The Hope of the Resurrection - Luke 24
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Life is filled with ups and downs - It is important how we view the events that unfold in our lives. Recent polls reveal that Americans have become more and more pessimistic.
86% of Americans believe the world is becoming more dangerous. Christ has risen! Vicotry over sin and death!
In 2022 Only 42% of Americans believe the next generation will be successful in the future that is down from 60% from 2019.
It is easy to become pessimistic, but if we know the Gospel, if we have come to understand that we are sinners and that Christ died for us on the cross, if we have trusted that He rose to new life then what do we have to be down about? We have hope!
-The resurrection is the most crucial part of the Gospel
because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
-Everyone will live forever - some will resurrect to everlasting life while others to everlasting damnation
-Throughout Scripture there was always the hope of the resurrection
For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
yet in my flesh I shall see God,
whom I shall see for myself,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
My heart faints within me!
Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise.
You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy!
For your dew is a dew of light,
and the earth will give birth to the dead.
And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
-All of the gospel writers record the resurrection, they each record it a bit differently, it is not a contradiction, it is further proof that the resurrection was not a fable that was copied from one person to the next
-All four gospels account the fact that Jesus died, that on the third day the tomb was empty, that angels report what happened, that women were the first to find the resurrected Lord
-Have you ever noticed that none of the Gospels explain how the resurrection happend, just that it did happen, only God knows exactly how Christ arose
-We must know, believe and trust in the resurrected Lord
And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.
And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.
-Christ came to defeat sin and death for us, the only way that sin and death could be defeated is through the victorious resurrection of Christ - 1 Corinthians 15 - death where is your sting? our victory is in Christ!
Praise be to God that Christ arose, and in His resurrection we have hope
-We notice the victorious events of the resurrection:
1 The Tomb is Empty
1 The Tomb is Empty
-All four gospels record the resurrection, but they do not record all the same details, does that mean they contradict? Not at all - it means that there was not an effort to fabricate a story - it would be as if we all witnessed a hero who rescued a little girl from a burning building - I may recall how the hero rushed into the building and came out with the girl resting in his arms, you may recall that the man was enjoying a picnic lunch with his family when he heard the girl crying for help, he abandoned his family to bring the girl to safety - both of our accounts would accurate but told differently
-All four gospels record that Jesus died and that the third day the tomb was empty, that women were the first to find the resurrected Lord, that angels declared He is alive
1 But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared.
2 And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb,
-The women go in and are eye witnesses to the reality that the tomb is empty
-First day of the week = Sunday, fulfillment of prophecy
For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
-during this time they did not have days of the week, they were numbered, first day of the week was the day after sabbath which would be Sunday, Sunday would start at sunset, 6 pm the day before, so Jesus had been in the tomb on Friday, Saturday, and 12 hours on Sunday
-Why did they come to the tomb?
The women who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments.
On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.
-Early dawn, Matthew stated that it was dawn, Mark recorded that the sun had risen, John wrote that it was dark - its eye witnesses telling the account, its not a made up story that they have to get every detail to align
-Mark 16 - who will roll the stone away?
62 The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate
63 and said, “Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise.’
64 Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last fraud will be worse than the first.”
65 Pilate said to them, “You have a guard of soldiers. Go, make it as secure as you can.”
-So what happened to the soldiers? Matthew 28:2-4
2 And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it.
3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow.
4 And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men.
-the amazing thing about the empty tomb: the stone was rolled away not so Jesus could walk out but that others could walk in, Jesus would walk through walls as is recorded in the upper room
-In John 20 - Mary Magadalene they had stolen Jesus’s body - she never thought about a resurrection
3 but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
-natural conclusion, the dead don’t walk out of tombs, someone has to take them out, notice Luke records the Lord Jesus
-the Jews tried to denounce the resurrection any way they could in Matt 28 - soldiers came and reported what had happened, Jewish leaders paid them to lie and say that the disciples took his body
2 The Divine Declaration
2 The Divine Declaration
4 While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel.
5 And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?
6 He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee,
7 that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.”
-John describes as two angels, Mark wrote that it was an angel in the form of a young man, divine messengers
And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples.
-why are you seeking the living among the dead?
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.
-He has risen just as He said
saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”
-Not just that the tomb was empty, but God clearly made known the victorious Savior was alive, the angels give the only possible explanation - He is not here because He is risen
3 The Witnesses
-These same women are the ones who saw Jesus die, we only know of one man who saw Jesus die on the cross, John. These women were full eyewitnesses to death and resurrection of Jesus
8 And they remembered his words,
9 and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.
10 Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles,
16 For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
-Jesus appeared to two on the road to Emmaus, appeared to the 11 disciples, 500 in Galilee
-Some bones from one of Buddha’s fingers was sent as a gift to the emperor of China during the Tang dynasty. They were later forgotten about and then found in 1981. The finding was a sensation to Buddhists everywhere, and the bones are now visited by many Buddhists. I am thrilled that we do not have one bone of the Lord Jesus to gaze upon, because He is alive. My question for you: have you trusted in the resurrected Lord? Have you surrendered to Jesus? Why do you seek the living among the dead? Rest in Christ