Worship

First Things First!

Pastor JonAlden Pedersen

Christ is risen… he is risen indeed! It’s an instinct, brothers and sisters, for a pastor to say those words on Easter just like it is an instinct to hear those words and respond the way you did. An instinct is a powerful impulse or an innate pattern of behavior. It’s an instinct, for example, of monarch butterflies to make the tremendous migration in the fall to the south then in the Springtime back to the north. To some degree we cannot help but give into our instincts. When we sit in church for longer than an hour we start to think… okay let’s get this show on the road, wrap it up there guy. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that instinct, you and your parents and their parents all got in the innate habit of we enter the building for an hour, smile and wave, and back home to our comfort zone in time for lunch. There’s nothing wrong with this, it is an instinct that has been instilled in us by those who came before us. If you ask my wife she’d admit that I behave pretty similarly once the clock hits a certain point. Some instincts you’re born with like the butterfly making a great migration, or the child longing for comfort in mother’s arms, and some instincts you develop over time, like watching sports on a Sunday afternoon, or joyfully responding: “He is risen indeed!” 

The fear of death, friends, certainly classifies as a natural instinct, something we are born with, something that has been passed down to us. That instinct can influence human behavior in vastly different ways: from the people they surround themselves with, the careers they choose to have, how they wish to spend their time and money, how careless or carefully they develop their habits; death can be a powerful motivator in each of these areas. For a long time, brothers and sisters, in the past and in some instances today: death, but primarily the fear of death has been used as an instrument by the devil. He’s used that instrument to stir fear to the poor and stir up rebellion and hostility amidst the prideful, thus he devours the helpless and unaware. But the mission of the Messiah and the reason we celebrate today is recorded beautifully and succinctly for us in Hebrews 2: “14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too [Jesus Christ]shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” Ever since the fall, the devil gained influence over humans by using the fear of death to motivate humans for his own wicked purpose. In the beginning The Liar, literally translated “The Devil” told a blatant lie: “If You Eat, you will not surely die.” And ever since then, the descendants of Adam and Eve have been given a natural instinct, something we’re born with, something fallen within us that says: “You’re gonna die someday.” And that small voice of The Accuser, literally translated: “The Satan” has led to so much darkness. From powers and principalities of the government to increase their own status and safety to religious institutions trying to bend the will of the people to increase their own ego. 

By rising from the dead, Christ did indeed break the power of the devil and give each and every one of us a new instinct to live by: let’s call it the Gospel. This new instinct is not similar to the natural instinct of the world, because this world has been entirely plagued by that fallen creature that can now only tell others what is true of itself: “You’re gonna die some day.” No, this new instinct, this good news, doesn’t come from this world at all: it comes from the Kingdom of heaven! Our King tells his heirs,  “You will not die, but live! You are not your own. You are a new creation. You are a Child of God, Redeemed, Restored, made alive. Today, you will be with me in paradise.” Where the world seeks rugged individualism and immediate gratification, the children of God seek to bear with one another, and encourage each other, because the person sitting next to you is your brother and sister in Christ. Where the world disowns and takes to court those who disappoint, the children of God remember the patience of their heavenly Father and forgive. Where the world sees death all around and ever approaching, and shakes and crumbles in fear, saying “First things first! I got to watch over me and what’s mine, kill or be killed!” The children of God say First Things First: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again!

This threefold truth is powerful, indeed this gospel is the very power of God. But pastor death is still all around me, it’s like I’m walking in a shady valley. It’s true, you are. This is the world we inherited. But we do not walk alone. Christ has died. The one who has experienced death and hell itself walks beside you in fact he resides within you. And if the fear of death still lingers, turn to the person to your left and ask, “Is Jesus going to save even me?” And see what they say. 

But pastor, how can I be saved when I still continually give into the desires of my flesh? Well there is not a single person in here who does not battle with themselves in this way at some time or another. But the One who was tempted in every way and still did not sin has credited to you his life, which means when God looks at you he is satisfied with you, because of what Christ has made you. And the Spirit of Christ that overcame every temptation and overcame the punishment that your sins deserved also overcame the punishment that my sins deserved, and her sins deserved, our sins have been atoned for. And because Christ is risen the same Spirit that overcame all of these things resides in you, too. 

But pastor, how can anyone be at peace when the world is at war all around us! All of these things must come to pass as the risen Lord said, so that when those trumpets sound we are not cowering in fear thinking, “First things first, I got to watch over me and what’s mine! Kill or be killed! I don’t want to die!” We instead are rejoicing! Because we know that Christ will come again. And because we know that Christ will come again, let’s put off that old instinct that has always tried to trap us in eternal fear, and remind one another what our Lord has reminded us most in the Bible, and what our Savior says one final time in the gospel accounts: do not be afraid. 

The Apostle Paul was fully convinced in the Threefold Truth, having encountered the risen Lord himself. Open up to any of Paul’s letters in the Bible from Romans to Philemon and you will hear the same thing you hear before every message every pastor gives ever: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. It did not matter what problems he would go on to address, whether the churches he wrote about were having trouble on the roles of men and women, spending too much time focused on special traditions or festivals, or various divisions occurred over words. Paul would talk about each of these issues, but not without first reinforcing and encouraging the body exactly who is the head: not the pastor, not the elders, not experienced groups of Christians: Christ. Each letter Paul begins with the Gospel: grace and peace are yours from our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what Paul considered to be of first importance, and so often his ministry was one of steadfast reminding, repenting, restoring, but most of all rejoicing that Christ has died, Christ is risen, and Christ will come again! May we continue to gather together and encourage one another all the more as we see the day of Christ’s return approaching. So that we can be like Paul, reminding his brothers and sisters when they fall back into their old instincts and their old ways what is of first importance. 

“That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. This is what we preach, and this is what you believed.” First things first, brothers and sisters: Christ is risen!