Well, good morning. Happy Easter! He has risen! He has risen indeed! Since it is Resurrection Sunday, I thought we would start out by reading through the resurrection story that is found in Luke 24:1-12. (Scripture read here.) Isn’t that a great story? It’s not only a great story; it’s a very important story. It is a story that is basically the key story in the Christian faith. But unfortunately, for many people, it’s the end of the story. Some people come to church once a year for Easter. They hear the story. They sing a few songs. Then what do they do? They go home. They enjoy a nice dinner of ham and deviled eggs and green beans. They stuff their kids full of all sorts of candy and those wonderful things we call Peeps. I love Peeps. Then what do we do? We settle in for a nice two-hour nap. Amen.
As nice as those things are if you don’t embrace this idea of the resurrection reality beyond Easter Sunday, then Easter becomes an isolated event on the calendar and really has little power for facing the challenges in the world and for living out the life that each of us is called to live. As we think about this resurrection story, the good news is there are people who take Easter beyond a once a year story. In other words, they don’t see the resurrection story as an ending. They see it as a beginning. They see it as an ongoing continuing story that not only gives substance to this holiday we call Easter but gives meaning and substance to their entire lives. Those people I refer to are Easter People. That is what I want to talk about today. You might ask, who are these Easter People? They can be all sorts of people. They can be rich or poor, male or female, democrat or republican. They can be from various ethnic backgrounds and many social classes. The thing that they have in common is that they have all experienced some form of a death and some form of a resurrection just like Jesus.
Before we consider the Easter People, let’s consider Jesus. As many of you know, Easter didn’t begin on Easter Sunday. Really the Easter story began last week during Palm Sunday where we celebrate where Jesus was riding into Jerusalem on a donkey and the people waving the palms. Heralding the king coming to Jerusalem. As you know, the story takes a downward spiral after that. Things get progressively worse. By Thursday, when Jesus is appearing at The Last Supper with his disciples, things have gotten pretty bad because we know it is at The Last Supper where Judas was going to betray Jesus into the hands of the Roman army. If you were here Thursday night, you got to see a reenactment of The Last Supper put on by several members of the Bellevue Christian Church drama team, and it was a very good depiction of really what was going on there. It was a very heavy scene that Last Supper. Things continued to get progressively worse. Last Friday is called Good Friday. For Jesus it wasn’t really a Good Friday because it was that day he was crucified on a Roman cross. Yes it was a bad day for Jesus, but it was a good day for us because it is the day that we all had our penalty for our sins paid. As many of you know we had a community cross walk in town, and actually had a pretty good attendance. Still, Good Friday doesn’t seem to get the focus that Easter Sunday gets because of gory theme associated with it. Even though it doesn’t get the focus as Resurrection Sunday, the cross is a key symbol obviously in the Christian faith. Without the cross, you would have no crucifixion. Without the crucifixion of Jesus, you would have no burial of Jesus. Without the burial of Jesus, you would have no resurrection. Without the resurrection, none of us would be able to be resurrected or look forward to eternal life someday. In fact, we would be considered pitied among all people. The apostle Paul writes in a letter to the Corinthians “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins…If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.” (1 Corinthians 15:17–19) But Paul goes on to write but Christ has been raised from the grave and consequently, we too will be raised to have a new life.
But as good as that is, Easter People understand something. They understand that the resurrected life doesn’t begin at the physical grave. The resurrected life does not begin at our physical death. No, the resurrected life begins at our spiritual death. What we refer to as conversion. Where we accept Christ into our heart. I know some people don’t like to think about the conversion as a death experience but really that is a good description of it because what is really going on there is you are becoming dead to yourself. In other words, you are becoming dead to your self-desires, your self-interest, and your all around selfishness. What you are doing is taking yourself off the throne and putting God there. In many ways, it is a death. That death can occur in a variety of different ways. It can occur at a variety of different times in different people’s lives. In many ways there is as much variety in a spiritual death experience as there are these Easter People. I suspect there are some people here that might not be able to pinpoint the time that they accepted Christ as their savior. Some people, I suspect, may have accepted Christ as a little child. Maybe one night they were up in their room saying their nightly prayers and with a simple prayer they decided to open their heart and allow Jesus to come in. Other people might have received Christ or went through the conversion experience as a teen. Maybe at a summer camp or some sort of a conference. While others may have been adults. Maybe they were going through some severe life crisis. Maybe they had hit rock bottom and they finally decided what they needed to do was turn around and change their life and quit living the life they were living and begin a new life focusing on God. The commonality though is a death.
Usually what often happens following that death experience in many churches is what we call the baptism experience. I am not here to critique different methods of baptism, but here at Bellevue Christian Church we practice what is called baptism by emersion. We have a number of reasons for doing that. We do believe that is very Biblical, but we also believe it is a very tangible picture of what is happening to a new believer’s life. That he or she is going through a spiritual death. It is a great imagery of that. Not only that. When somebody goes through a baptism what they are doing is aligning themselves up with the death of Jesus Christ. In the Book of Romans, Paul writes “…don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” (Romans 6:3) That is what is going on. There is a spiritual death going on there where you align yourself up with the death of Jesus Christ.
Easter People know that if they are willing to go through this spiritual death that it doesn’t end there. They receive new life. They receive the resurrected life. They go through what we call the conversion experience or what some would call the born-again experience. We get that phrase from the Book of John. Some of you may recall the story of Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a Pharisee. He was a leader of the Jews. But unlike some of the other leaders, Nicodemus was intrigued by Jesus. He really followed Jesus. He really believed that Jesus was right on in some of the things that he was saying. But he was also embarrassed. He was worried that if he was to get too close to Jesus or was to follow him too closely the other leaders were going to kick him out of the leadership or whatever it is. They were going to shun him. What happens is one night Nicodemus shows up late and goes to see Jesus because he has some questions. He wants to ask Jesus some questions of clarification about this idea of the kingdom of God. Before he can even open his mouth, before he can even ask the question, Jesus reads his mind and knows what he was about to say, so he just simple responds. He goes on to say “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” (John 3:3) That is where we get the idea of the born-again experience. As the story goes, of course Nicodemus is taken aback and is very confused. How is it that an old man could go into his mother’s womb a second time and be born again? As a side note, I suspect there are some mothers here that would prefer that their kids not come back to their own room let alone their own womb. Right? Can I get an amen? They are thinking, get out of the room, get out of the house, and by the way get a job. Amen? Anyway, all kidding aside, Nicodemus is confused. He is thinking some sort of a physical birth is going on and Jesus is talking about a spiritual thing. For the very first time they begin to feel alive. They have this spirit connection between their spirit and God’s spirit. They are so full of excitement. They are telling everybody how excited they are about their faith, and they just can’t learn enough about God and about the Bible.
In many ways, they are kind of like a newborn baby. Some of you know that this last fall especially, we seemed to have an influx of new babies. I am not sure what caused that. Well, I kind of know what caused that, but I think it might have had to do with the long winter last year. We don’t know. We had a lot of babies and babies are fun. The thing about babies is they are limited to what they can do. Some stay in the sanctuary and they cry. Or they go in the nursery and they mess their diapers. Or they are nursing. And if they aren’t crying, nursing, or messing their diapers, they are usually sleeping. When they are not doing any of those four things, what are they doing? They are just taking it all in. They are sitting there just staring up at all these people looking at them and looking at the light and saying, wow, lights. What is going on here? They are all excited about all this stuff. They start taking the world in like a sponge. They are all excited about this new world. In many ways, that is like the experience of a brand new believer. I love when I see somebody that I just know God has gotten a hold of them and it was a real conversion experience. Because they are excited. They are like a newborn child. They begin to absorb things like a sponge.
But what happens sometimes is that a new believer is on the path to becoming an Easter person, a person who lives in the reality of the resurrection, and then something happens and they become very stagnate in their faith. They quit growing. There are many problems, but I think part of the problem is that they fail to leave the tomb. They fail to leave that place of death. As you know, in the Resurrection story, another key element is the tomb. When the woman showed up at the tomb very early in the morning, and they didn’t see Jesus, they ran into a couple of angels and one of the angels says why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here. He is risen. Although it would have added an interesting twist to the Easter story t would have been quite silly if the ladies had showed up at the tomb and they go into the tomb and Jesus is there. Maybe just sitting there hanging out or reading a book or whatever or nowadays looking at his iPad or his kindle. Just sitting there. That would have been silly wouldn’t it? Really, it is about as silly as a newborn Christian who somehow decides to go back to their old dead life. To go back to the tomb. Tombs and cemeteries and mausoleums bring up not really positive images. They are places of death. They are places of despair. They are places of hopelessness. They are places of remorse. For Easter People, they are places where the old person had died. The old man or old woman is there buried. Unfortunately, a lot of these people want to bring that old person back to life. They do that by trying to reengage in their old habits, their old attitudes, their old sins, their old relationships that were probably unhealthy. What they are doing is revisiting the tomb. This is not just obviously a 21st century problem. This was a 1st century problem. The apostle Paul was dealing with people who just could not let go of the ways of the world. In the Book of Colossians he writes “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:2–3) He is reminding them that that life is gone. Set your mind on things above because you died. You are dead. Don’t go back to the old tomb. I think part of the reason that Christians as a whole are not more influential in culture, in society, in shaping the world is because they look too much like the world. They haven’t distanced themselves from their tomb. Obviously, when you have a newborn baby, one of the most critical time periods is the first few days of life. Likewise, when you have a newborn Christian, a person who just went through the born-again experience, one of the most critical times of their journey is those first few days and their first few weeks. Why is that? Because although they have changed, their friends often haven’t. So they go back and they start trying to hang around with their old friends. Their friends say what is going on here? The person tries to tell them about their born-again experience or conversion to Christianity and you get a response like, what are you talking about? Why don’t you stop this nonsense now? You’re not a Christian, just stop it and come back to your old friends and your old way of living. Be who you are meant to be. Be who you are. Before they know it, they are being pulled back into those old relationships, those old habits, those old dysfunctional people, and the environment that they left from. They are going back into that environment. Again, they haven’t left the tomb.
But it’s not only that they haven’t left the tomb, it is not that they changed and their friends didn’t. Really what it boils down to is that when they left the tomb, they left without their coat on. Specifically, they left without their new coat on. Some of you knew there was an Easter Sunrise service up at Riverview Park up at Observatory Hill. It was a great service at 6:30 in the morning. There were about 60 people from throughout the community that were up to experience a Resurrection Service, an Easter Sunrise service. I was asked to participate, one of many ministers, and it was an awesome thing. I will be honest, I was a little nervous going up there at 6:30 in the morning. Is it going to be raining? It’s probably going to be cold. But I really didn’t mind too much because I knew it would give me the opportunity to wear my nice new black wool coat that Debbie got me for Christmas. I love wearing that coat. Easter People understand that when they leave the tomb, they too have to put a coat on. Specifically, they have to put a very new coat on. When I speak about a coat, again I am speaking about a spiritual thing. I am speaking specifically about an identity that you receive when you become a Christian. When you go through that born-again experience, you receive an identity as a child of God, as a new creation. You are not that old person anymore. You have a new ID card that says Christian. That is what it says. It means you are going to act differently. You are not going to act the same way as others because that is not who you are anymore. Again, the apostle Paul was dealing with people who forgot who they were. They stuck too close to the tomb but also they forgot to put on their new identity. They were acting the way they used to act. In fact, they were lying to each other. They were not getting along. They were arguing with each other. They were picking on each other and that sort of thing. He talks later in Colossians and says “Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self…” (Colossians 3:9–10) He is reminding them of their identity. If they understand their identity, they won’t sin. Because, again, that is inconsistent with who they are.
It reminds me of a story of a high school boy. It’s a fictitious name. Let’s call him Johnny. Like most high school boys, he is consumed with things like rock-n-roll, technology, girls, and possibly drinking and even drugs. That is his life. That is his identity. He is a partier. One day this Johnny is running down the hall because he is going late to class and the track coach sees him. He goes up to him and says, hey, Johnny, you’ve got a pretty good sprint there. Why don’t you come out of the track team? Johnny says that’s not me. I don’t have time for that. I’m a partier. I just enjoy the party. He says just try. Just one day come out and see how you do. Johnny goes out and tries out for the track team. It turns out he does pretty good. It turns out he does really well and he is a phenomenal sprinter. So he begins to practice. He gets really good, and he actually begins to enjoy this new life as a sprinter. Then the day of the big track meet comes. He is getting ready to get on the track and begin the race and from a distance across the infield he sees a group of people coming and it turns out to be his friends and his girlfriend coming across the track. They are saying, Johnny, what are you doing here? We have a party tonight. Come join us. We are going to have some drugs. We are going to have some booze. Come on over and join us. He says I don’t really want to do that. And they say why not? That’s not who I am anymore. I’m not this guy who is just consumed by my own fleshly desires. I’m a sprinter. I’ve got a new identity. I’m a runner. What the story illustrates is that he understood his new identity.
Easter People understand their identity. They understand they have been given a new ID card, a new name, and the name is Christian, child of God. So when they are tempted to go back to their old ways, when they are tempted to sin, they don’t sin because somebody told them not to, whether it be the pastor, the church, or Jesus. They don’t sin because it’s not who they are anymore. It is inconsistent with who they are. The definition of insanity is to act outside of who you are. When a person who is a child of God who has a new identity actually goes and sins that person is acting insane. That person is acting out of that new identity that has been given to them by God during that conversion process. So Easter People, again, they don’t leave the tomb without their coat. But even so, when they go out there and leave the tomb and have their coat on, they still face a very, very hostile world. A world where you have little countries trying to bomb you like North Korea is trying to do. A world where you don’t know from one day to the next what is going to happen. A world where you have crazy people that are going around shooting people in malls and schools and movie theaters. A world where teenagers just make bad choices sometimes. Where adults make bad choices. Where children disobey. Where unexpected bills come in. Where the unexpected weather comes in and destroys not only homes and property but entire lives. But Easter People understand that. They get that. They understand that both Christian and non, they are born into the same world with the same challenges of being a parent, employee, employer. The same type of challenges that a nonbeliever faces. The difference is how they respond to those challenges. They don’t flip out. They don’t freak out when the first thing out of the ordinary happens. No. What they do is they kick in to resurrection mode. They put on their resurrection glasses. In other words, when the unexpected bill comes through the mail, and they do, when the doctor gives the bad news, and they do, when a teenager makes poor choices, and they will, when the employer lays you off, and they often do, they don’t flip out. They look up to the God who still is in the resurrection business. Now, as I say that, as a Christian it doesn’t mean that we sit back and just say I’m not going to do anything. God is going to take care of this situation. God has given you gifts, talents, ability, resources, friends, finances, whatever it is to deal with the day-to-day situations of life. But once in a while when you seem to come to the end of your rope where you have exhausted all of your resources and you have thrown your hands up and just say, Lord, this is just an impossible situation. I don’t know what to do. Again, you look up to the God of possibilities. That is what you do. You look up to the God that still is in the resurrection business. You look up to the one that can deal with the situation. What you begin to do is you begin to anticipate something. You begin to anticipate that resurrection is right around the corner. In faith, you know that no matter how bad things get, there is something that is going to come out of this. Something positive. That resurrection is just around the corner.
Some of you were here a few weeks ago when it was February 2, which was Groundhog Day. Punxsutawney Phil was wrong wasn’t he? He didn’t see his shadow so that meant that we were to only have six more weeks of winter. Yeah, right! I did the math and that means winter should have been over March 16. There was snow on the ground last week and who knows there might be snow coming this week. Punxsutawney Phil was a little bit off in the calculation. But even though he was off in the calculation, I suspect that everybody here knows that under those piles of leaves or plants out there that appear dead or the little piles of snow that still are around that there is some activity going on beneath the earth. Something is happening. Within a few days or weeks, there is going to be new life springing forth from those little piles of dirt. You are going to be blown away. There will be stuff coming up all over, including weeds, and you will be pulling weeds again. But how do we know that? Think about it. How can we be so sure that spring is coming? Who are we to be 100% positive that spring is around the corner? When you think about it, the idea that spring is going to come every year is a faith issue. Right? In faith, we believe that spring is going to come around. We don’t know for certain. We can’t guarantee that spring is going to come but by faith, we believe. Even the most vocal agnostic or atheist by faith believes that spring is coming because they can look back hundreds of years and know that spring consistently shows up.
I think God gave us the annual cycle of seasons to be a way to make sure that we don’t go crazy with an endless winter but really as a form of encouragement. To show us as a visible annual demonstration of God’s faithfulness in your life. Likewise the littlest child to the oldest adult know that no matter how dark things are, no matter how gloomy the situation, no matter how bad somebody treated you, something is going to happen. Something good is going to happen. They understand. This is what Easter People do. They know that it is a bad situation, but there is good coming. How do they know? They know the same way we know that spring is coming. Simply looking back at our history. Easter People have a habit when they are feeling down of looking back upon their spiritual journey and where they can pinpoint situations and people that came into their lives at just the opportune moment that turned a bleak situation into something completely positive and possible.
When you think about it that is the nature of the cross. The nature of the crucifixion. The worst thing that could have happened to man was that God would be crucified on the cross. God flipped it around and it became the best thing for mankind. Again, Easter People know that spring is just around the corner because of their history. Because they have seen God’s faithfulness work time after time in their own life. Not only that, they can also look back to the historical event. They can look back to that resurrection story when the woman showed up at that tomb and looked inside that tomb and the angel said “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here. He is risen.” They believe in resurrection but not only that they believe in the One who said “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” (John 11:25–26)
So in closing that is who Easter People are. People who have experienced a death in their own life. Died to themselves. Easter People are a people who, because they have died themselves and live for God, they became born again. They have that spirit-to-spirit connection to God. They have experienced that new life. Not only that, the Easter People know the importance of stepping away from the tomb. Not going anywhere back to that tomb because that is where the old nature lives. They understand that they have been given something new. That they have been given a brand new coat with a brand new identity. The identity is called Christian. More than that they understand that as they go out and face the world, the same challenges every single challenge that every human being faces, they respond differently. They put the resurrection lenses on. They see the challenges in a whole new light because they know that God is still in the resurrection business.
I suspect that there are people here today who maybe fall into different categories. Obviously, we have people who say I fit that description. I am an Easter person. That is good. But I suspect that even Easter People get times of frustration and doubt and fear. So if you are here today and you are experiencing that and you know you are saved beyond a shadow of a doubt, then use this time if you want to come forward and just pray with somebody or ask somebody to pray for you. The stage here is open. Then there are people that, maybe by some of the things I have said, begin to question themselves. They begin to say maybe I’m not an Easter person. I can’t really pinpoint when I gave my life to Christ. I can’t really make the decision. I don’t really know that I really did accept Christ as Savior. If you are one of those people, I would say come forward and don’t waste your time and recommit your life to Christ. Then we know, because it is Easter Sunday, there are people visiting. The once-a-year Christians or whatever it is. The people that come at Easter. They don’t even know what I am talking about. But they know that there is something not working in their life. They know that it is time to make that change. That is what they want to do. Romans 10:9 says “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Confessing Christ as your Lord. Believing the story of the resurrection. Believing that Christ was raised and because he was raised, you too will be raised. People, there is not a better day than Easter Sunday to make that confession and to make that commitment. There is not a better day than Easter Sunday to become an Easter person. Let us pray.
