Resurection Sunday

You may notice I call it resurrection weeked instead of Easter.

Easter actually began as a pagan festival celebrating spring in the Northern Hemisphere

The spring equinox is a day where the amount of dark and the amount of daylight is exactly identical, so you can tell that you're emerging from winter because the daylight and the dark have become equal.

For the church, which believes that the resurrection took place on a Sunday,

the First Council of Nicaea in 325 determined that the celebration of Jesus ressurection form the dead should always fall on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox.

For the Jewish people it was a festival called passover.

One thing they all have in common is the season of new beginnings

It marks the begining of spring in the Northern Hemmisphere, so to those South of the equator. its now the begging of Fall

For us in the north things are starting to grow. new life is forming.

For the Christian, that’s indictitive of the new life Jesus birthed in each on of us through His sacrifice.

Jesus is the passover lamb

Jesus came to earth as a Jew.

It was Jewish law to sacrifice a lamb at first Passover.

You may remember the Passover in Exodus 12.

Exodus 12:1–14 NASB95

1 Now the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 “This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you. 3 “Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers’ households, a lamb for each household. 4 ‘Now if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons in them; according to what each man should eat, you are to divide the lamb. 5 ‘Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6 ‘You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight. 7 ‘Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 8 ‘They shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 9 ‘Do not eat any of it raw or boiled at all with water, but rather roasted with fire, both its head and its legs along with its entrails. 10 ‘And you shall not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is left of it until morning, you shall burn with fire. 11 ‘Now you shall eat it in this manner: with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste—it is the Lord’s Passover. 12 ‘For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments—I am the Lord. 13 ‘The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. 14 ‘Now this day will be a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance.

God gave Moses instructions on what the feast of the Passover would be like.

The Passover would become a permanent part of Israel’s religious worship

In Exodus, God instructed Moses to tell the congregation that Passover would be like the first month of the year to them.

They were to take a one-year-old lamb without blemish and sacrifice it.

This was to commemorate their exodus from Egypt.

You may remember that God sent a plague of death to Egypt.

The Jewish people were instructed to put blood over their doorposts so that death would “passover” their homes.

Isaiah prophesied the coming Messiah who would be the passover lamb

Isaiah 53:1–10 NASB95

1 Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 2 For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. 3 He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. 4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. 6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. 7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due? 9 His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth. 10 But the Lord was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand.

John the baptist made this connection to Jesus

John 1:29 NASB95

29 The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

In Passover. The Passover lamb was a precurser to the Messiah, they were killed to cover over the sins of the people

Jesus.. the Messiah had to die as the real passover lamb to wash our sins away

Phillip are made this connection to Jesus and explained it to the eunich from Ethiopia

Acts 8:26–38 NASB95

26 But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, “Get up and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a desert road.) 27 So he got up and went; and there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure; and he had come to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and he was returning and sitting in his chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29 Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go up and join this chariot.” 30 Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said, “Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 Now the passage of Scripture which he was reading was this: “He was led as a sheep to slaughter; And as a lamb before its shearer is silent, So He does not open His mouth. 33 “In humiliation His judgment was taken away; Who will relate His generation? For His life is removed from the earth.” 34 The eunuch answered Philip and said, “Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of someone else?” 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him. 36 As they went along the road they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?” 37 And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” 38 And he ordered the chariot to stop; and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him.

Jesus had to die for our sins

Romans 6:23 NASB95

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world

But anyone can die,

What makes Jesus different from every other leader is the fact that he Rose again from the death

Jesus forecasts His ressurection

John 11:25–26 NASB95

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”

John 12:23–26 NASB95

23 And Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. 26 “If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.

Matthew 12:40 NASB95

40 for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Jesus died on the Cross on Good Friday His Body was laid in a Rich man’s tomb

What happened during this time?

Obviously the followers of Jesus mourned

They believed Jesus was the messiah

As such He was supposed to set up his kingdom here on the earth

His death challenged everything they new about Him.

They saw Him as God incarnate

How could God die?

I can only imagine the hurt and confusion Jesus’s followers must have felt during Jesus’s time in the grave.

It probaby made no sense to them

What were they to do.

They had given up their jobs their families,

had commited the last 3 years of their lives following Jesus everywhere He went.

now that was all gone

What were they to do.

Well aren’t your glad God had a plan?

Jesus being God...Where was Jesus’s Soul/Spirit while his body was in the grave?

Did Jesus decend into Hell?

Acts 2:27–28 NASB95

27 Because You will not abandon my soul to Hades, Nor allow Your Holy One to undergo decay. 28 ‘You have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of gladness with Your presence.’

Ephesians 4:8–9 NASB95

8 Therefore it says, “When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, And He gave gifts to men.” 9 (Now this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth?

1 Peter 3:18–20 NLT

18 Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God. He suffered physical death, but he was raised to life in the Spirit. 19 So he went and preached to the spirits in prison—20 those who disobeyed God long ago when God waited patiently while Noah was building his boat. Only eight people were saved from drowning in that terrible flood.

In the Hebrew Scriptures, the word used to describe the realm of the dead is sheol.

It simply means “the place of the dead” or “the place of departed souls/spirits.”

The New Testament Greek equivalent of sheol is hades, which also refers to “the place of the dead.”

Other passages in the New Testament indicate that sheol/hades is a temporary place, where souls are kept as they await the final resurrection and judgment

Revelation 20:11–15 NASB95

11 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

This passage gives a clear distinction between hades and the lake of fire.

The lake of fire is the permanent and final place of judgment for the lost.

What we commonly refer to as Hell

Hades, then, is a temporary place.

So Jesus did not go to hell, but rather to Hades

Sheol/hades is a realm with two divisions

A place of blessing

A place of judgment (Matthew 11:23; 16:18; Luke 10:15; 16:23; Acts 2:27–31).

The abodes of the saved and the lost are both generally called “hades” in the Bible.

The abode of the saved is also called :

“Abraham’s bosom” (KJV)

“Abraham’s side” (NIV) in Luke 16:22

“paradise” in Luke 23:43.

The abodes of the saved and the lost were separated by a “great chasm”

Luke 16:26 NASB95

26 ‘And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us.’

When Jesus died, He went to the blessed side of sheol, or paradise.

based on a particular interpretation of Ephesians 4:8–10, that Jesus took believers with Him from sheol to another place of bliss that we now call heaven.

The Ressurection

Matthew records the ressurection

Matthew 28:2–7 NASB95

2 And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. 3 And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. 4 The guards shook for fear of him 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 has been crucified. 6 “He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying. 7 “Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going ahead of you into Galilee, there you will see Him; behold, I have told you.”

Romans 6:8–11 NASB95

8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

After the Ressurection

Acts 1:3–10 NASB95

3 To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God. 4 Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, “Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” 6 So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; 8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” 9 And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. 10 And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them.

Told His disciples to wait for the Power of the Holy Spirit

Passover

40 days with Jesus appearing to his disciples

Wait ~10 days until Pentecost arrives

The word means “50 days,” or seven weeks after Passover,

celebrated when the people harvested their grain, offering a “tithe” of it to God.

When the Holy Spirit decended and birthed the Church in Power.

To sum up Jesus time as a man on earth

Jesus was born In Bethleham

Lived 30 years as a carpenter

3 years of ministry raising up disciples and revealing His purpose on the earth

Road into Jerusalem on a donkey the Sunday before Good Friday to fulfill the Prophetic words regarding the Messiah

Jesus Christ was crucified on the Passover, the 14th day of Abib,

and died at the 9th hour or at about three in the afternoon.

This day was also “the preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath.”

Jesus was buried between the 9th hour when He died, and sunset, the beginning of the Sabbath.

The next day after the Passover was the 15th day of Abib,

a solemn annual Sabbath.

This was the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, commemorating the first Passover when God delivered the Hebrews from Egyptian bondage after the Destroying Angel had slain the firstborn of the Egyptians.

It was a day of solemn convocation when all men were required to present themselves before the Lord.

Preach the gospel in Sheol/Hades

He lay in the tomb during the “high day” or the day of the two coinciding Sabbaths John 19:31

It was the seventh-day Sabbath of the 10 Commandments.

It was the Sabbath of the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread,

He arose from the dead early on the first day of the week, which is Sunday

Stayed on the earth for 40 days appearing to His disciples proving He was indeed alive

Telling His disciples to wait on for the Power of Holy Spirit to be released on them.

Ascened into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father to intercede on our behalf.

What A great God we serve!!!

Amen!

Let’s pray