Remember His Resurrection

Text: 2 timothy 2:8,11 Speaker: Pastor Matthew Ude Festival: Easter Passages: 2 timothy 2:8,11

2 timothy 2:8,11

 

On that first Easter morning so long ago the impossible happened.

As the women approached the tomb that first Easter morning, what did they expect? Nothing out of the ordinary. The expected a sealed tomb. They expected a dead body. They expected death. Despite all of Jesus’ promises. Despite all of Jesus’ miracles. Despite the scriptures. The women and the disciples still expected death.

It is easy to sit here and criticize the women and the disciples, but would we really do any better? If we were able to travel back in time and watch Jesus die and then walk with the women on Sunday morning would we approach that tomb in joyful expectation that we would see a risen Jesus or would we approach with doubt? We wonder did Jesus really rise from the dead?

Such doubt doesn’t make us unbelievers. The sinful flesh is still with us. There is that part of us that agrees with Thomas, “unless I see Him for myself I will not believe.”

We confess with that one father, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24) Remember the sermon from Good Friday it is not our strength of faith that saves us, but the fact that Jesus remembers us.

This doubt doesn’t make us unbelievers, but it does hinder us. We often life our lives forgetting or doubting that Jesus did the impossible, that He rose from the dead. Because we forget this or doubt it we do not expect to see the impossible.

We often find ourselves walking as those women did, in despair, fear, and anguish, not knowing how we can make it through, maybe even not seeing any hope. We walk like this because we do not expect the impossible, because we do not remember or because we doubt that Christ is risen from the dead.

 

For this reason Christ causes our eyes to open to remember His resurrection.

Even when they saw the empty tomb, even when they heard the angels message, still the women did not entirely believe. Mary was looking right at Jesus and talking to him and did not know who he was. it was not until Jesus opened her eyes that she recognized Him. So also all of the other disciples, the other women, the Emmaus disciples, the 10 in the upper room, Thomas, again and again it was only when Jesus opened their eyes that they were able to see Him and believe.

You might think that they had the advantage of seeing Jesus bodily, but as I just pointed out this is not what caused them to believe.  It was His word that opened their eyes to the truth, in one case the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.

It is Jesus word which causes our eyes to be open to remember that He is risen. As Paul says, “Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel,” (2 Timothy 2:8)

And because we know that Jesus is risen from the dead we can learn to walk as those who expect the impossible to happen again.

When we have said and done things, or things have been done or said to us that seem impossible to forgive. We have hope through His resurrection that forgiveness is possible, that we can get past this and learn to live in love once again.

When our financial situation in life seems impossible we have hope that God will provide that the impossible we happen again.

When the stress caused by our work or our family seems impossible to handle, we have hope

 

More importantly even if we fail in all these things we have hope in the impossible, the resurrection of life. A life without sin. A life where we will be capable of not saying mean and hurtful things to our spouse, family and friends. A life where we will  be capable of forming and sustaining the types of relationships that we should have. Where we will no longer ever again feel alone and sad.

As Paul says, ” if we died with Him, We shall also live with Him.”

 

When I was in Africa, we went on one trip into the deep Congo. We had a Toyota Land Cruiser. This was a serious off-road vehicle.  Yet every couple hours we would get stuck.  It would take hours to dig ourselves out of the sand, and then we would get stuck again, but we pressed on.

So is the life of a Christian, over and over we get stuck again and again we get weighed down in our sin, in the sin of others, in the pain, suffering and brokenness of this life. But we press on. We keep going because we know that the impossible happened. We have this hope this knowledge, that the end is not death but life. We know that what is ahead is so much better than what is behind, because that which waits for us is life and salvation and end to all sorrow.

Jesus causes us to remember his resurrection.

Amen