Leave the Familiar and Serve

Announce about the Nerf Dart exchange that we will be having, next Friday evening, the 10th at 6:00 pm. There is going to be a table set up in the front foyer, immediately following the service, in which you can get info about the event. There will be pizza served before the event starts! You can see Duane Dishman, immediately following the service, for details and a sign up sheet, which will be needed, to know how many pizza’s to order. PLAN ON COMING!

Invite Robin Wagoner up to the mic to share her testimony!

I was so blessed and honored to get to speak at the graveside service yesterday afternoon, for our dear sister, Peggy Witsell. It was a really cold and snowy afternoon, but it definitely added to the experience, as John, Peggy’s husband, mentioned right before we started the service, that Peggy loved the snow. So, it was a “thank you Lord” moment at the cemetery!

I shared something yesterday afternoon, at the memorial service, that I have mentioned before at other graveside services and it is most likely something that I will continue to share, whenever given the opportunity.

And I would like to share that same thought with all of you right now, leading into today’s message.

A few years ago, in speaking at a family member’s funeral service and graveside service, I

In sharing this thought at graveside services, I usually start off by making mention of the open grave which I can see clearly down into from my position, as traditionally, the preacher will stand to the front of the people, around the coffin, and looking at the family and friends.

And when I look into the grave, I purposefully point out that, at that exact moment, the grave is empty.

And in saying that, I go ahead and mention that this “empty grave”, reminds me of another grave site instance that happened some two-thousand years ago, in the area of Jerusalem.

Now, for yesterday’s message, I asked everyone to close their eyes and try to picture what I was describing to them. So, that being said, everyone please close your eyes right now and try to picture in your mind the Biblical account that I am going to describe to you.

It’s roughly two-thousand years ago in the middle eastern region of Jerusalem and it’s early in the morning; just right before dawn.

Some women are hurrying down the dusty road, to a burial tomb, with the spices that they have accumulated, for the soul purpose of finishing the preparation of a body for its proper burial.

However, this was not just anyone’s body. This was in fact, Jesus the Christ’s body, which they were hurrying to get to, in order that they could finish preparing His body, which had already been laid into a borrowed tomb, following His crucifixion, two days earlier!

There was not much talk, as they were all heart broken and in despair about the death of their Lord and Messiah!

Probably the only continual talk that would have been heard along the way, was something like, “Hurry, we must reach the tomb soon!”

You, are one of the women hurrying to the tomb and as you make your way in the cool of the morning down the main road, leading to the burial site. Your heart is broken and despondent from what has taken place, just two days before, as you witnessed, first hand, the horrific crucifixion of the Messiah, Jesus.

Upon arriving at the tomb site, you see something that is horribly wrong. You notice that the stone which was placed upon the entrance into the tomb, has been rolled away and you also notice that the Roman guards, who were ordered to guard the tomb, are no longer present at their post.

You’re heart is racing and you are scared and apprehensive of what you may find, as you approach the tomb entrance to peer inside.

It is now right at dawn, and the sun has begun to illuminate the morning sky and also the entrance into the tomb of Jesus the Christ!

You are the one whom the Bible refers to, as Mary Magdalene, and you run into the tomb first, frantically hoping to find that your savior’s body is still intact and lying peacefully on the stone perch inside the tomb!

You, are the one whom the Bible refers to, as Mary Magdalene, and you run into the tomb first, frantically hoping to find that your savior’s body is still intact and lying peacefully on the stone bench inside the tomb!

But as the light breaches the inner chamber, you find something is horribly wrong!

It was you after all, whom Jesus cast out seven demons and freed your life from anguish and torture.

And you have followed the Christ ever since He freed you, faithfully and amidst controversy and gossip about who you are and what you used to be!

And now, after the horrific event that you witnessed, just two days earlier, of watching your Lord and Savior be mutilated and tortured as an innocent man, you are grief stricken to run in and find that His body is no longer lying within the tomb!

HOW CAN THIS BE? WHERE HAVE THEY TAKEN HIM? WHAT MORE CAN THE RELIGIOUS ZEALOTS WANT FROM HIM AFTER HAVING HIM MURDERED, JUST TWO DAYS BEFORE!

You stand there staring into the empty tomb through the hazy morning sunlight that is now piercing inside, as your heart is racked with grief sorrow and confusion about what you see. Suddenly, you are startled by the voice of two men who appear there with you, in bright, dazzling garments.

One of them asks you, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.”

5 And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? 6 He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7 that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.”

And upon hearing his words and the evidence of the now empty tomb, you know that He must have risen!

It’s John’s gospel that records for us a very interesting bit of information about the tomb account, that morning.

John records for us that the burial linens were lying in their place, but the face cloth, which had covered the head of Jesus, was lying neatly folded in its place, by itself.

There is much speculation about why John recorded this detail of the burial lines and how they were found, aside from the other three gospel writers, but many people say that it has to do with an ancient Jewish custom that dealt with how the master of a house would place his napkin on the table upon his departure.

The supposed story says that if the master of the house was leaving the table for good and not returning, then he would wad up his towel and toss it upon the table where he had been sitting, signifying to the servants, that he was done and not returning.

If however, the master was only leaving for a short period of time and was planning on returning to the table, then he would neatly fold the linen and lay at the his place at the table.

Upon seeing the folded napkin at the master’s place at the table, the servants then knew that the master was definitely returning and that he was not yet finished.

Could it be that John was sharing this detail, to show us that Jesus had honored this Jewish custom and folded His face cloth and placed it neatly at the head of the bench, thus signifying that the Master was not finished and was soon returning?!

Be that as it may, all four gospels record the same thing that was found that morning..............the tomb, the grave was empty!

You see, the empty tomb, in and of itself, became a game changer for the religious leaders, as well as the followers of Jesus, in that day and age and for every generation that would come after.

Just as Mary found the grave empty on the third day after the death of Jesus, the grave has been found empty for every believer in Jesus, that has come ever since!

And so, yesterday, as I spoke to the family and friends of Ms Peggy, at her graveside, I made mention of the fact that the grave was empty then, and would forever remain so, because we are not bound to the grave, but have been made victorious over it, by the resurrection of the Christ!

And because He lives, so do we!

To be absent from the body, is to be present with the Lord! Hallelujah!!!!

The empty tomb account is the exclamation point to the writings about Jesus’ life here on earth! And for those of us who call ourselves followers of the Christ, it is the pinnacle of our faith. Without a risen savior, we are just another religion and we are also hopelessly lost for all of eternity.

Without a risen savior, every burial service would be one of hopelessness and despondency!

And without a risen Jesus, all of the ancient prophecies and writings of the Bible, would be just fairy tales and lies.

But, as it stands, the Bible, as well as other extra-Biblical accounts, tell us the exact same thing, that the burial tomb, the grave, was in fact found empty that morning. Jesus had defeated the grave and removed the sting of death for all time!

As the Bible says, “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”

54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”

55 “O death, where is your victory?

But the empty tomb does much more than just declare to you and I that we are free from the pangs of death. It calls us out and separates us from the world. There are many religions and there are many claims to deity in those religions, but Christianity is the only religion that not only claims that its Lord came and died for His people, but it backs it up with an empty grave account to validate and verify the deity of the Christ and to forever silence the lies of ALL other religions! (You’re not talking about a handful of people that claim to have seen the risen savior. No, in fact, Paul tells us that there were over 500 people who saw the risen Christ, many of whom were still alive when he wrote about their testimonies!) Over 500 people witnessed the fact that the grave was found empty and that Jesus had returned!

O death, where is your sting?”

The empty tomb fulfills what Jesus had said that He was about to do, the night of His arrest, when He told His disciples in , that He was going to prepare a place for them and that if He was going to prepare a way for them to enter into His Father’s dwelling place, He would also return, so that He could bring them into it!

The Way into heaven has been made and the empty grave is our guarantee of it! And when we receive the TRUTH of the good news of the gospel message and believe in our hearts that Jesus is the Son of God and that He is our Messiah and we confess with our mouth this TRUTH, then we are changed into a new creature, just as I mentioned last week.

And as the empty tomb screams “NEW LIFE” for all believers, it also declares that you and I are to come out of the world and roll up our sleeves and get busy doing the work of the kingdom of God!

The cross of Calvary reminds us of the great sacrifice that was made for each of us and of how we were bought by the precious blood of Jesus. And thus, the empty tomb reminds us of why we are to spend the rest of our lives serving Him..........because HE LIVES! And because HE LIVES we also will live with Him!

And this guarantee of eternal life is secure for every blood bought saint of Jesus.

But where is our guarantee, how do we know that we have such a secure eternity?

Well, the Bible answers that for us as well. In , Paul tells us this, “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.”

God marked us and labeled us as His own, by placing His seal upon us, which is His Holy Spirit, that He placed within us!

So if you have Holy Spirit living within you, then you are marked and labeled as an ambassador of Jesus the Christ!

Much in the same way as kings of old, used to place their seal in wax upon a letter to show that it was official and that the carrier of that letter walked in the authority of the king whom they represented.

So too, have you and I been sealed with the mark of our creator and we bare His seal as a testimony that we have been bought and are property of heaven and that we carry the full weight and authority of the God of the universe with us. We are ambassadors of Christ!

How many of you can say this morning, with assurance, that you bare the seal of heaven upon you and as such, you are an ambassador of Christ?

If so, then I want you to say it out loud and with boldness, “I AM AN AMBASSADOR OF CHRIST!”

So, since we are His ambassadors here on earth, what does that mean we are to do? Well, what is role of an ambassador? An ambassador is someone who goes out from their homeland and into another foreign land and who walks in the authority of the government which they represent, as they declare their government’s message to the other foreign lands.

OK, so what is the message, then that we are declaring as His ambassadors?

Well, Paul clearly spells that out for us in , where he writes,

2 Corinthians 5:18–20 ESV

18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

We are ambassadors of the kingdom of heaven, bringing the message of reconciliation to a foreign land.........THIS WORLD!

And everywhere that you and I go, we represent our homeland and our King!

As an ambassador, you cannot look like the people of the foreign land in which you walk, but rather, you must in every way, stand out to those around you and look like kingdom that you represent.

Just like in the Olympic games, when all of the nations gather to compete, each team of athletes wears a particular uniform, baring their nation’s colors and flags, so as to stand out, as a representative of that nation!

You and I, as believers, have been called out and set apart, to represent our Lord!

And the hardest thing about coming out of the world and being separate and living as a Christian, is just that coming out and walking away from what we once knew and embraced.

It literally means that many, if not most of us, have to leave behind what has become comfortable and familiar to us and step out in FAITH and never look back!

For many of us and for far too long, we have become accustomed to and comfortable with the status quo. We do things the same way, day after day, week after week month after month, because it is familiar and comfortable and it requires little to no faith on our part!

But that is not who you and I are, if we bare the seal of God on our lives! We are ambassadors of light to a dark world.

We are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that we may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light!

And in doing so, it requires us..........no, it DEMANDS us to come out and walk away from the status quo and engage the task of taking the message of reconciliation to a lost and dying world!

There is a quote that says, “A ship in a harbor is safe, but that’s not what a ship is built for.”

That is so true for you and I, as Christians. We are new creations, built by God as vessels for His glory and yet we feel safe and secure and un-weathered in our little harbors of life, our comfort zones and familiarity!

You and I were not built for safe harbors! We are not little tug boats that put around the harbor towing other little boats back and forth in our safe harbor and all the while calling that our Christian obligation.

We are fighting vessels, we are battle cruisers that are built to be sent out into the most volatile of seas and in every weather, to fight and to overcome any obstacle that comes against us our mission for the Lord God!

Duane Dishman sent me a link to a video yesterday, from a contemporary Christians group, called for King and Country. The name of the song in the video, is called, “Burn the Ships”.

After I watched it and listened to the song, I noticed that there was another follow-up video, which was actually an interview with one of the two lead singers. In this follow-up video, he explains what the song means and why they wrote it.

He explains that there was the story of an explorer, who had been sent out from his home nation, with a great fleet of ships, to explore new lands for their country.

Upon discovering a new land and new mountainous region on that land, the explorer was ready to set out on the adventure of a lifetime and explore this uncharted territory!

The problem was that the other men in the fleet were not so daring or willing to leave the security and the familiarity of their ships. They were afraid of the unknown and the cost that might be incurred.

Even though this is what they had agreed to and signed up for, they were unwilling to step out and do it, now that it was staring them in the face.

So, the captain ordered the men off their boats and onto land, and then he ordered the other leaders to go out and burn the ships, so that there would be no going back to the old and the familiar and the only possible course would be, the new and unfamiliar territory!

The singer of for King and Country related this story to a situation that had occurred in he and his wife’s life and of how they had to burn ships of familiarity and move on with their lives!

There is an account in this Bible, very similar to this story of burning the ships, one in which you will find in taught last week from and the account of Elijah stepping out in faith.

Well, in , we read of the commissioning of the prophet, Elisha, who would take the place of the great Elijah.

In that account, Elijah is told by Yahweh, to go and find Elisha and call him to come and follow Elijah.

Elijah finds Elisha in the field, doing the family business and plowing for crops, with a team of oxen, one of 12 team of oxen.

So, we can see two things here, first of all Elisha was used to the familiar and he was also probably from a family with some money, as they had the 12 team of oxen, that he was overseeing, as well as the workers that would have been out helping him.

Comfortable in the world and familiar with his surroundings. Does that ring any bells with anyone and where you are in your own walk with the Lord right now?

Well, upon Elijah placing his cloak upon Elisha, symbolizing his calling him to follow Elijah, Elisha does something pretty incredible.

He takes the team of oxen that he was using and kills them, take the yokes that harnessing them together and builds a big fire, and cooks the meat of the oxen and serves it to all of the towns people where he lived! Why did he do this?

Because, he was burning the ships! He was destroying anything of his past life and its comforts and familiarity, so that he couldn’t return and thus he would stay the course of serving the Lord God!

It was the same way with the disciples, when Jesus found them and called them to follow Him. They got up and left their lives and the things of familiar behind them and stepped out into a life of faith!

Mention the book, “Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus” and the story of Nabeel Qureshi and of how he came to the truth of the gospel and once he found Jesus and salvation, there was no going back to the familiar and of what he once knew!

Mention of how Robin, in her present situation, as shared in her testimony, has been forced to step out of her comfort zone and into the unfamiliar in her personal life, as well as in her walk with the Lord!