What Really Matters
Easter Sunday, April 8, 2012 – Brad Bailey
Intro –
On that first morning... when the first lives discovered that Jesus had risen… it ripped thrugh them…right down to the core of their souls. And soon it would rip right through human history… transforming history as we know it. I believe that to help us celebrate this event… we must ask ourselves: What really matters? What is really important amidst all of that seeks our attention?
It’s important to recognize that we are surrounded by information like never before… and it is competing for our attention. Recent years of technological advancements have brought what is referred to as an exponential increase in information. [1] The amount of information that is being collected and communicated is overwhelming. Consider:
• In 2002, we recorded and replicated 23 exabytes of information. We now record and transfer that much information every 7 days.
• 300 million – Added websites in 2011.
• People are adding 1000 unique articles to Wikipedia every day.
• 112 – Number of emails sent and received per day by the average corporate user.
• 225 million – Number of Twitter accounts.
• 250 million – Number of tweets per day (October 2011).
• We’re creating 2000 tweets per second
• 18.1 million – People following Lady Gaga. Twitter’s most popular user.
I’m an info junkie…my Strengthsfinder profile describes me as ‘high ‘input’…which means I like to take in and process a lot of information.
The challenge with so much competing for our attention is that we can become like my first golden retriever with tennis balls on lawn. She was a retriever…her deepest instinct was to get the ball and bring it back to her source… but with so many strewn across the lawn…she never could come grasp one ball… she could never come home.
For God it is all about that which leads us back to home…to where we belong… to where we once again are restored to who we really are.
We have to grasp what really matters….to grasp the difference between what is fascinating and what is fundamental…between what has secondary value and what is vital.
This is what we gather around this morning.
Listen to how the Apostle Paul declares it:
1 Corinthians 15:1-8, 20-22, 49 (TNIV)
1 Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
…20 Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a human being. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But in this order: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.
49 And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.
Into our lives overloaded with endless information… Paul declares that...
this news is ‘of first importance.’
Every one of us needs to pause and consider that. We each have a LOT of things that we have made important… and to varying degrees they may be…but this is what is of FIRST importance.
The word “Gospel” means “good news”… it refers to that which shouts out like the ultimate breaking news to the universe.
Now I know that is hard for us to grasp…because we see the newscasts constantly flashing the words “Breaking News”… and they can be followed by the latest words that include Kardashian…or a sports trade… or Los Angeles facing a storm… that all those not from Los Angeles would call drizzle.
The ‘breaking news’ that we get day in and day out…is the kind of news that tries to keeps us paying attention…as long as we don’t ask ourselves: “What difference does that really make?”
George Dyson who grew up at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton has recently caused many to ponder as he declared:
"We now live in a world where information is potentially unlimited. Information is cheap, but meaning is expensive." — George Dyson
Beneath the surface of our lives… and all our activity… we long for meaning… to know if we really have value…really belong… if we are loved.
Paul notes that this is the good news… grand news… that this is what really matters. Why?
Because this is about what can SAVE US. That is essential to grasping this news.
This news can ‘save us.’ Save us from what? From being forever lost from the source of life and love… separated from the only One who can rescue the true goodness that we were created to share in. This is what the Scriptures mean by being ‘lost’… lost from the relationship that is our source of love and meaning… and therefore living out of a false selves. The problem is not just hat we don’t do what we should do…but that we don’t know who we are.
Trying to find ourselves in sources that can never really define us.
What love we might get is ‘based on what we have to offer’… how I look…the attention I can get from others.. the respect for my intelligence or accomplishments… or even my rebellion…when the love that we really need is the love that is in spite of what we can offer… it’s unconditional.
The truth is that we are all lost from what we were meant to be… and when something is no longer what it was meant to be… you get rid of it.
But God seeks to save us. He wants to save you. He doesn’t want anyone to perish… and the Gospel is what he provides….it is His righteousness….which we can receive.
So Paul refers to this as not only that which can save us…but which we can ‘stand on’ (vs.1)
What can ‘keep us on our feet.’ It involves the faith to step out…but it is not blind faith…it is stepping out upon that which is grounded in reality… in physical historical reality. That is why he recalls so many witnesses who were still alive.
This grand news is not about someone rising from the dead… it’s about Christ having risen from the dead.
The most significant news we come to celebrate is NOT that someone rose from the dead… in itself that would not tell us enough to mean anything…what we gather around is that CHRIST rose from the dead.
If I heard news that someone had risen from death… it would certainly have my attention. But if what unfolded was that there was nothing notable about the person… and nothing discovered about how or why… and they just died again for good a few years later… it wouldn’t really bear any meaning.
Paul’s describes what is of first importance stating: that Christ died… was buried…and rose again three days later….because it is FILLED with meaning… with what really matters.
Let’s consider the unique significance of Christ having risen.
The resurrection of Christ …
1. Reveals God has a Divine plan for restoring us.
DO you wonder if the world is really a safe place? Do you fear that it is just crazy and out of control? The resurrection reveals something you and I need to know… that God is over human history.
Twice Paul notes that what the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ were ‘according to the Scriptures.’…meaning according to God’s plan. In referring to the Scriptures he is referring to what God had been predicting long before.
Christ fulfilled every prediction God had revealed about the coming of a savior… and his plan to rescue and redeem us…..some 48 predictions… some 350 statements predicted in the Old Testament…including being a descendent of David… being born of a virgin…being one who would embody both God and man…being lifted upon his death… without a bone being broken… cursed and hung upon a tree… reigning over an eternal kingdom… and yes rising again. [2]
The good news of the resurrection is that it is ‘according to plan’...it is part of God having a plan to rescue and redeem us.
> We can’t recue ourselves because our identity as the ‘beloved’ image bearers of God cannot be given by anyone but the source of that love. Only the source of love can overcome our rejection.
We are like POWs… who willfully accepted the enticements of an enemy… and have found ourselves enslaved ever since… by an enemy who claims to own us… who convinces us that nobody is coming for us…nobody remembers us…and THEN… discovering that the enemy is doomed… and that a rescue plan is underway. That is what the resurrection of Christ declares. Wow… God has a plan to both defeat the enemy and rescue us.
One of those prophecies we heard read this morning… through the prophet Isaiah God had declared:
Isaiah 52:13-15 (NIV)
See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. 14 Just as there were many who were appalled at him-- his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness-- 15 so will he sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him. For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand.
God told His people about the rising of a suffering servant that would bear His Spirit… between 600 to 800 years before Christ came.
This is not a person coming back to life…but THE person coming back to life…the one God said would save us.
> The resurrection of Christ is unique in declaring that God has a sovereign plan for us.
Or consider the very words declared in Genesis (c. 1440 BC)… to what God said upon the fall of Adam and Eve…
Genesis 3:14-15 (NIV)
14 So the LORD God said to the serpent, " I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."
Whose offspring? God only refers to the women’s. Pointing to one who would be born of a virgin… one who would bear a child through God’s power.
And what would be the exchange between this one born and the enemy who represents evil? The enemy would strike his heal… but the one born would crush his head. The enemy who represents evil will strike the heal… something that would not prove fatal…. While the one from God sends will bring the mortal end of evil. A poetic description of how the enemy struck down Jesus… but who then rose up in a final crushing of evil.
Today…this event declares to us that God has a plan for us… and that He is FOR US.
All of which emphasizes how…The resurrection of Christ…
2. Reveals that his death bears the Divine purpose of reconciling us.
“…Christ died for our sins” (v. 3)
As the Scriptures describe…. “all of us are like sheep who have gone astray”… doing life on our own and out of our own self centered condition. We feel it… we bear the shame of our condition… as those who are separated from our God and His goodness.
I heard the story of a fourth grade class was beginning a particularly big day. It was a special state exam and the teacher began by giving strict instructions in no uncertain terms. During the morning exam, nobody was to talk, get up out of his or her seat, or even raise their hand. They were to just complete the exam on their own and wait until the time was up.
Well as the exam proceeded, one young boy felt the pressure in more ways than one. He realized he needed to go pee but knew that no one was suppose to interrupt the test. So he tried to just focus on the test so hard that he would distract himself until it was over. But it didn't work for very long. Soon he was twisting and turning, afraid of what to do. Finally in a moment of sheer breakdown his little let loose and soon, not only were his pants thoroughly wet, but a puddle began to grow beneath him.
The shame at hand was overwhelming. But just then a little girl arose from somewhere behind him, picked up the classes fish bowl, and then, proceeding forward, she stumbled just as she passed him and spilled the water all across his lap and onto the floor. The whole class was stunned. What was she doing? The teacher quickly reprimanded her and soon all her classmates were scoffing at her for breaking the rules. Sadly, even the little boy, now saved from his own shame, began to scoff.
After class resumed and the test was over the class was sent out to recess. The little girl still carried the shame... and the little boy suddenly realized that she had done that on purpose?
We've all wet our pants. We all know the sin and shame we want so desperately to hide. And Christ comes to take it upon himself. [3]
He came as the image bearing one… who bore our separation… and gave us his beloved union.
1 Corinthians 1:30 (NLT)
God has united you with Christ Jesus. … Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin.
Christ making us ‘pure and holy’…not that it has been fully realized yet…but that his nature is now taken up at work within us.
In January, 2008, a story made the rounds about a 15-year-old girl in Australia named Demi-Lee Brennan. Brennan became the world's first known transplant patient to change blood types from O negative to O positive, taking on the immune system of her organ donor. At first the doctors assumed someone had made a mistake, because it's always been assumed that a change like that can't happen. Now they say she's a "one-in-six-billion miracle."
The blood stem cells in Brennan's new liver invaded her body's bone marrow, taking over her entire immune system.
She now has an entirely different kind of blood-blood that welcomes life, rather than carrying death. "It's like my second chance at life," Brennan says.
Something similar happens to us when we ask Jesus to save us. …he has an entirely different kind of life than we do…and he gives us that life.
This leads to… The resurrection of Christ…
3. Reveals the Divine power to live forever by raising us.
…20 Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 22 …in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But in this order: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.
49 And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.
When Christ rose he defeated the power of death that rules over life.
When Christ rose from the dead it was for good.
Before the resurrection…the grave was looked upon as the final chapter… the closing of a great door… the end of everything. But Jesus reveals that the door is open…that it is just the beginning of a new chapter.
Death was defeated…for him and all who receive his life.
He rose in the form of a new body that represents life without death… life restored...life unbound. We will be raised “as he was” (Romans)…” bearing the image of the heavenly man.”
The resurrected life is one of unrestricted BODIES!
He entered rooms without going through the door.
Like Christ….our bodies will be unrestricted…but not unrelated to bodies as we now perceive them. They will be the completion of all we were meant to be.
But more than just our bodies… life will be unrestricted …free from all that is fallen …fragile…and frustrating!
The resurrection is not just about living forever in this same type of life…but of a life that reflects all the goodness of God. God knows that it is hard for us to even begin to grasp…but the Scriptures do help us by telling us that God will bring forth a…
A place of blessing without curse for there shall be no more curse.
A place of light without darkness for there shall be no night there.
A place of life without death for there shall be no more death.
A place of joy without sorrow, all tears wiped away.
A place of glory without suffering, no more pain.
A place of singing without crying, no more tears.
A place of belonging without separation.
There is a life that is hidden. Like plants that have been cut back… and even cut down… there is life unseen… that will arise in season….a life of renewed love in the presence of God.
And finally… the resurrection of Christ…reveals that this new life begins now…. it
4. Reveals his Divine presence in relating to us.
The apostle Paul shares something in this text that is vital for each of us to grasp. When he speaks of all who met Jesus after the resurrection… he makes a final reference to himself..
Verse 8 – “…and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.”
What is he referring to? All those he previously referred to had encountered Christ after he had resurrected but before he ascended to heaven.. they physically saw him and touched his new body. Paul had become an enemy of Christ… persecuting those who followed Jesus. It was then that Christ more mysteriously engaged him… he was knocked off his donkey… and realized Christ was the One God had promised and sent. (He didn’t want to claim to have been birthed into this new life with Christ as others… his was abnormal in contrast. But Christ still engaged him… and was with him.)
Paul had been a religious leader… he believed in God but he didn’t love Him. Without that love it is impossible to live godly. When we try to do the commandments for any other reason than love, we find ourselves trapped in religious legalism.
But now Paul has been encountered by the risen Christ… and he is changed by love.
When you really love someone it is your desire to please that person. Love will cause you to simply want to delight the heart of God. Love will cause you to long to please the one who loved you and gave himself for you. No one has to look over your shoulder and make sure you do the right thing. You do it for one reason alone. You do it because you love Jesus and you want to please him in anyway you can.
This is the relationship which Christ now brings to each of us.
John 14:18-23 [NLT]
“I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you. In just a little while the world will not see me again, but you will. For I will live again, and you will, too. When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. …All those who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and live with them.
By His Spirit he is able to engage our spirit within us. Jesus is still here by His Spirit…and able to be with us. He may knock some of us off our donkeys… or the equivalent colloquial term.
The resurrected life is not simply about life in the future. It is not simply about a one dimensional linear reality….but rather the overtaking of the eternal realm over the created realm. It was a breaking through of God’s eternal reign over the independence chosen in this created realm.
So let’s ask ourselves today: What really matters?
Is there anything vying for your attention… your devotion… that matters more than that which reveals that God has a plan to reach you and save you?
Is there anything that is drawing your heart that offers you more than the love of God dying for your sins… suffering your shame and separation?
Is there anything that offers you something more important than living forever?
Is there anyone who can be with you always?
"Put first things first and we get second things thrown in; put second things first and we lose both first and second things." Letters of C.S. Lewis, p. 228
Closing Prayer
Notes
1. Information overload 2012 stats
From: Shift 1 – Exponentially increasing information will dramatically change marketing By Paul Adams - January 13, 2012
http://www.thinkoutsidein.com/blog/2012/01/shift-1-access-to-exponentially-increasing-information/ and From: http://royal.pingdom.com/2012/01/17/internet-2011-in-numbers/
2. http://www.accordingtothescriptures.org/prophecy/353prophecies.html
3. Shared by Senator Steve Largent at 2000 National Prayer Breakfast lunch.
