First Hand Encounter

Just like the angel who greeted the women at the tomb, bright as lightning, coming with an earthquake – we are trying this morning with our music and our choirs and our sanctuary all decked out with lilies to proclaim this same good news!

Jesus, who was crucified, is not dead – he has been raised!

But God never intended for anybody to believe that news or to get excited about it or to be changed by it just through some second-hand report – even from an angel. Because right after the angel appeared to the women, what happened? Jesus appeared to the women himself, face to face. They had their own first-hand encounter with Jesus alive.

This news is earth-changing and life-changing, but it is not complete until you experience it yourself, first-hand.

For months I heard friends rave about the musical in San Francisco, “Jersey Boys,” which is about Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. “O Mary, it is so good! You would love it. It’s not just great music, it’s a great story. I didn’t think I even liked their music, but I was surprised at how many songs I recognized. It is great!” On and on. And I believed them, half-heartedly. It made me want to see it.

Yesterday I went to see “Jersey Boys.” Now I’m going to tell you how great it is, not because somebody told me, but because I’ve seen it myself; I loved it myself. You should go!

Those women at the tomb had the most glorious proclamation of the good news of the resurrection we could ever imagine: an angel glowing like a lightning bolt, an earthquake causing the guards to be like dead men and stones rolling around! But if that’s all they’d had it would not have changed their lives. Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” Wow!

Then Jesus told them to go and tell the disciples, which they would have done anyway. But what else did he tell them to say? “Tell them to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

This is the message. Yes, Jesus has been raised from the dead, but this is the important part: “he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.” If you want to.

That is what all this shouting is about. Jesus has done everything we have been singing about so far; he has conquered death, the grave and hell, destroying all the works of sin, he reigns as King victoriously. But it is all lost on us until we encounter him alive and well first hand. Easter is not about second hand news.

This is what we have on our prayer cards for our 2007 Mexico Mission Trip: we are praying that they will have a unique encounter with Jesus Christ by serving the people of Mexico and working together as a team. We want these students not only to go across the border and have their eyes opened to what life is like outside our comfortable little bubble here, but we want them to meet the One who changes our hearts to address the inequities, who changes our lives and changes the world. That comes from their own experience of Jesus. That’s what Easter is about – the risen Lord meeting each one of us in our Galilee (where we live our lives); right where we are, and changing us forever.

Earlier in the service the choir sang: Jesus is alive and well, he conquered death, the grave and hell. Let every heart rejoice and sing, the God we serve is the risen King. But I don’t expect anybody to believe that because the choir sang it so well or because scripture said it or I said it, or even because an angel said it. I expect that you will experience Easter only when you encounter him alive yourself.

And when you do, you won’t be able to keep it to yourself. You won’t be able to keep your own life to yourself – the earthquake will be inside you.

This is the message: He is going ahead of you into Galilee; there you will see him. If you want to.