We live in strange times
when a psychic or a tarot phone line can advertise on tv
and a Christian church is not allowed to.
We hope that will change soon; the government is reviewing it
and not before time because we have good news that people need.
Easter good news
Maybe you know Burn's poem 'to a mouse'.
He has cut open the field mouse's nest with his plough and he's upset:
'The best laid schemes of mice and men gang aft agley
and leave us nought but grief and pain for promised joy.'
But he thinks it's better to be a mouse than a man.
'Still thou art blest compared wi' me The present only toucheth thee
But och I backward cast my eye on prospects drear
and forward tho' I canna see, I guess and fear.'
We can do better than the poet Burns
Easter good news promises us much better
for both the past present and the and the future
RESURRECTION TRUTH: WHAT GOD SAYS HE DOES 3-4
'that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day
according to the Scriptures'
Christ died for our sins We can be forgiven,
Christ was raised from the dead we can have new life
it was planned and predicted in the Scriptures
in Isaiah 53, in Psalm 16
'My heart is glad and my tongue rejoices
my body also will live in hope nor will you let your Holy One see decay'
On the first Easter evening Luke tells us about two friends of Jesus
walking on the road to Emmaus outside Jerusalem.
They are in bits. Their friend Jesus is dead and now his body has disappeared.
Their hope has been shattered and they are confused.
A mysterious stranger appears - we know it is the risen Lord, but they don't.
Have you ever wondered why Jesus did not at once tell them who he was?
Instead he gives them a bible study in what the Old Testament says
about his death and resurrection.
Then at supper when he takes bread and gives thanks and gives to them
their eyes are opened and they do recognise him
but they also comment
'Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road
and opened the scriptures to us?'
That's authentic Christian experience:
the risen Christ making the scriptures clear
bringing reassurance to the frightened, hope to the despairing,
understanding to the confused
because what God says, he does.
In our post Christian world
which has lost the Christian assumptions of previous times
we need simply and unashamedly to get this message out
most of all to tell to ourselves these exciting liberating truths
that life has meaning, that God has not rejected us, that death is not the end
that sin can be forgiven
and that there can be something so much better beyond death for the believer.
RESURRECTION TRUTH TO LOOK FORWARD TO
Easter gives us hope beyond this life.
It's a big question: what happens when we die?
It make us afraid, we are uncertain
but the Bible points to us to a picture from the natural world
the difference between the seed, small shrivelled colourless
and the flower or the plant, blooming fragrant alive
When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed,
perhaps of wheat or of something else.
38 But God gives it a body as he has determined,
and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.
42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead.
The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable;
43 it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory;
it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power;
44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed-
52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.
For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable,
and we will be changed.
53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable,
and the mortal with immortality.
There is a life beyond this life
we shall have an existence, we shall be the same people
but we shall be transformed
It makes me wonder why we have so many flowers at funerals
because the picture the wreathes give is of great beauty
but beauty that does not last.
The flowers wither, a sad picture of human mortality
Surely Christians ought to bring not flowers but seeds
to the funerals of believers?
As good as this life can be, isn't it always overshadowed by death?
There is something better yet to be where death is defeated
RESURRECTION TRUTH TO KEEP US GOING
Right through this chapter Paul points out the futility of unbelief
and the need for Christians to continue to believe
2 By this gospel you are saved,
if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you.
Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
14 if Christ has not been raised,
our preaching is useless and so is your faith.
17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile;
you are still in your sins.
18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.
19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ,
we are to be pitied more than all men.
Paul highlights the futility of human life without faith in the risen Lord
and isn't that a big question that should be posed to people who will not believe?
What is your purpose? Why do you do what you do?
That's the big theme of the book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament.
The writer considers everything that happens 'under the sun'
'God has made everything beautiful in its time,
He has also set eternity in the hearts of men;
yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.'
An Easter faith does not give us answers to everything
but it connects us to the one who does know and care and save.
Bertrand Russell wrote: when I die I shall be buried in a whole in the ground
and I shall rot and that shall be the end of Bertrand Russell.
Was he right?
The psychics think they can tell your future;
the poet didn't know the future and was afraid;
the philosopher dogmatically decided there wasn't a future
but he is in for a shock.
Resurrection truth tells us that God does what he says
that there is a new life to look forward to in faith in Christ
but pity those like B. Russell who have resisted Christ
and there is a purpose to life right now.
What's the bottom line then? Don't give in. Don't give up.
Receive the victory over sin, be confident I the triumph over death
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