Last night there was a ‘super moon’. I think our society makes up names for things now to create a buzz and the news does these things to get your attention. The truth is that even though the full moon was closer to the earth than usual, it may or may not have looked bigger depending upon when you looked at it. “For reasons not fully understood by astronomers or psychologists, a low-hanging moon looks incredibly large when hovering near to trees, buildings and other foreground objects.”* In other words, how big the moon looks depends more on when you look at a full moon than how close it actually is. It appears to be closer when it’s on the horizon than when it’s high in the sky. Sometimes we just can’t tell and our eyes fool us.
This morning at early church I’m going to talk about what’s real. The Apostle Paul knew the resurrection was real. Some doubted that. Some had their hopes of the Messiah dashed when Jesus was crucified. It looked like defeat. But the perceived defeat was instead victory, even though it did not appear to be victory at that moment. Paul says if the resurrection was not real, then he (Paul) is to be pitied more than any man. He says this because of how much he gave up. Paul gave up his position of authority, of a very high standing in society, to take up the mantle for a ‘carpenter killed on a cross’. Yet this Carpenter, was not just a Carpenter. He was the Son of God. And He did not stay dead. The truth is Jesus rose from the dead, defeating death. And Paul knew this. He was so sure of it that he was willing to go from the top of the proverbial food chain to the bottom in society. Nobody is going to give up that much unless he KNOWS something. He knew the resurrection was not an illusion, even though common sense tells us it is impossible. AW Tozer had this to say about it: “I believe Christ died for me because it is incredible. I believe He rose from the dead because it is impossible.”
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