It had been a long flight and the crew was tired. This was even made more
apparent by the rough landing. This particular airline had a policy that the pilot must
stand by the door as the people exited to thank them for flying with the airline. The pilot
was dreading this because of the landing but he stood faithfully by. Surprisingly enough
the people filed off and noone said a word. Then came the last passenger, an elderly lady
walking with a cane. As she got up to the captain she said, “Can I ask a question?”
“Sure” answered the captain. “Did we land or were we shot down?”
To those disciples and the others close to Jesus, Friday and Saturday must have
felt like that. All that promise, all that hope. Suddenly dashed and gone. Suddenly they
are fearing for their own lives. What will they do next. Then to awake on that Sunday
morning. Imagine yourself in that scene. Someone you love has died. You have
attended their funeral. Now a day or two later you go back out to visit their grave and the
body is no longer there. Like Mary you would be incensed. Havent’ they done enough to
him? Why must they further taunt us by stealing his body? And then when you were
about as low as you could get, you turn around and there he is, standing very much alive
right before your eyes. Once you woke back up you would be so excited. Forget about
all the questions. Forget about the doubts. Here he is, in the flesh. He IS alive. And
guess what? Those pharisees who thought they had won the victory will be laughing out
the other side of their faces now. They haven’t won a thing. In fact as you look up at the
score board you see it, Christian’s 1, death 0 and the that is the final score. Folks, WE
WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Let the fireworks show begin. Let the sirens scream. Let the
celebrations start. Break out the cold drinks. Cover everything up with plastic and forget
about your hair becasue its going to get messed up for sure - Steve, here’s my best Harry
Cary impersonation - CHRIST WINS, CHRIST WINS, CHRIST WINS, and becasue
Christ wins, we win.
Now like any good network covering a sporting event, I want to give you a
detailed account about just how exciting this win is and how it affects each and every
christian follower of the Lord. So listen for the next few moments won’t you to this
amazing story. A story that tells how a Savior overcame what were thought to be
insurrmountable odds to win and everlasting victory. As you listen you will discover how
this victory is not just his alone, but how you share in it as well. So let’s begin.
It was May Day, 1990. The place, Moscow’s Red Square. "Is it straight, Father?"
one Orthodox priest asked another, shifting the heavy, eight-foot crucifix on his shoulder.
"Yes," said the other. "It is straight." Together the two priests, along with a group of
parishioners holding ropes that steadied the beams of the huge cross, walked the parade
route. Before them was passed the official might of the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics: The usual May Day procession of tanks, missiles, troops, and salutes to the
Communist party elite. Behind the tanks surged a giant crowd of protesters, shouting up
at Mikhail Gorbachev. "Bread!...Freedom!...Truth!"
As the throng passed directly in front of the Soviet leader standing in his place of honor,
the priests hoisted their heavy burden toward the sky. The cross emerged from the crowd.
As it did, the figure of Jesus Christ obscured the giant poster faces of Karl Marx,
Friedrich Engels, and Vladimir Lenin that provided the backdrop for Gorbachev’s
reviewing stand. "Mikhail Sergeyevich!" one of the priests shouted, his deep voice
cleaving the clamor of the protesters and piercing straight toward the angry Soviet leader.
"Mikhail Sergeyevich! Christ is risen!"
First of all Christ won the victory over powers and authorities. Isn’t that exactly
what brother Steve read there in Col.? Now there is a very interesting picture that Paul is
painting for us here in this verse and it has to do with the idea of a public spectacle. Have
you ever been a public specticle? In our home church at Clinton we had a sound system
like they do here next doors where chimes played over a loudspeaker from the church
steeple. Now at special times, such as Revivals, they could flip a switch and the
microphones inside the church would be channeled out over those speakers so the whole
community could hear. They would switch those on so people could hear the piano
playing the opening songs during those special services. Well one Saturday my dad got a
phone call - it was from someone at the fire or police department. They said, you might
want to go check out the church, there’s some boys up there playing on the PA and they
are broadcasting for the whole town to hear. It just so happened that day that it was my
older brother and one of his friends. They thought they were just speaking over the
speakers inside. Now that is being a public spectacle. And that is a picture of what Paul
tells us Jesus did in his ress. to the powers and authorities. You see in those days the
Romans went off to fight against various enemies, most often against a group that had
tried to rebel. When they conquered that enemy, as they most often did, they would bind
them together by the hands in a single file and then they would have this big celebration.
The celebration would begin with a parade. At the front of the parade would be the
conquering General. Then following him would be those soldiers who had acted
heroically in the battle. Then the rest of the army. And then at the rear of the prociession
would be all those who had been conquered and they would be paraded in front of the
population and would be smattered with insults, jeers and anything the people might feel
like throwing at them. You didn’t want to be the main attraction in a parade like that.
That they called a public spectacle.
So friends on one side you have these powers and authorities, beginning with
Satan himself and going through the demons and evil spirits, and then all those
governments and earthly powers who have aligned themselves against Christianity.
Those who through the years have tried to wipe it out, including most recently the Soviet
Communist party. On the other side you have Christ, the conquering general who leads
his army of faithful down the street, dragging behind them those opponents who had
believed they were the stronger.
Now my question to you is, which side do you choose? The winners or the losers.
If you are with the army of Christ, guess what? WE WIN. Jesus disarmed the powers
and authorities when he went to the cross and arose the 3rd day.
Not only does this mean he is more pwerful than the earthly kingdoms, but he is
also more powerful than any other philosophy or religion.
a Muslim became a Christian in Africa. "Some of his friends asked him, ’Why
have you become a Christian?’ He answered, ’Well, its like this. Suppose you were going
down the road and suddenly the road forked in two directions, and you didn’t know which
way to go, and there at the fork in the road were two men, one dead and one alive--which
one would you ask which way to go?’" What a great question. And what other answer
could you give than that you would seek help from the man who was living, would you
not? Listen to these words from Max Lucado entitled, The Movement Continues”
The belief of French philosopher Voltaire. The Bible and Christianity will pass
away within 100 years. He died in 1778. The movement continues.
The pronouncment of Friedrich Nietzsche in 1882. God is dead. The dawn of
science will be the doom of faith. But science dawned; the movement continues
The way a Communist dictionary defined the Bible. It is a collection of fantastic
legends without any scientific support. Communism is diminishing; the movement
continues
The discover made by every person who has tried to bury the faith. The same
as the one made by those who tried to bury its Founder: He Just won’t stay in the
tomb! The movement continues
The movement has never been stronger. Today there are over 2 Billion Followers.
The movement continues.
Jesus ress. has brought a victory unlike any before or that will ever be enjoyed in
the future. Are you on the winning team. Because he won the victory over death, WE
WIN.
Finally we see that Jesus’ victory over death and the grave brings victory to daily
living.
Several years ago, The Saturday Evening Post ran a cartoon showing a man about
to be rescued after he had spent a long time ship-wrecked on a tiny de-serted island. The
sailor in charge of the rescue team stepped onto the beach and handed the man a stack of
newspapers. “Compliments of the Captain,” the sailor said. “He would like you to glance
at the headlines to see if you’d still like to be rescued!”
Sometimes the headlines do scare us. Sometimes we feel that evil is winning, but
then along comes Easter, to remind us that there is no grave deep enough, no seal
imposing enough, no stone heavy enough, no evil strong enough to keep Christ in the
grave. And because of that WE WIN!!
So the final question is this, what are you doing with this wonderful victory? Are
you enjoying it? Watch out for the joy robbers that steal the joy you should expericence
because of this great victory. Let me give you an example of what I mean.
When I was a Jr. in High School our basketball team was the doormat of the
conference. I mean just about everybody beat us and that rather easily. We only had 2
wins that season and our first one didn’t come until after midseason. So we were about 0
and 12 or 0 and 15 or something like that when we finally broke through and won a game.
Here we were in the middle of Jan and when that final horn sounded, the crowd ran out
on the floor and we went wild. The other team was a little puzzled. They even asked, do
you act like that after every win? The answer was, we are not sure, this is our first one.
But I have a confession to make. You see not everyone was excited that night. There
was a red-headed Jr who wore the number 32 who didn’t get into the game that night. He
still doesn’t know for sure why, but he didn’t play a single second, so while everyone else
was celebrating for the first time all season, he moped and pouted.
Friends, this victory is a great thing? Are you celebrating it or are you for some
reason standing on the sidelines moping and pouting. Do you carry around a long face
and act like life is supposed to be lived like that constantly? How does peace sound to
you? How does etrnal life strike you? How does never having to worry about dying
make you feel? How about seeing a loved one again who you haven’t seen for years
because they have already passed on? How do the words forgiveness and grace sound?
There are way more reasons to celebrate and rejoice than there are to be long faced and
sober-sided. Christ has won and so have we. When will our faces find that out I wonder?
The victory of Jesus should affect us on a daily lives - it ought to thrill us, it ought to
uplift us, it ought to make us the happiest people on this earth, the greatest enemy and
fear we have is death and it has been wiped out completely. And so in that We Win.
So today let’s go to our homes and tomorrow to our places of work and let’s act
like we are on the winning team. Let’s make sure people see victory in us. Let them
realize that we fear nothing becuase our captain has led us to victory. We have Won
because He has won. Amen!
Howard County Sheriff Jerry Marr got a disturbing call one
Saturday afternoon a few months ago. His 6-year-old grandson Mikey
had been hit by a car while fishing in Greentown with his dad. The
father and son were near a bridge by the Kokomo Reservoir when a woman lost
control of her car, slid off the bridge and hit Mikey at a rate of
about 50 mph. Sheriff Marr had seen the results of accidents like this and
feared the worst. When he got to Saint Joseph Hospital, he rushed
through the emergency room to find Mikey conscious and in fairly good
spirits considering what had happened to him.
"Mikey, what happened?" Sheriff Marr asked. Mikey replied,
"Well, Gramps, I was fishin’ with Dad, and some lady runned me
over, I flew into a mud puddle, and broke my fishin’ pole and I didn’t
get to catch no fish!"
As it turned out, the impact propelled Mikey about 500 feet,
over a few trees and an embankment and in the middle of a mud puddle.
His only injuries were to his right femur bone which had broken in
two places. Mikey had surgery to place pins in his leg. Otherwise the
boy is fine. Since all the boy could talk about was that his fishing pole
was broken, the Sheriff went out to Wal-mart and bought him a new one
while he was in surgery so he could have it when he came out.
The next day the Sheriff sat with Mikey to keep him company
in the hospital. Mikey was enjoying his new fishing pole and talked
about when he could go fishing again as he cast into the trash
can. When they were alone, Mikey, just a matter-of-fact, said,
"Gramps, did you know Jesus is real?" "Well," the Sheriff replied, a little
startled. "Yes, Jesus is real to all who believe in him and love him in
their hearts." "No," said Mikey. "I mean Jesus is REALLY real." "What do you
mean?" asked the Sheriff. "I know he’s real ’cause I saw him." said
Mikey, still casting into the trash can. "You did?" said the Sheriff.
"Yep," said Mikey. "When that lady runned me over and broke my fishing
pole, Jesus caught me in his arms and laid me down in the mud
puddle."
Friend, I don’t know about you, but My Jesus is Alive. Do you believe that?
Becasue he is alive, whole governements will come down, whole religions will be
forgotten and little children will be caught in his arms. WE WIN!
