The Resurrection: Our Good News Series

EASTER

Today is a special day. We celebrate this day of Easter every year on our calendars. We get out the decorations with bunnies and little chicks overlaid on pastel colors. Stores have been selling lots of Easter related products like baskets and candy. Egg coloring kits are popular. I see displays at stores with marshmallow peeps in all kinds of interesting and unusual flavors. I saw they now have Dr. Pepper flavored peeps.

Later today, families will gather and the kids will get to have an easter egg hunt in the family yard and search for the colored and candy filled eggs hoping to gather the most. Then we will eat a special meal together of ham or pot roast or some even use today as a reason to have a mid-year turkey dinner.

You know, there are places around our country where this day isn’t as big a deal. Yes, some will still attend church together and go have egg hunts and the kids will get baskets, but the meaning behind Easter isn’t really celebrated. Back in Oregon you don’t see as much of a fanfare in stores selling products. There will still be a couple of aisles but not as much.

Actually, what you see are articles or whole magazines like National Geographic, TIME, and Newsweek dedicating an issue to the “Real Jesus” and “What really happened to him on this day.” Secular religion professors write about the many discredited theories about how Jesus didn’t really die, but he took some kind of poison to temporarily stop his heart or how the disciples lied about him and conspired in order to get rich and make money. And many other ideas and theories.

There are churches that have given rise to doubt about the significance of Jesus’ death and resurrection and they too will even minimize the claims in the Bible and go along with these same secular religious philosophers. They will even say that it really doesn’t matter if Jesus died and rose again because what we really need to know is that Jesus was a good man who taught some good ideas about how we should live, but to follow everything in here (hold up Bible) isn’t really necessary. Churches say this. Churches of Christ are saying this in places like Oregon and other more blue states. Guess what? There are churches here in Tulsa saying these things this morning too.

Is the empty tomb important? Was Jesus’ death on the cross necessary? Does his resurrection have significance to our belief, our faith, and our salvation? Let’s talk about this this morning.

V FOR VICTORY

Humans communicate using much more than words. We use signs and gestures and many of them are universally understood. One gesture used is when someone would hold up the index and middle fingers spread apart forming a “V” shape.

Many would say this means “peace” but the origin of this sign was that this was a “V” sign for victory. The origin of this sign is such:

During World War II, former Belgian minister of justice Victor de Laveleye served as director of BBC Radio’s French-language Belgian broadcasts. During a January 1941 program, Victor suggested that a good way for Belgians to build morale and stay positive during wartime would be to flash a “V” with their fingers—the first letter of the French word victory. De Laveleye believed it would unnerve the Nazis. He said this, “The occupier, by seeing this sign, always the same, infinitely repeated, would understand that he is surrounded, encircled by an immense crowd of citizens eagerly awaiting his first moment of weakness, watching for his first failure.”

Graffitied “V”s started showing up in Belgium, then in other French-speaking areas that heard the BBC French broadcasts, including the Netherlands and northern France. By July of 1941, it was so widespread and understood that English prime minister Winston Churchill started using it when photographed or after speeches.

And it worked. It not only brought up morale, but by doing so, truly brought victory. This was a small gesture that brought good news to the Allies who saw it displayed and fear to the enemy.

Today, I want to share some Good News about a different Victory with you. We all need Good News. With all the negatives that are going on in our world: wars, anger and hatred, crime and terrorism, as well as a difficult economy and bitterness spread across political parties, social issues, and religious conviction, we need some Good News. Do you agree?!

And today, this Easter Sunday, we have the opportunity to hear the Best News that was ever given. News about the Resurrection of Jesus. This is something that the world wants to hear about. Whether people will admit it or not, hearing that Jesus was raised from the tomb after three days is intriguing and, if true, is Great News!