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 An Easter Sermon

John 20:19-30

Did you ever stop to think how much faith we exercise in our ordinary daily activities? Every time you pass a car on Springville road, you're exercising faith - - you're trusting that other driver not to swerve into you and hit you head on. Every time you bite into a McDonald's hamburger you're assuming the food is safe to eat.
When you get into an airplane you're trusting the engineers who designed it and the pilot who is flying it. When you get into an elevator, you are exercising faith in the men who installed it and in the people who made the steel cables that hold the car up.
Hundreds of times each day, we place our very lives in the hands of people we don't even know. And we do this without a second thought.
How strange it is then that so many people find it difficult to believe in Jesus Christ. You see, unlike the man heading towards us on Springville Road or the guy who forgot to tighten the screws on the elevator, Jesus is completely and totally reliable and trustworthy. Sinful, and frail human beings can always let us down. It happens all the time. But Jesus never makes a mistake - and he never fails to do what he says he will do.

He promises to give you eternal life if you will simply place your faith in Him.

 

Almost 2000 years ago, a group of men were huddling together - hiding out really. They were the followers of Jesus. His 12 disciples - 10 actually - and some others. They were afraid that what had happened to Jesus might happen to them.

What a week it had been! The culmination of three years of walking and talking with and learning from Jesus of Nazareth - the greatest teacher and expounder of the Bible the world has ever known. Just 7 days before, he had entered Jerusalem. Adoring crowds had covered the road in front of him with their coats and palm branches. They hailed him as the deliverer - the promised Messiah of the Old Testament writings. They had seen him do miracles: he had healed lepers, he had made blind men see, he had even raised the dead back to life. The people cheered him " Hail to the King of Israel!," "Hosanna, Save Us Now!"

It was a great and glorious time.
But just five days later, the disciples were alone, confused and in despair.

Their leader - their Messiah was dead. Crucified - nailed to a cross between two common thieves. After enduring beatings and torture that would have killed most men, Jesus spent six hours hanging there. And he endured not only the physical agony, but agony and torment that we can only dimly guess at - the wrath of God the Father.

The Jewish religious leaders had hated Jesus' teaching; they saw him as a threat to their authority. They brought false charges against him and convinced the Roman Governor to put him to death. The crowds roared their approval - many of the same people who had cheered him when he entered the city.

And so he died. His body was taken down from the cross and put in a tomb - a cave. A huge rock was rolled over the opening. The Romans put a seal on the tomb and posted guards. They did this because the Jewish leaders remembered that Jesus had predicted that he would be killed and then rise from the dead.

They were afraid that Jesus disciples would come and steal the body to make it look like Jesus had risen.
They needn't have worried. The disciples were in no shape to do anything. They had fled into the night when Jesus was arrested. Their leader, Peter, had denied even knowing Jesus three times.

Now, three days later they were cowering in an upper room with the doors locked - hiding from the Jews.

You know, our society is in something of a crisis right now. It's a crisis of belief. A lot of people say they don't believe in truth any more - at least not in absolute truth.
Truth is now seen as subjective - whatever you define can be true for you. Society's motto is now "Believe whatever you like - Just don't try to force your truth on me."

I was guilty of this myself in college. I had some weird ideas about God - it makes me blush to think about it. I remember going to a Bible study once and spouting off about how I just didn't see how a good God could be responsible for all those calamities we read about in the Bible.

So I began to craft my own god. A god who was good and loving and kind and who would never punish anyone. I figured that there were many ways to God and that all religions had some merit. I would have vigorously denied being a relativist - but I was. I had rejected the objective truth claims of the Bible and I had made a god in my own image - a god who behaved the way I thought he should behave.

But the problem was this god existed only in my own imagination. I had made the decision that I would set my own self up as the sole judge of what ought or ought not to be.

But you can't do that.
You see, truth really isn't relative. Absolutes do exist. And everybody knows they do. The next time you get stopped by a state trooper, try explaining to him that speed is relative. And that what's true for him is not necessarily true for you.

The disciples of Jesus in the upper room went through a crisis of belief too.
This was the evening of the third day since Jesus died and was buried. It was Sunday - the first Easter.
Early that morning some women had gone to the tomb to finish tending to Jesus' body. When they got there, the stone was gone from the entrance and the tomb was empty. The women claimed that angels had appeared to them and then Jesus himself.

Two of the disciples, Peter and John had gone to see for themselves.
They found everything just as the women had said - the tomb was empty. Jesus' grave clothes were still in the place where he was laid - like the empty husk of a piece of fruit. But Jesus himself was gone.
Sometime during the day Jesus appeared to Peter.

So there they were that evening - gathered together - still afraid of being noticed by the authorities - in that upper room. What a babble of excitement and wonder there must have been. Some of them may have been doubtful - those who had not personally seen Jesus. Sure, they had heard the testimony of the women and Peter and John . . . . but they had also seen Jesus' body - dead and buried.

But then while they were busy talking about all the things that had happened that day - suddenly everyone fell silent - for there in their midst stood Jesus. Alive. Very much alive.

They were overjoyed. Yeah, I guess they were. From the depths of despairing grief at the loss of Jesus to wonder and awe at his resurrection from the dead.
He showed them the wounds in his hands where the nails had gone through. He showed them his side where a Roman soldier had thrust his spear to see if Jesus was really dead.

Jesus blessed his people : "Peace be with you"
And he commissioned them to spread the news of his finished work.
"As the Father sent me, so I am sending you."
A lot of people are confused by vs. 23.

"If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."

This does not mean that the disciples or the church was given authority to forgive sins. Only God can do that.
The problem is that this is a difficult construction in the original language.
Literally it could be translated:
"Those whose sins you forgive have already been forgiven; those whose sins you do not forgive have not been forgiven".

What this is all about is the commission that Jesus was giving his disciples:
They were to be about the business of proclaiming the forgiveness of sins.
As Merrill Tenney puts it: "All who proclaim the gospel are in effect forgiving or not forgiving sins, depending on whether the hearer accepts or rejects the Lord Jesus as the Sin-Bearer."

See - there's the point. Only God can forgive sins. And he only does that on the basis of Jesus' sacrifice in the place of sinners.

In my college days, I had a pretty messed up idea of God. I was right about him being good and kind and merciful. God is good and he is kind and he is merciful. And he is long suffering.

But I completely failed to understand that God is also holy and just.
So holy and just that he cannot tolerate sin.

With all the relativism floating around these days, sin is a pretty unpopular topic. A lot of people even deny its existence. After all, if there are no moral absolutes, then how can there be sin?

Well, I'll tell you how. The God who created the universe has laid down absolute laws to which he demands absolute obedience.
That's just the way it is. You can go on and on about tolerance and fairness and extenuating circumstances, but when the dust settles, reality is still there.
And God is still there.
And our sins are still there.

Sin is what Easter is all about. In fact it's why Jesus Christ ever came to earth.
I used to think God was loving and kind because that's the kind of God I wanted. But I had no idea just how good and gracious God really is.
God hates sin. It is a violation of his nature. His is perfect and pure and utterly holy in every way. He must punish sin.
His justice demands it.

As people who have broken his commandments,
as people who have ignored him,
as people who have turned our backs on him and tried to invent gods more to our liking, we are what the Bible calls sinners.

We stand justly condemned by God's wrath.
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, our God is a consuming fire.
Jesus spoke about the coming judgment day when the unrighteous would be cast into eternal fire.
Beloved, if it weren't for God's grace we would be utterly hopeless.

But God is good and loving and kind. So taking council within himself among the three persons of the Godhead, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, God planned to redeem sinners.

Why I don't know. If I were God looking down at this world full of Hitlers and Saddams... and fornicators and liars and thieves . . . if I were God then we'd all have been toast long ago.

But God in his grace arranged for a man to be our representative: a man who could perfectly obey all of God's commandments and who could suffer in our place and take the infinite punishment that we deserved.

The man was Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
The consequences of sin are everywhere in this world - the curse of things that just don't work quite right.

But nowhere is the effect of sin more evident than in the enemy of all men - in death itself. And physical death is just the foretaste of the spiritual death that all men deserve.
Death is the wages of sin.
So that's what makes Easter so special. You see, Jesus died for our sins. That's good.

But he didn't stay dead. That's better.

That's glorious.
The power of sin and death is broken.
Jesus has redeemed us.

Sin and disobedience drove a wedge between us and our creator. That wedge can now be removed. Perfect fellowship with God is now ours for the taking. He offers it to us as a free gift.

But we have to take the gift.
Like a beggar receiving wonderful fresh baked bread from the hands of the king, we have to take the gift.
Receiving it by faith in Jesus Christ and what he did for us on that cross.

Only 10 disciples were in that room when Jesus appeared. Judas Iscariot - the one who betrayed Jesus - he had killed himself. But one other was missing.
Thomas. The doubter, the perpetual pessimist. He was loyal to Jesus but he always expected the worst. Once when Jesus insisted on going to Jerusalem - and this in spite of warnings that the Jewish leaders were out to get him - Thomas said, "let's go so that we may die with him."

Well, for whatever reason, Thomas wasn't there when Jesus came.
When the others told him about what had happened he refused to believe.
He wanted more evidence. Unless he personally saw him and touched him and put his fingers in the holes where the nails were and where the spear was - he said, "I will not believe."

Well, doubting Thomas received a special measure of grace.
Because a week later, they were all together again and Thomas was with them.
And again Jesus came and stood in their midst. And he called to Thomas and he showed him his hands and his side and he commanded him to stop "doubting and believe".

And then Thomas made one of the most famous and profound professions of faith in all the Bible.

Just five words. But in these five words there is a world of faith.

"My Lord and my God."

Thomas finally recognized the truth about Jesus - all the miracles, all the teaching finally made sense.
And we need to understand this too.
How was it that a mere man could die in our places?
How could a man live a sinless life? - we all inherit the propensity to sin as well as real judicial guilt from the first man Adam who sinned in the garden of Eden.

Well, the answer is that no mere man could do these things.
And Jesus was no mere man. Oh, he was human all right. Perfectly and completely human.
But as Thomas confessed, Jesus Christ was God.

The mystery of three persons in one God is something I don't think we will fully understand even in heaven. But it's true. God the Son took to himself a human body and soul.
Jesus was God and man in one person.
Two natures, but one person. So that's how he could be preserved from sin. That's how he could be perfect. And that's how he could defeat death on our behalf.

This is what we are called to believe.
That Jesus Christ was the Son of God, the Lord of heaven and earth, that he died for our sins and our iniquities and that God raised him from the dead. If we believe that then we will be saved from the wrath that rightfully belongs to us.

Now beloved, make sure that you see that this belief is not just mere intellectual assent to some historical facts.
After all the Devil knows and believes that Jesus is the the Son of God, but he certainly won't be saved.

The key is in Thomas' confession.
He didn't just confess that Jesus is Lord and that Jesus is God.
No, this is a personal confession of truth and submission to that truth.
Thomas said, "My Lord and my God!"

And that's what we have to confess too. That we repent from sins that displease God and that we turn to him for mercy and grace relying on Christ alone for our salvation.

Now dear ones, I said before that Thomas received a special measure of grace - and he did too. Jesus appeared to him especially to overcome his doubts.
But beloved, we can't expect that God will do that for all of us.
The evidence that is before us is sufficient.

This book was written by John for a specific purpose.
We can see what that purpose is right here in verses 30 and 31.
30 Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.
31 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.

Did you catch that?
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.

Do you get the point?
The Bible is the inspired Word of God.
This is God speaking to you.
And God says, that what is written here, the eyewitness testimonies, the accounts of miracles,
the recorded speeches of Jesus, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead - - all this . . . . is sufficient evidence for you to believe.

In Jesus' own words in John 3:18, if you refuse to believe, then you are condemned already because you've not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

That's the scary part of Jesus conversation with a Rabbi named Nicodemus. But in the same discourse Jesus gave us the greatest promise in the Bible.

It's John 3:16
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

Beloved, Jesus Christ died to take away your burden of guilt and shame and hopelessness. In exchange he offers meaning and purpose and direction and perfect fellowship with God - and this goes on forever!

 

Will you believe Jesus?
Or not?

You trust unreliable people with your life every day.
Doesn't it make sense to trust God with your eternal destiny?
Will it be Heaven or will it be Hell?

One day you will stand before Jesus Christ.
That is a fact.
My prayer is that you will be able to smile and greet him: " My Lord and My God!"
So stop doubting and believe!

 

 

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