Easter- A Comma, Not A Period

Well, for years, the name Mel Blanc was associated with a character in Loonie Tunes. If you're a cartoon freak and you love Loonie Tunes, you may remember at the end of every episode, Bugs Bunny would come on and say, that's all folks. Well, that was the voice of Mel Blanc. Few years ago when Mel Blanc died, his family inscribed this on his tombstone. That's all folks. Is that true? No, it is not true. That's not all folks. No matter who you are, when you die, that is not all folks. In fact, that is the question that Easter addresses. Easter addresses the question. When you die, is that all there is? Is the inscription on Mel Blanc's tombstone true? Is that all there is? You live, you die, and that's all there is. Christ's resurrection answers that once and for all. You might ask the question this way. Is death a period at the end of the sentence of life? Does it mean life stops? Is that the end? That's all folks. Is it a period? It's done. Or is death simply a comma that allows for more to be written? Much more of the story to be written. Christ's resurrection settles that question once and for all. I want us to begin this morning in Luke chapter 24. So if you open your Bibles to the 24th chapter of Luke, join me there for a few moments as we look at the power of the resurrection. Because we're going to see on the day that Jesus was raised from the dead, there were many of his followers who basically were living like, that's all folks, it's done. Stories over. In case you think that might be an unfair assessment, Jesus' death seemed like a period in the sentence to them. And that is clear from the way the story reads in Luke chapter 24. Look with me please at verse 13. Now that same day, same day that Jesus came forth from the tomb, that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them. But they were kept from recognizing him. He asked them, what are you discussing together as you walk along? They stood still, their faces downcast. Now, it's Paul's there for a moment. You can read the gloom and despair and hopelessness in their faces. Where do they even begin to tell this stranger what's happened? How do they even begin to express what's happened and how it's affected them? The gloom in their hearts, their faces just drop downcast. Verse 18. One of them named Cleopas asked him, are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these last days? What things he asked? That's one of the most fascinating questions in all the Bible. It's as though Jesus is saying, no, having a clue. Don't know what you're talking about. What things are you talking about? About Jesus of Nazareth, they replied, he was, notice past tense. He was a prophet, powerful in word, indeed, before God and all the people, the chief priest and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death and they crucified him. But we had hoped, here the despair now in their voices, it's on their faces, now it's in their voices. But we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. Their faces are downcast, their tone is sad and hopeless. We had hopes for him, we had great hopes for him, we thought maybe he would be the one who would redeem Israel. But all those hopes are now dashed, you can hear it in their voice, you can see it in their face. All their hope is drained out of them. We had hoped, verse 22, or middle of verse 21, and what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us, they went to the tomb early this morning, but didn't find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels who said he was alive, then some of our companions went to the tomb and found that just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus. You can still hear the hopelessness and despair in their voices. He's gone, he's dead, and now he's missing, his body's missing. We don't know where he is. They have not yet grasped the reality of what the women were telling them that the angels had said, Jesus had risen from the dead, they've not yet grasped that. And so all they know is that their hope is gone. He's dead, and we had hoped he would be the Redeemer, but it's three days, and now even his body's gone. It's a period at the end of the sentence. Maybe you've come to church on this Easter Sunday morning feeling like that. Maybe you've come to church thinking there is a period at the end of the sentence of your life. Maybe a loved one has just died. Maybe someone in your family, maybe even you, has just received a terminal diagnosis. Or maybe it's not an end of life issue. Maybe it's just an end of whatever issue in your life. Maybe you're facing something of a financial crisis, and you think the period has been put at the end of the sentence. Or maybe you've lost your job, and you think this is the end. What do I do now? I don't know what to do. I don't know where to turn. Or maybe you've gone through a divorce. And the period has been put at the end of that sentence, and you feel like your life is finished. What will you do now? How will you pick things up? How will you move forward? And you've come this morning seeking some kind of hope for Easter because your face is downcast, and your words are hopeless and full of gloom and despair. And you would hope that things would work out. You'd hope that things would be different, but they're not. And now life is unraveling for you. And you don't know where to turn next. You don't know what to do next. And so what's going to happen? Life seems like it has dealt you a big black period at the end of your sentence. But Jesus' resurrection showed that death is just a comma. It leads the story open for more to be written. More of the story to come, and Jesus' death shows that. The great hope of Easter is the empty tomb. The great hope that we have, no matter what we're facing in our lives, is that Jesus has been victorious over death. There's an empty tomb. And he has risen victorious. And he is the hope that we have. I read a story about a young man named Jeremy. Jeremy was 12 years old, terminally ill, suffering with not only physical, but also some mental issues, 12 years old, and in a second grade classroom. To most of his peers in his class, to most of the other kids, he was an object of humor. To some of them, discuss to others. He couldn't learn. He made unusual noises. He drooled a lot. To his teacher, he was just an exasperating and frustrating student. She didn't know what to do with him. Well, three months before he died, something happened in that classroom that changed everybody's thoughts toward Jeremy. It was around Easter time, and the teacher had given an assignment to the class. She wanted them all to bring in the next day an Easter egg, a plastic egg, with something inside that egg that would demonstrate life. And she really intended to call Jeremy's parents that evening and remind them to tell them about the assignment because she just knew he would not remember and not know what to do. But things got busy and stuff happened, and she never got to make the phone call. So they come to school the next day, and there are 19 plastic eggs on her desk from the 19 students in her class. She began to open them, and in the first one she opened, there was a flower, and she discussed with the class about how flower shows life and the coming of spring. And then the next one they opened, there was a butterfly, and oh yeah, that's a sign of life, and life coming from that metamorphosis of the caterpillar. The next one she opened had a moss-covered rock in it, and so the class discussed how that showed life, and then the fourth one she opened was empty. And she gasped a little bit, and suddenly knew it must be Jeremy's, must belong to him. And so she just set it aside with no word of explanation, no comment. And then Jeremy's voice came from the back of the room. Teacher, aren't you going to talk about my egg? Well, Jeremy, there's nothing in your egg. It's empty. But teacher, Christ's tomb was empty too. And all of a sudden she realized the opportunity she had missed. He spent that next recess period weeping over what Jeremy had said and what it showed about his heart. Within three months he was gone, he was dead. But at his funeral service on his casket were 19 plastic eggs from those 19 class members, all of them empty. In hope of the resurrection. The hope that we have, my friend, is the hope of an empty tomb. The glory of Easter, and the hope of Easter is the hope of an empty tomb of Christ being raised from the dead. Now let's look at how that plays out in the story. You see, Jesus was buried, and when He was buried on Friday evening there was not enough time to properly prepare the body for burial. It was coming right up on the time that the Sabbath was to start at 6 o'clock on Friday evening. And on the Sabbath day from 6 Friday evening to 6 Saturday evening you can't do any work if you're a faithful Jew. And so they couldn't prepare the body. They just quickly got it into the tomb. Notice back in chapter 23, verse 55, the women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes, but they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment. So they're waiting until after the Sabbath day is over and they anticipate early on Sunday morning, they'll go back to the tomb. Remember they would discuss on the way there, oh, yeah, who's going to move the stone? How are we going to get that out of the way? They've come to prepare his body to prepare it with spices and ointment and perfumes and so forth. Now chapter 24, verse 1, on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. So they come early on Sunday morning to finish the preparation for his burial and what do they find? More despair, more gloom. His body's missing. So not only did they kill him, we can't even find these bodies, we can't even give him a decent burial now. And so there's no question, but what they are panicked, they are gloomy because of this, they are in more despair because of this and in verse 4. While they were wondering about this suddenly, two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them in their fright. The women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, he has risen. Remember how he told you when he was still with you in Galilee, the son of man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again. Then they remembered his words. And so gloom turns into glory, doubt and despair turned into the light and joy because they understood Jesus was alive. So this is not the end, this is not a period, the chapter does not close, the book is not put aside. This is just a comma, the rest of the story is to follow and it's the best part of the story. This is just the beginning, this is the beginning of new life for Christ, yes, but also for us because Jesus' resurrection opens up all kinds of possibilities for us. It has all kinds of implications for those of us who know Him. So what I want us to do, the remainder of our time this morning, is I want us to look at some of the possibilities of the resurrection, some of the things that Christ's resurrection make possible for us. Jesus' resurrection makes possible any number of tremendous blessings for us. We're going to just focus on three of them this morning. Most of all his resurrection makes possible a redeemed life, a redeemed life. If you would locate in your Bible, turn to a few pages to Romans chapter four, the book of Romans chapter four. In this great section of the book of Romans on how we are justified, how we are made right with God, how we are declared righteous in God's sight. In this great section, Paul ends chapter four speaking of the death of Christ. And he says in chapter four verse 25, he was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. Two things there, Jesus died for our sins or because of our sins that the preposition can even be translated that way. And then he was raised to life for or because of our justification. Now there's a lot that's being said here. Jesus first of all died to pay for our sins. The Bible word for that is redemption. He died to pay the cost, the penalty for our sins. That's redemption. Now redemption means that a purchased price is laid down by someone else to pay for something. I'm reminded of the story of a little boy that I heard one time, a little boy had bought a toy, a model boat and he put it together. It was very proud of it. He worked really hard on it, spent a lot of time on it. And he took it out to a lake near his house and was going to put it out on the lake and see what it would do. But a gust of wind caught it and a little sail and took it far away from him and finally it couldn't even see it. And it was lost. It was gone. One day sometime after that he was walking down the street in his little town and he looked in a kind of five-and-dime store, a second-hand store and saw in the window something that looked very familiar. Sure enough, it was his boat. He recognized it. I mean, he had made it. He put all that work into it. He knew it was his boat. So he ran inside the store and said to the owner, that's my boat. In the window there, I made that boat. I was sailing it out on a lake one day and it got away from me and I didn't know what happened to it. I thought it was gone. That's my boat. And the guy said, well I'm sure you're telling the truth, son, but there's no way I can know that. This boat was found. It was brought to me. I'm selling it as a second-hand item. I'm sorry, but if you want that boat, you don't have to pay for it. So the little boy ran home. God, his dad, his dad came back and his dad recognized that, yeah, that's your boat. And so he laid down the price, paid for a boat that he had already paid for. It was already his, but he paid for it again to reclaim it. Now, that's what Jesus did for you on the cross. You see, you are rightfully God's by creation. He is the creator. He made us. We are rightfully His by virtue of creation. But because of sin, we have gone far away from God. We are out of His sight. We've been separated from Him. We've gone across the lake, if you will. Jesus came to pay the price for our sin and rebellion so that we could be reclaimed. We could be purchased back to the God who owned us in the first place. And when Jesus died on the cross, what He was doing, His death was the purchase price for your sins. So when Paul says He was delivered over to death for our sins, He was paying the purchase price. The price, the debt that was owed to God for your sin and mine. In fact, Jesus actually expressed that on the cross. Jesus spoke seven times from the cross. The next to the last time He spoke, just before He said, Father, into the hands I commend my Spirit. And He breathed out His Spirit and died. Before He said that, the Bible says He gathered His voice. He actually took a drink of the wine that was offered on the soaps so that His lips, His parts lips would be able to be strong enough to say this. And He cried with a loud voice, it is finished. That is a word of victory. Actually, it is one word in the original language that Jesus would have spoken. And that one word literally means paid in full. It was an accounting term that would be put on someone's record when the debt had been paid in full. And when Jesus said it is finished, He was literally saying, My death is the full and satisfactory payment for your sin. It is paid in full. That's what it means when Paul says He was delivered over to death for our sins. But then the rest of the verse is, and was raised to life for our justification or because of our justification. Here is the idea. Jesus died on the cross to make full payment for your sin. And as He breathed His last He cried, the payment has been made. It is finished, paid in full. And then He was raised from the dead by the Father as a sign that that payment indeed was satisfactory. He was raised because of our justification, because Jesus' death was the perfect full and satisfactory payment for sin. God said, Amen to Jesus paid in full by raising Him from the dead. And the resurrection is God's, I like to call it, God's good housekeeping seal of approval on the death of Christ. God was saying, Yes, Jesus, you're right. It was paid in full. Your death was satisfactory. Your death was sufficient to pay for the sins of everybody. And so I say, Amen to that. I say, Yes to that. It is true, verily, Yes, so be it. And He raises Him from the dead as proof that our justification being declared righteous with God is finished at the cross. Our redemption was finished at the cross. The resurrection was just the amen to that. The resurrection was God saying, Yes, yes to Christ. It is finished because of His resurrection. We can know for sure that this is the way to God. It is the only approved way to God. It is the only way to the Father and the heaven that has God's sign of approval. And God's amen on. God never said amen to your good life. God didn't look at your good life, your good deed, your moral character. He didn't say, Amen to that. You've done a great job. You can get into my heaven. He never did that. But He did say amen to the death of Christ. God never said amen to your baptism or anything else by way of religious right or ceremony that you may do to try to cleanse yourself from sin. God is a symbol, a picture, a public testimony that you have trusted Christ as your Savior. It's not your ticket to heaven. God never put His seal of approval on that and said, Just do that and you've punched your ticket. You can get in. God never put His seal of approval and His amen to your church membership. Just because you attend a church, go to a church, join a church, active in a church, which is wonderful and is commanded in the Bible for those who follow Jesus. But just because you do that does not mean you're going to heaven. And certainly not the way you get there. God's only sign of approval on the way to heaven was what He did to say I approve of the payment Jesus made. Jesus said, Payton fall and God said, Yes, sir. That's right. Payton fall. That meets my approval and He showed it by raising Him from the dead. That's what the resurrection makes possible for us. It is God's amen to Jesus. It is finished. The resurrection makes possible a redeemed life. But secondly, the resurrection makes possible an abundant life. An abundant life. Flip over to Ephesians chapter one. Please. The book of Ephesians chapter one. Paul is writing to a beloved church in Ephesus. These believers, these followers of Christ, he writes to them something else about the resurrection. He says in verse 18, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened. In order that you may know, and he's talking about knowing here by experience, knowing in your life. In order that you may know, the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance and his holy people, and here's something else he wants us to know by experience, his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same. Notice that power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked not only in the present age, but also in the one to come. Several things Paul wants us to experience and wants us to know in our eyes of our heart be open and lighten to see and to grasp and to live. But one of them is the amazing power that we have available to us to live out our Christian lives. It is the same power that was exerted in the resurrection of Christ. That same power, he says, is for us. It is available for us who believe. It is available to give us victory over sin, peace in our hearts, hope for the future, joy in our outlook on life. It is a supernatural ability to live life in the midst of whatever is happening in your life. Jesus said it this way in John chapter 10 and verse 10, the thief, comeeth not, but for life, steal and to kill and to destroy. I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. So not only does he give us redeemed life, he wants that redeemed life to be a more abundant life, more abundant with the power that is available to us through the resurrection of Christ. So what that means is this, whatever is happening in your life right now is not the end. It is not the period. It is not the end of the story, no matter whether or not you feel that way. It is not the end of the story. It is just a comma in the sentence of life. Christ resurrection means that that same power is available to us to live with joy, to live triumphantly, no matter what we are facing. It took his little two year old boy into the grocery store with him. It has been a while since I have had a two year old in the grocery store with me, but I have some vivid memories. Not pretty. And it was no different for this father, little boy, everything, father would put in the cart, little boy would pick up and throw in the floor. And he is grabbing for stuff on the shelf and all the way through the store, the father is overheard saying, you are a good boy, Tommy. You can make it, Tommy. You are okay, Tommy. Tommy, you are going to be all right. Just hang in there, Tommy. And when he finally got done with the shopping and got up to the checkout line, somebody lady pulled up behind him and said, sir, some of us couldn't help, but notice how kind and gracious and calm you were with your son, Tommy. He looked back at her with a puzzled expression on his face. His name is Jake, I'm Tommy. You ever feel like you are just trying to pull yourself together and keep going for another day? I think we all do, don't we? We all feel like we have to talk ourselves through another day that we just kind of live life that way, trying to hold myself together to make it through another day. I know that as well as anybody in this room. I struggle with that. There are days when stuff that's happening and difficulties and trials and accusations and criticisms and all kinds of things just play over and over again like a bad tape in my mind. And I find myself not dealing with life in the resurrection power that is available to me. I think all of us struggle with that. My eyes have not been open to the power that is available to have joy, to have peace, to have victory, to triumph in the midst of whatever is happening in daily life, in relationships, in jobs and whatever. That is available to all of us through Christ. I'll never forget John Altiser, some of you note John is a good friend. John, at a period of time in his ministry, was a professor in a mid-east seminary, a group of seminaries actually that are in countries, one of them in Egypt, in Alexandria. It's a seminary that really started and sponsored by Piedmont International University, Piedmont Bible College in my day. Some 200 Egyptian pastors study over there. In the midst of great persecution, many of them are professional men, they're doctors, lawyers, teachers, many of them professional people, but on the side they shepherd a small flock of believers and they knew going in that they would be risking their lives and some of them have given their lives for Christ. John never forget John telling about those pastors and how they would come up to him with a smile on their face and with joy in their hearts and say, we are so glad to be able to study the Word of God. We don't know how long we'll live. We know that there's opposition and if we proclaim Christ and try to lead a church in this culture, we may well die and a number of them have, but it did not stop them. It did not rob their joy and when I think of the things that make me cow or lose my joy, I'm ashamed. I'm ashamed. Do we really know anything about the abundant life and the resurrection power that is available to us through Christ our risen Savior? That's what Paul wants our eyes to be open to so that our hearts will be full of this recognition that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is available to us to make it through another day and not only make it through a day but to live triumphantly in that day. Yes life is hard, yes things happen, bad things happen, trials come by the bucket load it seems sometimes and yet we can have joy and peace in our risen Lord. The resurrected Christ provides for us an abundant life, but not only does the resurrection of Christ make possible a redeemed life and an abundant life, it also makes possible any eternal life. Back to Romans, please Romans chapter 8 and verse 11. Great promise Romans 8 verse 11. And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you and that if is not an uncertainty, it's a certainty. He's already established the fact that if you are in Christ, if you know Christ is Savior, the Holy Spirit resides in you. But he says if that's true, if the Holy Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. And so because of the resurrection of Christ, we also have our resurrection to look forward to. We're talking about our bodily physical resurrection. Now eternal life begins at the moment you trust Christ to Savior. But part of what eternal life means for us is that we have an eternity waiting for us in heaven. And although this side of heaven, our bodies will get older and they will decay and eventually die, we have a resurrection to look forward to. We have a new body waiting us someday. We have a resurrection because it's guaranteed by Christ's resurrection. Yes, Jesus' resurrection means that death even for us is a comma at the end of life, not a period. It's not over. It's not that's all folks. It is simply a comma that leaves the room for the rest of the story to be written. The four of us sent flowers to two different locations on a very busy day and sadly got them mixed up. One group of flowers went to a new business that was opening and the other set of flowers, the other arrangement went to a funeral home for a family who had had a death in their family. But as I say, sadly the flowers got mixed up. And so the next day an irate business owner came in and said, I want my money back. The flowers you sent for my business opening said, rest in peace. And the florist said, sir, I am really sorry. But you should have seen the family that just came in here because the flowers we sent to the funeral home said, good luck in your new location. Except for the word luck, however, which I don't believe in, I believe in God's sovereignty and providence, except for the word luck, however, that's a pretty good message for a believer. God's blessing in your new location because you know what? This resurrection means for us that death is simply a change of address. We just go to a different home and it's a more permanent home. It's our perfect home. It's our final home. It is home. It's just a new address. And so we just change address like Big Daddy Weave says in one of their songs, just changing neighborhoods. Just changing neighborhoods. When I died on this, where I've gone, I've just changed neighborhoods. I love that. You know Paul said that. Paul said that in 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 8, he said, we are confident I say and would prefer to be away from the body and here's our new address and that home with the Lord. It's just a new home. It's a much better home. It's a permanent home. It's a home and a resurrected body that will last forever eternal life. He also said in Philippians 1, 23, much the same thing. And I am torn between the two. I desire to depart and be with Christ. There's my new address. I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far. Death really is just a change of address. Death is not a period at the end of the sentence. It doesn't mean the chapter is closed and the book is tossed aside. It means that there is a comma which gives us the hope, the assurance, the certainty that there's more of the story to be written. The best part of the story is to be written in our eternal home in heaven. And because of the resurrection of Christ, we know that we have that. I'm so thankful for that. I'm so grateful for the resurrection because it assures us of a redeemed life, an abundant life, an eternal life. And there's a sense in which that scan the whole gamut of life, a redeemed life. That takes care of my past. It also takes care of my present future. But it means all my sin, no matter what I've done, no matter where I've come from, no matter what I've done in the past, no matter what my past is like in Christ it's forgiven. I'm redeemed. My sin has been paid for. But the resurrection of Christ not only takes care of my sin, it also takes care of what I'm facing right now because the resurrection of Christ provides for us the opportunity to have that same power at work in our lives to live an abundant life, joy and peace and being able to have contentment in the midst of the most difficult of circumstances. And then thank God it takes care of our future too. We have eternal life. We have a home in heaven waiting for us, a new address, a new body. Thank God waiting for us. All that is possible because of Christ's resurrection. So I want to ask you this morning, do you realize that his death and his resurrection is for you? It's not just for the world out there, some vague indeterminate, large group of people. It was also for you personally, individually. And the follow up question obviously is this, have you accepted him as your savior? Have you recognized that it's not your good life, not your efforts, not your church membership, not your baptism, not anything you do that God has said amen to. He has said amen to the death of Christ. The resurrection is his amen. So have you trusted Jesus as your savior? Do you know that you're placing your hope of heaven in him and not yourself? You know today could be the day of new life for you. Today could be the day when you receive because of the resurrection of Christ you could receive a redeemed life. Your sins are paid for. And along with that comes at least the potential and possibility for an abundant life. If we open our eyes and hearts to what the resurrection means for us now and yes, certainly along with that comes an eternal life, a new address in heaven. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the resurrection of Jesus, our savior. Thank you that he died to pay for our sins. He was raised from the dead as a sign that you were approved of that payment. It was satisfactory to you. Thank you Lord that his power, the power of the resurrection is available to us right now to live as we should. To not be in gloom and despair but to live in joy, hope and peace, contentment. Thank you Father for the eternal life we have in Jesus. Just waiting for a new home and a new body. Father, I pray for those who are here this morning who may not have the assurance that they know Jesus as their savior. Father, would you speak to their hearts? Your spirit make their hearts tender to their need for Christ and they may even today they lay down whatever is keeping them back and trust Jesus as their savior. And have the assurance their sins are forgiven and they have a home in heaven. Be the day of new life for someone we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.