Why the Resurrection Really Does Change Everything

Doesn’t that look good?  I loves me some ice-cold orange juice.  But do you know what you’ve gotta always do with orange juice?    Unless, you’re squeezing it straight into the glass, you’ve gotta shake it up, right?    You don’t want all that pulp stuck at the bottom of the carton.    I hate when that happens.  You gotta shake it up. 

But what you like in your orange juice, do you want in your life?  Who wants the contents of their lives shaken up like a carton of orange juice or poured out like this?  

But, in life that happens.   Your job goes south or your marriage does.   Your health suffers a crisis.  You lose someone you love.   

Something happens to your kids or your grandkids.   Even the daily crush of life can squeeze you to the breaking point.      

And this world in which we live, it feels awfully shaky too.  17 heartbreaking murders in Parkland.    Social media that doesn’t feel all that social or even safe.  Let’s not forget hurricanes.   The list could go on and on.

So, how do you find solid ground when your life quakes beneath you.  How do you find certainty in a world that feels so uncertain?  In these words, written to people going through shaky times,  facing a very unstable world, God shows you the way.  Let’s listen and hear what God has to say.

1 Corinthians 15:3-6, 20-26, 50-57

How do you find your footing when your life feels like its shaking beneath you?   How do you stand firm in a world that feels more unstable by the day?   Here God tells you.   You realize.  

Circumstances don’t determine your standing nor does your personal state nor does the state of the world.  Your standing depends on what happened on this day.   And what happened this day changes everything forever.     

Now how did it change everything forever?  How does it enable you to stand no matter how shaky life becomes? Before you get there, you need to get one thing settled first.  You need to believe that this thing actually happened.

If you came here, thinking something like.  Oh well, Easter celebrates the power of life, how love overcomes everything, that’s nice.  Easter certainly affirms all of that.  But Easter celebrates something very specific.   It celebrates that Jesus of Nazareth, who was killed and buried, rose again from the dead.  

That’s why Paul makes a point of telling you about all these witnesses, over 500 of them.    And Paul doesn’t tell you this because he heard it through some sort of ancient world internet.   When Paul writes, “I handed on to you, as of first importance, what I in turn had received.”  Paul is telling you that he has personally researched this.  He has directly spoken to these witnesses.  He has heard their accounts with his own ears.  

That’s why Christians developed that little call and response on Easter.  Christ is risen.   And folks respond.  Christ is risen indeed!    To put that less poetically, what Christians are saying is Christ is risen in fact.”   In other words, you’re not coming here to celebrate a fable.  You are coming here to celebrate a fact.   This ain’t fake news.  

And if you don’t believe that, then when the foundations of your life start shaking, what happened today won’t help you.   Look, my mom is dying right now in a nursing home in Georgia.  That’s a fact.   No fable gived me hope that her death will not be the end of her forever.   But a resurrection, one that happened here on this planet in history, that not only gives me hope.  It gives me confidence.   The actor Dennis Hopper, of all people, put it well.  In a world where the dead have returned to life, the word" trouble' loses much of its meaning.

But beyond believing that this resurrection actually happened, do you get it needed to happen?   Isn’t death natural?  Isn’t death just the way life is supposed to be?  But then, why do human beings spend almost limitless amounts of money trying to stop it from happening?   Why do poets rail against it, calling us to rage against the dying of the light? Why when someone dies, even at an advanced age, that you feel this is not the way it’s supposed to be; that something has gone horribly wrong?    You feel that way because something has.   

And if something has gone horribly wrong, that means. It can be put right again.  You can be put right.  This world can be put right.  Everything can return to the way God intended it to be, a world where death never has the last word.  Instead, God’s love does.  That’s why when God does some healing miracle, God isn’t disrupting the order of things.  No, disease is disrupting the order.  God is restoring it.

And when Jesus rises again, that’s what God is doing.  God is doing the ultimate healing.  God is starting the restoration of everything.  That’s why the resurrection changes everything.   From that empty tomb on, the old order of things has gone.  God has changed it forever.   And once it has begun, nothing can stop it, not even death.

That’s how Paul can end this chapter with that huge therefore as in…Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast and immovable.   Why?  Because the resurrection has happened.  That means, you can be steadfast.  You can be immovable no matter how much your world shakes.

And that means, when it comes to facing your failings you can be steadfast.  You can be immovable. Why?  In the resurrection, you know, no matter had badly you mess up, your mistakes don’t have the last word.  God’s resurrection has that.

Let’s say I go into Costco, and buy one of those big screen TVs they have there.  Now when I roll that baby out to my car, no one stops me.  No one holds me back.  Why?  That kind cashier has given me a powerful piece of paper called a receipt.  It proclaims that TV is bought and paid for.     

Now, you live in a world where evil will try to stop you.   Evil will tell you.  Oh, if they knew what you were thinking in worship on Easter, what would people think?  No matter how much you clean yourself up, you’re not that good.    You think God sees you as worthy of love, you with all your baggage, all your junk.  And when those accusing voices come.   You can be steadfast.  You can be immovable.   Why?  The empty tomb tells you the truth.   Your worthiness is bought and paid for.  In Jesus, God gave his life for it. It is non-negotiable.   In Jesus, God has defeated everything that separates you from God.   So, no one can hold you back.  No one can stop you, not even death.   No.  You have a resurrection receipt.  And with that receipt, no matter how far you fall, you always have the power to rise.

But resurrection not only frees you from the worse of who you are.   It frees you, it frees this world to move forward to become the best God has destined you and it to be.    In that empty tomb, God in Jesus began the restoration, God hasn’t finished yet.   And God has invited you to join in the work.

Think of resurrection like D-Day.  When the allies in World War 2 took those beaches, did they lay back and relax?  Did they put out their towels and catch some rays on that French sand.  No, they kept going.  They continued to fight.  They knew.  D-Day might have turned the tide.  But the enemy still had some fight.   The victory would ultimately be theirs.  But they still had tough challenges to face.  They still had battles to wage.   And so do you, both for yourself and for this world.   

That’s why Christians began hospitals and started missions to the poor.  It’s why Christians fought to end slavery and child labor.   It’s why we teamed up with a synagogue to save the lives of AIDS orphans in Haiti.  It’s why we feed the hungry and homeless of Hollywood.  It’s why we’ll be fighting with other churches later in April to bring better care for seniors, greater justice for juveniles and greater protection for the mentally ill right here in this county.    It’s why we reach out with the good news of God’s love whether it be blessing animals or loving preschoolers.   Yes, we know the end of the story.  God wins.  But that doesn’t mean, God doesn’t have battles for you to wage, that God doesn’t have territories for you to take.  Resurrection shouldn’t make you complacent.   It should fire you up to join with God in securing the victory. 

Now, this world in all its shakiness and uncertainty, in all its fears and anxiety, doesn’t get that.  They don’t know what time it is.   Too many think.  It’s the world is coming to an end time.  But it’s not.   No, it’s God is winning the victory time.   It’s not no change will come time.  It is God is changing everything time.   It’s not death has the last word time.  It’s where O death is your sting time.    It’s not despair time.  It’s hope time.   It’s not fear time.  It’s faith time.  It’s not death time.   What time is it?  It’s resurrection time. 

In resurrection time, when your life gets shaky, you can stand steadfast.  You can be immovable.   Why?  You know what time it is.  It isn’t Jesus is dead and gone time.  It’s Jesus is alive and on the move time.   It isn’t stop and cower time.  It’s get up and go boldly time.    It’s not fear has the last word time.  It’s love has the last word time.  It’s not despair time.  It’s hope time.  It’s not death time.  What time is it?  It’s resurrection time.   

Believe it.   Live into it.  Stand on it because you know that in the Lord, your labor, your life, is never in vain.  Battles still need to be waged.  Fights still need to be fought.  But that empty tomb proclaims, God has the victory.   And nothing, not even death itself, will change that.