REWIND LIFE- Acts 10:36-48 Easter 4-8-07 Lake Murray Presbyterian Dr. J. Ben Sloan
Acts 10:39-42
39- We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose form the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people. And to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.
When you watch a movie at home and you miss something important, the really great thing is you can press the rewind button and you can watch it again.
There are times I wish I had a rewind button to life, don’t you? Not all the time, just some times. Don’t you wish you could rewind to the really important dates in your life- like when you fell in love, or if you had children, when they were born or baptized. I wish we could rewind history so that we could go back all the way to that first Easter. Einstein said if you go far enough away and had a big enough telescope, you could see the events of history ([including that first Easter]. Peter in this passage is rewinding back to the death and resurrection of Jesus. If we can rewind, we can at least recall what happened.
There are also times I wish I could rewind back to the times when I really messed up.
I wish I could go back there and erase or take back those words I said, or the things I did. Everyone has said something that they wish they could take back the minute they said it. There are these insurance commercials that show bad things happening, and they talk about how they will help you get back to the way things were. One is of a car left out of gear that goes over a cliff. Another is of a bear that gets into and totally destroys a car. They reverse the action and it looks as good as new. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to correct the mistakes of life? It would be like having a mulligan for every bad stroke in golf.
I wonder if collectively we would rewind to the trial and crucifixion of Jesus and then collectively erase it. It was after all, a horrible act done to an innocent person.
In some ways God does more than rewind life. The resurrection is a sign that he just doesn’t go back and recall those bad things in life, but he redeems them. The resurrection was not the rewinding and erasing of the crucifixion, but the redemption of the crucifixion.
The interesting thing is that the resurrection doesn’t make things the way they were, but it goes beyond the pain of life. The wounds of the crucifixion were still on Jesus, but they didn’t kill anymore. It is like we don’t need to go back, because we have gone beyond that. We can’t be new again, but we can be re-newed in the power of God who makes all things new. We cannot be made innocent again, but we can be clean again. There is a longing that we could go back and get our innocence back, or get things new again. In fact, God makes all things new in the resurrection. But it is not a destroying of the past, but a redeeming of the past. The newness is in the meaning of the past. The crucifixion was evil, but in the eyes of the resurrection, it is for our good—the sacrifice made for us.
Peter was preaching this sermon that focused on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. He especially focused on his resurrection here. He said that he was a witness, and that there were many others who even ate and drank with Jesus after his resurrection. Several translations add the phrase “for forty days.” The real question is can we believe the witness of Peter and the apostles. Peter was saying he did not just read about Jesus in a book or fairy tale, but he saw, heard, ate and drank with Jesus. It wasn’t just a glimpse like an illusion in the desert. It was lengthy time spent. It wasn’t one person at a time—like an illusion, but many who saw him.
But the key to this passage that really applies to you and me is that Peter was speaking to Cornelius, a Roman soldier who was a believer. This was the first evidence of non-Jews becoming believers. The resurrection changed everything. The believers began to see God was God of all people. He is the judge of the living and the dead- that’s everyone. Everyone who believes in his name receives forgiveness. Jesus’ resurrection affected all people, because in the end it is the hope of all for eternal life. The resurrection means that eternal life is not just wishful or wistful thinking, but real, solid, witnessed, reasoned thinking. This is why Peter said, “God is the judge of the living and the dead.” About forty years ago things really began to change in American business. But it really picked up about 1989. Coca Cola began to spread with the soldiers in WWI. By the end of WWII it was in 40 countries. With the fall of the Berlin Wall and opening up of Africa, coke is everywhere And sales net $24 billion last year. It had a product that tasted good not just for people in Atlanta, the southeast, or America, but for people all over the world. Today you can go almost anywhere in the world and get a coke. You can take “coke”and change it to Ford, Walmart, - wherever there is a decent product that meets a human need, there is a world market for it. The world is thirsting for their product. But the world thirsts for something far deeper- Jesus Christ. Jesus meets human needs. But more than that the Creator of the world and the redeemer of the world cares for the world, and wants the world to respond. Christianity is the only religion that has adherents in every country in the world. It is a faith not designed just for people of a certain culture and language group, but for all people: the Jews, the Palestinians, people of Iraq, people of China. Christian faith is not just for the Jews (as some in Peter's day thought). It is not just for the Europeans or westerners. There are more Christians in Africa today than North America and Europe combined. There are more Christians in China than there are people in Canada. The resurrection opened Peter’s eyes and the eyes of all the disciples that all people need to have hope and faith. All people need to know of the resurrection. That was Jesus’ last words too- go into all the world; you shall be my witnesses to the uttermost parts of the earth. It is a lie to believe that the good news, hope, mercy, and kindness of God are for only those like us. It is a lie that we should hide the resurrection news under a bucket hoping no one will know about it. There is enough bad news out there. People need to hear good news- and not just shallow, surface-like good news. Does anyone want to rewind to the days when there were cannibals, head hunters, and widow burning? Do people really want to rewind to the days of superstition and lack of trust in God simply because God calls us to be holy and we don’t want to do it? Yet in America we see a terrible return to giving up on what is good for what is selfish. Let me say historically, when we forsake God, it shows in our forsaking holiness and love for selfishness and sexual immorality. Let us get beyond our past failures as human beings. Let us move on to be more like the risen Christ. This goes to the very core of our being. We all will die. But there is still hope. It is not found in diet, exercise, or even a way of living. It is found in linking ourselves by faith to the risen Lord! He is Lord of all creation, all people, all things. The question remains is He your Lord?