Come Forth! Easter Sunday am
We move from the realm of shadow, type, and prophecy, into the full sunshine of the presentation of the Son of God.
The Old Testament speaks of him on every page, but speaks in shadows, in types, in symbols, and in prophecies---all looking forward to someone coming
When we open the Gospels, that someone steps forward in the fullness of his glory. As John says, "We have beheld his glory...as of the only Son from the Father." (Jn. 1:14)
Let’s look at the day when the resurrection itself took place:
Matt 28:1-10 (reading)
We have here the testimony of the angel, and of Christ himself to the resurrection
When the women came at the end of the Sabbath, at dawn toward the first day of the week this fixes the time of Christ’s resurrection
He arose the third day after his death; the time, which he had often spoken about
He was buried in the evening of the sixth day of the week, and rose in the morning of the first day of the following week
He lay in the grave about thirty-six or thirty-eight hours. He lay so long, to show that he was really and truly dead; and no longer, that he might not see corruption
He arose the third day, to accomplish that prediction (Hos. 6:2), The third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight
He arose after the Jewish Sabbath at Passover
All that day he lay in the grave, to signify the abolishing of the Jewish feasts and other ceremonial laws
People must be put aside such observances
Christ on the sixth day finished his work; he said, It is finished; on the seventh day he rested, and then on the first day of the next week he began a new world, opening up new work through a new way
Let there be light! Gen 1:3
It’s interesting to note how when Jesus died the curtain was torn from top to bottom
It was our entry into his presence, but it was also God saying ‘I’m leaving this temple.’
One thing God detests is religion and observances which nothing to the change of the sinful nature within mankind
What is the point of Easter if not to change the heart of man?
Easter wasn’t for God’s benefit but for man’s; the same as the Sabbath and the law
Without the resurrection of Christ, His deity could be debated; the doctrine of salvation would be destroyed
The Bible would be denied
Had Jesus just died and stayed dead, He would be like other religious leaders
The world could say there is “no difference”
He would be just like Mohammed, Buddha, Confucius, and Joseph Smith (just to name a few)
The graves of these leaders are all occupied!
We know it was a bodily resurrection; he ate and drank
1 Peter 3:18-9, “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit”
Romans 4:25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification
So now the work was finished, the dawn of a new era had dawned
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary who sat at the cross, now sat at the tomb
But where was Jesus?
Some say:
· They went to the wrong tomb
· They stole the body
· The authorities took it
Over 500 witnessed his resurrected state
Easter resulted in a change of day they set to worship (now Sunday, the lord’s day)
It also birthed the church
It wasn’t the first resurrection, OT and NT detail accounts of people being raised from the dead
Even Mary’s brother Lazarus had been dead for 4 days!
Surely she was waiting for Jesus to walk out of the tomb
So what was different about this resurrection?
I Cor 15:17-19 (reading)
If Christ is not raised, your faith is futile…
The doctrine of Christ’s death and resurrection the foundation of Christianity, remove this, and the whole thing will fall
All hopes for our eternity are gone
By holding this truth Christians can stand in a day of trial
Paul was answering those who rejected the resurrection
Paul knew it was true for he had encountered Christ himself
If Jesus’ claims were not confirmed in the resurrection, on what basis does the Holy Spirit now testify?
If Jesus wasn’t whom he claimed, then to whom does the Holy Spirit witness?
During the reformation they believed in a three-fold conception of faith
1. Faith begins with the ‘nortitia’; the knowledge of the history of who Jesus is
2. Then there’s the ‘assensus’ the spiritual acknowledgement or agreement that Jesus is divine, which translates into
3. The ‘fiducia’, which crowns everything off with trusting in Jesus as “God with us”
The veil now done away with and the hidden God now revealed
It was more than we entering into his presence of God, but God leaving the temple
The resurrection speaks of a new way, a new testament; the old has gone
He is now the God who came to the gentiles too
We box God into our religion (like the four corners square cube)
Rom 5:10-12 (reading)
The atonement (at-one-ment)
Christ’s death replaces the mercy seat
The ‘hilasmos’ occurs only in 1Jn 2:2 and 1Jn 4:10 or propitiation = He turns aside God’s wrath
John was saying, cast yourself on God’s mercy seat, Christ!
God being the provider and the recipient of the reconciliation
Jesus did what we could never do and Easter is the central point to our faith and theology
The resurrection should cause us to explode into out-bursts of rejoicing!
For by it we are free
Illustration: If the government decides to set everyone in the prisons free and the doors were unlocked, then it is now in the hands of the prisoner to get up and walk out or stay where they are
The hamster in the cage I spoke on last year comes to mind
The whole house was his yet he remained in the cage confined by restrictions placed on himself, not from the owner
Christ didn’t offer His life and taste death for you to be still enslaved by sin etc
His death is of no value unless you respond
Will you go through life separated from God and then onto eternity when you don’t have to?
He was resurrected so we one day also will be resurrected with a new body
Jn 5:29 and come forth--those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.
There was a great earthquake
When he died, the earth that received him shook with fear
This earthquake loosed the bond of death, and shook off the fetters of the grave
We need an earthquake in our lives to shake off the old nature
The Resurrection frees us from the fear of death and helps us focus on the future
What lies ahead for us?
Could the Angel we heard in Matthew 28 be the same one in Acts 1?
Did the same one say, “why seek you the living among the dead” as said “why stand ye Here?
This same Jesus will come again.”
Jesus’ resurrection is a demonstration of His second coming
1. THE EMPTY GRAVE
The empty grave means our victory
You can only have a grave if you have died
2. THE EARTHQUAKE
We need an earthquake of God in our Christian life
3. A REMOVED STONE
Which stones need to be removed in your life for you to live in resurrection power?
Name church members to com
