Sixth Sunday of Easter - The Living God Is Among Us!
- Sixth Sunday of Easter
May 22, 2022
Hymns 460, 557, 713
First Lesson Acts 14:8-22
Psalm 65
Second Lesson Revelation 21:21-27
Gospel Lesson John 16:16-24
Acts 14:8-22
The Living God Is Among Us!
I. Revealing Himself to us, not made up by us
II. Giving Himself to us, not demanding from us
In the name of our living Lord Jesus, crucified and risen from death, the sinner’s only Savior, fellow redeemed,
Most every Christian congregation claims to follow God and says, “God is among us, and we worship Him!” That sounds good, until we hear explanations by some about who their god is, what their god desires, or how their god wants them to live. Some of that doesn’t line up with what the only true God has said about Himself and His will in His Word. And that false thinking about God threatens to infect us, too.
So we’re not done growing in knowing God’s Word. What we believe about Him and what we intend to do with Him in our lives is not what we decided to accept or do. It is what the Lord has planted, watered, nurtured, and grown in us. The living Lord is still among us to keep us growing His way and doing His work. The living God is among us, revealing Himself to us, not made up by us, as the way of truth. And He gives Himself to us, not demanding from us, as the way of salvation.
I. Revealing Himself to us, not made up by us
This is Acts 14. At the end of the Acts 13 we read about a new phase in God’s mission work. Paul and Barnabas were the first workers since Christ’s resurrection to be sent exclusively to Gentiles, non-Jews. Before this, they had worked among Jews who knew the history of their ancestors, the Israelites, and who believed in one God, though many Jews rejected Jesus as God. Now Paul and Barnabas were in Lystra (south central Turkey today) preaching to pagans, people who had no idea of one true God. Their religion revolved around many different gods with many different powers and personalities.
There, a lame man “was listening to Paul…speaking” (v. 9) about the one true God. God’s great apostle to the Gentiles was speaking about Jesus the Savior, maybe mentioning miracles Christ did to prove He is truly God.
Then the living Lord further revealed Himself. It was not in the flesh like Jesus did to Thomas, the rest of the disciples, and others in the first forty days after He rose from death. Jesus revealed Himself to the man and the rest of the crowd in Lystra by the power of His Word from the mouth of Paul.
“Paul looked at the man closely” (v. 9) because the living God had let Paul know God wanted that man healed. “Paul said in a loud voice, `Stand up on your feet’” (v. 10)! No touching, no feverish gibberish, no crying or pleading or ranting. Just the healing Word of the living God. That’s how the living God revealed Himself to that man and to the Lystrans that day.
But what of the phrase, Paul “saw that he had faith to be healed” (v. 10)? Never is one healed because of anything he’s done. If so, the healed person would get at least a bit of credit for getting better. The living God let Paul know the lame man had been filled by God with “faith” to trust what God was about to do. From the power of God’s Word he had heard, the man trusted the living God was with him and could heal him.
Why was he healed and no others? Surely there were other injured, sick, handicapped, dying people. It’s not that God didn’t care about them. But the living God used him, known to all in Lystra to be hopelessly handicapped “from birth” (v. 8), to show all in Lystra His power as the one true God.
That there is only one God was a new idea to those pagan people. Their religion was, “We see the sun; there must be a god who sends it”, so they made up a sun god. “We see grain grow, flowers bloom, rain fall”, so they made up a god for grain, one for flowers, another for rain, and so on. But all that religion the living God condemns as ignorant, damning idolatry.
We’re tempted to congratulate ourselves for not worshiping false gods. But we have and still do! How? We make up our own gods to fit our nice niches in life. We convince ourselves God approves of what we like to do because He wants us to be happy. That’s the lie Satan uses so often on God’s people.
That lie is idolatry! We don’t make God what we want Him to be. The living God is among us, revealing Himself to us, not inviting us to dress Him up according to our wishes. God reveals Himself to us here, in His Word. Here God speaks to us. Here He tells us who He is. The truth is not man’s mistaken ideas like A loving God will never damn anyone to hell. The truth is the living God saying, “This is who I am and what I do!” When His Word guides everything, the living God is among us.
II. Giving Himself to us, not demanding from us
Some say, “Religion is complicated.” But every religion really boils down to one of two categories: Your god demands you do something to earn his favor, or, Your God has already done everything to give you His favor. Which do we want? Yes! And that’s one we have! Not because we worked hard to get it. But because the living God is among us, giving Himself to us, not demanding anything from us, for salvation.
The Lystrans were convinced Paul and Barnabas were gods. They had heard Paul and Barnabas speak, and at Paul’s words the man who’d never taken a step in his life “jumped up and began to walk” (v. 10). They thought Paul and Barnabas were “gods…come down…in human form” (v. 11). The priest of Zeus in town “brought bulls and garlands to the city gates…to offer sacrifices” (v. 13) to Paul and Barnabas.
Legend had it that Lystra was on the blacklist of the gods because earlier Zeus and Hermes had come to town, but were given hospitality by only one elderly couple while the rest of the Lystrans ignored Zeus and Hermes as ordinary humans passing through as strangers. This time they’d spare no effort or expense to show Zeus and Hermes appropriate praise. Behind all the fuss making and sacrificing was the thought If we don’t treat them right this time, they’ll never bless us again!
The living God was among the Lystrans, but not in the form of Paul or Barnabas. That’s why the two apostles did all they could to show the people they weren’t gods, but were only humans “with the same nature as you. We are preaching the good news to you so that you turn from these worthless things (idols) to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything in them” (v. 15).
And the best news Paul and Barnabas taught was about the Savior. It worked! “Disciples” – the New Testament term for believers in and followers of the Savior – “disciples then gathered around” (v. 20) Paul and Barnabas at Lystra. As has happened to us, so there the Holy Spirit used the truth about Jesus paying for all sins to bring sinners to trust the Son of God who took our place to suffer our hell and open heaven to us.
“The living God” is among us, not tapping His foot impatiently or wiggling His finger menacingly to demand money from us before we get gifts from Him, or to drain blood from us in payment for our sins against Him. “The living God” is among us to give us and all the world His forgiveness, grace, and heaven. Some people are terrified about the living God coming to them. If you know any like that, tell them what God has done for you and for them! “The living God sacrificed Himself to pay our debt for sin! He loved us before we do anything for Him!”
Others are bored by the thought of the living God being a part of their lives on earth. “Give me something more interesting or valuable!” If you know any like that, tell them what He has told you. “The living God has what all sinners need – full forgiveness of every sin, given us before we lift a finger for Him!”
Some people are tempted to abuse the gift of the living God being among us to give us Himself. All my sins are covered? Then I can sin all I want and come crawling back to God, right? Wrong! If you know any like that, tell them, “The living God is among us all the time. He has given us Himself to save us forever. But those who trust Him and His work will not go out and misuse His love as a license to sin. We thank the living God by living for Him with all we do and think and say!”
The living God is among us. No one else can give us what He has won for us and given to us: forgiveness of sins every moment every day, perfect commitment to keep us His own, the rock-solid guarantee He’ll take us to heaven when we die. No career or sport or political view or even family member is more important in our lives than “the living God”. By giving us Himself, He makes us the richest people in the world.
There is only one true God! And that living God is among us to reveal Himself to us in His Word as the only true God and as the only truth in this sinful world of lies whispering, We can make our god anyone or anything we want to and still be okay. There is only one true God! And that living God is among us to give Himself to us as our only salvation. How great He is! How blessed we are to have the living God among us! Amen.
Pastor David A. Voss
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Fifth Sunday of Easter - What Does Love Have to Do with Glory?
- Fifth Sunday of Easter
May 15, 2022
Hymns 443, 469, 445, 450
First Lesson Acts 11:1-18
Psalm 67
Second Lesson 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Gospel Lesson John 13:31-35
John 13:31-35
What Does Love Have to Do with Glory?
I. Love is founded in God’s glory
II. Love is followed to God’s glory
In the name of Christ Jesus, whose blood cleanses us from the guilt of all sin, fellow redeemed,
Love isn’t often associated with glory. To many, love is only an emotion, and most see glory as honor resulting from a great victory. But here the Lord taught about love right after talking about glory. Clearly Christ Himself connects love and glory.
That’s not a connection sinners can make on their own. Like the people of Paul’s day, so we people who’ve just been fed by God with Paul’s familiar words in 1 Corinthians Chapter 13 need to be reminded all the time that true “love” isn’t waiting for someone else to be loving toward us. Like the Lord’s disciples, so we disciples of God frequently fall into the trap of self-glorification, of thinking, Glory be to me for what I did and do!
So, what does love have to do with glory? The Savior tells us! The word for “love” (v. 34) He used here and Paul wrote there, and the idea behind being “glorified” (v. 31), teach us that love and glory aren’t just for us to get some tender affection and rousing recognition. Rather, true love is founded in God’s glory and true love is followed by us to God’s glory.
I. Love is founded in God’s glory
John Chapters 13 through 17 are full of words the Savior spoke in one spot – the upper room the night He was betrayed, before He prayed in Gethsemane and was then arrested and tried and crucified and risen. In fact, the term our new hymnal no longer uses for that night, Maundy Thursday, is from this lesson. Maundy comes from the Latin word for command, “A new commandment I give you” (v. 34). But few people know that. Holy Thursday covers the events more completely, right?
Did you think we were past the Passion History of our Lord? After all, Good Friday was thirty days ago! But if we don’t know the background of these words, we won’t get the full truth from them. When “Judas left” (v. 31) the room in a huff, Jesus told him, “What you are about to do, do more quickly” (John 13”27). The eleven others thought Jesus meant, “Judas, since you handle our funds, get more food for our Passover meal.” But the all-knowing Lord knew what Judas had already plotted with the Jewish church leaders to do.
“After Judas left, Jesus said, ‘Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him” (v. 31). What Judas had left to do would start the chain of events and actions God would use to bring all honor to Him since those events and actions would bring salvation to sinners. What would glorify God was the Son of Man and the Son of God, man and God in one person, Jesus!, suffering death and hell for all who rebel against His holy will. Those events and actions would include the Redeemer rising from death, His ascending into heaven, and His right-now reigning in all power.
That chain of events and actions is the essence of love, the foundation of love. God the Father planned the events with the Son and the Holy Spirit, then with Son and Spirit set them into motion for our salvation. Jesus wasn’t giving a riddle to the rest of disciples when He said, “I am going to be with you only a little longer. You will look for Me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come” (v. 33). Jesus was laying love’s foundation when He said that. He was talking His going to the cross in a few hours, not just to hang on a tree, but especially to suffer the punishment of hell for all sinners in the whole world. Since that was the plan of God to rescue us, successfully completing that loving plan is God’s glory. “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him”. Do you see what love has to do with glory?
Christ tells us, “Love one another” (v. 34), and is Himself the foundation of love. As we said earlier, we too often view love as a feeling or emotion of tenderness and concern for others. But true love is more than that. The “love” of which Jesus spoke and in which He laid down His life for all sinners is much more than a feeling or emotion. It is “love” which sees what the ones He loves need, and then acts to give the ones He loves what they need! That “love” is how God is “glorified”!
That’s the Good Friday and Easter season angle in this lesson: what God does for us in “love” and to His glory. It’s also the foundation of our love for others. Notice, believers in Jesus, what “love” is not. It is not love God owes us; it is His undeserved love given us. It is not love that waits for the one we love – spouse, child, friend, neighbor – to do something lovable or to nudge our love into action. Love acts first! Love even loves the unlovable! Love doesn’t say, “Do I have to do that?!” Love says, “I want to do that to help others!”
Jesus says, “Love one another” and displays love’s foundation as undeserved love, unconditional love, full love, action love. That is not a “new” love. That is love God has always desired. What would be “new” about it would be the model of Christ’s sacrificial love at Calvary just hours later. His loving suffering our hell is God’s greatest glory – and our eternal life!
II. Love is followed to God’s glory
True love isn’t forced, doesn’t need a law or command to be followed. True love is produced by, and founded on, Christ’s love for sinners – love that is the Savior-God’s greatest glory. And that connection between love and glory is another lesson from the Lord here. “Love one another. Just as I have loved you, so also you are to love one another” (v. 34). Love is followed to God’s glory, as we give God glory.
It sounds easy, but it’s not. We know about love. We talk about love. But the Savior who says, “Love one another” tells us to go deeper than what poets and writers and others describe or imagine about love. “Love…as I have loved you”.
Our love is to be patterned after the love Christ has for us, the love which led Him to give Himself for us. True “love” isn’t most of all concerned with What will this mean to me? Will it hurt me financially or in some other way? True love is Christlike care and concern which most of all asks, What do the ones I love need? What am I able to do to help them?
The Savior says, “Love one another”, then teaches this love lesson: “By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (v. 35). When the world sees us sacrifice our rights or blessings to help others, even if it costs us time or money or popularity, the world thinks, They follow the One they claim gave Himself for them.
That was the love followed to God’s glory by the Savior’s followers in the earliest Christian congregations. We are hearing about those early believers in the book of Acts this Easter season. They looked for opportunities to share earthly gifts they had been given by God with those who didn’t have as much as they had. Let that be part of the love we follow to give glory to God as we help those who need help. “Everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another”.
Unbelievers don’t understand the standard the Savior sets for love. Only those who are, thanks to the Holy Spirit, connected to Christ in faith can begin to show this kind of love. Only God changes our hearts and powers us to “love as I love you”.
Children, is the way you play with one another, the way you talk to your parents, the way of the Savior’s love? Or it is often the way of selfish Satan, expecting everything to go your way?
Spouses, is the way we speak with one another, treat one another, the way of the Savior’s love? O is it often the way of the sinful nature? You be nice to me first, then I’ll be nice to you.
Parents and spouses, is the way we deal with problems in life the way of the Savior’s love, looking for more we can do to change the situation? Or is it often the way of the scheming world, insisting the only solution is for others to change?
Young people, is the way you are looking for a future spouse the way of the Savior’s love, searching for a young man or woman who will with you grow more deeply rooted in Christ as the most important quality for your husband or wife? Or is it often infected by the world whispering, “Look for looks and fun, and when those run out the marriage can be ended!”?
Parents, is the way you raise your children and set examples the way of the Savior’s love? Or is it at times the foolish and harmful idea that says, “We’ll let our children decide about religion”? Is that a love that is followed by those who are loved forever by the Lord? Does that idea give glory to God?
The Savior says, “Love one another”, then adds, “The world is watching! The way you love – or don’t love – says volumes to the world about you being – or not being – one of My disciples”. It’s not that we’re out to gain favor with the world. It’s that we love others to give glory to God for saving us. The sinful world desperately needs love followed to the glory of God by us who are filled with Christ’s saving “love”.
The Savior says, “Love one another as I have loved you”. That love extends beyond last Sunday’s Mother’s Day and next month’s Father’s Day, beyond “I love you!” spoken on Valentine’s Day and in marriage vows and at wedding anniversaries. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with those emotions of love discussed and displayed on such special days. But our lasting love will be discussed and displayed daily – not just on special occasions, because the Savior speaks of and displays His love for us daily – not just on special occasions.
Our lasting love is founded on God’s glory in saving us. And love is followed by us, too, to give God glory for saving us. Not, Glory be to me! But “Glory be to God in the way I love Him and others, doing so the way God has loved me first.” Amen.
Pastor David A. Voss
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Second Sunday of Easter - We Are God's Resurrection Remodeling Project
- Second Sunday of Easter
April 24, 2022
Hymns 438, 456, 470: stanza 4, 449
First Lesson Acts 5:12,17-32
Psalm 16
Second Lesson Revelation 1:4-18
Gospel Lesson John 20:19-31
Acts 5:12,17-32
We Are God’s Resurrection Remodeling Project
I. Believers made stronger by the message of this new life
II. Testimony made bolder about the power of this new life
In the name of our crucified and risen Savior, Jesus Christ, fellow Easter believers, still rejoicing at His rising from death,
On remodeling project shows, viewers see how a house’s structural problems are solved, how a dilapidated dump becomes a delightful place to live. Your remodeling projects redo what you don’t like about the original design or repair what has broken. And it helps when money isn’t an obstacle.
Every Resurrection season we take a long look at God’s remodeling project from the book of Acts. We see how Christ’s resurrection changed the early believers. God’s remodeling project isn’t necessary because He didn’t design us correctly. It is His way to repair what we’ve broken and to restore us as He wants us to be. Not just those early Easter believers, but you and I, too, are God’s resurrection remodeling project. Believers are made stronger by the message of this new life, and testimony is made bolder about the power of this new life.
I. Believers made stronger by the message of this new life
“I can’t believe this is the same house!”, they say near the end of remodeling shows. “I can’t believe these are the same disciples of Jesus!”, we say after hearing this lesson. This was a few months after the resurrection appearances by Jesus on back-to-back Sunday evenings from today’s Gospel Lesson. What a change in His apostles from those Sundays to this day! There, huddled in hushed and frightened fear. Here, assembled in open and joyous confidence. There, stubborn Thomas. Here, strengthened Peter, James, John, Thomas, and the other apostles. There, “behind locked doors because of their fear of the Jews” (John 20:19). Here, in “the temple courts… to teach” (v. 21) the work of Jesus and preach, “He is risen!”
What made the difference? “The whole message about this life” (v. 20). God had made the apostles invisible and led by one of His angels as they left the jail unnoticed. God wants the world to hear “the whole message about this life”. So He freed His main messengers to allow to tell more people about the Author of this new life, God’s Son, the world’s Savior.
What did the apostles do with their freedom? Sleep late after a nervous night in jail? Leave Jerusalem lest they be arrested again? “They entered the temple courts at daybreak” as God had His angel tell them to do, “and began to teach” more about the Savior, preach “the whole message about this life”.
Men who had been too timid to talk about Jesus now risked a return to jail by publicly proclaiming Jesus, strengthened by God with the message of this new life. Those who heard the message of this new life and believed it “continued meeting in Solomon’s Colonnade” (v. 12) outside the temple. There they heard and studied the Word, encouraged each other in the faith, and expressed their joy in this new life in Christ. God strengthened preachers and hearers with this same message.
What is “the whole message about this life”? Eternal life? Yes! But more than heaven hereafter. We are sinners from conception, were spiritually dead and separated from God by our sins and unbelief, on a trip to hell we were powerless to stop. But Jesus left heaven and came to earth to live and die in our place so sinners “may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). In Him we live, no longer separated from God but connected to Him. In Him we live with God here now, not just there forever. Right now we enjoy “life” as God’s children. We receive forgiveness of sins, won by His death and assured by His rising. All that is “the whole message about this life” in Christ who took back His life for us and is our victorious King!
That message powered God’s resurrection remodeling project for the first Easter believers. It also changes and strengthens us Easter believers. How were our lives different last week due to the resurrection truth? Sin didn’t stay away because of the resurrection, did it? But don’t we find it easier to resist Satan as we trust more than ever Jesus died and rose for us? No? Then we aren’t using “the whole message about this life”. Trouble, sickness, and disappointment didn’t vanish because of the resurrection, did they? No. New sorrows arose, right? But don’t we find it easier to handle life’s assaults and setbacks as we trust more than ever Jesus died and rose for us, He lives in us, and He won the victory for us? No? Then we aren’t using “the whole message about this life”.
God’s resurrection remodeling project continues in us. As we receive “the whole message about this life”, we grow in our faith, our joy, our confidence in Him, our desire to serve Him with all we do. Others notice our spiritual growth and our change, just like people noticed the growth and change in the apostles. When they notice, we give all glory to Him who caused the change: the risen Christ. When they ask about our spiritual remodeling, we point to God’s good news of the Savior’s removing hell from all sinners by taking it on Himself – the worst of His Good Friday suffering, and to the Savior’s rising from His tomb – the best of our Easter Sunday celebrating.
II. Testimony made bolder about the power of this new life
Some homes on remodeling shows look completely different after the project due to bold decorating statements. Here we receive a bold faith statement. God’s resurrection remodeling project in the apostles and early believers continues in us, too, as testimony is made bolder about the power of this new life.
“I can’t believe they are doing that!”, high priest Annas maybe muttered when he heard the apostles were teaching, “Christ is risen!” at the temple. That they were free wasn’t found out until morning when they were to stand trial before their church’s leaders. The officers “found the jail securely locked and the guards standing at the doors, but when they opened them, they found no one inside” (v. 23). God let His apostles leave jail unseen, and had the angel bolt the doors again.
The escape was bad enough for Annas. But the apostles doing what he had forbidden them to do infuriated Annas. “Did we not give you strict orders not to teach in this name” (v. 28)? Did the Jewish apostles sin by defying the Jewish high priest? No. “We must obey God rather than men” (v. 29). Before they saw the risen Christ, the apostles were afraid to mention publicly their connection to Jesus. Once they had, they did! Their testimony was much bolder about the power of this new life.
They weren’t arrogantly defiant. When led from the temple courts to “the Sanhedrin” (v. 27) court, maybe the same room where Jesus stood before Caiaphas and Annas and near where Peter denied he even knew Jesus, Peter and the others spoke boldly against them – but also to them, and for their salvation.
“The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you arrested and killed by hanging Him on a cross” (v. 30). Imagine saying that to your accusers! That’s believing boldness! The Jewish church leaders couldn’t even bring themselves to say Jesus’ name. But Peter proclaimed the same Jesus risen from death, a report the Sanhedrin had paid a big bribe to the Roman guard to keep quiet. And the apostles’ message wasn’t a new one. It was the same truth and the same faith held by Jewish “fathers” Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Samuel, Elijah, David, and every faithful Jew. The promised Messiah would sacrifice Himself, then rise from the dead, to save them and all sinners.
“God exalted Him to His right hand as Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and the forgiveness of sins” (v. 31). Being at God’s “right hand” is word picture language that the risen and ascended Jesus has all power and authority there. After urging them to repent for rejecting Jesus, the apostles urged their accusers to trust Jesus as the powerful and saving Lord of life. Only through faith in Him are sinners rescued from hell. What bold testimony about Jesus by men who had locked themselves in a room for fear of being associated with Jesus!
“We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him” (v. 32). After the Spirit gives sinners faith in Jesus as their Savior, believers “obey”, that is, say, “Yes!” to what the Spirit works in them. The Spirit gave them boldness about the message of this life.
We are part of God’s resurrection remodeling project. The same Spirit has given us the same testimony for the same faith in the same risen Savior. The power for God’s project remains “the whole message about this life” we have in Jesus.
When we talk about the risen Savior, we won’t be arrested for our testimony. But if a friend or loved one, if a church or job or government authority tells us to reject the risen Savior, or orders us to do something the risen Savior commands us in His Word not to do, we answer respectfully, firmly, and boldly, “We must obey God rather than men”.
Parents, don’t make your children choose between your plans and God’s will. Your family’s priorities on Sunday mornings, the way you use God’s name, your decision about devotions at home dare never force your kids to say, “Dad and Mom, God gets first place in everything! Please drop me off at church when you go shopping Sunday morning. God wants us to praise His holy name, not to use it to damn a phone that isn’t working. God wants His Word heard daily, not shrugged off because we are too busy for devotions at home .”
We are God’s resurrection remodeling project. We tell “the whole message of this life” to those who don’t yet have joy in Jesus and His forgiveness, who don’t yet know the boldness of trusting Him and the comfort of being saved by the crucified and risen Savior. We want those we know to have that, too.
We are God’s resurrection remodeling project on earth. He works to keep us growing in faith, knowing His Word, showing with our lives we do everything to thank Him for saving us. The crushing load our sins deserve is lifted off us by the triumphant work Jesus did to pay for our sins in full, and by His rising from death to prove it. “The whole message about this life” in Christ strengthens us. God continues in us His resurrection remodeling project until the project is complete and He takes us to heaven through faith in Him. Amen.
Pastor David A. Voss
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Resurrection Sunday - Jesus Wasn't Taken; He Is Risen
- Resurrection Sunday
April 17, 2022
Hymns 442, 458, 824, 471, 444, 461, 441
First Lesson Matthew 27:62-66; Mark 16:1-8; John 20:10-18
Psalm 118
Second Lesson 1 Corinthians 15:1-8, 19-24, 51-57
Third Lesson Isaiah 25:6-9; Job 19:23-27
John 20:1-18
JESUS WASN’T TAKEN; HE IS RISEN!
I. By His own power (vv. 1-9)
II. At His Father’s approval (vv. 10-17)
III. For His people’s rising (vv. 17-18)
In the name of Jesus, the Savior crucified for us and risen for us just as He said He would rise, fellow Easter believers,
What did the women expect to see early that Sunday morning? A Roman squad guarding the tomb. A wax seal around a large disc-shaped stone covering the tomb’s opening. And a cold corpse. What did they find when they got there? The soldiers gone. The seal broken. The stone rolled to the side. And inside, no body!
We know and trust the explanation. Jesus wasn’t “taken” (vv. 2,13,15), as Mary said three times before the risen Christ revealed Himself to her. Taken is the big lie Satan still spreads. Jesus did what only God can do. He is risen! That truth is not just what you expect to hear in His house this most glorious day of the year. That truth that changes life forever. Jesus wasn’t taken; He is risen! That changes life in the greatest ways, three of which we’ll ponder in Resurrection devotions.
I. By His own power (vv. 1-9)
The first is He is risen by His own power! What those humble, believing, devoted women and two of Christ’s disciples saw early that morning puzzled them. The stone problem – “The soldiers won’t roll it aside so we can put these spices on the body of Jesus. How will we few women shove the sealed stone out of the deep groove?” – the stone problem was solved.
But that revealed a new problem. The body of Jesus was gone. They supposed grave robbers added insult to the injury of their Lord’s death. What the women didn’t notice, the disciples discovered later. Jesus recorded in His Word to prove His power every Easter after this fact: “the linen cloths were lying there. And the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head was not lying with the linen cloths, but was folded up in a separate place by itself” (vv. 6-7). Would body snatchers take time to unwrap the burial cloths, then one say to the other, “Before we go with the body, let me fold this face cloth just so”? No! Jesus wasn’t taken; He is risen!
Jesus took back His life on the third day by the Jewish way of counting time, just as He had promised He would through His prophets and to His twelve disciples. John “saw and believed” (v. 8)! The next Resurrection verse, “(They still did not yet understand the Scripture that He must rise from the dead)” (v. 9), means they didn’t connect Christ’s resurrection with the Old Testament passages that predicted it, especially what King David had been given by the Holy Spirit to write one thousand years earlier about the Savior. “You will not abandon My life to the grave. You will not let Your favored One see decay” (Psalm 16:10). John had great joy in the linen proof Jesus had done what only God can do: destroy death’s power by His own power. Jesus was, is, and always will be truly God! That’s what His powerful resurrection from His sacrificial death means!
And that changes us forever! The memory of Jesus would be a cruel joke, and our trust in Him would be a false belief, if He was still dead. But He isn’t! He is risen from death! He isn’t who His enemies said He was, “A liar and a heretic to call Himself God’s Son and the promised Messiah.” Jesus is who He says He is: the eternal Son of God and the world’s only Savior! He isn’t dead and defeated. He is alive and well and ruling! The empty grave proves He is God. Jesus “was declared to be God’s powerful Son by His resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1:4). That’s the life-changing truth God declared the first Resurrection Sunday. That’s the life-changing truth that drives our lives. That’s the life-changing truth we now confess in song: Hymn 471, stanzas 2-3.
II. At His Father’s approval (vv. 10-17)
Even serious students of God’s Word get confused by the order of events that Resurrection day. The events are written in all four Gospels. But by the Spirit each Gospel writer focused on different scenes. Let’s put the four together. The soul of Jesus returned from heaven and reunited with His body well before dawn that day. Then Jesus slipped invisibly and silently from the sealed tomb and went to hell to declare His victory over Satan to Satan and all wicked angels. Then two holy angels came down from heaven, punctuated by an earthquake, rolled the stone away, and their sudden arrival, gleaming appearance, and mighty power frightened the soldiers. The soldiers ran to town in fear when they saw the just-opened tomb was empty. Returning from declaring His victory in hell over the devil, Jesus appeared to some of His followers that day.
The Holy Spirit recorded many Resurrection details for all time and all people to prove that Jesus wasn’t taken, but is risen! That glorious truth changes our lives also because it proves Jesus is risen at His heavenly Father’s approval.
In John’s Resurrection report Mary Magdalene moved quickly from emotional wreck to ecstatic worshiper. It seems the two angels at first made themselves invisible to Mary, who turned right around at the empty tomb and ran maybe 800 meters to get Peter and John. When they arrived, they didn’t see the angels, either. But when Peter and John headed back to town, and when Mary peered deeper inside the tomb, she “saw two angels in white clothes sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying” (v. 12). Either she didn’t recognize them as angels, or didn’t consider why heavenly beings were at the empty tomb, because all Mary said was, “Someone has taken the body of my Lord!”
Then Mary “turned around and saw Jesus standing there, though she did not know it was Jesus” (v. 14). It’s possible Jesus somehow disguised His appearance to Mary, as He would do later that afternoon with two believers on the road to Emmaus. But there would be no mistaking the voice of her Lord. “Jesus said to her, ‘Mary’” (v. 16). At once Mary knew it was Jesus – dead on Friday, but risen from death on Sunday!
When Mary hugged Him and tried to hang on to Him, Jesus told her He was headed to heaven. “Do not continue to cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father…I am ascending to My Father and your Father – to My God and your God” (v. 17). The risen Savior wasn’t forbidding Mary Magdalene to touch Him. The next Sunday evening the Savior invited Thomas to touch Him. There is a greater truth here. Jesus didn’t want Mary to think He was staying on earth, and so let her know His mission on earth was perfectly accomplished.
For several Sundays we’ll hear how Jesus spent forty days appearing in various ways to His followers before He ascended to heaven. There the Father welcomed Jesus as the successful Savior returning home. The Word of God says in some places that Jesus raised Himself from death, in other places that the Father raised Him from death. That’s not a contradiction. That is the glorious mystery of the Triune God. The verses that say the Father raised the Son from death emphasize this saving truth: the Father accepted His Son’s payment for our sins and approves of His Son’s work for our redemption.
Jesus wasn’t “taken”; He is risen! The resurrection is also the Father’s shout to sinners who deserve hell for every sin, “You are forgiven!” By raising His Son from death, the Father declares to the world, “My beloved Son’s work for you is accepted! Live assured My Son has My approval! And through My Son, you have My approval, too!” We don’t stop praising God for that! We do so now with Hymn 444, stanzas 4-5.
III. For His people’s rising (vv. 17-18)
The Resurrection of the Savior changes life forever! This holiest day of the year isn’t only to tell Christ, “Well done! Good for You that You rose after all You went through!” He died for us, and rose for us! Jesus wasn’t “taken”; He is risen! That life-changing truth also assures His people’s rising from the dead.
Mary Magdalene passed the Resurrection report on to others. Now she knew, had seen, and would for the rest of her life believe Jesus wasn’t “taken”; He is risen! Mary “went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’” (v. 18)! Her life had meaning.
And so does ours! Our life doesn’t end. It leads to heaven where the loving Father waits for His children who trust the Savior’s work to cover their sins completely. Life’s first short chapter is written on earth. But life-in-heaven’s chapter has no end! The death bed is only a station where the believer’s soul is carried to heaven on the early train of the Savior’s death and resurrection, while the body waits in the grave for the later train when the Savior comes back on the Last Day. The Resurrection truth is how we deal with the death of believing loved ones. We will rise with them, guaranteed by the fact that Jesus wasn’t “taken”; He is risen!
Until we die, we live here as sinners connected to the Savior through faith. We see our life’s span as the time God grants us to sink the roots of our faith in His Son’s empty cross and empty tomb so we’re ready every day for our rising to heaven. We see our life’s purpose as greater than making money, eating well, entertaining others, and enjoying ourselves. We live for Jesus in all we think, say, and do. And we shine the light of His death and resurrection that others live with Him, too.
The risen Savior’s sermon to Mary ended, “My God is your God” (v. 17). His sermon is for us, too! “My God is your God. Your faith is in Me, the powerful Son who died for you and rose for you! My Father doesn’t hold your sins against you! He won’t let you rot in the grave forever. Because I live, you, too, will live! I am risen, which means you have it all!”
Christ was not “taken”. We rejoice as we confess and sing today, “Christ the Lord is risen today! He isn’t still dead; we know that our Redeemer lives!” How long will our joy last? How long will we keep coming to hear that? The Resurrection truth is good forever! We hear it and use it today, tomorrow, next Sunday, and forever. The devil’s lie is Jesus was taken. The Triune God’s truth is Jesus is risen! That truth changes us forever! Amen.
Pastor David A. Voss
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