Hallelujah, Christ Arose!

MELVIN NEWLAND, MINISTER

RIDGE CHAPEL, KANSAS, OK

(Powerpoints used with this message are available for free. Just email me at mnewland@sstelco.com and request #392.)

TEXT: Luke 24:13-53

It seems rather strange to be preaching a sermon today about the resurrection of Jesus that would be a good message for Easter Sunday. Yet from the Bible we learn that the resurrection of Jesus was the primary message of the Apostles.

They proclaimed that Jesus rose from the dead, proving that he was the Messiah & that he had the authority to promise that we, too, could arise & be with him for all eternity, & that his teachings are from God.

And that is a message worth repeating over & over again!

We live at a time when we battle against a flood of circum-stances that seem to threaten our very survival, & leave us overwhelmed by a flood of despair, guilt, regret & loneliness.

Without the Resurrection, at its worst, we have a dead man hanging on a cross. Without the Resurrection, Christianity at its best is a human system of what we think is right & what is wrong.

But with the Resurrection of Jesus new life is breathed into shattered dreams. With the Resurrection, Christianity is an opportunity to experience new life & new living both for now & in the future. It lifts us above the level of mere survival to a life that is fulfilled & meaningful, living with a purpose.

The Resurrection is the crucial event in Christian history because of the incredible difference it makes in the lives of Christ’s followers.

But what is it about the Resurrection that makes it so important that Christianity ultimately rises or falls? The answer can partly be seen in the record of those who witnessed the Resurrection.

This morning we are going to look at 17 verses that end the Gospel of Luke, & from those verses, we will see how the Resurrection has power to lift us out of despair to a life lived to the full.

I. THE RESURRECTION RESTORES HOPE & JOY

Let me set the stage. Beginning with Luke 24:13, the story is told of two of Jesus’ disciples who are going home from Jerusalem.

In their own words in vs’s 20 & 21 (NIrV) they describe to a stranger they have just met on the road their shattered dreams. Talking about Jesus thy said:

“The chief priests & our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death. They nailed him to a tree. But we had hoped …” Do you hear their despair? “We had hoped, but now … we’re going home.”

But a startling revelation was waiting for them. Because the one with whom they shared their shattered dreams was soon to breathe life back into their dreams. The Jesus whom they had given up for dead was alive & walking & talking with them, although they didn’t realize it yet.

After telling the stranger some of the strange news they had heard that day from the women & some of their friends, the stranger, said, (Luke 24:25-32) “How foolish you are. How long it takes for you to believe all that the prophets said! Didn’t the Messiah have to suffer these things …?’

“Jesus explained to them what was said about himself in all the Scriptures and all the Prophets. They approached the village where they were going. Jesus kept walking as if he were going farther.

“But they tried hard to keep him from leaving. They said, ‘Stay with us. It is nearly evening. The day is almost over.’ So he went in to stay with them.”

“He joined them at the table. Then he took bread and gave thanks. He broke it and began to give it to them. Their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. But then he disappeared from their sight.”

“They said to each other, ‘He explained to us what the Scriptures meant. Weren’t we excited as he talked with us on the road?’”

Now that they had seen Jesus alive again, they rushed back to Jerusalem to tell the other disciples. This is where vs. 35 picks up.

“Then the two of them told what had happened to them on the way. They told how they had recognized Jesus when he broke the bread.

“The disciples were still talking about this when Jesus himself suddenly stood among them. He said, ‘May you have peace!’ They were surprised and terrified. They thought they were seeing a ghost.”

ILL. In his book Man’s Search for Meaning, Victor Frankl, successor to Sigmund Freud of Vienna, argued that the “loss of hope & courage can have a deadly effect on man.”

As a result of his experiences in a Nazi concentration camp, Frankl says that “When a man no longer possesses a motive for living, no future to look toward, he curls up in a corner & dies.”