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EASTER: TURNING THE CORNER #1
ONE PIVOTAL MORNING
In his book, A Night to Remember, Walter Lord describes
the tragedy forever linked in our minds with the infamous date April 14,
1912: the sinking of the Titanic. The worst maritime disaster of all time,
of course, with more than 1,500 people losing their lives. But Lord goes
on to make the point that Titanic actually became a kind of turning point
in human history. In several ways, nothing was ever the same again.
Before April 14, there had been a kind of careless and ostentatious celebrating
of a person's first-class status. Millionaires casually purchased $5,000
staterooms on the world's grandest ship; they took their mistresses along,
and paid full fare for their valets and their pets. Money - lots of money
- seemed to buy you a kind of immunity to pain and hurt. Nothing could
touch you if your name was Guggenheim or Astor. You could purchase any
luxury. But on the Titanic, millionaires drowned just as quickly as paupers
did.
People were also sobered by the fragility of life itself, the capacity
for human error or just plain bad luck to overcome all the odds. Titanic
had been a sure thing, it said in the brochures; now people realized there
was no such thing as a sure thing. "God Himself could not sink this
ship" . . . and people learned to not say so boastfully what God
could or could not do.
And yes, April 14 reminded the world how quickly and relentlessly death
can come. Once that mighty ocean liner hit the iceberg at 11:40 p.m.,
nothing could undo the damage. Pumps couldn't keep up with the frigid
water gushing in; you couldn't wave a wand and get more lifeboats. Mathematically
speaking, 1500 people were going to die, and there wasn't a thing Captain
Smith or Bruce Ismay could do about it. The drownings were final, irreversible,
unfixable.
Well, friend, we want to think this week about a turning point. A single
event, a Sunday morning MOMENT . . . where nothing is ever the same again.
Where all the rules change. Where fixed principles abruptly unravel. Where
"death" means "life" and "defeat" means
"victory" and "The End - curtains - blackness - darkness"
suddenly turns into a unlimited, NEVER-ending, Son-filled future.
Here in the United States, all of us taxpayers kind
of caught a break this year. Since April 15 - Tax Day - falls on a Sunday,
we all get a one-day extension. But as you're hearing this radio message,
on April 9, that deadline is just one scary week away now.
Can you imagine the tumult - and rabid joy - if the announcement were
to go out: "Forget it! You don't have to pay! No taxes! No deadlines!
Bill Gates is paying for everybody!" And you found out that all the
taxes you already paid in last year, plus what you figured you owed and
had to get postmarked by midnight on the 16th . . . were going to come
back to you, courtesy of Microsoft. That would be a turning point for
most of us, wouldn't it?
Well, friend, what we want to talk about this week is a historical PIVOT
a lot bigger than abolishing Tax Day. It's kind of like the New Testament
story in the book of Acts, chapter three, where a crippled beggar at the
temple gate looked up at the apostle Peter, hoping to get a penny or two.
And Peter said to him, "Hey, would you like a couple of coins . .
. or would you rather have the gift of healing? I don't have any dimes
or nickels, but by the power of Jesus, you could get up and start walking
again right now."
Six days from now the Christian world is going to celebrate Easter. And
our consideration this week turns to the issue: how is the resurrection
of Jesus Christ a turning point in human history? Are things different
in the era of "A.D." if you believe that Christ came out of
the tomb on Sunday morning? Does that change the rules? Does it change
your future: how you hope, how you live?
We've mentioned on this radio program - many, many times, in fact - how
the doctrine of the Resurrection of Jesus is THE pivotal truth in Christianity.
In Philip Yancey's book, he uses the same kind of "turning point"
language. All or nothing. Notice:
"The Resurrection is the EPICENTER of belief. It
is, says C. H. Dodd, 'not a belief that grew up within the church; it
is THE belief around which the church itself grew up, and the "given"
upon which its faith was based.'"
In other words, the Resurrection - the belief that Christ
is alive today, April 9, 2000, isn't simply one of our "Twenty-Seven
Fundamental Beliefs," as we put it in my Adventist denomination.
No, friend; what happened on Easter Sunday is THE church, THE foundation
for everything else. It's the turning-point event of this universe's history;
everything rises or falls on this one pass-fail moment.
But don't take my word for it, or Philip Yancey's. If you believe that
the Bible is the inspired Word of God, then allow its pages to speak to
you. I love how the new paraphrase, The Message, puts it in such black-and-white
clarity for us. This is from the apostle Paul's ringing challenge in First
Corinthians 15. Read it for yourself - in fact, read it several times
this week. Listen:
"Now, let me ask you something profound yet troubling." Remember,
this is Paul. "If you became believers because you trusted the proclamation
that Christ is alive, risen from the dead, how can you let people say
that there is no such thing as a resurrection? If there's no resurrection,
there's NO living Christ. And face it - if there's no resurrection for
Christ, everything we've told you is smoke and mirrors. Not only that,
but we would be guilty of telling a string of barefaced lies about God,
all these affidavits we passed on to you verifying that God raised up
Christ - sheer fabrications, if there's no resurrection. If corpses can't
be raised, then Christ wasn't, because He was indeed dead. And if Christ
wasn't raised, then all you're doing is wandering about in the dark, as
lost as ever."
That sounds bleak enough, doesn't it? "Wandering
around in the dark, as lost as ever." "You're still in your
sins," says the New International Version. But he adds just a bit
more; let's pick it up in verse 18.
"It's even worse for those who died hoping in Christ
and resurrection, because they're already in their graves. If all we get
out of Christ is a little inspiration for a few short years, we're a pretty
sorry lot. But the truth is that Christ HAS been raised up, the first
in a long legacy of those who are going to leave the cemeteries."
Listen, friend, this is good news which makes Bill Gates'
fictional income tax offer seem like a Cracker Jack prize. But please
notice the clarity of this statement: the resurrection of Jesus is THE
turning point. It either happened . . . or all is lost. The Christian
faith is lost. Preaching is lost. Salvation is lost. Your hope of ever
living again on the other side of the grave is lost.
Well, let me tell you something. I don't think any of those things ARE
lost . . . because Jesus DID come out of that tomb on Sunday morning!
I love the description found in a great old book coming out of our Adventist
archives, entitled The Desire of Ages. Speaking of "turning points,"
and the stakes involved on that weekend at Calvary, listen to Ellen White's
description:
"The darkest hour, just before daybreak, had come,"
she writes. "Christ was still a prisoner in His narrow tomb. The
great stone was in place; the Roman seal was unbroken; the Roman guards
were keeping their watch. And there were unseen watchers. Hosts of evil
angels were gathered about the place. Had it been possible, the prince
of darkness with his apostate army would have kept forever sealed the
tomb that held the Son of God. But a heavenly host surrounded the sepulchre.
Angels that excel in strength were guarding the tomb, and waiting to welcome
the Prince of Life."
Now friend, I know that the book of Matthew, chapter 28, tells us that
one angel - ONE - came down and rolled that stone away. Really, raising
up Jesus was so simple for God that all He had to send was one. But I
think this picture painted in The Desire of Ages is absolutely accurate.
All of Satan's hosts were there, waiting, watching, hoping, muttering
their desperate curses. Keeping Jesus dead was the number-one item on
their agenda; in fact, that Sunday morning it WAS the agenda. And of course,
all of God's holy beings were there too, standing in proud formation,
confident, knowing what was about to happen. Maybe you saw that film a
few years ago, City of Angels, where these unseen visitors just stand
on a freeway overpass or on a hillside, watching the events below. Listen,
that Sunday morning the troops of heaven were there in full force.
Now, here's the rest of the story:
"When Jesus was laid in the tomb, Satan triumphed.
He dared to hope that the Saviour would not take up His life again. He
claimed the Lord's body, and set his guard about the tomb, seeking to
hold Christ a prisoner." And now this: "He was bitterly angry
when his angels FLED at the approach of the heavenly visitor. When he
saw Christ come forth in triumph, he knew that his kingdom would have
an end, and that he must finally die."
So when did Satan get beat? Sunday morning. When
did his kingdom REALLY end, even though his last whimpering protests are
still going on now? Sunday morning. When did death itself die? Sunday
morning.
Is that enough of a turning point for you?
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