Easter Sunday - Part 2
Recap part 1: Hope of the Resurrection:
1Peter 1: 3-5 (NIV) 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade--kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
Hope of the resurrection in Salvation –
Saved from the power of sin to condemn us to eternal death
Sanctification – Shielded by the power of God, Sanctified by HS becoming more and more like Jesus
The Resurrection of our own glorified bodies when Christ Returns
This Hope – the living hope through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ – brings us Joy
True Joy, the Joy of the Resurrection:
1Peter 1: 6-9 (NIV) 6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
PRAY
TRIALS WILL COME:
Jesus in the sermon on the mount:
Mt 5: 10-12 (NIV) 10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
You could say we have a heritage of persecution
Notice he says Blessed are you WHEN people insult you, persecute you, not IF.
Not just persecution, but all kinds of trials and suffering:
Phil 1: 29 For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him,
Trials and suffering of all kinds:
Some of you may be going through trails and suffering now:
Trials at your job: Stress, frustration, difficulty with other people where you work,
Trials in your family: strained and even broken relationships with husbands and wives, children, parents, friends and neighbors
Trials in your own personal life, struggling with sin, temptation, addiction, depression
The loss of a loved one,
When the trials and the suffering come, we want to look for the meaning behind what is happening to us.
We want to know that what we are going through is not meaningless, that our suffering is not for nothing.
Many times we can’t see the bigger picture the way God sees it, we can’t see how he works through things and events that don’t make sense to us.
But we know we can trust God. We can know that God is in control.
God tells us in his word here in v7
7 These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
So your faith may be proven genuine – when does this happen, When Jesus comes back.
How you deal with trials and suffering now, is going to prove out who you are as a disciple of Christ.
Why is that important? Because it will result in praise, glory and honor – for who?
For you? – Well, we do long to hear those words, “well done, my good and faithful servant.”
But this is yet another reminder that though your salvation is of extreme importance to you because it means that you have eternal life – a relationship with Jesus Christ, but It’s NOT ALL ABOUT YOU
Who do the glory and the honor belong to?
Who is it that makes your faith genuine? Is it you? Can you muster up enough faith to make it through?
Even your faith is a gift from God – it is by the His grace that we are faithful
It is by His grace and by HIS strength that we are able to make it to the other side of our trials in life. And in our trials He works in us to make us grow and change, becoming more mature, more like Christ
To HIM be the Glory, and to Him be the honor.
When that time comes when He is revealed – when time has ended and we stand before Him and we give an account of our life, Any crowns that you have earned, you will throw at His feet, because it was Him.
It is His Love that you shared with people throughout your life.
You were being His hands and His feet when you ministered to the needs of other people.
As His church we are the body – but He is the Head – and to Him go all PRAISE, ALL GLORY, and ALL HONOR
Our Joy comes from being used of Him.
He has chosen to use us to accomplish His good purposes
To minister to hurting people, to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, give shelter to the poor. – To share the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ with a lost and dying world.
Verse 7 tells us something else about our faith – it says that your faith has more value than Gold, which perishes
This has a lot to do with our Joy –
Because your source of Joy is usually whatever you deem of greatest value to you
Our Faith – our relationship with Jesus should have that spot, that place of most importance.
If we put something else there, in his spot – then our Joy is in danger
If Royal’s baseball is what is important in your life, then your Joy will rise and fall with the peaks and valleys of the Royal’s win-loss record.
When they win, you will be happy, when they lose, you won’t be so happy
Here’s one that is a little more likely –
If you put another person in that place of most importance – Now your Joy is tied to them
Don’t get me wrong, your family is important. I love my wife and I love my Kids, they are like a part of me
But If I put them where Jesus should be in importance, that is dangerous
We need to understand the limitations of our human relationships and the and the limitations of people themselves
If our children become the only thing that matters in our life, If Sally and I let that happen, then we are setting ourselves up
Because children grow up, they move away. The next thing you know Sally and I are setting in our living room staring at the wall with nothing to talk about because our whole life packed up and moved across the country to become a marine biologist, or become a veterinarian. And our Joy is gone with them
If you put your spouse in that place of most importance, beware. You are asking too much of another human being if you rely on them for your joy.
We are sinful creatures. If you get close to people, you will get hurt.
If you tie your joy to us -We will let you down. We will disappoint you
If you are with someone and they haven’t disappointed you yet, you just haven’t been together long enough, give them a little time.
If you have a successful marriage, then you know that one of the most important factors in keeping a marriage alive is forgiveness, because we will wrong each other, we will hurt each other. It is a part of being a human being
As Christians our Joy comes from the same source that our Hope comes from
From Jesus – From what he did for us on the cross, From what he did when he walked out of that tomb
8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Some of you have very keen and quick minds when it comes to scripture and your mind immediately shot to the passage in John 20 when Jesus spoke to Thomas after Thomas felt the wounds of Jesus with his own hands and said My Lord and My God
Jn 20: 28 Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!" 29 Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
Peter was there with Thomas when that happened, so he probably had this exchange in mind when he wrote this part of the letter.
Though you do not see him, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy-
This is the Joy that fills us when we encounter the Resurrected Christ
There is not worrying over a win loss record:
Jesus has a perfect record verses sin- Satan came at him with his best stuff in the desert and Jesus skunked him
Jesus defeated Satan, he conquered Death – The tomb is empty
He said “ I have the power to lay down my life, and the power to pick it back up again”
And he proved it!
Give Jesus his proper place in your life and your Joy is linked to someone who will never let you down, and never leave you alone “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you”
When your Joy is found in your relationship with Jesus Christ, you have an anchor for your Joy that will not shift, will not change, will never fail
Then regardless of your circumstances, you can have the Joy of the resurrection
Remember Paul and Silas in Acts 16. They were beaten and thrown in Prison because of their ministry. In the middle of the night, Paul and Silas are found praying and singing hymns.
That is Joy that does not rely on circumstances, or something else that can shift and change and fail. That is a Joy drawn from an encounter, a relationship with the Resurrected Christ
When I think of the joy of the Resurrection, I think of 2 people right away.
The first person if Peter. I think of Peter when Jesus appeared to his disciples after his resurrection while they were fishing.
As soon as he found out who it was, Peter grabbed his coat and jumped into the water.
Jn 21: 7-8 (NIV) As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, "It is the Lord," he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. 8 The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards
This wasn’t the first time Peter had seen Jesus since the resurrection, this is the 3rd time Jesus had appeared to the disciples since he arose.
They were about 100yrds off shore, and the boats came right in, but Peter just couldn’t wait. He was so excited, so filled with Joy at the idea of spending a little time with his LORD Jesus Christ that he jumped into the water and swam to shore.
100yrds, thats the length of a football field. He just couldn’t wait.
When is the last time your were so excited about spending some time with Jesus that you just couldn’t help yourself and you cut short whatever you were doing so you could get home to pray or get to church to meet with God.
We could use some of that Joy.
The other person I think about when I think about the Joy of the Resurrection is not really a person, he is an angel.
I was reading Matthew’s account of the resurrection and something struck me that I had never picked up on before. (Don’t you love it when that happens?)
Nothing earth-shattering, but I found it inspirational this week while I was preparing my sermons
Mt 28: 1 After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. 2 There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. 4 The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. 5 The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.
I have read this passage dozens and dozens of times, and I just read right through the account without contemplating the angel of the Lord sitting on the top of the stone that he had just rolled back.
First of all, why did he roll the stone back, to let Jesus out? – NO, Jesus was already gone
He rolled the stone back so the women and later the men could go in and see the empty tomb.
This angel had the incredible privilege of being the one to tell Mary and Mary that Jesus was Resurrected!
He comes down from heaven, rolls back the stone and sits on top of it – why?
(oh, and then the guards faint)
I think it is because he is full of joy! I think his eyes look like lightning because they are lit up with joy.
I think he is sitting on top of the stone because he is having fun! It’s kind of a playful thing to do, don’t you think?
I can almost see him, telling the women “He is risen!, come and see the place where he lay! – come on, come on!” I bet he loved to see the look on their faces.
Scripture tells us they were afraid, but filled with joy. If he was allowed to, I bet the angel would have followed the women so he could watch them tell the men, and see the look on their faces.
He was filled with the joy of the resurrection.
Today it is my privilege to tell you – HE IS RISEN, CHRIST IS RESURRECTED JUST LIKE HE SAID.
Have you seen those gatorade commercials where they show some guy playing basketball or running, sweating like crazy, and it looks like the gatorade, nice and blue or red is oozing out of his body like sweat, and they ask the question, is it in you?
IS IT IN YOU? IS THE JOY OF THE RESURRECTION IN YOU TODAY?
PRAY
