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The Easter Gospel, Matthew chapter 28. Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the sepulcher. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone, and sat upon it. His appearance was like lightning,

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and his raiment white as snow, and for fear of him the guards trembled and began like dead men. But the angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold,

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he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, lo, I have told you." So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and said, "Hail!" And they came up and took hold of his feet, and worshipped him. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brethren to

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go to Galilee, and there they will see me." While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place. And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sum of money to the soldiers and said, "Tell people his disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep. And if this comes to the governor's

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ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble." So they took the money and did as they were directed, and this story has been spread among the Jews to this day. Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on

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earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always to the close of the age." And may the same spirit that inspired these words incline our hearts to their understanding. Pray with me. In the name

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of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. A lot of sounds are associated with Easter. The sound of a great stone being rolled away, the peeling of bells, the trumpeting of the brass. But to me, the most revelatory sound of Easter is this, the slap of sandals on Dawn Street streets. You see, everyone who heard the Easter gospel was immediately on the move. Mary

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ran from the garden to tell the others. Peter and John ran from the garden to tell the others. The men on the way to Emmaus ran all the way back to Jerusalem to tell the others. They suddenly had what we might call Easter energy. Now, we read a lot about the energy crisis in our newspapers today, and we should. It is at our folly that we ignore it, and it seems very evident now that we

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are going to have to learn to live with less. And perhaps the quicker we learn that, the better. But there are many people who have a serious energy crisis in their hearts because they're ignorant of Jesus Christ and his risen glory. And those people don't have to learn to live with that because Easter energy is available to everyone. The risen Christ is ready to enter every heart

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with that kind of energy. You know, there's so many people in the world who want to get somewhere, but they can't get anywhere because they lack faith, because they lack vision, because they lack courage, because they lack hope. When Jesus Christ enters a heart, he takes charge and changes these things by the imputing of Easter energy. Easter energy lets us know, first of all, just

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how wonderful we are. Yes, you heard me. Just how wonderful we are. It was a colony of grubs that lived at the bottom of a slimy pond. And periodically, one of these grubs would climb up the stem of a lily pad and go above the surface of the water, never to return again. The other grubs never saw it after that time. One of the grubs was very curious about this, and one day he felt the call

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to climb higher. And so he went up the stem and broke through the surface and onto the surface of the lily pad. And there, in the warmth of the sun, a warmth he had never felt before, he fell asleep. And as he slept, his carapace opened. And from that ugly grub, there came forth a magnificent dragonfly, wings iridescent with the colors of the rainbow. And when that little creature opened its

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eyes and felt warmth that it had never felt before, and looked at itself and saw a splendor it had never seen before, it felt it could fly. And fly it could, and fly it did, sailing out over that pond. Easter is the proof that that secret hope which lies at the bottom of every one of our hearts is in fact true. We are on our way to life eternal. We are important enough for God to have given us

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an Easter. There are a lot of people, you know, who don't have the Easter hope in their lives. And those people, it seems to me, if they're conscious of it or even unconscious of it, confront a great ultimate despair. Why work toward any noble purpose if in the end you and every other noble purpose is going to die and be lost in the earth? Why pour out your love to someone if you know that in the

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end every single love affair you ever have is going to end with a sad farewell? No possibility of meeting again. If life is really just three score years and ten, if everything dies, decays, and then disappears, then what point is there in the whole human experience? God, if there is a God, has made us, I suppose, as some kind of cruel joke. If this is all there is, then there isn't

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enough. For everything ends in frustration. Everything ends in ultimate despair. But then there's Easter. And Easter is the truth that life is forever. That things do not end. That we are part of the forever family of God. And when you recognize that and understand that, that gives you a whole new self-image. You know, John, when he was writing in his gospel, said that the Holy

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Spirit convicts men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin, we all understand that. We know we're guilty of many things. Of righteousness, those who are Christian know that they have been forgiven of their sin, that they stand before God pure and undefiled. But John says we are also convicted by the Holy Spirit of judgment, which means that we know once we are the children of

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God through Jesus Christ, that when we stand before the judgment bar of God, we will be declared innocent. And that will open up to us all the glories of the kingdom of heaven. And we'll set ourselves to new and more wonderful things than we've ever undertaken before. Splashing at ten league canvases with brushes made of comet's hair. That's what happens when you get a song in your

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heart, when you come to recognize that you're important enough for Easter. I like the story about two brothers who grew up in Chicago, and they tired of city life, and they decided they'd like to go out into the West and live off the land. So they went out there, they weren't very knowledgeable about things, and they asked someone what they'd need, and he said, "Well, the first

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thing you're going to need is a mule." So they went to a farm where you were supposed to be able to buy mules. And the owner said, "I'm sorry, I'm all out of mules." And they said, "Well, that's too bad. We'll have to come back when you get some." And as they turned to leave, they noticed stacked over against the barn a big pile of watermelons. And one of the brothers said to the

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farmer, "What are those?" And the farmer, recognizing that he had two people very ignorant of the country and country ways, replied, "Why, yeah, those are mule eggs." "You mean mules come out of those eggs?" "That's right." "Well, we'd save ourselves a trip back if we would buy one of the eggs and hatch it ourselves." He said, "That's right." So he sold them one of those big

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watermelons, and they put it in the back of their truck, and they started home. And as they were going down the road, they hit a bump, and the watermelon flew out of the back of the truck and landed right in the middle of the road, broke open. Well, the one driving saw it in the rearview mirror, so he pulled over to the side. And as they were pulling over and getting out, a big Texas

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jackrabbit came jumping up out of the brush and sat down right in the middle of that watermelon and started to enjoy it. And as they walked back, they said, "Look, it's hatched. It's hatched." And they went up to get their mule. And of course, the jackrabbit did what a jackrabbit always does. It runs in a circle for a while, and they began to chase it, never getting anywhere close. And finally,

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it headed off and disappeared in the dust. And the one brother said, "Well, I guess we lost our mule." And the other brother said, "Well, that's probably not too bad. I don't think I could have plowed that fast anyway." When you get the Easter song in your heart, you're ready to plow better and plow faster and plow straighter than you've ever plowed before because you know that your plowing

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doesn't stop here, but that there opens for you beyond here new and glorious potentials, more wonderful than anything you've known before. That puts energy into your life. The Easter energy also lets us know how marvelous Jesus is. Think about some of the things that Jesus said, "Come unto me, all ye that are weak and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. The meek shall inherit the earth.

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Love your neighbor as you love yourself. He who soever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." I suppose the most remarkable thing that Jesus ever said was, "I shall rise from the dead." I mean, if you took a collection of all of his words, I think that the average group of people would say that was the most unbelievable thing that he ever said, "I shall rise from the dead."

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So contrary to all of our experience and to history. Suppose that one line of his were a lie. Suppose he did not rise from the dead. Do you see what that would do to everything else he said? How it would cast every other line into a kind of suspicious suspension? I mean, "Come unto me," but he's gone. "The meek shall inherit the earth, not if they're crushed into the earth as he was

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there on Good Friday. Love your neighbor as yourself." That's romantic balderdash. Get everything you can while you can because this is the only place you're going to have a chance to get it. "Those who believe in me shall never die." Poppycock, the one who said it, died. If Jesus claimed to rise from the dead was folly, then every other thing he said is cast in the light

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of the absurd. But Easter is the announcement that what he said he would do, he did. It happened 20 centuries ago, but there are 2 billion people on the face of the earth today who believe it. And energy comes when you know that. Those two men who were walking to the Emmaus Road on the afternoon of the first Easter not knowing about Easter yet, it was seven miles from Jerusalem to Emmaus. And

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it says that Jesus fell in walking with them, but they didn't recognize him. And when they did recognize him, it says that immediately, without a moment's notice, that's the literal Greek, without a moment's notice, they turned around and ran the whole seven miles back to Jerusalem again. You see, that's Easter energy, when you recognize the marvel that there is in Christ. A little

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later this week, I'll be boarding a plane to go to Europe to minister for 12 days to our American military personnel there. And I'll get into that plane and it will take off from JFK and it will climb very high. And its great engines will carry it up to heights that are hard to believe. And we will travel there above storm and distress and we will move swiftly and we will arrive at our

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appointed goal. Now all the time we're going, we'll hear the sounds of those engines. And those engines will be in harmony with one another. For if they were not in harmony with one another, then the vibrations created would cause that plane to disintegrate in midair. But because they are synchronized and harmonized, we will move with power and speed and grace through the sky.

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Now, when a life is brought into harmony with Jesus Christ, when it's synchronized with him, there's a power that comes into the human experience that you cannot explain in any other way. I was sitting once in an evangelism conference in Cincinnati and it was in the coffee shop of the Netherland Hilton Hotel. And it was very busy, every table filled, people standing

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in line. And they were shorthanded waitresses. And on the side where we were, there was an older black lady who was waiting on the table. She was doing a good job, but there were a lot of people. And eventually she got to us and when she walked up to us, Larry Hoyt, who at that time was the head of the Christian World Liberation Front, was sitting across the table from me. And he looked

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up at her and he smiled and he said, Have you heard the secret? She said, No, what's the secret? He said, The secret is that Jesus is alive. Oh, honey, she said, I know that he's alive and living in my heart. If he wasn't there, how do you think I could wait on all these people? And that's the truth of it. There comes a power, you see, from being in harmony with Christ and Easter energy

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also lets us know how magnificent our hopes can be. I mean, when you understand that you're worth an Easter and when you understand that you can safely bet your life on Christ's promises and live in synchronicity with them, then you understand that no hope that you might have is too great. Faith isn't some rainbow fog. It's real hopes that are fulfilled. I think this morning

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of Dr. Martin Luther King, when he was 26 years old, preaching in that church in Birmingham, Alabama, he was facing, as were all black people of that time, the greatest social curse that America has ever known, slavery and the prejudice that came after it. And he decided that there had to be a point of confrontation. And not far from the church, there was a milk bar which waited on

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whites only. And he told his people on Maundy Thursday night that it was his intention the next day to go and demand service at that place. And on Good Friday, the church was packed. And after he had preached his sermon, he walked down, this one who was to go on to win the Nobel Prize for peace and do more to advance the cause of black people than any other man who's ever lived. This

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man went down and started to walk up the aisle going to that milk bar to take his stand. No one knew what price he would pay. Terrible prices were paid for doing those kinds of things in that day in this country. And as he went, the people in the congregation stood in silence and watched him. But one lady sitting up in the balcony leaned out over the edge and cried, there he goes,

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just like Jesus. When you are moving in the power of Easter, you have a hope which is invincible. You have a song in your heart which lets you know of your own worth. You have a voice in your ear, Christ's word, his pledge, his presence, his promise. And you also have a sword in your hand. Courage. Christians are the bravest people that I know. I don't think it insignificant that at a

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time when many corporations are abandoning this city or cutting back severely within this city, this congregation of God's people has just pledged more than a million and a quarter dollars to build this place stronger so that we will stay no matter who else runs away. We have prepared ourselves for what is to come. We're not a large congregation by standards in the Presbyterian church today.

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And there are congregations in this city and its surrounding areas that are much larger and more affluent than our own. But the people of this church give more individually and collectively for the mission enterprise of Jesus Christ than any other church that I know of. And that is testimony to a magnificent hope and to a great courage. This isn't the kind of a world where

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people believe that you go out to help others without being paid for it. And this church is committing itself to paying to help others. That's the Christian courage. You know, back in India a long time ago, there was a commander of the Salvation Army whose name was Tucker. And he started holding a lot of street rallies and they were very, very successful. Many Indians were

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becoming Christians. Now, at that time, India was still a nation that was a colonial nation. It was ruled by Great Britain. And at that time, the viceroy to India for Great Britain was Lord Sutar. And Lord Sutar didn't like all these people becoming Christians. You see, when a person becomes a Christian and understands what it is to be truly and authentically free, they get hopes.

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And some of those hopes reach out beyond any expectation they had before. And Lord Sutar didn't want to have to deal with these kinds of hopes. So he told the Salvation Army to hold no more street rallies. Well, they prepared for their next rally and they came marching down the thoroughfare with their bands playing and their tambourines rattling and a crowd already gathering behind

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them. And as they came around the corner, they were confronted with something they hadn't seen before. Many, many soldiers and many, many police. And standing in front of them, Lord Sutar, Her Majesty's Viceroy to India. And he looked at Tucker and the Salvation Army and said, "In the name of Her Majesty, the Queen of England and the Empress of India, I order you to disperse."

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And without a moment's hesitation, Commander Tucker replied, "In the name of Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, I command you to stand aside." And they stood aside and the rally went on. Now, it doesn't always end so. There are Christians who have died when they took their stand, but they took it anyway because their hope quotient is so

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high. You know, occasionally you meet people who say, "I don't think I could be a Christian because it takes more courage than I have." What they fail to understand is that when you become a disciple of Jesus Christ, that courage comes into you. He puts the sword into your hand and you stand taller and you move more powerfully than you have ever moved before. You feel like

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in the morning when you're going to work saying, "Meadows, get my suit of armor, please. The one with the golden mail and the purple plume." That's what it is to move with Easter energy and magnificent hope. And one more thing, Easter energy lets us know how fantastic our future is. You know, when Lord Tennyson wrote "The Idols of the King" and came to that place where he told

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of the death of King Arthur, he describes the death of this Christian king in this way. As he is dying, three queens named Faith, Hope, and Charity carry him to a small boat, and they get into the boat with him, and they begin to sail out on the sea. But interestingly enough, and contrary to most similar pictures that you see of death depicted

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in poetry or literature, they do not head toward the sunset. Instead, they head toward the sunrise. It's not sunset and evening star and one clear call for me, and may there be no moaning at the bar when I put out to sea, not at all. Tennyson ends with these words, "And a new sun rose, bringing with it a new year." Now, for Christians, that's not fiction. That's truth.

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I've been in hospital rooms with people who were desperately ill, and I've said to them, "How are you today?" And I remember one woman saying, "I'm in great pain, and I know that I can't hold on much longer, but I don't care about that, because I've got freedom and light and joy and hope in Jesus, and soon I will be set free."

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That's the fantastic future which gives Easter energy to those who believe. Not too long ago, I was invited to go down and go on a tour of the new Benidorm Arts Center down here in the old Stanley Theater. And I'm a kind of a curious person, and I got separated from the group. I was looking into some places I probably shouldn't have been looking. They were

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ahead of me, and I was back here. And I didn't want to get separated from them, so I decided to take a shortcut, and I went a certain way. And suddenly I came to a gap in the building, and there was an old weathered board across that gap. I pondered that board. I thought to myself, "I wonder if I can go across on that board.

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This is a lot to take across on any board." I decided to run the risk, so I kind of moved gently out on that board, very slowly, cautiously, and successfully got to the other side. And just when I got to the other side, I heard somebody whistling, and I turned around,

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and here was a workman coming toward me. He was at least six feet, five inches tall, a huge man. And under his right arm, he had two tool chests, and under his left arm, he had a huge spool of wire. And without a moment's hesitation, he walked right across that board. And I thought to myself, "If I'd have seen him do that first,

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I wouldn't have been so timid and fearful about it." Well, we have seen Jesus Christ do it first, and because we have seen him do it first, we don't have to be so timid and fearful about it. For he's crossed over and came back smiling and said, "In my father's house are many mansions, and if it were not so, I would have told you,

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and I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am ye may be also, and whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. For I am the way, and I am the truth, and I am the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me. Peace I leave with you, not as the world giveth give I unto you. Peace I leave with

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you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid." That's the vision of glory which belongs to those who believe. So if you want to get somewhere, and if you want the energy and the drive and the power for the trip, let the power of Jesus Christ in resurrected glory into your life. That'll put a song in your heart. You'll know what you're worth to God.

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That'll put a voice in your ear. You'll hear the counsel of the only begotten Son of God. That'll put a sword in your hand, the courage to press on when in other circumstances you would be afraid so to do. And it'll put a light in your eye, a vision of the final glory and conquest which is ours. Jesus Christ offers this to all who believe. Let none of us then hold back.

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The Christ of Easter is the answer to our energy crisis. He is risen. So let us give to him our hearts. Let us pray. The problem is, our Father, that we lack the courage for many things, and that's because we don't think enough about him and about Easter energy.

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We pray that by thy Spirit thou will come into our hearts this day. Send us out of this building more cheered, more joyful, more hopeful, more confident, more understanding, more brave, more hope-filled because of the Easter gospel. May we be by thy grace ready, willing, and able to go anywhere, including eternity,

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made strong in the confidence of Jesus Christ. It's in his name that we pray our prayer. Amen.