There was a man who worked his whole life and saved up all of his money and he was a miser. He never liked to spend his money and so his wife never got any of the things she could have had. And while he was on his deathbed, this miser said to his wife, "Honey, when I die I want to make sure that you take all of my money and bury it with me. I want all of that money for the next life, in my afterlife. Well she was in tears, she was highly emotional and so through her tears she made the promise, "I'll do it." Well he died and he was there stretched out in his casket and the funeral was about over and the undertaker was about ready to close the casket. And the widow up in the front, his wife, said, "Just one moment." And she walked forward with a metal box, placed it in the casket. Her friend next to her, once she sat down said, "You didn't just put that money in his casket, did you?" She said, "Yes I did, I made a promise to him and I kept my promise." And her friend persisted, "Tell me you weren't foolish enough to put all of his money in that casket with him." And she said, "I did. This is what I did, I took all of his money, put it in my account and wrote him a check." And then she said, "If he can cash it, he can spend it." That's a very clever wife. She understood a few things. She understood, number one, you can't take it with you. Number two, always keep your promises. And number three, it's wise to be practical about your future, which she was.
I want to talk to you about that this morning briefly. It's time to be practical about your future. This is Easter, it's a good time to think about your future, my future, because the truth is, one day will be our last day on earth. One day our time will be up, and then what? What about our future? What about eternity? Is your life merely to be lived here and enjoyed here? And then when you die you get buried with your money or your toys in the casket? Or are you going to live forever with Him?
There was an undertakers who said, "Of all of the things that I have had requested, the strangest thing at a funeral, true story the undertaker said, "If somebody insisted that the deceased friend be buried with a can opener in his hand just in case he needed to get out." Okay, how lame is that? There's a lot better ways to get out of a grave than with a can opener. I can think of one: the resurrection. That's how Jesus got out of his, that's what we celebrate today. Now the book of Revelation was written by John the apostle, very close friend of Jesus. John, sixty years before he wrote this book, he followed him, he believed in him, he was there listening to all of his messages around the Sea of Galilee and Jerusalem. John was a fisherman, until one very special day when Jesus showed up in his town, it was a day that changed his life forever, he said, "John, follow me and I will make you become fishers of men." And so his brother and himself, they were in a boat mending the nets. The Bible says they left everything and they followed Jesus. John in this book of Revelation is now quite old, he's in his nineties. He's in his 90s. He's on an island when he writes this, the island of Patmos, he's not having a nice little vacation on a cruise, he's there in solitary confinement, living out his last days. According to tradition, John had been arrested by the Emperor who had found that John had started lots of churches, the emperor didn't like that, Dometian was his name. He ordered John be bound, brought to Rome and killed. On the day of his trial and execution John was dragged with chains, beaten, forced to pay homage to the Roman gods which he refused to do. And so there in one of the Roman gates called the Porta Latina in Rome, they had a huge vat of boiling oil and tradition says they put him in that oil. He didn't burn, he wasn't hurt at all. Miraculously he got out of that and the only thing the emperor Dometian thought to do was to banish him so he was sent to the island of Patmos. That's how the tradition goes.
Either way, he's there, he's in confinement, an old man. And he's pleasantly surprised, the Jesus that he loved so much, risen from the dead, gives him a special vision where in chapter 1 of Revelation he sees the Lord. And there's a couple of verses in particular I draw your attention to at the end of the vision that John has of Jesus. Look at verse 17 and verse 18 of chapter 1, if you don't have a Bible I'll just read it to you. "And when I saw him," John writes, verse 17, "when I saw him I fell at his feet as dead. But he laid his right hand on me saying to me, 'Do not be afraid, I am the first and the last. I am He who lives and was dead and behold I am alive forevermore. Amen. I have the keys of Hades and of death."
Today is Easter. It's time for something I believe. And I want to based on this text give you three things that it's time for. First of all, today, this day, this is a time for faith not for fear. Now John was afraid when he saw Jesus. And Jesus said, "Don't be afraid." Now why was John so afraid when he saw this? It's actually pretty typical. Any time you have a human being encountering some glorious experience with God you have a typical reaction like this, this is merely a human reaction to a supernatural interaction. Whether it was Moses or Daniel or Jeremiah or Isaiah, Ezekiel; whenever they encountered some special vision or experience they would get very afraid, even John himself, sixty years before this, had a very interesting experience where with a couple of his apostle friends Jesus was transfigured before him with Moses and Elijah. And the Bible tells us that when Jesus was transfigured before them, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid. So once again this unexpected experience at Patmos and John is afraid and Jesus says, "Don't be afraid."
Why? Why don't be afraid? Well it's based on who Jesus is, he says, "I am the first and I am the last." If you know your Bible, it's in the Old Testament, you know that that is a description of God himself. This is Jesus claiming to be the very God of the Bible. Three times in Isaiah, for instance Isaiah chapter 44, God in heaven says, "I am the first and I am the last and besides me there is no God." "Don't be afraid, John, I'm the first, I'm the last. I'm God, I'm in control." Now the rest of the book of Revelation Jesus as God shows that he is in control of the future and gives him a future vision.
You and I, we live in a day of uncertainty. We don't know what the future's going to hold and some of us are pretty worried about it. Some of us feel we have a good right to be worried about it. Some of us have even lost our jobs, I've spoken to a few of you who have. The economy is bad, we don't know what's going to happen with the oil prices, the banks, the auto industry. People today re fearful. I read a little article from The New York Times in the health section. The economy and the fear of what's going to happen is having a huge effect. People are exhibiting severe anxiety, or more marital strife, or domestic violence, in some cases substance abuse. In an American Psychological poll, eighty percent reported the economy is causing significant stress and that's up from sixty-six percent last April. And the National Sleep Foundation, same article, National Sleep Foundation said twenty-seven percent of people surveyed had sleepless nights because of economic anxiety. That's our country right now. One magazine asked, "What is the most common reason that people are afraid?" And there were three given. Number one, the most common fear today is the possibility of a nuclear attack on our soil. People are afraid of that, people don't know what the future's going to hold, that scares them. Reason number two, that a spouse or a child would come down with a terminal illness, a very real fear that parents have. And the third is that you yourself would come down with a terminal illness. Those are the three biggest fears facing America.
But God wants you to know something this morning. He would like you to know that He is control and you have every reason today to be confident as you look at your future. You have every reason to be confident. I know some of you are thinking, "Skip, you need to get out a little bit more I think. I think you're maybe stuck behind your desk too much. You need to like look at the television a little bit more or read the news." I've read the news. But I've also read the Good News and I know how the story ends and I know it's going to be okay.
In Isaiah chapter 6 the prophet had a vision of God similar to this. And it says, "In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting on his throne high and lifted up." It was the year King Uzziah died, he was a very godly righteous strong powerful leader. He died. Isaiah and everybody else in Israel having second thoughts like, "Now what's going to happen to our nation, the good guy isn't in charge any more. King Uzziah's dead, who's going to take over the throne. What's going to happen to our country?" Just in the nick of time Isaiah said, "I saw the Lord sitting on his throne." He is in control. And I like that, the Lord was sitting on the throne. God isn't standing up wringing his hands this morning, sweating, panicking over the condition over this world or in this country. He's got it in control. He's taking this sitting down, this is all according to plan. History is going somewhere and according to this book of Revelation, as the first and the last, he's got it all in control.
Now, Jesus does something really interesting to me. It says, "He laid his right hand on me," John makes note of here. He laid, Jesus laid his right hand on me. Typically that's a gesture of fortification, encouragement. When somebody's really worried or afraid like this, when you grab their arm or you lay your hand on them, it's as if to day, "Don't worry. Don't' be afraid. It's going to be okay, it'll be all right." There was a special moment in John's life years before on the Sea of Galilee where he as a fisherman was in a boat and he thought the storm was too bad. Remember that story? He through the boat was going to sink, they all did. And they were afraid the Bible tells us and then they saw Jesus walking on the water; that didn't help, it made them more afraid, it made them more afraid because they don't remember before seeing people walk on water. So he was terrified. Jesus addressed them by saying, "Be of good cheer, it is I. Don't be afraid." Literally in the Greek language, "Be of good cheer. I am. I am. Don't be afraid." That's exactly how Jesus speaks to John now. "I am the first and the last. Don't be afraid."
Fear and faith cannot dwell in the same heart, they're mutually exclusive. If you're fearful that'll push out faith. If you have faith that will banish fear. Today if you're a follower of Jesus Christ you have good reason to be confident in his ability to take you to the future.
I hear a story about a man who was taking a walk one night, it was a dark road, it was unfamiliar territory to the man, he had heard that on either side of the road was a sheer dropoff, so he tried to maintain the center of the road. But he got too close he couldn't see, he slipped and he fell. And what he is thinking careening down the ravine, flailing his arms, finally grabs onto a bush, holds on for dear life and cries out for help. Well nobody hears him. He cries out again. Nobody hears him. He holds on, he holds on, it seemed like hours to him. Finally he thought, "I have to let go." And in desperation he let go thinking he's going to die. And he fell all the way down, six inches. See, all that needless worry for nothing. It was all right there.
Now if you're not a follower of Jesus Christ, I do need to be honest with you, from a biblical perspective, if you're not a follower of Christ then be afraid. Be very afraid, because the same Jesus that predicts that for John and Christ's followers it's going to be really good and glorious talks about a lot of gnarly experiences that will happen to the human race before that glorious day, written about in the book of Revelation. Even Jesus himself predicted there would come a time on earth, Jesus' words now, "Men's hearts will be failing them from fear and from the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth."
If today, you're living in fear, I want you to know you can be cured of that. And the cure is faith. Latch on, grab a hold of this Jesus, the historical Jesus who said, "I am the first, I am the last, don't be afraid." So today is Easter and it 's the time for faith not for fear.
Second, this is the time for joy not for sorrow. If you look again at verse 18, Jesus speaks again, "I am he who lives and was dead and behold (now behold is a Bible word that simply means look or check it out, so) I am he who lives and was dead. But hey check it out, I'm alive forevermore. Amen. The Greek text is more emphatic, I became dead. That is, he went to the cross and he died but then he rose again from the dead. That's why I say it's a time for joy not for sorrow. You know what the saddest day of John's life was I believe? The day Jesus died. John was there at the cross the Bible tells us next to Mary the mother of Jesus. He was watching the whole thing come down. He was so sad, so sorrowful. All of the disciples were sorrowful. Some of you remember the story in Luke 24 when Jesus has a little walk outside of Jerusalem and there's a couple of disciples walking, heads are down, they're really sad. Jesus is risen from the dead, they don't know it yet and he just comes cruising up incognito next to these two disciples as if, just sort of to play along with them. And he goes, "Hey you guys, what kind of conversation are you having with each other. And why are you so sad?" And I love it, they said to Jesus, "Are you like a visitor around here or something? Haven't you heard about the things that have happened?" And I love Jesus' response, "What things?" as if he didn't know. They were all about him but he wanted them to say it. What things? They were sad. And you see, Jesus tried to prepare them for this sadness. He told them in the upper room, he said, "You're going to weep, you're going to lament and you're going to be sorrowful. But," Jesus said, "But your sorrow will be turned into joy." You're going to be really sorrowful but there's coming a day soon (speaking of his resurrection) when your sorrow will be transformed into joy.
John would never forget the day he saw Jesus die. Nor would he forget the day that his sorrow was transformed into joy. It was the day he walked into the tomb with Peter. Remember the story? In John 20, he walks in and Peter's sort of trying to figure out this whole thing. And it simply says, "John saw and believed. He saw the evidence of the resurrection and he believed. And then later on that day when they were all together, the Bible says, when they saw Jesus they were glad. Their sorrow was turned into joy. Jesus predicted that.
So this is a time for joy this morning, not for sorrow. And I'll tell you why exactly. Because if Jesus rose from the dead, it means that everything else he promised must be true. Follow me here. Remember Jesus predicted his death and his resurrection, over and over again to the disciples. "They're going to take me to Jerusalem, they're going to arrest me, they're going to beat me up, they're going to kill me, but three days later I'm going to rise from the dead. Foom, right over their heads, they didn't even hear the last part. They just heard the last part, you're going to die, what a bummer, Eeyore the donkey reaction. But I'm going to rise from the dead.
Now if he could predict that, which he did, and it happened; now you can go through every other promise he made and say, "If he could predict his death and resurrection and it happened, then every other promise he made must also be true. This is a time for joy not for sorrow. Because if he can conquer death, and he promised that if we believe in him we would conquer death, then we will. Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and I am the life, whoever believes in me even though he dies, yet shall believe." I believe that promise and I believe it because Jesus rose from the dead. And so this morning, today, this is a time for joy not sorrow. You have every reason not only for confident living but for joyful living.
Billy Sunday once said, "If you have no joy in your life and you're a Christian, there must be a leak in your Christianity somewhere."
Do you believe this book? Do you believe the promises that God has written down for you? Then if you do, do you live like it? Is there joy? Don't you figure that if all of the people that are suffering in the world, this economic tragedy, and many worse tragedies around the world; all the people we ought to be the most genuinely joyful people around. And I mean not a shallow giddy but a real genuine deep kind of joy.
Christianity Today ran a little article and the author said, "Some people think it's difficult to be a Christian and to laugh. I think it's the other way around, God writes a lot of comedy, it's just that he has so many bad actors. I know people like that and you do too. You would not know that Jesus is alive and has made them that promise. So today, this is the time for faith not for fear. This is the time for joy not for sorrow. And finally, this is the time for a decision, no more indecision. And I want to show you why, in verse 18, "I have the keys of Hades and of death."
Now follow me, go back to the beginning this morning: If God is in control like Jesus said he was, first and last, if God is in control, if the promises Jesus made are true based upon the one he made about the resurrection that happened; if all of that is true, doesn't it make sense that the best choice you could make would be to follow him, to trust him, to surrender to him? Now here he says, "I have the keys to Hades and death." What does that mean? Well, Hades and death are synonymous terms for the experience of every human being. Hades is the place, Hades just means the grave; and death is the condition. Hades is the New Testament term for the Old Testament term sheol, they both mean the same thing. It simply means the grave. "I hold the keys of death and the grave." Everybody's going to die and everybody's going to get buried in the ground. And so when Jesus says, "I have the keys, it means I have the authority. If you have the keys, you have access. Now I have keys in my hand, here's the key to my car. I have access to my car. If you have keys to a car it means you can drive, well theoretically it means you can drive. Some people have keys and you kind of wonder, they shouldn't have them, but they do, they can get in and they can maneuver that baby. If you have keys to a house, you have entry, you have access. If the mayor gives you a key to the city, you have special privilege and special access and special authority. So Jesus is the man with the keys to your future. Look at it this way, he's the designated driver for eternity. He's the man with the keys, he controls life and death, he controls who will live forever in heaven or those who will live apart from him. The smartest thing you can do is to get to know the man with the keys. While you're alive on this earth, make a decision, find the man with the keys to death and the grave and get to know him. You know there's a myth in America, I want to just sort of talk about this briefly and dispel it because I see it at a lot of funerals. They myth that many Americans have is this: that all you have to do to get to heaven is just die. That's all you've got to do. You don't have to do anything, you can live without God, never go to church, never read the Bible, never talk about heaven, it's just not a reality. Until that person dies, it's just sort of interesting that at that funeral they want to talk about heaven. "I know he's in heaven right now." Why would he be there? He didn't want anything to do with God his whole life, why would God make him spend forever with him? It's not automatic, going to heaven is deliberate, it's intentional, it's a choice. Get to know the man with the keys. Let him drive your life into eternity. That's what John did. Sixty years before this John was mending his nets, Jesus walked into his town, said to he and his brother, "Follow me." And John did. John made his choice, that was John's day of decision. He could have said nothing, Jesus could have walked on. But he said yes to him.
And today is your day of decision, your day of choice. Every one of us in this room is probably going to face the grave, unless the Lord comes back at any time soon, we're all going to face death and the grave. Our days are numbered. But because it's Easter and because Jesus rose from the dead, he took the sting of death. Oh you're going to face death, but the sting isn't there, the punch isn't there any longer. There was a man driving down a country road with his son and a bee flew into the open window of the car, it was a summer day. They boy was terrified of the bee and he was allergic to bee stings. And so the father reached out and grabbed the bee and squeezed it with his hand, waited a moment and then released it. The bee kept buzzing around the car and the boy got even more terrified. The father saw the scared look on his son's face and he said, "Son, you don't have to worry." And then he showed him his hand. "Do you see this? You don't have to be afraid any more, I've taken the sting for you." And the stinger was there in his hand. When Jesus put his hands out on the cross, in effect he was saying, "You see this? You don't have to be afraid. I've taken the sting of death away." So Jesus could promise: "If you believe in me, even though you die yet you shall live."
So this is the day of faith not fear, this is the day of joy not sorrow, because this is the day of decision not indecision.
You say, "I don't know, Skip, you mean if I accept Christ that I'll be able to pay all my bills? If I give my life to Christ that I'll suddenly have this whole thing turn around?" I'm not saying that at all. I'm not saying that, Jesus said, "The rain and the sun falls on the just and the unjust alike." But I'm saying this: if you look around you'll be distressed. If you look within you'll be depressed. If you look to Jesus you'll be at rest. He gives you peace. He's taken the sting away. And he's made promises that are true. You give him your life like John, he'll change it. All is forgiven, he'll make sure of that. He'll give you purpose, he'll give you meaning. And Easter will be a lot more than just coming to a place and hearing great music (and it has been great music), it'll be a time when your life took on a whole fresh new start.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that our Lord and Savior, the spotless son of God, the one who took punishment in our place, in our stead; took it all. Took it all, a finished work. And now he is alive. He was dead, now he is alive forevermore. And that very one, God in human flesh, holds the keys for eternity, for life and death. Lord, I pray that many here this morning would give the keys of their life to the one who holds the keys to all of life. This would be a day of surrender, a day of new beginning, a day when life happens in those who chose it. Lord, I know that a lot of people have come to all of these services this morning. And some are very fine people, good people, sincere people, some very devout and religious people, all of that but they've stopped short of surrendering their life in a meaningful way, a personal way, to Jesus Christ. And that's what we believe the Bible indicates; that we have to receive you, we have to receive Christ for eternal life. WE have to agree with it and make a choice. And I pray that that choice would be made. I also pray for those who maybe made that choice years ago but they're not walking with Jesus today or they've walked away from him, I pray they'd come back. And I pray Lord in sweet repentance you would change many lives as you have already. In Jesus' name.