Friday! Jesus is dead. The sinless Son of God given as a sacrifice for our salvation. He is dead.
Not so fast, buddy! Jesus is ALIVE!!!
Just three days after He was crucified and put into a guarded sealed tomb!
And, we’ve got two amazing groups of people
1) His enemies who know He’s alive and are bribing people to keep their mouths shut
2) His followers who don’t believe He’s alive and are engaged in various activities.
Jesus’ enemies …
Matthew 28
- Earthquake
- an angel appears and rolls back the stone from the entrance to the tomb
- the guards pass out
- they regain consciousness but the tomb is empty
- they report this to the chief priests
- the chief priests bribe them to keep their mouths shut and make up a lie
- the chief priests will “protect” them
OK, so now, Jesus’ friends …
But first, what has Jesus told His disciples?
Matthew 16:21
“From that time on Jesus began to explain to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”
Matthew 17:22-23
“When they came together in Galilee, [Jesus] said to them, ‘The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill Him, and on the third day He will be raised to life.’ And the disciples were filled with grief.”
Matthew 20:18-20
“We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn Him to death and will hand Him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day He will be raised to life!”
Jesus has warned them. He didn’t hide the rest of the plan from them. He didn’t just tell them about the death and forget about the resurrection.
Yet … on the 3rd day where are they? Are they waiting outside the tomb taking bets on who will see Him first?
Two of the Mary’s are on the way to the tomb with embalming spices to complete the task that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had started when He was placed in the tomb.
Embalming Him, especially on the third day, did not show belief in His prophecies.
The remainder of the twelve disciples are hiding out in locked room.
Two of the other disciples are headed to Emmaus
Luke 24:13-24
“Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened.
“As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus Himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing Him.
“He asked them, ‘What are you discussing together as you walk along?’
“They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked Him, ‘Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?’
“What things?” He asked.
“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed Him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified Him;
“but we had hoped that He was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us.
“They went to the tomb early this morning but didn’t find His body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said He was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”
Isn’t it easy on this side of history to believe that Jesus rose from the dead on the third day?
We know now that the tomb was indeed empty,
We know that Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene
We know that Jesus appeared to the Eleven multiple times
We know that Jesus cooked fish for some of the disciples
We know that Jesus appeared to > 500 of His disciples at one time 1 Cor 15:16
Most of us have heard this since we were young.
The resurrection of Jesus is a “line in the sand”. Not a line that says, "I dare you to cross this line" but a line that says "You MUST cross this line". How do we know that?
Romans 10:9-10 (NLT)
“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
“For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.”
Jesus is Alive! Do you believe it?
Many people at that time wanted to roll the stone back in front of that tomb and keep Jesus inside.
Many people throughout history since then have tried to put Jesus back into the tomb.
Many people today are trying to make Jesus dead.
The obvious ones are atheists. They hate Jesus. Sure they hate any concept of a god but if they are to put a name to the one they hate it will be Jesus or the God of Christians. You just KNOW that we Christians have committed all of the war and carnage that has ever gone on in the world. One thing they don’t mention is that there are not many hospitals and orphanages named after atheists. Just sayin …
And, so, they try with all of their might to put the stone back over the entrance of the tomb to keep Jesus in there.
Now … all the way on the other end of the spectrum you will find churches that are trying to put Jesus back into the tomb.
Here are some of the theories …
- Jesus only swooned on the cross and was revived later
OK. This does not put Jesus back into the tomb but it does deny the
resurrection!
(After the swoon He was miraculously able to pass through walls into
locked rooms and disappear from dinner tables …)
- Another speculation is that all of the sightings of Jesus after His death were visions including a mass apparition by > 500 people at one time.
(Back into the tomb He goes …)
- Metaphor - some say that Jesus’ resurrection was just a metaphor to show us some deep spiritual truth (in reality meaning, "The Man is dead and gone!")
Modern Christians
Memory of Easter “sermon” by Vestal Center UM pastor saying, “Most Christians don’t believe in the resurrection anyway.”
And it’s not just the resurrection! Things seem to be going crazy in the church!
Just last week I received an article entitled “5 Things You Didn’t Know About Jesus”. I’m always interested in knowing more about Jesus so I checked it out.
Most of them were common ideas like crucifixion was not unique to Jesus; thousands were crucified during the Roman Empire.
And, Jesus most likely was not crucified in 33 AD.
But, number five was the “kicker”. Based on Jesus exclamation of, “My God, My God. Why have You forsaken Me.” Based on that one agonizing phrase this guy concluded that Jesus did not just take our sins upon Himself but He actually experienced every sin including becoming and atheist while hanging on the cross. Jesus the atheist. Now that’s one that never crossed my mind before!
In order to arrive at that conclusion you need to set aside Jesus saying:
Father forgive them …
Today you will be with Me in Paradise
It is finished, and,
Father, into Your hands I commit my Spirit!
So, let’s get back to the resurrection. If you can contrive Jesus into being an atheist I guess the resurrection just totally becomes irrelevant!
On another note ...
Please pray for me on Tuesday. I have been invited by Wendy to attend her class at GCC to defend Jesus in the Bible. The professor claims to be a Christian but only believes that portions of the Bible are true and he believes that the “hidden” gospels are as valid as the Gospels found in the Bible.
So, what do the Scriptures say???
Now remember the three Scriptures we looked at earlier where Jesus was speaking of His impending death with the disciples. Each and every time He connected the death with His resurrection
1 Corinthians 15:12-19
“But tell me this - since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying there will be no resurrection of the dead? For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either.
“And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless. And we apostles would all be lying about God - for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave.
“But that can’t be true if there is no resurrection of the dead. And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins.
“In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.”
You see, outside the church and in unbelieving churches the devil is still at work. Just as the evil one said to Eve, “Did God really say …?” so the evil one is saying to us every day, “Did Jesus really rise from the dead?”
We need to recognize who is speaking to us, the devil causing us to doubt God’s Word or the Holy Spirit speaking to us through His Holy Word!
Let me just end with a few awesome Scriptures …
Romans 6:4 – “We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”
Romans 6:9 – “For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over Him.”
Romans 7:4 – “So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.”
1 Corinthians 15:20 – “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.”
Revelation 1:17-18a – “When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as though dead. Then He placed his right hand on me and said: ‘Do not be afraid. I Am the First and the Last. I Am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever!’”
Conclusion and invitation if the Spirit leads
