An Illinois man left Chicago for a vacation in Florida. His wife was on a business trip and was planning to meet him the next day. When he reached his hotel he decided to send his wife a quick
e-mail. Unable to find the scrap of paper on which he had written her e-mail address, he did his best to type it from memory.
Unfortunately, he missed one letter and his note was directed instead to an elderly preacher’s wife, whose husband had passed away only the day before. When the grieving widow checked her e-mail, she took one look at the monitor, let out a piercing scream, and fell to the floor dead.
At the sound, her family rushed into the room and saw this note on the screen:
Dearest Wife,
Just got checked in. Everything prepared for your arrival tomorrow.
Your Loving Husband.
P.S: Sure is hot down here.
> What could be more powerful than news from the other side of death ? Easter is that and more.
· Not an email message, but a living message.
· Not from man, but from God.
· Not from hell, but from heaven.
It’s GOOD NEWS !
Easter Sunday… the day we gather to celebrate that the stone which sealed the life and love of God has been rolled away…that our hopes are alive in the resurrection of Jesus.
God’s Word speaks of this hope as “an anchor for the soul.” It is often the unspoken strength that allows us to rise each day and face the uncertainties of life.
In the midst of our losses and let downs, we can anchor our souls with divine strength. The hope of Easter isn’t the hope of a naïve fool or nagging optimist, it’s hope that meets us in the real world.
For as was read earlier from the Gospel of John (John 20:1, 11-18 NLT) … OUR STORY DOESN’T BEGIN IN THE LIGHT OF DAY.
IT BEGINS AT DAWN WHEN IT’S STILL DARK… A PLACE FAR LESS CLEAR… FAR MORE PERSONAL.
It begins with an individual…Mary….Perhaps as fascinating and encouraging as anything God chooses to do… He focuses the greatest events…events of cosmic proportions…on ordinary individuals.
· Not what you’d call your traditionally religious person. She was from the city of Magdala along the sea of Galilee… and may have had a wealthy background…. but nothing could protect her from the harsh realities of the world.
· She was a women in a world that found woman a good scapegoat on which to place it’s shame…somehow more easily separated from God… there was little acceptability to hope on her own.
· And as many come to find…the most oppressive powers aren’t just cultural and political, they are personal and spiritual. Tradition has always had it that Mary was a scarlet sinner. She had become oppressed by spiritual powers that bound her within.
This was before the day that a new presence came to town…a presence that proved more powerful
than all the powers around her and within her. Jesus had come to town and saw into her soul… and cast those powers out… seven demonic powers. He had done something for her that no one else could ever do, and she could never forget. No one ever loved Jesus so much as Mary Magdalene.
The part that love plays in this story is extraordinary. It was Mary, who loved Jesus so much, who was first at the tomb.
She comes in love… but ALSO IN DARKNESS; not just the darkness of the sky, but the darkness of her soul. Her love may have been strong but her hope couldn’t see anything left to hold onto. He was gone and the world without him was dark… dark around her … dark within her.
> Easter begins where life on this planet finds us…
· a world not always safe and sane and satisfying;
· a world where the love of family and friends can fall short… prove frail and fragile;
· a world where people we love leave us far too soon.
> Easter enters just such a world. The love of God is a deep love that seeks us in the darkness. Not the love of fairy tales or forced devotion… but a love that reaches into the real world.
If you’ve ever found it hard to see that love… you can appreciate Mary.
Easter begins with one whose hopes appear sealed in the harsh reality of a tomb… and whose expectations are once again left in a natural world. Even when she arrives and finds the huge stone somehow removed from the cave like tomb… what does she think? Two things may have entered her mind. She may have thought that the Jews had taken away Jesus’s body; that, not satisfied with killing him on a cross, they were inflicting further indignities on him. Or there were ghoulish creatures who made it their business to rob tombs; and Mary may have thought that this had happened here. She couldn’t perceive of anything more.
And then a presence beside her . But what can she hope for… a gardener.
The presence of one she loves… longs for… she can’t see clearly through her sadness. Her head and her heart are turned downward in her tears. The hope of Easter begins in that place where it’s hard for us to expect much…to see clearly… to recognize God’s presence through our tears and trials… our fears and frustrations.
> But the voice of Easter morning would penetrate the darkness.
What Mary saw that Easter morning would change her life forever… and can change ours.
Jesus came to Mary because she needed him. We all need him. He knew better than she did that we all need a risen savior. She was only the first. She wasn’t to cling to his bodily appearance, for the hope that was alive was not in the limited presence of his body, but his unlimited presence… which would now transcend time and space…. As a living hope for all the world.
What is the living hope that changed Mary’s life? …. That changes our life?
In the risen Christ Mary discovered the living hope that…
1. God can overcome any powers over my past.
Mary knew about the powers that can control and define our past…she had been oppressed by them…powers that controlled her. Perhaps for they Mary they began by simply entertaining anger… or self-hatred…but soon they become oppressive…. controlling… defining who we are. They were powers bigger than her. They were the powers over her past. We all know something of the power over our past… the shame that tethers us down from the hope of who we long to be.
A group of six-year-old kids were asked to write a prayer. Little Arthur stared, fidgeted, and finally wrote: "Dear God, please help me to be the person my dog thinks I am."+
Another teacher asked her class what each wanted to become when they grew up "President," "a fireman," "a teacher." One by one they answered until it became Billy’s time. The teacher asked, "Billy, what do you want to be when you grow up?" "Possible," Billy responded. "Possible?" asked the teacher. "Yes," Billy said, "my mom is always telling me I’m impossible. When I grow up I want to become POSSIBLE."
Mary wanted to be “possible.”
Then Jesus… the Christ… spoke into her life … with power. He looked her in the eyes, confronted the powers and set her free.
But there was more than just the authority of heaven… there was the LOVE of heaven.
Sociologists have a theory of the looking-glass self: you become what the most important person in your life (wife, father, boss, etc.) thinks you are. How would my life change if I truly believed the Bible’s astounding words about God’s love for me, if I looked in the mirror and saw what God sees?
The living hope of Jesus is that we never have to be defined by our past… tethered to our failures.
“God made you alive with Christ. He forgave all our sins.” Col. 2:13 [NLT]
> God can overcome any powers over my past.
2. God will be present with me…each and every day.
“The deepest comfort in life is not in material comforts but in meaningful companionship.” What comforts us most is to know that we’re not alone.
The great news of Easter is that God can be present with me…each and every day.
Augustine, “You ascended before our eyes. We turned to grieve only to find you in our hearts.”
Jesus, (…John 14:18-23 [NLT])
“I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you. In just a little while the world will not see me again, but you will. For I will live again, and you will, too. When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. …All those who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and live with them.
This is why Mary couldn’t hold onto the Jesus she saw.
Jesus’ presence wasn’t leaving. It was being loosed. He wasn’t merely the hope of a woman, but the hope of the world.
You and I never have to feel alone again. Christ rose so that all who receive him could have the very presence of God within us… among us.
He’s here right now… when you go home… lay down… rise up… go to work.
But what of death that awaits us?
3. God has a future for me… to be forever with Him.
Jesus knew that death is born of spiritual separation … the final enemy he came to defeat…
John 14:1-3 [CEV]
Jesus said to his disciples, "Don’t be worried! …There are many rooms in my Father’s house. I wouldn’t tell you this, unless it was true. I am going there to prepare a place for each of you. After I have done this, I will come back and take you with me. Then we will be together.
The hope that changed Mary’s life was that she would be with Jesus forever.
In Valladolid, Spain, where Christopher Columbus died in 1506, stands a monument commemorating the great discoverer. Perhaps the most interesting feature of the memorial is a statue of a lion destroying one of the Latin words that had been part of Spain’s motto for centuries. Before Columbus made his voyages, the Spaniards thought they had reached the outer limits of earth. Thus their motto was "Ne Plus Ultra," which means "No More Beyond." The word being torn away by the lion is "Ne" or "no," make it read "Plus Ultra." Columbus had proven that there was indeed "more beyond." The world could never be understood the same.
>> In the same way, Christ proved the was “more beyond” and life can never be understood the same.
Romans 6:4-5 [NLT]
“For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.
Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised as he was.”
New bodies…Recently I threw out my back… “When it’s time for a new body..I’ll be ready.”
Recently was told the story of…
a woman who had been diagnosed with cancer and had been given three month to live. Her doctor told her to start making preparations to die -- something we all should be doing all of the time.
So she contacted her pastor and had him come to her house to discuss certain aspects of her final wishes. She told him which songs she wanted sung at the service, what scriptures she would like read, and what she wanted to be wearing.
The woman also told her pastor that she wanted to be buried with her favorite Bible. Everything was in order and the pastor was preparing to leave when the woman suddenly remembered something very important to her. "There’s one more thing," she said excitedly.
"What’s that?" came the pastor’s reply.
"This is very important." The woman continued, "I want to be buried with a fork in my right hand."
The pastor stood looking at the woman not knowing quite what to say.
"That shocks you, doesn’t it?" the woman asked.
Well, to be honest, I’m puzzled by the request," said the pastor.
The woman explained. "In all my years of attending church socials and functions where food was involved, and let’s be honest, food is an important part of any church event, spiritual or otherwise, my favorite part was when whoever was clearing away the dishes of the main course would lean over and say ’you can keep your fork.’ It was my favorite part because I knew that something better was coming. When they told me to keep my fork, I knew that something great was about to be given to me. It wasn’t Jell-O or pudding. It was cake or pie - something with substance. So I just want people to see me there in that casket with a fork in my hand and I want them to wonder, ’What’s with the fork?’ Then I want you to tell them, ’Something better is coming, so keep your fork too."
1 Peter 1:3-4 [NIV]
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade…”
God’s living son is our living hope !
“We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf.” Hebrews 6:19-20 [NIV]
In the resurrection of Jesus, God embedded in the earth an anchor of hope sturdy enough to withstand any hurricane. This hope is the anchor that declares…
· God can overcome my past
· God can be with in the present… each and every day.
· God has a future for me… to be with Him forever.
The tomb that it sealed was the tomb of a transient. He only went in to prove he could come out. And on the way out he took the stone with him and turned it into an anchor point. He dropped it deep into the uncharted waters of death.
This anchor of hope is like receiving news ahead of it’s time…
Murdo Ewen MacDonald, a prisoner of war in Germany and chaplain to American soldiers, told how he learned of the Normandy invasion. Early on D-Day, he was awakened and told that a Scotsman in the British prisoner-of-war camp wanted to see him. MacDonald ran to the barbed wire that separated the two camps. The Scot, who was in touch with the BBC by underground radio, spoke two words in Gaelic, meaning "They have come." MacDonald ran back to the American camp and spread the news: "They have come . . . They have come." And everyone knew the allied troops had landed at Normandy. The reaction was incredible. Men jumped and shouted, hugged each other, even rolled on the ground. Outwardly they were still captives, but inwardly they were free. > That’s the hope that changes life !!
The risen Jesus would simply ask this question: Are we living to die or dying to live ??
Mark 8:34-36
“…He said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?”
If we want to follow Jesus into life with God… he invites us to come enter his death.
Eternal life with God does not come as an earnings program… or an enhancement program… it’s an exchange program. If we offer our life to Christ we will receive his life within us.
A Life Changing Prayer
“Dear God, Thank you for sending your son Jesus Christ to earth. I believe Jesus was who he said he was and proved it by rising from the dead. Thank you Jesus for dying for me and forgiving all my sins. I accept you as my Savior and the Leader of my life, and receive your free gift of eternal life. I want to discover and begin following your plan and purpose for my life… and to know you more and more personally. Amen”
