Rev. David Holwick N Easter
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
April 8, 2012
John 20:24-29
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I. Just a little fluffed up.
Mark Murphy tells of a woman who happened to be looking out of
the window of her home one day.
She was horrified to see her German Shepherd shaking the life out
of the neighbor's rabbit.
Her family had been quarreling with these neighbors for some time
and this was going to make matters much worse!
So she grabbed a broom and ran outside and pummeled that doggie
until he finally dropped the rabbit - which was now covered
with dog spit and extremely dead.
After a moment's consideration as to what to do, the woman lifted
the rabbit with the end of the broom and carried it into the house.
She dumped its lifeless body into the bathtub and turned on the
shower.
When the water running off the rabbit was clean, she rolled him
over and rinsed the other side.
Now she had a plan.
She found her hairdryer and blew the rabbit dry.
Using an old comb, she groomed the rabbit until he looked pretty
good.
Then, when the neighbor wasn't looking, she hopped over the fence,
sneaked across the backyard, and propped him up in his cage.
No way was she taking the blame for this fiasco!
About an hour later, she heard screams coming from the neighbor's
yard.
She ran outside pretending she didn't know what was going on.
"What happened?" she inquired, acting innocently.
Her neighbor came running to the fence.
All the blood had drained out of her face.
"Our rabbit! Our rabbit!" she blubbered.
"He died two weeks ago. We buried him - and now he's back!"
He looked alive!
But he wasn't really alive.
He was dead - just a fluffed up dead rabbit.
There are a lot of people in this world who are like that.
There are a lot of people in churches like that.
Maybe YOU are like that.
They look good on the outside - but inside they are dead...just
fluffed up for appearance's sake.
#32261
A. Easter offers a different possibility.
1) You can be alive on the inside -- really alive.
2) Outwardly you may look a little shabby and worn out, but
your inner life can be energized by God.
3) As the years go by, you find that it is the inner life
that matters the most.
B. Jesus embodies the ideal.
1) On the cross, he looked like he had been through hell.
a) Some believe that is literally where he went, at least
until Sunday.
b) Even if that wasn't the case, he was pretty beat up.
2) But when God raised him from the dead, everything changed.
a) He was supernatural.
b) He was super-alive, more alive than any of us right now.
c) But he also bore a reminder.
II. Jesus after Easter.
A. He had some amazing qualities.
1) Appearing inside locked rooms.
2) Appearing in different regions of the country unannounced.
3) Changing his appearance.
B. There was a very curious feature of his appearance.
1) He still had scars.
a) The gospels mention his hands and feet and side.
b) Was there more?
2) An important ancient prophecy about Easter.
a) Isaiah 52 - 53 gives the clearest picture of Easter.
b) We all should be familiar with the predictions in
chapter 53:
53:5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed
for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace
was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
53:9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the
rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor
was any deceit in his mouth.
3) You may be less familiar with a detail in Isaiah 52:14 -
52:14 Just as there were many who were appalled at him -- his
appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and
his form marred beyond human likeness...
a) Kevin Trontl wonders if the resurrected Jesus still
looked like this. #36346
b) Not just scarred, but beaten up and disfigured.
1> This might explain why the disciples did not
recognize him when they ran into him on Easter.
2> (However, I think God kept them from recognizing
him.)
C. Why would Jesus still have his scars?
1) They have a very important message for us.
III. His scars offered proof that it was really Jesus.
A. On Easter night, Jesus appeared to most of the disciples.
1) He popped into a locked room.
2) He showed them his hands and side. 20:20
3) They knew it was really him, and they were overjoyed.
B. One disciple missed that episode - Thomas.
1) Thomas wasn't really a doubter, but a pragmatist.
a) He didn't want to take someone else's word for it.
b) He had to see for himself.
2) Some people would rather believe what they want to be
true, rather than what is really true.
a) There is a difference between trust and gullibility.
b) There is a difference between having faith and being
a sucker.
3) Thomas wasn't a sucker - he wanted to see the evidence.
C. Modern people need to consider this as well.
1) Many separate religion from real life.
a) Their faith is wonderful and inspiring, but it is all
inside themselves.
b) It is more of a wishful thinking on their part.
1> This way they don't have to be bothered by doubts
or questions.
2> Their faith doesn't have to be logical or make
sense -- it's just emotions.
2) Christianity is grounded in the physical world.
a) Jesus really existed, he really suffered on the cross,
and he really rose again.
b) There are some, like the Muslims, who think Jesus only
appeared to die on the cross, but it was someone else.
1> The gospels are clear that it was really him.
2> He kept his scars to prove it.
IV. His scars remind us of our salvation.
A. What happened on Friday is still a part of Easter Sunday.
1) This Friday, some of our churches carried a cross around a
few blocks in Succasunna, especially along Route 10.
a) A number of cars honked at us.
b) They were acknowledging that the cross is a good thing.
2) Jesus suffered, but it had a powerful reason behind it.
a) His death was redemptive.
b) Because he suffered, we can live forever.
B. His scars show that Jesus understands what we go through.
1) We don't have a God who is aloof and cold.
2) We have one who came down to become one of us.
a) He took the worst we could throw at him.
b) He did it because he loved us.
c) He intimately knows what your most terrible days are like.
V. Jesus isn't the only one with scars.
A. Every Christian carries scars too.
1) Sometimes it is rather literal.
Back in 2006 the Reuters News Service carried a story about
Marina Motygina, a 16-year-old girl from western Russia.
She had been outside during a storm and was struck by
lightning.
The bolt struck the top of her head, moved through her body
and entered the ground.
Marina had been wearing a gold necklace that held a cross.
It was atomized by the lightning.
A few links of the necklace remained, but the rest of it
was gone.
It did leave her with a reminder - a burn scar in the shape
of a cross.
Doctors say she will carry this the rest of her life.
#33532
2) Usually it is more symbolic.
a) We have scars that we've inflicted on ourselves.
1> You openly rebelled against God's commands and
you paid a heavy cost.
2> Perhaps you made some very poor choices and have
had consequences that have lasted for years.
b) We have scars that have been inflicted by others.
1> There are hurts from people who loved us, and
even worse pain from those who hated us.
2> The longer we live, the more scars we have.
B. Remember that scars are wounds that have healed.
1) Jesus still had scars, but the pain was gone.
2) His healing was total and permanent.
3) We can be healed, too.
What is the ultimate hope of the cripple, the amputee,
the abused, the burn victim?
How can the parents of brain-damaged or physically handicapped
children keep from living their entire lives totally and
completely depressed?
Why would anyone who is blind or deaf or paralyzed be
encouraged when they think of the life beyond?
Where do the thoughts of a young couple go when they finally
recover from the grief of losing their baby?
When a family receives the tragic news that their dad was
killed in a plane crash or a son overdosed on drugs, what
single truth becomes their whole focus?
What is the final answer to pain, mourning, senility, insanity,
terminal diseases, sudden calamities, and fatal accidents?
There is only one answer: the hope of resurrection.
#16507
C. Easter overcomes our scars.
1) God offers something greater than your deepest pain.
a) We can have a victory that conquers even death.
b) Pain is real, no doubt about it, but the power of Christ
puts it in a new perspective.
2) Easter is not a fairy tale.
a) It is about real life.
b) Maybe not what life is right now for you, but what life
can be if God is on your side.
c) Do you believe in Jesus?
1> Have you accepted him as your Savior?
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
This sermon was inspired by the article "The Scars of Easter" by Paul
Brand and Philip Yancey in Christianity Today, April 5, 1985.
#16507 “Questions With the Same Answer,” Rev. Shelton Cole,
http://www.sermon.org, 3/1999.31, Fredericksburg Collection.
#32261 “Just A Little Fluffed Up,” Rev. Mark Murphy, Kerux Sermon #10937,
June 22, 2003.
#33532 “Scarred With a Cross,” Reuters News Service, July 1, 2006.
#36346 “How Battered Was Jesus?” Kevin Trontl, Letters to the Editor of
Christianity Today, April 24, 2000.
<http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2000/aprilweb-only/
56.0c.html?start=1>
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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