Resurrection Transformation

RESURRECTION TRANSFORMATION

Mount Hope

Easter Sunday, April 12, 2020

Matthew 28 New Living Translation (NLT)

The Resurrection

28 Early on Sunday morning,^[a] as the new day was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to visit the tomb.

² Suddenly there was a great earthquake! For an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled aside the stone, and sat on it. ³ His face shone like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow. ⁴ The guards shook with fear when they saw him, and they fell into a dead faint.

⁵ Then the angel spoke to the women. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. ⁶ He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come, see where his body was lying. ⁷ And now, go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and he is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there. Remember what I have told you.”

⁸ The women ran quickly from the tomb. They were very frightened but also filled with great joy, and they rushed to give the disciples the angel’s message. ⁹ And as they went, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they ran to him, grasped his feet, and worshiped him. ¹⁰ Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t be afraid! Go tell my brothers to leave for Galilee, and they will see me there.”

The Report of the Guard

¹¹ As the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and told the leading priests what had happened. ¹² A meeting with the elders was called, and they decided to give the soldiers a large bribe. ¹³ They told the soldiers, “You must say, ‘Jesus’ disciples came during the night while we were sleeping, and they stole his body.’ ¹⁴ If the governor hears about it, we’ll stand up for you so you won’t get in trouble.” ¹⁵ So the guards accepted the bribe and said what they were told to say. Their story spread widely among the Jews, and they still tell it today.

The Great Commission

¹⁶ Then the eleven disciples left for Galilee, going to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. ¹⁷ When they saw him, they worshiped him—but some of them doubted!

¹⁸ Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. ¹⁹ Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations,^[b] baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. ²⁰ Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

           

            Happy Resurrection Sunday, church family!  Today’s Gospel is one we are all familiar with, so I don’t want to spend a lot of time giving an eschatological explanation of the meaning of the events.  You all are spiritually mature enough that that would be redundant.  We all know that when the women went to the tomb the tomb was empty, Jesus had risen, his grave clothes were tossed aside – except for the cloth that covered his face – we’ll get to that later – and we can shout Hallelujah because he overcame death on that old rugged cross. 

But the question we might ask ourselves is what did Jesus do between the time he committed his body to the Father and the time the women came and found the tomb empty?  Was he just laying in the tomb all day after the crucifixion? 

One of the things that I always found remarkable in the Bible – and I don’t know if you ever noticed it – in all the parables and stories in the synoptic Gospels about Jesus’s life and ministry there is only one story of Jesus being “asleep”.  That is in the Gospel of Mark.  You know the story of the storm on the water and the disciples went to the back of the boat where Jesus was sleeping to wake him.  But was he really asleep?  Here is where being fully human and fully God come together.  Theologians refer to Jesus’s state as the hypostatic union – being fully God and fully man.  Having two natures, human and divine, which are inseparable.  It is explained that his human nature was asleep, but his divine nature never sleeps.

So, Jesus’s human nature has been crucified.  It’s gone and once it was gone, he became fully divine again.  So when he breathed his last human breath on that Roman soldier and released his divine breath….oh, help me here church!  You know where I’m going with this?  He was no longer in that body!  He was released and set free in his fully divine nature!  Hallelujah!

The disciples and his followers mourned his humanity.  They had not yet comprehended the full depth and breadth of his divinity.  Thank you, Jesus!  I hope I’m not getting too deep for you this morning.  Afterall, I had not planned to preach this morning, so ya’ll gotta bear with me.

In that moment of ending his divine nature, the body was no longer of use to his divinity.  It was those who were left – those who stood with him at the foot of the cross – his mother, her sister, the other Mary and John – who felt the anguish of his departure.  Even the Roman soldier who received his Spirit in his last breath, was overwhelmed by the events that had taken place and his part in it.  Then there was Joseph of Arimathea who petitioned to claim the body for burial and Nicodemus who provided the borrowed tomb.  They all wanted to preserve the body – the humanity of the man they had come to love.

This has been a Lenten season unlike any other in so many ways.  We have been isolated and unable to fellowship like we normally would; we’ve had time to study, pray and fast.  We’ve been able to conduct worship in different ways – and I’m going to tell you, for me it has been a challenge to keep still sitting in front of the camera and trying to preach a message when I am getting excited by the good news.  Sometimes I get so filled, I want to jump, dance or something and I know you can tell because I start moving in my seat.  So, can you image what those women felt when they went to the tomb on Sunday morning and found it empty?  The body was gone!

Let me get back to the dash – you know the story of the dash, right?  You know on Homegoing service program and the headstone when they put the year of birth, then the dash and the year of death?   Well, that time between when Jesus gave up his humanity and the women went to the tomb was his dash.

Jesus, in his divinity, never laid in that tomb, church.  His human body may have been put in there, but his divinity never made it there.  Jesus had worked today after he shed that human body.  In his obedience, God gave Jesus the keys to the gates of hell and during his dash, he went down and freed all the saints who had gone on before him.  He released and set those prisoners free because before his death, they had no way to get out of exile.  Jesus came to set us free, but he also came to set the saints who had gone before him free.  That’s where he was on what we call Holy Saturday.  We don’t know what day of the week it really was and it really doesn’t matter.  How do we know this?  Because the Bible tells me so in Revelation 1:18 when Jesus reveals to John in a vision saying, “I am the Living One; I was dead and now look, I am alive for ever and ever!  And I hold the keys of death and Hades.”

The reason we are jubilant every Sunday, but especially on Resurrection Sunday is because when Jesus got up from that grave, we all got up.  We got up from the stench of the grave and the fire pits of hell.  We took off our grave clothes.  There is a song by Stephen McWhirter called “Grave Clothes” and the lyrics say, “You show up, the power of death is broken.  Just one touch and I am changed.  From your lips my true name you’ve spoken.  You’re calling out who I’ve always been.  I’m taking off my grave clothes – he’s talking about those burdens we carry, those sins we can’t seem to free ourselves from.  I’m putting on righteousness.  I’m taking off my grave clothes.  I’m putting on resurrection.”  And he repeats the chorus.

Why, during this Lenten season, did God see fit to sit us all down and take us out of our churches?  Why did he strip us of our idols – our traditions, our comfort zones?  Did God strip us of our grave clothes?  When we come up out of this, will we be resurrected and transformed as Christ was?  Will we see the world with a different set of eyes?  Mount Hope’s mission statement is “Transforming the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ”.  Will that still be our mission, or will it have a renewed meaning for us when we strip off our grave clothes of this isolation?  Have we been setting captives free during our isolation with the Gospel?  Have we even been in the Word during this time or worrying about toilet paper, paper towels and chicken wings?

Remember earlier I mentioned that when everyone got to the tomb, they noticed that Jesus’s grave clothes were lying in a corner, but the cloth that covered his face was neatly folded?  I’m sure some of you have heard this story before, but today is a day when I think it should be shared again as a reminder that we may be in isolation, our human form may be wearing down, falling asleep and unable to stick to what was our “normal” routine, but if our spirits have not been uplifted, if they have not matured, if we have not been spiritually transformed, then we have not been listening to what God has been saying to us.  We have to throw off our grave clothes, get up out of our tombs and put on the full armor of God and be prepared for the battle that is before us.

Why did Jesus fold the linen burial cloth after his resurrection? The Gospel of John (20:7) tells us that the napkin, which was placed over the face of Jesus, was not just thrown aside like the other grave clothes. The Bible takes an entire verse to tell us that the napkin was neatly folded and was placed at the head of that stony coffin.

Early Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance.

She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, “They have taken the Lord's body out of the tomb, and I don't know where they have put him!” Peter and the other disciple ran to the tomb to see. The other disciple outran Peter and got there first. He stooped and looked in and saw the linen cloth lying there, but he didn't go in.

Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, while the cloth that had covered Jesus' head was folded up and lying to the side.

Was that important? Absolutely! Is it really significant? Yes!

In order to understand the significance of the folded napkin, we need to understand a little bit about Hebrew tradition of that day. The folded napkin had to do with the master and servant, and every Jewish boy knew this tradition. When the servant set the dinner table for the master, he made sure that it was exactly the way the master wanted it. The table was furnished perfectly, and then the servant would wait, just out of sight, until the master had finished eating.

The servant would not dare touch the table until the master was finished. Now if the master was finished eating, he would rise from the table, wipe his fingers and mouth, clean his beard, and wad up the napkin and toss it onto the table. The servant would then know to clear the table. For in those days, the wadded napkin meant, “I’m finished.”

But if the master got up from the table, folded his napkin and laid it beside his plate, the servant would not dare touch the table, because the folded napkin meant, “I'm coming back!”

Let us be reminded daily during this post-Easter season, Jesus Christ is “Not Finished.” He is coming back for his faithful servants within his Church.

Seeing is Believing - Or is It?

SEEING IS BELIEVING – OR IS IT?

Mount Hope UMC

Sunday, April 19, 2020

John 20:19-31 New Living Translation (NLT)

Jesus Appears to His Disciples

¹⁹ That Sunday evening^[a] the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said. ²⁰ As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! ²¹ Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” ²² Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³ If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

Jesus Appears to Thomas

²⁴ One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin),^[b] was not with the others when Jesus came. ²⁵ They told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.”

²⁶ Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. ²⁷ Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!”

²⁸ “My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed.

²⁹ Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.”

Purpose of the Book

³⁰ The disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded in this book. ³¹ But these are written so that you may continue to believe^[c] that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name.

                  We are still celebrating Easter and there are two Gospel suggestions today and two messages – messages of hope and belief.  Now, we know from our current situation that we have little patience – especially for being still.  We’ve been sitting and waiting and waiting and sitting, probably pacing about the house trying to find things to keep us busy.  We’ve probably cleaned garages, basements, closets and anything else we could find to make the day go by with the hope and expectation that tomorrow will be the day we come to the end of our quarantine.  Then when the government announced the relief checks would be issued, we were waiting expectantly to receive those funds and hoping that they got into our bank accounts or in the mail.  I’m still waiting for mine.

                  The Gospel of John’s message today, is about the faith to believe that Jesus rose from the dead.  He did not die, he could not die; but he resurrected and for 50 days after his crucifixion Jesus continued his ministry on the earth in human form.  John’s message is also the account of Jesus appearing to the disciples who were hiding from the Jewish leaders behind locked doors in the Upper Room.  He greets them with “Peace be with you” and shows them his nail scarred hands so they could identify him because he is now in his resurrected body.  You know the Scripture in 1 Corinthians 15:51 that says, “But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret.  We will not all die, but we will all be transformed.  He greets them again saying “Peace be with you” and then he breathed on them and filled them with the his Holly Spirit.  He imparted His Spirit into them so that they could continue the work he had begun of making disciples for the transformation of the world.

                  Remember what I said last week in the message about when Jesus breathed his last breath, the Roman soldier standing at the foot of the cross, received his Spirit and that his Spirit was released so that all who believed and received would be filled with the Holy Spirit?  Here, he is anointing his disciples with his Spirit so that they will be able to go out and share the Good News Gospel.  However, one of his followers - Thomas, the Twin, was missing from the gathering.

                  In John’s account, at a later gathering, the disciples told Thomas of their encounter with Jesus but Thomas said unless he could put his finger in the nail holes in Jesus’s hand and in his side where he was pierced, he would not believe.  So eight days later, Jesus appeared to them even though they were behind locked doors and this time Thomas was with them.  He again greeted them by saying “Peace be with you” and then invited Thomas to put his fingers in the wounds of his hands and side and told him not to be faithless any longer but to believe.  Thomas had to see Jesus for himself in order to believe.  But what did Jesus say once Thomas could see for himself?  Jesus said, “You believe because you have seen me.  Blessed are those who believe without seeing me”.  That takes just some mustard seed sized faith, church.  And what does Hebrews 11:1 say about faith?  “Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.”

                  Why did Thomas question his companions experience of their encounter with the risen Jesus?  Was it really a case of seeing is believing?  Or was Didymus questioning the validity of his companions words?  Did he not have faith in Jesus’ resurrection, or did he think his companions were trying to pull the wool over his eyes?  Before Jesus was crucified John 11:16 says that when Jesus said he was going back to Jerusalem, the disciples reminded him that the Jewish leaders were looking to kill him.  But it’s Thomas who pipes up and says, “Let us also go that we might die with him.”  But Jesus’s trial, flogging and crucifixion took its toll on Thomas, as it did all the disciples.  Perhaps he felt left out because Jesus appeared to the other disciples first.  His moment of bravery shouldn’t define him, neither should his moment of doubt.  We all have those moments, but they don’t define us.  What we learn from Thomas is that being in the presence of Jesus brought out the best in him by increasing his faith.  That is what truly being in Jesus’s presence also does to us.  It increases our faith and gives us confidence to move forward in hope.

If we look at the characteristics of the disciples we might have a different opinion of Thomas and his tendency to question the accounts of his colleagues.  Look at Peter – the one who Jesus chose to be the rock of the church.  Peter was a coward.  The first two disciples chosen were fishermen – they may have had a tendency to exaggerate and tell tall tales.  Matthew was a doctor and they had terrible reputations in that day.  We could look at them all and find that they all were questionable characters and now that Jesus was not there to keep them focused on what they had witnessed and experienced when he was alive….  They were in a regroup and reorganization mode trying to figure out what they were going to do next without Jesus leading them.  You know what I mean.

                  We’re the same way.  We tell each other something we’ve read or learned and the other person will go and fact check it to make sure it’s true.  We don’t take anybody’s word for anything any longer.  We have to see for ourselves.  Our faith had been tested and, unfortunately, often it is found lacking.  Like now.  We’re in our Upper Rooms wondering and waiting – what’s next?  How long?  What’s the world gonna be like when we’re free to go out again?  How will things be different?  How will they be the same.  Seeing is believing folks, but I’m gonna tell you, things will be different.  Get used to it.  Every structure this nation was founded on is being tested and every one of them is lacking.  As a nation, we are living in a glass house built on a foundation of sand.  And the sand has shifted and the glass is shattering, so stay woke and do not be afraid of what the world will be like in the coming days.

                  Our entire belief system is based on faith.  We have faith that we will be here tomorrow.  Faith that we will live to a ripe old age.  Faith that we’ll see our children grow and have children and see those children grow.  We have faith that the job will be there and that we’ll have an income if we just keep our nose to the grindstone.  We have faith that the government will always be intact and that the government systems are working for the good of the people it serves.  We do have faith in that, despite what we may say and what the government is showing us at the moment.  We have faith that our GPS system in our cars will guide us to our destination.

                  Now let me differentiate having faith from taking something or someone for granted.  Having faith means we are trusting God; taking something for granted means to expect someone or something to be always available to serve in some way without thanks or recognition; to value someone or something too lightly.  We take God for granted.  We take Jesus for granted.  We take our federal, state and local government programs for granted.  We take our first responders for granted.  We take our families for granted, and church, we take each other for granted.

                  The disciples are locked in a room afraid to leave for fear the Jewish leaders will identify them as companions of Jesus and crucify them too.  The people who swore allegiance to Jesus were now afraid to be associated with him.  They professed their love for him while he was walking among them, but they were afraid to suffer the consequences of that love once he was crucified.  Yet the week before, Thomas encouraged everyone to be crucified with him.  Can you hear me, church?  The disciples were fair weather friends.  You know about them; we all have them.  You know the ones that when things are going good we’re right there cheering everyone on, giving our high fives and hallelujahs, but when the tides turn, we can’t be found.  I’m sure no one at Mount Hope is like that – at least I hope.  But the disciples were afraid.  They were scared to death.

                  Jesus knew he had not completely weaned them off the milk of his divinity and his mission.  He knew he had to start feeding them some meat.  So, he had to come back and take them deeper into the purpose of his coming and to convict them of the meaning of faith, trust and belief.  The Gospels do not necessarily tell us of all the miraculous signs and wonders Jesus performed during those 50 days.  For me, just knowing he could raise himself from the dead would have been conviction enough for me.

                  But if we look at the Epistle of 1 Peter 1:3-9, his message is on the promise of hope we have in Jesus’s resurrection and the inheritance we have as a result.  It reads, “ All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead.  Now we live with great expectation, ⁴ and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay.  ⁵ And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see.

⁶ So be truly glad.^[a]  There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while.  ⁷ These trials will show that your faith is genuine.  It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold.  So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.

⁸ You love him even though you have never seen him.  Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy.  ⁹ The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.”

We have been going through some rough waters since March 13.  We have been locked in our homes, unable to be with family and friends; unable to go to our places of employment, some have lost employment, some are wondering if they still have employment; our children are unable to attend school or visit with their friends, except through social media; unable to go to our places of worship.  We are basically in the Upper Room just like the disciples were. 

                 

                  And just like the disciples, many are afraid.  Scared to death.  Two thousand years, a resurrection, salvation and attesting to believe and we still are afraid to put our trust in Jesus that he will see us through this as he has seen us through every other trial we’ve had to face.  We still have trouble resting in him.  We want evidence; we want visible proof.  We want a signed affidavit that everything is going to come out all right and we will live and breathe and have our being. 

                  In Luke’s Gospel about Jesus calming the storm tossed sea he asks his disciples who come to the back of the boat and wake him because they are afraid, “And he said unto them, Where is your faith?  And they being afraid wondered, saying one to another, What manner of man is this!  For he commandeth even the winds and water, and they obey him.”  And what did he say afterward?  “Peace be still”.  Jesus keeps proving his power and authority and love over and over and over and still, like the disciples, we require visible and substantive proof from him.  We want to see his nail scarred wounds in his hands and side.

                  Do you really want proof?  Do you really want to see if Jesus is real, if he has risen from the dead?  Look to your relative who has been cured of cancer, or heart disease, or diabetes and the doctors can’t explain how. Look to your child or cousin, sister or brother who has been delivered from alcohol or drug addiction.  Look to your co-worker or friend who was once lost in sin and has accepted Jesus and is now a disciple.  Look at me, a sinner saved by God’s grace.  I did nothing to earn it, did nothing to deserve it.  Yet he took my soul which was black as tar, washed it in his blood.  Look in the mirror of your soul and think about where Jesus has brought you from.  Just look around, church.  None of us came into this world saved, sanctified and Holy Ghost filled, but by the blood of Jesus and His sacrifice on Calvary, but by the nails in His hands and feet and the wound in his side and by His stripes we have been healed.  I don’t need to see to believe church and do you know why?  Because Jesus loves me, this I know.  And he loves you and if you have faith to believe you don’t need to see the nails in his hands and feet or the wound in his side either.  You know how I know?  Because the Bible tells me so.  Amen!