Blue Lake Presbyterian | 4-16-2017
Christ is risen, (He is risen indeed)
Good morning, welcome to the Easter service at the Blue Lake Presbyterian Church. The title of today’s sermon is “ Believe it or not” , based on John 20: 1-18
Easter Sunday, what does it mean to us? Ask the children, and they will point to the Easter bunny and Easter eggs. Yesterday afternoon dropping off some flowers at the Church building, I noticed Blue Lake had its annual Easter egg hunt at Parigo Park.
It brought back memories of hiding Easter eggs around the house with my wife, and our kids trying to find them, or the Saturday before Easter at the Mckinleyville shopping center, with 1000’s of children running and looking all over, filling their Easter baskets.
Easter is also time for special music, and Easter hymns, and brass, this morning we started with the classic “Jesus Christ is Risen Today”. Thank you Leon Hamilton and Hannah Johnson for trumpet and piano music this morning,
A few years ago I visited Holland with the family during Easter break and watched my brother sing at the “Matthaeus Passion” performance on Good Friday. Johan Sebastian Bach wrote the “Matthaeus Passion” in 1727 and since then, this masterpiece has been played in concert halls, on Good Friday all over Western Europe.
Starting in 2011 a modern version of the “Passion” is played in Holland by actors and singers, it draws huge crowds and an estimated 46% share of the Dutch TV viewer public watched this event last year.
Erin Wilson an Australian professor, who had recently moved, to teach in Holland, wrote: as a recent immigrant of the Netherlands, one of the most secularized countries in Europe, the last thing I expected to be doing on Maundy Thursday was watching a live broadcast of the reenactment of the last hours of Jesus, but I did. Last year this Passion event came to America, and was performed in New Orleans.
And then on Easter Sunday of course there are flowers, especially bulb flowers like Daffodils, Tulips, Lilies and Iris are popular for Easter. I remember back in Holland when I was a teenager, picking Daffodils on our knees in this rolling greenhouse. The bulbs had been planted the previous fall outside, and this greenhouse had been rolled over that section of the field.
We picked the daffodils with a knife cutting into the ground as deep as we could to get maximum length of the flowers. Then we got these Daffodils ready to go to the flower auction just in time for Easter.
Fast forward to today as millions of Tulips and Iris were harvested in Arcata greenhouses in the last few weeks, and shipped across the Nation to brighten dinner tables and find their way in churches all over America.
But for a moment, let’s reflect, what it is, that we are celebrating today, as the noise dims, and all the fanfare ebbs away, consider that setting on Easter morning. (Complete silence).
Three days earlier, Jesus had been crucified; he was laid in a borrowed tomb before sundown, on Friday night. Then on the first day of the week, on that Sunday morning, history was made, that changed billions of lives for nearly 2000 years. The gospel accounts of Mark, Matthew, Luke and John all describe what took place in the early hours that Sunday morning, but the gospel of John gives the longest and most detailed description of the resurrection and the weeks that followed.
This brings us to today’s reading John 20:1-18
20Early 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 toward 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.
11But 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 around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus.
15Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” 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.
Folks, this famous passage in John 20 brings us back to the title of today’s sermon: “Believe it or not”. But what is it that we believe or not believe?
Here is a story to illustrate: In 2011 my wife and I visited Israel, it was an amazing trip and would recommend this to anyone, and while talking to the people in Israel we learned that in Judaism, Jesus was considered a teacher and prophet and he died on a cross, but the Jewish people consider that the end of the story.
The bible tells us, that the Jewish leaders fabricated a narrative, that the disciples came at night and stole the body of Jesus, while the soldiers were asleep. Matthew 28:15 says: And this story is still told among the Jews to this day.
Last year I talked to a friend who is a Muslim and he proudly told me about Jesus. The Koran actually mentions Jesus directly or indirectly 187 times.
In Islam, Jesus is believed to be a prophet and a messenger of God, but mainstream Islam believes that Jesus didn’t suffer death on the cross, but was instead directly raised alive to heaven.
In other words neither Judaism nor Islam believe there was a resurrection and that Jesus did not rise from the dead. This is precisely the distinction that brings us all here this morning.
As Christians we do believe that Christ is risen, that he is risen indeed. The cross was not the end; to the contrary, the cross was the beginning, darkness before light. The resurrection story is the essence of believing in Christ; it is the foundation of our belief.
“Believe it or not” is the prevailing theme in John’s Gospel.
Mary visited Jesus’ tomb. She saw that the stone had been taken away, she ran to Peter and John, and cried out: “They have taken the Lord from the tomb!” Mary saw the empty tomb, but she did not yet believe.
Then Peter and John ran to the tomb, somehow, John finds it relevant to point out, that he outran Peter, he was apparently in better shape, maybe he already had his coffee, or possibly he had better running shoes, in any event, he gets there first.
But he lets Peter enters the tomb, Peter is reluctant to believe that Jesus is risen, he sees the burial garments. But he does not yet believe. John is the only one that believed without seeing any evidence of the risen Christ.
Later Mary looked inside the tomb, where she actually saw two angels. But she still didn’t believe yet, as she cried out “They have taken my Lord”. Just then she saw Jesus but didn’t recognize him: Only, when Jesus called her name, Mary came to believe: and she declared “I have seen the Lord!”.
In times of great loss, we often crave to see something. Like in the movie the “Shack”, the little girl had been abducted but is not found, until the father goes to the shack, and encounters the Trinity. This fictional story takes the father through a healing process.
It is a story of redemption, faith and forgiveness. The author Paul Young, spoke in Eureka in 2013, he went through a dark period and many struggles in his life, he wrote the book “The Shack” as a fictional story, yet it depicts his own life story, strengthening and restoring his belief in Jesus Christ.
Based on 25 million searches on their website, Bible gateway.com” made a list of the top 100 of most searched bible verses. The Gospel of John generated more searches than any other book in the bible.
Why is the Gospel of John so popular? Not only does it have the longest, detailed account of the Easter narrative, it is also the ultimate guide for believers.
Of the 783,000 words in the bible, the Gospel of John only accounts for 16,000 words, less than 2% of the bible. The words believe, believed or believeth, are mentioned 323 times in the entire bible, but 97 times in John alone, or roughly 30%.
Just like a bookstore or Amazon offers many self-help books, Johns Gospel is the self-help book in becoming a believer.
Last month after preaching in Eureka on John 4, the woman at the well, a man in the audience shared that his 91 year old father had fallen away from the faith; he encouraged him to read John’s Gospel as he dropped him at the Eureka library last July.
His father sat at an empty spot in the library and noticed 2 books on the table beside him, one was a bible. He was amazed at that coincidence so he picked up the bible and began reading the book of John.
When he read the verses in John 4 about the woman at the well, the words touched his heart and he felt through these words that God was revealing himself, and his faith was being restored. He is still enjoying his rediscovered faith, as we speak.
A few years ago I had the honor to meet Elias Malki, after he had given a fascinating sermon at the Faith Center in Eureka; he signed his autobiography called “Ambassador of a higher power”. Once home starting reading this book and couldn’t put it down, what an amazing life story.
Malki was born in Lebanon, came to America to study, his life mission was to bring the Gospel to the Middle East. While going through a period of darkness he continued to believe and God blessed him with countless amazing miracles and a television program reaching 180 nations with an audience of 20 million people.
Last month someone in Oregon who listens to the sermon website reached out, and asked for prayers for him, and his wife as they were going through rough times.
Eventually we all go through dark periods, rough spots, through trouble in our lives. In the rollercoaster of life we occasionally find ourselves at the bottom of the ride.
From our limited perspective, we don’t see what comes next; depending on how dark it gets, we experience it as the equivalent of the cross, in our lives. There are times when we don’t see the light anymore. If we do not believe we ultimately give up, fall into despair, and then, it gets even harder to climb out of the hole.
If we no longer believe, it’s the end, just like Jesus on the cross was perceived by Mary, Peter, John and the disciples. They were in despair, in a state of hopelessness, but three days later our Lord Jesus proved to the World, that indeed, he was the son of God, when he rose from the grave.
Think of those Daffodils we picked in Holland just in time for Easter. They were planted in the fall, outside. These bulbs were covered with soil, it got dark, and then storms dumped rain and these bulbs endured cold freezing temperatures and snow.
But after the bulbs received enough cooling, they broke dormancy and when that greenhouse was rolled over the field, the bulbs started sprouting and soon poked their heads out of the ground as a harbinger of spring, like a new beginning.
In our own lives, it is not much different, we may endure adversity, pain, and darkness, meeting Christ at the cross, but when we persist and believe, the period of adversity shapes us, and when the sun rises in the morning, we are filled with joy, ready to share the good news.
The bible says in 1st John5:5 who is it that overcomes the world, only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
When in 2008 and 2009 our company went through a dark period, I found this quote, “ A bend in the road, is not the end of the road, unless, you fail, to make the turn”. That quote has been hanging on the wall ever since.
Let darkness, not be the end of the road, make the turn by putting our trust in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, and believe.
Jesus said in John 11:40 Did I not tell you if you believe, you will see the Glory of God.
David wrote in Psalm 30: weeping may endure for a night, but Joy is coming in the morning. Morning starts at midnight. But at midnight it is still dark, but the new day is here and in a few hours the light is coming. The sun is about ready to breakthrough.
But how often when it is dark in our life, it seems like nothing is changing? Believe, that we entered into a new day.
Jesus said: I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.
Jesus offered to everyone the possibility of eternal life, a free gift to all.
Friends, let the good news of the Easter story fill our hearts, enrich our souls.
Let our cups be filled with the Grace and Glory of God.
Believe and the light will shine.
Happy Easter to all,
Amen
Podcast: Play in new window | Download