April 24, 2022                                    Text:  Revelation 1:4-18

Dear Friends in Christ,

    We just finished last Sunday our Lenten themed sermons, services and Bible studies on “Witnesses For Christ.”  I heard many positive comments on the series.  A recurring theme came from many of your comments.  “I never knew that.”  “I did not know it occurred that way.”  “That was fresh insight into what I had always thought.”  That is the beauty of God’s Word.  This side of heaven we are always learning.  

    Today we pray that continues.  You are here because you believe in the resurrection.  You don’t need all the reminders of the proofs but how about a little review?  Jesus’ death was not private.  It could not have been faked.  Hundreds of eyewitnesses saw his death.  If the story were “made up” women would not have been the first at the tomb.  This didn’t fit the culture of the time.  Others then saw him, ate with him, walked with him.  Would all the disciples doubt just to “fool people?”  What changed these men from fright to bold confessors in a matter of days?  None of the disciples ever changed their testimony even in the face of death.  The explosive growth of Christianity in the face of opposition.  The sudden switch by Jewish believers to worship on Sunday instead of Saturday.  

    Those are all things you have maybe heard over the years, but what about this question?  What happened to the guards at the grave?  Humm.  Run away?  Disappear?  Join the witness protection program?  Matthew tells us in chapter 28, verse 11, something we quite often forget.  “While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place.”  They too had witnessed the resurrection!  But they were paid, told to lie that the body had been stolen and the lie continues to this day.

    How do you see it?  What shall we do and . . .

“IS EASTER OVER?”

    Let’s be honest, Easter worship is different from most Sundays.  But that happens everywhere where emotion comes in.  I’ve played in thousands of ball games, but some are remembered more than others.  I’ve been to numerous concerts but only a few stand out.  I’ve heard hundreds of speeches and lectures, but I can only quote from a handful.  Isn’t it the same for you?  That is what emotion does.  Easter Sunday worship has a different rhythm.

    Is Easter Over?  Of course not.  Our worship today is just as important even if we don’t “feel the same.”  Let’s take a look at our text.  “John to the seven churches that are in Asia:  Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come…”. . . “I am the Alpha and Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” (vs. 4 & 8)

    Does that sound like a dead Savior?  These words are spoken 60 years after He rose from the dead.  Christ is the beginning and end of all things.  The Lord Himself is present and active in all human events, especially in the lives of His people – His church.  Remember the promise?  “And surely I will be with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matt. 28:20b)

    Easter is never over.  It never will be.  The last chapter of Revelation says that Christ “will reign for ever and ever.” (Rev. 22:5b)

    How about these words in our text?  “Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him.” (v. 7)  “Even those who pierced him.”  I do believe we struggle to see that part.

    We struggle with what one Pastor calls “Look-Aroundism.”  We watch the news, open the paper, scan the internet and we swear the world is crumbling.  The Look-Aroundist concludes the devil is loose and reigning while Christ is just sitting on His throne.  We see darkness and death and trouble and think the devil has the controls of the ship.  Not true.  Listen the last words of our text, “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.”

    Don’t doubt these words.  Don’t twist yourself into a pretzel of your own making.  Christ has the keys which means He is steering the world.  Easter is never over because our Savior cannot stop loving us.  Love is who He is.  We are freed from our sins by His blood.  The eternal salvation of our soul is not a maybe but a promise.  He is alive forevermore.

    Martin Franzmann wrote this, “He sits enthroned over all the future of men, and in His hand is the book wherein the destinies of men are written.  He knows those who are His own…and the prospect of their imperiled future need hold no endless terrors for them”

    We can’t say those words enough, the prospect of (our) imperiled future (in this world) need hold no endless terrors for (us).  None of us like what is happening in our culture.  We are tired of “good” and “evil” being mixed up.  The animosity toward the church is disturbing.  But Easter is our sure and certain victory – over this world, and death, and hell itself.  The familiar words are just as meaningful this morning:  “But thanks be to God!  He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor. 15:57).  Is Easter Over?  Not on your life.

                                            Amen. 

April 17, 2022 – Easter                            Text:  John 20:1-18

    When you hear the word orchestra, what do you think of?  Woodwinds, brass, and strings?  There is one orchestra made up of kids who play instruments made out of trash.  It’s called the “Recycled Orchestra of Cateura” in Paraguay.  But Cateura is not a town.  It’s a slum built on a landfill.

    Every day, 3 million pounds of waste is dumped in Cateura.  Many families survive by scavenging the landfill and reselling.  Violinist Noelia, age 16, has an instrument. Made from cans, wooden spoons, and bent forks.  A cello is made of an oil drum.  Another teenager plays a saxophone assembled from a drainpipe, melted copper, coins, spoon handles, cans, and bottle caps.

    A few years back they made a video that went viral, and they raised enough money that they perform all over the world.  They play Mozart, folk music and Frank Sinatra.

    God makes music with misfits.  That’s what Easter is all about.

“GOD LOVES TO MAKE MUSIC WITH MISFITS”

    I’m a misfit.  You are a misfit.  We all fall short of God’s will and ways.  But fellow misfits, it’s time to make music!  What do I mean?  This orchestra is made up unlikely musicians.  Peter is a first chair trumpeter.  He denied Christ – three times.  Paul plays the violin.  He used to play a religious thug who persecuted Christians.  And on the harp?  David.  Womanizer, bloodthirsty – yet repentant David.  Today, we add another misfit to make music.  Her name is Mary – Mary Magdalene.

    Mary begins as a mess.  “Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out.” (Luke 8:2). There are five Mary’s mentioned in the New Testament her name of Magdalene refers to her hometown of Magdala.  Demons?  She is messed up.  Can you imagine being that messed up?

    Here’s how it happens.  Compulsion to prove.  We begin a task or job or class with high hopes.  We arrive early and stay late.  We are going to prove to these people.  To keep at it, we stop exercising or getting enough sleep.  We start to skip Bible Class and worship.  Our eating habits clog our bodies.  We neglect our family.  “I’ll return to them after the project or the business trip or the dissertation.”  People begin to see less joy in us that we can’t see ourselves.  We are tired and fed up and everyone suffers.

    Or it occurs like this.  Life becomes a checklist.  One thing after another.  We live for vacation, but vacation is never long enough.  People again see what we can’t see.  We survive with more internet, more time on the phone, more time binging TV shows, more shopping.  We go through the motions.  We smile occasionally but we have nothing left in the tank.  We hit rock bottom.  We talk to no one.  We feel like we have at least seven demons.

    We are a mess.  20% of people on disability in the US of A are there because of severe depression.  We are the most depressed nation on the earth.  Depression amongst teenagers has skyrocketed 200% in the last decade.

    Remember the Chevy Nova?  My first car in fact.  In Mexico it didn’t sell.  It was because no va in Spanish is “no go.”  That can happen to us we have “no go.”  We can be as messed up as Mary Magdalene.  Music?  We have no song to sing.

    Mary was down, but her Messiah lifted her up.  He lifted her from the pit of her demons.  That is why she follows Him to the cross.  Mary’s Messiah is your Messiah.  His faced is caked with spit and blood.  His throat is so dry he cannot swallow.  The Savior has no song.

    This is how things stand before dawn on Sunday.  There had been so much hope and promise and now nothing.  The famous Rabbi?  Dead.  The disciples?  Hiding.  Other followers of Jesus?  Scattered.  One – Judas Iscariot – has even killed himself.

    Mary Magdalene gets up early to anoint Christ’s body.  But the body is not there.  She weeps and then goes to tell the disciples.  She sees a man she thinks is the gardener.  “Please tell me where Jesus is?”  

    “Mary.”  The voice is unmistakable.  It is instant recognition, “Rabboni.”  It’s Jesus.  It’s Jesus.  He is not dead.  He has risen from the grave.  He is alive.  Christ is alive.

    Emotions flood Mary’s heart.  From the depths of grief to the heights of joy.  To the shock of everyone – the Father raised Jesus bodily from the dead.  Mary’s song – her symphony of celebration – commences with great joy.

    Her music is a five-word song, “I have seen the Lord.” (v. 18).  She has seen the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  What does it all mean?  There is more to our lives than we think.  Christ’s resurrection means that, like Mary Magdalene, we have a song to sing.

    Remember?  God loves to make music with misfits.  It’s time, for us misfits to make music.  I’ll take the snare drum.  You take the tuba.  You take the trombone.  And you?  What instrument will you play today?  One thing we know today.  We have a song to sing.  We sing it with our lips and our lives.  What is the song called?  The song that has six words . . . and what are they?  I Know That My Redeemer Lives!

                        Amen.