Easter 3

Luke 24.36-49

Hymns:142, 353, 167, 162

If anyone would want to take the heart out of Easter he would have to deny that Jesus really and physically rose from the dead. Without Jesus’ resurrection there is no Easter... and there is no forgiveness of sins and salvation for your and me either...no heaven. Paul is very pointed when he writes (1 Cor 15.17), "If Christ is not raised your faith is futile and you are still in your sins". The disciples didn’t know Jesus was alive. There was no Easter for them. As they were huddled together in some room, behind locked doors, they, perhaps reminisced about "the good life" when Jesus was still with them and when they traveled with him. All they had left of their days together were find memories.

However the message of Easter is that JESUS IS ALIVE; HE’S NOT JUST A FOND MEMORY. He is alive; our sins are forgiven; our future is in heaven with him. This is what we celebrated on Easter Sunday and this is what we celebrate every day of our lives.

How did J react to the disciples disbelief that he was alive (v 38, 39). Was Jesus just a little bit frustrated with his disciples for not believing he was alive? Perhaps. It’s not that Jesus didn’t tell them that he would die and rise again. They should have known (v. 44). Does Jesus get a bit frustrated with you/me when we fail to believe and take to heart the promises he has made about watching over us and taking care of us...and we don’t be-lieve him, or we want to believe but have our doubts? Perhaps. So let us all be reminded what it means that JESUS IS ALIVE, HE’S NOT JUST A FOND MEMORY.

Let’s get into the context. There was some degree of chaos in Jerusalem after Jesus’ resurrection. The Roman guards told Jew leaders what they experienced...a bright flash of light, an earth-quake and the stone having been rolled away from the opening to the tomb. The Jewish leaders gave them money and bought their silence. On the other hand the disciples were in hiding a told no one! See the irony: the people who were nervous about the possibility of Jesus coming alive, the pagan Roman soldiers, didn’t even know him and never spent a single day with him. On the other hand, the disciples who should have expected Jesus to come alive and had spent three years with him, didn’t!

So you have the soldiers who went and told the Pharisees that Jesus was alive, or at least gone from the tomb, and the disciples went and hid and told no one.

How does Jesus resurrection affect you. That fact that JESUS IS ALIVE AND IS NOT JUST A FOND MEMORY...how do you react to that?

How? You are here to worship him. You are worshiping a risen Savior; we are not here just to reminisce about him and to share fond memories.

Let’s look at some reasons why people worship Jesus. What is it that motivate you to worship Jesus? Two possible reasons why some worship Jesus is 1) because you want something from him, or 2) because you think you owe him something. And if either of these ideas is the reason why you worship Jesus, you are either an infrequent worshiper or a sporadic worshiper. Which are you (we’ll talk about ‘regular worship’ in a few minutes)?

Do you worship when you need something from God...need a job, a different car, a better life, or perhaps you want something good to happen or want God to take away something bad. We all need things from God on a daily basis. But if your thought process is that God isn’t giving you what you want or has given you something you don’t want because of something lacking in your behavior, you very likely will connect the dots and con-clude that if you go to church, things will get better because of your improved spiritual behavior. Does that make sense? Un-fortunately it does to a lot of people.

On the other hand, do you worship when you think it’s time to do that again because you owe it to God to give him some of your Sunday morning time? You miss worship for a few weeks or more and feel a little guilty and conclude that it’s time to go to church once again because you owe it to God to do that every so often. So you go to church, you worship and then you don’t fee guilty anymore. You’ve bought God off because of your good behavior. Does that make sense? Unfortunately it does to a lot of people.

If you want something from God and think that by worshiping him he will be obligated to give it to you, or if you feel guilty and worship God because you feel that you owe it to him to do that and when you do, the guilt goes away, then you don’t un-derstand the meaning of Easter. Jesus is just a fond memory to you and nothing more. Flip side of this coin is that when things are going well you don’t need God and when you don’t feel guilty for not going to church you won’t...G is someone you do something for or are nice to only when need something. Other-wise you can get along with out him. You don’t understand the meaning of Easter. Jesus is only a find memory.

Here is meaning of Easter (v. 45-47). The meaning of Easter is that Jesus opened the door to heaven by paying for your sins and taking away your guilt. That would not have happened if Jesus had not paid for your sins; you and I should not have hea-ven to look forward to some day. We owe Jesus our life and our thanks for giving us salvation without any cost or obligation to us. Let me tell you about Robert’s ranch.

Robert is a member of Holy Word LC in Austin, TX. He is also a member of the SC and attends all of our district meetings. He lives about an hour from Georgetown where we had a pastors’ conference last Monday and Tuesday. He invited all of us out to his ranch to have a social get-together on Monday night. He went out early to unlock gate so we could open a go in; he went ahead and did that for us. If we ignored what he did; if we had used wire cutters to cut fence next to the gate to get ourselves in that wouldn’t have worked. After pushing the fence over we had a line of trees in the way, plus a steep embankment that was im-passalbe even for a truck.

But that wasn’t necessary. We confessed, "Robert, we have no key to open your gate." And he said, "I forgive you; I’ll open the gate with my key and you come right in when you get here. I’ll be waiting for you." And he was.

Here is the blessing of knowing Jesus in faith. Jesus became our human brother so he could live a perfect life for us and so he could accept the guilt and blame for our sins. That meant that he was willing to die on a cross to pay or our sins, the very thing that should keep us out of heaven. And Jesus not only died but rose again, came back to life. Jesus is not just a fond memory; he lives. And because he rose again that means that all of our sins are paid for by Jesus, that is, by God himself. We cannot open the door to heaven by doing something for God whether it’s out of guilt or obligation. Going to church when we want something from God or doing so to get rid of our guilty feelings does not get rid of the guilt of sin.

Jesus paid for our sin. Jesus unlocked the door to heaven. It’s already open. When you die Jesus is waiting for you to enter and it is faith alone that gets you in. Will it do any good to con-fess your sin? Fortunately it does. Be honest. Confess your sins to God, not just specific sins but your sinful state. Being sinful is like our not having a key to open the gate to Robert’s ranch. Confessing that and being forgiven is like Robert opening the gate for us or, better, it is Jesus opening the door to heaven for us where he invites us to spend eternity with him.

(V. 48). I wish you could have seen Robert’s ranch...the rolling hills, warm night, clear sky with millions of stars, the cattle quietly mooing under the moonlit night. It’s a little bit of heaven at Robert’s ranch.

But it’s not heaven. Heaven is even more wonderful. Worship Jesus because you love him and thank him for giving you hea-ven, not because you owe him or think you can do something to get him to do something for you. Easter is all about the rising of Jesus from the dead and the forgiveness of sins he freely offers to you. Worship your Savior and be a witness to his love and act the part of a Christian because JESUS IS ALIVE; HE’S NOT JUST A FOND MEMORY.