In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

 There was a legend in ancient times about a bird called a phoenix, which lived in the Arabian desert.  In this legend the phoenix would build its nest and live in it for 500 years.  At the end of that time, the sun's hot rays would set the nest on fire.  The phoenix would flap its wings and be burned up in the flames.  However, out of the fire, the phoenix would come alive again.  It would rise from the ashes with a renewed and refreshed body to live a new life.

 Now even though the phoenix is of course only a legend, it became for the early Christians an important symbol of some very real things in which they believed.  The phoenix pictures the resurrection of our Lord Jesus.  Christ went through many fiery trials; He suffered hell for us on the cross and was subjected to the flames of death.  But His stay in the tomb was short-lived.  For on the third day He rose from the grave as the Lord of all creation, with a body that was renewed and that cannot die any more.  The phoenix therefore also pictures what will happen for us who belong to the risen Christ.  Though we too must be subjected to the flames of death because of our sinfulness, our Lord has promised that we will be raised from the ashes and saved from hell by the power of His resurrection.  Our bodies, and those of all believers in Christ, will be made new, just as His was.

 In the Old Testament reading, three faithful men of God, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, faced some very literal flames of death.  They got into trouble when they refused to bow down to a huge idol that the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar had set up.  In celebration of his conquests of Israel and other nations, Nebuchadnezzar had this massive 90-foot tall idol constructed, entirely plated with gold.  Now King Nebuchadnezzar allowed the people he had conquered to keep their own religions, but he demanded that they must also follow the religion of his kingdom, embodied by this idol, or suffer death.  Faithful Israelites could not possibly do that.  For the only true God had commanded them, "You shall have no other gods."  So when the music began to play and the people who were present were ordered to bow down, these three men remained standing.  When they refused to obey, even after having been brought before the king himself, they were sentenced to death.  They were thrown into the blazing furnace.

 Jesus Christ Himself also got into trouble when He refused to give homage to the idols of His day.  It was not a golden image which He was pressured to bow down to but ones such as the devil laid before Him, the idol of glory without suffering or the cross.  Jesus was also pressured to bow down to the idol of the man-made laws of the Pharisees and the religious institutions of His day that stood opposed to God.  They would have let Jesus go on teaching if He would've given reverence to their ways and fit in with their system.  But because He didn't, because He remained faithful to His heavenly Father's will regardless of the consequences, they plotted His death.  He was sentenced and crucified on Good Friday.

 We too can get ourselves into trouble when we refuse to bow down to the idols of our day.  We're not pressured to give homage to a gold statue either, but to other "deities" of our age–things like the "god" of the human spirit, which ascribes to people unlimited potential and goodness, and which therefore denies our inborn sin and rebellion against God; things like the "god" of self-fulfillment, which says that the most important thing in life is for a person to find pleasure and happiness for themselves, and which therefore rejects Jesus' words to deny yourself and take up your cross and follow Him; things like the "idol" of tolerance, which says that we should be inclusive of all religions and beliefs and lifestyle choices, and which therefore rejects Jesus' claim that He and His words are the only eternal truth and that He is the only way to eternal life.  Remember that what got Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into trouble was that they weren't inclusive of the king's religion.  Satan and the world are perfectly happy when people call themselves Christians and even go to church, as long as they don't insist that there is no way to heaven except through Jesus, as long as they allow human works and human righteousness to obscure the saving work of Christ.

 The reality is that being faithful to God and refusing to fit in with the world's system will bring various difficulties and even persecutions.  It may not be a fiery furnace or the prospect of being burned at the stake, as some early Christians were; but difficulties and mistreatment do certainly come to the faithful.  And the fact of the matter is that in the end we all face a sentence of death.  For we all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory.  And the Scriptures declare that to be a crime deserving of the fiery furnace of judgment.

 It is into that reality that Easter breaks today with its awesome words of deliverance and new life.  God has promised that all who trust in Christ will receive forgiveness and through Him will be rescued from death's blazing fire.  That was certainly how it was for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.  Knowing their God to be the Lord and Giver of Life, they exhibited a most confident faith in Him.  Listen to their words:  "O Nebuchadnezzar, if we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and He will rescue us from your hand, O king.  But even if He does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up."  Nebuchadnezzar was enraged by their seeming obstinacy, and so he heated the furnace seven times hotter than usual.  He had them firmly tied, and they were thrown into the furnace just as they were, wearing all their clothes.  It was so hot that the men who threw them in were themselves killed; for the unbelieving will not be saved.

 But when Nebuchadnezzar looked into the furnace, he didn't see Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego burning to death.  Instead, he stood up and said, "Look!  I see four men walking around, untied and unharmed.  And the fourth one looks like the Son of God!"  Though the King couldn't understand it, these three men didn't die in the flames because God was with them.  The Son of God, our Lord Jesus, was there in the furnace to save them from death.  He kept the fire from burning them.  When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out, their clothes were not even singed, and there was no smell on them of death or fire.  They came out of the flames unbound, alive and well.

 What we rejoice in today is that when the time comes that we enter the flames of death, God will save us also who trust in Him, just as He did these men.  We may be put into the grave tied with the ropes of death's curse, but we will come out unbound, free and well.  How do we know that is true?  Because Jesus took away the burning sting of death for us by His cross and empty tomb.  As the Scriptures say, "Where, O death, is your victory?  Where, O grave, is your sting?  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the Law.  But thanks be to God!  He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!"

 That victory is ours because Jesus willingly succumbed to death's flames for us on the cross.  Jesus put Himself into the furnace for us, just as He did for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.  He went into the place of death and the grave in order to save His people.  At Calvary, He literally suffered the anguish of hell that we deserve in our place, being scorched by sin and Satan and death.  But that was far from the end of the story.  For His body did not decay in the tomb.  Instead, He conquered death and the devil by rising from the grave triumphantly on the third day.  Just like the three men, He came out of the tomb unharmed as the victorious Ruler of all.  Jesus put Himself into the furnace of death in order to protect us from its blazing heat and to deliver us from it eternally.

 You might compare what Jesus did for us to the heroic rescue of a child by a fireman.  We were trapped in the burning house of judgment.  But on Good Friday Jesus entered the house, experiencing the deathly fury of its heat.  And on Easter morning He carried us out, safe and well.  Jesus' exit from the tomb is also our exit from the tomb.

 Just as He was there for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Christ is surely also there for us always, even in death, because we are baptized into Him; we are joined to Him by faith.  The Scriptures say, "Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?  If we were united with Him in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection."  Through water and the Word, Christ has doused the flames of death and has raised us with Him to new life.  The smell of death cannot be found on us, for Christ is in us, and we are in Him.  The three men were fully clothed before they went into the fiery furnace.  So also we were fully clothed in baptism with the robe of Christ Himself.  And just as the three men came out of the furnace better than when they went in, so also on the Last Day we will come out of the grave better than we entered it.  Our waiting souls in heaven will be rejoined with our resurrected bodies, to share in the glory and perfection and immortality of Christ.  As Jesus said, "I am the Resurrection and the Life.  He who believes in Me will live, even though He dies.  And whoever lives and believes in Me will never die."  And again Jesus said, "Because I live, you will live also."
New life for Jesus means new life for us.  His Easter assures us of our Easter and of our eternal release from all sorrow and trouble and pain.

 The risen Christ is truly there to protect and save you from death's furnace.  Thus, God says through His prophet, Isaiah, "Fear not, for I have redeemed you.  I have called you by name.  You are Mine. . .  When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.  For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior."

 Dear children of God, you are like a phoenix, for your Lord is like a phoenix.  Because Jesus came alive again, you and all believers in Him will surely also come alive again when He returns.  Let us therefore resolve this day to be faithful to our gracious God, just as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were, trusting in Him to the very end.  For Christ gives you this promise, "Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life."

   In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit