The Power of Life
(Mt.28:1-7;16-20)
Each Easter we celebrate the victory of Jesus Christ rising from the dead: “up from the grave He arose (we sing) with a mighty triumph oer His foes; He arose a victor from the dark domain, and He lives forever with His saints to reign…Hallelujah! Christ arose.”
This bodily resurrection of Jesus was real and true and most of all a living example of what He said to His disciples in verse 28:
“all power (all authority) has been given to Me in heaven and on earth…” including the power to rise from the dead and triumph over the forces of evil.
What can be disappointing to us is that even though we believe in the resurrection, we seldom experience the power of Jesus Christ in our lives.
--the family member with the health problem or the money problem or the growing-up problem
still has the problem and all this time you have been hoping and praying it would be different. It may be in your own life or in his or her life the wish remains the same—I want
me or him or her to have things work out right; instead things remain the same or worse.
Like the war on terrorism and this latest activity in Iraq—all the money and effort and personal sacrifice spent to make the world better, safer; but will it be? It would seem so when we
look at the aftermath of World War II and the defeat of Hitler or a few years ago in Bosnia,
when it was Milosevec and his regime that was defeated. And if we do make the world
“safer for democracy” does that mean the world will be better morally and economically and most important of all spiritually?
No matter how triumphant is the theme of Easter, you and I come to church this morning with problems and difficulties in our lives. And as much as Jesus Christ has done and continues
to do on our behalf, there remains this terminal illness in my body; there continues this
intractable sin I can’t get free of, or I’m no more holier now than I was a year ago.
So what does it mean to me if Jesus says: all power has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. How about if Jesus would give some of that power to me so I could get a few things in
my life straighten out and taken care of. The Bible is full of examples of Jesus (God) doing just that—of giving His power to His children. The Bible says: “and the spirit of the Lord
came upon …” And the spirit of the Lord came upon Samson and with the jawbone of a donkey he killed a 1000 Philistines- took care of his problem that day when the enemy was attacking him. In Revelation, John says in verse 10, I was in the Spirit of the Lord and the Lord spoke telling me to write this book and today we have that book God gave him to write- a book that describes our future and our hope, the Book of Revelation. Why do we have the book of Revelation because the power of the Lord was given to John in this case not to defeat Philistines but to write of divine events that were to take place years in the future.
And no doubt if you were to take an inventory of your life there have been those times, those
moments when something far greater than you was at work in you to heal, to instruct, to rescue you and in the night you said a silent prayer of thanks to God. Like the time Desiree or Isaiah may have been going through a critical health issue and more than doctors or medicines were on the scene- the power of the risen Christ was again made known to you and me.
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Reviewing this past week called holy week by the church, we see Jesus celebrating the last supper with His disciples in the upper room and then the crucifixion and death upon the cross and then the three day wait and the marvelous resurrection from the tomb. The analogy can be
made to a class room of students in which the teacher leaves the room and tells the students he will return. During our school years we have all experienced such a time and can remember the longer the teacher was away from the room, the more likely the class was to lose its order and discipline. In time without the teacher there, talking would start, then would follow more
bold and mischievous behavior by some. But when the teacher returned, the talking and the
horseplay stopped, because the one with the power was present again.
The analogy I am trying to make is that as long as Jesus Christ, teacher, remains at the head of my life fully present, I have discipline, direction, order, learning the way of truth and in that truth finding the power to live a life that Paul describes as more than conqueror. But the moment
Christ is absent because I will do things my own way; I no longer need a teacher or just all the other interests in my life crowd out Jesus to the side; then like so many others I am now left to my own devices to make my own way in the world.
From time to time we say that verse from Proverbs 3:5
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding
In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make straight your paths.
The moment Jesus Christ becomes absent from our thinking (like the teacher who has left the
classroom) we immediately tend to turn to our own understanding and many people are content
to live their lives relying on their own abilities but it is not to be so for the Christian who
believes in the risen Christ and has accepted Him as Lord and Savior.
As believing Christians we sing those words Edward Mote wrote:
My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
On Christ the solid Rock I stand; all other ground is sinking sand, all
other ground is sinking sand.
This month I was talking to a man who could not understand why God would allow his two year
old daughter to die of an incurable disease and then when a second child was born to them a year later, that child too has some serious health problems. Still inwardly angry and frustrated with the ways of God, this young husband is left with his own understanding to depend on; he is neither happy nor at peace because he is unable to sing the second verse:
When darkness veils His lovely face, I rest on His unchanging grace; in
every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil.
On Christ the solid Rock I stand; all other ground in sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand.
Told that their Lord and Savior had risen, many of the disciples doubted until Jesus appeared to
them at Galilee. And we fall victims to the same lack of faith—when Jesus Christ is not answering our prayers to our liking, when He seems to be absent from the classroom of our life for too long, when more in us and about us seems to be going downhill instead of our way, we our quick to doubt the truth that all power in Heaven and on earth has been given to me.
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Some years ago a group of archeologists discovered and opened an ancient Egyptian tomb. Among the items they found in the tomb was part of a tree and embedded in the dead wood of this tree was a seed. They took the seed and planted it and sure enough the centuries old seed grew.
It seems like that in our life sometimes. It’s like 100s of days or years go by before we will take the seed of the Gospel someone gave us or taught us and finally plant that Gospel in our
heart. You’ve heard it many times—Jesus Christ died for my sin, was crucified, dead, and
buried, on the third day He arose from the dead; Follow me, I’ll be your teacher, your Savior,
your friend. In fact, I have a whole lesson plan for your life, a perfect plan for you.
And the moment we turn from our own understanding and in faith and obedience acknowledge
our Lord, His power begins to work in your life according to His plan for you—a healing
happens here, a new direction is taken there, an old faded hope I had is revived, I do something for Jesus Christ that I never dreamed I would do before.
There is a slow, gradual almost imperceptible sense that I am not so powerless because the most powerful One of all has taken more and more control of me.
Now, when something goes out of whack or takes a turn for the worse, I am not so panicked or depressed as I used to be because I have a deeper sense that my Teacher and Savior has the
right plan and has all the power and authority to make things right be it today, tomorrow,
or whenever He thinks best.
I can sing with Edward Mote that third verse he wrote:
His oath, His covenant, His blood support me in the whelming flood; when all around my
soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay. On Christ the solid rock I stand; all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand.
Eight days after His resurrection, the risen Christ appeared to His disciples in Galilee and said to them: “Have you believed because you have seen me?” Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe. That applies to you and me who have not seen in bodily form the risen Christ
but believe by faith that He has not only risen but has come this very day to take this sin-filled life of mine and completely transform it from a sinner striving after the ways of the flesh to a saint striving after the ways of the Holy Spirit. Such a transformation can never be accomplished by my efforts. Such a transformation is something only Jesus Christ can do
in you and me when He has chosen us, called us, broken us, refined and molded us into His
new creation. And if on this Easter Sunday, you find your life in that divine process of being
chosen and called, broken and molded after His will, consider yourself blessed. For I am here to remind you that He has all power on Heaven and earth. So many people want some of that power for themselves and think they have it but like a flower of the field the wind passes over them and they are gone and their place is known no more.
But for the Christian believer who has made the Risen Christ, his daily teacher in complete charge, he/ she will also pass away but will rest in the eternal assurance that Edward Mote stated in his last verse:
When Christ shall come with trumpet sound O may I then in Him be found; dressed in His
righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne. On Christ the solid rock I stand
all other ground in sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand.
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When Jesus Christ is on the sidelines of our life then we aren’t sure where we stand, but when He takes center stage and is given His rightful place as Savior and Lord then we can rest assured that all power and authority has been given to Him and that we stand in His righteousness alone
to face not only the trials of this day but the reward of our eternal life with Him.
