Broadway Christian Church ? Columbia, Missouri

Morning Worship ? March 23, 2008

Easter Sunday

 

 

Prayer of the Day

 

Almighty and Ever-living God, we gather to marvel at the mystery of Christ’s resurrection! On this festive and glorious day, grant us the blessing of your assurance, that we may serve you boldly and courageously, joyfully and gladly, all our days, for Christ is Risen! Amen!

 

 

Scripture

John 20:1-29

 

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

 

So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)

 

Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

 

They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

 

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize it was Jesus.

 

“Woman,” he said, “why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

 

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

 

Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

 

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).

 

Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

 

Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.

 

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

 

Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

 

Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

 

But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.”

 

A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

 

Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

 

Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

 

 

Message

What Happened on Easter Morning and What Difference Does It Make?

Rick Frost

 

Good Morning, again, everyone. We are glad you are here today. The reason I’m glad you’re here today is because, “Christ is risen!”

 

[Congregation:] “He is risen, indeed!”

 

“Christ is risen!”

 

[Congregation:] “He is risen, indeed!”

 

“Christ is risen!

 

[Congregation:] “He is risen, indeed!”

 

You have your part down. That’s good. That’s good.

 

Actually, I have to tell you I feel a little bit like a chicken who decided to lay an egg on I-70. Michael, how does a chicken lay an egg on I-70?

 

[Michael Straw:] Only once.

 

That’s right. This is unrehearsed. You can tell that. You have to lay it on the line, and you have to do it in a hurry. I can get the first part of that.

 

That’s what I want to do today. I want to lay it on the line. Easter is not about anything else other than resurrection. Nothing more; nothing less. That’s why we are here today.

 

George Gallup, of Gallup Polls, did a survey last year of North American adults who never go to church. He asked them one question. That one question is, “Do you believe that Jesus rose from the dead?”

 

Do you know what 84% of those persons said to that question? They said, “Yes.” Eighty-four percent! These are not church folks. This is the typical North American adult who never goes to church. How can that be? What are they thinking? What are we thinking? What are they learning? What are we teaching?

 

That is what I want to talk about today.  What happened on Easter morning? What does the resurrection mean? What difference does it make? What does it matter?

 

Let’s start with question number one. What happened on Easter morning? Now, folks, there are people today who say, “Nothing. Nothing happened on Easter morning. It was just like any other morning. Jesus was crucified. Jesus died, and Jesus was buried. Jesus lived and died and was buried just like you and I die and are buried. End of story.”

 

“Years later,” they say, “however, looking back, early Christians put their heads together and made up or borrowed some other resurrection stories and went around telling people that Jesus was raised from the dead.”

 

Why in the world would they do that? Some people think maybe to give hope to people who are under stress. A false hope, granted, but hope, nevertheless.

 

Let me put it on the line to you. Most of us – two billion people who are going to be celebrating Easter today – believe that Christ, the Son of the Living Lord God was actually bodily raised from the dead by the power of God. Why? Because of two things. The Bible says the followers of Jesus, in that day, experienced two things.

 

They experienced an empty tomb. 

 

John 20:11 says, “Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over, looked inside the tomb, and she saw two angels seated where Jesus’ body had been.

 

“They asked her, ‘Woman, why are you crying?’

 

“She said, ‘They have taken my Lord away, and I don’t know where they have put him.’”

 

An empty tomb.

 

The second reason is the Bible goes on to say Jesus made some appearances after his crucifixion and death. He actually met people. He touched people. He invited other people to touch him. The witness says that he cooked breakfast for some folks. At one time, he talked to about 500 people after he had risen from the dead. 

 

John 20:19 says, “When the disciples were together, and the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.”

 

That’s what happened on Easter morning.

 

“Christ is risen!”

 

[Congregation:] “He is risen, indeed!”

 

“Christ is risen!”

 

[Congregation:] “He is risen, indeed!”

 

Well, if that’s what happened, what does it mean? It means lots of things. I’m going to give you three today.

 

Number One: Jesus is who he claimed to be.

 

John 11:25 remembers Jesus saying to his followers, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me will live, even though they die.”

 

Then he goes on to claim, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. There is no other, and the reason is I and the Father are one” (John 14:6).

 

We’re going to talk a little bit more about that in just a few minutes. Jesus is not just a great teacher, as many people see. He’s not just a good person who sacrificed himself for the sake of others. The Bible says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

 

That Word was Jesus.

 

“In him was life, and that life was the light of all human beings. That light shines in the dark places, and the darkness has never ever overcome it.”

 

“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And his name is Jesus.”

 

He is who he claims to be.

 

“Christ is risen!”

 

[Congregation:] “He is risen, indeed!”

 

Number Two: Christ has the power that he claimed to have.

 

He said, “All power in heaven and on earth is given to me” (Matthew 28:18).

 

Because he and God were the same. They were one. He could do anything God could do, yet as a fully human being who stood up to the powers that be in his day. He told them where they were wrong, when they were wrong. He called them to account, just as we are supposed to do the same thing today. You know what happened.

 

The Romans crucified him, a torture that was reserved for political prisoners and for murderers. When he was dead, they put him in a tomb and posted a 24-hour guard in an effort to prevent the inevitable. But he said later, “No one takes my life from me. I have the power to lay it down, and I also have the power to take it up again” (John 10:18).

 

The resurrection means that Jesus Christ has the power that he claimed he had.

 

“Christ is risen!”

 

[Congregation:] “He is risen, indeed!”

 

Number Three: Jesus does what he promises to do.

 

In Mark 10:34, Jesus says, “They will mock… flog… and kill me; but after three days I will come back to life.”

 

According to the Scriptures, three days later that’s what happened.

 

Matthew 28: 5 says, “The angel at the empty tomb says to Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, ‘I know that you are looking for Jesus. He is not here. He has risen, just as he said he would.’”

 

Circle “just as he said he would.”

 

Folks, when God makes a promise, whatever that promise might be, you can count on it, because…

 

“Christ is risen!”

 

[Congregation:] “He is risen, indeed!”

 

“Christ is risen!”

 

[Congregation:] “He is risen, indeed!”

 

So, if that is what resurrection means, what difference does it make? What difference does it make in your life? What difference does it make in my life? What difference does it make to this world we live in? It means lots of things, and I’m going to name three of them for you today.

 

If you were with us a few Sunday’s ago, when we shared the wonderful experience and gift of baptism, you will already know some of these. 

 

The resurrection of the Christ of God matters, folks, because our past can be forgiven. 

 

Have you ever been part-way through a project and wish you could start over? My wife doesn’t let me do any home improvements for just that reason. 

 

What I want you to know is there are a lot of people in this world who feel exactly the same way about their life. They wish they could start over. They’ve done some things, quite frankly, they shouldn’t have done. They’ve left undone some things that they know darn good and well that they should have done. They have regrets. They feel stuck. Some people are literally on the verge of collapse, because there are some things going on in their lives that are very, very wrong. Some people feel that because of what has happened in the past, they are going to spending the rest of their lives sitting in the penalty box. That’s bad news. That’s bad news for a lot of folks. They can’t get on with their life in the present and in the future, because they are stuck somewhere back in the past. Do you know anybody like that? I do. They are running around with all kinds of emotional baggage, wondering why in the world their lives are not working for them today.

 

Colossians 2:13-14 says, “He has forgiven all of our sins, and canceled every record of the debt that we owed. He has done away with it by nailing it to the cross.”

 

Folks, the crucifixion is the event of God in Christ, the Creator of all that is, loving us so much that God emptied God’s own self fully and completely and took on the sins, the wounds of this world, including yours, and including mine. Why? In order, according to Scripture, to set us free from the weight, from the shame, from the scandal. Not only for today. Not only for tomorrow. But forever. 

 

Jesus nailed my sins to the cross so that I could stop nailing myself to the cross. I could not only stop doing that, but I could receive the gift of new life that he actually wants to give me.

 

Romans 8:1 says, “There is no condemnation awaiting those who belong to Christ.”

 

He didn’t come to rub it in, folks. He came to rub it out.

 

“Christ is risen!”

 

[Congregation:] “He is risen, indeed!”

 

“Christ is risen!”

 

[Congregation:] “He is risen, indeed!”

 

Our past can be forgiven.

 

Our present can be sacred. It isn’t automatic. It isn’t a given, but it can be. When I use the word sacred, I define it as this, “That which is connected with God.” That’s what sacred means for me. When we are connected with God, our present today can be sacred.

 

Have you ever noticed how a lot of life is unmanageable? Does anybody else besides me recognize that? Is anybody here a parent? Anybody here ever been a parent? OK.

 

Charlie Shedd. Anybody ever heard of that name? He was an author who, for years, wrote wonderful books about parenting as a Christian. He tells this wonderful story on himself. Maybe you heard it. He said, “Before my wife and I had children, I used to travel around the country and gave my favorite lecture of all times. I entitled it, ‘The Ten Commandments of Raising Perfect Kids.’ After our first was born, I change it to, ‘Ten Hints for Parents.’ After the second one was born, I relabeled it, ‘A Few Tentative Suggestions for Fellow Struggles.’ Then when our third child was born, I gave up speaking on the topic altogether.”

 

Jan and I have our third child here with us this morning, and my lips are sealed.

 

Someone once said, “Maturity is when you figure out you don’t have it all figured out.” It is when you know you can’t manage all that life is going to send your way. You know that you can’t, but people of faith know that God can. That’s huge.

 

So, what we want to do, I think, is try to connect. We want to connect intentionally, to hook up with the Spirit of the Living God. Ask that Spirit for God’s help. Receive what God wants to offer us, and then do it.

 

How many times have you heard it? I’ve heard it a thousand times: “I feel so powerless. I feel so powerless to change the situation. I feel so powerless to break this habit. I feel so powerless to get out of debt. I feel so powerless in these relationships. I feel so powerless to stop the war. I feel so powerless to deal with all the things that are wrong in the world but need to be made right.”

 

Folks, you were never meant to live this life on your own power. What you need is a power that is greater than yourselves.

 

Ephesians 1:20 says, “How incredibly great is his power to help those who believe in him… the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead.”

 

I don’t know what’s going to happen next year. I’ve been thinking a lot about that. I have no idea. I don’t know what’s going to happen next month. I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. Neither do you, quite frankly.

 

What I want you to hear today is it doesn’t really matter. Because whatever it is, if you are a person of faith, God is going to give you what you need and the power you need to face it. God is going to help you deal with whatever that is, if you are willing to receive what God is willing to give.

 

Philippians 4:13 says, “I am ready for anything through the strength of Christ who lives in me.”

 

The same power that God used to resurrect Jesus from the grave can be used in your life and my life right now to do the good thing, the right thing, the loving thing in any circumstance.

 

“Christ is risen!”

 

[Congregation:] “He is risen, indeed!”

 

Now, if that is so, why in the world does it matter? The past can be forgiven. Our present can be sacred.

 

Our future can be secure.

 

There is a great universal equalizer that we’re all going to face in the future. It’s called dying. Someday you’re going to die. Someday I’m going to die. Only a fool, I think, would go through this life unprepared for something that you know is inevitable. But what is amazing to me is the number of people who are not only not prepared, but they don’t even want to talk about it.

 

If you don’t believe that, just invite some friends over for dinner tonight. Then say, “Let’s talk about death.”

 

P-s-s-s-s-s-s-e-w!  That will get a conversation really going. Let me tell you.

 

But it’s going to happen. So, let’s talk about it. The fact is everybody has a deep internal longing to know what’s going to happen after I die. I believe this. 

 

Seventy-million of us baby-boomers are all of a sudden very interested in the hereafter. For about 40 years, we weren’t. But we are now. More people, today, believe in the reality of heaven and hell than ever before in American history. Did you know that? It’s not just people in their 60s, 70s, and 80s. Everybody wants to know.

 

The sad part is there are a lot of misconceptions about that. Most of them come from the movies, quite frankly. They are movies that are sometimes well done. They’re funny; they’re touching. They get our attention, but their theology, their information, their knowledge is awful. Movies like Heaven Can Wait. George Burns in Oh God. I mean, I just laughed myself silly. A terrible movie, but funny. All Dogs Go to Heaven. Five People That You Are Going to Meet in Heaven. They are all generated from Hollywood’s own theology, and every single one of them has their own agenda. Believe me.

 

What I want you to hear is, today, over two-billion people are going to gather somewhere on this planet, and even though we have been very carefully trained not to ask, we still, in our heart of hearts, want to know, “What’s it really going to be like?”

 

So, for the next few minutes, since this is probably my last Easter to do this for you, I am going to share something of what I believe the Judeo-Christian biblical faith teaches us about heaven. Why? Because…

 

“Christ is risen!”

 

[Congregation:] “He is risen, indeed!”

 

“Christ is risen!”

 

[Congregation:] “He is risen, indeed!”

 

Folks, the truth is one day you and I and every creature that bears God’s image is going to stand before the Creator of all that is who loves us deeply and dearly like a parent loves a child, but also says is just. God is one who will not be mocked and will not be fooled with. The Scriptures assure us of this.

 

You and I have been very carefully taught that we are in charge of creation here. We make the rules, and we live as we choose. What I want you to hear today is heaven is the Creator’s realm and not the creatures’. 

 

In that realm, the Creator rules. It is a rule and a realm of perfection. It is where God’s ultimate will is, in fact, realized. It’s a realm of total love, total peace, and total joy. There is no sin, no evil, no violence, no abuse. There is no conflict, no betrayal, no suffering. It is perfect. It is a realm exactly the way the Creator designed it and intended it.

 

Now, in order for you or anyone else in creation to participate in that, we have to be perfect. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said as he was instructing his followers about doing the hardest thing we know, which is to love our enemies, in the very next sentence he says, “Be you perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

 

According to Scripture, there are basically two ways you can achieve perfection. First there is Plan A. Plan A is the performance plan. In the performance plan, you take the Ten Commandments, and the Sermon on the Mount, and you go about living a perfect life your entire life. You never sin. You never mess up. You never make a mistake. You never do anything wrong. You always do the good thing, the right thing, the loving thing. You always make the right decisions. In short, you live a perfect life. Now, for all of you who have that down, you don’t need to stick around for the rest of this. The coffee is out in the fellowship hall. Have at it.

 

But for the rest of us, who don’t qualify for Plan A, quite frankly, God has come up, in God’s wonderful mercy and grace, with something called Plan B. Plan B is this very simply. You establish a relationship with Jesus Christ, which means you come to know him personally and intimately. Yes. But more than that, you come to trust him. You come to follow him. You hear him and believe him when he says, “I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. I’m not only here to show you what God is like, I am here to lead you to life now in all of its fullness and life eternal,” because…

 

 “Christ is risen!”

 

[Congregation:] “He is risen, indeed!”

 

John 17:3 says, “Now this is eternal life: that the people may know God, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom God has sent.”

 

Folks, a Christian is not somebody who accepts a religion. You all know that. Don’t you? A Christian is somebody who has a relationship with God through Christ, who accepts him, follows him, obeys him, and serves him as Lord and Savior.

 

Now, what I’ve learned is something you all know. That is, a lot of folks out there have tried all kinds of ways around that – ways to get into eternity by some other method and means. I don’t know where they get that. My guess is it gets made up somewhere along the line. Hollywood does a pretty good job of it. 

 

Some of my favorite ones are these. Some people try to reach heaven by, what I call, salvation by sincerity. Do you know that one? That’s the one that goes like this: “It really doesn’t matter what anybody believes as long as they are sincere in their heart. That’s what really matters – their sincerity.” I heard about a pilot, the other day, that flew his plane into the side of a mountain, because he sincerely believed that mountain was lower than it was. You know what? He was sincerely wrong.

 

Some folks believe they can get to heaven by serving other people. They are just nice people. They’re kind. They’re good. They’ll give their shirt off their back to another person. They help people in need. If you can think of anybody who really deserves to be in heaven with God, it would certainly be such a good person. Don’t you think? But Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, “Many are going to call out my name, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and I am going to tell them very plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me” (Matthew 7).

 

 Service, folks, “ain’t gonna” get it done.

 

Some others say, “I belong to this religion, or I belong to this church. I’ve been there for a long time.” Since when does joining a church make you a Christian? People join the Lions Club. Does that make them a lion? People say, “I was born in the church. I was brought up in the church. I was brought here in the first four days of my life.” If you were born in a car, does that make you a car? Use your head. Just think it through a little bit.

 

My favorite one is this: salvation by comparison. “I know 90% of those people in your church, and they’re all hypocrites. I’m a better person than they are.” This is what I want to say to those people: “You probably are. In fact, I’m pretty sure you are better than I am.” But what I want you to hear is participation in heaven is not graded on the curve. It’s either perfection or zip – 100% or Plan B.

 

Believing that Christ rose from the dead, like 84% of the North American adults who never go to church need to hear that is not enough. I’m asking you to work Plan B into your life. Ask the Spirit of the Living Christ into your heart. Establish that relationship. Follow him. Trust him.

 

First Peter 1:3 says it well, “In God’s great mercy, God has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

 

Circle “a living hope.”

 

“Christ is risen!”

 

[Congregation:] “He is risen, indeed!”

 

There’s more to be said. I’d love to lay it on the line, but there’s a truck coming. We’re out of time today. I’m going to have to move on, but what I want you to hear is that I believe the Spirit of the Living God invited you and encouraged you to be here today. I don’t think anyone has walked into this sanctuary by accident. I think the Lord really wanted to bring you here, and sit you down, and ask you to listen for 18 whole minutes to something that is pretty hard to get somebody to sit and to listen to 18 minutes about. 

 

I think what God wants to say to you, “Every single one of you matter to me. I know absolutely everything about you. I knit you together in your mother’s womb. Do you remember that? And now, what I want from you is that you learn about me. I want you to get to know me better, because, friend, absolutely nobody in this life is ever going to love you as much as I do.” 

 

So, what I am going to ask you to do is come with me and just open your heart. Let’s pray together for just a couple of minutes. Let’s do that.

 

Lord, I’m here today, and I’ve heard a lot about how much you love me. I’ve heard a lot about Easter and resurrection. I’ve heard a lot about how much you want me to get to know you, not just today, but forever. Lord, I don’t understand this incredible mystery, but I’m here to say I want to take another step. Help me get it in gear. Help me to use my mind, and my heart, and my spirit. Help me to quit playing games and put first things first. Thank you for my past that is forgiven, for my present that is sacred, for my future that is secure in you. This I humbly yet boldly ask in the name of Jesus…

 

And we all say together… “Amen.”

 

 

Benediction

 

You are. You can. You promise. You do. You live. It’s all about you! Thank you! Amen.