Pastor Tab Cosgrove April 1, 2018

Easter Sunday, Text: 1Cor 15:1-4,12-19 Title: April Fools!

  1. What a great day it is! Here together—families and friends reunited for this special occasion—clearly a cause for celebration. I know you are going to be able to eat after the service (before the service) but I wanted to celebrate with you right now by sharing with you one of my favorite treats, a fresh batch of Oreo cookies!! Everyone likes Oreo cookies so today as we celebrate I wanted to share some with you. I know this may seem a bit unorthodox for a church service but hey, this is a special day!! (pass out cookies with napkins to a few people. When done play Segment #1—83sec). April Fools!! Did anyoneeat one with toothpaste in it? Did anyone play an April Fool’s jokeon you this morning? Here is a couple more you can try. (play segments 2 & 3) One of my favorite April Fool’s joke came when living in North Carolina.My younger son Jonathan who was about 10 or 11 at the time. I took the side showerhead at our kitchen sink and placed a rubber band on the lever securing it to the head of the sprayer so that when someone turned on the water at the sink the water would come out of the sprayer instead of the faucet getting the person at the sink wet. So I pretended like I was busy and asked him to get me a drink of water from the sink and when he turned on the water he got soaked…and mad—oh was he mad. Ephesians 6:4 says Fathers do not provoke your children to anger…” Forgive me Lord for I have sinned! But man was that funny!!
  1. Here’s a fun fact. Did you know that the last time Easter fell on April Fool’s Day was in 1956—62 years ago. The next time Easter will fall on April 1st will be 2029—11 years from now and then again in 2040. But no more after sometime in the 22nd century. Personally, I wish Easter would fall on April 1st more often because what greater softball of a sermon could the Lord give than to have Easter appear on a day known nationally for its pranks. This is a sign found outside the Rosepepper Cantina restaurant in Nashville Tenn. That they put above their door. (YOLO, Lol, Jk BRB—Jesus) That’s awesome! The combination of these two eventsbeing on the same day is phenomenally hilarious!! I mean just think about it, the world has ridiculed, rejected and made fun of the resurrection ever since it happened. Jesus was tortured and scorned and then left naked to die on a Roman cross—which at the time was the most humiliating way to die and the crowd watching, saw Him take His last breath. And all those that wanted Him dead were seemingly satisfied because now, all that this Jesus stirred up, while alive, was finallyover. Even those that followed Him for three years thought it was over. He was clinically dead and everyone knew it. And I know this didn’t happen, but I have this picture in my mind of Easter morning Jesus coming out of the tomb and in a vaudeville sort of way saying, April Fool’s!! I’m alive not dead!! The jokes on you Satan—the jokes on you!
  1. However, tragically I might say,ever since that day when He defeated death some 2000+ years ago, the world has tried to keep Jesus dead, insignificant and not the true resurrected Christ the Scriptures site Him to be—whom over 500 witnesses knew Him to be and often died defending Him to be.I want you to watch this video of Steven Hawking’s view on life. (1:20) Steven Hawking passed away on March 14th 2018. There is no doubt that he was a brilliant scientist. A mind beyond his time. But imagine his surprise when he took his last breath on March 14th. Imagine the realization he came to in that moment. Oopps!!! All those years of his life being sure God didn’t exist—much less in a Christ resurrected from the dead. In all of his wisdom concluding that it was all a fantasy, a fairytale told so people could feel good about themselves. Imagine his surprise on March 14th!
  1. My friends the resurrection is not only real, but is everything to us who believe. Paul in the Epistle lesson for today was addressing Christians who were being told by scholars and those with great wisdom that the resurrection wasn’t real and those listening to them were believing it to be true.So Paul defends what he knows to be certain truth. They say that verse three is the very first confessional creed of the church (read vs.3) And then he goes on to say how Jesus appeared to all these people to prove the resurrection was real. But then makes a profound point about who we are if the resurrection didn’t happen. I want to read this to you again because it is important we get this, (vs12-19). The resurrection is no joke but the way it happened is God’s greatest April Fool’s joke of all. Because death is not the end as so many believe and are convinced it is! And as believers confessing that Jesus lived, died and was raised on the third day that is our hope in a world that is falling apart by its seams daily. Look around you as to what is happening out there—you want to put your hope in just that!!! I don’t!! I can’t because it keeps letting me down every time I think it can bring me peace and comfort, satisfaction and meaning.
  1. Because of what Jesus did for me, I’m never left dealing with the issues I face without hope. There is nothing I can’t get through on His resurrected strength. This is what we all have because we believe in this day. Jesus was victorious over the power of death and we also share that same promise. When life on this earth comes to an end—it is not the end but the beginning of glory!In 1 Cor. 6:14 Paul says, God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by His power.You see that promise ultimately makes this faith thing worth the journey, worth the belief and sometimes worth the sacrifice of believing when others around you don’t.The Resurrection truly was our Lord’s ultimate April Fool’s prank to those who thought Him dead and gone. And this today is our hope that He did rise and that it is real. So today on this April Fool’s day have some fun with each other (in an adult and safe way)andas you do, also remember the great Easter prank Jesus pulled off for all of us, that has given us life and meaning. Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! In Jesus’ Name. Amen.