fwd: Email From God (4/5/15)

Posted by on Apr 9, 2015 in Sermons | 0 comments

Ever get one of those emails that had been forwarded to a gazillion people?  It might be yet another message with jokes or another advertisement.  When these messages come, we usually hit the delete key without even considering to open them.  If the message starts with the letters “fwd:”, the word “ignore” tends to pop into most of our minds.

But have we experienced so many Easters that the amazing message of the Resurrection has simply dissolved into a familiar, worn out image of eggs and candy?  Just like an annoying email?

Pastor Jim’s sermon from Easter 2015 helped us take a fresh look at Resurrection Sunday.  Click the following “Play” button to start the recording, then scroll down and follow along…

 

The scripture was from 1 Corinthians 15 and Mark 16…

Scripture

1 Corinthians 15:1-8

Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand,

2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you — unless you believed in vain.

3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,

4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,

5 and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve.

6 After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep.

7 After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles.

8 Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.

——————-

 

Mark 16:1-8

Now when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, that they might come and anoint Him.

2 Very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen.

3 And they said among themselves, “Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?”

4 But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away — for it was very large.

5 And entering the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a long white robe sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed.

6 But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him.

7 But go, tell His disciples — and Peter — that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you.”

8 So they went out quickly and fled from the tomb, for they trembled and were amazed. And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

 

 A Voice from the Other Side…

There is a story about a man from Chicago who left for a vacation in Florida.  His wife was on a business trip and was planning to meet him in Florida the next day.

When the man reached his hotel he decided to send his wife a quick email.  Unable to remember her address, he gave it his best shot from memory.

Elsewhere, a grieving widow whose husband passed away the day before, checked her email.  The family heard a shriek and a clunk and then they rushed in the room.  The widow had passed out.  The following note was on the screen:

DEAREST WIFE.  JUST GOT CHECKED IN. EVERYTHING PREPARED FOR YOUR ARRIVAL TOMORROW. YOUR LOVING HUSBAND. PS- SURE IS HOT DOWN HERE.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could hear a voice from “the other side?”  Just once.  Just for 30 seconds.  Just a moment to talk to a lost loved one about what happens when we die.  How are they? Is God happy with me?  Where will I go when I die???

  • GOOD NEWS:   The cool thing is, though: we DO have a voice from “the other side!”  On Easter Sunday, we gather to celebrate that our crucified Messiah has been raised from the dead.  He IS Risen.  And do you know what He’s told us?  He tells us “It’s all going to be OK.”
  • BAD NEWS:   We’ve heard this so many times that we’ve become numb to the awesome truth of the Resurrection.  Like a forwarded junk email, we hit the delete key.  It’s as if the caller ID begins with “1-800″… we don’t pick up the phone. We’re so used to being called the “Resurrection People” that we go into cruise control.

But God calls us to “pick up the phone.”  He tells us to open the email.  The resurrection is the power of our lives.  In Mark 16:2 the women got up “very early in the morning.”  When they arrived they found an angel sitting on the huge bolder which had “sealed” the tomb.  The stone wasn’t rolled away so Jesus could exit the tomb.  No.  It was rolled away so His disciples could enter.  Death is a comma, not a period!

The angel sitting on the stone (in Matthew’s account) was saying go in and look.  Pick up the phone.  Open the email!   Here are a few things that this message is telling us:

 

1:  The Resurrection gives Victory over our Past.

Sin is the thing that makes our lives “dead.”  Sin is missing God’s mark for our lives.  Sin is what separates us from God.  Sin is the mistakes we’ve made in the past.  It’s those things that haunt us; things we wish we could change.

But God doesn’t want us to carry our past around anymore.  Here’s what the email says about our past…
All quotations are from the New International Version

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.   Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.   But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.    We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.    He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished.  He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.   Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.   After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest. Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the one Israel praises. In you our ancestors put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them. To you they cried out and were saved; in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by everyone, despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads. “He trusts in the Lord,” they say, “let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.” Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast. From birth I was cast on you; from my mother’s womb you have been my God.

Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help. Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of Bashan encircle me. Roaring lions that tear their prey open their mouths wide against me. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted within me. My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death. Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me; they pierce my hands and my feet. All my bones are on display; people stare and gloat over me. They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.

This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

God sent His Son into the world to die on a cross for our sin and to provide a means for us to respond to Him  As we respond in faith we can have a BRAND NEW relationship with God.  This is the very essence of John 3:16… and 17:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.   For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Because of the resurrection, we can be assured that we are not condemned.  The sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus go hand and hand.  They are a single event, as Paul writes in Romans 4:35…

Jesus “was handed over to death for our trespasses AND was raised for our justification.”

Jesus’ death was the bridge which allows humanity to walk by faith to God.  The resurrection is God’s exclamation mark that Jesus bore the sins of humanity on the cross.  In 2 Corinthians 5:21 Paul tells us that He who knew no sin BECAME sin for each of us as He was nailed to the cross.

The good news in this email is that we are different because of the cross.  God is calling us to let go of the past and become big dreamers and see life with new eyes with daring possibility!  Our past mistakes, our sin- it’s all been deleted!

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Jeremiah 29:11

 

 2: The Resurrection of Jesus Provides Hope for the Future

Now there are a few verses in the Bible that can be troubling…

  • Hebrews 9:27    Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment…
  • Ecclesiastes 3:2   a time to be born and a time to die…

BUT- Jesus came so that we could have eternal life.  Yes, the physical body dies.  But our spiritual selves live on and on.  And if we’re in Christ, there is no judgment.

But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.
…and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength,  which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms…
When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others.
So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples.

Death is a comma; not a period!  The resurrection of Jesus affirms that death is not the end of life’s story, and eternal life is an experience people can enter NOW.  We can claim that hope today! In John 17:3 Jesus prays that “this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”  This gift of the Holy Spirit gives us hope for the future even as we begin to live our eternal lives in the present.  In Romans 8:38-39 Paul reminds us that NOTHING can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus… not even death.

Hope.  All fear is gone.

We will never fully realize our faith or enjoy the benefits of abundant living (John 10:10) by deleting God’s email.  The power of God that brought Jesus back to life is available to us IF we open the forwarded email.

 

3: The Resurrection of Jesus Provides Hope for the Present

John Wesley said that God’s power is not only for those who have died, but also in “preserving believers in their spiritual life.”  The resurrection allows us to reach out to Christ by faith and receive the strength we need to face any situation in our lives.

In the early church, one of the earliest expressions of worship to God was the use of the word Maranatha.  Maranatha means: “Our Lord Comes.”  This gives us confidence to know that God will be with us every moment of every day.  Pitman’s own C. Austin Miles had it right when he wrote, “He walks with me and tells me I am His own!”  All because of the resurrection.

Open the email!  Download the attachments!  When Christ comes into our lives through the door of the resurrection, here’s what we get:

The Gaither hymn, “Because He Lives” was spot on: 
“Because He lives I can face tomorrow.  Because He lives all fear is gone!”

 

The great resurrection hymn, “He Lives” proclaims:
Jesus is the hope of all who seek Him; the help of all who find.
None other is so loving, so good and kind.
He lives.  He lives.  Christ Jesus lives today!
You ask me how I know He lives?  He lives within my heart

Because Jesus lives, we can live life to the fullest.   Through the resurrection, Jesus removed the sting of the past, strengthens us in the struggles of the present, and will carry us past the fear of the future.

A father and son were traveling down a country road on an afternoon in the spring time when suddenly a bee flew in the window.  Being deathly allergic to bee stings, the boy began to panic as the bee buzzed all around inside the car. 

Seeing the horror on his child’s face,  the father reached out and caught the bee in his hand.  Soon, he opened his hand and the bee began to buzz around again. 

Again, the boy began to panic. The father reached over to his son, and opened his hand showing him the stinger still in his palm.  “Relax son,” the father said. “I took the sting.  The bee can’t hurt you anymore.”

There’s a message in your inbox…

fwd: I took the sting

Have you opened it?  As we consider the Easter story again, will you and I open our hearts to the message?  Jesus took the sting away; the sting of death, the fear of the future.  Our risen Lord replaced it with hope and purpose.  Open the email and allow the resurrection power of Jesus to be born in your heart anew.

Christ is Risen!!!

 

 Quiz Time!

As you reflect on what you’ve just heard/read, give this quiz a try.  If you don’t understand an answer (or if you disagree with the “correct” answer, post a comment)…

 

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To watch our Choir sing the Hallelujah Chorus and to see some pictures from our Easter 2015, Click Here.

 Click Here to view other sermons.

 

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