Sunday, March 31, 2002

Easter

Easter
March 31, 2002 
The Conclusion to the Lord’s Prayer


Introduction:  The kingdom remains forever with Jesus!  We come now to the conclusion of this much loved prayer: “For Thine is the Kingdom, and the power and the glory forever and ever Amen”

Yes! The kingdom remains forever with Jesus! It is a powerful kingdom.  It is a glorious kingdom. It is an eternal kingdom.  Why do we pray? Jesus has given us plenty of reasons why we should pray. In the conclusion to the Lord’s Prayer we find three good reasons for asking all these things from Jesus.
Jesus alone is King, from whom we seek help. On this Easter let us remember that there is no such thing as a dead Christ. The German philosopher Nietzsche declared that God is dead. Unfortunately for Nietzsche he died and met a living Christ! Because of Easter you and I can come to Christ with our faults and our fears, with our cares and our concerns with our triumphs and our trials, with our disasters and our dreams and know that He will hear every single one of them.

This not so with the false gods of this present age. They are only the cheap imitation of man’s own imagination. They are utterly worthless. David reminds us in Psalm 115: “Why do the nations say, where is their God? But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of man's hands. They have mouths, but they cannot speak; they have eyes, but they cannot see; They have ears, but they cannot hear; they have noses, but they cannot smell; They have hands, but they cannot feel; they have feet, but they cannot walk; they cannot make a sound with their throat Those who make them will become like them, everyone who trusts in them. O Israel, trust in the LORD; He is their help and their shield.” (vv.2-9) Man left to his own devices is powerless and ineffectual.

But because of Easter God is alive and hears every prayer. That’s why we can say with David in Psalm 110: “You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted; You encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed, in order that man, who is of the earth, may be terrified no more” (vv.17-18).


Because of Easter Jesus alone has the power to grant us our petitions.

Jeremiah the prophet of old reminds us “Like a scarecrow in a melon patch their idols cannot speak; they must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them; they can do no harm nor can they do any good” (v.15)

Dumb idols remain silent. They can not help. They can not hurt. A prayer offered to a false god is like speaking to the wind. Not so with Jesus.  He has the power to grant our petitions because He is alive. As the child once put it “He can’t be dead…I spoke to Him this morning!” Every petition, every request is answered by Him because he is alive forevermore.  


Because of Easter Jesus alone shall have all glory and praise for all that he has done for us. 

He is the eternal God deserving of our prayers and our praise. The writer to the Hebrews put it this way: “May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing His will. And may He work in us what is pleasing to Him through Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever and ever Amen (13:20-21)

Conclusion:  So what else is there to say other then the Amen! What is meant by the word Amen? ‘That I should be certain that these petitions are acceptable to our Father in heaven, and are heard by Him; for He Himself has commanded us so to pray, and has promised to hear us. Amen, Amen, that is, yea, yea it shall be so. A blessed Easter! Amen.

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