Life Before Us 4/13/41
Scripture: Luke 24: 1-12.
Text: Deuteronomy 30: 19; -- “I have set before you life” ---
Last Sunday I spoke of Palm Sunday as a day of expectant joy. It was the beginning of a week that was originally, and still is, one of momentous importance to the spiritual life of all Christian people. Easter Sunday is a day of triumphant joy. It marks the culmination of the spiritual experiences of Holy Week. It reminds us each year of one of the mightiest articles of our Christian faith -- our belief in immortality. That is the great lesson in the oft-repeated story of the resurrection of Christ.
Easter is not just another anniversary. It is a reminder of life -- not just mortal life limited by time and space, but eternal, ever-growing life. Man is allowed the power of choice between good and evil, between light and darkness, between great and constructive faith and mere negation. Man may take it or shun it, but God is always offering him light, righteousness, love and peace, life. This is clearly set forth in an ancient writing (Deuteronomy) in which are these words: “I have set before you life (and death -------); therefore choose life.” --
This is the one conviction I want to set before you on this Easter Sunday. Life lies before you and me. No matter what our condition; no matter what our age or experience, life lies before us. There are always so many people - so many kinds of people, with as many kinds of experiences and needs of an Easter service, that a minister wonders how to speak to all.
There are those who are well along toward the transition from this life, and who look ahead in wonder at what they may expect next. Those who know not the resurrection of Christ may avert their eyes in dread or terror. But Easter has the greatest message of all, for its message is that of eternal life in which earthly existence is but an incident of preparation.
There are many younger people who have every expectation of living, working, loving, adventuring for long years yet to come. They do not see the reaper as yet. Easter has a message for you, too. If life itself is eternal it behooves you and me to live so that we may build, day by day, a growing life, well-founded, secure in rightness, worthy of the skill of a master craftsman. For our earthly life is not a childish house raised like a child’s toy blocks only to be swept down a moment later. It is a permanent structure, made for eternity. Sin is building badly with faulty materials. Sincerity is building well with the best materials one can find. Only the grace of God can change, even a little bit, the permanent character of our life, which we shape by our daily acts and decisions.
There are those in this Easter congregation who have known the burden of sorrow recently, for whom Easter seems at first a hard day because a face that was here last year is not seen today. The Easter message is especially for you. For it speaks of a risen Lord and of all those who are risen with Him. The love of God, through the assurance of Easter, will turn your sorrow into joy at the remembrance that they live in joy and felicity who are with Him in eternity. And we have our fellowship with them and with all the saints in blessed remembrance.
Many are present who have known discouragement. They are no fewer than in other years. Earthly life is full of faded hopes. But hope itself is not dead! The eternal Father always has more in store for every one of His children who will look up and ahead. Sometimes the most surprising and exciting experiences of human life rise right out of the ashes of discouragement and failure.
Those who have intellectual difficulties about the Easter story of Jesus’ resurrection will still seek for evidence of truth. But they will find one of the greatest truths of their experience if they will lay aside the cares of the mind for a little while on this day and worship a merciful God with their whole souls, led by the living Christ.
There may be present in this congregation and in countless other churches on this Easter day many who seldom attend a church; who have not been in God’s house regularly since childhood; whose religious ideas have never grown up, or who think of the church as narrow, creed-bound, sometimes hypocritical, choked with “thou shalt nots” and “stuffiness.” Let any such, who may hear this word today, pay closer attention again to the church of Jesus Christ; attend its services, read and study its Bible, seek to know its Savior and to approach its God. It is worth every effort it takes. For, with all its faults and limitations, the church of Jesus Christ still has the message of life abounding and hope eternal!
And then there are those who have joined the church this week, and who have partaken of the elements of the Lord’s supper for the first time. How great, how fine, is this step of public acknowledgment that Christ is to be, henceforth, King in their lives and His church their lasting fellowship! In their preparatory conversations with me these young folks have recognized that joining the church is an agreement for life! One does not just join a minister, or a congenial crowd only when he joins the church. One joins the disciples of Jesus Christ, forever, in this step. No matter what happens, his first loyalty is to God, to Christ and His church. He may, and should, transfer his membership from one local church to another when he moves, or other circumstance warrants it. But he will always remember that the church universal is greater than the minister or individual people in the fellowship. And he will seek to train himself in life with an eternal quality through sustained worship and faithful service in his church.
Whoever you are who worships within these walls today, and whatever your circumstance, the risen Christ has the greatest word that can be spoken to you or any living soul! Hear ye his word of eternal life and be reassured, inspired, comforted, and strengthened. Yield yourself to the wondrous joy of this celebration. Life is before you!
One thing more -- other things are also before you. Darkness, sin, teasing, temptations, self absorption, neglect of God’s freely-offered grace, are before you. You and I have the power to choose. The old Deuteronomic writer made it plain: -- “I have set before you life and death, bblessing and cursing; therefore choose life!”
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Delivered at Pilgrim Church, Honolulu, March 24, 1940 (AM).
Also at Wisconsin Rapids, April 13, 1941.