Moments in History
Notes
Transcript
It is truly amazing the difference a moment can make, some moments change our lives forever. Time and time again in history something happens that changes the world and yet most of the world doesn’t even know it happened.
February 14, 1867 Alexander Graham Bell registered a patent for a telephone and on March 10th the first phone call ever recorded in history was made. Communication was now possible over great distances, instant communication. It changed the way we do business, it changed the way we conduct wars, it changed everyday life for the whole planet, and yet almost no one knew about it at the time. It took years to be accepted and spread, today everyone has a phone in their pocket. communication and information has never been so available, the telephone changed the world.
January 1st 1983 the technology was invented that made the internet possible and 10 years after that the world wide web was born and the world would never be the same.
London England, September 1928 a Dr. Alexander Fleming returned from vacation to discover that his Petri dishes in his lab had been overtaken by a mold, a mold that prevented the growth of some bacteria, he had discovered penicillin the first antibiotic and the world would never be the same.
There have been lots of moments in history that have changed the world but one moment stand taller than all the rest. It happened over the weekend. The world changed, the universe changed. One moment all of history was going along like it always had, the world, the physical world and the spiritual world were traveling the same path they had been traveling for thousands of years, and then.......suddenly.........everything changed, everything, and I do mean everything changed..........forever.
Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour.
About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
And some of those who were standing there, when they heard it, began saying, “This man is calling for Elijah.”
Immediately one of them ran, and taking a sponge, he filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and gave Him a drink.
But the rest of them said, “Let us see whether Elijah will come to save Him.”
And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.
And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split.
The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised;
and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many.
Now the centurion, and those who were with him keeping guard over Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, became very frightened and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”
Many women were there looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee while ministering to Him.
Among them was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.
One moment the entire world and every person in it was corrupted, destined for hell, the entire world had been corrupted by sin and was on the path to judgement and destruction. At that moment there was no hope, there was no way to restore man, any man or any woman, to what they were created to be. Adam had sinned, everyone had sinned, the world was condemned and the perfect creation of God had been made ugly and corrupted by the sin of mankind. There was no way to make up for our sin, there was no way to make it better and there was no way to fix it. For thousands of years it had been the same and then...........suddenly..........everything changed.
One moment there was no hope, no future and no way out and the next moment.......there was.
One moment there was no way to ever right the wrongs of sin, no way to make up for all the wrong that had been done, no way to restore the earth to what it was supposed to be, no way to restore mankind to what we were supposed to be, we were without hope, without any kind of a chance, there was absolutely no way out of the mess we were in......and then.... suddenly, there was.
Suddenly the debt that could not be paid was paid in full, suddenly the world that could not be restored was completely redeemed, suddenly the sin that could not be made right was covered with the blood of Jesus Christ.
One moment we were utterly lost and alone, without hope, without a chance......... and then suddenly hope was born.... when our saviour died.
Imagine it, one moment the entire race of humankind was without hope of being redeemed, without a chance of ever becoming what we should have been, without any hope at all, no matter how hard we tried it would never be enough, no matter what we did it would never make up for what we had already done. Without hope, without a chance, we needed to be saved but there was no one to save us because everyone around us needed saving too, everyone except Jesus. The one person who needed no one to save him gave his life to offer salvation to all the rest of us.
One second we hand no chance and the next second it was finished, everything was done. Salvation was bought and paid for and most of the world never knew that it happened. A lot of world changing moments are like that. Only a handful of people heard the first phone call, only a single doctor saw the first antibiotic, only a few scientists knew about the internet and the world wide web, but all of those things changed the world.
Only a small band of followers, a mother, a few guards and some lookers on witnessed the greatest world changing event that had ever happened, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the death of God.
That would have been far and away the greatest world changing event in history if it hadn’t been for that Sunday morning.
Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave.
And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it.
And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow.
The guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men.
The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified.
“He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying.
“Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going ahead of you into Galilee, there you will see Him; behold, I have told you.”
And they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to report it to His disciples.
And behold, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him.
The God who died for his followers, and even for those who would follow him later, the God who gave up his life for those who loved him and those who hated him, for anyone who would come to him, the God who died for us...... once again was alive.
One moment the greatest human being who had ever, or would ever live was gone from the world, snuffed out, dead, lost to us, all of that wisdom, all of that love, all of that compassion, all that was Jesus was gone........... and then it wasn’t.
JESUS WAS ALIVE. One moment he was dead, and the the next moment he was alive, not just temporary life, not just 80 years but eternal life. One moment the one person who loved us more than any other ever would or ever could was as dead as a rock and the next moment he was more alive than any human had ever been. Talk about defining moments.
You see God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit had existed forever and ever together in perfect harmony and perfect unity. They decided to create man, to create us. They created us to live with them forever and ever as they had always lived with each other but we blew it. We sinned, we wanted to do it our way and it drove a wedge between us and them. It wasn’t what they wanted, it hurt them, and it would destroy us, so they made a plan.
They planned to drive a wedge between themselves in order to fix the gap between them and us. Jesus took on the sins of the world and when he did God the father turned his head away, for the first time ever their perfect communion, their perfect relationship was interrupted when Jesus took our sin on himself and died for that sin. Then there relationship was restored when Jesus was raised from the dead without sin, perfect just as he had always been, perfect just as he was meant to be. It was a kind of blueprint for what would happen to us. We would be offered the chance to die to ourselves so that we could be resurrected not as we once were but as we were always intended to be. To be restored to something that we never actually became, but that we were always meant to be.
One of the oldest explanations of the trinity was found in an egg like this one. The egg has three parts, a shell, an egg white, and a yolk. These three parts all have their own task and their own purpose and they are all in it together, they work together to accomplish their purpose and together they make 1 egg. The shell protects the egg, the egg white nourishes and protects the yolk and the yolk becomes the embryo of the chicken. All three are necessary, each has their own job and it takes all three to make 1 egg.
In the same way God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit all three have different tasks and all three work perfectly together and together they form one being. I know it is an over simplification but all of our explanations of God are oversimplifications we just aren’t smart enough to understand God
Of course if you break an egg the it all becomes mixed up together and it is hard to use it for anything, if you separate the parts of an egg you might find a use for it but it no longer does what it was intended to do, it no longer produces a chicken.
For one moment in eternity the holy trinity was different than it had ever been, for one moment Jesus felt forsaken by God, for one moment of eternity Jesus was dead, for one moment the egg was broken (break egg in bowl), It was broken for us, Jesus was broken for us, The holy trinity, the creator God of the universe who had never been separate agreed to experience this for us, to experience separation so that we could be restored, to experience death so that we could live.
And then God was made whole, the egg was restored (put away bowl and pull out empty egg shell) . One Sunday morning those who had loved Jesus the man went to his tomb to makes sure that he was properly buried, to show their love by giving him the only thing they could, one last honor, one last dignity. It was a mission of love even though it was also a mission of despair. They went to the tomb to pay their respects to someone they had loved and lost, but they discovered that they had not lost at all, they had won. The egg had been restored. The tomb was empty.
(while saying this walk down into the pews and pick someone to walk up to with the empty egg shell, when saying the tomb was empty break the shell in their hand showing the empty egg. )
Will you accept what Jesus has done, will you accept the greatest gift in the world, the gift of salvation, he has given his life to you, will you give your life to him?
Sing: Were you there when they crucified my Lord.