Super Sundays
Gen 1:1-5, Luke 24, Acts 2
* Since 2006 we have celebrated “Super Sunday” on the first Sunday of February. This is the Sunday that each year the professional football final game is played which is called the “Super Bowl.” Ever since my first pastorate in 1992, it has been my heartbeat to begin the day in which millions upon millions of people will end up in front of a TV, watching a football game, with gathering as many people as possible to recognize the real reason for a “Sunday” being “Super.” Thus, Super Sunday.
* For the next few minutes, let’s direct our attention to 3 Sundays which totally eclipse a “Super bowl Sunday” to become a true SUPER Sunday.
1. Creation Sunday – Turn to Genesis 1 and let’s read the first 5 verses. Did you get that? “The morning and the evening were the first day” and the first day is – Sunday! In your imagination can you conjure up an image of what it would have been like when nothing but God existed? Then God decided it was time to do something & when God decides to do a thing, it will be worth watching. The first day, He simply took the darkness (which has always existed because darkness, by definition, is simply the absence of light) & cast light on it. Of all the good and great things which God created, light was and is the most needed. It is light that chases away the gloom and doom, it is light erases the lostness of the darkness, and it is light that illuminates the path or road we are to take. On that first Sunday, God created light. He didn’t bring in electricity, He didn’t ‘wire’ the universe, and He didn’t buy batteries, HE SIMPLY SAID, “Let there be light” and the Bible says, “There was light.” And with this action, God began to create all that exists declaring it good. The first Super Sunday was when God decided He would create a world, this world, people, this people, and He would make us in His image, after His likeness that we might have a relationship and walk in fellowship with Him. This is the way we were conceived of by God on that first Super Sunday. It was in God’s heart & mind to love and take care of us.
* Between the first and second “Super Sunday”, something happened. Mankind decided to ignore God’s words and warnings and thus, lean on our OWN understanding resulting in ‘sin’ entering and God exiting an intimate relationship with Him. God cannot, does not, and will not co-exist with sin. When we choose to sin, we choose to leave God out of our lives. God killed animals, made clothes from the skin of those animals, and thus, covered Adam & Eve in a symbolic way with a blood sacrifice. From that time forward, the purity of creation Sunday was dirtied by the sin of mankind. The payment for sin was death.
* For this reason Jesus left heaven, came to earth, went to the cross, and was laid in a tomb. Can you imagine the broken hearts & the feeling of loss which the disciples & followers were left with when the stone was rolled over the tomb? In fact, indications are that even Jesus’ closest followers felt like it was over. Can I ask you this? Have you ever felt like ‘it’s over,” “there’s no hope”, or “What the use?” What a great setup for our next super Sunday!! That is God’s plan! Turn to Luke 24 & see:
2. Resurrection Sunday – The Greatest Super Sunday in History is this day! If Creation Sunday is the day that dark turned to light, Resurrection Sunday is the day that death came to life. This is the turning point for all humanity; this is the day that death is defeated. This is the day that the grave was conquered and this is the day that the captive was set free. The women came to the grave expecting to find the body of their master. They had witnessed the influence of the Religious Jews provoking the killing of Jesus, the power of Roman Government set in motion to secure the grave of Jesus, and they fully expected to find the guards, the grave, along with their grief when they arrived that Sunday morning. In fact, they talked among themselves about ‘rolling the stone’ because it had not occurred to them that Jesus would not be there. The question of the two men (in dazzling clothes) haunts us, even today, “Why are you looking for the living among the dead?” I wonder if we would be so somber, stayed, and serious if we grasp the scope of this question. Then men continued, “HE IS NOT HERE – HE HAS BEEN RESURRECTED!” Talk about a Super Sunday! The one who healed the sick, raised the dead, gave sight to the blind, made the lame walk, the mute speak, and the deaf hear, IS ALIVE. In the resurrection of Jesus we discover the resurrection of our lives. When Jesus came out of the grave, we are told that He came out NEW! That is why the scripture says, “If anyone is in Christ He is a NEW CREATION!” How? Old things are passed away! That’s good for the past, but what about the future? “All things become NEW.” In the death of Jesus is the death of sin, the death of shame, the death of suffering, the death of the power of the grave, and the death of death itself. Death died that Sunday morning and in Jesus, new life has now arrived!
* On that Sunday morning the buzz went out. “Jesus is alive, Jesus is alive, Jesus is alive,” and you know what? Luke 24 says that to some, “It sounded like non-sense.” That’s like the gospel is non-sense to those who are perishing. The gospel makes no sense to someone who refuses or rejects Jesus. For some in this room, this is you.
3. Salvation Sunday – Turn with me to Acts 2. The scene is Jerusalem & the event is the arrival of God’s Holy Spirit on earth. When the Holy Spirit filled the hearts & lives of the authentic believers, they got a little rambunctious, drawing a crowd. In fact, there were so filled with God’s spirit and were praising God in such an uninhibited way that those who came accused them of being drunk. When the crowd settled down, Peter preached a simply, strong, and sharp message which concluded with a powerful closing. Let’s read. And with this message Paul was quiet. There was no one singing, no one bowed their heads & closed their eyes. Candidly, the message was left in the hearts of those men and the hands of God’s Spirit. What happened next was a divine working as verse 37 says, “When they heard this, they were pierced to the heart & said to Peter, What must be do?” The response for them is the same as the response for us, “Repent, Be Baptized, and Be Saved.”
* Today we find ourselves in that same situation. Just as surely as we held the hammer, it was us (our sin) that drove the nail in Jesus’ hands and feet. The thorns, nails, and spear, which punctured the body of Jesus and took His life, were for me (and you). He died for you & me.
* Salvation Sunday is the day your heart is pierce and you actually repent (or turn from you sins), be baptized (to demonstrate what the Spirit of God has done for you in forgiving your sin), and be saved (receiving all that God has for you).
* On your salvation day – you are forgiven of sin, lifted from the mire, brought from darkness to light, from death to life, from hopelessness to certainty, from being alone to having a companion, and from not knowing your creator to walking in fellowship with every day.
