The Risen Christ
Waking the Dead, part 1
Wildwind Community Church
David Flowers
April 11, 2009
Hey, Happy Easter everybody. I imagine that those of you who observed Lent this season have experienced blessing as a result. Some of you, too, are probably really looking forward to going back to whatever it is you gave up! I gave up car audio this season and although it has been beneficial in providing me extra time to pray in the car and focus on God, I have also discovered that for me giving up music for 40 days is maybe just one notch below giving up prayer. I won’t be doing it again next year, that’s for sure. Nonetheless Lent is a time of growth, a time of learning, and a time when we dedicate to God pieces of ourselves that normally we might not really think much about. It took me about ten days without car audio before I stopped habitually reaching for the radio button the second I got in the car. We are controlled in our lives by more things than we are aware of. If you did not observe Lent this season, I hope you will strongly consider it for next year.
But today (or tomorrow, if you want to be official about it) we arrive at the end of Lent and celebrate Easter. As I was talking with Christy about what I should say to you on Easter this year, Christy encouraged me to keep it simple. After all, Wildwind is blessed to have a large number of people who are fairly new to the whole Christian thing. Incidentally, I’m afraid I really overlooked something important when I failed to announce a few weeks ago that another person at Wildwind had made a commitment to Christ – this time one of our teenagers who my daughter Anna has been working with for several years. You’ll get to meet her soon and hear her story, since she is now seeking baptism. So if anyone else wants to be baptized let me know – I want to get that on the schedule soon. But in this spirit of wanting to make sure that as a church we are clear on the whole resurrection thing, I want to stick to basics today. What actually happened on that first Easter?
Sarah read the Easter story to you earlier to get us in the proper frame of mind, but I want to preach from a different text this morning. Would you stand for the reading of God’s Word?
1 Co 15:3-8 (The Message)
3The first thing I did was place before you what was placed so emphatically before me: that the Messiah died for our sins, exactly as Scripture tells it; 4that he was buried; that he was raised from death on the third day, again exactly as Scripture says; 5that he presented himself alive to Peter, then to his closest followers, 6and later to more than five hundred of his followers all at the same time, most of them still around (although a few have since died); 7that he then spent time with James and the rest of those he commissioned to represent him; 8and that he finally presented himself alive to me.
You can have a seat. I’m going to keep reading to you, but the next thing I’m going to read – though I hope you’ll listen – isn’t sacred scripture or anything. What I want to read to you is the official doctrinal statement from the Free Methodist Church of North America on the resurrection.
II. The Son
His Incarnation
¶A/103. God was himself in Jesus Christ to reconcile people to God. Conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, He joined together the deity of God and the humanity of humankind. Jesus of Nazareth was God in flesh, truly God and truly human. He came to save us. For us the Son of God suffered, was crucified, dead and buried. He poured out His life as a blameless sacrifice for our sin and transgressions. We gratefully acknowledge that He is our Savior, the one perfect mediator between God and us.
His Resurrection and Exaltation
¶A/104. Jesus Christ is risen victorious from the dead. His resurrected body became more glorious, not hindered by ordinary human limitations. Thus He ascended into heaven. There He sits as our exalted Lord at the right hand of God the Father, where He intercedes for us until
all His enemies shall be brought into complete subjection. He will return to judge all people. Every knee will bow and every tongue confess Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
That’s our official belief. And I couldn’t have said it better myself. I don’t have one argument or one disagreement with one word of this. And that’s where I want to start tonight, by strongly stating that our belief in the risen Christ is not belief in a Christ that rose metaphorically. It is not belief that even though Jesus is still dead, his spirit lives on and we can all gain oodles of warm and fuzzy inspiration from that. We believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ, the most profound symbol of which is the empty tomb which once held a dead man and suddenly held only his grave clothes, because he who was dead returned to life. Here is a picture of the Garden Tomb, one of several places that are thought to possibly be the actual tomb of Jesus.
Whether this is it or not, I just wanted to give you something visual to focus on for a moment. Whichever tomb it was, Jesus’ limp body was carried into that tomb wrapped in grave linens and laid there in that cold place. But he walked out in his own strength. Try as I may, I can’t get my arms around that. Jesus’ resurrection, much like his birth, was pretty low-key. No one was an actual eyewitness to the resurrection itself, although you see that our text states that many saw him after he rose. So the first thing I wanted to emphasize today was that we believe the resurrection was literal. And there’s a reason we believe that way. That is what I want to go over with you during the rest of my time here tonight.
Of course many people today object to the idea that Jesus could have literally raised from the dead. People say, “That’s contrary to the laws of physics. Dead people do not come to life again.” But did you know that belief in the resurrection of Jesus isn’t in any way contrary to the laws of physics? There’s not one law of physics you could point out to me that would prove that Jesus did not raise from the dead. Know why? Because the laws of physics only tell you what happens normally. The law of gravity tells you, for example, that if you drop a coin it will fall to the floor. But the law of gravity does not even address whether or not it is possible that a gremlin, a leprechaun, a goonie, or the Spirit of God might prevent that coin from falling. The law isn’t even MEANT to do that. The law simply tells you what will happen under normal circumstances. In fact, the law of gravity doesn’t even account for the idea that maybe YOU would catch that coin and keep it from falling to the floor! What the law of gravity tells us is that if we drop a coin, and it is allowed to fall, and nothing interferes, it will fall to the floor.
Don’t let people tell you Jesus couldn’t have raised from the dead because the laws of physics prevent it. The laws of physics don’t prevent it. Something can always intervene. And that is precisely what we believe happened, not only with respect to the resurrection of Jesus, but also to the resurrection of Lazarus, the resurrection of the dead girl Christ brought to life, and one day to your resurrection and mine and that of every person who has ever lived on this planet.
God is not subject to the laws of physics. In fact, the laws of physics are only laws because God, who is a rational and intelligent being, has created an ordered universe that basically works according to rational principles. But the same God who has ordered the universe to work according to the laws of physics is free to step around them, transcend them, alter them, or even suspend them any time he pleases. Let’s say you make a law in your house that no one shall ever have grape juice on the carpet. You and everyone in your family observe this new law for a year. Then one day there’s something on TV that you really want to see, but you also really want a big glass of grape juice. And so, in this particular situation, for very specific reasons, you set aside the law you have created. And is that difficult? Is it a miracle that you transcended the law of the living room? Of course not, for that law exists by your word and gets its authority and legitimacy from you. You are free to live within it and observe it. You are also free to disregard it, and neither observing it nor regarding it require anything you might call a miracle. Although certainly your children, who are bound to observe the law, will marvel at your power in being able to arbitrarily bend the rules to your advantage, just as we marvel at God who on certain occasions, for very specific reasons, chooses to operate in ways that are outside the laws of physics. Though we may call this a miracle, to God it is simply a matter of choice. No amazing strength or power is required for God to operate outside the laws of physics. In fact just as your no juice in the living room law actually puts constraints on you, which you choose to live within most of the time, the laws of physics could be seen as putting constraints on God. What they do not put on God is any obligation of any kind to operate according to them. Certainly we are powerless to disregard them, but the one by whose Word and Will they exist in the first place does not have that problem. It is he who has put into place the mechanism for natural death and decomposition in the first place and at any time he should decide to suspend that process, that is something he can quickly, easily, and naturally do. In response to the pregnancy of very old Elizabeth in the gospels, the angel says, “Nothing is impossible with God.” Do you know what that means? That means God has never done a miracle, nor has he ever seen one. Think about that for a moment, and I believe you will be delighted, as I was, by what it means.
If you’ve ever seen a miracle, all that means is that something which you thought to be impossible actually occurred. But because nothing is impossible with God, there is nothing that could not occur. Therefore anything God does – anything God makes happen – is completely within the range of his sovereignty and power. From God’s perspective, God has never done a miracle, nor has he ever seen one. Since that’s true, why do the gospels refer to Jesus as having performed miracles? Two reasons. First, Jesus was a human being. He lived most of his life constrained by the same laws of nature that constrain you and me.
Jn 10:25-27 (The Message)
25Jesus answered, “I told you, but you don’t believe. Everything I have done has been authorized by my Father, actions that speak louder than words…
Jesus did not do or say anything apart from the Father. In this way Jesus lived the exact life that you and I are called to live – every moment in dependence upon the Father. The second reason that the things Jesus did were called miracles is because that’s exactly what they were from the perspective of those who were writing about them.
So what have I said so far today? First is that we believe in the literal bodily resurrection of Jesus. Second, there is absolutely nothing in the laws of physics which renders this event impossible. The last thing I want to leave you with today is that ultimately this is your choice.
Churches all over the world will be busting at the seams tomorrow, filled with people who basically understand what Easter is about, but have not chosen to place their faith personally in Jesus. Maybe they think of the resurrection symbolically, or maybe they think it’s impossible, or maybe they haven’t thought much about it at all. Maybe like so many in our society they have come to think that this can be true for those who believe it’s true, and not true for those who don’t. After all, that is usually what is meant when you hear references to “your truth” and “my truth.” Ultimately it is your choice what to believe, but believing in the resurrection doesn’t make it true, and disbelieving doesn’t make it false.
1 Co 15:3-8 (The Message)
3The first thing I did was place before you what was placed so emphatically before me: that the Messiah died for our sins, exactly as Scripture tells it; 4that he was buried; that he was raised from death on the third day, again exactly as Scripture says; 5that he presented himself alive to Peter, then to his closest followers, 6and later to more than five hundred of his followers all at the same time, most of them still around (although a few have since died); 7that he then spent time with James and the rest of those he commissioned to represent him; 8and that he finally presented himself alive to me.
Ultimately this is what we’re left to deal with. This text, and the text Sarah read earlier. Did Jesus, or did Jesus not, raise from the dead? Let’s go back to our coin falling to the floor. I said that it might not fall to the floor if it’s stopped by a leprechaun or a gremlin or a goonie, or the Spirit of God. I deliberately chose mostly mythical creatures because I want to get you to think about this. Some people say all those creatures are mythical. Some people dismiss the idea of God and the Holy Spirit as quickly and easily as you and I might dismiss the idea of unicorns and leprechauns. But surely this is sloppy thinking. Let’s look at it.
Do you know of anyone who seriously believes in unicorns? How about leprechauns or gremlins? Most people who seriously believe in those things are in mental institutions. And what you find is that these beliefs are part of an overall illness that renders those who hold them unable to function in society – to hold down jobs and raise families and pay bills. But followers of Christ – those who believe in the literal bodily resurrection of Jesus? They function quite well in society as doctors, lawyers, teachers, scientists, line workers, house builders – in fact they function at every level of society and are an integral part of its fabric. Anyone who says that believing in the resurrection is the same as believing in unicorns is not thinking clearly.
In fact, not only do many people in this room believe in it, not only will millions be gathered in churches all over the world tomorrow who believe in it, but there are billions throughout history who have believed in it, the vast majority of whom do not and would not believe in things like unicorns. I’m not arguing that it’s true because so many have believed in it – again, if something is untrue then believing in it won’t make it true. What I’m saying is that those who dismiss the resurrection as a possibility, those who dismiss us who believe as being prone to delusion and fantasy are not thinking clearly. The vast majority of those who have believed on Jesus, and believed in his literal resurrection from death, have been people who have lived sane, productive lives. That fact is indisputable. And for any skeptics or non-believers here tonight, that’s what you have to deal with and take seriously. It cannot be brushed off as goofiness. It can’t simply be called the prejudice of crackpots. It can’t be ruled impossible through appeal to the laws of nature or physics or anything else. What you have here is no less than a profound mystery, that carries with it the blunt force of argument. In the final analysis, the arguments may not sway you. But I want to set you on a slippery slope for a moment.
Some of you here tonight give lip service to the idea of God. You would admit God exists, though you don’t claim to know what that might mean. But the moment you claim to believe in God, you have opened the door to the resurrection of Jesus, because all that has ever been claimed is that he rose from the dead by the power of a God that you yourself believe in. What is claimed is simply that God, who is beyond time, and who knows no difference between operating within our laws of physics and outside of them, did something that is perfectly within his power to do. Is it possible that you didn’t drive your car here but instead chose to simply float in the air? Nope. You don’t have the choice to disregard the laws of physics. But God does. And you who claim to believe in God but say that nothing about him can be known are living at odds with your own beliefs. Surely the most basic thing you can ever know about someone is whether or not they exist. And surely if you can know someone exists, then it’s possible to find out other things about them as well.
Fence sitters, I’m inviting you tonight to join those of us who believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus. He’s the only human being in history who has managed to convince more than a handful of people that he was God. The only one. Mental institutions are filled with people claiming to be God right now. Scores of people claimed to be God at the same time Jesus did. Most of them, like Jesus, ended up on crosses. You know the names of how many of them? Which teachings of theirs do you know?
But Jesus claimed to be God, and people actually believed him. He ended up on a cross, but before he went to the cross he left some of the most profound and enduring teachings in history. I don’t know of any other crucifixion story where the victim is reported to have acted with such love and grace – the same love and grace he taught and modeled in his life. His followers, most of whom denied even knowing him during his trial and crucifixion, claimed to have seen him alive afterwards. Couldn’t have been delusion because delusions happen individually and strike people in different ways. Couldn’t have been mass hysteria because, again, people with hysteria are way too erratic to all tell the same story. And finally, this crucified deity, who supposedly rose from the dead, is the one who created the universe. Speaking of Jesus, the Bible says:
Jn 1:3 (NCV)
3All things were made by him, and nothing was made without him.
And Jesus is apparently even now supervising the course of history. Speaking of this, the Apostle Paul writes:
Col 1:13-20 (The Message)
13God rescued us from dead-end alleys and dark dungeons. He’s set us up in the kingdom of the Son he loves so much, 14the Son who got us out of the pit we were in, got rid of the sins we were doomed to keep repeating. 15We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. 16For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. 17He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. 18And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body. He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he’s there, towering far above everything, everyone. 19So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. 20Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.
That is who we believe Jesus is. Let us close by having him speak for himself. In Revelation, Jesus is recorded as saying:
Re 22:12-13 (NCV)
12“Listen! I am coming soon! I will bring my reward with me, and I will repay each one of you for what you have done. 13I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
That is the glorious culmination of history that we’re all headed for. But if Jesus is dead, this is all just mythology – unicorns and leprechauns. I want to talk to you next week about the other side of the coin. What if the dead are not raised? What if none of this is true?
You’re getting response cards right now because I’d like to hear from you. Maybe it’s your first time here with us today. If so, welcome, and you’ve gotten a good idea of who we believe Jesus is and why he is worthy of worship. If you think you’d like to give your life to Christ, there’s a place where you can indicate that. In fact, you can tell us a lot of things with this card, and we’d love to come alongside you and help wherever we can. Let’s take a moment to fill these out.
