WELCOME
Good morning First Baptist. We welcome you to worship this morning. Be sure to remember your brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the week as you pray for them, and as the Holy Spirit brings their faces to your mind. Be sure to also connect with them in the ways that are possible. And if you have any questions or would like to talk to someone, please don’t hesitate to contact the church through the church telephone and leave a message. (519-733-4144)
Songs
Call to Worship
During Easter, we move from the quiet introspection of
Good Friday to the best news of all that we have been
waiting to hear: he is not here, he has risen!
Congregation – He is Risen Indeed.
Songs
Prayer
Prayer of Confession & Assurance
The act of confessing our sin is not simply a recitation of our faults and wrongs, but also an opportunity to receive God’s mercy and share in that abundant grace. Confident of God’s love for us, let us offer our prayers, first in silence.
SILENT PRAYER
Gracious and Patient God, we come before you with so many things which weigh us down. We would like an “easy” faith, one that doesn’t cause us to look within ourselves, to identify those many ways in which we have forsaken you. But faith is never easy. It requires our very souls. Forgive us, God, for all those things which we have neglected to do that would have helped someone else to be closer to you. Heal our hearts from the wounds which have been inflicted upon us by the anger and misunderstandings which occur in relationships. Prepare our lives to be of service to you. In silence we wait. We long for your presence and your healing touch. AMEN.
Assurance of Pardon:
Darkness is gone! Light floods into our souls! Christ is Risen! His love and mercy are poured out for you. Rejoice! You have been saved through the gift of Jesus Christ. AMEN.
Made New
Faith in Jesus Makes Us New
Today's Message: Pastor Dave Page
Churches all over the world will come together to remember and celebrate the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Today we begin a brand-new sermon series called Made New.
The effects of the resurrection have reverberated throughout history. Jesus’ defeat of sin and death has changed everything. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is available to us as well. It changes us. It renews us. It breathes fresh life into us. The key to this transformative power is our faith. New life is unlocked as we place our faith, hope, and trust in the work of Jesus Christ. But, in order for there to be new life, there had to first be a death.
Years ago, I was traveling up in the Peace River area of Alberta. I had to drive five hours up to the Peace …We saw so much beauty as we journeyed- I could see snow covered mountain tops and lush green valleys. Several hours into that drive, there was a section of road that we came upon, however, that was different from the rest. All of a sudden, the landscape was charred and black. A local at the gas station we stopped at, told us that a year ago a large forest fire ravaged the area. It burned nearly 2,000 acres of forest and grassland. Everywhere we looked, all you could see was a burned landscape. What was so surprising was that if you looked closely though, you could see little spots of green here and there, shooting up from the scorched ground. Oddly enough, the burned timber and underbrush had created a perfect environment for growth, and from the ashes, new life was being born – New life being born in many ways is a theme that we’ll look at over the next 4 weeks, this is the story of Easter.
Easter morning began with ashes. The Messiah was dead. Jesus had been arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. He had been betrayed by one of his own friends. He was beaten. After an unfair trial, he was sentenced to death by crucifixion and hung between two thieves. Within hours, Jesus breathed his last and died. And with him, died the hopes and dreams of those who had followed him. They believed he was the one who would usher in the Kingdom of God; They believed He would make all things right, but now they mourned the loss of their friend.
Jesus’ body was taken down from the cross and laid inside of a cold, dark tomb. It seemed like the end. It felt so final.
But, no one could see that it was just the beginning.
Three days went by. Some of the disciples had returned to their old ways of life. Any hope they had had was buried behind a massive stone that was rolled to cover the entrance to the tomb where Jesus lay. But then Sunday came.
Scripture Reading: Matthew 28:1-10
After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.
2 There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. 4 The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.
5 The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”
8 So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”
The Bible tells us that at dawn two women named Mary traveled to Jesus’ grave. Other places in the scriptures tell us these women had come to anoint his body for burial. Suddenly a violent earthquake shook the ground as an angel of the Lord appeared and rolled the stone away from the tomb entrance. The appearance of these angels and their clothing was shocking, like lightning and bright white. The guards who were watching over the grave were terrified, as were the women.
But the angel spoke tenderly to them. He spoke a word of comfort that is pronounced over people nearly 365 times throughout the scriptures. He said, “Do not be afraid”. Easter is not a time for fear, but of joy. Though the women had come to care for Jesus’ lifeless body, he was not there. The tomb was empty. He had risen! The women ran off to find the other disciples, no longer filled with fear, but filled with joy.
EASTER CONFRONTS OUR FEARS AND OFFERS US JOY
We live in a world where it is easy to find ourselves in a very similar place to these women in the story. Any given Sunday, there are people all across the world who come to church expecting to find a lifeless Jesus. Many are filled with anxiety and fear: fearful that their lives will never change, that their circumstances won’t change, that their marriage cannot be rescued, that their diagnosis is a forgone conclusion. For too many of us, our lives are dominated by anxiety and fear.
Perhaps this morning the first thing you need to hear is the message of the angel at the empty tomb. “Do not be afraid”.
Do you know one of the things that I love most about the Easter message – Easter confronts our fears. The empty tomb reveals the mighty power of God that was not just a reality for Jesus then, but a reality for us today.
Author and speaker, Beth Moore, says it so well… “The power of the resurrection means that nothing, but the tomb is meant to be empty.”
Easter is a source of great joy for Jesus followers. We are filled with joy because resurrection power is able to make everything new. The empty tomb means your past can be made new. The empty tomb means your hope for the future can be made new. The empty tomb means your life can be made new. The joy that we feel as Jesus followers is a byproduct of hope, hope that if Jesus indeed has risen from the grave, then through our belief in him, there is nothing that is impossible for us either.
No matter where you find yourself today, the empty tomb pushes back against our fear and reminds us that the best is yet to come because Jesus Christ is alive!
A PROPER RESPONSE TO EASTER IS FAITH
Faith is a word that is used a lot in the Church. We have faith in all kinds of things. But the kind of faith the Bible speaks to is a deep trust in something or someone that cannot be explicitly proven. Once the tomb was found empty, it was unexplainable, but the women had a choice to make, as did the disciples. Would they have faith that Jesus was indeed alive? This has been the defining question for 2,000 years. Do we trust the resurrection? Do we believe that the power of God raised Jesus then… and can make us new now?
The Apostle Paul addresses this question as he writes to the early church in Rome. He wants to make clear the proper response to the empty tomb.
Romans 10:9
9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Look at these words carefully, this is the formula for eternal life. The way to experience the power of God that can make us new is a two-step process. Paul says, first you must declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. This means that we demonstrate that Jesus is our authority by the things we say and the things we do. It is the outward evidence of an inward conviction. Second, Paul says we must believe in our hearts that God raised Jesus from the dead. Our hearts must be convinced that the power of God is real. The first step is an intellectual exercise. The second step is an exercise in trust.
This can be illustrated using a chair. Look at this one….We sit in one every day. It is an act of faith. You first must intellectually conclude that the chair you are sitting in is meant to be sat in and able to hold you up. You then must trust that it can hold you by putting your weight on it and resting in its strength. The same is true for our faith in Christ.
To celebrate Easter without making the fundamental decision to trust in Jesus’ resurrection power is to miss the point completely. You can be made new, and it is made possible through faith in Jesus Christ. It’s our faith that ensures that we are truly followers of Him.
ALLOW JESUS TO TAKE THE OLD AND MAKE IT NEW
Paul speaks in a different passage about the implications of placing our faith in Jesus. After Jesus’ resurrection, there is an amazing transformation in the lives of the disciples. They encounter Jesus in his resurrected form, and it causes them to go from being afraid for their lives to being bold witnesses to what they have seen and learned from Jesus. Paul expects this transformation to happen in the lives of every believer – even today.
2 Corinthians 5:17
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
Paul says that when people put their faith in Jesus, they become new creations. The first creation takes place in a garden in the book of Genesis. God created humankind without sin and they exist in a perfect relationship with him. The Bible then tells us that after sin enters the world, everything is broken and in disrepair – humans could no longer walk in the Garden with God. At it’s core, this is why Jesus did what he did on the cross. It was his broken body and shed blood on the cross that pays the price for our forgiveness of sin and restores us.
Something that’s always been interesting to me is that Jesus’ body is laid in a tomb in a garden. It is in this second garden that a new creation takes place. All our old ways of living are replaced with new ones. Jesus takes our selfishness and replaces it with generosity. He takes our anger and replaces it with love. He takes our addiction and replaces it with freedom.
My wife and I recently remodeled our bathroom. It had to be done. We had broken tile, old cabinets, and some plumbing issues. Before any of the real changes could happen, we had to first tear out all the old materials. What we found was, no matter what we ripped out, there always seemed to be more that needed to be removed underneath. Unless we did the hard work of removing everything that was rusted or rotten, the new stuff that we would add in would be wasted. Only once the removal was done could the replacement take place. We did the hard work – loads and loads of stuff to the landfill. We have a pretty awesome bathroom today…
Here me now, ok? Easter is the proof of the power of God. Today, you can confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is alive and he wants to work in you. Invite him in your heart – maybe for the first time/maybe for a return trip – He wants to do the remodeling work that only He can do.
I invite you to pray this with me this morning – if you are a follower then this is an affirmation for you of our faith….if this is something new for you – you’ve picked an incredible day to invite Him into your life…
Prayer: God, I believe that the tomb is empty and Jesus is alive. I ask you to come into my heart and make me new. Remove all the sin in my life and replace it with your Spirit. Jesus, I confess that you are my Lord and I believe that God raised you from the dead. Thank you for making me a new creation. Amen.
Now, before we finish, I want to address anyone here (in-person/online) that couldn’t say those words….One of the greatest obstacles to growing in our faith is the inability to fully accept the forgiveness of God. Often that has its roots in our past mistakes, shortcomings, and failures. Too often those things hold us back from all that God wants for us.
If that’s you, then let me assure you – God invites us to live with a future focus. Rather than dwelling on the past, we live with eager anticipation for what lies ahead – Pastor Marlee is going to unpack that next week, I invite you to come back and bring with you those past hurts – this is the place where they are made new!
Prayer
God of Awesome Joy, be with us this day as we celebrate the resurrection of your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. Let the light of your love flood into our lives and through us to all those who have been captured by darkness, that the light may give them healing, freedom and hope. As we witness the surprise of the women at the tomb, the appearance of the Savior to Mary, and her good news brought to the disciples, let us remember that this good news exists for us today. Darkness does not win. Death is not victorious. Christ is Risen, for us, for you and for me. We are raised with Christ to a new life of hope and service. Let the joy of this good news swirl around in our hearts. Let excitement for service and ministry burst forth from us. Let us truly be the “Easter People” that you have called us to be. For we ask these things in the name of the Risen Lord, Jesus Christ. AMEN.
Song
Benediction
Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever.
Amen.