April 9, 2023 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Text: John 20:1-18 (EHV) HE LIVES! What Easter Means to Me:

 

EASTER!

April 9, 2023

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude

Text: John 20:1-18 (EHV)

 

HE LIVES!

What Easter Means to Me:

1. John: I am free from my doubts.

2. Peter: I am free from my guilt.

3. Mary: I am free from my grief.

 

Christ is risen! A blessed Easter to all. Do you have everything ready? House clean? Got all the food? Goodies for the kids? If you forget something that will be a problem. Even if you have it all ready, there may still be problems. I was reminded a week ago of the infamous Krutz Easter when the dog grabbed the ham off the counter and made a run for it. That’s a problem. But as inconvenient as forgetting something or a doggy dash may be, there are bigger problems we face, aren’t there? It’s easy to believe in the goodness of God when things go well in your life but what happens when there are troubles and problems?  Is God for real? Am I maybe being punished for something? Maybe you are dealing with grief over a major disappointment or a first Easter without a loved one. Come along with me today and see what it means that Jesus lives. Let’s join others who also dealt with doubt, guilt and grief.

“Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb. She saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. ² So she left and ran to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved. “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb,” she told them, “and we don’t know where they put him!” ³ So Peter and the other disciple went out, heading for the tomb. ⁴ The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and got to the tomb first. ⁵ Bending over, he saw the linen cloths lying there, yet he did not go in. ⁶ Then Simon Peter, who was following him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there. ⁷ 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. ⁸ Then the other disciple, who arrived at the tomb first, also entered. He saw and believed. ⁹ (They still did not yet understand the Scripture that he must rise from the dead.)¹⁰ Then the disciples went back to their homes.”

The Gospel of John’s Easter account draws our attention to three people. Mary Magdalene, Peter and John, the Gospel writer who calls himself “the other disciple.” All of them had problems, big problems that the Easter message, “He is risen!” solved. John’s problem was doubt. Can we blame him? Given that fact that he would live around 70 years after Jesus rose and ascended he was likely a very young man at this time. He was one of the three that Jesus allowed to see His glory at the Transfiguration. With the idealism of youth, I’m certain he gladly saw Jesus as the promised Messiah and put his faith in Him. And then the Garden of Gethsemane happened. Jesus arrested. The disciples running away in fear. Then Good Friday happened. Jesus crucified. Jesus dead! How can this be? To be fair, Jesus had told his disciples multiple times that he was going to Jerusalem where he would be handed over to the chief priests, where he would suffer and die and after three days rise again. But is that something you could believe without seeing? If I told you that tomorrow I would fly like Superman around the moon and back would you believe me? I could tell you that plainly twenty times and you would not believe until I did it. John had his doubts. Until he ran to the empty tomb and found that Jesus is risen. While he did not understand yet all the why about what happened he tells us he believed. Ask John what Easter means and he would tell you “I am free from my doubts.”

What about Peter? Maybe the reason John got to the tomb before Peter was that he was faster. Or maybe Peter wasn’t all that eager to really go to the tomb of Jesus. After all, the last time Jesus had seen Peter, Peter had been cursing up a blue streak to try to get people to believe that he didn’t know Jesus. That night in the high priest’s courtyard, Peter cursed and swore and said, "I don't know this Jesus you're talking about. I've never met him." Then Jesus walked by and looked at him. Peter had a guilty conscience. He wept bitterly. All that Friday, while he watched Jesus die, Peter had to remember that look on Jesus’ face. All day Saturday, while the disciples sat in stunned silence, Peter recalled Jesus’ face. Peter would never forget that look. His last act for Jesus was to deny Him.

Unless Jesus lived. Unless He was exactly who He said he was. Unless Jesus’ death was done purposefully to pay for sin. Unless Jesus would forgive him. The Bible tells us that after the events of Easter morning Jesus appeared to the disciples as a group. He was alive. Before that though Jesus came to Peter alone. Can you understand why? Peter’s guilt. Don’t you wish you could have been there to hear Peter blurt out, "Lord, I'm sorry! I didn't mean those words"? Did Jesus wipe away the tears of sorrow from Peter’s eyes and look into his face and say, "Peter, I forgive you"? The Bible doesn’t tell us exactly what happened between Jesus and Peter that day, but we do know that Jesus forgave Peter and Peter’s last act was not to deny Jesus but gladly tell people everywhere about wonderful forgiveness provided by Jesus. Ask Peter what Easter means, what it means that Jesus lives and he will say, “I am free from my guilt!”

On to Mary Magdalene. “But Mary stood outside facing the tomb, weeping. As she wept, she bent over, looking into the tomb. ¹² She saw two angels in white clothes sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and one at the feet. ¹³ They asked her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She told them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I don’t know where they have laid him.” ¹⁴ After she said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, though she did not know it was Jesus. ¹⁵ Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?” Supposing he was the gardener, she replied, “Sir, if you carried him off, tell me where you laid him, and I will get him.” ¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and replied in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means, “Teacher”). ¹⁷ Jesus told her, “Do not continue to cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father—to my God and your God.’” ¹⁸ Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord!” She also told them the things he said to her.”

Mary was overcome with grief. Jesus had driven seven evil spirits from her. Her gratefulness led her and several other women to followed Jesus and support his ministry out of their own means. She must have loved Jesus deeply. That’s why she was among the first to come to the tomb that morning to cover his dead body with spices. When she discovered Jesus was gone, she ran back in distress and confusion to tell the other disciples that someone had stolen his body. When she returned she just stood outside the tomb crying. She had lost more than a friend. The One in whom she believed was dead. How could she follow a dead Savior? But He wasn’t dead. He lives! Jesus appeared to her and her grief turned to joy. “I have seen the Lord!” Ask Mary what Easter means and she will tell you “I am free from my grief.”

So what does Easter mean for you? He lives. Do you struggle with doubts? All of us do at some time. Our belief and trust in God is easy for us when things go our way. But then tragedy strikes. The diagnosis is not good. The country and state you love moves further and further away from God’s good and gracious will. Doubts can creep. Are you real God? If so where are you? He is real. Jesus lives! He is in control even when it looks like everything is going wrong. For this time or any time when you struggle with doubts run to the open tomb. Jesus lives and will keep every promise to you. Or maybe guilt is your bigger problem. If not now it will be there at some point. When the bad things happen in life and the mind says “I know why. It’s because I did …” Listen. You can’t take back sin. You can’t undo it as badly as you would like to. Sin can only be forgiven. But that’s why Jesus died and rose. The very reason Jesus gave up His life was to pay for sin in full. Your sin in full. Everything, no matter how bad. The reason Jesus rose from the dead specifically so we would know today we stand forgiven, declared not guilty for every sin. One the price was paid Jesus came back to life. He lives! Or is grief what weighs on your heart? Some disappointment where something did not go the way you thought, hoped or prayed for or is someone missing from this year’s gathering? Just like with Peter John and Mary God might have you wait a bit to see the wonderful way He will work it out so while you wait go with Mary to Jesus’ empty tomb. He lives and because He lives we will too. Death is not the ending but the beginning. Jesus proves it. Jesus knows your grief and because He lives a day is coming when every tear will be wiped from your eyes.

Jesus lives. That’s the message of Easter. Now it may be that your life is so perfect you don’t need a living Jesus, eggs and bunnies will do, but I doubt it. Into every life comes doubts, guilt and grief and so for everyone comes Jesus. He lives. So what does Easter mean to me? I’m free, free to give up doubts about God when they come, free to let go the guilt of forgiven sin and free to let any grief turn to joy in Jesus, all because He lives. I pray the Spirit give you that meaning too! Amen.

 

April 6, 2023 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Text: Mark 14:12-26 (EHV) His Final Steps Led to the Upper Room

 

MAUNDY THURSDAY

April 6, 2023

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude

Text: Mark 14:12-26 (EHV)

 

His Final Steps Led to the Upper Room

1. Where a lamb that had died was carefully prepared.

2. Where the Lamb that would die carefully prepared.

3. So that His lambs who would die were also prepared.

 

          Ask any Jewish person and they will tell you, it’s takes a lot of preparation. I am of course talking about the Passover meal. If you like, you can do a google search on how to celebrate a Passover meal and you will find mostly uniform instructions and you will see it’s going to take a lot of work, so many preparations. The true removal of all yeast from the home, certified by a spring cleaning most of us would never want to do. All the right foods. Sections of Old Testament Scripture to be read at the proper time. So many preparations. Ask any Jewish person and they will also tell you it’s all about the lamb, the specially chosen Passover lamb, what it signified and how everything in the meal changes once the lamb is present. We see those truths combine tonight as our journey with Jesus continues as Jesus final steps lead him to an upper room where a lamb that had died was carefully prepared.

          “On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed, his disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?” ¹³ He sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the city, and there a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. ¹⁴ Wherever he enters, tell the owner of the house that the Teacher says, ‘Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ ¹⁵ He will show you a large upper room, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.” ¹⁶ His disciples left and went into the city and found things just as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover.” The celebration of the Passover is part of the Old Testament Ceremonial law that God gave the Old Testament church. One of its purposes was to help them remember how God had rescued their ancestors from slavery in Egypt and chosen them to be a special nation on earth. The way God had done that was by sending progressively worse plagues on the nation of Egypt to incentivize the Pharaoh to let God’s people go. The worst plague was the final plague where God sent the angel of death to kill the firstborn son in every household in the land of Egypt unless the blood of a lamb had been painted on its doorframe. When the angel saw the blood on the doorframe he passed over that household. It was spared from death. And so the name Passover. At Jesus’ time hundreds of thousands of people would be visiting Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover near the Temple. Thousands of lambs that had died were prepared. Jesus and his disciples got one of them.

          That preparation of the lamb by itself was no small deal. That’s because, for the Jews who were looking for the Biblical Messiah to come, the Passover was a whole lot more than their version of the 4^th of July. The whole Passover was designed by God to keep the people’s eyes on their need for a Savior. They could not save themselves. They were doomed to die eternally. Only the Messiah could save them. Like the lamb of the Passover, he would die in their place. So the Passover lamb could not be just any lamb but a perfect year old male lamb now carefully prepared.

          With New Testament hindsight we know that the Old Testament Passover lamb pictured Jesus. The real slavery of all people is the slavery to sin and the Devil. The only way for freedom was a the sacrifice of the perfect Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. So his footsteps led him to the Upper Room where he carefully prepared to do what He came for, to die. “When it was evening, he arrived with the Twelve. ¹⁸ While they were reclining and eating, Jesus said, “Amen I tell you: One of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.”¹⁹ They began to be sorrowful and said to him one by one, “Surely not I?”²⁰ He said to them, “It is one of the Twelve, one who is dipping bread with me in the dish. ²¹ Indeed, the Son of Man is going to go just as it has been written about him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.”

          We talked about this when our Lenten journey started. What do you do, what do you focus on when your time with someone is short? Important things. As Jesus, the Lamb of God sent to take away the sins of the world prepared to die he stayed on mission. God did not send His Son into the world to condemn people but rather to save people. While those who refuse to believe in Him condemn themselves everyone who believes is saved. One was there at the Passover meal whose love for money had crowded out faith in Jesus as his Messiah. Judas, the Betrayer. What does Jesus do? In love reaches out to him yet again. What do you suppose happened when Jesus said, “One of you who is eating with me will betray me?” Did his face flush? Or was his control that good that he should have been playing on some world poker tour? We don’t know what Judas did other than join the others in saying, “Surely not I?” But Judas is not important here. Jesus is. He knew exactly what would happen and so He carefully prepared to die. And if you want to hear more of what Jesus said when His time with his disciples grew short you can read about it in the Gospel of John chapters 13-17.

          A lot of time was spent by our Lord in the upper room where Jesus made sure his lambs who would die were also prepared. John’s Gospel gives us for instance these super comforting words spoken by Jesus in the Upper Room. “Do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. ² In my Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you. ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to be with me, so that you may also be where I am.”  See how Jesus prepared His lambs for death, His and theirs. Don’t be troubled. Heaven has mansions prepared just for you. That’s where I will be going to and then when the time is right I will come back for you and take you with me. That’s all physical death will be. How kind and thoughtful Jesus is for His lambs. Of all those sitting around that table only the Apostle John would live to see old age. All the rest died young.

          And Jesus did more to prepare His lambs for their death. He provided a faith building and faith proclaiming meal. “While they were eating, Jesus took bread. When he had blessed it, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “Take it. This is my body.” ²³ Then he took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them. They all drank from it. ²⁴ He said to them, “This is my blood of the new testament, which is poured out for many. ²⁵ Amen I tell you: I will certainly not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” ²⁶ After they sang a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.” The Lord’s Supper. You know what it is. Jesus tells you exactly. He took bread. “This is my body.”  Not a representation, symbol or picture. Is means is. A miracle. He took the cup filled with grape wine. “This is my blood.” Not a representation, symbol or picture. Is means is. But wait there’s more. It is the blood of the new testament or covenant. This is the covenant God has made with us, to forgive us our sin and remember them no more. Jesus is preparing us, His lambs. Your sins are forgiven. You can live that way right now. No guilt in life. And no fear in death. With sins you forgiven heaven is your home. But wait there’s more. Jesus said He would not drink of the cup until that day when he drinks again in the kingdom of God. Look ahead lambs of Christ. Feasting is coming. Banqueting, with Jesus. Not only does Jesus prepare us to look at the ending of earthly life without fear but even with longing. Jesus, our Savior, face to face!

          That’s why Jesus’ steps led Him to an Upper room. Preparation. And lambs. Jesus carefully prepared to finish His work as Savior so that we and all His lambs are prepared. Soon the Passover replacement meal will be celebrated in this service. It has been carefully prepared for you. As you watch or participate as appropriate, remember, it’s all about the Lamb who has taken away the sins of the world. That means you too! Amen.