God Has the Last Word! (Pastor Charley)
I appreciate the simple wisdom of Winnie the Pooh. One day Pooh and Piglet were taking an evening walk. For a long time, they walk in silence. Silence like only best friends can share.
Finally, Piglet breaks the silence and asks, “When you wake up in the morning, Pooh, what’s the first thing you say to yourself?”
“What’s for breakfast?” answers Pooh and then asks. “And what do you say, Piglet?”
Piglet says, “I say, I wonder what exciting thing is going to happen today?”
When you woke up on this Easter day and prepared to come to worship, did you say that? You should have because Christians have not gathered on Easter Sunday for the last 2,000 years to shout, “The stock market has risen. It has risen indeed!” or “The dollar has risen. It has risen indeed!” We are not gathered to shout, “My business has risen. It has risen indeed!”
We are gathered today to proclaim that Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! That’s why the church worships on Sunday. Every Sunday is resurrection Sunday because the only hope that this world has been able to count on, the only hope that has kept this world together through wars, violence, terrorism, disease, and tragedy – the only hope that is real is Christ is Risen! Christ is alive!
Now, what does that mean exactly? Well, some think it means some kind of vague metaphor. That Christ really didn’t literally rise from the dead. But his memory is still alive. His teachings are still alive. The love that he taught us is still alive. And so some people see Easter as a symbol that the idea of Christ is alive – It is a nod to the power of the human spirit or the power of optimism.
If that is what you believe, that is fine. But there is one problem believing it – the existence of the church. You see, when Jesus got beat up, hung up, and shut up, the disciples scattered in fear. They were nowhere to be found. Peter denied him. Disciples abandoned him. The world had written him off as just another strange guru. Here is the issue – What caused a small group of anxious, frightened, confused, lost people 2,000 years ago to galvanize virtually overnight and change the course of human history?
Something revolutionary must have happened! They were not transformed overnight by a metaphor or symbol. They did not break down every ethnic and cultural barrier based on a metaphorical resurrection. They did not sacrifice land, property, possessions, reputation, vocations, and positions based on a symbol for optimism. They didn’t risk their lives because they believed in the memory of some obscure teacher from Nazareth. They did all these things because they believed that Christ is risen! They believed in their hearts it really happened! Otherwise how do you explain it?
They came to the tomb on Easter morning looking for a dead body, but were surprised by a risen Lord! They came to the tomb shuffling with hands in their pockets, mourning the painful loss of their Lord but they returned running and jumping, full of joy, shouting, “He is risen! He is risen!” They came that morning feeling the agony of defeat, but were surprised by the thrill of victory!
So, for the early followers of Christ it was not, “Well, he taught some good things. Let’s try to live by them. Well, let’s keep his memory alive. Well, let’s remember the good times we shared and remain positive!” No. It was, “Jesus is alive! He is alive! Don’t understand it, but he is alive. He is more alive than he has ever been before. Therefore, God has the last word!”
The question for today is: Do you believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ? Do you really believe Jesus is alive?
Mary Magdalene certainly believed. Earlier you heard the Easter story from the Gospel of John. And you heard that on that first Easter morning, Mary went to the tomb while it was still dark. Now most of us, when we picture that scene, we picture Mary coming to the tomb of Jesus at sunrise, but that’s not really what happened. When the Bible says “while it was still dark,” that literally means between the time of 3:00 AM and 6:00 AM. That means Mary went to the tomb of Jesus during the darkest hour.
And it truly was the darkest hour for her. Because you know what? Mary was marginalized in life. She had no hope, she had no peace. And yet Jesus came along and gave that to her. He gave her hope. He gave her an identity. He gave her peace. But then all of a sudden, they took her Lord away and they ridiculed him and they tortured him and they crucified him.
And all of Mary’s hopes and dreams shattered. And later in the text it says in John that she runs to the tomb to find the body of her Lord and yet it’s not there. And she runs into somebody she doesn’t recognize. Because it is so dark thinks she does not see that it’s Jesus. And what does Jesus say? What does Jesus do? Does he give some great statement of insight? Does he perform some great miracle? No. What does he say, you remember? In verse 16 Jesus says “Mary, Mary.”
On that first Easter morning during Mary’s darkest hour, Jesus called her by name. And I want you to hear that. I want you to hear that during this Easter Day because I know there are some of you are in the darkness and you think you will never see the light again. And I want you to know on this Easter Day that Jesus is alive and he comes alongside of you and he calls your name and says, “Don’t give up. I am alive and here to help you. The worst thing is never the last thing.”
One thing I have learned about Jesus is that he does his greatest work in the dark.
So, maybe you can entertain the fact that it might be true. Well, the only way this faith of ours can make any difference to you is by opening your heart to the risen Christ. We come to the faith heart first, not head first.
I have a colleague who knew of a lady in his church who believed in the idea of God, but she was a real intellectual couldn’t bring herself to believe in God. And so she read everything she could about Jesus and theology and the church and church history. She filled her mind with all this knowledge but still couldn’t make the commitment. She realized that her problem wasn’t a lack of information or knowledge and she was stuck.
Well it just so happened that around this time she was really struggling with
Alcoholism. Someone invited her to an AA meeting and on that particular day they were going over step two of the 12 steps which is, “I came to believe in a power greater than me that could restore me to sanity.” At that AA meeting she had a moment of clarity and she realized “I’ve been trying to beat this on my own. I’ve been trying to win in life on my own willpower. I’ve been trying to push my way through life on my own strength. It’s not working.”
The next day she was sitting in her kitchen looking out at her living
room and there was a threshold going into her living room. She said “I
need to surrender because I can’t do this anymore. I can’t do this on my own
strength. I can’t do this on my own power. So, Lord, if it’s going to take your
power and not mine to get over this addiction. If it’s going to take your
power to get through my life, then then when I cross that threshold into my
living room I will surrender. I will give it all to you. I’m going to do it. And so she got up and walked across that threshold. From that moment on she yielded to the power of Jesus Christ in her life. She became sober. And, to this day, she’s still sober.
Have you ever taken that step? If you haven’t, there is no time like the present! And there is no better day than Easter day because this is the message of Easter: Resurrection power comes not to those who put their hope in something, but to those who put their hope in someone: Jesus Christ. And believe me, it’s real, because I’ve experienced that resurrection power in my life and it’s helped me overcome darkness. It’s helped me overcome pain. It’s helped me overcome discouragement and darkness.
Only the love and power of Christ can truly provide what you need. That’s why some of you still have that yearning and hungering in your heart. You have tried power, money, success, toys, escapades and it hasn’t satisfied. The reason why you’re still hungry is that “we have a God shaped void in all of us that only God can fill.” You have been made to be in relationship with Jesus. Only Jesus can fill that void in your life.
There was an engineer about a century ago with General Electric by the name of Charles Steinmetz. He was a genius. He knew every detail of every part of every machine that they operated in those days, and when he retired, when he left, they were sometimes clueless about what to do when things broke down because they depended on him so heavily.
They had a malfunction one time that nobody could solve and they had to call him in from retirement. He looked at the machine for about five minutes, took out a piece of chalk, marked an ‘X’ on the defective part so that they could replace it and went home. Five days later they got a bill from Charles Steinmetz for $20,000. That was a lot of money for five minutes of work, so they asked him to itemize it. They thought that might get him. So, a few days later he sent them back a bill with two items:
Making a chalk mark…$1.
Knowing where to put it…$19,999.
Who do you call when your life breaks down? Who do you call when your marriage is falling apart? Who do you call when you mess up? Who do you call when you betray your values? Who do you call when you act out in anger in a way that embarrasses you and your family? Who do you call when you get greedy and it destroys your business? Who do you call when you get hooked on an addiction that ends in humiliation? Who do you call when you face a decision that will affect your integrity and the rest of your life? Who do you call? You call Jesus. He is the only one who knows why and where you are broken and he knows how to fix you.
Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” In other words, Jesus is saying, “If you trust me and put your life in my hands I will empower you to face your life unafraid. I will bring you joy no matter your circumstances. I will guide you. I will give you purpose. I will turn your ordinary life into an extraordinary life. And I will give you life in the midst of death.”
But maybe some of you are thinking, “Well, Charlie, I’ve heard those words all my life. Trust in Jesus. Believe in Jesus. Trust in Jesus. Believe in Jesus. What does that mean?” Well, this morning, this Easter Day, I’m going to share with you what that means, what it truly means, and it just may change your life. Usually when the Bible shows that phrase or those words, trust in, believe men, this is literally what it means: To lean your whole weight upon.
Have you ever been so tired that you just leaned on something? Have you ever been so tired of standing that you just sat in a chair and you leaned back? That’s trusting in that chair, that’s trusting in that wall. Well, that’s what the Bible means. When you trust in and believe in Jesus, you are putting your whole weight, you are leaning your whole weight, upon Jesus Christ. And when you truly do that, when you surrender your weight to Jesus Christ, that’s when you experience the resurrection power of Easter. That’s when things begin to change. That’s when the light begins to shine in the darkness.
I know many of you need that. Some of you need to do that because you’ve been carrying so much weight for so long, you’ve been carrying that heartache and that guilt and that resentment and that bitterness on your own for too long. And it’s time for you to just give it up and lean all your weight on Jesus Christ. Because when you do that, when you finally lean your weight upon Jesus Christ, you will find your darkness begin to fade and hope rising in your heart and strength in your spirit.
A church in Bangladesh was showing a film about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus to an audience filled with people who had never heard the gospel before. Little children sat in front and in the aisles. The adults stood in the back. As the story of Jesus’ crucifixion unfolded and Jesus’ broken body was laid in the tomb, there were tears and audible gasps. As the affected audience watched, one young boy suddenly spoke up. “Don’t be afraid,” the little boy said. “He gets up again! I saw it before.”
Kids have a way of telling like it is in profound ways. I love the story my colleague tells of driving his five-year-old son past a local cemetery. Noticing a large pile of dirt beside a newly excavated grave, the boy pointed and said: “Look, Dad, one got out!”
My colleague laughed at the time. But, he says, “Every time I pass a graveyard, I’m reminded of the One who got out.”
Jesus did get out of that grave. And because he got out of that grave he can resurrect your life. He can pull you out of your pit. Just trust him. Just take his hand because he has the last word. And this I know for the Bible tells me so.