Did You Miss It?

Luke 24:1-12

There is something beautifully predictable about the celebration of Easter Sunday.  Family gatherings, fine cloths, even egg hunts. 

 There is a renewed sense of hope.  There are signs of new life.  The giant piles of snow are only big piles of snow.  Flowers are starting to poke out of the soil. In the midst of the long dark nights of winter we celebrated Christmas and we said that a light has come into the world and the darkness will not overcome it.  Its springtime and the days are longer than the nights again and we celebrate.

Whatever is happening in the world, today we glimpse eternity.  Today we see a bigger picture.

Today we see, clearer than in any other celebration that our life will continue on beyond the grave because of what Jesus Christ accomplished on that first Easter Sunday.  When Jesus defeated death, darkness was forever defeated.  We know that if there are dark times in our life we are children of God, living in the light of his love.

But I have to ask: Did you miss it?

You see the Gospel lessons are filled with stories of the disciples of Jesus Christ missing things.  I miss things all the time.  Just this week I missed the opportunity to be blessed.  I got so caught up in the business of the week that I forgot to go and serve at the Community Table.  I missed that opportunity to be blessed. 

How many opportunities did I miss to share what Jesus has done in my life because I didn’t have my eyes open and my feet ready? 

My wife could probably give you a longer list of things that I miss.  Most of the time we are not aware of what we are missing. 

You have made your way to Church this morning.  This day you decided that it was important to worship God.  You may have been taught since you were a child that God loves you so very much, or maybe you haven’t. But it’s true.  Did you miss it?  Did you miss the truth of Gods very real love for you?  God wants to spend eternity with you.  That’s why God became human.  That’s why Jesus was born, so that you and God can spend eternity together. 

The empty tomb is so very important to our faith.  Without the empty tomb the message of the cross is a message of terror and tragedy.  Without the empty tomb the cross is a story of defeat and darkness. 

It seemed that darkness had won on that Good Friday, when they nailed our Lord to the cross.  Even then while he was still living, hanging there, there must have been some hope that something miraculous would happen.  But then the unthinkable happed, he died.

It must have seemed unreal.  It must have seemed like a bad dream that they couldn’t wake up from.  He’s really dead. 

But then Jesus told them this was going to happen.  He told them and they missed it.

Did you miss it? Did you miss Jesus’ message to you that you will have eternal life when you trust in Him? When you believe in him as the Son of the Living God?  Did you miss the promise of abundant life in his name?  Did you miss his command to love one another? 

Its okay, the disciples missed things all the time.

The women missed preparing Jesus’ body for burial because it was the Sabbath. So they had to wait for the day after the Sabbath.  They missed the resurrection.  They missed seeing Jesus body because it wasn’t there because he was raised!

They along with all the disciples seemed to have missed what Jesus had been telling them about his own resurrection.  They missed it.  But Jesus appeared.  Jesus was there.

The stone was rolled away. They looked inside. Jesus body wasn’t there.  They were perplexed.  Suddenly there were two men in dazzling cloths beside them.  They were terrified.

“Why do you look for the living among the dead?”

These men, these angels, whatever they were they got it! They didn’t miss it! Jesus said he would live. Perhaps it was perplexing to them that these women were looking for Jesus in the tomb.   Jesus said he would live. Believe him!  They said, “Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.”   

God, in and through Jesus Christ reconciled the world to himself. 

Jesus freely offered himself and gave his life on the cross.  It was the perfect sacrifice for the brokenness of the whole world.  That sacrifice redeems us from all sin, so that nothing else is required.

You don’t have to do anything more to be forgiven of your sin than place your trust in Jesus and proclaim his name as your Lord. Let me say it another way: You don’t have to get better to be saved; you have to be saved to get better. Some folks think that because of their past, because of their lifestyle, because of their choices that they aren’t good enough or they wouldn’t be welcome in church.  Well as you know, not one of us is “good enough.” There is nobody that is “good enough” That’s the point of Jesus sacrifice.  It’s what he did that saves us, not our actions. 

We should be looking for the most despicable people and when they come, love them because they are here.  We don’t even have to concern ourselves with changing anybody.  When people come to faith God will change them.  You know it’s true. Think about your own faith journey.  Wasn’t it people who that pointed your attention to God and it was God that brought you along?  Love people where they are. Tell them about what Jesus taught.  Tell them about the transformation Jesus made in your life.

Tell them about the empty tomb.  Tell them about the perfect sacrifice.

God will work in people.  We need to bring people into the family, not good people. God’s not looking for people who think they have it all together.  We need to reach out to people who need Jesus.  Who need to hear that Jesus sacrificed for them and nothing else is required.

It’s when you have faith in Jesus Christ that the Holy Spirit comes and lives in you and makes you into His image.

So, how is it with you on this Resurrection Sunday? God’s perfect love is available to you.  Choose this day not to miss it.  

Here He Was.

Jesus is alive... Jesus lives. The man who had his birth at Bethlehem, the birth that we celebrate every year on December 25^th is currently alive. The One who suffered death on a cross after being tortured by a garrison of Roman soldiers, was able, around the year 30 A.D. This is who we worship. I wonder if you have met him. I wonder if you know him.

What does it mean that we say we gather in the name of the Risen Lord Jesus Christ!

What does it mean when we exchange the: “the Lord be with you... And also with you.”?

It means that when our heart truly belongs to God, when we truly seek first the kingdom of God as a follower of the Risen One and when we gather with other believers then Jesus promises that he will be present with us.

I wonder...are there two or three here this morning who are followers of Jesus Christ. I wonder are there two or three who seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. I wonder are there two or three here his morning who has put all their faith in the Lord Jesus the Messiah. If there is say Amen.

Jesus is here with us this morning my friends!

He is alive!

He is alive and is seated at the right had of the Father.

He is seated at right hand of the father and is present in our gathering today. The ever-present, all-powerful, all-knowing creator of the universe is here to listen to you praise Him. God is present to hear your prayers. God is here to comfort and to inspire. To convict and to console. To love and to forgive.

Jesus is alive. I know he is alive because he is here.

He is here because he loves you. And he is going out ahead of you preparing work for you. So we are going to have to go out to meet him.

You see we always know where he has been because people that encounter the living Lord can't help but tell about it.

Where he was. We know that he was in Bethlehem. In Nazareth ,by the sea of Galilee. In capernaum. In Samaritan villages and in Bethany He has in the Jordan river in the wilderness. In a garden in the Kidron valley, and we know that he was in Jerusalem in the temple. We also know that he was Just outside Jerusalem on a hill called Golgotha, and we know that he was in a garden tomb... for a little while. We know that he has walked on the road to Emmaus that he was on the shore of the sea of Galilee preparing breakfast for his friends over a charcoal fire. These are places Jesus has been. We can see them for our selves. But He has been there all along. Not in bodily form as Jesus but God has always been there, interacting with people

That is what the bible is. It is a record of God's interactions with people. And then the people wrote their experiences down. Sometimes the accounts were written generations after the event. Sometimes the writings are an understanding of Gods will as understood by the writer, such as in Paul's letters. The Christian faith makes no claim that God dictated the words of scripture or that the Bible came to us by Supernatural means. Holy Scriptures, inspired and authoritative as they are came through the filter of human experience. And I am glad that it did. I have yet to find a manuscript of God's words laying around for me to find. I Have, however experienced God's presence. I have known others who have experienced the presence of God and written about it, they share it and have changed the direction of their life because of it.

The Bible is an inspired book and record of how God has interacted with people. We can an many people do go to the places mentioned in Holy Scriptures. We can tour the places where Jesus taught and performed miracles. We can go and see the places where the apostle Paul went on is missionary journeys through out the Mediterranean Sea. We can read and learn from the writings of those who came and went before us about how they had a relationship with God and it is very informative and very inspiring. But I don't think that was Jesus point in coming.

Fast forward to the contemporary church: You and me. The model of church that we and millions and millions of Christians follow is one that says, “we have a building where we worship God.” People should just know to come here. But Jesus says, “Go! make disciples. Tell people to turn away from a life without god and turn toward God. Jesus says Go! Do the the will of my father.

It's not about a list of rules or behaviors that you have to adopt when you join a church. It's about developing a connection to the Living Lord Jesus Christ. Its about listening for his voice. It is about seeing the world through His eyes and letting him use your hands to do the work that needs to be done. When you look at the world through Jesus' eyes you see the hurt and the brokenness in this world and you feel compelled to do something about it. Some people get so caught up in fixing one particular thing in this world that is broken that they forget to love God and to love people. It happens. Christians are not perfect. We get distracted just like everybody else but just because we fall once and a while doesn't mean that we are defined by our failures. We are defined and designated as adopted children of God. As a follower of Jesus Christ our mission is that same as his mission: To proclaim the Good news of the Kingdom of heaven. Its good news that says that That God loves us. That he is willing to sacrifice himself for us. We need only trust him and submit our will to his, and we will have life in abundance.

The Point is this: We know where Jesus has been! But it is his instructions about what comes next that is most important right now. Knowing where Jesus has been is important because that is how we come to believe. But once we believe...well then we need to stop being religious tourists and we need to meet Jesus where he said he would be.

In the Gospel Lesson this morning the two Marys and Salome went to the tomb of Jesus with their spices they bought after sundown some 11 hours before to anoint the dead body of their beloved Jesus. He wasn't there. There was a young man who pointed out where Jesus was. That was vital information in that they had to understand that he was no longer there. But the most important information came next. He said, “But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.”

Jesus is going ahead of you to meet you just as he told you. Now Peter and the other disciples were fortunate that they were able to see Jesus again after his death and resurrection and before his ascension to heaven. They saw and spoke with Jesus. We speak with Jesus and have communication with him by means of the Holy Spirit empowering us with knowledge and wisdom for the task at hand. But indeed Jesus Goes ahead of us. Yes he wants us to understand and believe what he did for us for our salvation. Jesus wants us to understand the enormity of the sacrifice he made for us. But if all we do is understand, well then that's like hearing a story about how you were nurtured as a baby then ignoring those who loved you. Our parents our grandparents who loved and nurtured us not only want to continue to nurture us but they want to love us and want to be loved back. The relationship with have with God is not one that ends with our understanding of what God has done for us, but rather that is precisely where it begins.

We were saved not to remain the same. We were saved to be God's people. To love God. To be obedient to God's will. To be Holy as He is Holy.

So How is it with you on this most Holy day? You can point to many places in your life and in the lives of those you know and say Here God was. You can read scripture and recognize where God was. But are you looking to the place where God said to Go. The place where God is going ahead of you. The place where He will meet you?

May you clearly hear the voice of the Lord Jesus. May you seek first His Kingdom. May you allow God to make you better than you have ever been before.