The Story That Never Ends
Alleluia! He is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Grace, mercy and peace to you, from God our Father, and our risen Lord, Jesus Christ, whose glory and His story never end!
This morning we’re going to talk about, and like Peter in our Gospel, marvel at, the Story that Never Ends!
What would make a story so good that you would never want it to end?
In the story of our lives, there are experiences so wonderful that we never want them to end; we just want them to go on so we can take it all in.
On the other hand, there are those experiences in life where we can’t wait for them to end; they hurt so bad we just want them to be over.
In the story of life, there’s both; and in the story of Christ there’s both, but the good and the glory prevail.
Throughout our Lenten journey, we followed a series based on the stories of the passion of Christ in Gospel of John; we saw the suffering, today we see the glory.
And we saw how, in His Gospel, John presents 7 signs or miracles Jesus did. They’re important because they show He is the Son of God, and they lead to something more, something greater.
1) Changing water into wine at the wedding in Cana, in John, chapter 2.
2) The healing the centurion’s son in chapter 4. Jesus said the word, and the boy, who was miles away, was instantly healed.
3) The healing of the paralyzed man at Bethesda, in chapter 5.
4) The feeding of the five thousand in Galilee, in chapter 6.
5) Also in chapter 6, Jesus walking on the water on the Sea of Galilee.
6) The healing of the man who was born blind, in John chapter 9.
7) The raising of Lazarus, who had died and been buried for four days, in John 11.
John presents 7 miracles because, in the Bible, 7 is the number of completeness.
These 7 miracles represent the multitude and totality of miracles Jesus did.
But to these 7 miracles, John adds one more, an 8th miracle.
What is that miracle?
The clue is in the number, 8.
7 symbolizes the completeness of this world and life; take 7, symbolizing this world, and add 1 for the world to come, and you have 8.
8 represents the new life to come, eternal life in the world of Heaven.
8 can also represent the new life we have now in Christ.
So what is the 8th great miracle presented in the Gospel of John that bring us this new life? The resurrection of our Lord, the greatest miracle ever.
The Easter miracle, Jesus rising from His tomb, is the miracle that brings us from 7 to 8; from this world and this life to the next world and life; from death to eternity; from earth to Heaven; from sorrow to joy; from wishing that the bad times would end, to wanting the good times to never end.
In our next life with Christ, the good times never will end.
In Christ the story of your life goes on forever, and it’s such a wonderful story, so happy.
For the disciples and the women who followed Jesus, the story was anything but happy on that day they watched their Lord suffer and die.
How badly they must have wanted it all to go away, just to wake up and find out that it had been nothing more than a bad dream.
But they woke up the next day, and it was real; their Lord had died, and died so horribly.
All the hopes and dreams they had for Him were dashed to pieces.
I’m not sure how much sleep they got, but very early on Sunday, Luke says, On the first day of the week, at early dawn, they (some of the women who had followed Jesus) went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. 2 And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
His body was gone. Maybe they had the wrong tomb; but Mary Magdalene had seen where He was buried.
Maybe someone had moved Him; or worse, maybe grave robbers had stolen his body.
4 While they were perplexed about this, Luke says, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. God’s messengers, angels sent from Heaven.
5 And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?
Whether Jesus had instructed the angels to say those exact words, or if He had just given them general instructions of what to say, we don’t know, but it was a great line! “Why do you seek the living among the dead?
What a fantastic way to say Jesus is alive again.
And then those exciting, energizing words we say every Easter as we relive this amazing moment in time, these words that ring throughout history and into and eternity: The angel said, He is not here, but has risen!
The angel probably didn’t shout those words, not wanting to scare them, but I know we can’t help but shout: Alleluia! He is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Just like that, the story changed, from what seemed to be the worst story ever, into the best story ever; from what seemed to be the worst thing to ever happen on earth, to the best thing to ever to happen on earth, Jesus dying and rising and winning salvation for the world, the best news ever.
Something that had happened on earth, would impact what happens in Heaven.
What happened in history, the birth and life and death and resurrection of Jesus, has altered eternity. That is amazing!
And it clearly shows who He is, God’s only Son.
Only God’s Son could do something like that; change not just the course of history, but change the course of eternity.
Now, all who are in Him, who have their faith and life in Christ, have a story of glory forever!
So if your life is a story, how does the story end?
A great story needs a great ending, or its not a great story… unless… there is no ending, just a brief intermission.
Who recognizes what movie that’s from? Gone with the Wind.
As a child, I saw Gone with the Wind in the theatre, during one of its many releases, and when, in my mind, it was time for the movie to be done (I was ready to go home), INTERMISIION flashed up on the screen.
I asked my mom what it meant. She said, “It’s just a little break.”
“You mean there’s more.”. There’s more.
There was more for Jesus, and with your life in Him, there’s more for you.
The story didn’t end with Jesus in His tomb, and it doesn’t end with you in your grave.
Your time in the grave will be just a brief intermission in the story of your life, just a little break, a sort of sabbath for your body, a short rest.
Falling asleep, Paul calls it in 1 Thessalonians 4, just a nap for your body, while your soul is kept in Paradise.
Then the trumpet of the archangel will sound, Paul says, and the One who rose from His tomb and ascended into Heaven will return, riding on the clouds, Revelation 1:7 says.
The story of this world will end, and Jesus will wake our bodies, raising us in glory.
And then in body and soul, the story of our lives will continue in Heaven and last forever.
In Christ, there is no: from the same movie, The End.
There is no end to us, just the perfect and joyful continuation of our lives in eternity.
Knowing that in Christ, the story of our lives will go on in glory, helps us to have a better story to our lives here on earth, a story that gives glory to God.
Yours is a better life when lived in His grace, to His glory.
Better in loving and serving others; better in godly thoughts, words and deeds; better in being like Jesus to your family and friends; better in the truth and comfort and forgiveness of the Gospel.
Better in the story you share: how Christ has changed your life, and how much more you will be changed into glory when He comes back to bring you home.
Better in sharing the story of Good Friday and Easter, that has changed, as we said, not just history, but eternity.
Christ has changed the story of our lives into a story that never ends.
He takes us from 7 to 8; from this fallen and decaying world, into a world of never-ending love and glory.
And the reason the story and the glory never end is because: He is risen! He is risen, indeed. Alleluia!
And because He is risen indeed, we live in His peace, which passes understanding, and guards our hearts and minds, in Christ Jesus, our Lord. The story of His glory never ends! Amen.