I’ve had my bicycle out a few times this spring. Over the winter months I tried the indoor, Snap Fitness thing. But there was something uninspiring about exercising indoors in front of a mirror. I much prefer the ambience of the great outdoors, the busy traffic on Woodside road, and the hospitality of that occasional driver shouting threatening insults!
Seriously, bicycling gives me an opportunity to pray, to sort things out with God, and to listen to sermons or music. The other day I heard 2 Corinthians 1:9 (NIV) while riding. Paul writes, "Indeed, inour hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead."
Every one of us feels the sentence of death.
One thing every single one of us has in common is that we feel the sentence of death deep in our inner selves.Sometimes it’s a quiet whisper,but other times it’s a deafening roar. James 4:14 (NIV) says (rather soberly), "Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes."
When I was a youngster my grandpa died. That was my first encounter with death. I couldn’t understand why someone who had been such a huge part of my life lay inanimate and unresponsive in a casket. I asked my aunt, "What would happen if someone stabbed him with a knife?" A look of horror swept over her face. But in my mind I was thinking, "Someone had better really make sure he’s not just sleeping! I think he is just sleeping. Grandpa, wake up!"I didn’t understand what death was.
Growing up, I had a paper route. One man, an elderly man, was particularly kind and gracious. When I collected money for the paper, he would always give me a big tip. But there came a time when he was no longer able to answer the door and talk. Someone said he had cancer. "What was that?" I wondered.
At what point did we first become aware that death is the destiny of every man? Someone said the other day, "We spend the healthiest years of our life making money, only to turn around and spend all our money trying to stay healthy."
The gift of life is fleeting.
There is a chilling finality to death. In high school, there was a quarterback on my football team named Andy. We lifted weights together and we practiced togetheralmost every day! But one morning I came to school and immediately sensed that something was wrong. Students were standing in circles, sobbing. Nobody was moving around and there were just blank stares everywhere. Then someone broke the news, "Andy died in a car accident last night."
Nothing rattles our self-reliance more than realizing how fleeting the gift of life is. Last year our girl Schnauzer died. One week we brought her to the vet, hoping and praying the vet could save her life. But by the next week, we were saying goodbye.
Why is there suffering? Why is there pain? Why is there death?There are no quick or easy answers. What we know, however, is that all of us feel the sentence of death in our hearts. And this death sentence rocks us to the core of our being sothat we might rely not on ourselves, "but on God who raises the dead."
At some point every single one of us gets a turn. At some point we all have to learn the same lesson first hand. Weare utterly powerless in the face of death. We can eat healthy foods, we can exercise, we can wear our seatbelts, and we can be surrounded by the best surgeons and state of the art technology.We can delay death for a time, but we cannot stop it. We certainly cannot reverse it.
On Good Friday, we remember the last moments of Christ's life.
This past Thursday and Friday, many of you went through the "Journey to the Cross" and experienced the final moments of Christ’s life on earth. In the garden of Gethsemane you saw Jesus in agony, his tears becoming like drops of blood. You saw Jesus condemned before the high Priest and the Sanhedrin. You heard the crowds angrily calling for Christ’s crucifixion as Pilate washed his hands of responsibility.
You sensed Christ’s pain as he was beaten and flogged, and as you painted a stripe on his back. Your conscience was quickened as you nailed your sins to that cross. You saw how darkness covered the whole earth as Christ gave up his spirit.
We are well acquainted with the darkness of Good Friday. We’re not accustomed to the horrors of a Roman crucifixion, but we're certainly accustomed to the finality of death. It’s the same old story played over and over!It’s hard to know the range of emotion that Christ’s disciples must have felt, seeing his disfigured body laid in the tomb. We’ve all been there.
God raised Jesus from the grave.
But then God raised Jesus from the grave. In Acts 2:22-33 (NIV) Peter, one of Jesus’ closest disciples, explains it this way. "Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him."
"David said about him (Christ): 'I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will live in hope,because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.' "
"Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day.But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear."
And Peter concludes in Acts 2:36 (NIV), "Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ."
In Acts 3:13-15 (NIV) Peter says it this way. "The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you.You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this."
Notice the shift that takes place in 2 Corinthians 1:9 (NIV). The shift is from relying on ourselves, to relying on God who raises the dead. This is what Easter is all about. "Indeed, inour hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead."
The resurrection ofChrist makes us rely on God to rescue us from death.
The resurrection of Christ changes everything! We know not to rely on ourselves, but have we learned to rely on God who raises the dead? In Acts 26:8 (NIV) Paul asks his detractors, "Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?" In other words,"Why should any of you consider it incredible that the author of life also raises the dead?"
In 1 Corinthians 6:14 (NIV) Paul simply says, "By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also."
So allow me to ask you a question.Do you believe that God exists? Do you believe that Jesus is the author of life and the creator and sustainer of all things seen and unseen? Do youbelieve that God possesses enough power to have raised Christ from the grave? Through faith, do you have confidence that just as God raised Christ from the grave,so he will raise us up also?
Here is the promise of Easter.Colossians 3:1-4 (NIV) tells us, "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory."