9th April 2023 Easter Celebration & Communion - Dave Food - Living as Easter People

Living as Easter people? Do we live as Easter people? And that's not

just on Easter Sunday. Today is the ninth of April. It's a particular

day in a particular year, the ninth of April twenty twenty three. Maybe

you need to market in your calendars because I want to ask are we living

as Easter people? Now? I want to do a little bit of a

let me call it a little bit of research. As as I share this

this morning. Sometimes people will tell you things in advance, something's coming,

Oh, there's a party coming up, and so you'll get given some advanced

notice. And then sometimes we'll be reviewing after the event what happened. So

I want to give you a bit of a preview and a postview, and

then I want to look at the Easter story. If we start in Jeremiah

thirty one, verses one to six, it says this at the same time,

says the Lord. I will be the god of all the families of

Israel, and they shall be my people. Thus says the Lord. The

people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness Israel. When I gave

to him rest, the Lord appeared of old to me saying, yes,

I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness I

have drawn you again. I will build you and shall be rebuilt. Oh

Virgin of Israel, you shall again be adorned with your tambourines, and you

shall go forth in the dances of those who rejoice. You shall say,

plant vines in the mountains of Samaria. The planters shall plant and eat of

them as ordinary food. For there shall be a day when the watchmen will

cry on Mount Ephraim, arise and let us go to Zion to the Lord,

our God. There's a time when we need to sell out. There's

a promise that Christ is coming, and so when we celebrate, it says

there there shall be a day. That day we celebrate to day, there

shall be a day. This was prophesied before. This wasn't something that they

knew afterwards, and they said there was a day. There shall be a

day, and there's a day to celebrate. We know how to celebrate parties,

don't we. Church. We give gifts, don't we, And we

go and we celebrate. Maybe some people will dance. You don't want to

see my dancing, by the way. Maybe some people will bring a cake.

We had a celebration last Sunday. Anybody remember what that celebration was.

The Latin group was three years old. Yes, and there was a big

cake, So congratulations on it. You may have seen it in the slides

before the beginning of the service. And they sang and they shared and they

celebrated. We know how to celebrate. So what are we celebrating today?

Are we truly Easter people? If? Sometimes it's very easy to get the

wrong idea about celebration. In the war in nineteen forty four, there was

a British soldier who was called Basil Spence and as he was in the as

he was there in the battlefield, he turned to someone. He was an

architect in his in peacetime and as a fellow soldier turned to him and said,

what are you going to do when the war is over. I don't

know whether you know the name Basil Spence, but he said, I'm going

to build a cathedral. Now, there hadn't been a cathedral built in the

UK for centuries, hadn't been a new cathedral for a long time. He

was the architect who designed Coventry Cathedral. Now, for anybody's been to Coventry

Cathedral. There's the old cathedral, the ruins that are still there as they

were as they were bombed in the war, and then out of the ashes

of this this cathedral comes to the new cathedral. It's the most beautiful cathedral,

one of my favorite places. I've got personal connections with it because when

it was opened, Benjamin Britain wrote a piece called the War Were Requiem and

it was first performed in Coventry Cathedral the Sign of Reconciliation. My dad sang

in that first concert. And then if you go to Copty Cathedral you'll see

these beautiful stained glass windows up the wall, and if you look on the

floor you will find pennies in the floor. There are old pennies. I

don't know that they must be stuck in the floor and they follow a line.

And as a coorist, when I used to sing in Copontry Cathedral,

my job was to walk and follow the pennies. I used to walk up

these greatly guals and then walk around and then walk back down again. As

I was singing, the pennies were there to keep us in line. And

so Coventry Cathedral is a special place for me. If it's a special place

for many people because actually if you go into the old cathedral, which has

no roof upon it, now there is a cross there and that cross is

made from the roof beams of when the church was burnt down and those beams

fell to the ground that they landed like a cross, and they stayed there

in the ground. And then in the middle of that cross are two nails

as a sign of how Christ was nailed to the cross. Those two nails

are from the original roof beams of the cathedral. And Basil Spence said,

I'm going to build a cathedral. There hadn't been a cathedral built in in

the UK since Saint Paul's three hundred and fifty years earlier, and Basil Spence

was filled with inspiration. He won a competition, so it wasn't just he

was appointed. He won a competition to design commentry. His designs won the

prize and it's one of the most beautiful, peaceful places. He had direction,

he had intent, he had purpose. Now, I don't know if

you think about the disciples as they were. They've been celebrating with Jesus,

they've been out with Jesus, they've been talking with him, and then he

was a cue, and then he was brought before Pilot, and then he's

crucified. They went from a great place of walking into the city together and

celebrating their savior, their teacher, and now he's crucified, gone from that

great high to a great loan. Now we have the privilege of hindsight instead

of foresight, which we read in here in Jeremiah. We have the privilege

of hindsight. So let's look at some hindsight. Then, as we turned

to Acts chapter ten, verses thirty four to thirty three, Peter opened his

mouth and said, in truth, I perceived that God shows us no partiality.

But in every nation, whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by

him. The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace

through Christ. He is lord of all that the word you know, which

was proclining through all Judea, began from Galilee after the baptism which John had

preached. How God had anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with

power, who went about doing good and heeding all who were oppressed by the

devil. For God was with him, and we are witnesses. We are

Easter people of all things, which he did both in the land of the

Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging him on a tree.

Him God raised up on the third day and showed him openly, not to

all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us

who ate and drank with him. After he rose from the dead, and

he commanded to us to preach to the people and to testify that he's he

who was ordained by God to be judge of the living and the dead.

To him, all the prophets witnessed that through his name, whoever believes in

him will receive freedom and remission from sins hindsight. Now they can look back,

they can say this is the story. But when we get to Easter

weekend, imagine and I played that beautiful recording of Friday is here, but

Sunday is coming. We go from that place of desperation, of hopelessness,

of where it's all lost, to a place where he is risen. I'm

not going to read all of the let me just take us there first of

all, but I'll point you to John chapter twenty, verses one to eighteen

I'm not going to read all of them, but let me just start off.

The day by now is the first day of the week. Mary Magdalene

went to the tomb early whilst it was still dark, and saw that the

stone had been taken away from the tomb. Then she ran and came to

Simon Peter and to the other disciples whom Jesus loved, and said to them,

they have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do

not know where they have laid him. Peter therefore went out and the other

disciple, and they were going to the tomb. So they both ran together,

and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first, and

he, stooping down and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying there,

Yet he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came following him, went

into the tomb and saw the linen cloths lying there, and the handkerchiefs that

had been round his head. Then another disciple, who came to the tomb

first, went in also and saw and believed, for as yet they did

not know the scripture that he must rise again from the dead. And when

the disciples went again to their own homes. But Mary stood outside the tomb

weeping, and she wept, and she stooped down and looked into the tomb,

and she saw two angels in white sitting, one other head and the

other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain. And they said

to her, woman, why are you weeping? And she said to them

because they have taken away my lord, and I do not know where they

have laid him. Now, when she had said this, she turned around

and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus.

Jesus said to her, woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you

seeking? She's supposing him to be the gardener said to him, sir,

if I if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid

him, and I will take and I will take him away, Jesus said

to her Mary. She turned and said to him, rabone eye, which

is teacher. And this is where I want to pause in the story.

And it's these questions, woman, why are you weeping? Why do we

weep? We weep because of loss, we weep because of sadness. She

was weeping because she said, I do not know where they have laid him.

Now we've got the complete story beginning, during, and afterwards. But

part of the challenge is that when these kind of things happen in our world,

cynicism tells us that all will go on as before, nothing will change.

It's so easy to say it's all going to be the same. Do

you know, in this moment in history everything changed, literally, everything changed.

The curtain in the temple was torn into this weekend was so significant,

and so cynicism will say, well, it's all just going to be the

same. It can't change. Has anybody been in a place of desperation where

you wanted something to happen and it didn't happen, and we start to think,

well, we're just going to live with that. That's the way it

is. You know, we can be changed. We can be changed in

the moment, in the twinkling of an eye, despair can tell us that

the road is coming to end. That okay, well, what's the point

in keeping on? It's so easy to give up to practice, what's the

point? And these feelings, these thoughts would also be true of the disciples

as they came to the two Fear would tell us to look after ourselves,

to shut down and say, well, just keep yourself safe. But and

this is the big butt, imaginative Hope gives us courage. What if he

truly rose from the dead. What if that empty tomb is a sign that

he's no longer here? And then when he turns to her and says Mary,

and she recognizes his voice, she turns to him and says, teacher,

imaginative Hope gets our eyes off the trouble, off the worry, off

the impossibility, onto the cross and to the empty cross and the empty tomb.

Friday is here, but Sunday is coming from Hope springs miraculous expectation.

If Easter truly happens, And I'm asking that question because I know there will

be people who are listening today who are still asking that question. If Easter

really happens, if Christ really rose from the dead, then what difference does

it make, Brothers and sisters. I want to say to you, It

makes every difference. It makes every difference because Christ, who was the sacrificial

Lamb, has paid the price for you and me, and consequently, through

him, we have access to the Father, and so it doesn't matter what

we've done, It doesn't matter how bad we are. It doesn't matter how

dreadful our circumstances are. We can look through Christ, beyond the empty cross,

beyond the empty tomb, through Christ to the Father. Because our Father,

our loving God, loves us that much that he sent his one and

only son. He didn't never spare son, He didn't have another son.

He had one son. His name was Jesus, and he sent him to

this earth for you and for me. And so from that, from that

imaginative hope gives us courage, and from courage comes to miraculous expectation. In

Matthew chapter twenty eight, verse it says is he is not here, he

is risen, not here. So when Mary is asked whom do you seek?

I want to ask us the question is Easter. Whom do you seek?

Is it Jesus? He is the answer, He is the way,

He is the truth and the life. As it says in John fourteen,

no one comes to the Father except through me. Christ gives us access.

And so this scripture is the scripture that I want to pull this all together

on because I think it's so powerfully strong for us. This Easter Christ's life

showed me and this is the message version of this. Christ's life showed me

how and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him.

Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My eger is no longer central

to me. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or

have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God.

Christ lives in me. The life you see in me living is not mine,

but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved

me and gave himself for me. This truth, this truth outworks in our

lives. Means that we look at the world differently, means we serve our

neighbors, our friends, strangers differently. What does a dead person look like?

Let me ask you the question. I mean, were Mary and the

disciples were running to the grave, they the tomb. They knew where the

tomb was, but the stone was rolled away. What does the body look

like? Well, they knew what Jesus looked like, but he was beaten

and broken. It was a mess. Do you know it gets Julio will

tell you this watching Casualty, when it gets to those moments when there's something

happening on the table, you know, and there's there's scalpels and all this

stuff going in. I'm immediately kind of oh, I'm not good with blood.

I don't like those things. Do you know what, I'm really honest

with you. I wouldn't have wanted to run into that tomb at all,

because he would have been a mess, wrapped in great clothes. But he

has a new body, and so they were looking for a broken Christ.

And then has he as he greets Mary and says Mary, she looks at

him and she recognizes him straight away. Do you recognize Jesus today? Do

you recognize that he's calling you and me again to live more like him.

God so loved the world that he sent his only son, and he was

crucified in a dreadful way. And even today there is conflict right where this

happened, even today the news this morning when I work up conflict in Jerusalem.

Now, Jerusalem is a place of conflict because that's the place that Jesus

Christ died on the cross, but he rose again. And so even in

our modern day world, we're still having conflict as a consequence of mankind.

Fear would tell us to look after ourselves. Cynicism would say, well,

don't give well, give up. What's the point I want to say,

Easter twenty twenty three. Let's leave behind the things that are of death,

and let's look forward to the things that are of life. And there is

an eternal promise and an eternal life for you and for me, that the

Kingdom of God has come to this earth through Christ Jesus. As the disciples

ran to the two, they were all excited to see well, to find

the body of Jesus. And when they found nothing, they just jumped into

confusion. But what I can say for us today is Christ's life showed me

and enabled me to do it, to live out a life that is different,

to live out a life that is full. It's God's kingdom here on

earth. So let me pray, Father, I want to pray first Lord,

that as we focus on Easter, as we will take communion together today.

Otherwise we will do that today in remembrance of the last stuff and a

remembrance of what you did for us on the cross at Calvary. You could

have stepped down off that cross, you could have walked away, Savior Jesus,

but you didn't. You look to your father and said, if it

be your will, and it was our father God's will that you paid the

price for us. And we want to say thank you today, Thank you

Lord, Thank you. We want to live in the reality of resurrection life,

less of ourselves and more of you, less of our spirit and more

of your spirit, less of our purpose and more of your purpose. Less

of our ways and more of your ways. Rather, help us to lift

our eyes up of our own circumstances up to you, Father. When we

start to see ourselves reflect yourself reflected in us, we start to realize that

we have been changed by the power of the Cross, by the power of

a resurrected Christ, and a price paid for eternity for all man kind.

And so, Father God, we come to you. We come to the

foot of the cross, and we look beyond the cross to where our Saviour's

body was laid. That too, but then we look into the tomb and

see that it is empty. He is no longer here. He has arisen.

And even when Christ went to the disciples in the upper room and knocked

on the door and somebody said it's Jesus, I said, how can it

be Jesus? We saw him buried, we saw him crucified on the Cross.

It's Jesus, I want to say, Church, I want to say

to those who are listening as Easter people, it's Jesus. It's Jesus who

died for you. It's Jesus who paid the price for you and for me.

It's Jesus who went to the cross and suffered in dignity and shame on

our behalf. But it's the Father who caused him to rise again from the

dead, leaving behind the impact of sin and death, the price paid once

for all, for each one of us. It doesn't matter how bad we've

been, it doesn't matter what we've done. Christ has paid enough. It

is enough. It is enough. It is enough. And as Easter people,

we will keep our eyes fixed heavenward. We will keep our eyes lifted

up. We will choose to hope eternal and hope courageous. We will choose

to leave behind cynicism and doubt and adopt a cloth, a cloak of faith,

not fear, of love, not despair, of joy, not sadness.

Help us to be more like Jesus. We pray, Oh Father,

we thank you for the privilege to give into your kingdom. Father, we

thank you for the opportunity to serve you a work at home, whether we

get paid for it or not. Lord, would you receive the offering of

the work of our hands and our lips in our minds. Father, help

us to be good and ployease, Help us to be good servants, Help

us to be good work as we pray. But Lord, as we bring

these gifts as the fruit of our harvest, of the fruit of our labor,

we look beyond our bosses at work to our ultimate boss, that is

you, Lord, God, Father, we bring these gifts to you,

O God. Would you receive them from grateful, thankful hearts. Would you

help us as a church to use them for your glory? Lord, would

you multiply that which we've given? Father, God and Father, help there

be great fruit for the kingdom, great fruit into others' lives, great fruit

into our community. We pray, Father, we thank you for the new

connections that you're making to us and with us. Lord, with the warm

space on Mondays and as you bring new people to us, we thank you

for all that you're doing. And Father, we pray that you receive these

gifts for your glory in Jesus' name. Amen, thank you very much.

Faster Day for really message OFT and reminding