What God Did, God Still Does!
Empty describes the absence of something or the loss of something.
Everybody faces empty and eventually empty has to be addressed.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep…”
Observation #1: Empty and Dark provide context for Life and Light.
“…and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.”
Observation #2 God is Actively Present in every Empty and Dark.
What God did, God still does!
Luke 1:28-33 (NIV) - ““Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
Luke 1:35 (NIV) 35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
John 1:1-5 (NIV) “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
The 2 Anchoring Locations of Christianity:
An Empty Cross & An Empty Tomb.
Easter is the celebration of God bringing life to our empty places by emptying dead places.
Easter was designed for empty.
Colossians 2:13-15 (NIV) 13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
What God did, God still does!
John 20:1-8 (NIV) Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” 3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed.
What God did, God still does!
John 20:11-16 (NIV) 11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. 13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. 15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
Empty is a central part of His story.
Jesus emptied Himself to come in the flesh.
Jesus emptied Himself to be identified as a sinner.
Jesus emptied Himself to die in our place.
What God did, God still does!
Luke 24:5b-6 (NIV) “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen!
Everything that gets nailed to a cross gets cancelled. And whoever goes to the grave with Jesus gets resurrected!
Romans 6:5-7 (NIV) 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
What God did, God still does!