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For Yours is the Kingdom, the Power and The Glory: The Prayer of Easter!
For Thine IS the Kingdom,
The Power, and the Glory!
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
† In Jesus Name †
We need to be Reminded –
Yesterday, as I was at a loss for words for this message, I received an email from Linda and Tom.
It opened up with these words,
“You just can’t let me forget that God is ever present in our lives.”
Then he added,
“Don’t stop !”
As I read them, the words that we heard from another letter this morning burned even deeper in my heart
Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the Good News I preached to you before.
All of us need to be reminded of the good news, that God is ever-present in our lives.
Solomon once wrote
For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. 2 A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest. 3 A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to build up. 4 A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance. Ecclesiastes 3:1-4 (NLT)
The passage goes on for another 4 verses, 8 more comparisons of what we might say is a contrast between good and bad, joy and sorrow if we don’t hear how the thought ends,
11 Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NLT)
In Solomon’s time, this is true, we couldn’t father the scope of God’s work. Now, in the Gospel message, in the good news, we see the scope of God’s work as we realize the message revealed in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. We have heard this message, a message that God is ever-present in your lives.
(wait…)
I said the Lord is with YOU.
Oh! Now you remember. As Tom wrote – don’t stop telling me this! We need to hear that God is ever-present with us. He died for our sin, was buried and rose again!
Alleluia! He is Risen!
(He is Risen indeed!)
And that means?
(we are risen indeed! Alleluia!)
in other words
The Lord is With You!
(and also with You!)
AMEN!
The Message of Hope
Hear Paul again,
3 I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. 4 He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said.
Most important is actually a little weak, it is not only of prime importance, this is foundational. It is the basis for everything else in our lives.
That Christ died – not just that He died, but for you He died but that He was buried and raised from the dead, which is what we celebrate today.
Later Paul will say that if Jesus didn’t die and rise from the dead, we of all people are to be pitied more than anything else in the world.
Jesus death for our sins, Paul tells us, was told about for centuries prior to His being born. Over and over the Old Testament tells us He would die, that God would provide an offering for our sins, and proof of the depth of His love and commitment to us.
The same for His burial and resurrection, and the praises that would result, as God made sure that we knew this wasn’t haphazard, but that this previous weekend was planned before He ever created light.
Jesus would die for our sins, be buried and rise again.
We need to hear this and hear it again and again. Without the series of events for Holy Week, we cannot hear what we need to,
That the Lord is with you!
The Witnesses
Paul wants to make sure the Corinthians know this well, so well, that they can base their lives on the Jesus’ death for our sins, on His Burial and Resurrection.
Maybe they won’t believe me, he thinks. No problem. I’ll refer them to other, for there are so many others who can bear witness. Peter’s in town, they call him Cephas, he can share how important this message is. Paul is going to go through all the eye witnesses to the physical resurrection of Jesus so that people will know.
It’s not a dream, it is not something Paul cooked up, it is something that happened, really happened. Five Hundred people witnesses it all at once, not just one hear and one there, 500 at once, and most still lived, in case people wanted to get an opinion other than Paul’s!
And Paul wants us to be assured of it, in order that our lives are based on it.
Paul’s words at the end – it doesn’t matter who tells you, the message is the same, and people like James are more than willing to die, even as they share it. We don’t know if Paul was there when James was martyred, but we know he was when Stephen forgave him, and all those who killed him, simply because he trusted in Jesus, the one who died for Stephen’s sins, and Paul’s and yours and mine. As he trusted in the Jesus, who was buried and rose again from the dead.
Whatever we are now!
We often talk of Christ’s death – for our sins, but there is more to the story of Easter than that. Paul gets to that in verse 10, and what he says of himself, is true for every one of us, read the words with me,
10 But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out his special favor on me.
For that grace, that very same grace is yours. It is not special to Paul but is the very blessing that God gives to everyone He calls, every person He pours His Spirit on, making them part of His church.
You see, just like if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead our lives are meaningless, so are they not the same if we don’t realize the change He is making to us because Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and Jesus is Risen!
and, therefore?
We are risen to a new life, a life lived with God, a life that we need to know God is ever-present in. Something we can’t stop reminding each other of, even in the times where we aren’t sure that God will make these things beautiful. Sure of that, and that being the foundation of our life, we can understand why the Paul told Hebrew Christians,
23 Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. 24 Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. 25 And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near. Hebrews 10:23-25 (NLT)
That is part of the new life of Paul, to continually remind people of the gospel, that Jesus died for our sins, that He was buried, and that Praise God with everything in us, for He has risen!
And that means….
Why we end our prayer with praise
48 days ago, on Ash Wednesday, we began a look at the Lord’s prayer. We finished the requests on Friday, as we realized that at the cross Jesus delivered us from evil and answered every request.
Which leaves only this to finish that journey today, as we celebrate our life with God.
Let us pray,
Our Father, Yours is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory, forever and ever. AMEN!
Deliver Us From Evil
Dare We Pray:
Deliver Us From Evil
Matthew 6:13 and John 19:16-42
As you contemplate Christ’s death for you, and how that delivered you from evil, may you understand a little more the love of God our Father,
Intro – Deliver Us
We arrive here, this evening, at the foot of the cross.
To think through what it means for Jesus to die, his wrists and ankles shattered by spikes. We look on a broken man, one who endured so much pain and agony. Agony not just of the physical pain, but the agony of being alone, abandoned by those who counted themselves as His friends. Mocked by those whom he taught to pray
Whom He taught to pray to our Father in heaven these words…
“Deliver us from Evil”
It is the last request of the prayer.
And the most painful, and the hardest to pray.
For it is a confession we don’t want to make.
That we have gotten so entangled with evil, that only God can deliver us from it. That He had to make the decision to do so.
Life without evil sounds nice, though what it took, and what it takes, is a price that goes beyond what most of us are willing to pay, or for which we will find it easy to pray.
Yet He taught us to pray to the loving Father, “Deliver us from evil.”
And died on the cross to make it happen.
The Problem Why is it hard to pray this? What is Evil?
When we think of being rid of evil, it is often evil somewhere “out there” Satan’s work in the world, and as His demons work throughout the world. We speak of those evil empires, or the evil politicians, or the murderers and rapists and real serious sinners in prisons, those who God would never save, or it is a miracle if He does.
We don’t pray, “Deliver the world from evil,”
We pray deliver us from evil.
It is personal. We need the Father to deliver us, His people, from evil.
It is a hard prayer to pray, because we have to admit that evil can get a grip on us. That we are the sinners, that evil can get its grip on us, affect us, and that we can think, say, and do that which is evil
We do though, when we make decisions about who is righteous in God’s eyes, and who will be judged, (because God won’t save them!) and condemned for being evil.
We do it when we try to make our actions look righteous, even though we know they aren’t, when we try to justify ourselves, or those like us, rather than pray for all involved. When we gossip and assume the worst possible reason for why someone would do something, or say something. We even pat each other on the back, and congratulate each other when we shred our adversaries rather than pray for them.
There are so many ways we in which we sin, in which we choose that which is evil, over that which is blessed by God.
And today we come to the cross, seeking mercy and grace, praying, Father, deliver us from evil.
We can pray it here…at the foot of the cross.
That is why we are here. To pray, and to remember that the Father has delivered us from evil.
Look at the cross; there is where it happened. Where God unites sinners to Jesus, nailing their sins to Christ, and transforming us into saints, crediting us with His righteousness.
Look at the cross, where our attempts to justify ourselves, our futile attempts are dismissed, for because of Christ being nailed there.
Look at the cross, and know this prayer the Lord has taught us, an every phrase, every word is answered,
He proves He is our Father
His makes His name is holy, as He uses it to claim us, His children, with the seal of the cross in baptism
His kingdom is revealed to include us, for He purchases and redeems us with the blood of Christ.
His desire, His will is seen, as He enables us to not perish, but to repent and be transformed as we are united to Christ, and given the Holy Spirit
He gives us all we need, and care for us, making everything work for good for those He has called, for those who love Him
He forgives us, and helps us forgive others
He leads us away from temptation, as we look to Jesus, and are transformed into sacrificing servants who reflect His glory and embrace our own cross
and He delivers us from evil.. Cleansing us of it, by nailing it to the cross.
And so let us give Him every burden, every anxiety, every pain… even as we pray, trusting Him to answer…
