Rev. David Holwick O EASTER SUNDAY
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
April 19, 1992
John 5:21-29
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I. The extravagance of resurrection.
A. Easter happened an awfully long time ago.
1) Familiar story, but hard to fathom.
2) Something we don't see every day, but then it's supposed to
be a miracle.
3) The danger of Easter is that it is so special, and happened
so long ago, it can be ignored.
B. Bible says there is more to resurrection that just Easter.
1) A day is coming in the future when each of us will be raised.
2) And a very special resurrection can happen right now. Today.
II. Jesus gives life RIGHT NOW. 5:24
A. Many Christians hope they'll live forever in heaven, but
aren't sure.
B. The Bible says we can be certain, because eternal life begins
the moment we believe.
1) Not in the distant future.
2) Salvation is not something we must wait for, but a present
possession and joy.
3) Past tense - we HAVE crossed from death to life.
C. Being alive in Christ should give us a new perspective on life.
Festo Kivengere is a Christian bishop in Uganda, Africa, a
country that was terrorized by dictator Idi Amin.
In 1973 three men in his church were executed by firing squad.
Festo told of what happened.
"People were commanded to come to the stadium and witness the
execution.
Death permeated the air as a silent crowd of 3,000 watched.
I had permission from the authorities to speak to the men before
they died, and two of my fellow ministers were with me.
They brought the men in a truck and unloaded them.
They were handcuffed and their feet were chained.
The firing squad stood at attention.
As we walked onto the center of the stadium, I was wondering what
to say.
How do you give the gospel to doomed men who are probably
seething with rage?
We approached them from behind, and as they turned to look at us,
what a sight!
Their faces were all alight with an unmistakable glow and radiance.
Before we could say anything, one of them burst out:
"Bishop, thank you for coming!
I wanted to tell you.
The day I was arrested, in my prison cell, I asked the Lord Jesus
to come into my heart.
He came in and forgave me all my sins!
Heaven is now open, and there is nothing between me and my God!
Please tell my wife and children that I am going to be with Jesus.
Ask them to accept him into their lives as I did."
The other two men told similar stories, excitedly raising their
hands, which rattled their handcuffs.
I felt that what I needed to do was to talk to the soldiers, not
to the condemned.
So I translated what the men had said into a language the
soldiers understood.
The military men were standing there with guns cocked and
bewilderment on their faces.
They were so dumbfounded that they forgot to put the hoods over
the men's faces!
The three faced the firing squad standing close together.
They looked toward the people and began to wave, handcuffs and all.
The people waved back.
Then shots were fired, and the three were with Jesus.
We stood in front of them, our own hearts throbbing with joy,
mingled with tears.
It was a day never to be forgotten.
Though dead, the men spoke loudly to all of Kegezi District and
beyond.
There was an upsurge of life in Christ, which challenges death
and defeats it.
The next Sunday, I was preaching to a huge crowd in the hometown
of one of the executed men.
Again, the feel of death was over the congregation.
But when I gave them the testimony of their man, and how he died,
there erupted a great song of praise to Jesus!
Many turned to the Lord there.
#1997
[This year, Uganda was allowed to publicly celebrate the first
Good Friday and Easter in 16 years.)
III. New life in Christ brings three new relationships. (William Barclay)
A. A new relationship with God.
1) Instead of a judge, he becomes our father.
2) Old sins are not held against us.
3) A special closeness and courage flows into our lives.
B. A new relationship with our other people.
1) Hatred should become love.
2) Selfishness should become service.
3) Bitterness should become forgiveness.
C. A new relationship with ourselves.
1) We are usually our own worst enemy.
a) Weakness becomes strength.
b) Tension becomes peace.
2) Inward change, both sudden and gradual.
a) Old habits conquered.
b) New way of thinking.
IV. Jesus also gives life in the FUTURE. 5:25, 28-29
A. Jews believed in a literal, future resurrection.
1) Bodies of believers would come alive at the Last Day.
2) Lazarus and sister Martha. 11:23-26
B. Jesus taught the same thing.
1) We will be resurrected just like he was at first Easter.
2) Therefore Christians should not fear death or bitterly
grieve when loved ones die.
Winston Churchill had planned his funeral, which took place in
Saint Paul's Cathedral.
He included many of the great hymns of the church and used the
eloquent Anglican liturgy.
At his direction, a bugler, positioned, high in the dome of Saint
Paul's, intoned, after the benediction, the sound of "Taps,"
the universal signal that says the day is over.
But then came the most dramatic turn: as Churchill instructed,
as soon as "Taps" was finished, another bugler, placed on the
other side of the great dome, played the notes of "Reveille" -
- "It's time to get up. It's time to get up. It's time to get up
in the morning."
That was Churchill's testimony that at the end of history, the
last note will not be "Taps," it will be "Reveille".
#1841
V. Jesus is the bringer of judgment.
A. All humans will be resurrected. 5:29
1) Both Saint Peter and Hitler.
2) But these resurrections have two destinies.
B. A person's judgment depends on their reaction to Jesus.
1) It is not enough to believe in God. 5:23
2) We must honor the Son and believe his words.
C. What does listening to Jesus' word mean? 5:24
1) To believe that God is as Jesus says he is.
2) To accept the way of life that Jesus offers us, even if hard.
3) To accept the help of Christ and the guidance of the Spirit.
D. He gives this new life as a gift, not as a wage.
1) He gives it abundantly. 10:10
VI. What will you do with Jesus?
A. Those who first followed Jesus had their lives turned upside down.
1) Peter went from a deserter to an evangelist.
a) Religious opponents asked: Who are these untutored men?
b) Courage in face of persecution.
2) The Church spread to every major Roman city in 200 years.
B. New life is abundant, but not always easy.
W.E. Sangster was a noted British minister.
In the mid 1950's he began to notice some uneasiness in his
throat and a dragging in his leg.
When he went to the doctor, he found he had an incurable disease
that caused progressive muscular atrophy.
His muscles would gradually waste away, his voice would become
silent and his throat unable to swallow.
Sangster threw himself into his work in British home missions.
He figured he could still write and he would have even more
time for prayer.
"Let me stay in the struggle, Lord," he pleaded.
"I don't mind if I can no longer be a general, but give me just
a regiment to lead."
He wrote articles and books, and helped organize prayer cells
throughout England.
"I'm only in the kindergarten of suffering," he told people who
pitied him.
Gradually Sangster's legs became useless.
His voice went completely.
But he could still hold a pen, shakily.
On Easter morning, just a few weeks before he died, he wrote a
letter to his daughter.
In it, he said, "It is terrible to wake up on Easter morning
and have no voice with which to shout, 'He is risen!' -
- but it would be still more terrible to have a voice and not
want to shout."
#1932
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