Still In One Peace: Easter 2020 Message John 20

EASTER SUNDAY, APRIL 12, 2020

Preaching Notes - John 20:1-18

Here is the message for the day. It will be live-streamed at 10:30 a.m. this Sunday via Facebook, then available after that online/video. The manuscript is included for those that do not use/prefer the internet, and or want the extra pieces included with the manuscript (bulletin pieces).

Gospel of John Sermon Series: That You May Believe

"There Are No Bunnies at Funerals"

INTRO: This Is the most heavily guarded place on Earth...

· Saying something is “as secure as Fort Knox” implies way stronger protection than you might have realized. It houses 9,208,866 pounds of gold behind a 22 ton door. Fort Knox has been called the most secure vault on the planet.

· You won’t be able to get too close to the United States Bullion Depository (the proper name of Fort Knox) because it’s surrounded by a steel fence. Even the building itself is hardcore, made of concrete-lined granite and reinforced by steel to help it withstand attacks (according to the U.S. Treasury). If anything were to happen, the site also happens to share its home with 40,000 soldiers, family members, and civilian employees at the Fort Knox Army post. The building also has its own emergency power plant and water system.

· You would have to get past armed guards, missile tanks, Apache helicopters, infrared surveillance, and video cameras. It is equipped with the latest and most modern protective devices which are kept secret.

· At the height of World War II, Fort Knox had the privilege of housing some of the most precious documents in the world: the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, and a Gutenberg Bible.

· The combination to that door has been disseminated to 10 different staff people. Each person has a partial code; no one person knows the total code. The code has to be inserted one person at a time.

And yet our Inheritance, 'which is worth far more than gold,' is even more secure.

· 1 Peter 1 says...

³Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, ⁵who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. ⁸Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, ⁹for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

· Did you hear me say, God "has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." All this because of Christ's resurrection - because of Easter! Since Jesus conquered sin and death - what enemy can rob us of the gift/inheritance?

I LOVE THAT THIS IS AN ACTUAL FIRST-HAND ACCOUNT OF EASTER

· I don't always think of it in that way... but this is not secondhand information for John. He stood and peered into the empty tomb. HE was sin the upper room when Jesus returned to them. WOW!

· A great testimony - first had account: Have you noticed how much running there is in this text? Everybody in this passage is running. You have to use your Apple I-phone 11 camera to catch them. You don't have much running in the Bible, not much running in the Gospels. But in this paragraph everyone seems to be out at a mile sprint.

· Why this running? And of all places, the place that they're running is in a cemetery. We see running in a lot of places but not very much in a cemetery. In cemeteries we walk lightly on our hearts as if through a land mine. We walk softly through these stones of memory with reverence. That's okay. But no one goes running, not in cemeteries.

· What is it about the Easter morning story that sent people running in the cemetery? Answer: When Mary Magdalena learns that Jesus is alive - she goes running! Running back to the disciples to tell them the good news.

· I think this next part is so funny. John has a footrace with Peter. think of it this way - when the author of the Gospel of John, John who was one of th 12, John the "beloved" disciple, writes he never refers to himself in the first person. He never even uses his own name, but just refers to himself as the 'beloved disciple.' I think it's funny that when John tells of Mary's return - he and Peter have a footrace to the tomb. John, who is so modest that he won't use his own name, says that, "Oh! By the way, I beat Peter to the tomb. Peter ran fast, but the 'beloved disciple' ran faster."

[2So 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!"

3So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb.

4Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.]

We should all run to tell of the Good news of Easter... Easter is essential to the Gospel message, essential to Christian belief, and essential for Salvation.

· We call 1 Corinthians 15 the Resurrection Chapter, and he begins by saying very clearly - "Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you..."

· 1 Corinthians 15:12-19

¹²But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.¹⁴And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. ¹⁵More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised.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. ¹⁸Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.¹⁹If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

What is the Good news of Easter?

Our Resurrection Chapter (1 Corinthians 15) points to two things in particular...

1) EASTER ENABLES US TO FACE THE REALITY OF OUR SIN

· 1 Corinthians 15:19 "And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins."

· Forgiveness is one of God's best gifts. Karl Menninger, the famed psychiatrist, once said that if he could convince the patients in psychiatric hospitals that their sins were forgiven, 75% of them could walk out the next day!

· Actual real life honest to goodness forgiveness that cannot be bought, or substituted with material things or good works or assuaged with popularity or success -- only comes from Christ and the Cross.

· This is not Amazon Primed free delivery. I comes with a heavy price...

We haven't done a lot of reading from the Old Testament recently because of our study in John... But sin has always been the problem. Paying our debt for sin has always been the problem. Needing a Savior has always been necessary. Listen to the drastic plan/price required...

· Isaiah 53:5-6

³He was despised and rejected by men,

a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;

and as one from whom men hide their faces

he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

⁴Surely he has borne our griefs

and carried our sorrows;

yet we esteemed him stricken,

smitten by God, and afflicted.

⁵But he was pierced for our transgressions;

he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

and with his wounds we are healed.

⁶All we like sheep have gone astray;

we have turned—every one—to his own way;

and the Lord has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

⁷He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,

yet he opened not his mouth;

like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,

and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,

so he opened not his mouth.

⁸By oppression and judgment he was taken away;

and as for his generation, who considered

that he was cut off out of the land of the living,

stricken for the transgression of my people?

⁹And they made his grave with the wicked

and with a rich man in his death,

although he had done no violence,

and there was no deceit in his mouth.

¹⁰Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;

he has put him to grief;

when his soul makes an offering for guilt,

he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;

the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

¹¹Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;

by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,

make many to be accounted righteous,

and he shall bear their iniquities.

Let's face the reality of our sin...

· The truth is that all of us have some skeleton or two hidden in our closet — something we've done or said or thought, of which, in our best moments, we are deeply and sadly ashamed. Our conscience nags us, torments us, condemns us. It was the witty Mark Twain who said, "Man is the only animal that blushes, and the only animal that needs to."

· We are ashamed, are we not, of things we've done in the past? If you have sin - you are not free. You have a debt. Instead of being able to look one another in the face, we want to run away and hide when our conscience troubles us. But, the Gospel truth begins with the assurance there is forgiveness with God.

· Several times during his public ministry, Jesus said to somebody, "Your sins are forgiven." And in the upper room on his last night on earth, he referred to the Communion cup as his "blood which was shed for many for the forgiveness of sins."

· God has so loved the world that he has addressed the very thing that should scare us the most and brings death to all. He has gone to the worst enemy we have, death, and said, “You, death, will not have the last word.”

· We are always in danger of trivializing the Gospel and in danger of minimizing what God by His resurrection power has done for us.

· Easter is the ultimate "Act of God" (something so horrendous or huge that only God is capable of generating). Tornadoes will not win. Tidal waves will not win. He rises from the grave. He overcomes death.

· Let's not talk of becoming a Christian as if it were really no more than turning over a new leaf or maybe becoming a little religious or making a few superficial changes to our usual pattern of life... we stop cussing, stop gossiping... etc. If so - then when you scratch the surface, we are the same old pagans underneath; no real change has taken place.

· That does not sound like the miracle that Easter is? It does not sound like any real power was/is needed to save us.

· Becoming a Christian is nothing less than a resurrection from spiritual death and the beginning of an entirely new life in the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The same God of supernatural power who raised Jesus from physical death can raise us from spiritual death and make us alive and alert to spiritual things. We can know that God can raise us from that death because he raised Christ. He can change us, because he changed Christ.

· God rolls the stone away from the grave for us too - for new life!

Illustration (Rick Warren)

· "How long do you remember a bill that's been paid? I don't remember it at all. Once it's paid, I forget it. The point is this: once God's forgiven it, I can forget it. That's good news! Even if there was no such thing as heaven or hell—and there is—it would be worth becoming a Christian just to have a clear conscience; just to know I am free from all those things I've done wrong. Because Jesus is who he said he was, my past can be forgiven. I don't have to carry a load of guilt around. It's unnecessary."

Our second Resurrection chapter point to make...

2) EASTER ENABLES US TO FACE THE REALITY OF DEATH

· 1 Corinthians 15:12 "But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?"

· How vigorously we resist talking about the claim that death has on us! We presume to prop up the Easter Gospel with talk about the rebirth of nature or the hatching of butterflies. We rush to buy books by and about people who have died and been resuscitated and who tell of their experiences on the other side. Worst of all we go to, or take part in, funerals where the Easter message is trivialized or even denied by someone telling cute little anecdotes about the deceased to cover over the reality of death.

· Ephesians 2:4-8 (ESV)

⁴But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ⁶and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ⁸For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

· Easter is all about sin and death and resurrection. We can't tell the story without these 'grave matters' (bad pun).

Illustration (told by John Rogers)

· "Some time ago, I attended the funeral of a friend's daughter, a wonderful, gifted 19-year-old girl who'd been killed in an automobile accident. The minister began the service by saying as Shakespeare said, "'The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones.' This was certainly true of this girl." He then went on to tell about how much this young woman had loved children, how she had enjoyed volunteering in the nursery at his church, and how he was certain now that she had been given the job of supervising the nursery in Heaven. I came away from that service angry because family, friends, and fellow believers who come to that service hoping to find bread were fed stones. That young woman and her family at least believed in the gospel of Jesus Christ. You could not have told from the minister's remarks that he believed it. What he had said trivialized the Gospel and never really seemed to understand that people might well die in the hope of its truth. Indeed, death was hardly mentioned, it was as if the deceased had inadvertently caused an embarrassing unpleasantness that needed to be covered up. So the minister told cute, clever little stories – stories that were not offended by the complicated, tragic, chaotic, and unanswerable events of life. There was in that service no honest encounter with the cross, and consequently no strong word of resurrection offered in, to, and over against the tragedy of this death."

Let me say that Easter/Resurrection is the only thing we Christians can stand upon and the only thing that "preaches" at a funeral.

We are not going to be talking about Bunnies at a Funeral.

Let's not trivialize the Gospel.

· Don't get me wrong - I love dying Easter eggs. I love chocolate bunnies. I loved the hunting of eggs in the hiding of eggs. I love all the excitement. I love celebrating Easter. I love Easter outfits! All these things are well and good to me... when they are subservient to Gospel truth. Here is the difference - I can enjoy them because they are HOW we celebrate and not WHAT we celebrate. This is not true in every household.

· Just like I don't generally celebrate a birthday without a birthday boy or a birthday girl in particular, we don't celebrate Easter without Sin/Death/Resurrection. Birthdays can have cakes or piñatas or whatever you want, we can hide eggs and buy outfits or whatever you want, but without the Gospel truth it is all just an excuse to eat cake. (as if I have ever needed an excuse to eat cake BTW).

· We tell the story of death and resurrection at every funeral service and don't mention bunnies. Instead we talk about Easter. Let's preach Gospel Truth or else we have trivialized the work of Christ, His sacrifice, and God's plan set in motion before creation.

· He linked our forgiveness with his death. He taught that he was going to die, and that our sin, guilt, and condemnation -- our debts, would be paid in his own innocent person in order that we might be forgiven. That's what the Bible says. Jesus has already paid for your way to heaven. This is news you can use. A Christian is not somebody who accepts a religion. A Christian is somebody who has this relationship with God.

· The first one he speaks to on the third day is totally preoccupied with grieving and cannot perceive what is going on around her. He speaks to Mary. When he speaks to her, he calls her by name. He is fulfilling what he said was his role as the Good Shepherd in John 10:27: “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” It’s really incredible. And when our day comes I expect Him to call our name. God calls to us out of a barren place and into Heaven.

More talk of trivializing God's goodness to us...

CONCLUSION/another APPLICATION: My Recent Complaining is a form of trivializing...

· On another day we could spend hours connecting Old Testament prophecies and connections to Easter. Especially the Passover meal with Communion, and the sacrificial system and Christ's death. "For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed" 1 Corinthians 5:7 (one quick reference from so many others to choose from).

· Exodus was the only grand (archetypal) story of salvation that New Testament writers knew. The Israelites' enslavement to their Egyptian masters rather naturally suggests human enslavement to sin and death, and their ultimate liberation through the wondrous and terrible intervention of God readily recalls Christ's triumphal liberation from death and hell.

· Exodus instructs us that Christ's death and resurrection is also the foundational narrative of a new nation, a nation that would not be defined by ethnic identification but by adoption into the Body of Christ.

Another connection I have between Exodus and Easter is - my complaining...

· Think about the Israelites coming out of Egypt. They go into the desert and at first they seem happy - saved from Pharaoh, they worship. They are expecting the "good life" now. But what awaits them? A journey filled with sand. Filled with questions of, "what shall we eat and what shall we drink." These questions are all valid, real-life daily questions. So, has God tricked us? Is this what God promised us?

· "Let us go back to Egypt and our pots of meat and the things that are familiar to us." They complained about how good it was and how rough it is now.

· I have been complaining about where I am right now considering the state our world is in. I have said I want to go back in time when the shelves were all full of toilet paper and my preferred snacks. If I know my Israelites, and I do - I am one... they were complaining in Egypt about how rough it was then too. I am pretty sure I was complaining two months ago too... about someething. We want to go back as if we never complained about anything in the past. Liar, liar, pants on fire!

· We want "the way it was." What we are experiencing now, I do not like. I am not enjoying this. Do I hear an "Amen?" Our current journey looks barren and it looks deserty and it looks dry. We want to go back, as if we never had a complaint before.

· But what awaits ahead is the Promised Land. There is only one way and it is forward. This life is a journey. I have complained about the last four weeks and I have been found to "PREcomplain" about the next 4. Is there such a thing as a PREcomplainer? You are listening to him (me) - my apologies.

· My life is a long journey (God willing,) and I am complaining about this little stretch when so far I have personally lacked for little. I know that is not true for everyone, for sure, but it is for me. I am so short sighted. What am I missing? Do I not have daily bread?! I must be missing gratitude.

· The sun rising every single day, that's what I should be noticing. Just like the sun dawned on that third day - so it did today and so it will tomorrow and so it will on my last day.

· The Israelites awaited a Promised Land, and since I know my Israelites - I know the trip was made exponentially longer (40 years) because of their complaining. At the end of their/my journey is a Promised Land... (1 Corinthians 1:4 "...this inheritance is kept in heaven for you.")

This is not a complaint from Paul, instead he makes the argument...

· ...that we would be “the most miserable people in the world” (1 Corinthians 15:19) if Christ had not been raised form the dead, for us no less. Because we would have to face every trial, struggle, and sacrifice demanded of us in this life without Him. Thank God that He had a better plan!

Our point of view changes since we are on this side of Easter.

· Looking down from the cross the view is all SIN.

· But looking out from the tomb, the view is all Sun/SON.

Satan thinks the tomb is well guarded... impenetrable, and a vault that is harder to breech than Fort Knox. But we shall not be robbed of our reasons to celebrate. Remember what we read - 1 Peter 1:3-4, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade."

Happy Easter! Happy Easter indeed!

SUNDAY, APRIL 12, 2020

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Words of Greeting

The women came running to tell us.