Untitled Sermon (5)

Easter 2023

Mark 16:1-8 “When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” 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.”

John 20:11-18 “But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the …”

1 Corinthians 15:20–24 ESV

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.

Easter 2023

Good morning, everyone,

This morning we are doing something that we normally do not do at Friendship Grace Brethren Church we are doing a different format of a sermon. Our motto at Friendship is learning and living God’s word and that is one of the most critical things that anyone can do because if we all took a few minutes alone with our thoughts away from our smart devices we would see that inside us we are dark, bitter and taste more gross than diet coke or a peanut butter milkshake. Easter is more than chocolate and other sweet goods there is a meaning for it that stems down to the core of what Christianity is and the importance of why without the saving mercy and grace from our Heavenly Father by sending his son on the cross we would have to pay the price.

Now I have always been weird in the sense that I want to get into the nitty gritty and I did some digging into something has happened. This is why the subject of Resurrections that I have been this week has been challenging and taught me that it is okay to ask for help because hey it is not a weakness but a strength. The past few years I have gone in depth of the passion week where one moment Jesus is treated like a rockstar and the next he is treated like a criminal that is lower than dirt and is not even given a proper trial but a mutiny. Let’s Review why today is so important to not just Believers but everyone. Our Heavenly Father that created everything out of nothing complete and utter nothing knew that we were going to be filthy dirty sinners. We must remind ourselves that all sin, transgressions and wrongdoing must be paid for. Think of how if you overdraft your checking account and you are in the red. Before you can use the account to pay bills or buy a sandwich you must pay what you owe. You must pay the negative balance because it is what is owed.

We do not sugar coat things and I will admit that even though I am covered by the blood of Jesus I am still a sinner and struggle with this just like everyone else does. God follows this same method that all transgressions must be paid for either by the sinner or by the blood of Jesus who man God was fully and fully. We are walking around with a negative balance because we are sinners. After Jesus dies an agnoying death on the cross on top of the emotional and spiritual fracture of the relationship with his Father. He is placed in Joseph tomb with his bomb wrapped up in a cloth. This all is happening before the jewish sabbath which is coming up fast, so everything has to be done before sunset on Friday. On the Third day which is Sunday it was time to give the body of jesus a bath of oils and good smelling items.

Mark 16:1-8

The 3 ladies discover there is no jesus. The tomb is empty and there is a man telling him where to see him in is resurrected form. We have to understand that the political and religious tension of this time was extremely high. We think that the riots, covid talks and everything that went on in 2020 was rough that was a small piece of the amount of tension that happened in such a short piece of time. Jesus did nothing wrong, but the Jewish council laid blame on him because they were losing their control and power over the people. They had taken the ways of the Old Testament to show that no matter what they did they were dirty rotten sinners and turned it into a regulation manual that stated how you were to wash your hands or even how many steps you could walk on a sabbath. This group of people were called judaizers and they were completely losing the reason for why t

This was all about the power that they had over the people and that they could not force the jewish people to continue to be legalistic.

John 20:11-18

The aspect of the Resurrection of Jesus being discovered that he was not in his tomb is one that is fascinating and shocking in a sense. WE have to understand that that culture the family would be visiting the tomb for a month after the death of the individual to mourn the death of the person. In today culture we visit the grace of the individual on special holidays or we have the person that was special to us in an urn. We even do this with our pets because they are special to us in our hearts. In Biblical times space was limited and they did not have fancy ways to display the ashes of the individual. The tomb was the fashion in which the individual was buried. After some very careful wording on my search because you want to be careful on typing how long it take a body to decompose many Scientist agree that it takes a month to a year for a body to decompose. Of course, this depends on the factors of Temperature, humidity, was the body covered properly and other items that we do not know.

But also to ensure that they were not buried alive. There was no fancy blood pressure cuff and depending on the level of education of the individual they might of not known how to take someone pulse. A Greek Scientist discovered the pulse at the earliest time at 335 B.C. of course this is a good amount of time but education was treated as a luxury and not everyone knew how to read and write. The Bible was told as something around the kitchen table. What I am trying to covey is that they did not have the printing press or anyway to have a written Bible unless it was handwritten by the scribes.

Matthew 27:52-54

I have to premise that before this passage the Holy of the Holy Temple curtain is torn and is something I could go into great detail but the aspect that we have to understand is that All of this was to show the people that They were not God. God is the only one that can raise the dead including the Old Testament saints because they were dust. WE just covered in a small aspect how the body is decomposed and this shows that it is not possible without the work of the creator of the earth and everything in this universe and the next. The saints that we are talking about were meant to be dust or bones at the earliest, but they are walking around the city of Jerusalem. These are not the walking dead zombies that you think of and quite honestly, I thought the same thing because when I think of undead I remember the episodes of this Television series.

We do not have a great deal of information about this event however, we do know that this was an event that validated everything that Jesus said and did. Additionally, this event starts the events that led us to the final Resurrection.

1 Corinthians 15:20–24 ESV

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.

The savor of our Entire world, universe and beyond could not be stopped by death and The aspect of the Saints coming back to life shows this even more. However, there is something else that will show us that it is not just Jesus but God himself that sent his son to be born of a virgin Mary just like all of us to then be persecuted, tortured and face the intense and emotional pain of sweating actual blood in the garden of Gestanime.

However, lets look at another story where the Apostle Paul was preaching so long that a young boy falls out of a window and dies.

Acts 20:7-12 “On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight. There were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered. And a young man named Eutychus, sitting at the window, sank into a deep sleep as Paul talked still longer. And being overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead. But Paul went down and bent over him, and taking him in his arms, said, “Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him.” And when Paul had gone up and had broken bread and eaten, he conversed with them a long while, until daybreak, and so departed. And they took the youth away alive, and were not a little comforted.”

The Apostle paul is preaching long into the night to the point that people were falling asleep which is dangerous anyways because you might get hit with a roll or something. But the Truly amazing thing is that Eu-Ty-Ch-us and everyone else were on the 3 floor or the roof. We learned last week that this was a normal occurrence because of the heat and the layout of everyone houses. The young boy fells off the roof and dies of a broken neck. However, The Apostle Paul says that all is well, and the boy is just asleep.

The funny thing about this for myself personally is after this event of the Apostle Paul raising this boy from death to life he goes back and does more teaching and preaching with everyone on the roof long into the morning.

So I would have to state that we cannot say any pastor message is too long because no one has preached that long to the point people are dropping.

These are not meant to show how great the individuals are because there are many other stories of Jesus , Apostles and Disciples raising people from the dead.

Luke 8:40-56 “Now when Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him. And there came a man named Jairus, who was a ruler of the synagogue. And falling at Jesus’ feet, he implored him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she was dying. As Jesus went, the people pressed around him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. And Jesus said, “Who was it that touched me?” When all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!” But Jesus said, “Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.” And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him…”

I apologize for jumping all around and is something that I personally do not like but what I am trying to convey is that this was just some individuals but those that God selected or God in human form that raised individuals from the dead.

Jesus knew that the little girl was not dead but merely sleeping. WE have to understand that if we have not accepted Jesus into our Heart and understand that we are sinners and deserve death to pay for our transgressions instead of Jesus we are spiritually dead. WE are just bones and skin instead of having a game plan where we will spend enternity partying in Heaven with Jesus. The wages of sin is death there is no way around this fact because we have violated the character and the laws of our Heavenly Father.