Illustration from Sermon Central: 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 someone on the other side of death: someone who’s actually been there and seen what it’s like?
The message of Easter is all about LIFE after this life. Easter is a message of LIFE!
· Not an email message, but an everlasting covenant.
· Not from an ordinary man, but from God Himself.
· Not from hell but from the Kingdom of Everlasting Life…
Whoever you are, however you got to the place where you are in life and for whatever reason you’re here today, The Lord Jesus wants you to know He has a gift for you today.
It’s not a chocolate Easter bunny or an egg, a Corvette convertible or the granting of your wish.
It’s something far greater, much more costly: something that will make you jump for joy and shout THANK YOU JESUS! It’s LIFE to the FULL. SATISFACTION, PEACE, HAPPINESS!
FINALLY!!! The meaning of life!
Illustration: misleading lures of life… Friday morning I was completing the finishing touches for our Good Friday service and I looked on line for a good song to go along with our communion. Somehow, I came across a song from Ray Boltz, “Hammer” about the hammer that nailed Jesus to the cross, how some way or another, we all held it in our hands… Every one of us is guilty of some sin for which Jesus had to die.
Some web site service was offering 10 free mp3 downloads to fill out a questionnaire and they promised they had the song I needed. A few minutes after giving them my email address I find myself wading through page after page of offers and solicitations from literally hundreds of different companies. Finally, I made it through to the other side: the page where you get to pick your free mp3s. It was like making the top level on a video game: I was poised at the mouse for my reward.
Turns out they didn’t have that song… Just a bunch of worthless titles, none of which I could use.
All that effort for a lie…
Today, when you read a magazine or get online or watch television, people will tell you what you must have to make you happy, and at the end of all the hard work you go through to obtain it, you find another magazine telling you what you must have to be complete. None of it brings any happiness. None of it makes life complete. In the end we will all learn we wasted a lot of time, resources and effort running after promises no one could deliver on.
Matt 10:39, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
Jesus said this to emphasize the fact that LIFE ETERNAL is the price of great price, worth everything you have here: even your very life. This is what He died to give us…
TRUE LIFE ISN’T FOUND BY OBTAINING THE THINGS OF THE WORLD.
IT ISN’T EARNED BY WHAT WE DO OR GIVE, but by a relationship with Jesus Christ.
A Sunday School teacher asked his class, “If I sold my house and my car, had a big garage sale and gave all my money to the church, would that get me into Heaven?”
“NO!” the children all answered.
“If I cleaned the church every day, mowed the yard, and kept everything neat and tidy, would that get me into Heaven?”
Again, the answer was, “NO!”
Again the teacher asked, “Well, then, if I was kind to animals and gave candy to all the children, and loved my wife, would that get me into Heaven?”
Again, they all answered, "NO!"
“Well then how can I get into Heaven?”
A five-year-old boy shouted out, “YOU GOTTA BE DEAD!” -- Sermon Central
TRUE LIFE IS FOUND THROUGH A PROCESS OF DEATH AND REBIRTH.
Jesus lived and died to bring us to that understanding…
When He was crucified, “One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him:
"Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!” Luke 23:39
SAVE YOURSELF AND US. The rebellious man never understood Jesus was saving us…
But in a truer sense than the thief’s narrow mind could have imagined!
What the criminal and the crowd didn’t understand was that life isn’t found here; it’s only fought for.
When an army engages in battle, they lay down their life so their countrymen can live in peace.
When they are in the field, they aren’t concerned so much about being comfortable. They have a job to do and a war to win. The battlefield itself is full of violence and agony. It’s not a place to find rest. You don’t pitch a tent or open a day spa in the middle of a battlefield. Why? Because the battlefield is the place where we fight for life, not where we find the good life.
The earth is a spiritual battlefield. In this huge field, the armies of light and darkness are constantly at war. The field is covered with casualties of a spiritual war. Men, women and children die every day because of sin. Earth is a place where spiritual life is fought over. It’s not where we live the good life. The Good Life is a place where we live in peace and happiness forever after we’ve fought the Good Fight, and the only way there is through the resurrection power of JC.
3 THINGS JESUS WANTS YOU TO KNOW ABOUT HIS RESURRECTION TODAY:
I: His resurrection is powerful: Many resurrected that day. Any can be resurrected today.
Matt 27:50-53, “And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.”
I wouldn’t be too excited to see aunt Sadie back from the dead! I’d be a little freaked out! (Joke)
Why did He do that? He freed them from the power of death, hell and the grave!
Christ’s is the POWER to break death’s hold, to free us from bondage and open a way to Heaven!
God’s primary purpose for you: not judgment but acquittal! Not punishment but eternal life!
When God gets hold of you, He’s going to resurrect you: bring you new life: life overflowing: life to the full! He’s going to transform your way of living. Everything you lived for before that couldn’t bring you inner peace and happiness or answer the tough questions about life will seem boring in comparison to what you’ll discover in Christ!
II: His resurrection is personal
Just before sunrise, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, Joanna, and Salome went to visit the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus with spices. As they walked there with their spices in hand one of the ladies asked, “Who’s going to roll away the stone for us so we can go in?” Just as she was asking, they rounded the corner and saw the tombstone had already been rolled away so they ran to the tomb and discovered it empty. The body of Jesus was missing!
What was this all about? Who would take His body and for what purpose? Hadn’t His accusers already done enough to disgrace Him? Had some thieves come to steal His body for a relic?
John 20:2, “So [Mary] she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, [John] the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!" So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) Then the disciples went back to their homes,
11 but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?" "They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don’t know where they have put him."
14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. "Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?" Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him." Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher).
“RABBONI!!! Teacher!” The first words Mary said when she recognized the risen Jesus.
She recognized Jesus as HER teacher!
A meaningful relationship can only take place once we recognize Christ as our own…
Jesus belonged to Mary because He freed her from her past & gave her a new future: Life to the full!
Mary’s reputation was always marked by her past until Jesus came. She was sinner…
Jesus had come to town and cast those powers out… seven demonic powers. He had done something for her that no one else could ever do. That made Him more than just a teacher to her, but a personal savior!
Jesus becomes our personal savior when we realize what He’s freed us from and who we’ve become in Him! God calls us His children, His representatives, His sheep!
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?
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.
What Mary saw that Easter morning would change her life forever… and can change ours.
There He was! She witnessed Him face to face. He was dead for two days and now He’s alive!
He proved He was more than just a prophet, a good teacher or a healer. He had command over more than the wind, rain and sky… He broke the grip of death over the flesh forever, and the promise of Easter is that all who trust in Him will have LIFE and LIFE TO THE FULL!
HIS RESURRECTION IS POWERFUL AND IT IS PERSONAL!
III: HIS RESURRECTION IS ETERNAL LIFE.
John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” LIFE IN ITS FULNESS! Overflowing, forever!
In 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 there is “more beyond” and life can never be understood the same.
This life is indescribable, it’s undefinable and incredible! I once heard Heaven is a million times more beautiful that your wildest imagination could ever dream and hell is a million times more terrible than the worst of your fears.
Eternal life is worth dying for friends. It’s worth everything!
Illustrate the pearl of great price: the man sold everything to buy that plot of land for the treasure.
The sowing of seeds: they must die before they are transformed into new life.
Today, because of Jesus you get to choose how you’re going to live and how you’ll die.
In prison, on death row, when a man takes his final walk to the execution chamber, men can be heard calling out the phrase, “Dead man walking.” It means this man’s as good as dead: appointed to die.
In essence, the phrase “Dead man walking!” applies to all of us. Every one of us is appointed to die.
Heb 9:27-28, “Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.”
It’s going to happen. It’s inevitable… The fortunate thing about that is that God has given you the choice of what kind of death you’re going to experience.
I think we realize, as we get older, that our bodies are kind of like old cars in need of repair. The only problem is, we can’t always just weld on a new catalytic converter and hit the road.
At some point down the road, these bodies are going to be beyond repair and they’ll end up in a graveyard somewhere… That’s what makes JESUS so important to us today!
Today, we are dead men walking. You are either dead to sin or dead in your sin.
Make your choice: “Just life,” or ETERNAL LIFE?
(Observations below from a Sermon Central contributor other than myself...)
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.
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.
