Rev. David Holwick  M                                   50-Day Adventure
First Baptist Church                                         Week 8
Ledgewood, New Jersey                                    Easter Sunday
April 15, 2001            
                                                         Matthew 28:6

	                 IS HE HERE OR NOT?


  I. Where is Jesus?
      A. Main point of Easter - he isn't here.  Tomb is empty.
          1) Reason for open-casket funerals - convince family their
                loved one is truly dead.
          2) We call it "closure."

      B. Easter is a different kind of closure.
          1) All other religious leaders have died and stayed dead.
              a) Often there is a sense that they live on in heaven.
              b) Easter is different.
          2) What exactly does empty tomb prove?
              a) What does it mean today?
              b) It all depends on where Jesus is.

 II. Jesus was soon among his disciples.
      A. They weren't convinced until he visited them.
          1) Called "post-resurrection appearances."
          2) Disciples on road to Emmaus, doubting Thomas, fishing Peter.
              a) To Paul, the appearances were the hallmark of Easter.
              b) They were so convinced they gave their lives for it.

      B. Jesus can be among us today.
          1) 50-Day Adventure and Jesus coming to our church.
              a) We imagine what it would be like.
              b) Jesus doesn't have to come here - he IS here.
          2) Jesus has a resurrected body, but the church is in a
                real sense the body of Jesus Christ.
              a) Each Christian carries Jesus in him or her.
              b) When we are together, Jesus can become whole.

      C. Many churches seem to have lost Jesus.
          1) In our area, churches have been turned into arts centers
                and yacht clubs.
          2) Other churches still have worship like they always have,
                but something is missing.
              a) They are spiritually dead, humanly cold.
          3) Jesus isn't there, and they have no idea where he is.

             In the mid 1950's British minister W.E. Sangster began to
                notice some uneasiness in his throat and a dragging in
                   his leg.
             When he went to the doctor, he found he had an incurable
                disease that caused progressive muscular atrophy.
             His muscles would gradually waste away, his voice would
                soon become unable to swallow.

             Sangster threw himself into his work in British home
                missions, figuring he could still write and he would
                   have even more time for prayer.
             "Let me stay in the struggle, Lord," he pleaded.
             "I don't mind if I can no longer be a general, but give me
                just a regiment to lead."

             He wrote articles and books, and helped organize prayer
                cells throughout England.
             "I'm only in the kindergarten of suffering," he told people
                who pitied him.

             Gradually Sangster's legs became useless.
                 His voice went completely.
             But he could still hold a pen, shakily.
             On Easter morning, just a few weeks before he died, he
                wrote a letter to his daughter.
             In it, he said,
              "It is terrible to wake up on Easter morning and have
                  no voice with which to shout, 'He is risen!'
             - but it would be still more terrible to have a voice and
                 not want to shout."
                                                                    #1932

      D. When Jesus is present in a church, you will know it.
          1) Widespread changes should be taking place:
              a) self-destructive patterns change.
              b) evil is corrected in society.
              c) tears as we recognize our sins.
              d) eagerness to serve Christ.
              e) surrendering to demands of Christ's words.
              f) talk to God in prayer.
              g) we invite our neighbors to Jesus.

          2) The fullness of Christ is our choice.
              a) It is not necessarily automatic.
              b) Paul's prayer for the church in Ephesians.
                  1> That we would know Jesus better.
                  2> That the eyes of our hearts be opened.
                      A> Know the hope.                           1:17
                      B> Know the power (of the resurrection).    1:19-20
                      C> Have the fullness of Christ.             1:23

III. Jesus is not just with us, but beyond us - in heaven.
      A. Where is Jesus?  Empty tomb points to resurrection.
          1) Resurrection never actually witnessed.
              a) His body transformed supernaturally.
          2) He promises our bodies will be changed as well.

      B. The resurrection gives us ultimate hope.

          All these questions have the same answer:

          What is it that gives a widow courage as she stands beside
             a fresh grave?

          What is the ultimate hope of the cripple, the amputee,
             the abused, the burn victim?

          How can the parents of brain-damaged or physically handicapped
             children keep from living their entire lives totally and
                completely depressed?

          Why would anyone who is blind or deaf or paralyzed be
             encouraged when they think of the life beyond?

          How can we see past the martyrdom of some helpless hostage
             or devoted missionary?

          Where do the thoughts of a young couple go when they finally
             recover from the grief of losing their baby?

          When a family receives the tragic news that a little daughter
             was found dead or their dad was killed in a plane crash or
                a son overdosed on drugs, what single truth becomes
                   their whole focus?

          What is the final answer to pain, mourning, senility, insanity,
             terminal diseases, sudden calamities, and fatal accidents?

          By now you've guessed correctly: the hope of resurrection.
                                                                   #16507

 IV. "He is not here..."
      A. Modern world is increasingly skeptical.
          1) We yearn for something eternal, but don't experience it.
          2) We don't want to experience it - it puts expectations on us.

      B. Faith in Jesus' resurrection has withstood the assaults.

         You probably are not familiar with the name Nikolai Ivanovich
            Bukharin.
         But during his day he was as powerful a man as there was
            on earth.
         A Russian Communist leader, he took part in the Bolshevik
            Revolution 1917, was editor of the Soviet newspaper Pravda
               (which by the way means truth),
                  and was a full member of the Politburo.
         His works on economics and political science are still read
            today.

         In 1930 he took a journey from Moscow to Kiev to speak to a
            huge assembly on the subject of atheism.
         Addressing the crowd he aimed his heavy artillery at
            Christianity, hurling insult, argument, and proof against it.

         An hour later he was finished.
         He looked out at what seemed to be the smoldering ashes of
            men's faith.
         "Are there any questions?" Bukharin demanded.
         Deafening silence filled the auditorium but then one man
            approached the platform.
         He mounted the lectern and stood near the communist leader.
         The man surveyed the crowd first to the left, then to the
            right.
         Then he shouted the ancient greeting known well in the
            Russian Orthodox Church:

                             "CHRIST IS RISEN!"

         En masse the crowd arose as one man and the response came
            crashing like the sound of thunder:

                            "HE IS RISEN INDEED!"

                                                                   #18936
  V. Jesus is coming back.
      A. He comes when we believe. (Gospel of John)
          1) But it is not just a mystical coming.

      B. Jesus will come back physically and rule the earth.


=========================================================================
Although this sermon was part of a "50-Day Adventure," this sermon did
  not closely follow the examples in that series.

SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:

# 1932  "Easter," by Vernon Grounds; Denver, Colorado; Leadership
           Journal, Winter 1987, page 40.

#16507  "Questions with the Same Answer," by Rev. Shelton Cole,
           http:/www.sermon.org.

#18936  "He Is Risen Indeed," by Rev. Brett Blair, Illustrations By
           Email, www.sermonillustrations.com, April 15, 2001.

These and 30,000 others are part of a database that can be downloaded,
absolutely free, at http://holwick.com/database.html
=========================================================================

David Mains' sample sermon for Easter.

  I. Summary of 50-Day adventure.
      A. Envision the risen Christ being present among us.
      B. We would see a holiness in him we would want to emulate.
          1) self-destructive patterns.
          2) correct evils in society.
          3) tears as we recognize our sins.
          4) eagerness to serve Christ.
          5) surrender to demands of Christ's words.
          6) prayer.
          7) evangelism - inviting neighbors.
 II. Final message - with Jesus we celebrate life at its best.
      A. Would you like Jesus to be spiritually present in our
            church?
      B. Most would want it.
      C. Do you believe he could make life better?
          1) Doubts and disappointments may be reality.
          2) Your life may not be better in following Jesus.
          3) Abundant life may be lacking.
              a) I hope most of you aren't here.
              b)
III. Ephesians 1:15-23.
      A. Paul wants them to see [know?] the power of Christ.
          1) They, and us, may be blind to it.
          2) Jesus did what he did for the church.
      B. Jesus' resurrected body.
          1) Not just a body that came to life again.
          2) A body that has the fullness and power of God.
          3) It is present with us in the church.
              a) Just as Jesus is present with us personally through
                    the Holy Spirit.