Years ago, my two sons attended a spiritual gifts retreat for children. On the way home from the campgrounds, the boys’ mother wanted to know what they had discovered. She asked our younger son, “What’s your spiritual gift, Sam?” Sam stuck out his chest and proudly announced, “Mom, my spiritual gift is SERVICE!” Paul, the older, more sarcastic brother, retorted, “Service? You’ve got to be kidding me, Sam! You don’t serve anyone! You never do your chores, you never help anybody. Service! Give me a break.” Mom said, “So what’s your spiritual gift, Paul?”
Paul replied, “Encouragement!”
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Do you need encouragement this morning? The Bible tells the church in Hebrews 3:13 to encourage each other daily so that we might not be hardened.
I can’t think of anything more encouraging than Easter. On Good Friday, as Jesus writhed in agony on the Cross, the Gospels tell us that the sun stopped shining and darkness hung over the land for three hours. But on Easter morning, an angel rolled away the tombstone and the Son came out—the radiant Son of God, the stinger of death in his crucified hand and his pierced feet on the devil’s neck.
Last Sunday, I woke up at 5:30 a.m. with the sound of rain on the roof. I got in my van at 6:30 to go down to Cleburne, TX to perform my Lazarus drama at the Methodist church. It was still raining. It was raining when I got to the church. It was raining after church. It was raining at dinner. It was raining when I got ready for bed. I was beginning to wonder if God had forgotten his promise never to flood the earth again. But the sun came out the next day. The sun always comes out, doesn’t it?
When it does, we breathe a smile of relief. . .we smile. . .we go outdoors and bask in its golden warmth and light. In the Pacific Northwest, where it’s overcast most days, lots of people suffer from light deprivation, which results in mood swings and depression. There’s even a scientific name for this problem: “Seasonal Affective Disorder,“ or S.A.D. People suffering from S.A.D. have to set up special light panels in their homes and get heavy doses of illumination in order to be happy campers. We need light. We can’t survive without it.
We can’t survive without the Son of God, either. Our shadowy hearts, tinted by selfishness and confusion, need His light. In the Gospel story today, Luke tells us what happened when the Son came out. Since Scripture tells us that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, we can be encouraged that the Son still shines today.
FIRST, Jesus says, “Peace be with you.” That greeting must have been like a sunbeam slicing through clouds of fear and despair. The disciples needed peace. They were holed up in a locked room, fearful of the authorities, weeping over their crucified leader—then they thought they had seen a ghost! What’s happening today is even more frightening than ghostly sightings— attacks on our soil, threats of more terrorism, an escalating Mideast crisis. Add to that the daily stress of modern society with taxes, bills, kids, job, hot water heaters that decide to burst on a Friday night when plumbers charge time-and-a-half. (Not that that happened to me recently or anything). You know, all of this is enough to drive a person to Blue Bell ice cream.
But Jesus says, “Peace.” That’s not a throwaway platitude or sweet sentiment. In the NT, the word for peace means “to reconcile or join.” Some missionary Bible translators were working very hard to find a word for peace in a particular tribal language. At last, a native who was working with them found a combination of words that captured the concept—“a heart that sits down.” When the heart sits down with Jesus—when we join with God through his Son—there is peace.
SECONDLY, when the Son comes out, He proves his resurrected reality. The disciples were incredulous, of course. Wouldn’t YOU be? Your beloved friend has died, then he or she reappears in your midst. You would think, Am I having a vision? a hallucination? Was it the enchiladas last night? Luke reports, with the ring of authenticity, that the disciples were filled with joy, amazement and doubt. Christ reassures them that he is real. “Touch me,” he said. “Go ahead and handle me, for a ghost does not have flesh and bone as you see that I have.” He further proves His reality by snacking on a piece of fish! (Ghosts don’t eat fish, by the way—they eat Ghost Toasties and evaporated milk. Hey, I work with kids and do clowning; don’t expect sophisticated humor from me. And after that joke, you’re saying, “Don’t worry, I won’t.”).
I don’t pretend to know the science or metaphysics of what happened in the Resurrection, but I do know this: Jesus is alive. The stone is rolled away. The tomb is empty. The disciples saw Him. The Resurrection is not a hoax, legend or fairy tale. It really happened. I had a book published last year called If There Is No God. I believe I have several copies back there for purchase—several hundred. My wife tells me if I don’t move the boxes out of the entry hall, she’s going to put them in a wagon and make me sell them door-to-door.
Anyway, I ask questions in my book. For instance, if there is no God, why is the Easter tomb empty? Throughout the centuries, brilliant secular minds have tried to discredit the Resurrection of Christ, but they have failed. Some even converted in the process, including Lew Wallace (author of Ben Hur) and Frank Morison, a British investigative reporter. He even changed an alcohol-abusing agnostic whose life was going nowhere until Jesus convinced him of His resurrected reality. Thank God He did that for me—and He can do that for you, too! Just ask Him.
The Resurrection means several things for us. It means life. Jesus used his carpentry skills on Easter morning to cut a door in the tomb—a door to everlasting life for anyone who would receive Him. The Resurrection means hope. No matter how dark it gets on earth, we have the Son in heaven to remind us of our glorious future. The Resurrection means power, power to live God-pleasing lives in the here-and-now, power to overcome darkness and come over to the light of life. The Bible says in Eph. 1:19-21 that the power of the Christian believer is the very power that raised Jesus from the dead and set Him at the right hand of God.
The sun in the sky is a thermonuclear power plant with an estimated internal temperature of 27 million degrees F—and meteorologists have determined that 26 million of those degrees are concentrated on Texas in August. The sun is able to convert four million tons of hydrogen into energy every second. If an outside force must light a kitchen match, imagine the power of the One who ignited the sun! His Resurrection-power is available to all who ask.
LASTLY, when the Son comes out, we get out—out of comfortable church walls to be the church in the world. Using the Scriptures as a blueprint for their mission, Jesus told the disciples to preach repentance and forgiveness to all nations. That must have sounded like an intimidating order—11 ordinary men charged with spreading the Gospel around the globe, all before aircraft and e-mail. It sounds very intimidating to us today. “I can’t preach, much less in Africa or Thailand! I have a job, kids, a mortgage!” Well, we may never missionize in the backwaters of a foreign land, but we can carry out the mission in our own backyards…down the street….at our job….to the new neighbors. All it takes is a heartful of Jesus and a need to see the Light of the World shining in our part of the world.
Everyone has a mission statement nowadays. Walk into a fast-food joint or discount store, and there’s a sign trumpeting “Our Mission.” Some Christians have the idea that the mission of the church is to be a community center. Others believe that our mission is to feed the hungry or alleviate human suffering. Still others think that the church exists to solely serve its members, as if it were a country club with a steeple. But, no, none of these are the true mission of the church. Oh, yes, it’s a good thing when the Boy Scouts and Rotary Club meet in our church buildings. Yes, we are to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick. And, sure, we are to minister to those in our midst.
But the Bible defines our utmost mission. Our mission is a message: Jesus Christ, crucified and risen. Our message is for the world: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son.” Our message is for those who don’t know Him. The Risen Christ told Paul, “I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light.” Guess what? That message wasn’t only for an ancient apostle—it’s for His church today. You and I are to carry that Good News message wherever God tells us to.
So be encouraged today! The Son has come out! The Light shines in the darkness! The Bright Morning Star has risen in your hearts! His presence brings—
1. Peace, a supernatural peace, a peace that passes all understanding when your heart sits down with Him. His presence brings—
2. Assurance of His Resurrection, that life is not a dead end for those who believe, but a Living Way to abundant life, sure hope, and divine purpose. His presence brings—
3. Power to fulfill our mission to make disciples, through a message that isn’t our own, but comes straight from the mouth of God: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
AMEN.
