Rev. David Holwick M Easter 2004
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
April 11, 2004
Matthew 28:1-8
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I. Two rock and roll bands.
A. Not very church-like, though they are each a religion.
B. Names fit nicely with Easter story.
1) An old story - older than Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.
2) Easter is about rolling stones and grateful dead.
II. Easter begins with a Rolling Stone.
A. An earthquake moved it. Matt 28:2
1) Scientific explanation? Does Easter have a natural cause?
a) Maybe it explains how stone moved, but not how
resurrection happened.
2) Resurrection has no scientific explanation.
a) It requires a pure miracle.
b) No human can figure it out.
1> Can't be explained by geology or physics.
2> Theology can tell you why it happened, not how.
3) The rolling stone was only a little miracle.
a) The Big Event happened inside.
b) Bible never describes how it happened, only that it did.
B. Easter is not about a rolling stone, but what it revealed.
1) Stone had to roll so we could know something happened.
a) Jesus could have gone right through the stone.
1> (He later appeared suddenly in a locked room)
b) But then the disciples wouldn't be sure if it was
only his ghost.
1> They had to peek inside and see an empty tomb.
III. The stone is a symbol of the finality of death.
A. Jesus' death sealed the hopes of the disciples...
1) Just as strongly as that stone sealed his tomb.
a) Disciples on road to Emmaus: "We HAD HOPED he was the
one..." Luke 24:21
b) All that Jesus stood for, all that he taught, seemed
to be for nothing now.
2) Pilate wanted to emphasize this.
a) He posted a guard, and put a seal on the stone.
1> He figured this would end the "Jesus issue."
b) Pilate wasn't just burying a man, but a revolt.
1> The teachings of Jesus would be buried with him.
- Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's.
- Forgive your enemies and turn the other cheek.
- Woman, has no one condemned you? Then neither do I condemn you.
- Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
- If any wants to be greatest, he must be servant of all.
- You must be born again.
c) Pilate was prepared for human schemes, but not for God.
B. God rolled the stone away.
1) It is God's YES to the world's NOs.
2) Easter isn't about bunnies and flowers and springtime.
Theologian Timothy George says the message of Easter is
that God left his heaven to enter fully into the life of
a world that was far from all right.
This is the real world, where aid workers are murdered and
their burned bodies hanged in Iraq.
Where children are given suicide bombs to wear in Palestine.
Where people lose jobs and families and health.
The real world where darkness reigns and evil sometimes
seems to have the last word.
The God of Easter did not shun this real world but came
into the very thick of it, hugging unwanted children,
and forgiving prostitutes.
He dined with the scum of the earth, and got his hands
dirty in acts of mercy, blessing, and love so real and
so deep that they couldn't be crushed by death itself.
#14793
C. He still rolls stones away.
1) Generations of Christians have encountered the Risen Christ.
2) We've heard many testimonies in this church of people who
have gone from ruined lives to salvation.
3) They thought their life had nowhere to go, and then God
stepped in and rolled the stone away.
4) He can do the same for you. Right now.
a) There is no barrier in your life that God can't remove.
IV. Grateful dead.
A. There is one more band in the title. The Grateful Dead.
1) Jerry Garcia has been dead several years now, but the band
plays on.
2) The fans trade concert tapes, sell tie-dyed clothing, put
Dead Head bumper stickers on their cars.
3) But long after the band is a faded memory, people with
grateful hearts will still be talking about Easter.
B. We are all going to be dead.
1) It's a fact. You will die.
2) In a sense, you may be dead now.
a) The Bible says that apart from a relationship with Jesus
Christ, you are dead in your sins.
b) You are only really alive when you have experienced
God's forgiveness.
3) When you are alive in God, you can really live.
C. The far side of Easter - our own resurrection.
1) A foretaste at first Easter.
a) Jewish saints resurrected.
b) And of course Jesus himself.
2) Fulfillment comes for us at the Second Coming of Jesus.
a) It is popularly known as the Rapture.
D. The dead will rise.
1) Jesus teaches that EVERYONE will rise.
a) But there are two categories, the saints and the wicked.
b) Jesus says in John 5:28-29 --
"Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when
all who are in their graves will hear his voice
and come out--those who have done good will rise to
live, and those who have done evil will rise to be
condemned."
c) Your decision now, seals your fate then.
2) Resurrection isn't limited to the distant future.
a) Jesus goes on to say that the moment you commit yourself
to him, you become truly alive.
b) Eternal life begins at that moment.
3) It is something we can be grateful about.
V. Easter is meant to be experienced personally.
A. Would it be easier to believe if we could peek in empty tomb?
1) A disciple named Thomas thought so.
a) He didn't believe until he actually touched Jesus.
2) Jesus says blessed are those who don't see, and believe
anyway.
B. To believe, you have to be a witness.
I have an old print in my TV room that fascinates young people.
My family bought it in an antique store in Germany.
It shows two stern German guys and the picture of a long airship.
- A dirigible.
The most famous dirigible in history was the Hindenburg.
Sixty-seven years ago, May 1937, in Lakehurst, New Jersey, the
Hindenburg was in the process of landing.
It had made some sixty voyages across the Atlantic, matching the
greatest luxury liners that traveled the oceans, only this was
in the air.
It provided a method of travel that was comfortable, swift for the
period, and very, very exclusive.
Reporters, of course, were sent to every arrival of the Hindenburg.
It was an enormous event.
One of them, from one of the New York papers, stood there, well
prepared, with a list of people on the flight to interview.
How exciting was the voyage?
What did it mean to them to travel in such luxury and speed?
Then an explosion occurred, probably because of an electrical
short.
The hydrogen balloon that made up most of the great dirigible
exploded in a terrible tragedy.
There was an enormous fire.
Bodies fell from the sky.
Everyone watching was stunned.
As soon as the reporter could, he made his way to a telephone,
called his paper in New York, and was speechless!
He didn't know what to say, for he had come prepared to report on
what other people said.
He hadn't done a single interview.
The only thing he could do was report on something that he himself
had seen.
The experiences of others didn't matter.
Only his own experience of the event was needed.
It doesn't really matter what the Bible says about Easter.
What really matters is what YOU have experienced about it.
He can roll your stones away.
Are you grateful for it?
#7419
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
The title and much of the content of this sermon is derived from a
message by Rev. Peter K. Perry, First United Methodist Church; Phoenix,
Arizona. It is #18509 in the database.
# 7419 "Witnessing The Hindenburg," by George W. Evans, Jr., in Rev.
Brett Blair's Illustrations by Email,
www.sermonillustrations.com, March 24, 2002.
#14793 "The First Easter: God's Great Coming-out Party," Timothy George,
www.ChristianityToday.com, Mar-April 1999.
These and 25,000 others are part of a database that can be downloaded,
absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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