“Nothing” Good about today 3/22/2005
Luke 24:1-12
If you would have saw me earlier this week and asked me what my sermon was going to be on this week, I would have replied to you “nothing”. There are times when I have been asked that question and my reply has been coming soon. And what I would mean by that is that I hope God is coming soon to give me my message because right now I do not know.
So when I say nothing being our subject of today, then I don’t mean that I am going to stand up here and say “nothing”. But sometimes I bet that is what you wish I would say, nothing. I know there are times my wife thinks that. But today I want to give you the good news of “Nothing”.
Speaking of good news, I’ve got a list of good news for pastors I want to share with you.
Good News: You baptized 7 people in the river today.
Bad News: You lost two of them in the swift current.
Good News: Your church accepted your job description the way that you wrote it.
Bad News: They were so inspired by it that they also formed a search committee to find someone capable of filling the position.
Good News: Church attendance rose dramatically during the last three weeks.
Bad News: You were on vacation.
Good News: Mrs. Jones is wild about your sermons.
Bad News: Mrs. Jones is also wild about the “Gong show”, “Beavis and Butthead” and “Texas Chain Saw Massacre”.
Good News: Your congregation wants to send you to the Holy Land.
Bad News: They are stalling until things really heat up down there.
Coming from a sales back ground, I often use the saying that no news (nothing) can be good news. This means that the decision has not been made and I am still in the hunt. I would rather get the news that I got the deal, but when I don’t hear nothing usually means that I am still in the considertion.
So when is nothing good news? Let me give you a few things this morning that is good news when it pertains to nothing. Because of this being Easter we will look at times when nothing is good.
Nothing on the Cross
Nothing on the cross is a good thing. Because that meant that the job had been completed. The last words of Jesus before He died on the cross was, “It is finished”. Having completed every commandment of His Father and every prophecy of Scripture. Jesus voluntarily died. This was not a cry of exhaustion, but of completion. Jesus had done what He had come to do. He could have called 10,000 angels to come to His rescue but He willingly laid down His life.
Why did He do that?
Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
We all have sinned. No one can live up to what God has created us to be; we all fall short of His glory. We can be a good person and live a good life and we still fall short. We can have our name on some church membership and attend church every time the doors are open and we still fall short. We cannot save ourselves because we are all sinners. Our only hope is faith in Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
We all have sinned and Christ died for those sins. And weather you have accepted Him or not, your sins have been paid for. And there is a price for our sins.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Wages are something that you earn for what you do. And because of our sin, the wages is death. Not just the death of the physical but death in the spiritual, by being separated from God.
When I think of that 1st Easter morning. It was early and a few of Jesus followers were on their way to the tomb. (Woman) I’ve always said that the women are the best workers in the church. As they walk, I imagine that they paused to look at the three empty crosses that were still standing on the hillside. The day before was the Sabbath, so nobody had removed them.
The one in the middle was the one of there focus. That was the one that Jesus had hung on. At the top were the bloodstains where they had placed the crown of thorns and pierced His head. The back and cross beams were still soaked in blood from the beatings He endured and the nails that had been drove in His hands.
There stood a cross with “Nothing” on it. And nothing on it meant that you and I could stand forgiven. Because it was on that cross that Jesus paid the penalty for our sins.
Romans 10:9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and believe that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
This leads me to my next point. You have to believe that He was raised from the dead. Which meant….
Nothing in the tomb
As we continue our journey with our women apparently Mary Magdalene arrived ahead of the other women. She was the one of whom Jesus had cast out the seven demons. She also was the last one at the cross and the first one at the tomb. And she and the other woman found “nothing” in the tomb. No one was in there; it was empty. Jesus had risen; He was alive!
I heard a story about a boy named Philip. Philip never felt like he belonged. He was pleasant enough but looked a bit different and seemed unusual to his eight-year-old classmates.
One day in his Sunday school class just before Easter, the Sunday school teacher gave them each a plastic egg with the assignment that each child was to go outside and find a symbol for new life and put it into the egg. Enthusiastically the class responded.
Back in the classroom the eggs were opened one at a time with each child explaining the meaning of their symbol.
In the first egg was a pretty flower; in the next was a beautiful butterfly, while green grass was in the third. The children “oohed” and “aahed”. In one there was a rock, which prompted laughter. Finally the last egg was opened and there was nothing in it.
That’s stupid, said one child. Another grumbled, “Someone didn’t do it right”.
The teacher felt a tug on her shirt. It was Philip, who said, “That’s mine, and I did do it right! Its empty cause the tomb was empty.”
There was a silence and strangely from that time on, Phillip was accepted among the other kids.
Philip continued to struggle with many physical problems and that summer he picked up an infection, which most children would easily have shaken off. But Phillips weak body couldn’t and a few weeks latter he died.
At his funeral nine eight- year-olds with their teacher brought a symbol of remembrance and placed it near his coffin. Their gift of love to Phillip was not flowers. It was an empty plastic egg; now a symbol of new life and hope. And it was Phillip, the different child who had helped his friends see the wonderful hop in the message of Easter.
Because there was nothing in the tomb, we too have the hope that we can be raised to eternal life. To those who know Christ as their Lord and Savior, death has lost its sting. It is no longer something to be feared.
A father and son were traveling down a country road one afternoon when a bee flew in the window. The boy was allergic to bee stings and began to panic. As the bee buzzed all around in the car, the father saw the horror on the boys face and he reached out and caught the bee in his hand. Soon he opened his hand and bee once again buzzed around the car and the boy once again began to panic. The father reached over to his son and opened his hand showing him the stinger still in his palm. “Relax son; I took the sting and the bee can’t hurt you anymore”.
And when there was nothing in the tomb, God was saying to us, “Relax, I took the sting, death can not hurt you anymore.”
Jesus lives! And because He lives He is able to interaction with us. His desire is a personal relationship with us. And we need to remember our last nothing.
Nothing that God can’t do
The resurrection was full of obstacles. You had the guards who were placed there to prevent it. They were not some untrained security guards, these were Roman soldiers who were trained and armed for that purpose. Can you imagine a bunch of fisherman and a doctor trying to overpower these guys?
Then you had the stone. The stone itself probably weighed about a ton. Even the woman while walking there thought of this obstacle. They said, “Who will roll away the stone from the door.
They knew the Roman soldiers were there, but even in their strength they were not able to do so.
Who did it? God did it! And the only thing that God cannot do is fail. There is no sin so big that Jesus cannot forgive. There is no sin that He cannot conquer. It makes no difference who you are or what you’ve done, My God is able.
Those hidden sins that you think no one knows, God knows and is able to heal you from them. The nasty habits, God can overcome them. There is nothing to big or nothing to small; God is able to take care of all of it!
Luke 1:37 For with God nothing will be impossible.
There is nothing that you can do which will cause God to stop loving you and there is nothing that you can do, or you have done that God can’t change.
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, He is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things become new.
Do you need a new start in life? Is there something that is not right? Jesus desires a personal relationship with you. If you have never accepted Him as your personal Savior then nothing you can do, nothing you can have will ever be able to take His place.
Maybe you are here today, and you have been saved but you are out of fellowship with the Lord. There is nothing more miserable than knowing the joy that only the Lord can bring and then to loose that. David after his sin with Bathsheba prayed and asked God to restore the JOY of Your salvation. He did not lose his salvation, but he lost his joy.
If you are that person today you can restore your joy as well.
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive our sins and cleanse us form all unrighteousness.
Let’s make today where nothing is good. Nothing is going to keep you from accepting Him as your personal Savior. Not your pride, not your guilt, nothing.
And let’s not let nothing stand in our way of the joy of our salvation. Not our habits or our lifestyle, or any sin that we may have.
Let’s do it today, because we never know if we will have a tomorrow.
