Resurrection Life Luke 23:44-24:12

A man and his five-year old son were driving past a cemetery and noticed a large pile of dirt next to a freshly dug grave when the little boy said, “Look, Dad, one got out!”

Next time you drive past a cemetery, think of the One Whom the grave could not hold.

-Jesus is Alive and That Changes Everything About Today.

This Easter we…

I. Mourn the Death of Jesus vv. 44-49

In our passage this morning, we see a rising sense of drama

Darkness- for 3 hours in the afternoon, the sun goes dark. It’s a picture of God’s judgment being present

Destruction- the veil of the Temple is torn and the whole purpose of the Temple and priesthood are in question

Death- Jesus cries out the words of Psalm 35 and demonstrates two things:

His full trust in and commitment to God

His identity as the King

When we come to the Cross, the King is dead and the recognition of what has taken place starts to set in:

The Centurion recognizes the innocence of Jesus

The crowd leaves mourning, but it is too late!

The disciples watch with uncertainty. They have placed their trust in Jesus and now He is gone

I think that before we move forward, we must wrestle with the enormity of what has taken place here:

God sent His people a King; the people have come together and they have killed the King God sent to them

We must not be uncertain, but we cannot be unmoved. He endured this for you however you respond to Him

Romans 5:6–8

[6] For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. [7] For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—[8] but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (ESV)

John 15:13–15

[13] Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. [14] You are my friends if you do what I command you. [15] No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. (ESV)

II. Share in the Burial of Jesus vv. 50-56

Next, we see two sets of people, both friends of Jesus

First, we see Joseph of Arimathea, a good man and a member of the council who did not consent to the death of Jesus

He asks for the body of Jesus to bury it; He takes care of Jesus

This is a public declaration, when all hope seems lost, that Joseph is loyal to Jesus

Second, we see the women of Galilee

They gather supplies to prepare the body of Jesus for burial

Their loyalty is not shaken by their loss

These people are incredible examples for us:

They are as much with Jesus in defeat as in victory

They are willing to bury their reputations, positions, hopes, and ambitions with Jesus

We must not miss the power of this burial, because as Christians we are buried with Him!

We bury every other accomplishment and source of hope with Jesus

We remain loyal, even when following Jesus takes us with Him to a tomb, because it is their that we find life!

When James Calvert went out as a missionary to the cannibals of the Fiji Islands, the ship captain tried to turn him back, saying, “You will lose your life and the lives of those with you if you go among such savages.” To that, Calvert replied, “We died before we came here.”

Romans 6:3–5

[3] Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? [4] We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

[5] For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. (ESV)

III. Believe in the Resurrection of Jesus vv. 1-12

The women arrive at the tomb on Sunday morning and they give us 3 important reasons to believe:

They provide eyewitness accounts: They know where the body was buried and they go to the correct tomb, which they find empty

They report a heavenly proclamation: They hear the words of the angel

He is alive, not dead.

He is not here, for He is risen

They remember His own testimony: All of this was according to God’s plan

The purpose of God, to unite Heaven and Earth in one Kingdom under the authority of His chosen King is fulfilled in the Resurrection of Jesus

In Him, there is new life and eternal life

In Him, there is hope to believe

In Him, there is a purpose to pursue

In Him, there is a family to belong

Now, you must consider these things for yourselves: This changes everything and it is yours if you will believe it!

750 Engaging Illustrations for Preachers, Teachers and Writers 163: Easter

Margaret Sangster Phippen wrote that in the mid-1950s her father, British minister W. E. Sangster, began to notice some uneasiness in his throat and a dragging in his leg. When he went to the doctor, he found that he had an incurable disease that caused progressive muscular atrophy. His muscles would gradually waste away, his voice would fail, his throat would soon become unable to swallow.

Sangster threw himself into his work in British home missions, figuring he could still write and he would have even more time for prayer. “Let me stay in the struggle, Lord,” he pleaded. “I don’t mind if I can no longer be a general, but give me just a regiment to lead.” He wrote articles and books, and helped organize prayer cells throughout England. “I’m only in the kindergarten of suffering,” he told people who pitied him.

Gradually Sangster’s legs became useless. His voice went completely. But he could still hold a pen, shakily. On Easter morning, just a few weeks before he died, he wrote a letter to his daughter. In it, he said, “It is terrible to wake up on Easter morning and have no voice to shout, ‘He is risen!’—but it would be still more terrible to have a voice and not want to shout.”

Deuteronomy 30:19–20

[19] I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, [20] loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.” (ESV)

Would you choose Jesus today?