Sermon Outline For Easter Sunday, April 8, 2012
Focus Text: John 20:1-18
Summary
To the divine
mystery of life and death, Easter proclaims two sacred truths.
· 1. Jesus who was crucified, dead and
buried rose from the dead.
· 2. All those "in Christ" shall
also rise and inherit the gift of eternity in the Kingdom of God. In the words of Wesley's great Easter
hymn: "Made like Him, like
Him we rise!"
In the
resurrection, we have far more than a story about how a person named Jesus who
managed to somehow defeat death. The
resurrection of Jesus was the beginning of a whole new creation. It was
the advent of a process by which God would renew all creation. The gracious gift of a new creation or
as N. T. Wright puts it "God setting things to right" is a gift of
pure love from our Creation who through Jesus expressed His love
perfectly.
As we have
been loved and made in the very image of Christ, so we are called to love.
· What
we do in this world matters to God and every act of love will be caught up in
His new creation.
· In
this new world God will bring, heaven and earth will be interlocked and one
with each other. In this way, the
will of God in heaven will be done on earth as well.
· Christ
is risen and a new world has been come into being!
· Thanks
be to God!
___________________________________________
1 Praise the LORD. Give
thanks to the LORD,
for he is good; his love endures forever.
Psalm 106
for he is good; his love endures forever.
Psalm 106
It was just before the
Passover Feast.
Jesus knew that the time had come
for him to leave this world and go to the Father.
Having loved his own who were in the world,
he now showed them the full extent of his love.
Jesus knew that the time had come
for him to leave this world and go to the Father.
Having loved his own who were in the world,
he now showed them the full extent of his love.
John 13:1 / NIV
Faith, hope and love
abide
but the greatest of these is LOVE!
1 Corinthians 13
but the greatest of these is LOVE!
1 Corinthians 13
What we love remains, the
rest is dross.
Ezra
Pound
______________________________
I. The
Question - The Divine Mystery of Life and Death
· Every
day of our lives we are confronted with a divine mystery.
·
We live knowing that we will die.
Knowing that we will die, we wonder what life is all about? How can we
find meaning in our daily existence?
What can we hope for beyond the reality of things we can touch, and see,
and smell?
II.
The Skeptics Answer
· The
skeptics around us, as well as the skeptic that remains within us, says that
death is the end of life.
· The
skeptic says there is nothing beyond the grave. In the words of William
Shakespeare,in his play, As You Like It:
o All
the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players. They have their
exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts
being seven ages. second childishness and mere oblivion,Sans teeth, sans eyes,
sans taste, sans everything.
III.
The Resurrection's Invitation
· The
Resurrection of Jesus invites us to consider the mystery of life and death and
gives us an answer in the form of a Divine - Human Savior who showed us the way
to live now and for all eternity!
· Easter
sings:
o Christ
the Lord is Risen Today! Alleluia!
o Up
from the grave he arose ALLELUIA!
o The
tomb is empty! ALLELUIA!
o Death
could not hold our Savior and it cannot hold us! ALLELUIA!
IV.
The Twofold Answer: In
response to the mystery of life and death, Easter proclaims two essential
truths.
·
1. The First Claim of Easter: Jesus Christ Rose From the Dead!
o
We claim that Jesus Christ who walked this earth as a
flesh and blood human being was crucified dead and buried and on the third day
rose from the dead!
o We
believe that somehow, some way, beyond human understanding the body of Christ
was TRANSFORMED and this dead Messiah broke the chains of death. Jesus Christ came out of a tomb sealed
with a stone that weighted a ton or more. [Note: This resurrection was not the reanimation of
a dead body but the transformation of a physical body into a new and glorified body. (N. T. Wright)
o This
is an amazing claim. To the skeptics of this world, it is an outrageous
claim. It is a claim made by no
other religion.
o It
was a miracle difficult to believe even for the first disciples of Jesus!
· In
Mark's version of the story, Mary and
Salome are filled with terror and fear when they found the tomb empty. What they are feeling is a mixture of
terror and joy. Deep down in their
hearts something tells the world will never be the same again!
o Mark
16:8: So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and
amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were
afraid.
· In
Luke's version of the story when the women
share the news of the empty tomb and the news of the Resurrection with the
disciples. The disciples don't believe them. They take their story to be
nonsense!
o Luke
24:9-12: 9When they came back from the tomb, they told all these
things to the Eleven and to all the others. 10It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna,
Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the
apostles. 11But they did not believe the women, because their words
seemed to them like nonsense. 12Peter,
however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen
lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.
· In
Matthew, the disciples have trouble
believing what they are Seeing:
o Matthew
28: 16-17: 16Then the eleven disciples went to
Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17When they saw him,
they worshiped him; but some doubted
· In
John's Gospel, we find Mary weeping in the
Garden thinking the Romans or perhaps the Temple authorities with the help of
the Romans have take Jesus Body and hid it to add insult to their injuries!
· As
the story unfolds and the disciples experience the presence of the Risen Lord
the disciples they come to now the truth!
JESUS CHRIST IS
ALIVE! DEATH COULD NOT HOLD HIM!
V.
ANOTHER QUESTION: How
was death conquered in Jesus Christ? How did he escape the tomb? How did Jesus
transform oblivion to Resurrection?
·
Here even the most
devout will ask: How? How was that
transformation . . . this resurrection from the dead accomplished?
o Note; There are many theories regarding this
mystery. The biblical scholar, N.
T. Wright concludes from the biblical
sources that the resurrection of Jesus was not the reanimation of a dead body
but the transformation of his physical body into a new, glorified body!
·
Jesus was
resurrectioned by the same force
that game him birth, and by the very same force by which the miracles were
performed, and by the same amazing force that raised Lazareth and Jairus's
daugher!
·
THE ANSWER: It was the irrestible force of God's
love that did it! It was holy,
divine, eternal, steadfast, all-powerful love that crushed death on that day so
long ago.
·
Ages before the Psalmist
wrote over and over again:
o Praise the LORD! Give thanks to the
LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. Who can proclaim the
mighty acts of the LORD or fully declare his praise? Blessed are they who maintain justice, who constantly do
what is right Psalm 103:1-3
o The
Apostle Paul wrote: Faith,
hope, and love abide, but the greatest of these is Love!
·
Our faith may falter. Our beliefs and doctrines may fail us. In the face
of death, mere words are never enough. They fall on deaf hears and closed
minds.
·
Hope may fail us. We fight old
age. We fight disease. We deny the reality that this body of ours was never
designed to endure eternity. In the wake of loved ones lost . . .in the
weakness of the flesh, hope often fails us.
·
All will past away
but love. Only LOVE ABIDES! True
love never dies!
o It
was love that caused Jesus to proclaim the Good News of God's Kingdom!
o It
was love that moved him to weep over Jerusalem!
o It
was for love that Jesus allowed his own heart to be crushed for our sake.
o It
was love that drove him to the Cross!
o It
was for the sake of love, that his blood was shed!
o He
did it all for Love! Jesus knew that true love never dies.
· Jesus
knew that God is Love! He knew that the Eternal Love of God would pour down on
his broken and dead body and TRANSFORM IT AND RAISE IT UP TO ETERNITY!
III.
THE SECOND CLAIM OF EASTER: Made like Him, Like Him We Rise!
· Easter
makes another radical, outragious claim. This claim is beyond human
comprehension as well.
· We
say that since God is Love and he raised Jesus that we too will share in
the joy of Resurrection!
· Charles
Wesley in his great Easter Hymn put it this way:
o Soar
we now where Christ has led, Alleluia!
o Following
our exalted Head, Alleluia!
o Made
like him, like him we rise, Alleluia!
o
Ours the cross,
the grave, the skies, Alleluia!
· If
resurrection is not a story about a prophet named, Jesus, who died and came
back to life. If this was the
case, easter would be nothing more than a cosmic joke pulled on humankind, a
cruel demonstration of God's Absolute Authority in this life. It would provide little comfort to the
dying! Actions taken without
love are always cruel.
· The
truth here is that the resurrection of Jesus is not merely the a story of one
man who some how, some way escapted death.
· The
Easter story proclaims that since Jesus was raised, we shall all share in the
mystery of the resurrection. The New Testaments writers tell us
that in Jesus we are witness to the birth of a whole new creation.
· In
Jesus, we see that God will, in the end, make all things new.
· When
the stone was rolled away and the body of Jesus raised, the power of death
crumbled.
· When
Jesus rose from the dead, the power of Rome crumbled as well. In Jesus
resurrection we see that in the end, the power of every despotic ruler will be
destroyed. God's grace and love will . . . in the end . . .
sweep away the manifold sins of humankind with its greed, hatred, bigotry,
& self-centered skeems.
· In
the end all creation will be renewed and the realm of heaven and the realm of
earth will be locked together as God's Kingdom breaks forth in all its fullness
and glory!
· Notice
here that we don't go to heaven!
Heaven comes to us!
o Heaven
is God's gift to give It is not
something we can be good enought to earn.
God gives us life now. He sustains our life now and desires that our
life on earth be filled with joy.
o The
New Testament also tellus that we do in this present time on earth has meaning
and purpose.
· N.T
Wright's Example:
o Let
me share with you the thoughts of N. T. Wright regarding just how our actions made a difference in God's grand design. . We do not build the Kingdom of God. Only God can bring forth his Kingdom
and the glorious joy of heaven. The Master's design is far to massive and
complex for any of us to fully understand. It remains a mystery to us.
o We
do, however, work for the master architect! Every
act of love we perform in the name of our Savior, becomes an eternal part of
his grand design.
o In
the end, no loving act is lost or meaningless. It is simpy taken up into God's
Divine Design What we do matters
to God and is of cosmic significance. Evil acts bring hurt and sorrow. Love
brings joy and it is love that is eternal, Love never dies!
VI.
What do you remember and treasure about your loved one's who have died?
What gifts from others do you remember the most? What gifts were the most
enduring and transforming?
·
In their section entitled "A Nation
Challenged," from September 18, 2001 to the last day of December that
year, the New York Times published 1800 obituaries of men and women who died on
9/11. We are accustomed to reading obituaries of the famous and infamous. These
were ordinary people, their lives both as alike and as unique as fingerprints.
In our heightened appreciation for life’s preciousness and fragility, reading
these obituaries we pondered our own. And what stood out? Do you remember?
Not worldly success. Not the list of noted accomplishments that appear to give
weight to more famous people’s lives. In almost every instance, what stood out
was love given and received. (From the
sermon, LOVE AFTER DEATH, by Forrest Church, Easter Sunday, April 20, 2003)
Below you will find a few examples from those published.
· Cora
Hidalgo Holland: "I loved my mother’s hands, her extensions of
her soul," Nate Holland, now 19, said in eulogizing his mother. . .
"She had hands like silken clay, forever soft and always warm. When I was
a child she would tuck me into bed and run them through my hair as we talked
until I could talk no more. I would drift into sleep as her fingers floated
across my scalp. The second that she withdrew her hand I would awaken, her
rhythmic lullaby ending, but I would still pretend to be asleep."
· Christopher C. Amoroso: The other night, after Sophia Rose
Amoroso had her bath, she looked at her tiny hands, wrinkled from the bath
water, and told her mother, Jaime, "I have Daddy’s fingers." . . .
She will [also] always have the letter (her daddy) he wrote her when she was 10
weeks old: "Sometimes it makes me cry, as I am overwhelmed by the joy I’ve
been given by you and your mother. I want you to know that I consider myself
the luckiest man to ever walk the face of this earth. If anything were to
happen to me, I could honestly say I’ve known true love and happiness in my
life."
· Cynthia
Motus-Wilson: "She was very caring,"
Mr. Wilson said. "A small woman, five-foot nothing. But a heart bigger
than Alaska." . . . After her death, [her son and daughter] found a loving
note from their mother attached to a life insurance policy and adorned with a
drawing of a smiling face. She had highlighted her request that the two take
care of each other.You see what it’s all about, don’t you. It’s all about love. And love doesn’t die.
· Firefighter Michael Cammarata, left a letter of instructions for his brother to be
opened in case of death. "No 1 on the list: ‘Take care of Jenna,’
(referring to his girlfriend of seven years.’ No. 2: ‘Don’t mourn me. This is
the career I chose.’ No. 3: ‘Make my spirit live on.’"
V.
PRIMARY POINT: LOVE
LIVES! TRUE LOVE NEVER DIES!
· Again
I ask: How can we live forever in the glory of heaven?
· Jesus'
Answer: Love!
· Matthew
25: 34-35: 34“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you
who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for
you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me
something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a
stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was
sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
· The
Greatest Commandment: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and
soul and mind and strength and your neighbor as your self!
· Perfect
Religion - James 1:27: Religion that God our Father accepts
as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their
distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
CONCLUSION
·
Today, you are thinking of friends and relatives that
have gone on before you. You
remember many things about them but the love they shared with you makes you
smile, gives your life meaning, and makes you whole again!
· Easter
proclaims: They will live
again! They will share the glory
of the the communion of saints in the glory of heaven! Jesus' gift of his life was a witness to the power of God's gracious love for his creation. At the same time, it revealed how powerful love given and love received by earthly humans can be.
(Note: I am aware of the different understandings of the doctrine of atonement. A full discussion of this topic have to wait for another time. For now I will simply say that Jesus' death revealed the depth of God's love for us and all of creation. It revealed just how far God was willing to go to redeem us At the same time, the resurrection revealed God's desire to redeem his whole creation. Jesus death was not to cool God's anger and move him not to destroy us. God have that option a consideration all the way back in the Book of Genesis and decided against it! Our sins bring enough pain and sorrow into the world without the need for God to step in and make that sorrow eternal. If God is pure love, then the death of Jesus revealed both the horror of our sin and the amazing grace and love of God. That should be enough to endear me to some and invoke the wrath of others on this subject)
· Jesus was Resurrected to Eternal Life and through him
that gift is offered to us all - because TRUE LOVE NEVER DIES!
·
IF YOU WANT TO LIVE FOREVER, IF WE WANT TO BE
"GLORY BOUND" THEN WE MUST LOVE WITH ALL YOUR HEART, BODY, MIND, SOUL
AND STRENGTH. IN THIS WAY THE
SPIRIT WILL TRANSFORM OUR LIVES
AND YOU WILL BE "MADE LIKE CHIRST," AND MADE LIKE HIM YOU TOO
SHALL RISE TO NEW AND ETERNAL LIFE WITH CHIRST!
· THIS
LOVE WILL TRANSFORM ALL OF CREATION AND ALL THINGS WILL BE MADE NEW!
1 John 4:7-18
8Whoever does not love
does not know God, because God is love.
9This is how God showed his love among
us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as
an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we
also ought to love one another.
12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one
another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
13We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his
Spirit.
14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be
the Savior of the world.
15If
anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in
God. 16And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.God is love. Whoever
lives in love lives in God, and God in him.
17In this way, love is made
complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment,
because in this world we are like him.
18There is no fear in love. But perfect
love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears
is not made perfect in love.
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