The Sunday School teacher was extremely enthusiastic. She looked at the class of four-years olds and asked this question: “Does anyone know what today is?”
A little girl held up her finger and said, “Yes today is Palm Sunday.” “That’s fantastic!” the teacher replied. “Does anyone know what next Sunday is?”
The same little girl held up her finger and said, “Next Sunday is Easter Sunday.” Again the teacher replied, “That’s great!”
Then the teacher asked, “Does anyone know what makes next Sunday Easter?” The little girl again responded, “Yes, next Sunday is Easter Sunday because Jesus rose from the grave.”
But before the teacher could again congratulate her, she continued, “But if he sees his shadow, he has to go back in for seven weeks!”
Jesus did not have to go back into the grave, did He? He came out of the tomb, appeared numerous times to His followers, gave the remaining disciples an assignment to go “and make disciples of all nations,” and then returned to heaven to the Father from whom He will one day come back for the Church.
In our church we do not believe in a God who is dead or absent. We believe in a God who is alive and a “very present help” in times of both trouble and peace! A God who through His death and His resurrection makes it possible for us to live life free of guilt and shame and doubt and a whole host of other things. Amen? Amen!
What a great Sunday last Sunday! We had nearly 160 persons present for our Easter Service and the choir and readers and children did a wonderful, wonderful job!
I am also grateful for the group of readers who led us in some very important moments of meditation and reflection during the Lenten season as well. Those off-stage readings really gave us something to think about, didn’t they? Did you hear yourself in those stories? I did!
I was very, very glad for the wonderful turnout for Easter Sunday because Easter is a celebration critical to our faith. Why? No Resurrection? No Christian faith!
Jesus came to die a terribly inhumane and cruel death and then returned to life because it was that resurrection that makes possible the “Sunday after Easter.” It also makes our faith possible because when Jesus died, He died so that we might have eternal life through saving faith in Him! But He left the tomb so that we are able to leave our lives of sin and brokenness behind.
Paul said it very well in Romans 5:1, “Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us!”
This morning we begin a very important series, “Celebrating Our Past ... Embracing Our Future ... In Christ!” I ask that you be in sincere and earnest prayer for me during this series because I believe that this is one of the most important series that I have preached up to this point in my life. It ranks above the first sermon that I preached (almost 25 years ago) and the first series that I preached here almost four years ago! (Can you believe it?)
I also believe that it is an important series for us as we enter the future that God has for us as this church. Please be in prayer, for one another, yourselves, and me that we will clearly hear and obey God’s voice!
We are going to be spending the next six weeks “Celebrating and Embracing:” God’s salvation, God’s faithfulness, God’s plan, God’s people, and God’s Son - Jesus Christ! We are going to have some special speakers as well. Cecil Watson will be here from Church Builders Plus in Anderson the weekend of May 14, 15, and 16 as we come to the climax of our series and our capital fund campaign with a dinner at Cobblestone (no charge and childcare for those up through 5th grade will be provided by our sister congregation from LaGrange here at the church) at which time we will have the opportunity to respond to the Lord in faith and trust as we pledge toward a new facility.
Then on Memorial Day weekend, Norberto and Julie ________will be here sharing about their work in __________as we “celebrate and embrace God’s work” on that Sunday which is known as Pentecost Sunday. But, there’s more, Mike and Heather ____ will be here the following Sunday, June 6th, to share about their future work with the Church of God in ________. Mike is the grandson of Sam and Betty ________.
We have much to celebrate and embrace and this morning we are here to celebrate and embrace God’s salvation. Eric Reed in this past week’s Leadership Weekly e-mail column related the following story.
“After Easter last year, a woman approached a pastor I know and asked, "So what happened with Jesus after the Resurrection?" "Well, he ascended into heaven and he’s still alive," the pastor said.
"I know he was resurrected, but he’s alive?" she said. "Yes, he’s alive." "Alive? ALIVE?! Why didn’t you tell me!!" For the next two weeks, she telephoned everyone she knew and exclaimed, "Jesus is ALIVE! Did you know he’s ALIVE?!" Many people know Jesus is resurrected, but they don’t seem to understand he’s alive.”
Yes, Jesus is alive! He did not die a second time after His Resurrection but returned to Heaven. Let’s look at Luke 24:50-51 for one of the Biblical accounts of this event:
Then Jesus led them {that is, the disciples} to Bethany and lifting his hands to heaven, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up to heaven.
Jesus is still in heaven. Jesus is still alive! And this is something to celebrate!
And it is this message that we celebrate and embrace this morning!
In the same e-mail column that I just quoted from, Ben Patterson tells a story from the jungles of East Asia regarding a missionary who was showing the Jesus film to a group of people from that region. For many, if not most, of the group this was the first time they had ever seen a projector let alone a movie.
The missionary observed with interest the reactions to the film as it went through the life of Christ from His birth to His arrest and crucifixion to His resurrection and return to heaven. At one point during the arrest and trial of Christ, they got so angry at what they were seeing they stood up and started yelling at the people on the screen to stop. When that failed that they attacked the missionary showing the film thinking that he was perhaps responsible for what was happening. But, he calmed them down and told them there was more to the story and keep watching it.
Then came the crucifixion and again the projector had to be stopped by the missionary as he again said that there was more to this story. Finally came the resurrection and quoting Patterson this is what happened, “Pandemonium broke out this time, but for a different reason. The gathering had spontaneously erupted into a party. The noise now was of jubilation, and it was deafening. The people were dancing and slapping each other on the back. Christ is risen, indeed! Again the missionary had to shut off the projector. But this time he didn’t tell them to calm down and wait for what was next. All that was supposed to happen—in the story and in their lives—was happening.” Patterson basically concludes his column with the question, What if we responded to the resurrection of Christ in the same way?
It’s a good question. Do we celebrate God’s salvation like we should? And how should we celebrate His offering of forgiveness and reconciliation?
Let me make two suggestions:
1. We celebrate God’s salvation with thanksgiving and praise to God for saving us from an ominous demise!
I am reminded of the joyousness of the Israelites when, having safely arrived on the other side of the Red Sea and saw the death of many pursuing Egyptians, they sang for joy with praise and thanksgiving as recorded in Exodus 15:
“I will sing to the Lord for he has triumphed gloriously; he has thrown both horse and rider into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my victory…with unfailing love you will lead this people whom you have ransomed.”
It looked hopeless for the Israelites. Finally freed, they were pursued by the Egyptians who were coming to take them back to serve as slaves. Then, as we read in Exodus 14:10-12 panic, fear, and anger set in their hearts and minds. But, Moses trusted God and told them to “stand where you are and watch the Lord rescue you.” And He did! He saved the Israelites! He does the same for us today! We celebrate because God has saved us from serious, serious situations, sometimes right out of them!
Paul, in prison for spreading the good news, told some believers, (Philippians 4:4-6) “Always be full of joy in the Lord, I say it again-rejoice! Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon. Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done.”
Praise and thanksgiving are essential to our faith. Celebration is not a requirement it is a necessity! We must, we must continuously thank God and praise Him for all He has done for us!
Praise and thanksgiving are like water and light are to plants. They help plants grow and develop and thrive. So it is with praise and thanksgiving.
Praise and thanksgiving are two important elements in our lives and faith. We need them to have a vital and personal faith and relationship with the Lord.
It is easy to let weariness, discouragement, and despair set in over the course of time in our lives. Maybe that is one reason why Paul wrote in Galatians 6:9, “So don’t get tired of doing what is good. Don’t get discouraged and give up, for we will reap a harvest of blessing at the right time.”
This idea of doing what is good leads me to the second suggestion of how we can celebrate God’s salvation.
2. We celebrate God’s salvation by living it out – day in and day out for the rest of our lives.
Did you catch the last few lines of Patterson’s story? “Again the missionary had to shut off the projector. But this time he didn’t tell them to calm down and wait for what was next. All that was supposed to happen—in the story and in their lives—was happening.
We celebrate (and embrace) God’s salvation as we live in the joy and the hope and the reality of that salvation each and every day of our lives. And this living not based on our emotions – things that come and go- but on the unchanging and stable reality of God!
Paul, because of His utmost trust and confidence in God was able to write, “I am still not all that I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven.”
I don’t know at what point in his life Paul wrote these words, but based on good scholarship, his ministry lasted nearly 30 years! And at some point, probably later in life, he said, “I am still working at living out this commitment, I am still learning how to faithfully walk with God.”
I don’t know about you, but that speaks to me. Here is a man, a leader in the faith, one who sacrificially and obediently in response to God’s call is spreading the Good News, saying, “I am still learning how to live for and walk with God.” That’s a word of both challenge and encouragement to me because I too, am still learning how to live for and walk with God. It needs to be for all of us.
But, Faithful, honest, and consistent living out of our “profession” of faith (walking the walk not just talking the talk) is not just one of the ways that we celebrate God’s salvation. It is also a key way that we embrace God’s salvation.
The story of the ten lepers is helpful to us as we consider the connection between celebrating and embracing God’s salvation. Luke 17:11 – 19 tells the story:
As Jesus continued on toward Jerusalem, he reached the boarder between Galilee and Samaria. As he entered a village there, ten leapers stood at a distance, crying out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”
He looked at them and said, “Go show yourselves to the priests. And as they went, their leprosy disappeared.
One of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back to Jesus, shouting, “Praise God, I’m healed!” He fell face down on the ground at Jesus’ feet, thanking him for what he had done. This man was a Samaritan.
Jesus asked, “Didn’t I heal ten men? Where are the other nine? Does only this foreigner return to give glory to God?” And Jesus said to the man, “Stand up and go, “Your faith has made you well.”
All ten were healed. All ten lives were changed for the better. But, only one returned to give thanks to Jesus and glory to God for the healing. And by that act Jesus affirmed his faith.
This one leper embraced God through his act of thanksgiving and praise. He acknowledged the work of God in his life and Jesus affirmed his commitment.
We must continue to do the same. And we must continue to do the same as a church.
Our history as a church has been based what we remembered in word, song, and prayer last weekend. Over 6 decades ago, Cecil Knight and a host of others brought that message to this community.
Now others had also brought this message of resurrection and salvation before this church was planted. But, we have been able to tell this story to some who did not hear it from the others. And we have connected with those who believed but had not joined a community of faith, like all of us need to, in order to more fully embrace this salvation.
And we celebrate this history. We have been a part of God’s work and God’s kingdom in this community for 61 years. And that is something to celebrate.
But, there is a future to embrace as well. It is based, in part; on our past but more importantly it is based on our message that came into being a long, long time before we did. It is based on God’s word. It is based on the work of the Holy Spirit. It is based on the doctrines of the church that existed before we, individually and as a congregation, existed.
The future that we are to embrace is based on God and His salvation for all of us!
We still have a mission and a ministry here in Kendallville that we must continue to embrace. And one of the ways that we embrace it is by faith. Why?
Because our ministry and message can only, completely and fully, be embraced by faith. It is faith in Christ and acceptance of His act of salvation that makes us Christian.
It is walking by faith, and not by sight, that makes our life with God possible.
It is only by faith that we engage in this capital fund campaign to raise the financial resources necessary to future this ministry of faith and trust in Christ alone. We must believe that only God can multiply our gifts and our service as we walk by faith and trust in Him.
Let us celebrate God’s salvation. Let us remember and give thanks for the forgiveness that we have experienced! Then, let us embrace the ministry and mission that is ours and obey, by faith, God’s directions for the future ministry He has for us to do. Let us give, not just our money, but ourselves to the ministry and mission that we have been given, by Jesus. Amen.
