Service: https://youtu.be/BkH9RkGHyME
Sermon: https://youtu.be/Rla946RTm-g
Most important
Today we celebrate the most important
event in the whole of human history – the resurrection of our Lord
Jesus Christ. We’ve heard a short extract from the story of what
happened that day, which we will look at in more detail in a minute.
BCE / CE
This event splits history in two. It
is common for preachers to say that history is splits by BC and AD,
but even if we ignore the religious labelling of the epochs and use
the current scientific labelling – B.C.E and C.E. - Before Common
Era and Common Era, there is still a split.
The Common Era largely exists because
Christians are called to spread their faith across the world, with it
they took their scientific understandings, their ways of measuring
things, including time, and established some commonality between
cultures across the globe. OK, I know there are lots of other
elements in that, but it started with the one event – the
resurrection.
2000 years on – Story still going
How many other events in history can
you think of that are still being celebrated, still being remembered
and whose story is still being told 2000 years later?
The Bible is still the best selling
book of all time, it is still the book that has been translated into
more different languages than any other. More people have the chance
to hear about Jesus than about anyone else.
Jesus – John Lennon
Jesus is
the single most important person in human history, not just because
he’s best known, although that’s probably true. John Lennon was
wrong, he was never more famous than Jesus Christ.
Jesus is
the single most important person in history because of who He was –
and also because of what he did.
Predictions
This event,
which is always linked to this person, is also the most predicted
event of all time, there are over 300 clues in the Old Testament that
look forward to Jesus, his death and resurrection.
In terms of
accuracy, these predictions are better quality than anything else –
think of the ‘predictions’ of Nostradamus, for example.
[pause]
Personal level
On a
personal level, the same things are broadly true – Jesus and His
death and resurrection split my life in two – there is a time
before I believed, when I was living in my sin and destined to death
and judgement (even if I didn’t know or care about that at the
time!).
Now, I’m
in the second part of my life. I am alive in Christ, and loved by
God. My sins are forgiven and I can look froward to avoiding
judgement as my sins are already taken care of.
Answer to Prayer
I’m an
answer to prayer, I hope you are too.
Perhaps I
should explain that. I now know that friends had been praying for me
for years before I made my commitment. I assume that is true for
most people too, so that makes us an answer to prayer.
What happened
Now that we
are part of the story, it’s important for us to know what happened.
We heard a little of that this morning – in the Acts reading we
heard Peter explaining what happened to Cornelius a Roman Centurion.
He gave quite a brief overview. In the New Testament we heard a
little of the Apostle John’s account of that first morning. The
confusion about where Jesus’ body had gone and the realisation
about what had happened.
Facts
All the
little facts he tells of in the story help us to understand. Finding
the grave cloths in separate places (in verses 6 and 7) seem to be
what triggered John’s understanding that Jesus had risen.
3 Years with Jesus
At that
stage though, even having spent 3 years with Jesus they did not
understand that all this was predicted in scripture. Jesus had been
telling them repeatedly what was going to happen, and now it had, but
it would be a while before they really understood the enormity of it.
If we know
this story well we will be able to help others understand, but that
alone may not bring them to faith.
Me
For me it
wasn’t the resurrection that brought me to Jesus, it was the people
who were telling me the story. It is a long time ago now, but I
still remember that these young people, the youth group at Christ
Church, were different. I didn’t understand the hows or whys, but
I wanted to know more, to become like them.
So, it
wasn’t the resurrection that brought me to Jesus, it was the effect
that the resurrection had already had on others. I imagine that that
is true for lots of us.
There is a
time and place for the story, it must be told. Here’s my overview:
Jesus was deserted by his friends.
He was put to death on a cross.
There’s no doubt that he really died.
His body was put in someone else’s tomb.
When the women came to prepare his body for burial it had gone.
He appeared to the disciples, he ate with some of them, so he was
not a ghost.
He appeared to many others.
We don’t
have to tell the whole story in all its detail, just enough to
respond to peoples queries.
Most
importantly though is for us to show the new life we have in Jesus
openly to other people – as hard as that can be now.
I now know
that the difference I saw in those young people was the love of God
shining through them. It affected me, and it has been affecting
people for at least 2000 years.
So, this
morning as we celebrate the resurrection, we are also celebrating the
start of the Common Era, when our God is reaching out to every one in
the entire world.
Amen
