SPECIAL DAYS: Easter Sunday

March 31, 2002 - Lessons: Colossians 3.1-4; John 20.1-18

Sermon Title: Revival, Renewal, Rebirth

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INTRODUCTION:
  1. A traditional greeting on an Easter Morning is:
    1. Leader: Christ has risen!
    2. CONGREGATION: HE HAS RISEN INDEED!
    3. That was not enough for one man in an Easter Sunday Morning worship service.
      1. He stood up and responded, "Zippity do Da!"
      2. That's not a bad way to begin this service.
      3. The lyrics to Zip-a-dee-doo-dah (1) are:

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay
My, oh my what a wonderful day!
Plenty of sunshine heading my way
Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay

Mister Bluebird on my shoulder
It's the truth, it's actch'll
Ev'rything is satisfactch'll
Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay
Wonderful feeling, wonderful day!

  1. Is this a Zip-a-dee-doo-dah kind of day?
    1. It can be!
    2. Easter is the source of incredible possibilities,

MAIN BODY:

  1. What incredible possibilities does Easter contain.
    1. Easter makes it possible for one to experience a Rebirth.
    2. Easter makes it possible for one to experience a Revival.
    3. Easter makes it possible for one to experience a Renewal
  2. Easter brings the opportunity for Rebirth, to be born again.

Peter J. Gomes, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church at Harvard University in The Good Book: Reading the Bible With Mind and Heart writes:

What "born again" in the gospel means, however, is literally to begin all over again, to be given a second birth, a second chance. The one who is born again doesn't all of a sudden get turned into a super-Christian. To be born again is to enter afresh into the process of spiritual growth. It is to wipe the slate clean. It is to cancel your old mortgage and start again. In other words, you don't have to be always what you have now become. Such an offer is too good to be true for many, confusing for most, but for those who seek to be other than what they are now, who want to be more than the mere accumulation and sum total of their experiences, the invitation, "You must be born again," is an offer you cannot afford to refuse. (2)

    1. Mary was born again.
      1. She went to the tomb and found it empty.
      2. All her hopes and dreams were dashed on that rock that was used to hide and expose.
      3. She met Jesus and began to live again.
    2. We meet Jesus and begin to live again.

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  1. The second possibility is Revival!

Richard P. Schowalter in Igniting a New Generation of Believers observes:

The seekers today are not asking the biblical question What must I do to be saved? The question being asked today is What must I do to survive? The church must answer the survival question for revival to take place. (3)

    1. This is the same question that was being asked by the disciples in the upper room, "How are we going to survive?"
    2. The answer came when Peter and John returned with the incredible news that Jesus was alive.
      1. If he can survive so can we.
      2. Survival leads to revival.
  1. Out of all the three that are made possible by Christ's Easter Resurrection is my favorite Renewal!
    1. The lessons for today speaks about rebirth, revival, and renewal.

1So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, 3for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ who is your£ life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. (Colossians 3:1-4, NRSVA)

Paul Smith, as quoted in Christianity Today notes:

Renewing the church is like remodeling your house: It takes longer than you hoped, costs more than you planned and makes a bigger mess than you ever thought possible. (4)

    1. There is a way that helps us to understand the way to renewal.

In the 1960's I remember reading George Orwell's 1984, but then in 1984 I read it again.

There is one quotation from that book that has constantly stayed with me.

Orwell writes:

"...if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed-if all records told the same tale-then the lie passed into history and became truth. 'Who controls the past,' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.' and yet the past, though of its nature unalterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory. 'Reality control,' they called it; in Newsspeak, ;Doublethink.'" (5)

    1. Did you hear that: Who controls the past, Controls the future. Who controls the present, Controls the past.
    2. I would like to suggest that we have two pasts.
      1. The first one I would call the far past.
        1. That cannot be changed.
        2. It is disturbing to a lot of people who blame their weaknesses and inabilities on it.
        3. But I do not have to be governed by it.
      2. The second past is the immediate past.
        1. This one I can change.
        2. If I change this moment, I change the past.
        3. If I continue to change the present I can change the past and then I have a different future.
    3. This is ultimate control of one's life that is available through the power of the resurrection.
    4. We can be continually resurrected to new life.
      1. Resurrection is not a day in history.
      2. It is a process of renewal that takes place every day, and every moment in the waking hours.

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CONCLUSION:

The psychologist Samuel Southard prayed this prayer, his last one, with the chief administrator at Church of the Savior, in West Hollywood, who was dying of AIDS. He calls it "One Pebble's Prayer" (6):

Dear Jesus:
I feel like a pebble on the beach, washed in and out by waves of
pain and relief
fatigue and rest
fitful sleep and alertness.
What am I supposed to do about this? I want to maintain some control of my life. I need some anchor, some mooring. So much is breaking loose!

Let's plan together. I'll live with this sloshing back and forth if you'll keep some deep ballast in me so l don't tip over. You be the anchor within that holds me fast to you. Then I'll be upright even when I must flow in and out of consciousness, rock to-and-fro with pain. You're the solid foundation that keeps me from panic when l lose a grip on myself.

So this is where I am right now. My outer security is washing away, but my eternal security is more reliable as I fix my heart and mind upon you. Amen.

  1. This is this a Zip-a-dee-doo-dah kind of day?
    1. It brings Rebirth, Revival and Renewal.
    2. Rejoice and be glad in it, and in all the days that follow.

Amen!

1. Joel Chandler Harris, Uncle Remus Tales as told by Disney in Song of the South.

2. Peter J. Gomes, The Good Book: Reading the Bible With Mind and Heart (New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1996), 188.

3. Richard P. Schowalter, Igniting a New Generation of Believers (Nashville: Abingdon, 1995), 11.

4. Paul Smith, as quoted in Christianity Today, 25 October 1993, 73.

5. Orwell, George, 1984 (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers, 1949), p. 35

6. Theology & Therapy: The Wisdom of God in a Context of Friendship (Dallas: Word, 1989), 196. © 2002 Communication Resources, Inc. All Rights Reserved

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