He is not here...

He is risen...

Each of the four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John share their account of Jesus’ resurrection. No where in the New Testament will you hear that the apostles or early church leaders proclaim that Jesus was in the tomb.

The fifth book in the New Testament is called,

“The Acts of the Apostles”

In Acts 3, we have the story of Peter and John going to the temple, and on the way a crippled man that sat and begged was healed in Jesus’ name.

Peter and John got into trouble with the religious leaders. When asked by what power they performed the miracle, this is what Luke wrote:

Acts 4:8–12 NLT

8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of our people, 9 are we being questioned today because we’ve done a good deed for a crippled man? Do you want to know how he was healed? 10 Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead. 11 For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says, ‘The stone that you builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.’ 12 There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”

This was Peter.

What do we know about Peter?

He was a fisherman by trade.

He became a disciple of Jesus.

When Jesus asked the disciples who they believed He was, it was Peter that answered

Matthew 16:16 (NIV)

16 ...“You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

But it was this same Peter who denied Jesus three times.

What can we take from the story of Peter and the crippled man.

Here’s one thing:

Your past doesn’t define your future...

The devil wants us to believe that if we have ever messed up, God can’t use us. Peter is a perfect example of what God can do in someone’s life who is devoted to Him. God can use those things in our past that want to hold us back to show others what God can do in their lives, if they are willing to surrender to God.

There is one key thing that happened to Peter, and Acts 4:8 spells it out.

Acts 4:8 (NIV)

8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit...

We are no different than Peter was when he denied Jesus, when we try to live in our own strength, but we can be used of God like Peter, when we are filled with the Holy Spirit.

Let’s read today’s Scripture about the empty tomb.

Luke 24:1–12 NIV

1 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7 ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” 8 Then they remembered his words. 9 When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. 10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. 11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. 12 Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

This resurrection morning, as we celebrate that Jesus is alive, we need to consider that

...without the resurrection from the dead, there is no Christianity.

In each account of the tomb, it was women that came to the tomb to make preparations for Jesus’ body. There is not one place that says that Jesus’ disciples went. It was Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus that placed Jesus in the tomb. Guards were stationed to prevent anyone from stealing Jesus’ body...

but when the women came to the tomb, each gospel writer proclaimed that the tomb was empty and that the stone had been rolled away.

Matthew said that there was an earthquake to roll away the stone, and this caused great terror to those guarding the tomb. In Luke, as the women had entered the tomb, two men that shone like lightning stood before them...

Here’s how Luke describes what happened,

Luke 24:5–6 NIV

5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee:

Our whole faith hinges upon whether or not the answer to their question is true.

Why do you look for the living among the dead?

The women were so afraid that they just bowed down their faces to the ground. Have you ever had the hair stand up on the back of your neck? Some people run when they are afraid. We call that flight. Some in fear fight. In their fear, these women bowed down with their faces to the ground. It was like they had given up, they were so afraid, they just didn’t know what to do.

They had come to care for Jesus, His body wasn’t there. He was missing. He was gone.

Put yourself in their shoes. How do you think you would have responded? We know the story. We know that Jesus is alive!

They were at the cross. They saw Jesus’ agony. They saw Him die. It was a reality...

When these men, who we believe that they were angels, appeared and spoke to them, they collapsed.

Most, if not all of us, have experienced stress, grief, and sadness. Here are these women, probably at their lowest of lows, and they hear these words...

Why do you look for the living among the dead?

Luke 24:6 (NIV)

6 He is not here; he has risen!...

Luke 24:6 (NIV)

6 ...Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee:

Luke 24:7 NIV

7 ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ”

Jesus had told them several times what was going to happen, and yet they just didn’t seem to get it. The disciples were thinking about the throne that Jesus was going to sit on, not realizing that His throne would be a cross.

He had told them that He would die but on the third day that He would rise from the dead and live forever.

He is not here!

He has risen!

Do you believe this?

After the angel spoke, the women remembered Jesus’ words.

After this, they went and found the disciples.

Matthew 28:8 NIV

8 So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples.

This is not a new story to us, and yet it should never grow old. As they arrive, they start to tell the disciples. I’m not sure who told the story, or if they were talking over each other because they had so much to say, but as they told the disciples, it just seemed like utter nonsense.

“How is this possible? How can He be alive? Didn’t you see how He was beaten? Didn’t you see how he was nailed to the cross? Weren’t you there when the soldier took his spear and thrust it in Jesus’ side? Remember how the blood and water flowed. It can’t be true. We saw Him die with our own eyes.”

Then there is Peter, the disciple who declared that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God, and yet the one that when asked if he was a follower of Christ said that he didn’t even know the man.

This must have been a hard place for Peter. He had denied knowing his best friend, even after he had said that he was willing to die with Jesus.

Let’s read what Luke says,

Luke 24:12 NIV

12 Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

John was there as well so let’s see how John recalled how it happened.

John 20:3–10 NIV

3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.

I wonder what was going on in their minds. They had a lot to think about. They had left everything to follow Christ. They had given up their careers. They had left everything to follow Jesus.

It hadn’t yet sunk in that Jesus was alive. His body was gone. The grave clothes w ere in the tomb. The women were proclaiming that Jesus is alive…How could this be?

So many unknowns...

How do we know that Jesus is alive?

Evidence for the resurrection is reliable and true...

It was the middle of the 1800s and a man by the name of Simon Greenleaf was teaching a class on evidence of law at Harvard University. Greenleaf was considered by many to be the greatest expert on evidence of law the world has ever known. He had been praised for his knowledge and when it comes to the question of what constitutes evidence, Greenleaf's credentials are impeccable.

Greenleaf had one non-negotiable rule when he taught in the classroom at Harvard. The rule was simple: "Never make up your mind about any significant matter without first considering the evidence." Greenleaf set this rule in place and applied it in all areas of life except when it came to religion. He was a Jew that did not believe in Christianity but one day in class the subject of the resurrection came up. There was a debate on both sides of the topic and Greenleaf proclaimed to his class, "I don't believe in the resurrection." One student courageously spoke up and asked: "Yes, Professor, but have you considered the evidence?"

At that moment, Greenleaf realized that he had not considered the evidence and from that day forward he set out to study the evidence of the resurrection with the desire to disprove it. After much time studying the evidence with an open mind, Greenleaf came to this conclusion, "If the evidence of Christ's resurrection were presented to any unbiased jury in the world, they would have to conclude that Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead."

Greenleaf was so convicted by the evidence that he became a Christian and wrote about his research of the resurrection in a book released in 1846 known as "The Testimony of the Evangelists."

Greenleaf went on to make this observation, "According to the laws of the legal evidence used in courts of law, there is more evidence for the historical fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ than just about any other event in history."(SC)

Mark 16:9–14 NLT

9 After Jesus rose from the dead early on Sunday morning, the first person who saw him was Mary Magdalene, the woman from whom he had cast out seven demons. 10 She went to the disciples, who were grieving and weeping, and told them what had happened. 11 But when she told them that Jesus was alive and she had seen him, they didn’t believe her. 12 Afterward he appeared in a different form to two of his followers who were walking from Jerusalem into the country. 13 They rushed back to tell the others, but no one believed them. 14 Still later he appeared to the eleven disciples as they were eating together. He rebuked them for their stubborn unbelief because they refused to believe those who had seen him after he had been raised from the dead.

As we read the gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, each of these agree that Jesus rose from the dead. These were eye witnesses, and they fearlessly proclaimed that Jesus is alive.

When Jesus was arrested, they all fled. Peter denied Him. Thomas couldn’t believe without proof.

As we look at proof coming from Scripture and writings from the early church, most died for their belief that Jesus rose from the dead.

Saul of Tarsus, who persecuted the church, came to faith in Jesus after meeting Him on the road to Damascus. His life would never be the same.

What changed?

This is John’s account:

John 20:19–22 NLT

19 That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said. 20 As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! 21 Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” 22 Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.

This is what Jesus promised His disciples before He went to the cross,

John 14:15–17 NLT

15 “If you love me, obey my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. 17 He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.

Before the cross, Jesus was with His disciples. If Jesus was away, they were alone. His promise was that when He went to heaven, the Holy Spirit would be with them, but more than that He would be in them.

That’s what happens when we believe. Holy Spirit is with us and lives in us. In John 20, Jesus breathed on His disciples received the Holy Spirit. In Acts 2, they were baptized or immersed in the Holy Spirit.

How do we know that Jesus is alive?

We can know because He has changed so many lives. He has changed your life and mine.

Each and every day we see His mercies and His miracles.

What should be do because Jesus is alive?

Mark 16:20 NKJV

20 And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.

Let’s go and do the same!

Let’s pray!