TITLE: This Changes Everything 04-15-2014
TEXT: Matthew 28:1-10
Start the service by reading the resurrection story from the Bible Luke 24:1-12
I. I REMEMBER WHEN THAT HAPPENED!
A. There are significant discoveries, inventions, and events down through history of which have shook the world. It could be said of them...THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING! Consider a few of such events:
1. FIRE: At Gorham's Cave, a small colony, shivering together in the cold, trying to choke down a piece of raw, stringy Stegosaurus, wondering why life is so hard. Outside, lighting strikes a tree. A pterodactyl is cooked on the limb upon which it was perched. A fire ensues. The group samples the meat and feels the warmth. One caveman looked at another and said, “Ruuh Uuuh”. Those of us who have studied and are fluent in the languages of the Pliocene Epoch of Earth’s history are able to translate. From the original Neanderthal this means, “THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING!”
2. THE EARTH IS ROUND: What a day it was when man discovered the Earth was indeed round, not flat, and if you sailed far enough you would NOT fall off the edge. Two map makers looked at each other and one said, THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING.
3. EARTH REVOLVES AROUND THE SUN. When Nicolaus Copernicus discovered that the earth revolved around the sun, and that our earth is just a part of a bigger solar system, the church wanted to burn him at the stake for heresy. Two government contractors looked at each other and one said, THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING
4. THE PRINTING PRESS: In 1439 Gutenberg’s invented the printing press. The most significant work and the thing driving Gutenberg was the need to print and mass produce the Bible. And two Televangelists looked at each other and one said, THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING
5. THE LIGHT BULB: It was 1879 in Menlo Park, NJ when the first big pitch was made to financial backers. It was an invention many had worked on, but Thomas Edison had perfected....The Light Bulb. Amazed, two lamp lighters looked at each other and one said, THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING!
6. THE ASSEMBLY LINE: Henry Ford boldly proclaimed, “I will build a car for the multitudes!” And he did in 1908 eventually producing 15.5 million Model T’s over a 19 year period the price tag dipping to under $300. Ford’s major contribution to humanity was not the automobile, it was the assembly line which made it possible to manufacture a car every 24 minutes as opposed to the normal 12 hours! Mr. Ed looked up from his bucked of oats and muttered, THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING
7. THE AIRPLANE: In that same time frame, on the sandy beaches of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina December 17th, 1903 at 10:35AM, two Brothers, Orville and Wilbur Wright made their historic 12 second, 120 foot flight in a powered flying machine. This accomplishment ushered in modern air and space travel. James T. Kirk, who was there that day said, THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING!
8. WORLD WARS/ATOMIC BOMB: WWI and WWII shattered the brewing notion man was a civilized being able to create peace a part from God. Think of it: Our only answer to bring an end to all the suffering, death and destruction caused by war, was to devise a way to destroy all human life on the entire planet...the atom bomb. On August 6, 1945 after the bomb had done its worst, at Ground Zero two optimistic cockroaches who had survived the full force of the blast, recognizing the potential of man’s perverted intelligence and hatred for one another, emerged from the rubble, one said to the other, THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING!
9. PCs and the INTERNET: Work began on the first PC October 1950. IBM introduced their desktop in 1973. In 1976 Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs put their new design into the marketplace. Out in his garage, after Al Gore hammered the final nail into the device and flipped the switched which turned on the World Wide Web –His invention of the internet in 1992, Bill Google and Fred Amazon got together and one said to the other, THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING!!
10: 9/11: September 11, 2001, I turned on the TV as I dressed for work, I saw what you saw, what everybody saw. I wept bitterly for the hapless victims and the heroic firemen. Two days later, I had lunch with a friend. He looked me in the eye and said, THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING!
11. PERSONAL: In your lifetime many of you have experienced this type of events marriages, births, death the joys and the sorrows of life. Sometimes for good, sometimes for ill you have scratched your head and said, THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING!!
B. I have left out many important world events. But I have purposefully left out the single most Earth shaking event of all time. One which the Establishment tried to cover up from the very onset –even in anticipation of its happening.
1. I put forth to you: This day we celebrate: Jesus’ Resurrection Day, the day Jesus, though executed until dead on a Friday, came back to physical life again on Sunday.
2. THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING!!! We should stand to our feet and shout it! We should climb to our roof tops and dance in celebration of it. We should hit the streets and proclaim it.
--Jesus, though dead, is to this very day, truly alive.
3. It is not a myth like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, or the one Al Gore tells about himself. It is the most fantastic truth this world must know.
II. THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING ABOUT YOUR FUTURE
A. All over the world people are celebrating the resurrection of Jesus, worshipping Him as the Son of God, the all sufficient Pascal Lamb of God, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, alive forevermore! Why it should change everything should it not?
1. But we do that every Sunday, so much so we have allowed it to be a common thing. Ask someone why they weren’t at church. Obviously, they were doing something else, whether sleeping in or recreating. The reason they weren’t at church is: BORING....
2. Yet is it not true that Jesus resurrection makes this life worth living a thing of great abundance? Why it takes away our greatest fear, our fear of dying.
3. Indeed, I look forward to the day when I can see Jesus. My mental image has not captured His beauty, nor the beauty of the Heaven He has prepared for me.
B. We treasure these words 2 Timothy 4:7-8, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. 8 And now the prize awaits me—the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing.
1. I love life, yet I long for the prize, to be with Jesus and the people I who have gone on before. I want to see Jesus, Dad, Sis ...
2. I don’t anticipate death with fear,–I’m ready!
C. I think of all the good things God has allowed me to enjoy here. “Those were the days my friend, we thought they’d never end...”
1. But thank God, they ended and we are moving forward toward God’s future for us. Some days it doesn’t feel like it. But we really are moving on to something far better.
D. Back in the Bible Days the Religious Leaders didn’t embrace the good change. They were quite content with the status quo. They feared Jesus prediction of His Resurrection –that it might come to fruition. They wanted to stop the change at all costs.
1. They went to Pilate and said, Matthew 27:63-66 tells us, Sir, we remember what that deceiver once said while he was still alive: ‘After three days I will rise from the dead.’ 64 So we request that you seal the tomb until the third day. This will prevent his disciples from coming and stealing his body and then telling everyone he was raised from the dead! If that happens, we’ll be worse off than we were at first. “Take guards and secure it the best you can.” 66 So they sealed the tomb and posted guards to protect it.
2. How do you stop the future God has planned? How do you stop God from saving the world He created? Do you see the humor in their wasted efforts? I’m sure the guards, the heavy stone and especially that official looking government seal they put there gave God indigestion and a few sleepless nights.
3. And with a flick of His little finger, Matthew 28:2-4 says, 2 Suddenly there was a great earthquake! For an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled aside the stone, and sat on it. 3 His face shone like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow. 4 The guards shook with fear when they saw him, and they fell into a dead faint.
4. When God gets ready to make a statement, it is usually awesome to behold. A thing you will receive with either great wonder, or great fear.
5. There was an earthquake on Friday as Jesus passes from this world, and here another great earthquake as He comes back into it. The massive stone, which must have took much ingenuity and great strength to put into place, is brushed aside.
--(A side note. I have been to both sites celebrated as Jesus borrowed tomb, the Traditional Site and the Garden Tomb. Neither site has a stone. All I can figure is God rolled the stone far, far away.
6. You see, things were bad. Religion had grown cold and stale, a thing operated for the benefit of the rich and powerful. Father God said, I’M GOING TO CHANGE EVERYTHING!
E. Yet, sometimes, we too try to stop God’s wonderful future. in our own lives.
1. We even let what should be celebrated as a vital living faith become dead works and lifeless religion.
2. But Jesus changes everything! If you have invited Him into close proximity of your life, you will feel His presence. He has a way of altering your life’s events.
3. Don’t ever forget, even should this process become a painful one in your life, this is always a good thing. Because this life is a preparation for an eternity in which we will be among the saved or the lost forever and ever.
III. I BELIEVE! NOTHING CAN STOP GOD’S CHANGE
A. Governments, Religious Lleaders, soldiers, heavy stones are no match for God Who wants to alter His beloved creation’s march toward eternal doom and destruction.
1. God’s good plan will prevail; you can count on this because Jesus, with Holy Spirit strength, broke out of that tomb. We can see it for ourselves, today it still stands empty.
ILL. I wasn’t there July 20, 1969. You know what happened don’t you? Mom and Dad went out and bought a color TV just so we could watch the blessed event in the beauty of Black and White. Dad kept adjusting the tint until it was green and white. That evening, Louis Armstrong landed his lunar module on the Sea of Tranquility. It must have been low tide. He and Buzz Lightyear were only there 21.5 hours. Why some say it was all produced in some sound studio...But you remember Armstrong’s famous words: I see trees of green, red roses, too//I see them bloom, for me and you//And I think to myself//What a wonderful world....
--Scott, Scott, Scott. You know Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in fact walked on the Moon!
--How am I supposed to know that? You cannot deny all the documentation. Even though you weren’t there, you cannot deny the documented facts.
--Can I be honest with you? I know it really happened. It’s just, I’m not sure it changed my life all that much. That’s why some of details may be a little fuzzy around the edges.
2. However, the greatest of all events ever recorded on this Earth has indeed changed my life very much. In fact the resurrection of Jesus changes everything! That is why I believe
B. Over and above is the documentation. Consider just one tiny spec of it: 1 Corinthians 15:3-8 I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. 4 He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. 5 He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. 6 After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. 7 Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time, I also saw him.
1. I believe! What did John say? 1 John 1:1-2, We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. 2 This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us.
2. I believe it because reliable people who saw what happened passed it on. Many swore to their testimony of seeing these things happen with their own life through execution.
C. I believe because I see the fact that Jesus burst forth from the tomb, physically alive, the conqueror of all evil, sin and death has had great impact on everything in this world.
1. I am not propping myself up here to be some sort of Religious leader here, only a herald of fantastic news. For 1 Corinthians 15:14 ...if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless.
2. If Jesus isn’t alive, by all means, go to the lake next Sunday! Don’t give another dime to this church!
ILL. There was a cartoon of two Roman soldiers standing by the empty tomb? They had failed at their assigned task, probably headed for some trouble. One tried to console the other with the familiar words we say when there’s nothing else to say, “Hey, Don’t sweat it. In a hundred years, no one is going to remember what happen here today anyway.”
--Don’t count on it. For what happened there that day changes everything!
3. 100 years passed. In 250 the whole of the Roman Empire caved in because of it. One, two skip a few, 2,000+ years later there are more people who would gladly, with tears of joy, offer their bodies to the flames to defend it, if ever called upon to do so, than there has ever been before.
4. I believe it! I believe it! I believe the stone-cold, rock-solid facts. I believe with a fire which can incinerate stone-cold rocks. Jesus is alive! --And that, my friend, changes everything!
TS. Why would people be willing to do something as crazy as that?
IV. JESUS RESURRECTION CHANGES THE WAY WE DEFINE LIFE and DEATH
A. The Bible defines death for a believer in a way nobody has trouble understanding.
1. Jesus uses one of the biggest celebrations in life to illustrate death –it’s like your wedding day! (I hear the guy on the back row: A Wedding?! Preacher, aren’t you trying to convince me Jesus was saying death would be a good thing?)
--Here’s the deal, I’ve never seen an unhappy bride.
--In fact the day Annette got to marry me was the happiest day of her life so far and understandably so.
2. Jesus said we as believers in Him are Brides waiting for the Groom to arrive at the ceremony.
B. Here’s another illustration. It is a picture of Great Banquet, when all the family of God is finally gathered together to celebrate what Jesus has done for us. It is a time marked with joy, happiness and fellowship.
C. Jesus also says, "Death is like going home." How many hit records have been made with this theme? Another summer day/Has come and gone away/In Paris and Rome/But I wanna go home
--Why? It connects! People want to get home. Somehow, some way we want to, got to get home.
D. Death is also like a graduation.
ILL. When I was an associate pastor, the Senior Pastor put me in charge of the churches annual Sunday School graduation. Each grade or division was moving up to the next. Pastor wanted me to make it a big deal, a real celebration. Pull out the stops! And so I did. A couple of dear Saints from the “Blue Haired Ladies Class” I’m sorry, I don’t remember the actual name, just what Pastor called it behind closed doors. Anyway, they wanted to know “To which class they would be graduating?” You know me, never wanting to be disrespectful, I was speechless. So thinking to myself, “After a woman is too old to dye her hair blue, what color does she die it then?” I was only 24 and I didn’t know the answer. They knew I was a prankster and a jokester and they had pulled one over on me with those innocent, beguiling looks. One said, “Pastor Scott, do you recon from here, one day we will graduate to Heaven?”
1. Good God! Yes Lord! What a fantastic graduation that will be indeed with the entire angelic host playing “Pomp and Circumstance”.
2. Jesus Resurrection changes everything! When death comes a threatening with yellow fang and bared claw, turn around and look it straight in the eye. You know what to say, 1 Corinthians 15:55 “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”
3. “You used to have game, what has happened to you death? Stop that smack! I’ll give you a smack. Take it on down the road! Oh there’s going to be some pain involved, I know that. But when I step through that door ----Paradise!
4. Jesus Resurrection changes Everything!
E. As I thought about this Easter message I wish I could go with you and stand before the very tomb in which Jesus was once placed. He was dead.
1. I wish you could peer in as I have and see for yourself, the tomb stands empty. Can you fathom what Good News this is?
--I thought as I was preparing, let this be a message with rings with hope eternal.
2. But I fear some people on Easter Sunday might taste the fantastic hope and for them it would be nothing but false hope.
3. Jesus resurrection is such a wonderful truth, it causes anyone who hears to think everything is all right. But for most people in this world, everything is far from alright.
4. You see, some people get to graduate upward. Some people just flunk out. The determiner between the two is not your intelligence or how hard you try.
V. CHALLENGE
A. Some homes are peaceful, while others are not. Some marriages succeed, but others do not. Some lives are full of something not measured by Dun and Bradstreet and others are empty in every way.
1. What determines whether you graduate to Heaven? What determines whether your life is full or empty? What determines whether changes are being made in your personal life which will allow your home to be a peaceful place?
2. Your answer to this question will determine it: Have you allowed Jesus to change everything?
3. If by the Spirit of God Jesus can come back to life, victorious over foes of this earth and those which occupy the spiritual realm, just consider the possibilities for you. Romans 8:11...if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
4. You are the gate keeper to your own life. You have to invite Jesus into your life and ask Him to change everything.
5. Romans 10:9-10 If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.
6. Let us make this confession and this profession of belief audibly together...
