By
Rev. Juliet Schimpf
___________________________
Broadcast
Notes
|
_______________________________________
LINK to CFRA broadcast of
Sunday, April 5th, 2015)
************************************************************
which made today’s broadcast possible.
EASTER SERMON:
'God Still Moves Stones'
- “When the famous agnostic Robert Ingersoll died, the printed funeral program left this solemn instruction, “There will be no singing.”
- Yet the angels rejoice in the face of Christ’s death:
- Revelation 5:11 Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels,
numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand.
They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. 12 In a loud
voice they sang:
"Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and praise!"
- Similarly, Paul rejoices in 1 Cor. 15. He states, "Death has been swallowed up in victory.” "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”
1. OUR DEATH IS NOT FINAL
2. OUR FAILURES ARE NOT FATAL
3. OUR LIFE IS NOT FUTILE
1. OUR DEATH IS NOT FINAL
• John 11:25 “Jesus said to her [Martha] ‘I am
the resurrection and the life. He
who believes in me will live, even though he dies; (vs. 26) and whoever lives and believes in me will
never die. Do you believe this?”
- This is an astonishing claim made by Jesus:
- Of all the major religions in the world, only Christianity claims an empty tomb for its founder:
- Abraham, the father of Judaism, died about 1900 B.C., but no resurrection was ever claimed for him
- The original accounts of Buddha never ascribe to him any such thing as a resurrection
- L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology, died January 24, 1986
- Mohammed died June 8, 632 A.D., at the age of sixty-one, in Medina, where his tomb is annually visited by thousands of devout Muslim
- NOT SO WITH CHRIST--Acts 2:24 “But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.”
- WHY WAS IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR DEATH TO KEEP ITS HOLD ON CHRIST? JOHN 14:6 “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”
- LIFE IS POWERFUL, AND AT THE HEART OF CHRISTIANITY IS LIFE…THIS IS WHY THE CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT NEVER DIES…
- Friedrich Nietzsche declared in 1882 that “God is dead.” The dawn of science, he believed, would be the doom of the Christian faith. Well, science has dawned, and the Christian movment continues.
- The French philosopher Voltaire: “The Bible and Christianity would pass within a hundred years. He died in 1778, the Christian movement continues.”
- MAX LUCADO: “The discovery made by every person who has tried to bury the Christian faith. [simple] The same as the one made by those who tried to bury its Founder: Christ won’t stay in the tomb!”
JUST AS CHRIST’S DEATH WAS NOT FINAL, SO TOO OURS
IS NOT FINAL…
- MAX LUCADO (He Chose the Nails) “When Christ died, so did your sin; and when Christ rose, so did your hope! For when he rose, your grave was changed from a final residence to temporary housing.”
- Colossians 3:1 “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ.”
- Ephesians 2:6 “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus”
2. OUR FAILURES ARE NOT FATAL
- Jesus’ cry on the cross, ‘It is finished!’ meant that God’s war with evil had been fought and won in love.
- Colossians 2:15 states that Christ, “having disarmed the [PRINCIPALITIES AND POWERS] powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”
- Ephesians 1:20-22 “He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is to be named…and God placed all things under His feet”
- Life is not be easy, but because Christ conquered death, we can conquer life!
- ROMANS 8:31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?............ 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ....... 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[k] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
- 2 CORINTHIANS 4 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.
3. OUR LIFE IS NOT FUTILE
* THOMAS CARLYLE "THE MAN WITHOUT A PURPOSE IS LIKE A
SHIP WITHOUT A RUDDER--A WAIF, A NOTHING, A NO MAN."
- PAUL EXPLAINS THAT IF CHRIST DID NOT RISE, WE WOULD LACK PURPOSE IN OUR LIVES:
- 1 Corinthians 15:14, “And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith…..(vs. 17) And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins……(vs. 19) If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.”
- 1 CORINTHIANS 15:32
“If the dead are not raised,
"Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."
- The resurrection of Christ did occur, and it gives meaning and purpose to our lives today….
- Philip Yancey writes, “That Jesus succeeded in changing a snuffling band of unreliable followers into fearless evangelists, that eleven men who had deserted him at death now went to martyrs’ graves avowing their faith in a resurrected Christ, that these few witnesses managed to set loose a force that would overcome violent opposition first in Jerusalem and then in Rome—this remarkable sequence of transformation offers the most convincing evidence for the Resurrection. What else explains the whiplash change in men known for their cowardice and instability?”
- The Apostle Paul was filled with purpose:
- Philippians 1:21 “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
- 1 CORINTHIANS 10:31 “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”
Closing Poem
“Just Give Me Jesus”
(Anne
Graham Lotz)
His
office is manifold and his promise is sure.
His
life is matchless and his goodness is limitless.
His
mercy is enough and his grace is sufficient.
His
reign is righteous, his yoke is easy, and his burden is light.
He
is indestructible.
He
is indescribable. He is
incomprehensible.
He
is inescapable. He is invincible.
He
is irresistible. He is irrefutable.
The
Pharisees couldn’t stand him, but found they couldn’t stop him.
Satan
tried to tempt him but found he couldn’t trip him.
Pilate
examined him on trial but found no fault in him.
The
Romans crucified him but couldn’t take his life.
He
had no predecessor and he will have no successor.
He
is the Lion and he is the Lamb.
He
is God and he is man.
Let us pray:
Our Heavenly Father, we thank you on
this glorious Easter Sunday, for the gift that is your son, who gave his life
upon the cross; that old rugged cross. He gave his life for us and we thank you
that you rose Him from the grave. Death could not hold Him down, so powerful is
your love for us.
I want to pray for the listener who’s
feeling hard-pressed, today, and I just declare over them what Paul said in
Second Corinthians 4, “We might be hard pressed on every side, but we are not
crushed. We might be perplexed, but we’re not in despair, persecuted, but not
abandoned, struck down, but never destroyed, because we carry around in our
body, the death of Christ, so that the life of Christ may also be revealed
within us.”
God, will you encourage the
listener, today. Encourage the listener, Lord, who’s feeling weighed down by
their failures and remind them keenly, now, that their failures are not fail.
I want to give to the listener who’s
afraid of death, and I want them to be reassured today that death need not be
final.
As John 3:16 said, “For God so loved
the world that He gave his only (begotten) Son, that whoever believes in Him
shall not perish, but shall have life, everlasting.”
And, lastly, I lift up the listener
who’s feeling like they lack purpose. And I pray Lord that they’d know that
they don’t have to know a lot of things for their life to make a lasting
difference in the world. They just need to know the few great things that
matter -- perhaps, just one -- namely
Jesus Christ, and then be willing to live for that one great thing.
Lord, bless each listener this day.
Put fresh hope and grace and joy in their hearts. For Jesus is alive, and so
too shall we be with Him for evermore. AMEN.
Rev. Juliet
Schimpf
____________________________________________________
To listen to the above
broadcast, click on the following link:
No comments:
Post a Comment