April 28, 2019                                                                              Text:  Revelation 1:4-18

Dear Friends in Christ,

            It is that time of year when different media outlets try to question who Jesus is, what He did and if He was really resurrected.  A few shows I saw just this past week were “The Real Jesus of Nazareth” and “The Lost Years of Jesus.”  With church attendance going down and down at least they are still talking about the Savior.  The debate continues to prove that the Lord is alive and well. 

            The disciples’ witness of Acts 5 proves that even under threat of death and prison they could not stop telling what God had done.  Peter and the apostles answered the authorities with this, “We must obey God rather than men.  The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree.  God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior…we are witnesses to these things.”

            Today with John’s Book of Revelation as our backdrop we take comfort in knowing that Jesus is . . .

“ALIVE FOREVERMORE!”

            Some 60 years after the witness of the apostles only John still remained alive.  Almost 100 years old he was exiled to the island of Patmos because of his testimony about Jesus.  Here is a portion of our text:

            “Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.  To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood . . . ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.’” (v. 5 & 8)

            Why does the world have such a hard time believing the resurrection even after all the eyewitness accounts?  Because people know that the resurrection of Jesus calls for repentance.  They don’t want to admit or recognize that someone died in their place or had to die in their place.  They don’t need Jesus and feel like they are doing o.k. on their own.

            What about us?  We too would like to think sometimes that we are o.k. on our own.  I can handle this.  I can take care of this.  Is it a family problem?  A health problem?  A recurring sin problem?  We have experience and know that this type of thinking just makes things worse.  We need the One who has freed us from our sins.  We need the One who is the Alpha and the Omega.  Like our culture we can’t fit Jesus into a box of our own thinking.  We can’t reduce Him to a category we can explain.  The Jesus of Scripture will not allow Himself to be limited by us.

            The apostolic witness is clear:  Jesus bodily rose from the dead.  That fact supersedes everything.  When John saw him, he said, “I fell at his feet though dead.  But he laid his right hand on me, saying, ‘Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one.  I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.’” (v. 17-18)

            Have you ever had the opportunity to watch a funeral director crank shut the lid of a casket?  Jesus has the key that opens every casket.  He will speak, “Come out of there.”  We will rise, just as He said. 

            Yes, we die a real death.  Jesus also truly died – no one took His place.  He rose from the dead and is alive forevermore.  He will raise us and give us life that never ends.

            What proofs do we have of this resurrection?  The continued existence of the Christian Church for over 2,000 years.  The apostles who were martyred for their faith.  The eyewitnesses who touched him, saw him, ate with him.  It is a matter of public record that the grave was empty (Matt. 28:11-15).  No one went looking for the body.  None of the disciples ever changed their testimony.  Saul the persecutor was turned into Paul the Preacher.  The explosive growth of Christianity in the face of constant opposition.

            There is another reason and it is what we are doing right now.  Gathering for worship on a Sunday.  For centuries, Jewish believers gathered on the Sabbath, on Saturday.  Suddenly and without turning back, Jewish believers in Jesus began to worship on Sunday – the Lord’s Day.  What changed their deeply held practice?  Only something as fundamental as a real Sunday-morning resurrection from the dead.  Also, as we gather on Sunday believers for 2,000 years have been acting on the Lord’s command, “Do this in remembrance of Me.”  You and I join today that long line of believers who trust that behind forms of bread and wine there will stand, by the power of His Word, the living Lord Jesus Christ, giving us His body and blood.

            As the Church of Jesus Christ continues to be persecuted around the world and close to home we hear our Lord’s Words:  “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one.  I died, and I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and hell.”  In the name of this Jesus.

                                                                        Amen.