Turning Towards Life
Easter Sunday April 16, 2006
Intro:
This resurrection Sunday morning is all about life. About new life, resurrected life, about abundant life. It is not about fixing up the old, making a few repairs, tweaking things here and there so that we can get by, so that we can cope, so that we can wearily trudge through yet another meaningless day. In Christ, the old is gone – removed, destroyed, obliterated – and the new is come. Jesus said, “I am making everything new” (Rev 21:5). This resurrection Sunday morning is all about life.
I want to ask you now, and I’m going to ask you several times throughout this message – are you alive.
A Trade Off
It is a trade off. In Jesus, God makes us an offer: “give Me everything you have, and I’ll give you everything I have.” That simple – it really is.
Let’s look for a moment at what we have:
• hurt
• sin
• weakness and frailty
• disease
• slavery to poor, destructive choices
• a limited ability to love and be loved
• helplessness
• death; spiritual and physical
Now, I don’t know why God wants that… but He does! What does He offer in return?
• healing
• forgiveness
• strength
• health
• freedom to choose the best
• a unlimited ability to love and be loved
• power
• life; abundant and eternal
The first part of this transaction takes place on the cross – Jesus took our pain and hurt. He took our sin. He took our weakness and frailty. He took our disease. He bore the consequences of all our destructive choices. He became helpless. He dies for us.
The second part of this transaction takes place at the empty tomb. Jesus conquers the pain and hurt and offers healing. He conquers sin and offers forgiveness. He conquers weakness and offers strength. He conquers the power of our destructive choices and offers the freedom to choose the best. He conquers helplessness and offers power. He conquers death and offers life – abundant and eternal.
Are you alive?
On Tuesday afternoon, I was driving home across the Quesnell bridge and looked down at the river to the west. I noticed how it was still covered with ice – blocked, stuck, not flowing freely. That same evening I was coming back to the church for an appointment and looked down at the river to the East – and I saw clear, un-stuck, freely flowing water. I was surprised, as just a few hours earlier I had seen the river stuck, so I looked over to the west, and sure enough, it was still covered with ice. The contrast hit me – on one side of the bridge – stuck, blocked, imprisoned. On the other, clear, flowing, free.
In the middle was the bridge. The cross and the empty tomb is exactly the same thing – on the one side are people who are stuck, blocked, covered with ice; and on the other are people who are free. The bridge represents the transaction point. Which side are you on?
I Understand Skepticism:
If the story were not so familiar to us – that Jesus died on the cross, was dead and buried, and then on the third day was resurrected from the dead – we would likely find it somewhat difficult to accept. That is ok; even some of the earliest followers of Jesus we skeptical, which we are going to look at in a moment.
They were skeptical because dead people don’t come back to life – that is not how things work in this world. Dead is dead – period. We are skeptical because we perhaps haven’t seen the drastic change, in ourselves or in others – we think we’ve made the transaction and “given up” our stuff, but we don’t feel like we’ve received God’s part back. We are going to look at that in a moment also.
“Some” doubted:
One of Jesus’ twelve disciples is a man named Thomas. He has been labeled by history as “the doubter”, as a result of this story from John 20:
“19On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" 20After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
21Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." 22And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."
24Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!"
But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it."
26A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" 27Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe."
28Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"
29Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
We have no idea why Thomas was not present at the first appearance – the Bible doesn’t tell us. It just says he wasn’t – and since he wasn’t, I think Thomas is perfectly justified in not believing the other disciples. This news the disciples bring is not something to believe second-hand; and this is true for each of us also, we each have to meet the resurrected Jesus personally.
Thomas’ doubt is ok; all he asked for was the same proof, the same experience that the other disciples had – and Jesus treats it as ok. Jesus is not harsh or condemning in His response to Thomas – and when Thomas sees, he believes and he accepts and he worships and he owns the faith for himself – “My Lord and my God!”
And by the way, Thomas was not the only one who doubted. Matt 28 tells us, “16Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.” The word is plural – “some”.
Some still doubt:
Some of you here this morning still doubt. Perhaps it is because you have only heard the reports second-hand, through the testimonies of others, like Jordan and Janette. That is a great start, because you have heard first-hand experiences of people just like you who have been transformed. But for you, you have not yet meet the risen Lord Jesus, you have not yet traded all you have for all God has. The invitation is open today – to come and meet Jesus. To open your heart, to ask God the same thing that Thomas did, to see for yourself. The offer is life.
Others doubt because we’ve made the first step, we’ve said the same words as Thomas did when he met Jesus, but we’re looking at our lives and wondering where the drastic change is, where the freedom is, where the power is, where the forgiveness is, where the life is. You hear my question, “are you alive”, and your best response is “well, sort of I guess…”
If that is you, then you need to hear two things. The first is difficult: I said earlier that the trade is this: you give God everything you have, and He’ll give you everything He has. The first thing that you need to hear is an honest question – have you given God everything? Have you given God complete surrender? Have you given Him complete control? You see, the way it works is this: you can’t have resurrection life in the Spirit unless your old spirit dies. God doesn’t tidy up the old, He brings the new, and that can only come through us giving up everything – the Bible calls it “dying to ourselves”. Jesus walked through death first, and defeated its power and hold over us, and stepped into new life and abundant life and eternal life and resurrection life – and now He reaches His hand back to us and invites us to step through that spiritual death into abundant life.
Rom 6:5-10 puts it this way: “5If we have been united with (Jesus) like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
8Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
If you look at your life and don’t see the resurrection life of God, look a little deeper and ask yourself if you’ve really given God your all, or if you are still holding onto some things.
Here is the second thing you need to hear if you are looking at your life and wondering where God is and where the change is, and you have walked through the first thing: wait. Did you notice in the story about Thomas the brief mention in verse 26: “A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them.” A week later… It wasn’t immediate for Thomas, he had to wait. The other disciples had to wait, too, for that week while they were all excited and Thomas was hanging around likely being doubtful and skeptical and negative.
We have to wait too. There is time between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday; there is time between our belief in the victory and our experience of the victory. There is time between our death to self and our resurrection life. If you have surrendered everything, then wait for God and you will know life abundant.
Psalm 37:3-10 says, “3 Trust in the LORD and do good;
dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
4 Delight yourself in the LORD
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
5 Commit your way to the LORD;
trust in him and he will do this:
6 He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn,
the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.
7 Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when men succeed in their ways,
when they carry out their wicked schemes.
8 Refrain from anger and turn from wrath;
do not fret—it leads only to evil.
9 For evil men will be cut off,
but those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land.
10 A little while, and the wicked will be no more;
“A little while”… “wait patiently for him” – not things that we are generally good at! While we wait, hold fast to the promises of God some of which were in that passage – that as we delight in the Lord he will give us the desires of our hearts (note: that is because our delight in the Lord transforms our desires into the things God also desires), that we will enjoy safe pasture, that he will make our righteousness shine like the dawn. Even if you are not experiencing them yet, hold fast to those promises.
While we wait, stand strong in obedience. Galatians 6:9 encourages us, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Take the steps of obedience – like Thomas who rejoined the disciples even though he was not yet sure. Like Jesus, who “was obedient unto death, even death on a cross.” Obedience leads through death to the place of life.
Conclusion:
Are you alive? Jesus promise is that we would have life, and have it abundantly. Eternal life is not just for eternity, it begins now, in this life, when we trade everything we have for everything God has. The trade is very real, and offered by God.
We are going to end our service with a time of prayer, here at the front. We always pray for people we baptize, so they are going to come to the front and be prayed for, but I want to extend that beyond them and invite you. Come, pray, and find life. It is here! It is for you! Jesus is alive, and wants you to have that life also!! Our elders and prayer partners are going to come, and I invite you to come also. Come for the first time, come for the 100th, come by yourself or with a friend, come to pray for yourself or for someone you love, come to pray alone or with someone else, but come. Come.
