Latest / Max Lucado Daily Sermons / MESSAGE TO DAY God Rocked The Cemetery- Minister Max Lucado
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: He came for your wounds to show you what love
- 0:06Speaker 1: sees when love looks at you. We need that reminder,
- 0:13Speaker 1: don't we. We're grateful that you're here today to receive
- 0:18Speaker 1: that reminder. Understand that there are people occupying every square
- 0:24Speaker 1: inch of our building for this reminder. So we send
- 0:28Speaker 1: greetings to those of you in all of the overflow rooms,
- 0:33Speaker 1: asking that God's power, God's love, in God's presence speak
- 0:37Speaker 1: personally to each one of you. We can so easily
- 0:41Speaker 1: forget that God is writing a story, a unique, never
- 0:46Speaker 1: before written story, on each one of our lives. We
- 0:50Speaker 1: get so sut down in the details of the day,
- 0:53Speaker 1: the humdrum, the busyness, the coming and the going, the
- 0:57Speaker 1: bill paying and the boss please, and all the activities
- 1:01Speaker 1: of life, that we forget that God is up to
- 1:04Speaker 1: something grand in each of our lives. With no exception.
- 1:09Speaker 1: Life has so many starts and stops and fits and turns.
- 1:13Speaker 1: We have a cemetery sharing the same block as a playground.
- 1:21Speaker 1: We have weddings sharing the same calendar with funerals. We
- 1:25Speaker 1: look for a storyline that's threading all of these days together,
- 1:29Speaker 1: and it can be so confusing, And if the confusion
- 1:35Speaker 1: is not bad enough. What about the conclusion we die.
- 1:40Speaker 1: This heart, unless Christ comes first, is gonna have one
- 1:44Speaker 1: final heartbeat. This hand is going to fall limp, These
- 1:48Speaker 1: lungs are going to exhale one final time. We all die.
- 1:52Speaker 1: No one escapes death. Death, one man said, is the
- 1:58Speaker 1: most democratic institution on earth. It allows no discrimination, It
- 2:03Speaker 1: tolerates no exceptions. The mortality rate of mankind is the
- 2:08Speaker 1: same the world over, one death per person. Or, as
- 2:13Speaker 1: the Psalmist asked, what men can live and not see death?
- 2:18Speaker 1: Or save himself from the power of the grave, young
- 2:22Speaker 1: and old, good and bad, rich and poor. No gender
- 2:24Speaker 1: is spared, No person is exempt. Ecclesiastes eight to eight
- 2:28Speaker 1: says no one has power over the day of his death,
- 2:32Speaker 1: the genius, the rich, the poor. No one out runs it,
- 2:35Speaker 1: no one out smarts it. Julius Caesar died, John Lennon died,
- 2:40Speaker 1: Elvis Presley died, Princess Diana died. We all die nearly
- 2:45Speaker 1: two people a second, more than six thousand people an hour,
- 2:49Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty five thousand every day. About fifty
- 2:52Speaker 1: seven million people die each year. We all die. No
- 2:58Speaker 1: matter what you do. The finest surgeon might enhance your life,
- 3:02Speaker 1: but he cannot eliminate your death. Pop all the pills
- 3:07Speaker 1: you want, eat all the green vegetables you can take,
- 3:11Speaker 1: Stay out of the sun, stay away from alcohol and tobacco.
- 3:15Speaker 1: You might improve the quality of your life, but you
- 3:18Speaker 1: never eliminate the inevitability of death. Isn't that a bummer?
- 3:27Speaker 1: We just die? Or do we? Or do we? What
- 3:38Speaker 1: if this is just the first What if this is
- 3:41Speaker 1: just the first chapter of our What if this is
- 3:43Speaker 1: just the first sentence of the first chapter of our
- 3:46Speaker 1: What if this is just the first word of the
- 3:48Speaker 1: first What if this is just the first letter of
- 3:51Speaker 1: the first word of the first chapter of the story
- 3:56Speaker 1: that God is writing with our lives? What if we're
- 3:59Speaker 1: just getting started? This is the promise of Eastern It
- 4:09Speaker 1: was Sunday morning after the Friday execution. The executioners were
- 4:15Speaker 1: confident that they had done their work. The spirit to
- 4:19Speaker 1: the side of Christ had made certain that Jesus' final
- 4:24Speaker 1: breath was his final breath, and that final breath seemed
- 4:27Speaker 1: to suck the air out of the universe. And as
- 4:31Speaker 1: his body lay a moldering in the grave, no one
- 4:35Speaker 1: was placing bets on a resurrection. The only concern of
- 4:44Speaker 1: the soldiers was those pesky disciples. The religious leaders were
- 4:50Speaker 1: concerned too. In fact, they went to Pilot and they said,
- 4:55Speaker 1: so give the order for the tomb to be made
- 4:57Speaker 1: secure until the third day, otherwise the disciples may come
- 5:00Speaker 1: and steal the body and tell the people that he
- 5:03Speaker 1: has been raised from the dead. Well as we know,
- 5:07Speaker 1: no concern was necessary the disciples, they were at meltdown.
- 5:13Speaker 1: All the disciples forsook him and fled. The Bible says
- 5:18Speaker 1: Peter followed him for a while from a distance, but
- 5:21Speaker 1: then he came in and cursed Christ. John, the beloved Disciple,
- 5:26Speaker 1: followed Christ all the way to the cross and witnessed
- 5:29Speaker 1: the crucifixion. But there is no indication that John. Even
- 5:33Speaker 1: John was expecting a resurrection and the other disciples, they
- 5:37Speaker 1: were hiding in every available corner and cupboard in Jerusalem
- 5:41Speaker 1: for fear of a cross that bore their name. On
- 5:46Speaker 1: Saturday night, the enemy had won, it seemed. Hope caught
- 5:52Speaker 1: the last train to the coast. And when the women
- 5:56Speaker 1: came on Sunday morning, they did not come to talk
- 5:59Speaker 1: to g Jesus in the cemetery. They came to embalm
- 6:03Speaker 1: the body of Jesus in the cemetery, but God had
- 6:07Speaker 1: other plans. For that's when God rocked the cemetery. There
- 6:13Speaker 1: was a violent earthquake. For an angel of the Lord
- 6:16Speaker 1: came down from heaven and going to the tomb, rolled
- 6:19Speaker 1: back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was
- 6:24Speaker 1: like lightning. His clothes were white as snow. The guards
- 6:29Speaker 1: were so afraid of him that they shook and they
- 6:33Speaker 1: became like dead men. The angel said to the women,
- 6:38Speaker 1: do not be afraid, for I know that you are
- 6:41Speaker 1: looking for Jesus, who was crucified, But he is not here.
- 6:46Speaker 1: He has risen, just as he said, Come and see
- 6:49Speaker 1: the place where his body lay. The earth shook. There
- 6:56Speaker 1: was a violent earthquake. Pebbles tumbled, bold fell. The ground shook,
- 7:03Speaker 1: and the women struggled to keep their balance because the
- 7:06Speaker 1: ground was shaking. They looked in the direction of the
- 7:09Speaker 1: tomb and they were the guards. And the guards were scared, stiff, paralyzed,
- 7:16Speaker 1: sprawled out on the ground. They had the appearance of
- 7:19Speaker 1: dead men. Ironic, don't you think their job was to
- 7:24Speaker 1: guard a dead man? Now they look dead and the
- 7:29Speaker 1: dead men they're guarding is apparently alive. And an angel
- 7:37Speaker 1: has descended from heaven, and that morning he took a
- 7:42Speaker 1: seat on the rock. It says that, does it not?
- 7:46Speaker 1: He sat on the stone, He dislodged it, and then
- 7:49Speaker 1: he sat on it. I don't know what angels are
- 7:53Speaker 1: supposed to do in a moment like this, but I
- 7:58Speaker 1: just never thought that he would sit down. Do angels
- 8:03Speaker 1: take a seat? I guess they do. I guess I
- 8:06Speaker 1: thought the angel would have been standing defiant, stending his wings,
- 8:12Speaker 1: flexing his pecks, showing off. But instead of that, he
- 8:17Speaker 1: just thought, well, I think I'll just sit down, take
- 8:20Speaker 1: a seat, cross his legs. I don't know if he whistled.
- 8:28Speaker 1: I don't know if he crossed his legs, but I
- 8:30Speaker 1: do know this. It fell to the angel to make
- 8:32Speaker 1: the Eastern announcement. He has risen. He has risen takes
- 8:43Speaker 1: us three words in English, it's just one word in Greek.
- 8:46Speaker 1: Here it is Egerthe say it with me, egarthe one
- 8:52Speaker 1: more time. Egth. When Matthew originally wrote this story, that
- 8:57Speaker 1: is the word he wrote. It descends from a family
- 9:02Speaker 1: of words which means to awaken. Odd word to use
- 9:07Speaker 1: in a cemetery. Right, we think of a cemetery as
- 9:10Speaker 1: a place to go to sleep. But the angel says, oh,
- 9:13Speaker 1: he has risen, he has awakened. So much relies upon
- 9:19Speaker 1: the validity of this Agarthae. If this agrithe is a joke,
- 9:26Speaker 1: If it is a hoax, then all of Christianity collapses
- 9:32Speaker 1: like a poorly told joke, and millions upon millions of
- 9:37Speaker 1: us have followed a pied piper blindly over a cliff.
- 9:43Speaker 1: But if it is true, if Jesus is risen, if
- 9:50Speaker 1: this agathe is real, then you can belave this that
- 9:56Speaker 1: Jesus descended into the coldest cell of deaths, and he
- 10:01Speaker 1: allowed the warden to lock the door and smelt the
- 10:06Speaker 1: keys in a furnace, And just when the demons began
- 10:09Speaker 1: to dance, and just when the demons began to prince,
- 10:12Speaker 1: Jesus pressed his pierced hands against the inner walls of
- 10:16Speaker 1: the cavern, and from deep within the cave of death,
- 10:21Speaker 1: he shook the cemetery, and the ground began to rumble,
- 10:25Speaker 1: and the tombstones tumbled, and out he marched the cadaver,
- 10:30Speaker 1: turned a king with the mask of death in one
- 10:33Speaker 1: hand and the keys of life in the other, and
- 10:37Speaker 1: all of heaven announced Agarthae, he has risen. Not risen
- 10:44Speaker 1: from sleep, not risen from slumber, not risen from stupor,
- 10:51Speaker 1: not risen from confusion, not spiritually raised, but physically raised.
- 10:58Speaker 1: The women and the disciples did not see a phantom.
- 11:03Speaker 1: They didn't experience a sentiment. They saw Jesus, and Jesus
- 11:08Speaker 1: assured them, it is I myself on the road to Emmaeus.
- 11:14Speaker 1: The two disciples to whom Jesus appeared, they saw a pilgrim,
- 11:19Speaker 1: just like they. They didn't know who he was at first,
- 11:22Speaker 1: but they didn't think he was a ghost. His feet
- 11:26Speaker 1: touched the ground, He didn't levitate as he walked. His
- 11:30Speaker 1: hands broke bread. When Mary saw Jesus in the garden,
- 11:36Speaker 1: she thought he was Does anyone remember a gardener? He
- 11:40Speaker 1: looked so common. When Thomas touched the wounds, his hand
- 11:47Speaker 1: did not go through the body of Christ. His hands
- 11:51Speaker 1: touched flesh. Jesus was raised in a body of flesh.
- 11:56Speaker 1: The very body in which he had been born, the
- 11:59Speaker 1: very body that carried him through Galilee and Jerusalem, now
- 12:04Speaker 1: came walking out of the grave. Handle me and see,
- 12:08Speaker 1: he told people, Handle me and see, for his spirit
- 12:13Speaker 1: does not have flesh and bones. As you see that
- 12:18Speaker 1: I have now why was he so insistent and why
- 12:22Speaker 1: is this so important? Well, the bodily resurrection means everything.
- 12:28Speaker 1: If Jesus is just raised in our memory, if he
- 12:32Speaker 1: just lives on in our hearts, well he's no different
- 12:36Speaker 1: than my grandma or my aunt who lives on in
- 12:38Speaker 1: my memory, who lives on in my heart, but her
- 12:41Speaker 1: body is buried or his body is buried. He's no
- 12:44Speaker 1: different than a thousand and one martyrs who have come
- 12:47Speaker 1: and gone but left the legacy behind them. But if
- 12:51Speaker 1: he has bodily raised, as the scriptures teach, that means
- 12:55Speaker 1: that right now, in the very heart of Heaven, in
- 12:58Speaker 1: the holiest place in the universe, he dwells a physical
- 13:03Speaker 1: body of flesh and bones and oversees all the affairs
- 13:08Speaker 1: of history and issues. This promise that what God did
- 13:12Speaker 1: with his grave, God will do with yours. And what
- 13:19Speaker 1: God did with his body, God will do with yours.
- 13:22Speaker 1: He will resurrect it. He will turn it into an
- 13:26Speaker 1: immortal force that will reign and rule with him forever.
- 13:31Speaker 1: Beginning of the story. You better believe it, end of
- 13:36Speaker 1: the story, nor way. He takes what you think is
- 13:39Speaker 1: your final chapter and he turns it into a preface.
- 13:45Speaker 1: Just the start. Yes, we're all going to face death
- 13:50Speaker 1: unless Christ comes first. But we will not face it alone,
- 13:57Speaker 1: and we need not face it in fear. Jesus said,
- 14:01Speaker 1: I am the resurrection and the Life, and he who
- 14:05Speaker 1: believes in me will live even though he dies. And
- 14:09Speaker 1: whoever lives and believes in Me will never die. Do
- 14:16Speaker 1: you believe in Jesus, then you will never die. Oh,
- 14:20Speaker 1: your body might cease, you may pass through a time
- 14:24Speaker 1: of transition, but you will never never die. What a
- 14:31Speaker 1: remarkable discovery. Everybody on earth is telling you how to
- 14:35Speaker 1: improve the quality of this life, but only Jesus Christ
- 14:41Speaker 1: comes to you with a solution for your grave. That's
- 14:45Speaker 1: what sets him apart and makes him worthy of our service.
- 14:50Speaker 1: The most amazing thing happened as I was working on
- 14:53Speaker 1: this very page of this very message. I typically keep
- 15:00Speaker 1: keep my email alert turned off while I'm studying. You're
- 15:05Speaker 1: probably not as add as I am, but I get
- 15:10Speaker 1: easily distracted, and a unbroken train of thought is difficult
- 15:17Speaker 1: to find. So to pursue a train of thought, I
- 15:21Speaker 1: keep the email alert turned off because every time it beeps,
- 15:25Speaker 1: I just have to turn I cannot ignore it. That afternoon,
- 15:30Speaker 1: I thought I had turned it off, but I had not,
- 15:32Speaker 1: and I was on this very paragraph when I received
- 15:36Speaker 1: an email alert, and I turned to see who sent
- 15:41Speaker 1: me an email? Of all things, a friend of mine
- 15:45Speaker 1: in Nashville, Tennessee had just left a funeral. Here I'm
- 15:50Speaker 1: writing a sermon on death, and he had just left
- 15:52Speaker 1: a funeral, and he wanted to tell me about the
- 15:54Speaker 1: funeral of his ninety six year old aunt, aunt Wanda.
- 16:00Speaker 1: Here's what he said. Max. Until about a year ago,
- 16:05Speaker 1: you couldn't keep up with my aunt Wanda. Seriously, she
- 16:09Speaker 1: had such energy you just couldn't believe it. Her eyesight
- 16:13Speaker 1: was failing so completely that energy almost made it dangerous
- 16:17Speaker 1: to go to unfamiliar places with her. Her eyes couldn't
- 16:21Speaker 1: see the crack in the sidewalk that she was about
- 16:24Speaker 1: to trot over at ninety miles an hour. About a
- 16:27Speaker 1: year ago, she started having difficulty breathing. The doctor found
- 16:32Speaker 1: a mass in her chest that was almost certainly cancer,
- 16:37Speaker 1: but at ninety five, there was little reason to do surgery,
- 16:40Speaker 1: even exploratory. The better plan was to keep her comfortable.
- 16:46Speaker 1: But it was only in the last three days of
- 16:48Speaker 1: her life that the mass became so painful that she
- 16:52Speaker 1: needed medication to fight the pain. It became so severe
- 16:56Speaker 1: so quickly that she was given enough morphine to sedate
- 16:59Speaker 1: her and basically keep her in an unconscious state. But
- 17:03Speaker 1: as she began to pass from this life into the next,
- 17:09Speaker 1: her sight became clear and she was released of pain.
- 17:14Speaker 1: Even in her unconscious state, she began to have conversations
- 17:18Speaker 1: with those who had gone before her. She saw her mother,
- 17:21Speaker 1: who was her best friend, and she talked to her.
- 17:25Speaker 1: And my favorite part, she saw my dad in their brother.
- 17:29Speaker 1: My dad and their brother, Uncle Marvin, were constantly playing
- 17:33Speaker 1: practical jokes on her on Aunt Wanda, and she was
- 17:37Speaker 1: always referring to them as those boys. I have no
- 17:43Speaker 1: idea what they did or how they greeted her at
- 17:45Speaker 1: Heaven's door, but whatever it was made her life so
- 17:48Speaker 1: hard that she literally pulled her legs up to her
- 17:52Speaker 1: chest and she doubled over laughing, Oh, I can't believe
- 17:57Speaker 1: you boys. She said, Oh, my goodness, you boys, and
- 18:02Speaker 1: she literally took her last breath, laughing. I can't wait
- 18:10Speaker 1: to find out what she saw, but it must have
- 18:15Speaker 1: been something grand. I can't wait to find out what
- 18:20Speaker 1: you're going to see, but it will be something grand,
- 18:26Speaker 1: Will you die laughing. I don't know, But my friend,
- 18:33Speaker 1: I can assure you of this. You will die in
- 18:37Speaker 1: peace if you are in Christ, if you have entrusted
- 18:44Speaker 1: your soul and heart to Him, then the one who
- 18:50Speaker 1: defeated death will defeat yours. And the one who inspired
- 18:55Speaker 1: King David to write these words. Even though I walk
- 19:00Speaker 1: through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
- 19:02Speaker 1: fear no evil, for you are with me. For your
- 19:05Speaker 1: rod and your staff they comfort me. He will meet you,
- 19:10Speaker 1: and he will walk you through the valley of the
- 19:12Speaker 1: shadow of death. But what if you never entrust your
- 19:17Speaker 1: soul to Christ? And I know we have people here
- 19:22Speaker 1: who have not What if you never do What if
- 19:27Speaker 1: for some reason you say, well, I guess I'll just
- 19:29Speaker 1: face death on my own, Well, then you will. You'll
- 19:37Speaker 1: face death all alone, with no shepherd to guide you,
- 19:40Speaker 1: no savior to save you for eternity. Why for Heaven's
- 19:43Speaker 1: sake would you do that? Why would you do that?
- 19:50Speaker 1: You can say yes to Jesus today. No one can
- 19:55Speaker 1: do it for you, but no one can keep you
- 19:57Speaker 1: from doing it. You can say yes to Jesus, and
- 20:02Speaker 1: when you do, the last day of your life becomes
- 20:07Speaker 1: the best day of your life. If that's not the
- 20:10Speaker 1: oddest thing. Now what everyone else fears is maybe not
- 20:16Speaker 1: what you want yet, but you don't dread it either.
- 20:23Speaker 1: Winston Churchill planned his own funeral. He left instructions for
- 20:30Speaker 1: two buglers to be positioned high in the dome of
- 20:33Speaker 1: Saint Paul's Cathedral, and at the conclusion of his funeral service,
- 20:41Speaker 1: the first bugler played the song Taps, the song that
- 20:47Speaker 1: signals the end of the day. But the second bugler,
- 20:54Speaker 1: with the sound of taps still ringing in the dome,
- 20:59Speaker 1: began to play the song of a Day Begun. That's
- 21:09Speaker 1: a good funeral song for the Christian because in the
- 21:14Speaker 1: hands of Christ, the cemetery becomes the place where, not
- 21:18Speaker 1: where we go to die, but it's really the place
- 21:20Speaker 1: from which we'll be called to live. We wake up Egarthey,
- 21:25Speaker 1: we are awakened. He has risen and death is no
- 21:31Speaker 1: longer the domain of the grim reaper, but it becomes
- 21:33Speaker 1: the domain of the soul keeper. And death is not
- 21:39Speaker 1: a crisis. It's just a corner. It's not a pit.
- 21:42Speaker 1: It's just a passageway. Because we know that someday God
- 21:49Speaker 1: will say words like these, you're dead, will live your
- 21:55Speaker 1: corpses will get to their feet. All you dead and buried,
- 21:59Speaker 1: wake up and sing. Your due is morning dew catching
- 22:02Speaker 1: the first rays of sun, and the earth is bursting
- 22:05Speaker 1: with life, giving birth to the dead. So play on, Bugler,
- 22:10Speaker 1: Play on. The same God who raised his son from
- 22:16Speaker 1: the dead will raise you from the same And the
- 22:18Speaker 1: same God who emptied that grave will empty yours. And
- 22:22Speaker 1: the same God who shook that cemetery will shake them
- 22:25Speaker 1: all egarthing. He is risen.
- 25:21Speaker 2: Warm you.
- 25:59Speaker 3: You don't have this close. As long as you're somewhere
- 26:06Speaker 3: out there, that's enough for me.
- 26:15Speaker 4: I don't need to hold you near me, don't need
- 26:19Speaker 4: promises to keep.
- 26:22Speaker 5: Just the thought that you are breathing.
- 26:25Speaker 4: Somewhere in this world I see, even if I'm not
- 26:30Speaker 4: beside you, even if you never know, there's a quiet
- 26:36Speaker 4: kind of comfort.
- 26:38Speaker 5: Just in knowing you still glow. I don't need forever.
- 26:49Speaker 5: I just need you to exist.
- 26:54Speaker 6: You don't have to stay with me, You don't have
- 26:58Speaker 6: to feel this just as long as your still out there.
- 27:04Speaker 7: Calling softly through mondays.
- 27:07Speaker 5: You don't have to look my way.
- 27:11Speaker 4: You don't have to be my home.
- 27:14Speaker 7: It's enough to know where.
- 27:16Speaker 8: You're living in the world. I'm not alone.
- 27:24Speaker 9: I won't chase it through the distance, won't disturb your
- 27:28Speaker 9: chosen life. I'll just keep you in my silence, like
- 27:34Speaker 9: a star that shines at.
- 27:36Speaker 5: Night, through the darkened.
- 27:39Speaker 8: Through the blue, I still think of you.
- 27:49Speaker 2: You don't have.
- 27:50Speaker 8: To stay with me.
- 27:53Speaker 5: You don't have to feel the same.
- 27:56Speaker 7: Just as long as your still out there, calling softly
- 28:01Speaker 7: through my days.
- 28:03Speaker 6: You don't have to look my way.
- 28:06Speaker 1: You don't have to be in my home.
- 28:10Speaker 8: It's enough to know you're living in a world. I'm
- 28:15Speaker 8: not alone.
- 28:31Speaker 5: I don't need to be your late. I don't need
- 28:35Speaker 5: to cross your mind. All I need is just the
- 28:39Speaker 5: truth that you're somewhere, still alive.
- 28:47Speaker 7: You don't have to stay with me, You don't have
- 28:51Speaker 7: to feel the same. Just as long as you're still after,
- 28:57Speaker 7: calling softly through mine days.
- 29:00Speaker 8: You don't have to look my way.
- 29:04Speaker 1: You don't have to be my home.
- 29:07Speaker 4: It's enough to know you're living in the world.
- 29:14Speaker 5: I'm not alone.