Christ Arose And Is Risen Series

Christ Arose and is still Risen

Jesus’ Death

Jesus Buried

Jesus Arose and is Risen

DBF 3/31/02

Boy we really had fun last Friday celebrating our “Agape Feast” and going over our roots to the celebration of Passover.

We talked about all the lambs that we slain that pointed to the one true and perfect sacrifice.

Today many people only look at this time as a time where we plant eggs in the snow or in our house out here in Dillingham and in most places in Alaska. Even though a lot of the symbolism for the current Easter practices of hunting for eggs and getting prizes comes from practices of the Passover meals, very few of us realize this or go over this history.

So why do people come to churches on this date and on Christmas more than any other date?

For most it is because we have been told that we have to go to church before we can eat our Easter lunches. For others we are here because it is an annual pilgrimage that has been set out since we were infants.

What and why should we partake of services on this date?

As we have been studying from the book of Genesis the promise that was made to Adam, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the promise that went through King David and King Solomon, came to completion in the person and mission of Jesus Christ. Let’s look at these things this morning.

You see it is easy for me to look at things when I am looking at these things as being done by others. I found it easy to say “Those priests, Pharisees and Sadduccees who killed Christ, I wish I were there to stop them”. Well fortunately God was there and had a better idea for Christ. This idea was formed by God and did not conform with anything that you or I would find reasonable.

God decided that three crucial things where needed to bring Jesus’ earthy ministry to a close. Unlike any ending that we would look for in the plots of our movies today—the ending started with the death of the main character. Well that doesn’t happen very much today in our sensible movies does it. The second thing that happens is a burial, not very remarkable some would say, but when a commoner with no home to call his own is put into a rich man’s grave with guards posted at the doors, it becomes anything but common. Thirdly, we will walk with the disciples as they go to prepare the body that first Sunday morning. Please walk with us today.

Jesus’ Death

Matthew 27:45-54

Mt 27:45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.

46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli(hailee), Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

47 Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias.

48 And straightway one of them ran, and took a spunge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink.

49 The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him.

50 Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.

51 And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;

52 And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,

53 And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.

54 Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.

From the sixth hour, there was darkness over all the earth unto the ninth hour – God showed himself so mighty, that all the heathen seeing it knew that it could not be a natural eclipse, because it was at the time of the full moon, and continued three hours together, cried out, ‘Either the God of nature suffers, or the frame of the world is dissolved.’ By this darkness God testified his abhorrence of the wickedness which was then committing. It likewise intimated Christ’s sore conflicts with the Divine justice, and with all the powers of darkness.

About the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice – Our Lord’s great agony probably continued these three whole hours, at the conclusion of which he thus cried out, while he suffered from God himself what was unutterable. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? – Our Lord hereby at once expresses his trust in God, and a most distressing sense of his letting loose the powers of darkness upon him, withdrawing the comfortable discoveries of his presence, and filling his soul with a terrible sense of the wrath due to the sins of the past, present and future which he took upon Himself to bear. Psalm 22:1, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?