Faithfilled Ones
Luke 24:1-12
Easter 2007 - April 8, 2007
Certain phrases are often associated with certain people. Specific phrases are often linked to specific people. Monday’s edition of the newspaper, USA today named 25 people whose phrases linger in our memory. The paper compiled 25 phrases
Sentences
Snippets
Sayings that have according to them have been forever etched into our country’s memories. And this morning I want to see if they were right.
Back in 1984, a certain fast food restaurant establishment had 3 little old ladies asking a question.
The question - "Where’s the beef?"
In 1992, when Rodney King spoke after being beat by Los Angeles Police Officers.
He said, "Can’t we all get along?"
On September 11, 2001, on an airplane highjacked by terrorists, a husband and father named Todd Beamer said to his fellow passenger’s right before they stormed the cockpit, "Let’s roll."
Johnnie Cochran in 1995 at the O. J. Simpson trial had a famous line about a glove.
"If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit."
Jack Nicholson in the movie "A Few Good Men", when he was on trial said,
"You can’t handle the truth."
Presidents made this list,
President and Mrs. Clinton.
His line, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky."
Hers about her book, "It takes a village to raise a child."
President and Mrs. Reagan have phrases associated with them.
President Reagan, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall."
Nancy Reagan, "Just say no."
Our current President’s Father, George H. W. Bush made the list too.
His phrase, "Read my lips - No new taxes."
Each of us have heard certain phrases over and over again and as a result them have been etched into our minds.
Clean your room.
Hurry up.
Take out the trash.
Are we there yet?
Is your homework done?
As a basketball player in High School, whenever I stood ready to take a Foul Shot my dad would yell out,
"Concentrate."
Certain phrases whether they are spoken by
An actor
A leader
A familiar person or your parent can be etched into our minds.
I couldn’t prove this point, but I’ve got to believe that the words of the Bible are etched into our memories as well.
At a funeral, you often hear Psalm 23.
The Lord is my Shepherd
I shall not be in want
He maketh me lie down in green pastures.
He restores my soul.
Charleton Heston playing Moses said,
"Let My People Go."
The Beatles quoting Ecclesiastes song,
There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven.
A time to be born and a time to die.
A time to plant and a time to uproot, reap.
Many of you have your favorites from the Bible as well.
What I learned this week and what so surprised me as I prepared for this morning, is that Jesus said a certain phrase over and over again about what would happen on this day. By my count he said this phrase or parts of it 7 times. And yet his followers.
His disciples.
Mary, Joanna, Mary Magdalene and others did not believe it or seemed to be indifferent to it. Even though they heard this phrase spoken by Jesus 7 times, it didn’t affect them.
Would you please turn in your Bibles to Luke 24:1, p. 1642?
This is Luke’s version of Jesus’ resurrection.
His rising from the tomb.
And in his account he writes this phrase that Jesus told his followers, but didn’t seem to affect them. It didn’t seem to affect their behavior or their expectations.
In v. 10, Luke tells us
24:1On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to
the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7’The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’" 8Then they remembered his words.
The phrase that Jesus had spoken to these ladies
To the disciples, 7 times is found in verse 7, "the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men
Be crucified and
On the third day be raised again."
Before Jesus was killed, his followers heard him say this to them 7 times. You would think it was etched into their brains. You would think they would have remembered this phrase. And yet they didn’t or if they did, it didn’t affect their behaviors that morning. For there they went, "very early in the morning" to the tomb to do what? Anoint Jesus’ dead body with spices.
Though this was the 3rd day after Jesus had been killed and though he had said he would raise again on the 3rd day, the women went expecting to find not a living body but a dead one. They brought not pancakes, sausage, toast and orange juice and latte, but spices and scents to anoint a dead body. Upon arriving, the tomb was open so they entered. But "they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus." (v. 3)
And Luke writes, "They wondered about this."
They didn’t yell out, "Oh, yeah He told us this would happen."
They didn’t say, "That’s right, I forgot he said he would rise again."
No, they wondered.
It isn’t until 2 angels appear to remind them of Jesus’ words. "Remember how he told you while he was with you that the Son of Man must be delivered into hands of sinful men, crucified and on the third day raised again." And only after this do we read, "Then they remembered his words." (v. 8)
Some of you are thinking, well of course they are women. Women don’t listen to what men say, but if you read on in verses 9-12, you’ll quickly learn that none of the men really remembered nor believed that what Jesus said either.
Though each of these people had heard from Jesus that he would come back to life, none of them really believed it.
His words hadn’t changed them.
His words hadn’t affected their behavior.
They weren’t filled with expectation waiting for Jesus to show himself again.
Instead they were mourning.
Yes, they were his faithful ones. Ones loyal to him.
Ones getting up early to anoint his dead body, but they were not faithfilled one.
They were faithful but not faithfilled.
And friends, Jesus’ resurrection - Easter Sunday is not about getting us to be more faithful to God but Easter is all about becoming faithfilled by God.
God’s intention.
Our God’s desire.
His wish for you and me as a result of Jesus walking out of the tomb alive, just as he said he would do.
Would be that you and me would be so filled with faith that we would trust completely
Live dependently
Surrendered to God because of his promises for us.
God’s desire for us goes far beyond being faithful to being faithfilled people living beyond conventional wisdom), placing our lives in our Heavenly Father’s hands.
Let me give you some examples of what I mean.
Some of you know the story of Abraham; he and God had a relationship. Abraham was living a life faithful to God. Praying, seeking to be obedient. All was good. And then God directed him to take his only son and offer him as a sacrifice.
Would this not challenge your faith in God?
It was a moment, a time when Abraham would either remain where he was and as he was in his faith or it would be a time when he would trust not knowing, not having a clue what God had up his sleeve.
Abraham went in obedience, filled with faith and God spared his son and blessed him with a nation. Abraham when he stopped being faithful and became faithfilled learned a lesson. The Lord will provide. He is true to His Word.
How about Peter. Peter was a disciple, a faithful friend to Jesus. One night he and his friends are in a boat rowing across the water. They see Jesus walking past them on the water.
Peter for whatever reason says, "Lord if it is you, tell me to come to you on the water" (Matthew 14:27). And Jesus says "come" and he went. He got out of the boat, walking on the water. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and beginning to sink cried out, "Lord save me!"
Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him saying, "You of little faith, why did you doubt."
Peter started out filled with faith.
Peter had a desire to venture from faithfulness to faithfilledness.
Jesus encouraged this.
Jesus invited him to do this.
Come, Come, and Peter did it until he lost faith.
In coming here this morning to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection you are identifying yourself among Jesus’ faithful. You’re here. You’ve gotten up early, showered and gotten dressed. You’ve prayed, read the words, sang the songs. You recognize the story. You’ve come to this church to celebrate. You do this faithfully year after year, week after week. You believe, you do.
Jesus and the faith are important to you. And yet you find it difficult to move beyond faithfulness
To being filled with faith.
To being faithfilled.
I mean you want to trust Jesus’ words about your marriage.
You want to believe what he says about
Sacrificing for each other
Honoring each other
Forgiving each other
But there is too much hurt, pain, etc.
You don’t know. You just aren’t sure Jesus knows what he is talking about.
You would have to trust in God and not yourself.
Will you remain faithful or become faithfilled-trusting God with your marriage?
Some of you students or singles lets be honest. It is hard to keep oneself pure these days sexually, with the images on TV, music on the radio, with the pressure to be in the in crowd and to be popular. Listening to God’s desires about remaining pure until one is married seems so old fashioned.
You don’t know if God can be trusted. If his way is best.
Some of you are no longer close to a person with whom rich memories were made. Before you were tight. You were like peas in a pod, but then something happened and you aren’t anymore.
And God’s desire that people be reconciled
That people not live with bitterness and anger are words.
You just aren’t ready to act on.
You’ll be faithful to God, but not filled with faith that He can fix things.
Have I hit yours yet?
My friends, for you and I to experience our God. For you and I to live continually into our faith. For our faith to grow, for it be filled, we must live into Jesus’ words for us in every situation of our lives. He is faithful. His faithfulness to us is the reason you and I can be filled by faith.
This is the great news of this day.
For many of us, if not most of us, faith is a category of our life. It is a word we use to describe ourselves. A noun or an adjective.
But God is into verbs. God is into leading us to become what He created us to be - Filled by Faith.
Alive and responding to him in Faith.
Being Faithful brings us to the tomb, carrying burial spices for a dead body.
Being Faithfilled brings us to the Tomb with balloons and meal waiting for Jesus to fulfill his words he spoke to us.
When my brother and I were in 4th or 5th grade, we began to shoot BB guns and air rifles. We set up a shooting range in our basement. We would set up targets and shoot hundreds of B-Bs. We got to be pretty good.
One day a neighbor friend came over to our house when only my little brother was home and asked if he could help them get a bird out of the house.
Brad said sure. He went to the basement, got his B-B gun and some B-Bs and marched across the street to the McCarthys house to look for this bird. And he found him, perched on the fireplace mantle between glass candlesticks with a white wall behind.
Brad took his faithful air rifle, pumped it only 2 times, "to limit the blood splattering" he would say later. He took aim at the bird between the glass candlesticks and pulled the trigger.
Pop, the bird was dead.
Now what would prompt a 4th or 5th grader to bring a gun into a neighbor’s house to shoot a bird? My parents might say, "A lack of good judgment." But I say to you this morning, Brad was filled with faith.
He had spent hours with that faithful gun.
He had practiced for hours shooting at targets.
And though it seemed foolish and very unuse, Brad believed he could do it. And so filled with faith, he took aim and the rest is history.
You know what my wish for you is this morning. I want you to stop being faithful.
I desire that you move beyond being faithful and some of you have been down in the basement to long
Practicing your prayers.
Reading your Bible
Trying to learn the Christian way.
You’ve become faithful.
Real faithful.
It’s time to live out that faith.
To put it into action.
To become faithfilled.
What are you waiting for?
When I act with a faithfilled heart.
When I respond to God, depending upon Him
To show up
To help me out
To fill in what is missing, what I can’t do on my own.
Every single time God has been there.
He has come through.
And He has proven to me that He is alive.
And as a result, I’ve experienced for myself the incredible news that Jesus is Alive, Active and eager for you and me to become faithfilled.
Now I wanted to close with a quote from the USA Today.
To bring good closure on this message, I should close with something inspiring from one of the 25 great quotes from the last 25 years. But I’ve found them, all of them lacking. So may I simply say what we’ve said already this morning.
Jesus is Alive.
He Lives.
And because he does, you and I can be faithfilled. Amen.
For those of us who are filled more by fear than by faith.
For those of us who feel like we have a mountain before us and not a smooth road.
For those of us who know and believe you to be God and yet don’t live in such hope and with courage.
For those of us who would have showed up with burial spices and not balloons.
We have heard the promise and good news that you invite us to become faithfilled.
Trusting in not what we know but in You.
Trusting not in tradition but in You.
Trusting You with our marriage
Our job
Our finances
Our kids
O Lord, may you be real.
May you come alive.
As we take this journey from faithfulness to faithfilledness. Amen
