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Easter Sunrise 2008
Not Yet Happily Ever After
a sermon on Acts 2.22-36
by
David C. Mauldin
Westminster Presbyterian Church, Mobile, Alabama “
… and they
lived happily ever after. The end.” Fairy tales always end like this, don’t
they? They start out with an interesting problem. All the action comes in the
middle, where disaster appears certain until in some improbable way the day is
dramatically saved. And then … the end. Happily ever after. That’s a fairly
tale. That’s not the gospel. How do the gospels end? … They don’t! Now it is
true that when you read one of the four gospels, you will get to a spot on the
page where the print stops. But the story of the gospels, the story of Jesus,
doesn’t end. After his death and burial, Jesus is raised from the dead by God
the Father. His tomb is found empty. He appears to his friends, alive again body
and soul. He explains to them why he had to die. And then, he promises to send
his Spirit and he tells them they are to be his witnesses. Go into all the
world. Make disciples. Baptize them. Teach them everything I have taught you.
Proclaim repentance and forgiveness to all nations in my name. That story is
still going on. It isn’t over. And when we read the gospels and we come to the
end, we find Jesus addressing us with the command to be his witnesses. Our
scripture reading comes from the Book of Acts, which is a sequel to the Gospel
of Luke. There is no better way to make the point that a story has not ended
than to bring out a sequel. What I read to you is actually part of Peter’s
sermon on Pentecost. It represents, therefore, the very first time the
Resurrection of Jesus was preached publicly. Certainly it had been made known
before. Word spread rapidly among the disciples. Usually they didn’t believe it
until they actually met the risen Jesus, and we ought not blame them. The
resurrection is not an easy thing to get your mind around. It wasn’t then
either. But this sermon in Acts represents the first public announcement of the
resurrection. Now Peter is addressing Jews who know the Old Testament. They know
the promises of God. They believe them. They know God is working out a
mysterious plan, and they expect God will bring the story of his people, the
story of the world, to a happy ending. But Peter knows something they do not. He
knows that God has just done something that moved the plan forward. Has the end
come yet? Well, let’s see. Is this the same old earth or is it God’s new heaven
and new earth? It’s the old one. Are peace and justice universal? Hardly. Have
the dead been raised to eternal life? Well, one of
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them has been. Is the earth full of the glory of God as the water covers the
sea? It’s about to be. The end has not come yet, but something has happened, and
that something means that although this is not the end, it is the beginning of
the end. These are what Peter calls, quoting Joel, “the last days”—the final
phase of God’s plan before all his promises become glorious reality: new
creation, the union of heaven and earth, eternal life for all God’s people, and
the end of evil, suffering, and death. What has happened to move God’s plan and
human history into this final stage? Jesus has been raised from the dead. I love
Peter’s approach to the resurrection here. Did you find it odd that he doesn’t
try to prove it to the people? He quotes scripture, but not in order to make a
case for the resurrection. Instead, he starts with the resurrection as his
foundation. He says, “This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are
witnesses.” That’s my favorite verse in the whole Bible. Here are the apostles,
empowered by the Holy Spirit, speaking in a variety of languages, drawing
attention to themselves. Peter gets up and he says, “God raised Jesus from the
dead. You want proof? Here we are!” So he and the others give eyewitness
testimony to the resurrection of Jesus. Then Peter goes on to use two passages
from the Psalms to prove a point. The first is Psalm 16.8-11. The crux of which
is “you will not suffer your Holy One to see corruption.” Peter, like his
audience, assumed David wrote this. His next move was one they would also
readily follow: Since David died and decomposed, this must be some sort of
prophecy. It must refer to a descendant of David—the Messiah. Now, Peter
reasons, on the basis of his resurrection, we can tell you who that is: Jesus.
The other passage makes the same point. It comes from Psalm 110.1, which we know
was a psalm sung when new kings of Judah were crowned. Again, Peter assumes
David is the author and speaking as a prophet. “The Lord say to my Lord, sit at
my right hand.” The Lord—that is, God—says to my Lord … well, who is David’s
Lord? The answer, Peter says, is the Messiah. One of David’s descendants will be
David’s Lord, and will be exalted to God’s right hand. You may not know it, but
this was just about the favorite Old Testament verse for New Testament
Christians. They saw Jesus all over it. One reason why may be that Jesus himself
made the connection. When he was in Jerusalem during holy week arguing with the
religious leaders, he stumped them with this verse, asking, “How could David’s
son also be his Lord?” So Peter turns to scripture to prove his point. What is
his point? Jesus is Israel’s Messiah and the world’s true Lord. That was what
Peter told them. Now let me tell you why this is exciting Good News for us.
Peter was excited because the last days had finally arrived. The Messiah had
come. God’s faithfulness had proved true. The hope his people cherished had been
powerfully confirmed by the resurrection of Jesus. It wasn’t yet the end—not yet
happily-ever-after—but the end was now in sight. It was certain and inevitable.
Peter
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announced the beginning of the final stage of God’s plan, and as we hear his
words this morning, we are still living in that final stage. You may wonder
about that. It has been a very long time. Why so long? The answer is: I don’t
know. God perceives time differently from the way we do. What seems like a long
time to us feels just right to God. Look how long God’s people waited for the
Messiah in the first place. Because Jesus is Israel’s Messiah and the world’s
true Lord, he is the one who will bring God’s promises to fulfillment. He is the
one who will make it happen. He is the one who will make things right. The end
is in his hands, and so is today. From where we are standing this morning, we
can see two things very clearly, two things Peter also saw. We can be absolutely
certain that God’s promises will become reality. Call this “happily ever after”
if you want to, although I would rather not because I do not think “happily ever
after” even begins to describe what God is going to do. Think about it this way:
“Happily ever after” might describe Jesus coming back to life just the same as
he had been before he was crucified. But that’s not what happened. He came back
glorified. He was the same Jesus, but he wasn’t the same old Jesus. He was now
the new, improved Jesus—alive, glorified, the Lord of Life. “Happily ever after”
just isn’t good enough. God can do better than that, and we know he will! The
other thing we can see is: We have a job to do. We find ourselves in exactly the
same place in God’s plan as Peter and the other apostles. And we also receive
exactly the same commission: Go and tell. Make disciples. “You are my
witnesses,” Jesus said, and he meant us too. So Peter wasn’t speaking only of
the disciples on Pentecost when we said, “This Jesus God raised up, and of that
all of us are witnesses.” All Christians are. We are witnesses that the deepest
longings of the human heart find their answer in Jesus. All our problems, all
our pain, everything that is wrong with the world—all these things do have an
answer. They do have a resolution. Jesus. God has made him Lord and Messiah, and
so we look to him. We look to him for the future coming of God’s kingdom.
Someday he will do it. He will make thing right. He will make all thing new,
including us. But in the meantime, we are not just sitting around waiting. We
experience his presence and his power right now. He works in our lives today
with transforming, resurrection power. He is alive, and we can know him and love
him and carry on his work. What I am trying to say is: Jesus’ resurrection is
not a happy ending for Jesus; it is a new beginning for the world! Jesus is
alive, and everything has changed. True, we still live in the old world. Evil
and death remain. But we know this is only temporary. And we know it because God
won the victory and began new creation by raising Jesus from the dead.
rev_mauldin@yahoo.com
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