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 and God's presence. Speak personally.
- 0:38Speaker 1: To each one of you. We can so easily forget
- 0:42Speaker 1: that God is writing a story, a unique, never before
- 0:46Speaker 1: written story on each one of our lives. We get
- 0:50Speaker 1: so sucked down in the details of the day, the humdrum,
- 0:54Speaker 1: the busyness, the coming and the going, the bill paying
- 0:58Speaker 1: and the boss pleasing, all the activities of life that
- 1:02Speaker 1: we forget that God is up to something grand in
- 1:05Speaker 1: each of our lives with no exceptions. Life has so
- 1:10Speaker 1: many starts and stops and fits and turns. We have
- 1:14Speaker 1: a cemetery sharing the same block as a playground. We
- 1:21Speaker 1: have weddings sharing the same calendar with funerals. We look
- 1:25Speaker 1: for a storyline that's threading all of these days together,
- 1:29Speaker 1: and it can be so confusing. And if the confusion's
- 1:35Speaker 1: not bad enough, what about the conclusion? We die. We die.
- 1:40Speaker 1: This heart, unless Christ comes first, is going to have
- 1:44Speaker 1: one final heartbeat. This hand is going to fall limp.
- 1:48Speaker 1: These lungs are going to exhale one final time. We
- 1:52Speaker 1: all die. No one escapes death. Death, one man said,
- 1:56Speaker 1: is the most democratic institution on earth. It allows no discrimination.
- 2:03Speaker 1: It tolerates no exceptions. The mortality rate of mankind is
- 2:08Speaker 1: the same the world over, one death per person. Or
- 2:13Speaker 1: as the psalmist asked, what man can live and not
- 2:16Speaker 1: see death? Or save himself from the power of the grave.
- 2:21Speaker 1: Young and old, good and bad, rich and poor. No
- 2:24Speaker 1: gender is spared, no person is exempt. Ecclesiastes 8.8 says,
- 2:28Speaker 1: no one has power over the day of his death.
- 2:32Speaker 1: The genius, the rich, the poor. No one outruns it,
- 2:35Speaker 1: no one outsmarts 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 6,000 people an hour. 155,000
- 2:51Speaker 1: every day. About 57 million people die each year. We
- 2:55Speaker 1: all die. No matter what you do. The finest surgeon
- 3:01Speaker 1: might enhance your life, but he cannot eliminate your death.
- 3:05Speaker 1: Pop all the pills you want. Eat all the green
- 3:09Speaker 1: vegetables you can take. Stay out of the sun. Stay
- 3:13Speaker 1: away from alcohol and tobacco. You might improve the quality
- 3:17Speaker 1: of your life, but you never eliminate the inevitability of death.
- 3:22Speaker 1: Isn't that a bummer? We just die. Or do.
- 3:30Speaker 2: We?
- 3:30Speaker 1: Or do we? What if this is just the first day?
- 3:40Speaker 1: What if this is just the first chapter? What if
- 3:43Speaker 1: this is just the first sentence of the first chapter?
- 3:46Speaker 1: What if this is just the first word of the
- 3:48Speaker 1: first sentence? What if this is just the first letter
- 3:51Speaker 1: of the first word of the first chapter of the
- 3:55Speaker 1: story that God is writing with our lives? What if
- 3:59Speaker 1: we're just getting started? This is the promise of Easter.
- 4:08Speaker 1: It was Sunday morning after the Friday execution. The executioners
- 4:15Speaker 1: were confident that they had done their work. The spirit
- 4:19Speaker 1: to the side of Christ had made certain that Jesus'
- 4:23Speaker 1: final breath was his final breath. And that final breath
- 4:27Speaker 1: seemed to suck the air out of the universe. And
- 4:31Speaker 1: as his body lay a-moldering in the grave, no one
- 4:35Speaker 1: was placing bets on a resurrection. The only concern of
- 4:43Speaker 1: the soldiers was those pesky disciples. The religious leaders were
- 4:50Speaker 1: concerned too. In fact, they went to Pilate 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, his 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
- 5:20Speaker 1: then he caved 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 John,
- 5:33Speaker 1: was expecting a resurrection. And the other disciples, they were
- 5:37Speaker 1: hiding in every available corner and covered in Jerusalem for
- 5:42Speaker 1: fear of a cross that bore their name. On Saturday night,
- 5:47Speaker 1: the enemy had won, it seemed. Hope caught the last
- 5:52Speaker 1: train to the coast. And when the women came on
- 5:57Speaker 1: Sunday morning, they did not come to talk to Jesus
- 6:00Speaker 1: in the cemetery. They came to embalm the body of
- 6:04Speaker 1: Jesus in the cemetery. But God had other plans, for
- 6:09Speaker 1: that's when God rocked the cemetery. There was a violent earthquake.
- 6:15Speaker 1: For an angel of the Lord came down from heaven
- 6:17Speaker 1: and going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and
- 6:20Speaker 1: sat on it. His appearance was like lightning. His clothes
- 6:26Speaker 1: were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of
- 6:30Speaker 1: him that they shook. And they became like dead men.
- 6:37Speaker 1: The angel said to the women, do not be afraid.
- 6:40Speaker 1: For I know that you are looking for Jesus who
- 6:43Speaker 1: was crucified. But he is not here. He is risen.
- 6:47Speaker 1: Just as he said, come and see the place where
- 6:50Speaker 1: his body lay. The earth shook. There was a violent earthquake.
- 6:58Speaker 1: Pebbles tumbled. Boulders fell. The ground shook and the women
- 7:04Speaker 1: struggled to keep their balance because the ground was shaking.
- 7:08Speaker 1: They looked in the direction of the tomb and there
- 7:10Speaker 1: 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 man 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
- 7:57Speaker 1: just don't, I just never thought that he would sit down.
- 8:02Speaker 1: Do angels take a seat? I guess they do. I
- 8:05Speaker 1: guess I thought the angel would have been standing. Defiant.
- 8:10Speaker 1: Extending his wings. Flexing his pecs. Showing off. But instead
- 8:17Speaker 1: of that, he just thought, well, I think I'll just
- 8:18Speaker 1: sit down. Take a seat. Cross his legs. I don't
- 8:27Speaker 1: know if he whistled. I don't know if he crossed
- 8:29Speaker 1: his legs. But I do know this. It fell to
- 8:32Speaker 1: the angel to make the Easter announcement. He has risen.
- 8:41Speaker 1: He has risen. Takes us three words in English. It's
- 8:44Speaker 1: just one word in Greek. Here it is. Egerthe. Say
- 8:49Speaker 1: it with me. Egerthe. One more time. Egerthe. When Matthew
- 8:55Speaker 1: originally wrote this story, that is the word he wrote. Egerthe.
- 9:00Speaker 1: It descends from a family of words which means to awaken.
- 9:06Speaker 1: Odd word to use in a cemetery, right? We think
- 9:09Speaker 1: of a cemetery as a place to go to sleep.
- 9:12Speaker 1: But the angel says, oh, he has risen. He has awakened.
- 9:18Speaker 1: So much relies upon the validity of this Egerthe. If
- 9:23Speaker 1: this agartha is a joke, if it is a hoax,
- 9:29Speaker 1: then all of Christianity collapses like a poorly told joke.
- 9:36Speaker 1: And millions upon millions of us have followed a pied
- 9:38Speaker 1: piper blindly over a cliff. But if it is true,
- 9:47Speaker 1: if Jesus is risen, if this agartha is real, then
- 9:54Speaker 1: you can believe this, that Jesus descended into the coldest
- 9:58Speaker 1: cell of death. And he allowed the. warden to lock
- 10:04Speaker 1: the door and smelt the keys in a furnace and
- 10:07Speaker 1: just when the demons began to dance and just when
- 10:10Speaker 1: the demons began to prance jesus pressed his pierced hands
- 10:15Speaker 1: against the inner walls of the cavern and from deep
- 10:18Speaker 1: within the cave of death he shook the cemetery And
- 10:23Speaker 1: the ground began to rumble. And the tombstones tumbled. And
- 10:27Speaker 1: out he marched. The cadaver turned king. With the mask
- 10:32Speaker 1: of death in one hand. And the keys of life
- 10:36Speaker 1: in the other. And all of heaven announced. Agartha. He
- 10:42Speaker 1: has risen. Not risen from sleep. Not risen from slumber.
- 10:48Speaker 1: Not risen from stupor. not risen from confusion, not spiritually raised,
- 10:56Speaker 1: but physically raised. The women and the disciples did not
- 11:01Speaker 1: see a phantom. They didn't experience a sentiment. They saw Jesus,
- 11:08Speaker 1: and Jesus assured them, it is I myself. On the
- 11:13Speaker 1: road to Emmaus, the two disciples to whom Jesus appeared,
- 11:18Speaker 1: They saw a pilgrim just like they. They didn't know
- 11:21Speaker 1: who he was at first, but they didn't think he
- 11:23Speaker 1: was a ghost. His feet touched the ground. He didn't
- 11:27Speaker 1: levitate as he walked. His hands broke bread. When Mary
- 11:34Speaker 1: saw Jesus in the garden, she thought he was a,
- 11:37Speaker 1: does anyone remember? A gardener. He looked so calm and
- 11:44Speaker 1: When Thomas touched the wounds, his hand did not go
- 11:47Speaker 1: through the body of Christ. His hands touched flesh. Jesus
- 11:53Speaker 1: was raised in a body of flesh. The very body
- 11:57Speaker 1: in which he had been born. The very body that
- 12:01Speaker 1: carried him through Galilee and Jerusalem now came walking out
- 12:04Speaker 1: of the grave. Handle me and see, he told people.
- 12:09Speaker 1: Handle me and see. For a spirit does not have
- 12:13Speaker 1: flesh and bones as you see that I have. Now,
- 12:20Speaker 1: why was he so insistent? And why is this so important? Well,
- 12:24Speaker 1: the bodily resurrection means everything. If Jesus is just raised
- 12:29Speaker 1: in our memory, if he just lives on in our hearts... Well,
- 12:35Speaker 1: he's no different than my grandma or my aunt who
- 12:38Speaker 1: lives on in my memory, who lives on in my heart,
- 12:41Speaker 1: but her body is buried or his body is buried.
- 12:44Speaker 1: He's no different than a thousand and one martyrs who
- 12:46Speaker 1: have come and gone, but left a legacy behind them.
- 12:51Speaker 1: But if he is bodily raised, as the scriptures teach,
- 12:55Speaker 1: that means that right now in the very heart of heaven,
- 12:58Speaker 1: in the holiest place in the universe, he indwells a
- 13:02Speaker 1: physical body of flesh and bones and oversees all the
- 13:07Speaker 1: affairs of history and issues this promise that what God
- 13:12Speaker 1: did with his grave, God will do with yours. And
- 13:19Speaker 1: what 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, no 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: my email alert turned off while I'm studying. You're probably
- 15:07Speaker 1: not as ADD as I am, but I get easily
- 15:11Speaker 1: distracted in a unbroken train of thought is difficult to
- 15:17Speaker 1: find so to pursue a train of thought I keep
- 15:21Speaker 1: the email alert turned off because every time it beeps
- 15:25Speaker 1: I just have to turn I cannot ignore it that
- 15:29Speaker 1: afternoon I thought I had turned it off but I
- 15:31Speaker 1: had not and I was on this very paragraph when
- 15:36Speaker 1: I received an email alert and I turned to see
- 15:41Speaker 1: who sent me an email Of all things, a friend
- 15:45Speaker 1: of mine in Nashville, Tennessee, had just left a funeral.
- 15:49Speaker 1: Here I'm writing a sermon on death, and he had
- 15:51Speaker 1: just left a funeral, and he wanted to tell me
- 15:54Speaker 1: about the funeral of his 96-year-old aunt, Aunt Wanda. Here's
- 16:01Speaker 1: what he said. Max, until about a year ago, you
- 16:05Speaker 1: couldn't keep up with my Aunt Wanda. Seriously, she had
- 16:09Speaker 1: such energy, you just couldn't believe it. Her eyesight was
- 16:13Speaker 1: failing so completely that energy almost made it dangerous to
- 16:17Speaker 1: go to unfamiliar places with her. Her eyes couldn't see
- 16:21Speaker 1: the crack in the sidewalk that she was about to
- 16:24Speaker 1: trot over at 90 miles an hour. About a year
- 16:27Speaker 1: ago she started having difficulty breathing. The doctor found a
- 16:32Speaker 1: mass in her chest that was almost certainly cancer. But
- 16:38Speaker 1: at 95 there was little reason to do surgery, even exploratory.
- 16:43Speaker 1: The better plan was to keep her comfortable. But it
- 16:47Speaker 1: was only in the last three days of her life
- 16:49Speaker 1: that the mass became so painful that she needed medication
- 16:53Speaker 1: to fight the pain. It became so severe so quickly
- 16:56Speaker 1: that she was given enough morphine to sedate her and
- 17:00Speaker 1: basically keep her in an unconscious state. But as she
- 17:04Speaker 1: began to pass from this life into the next, her
- 17:09Speaker 1: sight became clear and she was released of pain Even
- 17:14Speaker 1: in her unconscious state, she began to have conversations with
- 17:18Speaker 1: 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 and 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 laugh 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 peace.
- 18:40Speaker 1: If you are in Christ. If you have entrusted your
- 18:45Speaker 1: soul and heart to him. Then the one who defeated
- 18:50Speaker 1: death will defeat yours. And the one who inspired King
- 18:55Speaker 1: David to write these words. Even though I walk through
- 19:00Speaker 1: the valley of the shadow of death. I will fear
- 19:02Speaker 1: no evil. For you are with me. For your rod
- 19:05Speaker 1: 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
- 19:26Speaker 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. And 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 St.
- 20:34Speaker 1: 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 Reveille, the song of a day begun.
- 21:08Speaker 1: That's a good funeral song for the Christian. Because in
- 21:14Speaker 1: the hands of Christ, the cemetery becomes the place where,
- 21:17Speaker 1: not where we go to die, but it's really the
- 21:19Speaker 1: place from which we'll be called to live. We wake up. Agathé.
- 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. Death is not a crisis.
- 21:39Speaker 1: It's just a corner. It's not a pit. It's just
- 21:42Speaker 1: a passageway. Because we know that someday God will say
- 21:49Speaker 1: words like these. Your dead will live. Your corpses will
- 21:56Speaker 1: get to their feet. All you dead and buried, wake
- 21:59Speaker 1: up and sing. Your dew is morning dew, catching the
- 22:03Speaker 1: first rays of sun. And the earth is bursting with life,
- 22:06Speaker 1: giving birth to the dead. So play on, bugler. Play on.
- 22:13Speaker 1: The same God who raised his son from the dead
- 22:16Speaker 1: will raise you from the same. And the same God
- 22:19Speaker 1: who emptied that grave will empty yours. And the same
- 22:22Speaker 1: God who shook that cemetery will shake them all. Egerthe.
- 22:30Speaker 1: He is risen. so so.
- 23:33Speaker 2: Thank you.
- 24:13Speaker 1: Thank you.
- 25:53Speaker 3: You don't have to remember.
- 25:59Speaker 2: You don't have to stay close. As long as you're
- 26:06Speaker 2: somewhere out there, that's enough for me.
- 26:11Speaker 4: I don't need to hold you near me.
- 26:19Speaker 3: Don't need promises to keep. Just the thought that you
- 26:23Speaker 3: are breathing Somewhere in this world I see Even if
- 26:29Speaker 3: I'm not beside you Even if you never know There's
- 26:36Speaker 3: a quiet kind of comfort Just in knowing you still glow.
- 26:43Speaker 2: I don't need forever I just need you to exist.
- 26:54Speaker 4: You don't have to stay with me.
- 26:57Speaker 3: You don't have to feel the same.
- 27:00Speaker 1: Just as long as.
- 27:01Speaker 5: You're still out there.
- 27:04Speaker 3: Calling softly through my days.
- 27:07Speaker 4: You don't have to look my way. You don't have
- 27:11Speaker 4: to be my home.
- 27:14Speaker 5: It's enough to know you're living in a world.
- 27:19Speaker 3: I'm not alone.
- 27:24Speaker 2: I won't chase you through the distance.
- 27:27Speaker 3: Won't disturb your chosen life. I'll just keep you in
- 27:32Speaker 3: my silence like a star.
- 27:34Speaker 2: That shines at night. Through the dark and through the blue.
- 27:40Speaker 5: I still think of you.
- 27:53Speaker 3: You don't have to feel the same Just as long
- 27:57Speaker 3: as you're still out there Calling softly.
- 28:01Speaker 4: Through my days You don't have to look my way
- 28:06Speaker 4: You don't have to be my home It's enough to
- 28:11Speaker 4: know you're living In a world I'm not alone.
- 28:31Speaker 2: I don't need to be your light.
- 28:35Speaker 3: I don't need to cross your mind All I need is.
- 28:38Speaker 2: Just the truth That you're somewhere.
- 28:43Speaker 1: Still alive.
- 28:47Speaker 5: You don't have to stay with me You don't have
- 28:51Speaker 5: to feel the same Just as long as you're still
- 28:56Speaker 5: out there Calling softly through my days You don't have
- 29:01Speaker 5: to look my way You don't have to be my
- 29:06Speaker 5: home It's enough to know you're living
- 29:13Speaker 2: In a world I'm not alone.