Easter, Easter, We’re All Raised Up
Today, as we all know, is Easter. For a lot of people, Easter is just another holiday, a 3-day weekend of fun and no work. For others, it’s chocolate bunnies and Easter eggs. And for others, it just another ghost story they don’t believe.
BUT WE KNOW BETTER! For Christians, Easter means the resurrection of Jesus from the dead! It means the promise of life after death! It means hope of a better life. It means joy. Today, literally millions of people all over the world will be celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Today, literally millions of people all over the world will be celebrating that fact that some 2000 years ago, on that Sunday morning, Jesus was raised up, the tomb was empty.
Once there was a man who decided to start a new religion. But he was complaining that he could not make any new converts. He didn’t know what to do. A friend told him, “All you have to do is get yourself crucified, die, and rise again on the third day.” No problem!
No other religion can celebrate Easter. If you are a Muslim, your leader Mohammed died June 8, 632 AD at the age of 61. Millions of people go to the tomb, which his body still occupies to this day. All the leaders of these manmade religions have died. Only Jesus, the Son of God has defeated death.
The resurrection is the basis of our faith. If Christ didn’t rise from the dead then we’re just wasting our time here every Sunday. Not only that, but I would say that the resurrection is the most important event in all of history. The words, “He is not here, but He is risen”, changed the course of history! And they continue to do so. Let us take a look at why the resurrection is so important to us.
Larry King, the CNN interviewer and radio/TV personality, tells of a visit to Miami’s Joe Robbie Stadium before a spring training game.
“King said manager Tommy Lasorda was introducing him to players and having a good time. They walked past Eddie Murray at first base and Lasorda said, ‘Hey, Eddie, how you doing?’ Murray replied simply, ‘Okay.’ At that, Lasorda went wild. ‘Okay? Okay? Two million dollars a year. It’s March. There ain’t a cloud in the sky. You’re standing there wearing a major-league uniform. You’re thirty-three years old, you’re going to the Hall of Fame, and you’re saying okay? You say, “Great, Tommy!” ’ Murray, looking at Lasorda like he was a maniac, seemed at a loss for words. Lasorda tried again, ‘You say it: “I feel great!” ’ So Eddie started saying, ‘I feel great!’ ”
- Quoted in Michael G. Moriarty, The Perfect 10 (Zondervan, 2000), 133.
How about it Bethel Presbyterian Church? Say, “I feel great!”
All your sins are forgiven. You’re on your way to heaven. Jesus is alive and living in you. Say it like you mean it: “I feel great.”
A Sunday School teacher was explaining to a group of small children about the death and resurrection of Jesus. She made a crude cross out of some sticks and explained how Jesus was nailed to the cross. And little boy responded by saying, "Oh, that’s too bad."
In the very next breath, however, the teacher told how Jesus rose from the grave, coming back to life. And the little boy’s eyes got real big and he said, "TOTALLY AWESOME!"
Friends, the resurrection of Jesus is totally awesome even though many people of the world don’t know this and many doubt it.
(1 Cor 15:17-19) And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.
Preaching a dead Christ won’t save anybody. If we preach about a Savior who is not risen, then our preaching is empty. You know what it’s like? It’s like throwing a rope to a drowning man without having one end anchored securely.
Once a lady wrote into a Q & A forum, saying their Pastor said Jesus only swooned on the cross and the disciples nursed him back to health. The answer came back, “Beat your Pastor 39 strokes with a cat-o-nine-tails, nail him to a cross, hang him in the sun for 6 hours, run a spear through him, put him in an airless tomb for 36 hrs. and see what happens.
You see, the Roman soldiers were experts at crucifixions, having performed the procedure countless times. The centurion even gave testimony to Pilate that Jesus was dead.
Jesus didn’t swoon! He died and then He was raised up! When I say He was raised up, my voice didn’t say it with a question! He got up! There’s no dispute! He got up!
There were witnesses! Peter saw him, Mary saw him, two men on the road saw him, various disciples saw him on 5 different occasions, more than 500 hundred saw him at once, James saw him! We have proof!
Mohammed didn’t get up!
Confucius didn’t get up!
Buddha didn’t get up!
Joseph Smith is dead.
Jim Jones is dead.
David Koresh is dead.
But Jesus is Alive! He’s Alive! He Got Up!
People often ask, “Why was the stone rolled away?” Well, the stone was not rolled away for Him to come out. I can guarantee you that. We find, later on, in the accounts of His appearances, that at one point the disciples were in the upper room where the windows and doors were closed and locked and Jesus Christ just walked right in. He needed no door. No wall could hold Him out. And no stone could hold him in. No, the stone was not rolled away for Him to come out.
The stone was rolled away so that we could look in. It was rolled away so that the empty tomb could be visible to all. The empty tomb is the greatest evidence of the resurrection of Jesus. Cynics and critics have tried to explain it away, and they have not been able to. The empty tomb still stands as evidence to all that Jesus is not dead. He is alive today.
5-year old Jimmy was in the kitchen as his mother made supper. She asked him to go into the pantry and get her a can of tomato soup, but he didn’t want to go in alone. "It’s dark in there and I’m scared." She asked again, and he still refused. Finally she said, "It’s OK--Jesus will be in there with you." Jimmy walked hesitantly to the door and slowly opened it. He peeked inside, saw it was dark, and started to leave when he had an idea. He said: "Jesus, if you’re in there, would you hand me that can of tomato soup?"
“IF” you’re in there, Jimmy said. The stone was rolled away. We can look inside the dark, scary tomb to see “IF” Jesus is in there. But he’s not. Christ is risen! (response) He got up!
What are the odds you’d forget where you buried you’re loved one? Some say it was the wrong tomb. But if it were the wrong tomb, the Pharisees and the Sadducees who put Jesus to death certainly would have found the right tomb, rolled the stone away, and produced the dead and decaying body of Jesus Christ. But they were unable to because it was the right tomb, and it was empty. All of the great religious leaders of history have lived and died, and their bodies are buried today. Only Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Only Jesus Christ broke the bonds of death and was raised up.
March 27, 1992. This date is very important to me because it is Cody’s birthdate. May 1st is a special date. It’s Wendy’s birthdate. People are what give days and dates special meaning. And loving people means remembering them. Loving them means honoring them.
There is another day that is very special to me. The first day of the week is special to me and to you, because that’s the day when Jesus rose from the dead! SUNDAY SHOULD ALWAYS REMIND US OF OUR RESURRECTED SAVIOR! It is not just any other day...it’s special because of Jesus!
We started on our journey to this special Sunday back on Ash Wednesday. Ashes were placed on our forehead as a reminder to us of our sins. Not Jesus’ sins, our sins.
On that day I talked about a game kids love to play called “Ring Around the Rosy”. I don’t remember playing it, but it goes like this, “Ring around the rosy, pocket full of posy, ashes, ashes, we all fall down…” and then they fall to the ground. Supposedly this song refers to death, to the fact that we are, in the end, ashes and will fall down, will all die.
But ashes is not our end, not our destiny. Because Jesus was crucified for our sins, because Jesus was raised up from the grave, death has been defeated. Yes, ashes, ashes, we all fall down…but we do not stay down, because “Easter, Easter, we’re all raised up”!
