Word Count: 2604
This sermon was delivered to St Oswald’s in Maybole,
Ayrshire, Scotland on the 20th April 2014
(a Scottish Episcopal Church in the Dioceses of Glasgow and Dumfries).
Summary: Because Jesus rose from the dead – so will we. We can look our ancient enemy death, straight in the eye and say, I’m not scared of you. Christians don’t stay in their tombs when they die. Neither are they meant to live in tombs while they are alive.
Thesis: We Today need to check the rock watch it roll and become a part of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Acts 10:34-43 Colossians 3:1-4 Matthew 28:1-10 Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
“Please join me in my prayer.” Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength, and our redeemer. Amen. (Ps. 19:14)
Introduction: The Resurrection!
We have just heard the familiar story of the women who went to the tomb to anoint the dead body of Jesus; as we hear every single Easter, but we never tire of this story as it has so many meanings; the most important being that Christ has risen.
In fact this is so important as it sets Christianity apart from all other religions, because Jesus is the only man who has ever conquered death … and he did so for us. This is a claim that no other religion can make. Mind you, no other religion can claim they wrongly condemned, and killed their founder, rather they all hold their founder in high esteem, before and after they died.
But our Lord died just like he said he would in Luke 9:22 "The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law, and he must be killed, and on the third day be raised to life", and Jesus told his disciples this, many times, that this would happen, and it needed to happen.
The resurrection was truly a pivotal point in history, as it validated Jesus’ claim that he is the Son of God in the flesh, which means that people do not need to follow a set of impossible rules and regulations to find salvation; … as they would find salvation through him, the risen Christ; the Old Covenant being replaced with a new.
Now let us ask the question, what would be so different if Jesus had not been raised from the dead; in other words, he died like every other human being?
Well everything really, because if we still had a Christianity, people would be following just another holy man, with another set of rules and regulations, and our sermons would be full of nice wee moral stories, with the odd reference to politics. The words of Jesus would merely join the countless words of all the other religions and people would still be striving for God to love them just the same … by trying to be good people, or good persons, without any assurance of the life thereafter.
For us, it is really difficult at times to see how the resurrection changed everything because we are so used to celebrating it, and we worship and follow the teachings of Jesus not too become saved, or to find salvation, but because we are saved, having our salvation assured by accepting Jesus as our Lord. Do you see the difference?
This is far superior than then trying to live up to the letter of the law, which is totally impossible; whereas all we have too do is to get to know him, him who has been raised from the dead, through the Holy Spirit who has been given unto us in order to change us into his “likeness”; so we can live for him, die for him, and be raised from the dead just like him; and we do not need to fear death either, in fact we can look forward to death … as for us, it means a new beginning.
I now want to tell you a story, a true story if I may from the Second World War to try and illustrate this truth, a story a young mother who escaped on the last train out of Poland with a small baby; well as you guess, the train came under attack many times; and the journey which should have taken a few hours ended up taking days.
The food ran out and so did all forms of liquid, and so when they finally arrived at their destination the baby was seriously ill; but fortunately a group of nuns interceded and took the baby to the hospital; to the relief of the mother, but this relief was short; because that night … the hospital was bombed by the Germans, and so when she returned to the hospital after the bombing had stopped … all she could see was debris where the hospital once was. So in horror, she searched the rubble in vain for her baby, or worse, the baby’s body.
I mention this story in an attempt to relate to you the scene of Good Friday, where Jesus died, taking all hope with him. His followers like this mother, who searched in vain for some kind of hope, but all they found was him dead and sealed in a tomb. Back to our story.
The mother then lifted rock after rock, brick after brick just looking for something to hold onto; and this was made worse as she watched others removing the bodies of their loved ones as they were pulled free from the rubble; and so we can understand her desperation as everyone knew her baby was also dead, and so did she … and then she began to start asking the old question, what did my little baby, or I, do to deserve this? … Then, she started going through all the “what if” questions. What if I had stayed in Poland, what if I had not given the baby to the nuns, what if, what if, and what if?
And life for us would be the same, without Easter; where death would be death and the ultimate end, where we are never seen or heard of again. Without Easter, there is no hope in death, only despair; … but wait a minutes, there is a different ending to our story, and a different ending for the women as she hears a cry … and she runs over to where the cry comes from … she rolls back some wreckage and there in an air pocket … under all the rubble is her baby … alive and well … and then she holds him high up in the air for everyone to see. As she feels an incredible surge of relief … mingled with joy … and forgetting all the “why me” and the “what if” questions, as they just do not matter any more, because all she knows is that her baby is alive.
This is an attempt to give you an analogy of what Easter should mean to us; it should completely change the mood from hopelessness and despair … from the death of Jesus on the Friday … to relief and joy on the Sunday; … a day that should empower both Christianity, and us.
The body of Jesus had gone … unlocking death forever. There was no body of Jesus to be found, because there was no death, Jesus had passed through death, and was alive … keeping his promise that he would rise again. The resurrection therefore validates, or confirms the Gospel of Jesus Christ; it is the truth backed up with action, Jesus defeated death and rose from the grave!
Like the joy in that woman, all the questions disappeared as they just did not matter … as her baby was alive, and so it is with us, the resurrection has taken away all our obstacles to eternal life; death for us too has been defeated; and the promises of God are therefore unlocked.
The Resurrection also tells us that with God all things are possible; that God keeps his promises even when we think they are impossible and to illustrate this, I have a list of some of “Our Thinking” verses some of God’s Promises” to counter act that, a list that I hope will help us realise that our thinking is not always correct, and a list that should fill us with hope.
An easy one to start is, we may think that something is impossible but God’s words say in Luke 18:27, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God” and Mark 9:23 takes that one stage further and says for us that: “If we can believe, then all things are possible to them that believeth”.
Yes we doubt our abilities at times, that we cannot do certain things, but if it is in the will of God, Philippians 4:13 clearly points out that we “can do all things through Christ who strengthens us”.
And listen, I am not pointing the finger at anyone, or if I am, it is at myself, because I fail on these so many times, but it is these scriptures that keep us going; particularly when we are tired or completely run down … because sometimes we are just not capable or able to do certain things.
A scripture to encourage us through these times is II Corinthians. 9:8 which says “God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that you, always have all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work”. Notice the all grace, and all sufficiency and in all things; is available to us; and Philippians 4:19 goes even further and says, “But my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus”. Again, these are some powerful promises.
And on the subject of sin, we have all said it at some point, “I just cannot forgive myself for … something or other”, … but God word tells us that he forgives us, and we should not condemn ourselves; I love Romans 8:1 which says “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit”; For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made us free from the law of sin and death”; and then II Timothy 1:7 then tells us that he has “not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind”.
And so when we become worried and frustrated, we need to remember I Peter 5:7 to “cast all our cares on him”, and when we think we are incapable, God says in I Corinthians 1:30 that “he gives us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, so that we can claim glory in the Lord”.
And what are we to do when we feel lonely or rejected, well God says in Hebrews 13:5, “I will never leave you or forsake you … so that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me”. Yes it so tempting to feel that nobody really loves us, but the bible is full of quotations telling us that God truly loves us: … he sent his only son to died for us … and if we could only grasp the implications of that one, it would totally change our very being … however with love come correction, as you cannot love someone and let them harm themselves, or allow them to be tested beyond their capabilities; but when we do get into trouble, (and we do), God will get us out, not because we deserve it, but because of Jesus. … There is no point in dying for us, only to let us fail and die, is there!
If we could only remember these scriptures when the enemy comes calling, life would be so much easier as these are God’s promises; promises that he could only make after Jesus has been raised from the dead; … promises that say that we too will be raised from the dead and will meet him face to face.
Conclusion:
Today many people are afraid and not sure who to trust. They are afraid of what tomorrow will bring; being consumed by the material world, and the keeping up with others. For us, the events that Easter morning should give us a totally different outlook in life; we follow a saviour who is above all things earthly, including death itself.
Life for us is worth living, because Jesus is alive, and He has given us abundance in this life if we only knew.
Now think for a moment of all the people you know who say, death is simple death, it is the end; because it makes us think … how would our lives be if we thought there was nothing after death. … … I know I would be more selfish for a start, and my integrity would be based on what I could get away with, without being found out. The only person I would help is myself, because this would be my lot.
… Can you see how we Christians are so different: … because of Jesus … because of the resurrection … we are above, or we can master so many things that that terrify others, things they go to great lengths to hide or deny? How many times do you hear those people saying “Sorry I was wrong”? Those words to them do not exist in the same sentence; not even to themselves … they are therefore prisoners of themselves, which is a great weakness.
In contrast, those who are in Christ Jesus are raised from the troubles of this earth, having a peace beyond all understanding; because their Lord has risen from the dead, promising that they too will be raised from the dead, and onto a new life in him … forever. The fear of death for them has well and truly gone!
Amen. Let us pray!
Father we thank you for Jesus, we thank you that he was raised from the dead all those years ago for our benefit, as well as yours.
Father we thank you that when the going gets tough, we can always approach you, in his name, as he died to save us, making us acceptable in your sight … acknowledging and loving us as your children, under your protection.
Father imprint your promises in our hearts that we know them … both in times of peace, and times of trouble, and that we know how to use them, how to put our faith in them … in you … and let us remain with you, until you see us through.
Father we all suffer from either: sin, or rejection, or poverty, or depression, or sickness, or shame, or simply the fear of death; and as Isaiah 53, clearly says, Jesus suffered and died to keep us from being prisoners to them, or die under them, let them beat us.
And so this morning father, as we celebrate the resurrection, free us from whatever is holding us back, free us to live a better lives in you, and free us to reveal your glory here on this earth,
We ask you in the almighty name of Jesus our Lord, Amen.
