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance to the tomb?”
a. Today, in the setting of what is our lives, we all have stones like that in front of the tombs of our hearts.
1) Stones that seem to impede us from getting to Jesus; things that weigh upon our hearts, that hold us back, that keep us in the shadow of the cross, rather than in the freedom of the resurrection.
b. And we know what those stones are: anger, hatred, selfishness, pride, arrogance, bigotry, fear.
1) Maybe it’s the stone of guilt. The stone of anxiety. Of feeling inadequate. Of feeling oppressed by your own sinfulness and brokenness.
c. There are so many of those stones that lie in front of our hearts, that keep us in tombs, trapped in our sepulchers of alienation from God and from one another.
1) There are times when we feel as unable to roll away those stones from the tombs of our hearts the way the women must have felt about a stone that would require twenty men to roll away.
3. But in THIS true story, the One Whose power rolled away that stone is the same person Whose love and power reaches for our hearts every day.
a. Rather than force His way into our lives, He waits patiently for us to call on Him in our moments of need so that He can display His power.
1) He doesn’t always take away the stones that keep us from Him, He often just rolls it away when we ask.
a) I find when I invite Jesus to deal with a stone that stands between me and Him, rarely does He take it away, never to be seen again.
2) What is true more often than not is that He rolls the stone away, and nearby it sits to remind me of His grace and mercy to set me free from the things that hold me back.
a) In the setting of that garden, God wants to meet you and me in the garden of our own lives to roll away those stones – what are your stones today?
B. THE PLOT.
1. Every story has one, and this one is NOT lacking!
a. This tomb was sealed on Friday, and has been opened on Sunday morning.
1) Intrigue sets in ...
a) Why would the disciples have stolen His body ... it MUST have been them .... it would have taken several people to overcome the guards and roll away that stone ...
2. But the guards KNOW what they saw!
a. They didn’t see the resurrection, but
1) they felt the earth shake,
2) they saw the light that emanated from the angel of God like lightning,
3) they heard the scraping of stone against stone as the angel rolled the boulder away to make room for Jesus to come out.
a) They will forever live with the truth ... they know they weren’t dreaming or hallucinating when the angels arrived on scene.
b. Lie they do anyway, the Bible tells us, and the receive bribe money
1) to keep their mouths shut about the truth and
2) to propogate a supposed and false story about a plot cooked up by the disciples to steal Jesus’ body so their story about His resurrection would hopefully make them look like fools
3. There’s a plot to your life too, and though you may sometimes wonder about whether or not God cares about it, you need to know that He does.
a. He calls the plot of your life your purpose.
1) He has a plan for your life, and the plot is thick and filled with challenges every day as you and I are left with free will to choose Him or deny Him.
b. The biggest decisions in life are always made in the smallest corners of life.
1) The biggest decisions of life aren’t necessarily the ones we spend days, weeks, and sometimes months making for ourselves.
a) The biggest decisions are the 1000’s of small ones we make every day about what kind of life we live.
2) The biggest decisions in our lives are not always the ones that we think make the most common sense.
a) They’re very often the ones that carry the largest investment, though in reality they are so small in nature.
3) The largest decisions any of us ever make are the ones that hardly anyone ever sees.
a) They’re decisions of character, integrity, honesty, living the same life in public as you do in private.
4) And these 1000s of decision you and I make every day have everything to do with whether or not we are fulfilling God’s purposes for our lives.
4. Listen – life is full of complications!
a. They’re just part of the PLOT of your story, your life.
1) Anyone ever stopped to think that God has a way of complicating your life?
b. Sin has a way of complicating your life in a negative way, but
1) God has a way of complicating your life in a positive way.
c. The complications that you and I see as roadblocks to what we want are often blessings that open us up to more of what God wants!
1) Many of you know of my struggle with clinical depression – it’s a complication that I used to see as a result of some kind of sin in my life.
a) Problem was that I could never figure out what the sin was that was causing it.
b) With the help of a few good friends, I’ve been able to recognize that my depression is a positive complication that God has used to slow me down and wake me up to ways I live that have to do with over-DOING and over-WORKING.
5. In the midst of every day challenges, God wants you to know today that He is concerned with the plot of your life, and He is committed to fulfilling your purpose if you’ll let Him come alongside you by giving your life to Him.
“Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You preserve my life; You stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes, with Your right hand you save me. The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me;” Psalm 138:7-8
a. That truth brings us to considering...
C. THE CHARACTERS.
1. In Jesus’ day, He was obviously the central character.
a. Today, when we read or see a book or movie that is supposedly based on a true story, we are familiar with the explanatory phrase that tells us the actual names have been changed to protect the innocent.
1) Well, in Jesus’ case, He IS the innocent One Who is put to death for OUR guilt, and there remains to this day ne reason for His Name to be changed to protect Him.
a) Bible says there is POWER in His Name, and it comes in many shapes and forms, still inadequately characterizing the fullness of Who God is and wants to be to you and me this Easter morning!
2. Obviously, back on the actual Resurrection morning, Jesus is the central character.
a. Starting in the Garden of Eden, but still holding true today, is that we start out in life believing that WE are the central character in our lives.
1) We think life is all about US as the central characters, when all the while, God wants to be the central character.
a) As the One Who created you and has paved the way for your eternity to be spent with Him in heaven, He deserves nothing less than to be the central character – the driving force, of our lives.
3. The question is – Who is the central character in your life?
a. Who REALLY runs your life? Who REALLY calls the shots?
4. Are you living from the script of what everybody else thinks about who you should be and what you should do?
a. Are you still living from the life script pressed upon you from birth through the imperfections of your family?
1) “You’re no good ... you’ll never amount to anything!”
2) “Don’t trust ANYone! You can only trust yourself!”
3) “Be perfect! You can’t make mistakes.”
4) “You’re not worthy of the love that God gives.”
5) “You’re invisible or unimportant.”
5. Or are you looking to THE Script, God’s Word, to direct your path and confirm your steps?
a. He reveals Himself to you in His Word – what script are you REALLY living from?
6. Don’t be fooled! The enemy of your soul, the devil, wants you to believe that you’ll be OK if you run your own life.
a. He’s crafty, and he wants to make you believe that the plot of your life should be whatever you think is best, and he wants you to believe that YOU are the central character of your life.
1) He wants you to doubt whether or not God really says what He says in this book, all to get you off track into living as though YOU are the central character in the story of your life.
a) Just like back in the Garden of Eden, when the devil presented Himself to Eve and asked her, “Did God REALLY say to not eat of the tree of good and evil?”
7. God knows you want the best for your life, and He does too –
a. but don’t be fooled for a second into believing that you can just follow your heart to whatever please you and you’ll be OK.
8. God gives us the painful reality – “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? Jeremiah 17:9
9. God desires to have your heart, that He would be the central character of your life.
a. What are you waiting for to make Him the Boss of your life?
1) Maybe, just maybe, you’re thinking it’ll all turn out right when you consider the final piece of your story ...
D. THE END.
1. Ah, the end — Anyone remember the theme line of Jaws 2?
a. Just when you think it’s safe to go back in the water ....
1) On Good Friday, it was widely believed that Jesus’ death was the end of Him.
2. Throughout human history, we have honored those who die courageously for a noble cause.
a. We write stories and make statues and establish holidays in their honor.
1) And in our culture, especially, we make movies.
a) And what draws us to these movies isn’t just the way a hero lives. It’s the way a hero dies!
2) In a sense, death is the final measure of a man. And it’s how the heroes die that makes their stories epic.
b. Movie at the box office right now, 300, that critics didn’t expect to do very well, but was one of the largest grossing R-rated films in history on opening weekend.
1) It’s the movie about the 300 Spartans, who resisted the Persians in the Battle of Thermopylae and fought to the death.
c. I’m no movie critic, and haven’t seen the movie myself, but I think the movie is doing as well as it is because we are mysteriously drawn to a courageous death.
1) That’s why some of us watch movies like Braveheart or Gladiator over and over again.
d. We are drawn to a William Wallace who scoffs at death: "Every man dies. Not every man really lives."
1) Same with Maximus Decimus Meridius, who says, "Death smiles at us all. All a man can do is smile back."
3. We admire those who live well. But the final test is really how someone faces death.
a. Do they die well? Do they die with their integrity intact? Do they die for a noble cause? Does their death make a difference?
4. It’s hard to measure the way someone dies, but I think it’s safe to say that no death was more noble or more courageous than the death of Christ.
a. And no death makes a bigger difference!
1) Because of both His death AND His resurrection, the script for your life’s story doesn’t have to end with just what we know or possess here on earth.
5. Your eternity, what happens at the end of your life’s story here on earth, can be sealed once and for all with one decision today.
a. It happens to be the most important decision that anyone could ever make!
1) The end of any one of our lives will most likely come at an unexpected moment – what will happen when it does?
b. Too many in Jesus’ day really thought that Good Friday was the end, when in truth it was only the beginning!
1) Jesus’ resurrection makes the statement that God intends that we will all live life forever, either with Him or without Him.
6. Last week’s Newsweek magazine had an article that simplified a philosophical statement written by French Philosopher Blaise Pascal about His belief in God.
a. Statement is known as Pascal’s wager, and Newsweek simplified it by writing, “it is smarter to bet that God exists, and to believe in Him, because if it turns out that He is real, you win everything; if He is not, you lose nothing. so why not take the leap of faith?”
1) Friends, whether you know Christ as your Savior today or not, this truth applies to you.
b. If you’ve been waiting to make the decision to accept Jesus and allow Him to be the central character of your life story, why wait any longer?
1) Why make the wager with your eternity?
c. Let’s say you give your life to Jesus today and live the rest of your days for Him instead of yourself, betting on whether or not He is real.
1) If you die tomorrow and I’m right, you’ve gained everything.
a) If I’m wrong, and there is no God or eternal life, you’ve lost NOTHING.
7. It could be that you’ve said almost all your life that you believe in God, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, maybe you’ve even prayed a prayer of salvation at some point before today,
a. But in truth, you’ve rarely surrendered your will to His, and have lived with you as the central character more often than you’ve allowed Him to live that role.
1) Today is your day to surrender to Him fully.
8. Maybe you’re here today and you’ve heard the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection, but have just plain not wanted to give your life to Him.
a. Let me say to you – don’t bet your life that way! Give your life to Jesus today.
9. Maybe you’ve been a Christian for a long time, and you’re realizing today that there’s a stone or two that God is wanting to roll away.
a. There’s a new place God wants to bring you to as you give Him that stone.
10. Whatever place you find yourself in today, what are you willing to allow God to do in you this morning?
III. CONCLUSION
A. Invitation – Worship Team
