A year or two later, the next time I was in Armenia for Easter, I preached the following sermon in several churches, including some where I had preached the other Easter sermon (so I made sure I had a new sermon!). The style in this sermon is significantly different, more stream-of-consciousness – perhaps even “machine gun” at times, though careful intonation will make it seem less so. An unusual (for me) element in this sermon is that I freely weave the biblical quotes into my own words. With one or two exceptions, I don’t stop to say, “Let’s turn to 1 Peter 1:3” or “As it says in John 11:25...”. And that’s why you’ll see nearly all the scripture passages in this text, not the usual “(read text)”. This sermon picks up on the “peace” theme of the Triumphal Entry II sermon, so there was a conceptual link for those who heard that one a week earlier. The main thing I tried to do here was to present as many stark pictures as I could of the results/effects/outcomes of the resurrection in “real life”, precisely for the nonbelievers who would be likely to make an unaccustomed visit to church for Easter day. The concluding thoughts echo the earlier Easter sermon, but they are more directly evangelistic.
“I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me will never die.” Jesus Christ spoke these words to Martha at the gravesite of her brother Lazarus. With these words, Jesus let her – and you and me – know that he himself represented the central moment of all human history, the very center of God’s salvation for us all. Everything depends on this and this alone: that Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Without the resurrection there is no forgiveness of sins, no reconciliation with God, no hope of eternal life. The Apostle Paul wrote: “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless – you are still in your sins.” But Christ is raised! The angels said to the women at the tomb: “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here but has risen.” And so our hope is perfect and will never disappoint us, as the apostle Peter says, “God has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
Born again! Because of Jesus’ resurrection we have new birth. Jesus said, “Because I live, you also will live”. For us to live, Jesus had to rise from the dead, to fill us with his resurrected, victorious, imperishable life. But to rise, Jesus had first to die – in order to redeem us, “with precious blood, as of a lamb, unblemished and spotless”. This was the only way to solve man’s deepest, most critical need – the need that, if it is not solved, then no other needs can every truly be solved. Or even if they were solved, in the end it would still mean nothing. If this first, all-pervading need is not solved, then everything else in life is meaningless and lost. The need is: peace with God. Jesus gives this peace. When he appeared, resurrected, to the disciples, he said, “Peace be with you.” This was a new kind of peace, which no one had experienced since the Garden of Eden: peace with God. Jesus made this peace possible because he took away the terrible barrier between us and God. Our sin, which God cannot accept, was taken away in the body of Christ when he died. Like a curtain that separates two rooms, our sin was torn apart when Jesus’ own heart broke on the cross. Jesus made the way to God open and clear again through the sacrifice of his own life. This is why Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” Only his death tore open the curtain that was separating us from God. This is also why Jesus said to Mary Magdalene, when he appeared to her after the resurrection, “Go to my brothers and say, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” Only Jesus’ resurrection could make his Father our Father again, too. “I am the way.... No one comes to the Father except through me.” Because Christ has risen, we can call God our God and Father. We can know God again as a friend, not a stranger. We can find the source of life, and all the sense of life, in close fellowship with our Maker. And he accepts us completely, because of his perfect, glorious, beloved Son Jesus.
All of human history is the story of Man’s need for God, for the true meaning of life. The very beginning of the story tells us about the terrible tragedy, the wrong choice which our first parents made when they chose pride instead of love, self instead of God, sin instead of obedience and freedom. if they had remained in perfect obedience to God, they would also have known perfect freedom and no other desire except to please God. But when they forsook obedience they also forsook freedom. They made themselves slaves of sin. And to this day people still deceive themselves, thinking that they’re free when they are really slaves to their own sins. They have no strength, no power over themselves; they cannot stop themselves from harmful, destructive actions; they poison their bodies with drugs, alcohol, tobacco; they poison their minds with immorality; they poison their relationships with pride and selfishness – and they can’t stop. And yet, they think they’re free. What a successful deception the devil has performed! There’s only one thing that can defeat such a powerful deception. Hebrews 2:14-15 says (read text). And 1 John 3:8 says, “The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.”
It was considered a great event in America when Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery, and many thousands of black slaves became free citizens of the United States. But how much greater is it that God has destroyed the power of the devil in the life of countless millions for the past two thousand years by the power of the Resurrected Christ! People have been liberated from the fear of death, from pride and hatred, from greed and selfishness, from self-destruction and cruelty, because Jesus lives. The power is his. The life is his. And the victory is his. Jesus Christ says, “I am the first and the last, and the Living One, and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and hades.” We should not be surprised that God accompanied the birth of His Son with a star in the sky. People shoot fireworks into the sky to mark great events, such as Independence Day. But no event in history was greater than the arrival of the Great Liberator of human souls. No greater victory was ever won than the victory over death. When a war ends on earth, it means one kingdom has conquered another. When Jesus paid the price of our sins on the cross and then rose from the dead, it meant that the kingdom of God had the total victory over sin and death, over everything that could stop us from coming to God. The way was clear. The wall fell down. The veil in God’s temple, which hid the holiest place, was torn in half, and God’s holy presence was open to all who come through Jesus. The prophecy was fulfilled that said, “He will swallow up death for all time” (Is. 25:6). And now we can say together with the apostle Paul, “Death is swallowed up in victory. Where, O Death, is your victory? Where, O Death, is your sting?”
Today the choice is every person’s: to be a citizen of the victorious kingdom, or the defeated kingdom. Jesus said, “No one can come to the Father except through me.” Jesus is the “narrow gate”; he is the “door”. He is the only victory and the only way that God has given – given at the highest cost and with supreme love. He is the only way into the kingdom. There is only one thing that can stop any of us from going through that door and finding God’s peace and friendship. It is we ourselves – our pride, our disbelief, our unwillingness to admit we are sinners and accept his forgiveness. For many people, that is a wall that stops them from accepting Christ. It blocks them from receiving the free gift of life from him. God offers freedom freely to us; we can’t buy it – Jesus paid the price. But God leaves the choice with us; only we can choose to accept or reject.
I am confident of this, however. If we even take a small step toward God, He is ready to take a large step toward us. Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”! When we come to him, admitting that we have nothing, and that we do not deserve his salvation, and we certainly can’t buy it, and we ask him to cleanse our sins and accept us, then we are poor in spirit. To such poor ones the risen Son of God has promised the kingdom forever and ever. Jesus said to Martha by Lazarus’s grave, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
Christ is Lord, Christ lives, Christ is returning, and Christ will bring the kingdom of God into the heart of everyone who believes – right now. Jesus asked Martha, “Do you believe this?” There is no more important question in the whole world. Your eternal destiny depends on your answer. The risen Christ continues to ask every heart, “Do you believe this?” To those who believe, the risen Christ gives eternal life as a free gift, in his overflowing love. May the answer of each of our hearts today be the same as Martha’s: “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into the world.”
