Do you remember the Legend of the Touchstone? It's a great story to recall at Easter time. According to that ancient legend, if you could find the touchstone on the coast of the Black Sea and hold it in your hand, everything you touched would turn to gold. You could recognize the touchstone by its warmth. The other stones would feel cold, but when you picked up the touchstone, it would turn warm in your hand.

Once a man sold everything he had and went to the coast of the Black Sea in search of the touchstone. He began immediately to walk along the shoreline picking up one stone after another in his diligent search for the touchstone. He wanted desperately to find this miraculous stone. However, after several days had passed, he suddenly realized that he was picking up the same stones again and again. So he devised a plan… pick up a stone; if it's cold, throw it into the sea. This he did for weeks and weeks. Then one morning he went out to continue his search for the touchstone. He picked up a stone; it was cold… he threw it into the sea. He picked up another stone - cold! He threw it into the sea. He picked up another stone… it turned warm in his hand, and before he realized what he was doing… he threw it into the sea!

That's a good parable for Easter, isn't it? Because that can so easily happen to us! We can come upon a miraculous moment like Easter… we can feel it turn warm in our hands… but then (so dulled by the routine) before we realize what we are doing… we throw it away. Absentmindedly, mechanically, nonchalantly… we toss it aside and miss the miracle of Easter.

Listen! Please don't throw it away this year. Please don't miss it this time. This year, celebrate and embrace the incredible good news of Easter. In particular, let me encourage you to take hold of one of the greatest nuggets of God's truth, namely - the redemptive power of Easter. Don't miss this. Easter shows us dramatically that God has the power to redeem - to buy us back and make us His children. Easter is PROOF that you and I are at peace with God through forgiveness and his children for all eternity! PROOF that we have real life again! He can through His grace, turn bad things into good things, and make things better for you.

On Easter morning, the women came to the tomb in sadness, in defeat, in disillusionment. But there they found out firsthand about God's power to redeem. There at the empty tomb on Easter morning they found out dramatically that He can turn defeat into victory, despair into hope, and death into life! God has the power to redeem. He can turn the heartache of Good Friday into the Hallelujah Chorus of Easter morning.

In 1986 the third baseman for the San Francisco Giants, Bob Brenley, set a major league record with four errors in one game at third base, against the Atlanta Braves. But, then at his last time at bat in the bottom of the ninth inning, the count was three and two; Bob Brenley hit a homerun and won the game 7 - 6. From goat to hero with one swing of the bat! As Bob Brenley circled the bases with his game-winning homerun, the radio announcer said, "Well, folks, Bob Brenley just redeemed himself." A bad day turned around. The jeers turned to cheers. A nightmare became the dream of a lifetime.

Now, in sports, a player may be able to redeem himself and turn it around by his own ability, but when it comes to our spiritual lives, only God can redeem. Only God can save. Only God can turn defeat into victory, death into life. This is the message of Holy Week… "God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." This is the message of Easter… "O death, where is thy victory? O grave, where is thy sting? Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ… Don't be afraid, you are looking for Jesus. He has been raised; He is not here! So, why do you seek the living among the dead? He is risen. He lives and because He lives, we can live through faith in Him. We too, can be resurrected! We can be assured of forgiveness and eternal life!

God has the power to redeem! That's the good news of our faith, isn't it? It means that Jesus' apparent defeat on the cross was not a defeat at all! It means that Jesus' perfect life lived in our place and death on our behalf was a great victory! It means that no defeat needs to be final - no heartache has to last forever. Good Fridays will come into our lives, but trust God, because He has an Easter morning waiting for us on the other side. He loves and forgives! Through the miracle of God's grace, He changes us; gives us a new start, a new beginning, a new life. God has changed us with Easter! When you stop to think about it, God's redemptive power is absolutely amazing. And once each year, along comes Easter to remind us of that. Let me show you what I mean.

1. FIRST OF ALL, EASTER REMINDS US THAT EVENTS CAN BE REDEEMED. We see this graphically in the painful events of Holy Week… treachery, deceit, jealousy, betrayal, denial, lies, bribed witnesses, trumped-up charges, false accusations, a fixed trial led to the crucifixion of one who was totally innocent. Terrible events by our standards… but God redeemed those events and miraculously brought good out of them. God brought our eternal life out of Jesus' death! God has the power to do that with events. Let me show you what I mean.

Rosemary Brown was a strong Christian woman who shared the following story about an event that happened when she was eight years old… an event that changed her life forever. There was a little boy who lived in her neighborhood. His name was Jeter. Jeter was an only child of well-to-do parents who made sure he received everything his little heart desired. Well, one day his little heart desired the very thing that eight-year-old Rosemary Brown's heart desired… it was a drum that had suddenly appeared in the display window at Penney's department store. It was white with blue stars and a colorful strap that went around your neck to hold the drum in place. There were two drumsticks for beating out the rhythm, and Rosemary was certain that she would lead the parade if she owned it. Rosemary wanted that drum so much she could taste it!

At dinner that night, Rosemary told her dad about the drum and how much she wanted it. Her dad asked how much it cost. When Rosemary told him twenty dollars, her dad said in a kind of sad voice, "We'll see, honey, we'll see." Then the very next day, Rosemary heard a sound out in the front yard, a loud noise. She looked out and can you believe it? There stood Jeter with her drum around his neck. Jeter was beating out a rat-a-tat-tat and hollering for all the kids in the neighborhood to come and join his parade. Rosemary's heart was absolutely broken… and she made up her mind to put Jeter in his place once and for all.

So, she gathered up all her playmates on C Street and she devised a plan. She told the other kids that they would all fall in line behind Jeter, but when they got in front of Mrs. Hilt's house, they would all duck behind the hedge in her yard and leave spoiled Jeter out in the street marching by himself. Well, Jeter started strutting down the street, his head thrown back and his knees flying up as he beat out that rat-a-tat-tat on his new drum. Rosemary and her friends all followed in line, marching behind Jeter, excited about their plan to desert Jeter. When they got to the hedge, Rosemary gave her pre-arranged signal… and one by one, they all left the parade and hid, trying hard not to giggle out loud. They were so proud because their trick was working perfectly. Jeter just kept on marching all alone. When Jeter reached the end of the street he looked back. He turned around and saw that he had been deserted by all of them. Then he did something that Rosemary had not counted on. At the age of eight years old, she was not prepared for what happened next. Jeter's little arms dropped to his sides and in a voice Rosemary would never forget, Jeter whimpered, "Little Band, where are you?" And then as if to punish Rosemary for the rest of her life, Jeter started crying.

That was a crossroads moment for Rosemary Brown. Never before in her eight years of life had she intentionally hurt another human being the way she hurt little Jeter that day. She had premeditated his downfall as the neighborhood kid who always got what he wanted… but she didn't like the way that felt. It was not fun at all. It was terrible and she felt horrible… and that day, even though she was only eight, she made up her mind to never again intentionally hurt another person as long as she lived. She asked God to forgive her… and to help her to be on the side of helping people, not hurting them. God redeemed that event… because Rosemary Brown grew up to become a most loving, compassionate, caring servant in the church. That's what Easter is about, isn't it? How God in His power and grace can take bad things and turn them into good things… how He can redeem events!

How about our lives? How many times have we hurt others, intentionally or not? How many hurtful thoughts have we had? All of these things should have had us marching away from God to an eternity without Him. But He redeemed us. He sent Jesus to help instead of hurt, and do it all perfectly in our place, then die for us and rise again as proof of our redemption! Easter means that you and I have been redeemed because God can redeem the events of our lives.

2. SECOND, EASTER REMINDS US THAT THINGS CAN BE REDEEMED. Think of that. God can even redeem material things. For example, I'm thinking of a famous pastor's study desk on display in his home in London. It's a prime example. That same desk once belonged to a bookie. Designed originally for taking gambling bets, it was redeemed to be a place where a pastor thought through and wrote down his sermons.

I'm thinking also of a little church in the Fiji Islands. They have there an unusual baptismal font. It's a large stone, deeply stained, with a portion of the top hollowed out to hold water. It was once called the Killing Rock. It was the place where cannibals brought their victims for the kill. Now it's the place where they bring their babies to be baptized in the church.

Mostly though, I'm thinking of the cross. The Cross, once the emblem of suffering and shame and punishment and death, has been redeemed… and now is the symbol of love and victory and forgiveness and life and salvation. Because it was on that cross that Jesus gave his life up so that you and I could be assured of forgiveness and peace with God. So, you see, events can be redeemed and things can be redeemed.

3. THIRD AND FINALLY, PEOPLE CAN BE REDEEMED. People HAVE BEEN redeemed! Jesus paid the price for the sins of the whole world on that cross. When God raised Him from the dead on Easter, that was the proof for us that God was satisfied with what Jesus did. That was proof that we have been redeemed and once again have the status of God's children who look forward to an eternal inheritance with our Father!

Easter reminds us that people like you and me have been redeemed. So - we don't have to stay the way we are. We have been forgiven and resurrected - given new life through Jesus' resurrection. God promised us that! So now, we don't have to go back to our old way of life! We have reason to live a whole new kind of life - one that says thank you to God! We can be reshaped by the news of Easter. Be honest with yourself. Is there something in your life that needs to be changed? Is there a secret sin, a vengeful spirit, a bad temper, a lack of commitment, a hateful attitude in you… that you would be a whole lot better off without? God can change you with the new life He has offered us. He can bring you out of the tombs that imprison you.

Every city has that one part that is anything but beautiful. It's the place where they dump scrap iron, old bottles, cans, rags, wrecked cars, and broken machinery. Recently, while going by, I saw them loading great quantities of scrap iron onto a railroad car. It will go to a factory to be reclaimed, to be melted down and remade into something new. It may come out as surgeon's tools, or fenders for a new car, or maybe even as a steeple for a church. Who knows what it may be? But it will be new and useful and valuable! Now, if we can do that with our old scrap iron, how much more can God do with human beings, with people like you and me! You know, He wants to! He wants to reclaim us. He wants to reshape us. He has redeemed us! He is risen! He lives! He wants us to rise and live too! Easter promises that we will forever. Amen.

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