He’s Alive
Matthew 28:1-10
As we sit here I wonder what has happened to this special day in America, and the truth is that we have been invaded. Not by some terrorist organization or by a foreign nation, rather a bunny has invaded us, and the meaning of Jesus’ resurrection has become a little bit fuzzy.
The word Easter is derived from the Anglo-Saxon goddess of the spring and dawn known as “Eastre,” and our current celebration of Easter with the bunny and eggs comes from the festival that was held in her honor during this time of spring. But this goddess worship goes much further back to Diana of the Greeks, or earlier to Ishtar of the Babylonians.
But the natural question that arises is, “How did such a pagan holiday become so entwined with the Christian’s or the Church’s celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ?” And the answer isn’t pretty.
When Christian missionaries went into other countries to evangelize, they encountered the celebrations from the religions of those particular areas. What they did was simply incorporate these religious celebrations into the holy days of the church, which they did so in order to encourage conversion.
What they did was to connect the day Jesus rose from the dead, what we call Resurrection Sunday, with this pagan festival of Eastre, which was held during this time.
But this is not the way the first church celebrated this day.
Today Easter is more about bunny rabbits who lay decorative eggs. And what has always bothered me, how did they ever get a bunny to lay an egg. Now, I’ve laid an egg, metamorphically speaking, but a rabbit?
Actually this goes back to a German myth where Eastre changed a bird into a bunny, therefore it could lay eggs.
But whatever happened to the day where we celebrated Jesus’ resurrection, you know, the whole coming back from the dead thing, the whole, Jesus died upon the cross, buried, and on the third day rose from the dead.
Look at what the angel said on this very morning almost two thousand years ago.
“He’s not here, He’s alive.”
Matthew 28:1-10
On this Sunday the early church would greet one another with “Christ is Risen,” and the response would be, “He is risen indeed.”
Yet, today, such a greeting is hardly if ever heard, rather it’s “Happy Easter,” and I even catch myself saying the same thing because it has been so ingrained in our culture.
The problem is that most people don’t believe in the resurrection, but they do believe in a bunny that lays eggs. Go figure. But modern day celebration of Easter has no connection with the empty tomb and the miracle of the resurrection.
The real reason we celebrate this day is that Jesus Christ was crucified and died upon the cross. His body was laid in a tomb, and three days later He rose from the dead and is alive.
The resurrection miracle is Jesus’ triumph over death. The tomb is empty. Jesus is alive. This is why we gather to celebrate. And in full accordance with Jesus’ command, we are telling the world this great and glorious event.
This was the message of the early church, and it is the same message that needs to be preached today. The Apostle Paul sums up this message in his letter to the Roman church.
“Just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” (Romans 6:4b NLT)
What I’d like to do this morning is to look what the two essential truths Paul speaks about.
Two Essential Truths of Easter
1. Christ Rose From The Dead
“Christ was raised from the dead”
Some may question my use of the word, “truth.” Is the resurrection a fact? Did Jesus die and rise from the dead? Some say its superstition, supposition, or a theory, but not the truth.
What I’d like to point out at this juncture is that in the entire New Testament the resurrection is never debated. They knew that Jesus rose from the dead. You’ll find no lengthy defense of this fact, nor any attempts to vindicate the details of the gospel account by the early church fathers. Both friend and foe accepted it as fact.
If there had been some question concerning the truth of these statements, then those who did not believe could have easily gone and produced the body, or at least questioned the eyewitnesses to find either fault or flaw. But there was nothing, and that’s because it was indeed true and not some lie or fantasy.
Jesus rose from the dead.
Today, however, this is a highly disputed topic, and most people tend to disbelieve it. Today people doubt, but not because of the evidence, but because they haven’t taken the time to check it out for themselves. You see what most people do is that they come to the cross and the empty tomb with their minds and hearts already made up. One attorney put it this way.
“I am convinced that Jesus really did rise from the dead, but I am no nearer to being a Christian than I was before. I thought that the difficulty was with my head. I find that it really is with my heart”
However, if you come to the evidence with an open mind and heart, then I believe a new life can yours.
Take for instance Gilbert West, an 18th century theologian who boasted that he’d reveal the complete impossibility of the resurrection. But after his investigation he wrote,
“As I have studied the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and have weighed it according to the laws of evidence, I have become satisfied that Jesus really rose from the dead, as recorded in the gospels.”
Then there is the testimony of Simon Greenleaf. Greenleaf was a distinguished law professor in Harvard’s School of Law. The London Law Magazine called him the most highly esteemed legal authority of the 20th century. In fact, you can still order his multi-volume law book, “A Treatise on the Law of Evidence.”
Mr. Greenleaf had also made a through study of the evidence of the death and resurrection of Jesus and endorsed the truth of the resurrection and has written several books on the accumulated evidence.
This leads me to a third witness, and that is Sir Edward Clark, a British High Court judge, who after a through legal analysis said,
“To me the evidence is conclusive, and over and over again in the High Court I have secured the verdict on evidence not nearly so compelling. As a lawyer I accept the gospel evidence unreservedly as the testimony of truthful men to facts that they were able to substantiate.”
Michael Green, a British theologian said,
“The appearances of Jesus are as well authenticated as anything in antiquity…There can be no rational doubt that they occurred, and that the main reason why Christians become sure of the resurrection in the earliest days was just this. They could say with assurance, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ They knew it was he.”
Now, there are many theories out there trying to disprove the resurrection.
• The swoon theory – which states that Jesus didn’t truly die upon the cross, but fainted and the coolness of the tomb revive Him.
• The hallucination theory – which states that the disciples were hallucinating
• Then there is the theory that the disciples stole the body.
• And then there is a theory that His appearances were actually cases of mistaken identity.
Yet, when these and other theories are carefully crossed examined by the evidence, they are found wanting, that’s why they remain theories, because a theory is nothing more than unsubstantiated fact.
Unfortunately time doesn’t permit all the evidence to be thoroughly examined in our time together today, but the evidence is well recorded in books, documentaries, and various encyclopedias.
The proof and evidence is all there, and there’s no other conclusion than that Jesus died, was buried, and rose on the third day. He is risen, He’s Alive! Really there’s no other conclusion based upon the evidence.
So, when we come together to celebrate the resurrection, we are celebrating the promise of God’s peace and pardon for everyone who will believe.
“If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” (Romans 10: 9-10 NIV)
The reality, however, is that when we come together our thoughts are on other things instead of the resurrection, and we have opinions and beliefs on a thousand different things, like …
• We may believe in this or that economic forecast concerning what is facing our nation.
• We may believe in this political candidate, or that political party.
• We may believe one way or another about what we read and see in today’s news.
But for the sake of your very soul, believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, because if you don’t then eternal salvation will not be yours.
Consider for a moment Thomas, one of Jesus’ disciples, who is better known as doubting Thomas. Uncertainty ruled his life, even when the other disciples told him of the miracle of the resurrection. He doubted the truth and said,
“Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.” (John. 20:25 NIV)
Eight days after this Jesus appeared to the disciples again, and this time Thomas was with them, and Jesus told Thomas to put his hands into the nail prints, and thrust his hand into His side where the spear had pierced, and Jesus said,
“Stop doubting and believe.” (John 20:27 NIV)
To which Thomas then cried out,
“My Lord and my God.” (John 20:28 NIV)
To me this probably is the greatest evidence of the resurrection that we have, because it was at this time that Thomas called Jesus Lord and God, and remember, Thomas was a Jew and was commanded never to call anyone by God’s name. And yet here he’s calling Jesus, “God.”
And it is this same proclamation that we all must make when we come to believe. Look at what Jesus said to Thomas,
“Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29 NIV)
Now we come to the blessing as seen the second statement made by Paul and the second truth about Easter.
2. A New Life For Those Who Believe
“We too may live a new life”
When Jesus rose from the dead, an entirely new era dawned upon the world, and the human race. It’s an era where those who will believe need no longer cringe before death and the grave, which has been one of humanity’s most crushing fears.
Even though many glibly deny the existence of God and ridicule the existence of heaven and hell, the truth is that inwardly they know judgment is coming, and a punishment beyond the grave, because their consciences have been convicting them.
Yet, those with resurrection faith need not fear death or the grave, because the resurrection of Jesus Christ is our heavenly Father’s divine guarantee that a person’s sins are forever forgiven.
Death, therefore, is not something to be feared for believers, rather its something to be grasped because the promise of God is,
“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.” (John 3:16 NIV)
The resurrection is the guarantee of Jesus’ promises. Listen to one of these promises given when He raised Lazarus from the dead.
“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” (John 11:25-26 NIV)
Yet, this newness of life is not just for our future destiny beyond the grave, but also for our present life right here and now. Paul said,
“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV)
The resurrection promises are that all of our fears, weaknesses, sorrows, hurts, doubts, and sins are all passed away in the newness of Jesus’ resurrection.
Whatever your problem may be, whatever problems may be lurking in the darkness of your soul, bring them into the light of the empty tomb and the darkness will disappear.
And so, if you will confess Jesus Christ with your mouth, and believe in your heart that He is risen from the dead and is alive, you too shall be saved, and you can be assured of your eternity in heaven.
This morning, take your sins and lay them at the foot of the cross then quickly go to the empty tomb and believe the truth that Jesus is no longer there, but has risen. And you will find newness of life, forgiveness of sins, and the everlasting joy of your salvation.
Because Jesus lives, all who will believe in Him will live with Him forever. He’s no longer in the tomb, but has risen and He’s alive and mighty to save.
