N.B. The parts of this 'talk' were broken up through the service.
Today, it’s Easter Sunday. Easter Sundays are always great days! For us as Christians, Easter Sunday is one of the most important days of the year. Perhaps it’s the most important.
This Sunday, I’m going to do things a bit differently to usual. Most Sundays, I give a talk. But if you’ve looked at the ‘Order of Service’ you’ll see that it doesn’t say talk. You’re thinking, ‘Hooray! A service with no talk!’
But perhaps you’ve also noticed that the Order of Service says ‘Activity.’ In fact, four activities! Now you’re worried! It sounds as though you’re going to have to do something!
Actually, I am going to do some talking. But not too much. My emphasis today is more about activities than on me talking. I’ve got four simple activities to do which I hope will remind us of things that are important in this season of Easter.
JESUS THE TRUTH
My first activity is called ‘Jesus the truth’. Can my helpers please give out these little booklets? [‘The Reason for Easter’ by Jago Wynne.] Children can have the children’s sticker book if they prefer.
About four Sundays ago we had the first talk for Lent, and we looked at ‘Jesus the truth’. I quoted this passage:
“There was an occasion when some scribes and Pharisees told Jesus, ‘Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.’ Jesus replied: ‘An evil and adulterous generation craves a sign. YET NO SIGN WILL BE GIVEN TO IT EXCEPT THE SIGN OF THE PROPHET JONAH, because just as Jonah was in the stomach of the sea creature for three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights’” [Matthew 12:38-42].
Jesus told the scribes and Pharisees who wanted a sign, ‘No sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.’
Just take a moment to think what a significant statement this is! Jesus said that the sign of the prophet Jonah would be the ONLY sign given to those doubting scribes and Pharisees. If Jesus said this sign was the ONLY sign, then it must be THE MOST IMPORTANT SIGN in the Christian faith.
So, what was the sign of the prophet Jonah? Jonah was in the stomach of the sea creature for three days and three nights and then miraculously emerged. The same thing was true of Jesus – but even more so! Jesus was truly dead and then, on the third day, God raised him to life.
Our faith as Christians is founded on facts. We become Christians on the basis of facts. We continue as Christians on the basis of facts. We need to be confident that our facts are true. For Christians, the fact that God raised Jesus from the dead is the fact above all other facts. If this fact is true, then everything else about the Christian faith is true.
On March 22nd, when I gave this talk, I looked at some of the arguments for the resurrection being true. I’m not going to go over the arguments now. But I’m giving you this little booklet as a way for you to remember some of the arguments. It’s by someone called Jago Wynne, who is the rector of a church in Clapham. In the first part of the booklet, Jago Wynne reviews some of the arguments for Jesus’ resurrection. Your first ‘action’ is to take this booklet home and read it. It’s just 16 very small pages long, so that shouldn’t be difficult!
Let’s go on to the second action.
My second activity is called ‘Jesus the key.’ Can my helpers please give out these keys? [They are keys laser cut in coloured 3mm acetate with part of the key in the shape of the cross. If you would like the .svg file, please contact me.]
We looked at ‘Jesus the key’ about three Sundays ago. I started off by talking about a famous hymn by Charles Wesley: ‘And can it be.’ Wesley’s hymn continues, ‘And can it be … that I should gain an interest in the Saviour's blood? DIED HE FOR ME who caused him pain…?’ Wesley was asking, ‘Did Jesus really die for me?!’
Wesley believed he did. What about us? Did Jesus die for US? Did he need to?
Further on in Wesley’s hymn he describes his situation. This is how verse 4 starts: ‘Long my imprisoned spirit lay…’ Wesley thought of himself as imprisoned. He wasn’t in a physical prison. But his spirit was imprisoned.
That’s the picture the Bible gives. It talks about us being prisoners and us being slaves. And it tells us that only Jesus can release us.
The apostle Peter gave a great summary of what Jesus did. He wrote, ‘He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness’ [1 Peter 2:24].
Jesus fixed our problem by taking our sin on himself. He paid the debt we could not pay. He was the only key which could unlock this door – and praise God that he did. Now that the door is unlocked, we can come into the relationship with Jesus that we were created for, which Jesus gave his life for us to have.
The second action I’m asking you to do is to take the key home with you and put it on your keyring, if you have one, or put it somewhere you’ll see it. Let this little key remind you that Jesus is the key, the only key, who can unlock the door of our prison, who can set us free from our slavery.
My third activity is called ‘Jesus the king.’ Can my helpers please give out these cards, and also a pencil or felt-tip? [The cards are A6-size and have a simple drawing of someone unrolling a carpet on one side.]
I talked about Jesus the king last Sunday. I said that King Charles and Queen Camilla had just come back from a visit to Italy – and the Italians had received them royally! Then I compared that to how the people of Jerusalem received Jesus when he came into Jerusalem on a donkey. Jesus is a much greater king than King Charles. But the people of Jerusalem didn’t receive him royally at all. On the contrary, they had him put to death on a cross.
Then I asked a question. If Jesus was to come in our direction, how would WE receive him? Would we receive him as the Italians received King Charles and Queen Camilla? Or would we receive him as the Jews in Jerusalem received Jesus?
You may think that’s not a very important question. After all, Jesus isn’t going to come knocking on our door, is he?! But if you think that, you’re wrong. God raised Jesus to life! He’s present in the world through the Holy Spirit. He is no longer riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. But the Bible tells us that Jesus is knocking on our door, the door of our lives. There is a verse in Revelation in which Jesus says, ‘Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me’ [Revelation 3:20]. Jesus doesn’t force his way in. He knocks politely. But he’d like us to invite him in.
That’s our situation. Most of us here have invited Jesus into our lives, but perhaps someone here hasn’t. If you haven’t, now would be a great time to do so! You can say, quietly in your heart, ‘Lord Jesus, I welcome you. Please come into my life.’ Jesus promises, ‘If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I WILL COME IN AND EAT WITH THAT PERSON.’
But for all of us, I’d like to suggest a symbolic action. Let’s colour the carpet in the picture red and say a silent prayer to Jesus, ‘Jesus, I acknowledge you as my king. I roll the red carpet out for you.’
My final activity is called ‘Jesus the life.’ I haven’t talked about this in a previous Sunday. Can my helpers please give out the stones? [These are stones with the words, ‘Death could not hold him’ and a few flowers painted on them. On the other side of the card with the picture of a man rolling a carpet out is a line-drawing of an empty tomb, without a rock.]
After Jesus died, a man called Joseph of Arimathea and another man called Nicodemus came and took down Jesus’ body and put it in a tomb. The Bible tells us that Joseph rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away. I suppose that Nicodemus helped him but I’m not sure about that.
That was on the Friday. But on the Sunday, an angel came and rolled the stone away. Then the angel sat on it!
This rolled-away stone is a great symbol of Jesus’ victory over death. We can think of the tomb as the place of death and the great stone as the door. Jesus has completely removed that door. Death is no longer a place of captivity. There was a famous preacher called Charles Spurgeon. On Easter Sunday, 1869, he preached a sermon titled ‘The stone rolled away.’ He said this:
‘The removal of the imprisoning stone was the outward type of our Lord’s having plucked up the gates of the grave – post, bar, and all – thus exposing that old fortress of death and hell, and leaving it as a city stormed and taken, and henceforth bereft of power.’
It’s old-fashioned language but I think we get the idea. Jesus has overcome death itself – and the rolled-away stone is a great symbol of that.
What’s the action? When you get home, I’d like you to lean the card against something and put the stone next to it. On your stones are the words, ‘Death could not hold him.’ That comes in Acts 2:24. [This is in the International Children’s Bible and some other versions.] Let the rolled away stone be a symbol for you that Jesus overcame death itself.
Is that important for us? It certainly is! When he was having his last supper, Jesus told his disciples, ‘Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. BECAUSE I LIVE, YOU ALSO WILL LIVE’ [John 14:19].
Jesus’ resurrection shows that he has defeated death itself. And because he lives, we also will live! Praise God for that!
'TALK' GIVEN AT ROSEBERY PARK BAPTIST CHURCH, BOURNEMOUTH, UK, 10.30 A.M. SERVICE, EASTER SUNDAY, 20TH APRIL 2025
