PRAYER
Father, open my eyes to see Your Word.
Open my ears to hear.
Open my mind to understand.
And open my heart so I may receive Your Word today.
AMEN
Easter Sunday, the day that the church comes together to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The very fact that Jesus came to this earth; lived and died and rose again is the key to our Christian faith. It is the greatest truth known to man.
Jesus did not only come to teach, to heal and train disciples.
The main purpose of His coming was to open the door of forgiveness for all men by His dying on the cross so that we could have fellowship with God the Father.
There are some who find this hard to understand, they are not alone, even Jesus’ disciples had a hard time understanding this truth.
Listen to the interaction between Jesus and His disciples in Luke 18:31-34.
Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, "We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again." The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what he was talking about. Luke 18:31-34 NIV
Jesus told them why He had to die? So He could fulfill the words of the prophets.
Jesus told them how He would die. He would be handed over to the Gentiles and they would kill Him.
He told them what would happen after that? On the third day He would rise again.
How did the disciples react to these words? They did not understand.
On at least three occasions Jesus warned his disciples about what would happen, but they did not understand this until much later.
Everything that happened to Jesus was in full agreement with the prophecies concerning Him.
Isaiah 53 which was written about seven centuries before the birth of Jesus is one of those prophecies.
Jesus was arrested in the garden called Gethsemane.
He was then brought before the high priest and the Jewish council. But they were not interested in a fair trial. They looked for false witnesses to come and testify against Jesus.
When two men finally spoke up, they accused Jesus of threatening to destroy the Temple of God and then rebuild it in three day.
Of course we know that Jesus was talking about His own life and how He would be in the tomb for three days and then be raised back to life.
Jesus remained silent through all of their questions until Caiaphas, the high priest finally asked Jesus, “Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God?”
Jesus’ answer was, “Yes, it is as you say.”
In the minds of the Jewish leaders, Jesus had committed blasphemy and was worthy of death. But the Jewish authorities were not allowed to pass a death sentence. This could only be done by the Romans, who governed the land.
Jesus was brought at first light to Pontius Pilate the Roman governor. Pilate found no grounds for his death so he sent Jesus to Herod.
Herod could not charge Jesus with a crime so he sent him back to Pilate.
Again, Pilate could not find any cause for Jesus to be crucified, but in order to appease the people; Pilate gave Jesus the death penalty.
Death on a cross. The most inhuman form of punishment ever devised.
Jesus was beaten, spat upon, whipped, tortured, and forced to carry a cross to the place called Golgotha. He was hung on that cross by nails pounding nails in his hands and feet.
Hung to die.
Many people were crucified in those days. Probably tens of thousands. And the one thing that all of those who had been crucified up to this point shared in common was that they had all died as a result of the punishment.
But on this day, that was about to change.
Jesus did die on the cross but He did not stay dead.
If Jesus had only died, He could have been an impostor, in spite of the many prophecies that were fulfilled in detail.
Jesus was taken down from that cross, placed in a tomb, the tomb was sealed and for three days it sat undisturbed.
But on the third day, something happened.
On the third day, Jesus rose again from death and walked out of that tomb.
Jesus is alive.
VIDEO CLIP of resurrection.
He is RISEN!
Jesus is alive! He lives today!
Just like Jesus said it would happen, He rose from the dead. He was not an imposter; He is the Son of God.
The Scriptures say that after Jesus rose from the grave and he hung out with disciples for a period of over 40 days, teaching them about the kingdom of God before He was taken up into heaven.
How cool is that?
One of the first times Jesus appeared to His disciples after His resurrection is found in John 20:19-22.
It was the evening of the first day of the week. The same day that Jesus had risen from the dead.
Judas had already hung himself so there were 10 disciples who were all locked up in a house because they were afraid. One of them was AWOL. Thomas was not there.
READ John 20:19-22
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. John 20:19-22 NIV
The disciples had already heard that that tomb was empty. A couple of them had even checked it out and found that Jesus’ body was not where they had put it.
Instead of believing Jesus, instead of celebrating His truth and resurrection, we find the disciples hiding away, locked up in a house, fearing for their own lives.
They were sad, they were confused, and they were afraid. Jesus was alive and what were they doing, they were hiding in fear.
A week earlier they were laughing and praising Jesus as He made a triumphal entry into Jerusalem. What a difference one week makes.
The doors were locked and then all of a sudden Jesus is in the room with them.
The first words out of Jesus’ mouth are “Peace be with you!”
Shalom in the home!
This is the word the disciples needed to hear. They were sad, they were confused, and they were afraid. They needed peace.
Jesus brings peace to the troubled heart.
Maybe you have found yourself in trouble, hurting, needing, wanting, hoping, or scared. When people find themselves in those kinds of situations they do the same thing the disciples did. They locked themselves in; emotionally and spiritually.
Here is some good news, no matter how many locks you put on the door, Jesus can come in and bring peace to your life.
Jesus is alive. He was proving it to the disciples. He showed them His hands and His side. It was Jesus, just like He said.
John said they were “overjoyed” when they realized that Jesus was really alive and standing with them.
I am thinking that they were really happy to see Jesus!
Thomas wasn’t with the other disciples on the day that Jesus rose from the grave and visited them. And when they told him of Jesus’ visit, Thomas did not believe them. He needed proof.
It was a week later when Thomas got his proof.
READ John 20:26-29
A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe." Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!" Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." John 20:26-29 NIV
Thomas needed proof. He needed physical evidence that Jesus was risen. He needed to see the nail pierced hands; he wanted to hear Jesus’ voice. Thomas is not much different than any of us today.
There are times when we need proof. We need to see a great miracle, we need to see a healing, or we need to see a great deed done in the name of Jesus.
Sometimes doubt can be a good thing. How can I say that?
Doubt always leads us to questions and when there are questions there should be answers. When we are given the right answer and we accept the truth then doubt has done a good work.
But if our doubt leads to stubbornness then our faith is in trouble.
Doubt was never meant to be a permanent condition. Doubt should be something that sharpens our faith in God.
That is the way it worked for Thomas but that is not the way it works for us.
It can’t work that way for us because Jesus was going to leave this planet. He was going to go home and start preparing a place for God’s people.
So for us, we can’t physically touch Jesus like Thomas did. We can’t put our hands in His nail scared hands.
But that does not change the fact that He is alive. That is why Jesus went on to say in verse 29, “blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
The next time we physically see Jesus will be too late for some to believe because the next time He comes, He will be coming to take us home.
Jesus says, you don’t need physical proof but that doesn’t mean that there is no proof regarding the risen Savior.
We have all the proof we need.
The first proof comes from the Word of God.
The Old Testament contains over 300 references of different prophecies about the coming of the Messiah. All of which have been fulfilled through Jesus Christ.
The second proof comes from the testimony of Jesus followers.
Besides Jesus appearing to His disciples when they were locked in a house, another testimony of Christ's appearing after the resurrection is by Paul.
The apostle appealed to his audience's knowledge of the fact that Christ had been seen by more than 500 people at one time and Paul reminded them that the majority of those people were still alive and could be questioned at that time.
But the most telling testimony in all the Word of God is the lives of those early Christians. What caused them to go everywhere telling the message of the risen Christ?
As they spread their message, those early Christians were beaten, stoned to death, thrown to the lions, tortured and crucified. Every conceivable method was used to stop them from talking. Yet, they laid down their lives as the ultimate proof of their complete confidence in the truth of their message. Jesus is alive!
Today 1/3 of the people in the world claim to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the risen Lord. Though many have tried, Christianity has survived over 2000 years.
We believe that Jesus is alive even though we have never seen Him face to face. How can this be?
When I was a small child living at home with my parents my faith in things was very strong. If I was asked during the day
“Where is you dad?” I knew what the answer was. He was a work.
I could not see him, I could not hear him, but I knew where he was and I knew what he was doing, and I knew that he would be coming home at 4 PM.
The same is true for us and Jesus Christ. We cannot see Him, but we know He is there. We cannot audibly hear Him, but we know He speaks. We know where He is, what He is doing, and we know that one day He is going to come and take us home.
Jesus is risen. Jesus is alive. The disciples were afraid and were hiding, Thomas was needing proof. But when they finally realized the truth, they changed the world.
Jesus is risen and He lives today. The question is, what are you going to do with this truth? Are you going to hide, are you going to be in fear, are you going to doubt or are you going to embrace Jesus Christ and allow Him to change your life so that you can change the world?
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