Easter Worship April 2006
The resurrection of Jesus is the foundation of Christianity Paul writes in I Corinthians 15:17, "AND IF CHRIST HAS NOT BEEN RAISED, YOUR FAITH IS FUTILE AND YOU ARE STILL IN YOUR SINS..."
Resurrection is so essential it has been attacked from the very beginning by Christ’s enemies, we read in Matthew [28:11-15]. Read Charles Colson, "THERE WERE ONLY 8 OR 10 OF US IN THE INNER CIRCLE AROUND THE PRESIDENT WHO REALLY KNEW WHAT WAS GOING ON." HE SAID, "ALL WE HAD TO DO WAS STONEWALL FOR A COUPLE OF MONTHS AND THE WATERGATE SCANDAL WOULD BE OVER. WE HAD ALL THE POWER AND PRESTIGE OF THE PRESIDENCY AT OUR FINGERTIPS. AND IF THE TRUTH BROKE THERE WOULD BE EMBARRASSMENT AND PERHAPS A PRISON SENTENCE. THERE WAS NO GRAVE DANGER. OUR LIVES WERE NOT THREATENED, BUT WE COULD NOT HOLD THE CONSPIRACY TOGETHER FOR MORE THAN 2 WEEKS. WE COULD NOT CONTAIN THE LIE. ONCE PROSECUTION WAS POSSIBLE THE NATURAL INSTINCTS OF SELF PRESERVATION WAS SO OVERWHELMING THAT THE CONSPIRATORS ONE BY ONE DESERTED THEIR LEADERS.
THEY CAVED IN AND THEY STOOD IN LINE AT THE PROSECUTORS OFFICE TO ESCAPE JAIL."
COLSON CONCLUDES, " I KNOW THAT THE DISCIPLES COULD NOT PERPETUATE A LIE LIKE THE RESURRECTION, BECAUSE IT WAS NOT JUST THEIR REPUTATIONS THAT WERE AT STAKE, THEIR LIVES WERE IN DANGER. THEY HAD NO CLOUT, THEY HAD NOTHING TO GAIN BY THE LIE AND YET EVERYONE OF THEM STOOD FAST IN THE CONVICTION THAT JESUS IS ALIVE. TAKE IT FROM ONE WHO SAW FIRST HAND HOW VULNERABLE A COVER UP IS: NOTHING LESS THAN A WITNESS AS AWESOME AS THE RESURRECTED CHRIST COULD HAVE CAUSED THOSE MEN TO MAINTAIN TO THEIR DYING WHISPERS THAT JESUS IS ALIVE AND HE IS LORD!" (AS EACH APOSTLE EXCEPT JOHN DIED A MARTYRS DEATH).
n The Christian Church
n Worship from Sat to Sunday
n The eye witness testimonies of the resurrection (500+)
n The inability of anyone in the first century to produce the body of Jesus, which would have quenched the fire of this movement...
Have you ever been taken in? Feeling the pressure to do something or buy something? Then after you gave in…you feel regret? Some feel that after they buy a high ticket item, like a car…they feel buyer’s regret. We are all bombarded with sales pitches that come to us via the mail in person and of course through…the phone!
On this bright Easter morning make no mistake the Apostle Paul is saying…if Jesus didn’t bodily come out of that grave 2000 yrs ago, you have been duped, you have handed over your credit card…your on the hook! You my friend have been swindled! Your week by week journey to the well appointed brick building with a steeple on top has been a colossal waste of time!
If the resurrection did not take place then the faith you have is groundless!
If Christ has not been raised, every preacher, teacher, missionary… in the world is - willfully or ignorantly - perpetrating a hoax, and misleading people to trust in a delusion, not simply with respect to the resurrection as a fact of history, but with regard to the gospel that depends on it.
The faith of your grandparents and parents uncle’s aunts is just so much wishful thinking, if Christ has not been raised!
That is…if Jesus is still in a Jerusalem grave.
And were still in our sins! 16For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.
This spells out the implication of what I have already said.
If Christ has not been raised, then every person who has trusted in Christ for the forgiveness of sins and, on the basis of faith in Christ, has been assured that his sins are forgiven, is in fact miserably deluded - "you are still in your sins".
No resurrection - no salvation!
Resurrection Skeptic
”Hank Hanegraff who heads up CRI (Christian Research Inst.) wrote this: “The Resurrection is not merely important to the historic Christian faith —without it there would be no Christianity. It elevates Christianity above all other world religions. Through the Resurrection Christ demonstrated that He does not stand in a line of peers with Abraham, Buddha, Confucius, or Muhammad. Jesus Christ is utterly unique. He had the power not only to lay down His life, but also to take it up again.”
No other conclusion: Jesus Christ is Alive!
"SO THE WOMEN HURRIED AWAY FROM THE TOMB AFRAID, YET FILLED WITH JOY AND RAN TO TELL THE DISCIPLES.."
Once they found that the tomb was empty - Once they believed that Jesus had risen from the dead, these women were on a direct path that would ultimately led them to meet the risen Lord...
And as they were running down the road back to Jerusalem -- suddenly Jesus appeared to them -- and they fell down and clasped His feet and they worshipped Him....
The love and devotion that these women showed to Jesus while he hung on the cross and as they arose early to tend to His body was greatly rewarded...
And the women arose form worshipping the Lord, and went into town to tell the others...
II. THE EMPTY TOMB MEANS THAT THERE IS FORGIVENESS
And if anyone ever needed a dose of hope, if anyone ever needed to know that what Jesus said was true, it was a distraught, guilt ridden, sun weary fishermen named Peter....
Peter was in the lead, but then he begin to think to himself --
"WHY AM I SO HAPPY, I DENIED HIM, I TALKED SO BIG AND TOUGH, BUT WHEN IT CAME TIME TO TAKE A STAND, I FELL... MAYBE JESUS DOESN’T WANT TO SEE ME, I HAVE NO RIGHT TO TAKE PART IN THIS CELEBRATION... PETER THE ROCK, YEAH FAT CHANCE.."
And somewhere, but we don’t know where, maybe on the shoreline overlooking the Jordan, But the important thing is not where it happened, but that it did happen.... Paul even makes a point of telling is in I Corinthians 15, that Jesus appeared to Peter and then to the 12."
Read: I Corinthian 15:3-8!
I picture Peter alone, sitting with his head down... Peter like many of us, had set such high standards for himself, "EVEN THOUGH EVERYONE ELSE MAY LEAVE YOU JESUS, NOT ME -- I’LL NEVER DO THAT, YOU CAN COUNT ON ME..." Peter had set high standards for himself, standards that he could never have lived up to -- he was just a man.... And because he couldn’t forgive himself, he couldn’t believe that Jesus could forgive him either... "Not after what I have done... I went too far... I don’t deserve your forgiveness Jesus. While you were being beaten, crucified I denied I ever knew you.... I was only thinking of myself and not you..."
"IT’S ALL RIGHT PETER, IT’S ALRIGHT, I KNOW, I KNOW, IT’S ALRIGHT NOW, I FORGIVE YOU PETER, PETER I FORGIVE YOU.."
n The empty tomb means there is forgiveness....
n The empty tomb means that our sins can be washed away......
n The empty tomb means that Jesus Christ has won the battle over death sin and the grave..... That is what the gospel is the good news of the forgiveness of sin....
The lamb of God has come -
"He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace was upon him and by his wounds we are healed.." Is 53:5
Healed from what? The eternal punishment for our sins....
Who needs this forgiveness? That can only come about through the blood of Christ -- We all do!
"FOR EACH OF US HAS SINNED AND FALLEN SHORT OF WHAT GOD EXPECTS OF US..."
How do we get this forgiveness?
Well let’s listen to the words of the distraught fisher men turned dynamic disciple, let’s listen to Peter,
Peter told those in Jerusalem as we read in Acts chapter 2, Acts 2:37-41!!!!
Have you done this?
Have you been to Jesus for His cleansing power? Are you washed in the blood of the lamb?
What about Christians? Do we ever need God’s forgiveness? Do we ever need to be reminded of Christ’s cleansing power?
Do we ever fall short? Do we ever sin against God? Do we ever feel that we have gone to far and that Christ won’t forgive us this time?
Well let’s listen to another person who saw that empty tomb that first Easter Sunday, and who is also fully convinced of its power.
Read: I John 1:7-9!!
The word confess means literally "to say the same thing." We are to agree with God and acknowledge to Him that what we did was sin...
THE EMPTY TOMB MEANS JESUS IS ALIVE! WHAT JESUS SAID IS TRUE!!
AND IT MEANS THAT THERE IS FORGIVENESS -- IT MEANS GOD’S GRACE IS GREATER THEN OUR SIN, IT MEANS 3 STRIKES AND WE ARE NOT OUT -- THAT IS IF WE REALLY WANT TO STILL BE IN!
III. THE EMPTY TOMB ALSO MEANS THAT WE CAN HAVE A NEW LIFE
Jesus died to give us new life. When the apostles were in jail in Jerusalem --an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and told them, "GO STAND IN THE TEMPLE COURTS AND TELL THE PEOPLE THE FULL MESSAGE OF THIS NEW LIFE..."
Illus.: “Drink His Water and Live!”
A preacher was speaking on the subject, “Jesus, the Water of Life.” A Moslem interrupted him and said, “Your religion is like this little stream of water, but Islam is like a great ocean!” “Yes,” said the preacher, “but there is this difference: when men drink ocean water they die! But when they drink the water of life which Christ gives they live forever!”
What is this new life? Why is it new and what is it about?
I want to talk briefly about the benefits of this new life... and I am convinced that the reason we as Christians so many times are joyless in our lives is because -- we have not yet grasp the extreme benefits of this new life...
Once again let’s let our fishermen, I Peter 1:3-5 Read
A LIVING HOPE -- THE HOPE OF THE NEW LIFE IS LIVING -- NOT LIKE THE HOPES OF THIS LIFE WHICH DISAPPOINT AND DIE.
It looked like saturday morning TV time at the Van Pelt household. Lucy and Linus were sitting in front of the television set when Lucy says to Linus, "Go get me a glass of water."
Linus looked surprised, "Why should I do anything for you? You never do anything for me."
"On you 75th birthday," Lucy promised, "I’ll bake you a cake."
Linus got up, headed to the kitchen and said, "Life is more pleasant when you have something to look forward to."
Linus is right life is more pleasant with hope. Unbelievable as it might seem, it is possible to live 70 days without food. It is also possible to exist for nearly 10 days without water. And one can live up to 6 minutes without air. But there is one thing impossible to live without hope.
The empty tomb means that there is hope!
There is more to this life, than this life!
It the midst of life’s rain we know that the sun will shine again...
AN INHERITANCE (HAVE YOU EVER DREAMED ABOUT SOME RICH LONG LOST RELATIVE DYING AND LEAVING YOU GREAT RICHES AS AN INHERITANCE)
WE ALREADY HAVE A RICH INHERITANCE ONE THAT:
WILL NEVER: PERISH/SPOIL OR FADE AND THAT IS KEPT IN HEAVEN FOR US.
AN INEXPRESSIBLE JOY -- A JOY THAT WORDS CAN’T DESCRIBE....BECAUSE OF JESUS.
I Peter 1:8 “…you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.”
MAYBE WHEN YOU GOT UP THIS MORNING, LIKE THE 2 MARYS YOU WERE JUST GOING THROUGH THE MOTIONS OF LIVING... DARK SHADOWS MARKED YOUR PATH, LITTLE PASSION AND LESS HOPE.... YOU DON’T HAVE TO GO HOME THE SAME WAY --- THE STONE IS ROLLED AWAY...
THE TOMB IS STILL EMPTY!!. WE CAN HAVE ETERNAL LIFE, JOY, PEACE THAT PASSES UNDERSTANDING AND A LIVING HOPE THAT WILL NEVER FADE OR DIM.
LOOK INTO THE TOMB AND HEAD DOWN THE PATH THAT LEADS TO JESUS.
THE EMPTY TOMB ALSO MEANS THAT WE CAN HAVE FORGIVENESS FROM OUR SINS... WE GET A SECOND CHANCE IF WE WANT ONE...
DO YOU NEED ONE? DO YOU WANT ONE? THEN HUMBLY FALL AT THE FEET OF THE GREAT FORGIVER.
CHRISTIANS AND NON CHRISTIANS DON’T LET ANOTHER EASTER COME AND GO, W/O LOOKING INTO THE TOMB, SEEING JESUS, BEHOLDING THE LAMB, FINDING FORGIVENESS AND TAKING HOLD OF THE NEW LIFE THAT JESUS HAS CALLED US (YOU) TO LIVE...
He is the One who breathes new life into one who has grown cold toward God. He is the One who can take dry bones and make them live again.
God wants us to give Him our best. It will take all the energy and vitality that we possess. We must come alive to Him!
Many Christians today are dead (dormant) to :
Opportunities·
Power that’s· available to them
Responsibilities·
Holy living·
Romans 6:11 (LB): “So look upon your old sin nature as dead and unresponsive to sin, and instead be alive to God, alert to Him, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
