The Gospel at Easter

Here is a message I gave at the Easter Morning service this last Sunday.  I trust it is a clean and clear representation of the Gospel.

Good Morning Everyone

He is Risen!

This morning I would like to reflect on two important aspects of the Easter story.  If you are already a Christian, treat what I have to say as a mini refresher course in the core beliefs of our faith.  If you are not yet a believer in Jesus Christ, I hope that the few thoughts I have to share with you will move you that little bit closer to the start of an amazing journey with the God who created the Universe.

The first thought I have to share with you deals with the question of why God had to become man in the person of Jesus.  What was the point of Jesus living a life on earth amidst mere mortals? A writer called Phillip Yancey was wrestling with a similar question.  Strangely enough, the answer came to him as he maintained his fish tank at home.

Maintaining this tank was no easy task.  I had to run a portable chemical laboratory to monitor the chemical levels.  I had to pour vitamins and other goodies into the water to make sure that the coral would grow and that the fish would be healthy.  I filtered the water regularly and exposed the whole tank to ultraviolet light to kill any germs that might breed there.

You would think, in view of all the energy I put into my tank on behalf of those fishes that they would be at least a little bit grateful!  Not So!

Every time my shadow loomed above the tank they dived for cover into the nearest shell.  They showed me only one “emotion” – FEAR.  Although I opened the lid and dropped in food three times a day, they responded to each visit as a sure sign of my designs to torture them.  I had no way of convincing them of my true concern for them!!

I suppose in a way, to these fish, I was like a God.  I was way too large for them; my actions – all meant for their benefit - were too difficult for them to understand.  It’s no wonder they kept diving for cover!  I began thinking what I would have to do to change their perceptions or experience of me.  I realized that there was only one thing I could do – though it was actually impossible. 

If I were to truly reach out to my fish I realized that some sort of incarnation was needed – If I was to convince my fish of my good intentions, I would actually have to become a fish myself – be able to “speak” and relate to them in a way that they could understand

Similarly, the God who created the Universe realised that the only way he could reveal his true heart to humanity was to actually became a part of it – a little bit like a writer becoming a part of his own story or a director becoming a character in his own movie.

Hebrews 4: For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet he did not sin.

So God became man so that he could sympathise with us – speak our language – walk in our shoes – face all the temptations, struggles, disappointments and trials that we humans face – even the bitter taste of death.

Which leads us to my next thought.  So much of what we think about Easter – (apart from the Eggs) – seems to be dominated by the picture of the cross.  Let me not minimise the importance of the cross as it is a VITAL part of the Easter message.  Because of Adam and Eve’s Sin in the Garden of Eden, mankind is born sinful, alienated from God.  Our problem is not that we make bad decisions every now and again.  Our problem is that without Christ we are bad to the bone – dead in our sin. – (no one is righteous, not even one).  But for those who believe in Christ’s atoning work on the cross, NOTHING concerning our salvation is left undone.  Once and for all, perfectly and fully, we have been reconciled to God.  Jesus became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God.

But the cross is not the ONLY part of the Easter narrative.  If it had all ended there we would be telling an incomplete story and the Christian faith itself would mean absolutely nothing.  Stopping the story on Good Friday would make Jesus no more of a God than any of the other men of History who have claimed to hold the answers to life’s questions.

No, Easter is far bigger news than a good man dying a martyr’s death. 

The clue to this bigger news lies in the interesting fact that the cross as a symbol of Christianity only appeared several hundred years after the death of Christ.  Up to then it appeared that Christians were possessed by a truth far more compelling than a good man dying a martyr’s death.  It was a truth that cast off the shackles of fear and oppression that were so much a part of life under Roman rule – a truth that caused them to turn the world upside down as they carried it to the very ends of the earth.

I am, of course, talking about the fact that Jesus was raised from the dead.  Of all the religions on the marketplace, only one makes this jaw-dropping claim.  The resurrection changes everything.

The resurrection, says Chinese evangelist Watchman Nee, ushers in a new history for those who would put their trust in it:  “Our old history” Nee writes, “ends with the cross; our new history begins with the resurrection”

The work of the cross and the resurrection of Jesus are what Christians refer to as “The Good News”.  Now we are not only reconciled with God; but the same power that brought Jesus out of the Grave is available to every one of us who believes on his name.  Yes!  Even Death itself is defeated by the power of the resurrection!

As the apostle Paul wrote in the book of Corinthians:

 “Death where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting?”

To close, a perspective from the life of a German theologian named Dietrich Bonhoeffer whose autobiography I've just finished reading.  This man understood not only what he had been saved FROM (by the cross) but also what he had been saved TO by the resurrection.  Indeed, it was he who courageously spoke out against Adolf Hitler’s diabolical treatment of the Jews during WWII.

Of Death and the resurrection Bonhoeffer wrote:

“Why are we so afraid when we think about death?  The resurrection has transformed death.  For all we know, we may be shivering at the most glorious, heavenly, blessed event in the world…

He who truly understands the resurrection will be homesick from that hour, waiting and looking forward to being released from this bodily existence.  He understands that life only really begins when it ends here on earth, that all that is here is only the prologue before the curtain goes up. Death is the greatest gift of grace that God gives to people who believe in him.  It is the gateway to our homeland, the tabernacle of joy, and the everlasting kingdom of peace.

Bonhoeffer had a deep understanding of the resurrection and as such gave everything in the service of his Lord.  Just months after writing these lines, he faced a Nazi executioner at Flossenburg Prison.  That day, April 8, 1945 he said to a fellow inmate:  “This is the end – for me the beginning of life”.

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God wants us all to live in right relation with him.  Like Bonhoeffer, he wants us all to know his resurrection power and to live our lives in light of it.  But this is an age of “easy-believe-ism”.  Matthew’s gospel says that not everyone who says “Lord! Lord!” will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  When the apostle John uses the word “believe” in his Gospel, he is describing a state of dependence in which we cleave to, cling to, adhere to, trust in and rely totally upon Jesus for everything.  This carries huge implications as we examine our hearts before Christ this morning.

Repent and Believe in Jesus.  Invite him into your heart as your personal Saviour. Then, empowered by God's grace, embark on the journey of discipleship, in which you seek to love God with every fibre of your being, to love your neighbour as yourself, to live out God's moral will, and to follow Jesus where he leads you, whatever the cost.

Receive new life, eternal life. Look to him and live.