Jesus Goes Before Us

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

ENGAGE

A little over a month ago I had knee replacement surgery. Then only 3 days after the surgery I started my physical therapy. I remember that first day of PT. I was still using a walker and it was hard to do many of the exercises that I was given. And that was discouraging. But there was also another woman there who had her knee surgery about 4 weeks before mine. And I remember that day she was able to pedal the bicycle for the first time and she rang the bell that they keep on that bicycle for just that occasion. And seeing what she could do only 4 weeks after her surgery gave me a lot of hope for my future recovery.

It seems like almost every time that I went back for my physical therapy after that there was someone there who was a few weeks ahead of me in their recovery. And seeing what they could now do became a consistent source of hope for me. And then after my first couple of weeks, there were some new clients that had just started their physical therapy and at that point I began to be a source of encouragement and hope for some of them.

As I thought about that some more, I realized that there are a lot of areas in our lives, where we find hope because someone has gone before us. When we were kids, maybe that was our parents going into a dark room and turning on the lights before we entered. Maybe it was being afraid to jump off the high dive until our best friend did it first and survived. Maybe it was having some strange looking food placed before and being afraid to eat it until someone else took a bite and declared it to be delicious. I’m sure many of you can think of your own examples of how you were encouraged to do something unfamiliar or scary by someone else who went before you.

TENSION

This morning, I want to take a few minutes to talk about how the event we celebrate this morning, the resurrection of Jesus, continually gives us hope because it is the resurrection that makes it possible for Jesus to continually go before us in our everyday lives. My prayer for you is that by understanding how Jesus goes before you that you can have hope in your life regardless of how difficult the circumstances you face might be.

TRUTH

Each of the gospel writers – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John - give us a slightly different perspective on the events surrounding the resurrection of Jesus. So just like eyewitnesses to a crime often have slightly different recollections of that event which are shaped by their own backgrounds and perspectives, we shouldn’t be surprised by the slight differences in those four accounts of the resurrection. But what is important to note is that those authors don’t in any way contradict each other or diminish the truth of the resurrection. In fact, it would be a lot more likely for all four of their accounts to match up exactly if they had gotten together and concocted the story of the resurrection rather than just reported the actual event as they remembered it.

This morning, I’m going to read from Matthew’s account of the resurrection. If you have your Bibles and want to follow along as I read you can turn to Matthew chapter 28. Or, if it’s easier, I’ve also printed out that text in the insert in your bulletin and you can follow along there.

Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men.

[Let me pause here to make a quick note. Most of you have probably seen pictures of Jesus walking out of the tomb with the stone rolled away behind Him. But the angel didn’t need to roll the stone away in order for Jesus to get out, but rather so that these women, and the others who would come after them, could get in and see that Jesus was no longer there.]