The Resurrection: How can something so Old be so Fresh?
Easter Sunday 07’
Shannon Lewis
Living Springs A/G
Bandera, Texas
www.lsagbandera.com
John 20: 1-16
1Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.2So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”3So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb.4Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.5And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in.6Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there,7and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’* head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself.8Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed;9for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.10Then the disciples went back to their homes.
11But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb.12And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet.13They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.”14Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus.15Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”16Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic,* “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).
The day that Mary, Peter and John went to the tomb marked the 3rd day since Jesus’ crucifixion. This event would mark the defeat of death! Jesus was crucified, buried and rose from the dead on the third day; thus signifying that death could not hold him.
Had Jesus not risen from the dead, we would have no cause to be celebrating his life on this Easter morning. Had Jesus not risen from the dead, there would be no hope for our future or promise of a resurrection. Jesus conquered death, hell and the grave and because of this He has given hope to us that we too, like him would be raised from the dead to live for all eternity with him!
In John 20, we find that Jesus asks Mary to take the news of His resurrection to his disciples. Mary would be the first to tell the Easter story to anyone! For two millennia Christ-Followers have been preaching and sharing this same story of how Jesus was dead and is now alive! Songs have been written and recorded declaring this wonderful news that the Savior Lives! Books have been written and published detailing this spectacular event in history. Movies have been shot and produced depicting the events of that Glorious morning when Jesus stepped out of the tomb! It is a story that has been told and retold over the last two millennia countless times.
What is it that keeps this story fresh? What is it about the resurrection of Jesus Christ that people want to hear about it?
That is what we’re going to consider this morning.
The Resurrection: How can something so Old be so Fresh?
We’re going to consider that question today. As old as the story of the resurrection is, why is it still so fresh and meaningful to our lives? I have a few things that I think lend to the answer of that question.
In a day and age when the worth of things is based on its newness, it’s amazing how this old story is still so fresh. Everything we know in this life has an expiration date and is best when used before that date. Everything we see in this life is steadily moving toward decay and rot. It’s the law of Entropy. Everything left to its own devices will steadily move toward disorder. We’ve talked about that before. As a result, everything is marked with an expiration date. Look on that jar of mayonnaise in your fridge. Best if used by: whatever date will be printed on there somewhere. Look on the bottle of Coca-Cola; you’ll find the same words. Laundry detergents are marketed as having the ability to keep your clothes looking newer, longer. Your vehicle will need an oil change every 3 thousand miles. You’ll need to rotate your tires about every 6-8 thousand miles. You’ll need to repaint your house about every 10 years. Those left-overs in your fridge aren’t going to last forever. Why? Because everything we know in the natural has an expiration date. So why is the story of Easter, this story of the Resurrection still fresh after 2 millennia? I offer to you a few reasons why.
The Resurrection story is still fresh because:
1. There is no expiration date on Hope!
There is no “Best If Used by Date”.
Hope is as powerful and effective today as it was 2 thousand years ago.
Hope encourages us to become what we never thought we could become and do what we never thought we could do.
From Parade magazine comes the story of self-made millionaire Eugene Land, who greatly changed the lives of a sixth-grade class in East Harlem. Mr. Lang had been asked to speak to a class of 59 sixth-graders. What could he say to inspire these students, most of whom would drop out of school? He wondered how he could get these predominantly black and Puerto Rican children even to look at him. Scrapping his notes, he decided to speak to them from his heart. "Stay in school," he admonished, "and I’ll help pay the college tuition for every one of you." At that moment the lives of these students changed. For the first time they had hope. Said one student, "I had something to look forward to, something waiting for me. It was a golden feeling." Nearly 90 percent of that class went on to graduate from high school.
Hope is what the Resurrection gives to each of us. It gives us as it did those sixth graders something to look forward to.
Paul writing to the Corinthians said, “But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain….. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.”
Hope is not hope until it has reached beyond the confines of this present world into the next! The resurrection to the Christian is like water to the fish, like rain to the flowers, like poetry to the poet and like lyrics to the music. The resurrection is the foundational base upon which we build our eternal hopes. Without the cross and resurrection, we’re hopeless!
It’s been said this way, “Jesus took our sins and our punishment on the cross. He took our death. Then in his resurrection, he gave us his life. After all if he is the way the truth and the life, and know man comes to the Father but through him, if he remained in the grave, there is no life for the rest of us. He took on our death, and defeated it by his very nature life. It was a battle. Death had to be confronted -it was at the cross. It had to be defeated - it was- the resurrection.”
-John Lunt
Hope is eternal because there is no shelf life applied to it. Hope is as constant as God himself. He is our hope!
Psalms 42:11
Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.
Psalms 71:5
For you, O Lord, are my hope,
my trust, O Lord, from my youth.
Psalms 146:5
Blessed is he whose help is the God of Israel,
whose hope is in the Lord his God…
Friend, where do you find yourself in need of hope? Hope has not abandoned you. Hope has not taken wings and flown away. Hope is as near as the words that fall from your lips. Declare your hope in God today and let the hope of the Resurrection fill you.
Life can drain one of hope and leave them hopeless. Let me share with you what hope can do.
Hope shines brightest when the hour is darkest.
Hope motivates when discouragement comes.
Hope energizes when the body is tired.
Hope sweetens while bitterness bites.
Hope sings when all melodies are gone.
Hope believes when evidence is eliminated.
Hope listens for answers when no one is talking.
Hope climbs over obstacles when no one is helping.
Hope endures hardship when no on is caring.
Hope smiles confidently when no one is laughing.
Hope reaches for answers when no one is asking.
Hope presses toward victory when no one is encouraging.
Hope dares to give when no one is sharing.
Hope brings the victory when no one is winning.
- John Maxwell from Think on These Things –
Hope! Paul tells us that Abraham hoped against hope.
17as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.18In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.”19He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb.20No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God,21fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.
For Abraham, it was the hope of God’s promise that caused him to keep believing and trusting God. When the outward signs were screaming it isn’t going to work when others thought he was crazy, when he even questioned himself he brought hope to hope and held on to the promise that God had made to him!
Where in your life are you finding hit hard to trust God? Don’t lose hope! What is it in your family that looks like it won’t ever get better? Don’t lose hope! What is it about your children that frustrate you to your wits end? Don’t lose hope! What is it that makes you just want to throw in the towel and quit? Don’t lose hope!
Hope will lead you through the darkest nights into the brightest dawns.
Why is the story of Christ’s Resurrection still fresh? Because HOPE lives on! It is eternal! There is not an expiration date on hope!
Another reason The Resurrection story is still fresh because:
2. There is no expiration date on Love!
Like hope, love is eternal. Love will never grow old and love will never lose its value. Love is the fullness of who God is. 1John 4:8 tells us that “God is love”. We’re never more like God than when we love like God. And we’re never closer to God than when we allow God’s love into our hearts.
In our world, love is conditional. If you love me, I’ll love you the same. Society teaches us that true love is reciprocated love. One has to give love in order to receive love. This means of love is foreign to the demonstration of love that we find in God.
Rom 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Christ went to the cross for you and me knowing we were enemies of God and without any guarantee that we would appreciate or even receive his free gift of love.
God’s love, eternal love is given without conditions. It’s called unconditional love. This is a foreign concept to us. In the world, love has a shelf life. Once the expiration date has passed, the love is no longer good. We’re expected to perform a certain way, do certain things, be certain people, give certain things, have certain things and become certain people in order to receive or maintain love. Relationships are based on this all too often. I’ll love you if you do this or that. Once that action is stopped, the love is stopped as well. This is not love.
Love is love when nothing is done to earn or even deserve it but yet it’s freely given anyway. That is the love that God demonstrated when he sent his son to die a horrific death on the cross. It was love demonstrated without any guarantee it would be accepted or even reciprocated. This is the kind of love that God showed when Jesus came out of the tomb. It was a promise of eternal life! God’s love is clearly reflected in the most popular verse in the bible, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Where ever you find yourself today you must realize one thing. God’s love for you has not stopped. Nothing you could do could make him love you any less and nothing you could do could make him love you anymore. God’s love for you is evident in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He loved you enough to send his son to die for you and loved even more to raise him to life that you might find eternal life in him! It is a love without boundaries and is eternal!
William Gladstone, in announcing the death of Princess Alice to the House of Commons, told a touching story. The little daughter of the Princess was seriously ill with diphtheria. The doctors told the princess not to kiss her little daughter and endanger her life by breathing the child’s breath. Once when the child was struggling to breathe, the mother, forgetting herself entirely, took the little one into her arms to keep her from choking to death. Rasping and struggling for her life, the child said, "Momma, kiss me!" Without thinking of herself the mother tenderly kissed her daughter. She got diphtheria and some days thereafter she went to be forever with the Lord. Real love forgets self. Real love knows no danger. Real love doesn’t count the cost. The Bible says, "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it."
The love that God shows through the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus cannot be diminished with time but is as fresh and relevant today as it was on the day Mary saw Jesus in the garden after his resurrection.
The third reason the Resurrection is still fresh is:
3. There is no expiration date on faith
Faith is the close relative of Hope in the sense that both look for the fulfillment of something greater in the future.
Romans 4:20-22
20No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God,21fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.22That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.”
The Resurrection of Jesus is still fresh today because it causes people of faith every where to believe in the promises of God. Like Abraham, we are fully convinced that God is able to do what he had promised.
The promise of our resurrection fully depends upon Jesus’ resurrection. Without his, we won’t have one. Without his victory of death, we are prisoner to it. Christ conquered so we are more than conquerors!
Faith is the difference between what we see and what we see. I know that sounds a bit strange at first ear shot but listen to me. Our eyes reveal to us the reality in which we exist. They are sometimes right but other times they are wrong. What we see in this natural realm can be many times misleading or just wrong. We must allow faith to guide our hearts as it relates to God’s plan.
Hebrews 11:1
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
Faith is what causes our hearts to be free in consideration of the resurrection.
I’m going to rise again to live forever with the Lord because he promised that to me and to all that follow and serve him! This is not wishful thinking, I have settled it in my heart as truth and God will bring about that change in me when he calls his people home!
I believe part of the distress in the hearts of the disciples was that they figured never to see Jesus again. They had lost what was so precious and meaningful to their lives. Now they were alone and without the Lord to lead them and walk with them.
Forgetting all that Jesus had spoken concerning his death and resurrection, they went back to the way it was before Jesus. They’re now back to fishing they’re now back to mending nets and doing whatever it was they use to do. The realization of the resurrection hadn’t taken root yet. Christ was alive! They hadn’t planned on this even though Jesus had been speaking of it for so long. They were depressed and confused. They were hiding out and not wanting to be seen of anyone. They figured themselves failures because they had forsaken the one that defended them.
On the same evening of the resurrection, Jesus visited the house where his disciples were hiding out and he spoke peace on them and sent them out as the Father had sent him. There was one disciple not present at this time. His name was Thomas.
Thomas was not going to believe that Jesus had risen from the dead unless he saw with his own eyes and touched with his own hands the wounds of Jesus’ body.
Eight days later when the disciples were again together, this time Thomas being with them, Jesus entered the room again and spoke peace and told Thomas in verses 27-29
27…Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not be faithless.”28Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”29Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
The call to Thomas was, “Do not be faithless”.
The call to you and me today on this cold South Texas Easter morning is, “Do not be faithless”. There is no expiration date on faith. Let it live and grow in your hearts as you consider all that Jesus has done in the giving of his life and in being raised from the dead.
Be secure and find fresh life in the hope, love and faith of the resurrection of Jesus Christ!
