THEY PREACHED THE RESURRECTION
Pastor Dan Little - adfontes.djl@gmail.com
The Landmark Church
Binghamton, NY 13901
04-08-12 Easter
SCRIPTURE READING....
Mark 16:1-15, 19-20
When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. 2 And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. 3 And they were saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?" 4 And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back— it was very large. 5 And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. 6 And he said to them, "Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you." 8 And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
9 Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene
[[Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. 10 She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept. 11 But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it.
12 Jesus Appears to Two Disciples
After these things he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. 13 And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them.
14 The Great Commission
Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. 15 And he said to them, "Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. ...
19 So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. 20 And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs. ESV
It is Easter Sunday and we are here to celebrate Jesus’ great victory over death. Jesus was tortured and put to death on Friday and then early Sunday morning He walked out of the tomb and began to show Himself to be truly alive again.
In your bulletin you will find a list of 16 different post-resurrection appearances of Jesus as recorded in the New Testament. They are arranged in the sequence in which they happened.
A few persons have explained Jesus’ many appearances as grief-induced hallucinations. But if you read the narratives of these appearances you will find that Jesus didn’t just appear and vanish into thin air, sort of like an Elvis sighting. He gives his disciples plenty of freedom to test the reality of His resurrection. He walks with them for a couple of hours. He converses with them face to face. They touch Him at His invitation, and they eat with Him.
The last appearance on the list is to a devout Jew named Saul of Tarsus, a.k.a., the Apostle Paul. Paul does not fit the profile a grieving man. He was glad Jesus was dead and was busy persecuting those were spreading the news of His resurrection. Paul never got over it. Twenty years after his conversion he is still talking about Jesus being alive. He writes to the church in Corinth (a church he personally planted) saying; If Christ be not risen, our faith is vain (1 Corinthians 15:14).
These early appearances of Jesus assured these first witnesses that reports of Him being alive were true. They went out and preached with that assurance and over the years millions upon millions have come to faith by hearing the message of the resurrection followed by signs as the Lord confirmed the truth of what they were hearing.
In fact, waling in a living partnership with a living Jesus was the daily experience of these message bearers. Mark 16:20 And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.
Look at the team dynamics between Jesus and disciples.
They were not sharing facts about a dead hero.
There have been thousands of heroes who died bravely for others, but not one of them came out of their graves on the third day and then joined His disciples, working with them to confirm their testimony of his resurrection..
And I think it is important to understand that these messengers weren’t out trying to defeat the devil per se, for the simple reason that they knew his defeat was complete when Jesus walked out of the tomb (or should I say through the tomb).
What they WERE doing was walking about and preaching Jesus’ victory and Jesus was confirming their words with signs and wonder. What a team.
The epistle to the Hebrews gives us this exhortation; Hebrews 13:7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
In other words we are to look back to these early believers and consider deeply the the outcome of their lives, in other words find out how they lived their lives and then imitate their faith. Why? Because of drift.
If in the church we have drifted from living lives of faith and action then we need to know that it isn’t Jesus who has changed, but us. Jesus is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Paul was not the last person to whom Jesus appeared.
He has appeared to thousands upon thousands of men, women and children down through the centuries, and is still appearing to people even to this present day. He is appearing to Muslims in incredible numbers and many have become His followers and are now declaring His resurrection to others at the risk of their lives. Not a few have died in the work of the Gospel.
Incredible miracles are taking place among some of the most remote tribes and what we might think of as the least likely people groups on the planet.
So why have these kinds of things been happening ever since the resurrection of Jesus? Because the inaugural event of Jesus’ kingdom is His resurrection from the dead.
His place in the scheme of the universe is King of kings and Lord of lords was eternally established by His resurrection. The signs and wonders and healings we see here and there are little glimpses of the power and glory that will be revealed at His return when we don’t just get these bodies healed, but they are changed into bodies that are eternal and glorious and pure. Meantime, however, Jesus’ power is already being felt all over the world.
Our prayer and our labor is toward seeing His kingdom manifested in more and more lives, more and more families here in our region. So what I am saying is that we must break the lie that says “You get saved and then sit around waiting to die so you can go to heaven.” NO! A thousand times no!. We have work to do now, and we will have wonderful work to do for all eternity.
You might think that Binghamton is a very unlikely place to see the manifest presence of Christ and His Kingdom. Think that if you want and I still have good news for you. Even as I deliver the message of His resurrection Jesus is alive to work with us as and to confirm what I am saying and He seems to delight in doing wonderful things in the most unlikely places. So, we qualify.
The Apostle Peter assures us that when we come to faith in the resurrected Jesus, when we believe what we hear about Him, believe what we read about Him and surrender our lives to Him He forgives us and immediately fills us with His own eternal life.
The Apostle Peter wrote saying;
• we immediately become …partakers in the glory that is going to be revealed (1 Peter 5:1)
• we immediately become …partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).
What ever you read about in the Gospels and Acts, the power behind those events was Jesus. It was men and women as weak as you and me who spoke and prayed and fasted and laid hands on the sick, but it was Jesus Christ the King of kings and Lord of lords working with them who backed up their words with His own living presence. He is the same yesterday and today and forever.
I am bringing to you the message of the resurrection of Christ. He is THE risen Savior and ready to confirm the message of the power and effect of His resurrection by touching you with His Spirit of His healing truth today.
Okay. So I have a bar graph for you to looks at. No one knows what it means. It is a graph of the data collected from the papers you turned in last week, the list of 21 common lies make prisoners of us. There were a total of 48 responses and I am going to announce the 4 lies that were most often circled.
They are as follows:
1. Something is wrong with me and I will never be good enough. 17%
2. If I don’t feel loved then I am not loved. 17%
3. My life is broken and can never be fixed. 12%
4. I am only worth what others say I am worth. 10%
A total of 56% of the responses were in these 4 top responses.
On another occasion I will give you some detailed information about overcoming these lies. Today I want only to lay out some general information about all these kinds of lies that make our lives small and sad when God intends for our lives to be large and joy filled.
So here is some fundamental information you need to know about such lies as these.
1. These lies all have the same origin.
2. These lies are planted for a purpose.
3. These lies are defended
4. These lies can be defeated
1. THESE LIES ALL HAVE THE SAME ORIGIN.
They are all from the Father of Lies.
Jesus was talking to some very self-righteous people and said this concerning Satan; John 8:44 When he lies , he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
2. THESE LIES ARE ALL PLANTED FOR A PURPOSE.
These lies are easily panted in infants and children, especially those who come from fractured homes. They are established in children who are emotionally or physically or sexually abused.
The purpose of these lies is to keep you from knowing God; 2 Corinthians 10:5 … lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God.
… to keep you from believing the truth about God, about yourself and about the world you live in. John 8:44 When he lies , he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies . 45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.
They bury themselves deep in our psyche and appear later much like a virus on a computer hard drive, wreaking havoc with us setting at the keyboard quite in the dark as to why all this is happening. It is mal-wear to the max designed by the father of lies to explode in your adult life to keep you from being fully human. By that I mean the glorious creature God intends. These lies keep you from that kind of full orbed human experience, keeps you from finding and blossoming in Jesus.
3. THESE LIES ARE DEFENDED
Paul refers to these lies calling them; 2 Corinthians 10:5 … lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God. The main defense against these lies is darkness. Satan defends their presence by keeping you blind to their presence. He puts them in you sort of like load a cassette tape that plays on a continual loop as background noise saying, “You’re no good, you’re no good, baby you’re no good. I going to say it again…”
So the first line of defense is to keep you from finding it.
The second line of defense is to fool you about the nature of the tape. You find it but the label doesn’t say, “You’re No Good” written by The Father of lies. The label says something like; The Real Truth about You”; written by God in collaboration with almost everyone who knows you. By various ways the father of lies defends the lies he has planted so they can continue to do their evil work.
4. THESE LIES CAN BE DEFEATED
2 Corinthians 10:4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,
John 8:32
32 and you will know the truth , and the truth will set you free."
John 8:36
36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
Jesus said the devil is a lying, conniving, murderous thief.
John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
That’s what Jesus said about the devil. Here is what Jesus says about Himself; 1 John 3:8 The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
This warfare that Paul speaks of is not one that is fought FOR YOU by soldiers in some far away land. You must engage in this yourself. Jesus works with you. You find the truth in His word and He confirms His word by destroying the works of the devil.
But you must stir yourself and pick up the truth and put the old lies to flight.
You press the battle and press the truth into the enemies face and Jesus destroys his work—the lies he has planted in you.
Think how many times you have believed a certain lie about yourself or God that keeps you locked up like a prisoner. It won’t let you become fully human. Once again let me say what I mean by that. I mean that Adam and Eve were fully functioning human beings. They were everything that it meant to be human until they embraced the lying wisdom introduced by the serpent in the garden. From that point on they became less and less of what it meant to be human. God took on human form in the womb of Mary, was born and walked among us in demonstration of what it meant to be fully human in the midst of a broken world.
Let me ask you something. Do you think a deeply entrenched lie is going to go away because you are listening to a message someone else worked to prepare like the one I am preaching right now? I tell you it won’t. In fact the message may excite you about the possibilities and the devil will come along to tell you that your excitement about getting free IS the freedom you’ve been looking for. He is a liar. Genuine freedom is a lot more than excitement.
No! The best thing that can happen is that you are awakened to see what has been done to you by the Father of lies, and to know that you must pick up the weapon of your warfare (the truth) at go at it with the enemy with the one goal of destroying the controlling influence he has held over your life knowing that the Lord is working with you..
The Scriptures urge us forward in this work saying; Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
2 Corinthians 10:5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,
This is part of the work God has given us to do. It has to be done if we are change from glory to glory, be transformed into the fullness of the image of Jesus to become fully human.
As we find the lies that are controlling us we destroy them with the truth. As we learn to do this in our own lives also bring the message of the resurrection of Jesus and His power to destroy the works of the devil to others. And He works with us to confirm His Word as we speak it in faith and expectancy.
If you want prayer here is what I will do.
a) I will lay my hand on you head (where the lies are stored), and as I pray the Lord will be working with me to confirm the truth you are hearing.
b) I will also give you the Ephesians 1 prayer on paper so you can stick it on your dashboard, your refrigerator, or lay it on your nightstand, or put it in your pocket—someplace where you can look at it again and again, read it aloud again and again so that it begins to open your mind and wash your brain.
c) Then we will read this pray prayer aloud together for one another.
d) Finally, I will declare this prayer over you, and I know the Lord will do something for you simply because I am bringing you the message of His resurrection. So come now and I will pray for you.
Here is the prayer Paul prayed;
Ephesians 1:17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
