St. Peter asks the first man,
"WHAT IS EASTER?" The man replies, "Oh, that's easy, it's the
holiday in November when everybody gets together, eats turkey, and is
thankful..." "WRONG," replies St. Peter, and proceeds to ask the
second man the same question, "WHAT IS EASTER?" The second man
replies, "No, Easter is the holiday in December when we put up a nice
tree, exchange presents, and celebrate the birth of Jesus." St. Peter
looks at the second man, shakes his head in disgust, looks at the third man and
asks, "WHAT IS EASTER?"
The third man smiles and looks St.
Pete in the eye. "I know what Easter is. Easter is the Christian holiday
that coincides with the Jewish celebration of Passover. Jesus and his disciples
were eating at the last supper and He was later deceived and turned over to the
Romans by one of his disciples. The Romans took Him to be crucified and was
stabbed in the side, made Him wear a crown of thorns, and He was hung on a
cross. He was buried in a nearby cave which was sealed off by a large boulder.
Every year the boulder is moved aside so that Jesus can come out, and if He
sees his shadow there will be six more weeks of winter."
Our prayer today is that Jesus does
not see his shadow. Ok, 1 more. A pastor is standing outside the sanctuary,
greeting people after they leave on Easter Sunday and he notices one man coming
out who only comes to church on Christmas and on Easter – a Chreaster. He pulls
the man aside and says, “Son, you need to join the army of the Lord.” The man
says, “Well, pastor, I’m already in the army of the Lord.” The pastor says,
“How come I don’t see you except at Christmas and Easter.” The man leans in and
whispers, “I’m in the secret service.”
So a hearty welcome to all of you who
are joining us today from the secret service of the Lord. Now I really don’t
have a good transition here, but we’ll get serious now. It is a blessing and a
privilege to be here on this Easter Sunday, the day that we celebrate the resurrection
of Jesus Christ.
Now I’ve told many of you before, I’ve
mentioned it often, that while, you know, the Good Friday service is very
meaningful to me, and the crucifixion of Christ is probably one of if not the
most important event in all of human history, I still feel more strongly pulled
towards the importance, the glory, and the power of the empty tomb. The cross
is important, it is where Jesus died for our sins, but without the empty tomb,
the cross loses its meaning. If Jesus just died, and that was the end of it,
then the cross loses its meaning. And I’ve often suggested, though no one has
really taken me up on it yet, that the Christian symbol should not necessarily
be the cross, it should be the empty tomb. But an empty tomb just doesn’t seem
to be as popular. No one here is wearing a golden empty tomb around your neck.
But for those of you who were here
this morning for the sunrise prayer walk, you know you experienced hammering
into the cross and the pain that Jesus must have felt for us, but how cool was
it when you got to the empty tomb? I guarantee you walked away from that with a
smile on your face, and maybe you even got chills a little bit, because that is
such a powerful part of the story of Jesus Christ.
So today I want to take some time and
I want to talk about what makes the empty tomb so important, why it really
matters. I think that there are three main things that happen as a result of
the empty tomb. The first thing is that scripture is fulfilled. Prophecy is
fulfilled. Jesus’ own words are fulfilled. Hosea 6:2 says, “After two days he
will revive us, on the third day he will restore us that we may live in his
presence.” Psalm 16:10, “You will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let
your Holy One see decay.” And in Matthew 16:21, Jesus himself says that he must
suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and teachers of
the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. And
he goes on to repeat this prediction, this prophecy about his death and
resurrection several more times before it actually happens.
So
the empty tomb brings fulfillment to the scriptures, which is obviously an
important part of the resurrection, but that’s not the only thing that it does,
not by a long shot. The second thing that the empty tomb does is that it
validates our faith. Now I want you to think about this, because I think it is
supremely important. What if there were no resurrection. What if Jesus stayed
in the tomb? You know, that’s what a lot, in fact, that’s what all of the other
world religions are like. No other world religion has had their god or their
founder die and be raised back to life eternally. You can visit the tomb of
Buddah, and Mohammed, and you can mourn there, because their bodies are still
their. You can visit the site of the tomb of Jesus, at least where they think
it was, but no one is sure because his body isn’t there! How would Christianity
be different if you visited the tomb of Jesus to mourn instead of to celebrate?
What if Jesus were still dead? Would we be here this morning? Really doubtful.
Without the resurrection, Jesus is just another crazy man who came and claimed
to be god and led a morally decent life, gained a small following, and then
died. Christianity doesn’t catch fire in the days following his death, it
catches fire in the days following his resurrection!
There’s
a story told of a Muslim man in
We serve, we worship, we follow a God
who has died, and who has come back to life. And not just back to life, but to
eternal life. A God that death cannot hold down. I love the way one theologian
put it, he said, “Jesus was resurrected, not resuscitated.” He’s back, and he’s
back for good. It’s not like someone gave him CPR and then someday he’ll die
again. No, Jesus is resurrected. He is eternally alive. And I have to tell you,
I’d much rather follow a living God than a dead god. That just makes way more
sense to me. It validates my faith. It gives me good reason to believe that
what he says is true. Not only has he fulfilled scripture, but he has proven
his deity. He has proven that he has power even over death.
The third and maybe the most powerful
thing that the empty tomb does is that the empty tomb gives us an example, it
shows us how God can work in our
lives. Think about this: Jesus, in his death on the cross, was a sacrifice for
us. He took the blame for our sin, he took our sin, any sin that had ever been
committed or ever would be committed, he took the blame and the guilt upon
himself and paid the death penalty for it, ok? He’s paid the price, anything
wrong that we have ever done, the penalty has been paid through Jesus. Here’s
the bottom line: Jesus got as dirty, as sinful, as any man could ever get. He
was defiled, he was unclean, he became as guilty as it gets…AND GOD RESTORED
HIM. God made him clean again! God raised him up! He said, “The penalty is
paid, its over now, and I love you!” And he restored Jesus back to life.
Look, folk, I think too often we think
of God as the God who allowed the cross instead of God as the God who supplied
the empty tomb! We think of God as a God of punishment, as in we show people
the cross, and we say, “Look, when you sin, this is what happens to you.” Instead…and
this is why I love the empty tomb so much…we should be showing people the empty
tomb, and saying, “Look, when you sin, God forgives you, and THIS is what
happens to you. He restores you back to life! Eternal life! He resurrects you,
your soul, your spirit.”
And look, Jesus got as dirty, as full
of sin as any person can every get…and God was able to make him clean. So what
does that say for us? That says to me that it doesn’t matter how far gone I
think I am, how terrible I’ve been, what awful things I’ve done, Jesus was
dirtier. I’ve got one man’s sin on me, right? I can carry my own guilt, but
Jesus carried the guilt of every man and every woman. And if God can make him
clean, surely he can make me clean as well!
And what’s more, that guilt that I
carry, I don’t even have to carry it at all, because Jesus has already paid the
penalty for it, and all it takes for me to be made clean is to point to Jesus
and say, “I’ve sinned, but I believe that he has already done hard time for me.
Through Jesus, I am clean.” And I’m sure some of you are out there saying,
“Yeah, but you don’t know what I’ve done. It was pretty bad. I can’t forgive
myself, how could God forgive me.”
He already has. I don’t care what it
was, he already has forgiven you. If you had a chance to walk through the
sunrise prayer walk this morning, maybe you remember the station with the
compass, that hard the verse that tells us that God will separate us from our
sin as far as the east is from the west. An infinite distance.
This morning if you are still
struggling with that, if you haven’t let God forgive you yet, I want you to
hear these words from God in Revelation 21:5. God says, “Behold! Look! I am
making everything new.” I am making everything new. He’s saying, you don’t have
to go back to that life that’s apart from me. You, even you, can be made brand
new. Look at the empty tomb. That’s my sign that I can bring the dead back to
life. I can bring a hurting spirit back to life, I can restore a broken heart.
I am making everything new. I want to make you new, too.
If you’ve never made that decision,
the decision to follow God, to believe that Jesus truly has paid the price for
your sin, you can do that today. You can start over. You can have the slate
wiped clean. I’m going to pray a prayer, and if this is the prayer of your
heart, if you are tired of carrying that guilt around in your life, I want you
to pray this prayer in your heart with me. Let’s bow our heads.
Jesus…I am a sinner…I’ve made more
mistakes than I can count…but I know that you have paid the penalty for me…I
thank you for forgiving my sins…help me to live for you…come into my life and
make me new…I love you, Jesus… In your name I pray, Amen.
If you have just prayed this prayer,
congratulations, and I want to welcome you into the family of God. There are
some others who want to welcome you as well. Would the people I previously
asked please stand? If you’ve just prayed that prayer this morning, one of
these fine looking folks would like to pray with you and welcome you into the
family of God. So before you leave today, grab one of them and just let them
know that you prayed that prayer with me. And if you didn’t pray that prayer
this morning, but you have some questions, I’m sure they’d love to talk to you.
Thanks (you can sit).
So…going back to my first
well-received joke…what is Easter? Easter is about the empty tomb. It’s about
Jesus winning. It’s about Jesus fulfilling scripture, validating our faith, and
showing us just how God can restore the dead, the broken, the sinful back to
life and make you cleaner than you’ve ever been. It’s about new life in Jesus.
Jesus who has already paid the penalty for our sin through his death on the
cross.
Pastor Dan Metzger
Van Buren United