"The Great 50 Days" Sunday, April 1, 2018 - 9 AM

Great 50 Days - Acts 10:34-43 Bascomb UMC / April 1, 2018 Easter Sunday / 9AM & 11AM Focus: The testimony of Peter’s experience – God is still working on him! Function: To encourage people to live into the Easter season – 50 days to exercise our faith and believe what God is doing in us. 5 Purpose Outcomes of the Church: Worship, Fellowship, Discipleship, Evangelism, Service Acts 10:34–43 (CEB) 34 Peter said, “I really am learning that God doesn’t show partiality to one group of people over another. 35 Rather, in every nation, whoever worships him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 36 This is the message of peace he sent to the Israelites by proclaiming the good news through Jesus Christ: He is Lord of all! 37 You know what happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism John preached. 38 You know about Jesus of Nazareth, whom God anointed with the Holy Spirit and endowed with power. Jesus traveled around doing good and healing everyone oppressed by the devil because God was with him. 39 We are witnesses of everything he did, both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree, 40 but God raised him up on the third day and allowed him to be seen, 41 not by everyone but by us. We are witnesses whom God chose beforehand, who ate and drank with him after God raised him from the dead. 42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. 43 All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” Happy Easter! OR April Fools! That is the question……….It’s a weird year – Ash Wednesday on Valentines and Easter on April Fools – yep, the internet is full of memes about this - are we Easter Fools? Maybe the safest thing is to attach April Fools to our Egg Hunt Activities: But since we did that yesterday, Jaime and the gang didn’t play such tricks – even though putting broccoli and grapes into the eggs – not a bad idea! I like this meme: It’s just April! Fools is just a thing I say! Easter is attached to Spring for obvious reasons – but mainly because the crucifixion happened around Passover. Since Jewish faith and culture use a LUNAR calendar, Easter moves around about 28 days – back and forth. Next year Easter is very late - on April 21st. However, April Fools is always on April 1st. Its origins are shrouded in mystery. We do know that the western world made a big adjustment back in the 1500s. The Julian calendar had some bad math. The better we measured the orbit of the earth, the better we figured out our time. And only the POPE had enough power to decree a blanket change across all of Western Civilization. The adjustment of 10 days was called the Gregorian calendar. Before, Julian calendar years began in the spring and the start of the New Year was celebrated on the first day of April. The switch to the Gregorian calendar during moved the New Year to?...January 1. So, as we transitioned, some people could be tricked into believing April 1 was still New Years – and they became known as?...April fools. So this year we suffer an ironic twist of fate – those who scoff at our beliefs call today Easter Fools Day. How could rational, post-scientific people still believe in the resurrection? It’s like the calendar became Jack Nicholson and he walked into the middle of our worship service and said: “What if this is as good as it gets?” Remember that movie? Video clip: “What if this is as good as it gets?” ……from As Good As It Gets Now there’s some merit to that challenge. We could be lulled into some kind of half-faith where we WISH for a resurrection but we really don’t take it seriously, certainly NOT to the point where we let it affect our lives – change who we are – so sometimes we need Jack Nicholson to stand in the middle of this congregation and ask us: “What if this is as good as it gets?” Resurrection is not an excuse for throwing THIS life away. To not be bothered by those who call us Easter Fools we must have faith in the resurrection and faith is a muscle we must exercise! That’s why I speak two prophetic ideas into your spirit today. #1 Easter is not a day, it’s a season! LENT was a season of 40 days because Sundays are NOT included. But Easter is not just a Sunday, but a season of 50 days because every Sunday is a little Easter. Prophetic idea #2 is: we MUST exercise our faith together! Encourage and inspire one another, teach each other and study the Bible together, and hold each other accountable. We all need some Helen Hunt in our lives: Video clip: “We're All Gonna Die Soon” from As Good As It Gets OK – Helen’s a little upset with his behavior! How close are WE in this family? A few of us have begun to pray and seek guidance into Bands – small groups of three or so that go deeper into living Holy Lives, healthy lives, putting love to the test so that we can speak TRUTH to each other. You see, I have a condition. It’s called sin – a fallen nature. But I am not a slave to my condition. I am willing to take responsibility for my faith. Being in relationship with you these last 9 months has made me want to be a better man. Video clip: “You Make Me Want to Be a Better Man” from As Good As It Gets That’s what I mean by exercising your faith. For most of us, our resurrection does not come until after we die. I can’t prove the resurrection scientifically. That’s why I referred to you as a post-scientific people. We understand that the more we discover, the more we realize how little we know. Post-modern people have room for the mystery of life. So, strengthen your faith here. Live your best life now. That’s God’s will for you. But it’s God’s way, not your way. You ready to give up on the lie that you are in control? You better get some Holy Spirit friends to help you. Remember this chart? – Only 11% of Christians get into those last categories. And let’s do this for a season at least, not just a day. We can celebrate our faith at least for the next 50 days. That’s what the season of Easter looks like! Maybe next week we just celebrate worship (and I mean celebrate our God with enthusiasm) and week#3 we celebrate our Woodstock community & church growth. Week#4 we’ll celebrate conversion because it’s Confirmation Sunday. Week#5 we can celebrate our mission to humanity and week#6 we could celebrate God’s Kingdom influence and gather around the Communion table once again. On week#7 we’ll celebrate the “End of the Story” on Ascension Sunday (Mother’s Day). Then on Pentecost – we’ll begin a Six Week Series building upon what many Sunday School classes have been studying: BECOMING A CONTAGIOUS CHRISTIAN. That’s why I wanted you to hear Peter’s gospel message in the text today. This is good news to ALL people. Jesus is depending on us to do the same and give our own account to what Jesus is doing. Even Peter was being changed and learning new things about God. So there, the invitation is extended - COME! And this invitation is extended to you today: Come to the Lord’s Table. Exercise your faith in the act of coming and receiving the bread and the cup. Listen: Jesus said to them, “I assure you, unless you eat the flesh of the Human One and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. My flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in them. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me lives because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. It isn’t like the bread your ancestors ate, and then they died. Whoever eats this bread will live forever.” At this, many of his disciples turned away and no longer accompanied him. Jesus asked the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?” Simon Peter answered, “Lord, where would we go? John 6: 53-58, 66-68 (CEB). I ask you – where else will you go? We can’t earn it, we don’t deserve it, at death, our only HOPE is in Jesus. But what about your life? Is this as good as it gets? NO – Jesus let loose the Holy Spirit to work in our community to begin NEW LIFE here and now. If you have NO other alternative, it seems to me the true April Fool is the one living the Christian life half-way, part-time. Come here and believe, come here and belong – then let God do the Spirit’s work to grow the FRUIT out of our lives. Let have a Great 50 Days to come and maybe you’ll want more! Let us pray……….. Page 5 of 5