The sermon went better than I would have expected given the struggle I had to develop the sermon this week. This is the first of several sermons I will preach on Easter possibilities.
“Easter Possibilities: Believing and Living” April 16, 2023; SAPC, Denton; Dr. Richard B. Culp; John 20: 19-31; I Peter 1: 3-9
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 20After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” 24But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”
26A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 27Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” 28Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” 30Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
Introduction:
We read a familiar story this morning.
the disciples behind locked doors out of fear and the resurrected Christ appearing to the disciples. Fascinating scene.
then the Thomas part of the story: he misses the first appearance of the resurrected Christ and upon hearing about it demands that he see the wounds himself.
then, the resurrected Christ appears again and calls on Thomas to believe.
Thomas cries out, “My Lord and my God” - a full-fledged profession of faith in the resurrected Christ.
A story about the disciples trying to figure out what to do in the aftermath of Christ’s resurrection.
A story we often read the week after Easter because we are doing the same thing - trying to figure out what to do in the aftermath of Christ’s resurrection.
Move 1: the question of the day seems to be: how does Easter change your life?
a. Sermon series: Easter possibilities.
1. Let your imagination run wild.
2. what does it mean that you follow the resurrected Christ?
that we worship a God of resurrection.
that the Holy Spirit moves among us guiding, directing, and calling us to be resurrection people.
what Easter possibilities do you see for your life?
3. do not be limited by the preaching!
4. We will try to point to Easter possibilities, but Imagine your own Easter possibilities.
5. pastors’ Class began a study of the Apostles’ Creed today.
fittingly, the topic of the first week was the opening words of the creed - “I believe.”
Albert Curry Winn quotes John Mackay, former president of Princeton Seminary: some people try to be Christian believers in the balcony, but where it matters is when we hit the road (A Christian Primer, 87).
6. do not just imagine Easter possibilities, but imagine how those possibilities are lived out in your daily lives.
7. how does following a God of resurrection change how you live each day?
Easter possibilities!
b. Letter we read from Peter this morning reveals that the early church struggles like we do to imagine Easter possibilities.
1. Life among pagans meant life among the very tolerant.
2. Anything goes - did not like what was perceived as any demand to believe.
3. Early church trying to claim their faith in the one God of resurrection.
4. Full of possibilities, that possibilities tied to how the God of resurrection is at work in the world.
b. The early church tied its faith to baptism.
1. As we read in this first letter of Peter’s, God had given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
2. New birth - baptism.
3. Their hope in the God of resurrection,
our hope in the God of resurrection is tied to our baptism in which we are united with Christ in his death and his resurrection through our baptism.
3. During the season of Easter, we will have “thanksgiving for baptism” as part of our worship service.
4. A weekly reminder of the new life to which we are invited.
As you imagine your Easter possibilities, you might start at the baptismal font, laying claim to how you are united with Christ in his death and resurrection and how that changes your life.
Move 2: Easter possibility of believing!
a. in the novel, A Prayer for Owen Meany, the title character notes that “everyone needs a little proof.”
Owen then goes on to quote the local pastor, who told him “Faith itself is a miracle,” said Pastor Merrill. “The first miracle that I believe in is my own faith itself.”
1. Believing is both what we are called to do and a gift of the resurrected Christ.
2. We see this in the story from the Gospel of John.
2. the disciples are scared and behind locked doors. Maybe too scared to believe.
But the resurrected Christ appears to them to give them the power to believe.
3. Thomas demands to see the wounds, but then the story never mentions Thomas touching the wounds.
4. somehow the presence of the resurrected Christ brings with it the gift of believing.
3. Jesus says, “Blessed are those who believe without seeing.”
4. We note that the Holy Spirit is given to them, to us.
5. Believing is not something we do on our own, but a gift given to us by the power of the Holy Spirit.
b. Albert Winn likens believing to trusting.
1. To believe is to step out in trust.
2. to trust that God is the God of resurrection.
3. To trust that the God of resurrection is ever before us.
4. to trust that the Holy Spirit will guide us.
Easter possibilities - we can believe in the god of resurrection because God is still among us by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Move 3: Living like Jesus.
a. Jesus tells the disciples and tells us: “As the Father has sent me, so I have sent you!”
1. We are sent to live like Jesus.
2. I am reminded of a story told by Donald Miller in his book Blue Like Jazz:
“I have never liked jazz music because Jazz music doesn’t resolve. But I was outside Bagdad Theater in Portland one night when I saw a man playing the saxophone. I stood there for fifteen minutes and he never opened his eyes. After that, I loved jazz music. Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself. It is as if they are showing you the way.” (Thomas Steagald, Feasting on the Word, Year !, Vol. 2, 389).
3. Jesus has shown us the way through his life of love and service.
4. Now, he calls us to a life of love and service.
5. WE could have been instructed by that just by seeing how Jesus lived his life.
6. But now, we know the resurrected Christ, and the possibilities are endless.
b. As I say that, I am reminded of a comment by the great preacher and story tell Fred Craddock:
Craddock notes - “to drink the cup in one swallow is far easier than to sip the cup for 40 years.” (Ted Wardlaw, 10/6/16 in sermon to Grace Presbytery).
1. Easter is not just about one moment of believing in the resurrection, but a life of living into the Easter possibilities of following the God of resurrection.
2. what Easter possibilities do you see for your life?
conclusion: Christ is risen. He is risen, indeed.
It still matters every day of our lives.
3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
6In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, 7so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, 9for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
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