Rev. David Holwick * Easter Sunrise 1993
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
April 11, 1993
Colossians 2:13-15
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I. Nobody wants to die.
A. Woody Allen made a comic observation:
"I don't want to achieve immortality through my work," he said.
"I want to achieve immortality by not dying." #2210
In light of recent movies (and events), this is a wise decision!
B. Hollywood hates an unhappy ending.
1) Reason Good Friday is downplayed, while Easter is emphasized.
a) Schools in Jefferson township even had class on Friday.
b) Good Friday is not exactly Easter - bunnies and eggs and
spring flowers.
2) We want to affirm life with no mention of death.
II. Realism requires otherwise. Sometimes strikingly so. #84
(The dictatorship of Gen. Stroessner - longest in South America
- was just recently overthrown.)
Henri Nouwen tells the story of a family he knew in Paraguay.
The father, a doctor, spoke out against the military there and
its human rights abuses.
Local police took their revenge by arresting his teenage son and
torturing him to death.
Townsfolk wanted to turn the funeral into a huge protest march.
But the doctor chose another means of protest.
The father displayed him in the church as he had found him in the
jail.
The son was naked, his body marked with scars from the electric
shocks and cigarette burns and beatings.
It did not lay in a coffin but on the blood-soaked mattress from
the jail.
It was the strongest protest imaginable, for it put injustice on
grotesque display.
III. This is what happened on Good Friday.
The Cross exposed the world for what it is:
a breeding ground of violence and cruelty.
Good Friday demolishes the instinctive belief that this life is
supposed to be fair.
Something inside us can relate to Good Friday.
We know what it is like to be abused and wrongly condemned.
Even the most cynical atheist must admit that this life is cruel.
It's their biggest argument that a good God cannot exist.
IV. But the Gospel does not stop at Good Friday.
That dark Friday is called Good because of what happened on this
day, Easter Sunday.
The world's cruelty against Jesus was answered by a powerful miracle
from God.
Nothing in life is stronger than God - not even death itself.
V. Easter is much more than the transformation of one person.
Someday, God will restore the physical reality of planet Earth to
its proper place under his control.
The miracle of Easter is the first sign of God's plan for the whole
world.
[Expanded with applications to the Second Coming...]
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
#84 "Injustice On Display," by Philip Yancey, Christianity Today
magazine, March 18, 2003, p. 64.
#2210 "The Easiest Way To Achieve Immortality," Dynamic Preaching
(www.sermons.com), April 1992; "An Empty Stage Or An Empty Tomb?"
These and 30,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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