SPECIAL DAYS: Easter Sunday

April 11, 2004: Lessons: Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24; Isaiah 65:17-25; 1 Corinthians 15:19-26; John 20:1-18

SERMON TITLE: First, Last, Always

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INTRODUCTION:

Kent C. Miller, "Living the resurrection life," Trinity Presbyterian Church Web Site, tells the story about a family watching a movie of the life of Jesus on television. (1)

Their 6-year-old daughter was deeply moved as the movie maker realistically portrayed Jesus' crucifixion and death.

Tears ran down the little girl's face as they took him from the cross and lay him in a borrowed tomb.

She watched as a guard was placed outside the tomb.

And then suddenly a big smile broke on her face. She bounced up on the arm of the chair and said with great anticipation, "Now comes the good part!"

  1. Now comes the good part!

    1. The Good Part has a beginning, a Middle and an Ending.

      1. It begins with birth

      2. Continues with life and teachings

      3. We have lived through Gethsemane.

      4. We have mournfully followed Jesus from Caiaphas to Pilate to Golgotha.

      5. We have stood at the great stone of the garden tomb and wondered who would roll away the stone.

      6. Perhaps we have even lived with the skepticism of the close disciples of Jesus.

    2. Now comes the good part.

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MAIN BODY:

  1. The good part begins with a statement from the emotional, intellectual, and theological depths of the Apostle Paul.

    1. 19If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

      1. Paul knows what he is writing about.

      2. In a modern illustration we find:

In its October 2003 issue, Esquire Magazine listed "Seventy Things That Make Us Very Happy to Be Alive Today." The top seven included:
    The affordable 42-inch plasma-display TV: $3,000 and falling fast.
    Ancient art from the cradle of civilization on eBay.
    Botox for migraines.
    Google image search.
    Fast cash.
    E-Zpass.
    Netflix.

      1. He has been there, the life that has no present meaning and no future.

      2. He is no longer there, that is living that kind of life.

      3. He encountered Jesus and so he knows with personal certainty what he is expressing.

      4. He suggests that there is more!

    1. The more is found in verses 20-26:

20But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. 21For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; 22for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. 23But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. 24Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. 25For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

    1. Let us read them from the New King James Version of the Bible

1 Corinthians 15:20-26 (NKJV)

20But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. 23But each one in his own order: Christ the first fruits, afterward those who are Christ's at His coming. 24Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. 25For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. 26The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. 27For "He has put all things under His feet." But when He says "all things are put under Him," it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. 28Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.

    1. Over the years I have answered many times the questions raised by the expression, "first fruits."

    2. But the question that has been paramount has to do with the word sleep.

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  1. In fact there is a long tradition in which sleep is a metaphor for death, and the sleep/awakening cycle a metaphor for resurrection.

    1. Scripture is full of such allusions.

    2. Today's text itself suggests this metaphor:

"But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep" (v. 20 NIV).

Earlier in this same chapter, the apostle Paul uses the same metaphor: "After that, [Jesus] appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep" (v. 6 NIV).

    1. Even Jesus spoke of death as being sleep:

Speaking to his confused disciples, he said, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him."

The disciples said to him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right." Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead" (John 11:11-14). [NOTE: For more Scriptures that refer to death as sleep, see Animating Illustrations].

    1. Not surprising, then, to find the concept in the works of literature as well.

      1. Shakespeare records a befuddled Hamlet pondering his existence in his famous "To be or not to be" soliloquy:

To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: aye, there the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil.
(Hamlet, III.1.61-68)

      1. William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878) regards death as something akin to lying down on the couch for a nap.

The closing lines of his poem, Thanatopsis, go like this:

So live, that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan, which moves
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.

    1. Easter morning is a reminder that Jesus, too, died. His body took on the appearance of sleep. They laid him in a tomb, on a slab of rock.

"Vainly they watch his bed," writes the hymnist--who then provides the chorus:

"Up from the grave he arose, with a mighty triumph o'er his foes."

    1. Clearly, the apostle has no doubts that Jesus Christ, the same one who was crucified and buried, has left sleep and death behind and is now our risen Lord. "Christ has indeed been raised from the dead" (v. 20 NIV).

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  1. The major point that is being made here concerns our own death and life.

    1. If Christ is our risen Lord, then we can take this as our guarantee that we, too, though we die, shall live.

      1. These were Jesus' very words to Martha while his good friend, Lazarus, still lay in the grave:

"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).

      1. The apostle Paul emphasizes this central tenet of our faith once again in his letter to the Thessalonians:

"we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope" (1 Thessalonians 4:13 NIV).

    1. When we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are celebrating many things.

      1. We celebrate his victory over sin.

"[Jesus] has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself" (Hebrews 9:26).

      1. We celebrate his victory over Satan.

"He himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death" (Hebrews 2:14-15).

      1. We celebrate his victory over death.

"Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" (1 Corinthians 15:54-55).

      1. We celebrate his role as our advocate at the throne of God:

"I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2:1-2).

    1. We celebrate his presence in our lives.

The last words of the post-resurrection Jesus as recorded by Matthew assure us of this presence:

"And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20).

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CONCLUSION

An associate pastor was talking about Jesus to a group of youngsters in preschool. (2)

A little girl asked, "Is Jesus still alive?"

"Yes," the pastor replied.

"Then where is He?" the girl asked.

"He died, but He came back and now He is with God," the pastor replied.

"You mean He's still alive" the girl asked.

"Yes, He is," the pastor said.

The little girl wiped her forehead with her hand in a gesture of relief and exclaimed, "Whew!"

  1. It is time to celebrate

  2. We are also celebrating for ourselves.

    1. If he lives, so may we!

    2. How great is that? He lives! We live! Forever. And ever. And ever.

    3. The resurrected Christ is the guarantee of our eternal future in the presence of God!

1. Kent C. Miller, "Living the resurrection life," Trinity Presbyterian Church Web Site, Trinitypresdenton.org. Retrieved April, 2004

2. The Joyful Noiseletter, April 2000, via Rev. Denny J. Brake, Raleigh, NC

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