EASTER SUNDAY
DR. JIM DIXON
JOHN 20:1-31
APRIL 19, 1987
In the year 1930, the great Russian Bolshevik Bukharin was journeying from Moscow to Kiev. His purpose was to deliver an address to a vast assembly. His subject was atheism. As he spoke, for a solid hour he unleashed his full arsenal of weapons against Christianity. He used argument and ridicule. When he was done, he looked out on the masses. He looked out on the audience and he viewed what seemed to him to be smoldering ashes of what once was human faith. But then a man stood up out of the crowd. He asked permission to speak. He came up to the platform and stood nest to the communist. He looked to his left and to his right. Then he shouted the great Christian orthodox greeting “Christ is risen!” It was Eastertime. The whole assembly arose and with one voice they thundered their response: “He is risen indeed!” For 2,000 years the undying faith of Christian men and women has been this: Jesus Christ is risen. He is alive and He is the hope of the world.
There are many famous tombs in this world. There are the pyramids, famous because they contain the bodies of the pharaohs. There is Arlington Cemetery, famous because it contains the remains of great Americans. There is Westminster Abbey, famous because it contains the bodies of British nobles and notables. There is a tomb in Medina, Arabia. It is famous because it contains the remains of Muhammed, worshipped by millions. There is a tomb in China—a mausoleum in Beijing, the capital city, in the People’s Square. To this tomb, millions of people come every year to see the remains of Chairman Mao, with an adoration that borders on worship. But you see, there’s another tomb, a garden tomb outside the city of Jerusalem. It’s famous. It’s famous not because of what it contains. It is famous rather because it contains nothing. It is empty. There is no one there, and He who was there rose from the dead in power and great glory.
This morning God has a twofold promise to the world from that empty tomb. The first promise is this: “If you will believe in My Son, if you will trust your life to My Son as Lord and Savior, I will give you victory over death. “Now that’s what Easter is all about, victory over death. The Bible says, “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same nature, that by His death He might destroy him who has the power of death (that is, the devil) and deliver those who through fear of death are subject to lifelong bondage.” The Bible says that For those who believe in the resurrected Christ, death has been swallowed up with victory.
From the beginning of time, mankind has struggled with death. The ancient Greeks believed in a mythological bird. This bird they called the phoenix. The city of Phoenix, Arizona, is named after this mythological bird. The bird was larger than an eagle. It was beautiful and majestic. It had wings that contained feathers of gold, of red, and of purple. There was only one phoenix on the earth at any given time, only one bird, and the Greeks claimed that the lifespan of this one bird was 500 years. That’s what some of the Greeks claimed. Other Greeks claimed that the phoenix had a lifespan of 92,200 years, a slight discrepancy. But it didn’t matter. It didn’t matter because all of the Greeks agreed that when that lifecycle was done the phoenix went to a special place and there it offered its body in incineration upon a funeral pyre. It gave its life, but then, miraculously, out of the ashes this bird was reborn, resurrected, and the new phoenix would take the ashes of its former self and fly them to the city of Heliopolis, the city of the sun, and offer them in worship to the sun god. And the phoenix for the Greeks became the symbol of their resurrection hope, the symbol of their hope for eternal life, the symbol of their hope for victory over death.
The Egyptians had a similar hope expressed in the Osiris myth. The Egyptian people believe that Osiris, who was the god of the earth, was murdered by his evil brother Set. Set cut Osiris in 14 pieces, put him in a box, and set him adrift on the Nile. Now, once you’ve been cut in 14 pieces, it doesn’t much matter whether you’ve been set adrift. But Osiris was found by his sister, Isis, and she gathered him up and brought him to a special place and there, miraculously, by the power of the gods, Osiris was resurrected to life and he became the lord of the afterlife. This, for the Egyptians, represented their hope in resurrection from the dead.
You see, every culture—every culture in every generation—has longed for victory over death. It has been expressed in their mythologies, in their writings, in their poems, and in their literature. Every culture has longed for victory over death. Every culture has longed for eternal life. It has been said that it is natural for man to be born and for man to die, but there’s something deep within the human heart, something deep within your soul and spirit, that knows that it’s not natural for you to die—that you were meant to live forever. There is, within the heart of man, this longing for eternal life. And people still fight death today.
I read recently the story of a man named Steven Flynn. He died when he was 24 years old. He had an incurable intestinal disease. Steven Flynn was brilliant. He graduated from New York University with honors. He was a straight-A student. He was a poet. He was a photographer. He was a scientist, though he was only in his early 20s. Before he died, he was horribly ill and he knew he was dying. He read an advertisement in one of his science magazines and the advertisement was entitled, “Never Say Die”. Steven Flynn followed the instructions given in this advertisement. When he died, there was no funeral. When Steven Flynn died there was no memorial service. When he died there was no committal service, no graveside service. When Steven Flynn died, he was not buried in the earth. There was no cremation. When Steven Flynn died, he was taken to a special place on Long Island and there his body was drained of its bodily fluids and into his veins a kind of antifreeze was injected to preserve his bodily tissues. Then Steven Flynn was frozen in dry ice in preparation for cryonic suspension and then he was placed within a capsule, a kind of large bottle filled with liquid nitrogen. In that place, Steven Flynn remains to this day in cryonic suspension. It costs thousands of dollars. Every year it costs hundreds of dollars to sustain him. His body is frozen in death, hoping that somehow someday science will discover a cure for the incurable intestinal disease, that took his life—hoping that someday they’ll thaw him out and bring him back to life.
His mother says that she has little hope that her son will ever be resurrected, but somehow death just doesn’t seem quite as sudden. It doesn’t seem quite as hard. The Associated Press released the story to newspapers all over the world. The story I read was entitled “Soul on Ice,” but of course we know that a soul, a human soul, cannot be placed or kept on ice. When you die, if you’re a Christian, your soul and spirit go immediately into the presence of the Lord. If you’re not a Christian, your soul and spirit go immediately to a keeping place where they are kept for the Final Judgement.
But, you see, from the beginning of time, people have longed to conquer death and they’ll try anything. There are many people in the world today who place their hope in science—that science might someday conquer death or at least prolong life, that somehow science might at least slow down the degeneration of ourselves.
Some people place their hope in diet and exercise. There’s nothing wrong with diet and exercise, but some people are so preoccupied with diet and exercise that fear of death is written all over them. Some people just live to stay healthy. Their sole purpose in living is to stay alive.
Some people have placed their hope in their children. They try to mold and shape their children in their own image, believing that somehow they might live on through their children vicariously. Some people place their hope in their accomplishments, hoping that somehow they might accomplish something so great the world will never forget and their name will just go on forever.
But, you see, the Bible says there’s only one way to conquer death, one way to have victory over death, and that is through the resurrected Jesus Christ. He is the hope of the world. Jesus Christ proved that He had power over death when He raised from the dead the widow’s son of the village of Nain. Our Lord Jesus Christ proved He had power over death when He raised from the dead the daughter of a Jewish high priest in a Galilean village. Jesus proved He had power over death when He raised from the dead the brother of Mary and Martha in the village of Bethany—when He raised Lazarus from the dead. To Martha Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live, and he who lives and believes in Me will never truly die. Do you believe this?” Martha said, “Yes, Lord. I believe you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”
To all who believe in Christ, Jesus says, “Fear not. I am the Living One. I died, but I am alive forevermore, and because I live you will live also.” Of course, the real proof that Jesus Christ has power over death was His own resurrection when He rose from the dead in power and in glory.
On June 18, 1815, the Battle of Waterloo took place. The French were led by the French military genius Napoleon Bonaparte. The British and the British allies were led by another military genius called the Duke of Wellington, a man destined to become prime minister of Great Britain. Historians tell us that Napoleon had 74,000 men. The Duke of Wellington had fewer men. He had 67,000. Historians tell us that Napoleon had the greater weaponry. He had the greater might. His reputation was greater. At that time, more than 150 years ago, most people in the world believed that Napoleon would win that battle.
Napoleon had just recently escaped from the island of Elba and the free world was beginning to call him “the enemy of the peace of the world.” All over the world men and women longed to know the outcome of that battle, but there was no telegraph. In Great Britain, arrangements were made for a ship to signal a message from the ship to a signalman on top of Winchester Cathedral. That signal would be relayed to another man on top of a hill and he would signal to another man on top of another hill. This way the message of what happened in that battle would go throughout Britain.
When the time came for the message to be relayed from the ship to the signalman on top of Winchester Cathedral, the signalman gave two words: “Wellington defeated.” And before the signalman could say anything else, the fog enveloped the ship, we are told, and that was the only message that went forth. That message went forth all over Great Britain: “Wellington defeated.” And great sorrow flooded the land. But we’re told that three hours later the fog lifted from the harbor and the full message was given: “Wellington defeated the enemy.” And when that message went all over Great Britain, the sorrow of the people was changed to joy.
I am sure that on Friday, when Jesus Christ was crucified, there was great sorrow among the men and women who knew Him and loved Him. Among the disciples there must have been great sorrow. In fear, they had locked themselves behind closed doors (in fear of the Jews). But on. Sunday, when Jesus Christ suddenly appeared in their midst, resurrected and alive, that sorrow suddenly was changed to joy. Jesus Christ is resurrected from the dead and we have the testimony of eyewitnesses. Paul says, “I delivered to you that which also I received: that our Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that He was crucified and buried, that He ascended (or that He rose) again on the third day, (again, as the scriptures said He would), that He then appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve, then to more than 500 brethren, most of which are still alive, although some have fallen asleep. Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all as to one untimely born, He appeared also to me.”
There is the testimony of eyewitnesses. We have that testimony in this book. They gave their lives for that testimony. Two thousand years ago there were very few events that have such testimony, so much evidence. Through the centuries, miracles have been performed in the name of the resurrected Christ. Today, one billion people on this earth, one thousand million people, believe that Jesus Christ is alive because, you see, the Holy Spirit of God bears witness with the hearts of men and women everywhere that Jesus Christ is alive and He is the hope of the world—the first promise of victory over death to all who believe.
Secondly and finally, there is the promise of victory over life. From that empty grave, God has a promise for the world. “If you believe in My Son, if you trust My Son as Lord and Savior, I’ll give you victory over life—not only victory over death but over life and all the problems of life, all the pain of life, all the sorrows in life, all the suffering of life, and all the tests and the trials. I’ll give you victory.”
The Bible says we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. There is pain in this world. Nobody could deny that. Throughout history, every culture and every generation has acknowledged that there is evil on the earth.
The ancient Greeks believed in what was called the Pandora Myth. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. The Greeks believed that Pandora was the first woman on the earth, created by the gods. Because she was the first woman on the earth, she was given gifts. In fact, the name Pandora in the Greek means “all gifts.” Athena gave her knowledge of the arts. Aphrodite gave her beauty. Mercury, or Hermes, the messenger of the gods, gave her cunning and intelligence. No one gave her wisdom. She was placed on the earth as a little girl. She was given to a little boy whose name was Epimetheus. Epimetheus had a brother named Prometheus and he warned him. He said, “Epimetheus, don’t accept Pandora. Don’t allow her to come into your house.” But he welcomed her, and Pandora came to live with Epimetheus. And then one day there was a knock on the door. Epimetheus opened the door and there was this strange man and he was wearing a strange cloak. He had a strange hat. He had a box in his hand. He said, “I have one more gift for Pandora—one more gift, but it’s a secret and it must remain a secret and you can’t open the box. Whatever you do, never open the box.”
Epimetheus understood. He took the box. He put it on a table. He left it alone. A short time later, Pandora came into the house. She had been playing outside. She saw the box. She said, “What’s in the box?” Epimetheus said, “It’s a secret. Don’t even ask. Let’s go out and play.” And so they went out and they played. Pandora forgot all about the box. Later she came into the house and she saw the box there. She thought to herself, “I wonder what’s in the box and I wonder who gave the box to us.” She thought that over and over again. She began to ask Epimetheus over and over again finally he said, “I’ve told you 50 times. It’s a secret. Even I don’t know what’s in the box.” Pandora said, “Well, it seems to me that if you open the box you would know.” Epimetheus was horrified and he said, “No! We’ve been warned. He warned me.” Pandora said, “Who warned you? Who gave you the box?” Epimetheus said, “Well, it was a strange man and he had a strange cloak and he had a strange hat with feathers. They looked like wings.” Pandora said, “That was Mercury, messenger of the gods. He brought another gift for me. It’s probably beautiful dresses for me to wear. It might be toys for us to play with. It could be food to eat.” Epimetheus said, “All I know is he said don’t open the box.” Epimetheus ran out of the house. Pandora thought to herself, what a foolish little boy.
She looked at the box and it was beautiful, shiny wood. She could see her face reflected on the surface. There was a face carved on the top of the box. Sometimes, it seemed to her the face smiled. But other times the face looked real mean. Sometimes it seemed as though she could hear voices coming from the box saying, “Open up.” She thought to herself, “Well, I could. There’s no lock on the box. I could at least untie the gold thread. I don’t have to open the box.” So she did that. She untied the gold thread. Then she said to herself, “Well, you know, Epimetheus, when he comes in, because I untied the gold thread, he’s going to think that I looked in the box. He’s not going to believe me.” Then she thought, “Well, you know, since he’s not going to believe me, I might as we’ll look in the box.”
So she began to open the box. At that moment, Epimetheus returned and he opened the door and he didn’t say anything because secretly he, too, wanted to know what was in the box. So Pandora lifted the lid. Before she could get it back down, all these horrible creatures flew out of the box. With wings, they looked like bats, and their faces looked like demons. They flew all around the room. One of them went over and stung Epimetheus on the arm and another stung Pandora on the forehead. They began to speak. They said, “There’s a 150 of us. We represent all the sorrows of the world.” One represented illness and disease. Another represented death. Another represented sin, specific sin, such as greed. Some represented accidents and catastrophes. All the sorrows of men were inside that box and Pandora and Epimetheus had unleashed them all. They flew all over the world and corrupted the world. Epimetheus and Pandora sat on the floor of that little house in total despair and despondency.
Suddenly, Pandora heard another noise in the box, but it was different. It was a voice and it was melodious. It sounded beautiful. She opened the box. Out of the box came a beautiful creature, like a butterfly with beautiful wings. It flew over and touched the arm of Epimetheus and the hurt went away. It touched the forehead of Pandora and the pain went away. Pandora said, “Who are you?’ The creature said, “My name is hope.” And for the Greek world, that was the Pandora Myth. But, you see, for the Greek it was more than a myth. For the Greeks, it represented their view of life. It represented reality, because to the Greek, reality was this: evil has been unleashed in the world and evil stings and touches each and every person in the world. It is not possible to live in this world with evil unleashed. It is not possible to live unless somehow you have hope.
You see, the truth is all peoples of all nations in every generation have had the same view of reality, the same view of life. That view of reality, that view of life is this: evil has been unleashed in the world and evil does touch each and every one of us. We can’t live in this world without hope. Evil touches each and every one of you. You’re all touched by sorrows. You’ve experienced the sting of death or the sting of calamity or tragedy or illness or disease or rejection or failure. The world is filled with sorrow, and you can’t live without hope. But the Bible says there’s only one true hope, and that one true hope is the resurrected Jesus Christ. He is the hope in death and He is the hope in life.
You see, only Jesus Christ can remove the sting of sin and guilt from your deepest person, from your deepest being. Every psychologist in the world acknowledges that there is guilt deep within each and every one of us. Only Jesus Christ can take it away. Only Jesus Christ can promise to take all of the sorrow in your life—all the pain, all the suffering—and work it so as to produce good. Only Jesus Christ can offer that. Only Jesus Christ can offer us victory in the midst of life.
I read recently the story of Ike Keay and with this we’ll close. Ike Keay was born in Scotland in the year 1932. Ike’s father was the son of a dairyman. He was hard-working, full of life—a businessman and a sportsman, an outdoorsman. Ike’s mother was gentle. She was frail in body, given to illness and disease, but she was strong in spirit. One day when Ike was 5 years old, in the year 1937, Ike was sitting in the living room of his house there in Scotland waiting for his father to come home. That would be a night that Ike would never forget. His mother came into the room and her eyes were filled with tears. She said, “Son, there’s been a horrible accident. Your father is not coming home tonight. Your father is not coming home any night.” Ike remembered his mother picking him up and holding him in her arms and they both cried together for hours and hours. He didn’t fully understand, but he knew that there was just a whole lot of pain.
The days went by, but the pain didn’t go away. He missed his dad. It was three weeks later that his mom came to him and to his 3-year-old brother. She said, “We’re leaving Scotland. We’re moving to the United States. We’re going to live in New Jersey with Grandma and Grandpa.” So Ike moved to New Jersey with his family. He didn’t remember much about that period of time. His mother worked 6 days a week, working hard and long hours trying to make some money for the family. But Ike remembers that on Sunday morning his mother took him to church and in the afternoon she would take them to the park and play with them. He remembers that every night, every Sunday night and sometimes other nights, his mom would read to them Bible stories and tell them about the love of Jesus Christ.
Ike didn’t really understand, but somehow whenever he heard about Jesus Christ the pain seemed a little less. In 1941, when Ike was 9 years old, his grandma and grandpa died and he felt the pain again. Then later that year, Ike and his brother were told that they are going to have to go to a children’s home and live in a children’s home. Their mother couldn’t take care of them anymore. Ike didn’t understand. He begged his mom. He pleaded with his mom not to leave. When she left, she had tears in her eyes and Ike had tears in his eyes. He didn’t understand that his mother was dying. She now was going to a sanitarium. She had tuberculosis and she was not expected to live.
So, 9 years old, Ike went to that children’s home. It was called Glengarry. It was a 212-acre farm overlooking a river and swamp. Most of the other boys were older and Ike was picked on a lot. Ike had buck teeth. His teeth came straight out and they called him “woodchuck.” One day, Ma Ferguson, who was 65 years old and had kind of a gruff voice and seemed kind of harsh, came up to Ike and she said, “Ike, did some of the other boys… did you see them smoking in the locker room last night?” Well, Ike was taught by his mother always to tell the truth and he said, “Yes ma’am. I saw that.” Later that night, the older boys were waiting for Ike in the locker room. They began to beat him up. They said, “We’ll show you what happens to squealers.” So they began to beat him up, and Ike began to bleed and they beat him up some more and he bled some more.
Then they took Ike out into the fields and they bound his hands behind him and they held him by the feet and they made him dig for potatoes with his mouth. From that day forth they never called him “woodchuck” anymore. They called Ike “the plow.” Every two weeks, Ike would get a letter from his mother. She would describe her view out the window of the sanitarium. She would always say, “Son, I’m praying for you.” She would end every letter by saying, “Jesus loves you.” Twice a year Ike could go to the sanitarium and see his mother, but he couldn’t really see her. He wasn’t allowed to go in the room. She was considered extremely contagious. He had to stand down on the lawn and look up at his mother. She would smile through the window, but through the smile he could see her tears. He just wanted his mother to hold him.
Well, the years went by at Glengarry and Ike grew up and he began to smoke cigarettes in the locker room. He’d make his own cigarettes. He made them from corn silk. He’d wrap them in toilet paper. He’d light them by sticking them in the electrical outlet with steel wool—not a real smart thing to do. As the years went by, Ike got bigger and bigger and soon nobody was picking on Ike anymore. He began to get pretty good grades in school. By his senior year in high school, Ike was student body president. When Ike graduated, he had offers from colleges from all over the country but he didn’t go because, somehow, Ike’s mom was still alive. So he took a job for Standard Oil and tried to make some money to help his mom.
When Ike was 19 years old, his mother was released from the sanitarium. She only had a few months to live, and her body was almost totally eaten up, but the doctors understood tuberculosis better and for the first time in 10 years Ike was able to hold his mother. She went to live with him at his house. When she first went to live with him at his house and he stood before her she looked at him and she said, “Son, I see a man now.” She said, “Every day I prayed for you. Every day all day I prayed for you. I prayed that God would wrap you in His love and I prayed that Jesus would shield you, and my prayers have been answered.” It was a month later that Ike, through the ministry of his mother, accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and he invited Jesus Christ to come and fill his heart.
It was also about that time that Ike found out how his father really died. His father committed suicide when Ike was five because his father had an affair with a 14-year-old girl. When people found out, he couldn’t live with himself anymore. That was just a little more pain in Ike’s life. He’d had a lot of pain, but somehow, you see, the power of Christ was there and the presence of Christ was there. Somehow all that pain began to be transformed into ministry. When Ike’s mother died, Ike went back to Glengarry and for three years. He worked with the kids there trying to show the love of Christ to them.
Later, Ike went to college and he met his wife, Carolyn, and today Ike is the Executive Director of the Bethel Bible Village in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Homeless children come to that village and Ike ministers to them. Some of these kids don’t know anything about love and they don’t know anything about acceptance. Some of these kids have never had a hug in their whole life. Most of them were abused by their parents. Some of them actually saw their mother kill their father or their father kill their mother, but Ike takes them and he loves them for Christ’s sake. Every day he prays that God would wrap them in his love and every day he prays that Jesus Christ would shield them. It is said that today hundreds of boys and girls have come to know Jesus Christ through the life of Ike Keay.
Ike had a lot of pain in his life. He calls the children he works with “children of pain,” but he understands because he was one. Somehow Ike has found the victory in this life in the midst of pain through Jesus Christ. You see, we’re all children of pain, each and every one of us. We all have pain in our life. The only means of victory in the midst of life is Jesus Christ and faith in Christ.
There’s a song that we sang today and it’s one of my favorites. “Because He lives, I can face tomorrow. Because He lives, all fear is gone. Because I know He holds the future, life is worth the living, just because He lives.” Jesus Christ offers you victory over death, and He offers you victory over life. The Bible says, “What can separate us from the love of Christ? Can persecution or tribulation or peril or famine or nakedness or sword? Knowing all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor things present nor things to come nor heights nor depths nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.