Easter Sunday, March 23, 2008
Fulfilling Our Commitments: Christ’s Conquest
John 20: 24 – 29
The triumph of Christ’s Conquest concludes our series: “Fulfilling Our Commitments.” We looked at Jesus Christ from six perspectives as he fulfilled his commitments to God, to God’s Law, to the Church, to the City, and to the Cross.
It was our hope that by looking to Jesus we would then develop a pattern for our lives that would allow us to fulfill our commitments to God, to God’s law, to the Church, to the City and to the Cross.
Our argument was that the life of Jesus Christ provides for us a paradigm upon which we could pattern our lives.
We sought to proclaim that his commitment was true; it was real; it was deep; it was profound; it was sincere; and it is worthy of imitation.
These were things that we could do.
On the other hand, Christ’s conquest is not something we can do; it is what he does for each one of us.
Thank God! Jesus is a conqueror.
Thank God! The grave could not hold him.
Thank God! Sin could not defeat him.
Thank God! The Kingdoms of this world have to bow before him.
Thank God! He is a liberator.
Thank God! He is a mighty God, a prince of peace, an everlasting father and he is the King of Kings.
Easter should be a time of thanksgiving in our hearts!
Because Jesus is a conqueror we should always have hope, to live life to its fullest potential.
Why? Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life and that they may have it more abundantly.
The abundant life is life lived at its fullest potential.
The abundant life is not a life that looks at what you do not have; it’s life that looks through the lens of what you do have and says, “Thanks be to God!”
The essence of Easter is found in a faith that says I do believe!
Professor N.T. Wright of Oxford was in town two weeks ago. He is known as one of the foremost New Testament theologians in the world. He has distinguished himself by his painstaking research that proves the Resurrection of Jesus Christ was indeed a bodily resurrection. His proof is convincing as he examines the scriptures, the eyewitness testimony of the day, the reaction of all those who made the claim that they saw Jesus; he eliminates any doubt one may have that the bodily Resurrection is not real.
I appreciate his scholarship. I’ve read most of his books. He has even autographed my copies. But I didn’t need Professor Wright to prove to me that Jesus rose from the dead.
I just like Paul know that beyond a shadow of a doubt that nobody but Jesus could have looked beyond all my faults and seen my needs.
Nobody but Jesus could have stepped into my life and turned me around.
Nobody but Jesus could have moved a youngster from the marble steps of Druid Hill Avenue, take him through the highways and byways of life, walked with him through the valleys and transport him to the mountaintops, create a network of colleagues and friends that bless him through their living, gave him a family where love abounds from heart to heart and from breast to breast; bring him back to his church home, the church of his youth, with the determination in his heart and the strength of faith to preach as best he can with the blessed assurance that Jesus is mine. As I was going down my own Damascus Road, Jesus stopped me in my tracks, and asked me the question, “why are you not living life to its fullest potential?
I asked: how can you live life that way?
Jesus told me to live the abundant life, to live life to its fullest potential, you must understand what Paul understood, “to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
Do you believe that Jesus is a conqueror?
Do you believe that by his stripes you are healed?
Do you believe that you are worthy of his suffering and sacrifice?
Do you believe that Jesus Christ died for your sins?
Do you believe that he is the risen savior and that he is in the world today?
That’s what Easter is all about – do you believe?
Have you tried him?
Have you proved him?
Have you touched the hem of his garment?
Have you had your blinded eyes opened?
Have you experienced the power of God to work miracles in your life?
Have you reached out to touch him and then realized that is touching you too?
Have you had the opportunity to have Jesus walk with you and talk with you and tell you that he is your own?
That’s what Easter is all about – do you believe?
Yesterday, I had the chance to just chill out.
Does anyone here not know what chilling out means?
Let me explain, chilling out means that you are breaking the routine of your life, getting off the thread mill of your life; by engaging in some activity that you would not normally do, but you do it for rest and relaxation – my military folks would understand chilling out as R&R.
Now, the beauty about chilling out is that my method of chilling out does not have to be your method of chilling out, but as long as the outcome is rest and relaxation – that is properly termed chilling out.
I confess, yesterday I chilled out by watching television all day. I flipped the channel between watching Tiger Woods golf and I watch West Virginia’s basketball team play Duke.
I watched a classic struggle between an individual with himself and his destiny and a basketball team from the hills of the Allegany Mountains play a basketball team with history on it side and a legendary coach.
I literally lay in the bed most of the day.
For me that was chilling out!
In the middle of flipping back and forth between two stations: I happen to watch a commercial that had a sports star making a statement that
“my power has more power than your power!”
After he makes that statement, you then see ordinary people engaged in various activities and they respond back to him that “my power has more power than your power!”
A young boy running as fast as he can, a young girl jumping as high as she can, a older man hitting a tennis ball, all saying in a sense of defiance that “my power has more power than your power!”
Then it hit me, that what Jesus Christ’s Conquest is all about – it Jesus saying to the Satan, the world, the military might of America and you and me that, “my power has more power than your power!”
This morning’s text illustrates that point that Jesus Christ is saying “my power has more power than your power!”
This week demonstrates his power after the events of Palm Sunday where celebration is in the air and with the singing of Hosanna.
Then comes Maundy Thursday where Jesus in a sign of ultimate service washes the feet of his disciples.
Good Friday while even hanging on the cross he forgives, he saves, and he comforts.
We don’t talk much about it but early on Overcome Saturday morning while his body lays in the tomb, his spirit descends into the depths where Satan is and snatches from him the keys to hell and death – that’s good to know because some people find themselves in deep dark places and wonder will God get me out of here-
I’m caught in an addiction I can’t break loose;
I’m stuck in a pit I can’t get out,
I’m trapped in a snare that will not let me go,
I’m bound by chains that are difficult to loose –
Oh it good to know that Jesus will go to the very depths of darkness
and get you out!
Set you free!
Break the chains that hold you!
Rebuke the demon that is hounding you!
Destroy the yoke that is choking you!
And then comes Easter Sunday- Jesus has all power in his hands – the grave can’t hold him, Satan didn’t defeat him, and sin doesn’t win!.
Jesus Christ shows himself to his disciples: First he appears to Mary Magdalene who first thinks that he is a gardener, Jesus reveals himself and she recognizes him and calls him Rabboni and he tells her to go tell the disciples that she has seen the Lord.
That evening as his disciples are hiding in a room with the door locked assembled in fear, he appears in their midst and says to them, “Peace be unto you.”
Jesus Christ demonstrates that he is able to conquer fear! He had done it before when the storms of life where raging he was able to say peace to the storms. And now when in the midst of the most critical time in the life of the disciples, he steps into their situation and says, “Peace be unto you.”
I don’t know what you may be going through, but Jesus knows just how much you can bear. Jesus knows your every weakness. Jesus knows your every sorrow. Jesus knows your trials and tribulations. I’m here to tell you that whatever you are going through, Jesus is able to step into your situation and say peace be unto you.
Somebody knows what I’m talking about when it seems like the weight of the world is on your shoulders, when it seems like the hounds of Baskerville are at your door, when it seems that darts of the wicked one are all thrown in your direction, when it seems that you are most vulnerable, when it looks like you never win – Jesus steps right into your circumstance and conquers all the forces that are seeking to bring you down with a word – Peace.
You don’t comprehend it, but you feel it, you experience the peace that surpasses all understanding.
Everybody all around: your family, your friends and even your foes wonder how are you are able to still stand, why you are not falling apart, but in the midst of your trouble you find that in your heart you have joy – because you are experiencing the peace of God.
Has anybody ever experienced the peace of God?
Jesus then reveals himself to Thomas who was not there when Jesus first appeared. Thomas has a doubting spirit.
You remember Thomas was the one that questioned Jesus, when Jesus says to his disciples, “let not your heart be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And it I go and prepare a place for you I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”
Then Thomas poses a question: “We know not whither thou goest: and how can we know the way?”
Jesus responds by saying, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
Skepticism is good; when you ask the probative questions, when you seek answers to life dilemmas, when you wonder why there is so much evil in the land, when you wonder will justice every roll down life a mighty stream. Skepticism is good – it questions; it seeks answers.
But when it turns into pessimism: that’s dangerous because pessimism is unbelief.
Skepticism asks why;
Pessimism says I don’t care.
Skepticism asks when did it happen;
Pessimism says it never happened.
Skepticism says I’m going to wait until my change comes;
Pessimism says nothing will ever change.
Skepticism is questioning!
Pessimism is unbelief!
Jesus can deal with the skeptics.
Jesus has to heal the pessimists.
Help thou my unbelief!
I’m taking too long, some of you have your ham baking, the turkey cooking, the duck is simmering, the stew is boiling, or that spam is waiting to come out of the can. I’ve got to close and get you home.
Easter is all about the Christ’s Conquest.
By allowing Thomas to see him and touch him, he helps Thomas to overcome his disbelief.
And the Gospel of John explains why this story is told: he closes by saying, “that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.”
Not only did Jesus conquer disbelief, but he did three things that only he could do:
1. He conquered the purpose of sin.
Job tells us that when God asks Satan what he has been doing, in effect he says that I’m roaming the earth looking for one who I can distract, destroy, deny, or detain from obtaining the will of God for their lives.
2. He conquered the penalty of sin.
Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
3. He conquered the power of sin.
1 Corinthians 15: 56, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Jesus Christ the Conqueror says in our modern day language, to the world, to Satan and to sin:
“my power has more power than your power.”
Because of the power of God, Jesus Christ lives. He lives! He lives!
You ask me how I know he lives, he lives within my heart!
