Praise the Lord it is Friday, and Sunday is coming. Those who live in the area
join us this evening for our Friday Evening Television outreach at 7 PM on Time
Warner Cable channel 4. I have been reflecting on our Lord's faithfulness and
tender mercies towards me in my walk with Him. I trusted Christ as a young boy
at the age 4. I started preaching and teaching at the age 16. It is almost 49
years since then.
Everything must be embodied in the essence of
the resurrection of Jesus Christ and its implications for us.
I've been
thinking back through these 49 years of ministry, particularly the
previous Easter sermons I've preached. The resurrection of Jesus Christ equips us
to face the two biggest fears in the world: the fear of dying and the fear of
living.
One
of the most important facts of the Christian faith is the bodily resurrection of
Jesus Christ. The Bible says that Jesus took upon Himself our sins
and the sins of the world. He died. He rose from the dead. Following the
resurrection, during a six-week period of time, He appeared to more than 500
people. The very existence of the Christian church bears witness to the fact
something happened to transform a broken, beaten group of losers into men and
women who gave their lives for Jesus Christ, of whom they witnessed in His
resurrection power. Every Sunday bears its own witness to the living
Christ. That's why we no longer worship on the seventh day, the Sabbath. The
first day is the day of resurrection. This is the Lord's Day. Jesus Himself
said in His revelation to John: "‘Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last,
and the living one. I was dead, and see, I am alive forever and ever; and I
have the keys of Death and of Hades'" (Rev.
1:17-18).
More
than all the factual data we could muster in our endeavor to prove the literal
resurrection of Jesus Christ is the fact He, right now, is in the business of
changing lives. He is equipping people to die. He is equipping people to
live. His words are borne out so beautifully. He said: "I am the resurrection and the
life. Those who believe in Me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who
lives and believes in Me will never die" (John
11:25-26). Then Jesus added the penetrating question, "Do you
believe this?"
The
apostle Paul was overwhelmed with the significance of the resurrection. His
position is that if it is only for this life we have hope in Jesus Christ, we
are (of all people) most to be pitied. The Christian faith is not
self-delusional nonsense. It is the rugged, tough stuff of being equipped to
live in this life, to die, and to step into the presence of Jesus Christ, into a
life that goes far beyond anything we know in this life. Our Christianity is
not just a temporal, ethical system that helps us survive in this world. The
fact is Jesus Christ is risen. It makes a tremendous difference!
We are
only equipped to live when we are prepared to die. The apostle Paul referred to
Jesus as being "the first fruits of them that are dead." His resurrection
stands as evidence that life does not end with death. Christ is Victor.
"But
we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have
died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we
believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring
with him those who have died" (1 Thessalonians
4:13-14). If we believe these words we know that
the
Christian need not be bogged down with sorrow as those who have no
hope. The fact is that the Christian is one who is
prepared to die and to live. The apostle Paul wrestled with this as he
struggled with his own desire to die to be with Jesus, and on the other hand to
remain here to serve his Lord. How does the resurrection of Jesus equip you and me
to live?
Somebody aptly described his life before he came to Jesus Christ as one in
which, "I was going around in circles, circles of emptiness, with me at the
center!" I am convinced, however, that Jesus Christ is the
missing piece in the puzzle called life. Without Him, we almost can get it back
together, but then it shatters into the confusion of a million pieces. Jesus
said, "‘I am come that you might have life and have it more
abundantly.'"
Dr.
N. T. Wright, the former Bishop of Durham, warns that in our preaching of the
resurrection of Jesus Christ, we should not focus simply on God's forgiveness in
this life and heaven in the life to come. Salvation by grace not by works was
the important theological truth that brought about the Protestant Reformation,
but we live in danger of putting so much of a concentration on God's grace that
we forget we are saved for a purpose. We are called to a joint enterprise with God
in building His kingdom here on earth. Instead of clutching a one-way ticket to
heaven, which is ours, we are privileged to be empowered by His Holy Spirit to
change in positive ways the culture in which we live. The resurrected Christ
could translate us straight to heaven after we repent and receive His grace. He
doesn't. He makes us His emissaries, His ambassadors here on earth to do His
work in the most creative ways possible.
We
don't earn salvation by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, or giving a
glass of clean, cold water to a thirsty person. Visiting prisoners, taking care
of the widowed and orphaned, or telling people Jesus loves them and inviting
them to receive His salvation is the work of Kingdom people. This is our
privilege. This is our opportunity. Each one of us needs a job, and He's given
us the greatest job of all.
Bishop Wright reminds us that as we come to
faith in Jesus Christ, we have a big job to do. In his book Surprised
by Hope, he tells us that we have three specific tasks as we build
the kingdom of God here on earth. We are to see beyond our own vested selfish
interests. In the interest of others, we must engage ourselves in justice for
all people, not just for ourselves. He describes the tremendous social reforms
brought about by the 18th century Quaker John Woolman and the British
Parliamentarian William Wilberforce. We need more stories of that nature and
scope today. We must dedicate ourselves to evangelism, sharing
the good news of what God has done for us through the life, death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is not something to selfishly hold on to and
not share.
He
put it in these words: "The mission of the church must therefore reflect,
and be shaped by, the future hope as the New Testament presents it. I believe
that if we take these three areas—justice, beauty and evangelism—in terms of the
anticipation of God's eventual setting to rights of the whole world, we will
find that they dovetail together and in fact that they are all part of the same
larger whole, which is the message of hope and new life that comes with the good
news of Jesus' resurrection."
People whom I have admired the most are the ones
who never expected to retire in the classical terms of retirement. Oh yes,
there are stages to life, but one knows he or she was created to be a servant of
Jesus, always participating in building the kingdom of God—in this life and the
life to come. What a joy to know that because of His resurrection
we can face the two biggest fears in the world: the fear of dying and the fear
of living!
In
Christ,
Brown
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