Time to Celebrate
Almost 2,000 years ago, there were seven small words spoken that have made all the difference in the world. They are - "He is not here; he has risen". Those seven words changed everything for eternity! Of all the events in the life of Christ, the resurrection - the fact that Jesus rose from the dead - is by far the most significant!
There are many milestones that have greatly impacted human history - the beginning of organized farming and agriculture, the invention of the wheel, written language, man walking on the moon... But none of that makes any difference compared to the resurrection of Jesus!
We focused on the cross on Good Friday. We looked at Jesus' sacrifice; how He died for our sins and was placed in the tomb. But this is what we celebrate on Easter...
I. Jesus didn't stay dead!
We celebrate the empty tomb! That's what we celebrate! The cross was not the end! It was Pope John Paul II who said, "Do not abandon yourselves to despair: We are the Easter people, and Hallelujah is our song."
And we as the 'Easter people' have the privilege, the right, the responsibility to celebrate the empty tomb because through Jesus, we can now have a personal relationship with God, Our Creator! We should be humbled and grateful! So let's look at one account from Matthew 28:1-8 (NIV)...
After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. (2) There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. (3) His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. (4) The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.
(5) The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. (6) He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. (7) Then go quickly and tell his disciples: 'He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.' Now I have told you." (8) So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples.
There is something that many outside of the Church try to deny or even ignore, but Jesus' resurrection is...
A. A fact
Josh McDowell, a Christian apologist, said, "After thoroughly investigating its foundation, I have come to the conclusion that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the most wicked, vicious, heartless hoaxes ever foisted upon the minds of men, OR it is THE most fantastic fact of history."
So, which do you believe it is? Hoax or fact? - What IF it's not true...? 'I can't ask that question!' Yes, you can - it's okay - God is big enough for any sincere questions. The Apostle Paul was addressing some back then who had doubts about the truth of the resurrection. He wrote this less than thirty years after Jesus rose, in 1 Corinthians 15:13-19 (NIV)...
If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. (14) And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. (15) More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. (16) For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either.
(17) And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. (18) Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. (19) If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.
Paul paints a pretty awful picture without the resurrection. And we're going to come back again later to look at the rest of Paul's argument in a bit. But you can't ignore the resurrection or downplay its significance - you have to decide whether or not you truly believe that Jesus rose from the dead or not. And we're talking about a real historical event - not like on TV and in movies where people die all the time and then come back. We know it doesn't work that way in real life. Dead is dead. At least it was until Jesus...
I recently stumbled upon the blog of a self proclaimed 'former Christian'. The man had written a lengthy article meant to 'debunk' the Gospel's account of the story of Jesus' resurrection. He figured if he could prove the resurrection account in the Bible was filled with inaccuracies and lies - he could ruin believers' Easter celebration. It had 18 different accusations, which at first glance could be very disturbing.
One such claim was, 'John says that only Mary went to the tomb while it was still dark but Mark says it was several women just after sunrise - so which is it? Obviously these guys contradicted each other - so it must all be false.'
- OR - if you read the whole accounts in context and do an honest comparison - John doesn't say it was 'only' Mary, but Mary was the only one he mentioned. And could it possibly be that Mary started out on her walk to the tomb right before sunrise and got there just after sunrise...? That's not a stretch at all and makes perfect sense in the timeline of the account spelled out in the four Gospels.
The blogger also wrote, 'Luke claims that Jesus appeared to 'the 11' before he supposedly ascended into Heaven, but Paul says Jesus appeared to 'the 12' - Which is it? Either Paul was making it up or must have forgotten that Judas was dead.' - What Luke actually says is, "the Eleven and those with them". And the blogger obviously didn't read the book of Acts where Judas was replaced by Matthias, one who was also with them the whole time - bringing their number back to 12; which Paul would have clearly known. And every single accusation of alleged inaccuracies could be resolved simply by actually reading scripture in context.
The celebration of the resurrection has continued for all these years because despite all the concerted efforts to disprove it - the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead stands because it has withstood the scrutiny of one investigation after another. Even secular professors of history and archeology who have set out to disprove the fact of the resurrection have come away with the clear testimony that history is an ally of the resurrection.
If Jesus would have stayed dead - there's no way His followers would have been able to spread His message like wildfire. Kings and governments tried to stamp out Jesus' message but His followers wouldn't back down even at the cost of their very lives! And people don't willingly die for what they know to be a lie. Some have suggested that the disciples stole Jesus body and lied about His resurrection. But we see that the Apostles, men who knew firsthand whether or not the resurrection had really happened - they willingly gave their lives to stand for the truth.
Jesus' resurrection is the singular doctrine, the one fact that elevates Christianity above all other world religions. We do not serve a dead religious leader - we serve a risen Lord! And Jesus defeated death...
B. For us
When Jesus came back from the dead - this was not just a one time personal victory for Himself. This was a once and for all victory defeating the permanent power of death for everyone.
- Because of God's holiness, His perfection, His sense of ultimate justice - the way things worked was this - 'the wages of sin is death'. Meaning that based on the Creator's own system of justice, anyone who sins, anyone who rejects God's ways deserves death.
There are some who mistakenly believe that God somehow owes them Heaven for all the good that they've done, or that they can somehow 'earn' a place in Heaven. Just two weeks ago, I mentioned that Jesus said no one is good, by God's standards. Jesus said, "No one is good - except God alone." Biblically speaking - none of us are good. And this is not just some form of self deprecation for dramatic emphasis - because of my sin, I am a bad man, Biblically speaking. Sure I can rationalize and say I'm good compared to a bunch of other people, but not when compared to Jesus. But Jesus came for people like me...
Don't ever fool yourself into thinking that you somehow need less grace than those 'bad people'. And I in no way mean this to make you feel bad about yourself - but actually to give you a reason to be glad. Yes, you are a sinner - yes, I am a sinner - without Jesus I am lost, but Jesus specializes in the 'saving business'.
John 3:17 (NIV)
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Jesus came to save us. Jesus defeated death itself for us. The empty tomb makes...
II. All the difference
The resurrection of Jesus is the literal "keystone" upon which our hope for eternal life is built. Without the resurrection of Jesus, nothing else matters. Now I want to go back to our previous passage from 1 Corinthians again where Paul argued, in 1 Corinthians 15:17-20 (NIV)...
And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. (18) Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. (19) If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. (20) But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
There are those who would have us believe that Jesus didn't rise from the dead - that it was all a hoax by some religious zealots. The devil is one of those. He would have us tied solely to this world with absolutely no hope for eternal life. He wants us to believe that this life IS all there is. And if that were true - we'd all be wasting our time. It would be foolish for us to pray or read our Bibles, foolish to give our money in the offering plate, absolutely foolish for me to choose preaching as my profession - I'd be among the biggest fools of all.
But the devil can't hide the fact of the empty tomb! The resurrection of Jesus is not merely important to the Christian faith; without it, there is no Christianity. Without Jesus' resurrection there is no hope. But Jesus didn't stay dead, and...
A. We won't stay dead
I've sat with many of you in a hospital room or at a funeral service mourning the loss of a loved one. I've listened as you shared personal disappointments and pain. I've watched grown men tear up as they talk about how tired and miserable they are because of the loss of a loved one. I've seen some of you cry out and ask God 'why?'
If that was all my ministry entailed - If all I could offer was, 'someday, maybe this will all be over and it will all be behind us' - I'd have to say I have about the worst job ever. But that's not the case! Because Jesus lives, we will, too! We will see those in the faith who have gone before us - we will see them again! Death doesn't win! Because of Jesus - Christians don't stay dead!
Don't get me wrong, the pain that death causes is very real. Even faithful Christians feel deep pain when they lose someone close to them, we know that. But despite our pain, we also understand the hope that we have in Jesus. But, "Every single shred of evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ is also evidence for my eventual resurrection."
When Jesus felt the pain of the death of His friend Lazarus, He talked with Martha as recorded in John 11:25-26 (NIV)...
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; (26) and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"
Because Jesus lives - we won't stay dead! - And we have Jesus' resurrection as our evidence. But there's one last thought before we finish up here. The fact of Jesus rising from the grave is evidence - and this is a fine, but important distinction - we have evidence, but the Bible doesn't necessarily provide...
B. Proof
And I know that sounds like a pretty odd statement especially on an Easter Sunday when I'm talking about the fact of Jesus' resurrection. But I'm not suggesting any sort of heresy here...
Think about it - the Bible starts with, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." There's no background, there's no explanation of 'where He came from' or how He created anything... Scripture starts out by acknowledging the existence of God and His supreme power and just hits the ground running with the story. The Bible doesn't seek to prove the existence of God, but simply presumes His existence because this is His story.
We have His recorded Word in the Bible - and it is a true account, but it's not necessarily 'proof'. If God were to speak in a clear, audible voice directly to you, or if Jesus Himself came to you today and performed a miracle - you might consider that proof. But God doesn't seem to be doing that today. Why? Because it's not about 'proof'.
There were plenty of people in the Gospel stories who saw firsthand the events of Jesus' death, His burial and His resurrection. And they still rejected Him. We sometimes think that if only we had been alive back then, if only we had seen 'proof' for ourselves - then maybe it would be easier for us to believe, maybe we'd be stronger Christians.
A miracle does not automatically produce faith. The Pharisees were alive at the time of the resurrection and all they wanted to do was to stamp out Christianity and any talk about Jesus being alive.
I'm all about reminding you of the truth and the hope and the miracle of the resurrection of Jesus. I love to preach about the empty tomb. My hope is based entirely on Jesus' promise of new life. But that historical event, that fact alone isn't enough to make everyone believe. God's creation is the evidence of His existence - but without faith - you can't believe the evidence.
Without faith, you won't ever see a miracle even when it's right in front of you. 'Without faith it is impossible to please God'. I'm not here to convince you to have faith because of the resurrection - actually, it's only because of our faith that we can see the miracle of the resurrection. And it is only because of our faith in Jesus that we have hope after this life.
So What?
It is indeed, time to celebrate - but the point of Easter is not just so we can celebrate amongst ourselves; so we can sing our songs in the comfort of our Church building. We're not just supposed to just kill time here on earth until we're eventually called home to glory. There's a reason we are still here.
"We are the Easter people, and Hallelujah is our song". And as 'Easter people' - part of our celebration includes proclaiming the truth to those who don't know Jesus. So today, let's celebrate! Let's enjoy a big Easter feast with family! Let's watch the kids dig through their Easter baskets and candy! But do not forget the truth of Easter - talk to someone about Jesus today! Share with them the truth of Jesus and the empty tomb and what that means for them!