Easter 1987

Luke 24:1-27

Intro:  1. We are here this morning to celebrate the most remarkable event in the history of mankind, the resurrection of  Jesus Christ. Everything that we know in terms of science and history goes against this event. The record of the millions of human beings in the history of the world is such that they all die and stay dead. This fact is difficult to counter when we think of the resurrection possibility. But the essential differences in this story involves the question who is being  resurrected. The story of the death of millions is such that they are human beings like you and me,  and there is no power for a resurrection. The story that we have to mention this morning is the story of a unique man, Jesus, the  Christ who is God-incarnate, God come down. In this case resurrection is possible. The being who created the world has come to visit mankind and he has the power to heal, to make alive, to give  back sight to the blind, but greater than of these is the  power to rise from the grave. Paul‘s word to the Romans was that Jesus was designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead (1:4)

2. Not only is history against this event, but science has little to say about it. We have done marvelous things in science, particularly medicine. You may have read this past week a possible help for Parkinson’s disease in which transplants have been taken from the adrenal  glands and transplanted to the brain for the purpose  of manufacturing dopamine.  There are other break throughs.  There is the possibility of a cure for some types of  cancer just recently announced.  We can do much to keep the body alive, but  beyond the matter of a shock to the heart to get it going again, medical science knows nothing of a resurrection.

3. What we have is this:  Jesus was crucified on Friday and after being on the cross for 6 hours, died. Soldiers pierced his side and blood and serum drained out. He was dead.  His body was taken down on that evening because bodies were not left on the cross over the Sabbath. Following the Sabbath, further preparations were  to be made for his burial.  On Sunday morning, he arose from the grave.  He was resurrected.  He appeared to his disciples not only on; that day, but on a number of days over a period of 40 days and to many of them on various occasions, up to 500 people at one time.
But that Sunday morning changed their lives completely.  They would never be the same and we can never be the same if we sincerely put our faith in the risen Savior, Jesus Christ.

I. They could never look at life the same way again.

l. When the disciples first heard the word that Jesus was alive, they could not believe. They had no reason to believe. But the fact dawned upon them, and they  not only believed, but they saw him, touched him, heard him, and their lives were changed forever. They were changed by the paver of God in their lives. It is impossible to remain the same after being confronted with this great news.  This is a life changing experience.

In 1980 David Smith wrote of his life. He said: “ I half-heartedly drifted  thru high school, and my graduation in 1961 was a surprise to everyone, myself included.  College should have been out of the question, hut in my affluent Chicago suburb,  everyone went  to  college.  A city college nearby accepted me despite my poor grades. Typically, I followed the crowd. I had no plans or goals of my own. I frequently found myself in trouble in college, causing my mother grief. After three  semesters  I found little that interested me, so I dropped out and made some friends who offered my life a little excitement. I hung around with the gang in bars and got into trouble. I even spent a few nights in jail. It  never occurred to him that he might be missing something until he met Sue Ann in 1963. It didn't take long to see that she was different. He was impressed with her family showing loving concern for each other. She really seemed to have everything together. One afternoon Sue Ann told David  what made her life special,   Jesus Christ. She said being a Christian was a matter of faith. The discussion  was purely intellectual, but it started getting to him. Later, when I was alone, I realized I needed Jesus in my life. He prayed that God would forgive his sins and he received Jesus Christ as Savior.   During the next few days I gradually lost my  appetite for the old ways of living. Instead, I had an unquenchable  thirst to study  God‘s word.

He couldn't keep this life-changing Jesus to himself. He had to share  Him.   Eventually his mother and a number of other people  important to him received Jesus as Lord. As he came to know more shout Jesus, he became more dissatisfied with his aimlessness. He returned to  college  on probation because of his poor grades. But after one short  term he was on the Dean‘s list. Jesus  Christ had given his aimlessness direction. Within a few years he had his Bachelors, Masters and became a  high school teacher. Later  he returned for a Ph.D. in sociology and education, and a new career in curriculum planning.
David and Sue Ann were married. To this day Sue  marvels at the change in him. "It's as if you are an entirely different person from the David Smith I first met."
Jesus has set him free from the old vices once addicted to. Even his face shows a contentment that wasn't there  before.  David confesses that Jesus has changed his life and heart and given him a new life.

2. There is no possibility of remaining the same after meeting the risen Christ.

II. The Good news warms the heart. v. 32

1. There is an unusual  story of two disciples on the road to Emmaus, 7 miles from Jerusalem, talking about all the things that had happened. Deeply involved in their thoughts and talk they did not recognize  Jesus  as he drew near. The Gospel says, ”their eyes were kept from recognizing him.”  In the course of the walk he told them of how the Old Testament had pointed to this vary occasion in history and after a while their eyes were opened and they recognized him.  He  vanished  from their sight. They said to one another, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us on the read, while he opened to us the Scriptures?" This is a marvelous phrase that describes the experience of coming to hear the good  news of the Gospel.

2.  The story told here is unique in its own way and in many ways  the stories of people are unique when they come to understand the good news.  Hannelore Bozeman was born in West Germany and attended church in Bonn, but she says I did not hear the Gospel until I was 20 years of age. As a child, I was afraid of God‘s judgment.  The church I attended taught that I could please God only by being good, but emphasized at  the same time that I was a hopeless sinner. So I thought, why try the impossible? She was confirmed at age 14, and assumed that  she was a Christian, but thought that church services were boring and irrelevant. Since she didn't have to attend church after  confirmation, she didn't. Still, something deep inside me kept searching.  On a rainy April Sunday in 1970 the state television station scheduled an unusual worship service. An American evangelist was to preach from a prison. She had never heard of Billy Graham before, but she was intrigued and tuned in. He seemed  different. He talked as though he knew God personally, and I began to yearn for what he had.  When  Mr. Graham preached abort Adam and Eve, she saw herself as a sinner in need of salvation, hut she also saw God offering a solution that went far beyond an intellectual belief in the doctrines of the faith. If she asked God for forgiveness, accepted Jesus' death as atonement for her sins and committed her life to him, she would be saved from God's wrath. That was the good news. At the end of the service she prayed and asked Jesus to come into her life. When she went back to her church, the pastor warned her against being  led astray by outside  groups. She mentioned her decision to a few  people but no one understood what she was talking about. She married an American and moved to the states and in l975 she saw a small ad in a newspaper advertising  InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. She went with uncertainty to the group, but discovered a group who were committed to Jesus Christ, who knew him as Saviour, and they had a relationship with Him. It seemed like heaven to have Christian fellowship--"I didn’t know there was such a thing.”
This is another way of describing a person who found the good news in Jesus Christ, the resurrection story, and her heart warmed within her....

III.  They “disbelieved” for joy.  V. 41.

1  it seems to me that this phrase combines some of the contradictory experiences of life.  In the midst of the unexpected there is a sense of joy and disbelief at once.  Joy wins out over the disbelief, but it cannot be separated from it.

Let me tell you about   a man named Racehoss Sample. Life was not easy for Racehoss: his mother never said a kind word to him while he was growing up. She never showed him love or affection. So he grew up angry, and as an adult his anger landed him in prison. The worst punishment in prison was confinement in what they called "the tomb." This was a four-foot by eight-foot basement cell with no windows, two solid steel plates for a door, a solid slab of concrete for a bed, and absolute darkness. In the sixteenth year of his imprisonment, Racehoss contradicted one of the guards. And for this he was locked in the tomb. This was not his first stay in that horrible place, but there was something different this time. He became terrified as soon as they shoved him in. He heard rushing water nearby,
and he knew for sure that it was going to seep in and drown him. He went crazy. He ran around the cell, and then rolled on the floor. Eventually he tired himself out and laid on the cold, hard floor, covering his face with both hands and crying out, "Help me, God! Help meee!" At that moment, Racehoss explains, he saw "a ray of light between [his] fingers." Slowly he uncovered his face; the cell was lit up like someone had turned on a 40-watt light bulb. The soft light soothed him, and he was no longer afraid. He felt engulfed by the presence of God. He felt strangely reassured. He breathed freely. Never before had he felt such  well  being. After that experience Racehoss knew that God was real. He had heard God call his name. He had experienced pure grace. His life was forever changed. When he walked out of prison in 1972, he became the first ex-convict to work out of the governor’s office, the first to serve as a probation officer, and the first to serve on the staff of the State Bar of Texas as a division head. He eventually received a full pardon and changed his name to Alfred Sample in 1976.  That is the kind of assurance that I would wish for each of us this Easter morning -- that we could say with Mary, "I have seen the Lord!" Easter confronts us with the reality of death. Easter tells us there is a time of letting go and trusting God. Easter calls us out of the tombs of life into the light of God’s love.
 (The story of Racehoss comes from Lewis B. Smedes, Shame and Grace, p.110-112)