Do You Believe this Nonsense

Do You Believe this Nonsense?

Luke 24:1-11; Acts 17:32

Did you happ= en to notice the title of the sermon today? It asks a question: “Do You Believe this Nonsense?” I would be interested to know your initial reaction to that title—if it seemed a bit harsh or confrontational. Did you thin= k to yourself, “Surely the preacher could have said that better, especiall= y on Easter Sunday?!?”

Well, I get that.&nbs= p; In fact, I actually shortened the title at one point to just “= Do You Believe?” But then I changed it back. Hopefully, o= ur text for this morning will make it clear why.

Recently, in our Wednesday Bible study, we read this v= erse from Acts 17. The Apostle Pau= l is preaching this brand new Gospel in Athens. Listen to the reaction he gets the= re: “When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but ot= hers said, "We want to hear you again on this subject." (Acts 17:32)

Many people = still react this way to the story of the crucified, but risen, Savior. Some sneer and say, “No way!” Others just remain aloof from the message, always needing a little more information. We shouldn’t rush to judgmen= t, however, especially in light of Luke’s account of the resurrection. Listen:

Luke 24:1-11 ¹On th= e first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they = had prepared and went to the tomb. ²They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, ³but when they entered, they did not find the bod= y of the Lord Jesus. ⁴While they were wondering about this, suddenly = two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. ⁵In their fright the wom= en bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "= Why do you look for the living among the dead? ⁶He is not here; he h= as risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ⁷'The Son of Man must be delive= red into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.'" ⁸Then they remembered his words.

⁹When they came back= from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. ^=
10It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with t= hem who told this to the apostles. ¹¹But they did not believe the wo= men, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.

That’s why I put that word back in the title.&nbs= p; And it’s why I feel compelled to raise the question again: “Do We Believe this Nonsense?”= Here it is: Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of the Heavenly Fath= er, took our sins upon Himself and suffered and died on a cross. His lifeless body was placed in a = tomb, the door was sealed, and guards were posted.

But on the morning of the third day, God raised His Son from the dead. Jesus Christ came back to life, an= d He’s alive today. He lays claim to= the lives of all of us who receive Him by faith, following Him as Savior and as= Lord. So, on this Easter Sunday, reach d= own deep and take hold of your truest and most heart-felt convictions and deter= mine your answer to this question: “Do You Believe this Nonsense?” DO YOU?

Maybe we should remind ourselves here that whether we believe in the resurrection= or not, it won’t change what happened.&= nbsp; You may not believe in paying taxes, either, but I would encourage y= ou to get them in soon. You̵= 7;ll be held accountable for them--whether or not you believe in them.

And I certainly would not imply that believing in the resurrection is easy. We all know about Thomas’ doubts—‘not until I touch His wounds will I believe,” he said. (John 20:25) According = to Luke, though, they ALL had their doubts—serious ones. Again, “…they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.” (Luke 24:11)

If you think this was easy, try putting yourself in their place. Let’s say you run into someo= ne in the grocery store. She mentio= ns a friend whose funeral you attended a few days earlier. She tells you that she just saw th= is friend—swears it’s true! She’s alive again—and looking quite well, especially to = have been dead just last week.

Believing is not easy, friends. Faith t= akes work. It forces us to ask tou= gh questions. It’s why so = many, like the people in Athens long ago, reject the Gospel altogether, and others keep asking for a little more “info” before they decide.

Dr. L. D. Johnson, who was Chaplain at Furman University back whe= n Pam and I were students there, tells this story about his grandchildren in his = book called Moments of Reflection:

Laura, five, and Carol, nine, were discussing the Easter bunny as they rode along in the back seat of our car. Carol said she didn̵= 7;t believe in the Easter bunny. = Laura called to the front seat, “Grandma, do you believe in the Easter bunny?”

“No,” Marion answered, “I don’t.” “Do= you believe in the Easter bunny, Pop?” she asked me.

Being the eldest and wisest of several theologians in our family, I took it upon myself to lecture on the origins = and meanings of the Easter bunny. It would have been a dilly, but I only got a couple of sentences in when Laura= , sensing where that was going, interrupted: “Do you believe? That’s all I want to kno= w.”

It’s not just a cute story. It rea= lly gets to the heart of the decision that each of us must make: do we believe = in Easter? Do we accept by faith= the Good News that Jesus Christ conquered the grave and is now our risen Lord a= nd Savior?

Do we believe it, friends, to the point of staking our lives and futures upon it? Or, when you really push = on this, do we find the Easter Gospel a little too much to swallow?

Please don’t dismiss the question because, well…maybe you’d just= rather not be bothered with a lot of thinking today. The question is too important and = it isn’t going away. Sooner or later, = you have to deal with it. Sooner = is better, of course; and today, Easter Sunday, is best of all! So, DECIDE!

1. Let’s try something. To get at the answer to our big question, let’s try breaking it down int= o a few closely related questions. Like this one: DO YOU BELIEVE THE NONSE= NSE THAT OUR SINS CAN BE FORGIVEN? Do you?

The Easter story, you see, makes the audacious claim that all the harmful effec= ts of sin and evil are overcome by Christ’s death and resurrection. There is plenty of evidence that w= e live in “a world gone wild.” The news is filled with examples of fallen people wreaking havoc in a fallen world. Sin takes its t= oll, so we can’t deal with the Easter question until we take sin seriously.

But many people don’t do that anymore.&n= bsp; The word is seldom used. “Sin” just doesn’t “ring a bell” for us today.

It was back in the 1970’s, though, that Dr. Karl Menninger—speakin= g of questions--wrote a book entitled, “Whatever Became of Sin?” Now, there’s a question for us.

Dr. Menninger questioned the wisdom of dropping the word “sin” from= our vocabulary. Eliminating the w= ord, he pointed out, doesn’t eliminate the problem! But there’s a danger that if= the word goes away, we might forget what the problem is!

If continuing to speak of “sin” in the 21^st Century see= ms like nonsense to us, then Easter won’t make any sense either. In fact, nothing that transpired d= uring Holy Week “adds up” unless the problem of sin gets included in = the equation. Do we believe that = sin is still a problem in our lives and that only Christ can overcome it?

In the early 1800s, one out of every six women died in childbirth from somethi= ng called "childbirth fever." In those days, a doctor’s dai= ly routine began in the dissecting room, performing autopsies. From there, the doctor would often= make rounds to examine women who were pregnant.

It seems that no one knew to wash their hands first...at least not until a doc= tor named Ignaz Semmelweis began to practice strict hand washing. He was the first doctor to associat= e the lack of hand washing with the huge number of deaths. Dr. Semmelweis only lost one in fif= ty new mothers, yet his colleagues laughed at his suggestion that hand-washing was= making the difference.

On one occasion, he pleaded with his fellow physicians, saying, "Childbir= th fever is caused by decomposed material conveyed to a womb...I have shown ho= w it can be prevented. I have prov= en all that I’ve said. But whi= le we talk, talk, talk, women are dying… I’m not asking for anything world shaking, only that you wash your hands."

Scripture says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us o= ur sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (I John 1:9)

This may sound like nonsense to some, but I believe it with all my heart. And I’m so grateful that in = spite of the ugliness of our sin, God doesn’t require anything “world shaking” from us in order to forgive our sin. In fact, when we believe the Gospe= l, confess our sin, and ask to be forgiven, He does the washing.

How liberating when we take this to heart and believe it! Do you? Do you know in your heart that you= have confessed your sin and received the cleansing grace of forgiveness? Do you believe? If so, good; but there’s mor= e:

2. DO YOU BELIEVE THE NONSENSE THAT <= u>DEATH CAN BE CONQUERED? = Now, this is all wrapped up with that last question—the one about sins bei= ng forgiven.

You see, it was not God’s intention for us to die. It wasn’t His fault we chose= to sin; but He’s always been clear that “the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23)

We know that as a verse in Romans, but it’s also back there in Genesis.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> ‘If you eat from the tree of= the knowledge of good and evil, you will die,’ God said (Genesis 2:17)--w= hich, of course, like children being told not to touch a hot stove, they promptly= did!

Since sin and death are all wrapped up together, God’s answer for this destructive pair is two inseparable events. Jesus’ death, and His resurr= ection:
1) The wages of sin were paid in full when Jesus Christ died on the cross f= or us.
2) Then death itself was defeated when on that first Easter morning, Christ= rose from the grave.
I mean, again, if you choose to believe!

I guess we could get around the sin question by just saying we don’t believe there’s such a thing as sin.= But, for obvious reasons, that won’t work so well with death.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> We need a better answer for death = than we don’t believe it exists.

There’s a story about a man who had been “boozing it up.” A police officer spotted him looki= ng for something. He was down on his= hands and knees as he explained to the officer that he was looking for his keys. =

The officer asked, "Where did you lose them?" The drunk flailed his arm, "Ab= out two blocks that way." Th= e officer, doing his best to suppress a smile, asked, "So why are you searching f= or them here?" To which the= drunk replied, "There is no street light down there!"

Well, we look in the wrong places too sometimes. We may search for answers to life’s biggest dilemmas in places where answers can’t be found.= And when it comes to life’s ultimate dilemma, death, there’s only one answer to be found. And it’s found in only one place—where the Light is…the Light of the World: Jesus the Chri= st, our Risen Lord. Do you believ= e this?

3. One more question: DO YOU BELIEVE THE NONSENSE THAT L= IFE CAN BE ABUNDANT? In Christ, our sins are forgiven—As Christians, we believe this. In Him, death is conquered and the= gift of eternal life is ours—we believe this too.

But there is more to this Easter Gospel, and you don’t want to miss this part. In Christ, we experienc= e life now in a whole new dimension. It’s a wonderful truth that we can live after we die. We look forward to our heavenly ho= me, and rightfully so!

But it is an equally great truth, friends, that through the power of ChristR= 17;s resurrection, we can have abundant life now. It’s so ea= sy to miss this in our world because, truthfully, we have such an abundance already—an abundance of stuff; an abundance of experiences too--but l= isten: that’s not abundant LIFE.

You don’t have to be a “believer” in anything to have loads of neat stuff and exciting experiences, but these will never take the place of= abundant life! In fact, if we’re= not careful, all the stuff and experiences will get in the way of abundant life—the quality of life that Jesus gives us—and most of us kno= w this!

April 6, 1994 marked= the beginning of some very dark days for Rwanda= , a small country in central Africa. For the next hundred days, up to 80= 0,000 Tutsis were killed by Hutu militia. Most of the dead were hacked to death with machetes. It was genocide of monumental proportions, carried out as the rest of the world watched but did little to stop it.

A young Christian ca= lled Benyoni lived there. Benyoni = means "Little Bird"-- he was very musical. He was also the principal of a school, but educated people were persecuted and= routinely executed during those awful times. Benyoni was at school with eleven of his teachers one day when soldi= ers came and took them away. Beny= oni began praying for his friends, his fellow teachers and their families; but he mai= nly prayed for the soldiers. =

They heard this and = considered setting them free; but they had their orders…and knew that failing in their mission would cost them their lives. So they marched the group outsid= e of town. When they stopped, Beny= oni asked the soldiers if he could sing for them.

He began singing a h= ymn that many of us know:
“Out of my bondage, sorrow and night, Jesus, I come; Jesus I come.
Into Thy freedom, gladness and light, Jesus, I come to Thee.=

The other teachers b= egan singing with him. They sang t= he last verse:
“Out of the fear and dread of= the tomb, Jesus, I come; Jesus, I come.
Into the joy and light of Thy home, Jesus, I come to Thee.
Out of the depths of ruin untold, Into the peace of Thy sheltering fold,
Ever Thy glorious face to behold, Jesus, I come to Thee.
= &nb= sp; = &nb= sp; = = &nb= sp; = &nb= sp; = When they finished, the soldiers raised their rifles and shot them to death= .
We only know this story because one of those soldiers was so moved he sought out an old Quaker missionary he had met, and he told her what had happened.= He asked, "What kind of God do= you serve who could give that kind of life to those who follow him?" She l= ed him to Christ, and soon he was telling others about Jesus. Before long, though, he was also sh= ot to death.

The Christian witnes= s of Benyoni, the other teachers, and the soldier who came to Christ, still stands today. We continue to be inspired by their courageous faith. These were believers, friends. They obvi= ously believed!

There are many thing= s that don’t make sense about this Gospel—until you believe it, until you place your faith in Christ Jesus, the Savior who died to take away our sin, and lives again to give us eternal life—not just when we die.&n= bsp; The life He gives begins now--abundant life--for each day we live.

This may seem to you= like nonsense--but trust Christ. F= ollow Christ. Love and obey Him as = the Savior and Lord of your life. And a wonderful thing happens. Jesus Christ begins to make all the sense in the world. In fact, you cannot imagine your l= ife without Him!

Hymn No. 310…..Jesus, I Come to Thee