A tanner, interested in beginning a new business in a busy part of town, set up a little booth for a few days to give it a try. Using some poles he made a frame with a roof and arranged his wares inside. As a final act of decoration, he drilled a hole in one of the poles and stuck the end of a calf’s tail into it with the bushy end hanging down. After a while, he noticed a man standing a ways off just looking at the booth. So the tanner asked him,
“Do you want to buy something?”
“No.”
“Are you a merchant?”
“No.”
“Are you a tanner?”
“No.”
“Are you a farmer?”
“No.”
“Then what are you?”
“I’m a philosopher and I’ve been standing here for an hour trying to figure out how you got that calf through that hole.”
Today is Easter Sunday and it doesn’t take a philosopher to understand how Jesus got through the door of the tomb. The Bible says that God raised Jesus from the dead and that if you put your trust in him you will be saved. It’s a message that everybody needs to hear. But will they?
If you have read the New Testament and are familiar with the story of Jesus, you know there were times during Jesus’ ministry when Jesus demonstrated God’s power by healing and even raising people from the dead and then telling them not to let anyone know. For example, in Matthew 9 two blind men came to Jesus to have their sight restored. Jesus touched their eyes and their eyes were opened. Then we read that Jesus sternly ordered them, “See that no one knows of this.” Why did he do that? Was it because he was shy or afraid and didn’t want many people to know? Was he using reverse psychology, the kind that says if you tell them not to do something they will do it? No. He ordered them not to tell because people would not really understand who he was. They were not yet ready to hear it. It wasn’t yet time to let the news out.
But when we get to the end of Matthew, to this final chapter about the resurrection, it is a different story. Now, as Jesse Jackson once said in a speech, “Our time has come.”
• When the angel met these two women at the tomb, he told them “Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell.”
• When these two women met Jesus on their way to tell the disciples, Jesus said, “Go and tell.”
Now is the time. Start the presses. Pull out the stops. Announce the news. Let people know. Go and tell. And according to the Gospel of Matthew, the last words Jesus spoke to his disciples were “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,” words that we call the Great Commission.
And people have been telling the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus ever since.
• Peter preached it in Jerusalem.
• Paul traveled all over Asia.
• David Livingstone sailed to Africa.
• John and Charles Wesley came to the United States.
• A member of the church we attended in Japan walked all over that country with the goal of personally delivering a Christian tract to every home in Japan.
• And if you knew about Jesus before coming here today, someone made the effort to tell you about him.
• Now it’s your turn. Who are you going to tell?
A few moments ago we read in Romans 10 not only that
• “If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved,” not only
• “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved,” but also
• “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
Ever since Marconi sent the first radio signal across the Atlantic and Samuel Morse telegraphed his first words across the U.S., we get more and more of our news and information through radio, television, the internet, and cell phones. We don’t get it directly from the source. Sometimes we don’t even know anything about the source. Some of those means of communication can actually keep us from communicating with each other. I remember a Blondie cartoon in which each member of the family was talking on cell phones all day to let each other know where they were and what they were doing. At the end of the day when they gathered around the dinner table, no one had anything to say to each other.
It didn’t used to be that way. In centuries past, messengers ran with important news. These couriers delivered the news in person. In II Sam. 18 we read that King David was waiting for news about his son Absalom. The watchman on the tower called out to David that he saw a man running toward them. “David said, “If he is alone, he has news.” And he did, but it was not good news. David’s son had been killed.
The Bible says, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” You don’t need a Ph.D. in communication to understand how important a messenger is. The messenger is a crucial link in the communication process. The most inspiring story, the best news in the world won’t do anyone any good if no one delivers it. When the president wants to communicate an important message to the leader of another country, he sends an ambassador. When God wanted to say that he loved the whole world, he sent his son. When God wanted the disciples to know that Jesus came out of that tomb, he sent two women. Now when God wants your friend or your neighbor to know about Jesus, who will he send? Now that you know that God has raised Jesus from the dead, you may be the missing link. Here’s why.
First of all, you probably understand your friends or neighbors and especially your unsaved family members better than anyone else. Because you interact with them on a regular basis, you know their goals, their fears, and their challenges. You are close to them because you have experiences and values or a heritage in common. Maybe you have children the same age. Maybe you are both concerned about the violence in our world or the drugs on our streets. You have lots of similarities. But if you live your life in the light of the resurrection of Jesus and your friend or your family members don’t, you are worlds apart.
The fact that Jesus is alive enables you to live with hope. The resurrection shapes your understanding of life and death, your whole world view and everything in between. If your friend is not on the same page with you, the only way to close that gap is to let him or her know the difference Easter makes in your life. When the disciples started preaching after Jesus left, the one thing they never left out of their sermons was the fact that Jesus rose from the dead. It not only changed their lives; it changed the world. And it can change the world for your friends and neighbors. Let them know.
Second, you have the resources to help your friends and neighbors. If you are a follower of Jesus and His resurrection has changed your life, you have access to information and experience that you need to share. Most of us would agree that a witness in court should tell the whole truth. I heard a story of a man who testified in a train derailment because the track had washed out in a rain storm. He claimed that he waved the lantern as the train came, but in spite of his efforts, the train derailed. Later, he was telling his friend about what happened and his friend asked, “Yes, but was the lantern lit?” The man said, “They didn’t ask me that.”
If your best friend had a serious disease and you knew the cure, would you withhold that information? Of course not. You would do all you could to help your friend. Again and again in the Bible we see that God expects those of us who have to share with those who have not. I Jn. 3:17 says, “How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?” If that kind of reasoning guides our attitude toward material things, how much more should it influence our actions in spiritual things? Share with your friends and neighbors and keep your lantern lit by keeping in the Word of God and the fellowship of the church
Third, God wants to work through you to let your friends and neighbors know. One thing we know. If those first two women had kept quiet about the resurrection, they would not have fulfilled God’s purpose for them. The angel told them to come & see and go & tell. Jesus himself commissioned them to tell the others. Paul wrote in II Cor. 5 that we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. Those women would never have had the honor of being the first missionaries if they hadn’t had J on their minds. They set us an example of rising early to seek Jesus and then hearing him speak his word of commission.
Now that Jesus has returned to be with his Father in heaven, the church serves as his physical presence here on earth. Our task just like the women who felt compelled to go seek Jesus is to still seek his face, listen to his directions, saturate ourselves with his love then continue the work of Jesus. Peacefully, Simply, Together, as the motto of our denomination states.
Conclusion
Romans 10 reminds us that
• unless we share the good news, people won’t hear it.
• Unless people hear about Christ, they won’t believe his death & resurrection.
• Unless they believe, they won’t call on him.
• Unless they call on him, they won’t be saved.
Now you know why those two women put their feet into high gear and ran to tell the others. Now you know why your feet and my feet are such an important link in God’s plan. AND now that you have heard the good news, follow the example of these two women: go and tell.
