Easter 2007

They were hiding. They had all abandoned Him at the crucifixion on Friday, and now, on Sunday, they were hiding. The authorities had flexed their muscles that day, and Jesus was dead and buried. It wasn’t safe to be associated with Him, so they were hiding behind locked doors, worried, anxious, fearful, wondering what they were going to do now. For three years they had followed Him around. For three years their hopes had grown that maybe, just maybe, this was the One the prophets had told about, the coming Messiah. And now this. Well, they had jobs before; they guessed they could go back to fishing or farming or tax collecting. It was sad, though, to see it end like this. They were just getting convinced, and then…BAM! BAM! BAM! “John! Peter! Open up!”

“Mary, what are you doing making all that racket? Come in here and be quiet!”

“Come on, Mary! We know He’s dead. Nicodemus and Joseph have told us how they wrapped His body and buried Him in Joseph’s tomb. I know you want Him back…so do we! But dead men don’t rise. It must have been somebody who looked like Him.”

“I’m telling you I saw Him. He spoke to me. He told me to tell you that He would meet you in Galilee.”

“You know, John, He did tell us that before…you know, before Friday. Maybe we should check this out. I’ll race you to the tomb.”

And so it began. Slowly at first, but then in great leaps and bounds, they became convinced that the impossible had happened. Over a period of 40 days, Jesus appeared to His followers 10 different times. He met the women first, near the tomb. He showed up in their hiding place, without ever opening the door, and showed them the scars in his hands and side, and allowed them to touch Him. He met two of them as they walked down the road. He fixed breakfast for them on the beach. He ate in front of them. He appeared to a large gathering of 500 people at once. And eventually, these men who had cut and run, who were sure He was dead, became convinced that Jesus was in fact alive again.

And the risen Christ made a huge change in their lives. Fifty days later, these same men were out on the streets of Jerusalem, boldly preaching the resurrection, telling anyone who would listen that Jesus was the Messiah and they needed to put their trust in Him. At one point, two of them were arrested by the religious authorities, and were threatened never again to preach or teach in the name of Jesus. But they just replied, Acts 4:19-20, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God. [20] For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” You can kill us if you want, but we just can’t keep quiet about this! As it turned out, 10 of the remaining 11 disciples were killed for their faith, rather than deny that Christ was risen.

So they didn’t keep quiet. They took every opportunity to talk about the resurrection of Jesus—in homes, in the market place, on the Temple steps—they didn’t care. They just knew that this was big news, and they couldn’t keep it to themselves.

At the end of His life, there were maybe 120 people who were really committed followers of Jesus. Fifty days after the resurrection, when Peter preached to a large crowd, 3,000 more became convinced. A short time later, another 2,000 committed their lives to Him. They turned Jerusalem upside down. Then they took it to the neighboring province, and then outside Judaism to the Gentiles. Within 300 years, the Roman Empire that had tried to wipe out Christianity when it was small, had proclaimed that there was only one God, and His name was Jesus.

What could possibly account for such huge numbers of people placing their trust in Jesus Christ? His followers were really convinced! It wasn’t just a religious faith, with a set of doctrines to believe and a set of rituals to follow. This was something entirely different—a relationship with the risen Christ. Jesus made a huge difference in their lives, and He can make a difference in yours, as well.

John Newton[1] was born in London in 1725, the son of a commander of a merchant ship that sailed the Mediterranean. His mother died shortly before his seventh birthday, and he took it really hard. It soon became evident that he was bitter at God over her death because he sank into a period of rebellion and degradation that lasted until he was 24.

When he was 11, John Newton went to sea with his father and started on a career at sea that had him on a merchant ship, a war ship, on a slave ship as a sailor, and then eventually as the captain of his own slave ship. By this time, he had sunk deeply into an immoral pit. It is reported that at times he was so wretched that even his crew regarded him as little more than an animal. There is even a story that once he fell overboard and his ship's crew refused to drop a boat to him. Instead they threw a harpoon at him, with which they dragged him back into the ship. That tells you what they thought of him.

But God intervened in Newton's life and got his attention through a violent storm. The storm was so severe that all the livestock on deck were washed overboard and the crew tied themselves to the ship to keep from being swept overboard. As he was trying to steer the ship through the violent storm, Newton experienced what he would refer to later as his "great deliverance." He recorded in his journal that when it seemed hopeless, and he was certain the ship was going to sink, he cried out, "Lord, have mercy upon us." And they did, indeed survive that storm.

Later in his cabin he reflected on what he had said and began to believe that God had gotten his attention through the storm and had extended grace to him. For the rest of his life he observed the anniversary of May 10, 1748 as the day of his conversion, a day of humiliation in which he finally subjected his will to a higher power. Out of that experience came the song that is known all over the world, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me; I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see. Through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come; 'tis grace has bro't me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home."

Newton’s life began to change from that point on. Seven years later, he gave up his life on the sea. He got acquainted with George Whitefield, the famous evangelist, and John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church. He taught himself Greek and Hebrew, and was eventually ordained in the Anglican Church. He pastored two different churches, and in both places, large crowds came to hear him preach. During this time, he wrote hundreds of hymns, many of which are still sung today.

In London, Newton influenced William Wilberforce, who would one day become a leader in the campaign for the abolition of slavery. Newton continued to preach until the last year of his life, although he was blind by that time. At 82, shortly before he died he said, "My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things, that I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Saviour." He died in London December 21, 1807 but left instructions for the epitaph he wanted on his tombstone. It reads in part, "John Newton, Clerk, once an infidel and libertine, … was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long labored to destroy."

Jesus Christ, who came back from the dead around 34 A.D., was still alive in 1748, and made a huge difference in the life of this slave trader turned pastor and hymn writer. It wasn’t that he “got religion”, or became intellectually convinced of the truth of the Bible (although he was convinced of that.) But the thing that made the difference for him was a personal encounter with God in the middle of a life-threatening storm. It absolutely changed his life. Jesus Christ can change your life, too.

I grew up in a home where the combination of a passive father and an alcoholic mother convinced me that I was worthless, inadequate, inferior, and that I could never measure up to the standards my mother set for me. But that didn’t stop me from trying! I tried everything I knew to be who she wanted me to be. I was a very obedient, compliant child; I did not rebel in my teen years; I wasn’t athletic, so I worked very hard at my studies; I tried to remember her birthday, and their anniversary, Mother’s Day, and to always say “please” and “thank you.” It was never good enough. When I told my mother I was going to seminary, she said I was throwing my life away. During those years in seminary, I would get letters from her, telling me what a failure I was as a son.

This mindset naturally bled over into my relationship with God. I had grown up going to church, but that’s about all it was for me—just a religious duty and activity that my father and I did every Sunday. I was just going through the motions, like so many other people do. When I was 16, I had a very real encounter with Jesus Christ, and my relationship with Him became very important to me. But I couldn’t seem to shake the notion that God was unhappy with me, that I could never please Him, no matter how hard I tried. It made me very legalistic—always working hard to keep all the rules. It made me a perfectionist—never satisfied with anything less than perfect performance (which, of course, I never achieved, so I was never satisfied with myself.) And it made me very critical of others, because I couldn’t stand all the criticism I was heaping on myself.

But Jesus is a loving and merciful Shepherd, and over the years, He has gently led me into the paths of John Newton’s “amazing grace.” I’ve come to the place where I can accept myself just as I am, because I know Jesus does. I’m much less angry and critical than I used to be, because His love is softening my heart. And I’ve learned that sometimes, “good enough” is not a dirty word. It is so good to be able to relax in His unconditional acceptance and love!

The same Jesus who came back from the dead in 34 A.D., and who intercepted John Newton in 1748, has made a huge difference in my life since 1959, and He can make a difference for you, as well.

Lorie Trich is a member of our church who has experienced the risen Jesus in a new way recently. Lorie, come tell us your story.

Jesus Christ is still alive. He has been changing the lives of people who meet him ever since that first resurrection Sunday, which we celebrate today. And He can make a difference in your life too. I don’t know what you need today. Maybe it’s courage to face serious opposition, like the first disciples. Maybe it’s forgiveness for a life that has gone off the rails, like John Newton. Maybe it is unconditional love, like I needed. Maybe it’s a change of heart toward others, like Lorie found. Maybe you need a sense of purpose in life—you’ve been successful at one level, but you have a nagging feeling that there has to be more to life than this. Maybe you need strength to face difficult trials in life. Whatever it is you need, Jesus can meet that need. He said He came to give us an abundant life now, and eternal life later, and that’s what He wants to do for you.

There are two parts to this transformation that Christ can make in a person’s life, and it can be compared to a marriage relationship. The first step is like the wedding: it’s a conscious decision to enter into this committed relationship with Christ. We stand at the altar, so to speak, and commit ourselves to live with and for Jesus for the rest of our lives. The second part is living in the marriage relationship, learning to adapt to the other, learning what pleases Christ, learning to submit ourselves to His will for us, growing closer to Him. This part is often the hardest, as it is in a marriage, because our selfish will often runs counter to God’s will for us. But He’s the Master, and we are the servants, the followers, and we need to learn to follow Him. We surround ourselves with like-minded people, we worship Christ with others, we read His Word to us in the Bible and try to follow it, we respond back to Him in prayer, we learn to follow Jesus’ example in all we do. And as we do these things, He gains access to our hearts and minds, and begins to transform us into the kind of people we really want to be.

After the resurrection, Jesus met with His followers and said to them, Matthew 28:18-20, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. [19] Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

That’s what we are about this Easter morning—telling the world that Jesus Christ is still alive. He is therefore the Lord, the one who defeated death, the one with all authority in heaven and earth, the one who wants to be the Lord and Savior of your life.

Here’s Jim Eng to tell you how you can begin a personal relationship with the living Christ.

[1] Adapted from information by Al Rogers & Lindsay Terry, The Reformed Reader, Baptist Cameos, John Newton. Retrieved 4/3/07 from http://www.reformedreader.org/newton.htm