We experience letdowns all the time.

In a fallen world of sin, we shouldn't be surprised by disappointment.

But this long history of letdowns met its match on Easter morning.

That's the hopeful reality we live in on this side of the death and resurrection of our

Savior Jesus Christ, as John Piper reminds us in his Easter sermon from 1988, on 1 Corinthians

15 verses 28 to 28.

Here's what he said.

One of the most heartbreaking words I think in human language is the word closed.

You plan a day at the zoo and dad takes a day off and mom packs a special lunch and the

kids are all excited, you pile in the car, you drive a half an hour and you get to the

gate and says, closed and hope deferred makes a heart sick like the proverb says.

For your 11 years old and in summertime and the ball teams are starting to practice and

for the first time mom, can I play baseball this summer?

Maybe that would be a good thing this summer and so you get a brand new glove and dad pitches

with you in the backyard and you go out for the team and you practice form for two weeks

and it turns out there are too many kids for this team and they didn't plan for two teams

and so there's got to be a cut and you go that afternoon and they read the roster and

you're not on it and you take the back roads home.

The coach says, we'll plan for two teams next year and it doesn't help, it's closed.

Or maybe you're 13 years old and you start to dream about marriage, you dream about that

perfect person and what it would be like to have somebody hold you and love you more than

anybody else in all the world and what that day would be like and then one door closes

...