Enough (Easter Sermon April 24, 2011)

Enough!
John 14:8; 2 Chron. 31:8-10; Prov. 13:25
EASTER – April 24, 2011
First Baptist Church
Dr. Steven E. Fitzgerald

John 14:8 – Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”
2 Chron. 31:8-10 – 8 When Hezekiah and the officials came and saw the heaps, they blessed the LORD and his people Israel. 9 Hezekiah questioned the priests and the Levites about the heaps. 10 The chief priest Azariah, who was of the house of Zadok, answered him, “Since they began to bring the contributions into the house of the LORD, we have had enough to eat and have plenty to spare; for the LORD has blessed his people, so that we have this great supply left over.”
My extended family would spend a week at the beach July 4th week every year when I was growing up. I can remember by greatest desire during beach week, to grow tall enough to have my head reach the line that would allow me to drive the big boy go-carts! It seemed to take forever for me to become tall enough! By the time I finally reached the proper height to be able to drive the big-boy go carts, my sister had her learners permit and was getting to drive a real car. So then I became jealous that I just wasn’t old enough! I guess now I’m just not young enough? Haa haa!

Enough is a bad word within this world. It highlights the great void in life! We are just NOT:
• smart enough
• tall enough
• pretty enough
• skinny enough
• rich enough
• healthy enough
• strong enough; or
• we don’t have enough hair, or
• we cannot sleep enough, play enough, or vacation long enough!
Or my spouse, or our children, or our parents are just not:
• Loving enough
• Responsive enough
• Caring enough
• Giving enough
• Or they just don’t give me enough space, enough freedom!

We just cannot get enough! When we’re consumed with the cares and concerns of the world, there just never seems to be enough. This life is just a great void, like the days between Good Friday and Easter Sunday for those who had come to believe that Jesus was the Messiah, the consolation of Israel, the hope of humanity! What Jesus did during his lifetime just wasn’t enough!

Easter is a day of surprises though! On Easter, God reinterprets the word ENOUGH for us!

1. Easter is about the fact that God had had enough!
a. Enough of our crying out and then ignoring him
b. Enough of our inability to perceive his presence
c. Enough of evil and death apparently having the upper hand and final word in the world
d. Enough of signs and markers that were misread and misinterpreted

2. Indeed, God had always had Enough – with a upper case “E” – and I want to challenge you today, on this Easter of 2011, that Enough is the nickname of his only Son, Jesus!



This Jesus – “Enough” – was with humanity even in the beginning, in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve had Enough, but the liar lured them into focusing their attention on the need to have everything. Satan’s lie is to lure us into a life pursuing everything, to never be satisfied with Just Enough. The serpent said, “It’s not enough to know God, to be in loving and living relationship with God! You need to be like God and know everything like God does! Then you will be special! That’s more than enough!”

Satan’s alternate way it to try to reside in the house of Everything. Too often humans are duped into believing that they can have everything they want. All they need to do is to find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. So they spend time, money, energy and attention on what new tricks will enable them to acquire “everything.” Everything is a residence that appears to be at the quiet end of a cul-de-sac. Satan sends you a free set of keys to this house in the mail, unsolicited I might add, and for free! If they fit, this house of everything is yours! The main problem is that as you approach the house at the end of the street, it mysteriously moves further away. It is like walking the wrong way on an escalator! You just go nowhere! It’s like paddling up creek in a swift river! Such is the search and labor to “reside with everything.” It is impossible. You can never have everything. You can never know everything. You can never be everything.

Humanity’s desire to have everything has led to incredible violence. Those who seek to have everything think that they can do so through gaining power and control over the masses. However, God rescued His chosen ones from the violence and influence of pagans in their midst over and over again.

Finally, God sent himself into the world, Enough, Jesus, to show us clearly how to live with Enough! Jesus never had much, but he always had enough, because He was Enough! Relationship with God above and within in order to bless those without was Enough of a job for Jesus’ life.

Just a brief touch of Enough gave new life and healing to people who had been starving and sick and lame. Just think, they were made whole without having to have everything, like the hemorrhaging woman who had spent everything trying to be healed, but was ultimately healed by just touching Enough of Jesus, through faith, to be totally healed, just the fringe of his cloak.

But those who had to have everything said that they were enough, so they had to eliminate Jesus and his description of Enough so that they could control something that they said was everything. Jesus said enough to let us know that their father was the father of lies, the very same one that had been in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve!

Easter reveals the futile attempt of the world to persuade us that secular leaders and religious dictators definition of something that appears to be everything is better than Enough from God! They couldn’t get rid of Enough to maintain power and control and they cannot do so now! God’s resurrection of Jesus is Just Enough, not everything, but Enough for those who don’t believe they have to have everything. Look at the lives of Jesus’ disciples after their resurrection encounter and empowerment with the Holy Spirit to see what happens when we become satisfied with Just Enough! Followers of Jesus have learned that God’s Son gives us enough to love, have joy, peace, patience, kindness and the other fruit of the Spirit.

Jesus is Enough!

1. Jesus’ life gives me enough provision to feed my deepest needs on a daily basis (see Matt. 4:4) I can stop playing the acquisition game and find that I have an excess, excess that is to be shared with others in need. (see 2 Chron. 31:8-10)

2. Jesus’ death gives me enough forgiveness, by God’s grace and mercy, to rid me of living in unresolved guilt! I don’t need to spend my life trying to make up for my past mistakes (mortification). (John 4)

3. Jesus’ resurrection gives me enough hope that I can live my life without fear, thus enabling me to be more present for God and neighbor! I can begin focusing on what is best to bring lost sheep into the house of God rather than what keeps me comfortable. (John 21 – Peter)

The Good news of Easter is that Jesus’ life, death and now his resurrection is Just Enough for me!
• I don’t need to know everything, only enough (Jesus’ nickname).
• I don’t need to have everything, only enough (Jesus)
• I don’t need to be everything, only enough (Jesus) – know that “I am” is in me and with me!

Have you had enough… enough of the world?

Do you have Enough to be satisfied? (John 14:9-10)

If you have Jesus, you will have Enough for this life and beyond. Easter is the truth of God’s gift of Enough to promise us that!

Amen