Where the Unexplainable Meets the Undeniable

 

Where the Unexplainable Meets the Undeniable

Where the Unexplainable Meets the Undeniable - Audio/Visual 

Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. (Romans 6:3-5)

I love Easter for many reasons, and it’s one of two times each year that I don’t have to really think about a topic since everybody knows what the Easter message is going to be. For those who think about Jesus just as often, I heard about a minister who decided that if this were the only weekend certain people would come to church, he was going to tell them everything they needed to know about Christianity in one sermon. It was kind of a junk-drawer sermon – a little bit of this and a little bit of that. He preached for 90 minutes. The following year, Easter was the worst attended Sunday. So, I’m not going to do that.

The core of the message is what we celebrate today – that Christ lived, died, rose from the dead and was seen alive by hundreds of witnesses who authenticated their testimony with their lives. Easter has the potential of being an “end around” to our objections because if you were absolutely certain of the truth of the resurrection, it would make you doubt your doubts. And since there are those who pride themselves on doubting, what would it take to make you doubt your doubts?

Faith happens when the unexplainable meets the undeniable. If the resurrection is undeniable, then it lessens our discomfort with the unexplainable. Even the original disciples had some unanswered questions that gave rise to their doubts. In Matthew 28, right at the end of his Gospel, Matthew tells us that Jesus had gathered everyone on the hillside after being with them for 40 days following his resurrection. Jesus had talked with them, eaten with them and had even shown them his nail scars. He brought them to the Mount of Olives, gave them the Great Commission and began to ascend to heaven. In verse 17, Matthew writes that when all the disciples saw this, “Some worshipped, but some doubted.” Doubted? He’d been dead for three days, hung out with them for nearly 3 months and now he's floating in the air like David Blaine. But even in light of the amazing things they’d seen, they still struggled. Nevertheless, they learned to trust him – not because all of their questions had been answered, but because they knew he’d been resurrected from the dead, which made the unexplainable now undeniable.

Paul, in writing to the church in Rome, said that the resurrection is the foundation for everything. In the first 6 chapters of the book, Paul explains that the resurrection proved two things that he hadn’t previously accepted. First, that Jesus was who he said he was: “(Jesus) was declared to be the Son of God in power... by his resurrection from the dead.” (Romans 1:4) And second, that the resurrection proved Jesus’ death accomplished what he said it accomplished. “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for (because of) our justification.” (Romans 4:25) In other words, for Paul, the resurrection was proof that the cross worked – the resurrection had proven that Jesus was who he said he was and had accomplished what he’d set out to do. Previously, Paul didn’t believe either of those things. In fact, he was vehemently opposed to them until he changed his opinion in the space of about 7 minutes one afternoon on a dusty road to Damascus. The change occurred because he had seen the resurrected Jesus with his own eyes. Previously the #1 enemy of Christianity, Paul had now become its biggest advocate. But the choice meant walking away from the prestige, power and promise of the Jewish community where he had become a rising star in exchange for becoming a poor, persecuted Christian.

You say, “Well, I wish I could see Jesus with my own eyes like Paul did – that would settle my doubts.” Yes, but you have Paul’s testimony. What else but seeing something real and unmistakable would make Paul do what he did? Paul walked away from the world of a privileged few to become a fugitive. His leadership in the church never got him money, power or prestige. He even refused to take a salary from the church. He was beaten constantly; spent more time in prison than walking free and died by beheading. Nevertheless, he kept on testifying because he was convinced that what he’d seen was true.

We have the testimony of the apostles, too. Every one of them was tortured or went to a martyr’s death and not one of them ever went back on their testimony. The idea that this was some sort of myth that just sprang up puzzles me because think about what that would mean. You’ve got all the disciples out fishing on a boat one day after Jesus had died. They’re depressed and talking about how great it was when Jesus was there; how his stories made them feel safe and special. But now he’s dead. So, one of them says, “I know! What if we say he was resurrected? We’ll say that his death was actually pre-planned to die for our sins and then he was resurrected. That way we can keep the dream alive.” In response, another asks, “Will we get rich and popular for doing that?” “No,” says a third, “because all the influential people hate that message and we’ve been forbidden from preaching it; we’ll be hated, cast out and our families will be impoverished.” “Well,” says another, “will we at least have the satisfaction of knowing we are pointing people to eternal life?” “No,” says the first, “because we know that what we’re saying is a lie.” And with that, one of them stands up and says, “Hey, sounds like a great idea! Count me in.” So, they all agree, say the same thing and out they go, one by one, until they’re hunted down. And as they watch each other and the people they love being drug off to be murdered they wink at one another saying, “Stick to the script guys! Keep the dream alive! This is going to be fantastic!” Hardly.

The reason this group didn’t cave is that they had seen something real and were willing to testify to what they saw with their lives. In fact, one of those who wouldn’t stop preaching and ended up dying a martyr’s death was Jesus’ younger half-brother, James. How many of you grew up with an older brother? If you did, what would it take to convince you now that your older brother was actually God the whole time? Right. It would take the incarnation of Satan. So, Paul says that the resurrection proved to him that Jesus was who he said he was, and that his death accomplished what he said it would accomplish.

Paul shows us one other thing about the gospel; its power. It’s not just another competing theory of religion, or a new way to live or a better set of morals. It is actual life-giving, heart-regenerating power, and the proof of that is the way it changes lives. And so he begins with a Socratic question: “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?” (Rom. 6:1) This would have been a natural question that the readers of the epistle would have naturally had because for the previous 5 chapters Paul has been arguing that salvation is a free gift that comes to all who will receive it. Every other religion in the world operates on the premise, “I obey; therefore, God accepts me.” The gospel flips that on its head — it says, “God has accepted me; therefore, I will obey.” God has accepted me by a free act of grace. All I have to do – all I can do – is receive it, like a gift. Of course, that begs the question that if Jesus paid it all, then do we now have some sort of divine Visa card with an unlimited credit line that we can just flash whenever we want to sin? And in an even sicker twist, Paul admits that some may take it to extremes, i.e., if God gets glory by showing grace, maybe more sinning just gives him more opportunity to be glorified. But then Paul answers his own question, i.e., uh, no. “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” (vs. 4) In other words, how can you encounter something as powerful as the resurrection and not show its effects in living a new and powerful life?

Say you’re out in the church parking lot and your Honda Civic has a dead battery. Next to you is a Ford F-250 with a big battery and a better friend. So, you tell your friend, “Thanks for the help, but before you give me a jump I want to see if your battery is giving off power.” And with that, you attach one end of the booster cables to the positive and negative terminals on your friend’s truck battery and put the other two ends of the booster cables on your tongue and conclude, “Yep, it’s giving power.” Seeing this, your other church friends who had also come to help would say, “No, you didn’t just do that. If you really did that, we’d have seen some effect. You’d walk different; your hair would look different; you’d talk different; you wouldn’t be alive.” According to Paul, the resurrection is not just a fact of history past; it is power to make new in the present. The gospel, he says, is not a new philosophy to live by, a new set of moral regulations, or new resolutions to do better. It’s about the infusion of resurrection power. The gospel is not about turning over a new leaf, it’s about receiving a new life. At the center of Christianity is not a new moral code or a new perspective on life, but an empty tomb that literally changed everything.

The resurrection changes everything. It changes people, and it can change you, too. Paul was harsh and abrasive and a bigot – even a murderer, but his encounter with Jesus made him a man who considered himself the chief of sinners and the bondservant of the church. Peter was a coward – but his encounter with the resurrected Jesus transformed him into a man of courage, the rock upon whose testimony Jesus built the church and who would one day die crucified, upside-down, for his beliefs. The apostle John was arrogant and vengeful – but his encounter with Jesus led to him being the apostle most known for his beautiful and tender expressions of God’s love, who gladly submitted to torture and exile so that others could come to know that very same love. Several of the prominent women in the early church had pretty shady pasts. Some had been oppressed and abused. Some were prostitutes and some were demon possessed. But their encounters with Jesus made them mighty women of courage, beauty and strength.

The Good News of the gospel, Christ’s resurrection, starts out with the bad news first: we are all condemned under sin. “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 6:23) Wages. There are two ways to pay for your sin – you can pay for it yourself, or let Jesus pay it for you. And the gift? Well, like any gift, it has to be received; accepted. To be saved means you stop trying to earn your way to heaven by being good enough and going to church enough, and just receive his free offer to save you. You stop trying to do and accept what he’s done. It’s where the unexplainable meets the undeniable. It’s where doubting your doubts leads to an eternal answer – a life in, and with Christ Jesus – forever. He is risen! (Matt. 28:6-7)

He is risen, indeed. (Luke 24:34)

Happy Easter,

Randy