Resurrection Sunday

Introduction:

Mention next week’s launch of our new vision statement and the direction of our church.

Happy Easter or, most importantly, Resurrection Sunday.

Many of you here today know my story and background that I grew up with great parents, but it was not a christian home.

I didn’t have anyone in my family that was close to the Lord, other than a great-grandmother who was a very devout Catholic.

Other than a small picture of Jesus sitting with the disciples at the “Last supper” or a cross that was made in a way that you had to squint your eyes to see, I didn’t know much about God.

We did visit the Catholic church in town a few times, but I personally at that time never saw anyone that lived a Biblical life.

Growing up, my view of Easter Sunday or Christmas was more about the Easter bunny, eggs, Santa Claus, and presents, than about Jesus.

I saw a dusty family Bible at my Grandparents that we got yelled at if we ever put our feet on it, but it never got opened to read.

I always saw the Bible as a very old book that did not have a whole lot of meaning to us today because it was so old.

I also viewed church through the lens of that Catholic church in Meadowlands, Pennsylvania that had the holy water at the front door, the hard pews, and a priest with robes and tassels saying things that I had no clue what he was saying or why he was saying them.

I’ll be completely honest with you, it was very boring.

I pray that our kids, the kids of this church, and adults in our community see the Christian life as a fun, exciting, and joyful.

It wasn't until the fall of 2008, when I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior, that my view on everything surrounding Jesus changed.

My eyes were opened and the blinders were removed and I could see that these holidays were so much more that presents under a tree or eggs, but about the birth and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Today we celebrate the most important day in human history that changed the trajectory of humanity forever.

Because of the resurrection of Jesus, I am here today.

Because of the resurrection, we are all here today.

How many of you here today would say that there are no coincidences with God?

When something happens in your life that really makes you think, “How in the world did that happen? How did I just so happen to be at the right place at the right time?”

Whatever it may be.

I shared the story about Cody who I worked with in the coal mine who I was with when we found that bracelet on the ground that said, “Prayer for Cody on it.”

That was not a coincidence.

Our family ending up here Pastoring a church in Mt. Joy, PA a little over a year after naming our little girl Alexis Joy is not a coincidence.

We were able to get away last week to go to a conference in South Carolina that was really great.

Tell the story about the pastor calling me out about my hip.

That was not a coincidence.

It’s also not a coincidence that Jesus died, or gave up His life, on Passover and rose back to life 3 days later on the Feast of First Fruits.

Point 1: There is power in the blood of Jesus.

Some of you here may be thinking, “What in the world is this guy talking about?”

Let read some of the Passover story in Exodus 12: 12-13

Exodus 12:12–13 NIV

12 “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. 13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

Exodus 12:21–24 NIV

21 Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. 22 Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning. 23 When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down. 24 “Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants.

After 400 years of slavery in Egypt God released the Israelites from the hands of the Egyptians by this last plague.

All the firstborn in Egypt would die, but the the Israelites were spared by applying the blood of a lamb on the doorposts of their homes.

Death was not permitted to enter the houses where the blood was applied.

The Israelites were required to yearly have this Passover meal to remember how God freed them from Egypt.

If we fast forward from that 1st Passover to more than a thousand years later, we see Jesus giving up His life during Passover week.

There are no coincidences with God.

In John 1:29, John the Baptist refers to Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

There are many other references to Jesus as the Lamb of God, but this would have rung out loud in clear to the people of Jesus’ time and should jump out at us too.

Peter says, in 1 Peter 1:18–19“18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”

Jesus died as our Passover lamb so that when we accept His sacrifice and invite Him into our heart, to be both Lord and Savior, we are then made right with the Father by the blood of the Lamb (Jesus).

When we accept Jesus and are born again, we are covered by the blood of Jesus and death will not touch us.

Paul says, in 1 Corinthians 15:55 “ Death has been swallowed up in victory. 55 “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”

When we are covered by the blood of Jesus we will not experience death.

I like to mention during funerals that the true definition of the word death is eternal separation from God.

When we are born into this world we are born into sin.

Billy Graham says that we inherit sin and the sinful way of life at birth.

Romans says that the wages of sin is death—eternal separation from God.

The price that humans owe for our sins are death, but Jesus redeemed us, He paid the price for us, so that we can have eternal life in Him.

Jesus’ death on the cross paid the price for us.

His death is our death, but how many of you know that His resurrection is also our resurrection.

Point 2: The resurrection changes everything.

Luke 24:1–8 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.

The greatest miracle in the history of Christianity next to the virgin birth is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

If Jesus was crucified but never resurrected then Paul says our faith is futile and we are still dead in our sins.

Paul also says, in 1 Corinthians 15, that if Christ has not been raised then our preaching is useless.

Every other religion has someone who was worshipped in a grave somewhere.

Muhammad is buried in Saudi Arabia.

Joseph Smith is buried in Illinois.

Buddha's body was cremated in India.

The body of Jesus Christ will never be found because He has risen.

Don’t look for the living among the dead.

You will not find Him because, as the Angel said, “He is not there. He has risen.”

The word “resurrect” means to raise from the dead.

Someone that is dead does not come back to life again.

This is a miracle that goes against science and our natural realm.

All the way back in the Garden, in Genesis 3, Adam and Eve sinned and were banished from the Garden of Eden and from the tree of life.

Sin was then introduced into the world.

From that time forward humanity has suffered the consequences of sin by way of pain, suffering, depression, anxiety, fear, and death.

Jesus’ death reversed the curse when He defeated death, hell, and the grave.

There is an amazing pattern throughout the Bible concerning the “Third Day”.

Many Bible scholars look at the creation story in Genesis as a pair of 3 day events.

On the first 3rd day God created the land, plants, and trees.

The picture here is of new life sprouting or rising up from the ground—a place of non-existence or death.

On the second 3rd day (the 6th day), God created humans from the dust of the land.

He sprouted life up from the ground.

In Genesis 22, Abraham took Isaac up Mt. Moriah to sacrifice him on the third day, but God gave him a ram instead sparing his only son.

In Exodus 19, the Bible mentions multiple times that on the “third day” God would come down on Mt. Sinai to meet with the Israelites.

In Hosea 6:2 “2 After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence.”

Finally, the story of Jonah where he was eaten by the great fish and resurrected or vomited out on the third day.

Conclusion:

When we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday (today), we are not just following a historic tradition.

We are engaging in a deeply meaningful theology centered around the third day and God’s redemptive work.

The third-day design pattern is a reminder—God has initiated the process of resurrecting people to new life and bringing them into a covenant partnership.

The resurrection of Jesus means that we have a new life and new way to live that is possible for us.

You do not need to be overcome with sickness, depression, fear, or anxiety.

Jesus has reversed the curse on the earth.

Will you except this new life today?