He HAD To Rise!
(All my sermons use illustrations from sermon central.com and all scripture is NIV unless otherwise noted)
(We showed a video from the “Passion of Christ” entitled “Beautiful Savior” just before I preached.)
“Jesus your nailed scarred hands are beautiful, and your nailed scarred feet are beautiful, for by your wounds our wounds are healed.”
EASTER Sunday morning is a day that brings hope, and celebration, and renewal to a world that sadly lacks these things. In a world where nuclear weapons are being tested, earthquakes are devastating countries, and the atrocities of abortion and homosexuality fill the headlines, an empty grave is quite the contrast. That emptiness is quite different from the emptiness the world displays. Empty marriages, empty promises from political and business leaders, and empty churches, are just the opposite of what God tells us with the empty grave of Easter Sunday morning. And yet, I feel as if, many do not understand this. They of course are not alone. If you have your Bible with you this morning, let us re-read the text that was read for us this morning.
John 20:1-9 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!" 3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9(They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)
I entitled this sermon “He HAD To Rise,” for without the resurrection there is nothing to celebrate. Many “scapegoats” had taken the sin of the Israelites before, as recorded in the Book of Leviticus chapter 16, on the Day of Atonement, each year, two goats were selected by the casting of lots, by chance. One goat was used as a sacrifice for the sins of the people, he was slaughtered for the forgiveness of the sin, for the price of sin is -DEATH! The other goat, was the scapegoat, it was used to remove the guilt of the sin from Israel, the sins of the entire nation were placed on the goat and it was sent out into the desert. The death of our Beautiful Savior replaced this system once for all. We can have our sins forgiven and our guilt removed by placing our trust in Christ. Christ paid the price and by His wounds, we are healed. That is the first part of the celebration of Easter; AN EMPTY CROSS.
Look with me, at the place they call the Skull. It’s a very dismal day, I know the Gospel of Matthew tells us, that from noon to three in the afternoon it was dark. We do not know exactly how the darkness occurred, BUT IT DID. God, in conjunction with nature, darkened the skies, testifying to the magnitude of what was about to happen. We see Jesus, in the terrible pain of torture, as we witnessed in the video this morning, crucified on a cross, it is dark, a darkness that is both physical and spiritual, no one saying a word and then Matthew tells us chapter 27:46 About the ninth hour ( three in the afternoon) Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"-which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Jesus is not questioning God the Father, HE knows what is happening, these are words of anguish that describe the heart of our Lord, as He took on the sin of the WORLD. Your sin, my sin, from the Garden of Eden, to the time of our Lord’s return, past, present, and future, once for all, AND this separated Jesus from His Father in heaven . . . this is what Jesus meant when He prayed in the garden and asked that God might take this cup from him Matt 26:39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will."
Jesus knew the promise of an EMPTY cross, a cross that He hung on, when they took Him down from the cross, one of the EMPTY promises was done.
You see Matthew tells us in verse 50 And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.
The Gospel of Mark tells us Mark 15:37 With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.
The Gospel of Luke describes it this way; Luke 23:46 Jesus called out with a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." When he had said this, he breathed his last.
And John says; John 19:30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
It was finished . . . and yet it was just starting for the world, for in that moment several things happen that show us the first EMPTY promise of Easter.
First we had the darkness over all the land, this must have told the people that something was going on, but after Jesus died, the temple curtain was torn in two. Matt 27:51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. This was the curtain that was in the Holy of Holies, a place that only the High Priest was allowed, and only once a year for the atonement of sin. This tearing of the curtain shows us, that now, all of mankind has access to God through Jesus Christ His Son. This allows you and I to ask forgiveness through Christ with no need for someone to do it for us. Christ paid the price once for all, and the barrier between man and God was broken down.
Then the Bible tells us that the earth shook, rocks broke and tombs broke open and people were resurrected from the dead. Matt 27:51-53 The earth shook and the rocks split. 52 The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. 53 They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.
EARTHQUAKE, TOMBS BREAK OPEN, HOLY PEOPLE RAISED TO LIFE
And I see Matthew telling us already of the second EMPTY promise of Easter Sunday morning. You see, this all happens, and it shows that Jesus has paid the price, it shows that we have access now to God, it shows, as they take Him down off the cross that this part IS FINISHED. Matthew even tells us that when the Romans saw ALL of this, some believed; Matt 27:54 When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, "Surely he was the Son of God!"
BUT, this is only a part of what we celebrate this morning, access to God through the sacrifice of Jesus, forgiveness of our sins because He paid the price once for all.
BUT, look and see the other half. YES, He is the Son of God who has taken away the sins of the world, and John described it this way; John 3:16-17 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
ETERNAL LIFE - the cross was EMPTY, our sins have been forgiven by sacrifice, BUT now the tomb is EMPTY and that means Jesus has had victory over death!
PLAY WING CLIP - “The Empty Tomb” Just to the part of where he says, “it starts now”
You see, folks this is where it ALL begins, when Jesus rose from the dead, He in turn gave us victory over death.
[The Answer to Death, Citation: Robert Russell, "Resurrection Promises," Preaching Today, Tape No. 151.] Professional golfer Paul Azinger was diagnosed with cancer at age 33. He had just won a PGA championship and had ten tournament victories to his credit. He wrote, "A genuine feeling of fear came over me. I could die from cancer. Then another reality hit me even harder. I’m going to die eventually anyway, whether from cancer or something else. It’s just a question of when. Everything I had accomplished in golf became meaningless to me. All I wanted to do was live." Then he remembered something that Larry Moody, who teaches a Bible study on the tour, had said to him. "Zinger, we’re not in the land of the living going to the land of the dying. We’re in the land of the dying trying to get to the land of the living." Golfer Paul Azinger recovered from chemotherapy and returned to the PGA tour. He’s done pretty well. But that bout with cancer deepened his perspective. He wrote, "I’ve made a lot of money since I’ve been on the tour, and I’ve won a lot of tournaments, but that happiness is always temporary. The only way you will ever have true contentment is in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I’m not saying that nothing ever bothers me and I don’t have problems, but I feel like I’ve found the answer to the six-foot hole."
Listen to how Paul explains it to us; 1 Cor 15:53-57 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory." 55 "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
We were perishable, just like fruit on a hot day left in the sun, we would, and we will shrivel and die. BUT, we can clothe ourselves with that which is imperishable, we can clothe ourselves with Christ. And when we do that, we will share in the victory of the EMPTY TOMB. We will have victory over death. We can share in eternal life!
BUT as we have been told, it all STARTS now, and Paul says the same thing;
1 Cor 15:58 Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
Stand Firm - we must not let anything move us, not Satan, not the world, not the ones we love here on earth, we must let nothing move us. We can do that when we give ourselves fully to the work of the Lord. Those that know Jesus as Lord, have the promise of eternal life, we celebrate that this morning. BUT we must never be moved in another direction. We must stay the course, finish the race, allow nothing to turn us from the promise that is in our Lord.
Those that do not know Jesus in a personal and intimate way MUST change, they Must accept Him as Lord, believe in Him as Savior, confess Him as Lord and Master of their lives, and be baptized, for the forgiveness of sin and to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
As the musicians come forward, ARE you here this morning and you need to re-dedicate your life to Jesus, renew your promise to Him as we celebrate His promise to us? Are you here this morning and you have allowed the world, or someone in it, or circumstances to move you away from Him? Come forward this morning, give Jesus His due. OR PERHAPS you have never really accepted Him as Savior, as Lord and Master, perhaps you have not joined Him in the waters of baptism signifying His Death and Resurrection, and you need to have your sins forgiven and to receive the gift of God’s Holy Spirit. COME FORWARD this morning as we sing “Just As I AM” page 488 verses 1,2&4 come to Him, just as you are, Jesus loves you that way, but He does not want you to stay that way. . . .
