Pastor Leon Seaton

The Power of the Resurrection

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them,

"Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; He has risen! Remember how He told you, while He was still with you in Galilee: 'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.'"

Then they remembered His words.

When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles.

But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.  Luke 24: 1-11

Many people find the resurrection impossible to believe. They have my sympathy! If your God is too small to make that happen you have very little faith!

The scriptures are very emphatic that Christ is Risen! Romans 10:9 states “That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” (The implication is that if you don’t, you won’t, but we have to leave some things up to God.)

Once the disciples fully realized what had taken place, they were on their way to becoming changed men and women! This process took about fifty days to be completed, so be patient if you have trouble grasping this truth. Please, do not condemn yourself of others if you have questions, doubts or concerns! Jesus once referred to that as “counting the cost.”

How were they changed? Prior to the Resurrection and Pentecost, Peter was an impulsive hot head. James and John were focused on what power and authority they would have when Jesus set up His earthly kingdom. Their mother had a lot to do with that.

When Jesus was arrested the disciples scattered in fear. Peter and John snuck back to watch what was happening; Peter denied Jesus 3 times – one time he cursed to prove his point. Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus with a kiss – and then committed suicide when he realized what a fool he had been. (Satan tricks us into sinning and then he condemns and destroys us if we are not really careful!)

The remaining 11 hid in fear until the women told them that Jesus was alive and well. After Jesus met with them that first day, their boldness began to build, but until Pentecost came 50 days later they were like little boats on a big lake without a sail, rudder or oars. One day Peter got discouraged and said, “I’m going fishing. Does anyone want to go with me?” Seven of them spent that night fishing and caught absolutely nothing. One can only imagine how frustrated they were. Early the next morning Jesus stood on the shore waiting for them to come in. The disciples did not recognize Him.

“Haven’t you any fish?” Jesus called out. “No” they answered. “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” (John 21) You know the story. John cried out, “It is the Lord!” Impulsive Peter grabbed his jacket, jumped out of the boat and waded to the shore. The rest brought the boat with the 153 fish they had caught. Jesus had a fire going and fish cooking, along with some bread. They added some of their fish and had a great breakfast.

If you are a Christian there are many people in this world that are very angry at you this morning! “Angry at us?” you ask. Absolutely! They may even hate you – and for a number of reasons. They hate you because you are an American, they hate you because you are free, because you think for yourself, and they hate you because you are a Christian.

Many of our fellow Americans resent us because of our faith in God.

What is God’s response to this? To use modern Oklahoma slang God simply says, “Don’t sweat it! They don’t like Me either.” Jesus said that people will “insult us, persecute us and falsely say all kinds of evil against us” because of Him.

During the early 1900s Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin was one of the most powerful men on earth. He was a Russian Communist leader that took part in the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. He was editor of the Soviet newspaper Pravda (“Truth”), and was a full member of the Politburo. He was a brilliant man, and his works on economics and political science are still read today.

However, being brilliant does not necessarily mean that you are wise. In 1930 Bukharin traveled from Moscow to Kiev to address a large crowd on the subject of atheism. He was committed to destroying Christianity by hurling insults, arguments, and proof against it.

He ranted and raved for an hour, and then he looked smugly at the crowd, convinced that what he saw was the smoldering ashes of men’s faith.

"Are there any questions?" Bukharin demanded. Deafening silence filled the auditorium as people nervously looked around.

But one man boldly approached the platform and stood at the lectern close to the communist leader. He surveyed the crowd first to the left then to the right. Finally he shouted the ancient greeting known well in the Russian Orthodox Church: "CHRIST IS RISEN!" En masse the crowd arose as one man and the response came crashing like the sound of thunder: "HE IS RISEN INDEED!"

Ladies and gentlemen, let me assure you this morning that CHRIST IS RISEN! (You should respond, HE IS RISEN INDEED!).

He may have been dead and buried, but today He is risen! How do I know that? Because I talked to Him today – and He talked to me! (You probably did too!)

I. WHAT SHOULD BE OUR RESPONSE TO THE RESURRECTION?  Share the gospel story in word and deed.  Ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit and get busy!

People believe what they are told – but they can’t read our minds. We believe that Columbus discovered America in 1492 because our teachers told us. We believed our parents when they said we belonged to them.

It is amazing that people have more confidence in the news media than what is in the Bible. Maybe it’s because they hear more news than they do Bible. One of the young ladies in our Wednesday Kids program told the teacher she did not know how to read the Bible…so the teacher told her.

We are surprised that the early church had doubters…but sometimes we act as if Christ were still dead.

Some of this story is hard to believe, but believing it will reduce your stress. Had the disciples truly believed that Jesus would die for their sins and rise on the 3^rd day they would have been shocked at how cruelly He had been treated; they would have grieved over Judas’ death, but they would have looked expectantly and excitedly toward Sunday!

II. THE RESURRECTION STORY STANDS THE TEST OF TIME.

I understand that Newsweek (the magazine) has declared that America is no longer a Christian nation. Granted, we may not act like it at times, but every time a major disaster takes place we suddenly get real serious about our relationship with God. We may be immature Christians, but we are believers.

Think about all of the fads we have seen in car styles and clothing through the years. Think of all the disasters that the news magazines have predicted. A few years ago they were worried about the coming ice age; in the 1950s Nikita Kruschev and the Communists said that they would destroy the USA by 1975. In 1987 President Reagan said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

III. OUR LIVES ARE DIFFERENT BECAUSE OF THE RESURRECTION.

After the death of Jesus the disciples hid in fear – until they fully realized that Jesus had risen and filled them with the Holy Spirit. Then they became unstoppable.

Paul did everything he could to destroy the church until he met the risen Lord. After his conversion he served God with an equal amount of zeal. In many ways he experienced hell on earth. Satan had him imprisoned to stop his ministry; Paul used the time to write letters which now make up a large part of the New Testament. Now, 2,000 years later, those letters influence people around the world. Satan is not nearly as smart as he thinks he is!

At Easter we sing the great hymns, we hear again the familiar stories of scripture, we enjoy the lilies, and we may join in on the Halleluiah Chorus. But the real power of Easter is the way our lives are changed… we have new life as we look forward to our own resurrection. Someday we too will have a resurrected body – no more aches, no more pain, and no more fear of death!

We believe in the resurrection because we have seen the God of resurrection at work. Accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior moves us from doubt and fear to joy and anticipation of greater things to come – in this life and in eternal life.

Many years ago a young boy’s father died in a car wreck. The boy was only twelve years old. Tragically he read about it in the newspaper before anyone had a chance to tell him about it. Seeing his family’s car smashed-up on the front page of the newspaper… and reading about his dad’s death thrust him into the shocked numbness of deep grief.

As is often the case, a child’s first feelings will be guilt. He had remembered a family picnic when he was showing off with a baseball. He got careless and threw the ball wildly; it hit his dad in the hand and broke his thumb. The young boy felt horrible. He said to himself, “What a terrible son I am! I have caused my dad great pain.”

That incident was all that he could remember after his fathers death—the pain he caused his dad. Finally, the young boy went to see his pastor and told him how bad he felt about breaking his dad’s thumb.

Years later the boy said, “I’ll never forget how my pastor handled that. He was so great. He came around the desk with tears in his eyes. He sat down across from me and said: “Now, Jim,” that was the boy’s name, “you listen to me. If your dad could come back to life for five minutes and be right here with us… and if he knew you were worried about that, what would he say to you?”

“He would tell me to quit worrying about that,” Jim said.

“Well, all right,” the minister said, “then you quit worrying about that right now. Do you understand me?”

“Yes sir,” he said… and he did.

That minister was saying: “You are forgiven. Accept the forgiveness… and make a new start with your life.” The young boy did make a new start. And today, many years later, he is the pastor of a 9,000 member church: St Luke’s in Houston. Who was that young Boy? James W. Moore, the author of over 30 books on Christian living.

That’s Easter. The Risen Lord comes back to life… and assures the disciples that they are forgiven.

And that is the message for us this morning…. “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” My friend, you are forgiven!

April 12, 2009