A. One day an associate minister was teaching a class of second-graders about the resurrection when one student asked, “What was the first thing that Jesus said right after He came out of the grave?”
1. Well, this was a question of great theological importance, and the associate minister began to search for words suitable to explain this to his young audience.
2. The hand of one little girl shot up, “Teacher, I know what Jesus said right after He came back to life and came out of the tomb.”
3. Intrigued, the minister asked the little girl, “And what would that be? What did Jesus say?”
4. The little girl exclaimed, “Tah-dah!”
B. If the resurrection really happened (and I certainly believe it did), then it isn’t about bunnies, candy, and egg hunts, even those things are fun.
1. If the resurrection happened, then the excitement of the day isn’t a child’s basket and new dress or suit.
2. If the resurrection happened, then it is about history being stood on its ear by the power of God so that nothing can ever be the same again.
3. The one thing that seems absurd to me occurs when a person affirms that Jesus of Nazareth rose bodily from the dead and then that person goes on with his or her life as if nothing of real significance had happened.
C. Some people have been fed — and have swallowed whole — the false notion that the early Christians invented the story of a bodily resurrection.
1. In the view of some, it was a deliberate lie from the apostles to consolidate their power and perpetuate a movement.
2. Others attribute the story to devotion. That is, John or Peter or somebody in their group said, “Wasn’t it wonderful back there before they killed Jesus? Can’t you just hear those beautiful stories he loved to tell? Why, sometimes I get a feeling like — well, like he is still here with us. Come on, try it with me! Close your eyes, and say, ‘He’s here! He’s alive! He’s back from the dead and among us!’ And if we practice, I’ll bet we can really believe it — and even get others to buy into the idea.”
D. It couldn’t have happened like that.
1. For one thing, if those Christians had invented a “resurrection myth” for themselves, they surely wouldn’t have hung so much of the account on the credibility of women.
2. In the Jewish world of the first century, women were not permitted to give testimony in their courts.
3. They were considered too mindless and flighty to be taken seriously in that sexist culture.
4. It would have been the kiss of death to have women as the first witnesses to the empty tomb and the first ones to tell about seeing the angel, hearing that Jesus was alive, and seeing him.
5. A fabricator would certainly have had Peter or the larger group of male disciples there that Sunday morning.
E. Another thing to consider is this: Do you seriously think a group of wicked conspirators or overly zealous fanatics would have died for their story?
1. Their flimsy, vacillating faith became rock-solid.
2. They had fled from the crucifixion site in fear, were despondent over the fact that their leader was gone forever, and clearly were not expecting Jesus to rise from the dead.
3. Why, they even made fun of the first reports that he was alive!
4. Yet the cowards became courageous.
5. The flee-for-your-own-life bunch became a give-up-your-life-for-Jesus church.
6. Their lives were transformed.
7. They established the church in spite of their ineptitude — a sheer marvel of grace that continues across the centuries against all odds and in spite of its defective, bumbling leaders.
8. Why, even I can be part of its life and leadership, and it still survives. Isn’t that amazing!
F. When Jesus died that afternoon, neither the Roman or Jewish officials nor his own disciples appear to have made any provision for a burial.
1. Because a special Sabbath was about to begin the people wanted the grisly sight of three corpses on crosses eliminated.
2. So they pressured Pilate, and he rushed the deaths of the two other men by having their legs broken.
3. He probably intended to have all three bodies tossed into a trench-grave in the potter’s field.
4. But Joseph of Arimathea — a member of the Sanhedrin — stepped out of the shadows and asked to dispose of Jesus’ body. He was given permission to do so.
5. The Jewish leaders then went to Pilate and requested that the tomb be made secure to insure that no one would steal the body and fake a resurrection.
6. Following Pilate’s order a seal was placed on the stone and they posted the guard.
G. So, the body was hastily taken down, transported, and laid to rest.
1. The tomb was closed.
2. The Roman inspectors placed a seal at the entrance.
3. Jewish soldiers from the temple guard were stationed.
4. And some female disciples watched at a discrete distance: “Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid” (Mark 15:47).
5. From what follows, it is clear that they planned to try to add their personal touch of love and respect after the Sabbath passed.
H. Sometime early on Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome set out on their mournful task, the anointing of Jesus’ dead body with spices.
1. They obviously hadn’t thought things through very well.
2. As they made their way to the tomb it dawned on them that they might have difficulty getting to the body of Jesus.
3. They asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?” (16:1-3).
I. Their quandary about the huge stone — not to mention the official Roman seal and the armed guards blocking their way to the body of Jesus quickly gave way to another sentiment as soon as the tomb site came into view.
1. Listen to Mark’s account, “But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed” (16:4-5).
2. They had not gone to Jesus’ tomb expecting it to be wide open!
3. They hadn’t fixed their hair for the CNN interviews about Jesus’ resurrection.
4. Imagine an interviewer asking, “Mary, what was the very first thing that came to mind when you saw the stone rolled back from the entrance? Can you describe the feeling?”
5. Mark tells us her answer would have been: “alarmed”
6. This Greek word that he used to describe their reaction denotes astonishment, shock, and fear. It points to the sort of thing that makes eyes get big as saucers, jaws drop, and the hair on the back of your neck stand up.
7. What was running through the minds of the women at that moment?
8. Were they thinking: “He is risen indeed, hallelujah?” Not at all!
9. It should have been the first thing that came to their minds, but in reality it was the furthest thing from their minds.
10. Their first thoughts were of anger or frustration toward the Romans or Jewish leaders or some grave robbers who have removed Jesus’ body.
11. What they didn’t think was that Jesus had somehow gotten up and walked out. Dead people don’t get up and walk out of tombs! Right?
J. It is amazing to me that with as often as Jesus had predicted both his death and resurrection, they were not expecting either of them.
1. Look at Mark 8:31f, “He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.” (Mk 8:31-32)
2. After the transfiguration in Mark 9, the Bible says: Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. They kept the matter to themselves, discussing what ‘rising from the dead’ meant. (Mk 9:9-10)
3. Look at 9:31, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him and after three days he will rise.”
4. How about 10:32b-33, Again he took the Twelve aside and told them what was going to happen to him. “We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.”
K. So, somehow, with no thought that Jesus might be alive again, though he had predicted both his death and resurrection to his disciples, the angel who had taken human form in order to appear to them spoke: “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you’” (16:6-7)
1. The idea of a resurrected Christ didn’t come out of the brain of Peter or Mary or Mark.
2. It came out of the mouth of an angel. “He has risen!” he said.
3. And thus what Christians have called Good News from that day until now began to be proclaimed.
L. “Don’t be alarmed,” the angel said.
1. Rome had better be alarmed, for the might, and the pomp and circumstance on which its hope was founded had just been mocked.
2. Judaism had better be alarmed, for its notion of right-standing through law and performance had just been overthrown.
3. But for these women and others who had put their hope in Christ, the reasons for fear, the reasons for dread, and the reasons for despair were gone. Gone forever! For Jesus was alive.
M. The truth that Jesus was alive from the dead and would soon be appearing to his disciples again and again in order to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt establishes every cardinal doctrine of the Christian faith.
1. Jesus is who he says he is. He is the Son of God, the Messiah, the Savior.
2. He is the only way to the Father. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
3. Jesus’ death has been accepted as full atonement for our sins.
4. When Jesus said “It is finished” on his cross, it really was.
5. Alive from the dead, he had been affirmed by the Father for his saving work. Heaven’s seal of approval was stamped on his finished work.
6. Jesus can be trusted.
7. He had said He would rise from the dead in three days, and — though nobody had believed him — He had done exactly what He said He would do.
8. Now when he tells you that your faith gives you the right to become a child of God (John 1:12), you can believe Him.
a. When He tells you that anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved (Mark 16:16), you can believe Him.
b. When He tells you that nothing and no one will be able to snatch you out of his hand (John 10:28), you can believe Him.
c. You can believe and know that His word is true.
9. His resurrection proves it beyond a shadow of doubt.
N. So, if Jesus is alive from the dead and if all these things follow from that fact, why are some of us still afraid?
1. The answer: Because we still have unsolved problems.
a. We still make horrible messes.
b. We still have family and marriage problems.
c. We still have the blind and deaf among us.
d. We still get abused or burned or crushed.
e. We still grieve beside caskets of our parents, mates, and children.
f. We get leukemia and emphysema.
g. We suffer and die.
O. Many scholars think the Gospel of Mark ends with verse 8 that says, “Trembling and bewildered, the women went away and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid” (16:8).
1. Even after finding the empty tomb, even after seeing the angel and hearing his, “Don’t be alarmed,” even after Jesus has been raised from the dead — the people he loves can still be found “trembling and bewildered” because “they were [and are yet] afraid.”
2. Please listen. What I am about to say speaks to our situation in light of the resurrection.
3. The resurrection of Jesus gives us certain confidence about the final outcome of suffering and fatal accidents, death and mourning, but it does not give full and immediate answers to our present experience of these distressing things.
4. When Jesus was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit, we got our first glimpse of the new world in which death doesn’t have the last word, where the suffering of innocent people is vindicated by a Holy God, and where injustices get put right.
5. That peek into our own glorious future grounds our hope, but it does not take away our problems.
6. It confirms our faith, but it does not take away all our trembling, bewilderment, and fear.
P. Aren’t you glad the biblical narrative is not filled with figures in stained-glass windows but rather reveals real, flesh-and-blood people like us?
1. Aren’t you glad it doesn’t present silly, naive, and glib caricatures of faith but stays with the realism of struggle with which we more naturally identify?
2. And aren’t you glad you can know you are not deficient and faithless just because you are honest enough to admit how real your struggle is today?
3. In spite of our battles — some of which we lose — the Resurrection guarantees that the war has been won.
4. Jesus, our Lord and Savior, died in our place and arose from the dead as a forerunner of what the future holds for everyone who believes.
5. The resurrection is certainly hard to believe, but it is true.
6. Being true it is our joy and our hope, our anchor and our strength.
7. In the midst of our pain and our fear, we know that we serve a risen Savior, and that makes all the difference in the world! Amen.
Q. I heard a story about something that took place at a graduation ceremony at a Christian College.
1. It was a hot May afternoon and a young man walked up on the stage and received his diploma from the president of the college.
2. The president shook his hand looked into his eyes and said, “Now go into all the world and preach the gospel.”
3. The young man, who did become a preacher, walked off the stage feeling proud and thankful.
4. He looked at his diploma and kept mumbling to himself, “I did it! I finished”
5. He looked at his diploma and kept looking at it – there was his name and the graduation date.
6. He said to the person next to him, “Look at this. I really made it! Let me see your diploma.”
7. The young man next to him opened up his folder, but it was empty!
8. The first young man said to the second, “Where is your diploma”
9. The second young man said to the first, “Well, I’m not really graduating today I am just going through the exercises. I haven’t handed in all of my papers, or taken all my tests. The school is giving me a few extra weeks. Then, if I have all my papers in, and if I have passed all my tests, then I will receive a diploma. But today I’m not really graduating.”
10. The first young man thought to himself, “We studied together, we spent time together, and now one graduates and the other one doesn’t. How sad is that!”
R. As I end this Easter message I want so much to paint a beautiful picture of an empty tomb and a resurrected Christ and say, “That is what it is all about.”
1. But I am fearful.
2. I am so fearful, that on an Easter Sunday I might paint a picture of false hope.
3. Because the message of Jesus’ resurrection is so wonderful, I might cause you to think that everything is all right – but everything isn’t all right, not for everyone.
4. You see, some people graduate and some do not.
5. In the same way, while the cross is a blessing for those who believe and accept its sacrifice, it is a curse for those who do not believe and do not obey the gospel.
6. The empty tomb is the greatest source of joy for those who know Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
7. But it is also the greatest source of judgment and condemnation for those who do not.
S. In John 3, Jesus said to an inquisitive Nicodemus, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” Then he continued, “No one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the spirit.” (Jn 3:3,5)
1. The spiritual birth is something that God endows as a person expresses their faith by being buried with Christ in the waters of baptism, and therefore receives the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:38-39)
2. If you have not been born again, then the resurrection joy and hope cannot be yours.
3. If you have been born again, then cling to your risen Lord, and He will carry you through it all right into eternity!
