Easter Sermon

Note: I have developed a set of PowerPoint slides for use with this sermon. If you are interested in the slides I will send them to you by Email. Email your request to me at sam@srmccormick.net and be sure to enter "Easter Slides" in the subject line (otherwise I am likely to overlook your Email message among the hundreds I receive). I will try to respond promptly but allow a few days for me to respond.

EASTER SERMON

I. Christ’s Resurrection Day

If you had been approaching Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate at a certain time, early on a particular Sunday morning you might have seen some peculiar sights:

• Evidence of two great earthquakes (the first 3 days ago, another earlier today) Matt 27:54; 28:2

• Passing by an ancient cemetery where kings of Israel and Judah were buried, you might have seen open graves – their occupants absent (Matt 27:52)

• Closer to the gate, you might have seen a group of Temple guards marching through the gate on their way to report to the chief priests that they had failed in their duties (Matt 28:11)

• You might have seen a group of women running—not merely hurrying, but running – entering Jerusalem by that very gate. They are coming from the tomb where Jesus had lain - now empty with the stone rolled back. An angel had told them the Lord has risen, and they were running to tell the eleven.

Moments later, you might have seen another woman running. Her name is Mary Magdalene. She had actually seen Jesus alive and hurries to perform a mission for Jesus: This was the message from Jesus Mary she carried.

"I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God."

• As you enter the city, you might have seen Mary running to deliver Jesus’ message.

When Mary found the disciples she told them, “I have seen the Lord!” and passed on the message as Jesus had asked.

Mary Magdalene was the first to witness the risen Christ, and the first to bear the message of the resurrection to others.

It wasn’t only Thomas, but all of the disciples who had doubts until they saw the risen Christ.

Mary’s report that she had seen Jesus was astonishing, and even more so because of the condition of his body as it was placed in the tomb.

The body of Jesus was in terrible condition. A human could not survive a Roman scourging and crucifixion, and the body of Jesus did not survive it.

The last time Mary Magdalene had seen Jesus, he was quite dead as his body was placed in a tomb where it would remain undisturbed for three days.

At some point Jesus himself appeared to the other women. They came to the disciples saying that they too ha d seen Jesus. The women’s report was not believed.

Mary and the mother of Jesus, along with other women, had stayed at the cross until he had breathed his last breath.

They must have remained there for some time while he hung dead on the cross, because Luke tells us that when Joseph of Arimathea had obtained permission to remove the body, “the women who had come with him from Galilee” followed the procession to the tomb, and saw how the body of Jesus was laid in it.

The principle of resurrection is presented in various ways in the bible.

Jesus illustrated it by plant life, or agriculture.

A grain of wheat gives up the life that is in it so that it may bring forth a full seed-bearing plant after its kind.

What occurs with a grain of wheat is a symbol of the transformation that occurs – or will occur – in the resurrection on the last day.

I doubt that any of you disbelieve it.

There are temporary resurrections – the son of the Shunamite woman, the son of the widow Nain, Lazarus, those mentioned earlier who vacated their graves when Jesus died, Tabitha, and others.

II. Two Resurrections

Various scriptures affirm that there is to be a universal resurrection.

But I want to start by examining a particular resurrection that is called “the first resurrection.”

Let’s read about them:

Revelation 20:1-6 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain.

2 And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years,

3 and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.

4 Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed.