The Lutheran Hour
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"Easter Makes Life Worth Living"
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Text: Luke 24:1-11
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He is risen, He is risen indeed, and His resurrection makes life worth living again! Amen!
What a day! What a day! Easter Day. And I’ll tell you; honestly, this is an especially joyful Easter for me because I’m privileged to be behind a microphone that has proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus Christ for over 80 years. What a great day to start speaking about the things of Christ with you, Easter Day.
I mean, just think about what happened that first Easter morning. Because of Jesus, one thief was in Paradise. Because of Jesus, eternal death was gutted and emptied of its power for all who trust in Him. Because of Jesus, Satan and all of his angels were already informed about their utter demise. Because of Jesus, God at work, eternal life, forgiveness, and salvation were won for all, as God’s pure gift of grace.
So the big question for you and me today is “what are we going to do about this risen Lord Jesus? Or more personally, how are you going to respond to the “death and Resurrection” Life of Grace that He accomplished for you?
That’s not only a challenging question to answer; it’s a tough one to ask as well. People think that being a pastor is an easy job. But have you ever thought about what our job is? Our job is to say Jesus’ “yes” or Jesus’ “no” to you for your sake, and not for our own.
Our job is to share the Word of Christ with our people in the midst of all circumstances. When the Bible says that “He” has died and arisen again for you, our job is to tell you!Think about it, right in the middle of my people’s most difficult days, days where people’s lives were deep wells, full of tears, or days of never-ending pain and fear, the resurrected Jesus says “Share My words with them now, words like, ‘Because I live, you will live also’ or to tell them, ‘I am the resurrection and the life, though you die, yet shall you live.'” These are incredible promises. And the minute you share them with people in the middle of suffering you begin to see how real Christ’s message is for them and for you.
I remember sharing this news as a “green, wet-behind-the-ears” pastor with Robert Dayton, a young man in my first congregation who suddenly contracted throat cancer. I remember seeing him look death in the eyes and telling me, “Jesus’ resurrection means that this cancer is not the end for me.” My work with Bob that year reminded me over and over again that even in the midst of trial….a Christian can “Sing to the Lord a New Song” now!
So, Easter, Resurrection Sunday is not about Easter bunnies and colored eggs, it’s not about the end of winter and the freshness of spring. It’s about God at work in this world for you no matter what the circumstance. It’s about real hope in the midst of hopelessness, real life in the middle of the shadows of death, it’s about God’s forgiveness and life where there is real guilt and sin.
So, hear God’s word for us today from Luke 24, to the women at the tomb of Jesus, the angels said, “Why do you look for the living among the dead, He is not dead; He has arisen! Remember how He told you: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified, and on the third day be raised?’ Then they remembered His words!”
The Resurrection of Jesus makes life worth living, because when God is at work for you, there is nothing to fear.
Jerry Seinfeld, in one of his comedy routines said, “According to most studies, people’s number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.”
Now, I’m not sure what people were thinking in those studies, sickness, death, No. 2? How can that be? These are the biggies. If we’re honest, mortality scares us all. All human beings, whether they admit it or not, eventually realize that they are limited, that they don’t have the capacity to deal with the big issues of life. When it comes to those big, big issues, our best efforts are not even close to enough.
The women of the text, they teach us a simple truth. If Jesus were merely a Man, they were looking for Him in the right place, among the dead. You see death comes to all people, because the wages of sin is death. So, if you are looking for the great men and women in history, you’ll find them in graveyards, because there are things too big, too overwhelming for our “motivated, best efforts”; sin, guilt, fear, suffering, death, mortality, even the struggles and circumstances of day to day living, in the end, they are too much for us all!
Easter Day, therefore, is not about disciples “seeking Jesus.” Easter day is first and foremost about God’s work, Christ’s work of seeking all people with “blessing in His resurrected hands, and life and salvation in His resurrection words.”
It was on the cross of Good Friday where Jesus, God at Work, uttered the words, “It is finished!” God’s eternal salvation plan for all had come to fruition on Good Friday’s cross. The Resurrection of Jesus on Sunday morning was a victory shout that “Good Friday” had sealed the deal!
So, the Resurrection of Jesus makes life worth living because in Christ, humanity’s greatest enemies have been utterly defeated.
You see, big, important questions, deal with big important issues, and the Bible says that there are no greater enemies to your life than sin, death, and Satan himself.
So hear the Scripture clearly. The Bible proclaims that “all sin must be punished and that people must get right with God on His terms” for their very lives. But the Bible also incredibly proclaims that God Himself met those terms on behalf of every sinful person in this world. That’s why there is a cross in God’s victory for you; there are scars on this Savior for you, His resurrection means that “new life is here for you” in His Name!”
No romanticism here! No rosy stories and fables to encourage the hearts and minds of those first century believers. No, the angels in the tomb told those women that the God/Man Who was born on Christmas Day had to journey to the cross for them and they “remembered”, they trusted in His words!
Incredibly, on that cross, Jesus won a victory for you that only He could win, He was willing to be abandoned by the Father for us all.
But that news shakes us before it wakes us. How can it be that on Good Friday, the Source of Life is abandoned? That the Author and Giver of Love is totally alone? That the Father of All is isolated from His Only Begotten Son? This can’t be, can it?
No, because of your sin and mine, abandoned to overcome humanity’s greatest enemies, to reconcile us all with the God Who loves us. Abandoned. We sometimes forget the gruesomeness of sin’s power and what had to be done for us all.
Have you ever felt the touch of your guilt, the pain of your sin? Have you ever felt confused, desolate, isolated, alone? Your sin will do that to you. Or how about being on the receiving end of the sinful deeds of others? Such things can often leave us insecure, lonely, and in doubt. At times sin leaves everyone shipwrecked, orphaned, adrift. Sin leaves us all abandoned in the end.
But now I know why! When I look at Jesus Christ, God in the Flesh, hanging on the cross for me, now I understand the weight, the power of sin. It’s more than an occasional misstep or a thoughtless word; it is a condition that God Himself had to confront so that His love and life might be possible again in this world.
Easter Day. Easter Day is a day where we not only remember the battle He fought, we celebrate the victory that only Jesus Christ could win!
The Bible says for all, in all circumstances, in Christ, “Death has been swallowed up in victory; Oh death where is your victory, oh death, where is your sting… the sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!”
What an incredible day, what a phenomenal offer from God Himself, God at work for you. His resurrection can make your life worth living again, because Jesus lives to transform your life through faith as only He can do!
Now He started right away with those disciples that first Easter Morning, from afraid, confused people to ones who were suddenly fearless and confident in their faith because they had met the risen Jesus. These disciples who just days before were huddled together, like children afraid of their own shadows, in a matter of a few days, now they were people boldly proclaiming even to their peril that “He is risen indeed!”
Now, some have tried to explain their transformation in other ways, but no one goes meekly to the gallows for a lie! No one willingly suffers a gruesome death for a myth; no one changes so radically, so completely in a matter of hours and days! No, their false hopes of a “revolutionary” Jesus had left them dismayed and disheartened at His death, but then they met the risen Lord and they realized that it wasn’t about revolution; it was about the revelation of His death and resurrection for this world’s salvation. It wasn’t about raw power; it was about powerful service in His name. It wasn’t about this world’s life; it was Christ’s life in this world for all.
They met the crucified, risen One, they were now “part of His kingdom of grace, one that cannot be shaken,” and they offered it boldly to anyone who would receive it by faith.
You see, when you meet Jesus through His Word, it doesn’t matter where you have been, with repentance and faith, He can overcome your past and make your life worth living again today. Because faith in Him, faith in His work for you, it gives you His status, His stature, even His purpose for living life. That’s a whole new perspective on the issues you’re dealing with, on the struggles you face, even the joys you experience.
In the midst of the frantic days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Jacob DeShazer decided to act, he enlisted in the army. Sergeant DeShazer served as a bombardier in General Doolittle’s command. He enlisted because he hated the Japanese and what they had done to us at Pearl. While on a bombing run, he was wounded by Japanese anti-aircraft fire. He bailed out and was captured and for the next several months he was brutally beaten, tortured, and just manhandled for grisly fun. His hatred for the Japanese grew and grew until he nightly dreamed of killing them all, one by one!
But one day a Bible was brought to his cell, in it he read about Jesus, Who even on the cross, said, “Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.” He said that those words melted his hatred, a hatred that had almost driven him crazy in captivity. At the very next beating, he recalled other words of this Jesus, “Love your enemies.” DeShazer determined that day to begin to love his enemies the way Jesus loved him. Slowly the guards’ treatment of him changed. You see, terror enjoys beating hatred, but beating the “gentle in Spirit”, where’s the fun in that?
After the end of the war, DeShazer returned to Japan to continue to bring the love of Christ to those he formerly hated. Now this would be an incredible story in and of itself, but there is more. The story of Jacob DeShazer’s conversion and return was printed in a tract, I Was a Prisoner of Japan. One day a Japanese man who, too, had been broken by hatred and now himself was disheartened, dejected, and hopeless, He was given that tract by an American stranger. He read that tract and was “moved.” This Buddhist, Japanese warrior sought a Bible to learn about the power of forgiveness from this Jesus. He, too, was confronted by the crucified, risen Christ; he, too, saw the incredible power of One who would forgive His enemies even from the cross, Who would even forgive him.
And so it was, Captain Mitsuo Fuchida became a believer in Jesus in 1950. The man who led the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7,1941, the very man who yelled, “Tora, Tora, Tora”, began to proclaim Christ as his Lord and his Savior. At the 25th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack, he came back with a gift for the survivors; Bibles with Luke 23:34 inscribed on them, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”
Let history show that DeShazer and Fuchida would even stand side by side in ministry together for others. Once enemies, now redeemed, forgiven brothers in Christ, they were moved to faith in Him, and their lives would never be the same again!
So, on this Resurrection Day, let me be bold to say that today, through this Word, the risen Christ comes for you! For indeed He does!! He calls you to faith in Him and He calls you to life in His Name for others until you see Him face to face.
That’s what’s being offered to you this day. Easter is God’s offer of His “earned” grace to you, a fresh start with repentance and forgiveness, a new, eternal status with God earned by Christ for you. Easter wasn’t about people seeking Jesus, it was about the crucified, resurrected Lord seeking them with His gift of life and sal,vation.
Just ask the women in our text, the disciples in the text, people like Peter or Mary, or ask people like DeShazer or Fuchida, or any of the billions who have believed and trusted in Him since that first Easter Day! They will tell you that they were all sinful, undeserving people who received the incredible grace of the risen Lord Jesus, people moved to trust in Him as the Key to it all!
So, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? (Why do you think that you can handle these issues on your own (merely by your best efforts)? Here is Jesus for you (God at work!) He is not dead; He has risen! Remember how He told you: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified, and on the third day be raised again.’ Then they remembered His words!”
Those women remembered, they trusted in the One Who died and rose for them and it changed their lives. Today you, too, can, by the Power of the Holy Spirit, put your faith in this same Jesus who makes your life worth living, today and forever! Amen!
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers)
April 24, 2011
Topic: Let’s Meet the New SpeakerANNOUNCER: Well, it’s the beginning of a new era today here on The Lutheran Hour and we’d like to take this opportunity to get to know our new Lutheran Hour Speaker, Rev. Gregory Seltz, a little bit better. Pastor Seltz, first broadcast finally here.
SELTZ: Thanks, Mark. You’re right; this is a really special day. In fact, it is a very special moment for me and for my family.
ANNOUNCER: And I’m sure our listeners would like to get to know you and your family a little bit better. What can you tell us about yourselves?
SELTZ: Yeah, I’d love to. My wife Yvette, and I, we’ve been married for 25 years and we have a daughter, Devin Marie. My family has been an integral part of my ministry from day one. Yvette has done a little bit of everything in our work, whether it was in Dallas, or Tampa, New York, or just previously in southern California. And I can’t tell you what a special blessing our daughter Devin has been to both of us and to the ministries where
we1ve served,ANNOUNCER: Well, it sounds like they would have to be a special blessing because
your ministries have been in such diverse areas. How would you say those experiences
have helped to prepare you for your work here at The Lutheran Hour?SELTZ: Well, you know, I can say that our previous ministry work, I think, it’s made us even more confident of the unique blessing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
ANNOUNCER: In what way?
SELTZ: Well, we’ve been in places where we’ve looked like everybody else and in
places where we don’t look like anyone at all. You know, we’ve served some of the
wealthiest people in our country and some of the poorest and everyone in between. But
what we’ve noticed in all those circumstances is that the Good News of Jesus Christ can
bond people from across all kinds of man-made barriers. So, when you see that in
action, you know that His Gospel is something very special.ANNOUNCER: Now I understand you’ve also been involved with ministry using various sorts of technologies. Could you share something about that?
SELTZ: That’s true. You know, we’ve used a variety of technologies to share the Gospel and to teach pastors for missionary ministry. But, you know, we need to remember that technology is still only a tool. It’s still the message that saves. So, technology helped us get that message on to people’s IPODS, and IPADS, and radios, TVs, you know. So, it has helped open doors that were otherwise closed.
ANNOUNCER: I’m sure that’s all served as good preparation for the work you’re going to be doing here.
SELTZ: I think you’re right. Using technology even more efficiently in service to the Gospel, I think that’s one of Lutheran Hour’s great blessings to the church. But it is important to remember that we’re all in this mission work together.
ANNOUNCER: In what sense?
SELTZ: Well, let me just say it this way, my love for Lutheran Hour Ministries really grew when they helped me as a pastor in the Tampa area. At Immanuel, Brandon, we reached out to the families in the community using wonderful tools and wonderful programs provided by LHM. But, we still were the ones in the community, called to be the church for those that responded. That was a partnership and so that partnership spirit is one thing that I really want to keep growing in my work here.
ANNOUNCER: Very good. Another question. I understand for the past ten years you’ve been training pastors for multi-cultural ministry. Is that correct?
SELTZ: Yeah, that’s correct.
ANNOUNCER: I also heard that you’re teaching them to become, what, special ops? The “Navy Seals for Christ”? What is that?
SELTZ: That is true. That’s our moniker. It means that we’re training a special kind of pastor for urban, multi-cultural ministry, that’s for sure. But, let me clarify. When we use the word “Navy Seal”, we mean that “kind of person who makes no excuses and just keeps on working until the job is done!” I’m not really saying that they’re the baddest guys on the block, although some of them are pretty tough.
ANNOUNCER: I guess there is a different kind of toughness.
SELTZ: Yes, it’s really an attitude; it’s a persevering love that won’t stop no matter what the barriers are to ministry. It’s actually an attitude, I think, that all of us can have, to be honest with you, because we get to love others the way that Jesus does love us!
ANNOUNCER: Well, it’s Easter Sunday. It’s also your first broadcast. It’s certainly reason to celebrate. You are among a select few that have been behind that Lutheran Hour microphone.
SELTZ: You know it is a great honor. Those names, they do loom very large: Maier, Oldsen, Acker, Hoffmann, Schulz, Meyer, Klaus, Melendez. But, you know, I think that the ministry of Jesus Christ has always loomed large and what amazes me is that He can do great things even with people like us. So, I’m very excited. I’m very honored to follow in their footsteps.
ANNOUNCER: Thank you, Pastor Seltz. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Music Selection for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by Chris Bergmann. Used by permission.
“Jesus Christ Is Risen Today” From Hymns for All Saints: Lent, Easter, Pentecost (© 2006 Concordia Publishing House)
“Now All the Vault of Heaven Resounds” arr. Hart W. Morris. From Hymns for All Saints: Lent, Easter, Pentecost (© 2006 Concordia Publishing House)
“Christ the Lord Is Risen Today” arr. Timothy Moke & Georg Masanz, From Magnificent Christian Hymns, vol. 2 by Timothy Moke & Georg Masanz (© 2005 T. Moke Recordings)