A Famous Victory

A Famous Victory

(Matthew 28.1-10)

Based on an outline by Ian Knox - p206

Opening Activity

Show the pictures on some Easter cards. Point out fluffy new chicks, young lambs skipping about in the spring fields, lots of flowers, and some decorated eggs.

Probably many of us gave or received a chocolate egg today. So all this says that Easter is a happy, festive occasion, in tune with the new life of spring-time, with all the new birds, animals and flowers.

Show cards with a garden and an empty tomb, or three crosses on a hill in the distance. Others have made all the flowers into the shape of a cross.

So what do these cards tell us about Easter? They tell us about another kind of new life, which doesn't happen naturally every time winter is over, but only ever happened once. it wasn't an ordinary thing at all. It was so completely amazing and impossible that people are still talking about it two thousand years after it happened.

What was it?

Ask for answers.

Yes, it really did happen. Jesus really did die on the Friday, and he really was alive again on the Sunday. And that shows us that Jesus must be more than just a man, he must be God as well as human. And he is still just as much alive now as he was then. No wonder we want to celebrate and give one another flowers and cards and Easter eggs! Spring is nice to celebrate, but this is the most wonderful event ever. It means that nothing, not even death itself, is out of God's reach for saving and transforming.

So, when you eat your chocolate eggs, and open your Easter cards, remember what we're really clebrating today: Jesus is risen. Alleluia!

Talk

In what ways do you like to celebrate?

In February, I celebrated my fortieth birthday, and I celebrated in lots of different ways. I decided I didn't really want a big party, but I did want to do some nice things with Graeme and the children. So Graeme planned two really nice days for me. He and I had a day together while the children were at school. He brought me breakfast in bed to start the day. Then, later we went for a walk, had a pub lunch, and went to the theatre in the evening. Then, we had a day with the children. We all went out for a big cooked breakfast, then went to the cinema in the afternoon, and in the evening Graeme cooked a really nice meal for us all. It was a lovely two days.

If I say the year 1966 to you, what's the first thing that comes to mind. For many people it's England winning the World Cup. I was only a young child, but I remember the excitement, ...and can imaging the celebrations which must have gone on into the night.

Big birthdays, ...big cup finals, ...well for Christians, this is our big day!

No Easter would mean no Christianity. As we heard in our Epistle:

"If there be no resurrection, then Christ was not raised;

and if Christ were not raised, then our gospel is null and void,

and so is your faith."

But the truth is that Christ was raised. And because of what happened on that first Easter morning, today we celebrate our Victory Day.

And there are three things that I want to say about it. In education some people are pressing that we get back to basics, with a greater emphasis on the 3 R's. Well this morning we have the 3 R's of Easter.

First of all, its a victory to be remembered.

Yet right from the outset, the opposition have tried to argue that it was no victory at all.

In our gospel reading we heard Matthew's account of the resurrection, but listen to how that account continues:

"...the soldiers guarding the tomb went back to the city and told the chief priests everything that had happened. The chief priests met with the elders and made their plan; they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers and said, "You are to say that his disciples came during the night and stole his body while you were asleep. And if the Governor should hear of this, we will convince him that you are innocent, and that you will have nothing to worry about."

The guards took the money and did what they were told to do. And so that is the report spread round by Jews to this very day."

So from the very beginning, the authorities did what governments often try to do, they tried to cover it up.

But they failed to cover it up, because the evidence for the resurrection is all there.

...And there's an awful lot of that evidence. It's something that many of your will have heard about during the Alpha Courses. The evidence for the resurrection is central to the Christian Faith, ...as I've already said, without Easter there's no Christianity. Yet many Christians are simply not aware of the substantial evidence which points to the resurrection of Jesus.

Jesus Christ is risen today! ...and because of that we've got a victory to remember.

But is that all? ...Is Easter just an event in history which we look back to with happy memories? (...rather like the 1966 World Cup), but which has little relevance to us today?

Well the answer is No! Because it's also a victory to be received.

All down the centuries this risen Jesus has transformed the lives of individuals. Just think about how it all began...

...as we heard in our Gospel reading, when the women at the tomb heard that Jesus had been raised from the dead they were filled with awe and great Joy, ...and when they met him, they fell prostrate before him, ...I bet they were never the same again!

...And then Jesus met with Peter, James, John and the other disciples. Remember how when Jesus was arrested the disciples had all ran away in fear. Only Peter followed Jesus, but that was at a distance, and when it came to the crunch he ended up denying that he ever knew Jesus. Imagine how they must have felt on Good Friday. Grieving for the death of their Master, ...afraid that they might be killed too, ...and feeling ever so guilty, that they had all deserted him. What a mixture of emotions!

...on that first Easter evening the disciples had gathered behind locked doors, because of their fear of the Jewish authorities. ...and then there he was! ...standing right among them! ...and his first words were not ones of accusation, but ones of love, "...Peace be with you". Then he showed them his hands and his side, ...and the disciples were filled with joy at seeing the Lord.

He breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit".

...and over the next few weeks he appeared to them on several different occasions. And these encounters with Jesus changed this small band of cowards into a group of men who turned the world upside down. The spoke boldly about the things they had seen, ...and nothing could stop them.

And ever since then, Jesus has touched the lives of millions of others too. They've received the message of Jesus, ...and also the Spirit of Jesus, who has come and lived within them.

As a child, I remember learning a chorus at Sunday School, perhaps some of you know it:

He lives! He lives!

Christ Jesus lives today.

He walks with me, and talks with me,

along life's narrow way.

He lives! He lives!

Salvation to impart.

You ask me how I know he lives?

He lives within my heart.

And the testimony of many people here today, including myself, is that we know that Jesus is risen, because we too have met with him, and he lives in our hearts.

Which brings us to my final point.

What did the disciples do when they had received this victory?

What do you do if you've got some great news?

Well, we have a victory to be re-told.

We've got some great news to share, so lets not be selfish and keep it to ourselves.

Sharing our faith is something that we often feel uncomfortable about doing, but we need to remember that we are offering the gift of eternal life to people.

Hudson Taylor was one of the greatest missionaries of modern times. He spent much of his life in China, introducing people to Jesus.

Once he was travelling by a small boat from Shanghai to Ningpo. In his cabin, Taylor was preparing to go ashore. He was startled by a sudden splash and a cry. Springing quickly up on deck, he discovered that Peter, a Chinese friend, had fallen overboard. Taylor begged some men with a drag net to pull in the drowning man. They refused because it was not, as they said, convenient. he offered them $5 to stop fishing and try to save Peter. They said they would do it for no less than $30. Taylor had only $14 - which they eventually accepted.

But it was too late. Even though Peter was brought on deck with the first sweep of the net, all attempts to revive him failed. Taylor's comment on this sad event is interesting.

'We condemn those fishermen. We say they were guilty of a man's death because they could easily have saved him and did not do it. But what of the millions whom we leave to perish, and that eternally?'

Listen again to what the angel said to the women at the tomb:

"You have nothing to fear. I know you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; he has been raised again, as he said he would be. Come and see the place where he was laid, and then go quickly and tell his disciples."

Do you see the pattern, ...come and see, ...then go and tell. ...And all of us have a part to play in this re-telling.

If we've received the good news that Jesus is risen, and know his presence in our lives, ...then we to will want to be re-telling it to others.

At the end of this service we'll be singing one of the best loved Easter Hymns,

Thine be the glory,

risen, conquering Son,

endless is the victory

Thou o'er death hast won.

So when we sing it, lets do so in celebration of the fact that this is our big day, and that we have:

- a victory to be remembered,

- a victory to be received,

- and a victory to be re-told.

Prayers

In the knowledge that God is here present with us, let us pray.

Father, we thank you for the gifts of sight and insight, and ask you to be there in all our looking.

Help us always to see with eyes of faith, love and honesty.

Silence

Lord in your mercy

Hear our prayer

We pray for our bishops, priests and deacons, in their demanding ministry of love, that they may be given all the support, grace and annointing they need.

Silence

Lord in your mercy

Hear our prayer

We pray for gifts of discernment and integrity among all those who govern, advise and lead. Clear away all self-centred ambition and free our leaders to serve.

Silence

Lord in your mercy

Hear our prayer

Whenever we have eye contact with family, friends, neighbours or colleagues, be there in that communication, and remind us of our calling to love one another. Help us to have the courage to share our faith with those we love and those we work with.

Silence

Lord in your mercy

Hear our prayer

We call to mind those whose eyes are wet with tears or tense with pain.

Help them to sense your reassuring love which can bring us through the darkest of valleys.

Silence

Lord in your mercy

Hear our prayer

Father we thank you for loving us right through death into new life, and we rejoice in your victory over evil.

Merciful Father,

accept these prayers for the sake of your Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.