“Forks In the Road” 
 

Revelation 21: 1-8 (NRSV)
 

Yogi Berra once said, “When you come to the fork in the road, take it!” 

There is a road that leads to two paths, a “fork” in the road. Beside each path stands a man who will answer one question in order to help the traveler choose which way to go regarding the choices one has already made in their lives. One man will always tell the truth and one will always lie.  

What question will you ask to ensure you get the right answer? It’s actually quite simple. Either man should be asked the following question: "If I were to ask you if this is the way I should go, would you say yes?" While asking the question, the traveler should be pointing at either of the directions going from the fork. 

Have you ever realized that Jesus and the devil are confirming the same truth? We have the direction (Jesus called it “the way, the truth, and the Life”) in which to travel but we let other distractions confuse us. 

Each of us will find many “forks in the road” as we encounter God’s plan in our lives. 

God created the heavens, the earth, and humanity in perfection. Humanity fell in disobedience as Adam and Eve took the wrong “fork.” 

God’s plan is for the perfect restoration of His creation. The American Family Dictionary defines restoration as “a return of something to an original or unimpaired condition,” a “restitution of something taken away or lost.”  

One of the tragedies of modern life, as I mentioned before, is our disbelief in the supernatural activities of God. We may have superstitious faith in ghosts, vampires, and little green men from Mars, but we can’t see God’s hands or actions anywhere around us.  

Sadly, most of us can imagine what torment and hell will be like more than what Heaven will be like. This is why God left us a book called the Holy Bible so we could learn and know things about God, His plans, and our purpose.

Just as the Book of Genesis tells us of Creation, the Book of Revelation tells us of Restoration. God, through the Apostle John, shows what God will strip away from human life to return us to perfection. 

The Lectionary list suggests just reading verses Revelation 21: 1-6, but this passage includes verses 7-8 as well. They add information about both “forks” in the road. 

The path of Christianity is positive in outlook with a hope filled message but it has a warning about other false paths as well. We don’t become a Christian like people become eligible to take books out of a library. Becoming and being a Christian means commitment, service, humility, and submission to God’s Will. We have to consciously and earnestly choose and walk the path of faith. 

Failure to do so carries heavier penalties then overdue fines. God’s words are not to be treated as guidelines/suggestions but rather as the rules of Life.  

I think the church has ignored these 2 verses for too long. Hear John’s continuing vision: 

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 

And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.” 

And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” And he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.”Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.”  

Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children.

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, the murderers, the fornicators, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.  

What will eternity be like? John’s vision tells us that all the bad and negative things of this world are going to be conquered and destroyed. All the ungodliness and evil, all suffering and pain, all the corruption and death will disappear. 

John is shown that impure government, corrupt religion, bad leaders, painful suffering, and sin and temptation will be no more. The glorious message of Revelation is that evil and corruption will be soundly defeated for all time. Those who have accepted and thirsted after God will be fully restored to full fellowship with God and perfection in all things.  

Yet God has placed warnings here: Verse 8 tells us of those will be rejected, those who chose the wrong fork of the road. 

“The fearful or cowardly” are those who will not confess Christ because they fear what others might say or are afraid to give up worldly things and deny themselves. 

“The unbelieving” are those who do not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Savior of the World. 

“The polluted” are those who are living for or refuse to give up their worldly lives. They are addicted to the impurity and corruption of human life. 

“The murderers” are those who kill and/or take away the lives of others. You don’t have to physically kill someone to “murder” them.  

“The fornicators or immorals” are those that engage in acts and lifestyles that God condemned or forbids. They allow themselves to be overcome by lusts of the flesh. 

“The sorcerers” are those who engage in astrology, witchcraft, devil worship, spiritualism, séances, palm readings, fortune telling, and all other types of beliefs that claim to reveal and control one’s fate, life, and destiny. Superstitious behavior and new age religions! This includes those who think that little green men will come and “settle” human affairs and turn us into loving, caring universal citizens.

 

I use to read my "horro-scope" each day for a laugh. When I got serious about Christ I got serious about stuff like that too. I don't take those even "baby-steps" to the occult anymore.

“The idolaters” are those that worship idols, whether the idols are made with one’s hands or just conceived in one’s mind. This includes those whose mind is set on the image of who and what God is without learning and knowing God from scriptures.  

“The liars” are those who deceive themselves and others in what they believe, what they hear, what they say, and what they do whether they profess belief or not in Jesus Christ.  

John is told that anyone who does not repent and turn away from these evils, does not turn to forgiveness, and forsake these things will not be a citizen or resident of the new Heaven and earth. They will be sent to a world without God. 

Each of us comes to a fork in the road in our life journey: which path we take will matter. One leads to truth, love, and grace. The other leads to death. God has given us the answers and resources we need to choose.

 

While life seldomly offers us a whole lot of choices the path to walk on is one when we discover that our life does have a fork.  Which way will you go?

Friends, hear, repent, forgive, live, and you will be restored to Heaven. Amen. 

“Trouble”

Revelation 7: 9-17 (NRSV)

There is no doubt that God created our world in perfection. Disease, Death, and pain was unknown in the Garden of Eden. Until Adam and Eve’s fall into sin, humanity walked side-by-side with God in Paradise. What a blessing to humanity that must have been, and what a tremendous blow losing God’s companionship and presence has been. Since that time our world has been sliding into corruption. 

The sin of humanity began a process of eroding the perfection of God’s creation and today we are only bad copies of copies of multiple copies of the original humans. It is no wonder we suffer increasing illnesses, resistance to medical treatments, and continue to develop mysterious diseases at alarming rates. 

Our lives are measured in misery indexes and each of us has played the “I can top your sad story.” Remember the jokes about older folks telling younger folks about how times are “getting so much better than...” that ends with … “you had feet?” 

One of humanity’s recurring questions since being kicked out of the Garden of Eden is how much blame we should place on God for our troubles. Are they punishments or nudges toward character development? We often ask “does God manipulate our condition in order to satisfy His will?” 

There’s a lot of money, scholarly esteem, and political hay to be had in the answers to that question. The answer depends on your beliefs and faith (or lack of it), and whether you think God still has a claim and right to you as His creation. 

Oswald Chambers wrote, “If you are going to be used by God, he will take you through a multitude of experiences that are not meant for you at all: they are meant to make you useful in his hands. And being useful to God is not a bad thing. 

I don’t have to tell you that life is full of events, experiences, and situations most of us don’t want.  

How we handle them is more important than most of the actual scenarios themselves. God is sharpening and molding us into people who are useful in his kingdom.

No one should ever think God causes troubles or conducts “tests” for His followers just because he can, or that He delights in doing such things. God has a purpose. 

The old Murphy Brown TV show once had Candice Bergan make a passing reference to the Rocky and Bulwinkle Show, by suggesting that a character was “making trouble for Moose and Squirrel” while mimicking the Natasha Nogoodnik voice (BTW Natasha hung out with Boris Baddanoff). 

Friends God doesn’t make trouble for Moose and Squirrel just for fun. If we are tempered by fire, are tired and hungry, and scorched by the burning sun, Jesus, the Lamb of God will come to shield us. Hear our lesson from the Book of Revelation: 

After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation. From all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. 

They cried out in a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, singing, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” 

Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?” I said to him, “Sir, you are the one that knows.”

Then he said to me, “These are they who have come out of the great ordeal: they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them. 

They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to the springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”  

The word that sticks out from this passage is the curious use of the word “ordeal”

(“thlipsis,” (th-lip-sis) in Greek) which actually should be translated “tribulation.” Tribulation means distress, troubles, sufferings, hardship, persecutions, trials, afflictions, anguish, and being hard pressed.

The people around God’s throne are said to have come out of a great period of tribulation in which they found protection and solace from the Lamb of God. These people have survived great trouble and are now sheltered before the Throne of God.  

Isn’t it wonderful to know that God recognizes the difficulties and troubles humanity will endure and rewards those suffering in it? But (notice how God does have “buts” in the covenant language he has made with humanity?) there is something in this scripture passage we must not overlook. 

Let me read again the verses we must see: “These are they who have come out of the great ordeal: they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.”  

Each of these persons has figuratively “washed” their robes in the blood of the Lamb. Each has received salvation and eternal life through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It was not their deeds but instead their willingness to trust Jesus. 

While it doesn’t directly say it I take this to mean that they took their “thlipsis”

(th-lip-sis), their tribulations, their troubles, and gave them to Jesus. Jesus received them and they now are restored to walking, talking, worshipping, and being in the presence of God.

See how God solved the problem of Adam and Eve’s sin and slide into corruption? 

Now let me tell you something even more amazing. 

These are the people who are saved and restored to God’s kingdom after what is called the rapture, They have suffered and have been persecuted and killed for Jesus’ sake prior to what we call the “Great Tribulation” prior to the End Times. 

These are the people who got a second chance after witnessing millions, if not billions, of living believers called to heaven by Jesus in that event called the rapture. These are the Doubting Thomas’s of Eternity.  

I ask you this: If Jesus treats these “losers” so wonderfully, how much more so will he treat those who believe, haven’t seen, and are called up to be in Heaven?

Having faith and trust in God during times of difficulty are major themes in both testaments: 

“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” (Jeremiah 17: 7-8) 

Should we blame God? Who are you, who am I, a human, to talk back to God?  

Romans 9: 21: “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?”Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?” 

Friends there are times when I get discouraged from all my ailments and wish life and winning the lottery was simpler. I remind myself of what is awaiting me and you, by what John wrote that Jesus said in John 14:1-3:  

“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”

There is no trouble, no thlipsis, no tribulation bigger than God or the grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 

Amen.

 

“When We All Get to Heaven”
Revelation 5: 11-14 (NRSV)
An Army man, a marine, and an airman got into a fight about which service is best. The fight was so heated, that the car they were riding in crashed and they all died. Soon, they found themselves in Heaven. They see St. Peter walk by and ask, “Which Branch of Service is the best?” 

St. Peter replied, “I can't answer that. But, I will ask God what He thinks the next time I see Him.”Sometime later, the three see St. Peter again and ask him if he was able to find the answer. 

Suddenly, a dove landed on St. Peter's shoulder. The dove was carrying a note in its beak. St. Peter opened the note and read it out loud :  

“Gentlemen: All the Branches of the Service are ‘Honorable and Noble.’ Each one of you has served your country well. Be proud of that. (signed) GOD, USN (Ret.) 

Heaven’s going to be a good place that a lot of us are going to wonder why we were so apprehensive about getting to. We should look forward to it! 

Two Christians have lived very good, and also very healthy lives. They die, and go to heaven. As they are walking along, marveling at the paradise around them, one turns to the other and says "Wow. I never knew heaven was going to be as good as this!"

"Yeah", says the other. "And just think, if we hadn't eaten all that oat bran we could have got here ten years sooner." (Tell yourself that as you are eating sausage, cheese, and other high-fat foods!) 

“Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads and myriads and thousands of thousands, singing with full voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” 

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing, “To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might  forever and ever!”And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” And the elders fell down and worshipped.

Sometimes I am caught off guard by the words used in the Greek text. The most significant words are often represented by a word that seems underwhelming.  

The Greek word for heaven, “ouranos,” seems to be such a word. Yet it’s used 273 times in the New Testament. It means “the lifted place or place of ascension.” 

The Hebrew word is much more interesting, It is “shamayim,” and means  “the realm of the sky, the dwelling place of God.” 

You can see these words do complement each other. The Hebrews defined the place and the Greeks described the verb about getting to it. Thanks be to God! 

What exactly do we know about Heaven? Here’s some information from some Christian authors. 

We know that Heaven is the spiritual realm in which the glory of God's presence is manifest, and in which dwell the angels of God, and all believers who have departed this world (Hebrews 12: 22-24).

 

The glimpses of Heaven given in Scripture reveal the supreme Holiness of God (Isaiah 6; Revelation chapters 4 and 5), which gave a wake-up call on those who were granted such visions  such as in Isaiah 6 or Daniel 7: 9-28.  

Isaiah, when he saw the Lord sitting on His throne, said, "Woe is me . . . for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts."  

Heaven seems to be a place where human words fail. In writing about his apparent visit to heaven, the apostle Paul said that he "heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak" (2 Corinthians 12: 4).  

What Paul saw was not only impermissible but impossible to describe in human terms! Heaven is among those things he described elsewhere as "things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered into the heart of man" (1 Corinthians 2: 9)!  

No wonder Paul says we will be "astonished" when we see the Lord at His coming in glory. (2 Thessalonians 1: 10)

We know that for those who belong to Christ, Heaven is an immediate destination after death. To the thief on the cross, Jesus said, "Today you shall be with me in Paradise" (Luke 23: 43). Paul, writing in 2 Corinthians 5: 8, said that "to be absent from the body (is to be) at home with the Lord." 

Oswald Sanders said: "God has not told us all we'd like to know, but He has told us all we need to know" about Heaven. There are a couple of more things I want to tell you about our existence in heaven, but I can’t cover it all unless we take the rest of the day.

Mark Twain once sarcastically said that in Heaven, for twelve hours every day we will all sing one hymn over and over again. Doesn’t sound appealing, does it? The Bible, however, paints a much different picture of what life in Heaven will be like.  

Consider just a few of Heaven's most significant characteristics.  

We know that our transition to heaven will result in a change in our spiritual nature. Paul spoke of "the hope of righteousness" of being released from the internal struggle against indwelling sin, through being set free from our mortal body (Romans 7: 23-24).

In Heaven our comprehension of the nature of God will be fully realized. Paul says that "though now we see through a glass darkly," then we shall "see face to face" and "shall know fully, as we are known" (1 Corinthians 13: 12).  

There is every reason to believe that there will be opportunity for growth in Heaven . . . not growth toward perfection, but growth in perfection. As a man, Jesus was indeed perfect. Yet Scripture tells us that He "grew in wisdom, in stature, and in favor with God and man."  

Once God's purpose for life on earth is done, our physical bodies will be changed to a new order of life. Philippians 3: 20 says that Jesus himself will "transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory."  

There will be a creation of a new heaven and earth in which we shall live with Christ forever. Jesus referred to this transformation of the creation as "the regeneration." (Matthew 19: 28) It will be the creation made perfect again!

In the Book of Revelation we are told that in this new creation there will be "no more sorrow, pain or death." (Revelation 21: 4).  

Isaiah's prophecy told us that the glories of the new creation will be so marvelous that "the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind" (Isaiah 65: 17)!  

How will we occupy our time in Heaven? Scriptures tell us that in addition to engaging in united worship of God, we will serve (Revelation 22: 3) and reign with Christ (Revelation 20: 6; 22: 5).  

The domain over which we will reign will no doubt encompass all of creation, for we're told that for Christ "all things have been created" (Colossians 1: 16), and that with Him we will inherit "all these things."  

As believers, the promise of Heaven should transform our perspective on death. Our scriptures do not teach that as believers we are immune from or should deny the reality of the sorrow that death can bring. But in Christ, we share in His victory over death!  

We grieve, but we grieve not as those who have no hope (1 Thessalonians 4: 13), rather as those who are certain of our reunion with loved ones who have gone before, of receiving a glorious body that will never weaken or decay, of entering a wonderful new life beyond our fondest dreams, and of forever being with the Lord!  

At the end of his "Narnia Tales" C. S. Lewis describes the events that transpire as the characters in his story enter Heaven: "The things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after.  

But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before." 

I can’t wait for us all to get to Heaven! Amen.

“21^st Century Christianity: Doubt, Trust, Faith.”

John 20: 19-31 (NRSV) 

How does doubt turn into trust?  

Doubt (Greek word “dia-krinō”) is wavering in the definition of, or meaning of actions or motivations of others leading to a hesitation of choice or commitment. 

Trust (Greek word “pis-teu-ō”) is best translated as “believing in or upon.” 

Doubt turns into trust based on faith. Faith (Greek word “pis-tis”) is accepting proof so that something can be believed in and trusted. It is through faith that truth is learned. 

Cicero said, “Through doubt we arrive at the truth.” 

Jesus would agree. God would agree. While it is good to believe without doubts God knows that we humans will have doubts and require “booster shots” from time to time. It’s just a matter of us learning to see God’s word and truth around us. 

The father of the Reformed Church, Ulrich Zwingli preached, “Everything that is true is God’s Word, whoever may have said it.” 

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" 

After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit.If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven." 

Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came.So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!"But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it."

A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" 

Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe."Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." 

Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. 

In our day and time the prevailing question is “Did This Really Happen, is it true?” 

The first thing we have to deal with when we read the resurrection accounts in the gospels and Acts with a skeptical eye is to decide if they really happened. After all, none of us have encountered a resurrected person; none of us have seen any of our friends laid out in a casket and then talked with them at Starbucks or Panera Bread a couple of days later.

So this incident in scripture, and others like it, leaves us scratching our heads and wondering if it is real. You hear pastors saying it’s real but can we be trusted? Can God’s Word be trusted? 

Some of us reply immediately out of faith, that it is real, that Jesus really did rise from the grave, and that this incident really did occur as John describes it. If that describes you, you can skip over the rest of this sermon. But the rest of us need to do a little more thinking about it. 

There are three different approaches to the resurrection accounts:  

Theory 1: The resurrection accounts are theological fiction. This means that the resurrection accounts did not occur at all; they are fictitious stories invented by the writers (or others) to make Jesus heroic despite His nasty death. In other words, they are the product of theological pipedreams of the ancient church.

This theory was fashionable back in the days when scholars thought the gospels were written in the second or third centuries. Archaeology and historical records show that they were actually written in the first century, when there was a community for whom the crucifixion and the events over the next few days were personal memories.  

It doesn’t seem very likely that they would tolerate such outright lies about such events. The disciples were traumatized by the crucifixion, so it is much more reasonable to assume that they at least believed that these events occurred.  

It is also likely, if the resurrection accounts were theological fiction, that there would have been an effort to make them all the same, to get the details straight.  

In a murder mystery novel, all the clues come together at the end to form one possible solution. Fiction is neat and tidy, but actual reality is messy. The truthful accounts of honest witnesses are sometimes very hard to harmonize.  

The resurrection accounts aren’t neat and tidy. They leave us wondering, for example, if the Ascension took place in Galilee, as Matthew appears to imply, or in Judea, as Luke and Acts seem to say. If we put them all together, it is more like a scrapbook of assorted memories than a fictional narrative.  

The resurrection accounts were written during a time when there were witnesses who would object to a preposterous embellishment of events, and they do not have the character of fiction. The High Priests and Romans were still around too. Whatever the resurrection accounts are, they are not theological fiction.  

Theory 2: The resurrection accounts are just bereavement visions that every survivor has. 

Theory # 2 says that they really did occur exactly as the gospel writers describe them, but the accounts are only subjectively true. We know that when a person dies, especially under traumatic circumstances, that it is common for the survivors to experience the presence of the dead person in the days and weeks immediately following the death. This can take the form of dreams, visions, or auditory hallucinations. So perhaps these resurrection accounts are products of the disciples’ grief.

 

Many people have told me of these types of experiences where people encounter and “see” deceased loved ones in their homes and work places. From what I have read, and what I’ve seen these experiences are normal and typical for a person who had witnessed a tragic death, or is grieving.

The resurrection accounts do not fit this pattern. There were multiple witnesses who were all wide awake at the time, the duration of the incidents was too long, and skeptics, such as Thomas, could see them. Thomas was not an exceptional case.  

All of the disciples were skeptical of the resurrection until they saw the Risen Jesus. It was only then were they convinced, and the resurrection appearances did not comfort them, but rather energized them. These were physical events. 

Bereavement visions comfort the bereaved; they do not end the bereavement, as the resurrection appearances did. Bereavement visions certainly do not charge up a person to the degree that they can evangelize the world and march fearlessly into death!  

Whatever the resurrection accounts are, they are not the same type of phenomena that accompany bereavement.  

Theory 3: The resurrection accounts really happened as described and can be trusted.  

This theory asserts that the resurrection accounts are objectively true. That is, if non-believers had stumbled into the scene, they would have witnessed it also—and in fact that happened, especially in the case of this passage.  

There is no way we can prove it definitively after all these years, but I think this is the only explanation given the facts at hand. Not just because of the character of the resurrection accounts themselves, but also because the accounts depict the disciples deep in grief before the resurrection appearance and energized and emboldened after the resurrection appearance.

They even proclaimed the resurrection in the very city in which Jesus’ crucifixion occurred—the very location where their claims could most easily be disproved.

It was also the most dangerous place to make them public. It is true that early Christians were confident as they were put to death for this belief, and it was this unwavering confidence in the face of torture and death that made the early church grow.  

Obviously, something more than a literary fraud or a bereavement vision must have occurred. The only explanation I can think of is that the resurrection accounts were real objective, physical events that really occurred. I have no reservations believing that these events happened. I have faith in the entire story of the life of Jesus. 

And the best part of this is that Jesus didn’t penalize Thomas for doubting the resurrection, and He won’t penalize you if you have misgivings about it. You are not saved by your beliefs but by your faith; by your reliance on Jesus Christ.  

John effectively tells us that the Bible does not contain the entire blueprints for the universe. It does not contain the answers to all of our possible questions.  

There are things that you won’t learn by reading the Bible, like auto repair, sub-nuclear physics, tap dancing, double-entry bookkeeping, or why there are wasps and mosquitoes. Those things are not essential to our salvation. The Bible’s purpose is to save our souls, reveal God’s Will and Love to us and not be used just as a proof text to hit others over the head with. 

An unknown pastor wrote, “Faith is the capacity to trust God while not being able to make sense out of everything.” 

 

I don't need to know how electricity works or how a computer processes data to use them. I just need to have enough faith in them to turn them on.

The Bible equips us with the desire and ability to have faith in Jesus Christ, and for that purpose it does its job.  

D. L. Moody said, “A little faith will bring your soul to heaven, but a lot of faith will bring heaven to your soul.” 

We can move from doubt to trust to faith. He is Risen! Amen.

Easter Message: “Failure was the option”

John 20: 1-18   (NRSV)           

There are 2 phrases that I almost shudder when I hear used in our culture: “That’s what I’m talking about” (which is actually from a 1929 Fats Waller song “This Joint is Jumping’”) and the phrase made up especially for the movie Apollo 13 BECAUSE no one ever actually said it (AND IT's ALL MOVIE HYPE)– “Failure is not an option.”

Both phrases seem to suggest a confidence that problems will be handled and troubles will fall away. Most of the time these types of phrases are used in jokes or in conversations. They, like many other euphemisms, are used and abused.  

Neither would be appropriate or should be used to explain Easter. Alexander Solzhenitsyn once said, “There is eternal simplicity to a solution once it has been discovered.”

Friends, Easter is a solution. It was success cloaked in the appearance of human failure. Easter’s resurrection story solves an eternal problem and sets into motion the greatest love story ever told. If anything it can be described as God’s “Failure was the option” moment.

Easter is the moment that the death of Jesus turned into the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, Israel and the world’s long awaited Messiah. 

The question I ask you this Easter Morning is what are the disciples saying when they are told Jesus’ body is missing? The phrase that comes to our mind is “He is alive!” But apparently this outcome was not considered by the disciples. It’s more like “uh oh.”

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. ²So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.’  

³Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went towards the tomb. ⁴The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. ⁵He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in.  

⁶Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb.

He saw the linen wrappings lying there, ⁷and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself.  

⁸Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; ⁹for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. ¹⁰Then the disciples returned to their homes. 

 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look^* into the tomb; ¹²and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. ¹³They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’ ¹⁴When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus.  

¹⁵Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?’  

Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ ¹⁶Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’  

She turned and said to him in Hebrew,^* ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher). ¹⁷Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” ’ ¹⁸Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her.  

What a wonderful moment for Mary, what a wonderful moment for John, what a wonderful moment for the world. To see that all was not lost, and that there was hope in death.  

Easter morning we, like the disciples, encounter the unexpected, and see Jesus as more than human and more than a teacher.

 

We see Him as the resurrected Son of God who has taken away the sin of the world.

 

Praise the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

This is only time I will joyfully say, “That’s what I’m talking about!” Amen.