Rev. David Holwick Easter Sunrise
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey [Very well receieved]
April 16, 2017
John 20:1
WHILE IT WAS STILL DARK
I. We are following an ancient Christian custom this morning.
A. Even ancient Romans noticed it.
1) Pliny the Younger was governor of Bithnyia in AD 111-113.
He wrote to the Roman Emperor, Trajan, in around AD 112
about his experience with Christians.
Pliny was in what is now Turkey, and the New Testament
had been completed only about 17 years previously.
But Christians were growing so rapidly that very few people
were attending the pagan temples anymore.
If they weren't being loyal to the old religion, they
probably wouldn't be loyal to the government soon.
And so he was treating Christianity as a crime.
2) He reviewed with the emperor how he was handling Christians.
a) When names of Christians were given to him, he had them
hunted down.
b) They were given a chance to curse Jesus and offer a
sacrifice to Caesar.
1> If they did those things, they were let go.
2> If they kept true to the faith, they were executed.
c) The policy applied to young and old alike.
3) The emperor's short response was affirmative.
a) Christians should be arrested and executed.
b) But he told Pliny to avoid "witchhunts" based on gossip.
B. Pliny also reveals one of the earliest descriptions of Christian
worship, and the first given by a pagan:
"They were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before
it was light, when they sang an anthem to Christ as God, and
bound themselves by a solemn oath not to commit any wicked deed,
but to abstain from all fraud, theft and adultery, never to break
their word, or deny a trust when called upon to honor it;
After which it was their custom to separate, and then meet again
to partake of food, but food of an ordinary and innocent kind."
Pliny, "Letters" X:96, AD 112
#27700
II. What early Christians did weekly, we do annually.
A. It is not our habit to go to church before the sun comes up.
1) Partly, it is due to our change in status.
a) We are not slaves who have to fit in church around a
7-day-a-week work schedule.
2) We also enjoy our sleep like any normal human.
3) Jesus had a habit of getting up before dawn to pray to his
Father, but most of us don't.
B. We get up early today to celebrate something special.
1) We are celebrating the resurrection of Jesus.
2) John's account of the resurrection says: John 20:1
"Early on the first day of the week, while it was still
dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the
stone had been removed from the entrance."
C. Even at the first Easter, only a few disciples showed up early.
1) For these women, it was a sign of their devotion to Jesus.
2) They came to prepare his body for the long stay in the grave.
3) Jesus surprised them by giving them an empty grave.
III. Empty graves are the best graves.
A. It took his grave to find God.
The bus approached a checkpoint near Raqqa, Syria.
A black flag flew nearby, which meant the men at the checkpoint
were fighters for ISIS.
Three soldiers entered the bus and checked IDs.
When they got to Meghrik, they asked him, "Are you a Christian?"
He answered, "No."
He explained that he had been raised a Christian in a
Christian family and had a Christian family name.
But Meghrik didn't believe in God anymore and thought
Christianity was ridiculous.
The soldier didn't buy his explanation and forced Meghrik to
get off the bus.
That evening he found himself face-to-face with an Islamic State
judge in a makeshift courtroom in Raqqa.
The judge concluded from his name that Meghrik was a Christian
and sentenced him to death.
Several hours later, men in black clothes come to bring him to
the place of execution.
They tied his arms, covered his eyes and pushed him into a car.
After a ride through the city, they arrived at an desolate area
with open graves.
The fighters took off the blindfold and push Meghrik into the
grave.
He couldn't break the fall because his arms were tied behind
his back.
He heard the sound of loading weapons - his last moments alive.
Tears ran down his cheeks.
He felt completely helpless.
Suddenly, he remembered what had happened a month ago.
He had been challenged by a friend to pray and ask God to
show him that he really exists.
This happened after a long discussion about the existence of
God, the person of Jesus and what, according to his
Christian friend, Jesus had done for mankind.
Meghrik accepted the challenge of his friend and had prayed
for God to reveal himself.
This memory made him pray again in this grave, a genuine cry
from the heart in his darkest hour.
"If you exist, let me live.
Please give me a chance to get to know you."
Seconds passed by, and a voice broke the tense silence:
"You can live and be free when you convert to Islam."
"I will convert," Meghrik said rapidly, seeing no other way out.
The men took him out of his grave and brought him back to his
cell.
It was a big relief, but mixed with a new fear.
Another prisoner told him, "Converting is of no use, they will
kill you anyway."
The next day, ISIS men entered the cell and begin torturing him
with a cable.
He counted somewhere between 20 and 30 lashes that day.
This went on for three days.
Meghrik continued to pray.
"God, you saved me the first time, so why do you let them
torture me again?
Please, Lord, get me out of here so that I can search for you
and learn about you."
That day, an ISIS leader came to his cell.
The man said they wouldn't execute him.
On the tenth day of his imprisonment, Meghrik walked free.
He says it was an indescribable moment when he finally left
that prison.
It was a fulfillment of God's promises.
God had heard his prayers.
Meghrik had denied Jesus and was even ready to convert to
Islam... but he says,
"God didn't leave me or let me down, he stayed with me
until the end to show me His existence."
#65815
B. If you were to stand before your own grave, would you have hope?
1) Do you have confidence that your soul is right with God?
2) Would you have just as much confidence if an ISIS soldier
was pointing a gun at you right now?
3) The Bible says this confidence can only come through a
genuine relationship with Jesus Christ.
a) You can't have just mouth some Sunday School pieties.
b) You have to make a full commitment, the kind that shows
up in every area of your life.
C. It may be early in the morning, but it is not too late for God.
1) Now is the time to commit yourself to Jesus.
2) Getting up at 5:00 in the morning is not enough.
a) You must meet God.
b) Have you asked him to reveal himself to you?
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
#27700 “Pliny's Letters on the Christians,” by Paul Halsall; this
version came from a previous sermon and reflects a different
translation of Pliny’s letter.
#65815 “Syrian Prisoner Sentenced To Death By ISIS Finds Jesus,” by
Brian, Stories of Persecution, Open Doors USA, March 1, 2017;
<link>; the names are supplied in the original article.
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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