YOU
CAN'T GET THERE FROM HERE!
Resurrection Day April 1995
Believe it or not, I have actually heard these words
spoken in all seriousness when I asked for directions in my automobile. The
"you can't get there from here" is followed by "You have to go
back to the intersection...etc, etc, and you can get there from there."
What the person means to say is that it is more difficult this way than that,
but certainly they do not mean that it is impossible. Well, when it comes to going to heaven, you definitely cannot
get there from here! I don’t care
how high you can jump, how high you can climb, or even how far out in space you
can shoot yourself in a spacecraft, you are not going to get there from here.
The only One who can get there, is Someone from there.
And that Someone is the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you want to go, it will have to be with Him.
Such a basic truth bears repeating as the old hymn says, "I
love to tell the story, for those who know it best, seem hungering and thirsting
to hear it like the rest." Of course there may be some that have not
altogether understood just how difficult our earthbound position is. There is no
better time for us to learn about the importance of the Resurrection than right
now.
The Apostle Peter in 1
Peter 1:24 quoting from Isaiah 40:6-8 tells us that ... all
flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass
withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away. In this day of
almost miraculous breakthroughs in every field of scientific endeavor, it is
hard to believe that all of man's glory should be compared to nothing more than
a flower on top of a flimsy stem. When
we think back to the seven wonders of the world, and see the pyramids, and the
great coliseum of Rome, when we do the amazing work with our computers (as you
and I are just now), and when we
wonder about what will be accomplished tomorrow and next year, we can understand
how some might conclude that man is a god, and perhaps that he is all the god
there ever was. It humbles us to
think that the best that man can do, his ultimate glory, his greatest
achievements are fleeting, as a puff of hot air, here but for a moment.
Isaiah saith in another place, Cease
ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherein is he to be accounted
of. (Isaiah 2:22)
The very fact that some of the structures man builds lasts much longer
than the man himself should bear witness to our mortality.
But even these so called
ageless monuments to man’s genius will eventually crumble and return to the
dust from which they are made. And
therein is the problem for man ... he is
dust! When Saint Paul says … The first man is of the earth, earthy: the
second man is the Lord from heaven. (I
Cor. 15:47) He is putting his finger on the same weakness about which
Peter spoke. Here is all the glory of man, his buildings, his inventions, his
idols, everything that pertains to him, standing as a flower, rather beautiful
in the sunlight, high atop a bright green stem, rich with dew, giving off a
sweet odor. But all too soon the fragile stem begins to turn tawny brown and the
flower itself begins to whither and lean ever so slowly closer the ground.
Finally, the flower makes contact with mother earth, and before long it becomes
a part of the very ground from which it sprang.
It is after all, like your body … biodegradable!
Enter the Lord Jesus … But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law (Gal 4:4). But glory be to God, born from above! And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14) This One, left His home in glory, and identified with the earthbound sinners, suffered death for all men, and was buried in a tomb, closed in by a large stone rolled across the entrance. To His disciples it was the end of all hope for the future. They still did not know the glorious details of God's plan. It would not be until after the Holy Spirit fell upon the early Church that Peter would stand up and explain that … Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. Lay hold on the significance of that last clause..."it was not possible that he should be holden of it." We may rejoice that they only buried our Lord in a cave with a stone to seal it. Try to imagine what the earth would look like if they had the technology to bury Him deep inside the earth. Suppose that they had locked Him in a reinforced concrete bunker, say about 10 miles deep, with no access. The impact would be something like the grand explosion made when Ensign Pulver's bomb blew up the entire ship’s laundry in the movie MR. ROBERTS: VVVAAAAARRROOOOOOMMMMM!
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There goes the whole side out of the earth.
Just as surely as temporal things of the earth must return to the earth,
so must the Eternal Lord of Glory from heaven return whence He came. It was
impossible that death could hold Him. And what about you? How are you going to
escape the gravitational pull of sin and death?
Return with me to I Peter again, chapter one, and see
how it works. Verse 23 speaks of
those who are "Born again".
The Greek word for 'again' also carries the connotation "anew"
or even "from above". We
do not need to remain part of that species of flower that fades, we may be born
anew, born again, born from above, actually become part of a new species of
flower, the result of receiving a different kind of Seed.
Not the corruptible seed of the earth life, but the incorruptible see by
the Word of God, which lives and abides forever.
Where did that seed come from? In
verse 25 we see that it came to us when the Gospel was preached to us. How
powerful that Word is! When once
you have received it, you too, as your Lord, can never be held to earth by the
pain of death or the boundaries of the grave. I don't care where your mortal body ends up, at sea, in
space, in the belly of a wild beast, burned to a crisp or in the Church
cemetery, it will rise again! It
will rise again, if our God must tear the side out of a mountain to get it! It can no more stay in the ground after the new birth than it
could jump to heaven before the new birth. It is a whole new creation.
Praise Him for His mighty acts.
One more thought.
Just imagine the power that God has also granted you, yea, entrusted to
you, when He called you to declare this glorious Gospel to others.
Beating in your breast, resident in you heart, is the Word of God. You
are given the honor of traveling all over the earth scattering the Seed Word of
the Kingdom of God. As you proclaim it to others, and as they receive it, they
also are transformed by the miracle of 'Divine Horticulture'. What a privilege,
what a responsibility! When it comes time for you to make that trip to glory, be
sure that you are able to say that you handed out many free tickets to others
who did not deserve the blessing any more than you did. But God is so gracious.
So we conclude that you really can't get there from
here. You must first go to the
Cross. From there, just keep making
RIGHT turns, and you will not only see the Glory of the Lord, but you will be a
part of it. For I reckon that the sufferings of this
present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be
revealed in us. (Rom. 8:18)
My Epitaph
Hayden was a sinner, who wished to be a flower,
And he couldn't get it out of his head.
He heard the Good News of Jesus and His power,
Now Hayden is a ROSE from the dead.
Not to worry Maya Angelou there is no competition
here! But the idea has merit.
Have a Happy and Savior Holiday.
Hayden