A Resurrection Faith
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Peter was astonished at what he heard Jesus saying. It was clear that Jesus didn’t understand the prophecies about the Messiah, if he did, he wouldn’t say those things. It was as if Jesus were giving up instead of stepping into his role as the Messiah. He said that he would soon go to Jerusalem, suffer terribly by the priests and scribes, and then be killed.
So, Peter took it upon himself to help correct the Lord’s misunderstanding. Turn with me to Matthew 16 verse 22.
And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.”
But the rebuke turned around on him when Jesus said,
Matthew 16:23 (ESV)
“Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
Wow! Peter’s head spun as he processed what Jesus said to him.
What he missed entirely is that Jesus predicted not just his suffering, death and burial, but his resurrection as well:
From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.
This is the first of the predictions of His death and resurrection. Jesus made this prediction shortly after feeding a great multitude from a single picnic basket.
After the “mount of transfiguration” experience where Peter, James and John got to see Jesus transformed into his glorious body for a short while, Jesus made a second, similar prediction. Turn to Matthew 17:22:
As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.” And they were greatly distressed.
A little while later, on his way to Jerusalem to participate in his last Passover—the last passover the world would ever need—Jesus took the disciples aside and made his third such prediction:
Matthew 20:17–19 (ESV)
“See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”
Shortly after giving this third statement about his death and resurrection, the mother of James and John came to Jesus with her sons and she asked,
“Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.” (Matt 20:21)
The disconnect between the perception of how they would be saved by the Messiah and the way it was actually going to happen was so profound that even though Jesus described it with clarity on at least three separate occasions, the disciples just didn’t grasp it. They were planning on Jesus wearing a crown of gold and directing earthly armies, but Jesus was planning on wearing a crown of thorns and being abandoned by nearly everyone who had claimed to be his follower.
Humility
Humility
When Jesus asked the disciples to get the foal of a donkey for him to ride into Jerusalem they were ecstatic. That’s what kings did! It was clear that all their hopes were about to come true. Jesus was about to rise up into His role as the Messiah!
Peter and James and John and all the rest were already making plans for their role in this new government.
If you’ve ever purchased a house you know how it goes. As soon as your offer is accepted you start measuring and planning and budgeting so that you can make it your own even though you haven’t yet paid a penny for it.
All that afternoon the disciples were talking excitedly among themselves as they prepared the room that Jesus had them arrange for the passover meal. They talked about how certain they were that since Jesus had just rode in on a donkey and since all the people were there to praise Jesus as the son of David—a clear indication that he was the messiah and rightful king—surely the next step was to step up and take authority over all the leaders of Israel and call for an army to fight the invading Romans. By evening all the disciples had gathered together excitedly measuring their office spaces and stately garments. Even though Jesus was there, most of the disciples weren’t paying a lot of attention to him. Until.
Turn to John 13 verse 3:
Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
The disciples were astonished that Jesus would take the servant’s role. Notice how Peter’s words echo his rebuke of Jesus from Matthew 16:
He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.”
Peter was confused and maybe even a little frustrated. He didn’t want Jesus to act like a humble servant. He wanted Him to take His place as a king! And now that Jesus was kneeling before him and taking his sandals off, maybe, just maybe, all those bad things Jesus predicted were truly going to come to pass, but Peter didn’t want it to be that way. Peter wanted the kingdom of God to conquer the nations. Peter wanted the Lord of the earth to rise up and be glorified.
What Peter didn’t understand was that the kingdom Jesus wanted to conquer was in the hearts of the people of the nations, and the way He was going to do it was to rise up on a tree and be crucified.
As soon as Jesus said, “if I do not wash you, you have no share with me,” Peter quickly said, “then don’t just wash my feet, wash all of me!” Cleary Peter was all-in with Jesus, come what may. But he was so confused by what he was experiencing. Nothing seemed to match up with what he had expected.
A little later that night Jesus told the disciples that he had given them an example that they should do the same thing. His example of humble service is something that the church has done ever since in what we call the Ordinance of Humility.
Since Jesus told us we should follow His example, let’s hold our story right there and do this ordinance of humility ourselves.
As we submit ourselves to be washed with this water that is symbolic of the waters of baptism, we submit our hearts to the washing of the Holy spirit to clean us of our sin. And, as we serve each other with this footwashing, we submit ourselves to willing service for others in whatever physical, spiritual or relational need God calls us to fulfill in someone else’s life. And, if there is division or relational rifts among us, let this be a moment where we confess and forgive and renew our relationships.
After the footwashing service is over, please come back and sit quietly until everyone is present and we will resume the story of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus with the elders, deacons and deaconesses up front with me.
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Death
Death
retinue enters, sits down, removes the cloth, and prays over the symbols
The disciples were astonished at what Jesus had just done in washing their feet. As he unwrapped the dirty towel and put on his robe again, they stared at him, quiet and teachable for the first time that day. All their hopes and dreams were on the back burner as Jesus introduced them to a completely new way of thinking about how He would save the world.
The disciples reclined at the table as Jesus passed around the food.
We’re going to participate with Jesus and the disciples through the symbols of bread and grape juice. We practice what we call an open communion, which means that you don’t have to be a member of our church to participate, but we do ask that you treat these symbols with a holy reverence. As we’ll read in a moment, these symbols represent the saving work of Jesus, and in partaking of these symbols, we are accepting Jesus as our savior and renewing our commitment to Him by giving Him our body, our hearts, and our possessions.
distribute the emblems
We’re now reading from Matthew 26 and verse 26 and onward.
elder 1
Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.”
elder 2
And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
pastor
The disciples still had no idea how significant these statements would be. With what we know today we may not understand why the disciples didn’t get it, but remember, they were breaking apart long-held ideas about how the Messiah would save them.
After the meal they sung a hymn and then they all followed Jesus to the mount of olives. On the way Jesus looked at Peter and said to the group,
Matthew 26:31 (ESV)
“You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’
Peter quickly retorted, “Though everyone else falls away, I will never fall away!” (v 33) He still didn’t understand what was about to happen.
They got to the olive grove and after an agonizing hour of prayer, Jesus was bound and taken away at sword-point by the priest’s guard. A sham trial with false witnesses condemned Jesus to death, and during that trial Peter became the denier that he promised he would never be. The others fell away secretly, but Peter denied his Lord loud enough that Jesus heard him from the court’s podium. In shame Peter fled into hiding.
That Friday Jesus was interviewed by two different roman leaders, one finally gave the Jews the permission they required to carry out the sentence of death. Then, Jesus was hung between two thieves. If James and John had only known that this is what it meant to be at the right and left side of Jesus in His kingdom, they probably wouldn’t have asked for that favor.
As Jesus’ blood poured out from his hands and feet and head, John—the only one of Jesus’ 12 disciples to be recorded at the cross—must have thought about Jesus’ statement at the last supper, “this is my blood.” He, the youngest and most pliable of the disciples, was starting to get it.
After comforting words to a repentant thief, and an internal struggle that only Jesus could understand, He finally cried out that afternoon, “It is finished.” And then He bowed his head and breathed his last breath. Jesus died that day, but he wasn’t killed by the cross or by the Roman spear. Jesus gave up his life. His body was broken, his blood poured out, and his life willingly surrendered so that the law that requires my death because of my sins could be satisfied.
The bible tells us
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
His life in exchange for mine and yours.
His body was taken off the cross and placed lovingly into a tomb. And then the darkness of Sabbath fell on the land.
All that night the disciples cowered in that same upper room they had eaten the last supper with Jesus the night before. They looked at the dirty towel in the corner and the dishes that they had cleared from the table after their meal.
They knew what had just happened, but they didn’t fully understand it. John may have brought Jesus’ mother, Mary, and told them what they had seen at the cross. More than likely they fasted that Sabbath—no one able to eat.
Their Lord and master, the Messiah they had hoped for, the one who had taught them so much about Truth was defeated and dead. Their hopes of a kingdom were completely flooded with sadness and misery.
And if that is where the story had ended, then that is all we would know about the man called Jesus—that he was a good teacher and that he died a terrible death.
Resurrection
Resurrection
Paul tells us that the good news, the gospel story, the plan of salvation hinges on what happened the morning of the first day of the week. You see, the Lord’s supper—this symbol that we just performed, would mean nothing unless there was a Sunday morning resurrection. Notice what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15.
And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
What a miserable bunch those disciples were all night and all day Sabbath and all night on the first day of the week. And then, very early in the morning on the 1st day of the week, some of the women brought spices and herbs to properly embalm the body of Jesus, only to find that He was risen!
They ran back to the room where the disciples were mourning and told them they had seen angels and that Jesus wasn’t in the tomb anymore—He was alive! It was still too much for Peter to process. With John he raced to the tomb to see what the women had seen and there at the tomb he saw the graveclothes of Jesus, folded and set neatly on the burial slab. And the Bible says in John 20 verse 8 and 9 the Peter and John believed.
Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.
That’s the whole point of this communion service. It’s not simply a death memorial, or a burial memorial. It’s a living, hoping, resurrection faith. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 11:
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Until He comes. A dead Lord doesn’t come again. No, it’s a living Lord that comes back. A once-dead, but now alive again, Lord.
Many disbelieved. It was, after all, only women who met Jesus’ first and a woman’s testimony, at that time, didn’t count in a court of law and certainly not in public opinion. But in 1 Corinthians 15 Paul tells us that Jesus appeared first to Peter, then to all 12 of the disciples, then to more than 500 of his followers at the same time—and most of them were alive at the time Paul wrote that letter just 20 years or so after Jesus’ resurrection.
You see, people knew then what we know today, that dead people don’t come back to life! We have records from Josephus and Pliny and many others that tell of messiahs leading groups of people for a while and then dying. They all die, and then the group either disbands, or the second in command takes over and the group says, “that first guy was great, but this one is really the one we were meant to follow.” Nowhere does anyone claim that their dead leader was raised to life again. Except, Jesus. The followers of Jesus never anointed another leader. James, the brother of Jesus, led the church in Jerusalem for some years, but he was just “the brother of Jesus,” he was no replacement. And why should there be a replacement? Jesus is alive!
Jesus fulfilled the law on our behalf in His death, but in His resurrection He made a downpayment on the promise that He would give us eternal life with Him in rooms that He’s making for us in His and His Father’s own home. A living Jesus is the head of the church, the high priest in His heavenly sanctuary; this living Jesus is our Savior.
That’s the good news. That’s the gospel message. Christ, the Lord of creation, humbled himself to become a human, lived a life of perfect obedience to God’s law, then died to fulfill the law in our place, rested in the grave on Sabbath to remind us that our whole job is to rest in His completed work, and then rose to life again so that we would always have a living God to pray to and a hope in His soon return as a real being to take us home to live with Him in His real home.
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Let’s stand together and sing a song 0f resurrection hope!
When He Comes (220)