" What IF"
Easter GNLCC Isaiah 53:1-6 Matthew 27:62-28:20
We have all probably played the game of what if in our lives on more than one occasions. "What if I won a million dollars? What if married him? What if I moved to California? What if I inherited a lot of money? What if everything I wished for simply came true? What if the Publisher’s Clearinghouse Prize Patrol van came to my house?
Then there are the more serious what ifs that we hope don’t come true. What if I my husband died? What If my wife was killed? What if I lost my parents? What if I lost my job? What if I’m pregnant? What if they find I have cancer?
If any of the what ifs came true, although we are not sure of all the changes that would take place in our lives, we know that changes would take place, and somehow our lives would not be quite the same as they are today. You see there are some what ifs that have come true, that we also have come to regret. "What if I had not of run out on my wife and my children. Would I have spared them a lot of pain and suffering, and would I not be so lonely today. "
What If I had of forgiven her before she died? Would I still have this hatred eating inside my heart. " What If I had of been more loving as a wife, what difference would it have made."What if I had of obeyed my parents a little more, would I be in the mess I’m in now." What if I had of obeyed God, instead of doing what I wanted with my life. Would I have avoided the consequences that I’m now going through in my life.
Today we are here because Jesus Christ was crucified on a cross for the terrible sin of having loved us. But the death didn’t last. Because three days after they laid his dead body in a tomb, He rose from the dead triumphantly. He appeared to his followers and to non-believers. Over 500 people were gathered at a sight at one of his appearances. He spent 40 days after the resurrection upon this earth teaching the disciples, loving them, encouraging them, eating with them, and preparing them to do without his physical presence. After that, He went up into the clouds and on into heaven, with the promise that one day, He would return in the clouds to take away all who believed in Him.
Jesus said that He was going away to prepare a place for us. But let’s play spiritual what if for few minutes. Christians are often accused of talking about pie in the sky, by and bye, when most people want something to enjoy right here on the earth. What if, Jesus was wrong and there was no heaven for us to go to. How many of you would say, well if there’s no heaven, I’m getting out of this Christianity stuff right now? I’m going out to have me a good time, while I’m living. That’s the end of my paying tithes. I thought I was building me a mansion in glory. If I’m not getting a mansion after I die, I’m going to use my money to get one now.
How many of you can say, you know even if there was no promise of heaven, I’d keep living for Jesus Christ? You see having a relationship to Jesus Christ is not dependent on some future reward after death. It’s based on the realization that I need help in my life today, to live the most enjoyable life possible. How many of you realize that you have a heart that wants to do wrong. There’s something in you that causes you to do wrong even when you want to do right.
I want to love my wife more than I do this church or anything else in the world, and yet I find myself being selfish and inconsiderate and trying to get my own way in my marriage. Just having Jesus in my life to keep me in line, so that I get all kind of joy out of my marriage makes serving Christ worth it.
I have seen how Jesus have taken my parent’s broken marriage and put it back together in a way that neither of them thought possible 15 years ago, and that makes following Christ worth it, whether or not there is a reward in heaven.
I’ve seen some of you on your sickbed, just a step away from death, and you knew that Jesus Christ was standing there with you and with your spouses and how He provided you with strength and hope to hang on in there, and God has brought you from the sick bed to a new place in life. You can’t tell me, that the only rewards in a Christian life comes from going to heaven. I’ve seen the way your families have been blessed, through the changes that God has brought in your lives and your changed attitudes and I know that God rewards those today that diligently seek Him.
Even if there wasn’t a heaven. I still wouldn’t want to be addicted to any drug. I still wouldn’t want to be with the partying crowd destroying my body through drugs, alcohol, and wild living. I wouldn’t want to play Russian Roulette with sexual diseases and AIDS, jumping in bed with somebody just because the chance came up. I still wouldn’t want to be caught up in the worlds promise of fulfillment through materialism, fame, power, and success.
None of them deliver what they promise. I would still keep on tithing, because I believe that’s the key to having the wonderful woman in my life, that’s the key to the peace we have in our family, and that’s the key to the joy and contentment we have in our lives. I’m in total agreement with the song writer who said, "I’d rather have Jesus than anything this old world could afford to give."
Jesus said " I came that you might have life, and have it more abundantly." There is no better plan for living in this world, than to live for Jesus Christ. It’s the only way to receive the peace and joy in life that so many of us want to have. It doesn’t matter if you get a million dollars tomorrow, you will still be the same old rotten person inside. You won’t be content with the million, if you’re not content with what you have today. Most millionaires are thinking about how to get the next million rather than enjoying the one you already have.
Our young people, no matter what kind of sneaker they get today, they will be hungering and thirsting for the next latest one in just a few months. They have become sneaker addicts without even knowing it. That attitude of having to have the latest, will destroy their lives in the future just like it has destroyed some of ours.
Today we celebrate Easter, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But what if, on that day when the women went back to the tomb, the script had said," and they found Jesus Christ dead and his body was beginning to stink." Would it matter if Jesus did not indeed rise from the dead? If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then it means that Jesus did not have victory over death.
The reason that Jesus came into the world is that each of us has a sin problem. Sin is nothing more than we have lived a life in disobedience to God. It’s the sin in us that causes the destruction we see in the society in us. Sin inside of us causes us to lie, to cheat, to steal, to kill, to hate, to envy, to be jealous, to be unfaithful, to lust, and to hurt others. God says there is a penalty for that which must be paid. The penalty for sin is death. Death is not simply a matter of breathing one’s last, and dying. Death is going to stand before Almighty God to receive a sentence of spending eternity first into the fires of hell, and then into the lake of fire forever.
There’s nothing about death itself to be afraid of, its what comes afterwards that truly matters. God says the penalty for sin is death. Once we sin, eternal death has the power to lock its jaws into us, and there’s nothing we can do to get out of its grip. But then there came Jesus Christ, who never did sin. The only payment for our sin acceptable to God, was for someone who lived a sinless life to be willing to die on our behalf. Jesus Christ was, is, and forever will be, the only one qualified to pay the debt for our sin. Jesus came to break death’s grip upon on our lives.
If the women had of found Jesus’ body stinking in the tomb, that would have meant that death had gained the victory over Jesus, rather than Jesus destroying death’s power over us. It would have meant that all of us would be forever lost in our sin destined to arrive one day in hell. It would have meant that Jesus himself was a fraud, because Jesus challenged the world when He said, "Destroy this temple, my body, and I will raise it up in 3 days." If they would have found Jesus in that tomb, not a soul here today would be able to experience eternal life. God himself would have lied, because when Adam and Eve first brought sin into the world, God had promised them a way out to escape the final punishment of death.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the single most important event in Christianity, because if Christ did not rise, all of our praying is in vain. A dead man hears no prayers. A dead man can’t comfort you in your times of sorrow. A dead man, can’t speak up on your behalf when you stand in the presence of God. A dead man can’t lift you up any higher than you’ve already made it.
But my friends we are not here because the women found a dead corpse that was beginning to rot. We are here because when they got to the tomb, some angel said, "Come on up and see for yourselves. Look into the tomb. He is not here. He has risen just as He said." They went up and looked in for themselves just to be make sure. They came back to the world with a message that Jesus Christ is alive. Jesus didn’t try to keep himself a secret. He appeared to the disciples. He appeared to over 500 people on a hillside. He let people touch Him to show that He was not merely a ghost, a spirit, or a figment of their imagination. Death could not hold him down.
Since God has raised Jesus Christ from the dead, that means that God is able to raise us from the dead. The Bible says in Rev 20:11-13 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done.
It does not matter how we die, where we die, or when we die, it doesn’t matter if were cremated or put in a casket, it doesn’t matter whether we believed in God or not, death is not the end. Just as surely as God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, God is going to raise you. Tell your neighbor once you die, its just the beginning.
Today we celebrate that Jesus has risen from the dead. But even if He did rise from the dead, what if Jesus was not correct when he said, "I am the Way, the Truth and The Life, no man cometh to the Father except through me." What if there are several ways to get to heaven, of which Jesus is one among various options. Every now and then, I run into a person who want to impress me with their belief that they think all religions will eventually lead you to God, and that it doesn’t matter really what you believe, so long as you are sincere in your belief.
Sincerity, is a poor basis to stake one’s eternal salvation on. For instance, let’s suppose we are all on an airplane going to California and in mid-flight the pilot and co-pilot died of heart attacks. Now the co-pilot pushed the automatic pilot button just before he died. Now it may look like everything is all right. The plane is going on just as it would have if the pilots are alive. We could all sincerely believe that when we get to California, the plane will land safely and we’ll go happily about our business. Whether we believe there is a disaster waiting to happen or not, at some point we are going to discover that a disaster is not only going to happen, the sincerity of our belief will not change it. Sincerity has nothing to do with truth.
Does it matter what you believe so long as you have a good basis for your belief. Suppose on that same flight, there was a young man who had wanted to be a pilot. He had spent time hanging around at the airport. Read books on flying, and knew a lot about all kinds of planes from books and videos. He even bought himself a pilot’s uniform at the costume shop and was wearing it on the flight. He knew how to talk the language, and had convinced a number of people that He was a pilot even though he had never been in pilot’s seat or flown any kind of a plane.
Suppose that he was convinced he could fly a plane. So when the announcement comes over the speaker, "Is there a pilot on board, we have an emergency up front?". Everybody sees him in his uniform, and they’ve heard him talking about flights he never made. He gets up to go up front. Now plenty of people on the plane are so glad, that he was on board to save them. But you know something, that plane is in just as much danger now as it was before this pilot went to the cockpit. He may think he can fly the plane, but thinking and doing it are two different things.
There have been other great religious leaders in the world in days gone by who believed they were the truth, the way, and the life. Name one that said kill me, and I will come back to life in three days, and then presented himself for death and was killed and came back to life. Name one that when he was killed came back to life and hung around for 40 days. Name one that was bold enough to declare that I and God are one. Buddah didn’t do it. Confucius didn’t do it. Mohammed didn’t do it.
Jesus Christ is in a class all by himself. For the word says in Phil 2:6-10 Jesus, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
One day, Mohammed, Confucious, and the Great Buddah, will bow their knees and proclaim, we were wrong Jesus is Lord. Everybody in here today, is one day going to say, Jesus is Lord. It’s just a matter of time.
You see if Jesus was not the only way by which we could be saved, would we think that God the Father was loving and kind. If we could have been saved simply by doing more good things than we did bad, would that justify God having His own son killed on a cross. After Jesus cried out, My God, My God, why have You Forsaken Me, would Jesus had of felt better by God the Father saying well Jesus, all of this pain and suffering on your part wasn’t necessary, but I wanted it as an option among several. I wanted people to be able to choose which plan of salvation they liked the best.
No parent that loves his or her child is willing to sacrifice a child’s life unless there is simply no other alternative to save the life of another. If a house is engulfed in flames, a loving parent would not send a child back into that house in order to bring back out a snake that had bit them every chance he got. Yet that’s exactly what God the Father did with Jesus Christ. All of us are on a planet that is headed for hell and destruction with no means of escape.
God knew that Jesus Christ would be subject to all the temptations in his humanity as we were, and that there was the possibility that He would not come out of those flames alive. He knew that we would bite at Jesus every chance we got when we didn’t get our way. But because God loved us, He sent Jesus in after us. Jesus suffered the scars, the burns,the bites, the pain and the agony, but He brought back out of the flames all who wanted to leave the burning house.
What if all of us here this morning made the decision to come out of the burning house with Jesus Christ. Husbands, you would start to love your wives better, because you’d understand what the bible teaches when it says, he who loves his wife, loves himself. Wives, you would start to respect your husbands more, recognizing that God has called him to be the leader in your home. Children & Youth, you would obey your parents better, because you would know the Bible teaches, that is the way to receive true rewards.
Some of us would go home and tell boyfriends and girlfriends, I can’t live together anymore without being married, because there is a higher calling on my life. Some of us would have turn to each other and apologize for things we have said, and things we have done. Some of us would have to go home and get rid of some magazines, some music, some cable channels, and some books, because we’d want our lifestyles to be more in the image of Jesus Christ.
Some of us would know what it is to have peace in the midst of the storms of the circumstances of our lives for the first time. Some of us would be set free from angry tempers, from constant lying and cheating, and from being so selfish as to think primarily about ourselves. All of us would go home saved and prepared to meet Jesus if He should return this afternoon or if we should be killed or die unexpectedly.
What if, one of us dies before accepting Christ’s call to leave that burning building? Then we know the smoke inhalation and the flames will kill us. Kill us yes, but consume us no. The Bible is clear that God loved us enough to offer us the very best for us to be saved. One of the reasons is that the cost of rejection is so high. Eternity in the lake of fire, means out spiritual bodies will be in torment forever. Jesus told of a rich man who died and went to hell. While in hell, the man told us what it was like, because he said, "I am in agony in these flames."
It’s amazing that God is offering is a joyful and meaningful life here on earth and eternal life in heaven and the majority of people are saying no thanks God. I’ll take my chances. It’s like you’re offering a two year old an ice cream cone in one hand and a check for a million dollars in the other. The little kid sees the ice cream and goes for it. If you could see the kind of life God has in store for you, and you could go to your point of death and look back at what you wanted to do as compared to what God wanted you to do, I’m convinced there would be no comparison.
Christians who faithfully serve God, have more fun and more life than anyone I know. There’s no hangovers and no heartbreaks when the fun is over. My last what if. What if this is your last Easter in church, where have you chosen to spend your eternity?
