When You Recognize Him

Easter Sunday, April 12, 2009
Preacher: Pastor Gary Johnson

Readings:
Acts 10:34-43
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
John 20:1-18




Audio sermon file:

http://fileresource.sitepro.com/filemanager/74/filecollections/742/E81B8D00-6FC5-42AA-5911-D7C3E043033E.mp3

Pastor Johnson started interestingly by pointing out that today is NOT a day to convince you, but rather a day to testify to you: Jesus is raised from the dead. It’s more than a myth, more than a mystery, more than a fable, more than a tale.



God is not in the business of losing.

God is not in the business of coming in second.


Death loses. Death comes in 2nd to life. Oh, death, where is thy sting?

God shows NO partiality in the crucifixion:

ALL are now included.

And we all needed saving. For we all have tombs … places where we crawl, where “nothing will get better”, that cell where all hope goes to die. We roll the stone in front of our dark cells where we continue to live with our grief, our fear, our confusion about whether “it’s going to get any better”.

The Good News today is that if you ask God to push that stone away from your tomb of loneliness, brokenness, anxiety and fearfulness, God can’t wait to roll it away and lead you out into the light and the garden.

The story now ends differently because God’s in charge.

Just as He calls Mary by name at the tomb, He knows your name. He tells Mary “not to hang on to Him”. And He tells us we cannot hang on either. He comes in and out of our lives. And we, just like the disciples on the Road to Emmaus, often don’t recognize Him. He could be the gardener, a service station attendant, or a child.

What Pastor Johnson did was then tell a story about when he was involved with Project Head Start helping a young boy, Tyrone, raised by a single mom. I seriously recommend you click on the audio sermon link at the top of this blog post because I cannot recount his story with ample emotion or passion. Each inflection and pause are a part of the experience so please allow yourselves that luxury.

What happens briefly is that Pastor Johnson was with Tyrone when he was called to attend to an old woman far out in the country on a very rainy night. He had Tyrone in the car and muscled his way most of the way until he hit a road not traversable by auto on 4 wheels. He locked Tyrone in the car and carried on by foot. Upon returning, his body froze … through the torrential downpour, in the dim of the remaining light, he saw what looked like someone in the car with Tyrone. Upon rushing the car and opening the door, he found out it was the biggest, muddiest, dirtiest, HAPPIEST dog imaginable. Tyrone looked Pastor Johnson in the eye and, figuring he was expected to give some explanation, simply said, “I couldn’t just leave him outside.” Upon returning home with Tyrone, what Pastor Johnson remembers resolutely was the look on Tyrone’s mom’s face. He said:


“It must have been what Mary’s face looked like when she realized Jesus wasn’t dead."



Jesus slips into and out of our lives. He’s where he’s least expected and at the least expected times. And when you recognize Him, you’ll see life, not death; hope, not despair.