“How They Got To Church”
“And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah. From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” Matthew 16:18-21
Intro: Today is Easter Sunday. It is the Day of Resurrection.
Today it is estimated that over 140 million Americans will attend church for Easter.
That is about the same number of people who turned out to vote
both Democrats and Republicans in the last election.
They will gather in one room churches
They will gather in to beautiful sanctuaries like this one
to proclaim that Christ is risen.
They will be joined by millions of others around the world
who proclaim Christ as Lord and Saviour.
It is really something when you think about it.
I have never been to an Easter service without feeling humbled and a deep deep sense of awe.
What a wonderful and wondrous day it is…, that we share together.
Of course there were no great gatherings of millions at churches that first Easter.
Only a few women went to the tomb and found it empty.
And when they told the eleven disciples
Who were back hiding in an upper room…, scared for their lives
They considered it an idle tale…,
The report must be false.
Luke’s Gospel says that when the women told the story to the disciples what happened at the tomb
It sounded like “nonsense” they did not believe it.
Just the imagination of some women with too much time on their hands.
Hopeful wishing, that something had happened…, that this could be true.
That’s how it all started. That’s how it began.
Except for one disciple who was there in the group.
His name was Simeon Peter.
The bible says Peter got up and went.
He ran to the tomb.
Stooped down and looked.
He saw the empty wrappings of Jesus’ grave clothes.
Peter went home again…, wondering what had happened.
The Gospel of Mark includes in interesting phrase from the angel at the tomb
The angel tells the women
Do not be surprised. You are looking for Jesus of Nazarath who was crucified.
He is not here!
He is risen from the dead!
Come see the place…, where his body lay.
Now go and give this message to the disciples…,, including…, Peter;
It is important to note that Peter was singled out among the other disciples.
He is named specifically as one who was to be told this news.
Jesus had said that it would be through Peter that the church would get its start.
What Peter did do on that first Easter Sunday?
PETER GOT UP AND WENT
That’s what brought you here today.
You got up and came.
That’s the first thing you have to do to get to church.
It is get up and go.
That can be one of the hardest things to do.
To take those first steps.
There were a lot of people who have promised to be at church every Sunday.
That’s what membership means.
They had good intentions.
They even talked about getting up and coming to church last night.
But by the time the morning rolled around.
To get up…, and get here…, to much to ask…, it was impossible.
The one thing Easter should cause us all to do is to come back Next Sunday.
If Easter means anything.
It means I will be here next week.
Jesus is the risen Lord today. He will be my risen Lord tomorrow…, and Next Sunday.
There is no reason good enough.
No excuse for not being in worship of the Saviour next week.
You simply need to get up and be here.
You will make time for what is really important in your life.
Sports. No excuse
Work. No excuse
School. No excuse
Church?
Missing Church can be a bad habit that is hard to overcome.
The first decision is to just get up and go.
Peter, along with a band of 120 or so people, changed the world with one message:
Christ is risen; Christ is risen
All of us know that the longest journey begins with a single step.
All of us know how difficult that first step really is.
Watch any toddler take his first step
and you will witness the great process of stumbles and falls, cheers and tears, successes and failures,
from just learning to walk.
If by some chance in life you or someone you know had to learn to walk again,
it is even more difficult the second time around.
As many of you know,
when illness affects your mobility, the mountains seem insurmountable, almost too steep to climb.
Thousands of U.S. soldiers have come home with limbs lost from combat.
They spend time in rehab hospitals around the country learning to walk again.
Or as one sergeant said, “I am going to run again!”
Spiritually speaking, Peter had to learn to walk again, too.
The one who denied his Lord stepped back on the road again.
With the rooster still crowing in his mind,
he moved forward into a resurrected life.
If Jesus could rise again, then Peter could walk again.
And so can you.
Maybe you have lost your way.
Maybe you have denied your Lord.
Maybe you are not sure there is any truth in this at all.
Maybe you got sidetracked by some temptations.
If Peter could rise out of his denial, you can rise out of your doubt.
Back in 2010 a man near Nashville, Tennessee, named John M. Eades
Became overcome by his compulsive gambling.
He liked to bet on ball games.
He would bet on Nascar races.
Finally his habit caught up with him.
Within two years, he had maxed out 17 credit cards and amassed $245,000 in gambling debts.
One night, driving home from a big loss, Eades decided to kill himself.
He pulled over at a rest stop and reached into the glove compartment for his .357 Magnum.
The gun was gone.
Upon reaching home, Eades hugged his wife, Karen, and thanked her for saving his life by hiding the weapon. But he was in for another surprise.
"I didn't take the gun to save your life," Karen told him. "I sold it so we could pay the electric bill."
Today Eades is a United Methodist pastor.
He knows the strain of obsessive compulsive behavior.
He knows what it is like to attempt suicide.
He knows what it is like for a family to be under financial strain.
A marriage to be pushed to the brink of destruction.
It has been said, “Everyone is addicted to something.”
Today Eades is in recovery like any addict who understand the power the addiction had over his life.
"When you're in an addiction or a bad habit and you are looking around it is hard to see.
But when you can look back, it's just like you were an insane person," says Eades ….
"You cannot believe the things you did."
Eades says there can be no removal of addictive desires or recovery without God's intervention.
He also credits one of the men in who visited him from a local church
Who would not let this bright, young man go.
John Eads got up and went and so can you
PETER STOOPED DOWN AND LOOKED INTO THE TOMB
Now I want to ask you a few questions.
Have you enough humility to take another look at the Resurrection of Jesus Christ?
It is not easy to get on your knees when you drive a nice car…, live in a nice home.
It does not come natural to bow down when you are used to standing tall
Holding your head up high.
It is almost impossible to take orders, when you are used to giving orders.
But Peter stooped down.
Peter, who would not bend down to wash another disciple’s feet a coupe of days ago,
is now crawling on his hands and knees searching for the resurrected Christ.
The root word for humility is “humus” - earthy (earthly).
I suspect it would do us all some good on this Resurrection Sunday to come down to earth and get on our knees.
Ponder again what the resurrection of Jesus Christ means or he world.
The second question I have to ask is this:
Have you learned to live with questions?
Peter did not get any direct answers at the tomb.
All he saw was a left-over linen cloth.
Have you learned to live with questions?
Several churches in our community are promising to answer hard questions about the faith this Easter.
I respect that,
but through the years I have found more faith in living with questions than in pursuing the answers.
Had Jesus wanted to start a publicity campaign,
he would have staged his resurrection appearance in the temple courtyard
or maybe a special leadership conference at the resort town of Tiberias at the beautiful Lake Galilee.
Instead, Jesus appears to lonely women,
scared disciples,
unlucky fishermen,
and Simoen Peter, who when looking in the tomb can only find leftover burial clothes.
“And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church,
and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven,
and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
20 Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things
at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law,
and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” Matthew 16:18-21
A German poet, Rainer Rilke once said, “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart,
and try to love the questions for themselves.
So do not seek the answers that can’t be given to you because you would not be able to live them.”
The point is to live everything.
Live the questions now.
Perhaps you will gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”
Have you got it all settled in your mind?
That is not the question.
I ask you today to humbly live with questions.
I no longer say to parents whose child’s life is taken suddenly, “God must have needed another angel.”
I can do without answers like that.
I no longer say to a spouse who lost a mate, “God must have had a good reason for this.”
I can do without answers like that.
I do not ask people suffering from cancer or other disease the question posed by the religious authorities of Jesus’ day.
They wanted to know of the blind man, who sinned, this man or his parents?
Assumptions like that don’t help.
Instead, I go on not knowing the answers.
But every day I feel more comfortable with the questions.
Stoop down and look.
Do you see the empty tomb?
Do you see the empty grave clothes?
Do you wonder what happened?
Live with the questions.
PETER WENT BACK AND FOLLOWED
Peter was the one who went back and preached the first sermon of the Resurrection.
He followed.
What do you know about the word “follow”?
The book stores are bloated with books on leadership.
Everybody has written a book on leadership whether they are a good leader or not.
But even in a religious bookstore you can hardly find a book on following.
Yet that is the only thing Jesus ever asked people to really do.
When Jesus first caught up with Peter, he was in Galilee, running a fishing business.
Jesus did not go through the Apostle’s Creed,
he did not give him a long list of things he ought to do
Jesus just said, “Follow me.”
The incredible thing is that Peter did, along with John, Andrew, James, and others.
Their response was immediate, quick, rapid, and forthright.
“And at once, they left their nets and followed.”
Jesus called me when I was just a kid.
I had no clue what it meant.
I could not hold any discussion about religion at all.
But I got up and started following.
And I am glad I did.
Are you willing to follow,
to follow Jesus,
to go with him all the way?
I have learned a few things about this following.
Everybody is following somebody or Everybody is following something.
That is the truth.
I have found following Jesus means surrender, service, commitment, following when I don’t know where he is leading, but trusting that he will lead me in the right direction…,
and simply trusting day after day…, after day…, after day.
Following can be easy.
Following can be hard.
We follow when the way is clear,
when we know it is right,
and we follow in the darkness of the middle of the night when we cannot figure it out at all.
Are you willing to go with him all the way?
You see, that is what Easter is really about.
Some of you have been following for years, a lifetime.
What better day than Easter to say, “Thank you Lord, let’s keep walking.”
Others of you here have not once in your life made a clear decision o follow Jesus Christ.
What better day than today to start?
Some of you followed for a while, but other things got in the way.
Or you took some other road and there was a detour, and now you feel like Peter id r Easter Sunday.
Why don’t you get back on the road again?
Christianity is a great fellowship, but I once had a church member say to me,
“I get all the fellowship I need down at the ball game. They are like family to me.” (that’s a deception)
First and foremost, Christianity is a vital,
personal relationship with our Risen Lord.
Second Christianity is being part of a church…, a community of faith.
That is what Easter is built on.
Get up!
Get up and start following. Jesus is calling you by name. Will you follow the Risen Christ?
The story doesn’t end on the last page of the bible.
Instead it continues in each of us.
The story continues to be written in our heart with love.
Great stories have a “however” at a critical moment.
Like when you think all hope is gone.
I will build my church; and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
I will build my church; and give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.
I will be crucified dead and buried, but on the third day I will be raised to life.
I want to experience the life giving, life changing power of the Resurrection for myself.
So, Jesus asked Peter, “Who do you say that I am?”
Peter said, “You are the are the Messiah the Son of the living God.”
Jesus said, “That’s good because upon that rock I will build my church.”
We are a continuation of that church.
We are a continuation of that church that God started building on Simon Peter.
We are a continuation of that church that Jesus to build upon the disciples.
