The Church Is Closed But The Grave Is Still Open!

Title: “It’s Easter the Church building is Empty” Scripture: John 20 and various

Type: Thematic Where: GNBC Easter 2020

Intro: Today is Easter Sunday 2020, and as such, it is in my opinion the most important day of the Christian calendar. This is the day we celebrate Christ’s triumph over sin and death. We celebrate His victory over the grave. However, this is a very unusual Easter. In fact, I have never experienced an Easter like this. Easter Sunday for pastors is typically THE Sunday of the year. Usually it has the largest attendance, the most visitors, biggest offering, families come together, children in new dresses and suits. Usually we have a large fellowship breakfast where we eat too much food! The sanctuary is filled with joyful congregants singing and special choirs and solos proclaiming Christ’s victory. Sadly, none of those are the case today! Due to this virus pandemic, churches all around the world are sealed and shut today.

Prop: This Easter Sunday 2020, the Church building is empty, but praise God, so is the Tomb!

BG: 1. This Easter we are learning a very important lesson. Our faith is not essentially connected to a building, but rather to the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

2.

Prop: It’s Easter 2020, and sadly, the Church building is empty.

I. It’s Easter Sunday and the Church Doors are Closed and Locked.

A. This Easter Sunday doesn’t look like a traditional Easter Sunday…the doors are closed and locked.

1. On Easter Sunday the doors of the Church are always open, welcoming both the faithful and the visitor to hear the Good News of the Resurrection.

a. Illust: This Easter we see signs posted on the doors: CDC guidelines and travel restrictions informing us of the dangers of the Covid 19 virus. We see the strong recommendations of the Governor Reynolds with strict guidelines limiting the number of people who can congregate in a meeting with the guidelines for social distancing.

b. Illust: Earlier this week I was talking to an old friend of mine from N. Ireland. Jim is a retired pastor. He said the following: “Chris, for 30 years we lived in a state of war and violence, yet we operated through life and never saw the shutdown and disturbance this has caused.”

2. Times like we are experiencing right now should help us to rethink the nature of the Church.

a. The Church is both a familiar and yet a misunderstood topic. It is one of the main elements of our faith that can be viewed and observed. For many it’s their point of contact with Christianity. As Barth said, “The Church’s mere existence is one of the most powerful witnesses to Jesus Christ.”

b. So, we have to ask, if the church building is closed, are we no longer witnessing to Christ? I find it interesting, when you read the Bible, the word “church” is used in many different contexts, but it is NEVER used in the context we most commonly use it today: “A brick and mortar building.”

B. Although the Church Doors are Locked and Closed, I find Great Comfort in knowing that Jesus said that He was the “Door of Salvation”.

1. In John 10:7-9, Jesus uses a figure of speech, a metaphor, to communicate an essential spiritual truth: “I am the door”. The focus of our passage is on Jesus being the door, and specifically, the door of the sheepfold (10:7). On an average day in Israel, sheep could be found grazing in pastures and drinking from streams. Once night fell, however, the sheep were brought into the sheepfold, a structure commonly made of stone with briars atop the wall that served as impediments to thieves. This left the gate as the only proper entryway, and so a guardian was placed there to guard the sheep from thieves and wild animals. Oftentimes several different flocks were placed into the same sheepfold at night. The sheep were not lost, however, because each sheep would know his own shepherd’s voice and would come when his shepherd called

2. V.9 Jesus was saying that He is the door through which we all must pass so as to receive the gift of salvation. Jesus uses this earthly image to convey two important things. The first of these is that God has a sanctuary, a safe place to bring His sheep, where He will save and keep them safe forever. Secondly, the only way to get into this sanctuary is through its one and only door, Jesus Christ. The only access we have to God is through Christ, and Him alone.

C. Applic: I love the CS Lewis classic “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”. The fictional land of Narnia can only be entered from this world by walking into and through a magical wardrobe that transports the Pevensie children. The pluralistic society we find ourselves in has no problem with God as long as there are many ways of accessing Him. Jesus says there is only One way: Him!