The Righteous One Who Brought Life Series

P: "Christ is risen!

C: He is risen indeed! Alleluia!"

P: In the path of righteousness is life,

C: and in its pathway there is no death. (Proverbs 12:28)

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Who here is righteous?

What does righteous mean to you?

If you take the word “right”

you get your answer.

To be righteous

is to be in the right

and not in the wrong.

Anyone here never been wrong before?

I didn’t think so.

So then we have a problem.

We have a problem because

only those who are perfect can come before the presence of the Lord.

As God’s Word says,

be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Matthew 5:48

“None is righteous, no, not one;

no one understands;

no one seeks for God.

Romans 3:10-11

For by works of the law no human being will be justified in [God’s] sight

Romans 3:20

The wages of sin is death,

but the free gift of God

is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6:23

Now, people have tried to overcome death by others ways than seeking Jesus Christ.

… People have tried to outsmart God.

But they too have died.

No amount of studying by their own strength can outsmart death.

not information or wisdom.

No amount of physical work or exercise will have a person overcome death.

There isn’t a special gene that will keep you alive forever.

But 2000 years ago

God came into the world

through Jesus Christ

to blow the minds of all people

--Greeks and Jews

the scholarly and the simple.

God did something that no one would expect.

… And for the people in Israel

the Jews and Greeks were pretty much the two main people groups.

The Greeks in Jesus’ time sought after knowledge and wisdom.

They had hoped that through philosophy and excellence,

they would receive a lasting hope.

And with their approach

Rome became one of the most powerful empires of all time.

But all of their scholarly work

couldn’t save them from death.

And for the Jews,

they struggled to see how salvation was going to come through Jesus’ passion event.

There were some Jews who looked to God for help

but their hope was in some sort of messiah

that was more of a top military official

… not a humble and caring teacher.

And there were Jews that liked all the life and miracles Jesus had brought to the people.

With all greatness he has shown

they couldn’t imagine Jesus dying.

They couldn’t imagine anything good coming out of Jesus’ death.

On one Easter Sunday morning,

there were some women who went to the tomb of Jesus Christ.

They were close followers of Jesus Christ.

They were sad to see such a wonderful man

a man who brought so much life into their community

into their own lives

… to see him receive

one of the most terrible deaths

--death by execution on the cross

hanging in the air for several hours

for the world to see.

So out of respect and honor

they go to where their Lord was buried

to finish giving him a proper burial.

But when they get to the tomb

they don’t find Jesus.

They’re perplexed and confused.

Where did he go?

He died just the other day.

It’s not like he could have just walked off.

Did someone take him and move him?

Then two angels stand before the women

in their dazzling appearance.

The women are frightened by this second surprise.

In their humility, and in their powerlessness,

they bow their faces to the ground.

… But the angles have words to give them strength.

They say,

“Why do you seek the living among the dead?

He is not here, but has risen.

Remember how he told you,

while he was still in Galilee,

that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men

and be crucified and on the third day rise.”

And the women remembered.

Then they go find the others who were also close followers of Jesus

to tell them the wonderful news.

They even told this to the apostles,

or the remaining eleven disciples of Jesus Christ.

But they too

were in disbelief

when they first heard it.

They thought the women were out of their minds.

They thought their story couldn’t have been more than an idle tale.

But Peter,

he wanted to see the evidence for himself.

He went to go into the tomb

to see if Jesus was there.

And he saw what the women had told him.

Jesus is no longer in the tomb.

The discernment of the discerning was thwart.

Those what were close to Jesus didn’t think anything good could have come out of Jesus’ death on the cross