Rev. David Holwick M Easter Sunday
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
April 20, 2014
1 John 3:1-3
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I. Life in the midst of death.
A. I have done many funerals this spring.
1) I buried Dan's father yesterday, my own father two weeks
ago and Clint Drymon just before that.
2) Funerals, and Easter, always raise questions in our mind.
What is our destiny?
What does it all mean?
Is there really anything beyond our death?
B. Quite a few people have doubts.
1) An experience I had just yesterday.
As I drove to the bereavement dinner after the funeral, a
relative accompanied me so I wouldn't get lost.
I don't tend to get lost on the way to food, but I didn't
want to take a chance, either.
He wasn't a direct relative but Mr. McMullin's death had
affected him a great deal and he was very emotional.
He told me he had been raised Methodist, but wasn't sure
what he believed any more.
He was pretty sure there was a God because all that is
around us couldn't just pop up by chance.
But he wasn't sure he believed much more than that.
As he put it, having faith is like believing in Santa Claus
all over again.
He didn't say that in a disparaging way, but almost
wistfully.
This 45-year-old man wanted to believe -- he just wasn't
sure he could.
2) Easter makes a very stupendous claim.
a) We are claiming that someone who was just as human as
we are, was as dead as a human can be, came back to
life in a supernatural way and now lives forever.
b) We are also claiming that those who put their faith
in him can have the same thing happen to them.
c) Do you believe this is true?
II. Our view of eternal life is underwhelming.
A. Many liberals anticipate being mildly remembered.
Rev. Forrest Church was a Unitarian minister in Manhattan
and the son of a United States Senator.
A few years ago he was diagnosed with throat cancer; he
was only 61 years old.
The doctors said it was terminal and he would not survive.
So he decided to write a book about his final days.
In it he compared life to the voyage of the Titanic.
Every life hits an iceberg and sinks, so you better live
before you die.
Missing from the picture is any notion of life on the other
side of death.
He declared his belief in "love after death," but not in
LIFE after death.
The reason for this becomes more clear as Church writes of
Jesus Christ:
"I have no idea whether Jesus was physically resurrected
or not, but I suspect he wasn't.
If I am right, for many people that would be it for Jesus,
period, end of story."
In his view, Jesus' love for us lives on, but that is it.
Unitarians do not believe Jesus is divine.
Nowadays they don't focus much on Christianity at all, but
sample from every religion and philosophy.
They are the ultimate expression of theological liberalism.
For Rev. Church it happened at a very early age.
He was only ten when his father gave him a Bible.
It wasn't a real Bible, but the so-called "Jefferson Bible."
Thomas Jefferson produced it by removing all references to
the supernatural Jesus from the New Testament.
The Jefferson Bible ends with these words: "There they laid
Jesus, and rolled a great stone to the door of the
sepulcher, and departed."
End of story. No resurrection.
Jesus is simply sealed into the tomb. #36024
B. Conservatives anticipate something more concrete, sort of.
1) But it is not much to write home about.
Pastor Mark Bates wonders if anyone gets excited about
heaven anymore.
He says he is sure heaven is a wonderful place, filled with
glory and grace, but it doesn't capture his imagination.
He knows that is bad for a preacher to say.
It has something to do with the way heaven is portrayed in
pop culture.
Does anyone really get excited about floating around on
clouds playing harps all day?
Some Christians say that all you do in heaven is sing
praise to God 24/7.
That makes it sound like an eternal church service, and
Pastor Bates says, "You sure that is not hell?"
He's a pastor and he likes church, but he doesn't want
to be here all day long.
Neither do I.
Sermon #63949
2) Our problem is we miss the ultimate destination.
a) We don't spend eternity on the poofy clouds of heaven.
b) We spend it on a physical earth that is renewed by God.
1> The book of Revelation ends with heaven coming
down earth.
2> THAT is where we will live forever.
III. What our future will really be like.
A. A renewed world.
1) The Bible presents word-pictures of what it will be like.
2) It will be a combination of the Garden of Eden and
Times Square.
3) It will be a place of activity but also supreme contentment.
B. A renewed body.
1) Our future will be physical, but supernaturally so.
2) We will have new bodies that won't have all the earthly
limitations like weakness and pain and disease.
3) Questions like appearance can't really be answered - that
is why John says what we will be has not yet been made
known (verse 3).
4) But it does seem clear that our personalities will be
recognizable by others.
C. A renewed mind.
1) Your body is only one aspect of your existence.
a) The mind is what makes us different from rocks and
tomatoes.
b) Paul tells us to renew our minds, but in this life we
will always fall short in accomplishing it.
c) That will all change when we are transformed.
2) We will fully appreciate what it means to be a child of God.
3) We will see Jesus as he really is.
a) Not as preachers describe him, or as our feeble minds
envision him, but in all his fullness.
b) Jesus will be our focus.
IV. It should make a difference if you believe it.
A. John says our hope has a moral dimension.
1) If you believe God is going to transform you in the future,
you should let him start that transformation now.
2) We should have a desire for purity.
a) Everybody wants the supernatural stuff, the new body.
b) Being morally transformed hits closer to our heart.
B. Don't just see Jesus as he is, BE what Jesus is.
1) We call this "Christlikeness."
a) Thinking the way Jesus thinks, valuing the things Jesus
values, serving the way Jesus served.
b) Don't just say you love Jesus - do what he says.
2) Ask someone you are close to: "How much am I like Jesus?"
a) Don't stop there; ask how you are NOT like him, too.
b) Then decide what you are going to do about the shortfall.
V. The future matters now.
A. We often spend our time on trivial things.
1) Candy Crush Saga mania.
Half a billion downloads; 124 million play it every day.
Was played 151 billion times in first 12 months.
30% of users say they are addicted to it.
Over 500 levels now.
Earns $875,000 a day, 100 times more than "Angry Birds." [1]
2) What are you doing now that will last for eternity?
a) Even on a shorter view - what do you want people to
remember you for?
b) The Bible says time is short. And it is getting shorter.
B. Live well, and die well.
At the beginning of the month I received an email from a pastor
named Gordon Hugenberger.
He had a question about a sermon illustration and I have a
reputation for being able to ferret out their sources.
Dr. Hugenberger has a reputation as well - he even has his own
Wikipedia page.
I recognized his name right away because he taught Hebrew at
my seminary.
The president of the seminary was Harold Ockenga, a big name
in the modern Evangelical movement.
For many years Ockenga served as pastor of the most prestigious
church in New England, the Park Street Church in Boston.
I met him not long before he died.
Gordon Hugenberger is now the pastor of that church.
I told him it must be intimidating to follow Ockenga.
Here is what he wrote back:
"I stand in awe of what I have seen of the lasting effects of
Ockenga's ministry on the older members of this church who
sat under him for decades.
They are almost invariably the most attractive witnesses to
Christ one could imagine, and they sure do 'die well.'
I think of one elderly woman who had brain cancer.
I visited her during her last months, and I will never forget
her response one day as I walked in. ...
She was lying there motionless with bandages around her head.
She said, "I know what you are thinking, Gordon.
You are jealous because you know that I will be seeing Jesus
before you!"
And she gave me a wink.
"I could not say a thing in response, but inside I sure was
wishing that that was the sort of thing I was thinking.
But knowing her and many others from that generation help
make me pray that the Lord would not only bless the fruit of
my very imperfect ministry in this place ...
but also that He would bless their ministry to me, so that
I too would have more of eternity in my heart with each
passing day." [2]
1) I have been in this church a long time.
2) What does your faith -- your Christlikeness -- say about
my ministry?
3) Don't wait for death to be like Jesus. Aim for it now.
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
[1] “Candy Crush Saga: The Science Behind Our Addiction,” Eliana Dockterman,
November 15, 2013. <http://business.time.com/2013/11/15/candy-crush-saga-the-science-behind-our-addiction/>
[2] Email from Rev. Dr. Gordon Hugenberger to David Holwick on April 7,
2014.
#36024 “Life After Death ... Or Just Love After Death?” Dr. R. Albert
Mohler Jr., President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary,
September 29, 2009. <http://www.albertmohler.com>
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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