SERMON 496

EASTER 2 – APRIL 22, 23, 2006

ACTS 4:32-35, 1 JOHN 1:1-2:2, JOHN 20:19-31

JESUS IS THE RISEN LORD AND TO KNOW HIM IS THE BEGINNING OF LIFE!

Beloved in the Lord, grace and peace be unto you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and from the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life!

He is risen! He is risen indeed! JESUS IS THE RISEN LORD AND TO KNOW HIM IS THE BEGINNING OF LIFE. That is our theme for this Sunday! JESUS IS LORD, AND TO KNOW HIM IS THE BEGINNING LIFE!

I am going to begin this meditation by quoting from a sermon by E. Stanley Jones, a missionary and an evangelist. He said:

“I stood in the mosque of Saint Sophia, that amazing bit of architecture once a Christian church and now a Mohammedan mosque in Istanbul, the city that was once Constantinople. All the Christian symbols had been wiped out, and Arabic lettering had been put in. As I stood there, I looked up over the altar place at the dome, and my heart stood still. I grabbed the arm of a friend. I said, “Look! He’s coming back!” I could see that the daubs of the centuries were wearing off, and there was the figure of the ascending Christ, coming back again through the daubs of the centuries. “O,” I said, “You can’t wipe him out. He’s coming back.” This man overthrew empires, and everything that doesn’t fit into his kingdom is doomed. Every tyranny that has come has broken itself upon the silent power of this strange, silent man. My God! What a man!

He’s Lord of death. A Christian preacher was preaching in the bazaars in India, and a Mohammedan said, “Padre, Sahib, we have a proof in our religion that you haven’t got in yours. We can go to Mecca and find the tomb of Mohammed, but when you go to Palestine you can’t be sure that you’ve got the tomb of Jesus.” “Yes,” said the Christian preacher, “You’re right. We have no tomb in Christianity because we have no corpse.”

In India they repeat montras. A priest will whisper a montra into the ear of his disciples. The disciple doesn’t know what it means, but he repeats it. It’s his life charm….I’d like to whisper into your ear three words. Take it. It’s a life montra. When in trouble repeat it. When facing a dilemma, repeat it. When facing sin, repeat it. When facing disaster, repeat it. When facing temptation, repeat it: “Jesus is Lord.” Take these three words and go into the tomorrow, and into the future. And there is no future. It’s all present. Jesus is Lord.” The end of the quote from E. Stanley Jones!

Jesus is Lord indeed and to know this risen Lord is the beginning of life. All our lessons bear testimony to the life that comes from knowing this risen Lord.

In the lesson from the book of Acts we have a picture of life in the early church in the city of Jerusalem. Many among them had seen and followed Jesus during his ministry. Some of them had been given the privilege of seeing Jesus after his resurrection from the dead. Others had been witnesses to the power that came into the life of the disciples after Pentecost when the Holy Spirit, that Jesus had promised to send, came in such a dramatic fashion. Still others had been brought into the faith through the preaching of the disciples, and following their admonition to repent and believe and be baptized, had done exactly that. All of them had experienced the new life in Christ Jesus, their risen Lord. All had been filled with joy in believing and following this man who had once live among them and now had been declared to be the Messiah, the Son of God and the Lord of all, the victor over sin and death and all the powers of evil.

Knowing and following this risen Lord had surely changed their lives. We are told that they were of one heart and soul, so much so that property and possessions were no longer important to them. Property and possessions were important but only as vehicles for taking care of their brothers and sisters in the faith. It was a community in which love dominated over self interest and greed and the desire to be in control. They made sure that there was not a needy person among them. Any one new who came into the faith and the fellowship was welcomed as though they had been there from the beginning. It says that great grace was upon them. Knowing the Lord Jesus had changed them and filled them with love and grace.

The Psalmist tells us how good it is when brethren live together in unity. He describes that unity as like oil on the beard and dew on the hills. The Lord has ordained that in Jesus Christ there shall be unity, and those who know the Lord Jesus know how to live in peace with their brothers and sisters.

When the risen Lord Jesus is present there is also power present. By the power of the Spirit the Apostles and many others among them gave such a moving testimony to the resurrection of Jesus Christ that others were literally compelled to become believers. Jesus was declared, without hesitation, to be the living Lord of all.

In the lesson from the letter of John we hear John tell us what they had heard, and what they seen with their eyes, and what they had touched with their hands. The Hospital Ministries class is currently being taught in our midst. It is fascinating to be sure. One cannot be a real listener until one has understood how others communicate and how we communicate and have learned to respond. Some people are visual, and they may say, “That’s what I saw.” Others are auditory and the may say, “That’s what I heard.” Others operate by feelings. So when our Lord came among us he could be understood by all, regardless of our vast differences. We saw him. We heard him. We touched him.

The risen Lord still appears to all our senses. We still hear his words. We see him in the breaking of the bread. We touch him when we eat the bread and the wine. He is with us still.

John told us that that which they saw and heard and touched was the word of life, indeed the word of eternal life. And he told us that when we see and hear and believe in Jesus we have fellowship with the Father and with the Son. In Jesus the Lord there is only light and fellowship and no darkness at all.

John also told us that the Son cleanses us from all sin. It is when we truly see Jesus that we become aware of how sinful we really are. The world around us constantly denies that they are sinners. In Christ, we know different. With the Spirit in our hearts, we know different. If we say or try to act as if we are not the guilty ones we make Jesus a liar. In Jesus the Lord we both see and know the truth.

And John tells us that if we do err and do fall into sin we can come back to the Lord Jesus. Christ Jesus is the righteous one. Christ Jesus is our lawyer, our advocate before the Father. When we confess our sins Jesus is there both to forgive and to point out to the Father that his righteousness has now become our righteousness.

JESUS IS LORD, AND TO KNOW HIM IS THE BEGINNING OF LIFE!

When our Lord Jesus walked among us he came as the servant of all. He had been empowered by the Spirit in his baptism, but he would never use that power to satisfy his own needs. He came to proclaim the kingdom of God, to be the sin bearer of the world and in his resurrection to destroy forever the power of sin and death and the evil one. He was soon to return to the Father and be given all authority in heaven and on earth. But before he left us had some teaching to do, some commissions to give and some appearances to make. The disciples were to be witnesses of the resurrection and he would appear before them enough times so that they and everyone that followed would know that he had indeed arisen from the dead.

In the Gospel lesson from John we have the first appearance to all the disciples minus one. First, Jesus came into the room through the locked door to show that he was risen and that he had been given a most glorious body. Then he also showed them the nail prints in his hands and the wound in his side, where the soldier had pierced him with a sword. He left nothing to their imaginations. It was he, arisen from the dead, and with a life that would never end.

Then our Lord gave to the disciples the two things that are with us still. He breathed on them and told them to receive the Holy Spirit. That same Spirit that he breathed on them came also to be a part of our life when we were baptized into Jesus Christ. It is that same Spirit that brings joy in believing, assurance in times of doubt, comfort in times of stress and sorrow, and peace. The peace of God was with them and is with us now. No one can take away our peace. God is reconciled to us and we are reconciled to God and we are at peace with God.

The second thing that our Lord gave them on this first appearance was the power and authority to forgive sins. That power to forgive sins is with us still. We have made the confession of sins and the declaration of forgiveness a vital part of every worship service. It has been taught among us for some twenty centuries that spiritual leaders have the authority to forgive the sins of any penitent sinner. And we have taught for centuries that any Christian can hear the confession of another and assure them of forgiveness and life eternal.

And on the second appearance, this time to all the disciples, our Lord taught us how he does and will deal with all who have doubts and find difficulty in believing. Jesus knew that underneath, Thomas believed in him and was willing to die for him. Jesus knew that Thomas was filled with grief and pain from Jesus suffering and death on the cross. Jesus did for Thomas what he needed. He needed to see Jesus, the nail prints in his hands and the wound in his side.

Jesus does and will always do the same thing for us. He knows what we need more than we ourselves. He will provide for us everything that we need. And if we ask him he will provide much more than we need.

As E. Stanley Jones, whom we quoted at the beginning, said, “We have no tomb in Christianity because we have no corpse.” What we do have is a Lord who has himself risen from the dead and destroyed the power of sin and death and the evil one. He lives. He is with us. To know him is the beginning of life. So with Thomas we say to the whole world and to anyone who will listen, “My Lord and my God!”