Had you chosen to visit the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem today to celebrate Easter, you would no doubt want to visit the central shrine that is all probability the place of Jesus' death, burial, and Resurrection. And while no one is absolutely certain that this is indeed the location of the first Easter, archeology and history lend substantial support to the site's authenticity. From the outside, the site fails to impress as the old alleyways of the old city hide the site from street level view
If you are new to Israel, you might think to see that the Church of the Holy Sepulcher sits alone in majestic isolation, but instead, the shrine sits alongside anonymous buildings sandwiched next to them as barnacles would on a ship. If you came to the site of the first Easter looking for a light, you would be disappointed by its dark and cramped quarters. If you came seeking peace, you would be saddened by an abundance of noise. And if you came seeking love, then you will be deeply distressed to encounter petty jealousies surrounds the quarters.
Six groups of occupants lord over the site, including Latin Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, Syrians, Copts, and Ethiopians, as each watch over their respective areas for any infringement of rights. One of the reasons why the site is considered authentic and the various groups of Christians fight over it is because it was on this site that the early Christians celebrated Easter in acts of worship until AD 66.
The history of the site shows the importance of Easter throughout the centuries. Shortly after the early Christians were prevented from worshiping there, the Roman Emperor Hadrian, in an effort to eradicate Christianity, soon destroyed the area and erected a shrine honoring the goddess Aphrodite in AD 135. The Roman Emperor Constantine destroyed the pagan temple two hundred years later and placed a chapel to commemorate the site of the first Easter. Muslims wrecked the site seven hundred years later (1009), where the rock tomb of Christ was destroyed with picks and hammers.
Restoration began shortly thereafter during the approximate time of the Crusades. The site itself had been partially destroyed by fire in 1808 and an earthquake in 1927. If you were to visit today, you best not wear shorts or sleeveless shirts, as you'll be asked to leave. And to see what possibly remains of Golgotha, you must ascend a set of stairs. Once you are there, you'll see a rock, about twenty-three feet long by ten feet wide by sixteen feet high, that is traditionally believed to be all that now remains visible of Golgotha. Thousands of believers gathered yesterday at the Church of Holy Sepulcher in anticipation of Easter today. Yet, you don't have to 7,000 miles to Jerusalem to begin to recognize the significance of the events of the first Easter. No, you do not need to visit the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in order to experience the life of Easter. There is another way to see Jesus that is better.
I want to talk to you today about your Resurrection of the dead and Jesus' role in raising you from the dead.
1. Why is Easter Important?
There have been three historical opinions that have formed in history as to the Resurrection of the dead, and they remain to this day. Pagans expected nothing to happen after a person dies. Jews expected the faithful to be resurrected at the end of time. And Christians have felt that not only has Christ risen from the grave, but His Resurrection guarantees His followers' resurrection. Jesus' Resurrection is surprising, as it has no historical antecedents.
Our Jewish friends ask, "How can the Messiah have come when the world has not changed?" The world has continued to experience genocide, racism, violence, war, poverty, and hunger since the time of Jesus. When the Messiah comes, He was to end all of this and restore shalom, or peace, to the world? The fact that all this evil continues is proof that Jesus isn't the Messiah, according to our Jewish friends.
Jesus teaches that the Resurrection comes in two installments. His Resurrection is the first payment on the thirty-year mortgage of your home. But there is a day coming when He'll pay the note off. Jesus never files for bankruptcy between the first payment and the last.
What God begins, God always ends.
2. Jesus' Massive Ego
The saying goes that everything is bigger in Texas. Today, an estimated 20,000 people will hear the newest New York Jet, Tim Tebow, speak at Celebration Church in Georgetown, TX. Tebow's faith is as famous as were his skills were as the quarterback when he played for the Florida Gators. Tebow is speaking to the throngs of people this morning as they are spread over 60 plus acres on blankets and lawn chairs. The church is renting 110 buses in order to accommodate the masses. Indeed, everything is bigger in Texas!
Jesus has a Texas-Sized Ego. Jesus' View of Himself is so high that He predicts others will emulate Him: "And he said, 'See that you are not led astray. For many will come in my name, saying, 'I am he!' and, 'The time is at hand!' Do not go after them'" (Luke 22:8). Or, "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father." (John 14:8b)
Jesus has the audacity to say that seeing Him is the equivalent of seeing the Father.
Or, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6b) Here Jesus says you cannot have access to God other than through Him. He claims things that prevent you from thinking He is just another good prophet.
I think Jesus' thoughts of Himself are valid and warranted. I want you to see the importance of Easter by hearing the words of Jesus spoken before His death and Resurrection.
"Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. 28 Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and come out, those who have done good to the Resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the Resurrection of judgment." (John 5:25-29)
The words I have selected are in the middle of a larger discussion between Jesus and the Jewish religious leaders.
Little of anything Jesus says convinces the Jewish leader that Jesus is who He says He is. Their discussion over the identity of Jesus soon revolves around Jesus' relationship with God. And what we'll discover is that the question that centered the debate between Jesus and the religious leaders of His day is equally important today: Who is Jesus of Nazareth?
Let me show evidence of Jesus' Massive Ego in six observations.
2.1 Jesus Raises All the Dead
Jesus tells us that He will raise the dead. Notice the first two verses in today's text: "Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. (John 5:25-26)
Let me those words marinate for a few moments. Jesus raises categorically every single person who has ever lived. Who will be raised by Jesus? Verse 28 says, "all who are in the tombs…" And who does that include? Verse 29 says, "those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment" Believers and unbelievers.
This is what Daniel 12:2 taught: "And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." And this is what Paul said to Felix when he was on trial in Acts 24:15: "…there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust."
The main point here is that Jesus raises all the dead. Let that sink in.
All the dead who have ever lived will be raised from the dead by Jesus. Millions of Chinese and Nigerians, and Germans. He will raise Julius Caesar from the dead, and Judas Iscariot from the dead… Muhammad Ali from the dead… Michelangelo from the dead… Martin Luther King, JR from the dead… Adolf Hitler from the dead… Elvis from the dead… and Princess Diana, and Michael Jackson, and Whitney Houston. He will raise them, and they will stand before him. And you will be raised from the dead too.
At the end of time, Jesus fully expects to raise all the dead. Jesus will give existence to your decomposed bodies. He allows no one to go out of existence.
2.2 Jesus Raises the Dead by His Voice
The second part of verse 25: "the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live." Jesus insists that it is HIS voice that will call every person from the grave on the last day. John 5:25 says that Jesus will, in fact, raise the dead by His voice. Hebrews 1:3 says, "He upholds the universe by the word of his power." And Colossians 1:17: "He is before all things, and in him, all things hold together." Everybody who has ever lived will obey the voice of Jesus in their decomposed bodies. No matter how many of those bodies have shared the same molecules. He is God, and He can do this.
Stand in awe of Jesus. For when He speaks as the Creator, even nothing obeys Him. And when He speaks as the Resurrected King, decomposed matter obeys.
2.3 The Resurrection is Now
"Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. (John 5:25)
Every time Jesus did a miracle… Every time Jesus healed someone… Every time Jesus cast out a demon… And each of the times where He raises someone from the dead, Jesus was bringing a little bit of the future into the present. Jesus is showing us now what it will be like then. As if Thomas Edison brought the incandescent light bulb into the Middle Ages.
Earlier I spoke of a common Jewish obstacle to belief in Jesus Christ as the Messiah. Simply, when the Messiah arrives, there is no more genocide, war, rape, injustice, and petty jealousy. Our Jewish friends see the Resurrection coming at the very end of time. Jesus says that His Resurrection comes in two installments or two layers.
Christ's Resurrection is a preview of the end now. Each of His miracles was a sample. Each one of them effectively says, "That's the way it will be." There will be no sickness in the age to come. There will be no demons in the age to come. There will be no death in the age to come.
Again the question, "Who is Jesus of Nazareth?" matters because He is claiming to bring the future into the present. Stand in awe of Jesus. He has brought the future into the present.
2.4 Jesus Judges Everyone
"And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man" (John 5:27). The words "the Son of Man" are Jesus' favorite way to refer to Himself. "The Son of Man" comes from the Old Testament reference of Daniel 7:13. Recall what Paul said to the people on Mars Hill in Acts 17:31: "God has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this, he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead." So the judge of the world, in God's way of thinking, must be a son of man—human. A Suffering, Slain Man Will Judge the World
Consider what John himself wrote in Revelation 5: An angel cries out, "Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?" Now, this stands for the opening of the end of history—the unleashing on the world of God's final judgments. And the answer to the question comes back: "'Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.' And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain. . . . And they sang a new song, saying, 'Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain'" (Revelation 5:2, 5–6, 9).
In other words, God intends that the one who judges the world will have been a slain lamb, a crucified man.
2.5 You Will Be Judged by Your Actions
Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and come out, those who have done good to the Resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the Resurrection of judgment." (John 5:28-29)
God doesn't save you by works. But works are the evidence and the confirmation of your faith. Anything alive will grow. And on the Day of Judgment, when you and I stand before "the Son of Man," He will examine our lives by looking for signs of life. And you will rise from the dead and face Him — the same One who was humanly tempted like you are. And he will look at your life—not for perfection but simply for the evidence.
Jesus, Has a Massive Ego The question between Jesus and the religious leaders of His day is still important today: Who is Jesus of Nazareth? History tells us that three men died on crosses that day. Yet, Christians admire and worship only one. History tells us that three men died on crosses that day. Yet, Christians report only one of the three to be alive three days later. Had the other two criminals been found alive three days later, no movement would have begun to worship them. It would have delighted their families and astonished their friends, but it would not have launched a movement called Christianity. How do I know this? Because Jesus caused several other people to be raised from the dead in His day. Yet, no one worshipped the twelve-year-old daughter whose father ruled the synagogue (Luke 8:40-56). No one worshipped the widow's son at Nain when Jesus interrupted the funeral as the dead man sat straight up from his coffin (Luke 7:11-17). And no one worshipped Lazarus when he came out of the tombs after four days (John 11:1-44).
Jesus is much more than the Resurrection. Yet, the Resurrection and ascension was and is His crowning achievement.
You are going to be raised from the dead someday. Your decomposed body will obey the voice of the Son of God.
