EASTER SERVICE
AT FIDDLER’S GREEN
DR. JIM DIXON
APRIL 20, 2003
REVELATION 1:9-18
Thomas Edison is credited with 1,093 inventions. It was Thomas Edison who invented the phonograph. It was Thomas Edison who invented the electric light. It was Thomas Edison who invented the telephone transmitter. Some believe it was Edison who invented motion pictures. All believe that he was great. He came near to inventing the radio. He predicted the use of atomic energy. Thomas Edison is regarded as the greatest inventor in the history of the world. It is a little known fact that Thomas Edison tried to create a device that would enable the living to communicate with the dead. He told Scientific American magazine, in the year 1920 in an interview, that he wanted to help people communicate with their loved ones who had passed away. He said he believed that it would be possible technologically to create communication between the physical and the spiritual world.
Of course, Edison was unable to do that. No such device is possible, and yet we all would like to be able to communicate with someone we love who has passed away. My father died 7 years ago. I would love to be able to talk to my dad. Perhaps you have someone you would love to be able to talk to—a mom or a dad who has passed away, or a husband or wife, or a son or a daughter, or a good friend. But, of course, the dead do not come back to us, not in this life. They do not speak to us. We do not see them except for Jesus Christ. He came back! He appeared to Peter and the disciples. He appeared to Mary Magdalene.
We’re told in 1 Corinthians 15 that Jesus appeared to more than 500 hundred women and men. He appeared to his brother, James, whose ossuary was just recently discovered in the city of Jerusalem. Jesus came back.
It was Voltaire, the French philosopher who said, “Death is the silencer of all men.” Voltaire was wrong. Death could not silence Jesus Christ. This morning I want us to focus on the appearance of the resurrected Christ to John the Apostle on the Island of Patmos.
Jesus appeared to John with two messages, and they are the two messages that He has for us today. The first message concerns who He is. Jesus said, “I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One.” He wants us to know who He is, and He came back to make sure that we would know who He is. “I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One.”
Now, of course, in the world there are many opinions as to who Jesus is. Every religion in the world has an opinion of who Jesus is. In Islam, Jesus is called, The Word of God. He’s called, The Holy One. He is called The Great Miracle Worker. In the Koran and in the Hadith, Jesus is referred to as a great prophet. In Islam, there are many prophets.
In Buddhism, he is known as the perfectly enlightened being. He is considered to be an emanation of the Buddha. For this reason, the Dali Llama tells us that Jesus Christ is great. But, of course, in Buddhism, there are many who are deemed great. In Hinduism, Jesus is considered an “avatar of the a great guru.” But, of course, in Hinduism there are many Yoga Masters, many great gurus.
In Judaism, Jesus is considered to be a Rabbi, considered to be a teacher. There are some Jews who consider Jesus to be the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One, but Judaism denies this. Of course, there are many in the world who view Jesus as a great teacher. Thomas Jefferson said that the teachings of Christ were the most sublime, the most noble, the greatest ever given to humankind. But what does Jesus say about Himself? Who does Jesus say that He is?
Jesus said, “I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One.” Bible scholars have no doubt regarding the meaning of these words. When Jesus said, “I am the First and the Last,” He was taking the title of God and He was applying it to Himself. In Isaiah 41, in Isaiah 44, and in Isaiah 48, God the Father is called “The First and the Last.” In the Bible, God is called the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last, the One who was before all things. The One whose life never ends. The Eternal One.
Of course, in Revelation, chapter 22, Jesus Christ says, “I Am the Alpha and Omega. I Am the Beginning and the End. I Am the First and the Last,” claiming to be the Eternal God, God manifest, God revealed. Jesus Christ claims that.
Jesus said, “I am the Living One,” and of course Bible scholars tell us this is another title given to God again and again throughout the scriptures. God is the Living One, and this is a reference back to the Tetragrammaton where God gives His name to Moses as recorded in Exodus, chapter 3, and God describes Himself as “The One Who Is,” “The One Who Causes To Be,” “The Living One.” Jesus is taking this title to Himself. The important thing is who you believe Jesus is. On this Easter morning, who do you believe Jesus is? Do you believe He is God manifest?
Jesus said to Peter, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Jesus said, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah. Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.” Jesus said to Martha, “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 God, He who is coming into the world.”
But what do you say? Who do you believe Jesus is? The answer to that is the most important answer you’ll ever give. Jesus wants you to call Him Lord, and He wants you to follow Him. He invites you to make that decision today. “Who am I? I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One.”
He had a second message for John on the Island of Patmos, and He has a second message for us here at Fiddler’s Green. It concerns what He offers—not simply who He is, but what He offers. Jesus said, “I died, and behold, I am alive forevermore. And I have the keys of death and Hades.” Jesus wants us to know He is the “keeper of the keys,” and He has all of the important keys.
Some years ago, Barb and I went to Vail, Colorado. We stayed at a condo that belonged to a friend. One morning we went on a hike. We came back to the condo and realized we had forgotten to bring our keys with us. We had left them inside the condo. We went to the manager’s office to see if the manager could let us into our condo, and we were told the manager was gone for two days. If we didn’t have keys, they didn’t know how to help us.
We didn’t know what to do. I knew that the patio was open on the back of the condo, but the condo was on the third floor. There were some pine trees that went up in the back of the building. I told Barb that I was going to try to climb one of those pine trees to see if I could get in. Barb didn’t think that was a very good idea, and she was right!
It was like a normal pine tree with sap and prickly things. I began to climb the pine tree. As I got higher and higher, of course the trunk became thinner and thinner. As I was approaching the third floor, the trunk was only about an inch to an inch and a half thick, and I really don’t think it would have held more than 30 or 40 pounds. In humiliation, I had to climb back down the tree. I was frustrated. Barb and I found somebody who loaned us their phone, and we called a locksmith. The locksmith came. He was a young man. He was very cocky. He told us there wasn’t a lock in the world that he couldn’t open. He said, “I’ll have you in your condo in 5 minutes!”
Five minutes went by. Ten minutes went by. He began to say things like, “I wish I had one of these locks on my apartment.” After 45 minutes, he said, “Hey, I’m sorry. I can’t open this door.” He said, “If you had a credit card, I might be able to use that. I can do amazing things with credit cards.” Well, my credit card was in my wallet and my wallet was in the glove compartment of my car, and my car was locked. The keys to the car were in the condo!
Barb had left her purse in the condo, but she did have a credit card because, as we took the walk, she thought maybe we would want to stop and get something to eat so she brought a credit card in her pocket. She gave it to me. He said, “This should work.” So we stood back. In a few minutes, we heard a little “click,” and it was the credit card breaking in two. We said to him, “Thanks but no thanks.” He said, “I’m so sorry.” We said, “If you could get us in our car, at least I have my wallet in the car. We’ll be able to buy food and maybe stay at a hotel.” He tried to open our car. He did that, but he set off the alarm. It was a very, very loud alarm. I didn’t know how to turn it off. None of us did. The only thing I knew would turn it off was on the key chain which was in the condo.
People were coming out looking at us, and we were really embarrassed. This woman came down the hill with her hands on her ears. She said, “What’s the problem?” We told her, and she said, “This is amazing. I was just walking by here. I clean these condos. I have the key to your condo.” She let us into the condo, and it was such a relief to go in. You realize, sometimes, how important keys are! I mean, how important it is to have keys.
Jesus wants you to understand today that He has all the important keys. He has all the keys that count. Jesus says, “I have the keys of death and Hades.” Some people think that Hades is a synonym for hell, that it’s synonymous with hell, but it’s not. Hades referred to the keeping place of the dead. Jesus is saying, “I have the keys of death and the keeping place of the dead.” He wants us to understand that He has power over death. If you believe in Him, death cannot hold you. Death cannot constrain you. Death cannot bind you if you believe in Him.
We’ve just come through a war in Iraq, and we are in the aftermath of the war. We have all prayed for a minimal loss of life, and we’ve prayed for our soldiers, our women and men who have fought, and we’ve prayed that there be a minimal loss of civilian life in Iraq as well. We’ve prayed for justice. We’ve prayed for a lifting of oppression. The Bible tells us that there will always be wars. We can look at history and see many wars. Jesus said that until the day He comes again there will be wars and rumors of war.
I want to tell you about a little war that took place in 1838. Historians call it the Pastry War. It was a battle between France and Mexico that took place in 1838. It’s called the Pastry War because it began in a pastry shop. A Frenchman owned this pastry shop in Veracruz, on the east coast of Mexico. One day, Mexican soldiers came in and found him. The soldiers ate all the pastries. They ate every single pastry in the shop. Then they left. The Frenchmen asked the Mexican government to compensate him for all the pastries that had been consumed, all the pastries that had been lost.
The Mexican government refused, so the Frenchmen wrote the French government, asking them to intervene on their behalf. That began correspondence between the French government and the Mexican government. Things became heated, and the French declared war on Mexico. Perhaps you wondered what it would take for the French to declare war on another country!
So they brought a whole fleet of ships into the harbor at Veracruz. The Mexican army was led by a man named Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, whom historians refer to generally as General Santa Anna. Of course it was General Santa Anna who, just a few years earlier, had won the battle at the Alamo. With vastly superior forces, he had defeated Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie and Colonel Travis. Now he was leading the armies of Mexico as the French approached.
It really wasn’t much of a battle. The French just wanted to make a statement and leave. They fired a few cannons, and one cannonball hit Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna right in the leg. General Santa Anna lost his leg. He was a man of great power and influence. In the aftermath of the war, he demanded that his leg be buried in an extravagant, expensive, costly ceremony. His leg was buried on top of the hill overlooking the harbor at Veracruz, Mexico. The people were enraged because the cost was so great.
Four years later, on September 27, 1842, General Santa Anna became the President of Mexico. As soon as he became the President of Mexico, he commanded that his leg be exhumed, that his leg be taken out of the ground, and that the remains be put into an urn and that it be brought to Mexico City and that there be a parade through the streets of Mexico with people remembering his leg. He commanded that all the armies of Mexico be in full dress so that they could honor the leg that had been lost.
Of course the people were enraged, and the cost was great. General Santa Anan, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, went on to become the President of Mexico eleven times. When he died in 1876, the people of Mexico refused to pay for the burial of his body because they were so angry about the cost they had spent in burying his leg.
Now, I don’t know how you feel about the cost of funerals. I don’t know how you feel about death. My guess is that you approach death with a certain amount of fear. My guess is that you approach death with a certain amount of trepidation. I don’t know what preparations you’ve made for death, for the disposal of your body. The Bible says, “We’re dust, and to dust we shall return. Dust to dust. Ashes to ashes.” We must set these physical bodies aside. But Jesus tells us we don’t need to fear death. You don’t need to fear death because He has the keys of death and Hades. If you would come to Him and you would embrace Him as your Lord and as your Savior, asking Him to forgive you of your sin, He will forgive you, and He will come into you by His Holy Spirit. He will be your Lord, and He will make you a daughter of God or a son of God. He will bring you into His royal family, and He will give you eternal life. Death will not be able to hold you.
Just a couple of chapters later, Jesus says, “I have the keys of David.” Not just the keys of death and Hades. “I have the keys of David; I open and no one can close. I close and no one can open.” Bible scholars have examined the meaning of “the keys of David” and they understand that the keys of David were those keys that belonged to the kings of Israel and later of Judah. Symbolically, they were kind of the keys to the city, the keys to the city of Jerusalem. Practically, as recorded in Isaiah, chapter 22, they were keys to the treasury in the royal palace of Jerusalem.
The Bible tells us that heaven is like a city. It is sometimes described as a beautiful city with golden streets and gates of pearl. That beautiful city in the Bible is called the New Jerusalem. When Jesus says He has the keys of David, He’s saying He has the keys of heaven, the keys to the New Jerusalem and all the treasures of the New Jerusalem, all the treasures of heaven. Only Jesus Christ can give that to you.
“Who am I? I Am the First and the Last. I am the Living One. I am God manifest. Follow Me. What do I offer? I died, and behold, I’m alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades, and I have the keys of David.”
As we close, I want to tell you just a little story about a place that Barb and I went. Years ago, we went to the city of Beijing in the nation of China. There we went to the Forbidden City, a beautiful place, more than 600 years old, most of it built by Ming Emperors. The Forbidden City is 250 square acres of land. As it was built, it was for the royal family only, surrounded by a great high wall and the wall surrounded by a moat. The royal family didn’t want anyone to be able to get in. They were afraid someone might dig underneath the wall, so they put stone on the whole entire floor of the Forbidden City 5 feet thick. There was five feet thick of stone so no one could dig underneath and come up.
They really didn’t need to bother, because the Forbidden City was surrounded by the Imperial City. It had its own walls. The Imperial City was surrounded by the Inner City, and it had its own walls, with eight fortress gates. Of course there was the Outer City which surrounded much of the Inner City. I think it’s safe to say the royal family of the Ming Dynasty was not seeker friendly. They just didn’t want anyone other than the royal family to be able to get in.
I hope you understand that heaven is for the royal family, but God is seeker friendly, and He invites you to be part of the royal family. He invites you to become a son or a daughter of God, and He promises that that can take place today at Fiddler’s Green. You can become part of the royal family. You can became a daughter or a son of God, a child of God, through faith in Jesus Christ if you just would make this commitment to embrace Jesus Christ as your Savior and as your Lord. We’re going to give you that opportunity as we close in prayer. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.
Lord Jesus, thank You for this moment in this beautiful place on this Easter morning. Lord, we thank You that You are here by Your Holy Spirit. You are omnipresent. You are everywhere present. Lord, You have promised that Your Word would not return void but it would accomplish that which is its purpose. And so this morning, Lord, we ask that by Your Holy Spirit and by the power of
promises that that can take place today at Fiddler’s Green. You can become part of the royal family. By Your Word, You have drawn people to Yourself, that there might be some people here—maybe some young people, maybe some old people, men, women, children—Lord, people who have never made a commitment to You but have felt led to do that today. People who have a fear of death and understand that You have power over death, that You have the keys of death and Hades, and You give entrance into heaven as You have the keys of David. You are seeker friendly. You invite everyone into Your royal family. Lord, if there is someone here who wants to invite You into their heart, I pray that they might say this prayer with me right now. “Lord Jesus, come into my heart. Thank You for dying on the cross for me. Thank You for dying for my sin. Thank You for taking my penalty upon Yourself. Forgive me, Lord. Wash me whiter than snow, and Lord, come and sit on the throne of my life. From this day forth, I will seek to follow You. Be my Lord and be my Savior.” Thank you, Lord Jesus, that when we pray that prayer, You do come in. We are Yours and You are ours and You never let us go. We love You, Lord. We thank You for rising from the dead. You are King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Death could not hold You. And Lord, death cannot hold us because we believe in You. We love You and pray this is your great and matchless name. Amen.