Beloved here we are. Another resurrection Sunday morning.Another time to celebrate the triumphant victory of our lord Jesus Christ over death, hell, and the grave. We come to recall salvation history, about how a God who lived upstairs, knowing the adoration of angels moved downstairs to know the cursing of men. About how a God mysterious, mystical and terrible wrapped himself in human flesh and made his way to Bethlehem with baby clothes in his hand, supped in Bethany, wept in Gethsemane, died on calvary and rose triumphantly to save you and I. To celebrate the sacrificial lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. We come to remember the sight of an empty tomb, to relic in the glory of a vacant cross, and to re-experience a risen christ. Jesus is alive. He is not dead. He does live. And the good news of resurrection Sunday is not simply he got up, but news equally as exciting and important is that you and I can get up. No matter what pit we fall into, no matter how big the problem. No matter how great the fall, we too can get back up again and be victorious. This great salvific act is best described by the hymnologist who penned these words that we sang this morning; “To God be the glory. Great things he has done. So loved he the world that he gave us his son. Who yielded his life an atonement for sin, and opened the life gate that all might go in…”
Our text this morning takes us back to this resurrection narrative. Come with me there in the passageways of your cerebral cortex. Hear with me the birds singing their morning hymns outside the city gates of Jerusalem. Feel the morning dew on the ground fresh from the storehouse of heaven. See with me the tulips, sunflowers, azaleas, and lilies there at the entrance of this garden tomb where Jesus has been laid. I must admit that there is something strange about this sight however. Because the guards there who were commissioned by Pilate and the High Priest Caiaphas to guard the tomb, to make sure that nobody gets in, and nobody gets out are compromised. They are laying on the ground unconscious. But not only that, the stone that was placed there to make sure that nobody gets in, and nobody gets out has been rolled away, leaving an open entrance, and an open exit. What a strange sight to behold. There off in the distance, Some women, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and some other women have come to care for the body of Jesus; to anoint his body with traditional burial spices. And much to their surprise, they saw the same sight. An open entrance and an open exit.
There appeared to them two men clothed in white and posed to them a timeless question. “Why seek ye the living among the dead?” Then said one of them, He is Risen! These women puzzled, confused, and perplexed at what they had said, left the tomb and went to tell the eleven. And the text says in verse 11 that the resurrection message these women told to them seemed to them as idle tales. The message of the resurrection seemed as fantasy, fable, and fiction. And the disciples did not believe it.
Beloved essentially these disciples were the first to hear the good news of the gospel. They were the first to have the opportunity to celebrate resurrection Sunday. The first to receive the message of redemption. The first souls to have the opportunity to accept the risen christ and they did not believe. Beloved don’t be too hard on the disciples, because here today there are those who have sat through this service, who have heard the good news that he lives. There are those who have heard the voices of the redeemed singing praises to a risen savior and still do not believe that Christ is risen. There may be someone on your row who does not believe. There may be someone sitting next to you that does not believe. There may be someone in your seat who does not believe. It would be naive to believe that everyone who came to worship believes in the resurrection, especially if the apostles had a difficult time believing that Jesus rose.
And truthfully, when it comes to the resurrection one can easily find themself in utter disbelief. It defies all natural law. It defies the law of life, the law of death, the laws of nature, it defies physics and anatomy. To believe in the resurrection is to believe in the impossible. It is to believe that a square peg can fit into a round hole. It is to believe that up is down and down is up. It is to believe that dead things, rotting, decaying, decomposing, lifeless, breathless, and pulseless can live. It is to believe that mortality is subject to immortality. That the terrestrial is subject to the celestial. It is to believe that time is under the authority of eternity. Doubt in the resurrection is not misplaced, but it is a mistake.
Many philosophers, keepers of intellectual truth have pondered this resurrection narrative and have drawn many different conclusions. One might fall into one of 2 philosophical categories as it relates to the resurrection. One might fall onto the side of materialism. The school of thought that believes that either one of 3 things invalidated the resurrection. The first materialist belief is that the resurrection cannot be valid, because by day 3, the body is decomposing, and the laws of natural must freeze itself in order to preserve the natural state of the body, especially if the burial spices were not applied shortly after death. Invalidating scientifically the possibility of resurrection. The next school of thought would believe that genetically, the resurrected body in essence cannot be made of the same substance as the pre-resurrected body. The illustration used by philosophers to describe this is if a sculptor carved a statue out of a hunk of marble, the hunk has the same properties as the sculpture, but the sculpture cannot have the same properties as the hunk. The hunk can survive being carved and chiseled, whereas the sculpture cannot survive the chisel and hammer and still be recognizable as the same sculpture. Thus genetically invalidating the possibility of resurrection.
The next school of thought on the side of materialism believes simply in the observation of Newton’s law of motion. That an object in motion will remain in motion until acted upon, and an object in rest will remain at rest. Thus making the resurrection physiologically impossible. And then there are the immaterialists, who simply believe that the sovereign power of God the creator is intangible, invisible, unexplainable, and incredible. That the same God who flung the stars in the sky as the twinkle of a billion years, the same God who hung the sun in the sky as the king of the solar system, that has never gone out or went to a repair shop. The same God who created the mountains, the oceans, and the pastures. If that same God wanted to do anything, he is well able to do it. Including, but not limited to getting himself up from physical death.
1.The Reality of Vacancy
The bible says these women got there to the tomb, and the tomb was vacant. Jesus was not there and the angels asked Why seek ye the living among the dead. They proclaimed to them, He is not here, he is risen. And the women went and told the 11 disciples. Beloved let me pause parenthetically and remind you that if you were to look into the tomb of Moses, his corpse is still there. If you look into the tomb of Confucius he is still there. If you look into the tomb of Muhammad, he is still there. If you look into the tombs of the great pharaohs of Egypt, if they have not been stolen, they are still there. But when you look into the tomb of Jesus right outside of Jerusalem beneath the shadow of Mt.Calvary, you'll have to deal with the reality of vacancy, because he is not there! But if he’s not in the tomb where is he? The world is in disarray, and where is Jesus? Wickedness in high places plague our common existence, where is Jesus? Unarmed black men and women are being murdered lawlessly in our streets, where is Jesus? The Bible says, that he is sitting on the throne of heaven. Looking low on the affairs of men. He’s watching. God is always watching. Even when it seems like he’s not going to do anything he’s watching. Behold he who keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. And as long as he’s watching, I know he sees me, and if he sees me he’ll hear me, and if he hears me he’ll come and see about me. Im glad he’s watching.
2.The Reaction of 10
When the women told this to the 11 disciples, 11 of them did not believe and 10 of them decided to stay there in disbelief. The reaction of these 10 disciples disturbed me. Because rather than going to the tomb to see the truth for themselves they found comfort and contentment in disbelief. We cannot fault these disciples for doubting the resurrection that’s quite understandable, but we can fault these disciples for not believing in what Jesus could do. After all, they had a front row seat to the ministry of Jesus. They saw witnessed him work miracle after miracle. They had seen him open blinded eyes. They had seen him make deaf ears hear, lame legs walk, dumb and stammering tongues talk. They had seen him take 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread and fix 12,000 fish dinners. They had seen hem raise Jairus’s daughter. They had seen him stop a funeral procession, open the casket and tell the boy to get up. They had seen him raise Lazarus in Bethany. Surely if anyone would believe that God could do the impossible it would be these disciples.
These disciples walked with him, talked with him, supped with him, and still had a narrow view of him. Often as disciples we can become too comfortable with Jesus as we know him. Jesus can become so big to us, that we are unable to believe that he is larger than what we can see. So we put Jesus into the confined spaces of our imagination, we box him into our cognitive abilities and our intellectual capacities. So we can easily miss the move of God simply by resting on our laurels, and our traditional idioms and ideologies concerning who he is and what we can do. So consequently we write off the homosexual as “abomination”, and “unsaved.” How do you know that? We write off the female pastor as “heretical”, and “unbiblical.” We judge the young people as being misguided for worshipping God in a non traditional way. How do you know that? God is bigger than you think he is.And if you and I could understand him, we would have no need for him. Some of you came discouraged, because you can't seem to understand what God is up to. You've got problem after problem, circumstance after circumstance. You can't see your way in life. You can’t put a finger of identification on the will of God. But I came with a word that the same God that can get himself up, is the same God that can bring you through, and take you over. God is bigger than you can think, feel, see, hear, or smell. God is greater than you can imagine. He’s able to do exceedingly, and abundantly above all you can ask or think. God is bigger than you can comprehend.
It's amazing to me how some of us can experience God for ourselves, know his goodness, see him work on our behalf time after time, and still doubt what he can do. But I came to tell you that if you've seen God do the impossible before he CAN do it again. Have you any rivers that seem uncrossable? Have you any mountains that you cannot tunnel through? God specializes in things impossible and he is more than able to do what no other power can do! These 10 disciples allowed their disbelief to compromise their faith. Don't let your disbelief become so great that you lose your faith. Their faith was so compromised, they didn’t even have the faith to believe in a power that they had seen.
3.The Response of 1
But I live verse 12. Because in verse 12 I find the kind of faith that I aspire to achieve. Verse 12 shows a responsive faith, a relentless faith, and a resurrected faith. Because verse 12 said that Peter arose, and ran to the tomb. Peter’s faith is relentless because, the verb ran means that he moves with haste, purpose, quickness, and determination. Upon hearing the news that Jesus had risen peter starts running. The distance from the upper room to the garden tomb was some 1.25 miles. And there’s Peter running to the tomb. Can you see him? Running through the market square, disrupting the business of street vendors, running into their makeshift stands knocking over merchandise. I imagine he ran past some of the people who had cried crucify him just 3 days ago. I imagine he must have run past the palace of antietam where Pilate lived. I imagine he must have run past the home of Barabbas the man who escaped crucifixion, and as set free in exchange for Jesus. I imagine he must have run past some of the folks that Jesus healed. And Peter stops at nothing to get to the place where he could see the evidence of a risen christ. Beloved your disbelief in the resurrection ought not make you comfortable. It ought to make you relentless in your quest for some visible evidence that Jesus lives. Well can you show us a google image of the empty tomb? No I cannot. I cannot show you an autopsy of Christ’s resurrected body. I can’t even give you a personal account. I was not there. But I submit to you that there is evidence that he lives. In fact you’re looking at evidence that Jesus lives. Beloved Years I spent in vanity and pride, caring not my lord was crucified caring not it was for me he died. I was sinking, and drowning in the folly of sin. I've messed up, I've missed my mark, i've made mistakes.
But one day I heard about Jesus, I asked him into my heart and my life and he changed me. I woke up one morning, and I didn't want to do the same things I used to, I didn’t want to go the same places I used to go. I didn’t want to be around the same people. He changed me. But just because I was changed didn’t mean I wasn’t challenged. Beloved when Peter got to the tomb the bible says that he stooped down, and it was only in that stooping posture that he could see the evidence that Jesus lives. There’s been some times in my life that I needed him to show up. Show up in my life, my home, my finances, my family, my church, my career, Life knocked me down. And I got on my knees and I found out that he’s not dead. Because I found out that he walks with me, he talks with me, and tells me I am his own.
You may not believe this but,
I serve a risen Savior
He’s in the world today.
I know that He is living,
Whatever men may say.
I see His hand of mercy;
I hear His voice of cheer;
And just the time I need Him
He’s always near.
In all the world around me
I see His loving care,
And though my heart grows weary,
I never will despair;
I know that He is leading,
Through all the stormy blast;
The day of His appearing
Will come at last.
Rejoice, rejoice, O Christian,
Lift up your voice and sing
Eternal hallelujahs
To Jesus Christ the King!
The Hope of all who seek Him,
The Help of all who find,
None other is so loving,
So good and kind.
