No one slept well that night in Jerusalem
Caiaphas, the high priest, the one who rent his clothes when Jesus supposedly blasphemed by saying “He was the Son of God” tossed and turned
Everything was going according to plan, they had got permission from Pilate to kill him, and those arrogant Romans had even done their dirty work for them
Everything seemed to be falling into place until that unusual darkness came at midday and interrupted the slaying of the lambs for the Passover feast
Then that crazy man Judas came storming into the temple and threw the 30 pieces of silver onto the temple floor
But that was nothing compared to the shock of the earthquake that shook Jerusalem around 3:00pm and there were reports that some of the dead had risen from their tombs and walked into the city
But the most unusual occurrence as he tossed in his bed trying to put the disturbing events of the day behind him was the report that the temple veil had been rent from top to bottom
He even witnessed the event himself as he was there organising the sacrificing of the Passover lambs
What did that mean?
He put the events out of his head and smugly consoled himself that at least that upstart from Galilee was out of the way and despite what had happened that day, things could now get back to normal
Just a few blocks down the road, Pilate too tossed and turned
The ramblings of his superstitious wife about a crazy dream warning him off this innocent man rattled around and around his head
Normally, the decision to end someone’s life didn’t phase him, it rarely caused him any loss of sleep
But this time, it was different, he was filled with doubts and even some regret
He shouldn’t have caved into the Jews request as he knew they only wanted to get rid of Jesus for political reasons
He would show them next time they came asking for some favor
On the other side of town the scene was pretty much the same
Mary, the mother of Jesus, quietly sobbed as she tried to get the horrible impression of her son being crucified out of her mind
Some of the other ladies sat around trying to console her
The disciples sat a safe distance away with their heads bowed ashamed they had run away and hid when their Lord needed them the most
Now he was dead
When he died, their dreams died with Him
They had really thought He was the Messiah, after all look at the miracles he had performed
what about his revolutionary teachings, were they just going to be consigned to the dust bin of history
With the passing of time, Jerusalem would have returned to normal
Jerusalem had always been associated with controversy
in fact it was beginning to return to normal just a few days later
sure, the rumors were still circulating about what had happened on that fateful day, but people had to make a living and get on with life
Caiaphas even had a better night
That is until another earthquake rocked the city early on Sunday morning
Caiaphas hurried to the temple to see if it had been damaged just in time to meet the Roman guards who had been assigned to guard the tomb
They rushed in looking like death
Then came the fateful news which rocked the religious establishment to its foundations– “He is Risen – the tomb is empty!”
They were shocked but not stupid enough to imagine the implications
They paid a huge sum of money for the guards to say his disciples had stolen the body
But it was useless, the news began to spread from other sources all over the city
The cry – “He is risen” echoed across the city
Its interesting the response of the three groups to the news of Jesus’ resurrection
Caiaphas and the Jews rejected it completely
They had seen the miracles, heard the message, were told directly by the soldiers who saw the angels, yet they deliberately tried to hide the truth
Pilate’s response is one of indifference
What are those crazy Jews up to now? His response to the resurrection was the same as it earlier - He washed his hands of the whole affair
In sharp contrast, Mary and the disciples response was one of uncontrolled joy
Peter and John rushed to see the empty tomb
They rushed around the streets of Jerusalem proclaiming the good news
We see the same response to the Risen Christ in the world today
Like the High Priest - Many reject it outright, might even believe the story, but reject it outright
Like Pilate - many are indifferent, these too may believe, but life is just to busy to do anything about it
but then there are those like Mary and the disciples who embrace the news with gladness and respond to the news with gladness
Matthew 28:1-10 Early on Sunday morning, as the new day was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to see the tomb. 2 Suddenly there was a great earthquake, because an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and rolled aside the stone and sat on it. 3 His face shone like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow. 4 The guards shook with fear when they saw him, and they fell into a dead faint.
5 Then the angel spoke to the women. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He isn’t here! He has been raised from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come, see where his body was lying. 7 And now, go quickly and tell his disciples he has been raised from the dead, and he is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there. Remember, I have told you.”
8 The women ran quickly from the tomb. They were very frightened but also filled with great joy, and they rushed to find the disciples to give them the angel’s message. 9 And as they went, Jesus met them. “Greetings!” he said. And they ran to him, held his feet, and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t be afraid! Go tell my brothers to leave for Galilee, and they will see me there.”
What does the cry, “He is risen mean to you?”
Is it just a nice story about something that happened 2000 years ago?
Did Jesus die just so we could rehearse the story once a year?
Or is there more to the story
What implications does this story have for those of us who live in the 21st century?
I would like to talk about the implications of his resurrection on us today
5 Then the angel spoke to the women. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He isn’t here! He has been raised from the dead, just as he said would happen
If you were to look in Budda’s tomb, what would you find – bones
Mohammed tomb, Hari Krishna’s tomb
Jesus is the only one who has the runs on the board - his is the only empty tomb
The stone was rolled away not for Jesus to be able to get out, but so we could see his tomb was empty
Jesus by rising from the dead defeated death
The angels words “Don’t be afraid” still resonate in our lives today 2000 years later
1 Corinthians 15:54-57, 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.
Paul makes the statement a physical mankind has been wanting to make since the original sin
"Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"
at the moment death does have a victory and it does have a sting
The promise Jesus makes to his followers is that one day he is going to raise us from the dead and give us eternal life
1 Corinthians 15:20-23 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.21 For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead.22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.23 But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming.
We can believe that promise because he has personally demonstrated he can walk away from the tomb
So one day, you and your loved ones will live again if you belong to Jesus
Jesus, by rising, has defeated death
We like the women can run away from the empty tomb with great joy because of this truth
One day the cry, “He is risen” will be replaced by “They are risen”
We don’t need to be afraid of death any longer because we will live again
The second way in which Jesus’ resurrection effects us today is that it gives us victory over sin and death
Sometimes we humans do dumb things don’t we
We go home saying, “I wish I’d handled that better”, or “if only I had that to do over again”
9 And as they went, Jesus met them. “Greetings!” he said. And they ran to him, held his feet, and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t be afraid! Go tell my brothers to leave for Galilee, and they will see me there.”
Right now there is something that separates us from God – our sins
We cannot have a relationship with God until those sins are somehow erased
Only problem is we can’t erase them ourselves – nothing we can do
That is something to be afraid of
But now Jesus says don’t be afraid – Why?
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
God loved us so much, he said, “I will die in your stead so that you can be forgiven”
So this is exactly what Jesus did – he died in our stead so we would be acceptable to God
When Jesus came back from the dead He proved that the sacrifice of His life was acceptable to God.
His resurrection shows that the debt for sin has been paid. God’s wrath has been satisfied.
We are reassured that "everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name" (Acts 10:43) And in the book of Isaiah our Lord says, "Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool." (Ish 1:18)
We no longer need to be afraid of what we were in the past because it has been dealt with
It has been erased in the blood of Christ. We are forgiven. And we know it is true because of the resurrection
Born Again
Not only does God promise to forgive us our sins, he also promises to give us a new life that has power over our sinful lifestyle
One of the Jewish leaders who did accept Jesus was Nicodemous
Jesus explained to him the concept of being “Born Again”
Unless you are born again, you cannot enter the Kingdom of God
Why do we need to be born again? Only those who live in the spirit can enter the Kingdom of God because it is a spiritual realm
Up to the point we accept Jesus Christ as our personal savior, we are slaves of sin
We can’t help ourselves, as much as we would like to do good, we always come up short
But God had a plan to give us power over sin – Jesus was going to come and live in us
Romans 6:4-11 For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.5 Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised as he was. 6 Our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. 7 For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. 8 And since we died with Christ, we know we will also share his new life. 9 We are sure of this because Christ rose from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. 10 He died once to defeat sin, and now he lives for the glory of God. 11 So you should consider yourselves dead to sin and able to live for the glory of God through Christ Jesus.
Jesus is very much alive today in his followers – He promises to live in us and give us the power to defeat sin just as he defeated sin
II Corinthians 5:17"If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has
come!"
If Jesus had not risen from the dead, we would still be dead in our sins
That’s why it’s a matter of his death and resurrection – we need both in order to be born again
If He only died – we would only be forgiven corpses
But because of his resurrection we are forgiven and given a new life in the spirit – literally born again
The risen Jesus lives in us and gives us the power to defeat sin
The Risen Jesus presents all of us with a choice
Like the Jewish religious leaders we can reject him outright
Or like the Romans did, we can ignore him
Or like a lot of christians, we can play games and pretend we are christians
As the saying goes, Just because you sit in the chook house doesn’t mean you are a chicken
Just because you sit in church occasionally doesn’t necessarily mean you are a true follower of Jesus Christ
Or we can joyfully accept him as our risen Savior, become his disciples and live our lives demonstrating to the world He is very much alive today by the way he lives in our lives
Let me finish with an illustration – “Have you tasted Jesus?”
A divinity school hosted an annual picnic, to which they invited one of the greatest minds to lecture in the theological education center. One year, the guest lecturer was a professor, who spoke for two and one-half hours "proving" that the resurrection of Jesus was false.
The professor quoted scholar after scholar and book after book. He concluded that since there was no such thing as the historical resurrection, the religious tradition of the church was groundless, emotional mumbo-jumbo, because it was based on a relationship with a risen Jesus, who, in fact, never rose from the dead in any literal sense. He then asked if there were any questions.
After about 30 seconds, an old preacher with a head of woolly white hair stood up in the back of the auditorium.
"Docta Professer, I got one question", he said as all eyes turned toward him. He reached into his sack lunch and pulled out an apple and began eating it. CRUNCH, MUNCH, "My question is a simple question",....CRUNCH, MUNCH... "Now, I ain’t never read them books you read"...CRUNCH, MUNCH... "and I can’t recite the Scriptures in the original Greek"...CRUNCH, MUNCH... "I don’t know nothin’ about Niebuhr and Heidegger"....CRUNCH, MUNCH...He finished the apple. "All I wanna know is: This apple I just ate------was it bitter or sweet?"
The professor paused for a moment and answered in exemplary scholarly fashion: "I cannot possibly answer that question, for I haven’t tasted your apple".
The white-haired preacher dropped the core of his apple into his crumpled paper bag, looked up at the professor and said calmly, "Neither have you tasted my Jesus."
The 1,000 plus in attendance could not contain themselves. The auditorium erupted with applause and cheers. The professor thanked his audience and promptly left the platform.
The strongest proof of the Risen Christ today is his personal touch in the lives of his followers
We know what its like to be forgiven
We know what it like to be born again
We know we have a future in heaven
Question I want to leave with you is, “Have you tasted the of the Risen Christ?”
