Sermon: "Something’s Breaking Through"
Isaiah 35:4-10; John 20:1-9
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Something’s breaking through... Water will
gush forth in the wilderness and streams in
the desert. 7 The burning sand will become a
pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs.
Something’s breaking through...
Finally the other disciple, who had reached
the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and
believed.
SOMETHING’S BREAKING THROUGH... can you hear
it? In the deserts of human experience its
truth lies hidden, but it runs deep... and
it’s breaking through!
IN THE MEADOW when the fall winds blow, colors
fade and light grows dim, but something’s
breaking through! Can you feel it? Can you
hear it? Can you see it? It’s breaking
through!
WHAT MAKES THE PROPHET? What makes the heart
of faith? Eyes that see in the darkness and
ears that hear in the silence! Something’s
breaking through... Can YOU see it? Can YOU
hear it?
THE GRAVE IS DARK... the tomb is still, some
of the mortal frames of your loved ones lie in
still darkness.... but something’s breaking
through!
IN THE DESERT the hot sun bakes rocks as the
sands scorch the travelers’s feet----SOME SAY
THAT THERE IS NO LIFE, NO HOPE, NO ECSTACY IN
THE DESERT OF LIFE. They say that life is
barren and without meaning. BUT SOMETHING’S
BREAKING THROUGH! Can you see it? Can you
hear it?
IN THE MEADOW lies a grey cocoon in early
spring, cool and lifeless. Does it know when
the warm southerly winds blow across the dewy
grass under a crystalline sky? What good the
southerly winds? What good the soft new
grasses of spring? Our loved one lies
lifeless...
PETER AND JOHN REACH THE TOMB. The body of
Jesus had been wrapped like an Egyptian mummy.
The Lord’s chin had been held in place with a
head cloth to keep His mouth from falling
open. BUT LOOK! The head-cloth lies outside
the undisturbed burial wrappings!
HOW COULD THE LORD’S BODY break through the
burial linens? How could the head-cloth pass
through the linens with the Lord’s body?
THE GREY COCOON LIES BURIED IN THE GROUND, but
something’s breaking through! A wing finer
than onion-skin paper breaks into light
through the shroud of death.
THE COCOON tears away as the new life emerges,
only to be left behind. Not so for those who
know the Savior! "Lo! I tell you a mystery,"
whispers the apostle, "We shall all be
changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an
eye, at the last trumpet."
THE TRUMPET WILL SOUND... THE LAST TRUMPET!
Who will hear it? Time marches on. Musician
after musician has played the lute... the
harp... the trumpet and then left this world.
One day all music will stop within this world!
IT WILL HAPPEN! It has to happen! One final
sound before the end, and it will be God’s
trumpeting angel! It will happen as surely as
a trumpet greater than Jericho’s blasted
around the tomb of Jesus and broke the walls
of death. Jesus lives!
HE SHINES! His open tomb remains open and
life shines out! Darkness has not overcome
the Light! No death of a friend or relative
has overcome it! Your death will not overcome
it! Even now the Morning Star has dawned on
the horizon of your life. Eternity shines in
your heart of faith. Eternity shines in you!
Jesus shines in you!
"Break forth together into singing; you waste
places of Jerusalem; for the Lord has
comforted His people, He has redeemed
Jerusalem."
BENEATH THE SCORCHED desert sands of our
fears–in the bone dryness of death–there has
broken forth a stream from the tomb of Jesus.
Do you see it? Do you hear it? Do you taste
it? At the font, at the altar--do you see
and hear? Blessed is he who has eyes to see
and ears which hear!!
THE STREAM FROM CALVARY flows like a spring of
life through the open tomb! The spring is
growing! Once it showered upon the apostles,
now it is a great ocean streaming like a
mighty gusher measuring thousands of miles
wide and shooting into the sky--covering the
planet! And the Gospel will be spread to all
nations, then the end will come!
THE LAST TRUMPET WILL SOUND! Something’s
breaking through. A sound of death to the
faithless, but life and joy to the faithful!
WHO IS THE PERSON OF FAITH? The one who sees
beneath the desert waste-places of suffering
and evil and death. The one who serves the
Lord of Life in a world of death and decay!
FAITH COMES BY THE HEARING OF THE WORD. It
has eyes which see in the darkness and ears
penetrating the stillness!
"And we have the prophetic word made more
sure," proclaims St. Peter. "You will do well
to pay attention to this as a lamp shinning in
a dark place, until the day dawns and the
morning star rises in your hearts!"
HE IS RISEN! JESUS CHRIST IS RISEN FROM THE
GRAVE! Pray that the Holy Spirit will never
let the Morning Star set again in your hearts!
Feast upon the means of grace or die!
Jesus said: "I Jesus have sent my angel to
you with the testimony for the churches. I am
the Root and Offspring of David, the bright
Morning Star."
Jesus said: "I am the Alpha and Omega, the
Beginning and the End."
Jesus said: "I am the resurrection and the
life, he that believes in me shall never die,
and whoever dies yet shall he live!"
The Lord proclaims, but who has ears to hear:
"He who conquers and who keeps my works until
the end, I will give him power over nations...
even as I myself have received power from my
Father; and I will give him the morning star."
"Holy, holy, holy," cry the four living
creatures, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God
Almighty, who was and is and is to come!"
God’s power and presence fills the earth and
skies, but who has eyes to see and ears to
hear?
WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR HAND?" the child asks.
Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus go to get
the body of Jesus at the cross. They lift up
at the Lord’s waist to displace the weight
from His hands and feet. As they pull the
Lord’s hands free from the nails they are
cold, grey, lifeless.
SUNDAY MORNING MARY GOES to the garden--
suddenly she recognizes Jesus! She would take
His hands in hers, but something’s breaking
through. "Don’t touch me Mary!" Jesus
cautions. Something’s happening.... something
wonderful... something awesome.
WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR HAND? THE CHILD ASKS.
She sees the wound. She holds the hand once
grey and lifeless.
IT IS THE SAVIOR’S OUTSTRETCHED HAND--He
reaches for her. He died for her! He lives
for her!
GOD’S LOVE IS BREAKING THROUGH! It’s breaking
through the gates of hell! It’s breaking
through the bonds of sin! It’s breaking
through the vale of death! God’s love is
breaking through!!!
"What happened to my hand dear child," the
Savior’s life proclaims, "I wrestled with the
devil and I took his stroke for you. I fought
against your sin, and I took it all for you.
I walked into midnight, and I died the death
that’s yours."
NOW I LIVE, and from the deserts shall come
forth water. The giants of evil are slain,
and the future shall be a great playground of
joy: "For you shall go out in joy, and be led
forth in peace; the mountains and the hills
before you shall break forth into singing, and
the trees of the field shall clap their
hands."
Do you see the child, my friends in Christ, do
you see the child walking at the side of the
Savior, over the hillside, passing under the
shadow of death to walk into the light of
eternity? Do you see yourself as a child,
walking with the Savior, hand in hand with the
Savior, walking hand and hand with the Savior
into light?
Blessed are you if you have eyes to see and
ears to hear. Blessed are you if you see the
Savior’s hand outstretched for you.... marked
for you... leading you! You will enter Zion
with singing; everlasting joy will crown your
head. Gladness and joy will overtake you, and
sorrow and sighing will flee away.
This is your destiny–the gift of faith. When
Jesus rose body and soul from the grave, He
proved that you will someday have eternal
life–body and soul forever in joy with God and
all the Saints. To the Lamb who was slain and
now lives and reigns for all eternity be the
glory and the dominion forever and ever!
Amen.
