God's Faithfulness Gives Life!
Easter 2019 • Sermon • Submitted
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· 4 viewsJesus' rising to life demonstrates that all God's promises are true. Not only are we assured of everlasting life, we experience that life now, as skepticism is replaced with faith in action.
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Have you ever heard a story that seemed too good to be true? How about this:
God creates the universe. He fills it with stars, planets, galaxies, animals, and people. He creates people with the unique capability to reason, behave, and love like the creator. He created them in his own image..
But God’s people rebel against him. They chose to listen to the enemy instead of the creator. They chose to listen to their own wisdom, rather than the creator’s wisdom.
It would be like creating a beautiful vase and having the vase say, “I’m not a vase, I’m a baseball bat.” Humanity’s choice to rebel against God was as destructive.
The result was a total turning away from God.
God is God. He’s the creator. He could have wiped out humanity right away. Like a potter who isn’t happy with the vase she created, who chooses to destroy it and start over.
But God chose not to. He chose to create a way to redeem, to restore, to resurrect humanity. God chose to save the people he made. Make no mistake, he didn’t have to, he chose to.
And the way he chose!
God chose to enter his creation. The creator took on the created. Jesus is God. Jesus is like an artist who became part of his painting, painting himself into the canvas!
Jesus Christ took on humanity. He did this in order to be able to pay for the sin, the rebellion of humanity. Being fully God, he was able to pay for the sins of the whole world! Being fully human, his sacrifice in place of others was accepted.
Being
The proof, the proof is in the events that happened on this day, nearly 2000 years ago!
This story indeed does sound too good to be true. After three days in a grave, the tomb is empty. None of the disciples expected it.
And that’s where this story rings so true. Jesus had told them what to expect. The angels in our text reminded the women, “Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful me, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’” Then they remembered.
We can’t blame them. These women, intending to do a good deed, went to the tomb to finish preparing Jesus’ body. That this was utterly unnecessary didn’t even enter their minds. They simply believed he was dead. They expected to find his body there.
But then they remembered his words. Jesus said he would die. Jesus said that he would pay for our sins.
This story rings true. A revisionist history would have changed things. For sure, men would have gone to the tomb first—full of belief in finding it empty. For sure, women wouldn’t be given such an honour, not in those days, when a woman’s testimony wasn’t even accepted in court.
The disciples disbelief, would have been changed into a sure faith. The very way it is written tells us that this account is true.
The disciples didn’t believe the women. They thought their words were nonsense. They were the experts. They had been with Jesus from the beginning. They were chosen by Jesus himself. Surely they knew better.
It’s true, isn’t it? Their story seems like nonsense. The empty tomb. The angels. The story that Jesus is alive! Why look for the living among the dead? Jesus is alive!
But Peter, Peter had to go for himself. He ran to the tomb and found it empty. The women were right, of course. What did it mean?
What of the guilt he’d been feeling since the rooster crowed? What of the grief? What of the fear? What would Jesus say when he saw Peter?
So now the disciples started putting it all together. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Jesus calmed the storm. Jesus healed people. Jesus fed thousands. Jesus forgave a man his sins.
Jesus is who he said he is. Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah!
They knew, they were starting to understand. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. Jesus is the resurrection and the life.
So. Today is Easter Sunday. Today is the day Christians all over the world celebrate the resurrection of Jesus from Nazareth, Jesus the Messiah.
Jesus conquered death! Jesus fully paid for all sin. Jesus freely offers forgiveness to everyone. Will you accept it?
On Good Friday, when Jesus was dying on the cross, being crucified between two criminals, he did something that no one had ever done before. He prayed, “Father forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing.”
The two criminals with him heard his prayer. One mocked him. “If you are who everyone says you are, why don’t you save yourself and save me while you’re at it?”
Those are familiar words, aren’t they? Have you ever said to God, “God, if you just do this or that, then I’ll trust you, I’ll believe in you, I’ll give my life to you.” The first criminal was only seeking to escape his situation. He didn’t consider why he was where he was.
The second criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you get it? We deserve what we’re getting. This man doesn’t. He’s totally innocent. Jesus, remember me when you enter your kingdom.”
Two people. One short sermon, one short message. They both heard it. But their response, as Alistair Begg points out in his sermon on that passage, their response is very different. One looked to God for an advantage, for something he could get out of it.
The other looked to God for forgiveness. He didn’t need God to get him out of what he was in. It was enough to know and receive Christ.
So let me ask you, which criminal are you? Which criminal am I? Lots of times, I’m the first one. How about you?
But we don’t have to stay there. Christ offers his grace to all. A part of me hopes that the first criminal listened to the other’s testimony and said, “You’re right, I do deserve this punishment. I have no claim on anything, no claim on you Jesus. Please also remember me.”
If you are here this morning, and you’re aware that you’ve sinned, you’ve done wrong. You are guilty.
Then come to the Saviour. See the risen Lord! See that he’s offering you forgiveness, true life! He’s offering you real life! It does sound too good to be true, doesn’t it? But it is really, truly, true!
We think that getting what we want, that doing what we want, living without responsibility, without consequence, without cares is true life. But it isn’t. Try it. You’ll quickly find out that it is always empty.
Real life, true life is the life Christ offers to you today. Today you will be with me! Today, trust me. Today you will live, really live!
Trust in Jesus. He is alive. He will make you really, truly alive! Are you ready?
The Apostle Paul put it this way, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (). Christ lives in you! Lay down your claim to live by your own wisdom. Lay down your fooliosh notions that you’re smart enough, good enough to figure things out on your own. Turn your back on such thinking, crucify it with Christ, stop seeing it as having any value at all, it doesn’t it is faulty. Instead, live by faith in the Son of God.
He may not pull you out of the circumstances you’re in. Paul experienced beatings, lashes, stoning, shipwrecks and imprisonment. And yet, through it all, he rejoiced! He had Christ in him! He had true life coursing through his veins!
What is true for Paul is true for you, true for me. The true life of Christ flows through the veins of those who trust in Jesus, who believe he is alive, he paid for sin, he gives true life.
Ask Jesus to fill your life, in the comings and goings, in the dull days, and the brightest moments, all of it, changing diapers, pulling weeds, teaching, living, going, all of it, filled with Christ, full of praise! Amen.
This story is true