Sing a song of Easter
Posted by: henkf <henkf@...>
SING A SONG THIS EASTER
Christians often regret that the world has secularized Christmas. They
regret that the world has taken Christ out of Christmas.
The world hasn't secularized Easter because this world totally denies the Easter message.
This world is dumbfounded at the news that a dead man has been restored
to life. What happened the first Easter morning is not a "near-death
experience." Jesus Christ had been crucified on Friday. He was pronounced
dead, taken down from the cross, and buried. When the women went to the tomb
early that Easter morning the last thing they expected to find was an empty
tomb. That's not the way it works in this world! And the last thing that
the women expected to hear was an angel meeting them with a question, "Why do
you seek the living among the dead? He is not here; He's risen!"
Today that message comes to you who in many ways reflect the world in
which you live. You live in a world that thinks dead means dead and gone.
You live in a world that has no real perspective beyond the here and now.
You live in world that has tried to secularize the church and, to our sorrow,
has succeeded in more ways than we care to admit. But this world can never
secularize the resurrected Christ of Easter. If a tomb cannot hold Him, the
world's opinions certainly will not confine Him. Before Him this world
stands dumbfounded, unable to comprehend that life and hope and joy is more
than a fleeting sigh. But on Easter the resurrected Christ makes the people
of the church sing in joy, in hope and in victory.
The church gathered in praise is the subject of Revelation chapter five.
And what a great text of Easter! It is a vision of heaven that God gave to
John the disciple of Jesus. It begins this way: "In the right hand of Him
who sat on the throne I saw a scroll, with writing both on the inside and
outside, sealed with seven seals, And I saw a mighty angel, calling out with
a loud voice, "Who is worthy to open the scroll and break the seals on it?"
Now I ask you, what organization in this world has such a vision? Only
the church. Only the church. Here God is pictured on His throne. He holds
a sealed scroll containing all His counsels, all His wisdom, all His
knowledge. But that scroll is sealed, for God appears inaccessible to this
world. All that divine counsel, oh how we could use it in our troubled
world! All that counsel sealed up and hidden away. A pathetic situation.
John said "I cried bitterly because no one was found who was worthy to open
the scroll or look into it." Oh what a pathetic situation! What a miserable
world! The counsel of God sealed beyond our knowing.
But then one of the elders (the elders represent the people of the
church who have died and entered heaven) one of the elders said to John,
"Stop crying!" Then he pointed to a Lamb, of all things a Lamb, who was in
the midst of this heavenly scene. And John says that this Lamb "went and
took the scroll from the right hand of Him who sat on the throne."
This is what our suffering world is waiting to hear. This is the reason
to stop crying! This inspires hope! This is the joy of being in the church.
And this is why the church today sings! There is someone who can open and
reveal to us the counsels of God. There is someone who has all power, all
wisdom, and shares it with a miserable and suffering world. That someone is
the Lamb who was slain but now lives! That lamb is Jesus Christ.
God sent His Son Jesus Christ into our world like a lamb. He was
innocent and sinless. He loved His heavenly Father and wronged no one. This
Lamb of God was killed, sacrificed on a cross, because He had come to take
away the sins of the world. He died. He died especially for your sins.
When you've done wrong, when you've failed to do right. When you just simply
failed because you're human and not God, when you thought you were
accountable only to yourself for all those sins and more the Lamb was
sacrificed.
In so doing, the Lamb redeemed you, He brought you out of sin and guilt,
out of unending death and misery. Where you are deep in sin, the Lamb brings
you out with the power to conquer sin and temptation. Where you are lost in
guilt, He brings you out with words of absolution. When you stand deep in
tears and hopeless because of death, the Lamb sends you this word: "Stop
crying!" "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here; He is
risen. Just as He told you!"
So we sing! When I say "we sing," I mean the
Church of all ages sings. You and I, who now find ourselves in the troubles
and hardships of daily life, we gather and sing of our Redeemer who brings us
out to a lively hope and an unending victory. The church in heaven is
singing too. All those who have died trusting in Jesus to save them are
singing with us. For Jesus Christ is not dead but lives, and all who die in
Jesus are living now with Him.
St. John records the heavenly chorus. "You are worthy to take the
scroll and open the seals on it because You were slain; and with your blood
You bought us from every tribe and language and people and nation to be God's
own; and You made them a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will
continue to rule as kings on the earth."
Who else in the world can sing this song of Easter, but the people of
God who know His redemption. What organization, but the redeemed church,
gathers in song around One who came not to rule with power but to serve and
to die? Who other than the Lamb can unite people from different lands and
backgrounds? Oh, how we need that today! Who other than Jesus Christ can
conquer the barriers of tongues with songs of praise! How our lamenting
world needs to unite in praise! Who other than Jesus Christ can bring people
together in a victory that continues into all eternity? There is no one who
can do this except the resurrected Jesus Christ.
There is no one who sings the song of Easter like the people of God, His
church. We want you to sing with us. Whether you today are in tears or joy,
whether in the shadow of death or the exuberance of life, whether surrounded
with love or feeling alone and abandoned, we invite you to join the
countless throngs who over the centuries have bowed before Jesus in worship
for the salvation that He alone brings. Join us as an amazed world hears us
sing: "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and
wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing."
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