(Sermon by Pastor Michael D. Schultz 04/08/07)

INTRODUCTION:

A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P.  Where have I heard that song before?  Oh, yeah.  Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are.  You take a tune that people know, and before you know it, it’s teaching the alphabet.  Music helps us remember.

John Hatton lived on Duke Street.  214 years ago there appeared in print a tune he wrote by the same name.  It was combined with a text Samuel Medley wrote 232 years ago. Hum that tune today (Duke Street) and almost instantly the words of Job spring to life.  I know that my Redeemer lives.  Music helps us remember.

There’s one more song for which we don’t have the original music, but it’s a song just the same.  It’s the Song of Moses, selected for and read on Easter Sunday because it tells us things about God that we don’t want to miss.  This Easter Sunday, throughout the service and in the sermon as well, we’ll be...

Going Back To The Songs Of Easter

…Because (especially when it carries the gospel) music helps us remember.  Today in particular the songs of Easter help us to remember how God handles our enemies and to rejoice over how God leads his people home.

As the Israelites were making their way through the Red Sea on dry ground, walls of water on their left and right, they did not have to guess what was on the mind of their enemies, the Egyptians.  I will pursue, I will overtake them.  I will divide the spoils; I will gorge myself on them.  I will draw my sword and my hand will destroy them.  Realizing that you haven’t had any Egyptians hot on your heels lately, let’s recall which of your enemies have been on the hunt.  Jesus said that your enemy the devil has planted weeds in the wheat, unbelievers around you whose influence affects you and can draw you away from Jesus.  Peter wrote that your enemy the devil prowls around as a roaring lion, seeking to devour you.  Paul wrote that the last enemy to be destroyed is death.  Death and the devil haven’t stopped chasing after God’s people.
 

The slander and accusations of Satan rage on when his wicked voice slams you with that sarcastic laugh of his: “You?  You’re a child of God?  Could have fooled me!  Look at you!  You don’t stand a chance.”  Because of what we know of ourselves and because of what God’s law says of us, too often his words seem to ring true.  Standing beside him is the enemy called death.  That’s the enemy that wants to gorge itself on you through unresolved grief or even anger over a death, through bitter sadness and almost endless tears over a death, through fear of what your own death will mean for you.  Those enemies are still our enemies…

…Till we go back to the songs of Easter.  Your right hand, O Lord, shattered the enemy.  Look at the bottom of the Red Sea.  Look how empty is the tomb of Jesus.  Satan’s slanderous accusations are meaningless, powerless, empty words.  Death has lost its painful sting.  After it stung Jesus, Jesus stomped on it by returning to life.  1 John 3 – The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.  2 Timothy 1 – Christ Jesus destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.  Because of Easter, your enemies have sunk like stone or lead, they’ve been consumed like dry straw by fire.

Go back to the songs of Easter to remember how God handles our enemies.  I will sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted.  The horse and its rider he has hurled into the sea.  Go back to the Easter hymn by Pastor Walther in the 1850’s.  But short was their triumph; the Savior arose, and death, hell and Satan he vanquished, his foes.  Death and the devil can say what they will.  When Jesus descended into hell, he preached victory over death and victory over the devil and his victory belongs to you.

What would it be like to be on the eastern shore of the Red Sea some 3450 years ago?  There are two million Hebrews there with you, but not a living Egyptian in sight.  Moses drafts a song and it’s set to music and there you are, safe on the sandy shore, singing, The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.  He is my God and I will praise him, my father’s God and I will exalt him.  Ask yourself this: “Why am I alive on land and singing instead of drowned in the depths of the sea?”

What else could I conclude than: I was no better than any soldier in Pharaoh’s army.  I was born as an enemy of God and God knows I’ve acted like one.  What am I doing in a Christian church singing the songs of Easter?  I was born as an unbeliever and God knows I’ve acted like one.  The songs of Easter cannot be sung without referencing the events of Good Friday.  How can people like us sing songs like this?  We’re people who’ve been redeemed.  Hymns of praise then let us sing Unto Christ, our heavenly King, Who endured the cross and grave, Sinners to redeem and save.

Who among the gods is like you, O Lord?  Who is like you – majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?  Wonder of wonders, God left his Son damned and dead on the cross for us, to redeem us, but he didn’t leave him there for good.  Because we have been redeemed, Jesus lives again and forever. 

Go back to the songs of Easter to rejoice over how God will lead his people home.  In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed.  In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling.   

Why is the song of Moses a song for Easter?  Because you don’t need to imagine yourself on the eastern shore of the Red Sea, praising God for his victory in your behalf.  There’s a very real shore in a very real heaven where you’ll be gathered with grateful, rescued believers of all ages, and one of the songs you’ll sing will be none other than the song of Moses (Revelation 15): And I saw what looked like a sea of glass mixed with fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast and his image and over the number of his name.  They held harps given them by God and sang the song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lamb: “Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty.  Just and true are your ways, King of the ages.  Who will not fear you, O Lord, and bring glory to your name?  For you alone are holy.  All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.”

Let the songs of Easter take you back to Christ’s victory and forth to yours.

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