Date: April 24th, 2011
Speaker: Pastor Kevin Snyder
Title: A Time for Resurrection
Introduction
Acts 3:15 – 15 You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. And we are witnesses of this fact!
Acts 4:2 - These leaders were very disturbed that Peter and John were teaching the people that through Jesus there is a resurrection of the dead.
Acts 4:10 - Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene,?*? the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead.
Acts 4:33 -The apostles testified powerfully to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God’s great blessing was upon them all.
The core of the apostle’s message was the death & the resurrection of Jesus.
That message changed everything.
- It was the beginning of a new day.
- It was a day that reversed the flow of life.
- It was a day that injected hope into their darkened hearts.
- It was a day of victory.
The resurrection of Jesus changed everything for the disciples.
Let’s reflect on what it means to us.
1. Easter is a day of newness.
One of the traditions of a generation ago, and maybe still exists in your family, was to dress up and wear something new for Easter. It the day to wear something new and often it was something white.
The idea wasn’t to show off ,but it was a way of entering into the drama of Easter. It was “new day”. And, the primary way to celebrate was with new clothing.
I’m not sure exactly where that practice was rooted but perhaps it is the Scriptures found in Zecharaiah 3 & Rev 3:4 – 5.
Zecharaiah 3:3-5
3 Jeshua’s clothing was filthy as he stood there before the angel. 4 So the angel said to the others standing there, “Take off his filthy clothes.” And turning to Jeshua he said, “See, I have taken away your sins, and now I am giving you these fine new clothes.”
5 Then I said, “They should also place a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean priestly turban on his head and dressed him in new clothes while the angel of the Lord stood by.
Rev 3: 4 -5
“Yet there are some in the church in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes with evil. They will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. 5 All who are victorious will be clothed in white. I will never erase their names from the Book of Life, but I will announce before my Father and his angels that they are mine.
The color white got connected to Easter for it is the color of new, clean, set apart.
Easter is “new” day.
The resurrection proclaims a new day…a new start…a new beginning…a new direction…a new birth. It is the springtime of the soul.
2. Easter is a day of Reversal
One of the plagues we encounter around us is the plague of pessimism, negativism, & determinism.
The mindset that says: “things will follow their natural course”.
- Fate rules. Nothing can or will change.
- Murphy’s laws will reign.
- Sickness will lead to death.
- Death cannot be reversed.
- Circumstances can’t be changed.
- Problems can’t be solved.
- Obstacles will block your path and can’t be overcome.
- Hearts can’t be changed.
- Relationships can’t be restored.
- Circumstances can’t be changed.
i.e.
Often feel like you are in a car with no reverse gear. Stuck only going in one direction.
BUT, Easter introduces a grand reversal.
- Tombstones are rolled away.
- Darkness gives way to light.
- Weeping gives way to joy.
- Despair is injected with hope.
- Death is reversed with life.
- Ends become new beginnings.
As one man says:
Easter turns impediments into instruments;
Obstacles into opportunities,
Problems into possibilities
And Calvary’s into Easter mornings.
Easter proclaims a great reversal in life.
Murphy’s Laws do not rule.
Pessimism is not a true perspective of reality.
Things can be changed.
- Dead churches can find life because they serve a God of the resurrection.
- Dead marriages can find life because God breaks out of tombs.
- Hopeless situations find hope because Friday’s are replaced with Sunday mornings.
Easter is a day of supernatural reversals.
3. Easter is a day of Hope.
In Luke 11 we read about the resurrection of Lazarus.
In this account we hear this conversation between Jesus & Martha:
Luke 11: 20 - 26
When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary stayed in the house. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.”
23 Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.”
24 “Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.”
25 Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life.?*? Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. 26 Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?”
Into this grieving, hopeless heart Jesus breathes hope. Hope of resurrection. One day we will be reunited with those who believe.
i.e.
Clarence
It was the story of Clarence. A young man who died suddenly and tragically in an accident. It was a an Afro-American church. The Afro- American pastor spent about 15 minutes expounding on the hope of resurrection and then went down and comforted the family. Then he did an unusual thing.
He went over to the casket and spoke to the dead body. He said “Clarence, Clarence, There were a lot of things we should have said to you when you were alive that we never got around to saying to you. And I want to say them now.” With that, he began a litany of stories and praiseworthy characteristics about his life....
And after he concluded by saying,“Well Clarence, that’s it. I’ve got nothing else to say except this: Goodnight, Clarence. Goodnight. “
And then slammed down the lid of the casket, and turned to the congregation and with a smile lighting up his whole face he said: “And I know that God is going to give you a good morning!”
A celebration of victory erupted in the face of death as the choir stood and sang, ”On that great gettin up morning, we shall rise, we shall rise.!”
Easter fills our lives with hope.
We do not grieve as those who have no hope.
The grave is not the end…but the doorway to life eternal.
4. Easter is a day of victory.
From a great chess player of Cincinnati, we learn that in the early part of the last century an artist who was also a great chess player painted a picture of a chess game. The players were a young man and Satan. The young man manipulated the white pieces; Satan the black pieces. The issue of the game was this: should the young man win, he was to be forever free from the power of evil; should the devil win, the young man was to be his slave forever. The artist evidently believed in the supreme power of evil, for his picture presented the devil as victor.
In the conception of the artist, the devil had just moved his queen and had announced a checkmate in four moves. The young man’s hand hovered over his rook; his face paled with amazement—there was no hope. The devil wins! He was to be a slave forever.
For years, this picture hung in a great art gallery. Chess players from all over the world viewed the picture. They acquiesced in the thought of the artist. The devil wins! After several years a chess doubter arose; he studied the picture and became convinced that there was but one chess player upon the earth who could give him assurance that the artist of this picture was right in his conception of the winner. The chess player was the aged Paul Morphy, a resident of New Orleans, Louisiana. Morphy was a supreme master of chess in his day, an undefeated champion. A scheme was arranged through which Morphy was brought to Cincinnati to view the chess picture.
Morphy stood before the picture, five minutes, ten minutes, twenty minutes, thirty minutes. He was all concentration; he lifted and lowered his hands as, in imagination, he made and eliminated moves. Suddenly, his hand paused, his eyes burned with the vision of an unthought-of combination. Suddenly, he shouted, “Young man, make that move. That’s the move!”
To the amazement of all, the old master, the supreme chess personality, has discovered a combination that the creating artist had not considered. The young man defeated the Devil.
You see, that is the picture of Easter. From our human point of view, the death of Christ looks like “checkmate.” It looks like the Devil wins.
- Sin cannot be defeated.
- Evil rules the day.
- The world and it’s power cannot be overcome.
- Jesus is dead & buried. The disciples are locked behind closed doors. All hope is lost. Grief and sorrow reign.
- The disciples are contemplating going back fishing.
But the resurrection changes all that. The resurrection confirms the victory Jesus won on the cross.
I Cor 15:51 -57
But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! 52 It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed. 53 For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.
54 Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die,?*? this Scripture will be fulfilled:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.?*?
55 O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting??*?”
56 For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. 57 But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.
It proclaims that sin’s grip is broken
It declares that world can be overcome
That’s the truth that arises out of the resurrection.
“Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.”
Conclusion
Today as we contemplate the message of the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
a. My prayer is that newness might flow into your soul.
You will put on some new clothes….your past doesn’t have to determine your future. You can begin anew today. Through faith you can bury your sin in the grave with Christ….you can be raised anew.
2 Cor. 5:17 –(The Message)
Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins.
b. My prayer is that you might find encouragement in the Great Reversal.
Life is not doomed to fate, to inevitable conclusions.
God can breathe life into your hopeless situation.
- He is the God of the resurrection.
- He can turn your impediments into instruments, your obstacles into opportunities, your Calvary’s into Easter mornings.
c. My prayer is that you will be renewed in HOPE.
Colin Chapman, in The Case for Christianity, quotes Ugandan bishop Festo Kivengere's account of the 1973 execution by firing squad of three men from his diocese: February 10 began as a sad day for us in Kabale. People were commanded to come to the stadium and witness the execution. Death permeated the atmosphere. A silent crowd of about three thousand was there to watch. I had permission from the authorities to speak to the men before they died, and two of my fellow ministers were with me. They brought the men in a truck and unloaded them. They were handcuffed and their feet were chained. The firing squad stood at attention.
As we walked into the center of the stadium, I was wondering what to say. How do you give the gospel to doomed men who are probably seething with rage? We approached them from behind, and as they turned to look at us, what a sight! Their faces were all alight with an unmistakable glow and radiance.
Before we could say anything, one of them burst out: "Bishop, thank you for coming! I wanted to tell you. The day I was arrested, in my prison cell, I asked the Lord Jesus to come into my heart. He came in and forgave me all my sins! Heaven is now open, and there is nothing between me and my God! Please tell my wife and children that I am going to be with Jesus. Ask them to accept him into their lives as I did."
The other two men told similar stories, excitedly raising their hands, which rattled their handcuffs. I felt that what I needed to do was to talk to the soldiers, not to the condemned. So I translated what the men had said into a language the soldiers understood. The military men were standing there with guns cocked and bewilderment on their faces. They were so dumbfounded that they forgot to put the hoods over the men's faces!
The three faced the firing squad standing close together. They looked toward the people and began to wave, handcuffs and all. The people waved back. Then shots were fired, and the three were with Jesus. We stood in front of them, our own hearts throbbing with joy, mingled with tears. It was a day never to be forgotten. Though dead, the men spoke loudly to all of Kigezi District and beyond, so that there was an upsurge of life in Christ, which challenges death and defeats it. The next Sunday, I was preaching to a huge crowd in the home town of one of the executed men. Again, the feel of death was over the congregation. But when I gave them the testimony of their man, and how he died, there erupted a great song of praise to Jesus! Many turned to the Lord there.
d. My prayer is that you will Hitch your wagon to a new train…caught up in the victory of Christ.
The Apostle Paul pictures Jesus as a conquering general who leads us in his triumphal procession. We are a part of a victory parade. We are in a triumphal procession that is entering this world with…
- a message of freedom,
- a message of hope,
- a message of renewal,
- a message of victory.
We are part of a movement that has joined with Christ in a mission of healing, reconciliation, and restoration in a world of brokenness and pain. We bring that message because of the victory of Christ this Easter weekend.
No matter what you are facing, I hope that you will live with the truth:
“Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.”
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Tyndale House Publishers: Holy Bible : New Living Translation. 2nd ed. Wheaton, Ill. : Tyndale House Publishers, 2004, S. Ac 3:15
Tyndale House Publishers: Holy Bible : New Living Translation. 2nd ed. Wheaton, Ill. : Tyndale House Publishers, 2004, S. Ac 4:2
* Or Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Tyndale House Publishers: Holy Bible : New Living Translation. 2nd ed. Wheaton, Ill. : Tyndale House Publishers, 2004, S. Ac 4:10
Tyndale House Publishers: Holy Bible : New Living Translation. 2nd ed. Wheaton, Ill. : Tyndale House Publishers, 2004, S. Ac 4:33
Tyndale House Publishers: Holy Bible : New Living Translation. 2nd ed. Wheaton, Ill. : Tyndale House Publishers, 2004, S. Zec 3:3-5
Tyndale House Publishers: Holy Bible : New Living Translation. 2nd ed. Wheaton, Ill. : Tyndale House Publishers, 2004, S. Re 3:4-5
* Some manuscripts do not include and the life.
Tyndale House Publishers: Holy Bible : New Living Translation. 2nd ed. Wheaton, Ill. : Tyndale House Publishers, 2004, S. Jn 11:20-26
Tan, Paul Lee: Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations : A Treasury of Illustrations, Anecdotes, Facts and Quotations for Pastors, Teachers and Christian Workers. Garland TX : Bible Communications, 1996, c1979
* Some manuscripts add and our mortal bodies have been transformed into immortal bodies.
* Isa 25:8.
* Hos 13:14 (Greek version).
Tyndale House Publishers: Holy Bible : New Living Translation. 2nd ed. Wheaton, Ill. : Tyndale House Publishers, 2004, S. 1 Co 15:51-57
Peterson, Eugene H.: The Message : The Bible in Contemporary Language. Colorado Springs, Colo. : NavPress, 2002, S. 2 Co 5:17-19