"He Shall Command Peace" (Zechariah 9:1-11)

 

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Second Sunday of Easter, April 11, 2021

 

            What God has done?  I’ll tell you.  Jesus crucified for the sins of the world?  That was God’s doing.  Then, he rose on the third day.  Resurrected! So what?  Does it make any difference? How does the resurrection – what God did – define your life?

            Theologian Stanley Hauerwas writes, “Through Jesus’ resurrection, we see God’s peace as a present reality.  Though we continue to live in a time when the world does not dwell in peace, when the wolf cannot dwell with the lamb and a child cannot play over the hole of the asp [as imagined in Isaiah 11], we believe that peace has been made possible by the resurrection.”[i]

            Hauerwas believes that because of the resurrection of Jesus, peace is inevitable in God’s kingdom, and God’s kingdom has begun breaking into this present reality.  We can be sure of both – peace and the inbreaking of God’s kingdom.  Count on it. 

However, there’s the rub.  The world does not know peace right now.  The Bible is full of war.  Last century saw two massive world wars.  Local, enduring conflicts seem ubiquitous and unending. 

            I think of the January 6, 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol which ended in bloodshed and death. We Americans can no longer brag about transferring power peacefully.   We can no longer wag disapproving fingers at other nations we deem not democratic enough.  We saw deadly violence in the very heart of our democracy.

            I think about Honduran immigrants moving across Mexico to the southern U.S. border.  Homicidal gangs vying for control of the illegal drug trade and a corrupt government unwilling to confront the gangs make life in Honduras unlivable.  Honduras has the fourth highest numbers of murders per 100 people in the world.  Neighboring El Salvador is number 1 on the list, Guatemala is 14^th, and Mexico is 16^th.[ii]   Also, the region is often battered by hurricanes.  The masses to enter the U.S. aren’t “migrating.”  They’re desperately fleeing death. 

            I think about the trial of Derek Chauvin, the white Minneapolis police officer whose killing of a black man, George Floyd, set off protests and riots last year.  The crime and the trial is emblematic of how violent racial tension in America is.  So too is the recent spate of hate crimes committed against Asian Americans.

            Whether it is political division, immigration and nationalism, racial strife, or something else, hate and violence are the flavors of the day in America.  We love Easter.  We bask in the light of the empty tomb.  We believe God is all powerful and we follow Jesus.  But, how can possibly we see God’s peace as a present reality?  When we read “he commanded peace to the nations,” don’t we assume that’s some distant, future thing that we won’t see in this lifetime? 

            That quote is Zechariah 9, 9:10 to be specific.  Zechariah chapters 1-8 are attributed to the prophet.  He and the prophet Haggai were late 6^th century BC peers who heard God’s call to rebuild the temple as a catalyst to reestablish Israel’s God’s people after the Babylonian exile ended. 

            Zechariah 9-11, Zechariah 12-14, and Malachi 1-4, three distinct units probably written in the 400’s, the 5^th century BC, close out Old Testament prophecy.  Through these anonymous prophets, God offers a special insight into his future promises.  In Zechariah 9 we hear God’s command for peace,  Because the resurrection has happened, we can begin living this peace even in a violent world. 

            The Gospel accounts of Jesus riding to Jerusalem on what we call Palm Sunday, refer to Zechariah 9:9. “Rejoice greatly, O Zion; … your king comes to you triumphant and victorious, humble and riding on a colt, on the foal of a donkey.”   Matthew and John quote this directly; Mark and Luke allude to it.   Entering Jerusalem prior to his crucifixion, Jesus fulfills the unknown prophet’s prophecy. 

            These promises come from Israel’s story.  Read about Samson and the other Judges.  Read about Israel’s greatest Judge-Prophet, Samuel; and the first Israelite king, King Saul, and the greatest, King David.  Each of these notable Old Testament figures fought the same enemy, a persistent foe who dogged Israel relentlessly: The Philistines!  After Solomon’s reign, as Philistia’s international influence diminished, a greater empire arose to threaten God’s people:  Assyria! 

            Zechariah 9:1-8 along with a prophet from a few centuries earlier, Amos, 1:3-8, name Syrian and Philistine cities.  Relating God’s vision through prophetic poetry, Amos and Zechariah recount God’s response to the Philistine and Syrian threats.

Syria: “The word of the Lord is against Damascus.”  The capital city of Aram belongs to the Lord.  The island city-state known as Tyre was thought to be impenetrable, but the prophet says, “The Lord will strip it of its possessions and hurl its wealth into the sea.”  The Philistine: Ashkelon shall be afraid, Gaza shall writhe in anguish, the hopes of Ekron are withered, and God will make an end of the pride of Philistia (Zechariah 9:5-6).  This prophet never bothers to tell us his own name, but repeats Amos’ condemnations of all these Syrian and Philistine cities.  Why?  Why tell us about the downfall of Israel’s oldest, fiercest rivals? 

            After describing how God will humble the enemies of His people, in verse 7, the perspective changes.  “I will,” God says, “take away … [the] abominations from between [the Philistines’] teeth.”  Is God going to wash Philistia’s mouth out with soap?  God says Philistia will also be a remnant for God.  God has always promised to save a remnant from Israel.  Since when did those cursed Philistines who cut Samson’s hair, harassed Samuel, and intimidated Saul get to be God’s remnant?  They aren’t us!  But God cares about Philistines and Syrians, Iraqis and North Koreans, black people from Alabama and white from Alabama.  Peace comes because of what God has done, not because we learn to be peaceful. 

Verse 7 says Philistia will be like a clan in Judah.  Just as God ushers in justice and peace for the Chosen People, God brings a new, peaceful age for all people.  What difference does the resurrection make?  The prophet of Zechariah 9 paints a picture of a united Israel with former enemies now a part of God’s community. 

It’s because of that king who rides in on the donkey. He will reign from “sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth” (Zech. 9:10).  He commands peace to all nations, and He has defeated death.  Jesus Christ, the resurrected Lord, fulfilles this prophecy. 

Time out, Pastor!  Where’s peace?

I hear your objection.  Our political division is as bad as ever, the poor souls at the Mexico-Texas border are living in anything but peace, and the Derek Chauvin trial is a powder keg that should drive all to our knees.  Where is this promised resurrection peace? 

It began with what God did: he resurrected Jesus.  New creation began, an age in which all sins are forgiven, and all who follow Christ will have eternal life.  It grows as we – God’s church – begin living the new creation reality today, even in the midst of a murderous, violent world. 

When we live the peace God commanded, we don’t let politics determine who are enemies are.  We may doggedly fight over policy differences with someone or a group from a different political party or persuasion, but when fight for our case, we do it with kindness, manners, and recognition of the other’s dignity.  We don’t hate Biden supporters or Trump supporters.  We give grace and love to all, as our Lord commands. 

When we live the peace God commanded, we recognize the plight of the immigrant fleeing death and seeking hope in America.  These are children of God.  Because we are in Christ, we do not act on some selfish desire to preserve an impression of what America is supposed to be.  We don’t fear how new arrivals change America.  We’re not driven by fear at all.  When we react to what God has done in the resurrection, we welcome people in distress just as Christ welcomes us.  

When we live the peace God commanded, we stand with the victims of prejudice and systemic injustice.  Those privileged to be in the dominant group don’t fight to protect what they have.  They share it.  Defending white privilege is akin to fighting to hold onto our share of stale crackers while ignoring the resurrection feast God offers to share.  When we throw down our old loyalties and insecurities, and accept God’s invitation, we discover that the joy of God’s table is not found only in the endless delicacies we eat, but also in eating those heavenly foods alongside our black brothers and Chinese sisters and African friends and arab friends and white cousins and Mexican neighbors. 

We begin anticipating that grand banquet by making space in our lives for black, white, Native, Arab, Asian, and Latin people right now.  God commanded peace.  That same God defeated death.  Can we see that this God has absolute authority to command peace?  Will we trust that in the risen Christ, this promised peace has come, is coming, and  as his return will come in full? 

Jesus has risen.  God has done something.  Will we live in God’s new reality, or hold on to our old rivalries and hatreds?  Go out this week, and share resurrection peace with someone who looks and thinks differently than you.  Ask God to put someone like that in your path.

AMEN

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[i] Hauerwas, S (1983), The Peaceable Kingdom: A Primer in Christian Ethics University of Notre Dame Press (Notre Dame, IN), p.88-89.

[ii] https://www.indexmundi.com/facts/indicators/VC.IHR.PSRC.P5/rankings

Easter Sermon - 2020

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“Early Morning Run” (John 20:1-10)

Rob Tennant, Hillside Church, Chapel Hill, NC

Easter Sunday, April 12, 2020

*This message will be broadcast by Facebook and Instagram Live and posted to Youtube, but will not be preached to a live audience.  We – America, the world – are in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis which is causing people all over the world to avoid gathering in groups of larger than 10, and diligently maintain “social distance.”  It’s an effort to curb the rapid, worldwide spread of the Corona virus which can be deadly.

            John chapter 20 begins, “Early on the first day of the week.” What do you early in the morning?  Hit the snooze button and roll over for 9 more minutes?  Take a shower to wash the sleep out of your eyes? How about going for a run to start the day?  That’s what Mary did, an early morning run; but it’s not what she had planned.

Other gospel writers report several of Jesus’ female disciples came to the tomb.  John zooms in on Mary Magdalene.  She was up early because she probably didn’t sleep.  She probably spent the entire Sabbath recoiling from the shock and grief of Jesus’ death on the cross.  It happened so fast, arrested Thursday; killed Friday; and now the movement was over. 

Mary was not thinking about a movement.  She loved him.  She couldn’t accept it.  She went to his tomb.  We need that.  God did not design us for death.  Death runs contrary to how we are made.  When a loved one dies, we need rituals; the funeral, the graveside service, and burial.  Only with these practices can we have closure, but Mary did not find any closure.  She found the stone rolled away from the entrance.

That’s when she started running, all the way back to where Simon and the beloved disciple were staying.  How often in ancient Israel did adult women run in public?  I imagine it was uncommon.

Today we run for any number of reasons.  People love running for fitness; a mile; five miles; and the real runners even do marathons.  We mix in all kinds of obstacles; there are mud runs and color runs and gladiator runs.  It’s all to get in shape.    

People also run in competition.  The fastest runners run not just to complete the race, but to win it.  The batter hits a ground ball the shortstop has to go deep in the hole to field.  That batter sprints down the line to beat the shortstop’s throw.  The running backs takes the ball and runs hard, plowing over tacklers.  Once he’s past them, then he turns on the speed so as to not get caught. 

We run to stay fit.  We run to win.  Some run to stay alive.  If you are being pursued by a tiger or an attacker, you run.  Some run for excitement.  Kids coming from home school on a Friday will sprint out of the school building, happy to be “free.”  Sometimes running is tied to a goal.  Candidates “run” for office, intending to be elected. 

Mary came to a tomb to grieve the death of her beloved teacher much as you or I might visit the cemetery to remember and say farewell to someone we love who has died.  Why did a stone rolled to the side revealing the entrance to Jesus’ tomb send Mary running?  What would you think if you went to the cemetery and found your mom’s headstone, but the ground was dug, no coffin?  His corpse was supposed to be in there.  But the stone sealing the tomb was moved.  Now she was traumatized by this: a dead body wasn’t where it was supposed to be.  With this new shock she ran for help. 

Peter and the beloved disciple set out immediately, back down the same road from which she had just come.  Like her, they are running.  Commentators remark, in Jesus’ story of the Prodigal son, that it was undignified for a landowner of high class to run in public.  But in Jesus’ tale the father didn’t care about improprieties.  Overcome with joy at getting his son back, he ran to embrace him.  A little like the impulse in school children on Friday afternoons, this father, propelled by excited happiness ignored social conventions of his day and ran to his son. 

That’s not what Peter was doing.  He did not know what had happened.  He and his companion only knew that grief and shame had coldcocked them both and now Mary’s report of a violated tomb raised the level of strangeness and threat.  They could be running into some real trouble, but they were beyond reason.  They had to know what happened, so they ran. 

The beloved disciple outpaced the fisherman, but stopped at the tomb’s entrance.  He looked in where he saw linen grave clothes but no body wrapped in them.  Huffing and puffing, Peter caught up, and barreled past him into the tomb.  They could see clearly; the body was gone.  They did not know what it meant.  They turned to walk, slowly, I bet, back to the house.

Mary then had her encounter with the risen Jesus.  She thought he was a gardener until He called her name.  When she heard her name, she was the first to understand.  No one, not the temple leaders, not the centurions, no one stole his dead body.  His body wasn’t dead.  She talked to him as he stood there alive.  She watched his lifeless body taken down after being ravaged and dying on the cross.  She saw him laid in the tomb.  Now, here he was, upright, alive, talking to her.   She knew it was real because she took hold of him.  The gospel doesn’t say she ran as she went back to tell the disciples what happened, but I bet she at least had a new spring in her step! 

Jesus was alive.  He had been dead, done and dusted.  Now, he was alive.  This is where our story leads.  Our own individual mistakes, and a world degrading and devolving inevitably leads to death, the very opposite of God’s intent for human beings.  From Adam and Eve to Cain and Able to the flood to the tower of Babel to a long, sad history of the chosen people rebelling against God to exile to the decadence of both Herod and Rome to the crucifixion to our day or wars, pornography, greed, sex-slavery, substance abuse, and self-centeredness, the world is unalterably destined for destruction. 

Yet, when we turn from death and our own fallen state, repent, and turn in faith to Jesus, something changes. He is alive.  On the cross, he took on himself our destruction.  Death seemed so inevitable, yet he defeated it.  The resurrection means, when we are in Christ, things are different because we are bound for life.  People need to know about this!

Why are 26-mile long races called ‘Marathons?’ In 490BC, after a long battle with the invading Persians, the Greeks won a desperately needed victory at Marathon.  The residents of Athens, 26 miles away, needed to know what happened.  So, a runner was dispatched and he made the long run for one reason: to tell the good news!  What he had to say was so important, so needed, so urgent, he ran to tell it.  Legend has it that upon reporting his news, he collapsed and died.

We possess news much happier and more important than “Greece defeated Persia.”  That message was only happy for the Greeks.  The Persians had to slog all the way home as losers.  Our news, “Jesus is alive,” is happy for everyone.  He has risen!  He has risen indeed!

People need to know it and we, his church, need to be running out of the worship gathering on Easter Sunday and every day to tell.  The Apostle Paul saw it this way.  In the decades after Easter and Jesus’ resurrection, Paul devoted his life to sharing the salvation we have in Christ and planting churches.  He is near his end when he writes 2 Timothy.  In 4:7 he says, looking back at his life of telling about Jesus, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”  Jesus is alive.  Paul sensed the urgency.  This was good news people needed to hear.

It still is and we, today’s Christians, are the messengers.  We are driven to run as Paul did. Another New Testament book, Hebrews, written anonymously probably in the 60’s urges that we “run with perseverance the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1c).

Why so urgent?  Because people you and I know and love are dying in sin; the world is bound for destruction.  Why so urgent?  Because every single person’s course can be reversed and they can join in life, resurrected life, if they turn to Jesus.  Why do urgent?  Because it’s true.  Can you imagine the media firestorm that would hit if it could be shown that someone has truly risen from death, never to die again?  We know that has happened! 

Tradition teaches that the disciples spread out from Jerusalem all over the world, going out simply to tell people Jesus was alive.  Nearly all of them kept at it until they were killed for their testimony because the news is so big and so good, and it is exactly what the world needs to hear.  All those disciples who failed miserably in the hours leading up to the crucifixion became witnesses emboldened to bear their testimony about Jesus even to the death. Like Paul, they ran the race.

Now, it’s our time.  We don’t run for fear.  In Christ, there is no fear.  We don’t run to win.  That’s fine if you’re playing softball or in a footrace, but this is bigger.  We don’t run to stay fit.  You might work out to be good shape for the mission, but this mission can be carried out by people no matter what their physical condition is.  With my ankle surgery, I’m not running at all right now. 

But I am running out of here, and I hope we all here.  Christ has risen and in Him there is life.  Everyone needs to know.  We are the witnesses.  God is sending us to tell the news.  Jesus is alive! 

AMEN

We Share Hope (Luke 20:27-40)

Sunday, November 10, 2019

          His name was Wendell.  Everyone called him ‘Rip.’  Rip  was in the same church for over 40 years.  I was the under 30 pastor of just a couple of years. 

          Be patient with pastors under 30.  They’re full of energy and excitement.  They want to win the world for Jesus.  Let their energy energize you.  But, they don’t know much.  So, give them a lot of grace.  One guy in the church affectionately called me their “boy” pastor. 

          Ninety-year-old Rip was much healthier than a lot of the octogenarians and septuagenarians in the church.  His beloved wife Elizabeth, 87, was not in good shape.  Shortly after her funeral, Rip, clearly, shaken, came to ask me, his “boy” pastor a theological question.  “Rob,” his trembling voice said, “Do you think in Heaven we’ll get to see the people who died before us?” 

          I don’t remember how I answered.  I could see that Rip was trying to cope with the deep sadness he felt in burying his bride of more than 60 years.  The question is one that’s been asked since the beginning of time.  Once this life is over, will we see our loved ones again.?  In his song “When I Get Where I’m Going,” Brad Paisley sings, “I’m Gonna walk with my Grandaddy.  And he’ll match me step for step. And I’ll tell him how I’ve missed him every minute since he left.  And then I’ll hug his neck.”  It’s something we all want.

          Five weeks from today, we relaunch our congregation as Hillside Church.  What will this new thing be all about?  It’s about what we say and do.  At Hillside, we follow Jesus, love others, and share hope.  Zoom on that last word – “hope.”  What is the substance of the hope we claim to have and share?

          Will I get to see my loved ones when I get where I’m going?  Will Rip still be Elizabeth’s husband?  Can I play catch with my great-grandfather, the only Detroit Tiger fan I know who watched Ty Cobb play?  Paul addressed this concern directly in 1 Thessalonians 4:17.  He assures believers we will reunite with those who have preceded us in death.  Jesus does not deal with this question in his confrontation with the Sadducees in Luke 20.  However, when we read a story like this, the question of afterlife comes to mind..

          Several things happen at the end of Luke 19 and into chapter 20 that set the course of the story leading up to Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion.  He weeps as he enters Jerusalem because God’s people fail to see what God is doing to save them from sin and death.  Next, Jesus enters the temple and violently evicts the moneychangers.  That week he daily taught in the temple court.  As he did, chief priests, scribes, and leaders of the people looked for the opportunity to kills Jesus, but were thwarted because he was so popular with crowds that were spellbound by his teaching.  

          Included in this leadership group opposed to Jesus were two political parties, the Sadducees and the Pharisees.  They generally hated each other.  The Sadducees were a wealthy, elite class and held most of the power.  There were more Pharisees.  They held greater influence in the countryside and outlying villages.  For all the confrontations Jesus had with Pharisees, he was much closer in thought to them than to the Sadducees. 

          The Sadducees only accepted Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy – the Torah.  They did not consider the Psalms or the prophets to be scripture.  Resurrection is not mentioned in the Torah, so the Sadducees had no place for it in their theology.

          By Luke 20:27, temple leaders have challenged Jesus’ authority and he has rejected theirs, calling them hypocrites and seeing them as opposing what God was trying to do.  The Sadducees wade into the arena.

          In Deuteronomy 25:5-10, a passage the Sadducees would have revered, it is decreed that if a man dies his wife shall marry his brother.  She is required to do this.  Any children the wife has with the brother will be credited to the man.  That man’s name would be remembered in Israel by his offspring.

          Marriage was not the result of romantic love.  Marriage was for procreation.  The woman probably had not chosen her first husband.  She was probably given to him by her father.  However she ended up marrying him, if he died, she had no choice.  Her duty was to marry his brother and have children with that brother so the original husband’s name lived on.  Marriage was for procreation.  The woman had no choice.  And the way one’s name lived on was in his offspring.

          Based on that law, the Sadducees came up with a hypothetical situation.  The oldest of seven brothers gets married, but dies childless.  The next brother does his duty and marries the woman, but also dies childless.  This continues until all seven and the woman are dead. 

          The Sadducees are so smart.  They’ve come up with a real doozy that will knock Jesus off his perch and will quiet their rivals, the Pharisees, who very much believed in resurrection just as Jesus did. 

          So, who does the woman belong to in the resurrection?  Jesus upends the Sadducees and their challenge by explaining that the age of resurrection is different than the present age, the age of death. Ever since Adam and Eve sinned, sin has been in the world, causing corruption and degradation of all living things, and bringing death.  This is a theological understanding of the world, not to be understood in place of the scientific explanations for the origin of the earth, the theory of evolution, or the way biology understands life cycles.  Read theologically, we see in Genesis the origin of sin and the way sin brings death.

          The present age lasts from the day Adam and Eve sinned to the end of history, the final resurrection, and the full inauguration of the eternal Kingdom of God.  The point Jesus makes in responding to the Sadducees is that the age of resurrection is fundamentally different than this age.  How?

          In this age we get married.  In Jesus’ day, marriage was for procreation and in ancient Israel it was to carry on a man’s name through his children.  Why?  In this age, the man would die.  In the age of resurrection Jesus says that man will not die.  No one does.  So marriage is irrelevant.  Procreation is not needed to carry on someone’s name. 

          One other fundamental difference: the woman will not be given in marriage by her father.  She will not be a possession of a husband required to do his bidding.  She will live freely as a child of God.  Jesus says she will be like the angels in this sense: she will not die. 

          Jesus was not saying she would become an angel. In Christ, we are sons and daughters of God, made in the image of God.  Angels are God’s servants, but are not God’s image bearers.  When we die, we do not go to heaven and become angels.  Hebrews chapter 1 is quite clear on this, and it is evident in the book of Revelation and other places.  We human beings fundamentally are different than angels.  In resurrection, we become more human – more of what God intended when creating humans in the first place. 

          That’s the hope on which we stand.  In Christ, we know that resurrection comes after death.  In resurrection, our physical bodies rise, take on flesh, are recognizable but also different.  We can be touched, but also can pass through locked doors as Jesus did after he rose in resurrection. 

The Bible does not promise that we go to Heaven when we die.  The Bible doesn’t tell us much about what happens to the soul at a person’s death.  From a few passages we can glean the after death our experience is in Jesus’ care and is peaceful and without suffering.  At funerals a grieving person will say of his lost loved one, “Well, she’s in a better place.”  I don’t know if it can be described as a “place.” All I can say with confidence is that our beloved dead are in the care of Jesus.  And that’s enough.

The Bible promises at the end, after this age is over, we rise as Jesus rose.  Our resurrected bodies cannot die, a point Jesus makes to the Sadducees.  We are free to live in joyful relationship with God and with each other.  Will Rip and Elizabeth again be husband and wife in the resurrection?  Jesus says no.  But, as Paul indicates in 1 Thessalonians, they will be together along with all of us who follow Jesus.  The reunion will be more joyful than relationships we have in these age, even our closest ones.  

Following Jesus and loving others, resurrection is the centerpiece of the hope we share.  It means freedom –oppressed people in this life will be liberated.  It means complete health as our bodies cannot be injured or killed; we are eternal. 

As we live here and now, awaiting that glorious day, the materialistic values of this age hold no sway over us.  As we live here in Christ we are already getting glimpses of resurrection joy that will be ours eternally and those glimpses of God shape who we are in the present.  We have a mission to glorify God and draw others to him that they might know the salvation he gives.  When we get hurt, and we will, or we meet others in pain and they’re all around us, we comfort each other, share with one another the love of Christ, and help each other see the promised eternity before us. 

We feel sadness.  We grieve, but not as those who have no hope. We have eternal hope for ourselves and those whom we love.  At Hillside Church, we share that hope with a dying world that badly needs it.

AMEN

The Apostle Paul defends His Belief in Resurrection

Accused of Hope (Acts 23:6-11; Acts 26:6-19)

Sunday, May 5, 2019

            This is what I want to see happen: you, on trial!  And I hope you are convicted.  Guilty!  That’s my hope: that you know the full weight of standing utterly exposed, and with nowhere to turn, you have to face up to reality.  It’s true!

            Ok, what’s this about?

            Paul lived in the first century.  He traveled around the nations along the Eastern and Northern shorelines of the Mediterranean Sea, Israel, Lebanon, the independent city-states in what is today Turkey, Greece; why?  Paul was going from city to city talking about Jesus.  He felt driven to do this.  He made tents and sold them so he would have money to eat and travel and tell people about Jesus. 

Previously, Paul had been a dignified Pharisee rising rapidly in that Jewish religious sect.  He even acquired arrest papers from the temple authorities to bring followers of Jesus to trial for the crime of proclaiming Jesus “Lord” and declaring him to be the Messiah.  The high priest felt this message was so disruptive people preaching it had to be stopped, even if it meant execution by stoning. 

That happened to the leader of the first appointed deacons.  Stephen was stoned to death for preaching about Jesus. Paul, then a young and up-and-comer among the Pharisees approved of Stephen’s killing and even held the cloaks of those throwing the stones.  Then, with armed troops, he headed to Damascus to arrest more Christians.

On the road to that city, the risen Lord Jesus, appeared to Paul in a blinding flash of light.  Paul realized he was on the wrong side.  He stopped persecuting Christians and became one.  Being blinded by the light of Jesus helps one see and once Paul recovered his senses and his vision, everything was clear.  The Jesus who met him was the same as the one who had been crucified a few years earlier.  The claims his disciples made were absolutely true.  Jesus was Messiah!  Jesus was Lord!

That’s when Paul started going everywhere, telling whomever would listen what he had learned.  His adventures in following Jesus are told in the book of Acts beginning in chapter 9.  By chapter 23, we have gone with Paul all the way to the Greek city of Corinth, and all the way back to Jerusalem.  A group of Jews, upset with the message Paul preached, followed him to the city.  They riled up a mob at the temple with the false accusation that Paul had defiled the temple.  He did no such thing, but they convinced a crowd he had.  It’s the one crime the Romans allowed the Jews to punish by execution.  These crazies could kill Paul without repercussions from the Roman overlords who controlled Jerusalem.  And they tried. 

Acts 21 - “They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple; while they were trying to kill him word came to the tribune of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in an uproar.  Immediately he took soldiers and centurions and ran down to [investigate the ruckus]” (21:30-32).  The tribune was a Roman military commander charged by his superiors with maintaining order.  He did not care if the temple leaders, Jews, killed one person, but if a riot ensued, he would be punished, maybe himself executed.

Paul was taken into Roman custody.  The Jews demanded he be executed.  The Romans decided to examine Paul.  “Examine” means they were going to whip him with a thick knotted chord until he admitted what he had done.  That’s when Paul dropped his bomb.  He asked the centurion holding the whip, the one about to turn his body into a bloody pulp, “Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who is uncondemned” (22:25)?  Oh boy!

The centurion ran to the tribune, his superior, and demanded to know, “What are you doing?  This man is a citizen!”  The tribune didn’t have a very enviable job.  He would get in serious trouble if the nationals, the Jews, weren’t kept in order.  He would get in even more trouble if he mistreated a citizen, and Paul was a citizen.  He immediately halted all proceedings and interrogated Paul gently, but before the questioning was over, it was as if Paul had interrogated him.  Paul was a natural born citizen.  This tribune had had to bribe someone to buy his citizenship papers.

This improbable series of events is how Paul ended up on trial before the Romans accused of committing blasphemy against the Jewish god.  The mob of Jewish roughians could not slow down Paul’s preaching about Jesus.  The mighty Romans, feared by all, had no control and seemingly were controlled by this outcast Jesus-loving Pharisee.  How did this happen?

Paul gives an indication in the course of his numerous defenses.  When he revealed he was a Roman citizen, he then appealed his case to the emperor in Rome, which was his right.  The tribune moved him to the city of Caesarea, not far from Jerusalem.  There he was held for a couple of years, long enough for a new Tribune to come into the position and for Paul to have numerous opportunities to speak about his faith in Christ.  

In one of those speeches, to a primarily Jewish audience, he says, “I am on trial concerning the hope of the resurrection of the dead” (23:6).  Later, this time speaking before King Agrippa Herod and Roman Governor Portius Festus, he said, “It is for this hope, you excellency, that I am accused by the Jews!  Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead” (26:7-8)?

I am here, accused, because I believe God raised Jesus!

Why do you find it so hard to believe God resurrected the dead?

Paul believed the resurrection of Jesus is what led to him being attacked by both the Jews and the Romans.  And the resurrection is the reason he was so glad to be right where he was - testifying before the most powerful, influential leaders in society.

Our core confession is that Jesus is Lord.  He died on the cross for our sins and he rose from death in resurrection.  His resurrection is a prelude to the resurrection of all people, some raised to everlasting life with him and some to eternal separation from God and we call that eternal separation Hell.  

Seminary Professor Rodney Reeves tells of one of his fishing buddies from his days as a pastor.  This man said to him, “If it weren’t for the resurrection, I wouldn’t be a believer.”[i]  Have you ever thought about it that way?  Would you be a follower of Jesus if the resurrection had not happened?  

This friend of Pastor Rodney had lived a hard life.  His father murdered his mother and then took his own life.  He and his younger brother ended up growing up in poverty.  He was able to climb out of his painful beginnings and go to college and build a life.  His younger brother didn’t do so well.  He drifted from struggle to struggle, constantly battling substance abuse, and finally dying at a young age.  His death was connected to his own bad choices.  In spite of all the loss, this man lived with a cheerful, joyful outlook.  He told Pastor Rodney, “The Resurrection of Jesus is my only hope.”

We believe Jesus rose from death, and at the end of history, on the last day, all who have faith in Christ will rise as he did.  We believe that future hope, but what about today?  How does the resurrection empower Paul to take on Jerusalem temple authorities and Roman Tribunes and governors?  How does our belief in Jesus conquering death help someone like Pastor Rodney’s friend overcome such a tough life and live in joy, today?  How does resurrection fill our present with hope?

Theology professor Kelly Kapic of Covenant College wants Christians to understand this.  She writes, “The work of Christ ... is not just something done over our heads or merely long ago and far away.  United to Christ by the Spirit, we are to live as God’s children now. ... Christian devotion must always be shaped by the resurrection of Christ.”[ii]   The resurrection reminds us that God did not simply do something in the past but is also actively working in our individual lives and church lives now.

            The great reformer Martin Luther wrote that we Christians should live an eternal Easter life in which we continue in the peace and joy of the Holy Spirit as long as we remain on earth.[iii]  And I love Rodney Reeves’ way of putting it.  “The resurrection of Christ is an unstoppable work of God in the life of every believer.”[iv]

            I hope you’re feeling that unstoppable force!  I hope you have opened your heart to Jesus, received forgiveness of sins, and now are walking in a real relationship with the resurrected one.

            At our church leaders summit in March, all elders and deacons present agreed upon a mission statement for our church based upon what we do.  What do we at HillSong church do?

• We follow Jesus.
• We love others.
• We share hope.

            That’s what Paul was doing when he was on trial, sharing hope that he based on one reality.  Jesus had risen from death.  Because of the resurrection, he could position himself to talk to the Roman emperor about Jesus.  Because the Holy Spirit of the risen Christ was with him, he was empowered.  Because Jesus rose, we too are empowered.  At Christmas time, we sing Emmanuel, God with us.  Because of the resurrection, today, the first Sunday of May and every day, we have God with us. 

            No matter how hard or discouraging life becomes, I long for each and every one of us to live in hope.  I pray we will be found guilty - guilty of the hope of eternal life. And I pray that hope pours forth from us so that we draw people to Jesus.

AMEN

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[i] R.Reeves (2011), Spirituality According to Paul, InterVarsity Press (Downer’s Grove, IL), p.173.

[ii] K. Papic Christianity Today, “Is the Cross Enough” (April 2019), p.46-49.

[iii] M. Luther, Epistle Sermons Vol. II, Epiphany, Easter, and Pentecost, translated by John Nicholas Lenker (1909), The Luther Press (Minneapolis), p.178.

[iv] Reeves, p.175.