Easter Sermon – 2021

 

Wretched (Part 1) – Easter 2021

There’s a principle called the Fenno Paradox. The Fenno Paradox is: if you ask the average American what they think of Congress they’re going to tell you Congress is terrible and that they hate Congress. They’ll say that Congress is awful. But, if you ask that same average American what they think of their Congressman, they will say that they’re great. We love them, they’re not the problem. So, think about that. Every American, on average, will say congress as an institution is terrible, but not our Congressman we love them. Well, there’s a parallel, I think, when it comes to Christianity. The word that comes to my mind is wretched, or a wretch. If I asked you to define that word, you might say a person from Bakersfield, or someone who voted different than you in the last election. This what the dictionary says: A wretch is a despicable or contemptible person; a scoundrel; a villain; reprobate; somebody who is good for nothing. That’s what a wretch is. So, my question is, do you consider yourself a wretch? If somebody said to you, ‘define yourself for me’ or ‘please describe who you are to me’ is one of the things you’re going to say about yourself is “I’m a wretch.”

Are you honestly going to say that? And don’t feel bad if your answer is ‘no,’ because my answer is no. If somebody says, ‘describe yourself to me,’ the word wretch is not one of the words that’s typically going to come out of my mouth in a first meeting. Why would it be something that we would define ourselves as? Because we live in 2021 America and we are taught, we are trained as a culture to think highly of ourselves, and even if it’s not thinking highly of ourselves, we’re told to at least think positively about ourselves. It’s woven into the fabric of not only American cultural, but the culture of Christianity today.

Think of yourself, see yourself as God sees you, show the power of positive thinking, look at most of the most popular self-help and “lifestyle” books that are written today, and you will see that self-esteem is king. If you go to any public university, public high school, even, and especially elementary schools, you will see self-esteem curriculum woven into the fabric of every subject matter that the school teaches. Think about it, every time there’s a school shooting, some individual lashes out in this most tragic and disgusting of tantrums, many rush to blame it on their lack of self-esteem. They didn’t feel highly enough about themselves, they were lashing out, looking for attention, etc. We are trained to think positively about ourselves from the cradle to the grave so why would we believe that we are wretches so much so that we can sing songs like Amazing Grace where we call ourselves wretches?

This is fascinating to me. That parallel I was talking about comes from the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and they found that the average person sees themselves as ‘more ethical than the average person.’ That shouldn’t be possible because if the average person sees themselves as more ethical than everybody else, and acting that way, and everybody’s doing that, then the average should continue to go up. We should be growing as a more ethically minded society. What this means is, if somebody asked you, you would be likely to respond that you think you are more likely to act ethically than the average person and you can think of that right now where you’re sitting. Do I think that I’m more likely to act ethically than the average person that I interact with? Am I more likely to be courteous than the average person? Am I more likely to be fair, more likely to be loyal than the average person in America? The average person believes they are more moral than the average person.

That’s fascinating for me to study from a sociological perspective. I minored in psychology and still think it’s interesting for understanding people, but from a Christian perspective, from the perspective of a pastor, that’s incredibly frightening. I’d say it’s incredibly dangerous, especially as we’re moving into the Easter season. If we’re all thinking positively and highly of ourselves and we do not associate with the idea of being wretched, we are going to have a big problem in understanding the power of what Easter is.

The early church father, Augustine, wrote the book City of God. It’s an amazing work and in it he writes, “My sin was all the more terrible because I did not judge myself to be a sinner. The sinners were out there, and so therefore my problems were not likely to be resolved because I didn’t see myself as a sinner.” So, building off of this thought, if you don’t think of yourself as a sinner, as a wretch, then you’re going to lose sight of God’s grace. The work of Jesus on the cross and the power of the gospel message are not going to be real to you. The power of the empty tomb is not going to mean the same thing to you.

I was saved on March 19, 2009, just ten days after a dear friend of mine lost her life to suicide, and that day would be exactly ten years to the day when I’d marry my wife. Still, it took me a while to be baptized. I wasn’t part of a church at the time, and the church I attended occasionally didn’t really do baptisms, but I always thought it would be so special to be baptized in the Jordan River, if I ever had the opportunity. Well, that opportunity became available to me in the Spring of 2014 while I was in Israel and standing along the banks of the Jordan River. For those who’ve heard the full version of this story, I felt the Lord leading me not to get baptized on that day, so I didn’t. I left the Jordan behind me, left the “blessed land” as Daniel 11 calls the holy land, returned home, continued my studies, and was baptized on September 6, 2015 in a cold water trough on a windy day. And on that day, I was asked to share my testimony, since I was already preaching in the church at the time, and I concluded my brief message with the words that Paul wrote to the young pastor Timothy in 1 Timothy 1, beginning in verse 12:

^“I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life.”

We don’t appreciate just how much he has saved us from if we don’t view our sin as particularly troublesome, damning, and wicked in the eyes of the Lord. So, examine yourself. When I said that word wretch, and I asked you think of somebody in your mind that you would have considered a wretch, did your own face pop into your mind? Thinking now, what would you have come to mind when I asked that question?

I was first introduced to the word wretch probably like a lot of you. I was a kid, and I was at church and we sang Amazing Grace. Just like everyone else, I sang it, and I said the word I don’t remember ever thinking ‘geez I wonder what that word is?’ It’s a funny word but as a kid I sang it because it’s like the most popular Christian hymn that’s out there and the rest of my church was singing it. “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.” It’s a great song, it’s easy to sing, it brings imagery of salvation, aspiration for Christ and eternity, and has a lot of history in the past several hundred years in the church. But when I got to college, I get reintroduced to this song and this word in a new way that totally change everything about the way I see that song and the way I see that word.

 While studying for a class, I came across a conference presentation given by Wintley Phipps. He’s a Christian singer and preacher, and he starts talking he says, “I don’t know if you all know this, (and by ‘you all’ he meant all of you white people that are sitting out here listening to me right now in the audience) I don’t know if you know this, but all of those negro spirituals that we sing, they can be played, most all of them, on just the black notes of the piano. There’s black notes on a piano and then they go up octaves from there and sometimes it’s called the pentatonic scale in music, but sometimes it’s called the slave scale because when the slaves wrote their old negro spirituals they built it on those five notes so that every single one can be played on those five notes.” He goes on to ask the audience about their knowledge of negro spiritual music, saying, “I know you don’t know a lot of negro spirituals but you know some of them. You’ve probably heard of ‘Wade in the Water,’ it can be played on all black notes. Swing Low Sweet is another song also built on the pentatonic slave scale that you all may not realize sounds a lot like a West African sorrow chant. That tune is very familiar to those who know anything about West African music.” He goes on to explain that it and Amazing Grace both sound like a sorrow chant from West Africa, then he said, “do you know who wrote Amazing Grace?” and somebody in the crowd raises their hand and knew that it was written by a guy name of John Newton. It’s right there if you look up in the Hymnal. Even the sheet music in the Library of Congress says that Amazing Grace’s words and lyrics were written by John Newton, but it also says that the tune music is by ‘unknown.’ So, nobody knows who wrote the tune to Amazing Grace. And then, Phipps, said “you know what John Newton’s job was?” Does anybody here know what John Newton did for a living? He was the captain of a slave ship and a slave trader, before he came to Christ, renounced slavery and the slave trade, and became a minister and abolitionist. It really is an amazing testimony of a life. So, this song that John Newton wrote after he has repented of his terrible past, and seeing the light he writes the song Amazing Grace and he sets it to this unknown tune, which just so happens to sound like a West African sorrow chant.”

There’s a bit of conjecture and assumptions to make, but maybe John Newton first heard those notes, built on the slave scale, when he was taking these slaves across the ocean and coming up from below deck, he heard that melody.

I couldn’t get Wintley Phipps to come preform here today, but he had the audience close their eyes and he performed what he thought was the way John Newton first heard this tune as it came up from below deck being sung and chanted by salves being transported to the new world. It’s a moving presentation of an amazing song dedicated to God’s amazing grace to his people.

The song Amazing Grace has become one of the most beloved melodies in modern history, and has been sung by freedom marchers and civil rights movements in the American South, preformed before Martin Luther King jr. gave his “I have a dream speech.” It was sung in South Africa when Nelson Mandela was released from prison, sung by the crowds in Germany when the Berlin Wall fell, and sung to comfort a mourning nation after the attacks on 9/11. But if we just listen to it as a melody and comforting words, we’ll miss the grace part of it. It’s the amazing grace of God that saved a wretch like the salve ship captain John Newton, and it’s the same grace that our Lord is extending to each of us.

As we prepare for Easter and studying the passion and work of our Lord Jesus Christ, as we look at the Triumphal Entry and the crowds chanting, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest!” (Matthew 21:9), as we look at the intimate moments of the savior sharing a final meal with the disciples, devoting time alone in the garden to pray to the Father for them, as we see the unrest in his spirit, the torment, the betrayals, and the mocking crowds thirsty for blood as he gave up his life on a Roman cross, let us not forget to look at the wretch within each of us and the grace that Christ won as the only rest and comfort for our weary souls.

Let’s pray.    

Guilt (Part 2)

Let me start our message today by reading you a testimony of a young man

“For the first three months after the birth of my daughter, things were okay, but it seems like out of nowhere I began having issues with germs and contamination. Since then, things have steadily become more and more severe. These issues are the worst I’ve ever experienced. Basically, anything and everything that I touch, I’m obsessed with the feeling that it will spread germs and bodily fluids and microscopic particles of excrement to me, my belongings, and my family members. My fears of this have brought me to a point where I can no longer function, let alone work or care for my family, my wife, and parents. I’m simply unable. My bathroom and shower rituals are literally destroying my body. Without going into too much detail, I have to shower after every use of the restroom. I wash my hands so hard and so long that it gets to the point where I can’t bend my fingers. I frequently, as in five plus times a day, use chemicals such as Lysol spray and Clorox wipes on my skin, hands, legs, private parts, feet, and arms, even right after I’ve showered. And, no matter how hard I try, I cannot seem to shower in under two hours. Literally, every centimeter of my skin has to be washed and scrubbed until it feels clean to me, and I can’t cross contaminate body parts, and so I used three to five different washcloths. I also have to wash my hands after nearly everything that I touch or wash in the shower. Worst of all is washing anything below my waist. This causes me severe panic and sometimes upwards of thirty minutes of just washing my hands after washing those areas. By the time my shower is finished, my skin is raw and extremely painful and then I use chemicals on top of that to make sure that I’m completely clean. I finally slide to my room on a towel to get dressed, making sure I don’t touch the floor. I get dressed after ensuring my hands and all my clean clothes are actually clean and the rest of my day is spent cleaning any surface I sit on with chemicals and avoiding touching nearly everything. I’ve been on different doses of Zoloft most of my life. I’ve tried some cognitive behavior therapy and exposure therapy and that doesn’t seem to help. Nothing seems to be working and I fear for my health and my family. I want to be here for my wife and daughter, and I fully realized that most of this is completely irrational, but I can’t find help and can’t seem to escape this obsessive desire to be clean.”

That’s a psychological case study of somebody who suffers, obviously, with the psychological condition known as obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD. It’s an exceptionally bad case of OCD, it’s something that isn’t funny, something that you don’t joke about because it’s causing this man and this family some serious problems. And I know that there’s not a person here that hears me read that and doesn’t recognize that this person has a serious psychological problem; this psychological obsession with being clean. Every single one of us knows that it’s unhealthy for them, that it’s completely unnecessary for them, and that it’s a dangerous way to live. Not a single person here needs me to convince you of that reality, and yet, I would suggest to you that some of us here today have this exact same condition, spiritually speaking. Perhaps some of you have the obsessive-compulsive disorder when it comes to your spiritual life. You don’t struggle with what we talked about last week, of thinking of yourself as a wretch, instead you struggle with the fact that you can’t think of yourself as anything but a wrench. You struggle to believe and think that you are actually redeemed and clean. Maybe because of your past, something you did or something that happened to you, and what I want to stress to you this morning is both of those extremes will hamper the power of the resurrection in your life.

Last week we saw that your pride, your sense of superiority, can work to prevent you from recognizing the amazing sacrifice that Christ made on your behalf to take away the sins. As I said, the grace of God is given to those who know that the need the grace of God because of what their sin has done to them. But this week, I want to stress to you that the guilt that you are suffering from your sin, perhaps the idea that your sins are too great to be forgiven by Christ, that too will eliminate the power of the resurrection in your life.

Last week I quoted the church father Augustine, and this week I want to share with you a different church father, one of the fathers of the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther. When Martin Luther came to Christ, he was Catholic, obviously, and he went to confession, the practice of confessing sins to a priest, and he was so obsessed with his feelings of sin that he would oftentimes spend 6 hours in the confessional. I wore out the priests, and they would have to exchange priests because the priest would just wear out listening to all of this. He would sit there and spend 6 hours going over every new thought and inclination and desire that he might have been feeling build up within him and finally one of the priests pulled him to the side and said, “Martin, my son, God is not angry with you. You’re acting like God is angry with you. It’s you, this behavior, you are the one that’s angry with God.” Luther said that it was like a light bulb went off in his head, he said, “I realized my fear of sinning and not only did it show a lack of confidence in my own ability to do good things, but my fear of sinning showed my lack of faith in Christ’s provision for me, for his sacrifice for me. I was so petrified of the sin in my life because I was afraid it was going to separate me from God, and I was going to go to hell.” Luther eventually said this of his condition; he said, “To diagnose smallpox you don’t have to probe each pustule, nor do you have to treat or heal each by itself separately” and yet, I would suggest to you, that’s what many of us do with our spirituality. Our problem isn’t smallpox, our problem is sin, and yet we pore over each pustule of sin in our life thinking that it needs a different cure than the next. If the problem is sin, it only needs one cure and once the cure has been given, the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, it’s done, it’s cured, and you’re healed. But some of us struggle with that. We struggle with this constant nagging, this feeling that we are always dirty. We feel like we’ve gotten really dirty again and I need to go be cleansed. That feeling is called guilt, and perhaps some of you are really struggling with guilt, and maybe you don’t realize that, maybe you haven’t put a name to it, but that’s what you’re struggling with, and you need not to, and this Easter season if you want the power of the Resurrection in your life, that has to be dealt with. You can’t fully appreciate the power of the Resurrection if this is our perpetual struggle, because we constantly feel as though another sacrifice and another sacrifice is needed to make us clean. And by the way, this is all explained beautifully in the 10th chapter of Hebrews, which we’ve studied together several months ago, and where we’ll be today.

Chapter 10, we’ll start in verse 1. [Read Hebrews 10:1-3].

Remember God institute’s this system in the Old Testament. We know from the Garden of Eden that sin, the punishment for sin is death. So, when sinners sinned in the Old Testament, God set up a system by which they could atone for those sins and could continue living and not be forced into eternal punishment for their every transgression, and that was this sacrificing of animals. The unblemished firstborn animals are the first fruits of their harvest, this was the system, and it restored that broken relationship that they had with God. When they sin, they have to go make an animal sacrifice and that blood, the death of the animal, provides a temporarily covering for their sin, and that’s the key it is temporary. Even after making a sacrifice, humans would sin again, and so there’s this cycle. Their fallen humans and they’re going to sin again, and that sin is going to produce guilt and that guilt is going to lead them to make a sacrifice and the sacrifice then will bring them to a point of restoration, then they’re going to sin again. . . Do you see how this is a seemingly never-ending cycle?

Continuing in verse 4, [Read Hebrews 10:4-10].

Look at those words, “once for all.” When Jesus says it’s finished, it is finished. The final sacrifice was Jesus’s death on the cross and once he made that sacrifice your sins are washed away, and they are gone. That should be great news because you no longer need the animal sacrifices, this futile cycle of restitution, you don’t need the world’s intellectual and psychological and religious tactics to evade your guilt. You are actually rendered guiltless, forgiven once and for all. So, my question is, are you living that way or are you constantly struggling with this feeling that God is sitting up there holding all the sins in your life against you?

Last week, I said that we ought to feel like wretches, so is this a contradiction? Last week you should feel remorse over your sin and then to turn around this week and say you ought to feel freedom and forgiveness? It seems like a contradiction. Nevertheless, Hebrews explains why it’s not a contradiction. Verse 14, “For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. The Holy Spirit also testifies to this. . .”

Did you catch that? He’s made perfect forever things that are being made holy. That means at the time of your salvation your relationship with the father is perfect. It is perfected because of Christ once for all, His sacrifice for you, it’s done and you are reconciled to God, and that is for forever. You are secure in your salvation, so what does this mean that you’re being made holy? It’s the process of being remade into His image, called sanctification. It is something that will go on for the rest of your life. Do you see the distinction between these two things?

So, what does all of this do with our guilt? Here’s what it does, at least what it should do. It should put it in the proper context. From the believer’s perspective, the point of guilt in your life is not calling us to salvation. Don’t feel as though every time you sin that your salvation is now in question and you have to go make restitution for that and make things right with God. If your guilt is causing you to question your salvation, you are listening to the spiritual attacks of Satan. It is a lie of Satan and you need to start ignoring him because it blocks the glory of the resurrection and makes it seem as though it wasn’t powerful enough to save you, that you have to keep going back and getting fixed. The power of the cross and the resurrection is so powerful and sufficient that once it’s done, it’s done forever. Your soul is saved.

Let’s take moment to consider the prophet Jeremiah. They’re living under this Old Testament law and God tells the prophet Jeremiah that when Jesus is sacrificed, everything changes, and the writer of Hebrews quotes that here in verse 16. “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord. I will put my law upon their heart, and on their minds I will write them’ He then says, ‘And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”

King David uses poetic language to describe this, Psalm 103:12, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”

The Holy Spirit inspires this, nothing here is coincidence, those words are intentional, and what it’s telling you is that when the father forgives your sins because of the final sacrifice of Jesus Christ he doesn’t remember them. He places them an eternity away from you. Your sins are washed an eternity away, as far as the East is from the West he will never see them. He will never remember them again.

 that means if you’ve committed adultery, you’ve told a lie that cost somebody their job, maybe you placed idols in your life, maybe you were sexually promiscuous, maybe you had an abortion, maybe you took financial advantage of others, even if you did these, and you took them and nailed them to the cross you probably will face real consequences in your life, but as a believer you can use that guilt not to wallow in it and feel as though you have never been redeemed or can’t be redeemed, but you are to use it to prod yourself to holiness. In other words, sacrifice of yourself to rebuild that relationship that you’ve lost with your child because of your sin of adultery, or maybe if you’ve had the abortion and you’re struggling with guilt you start volunteering your time to help young girls who are in the same situation that you were once in, you understand that there’s a better way of continuing your life. Perhaps by sharing your testimony. What I’m saying is that you are not to be consumed with the belief that God is sitting up there remembering those sins and holding them against you. If you have done these and you have been forgiven for these, he has forgotten them. If your sin is nailed to the cross, you don’t bear it anymore. So, to the believer burdened with guilt, quit bearing it. Quit acting like it’s yours to carry, because it’s not. Jesus took it from you. If you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you gave it to him, and he took it and nailed it an eternity away. That’s the power of the cross and that’s the glory of the resurrection, and the whole point of Easter. Don’t wreck your Easter by clinging to guilt that doesn’t belong to you anymore.

This is what the writer says in Hebrews chapter 10, verse 19-22; “Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”

Full assurance. That is what faith brings to your faith. It should bring you the assurance of having your heart washed and made clean, to cleanse us from a guilty conscience. If you claim Jesus as your lord, you have been cleansed, we have been cleansed, no matter what Satan is whispering into your ear. When God cleans you, it’s over and there’s no more scrubbing that needs to take place.

Let’s put this all together. Paul’s first letter to Timothy. We looked at it last week and we’ll go a little father today. 1 Timothy 1:15-19, “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith.”

Okay, here’s my question. you just read Paul’s letter to Timothy, does Paul sound ignorant of his sin? Is Paul operating under the assumption that he isn’t a sinner? No, you saw that he called himself the worst of all sinners. He knows he’s a sinner. Does Paul sound proud of his sin? Is he boasting in his sin? Again, no. He is aware of it and he’s not proud of it, so does Paul sound beaten and guilt ridden in this passage? He knows his sin and he’s not proud of it but did that passage reveal somebody that is just mired in guilt and feeling terrible about everything that they’ve done? No, not at all. He remembers his sin and because of that, he celebrates that it proves and testifies to God’s mercy.

You remember your sins and it should cause you to see and stand in awe of the glory in the resurrection and the power of the cross and the magnificence of our God who forgives those sins simply because He loves us. Satan’s going to attack you with this every single chance he gets. He will remind you of your sin, he’ll remind you of what you’ve done, he’ll remind you of your failings, but God also knows what Satan is up to and so he gives you the ultimate remedy; his goodness reminding you of the cross and the sacrifice of His own body, the empty tomb, the once-for-all sacrifice that cleanses you from here until eternity.

Let’s dwell in the goodness and grace of our Lord as we pray to Him together.  

Triumph (Part 3)

My question for you today is; are you going to experience resurrection as Jesus did? Are you going to conquer sin and death as Jesus did? Will you triumph over it or will it triumph over you?

I could use this time to give you the history and the facts of Easter, I could tell you what we know from the historical evidence, the biblical evidence, that Jesus was a real guy who was crucified and he was buried. We have that evidence, we know that it’s true, and not a single historian with any education on western world history will deny that Jesus was a real man who lived in Palestine during the early first century and died on a Roman cross. We know that three days later his body goes missing, and secular scholars will argue that doesn’t mean there’s a resurrection, it just means that the tomb was empty. So, how do we know that? Well, you can’t have a movement that’s predicated upon the idea of somebody coming back to life in the very city where people could go, if he hadn’t been resurrected, and say, ‘well, there’s the body.’ You remember that they came up with the story that the disciples stole the body, its mentioned in Matthew 28:13, and all of that is evidence that, historically speaking, the body wasn’t there. Secular historians claim that we don’t know what happened to it, but it wasn’t there. No historical scholar doubts that, but they will doubt that there were reported appearances of Jesus for forty days. For forty days after the crucifixion and disappearance of his body from the grave, thousands of people, not just eleven guys in an upper room, but thousands of people, over 500 at a single occasion, claimed that they saw the resurrected Jesus. Now, maybe they all got together and planned it, maybe this was all a giant hoax, there’s always conspiracy theories that’ll be tossed around, but none of those individuals who claim to have seen the resurrected Jesus walked away from their faith or that testimony of seeing the resurrected Savior, and their lives were dramatically changed because of it. Some of them endured persecution, some were rejected by their families and communities, some died horrible deaths. And to that you might say, ‘well yeah, but Dean, people die for their beliefs all the time. The 9/11 terrorists died for their beliefs, you might die for your belief in Jesus.” True, if I die for my belief in Jesus, it’s because I’m trusting the testimony that’s in scripture and staking my life and my eternity on it. These people are totally different. From their perspective, they actually knew the earthly Jesus. They knew whether what they’re saying that they saw his resurrected body is true or not. They’d know if they’re dying for a lie, and they died for it. So, I’m assuming that if you’re here, you are going to acknowledge what all of us acknowledge, that the most probable and plausible explanation for this right here is that the historical event of Jesus’s resurrection took place. That’s why so many were willing to give up their jobs, face rejection by their families and communities, face persecution, and even death; because they knew what they saw was true. So, my point is to ask you a simple question, has that historical event changed your life? And, if it hasn’t why not?

How could this not have an effect on your life, because I’m telling you, the end of this life is coming sooner or later. You don’t know when the end of this life is coming. For some of you, you think you’ve got a number of years, but you don’t know that. We can’t guarantee that we’ll make it to the next church service or even home tonight with the way people drive these days and any mile of road could be our last. We don’t know when or how that chapter of our existence will end, but we do know that the end of life is coming. So, isn’t it weird that we prepare for so many things that we don’t know aren’t going to happen. You can think about and plan for your wedding and you don’t know that you’re going to find anybody to marry. You prepare for your daughter’s wedding and you’re not sure that the guy is actually going to show up that day. We want to prepare for retirement, we all do that, we put money away every paycheck and what’s probably going to happen is I’m going die of a stroke at 45 and Christiana’s going to reap it all and it’s really going to tick me off. [*Pause for laughter*]. I’m preparing for something that I don’t know if it’s going to happen, in that case retirement, yet here is the one thing in your existence that you know is going to occur, and I’m asking you, have you prepared for it? Has this event changed your life? You and I are going to die someday.

Do you know that the average teenager thinks about death every four minutes. That’s kind of a startling statistic, but according to a national suicide-prevention organization, on average, a teenager in America thinks of death every four minutes, and as you get older, some of us start thinking about it more often. I can tell you every time I’m left with the camp kids I think about death, and how much sweeter it would be than what I was experiencing at the time. Just joking, but my point to you is that you and I may not, and I hope we don’t endure the shame and the torture that Jesus went through when he died, I hope we don’t experience that, but I can guarantee you that our physical existence will end just as his physical existence ended on the cross. Scripture says, in Hebrews 9:27, “it’s appointed unto all men to die once.” So, the question is, will you arise? Will you conquer death as Jesus did?

There are two holidays on the Christian calendar that really stand out; Christmas and Easter. Those are the big ones, and those are the ones that we all love to celebrate, but do you notice that there’s kind of a difference between the two. I mean we’re into Christmas a whole lot more than we’re into Easter. Commercially and spiritually, people pay attention to Christmas and love Christmas a lot more than Easter. We approach the season of Christmas with more anticipation, with more attentiveness, with more focus, and if you doubt that, gauge the difference between your children on Christmas Eve versus Easter Eve. Try thinking about getting them up the next morning. Do you have to work to get them up on Christmas morning? Is it anything like what you have to drag them out of bed on Easter morning to get dressed for church? There’s a big difference, and the question is, what’s the reason for that difference? Well, for kids it’s probably presents, but for us, what is it? I would suggest to you that maybe it’s the message. The message of Christmas; God is with us. Versus the message of Easter; He is risen. And you might say, ‘well what do you mean by that?’ We get the first one, it makes total sense to all of us. In this world it’s nice to know that God is here with us, that he chose to come here and be with us. But, if I asked you, why does it matter that he’s risen? What would you say to me? You would probably say, ‘well, Jesus died for me so I can go to heaven.’ But, hold on, you’re telling me why Good Friday is important to you, not Easter. And that’s what we do. I think that the empty tomb gets woven together with the cross and it kind of gets outweighed by the cross at the crucifixion. So, I’m asking you, why does the empty tomb matter? If the sacrifice of Jesus was all that was necessary for the salvation of your soul, as we discussed last week, when he gives up his life on your behalf, why does it matter that he came back to life? Why does he need to come back to life?

Well, we’ll see why in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, because right there Paul’s going to answer that for us. Here the apostle states explicitly and plainly that the cross of Jesus wasn’t enough, and the empty tomb was necessary. Starting in verse 12, Paul is kind of asking the same question, ‘so what if the resurrection didn’t happen? What if it didn’t really occur? What happens then?’ Here’s the answer: [Read 1 Corinthians 15:12-19].

I don’t know if you saw it, but I saw seven reasons, seven answers to the question of ‘why the resurrection?’ The first one, not even Christ has been raised. If that has happened, if Jesus was never raised from the dead, then Christ could not conquer death and the master of death, Satan, is still in control. His rebellion against God was successful, and Jesus the author of life can’t conquer death. If he can’t do it, nobody’s going to do it. If he’s unable to do what Hebrews 2:14 said of him, that “he destroyed him who had the power of death,” which means if Jesus doesn’t rise, Satan still has the power and death wins. That’s why the empty tomb is so necessary.

Secondly, our preaching is useless. The gospel of Jesus is useless and there’s no reason for me to preach it if Jesus can’t come out of the tomb. Because if he can’t come out of the tomb, you can’t come out of the tomb either. This leads us to the third point, which means that if our preaching is worthless, then your faith is absolutely worthless and empty. You might as well put faith in a normal human being because they’re going to be just as successful with helping you get beyond this life as what Jesus did, if he had not been raised.

Fourthly, we then are found to be false witnesses. If the resurrection never happened, the apostles are liars, and if the apostles are liars, then why are we even looking at this book that they’ve written and given to us?

Fifthly, if Christ has not been raised, you are still in your sins. Sins’ power is unbroken in your life if Christ has not been raised. There’s no escaping sin and your sinful nature, and no way to get right with God.

Sixth, those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. That means that this life is all you get and when you’re dead, there’s no hope. Which means that we of all people, Christians, are the most to be pitied. If Christ has not been raised, then we’re the most pitiful people in the world. At least the Atheist knows to live it up, now because this is all you’re going to get out of this experience if there’s nothing after. Think about the poor Christians that spend their lives believing in something and they get to the end of it and it’s not there. That would make us most to be pitied.

But what if it did happen? What if the resurrection did happen? Then that changes everything. It should change everything about your existence. What does it mean? Let’s look at Acts 2:24, “But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.” This is the author, and the master of life through whom all things were created. Deaths’ going to try to hold on to him, but it’s not even possible. Deaths’ power has been neutralized, rendered powerless. Hebrews 2:14-15 I just referenced a moment ago, “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.” This means that the game is over for Satan and now, in desperation before he is destroyed, he’s trying to take as many down as he can. The resurrection means the game has ended. 2 Timothy 1:10, “. . .our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. . .”

What does this all mean? Remember in the Garden of Eden when we lost our eternal life because we chose rebellion to God and began to die. All of that is overturned with Jesus’s resurrection from the grave. Your ability to live forever is now restored.

When you accept Christ, his Holy Spirit comes to live in you, and if death could not hold on to him it’s not going to be able to hold on to you. Daniel chapter 12, verse 2, “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.” As Christ-followers, we’re familiar with what the everlasting life part means, but what about the everlasting contempt part? That’s hell. Its wicked, it’s awful, its lonely, separated from all friends, family, anything and everything good, and bright, and beautiful, and separated from God for all of eternity. We don’t want this existence. Something Scripture calls the “second death.” Its everything opposite from the joy and beauty of everlasting life with and through Jesus.  

Where Daniel got a picture of this, Revelation 20 gives us much greater detail of how it happens. This is John’s vision, starting in verse 11, [Read Revelation 20:11-15].  

There are some people in our community who are not saved. They are not Christians, they don’t know Christ, and they are better people than me. I’m not bragging about that, but it’s true, there are people who are not followers of Jesus Christ but who live better lives than I do. They’re kinder to people than I am, they don’t have a habit of saying things and then later regretting that they said those things to those people or about those people, they are less provocative, they do a good job of living at peace with all people far better than I do. There are people who are unsaved who are more honest than me, they don’t tell little white lies or twist the truth just a little bit to make themselves look better. They’re honest people, they’re good people, they’re more generous, they’re better servants, they’ll give you the shirt off their back, they’ll do anything to help you, and they’re not Christians and the reality is that without Christ, without God grabbing ahold of their lives, without submitting to Him and repenting of their sins, they are going to spend eternity in hell.

You saw it in the book of Revelation, those words, “judged according to their deeds.” It’s not my standard of goodness that I have to match up with. And I am not your standard of goodness to get into heaven. The standard of goodness that we have to meet in order to enter into heaven is God’s. He’s the standard. You want admittance into his kingdom, your deeds must be as good as he is, without any blemish or error. How many of us measure up? I know I don’t. This is why scripture says that all of our righteousness, the best things that we can do, compared to the glory of God is filthy rags. That’s the best your deeds can accomplish. Your deeds may look great compared to mine, but compared to the father, compared to the glory of God, they’re filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). The day that I stand before the throne, I will be there, and that book will be opened, and all of my deeds are going to start to be read off. All of those things that I kept hidden from all of you for so long. All of my evil and wicked thoughts that I didn’t tell anybody I was having; they’re just going to be laid out there in front of everybody. And then, all of the great stuff that I think that I’ve done, all the ministry, all the hours volunteered to help others, how I was as a husband and someday a father, we start reading through that and it’ll look pathetic in the light of the glory of God.

On that day, the only thing I can do, I’m going to fall on my knees and I’m going to say ‘Father, I plead no contest. I am NOT here based on my own deeds. I can never earn admittance into your kingdom. But, I’m with him, I’m with Jesus.’ At that moment Jesus Christ is going to stand up and he’s going to stand between me and the judgment seat of the throne and he’s going to say, “Father, let me tell you who this is. This is Dean, and he’s one of mine.” Based on the work of Christ, his finished work, I’m going to be ushered into paradise, not based on my deeds but only on the blood and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

And I can tell you what’s going to happen at that moment. Those people in our community who are better people than me, but never gave their lives to Christ, they’re going to start seeing that their deeds are never going to get them in either and they’re going to see me being ushered through and they’re going to say, ‘uh, I’m with him too’ and then what’s going to happen? Jesus is going to turn and look and say, ‘I’m sorry, I never knew you’ (Matthew 7:21-23). This is why this day matters so much. This is why I’m stressing it so much, and I’ll tell you what else happens when you proclaim this to people; they’ll start getting really, really angry and they’ll say, “well, how could a loving God do that? How could a loving God create a universe where he knows that he’s going to send people to hell that just isn’t a loving God.”

I know you’re expecting this to be some deep theological question, but it’s a really easy answer. God is God, and God is an eternal being. He is eternal in nature and he gave us his image. That means you and I are also eternal, immortal beings. We have a soul that will go on forever. Animals, plants, planets, stars, all of those things that are out there, they don’t bear the image of the Creator, and they are not eternal. But we are. Why would God create us to be eternal beings? He told us. He wanted to live with us forever as a people for his own possession. It’s that simple. He wanted to be a family, he created perfection where he would dwell with us, and then we decided, and I’m not just talking about Adam and Eve in a garden, I’m talking about every time you decide that ‘this makes me feel good so I’m going to do that even though I know I shouldn’t. I prefer to do things this way, I’m going to serve the physical rather than the spiritual.” Every time we make the decision to break a command of the Father, we are choosing an eternity apart from him. We are the rebels by nature, and we rebelled against him and consequently separated ourselves from him for eternity. That’s the key. God doesn’t send anybody to hell. People choose to go there because they choose to rebel against him. Our sinful nature leads us down that path.

When, all of a sudden God sees us screwing up what he had planned for us, what would a loving God do? How would a loving God respond to a situation like that, where we had rebelled against him and cost ourselves eternity? I can tell you what he did. Our loving God would offer a way out. Our loving God came up with a plan where there could be a substitute. Where we could get another chance. A loving God would submit to us one who didn’t owe any debt for themselves to take on the debt that we all owe. Our loving God would offer us a way out that costs us nothing but acceptance. Now, tell me, what arrogance it takes for us to reject that free offer and then sit there and pompously say, ‘but he’s not a loving god if he’s going to send me to hell.’ What arrogance!

This story is exactly what God did. This substitute is Jesus and this rescue plan for humanity, that’s what this weekend is about. This magnificent drama that unfolded before the watching eyes of all creation it unfolds on every page of Scripture. This eternal struggle to redeem your soul. And an empty grave to prove that the savior lives, the plan worked, and we can live too.