He Is Risen

Events that Shaped History

There are events throughout human history that shifted the course of the world and mankind.

Some 5000 years ago, in ancient Mesopotamia someone brilliantly decided to cut off the corners of a square and put a hole in the middle to create the very first wheel.

That sure changed the trajectory of the world, LITERALLY.

As far back as 4000 years ago, people began putting together alphabets so that people could have a shared way of communicating with one another. Lots of spoken languages then went on to become written languages.

While making pottery in the 1800s-1200s BC, iron smelting was discovered which lead to the create of strong tools and weapons, and eventually to the discovery of steel that has created a massive shift is most every area of our lives.

Throughout history, there have been empires that have risen and fallen and influenced the world in measurable ways.

In the 1400s AD, Gutenberg invented the printing press, making the mass production of books and other publications possible.

In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue and “found” America.

300 Years later, on July 4th, 1776, a group of rebels signed the Declaration of Independence, which prompted the Revolutionary War and started this country we call home.

On 12/17/1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright fly the first powered airplane, paving the way for the airline industry to begin and making the world accessible to anyone willing to go through the torture of air travel.

June 28th, 1914, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, triggering WWI in Europe.

9-1-1939, Hitler led Germany invades Poland, marking the beginning of WWII

In 1989. America Online was started, which Andy just stopped paying for in the last few years.

And then there was something in March 2020 that made news headlines that has had a bit of an impact on the world as we know it.

Obviously we could think of A LOT more events in humans history that have changed the world, but I left the one I want to argue today is the most influential, impactful, and transformation event in human history.

And it is recorded for us in John 20.

John 20:1–20 CSB

1 On the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark. She saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2 So she went running to Simon Peter and to the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said to them, “They’ve taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they’ve put him!” 3 At that, Peter and the other disciple went out, heading for the tomb. 4 The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and got to the tomb first. 5 Stooping down, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then, following him, Simon Peter also came. He entered the tomb and saw the linen cloths lying there. 7 The wrapping that had been on his head was not lying with the linen cloths but was folded up in a separate place by itself. 8 The other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, then also went in, saw, and believed. 9 For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he must rise from the dead. 10 Then the disciples returned to the place where they were staying. 11 But Mary stood outside the tomb, crying. As she was crying, she stooped to look into the tomb. 12 She saw two angels in white sitting where Jesus’s body had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “Because they’ve taken away my Lord,” she told them, “and I don’t know where they’ve put him.” 14 Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know it was Jesus. 15 “Woman,” Jesus said to her, “why are you crying? Who is it that you’re seeking?” Supposing he was the gardener, she replied, “Sir, if you’ve carried him away, tell me where you’ve put him, and I will take him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” Turning around, she said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!”—which means “Teacher.” 17 “Don’t cling to me,” Jesus told her, “since I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them that I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them what he had said to her. 19 When it was evening on that first day of the week, the disciples were gathered together with the doors locked because they feared the Jews. Jesus came, stood among them, and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20 Having said this, he showed them his hands and his side. So the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.

This is the day we believe the world changed forever.

Jesus’s followers had spent Saturday inside because it was the Sabbath.

I am sure their were tears and lots of anxiety over what was going to happen next.

When Mary got up Sunday morning to go to the tomb, she was expecting to have to talk the Romans guards into letting her into the tomb, even helping her roll the stone away.

She was expecting to find Jesus’s body wrapped in grave clothes and likely well into rigor mortis.

But that isn’t what she found at all.

The stone was rolled away and there wasn’t a body in the tomb at all.

Her first reaction was “someone has taken His body.”

So she runs to Simon Peter and the “other Apostle” whom we believe to be the Gospel writer, John.

They run to the tomb, finding Jesus’s body gone and the grave clothes neatly folded.

They also assumed that someone had taken His body and so they return home.

Mary stayed at the tomb, crying, all the pain of Friday flooding back.

But as she sits there next to the tomb, she is greeted by angels who ask her why she is crying.

And while she is answer, Jesus walks up to her, though John says “She did not recognize it was Him.”

Mary actually kind of accuse Jesus of taking His own body, until she hears Him call her name.

The tomb wasn’t empty because Jesus’s body had been stolen

(that is the story many have told over the years to try and explain why Jesus wasn’t in the tomb Sunday morning).

No, he wasn’t in the tomb because He has risen from death, He was alive!

John tells us at the end of John 20 the reason he wrote this book.

John 20:30–31 CSB

30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. 31 But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

There are a lot more stories He could have shared about the miraculous life of Jesus.

But He chose all that he has included for 2 reasons.

John 20:31 CSB

31 But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

John wanted us to see 2 things:

That there are really good reason that we CAN believe that Jesus rose from the grave.

Reason that we can be confident that the grave really is empty and we aren’t crazy for believing it.

but also that we MUST believe He rose from the grave.

That real, eternal, transformational life can only be found in believe in His name.

So let’s look at both the reason we CAN believe Jesus is risen and why we MUST believe.

Reasons we CAN believe He is risen.

1) The DETAILS

As you read John’s account Easter morning, you might think “this guys was kind of a jerk.”

He mentioned multiple times that he got to the tomb before Peter, as if to stress the fact that he ran faster than Peter.

But this is an example of John’s careful attention to detail.

He wanted to get the picture in our minds of what actually happened and what they saw.

All the details John shares (as well as the other gospel writers) point to these being eye witness accounts of the events recorded in the gospel.

A made up story often doesn’t include details like John includes.

He details the way the linen clothes were laid in the tomb.

He remembers the door being locked to the room the disciples were gathered in when Jesus came to them.

Jesus showed them His hands and side, and Jesus intentionally “breathed on them”.

And as his account continues, John is intentional about explaining every detail.

This wasn’t a made up story, it was an account given by an eye witness to real, historical events.

2) The WOMEN

I must preface this point with this: the culture of the 1st century was different than our modern culture, in good ways and bad ways.

But in their culture, the testimony of women was not considered a reliable testimony.

A woman would not have been brought as a witness in a court case because her testimony would have been unreliable.

So if you were a disciple of Jesus, sitting down to make up an account of His resurrection that would have been believable, you wouldn’t have had women being the first people Jesus would have revealed Himself to.

If John, or the other writers, had fabricated their story, they would have chosen men, and likely important ones, to be the ones Jesus reveals Himself to.

But it was women that first see the risen Jesus.

Though that might not seem all that important in our modern culture, it was scandalous then.

And is a further reason that these account can be considered real and genuine.

3) The RISK

Chuck Colson was special counsel for President Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal.

Colson spent 7 months in prison because of his role in Watergate.

Before he went to prison, Colson became a follower of Christ and ultimately spent the remainder of his life leading others to Jesus.

Colson used his experience with Watergate to make a case for the validity of the resurrection accounts of the disciples:

"Here were the 10 most powerful men in the United States," he said, referring to the Watergate cover-up attempt. "With all that power, and we couldn't contain a lie for two weeks."

Applying the Watergate scandals to the New Testament and to current suggestions that accounts of Jesus' resurrection were a conspiracy perpetrated by His apostles, Colson insisted: "No way."

"Take it from one who was involved in conspiracy, who saw the frailty of man firsthand," he declared, "there is no way the 11 apostles, who were with Jesus at the time of the resurrection, could ever have gone around for 40 years proclaiming Jesus' resurrection unless it were true."

It is funny, but it is also profound.

Especially when we understand that most of those 11 men (and many more eye witnesses) were tortured and killed because of there continued witness to the resurrection of Jesus.

With so much to lose and very little to gain, why would these 11 men and so many more risk their lives for a lie?

4) The WITNESSES

John tells us about the first people who Jesus revealed Himself to.

But in 1 Corinthians 15 Paul tells us that Jesus revealed himself to more that 500 people.

1 Corinthians 15:6 CSB

6 Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers and sisters at one time; most of them are still alive, but some have fallen asleep.

Real life people who, at the time, could validate that Jesus was alive, risen from the dead.

If that wasn’t enough, there are Jewish and Roman historians from as far back as 90 AD who affirm the testimonies of those who saw the risen Jesus.

It wasn’t just a few people who had some bad fruit and thought they saw Jesus.

Hundreds of eye witnesses saw Jesus, alive and no longer in the grave.

5) The CHURCH

Now 2000 years later, after hundreds of years of persecution, intentional and ruthless efforts to destroy those who believe in the name of Jesus.

The church has continued to proclaim the risen Lord and the Church has prevailed as Jesus said it would in Matthew 16.

Matthew 16:18 CSB

18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.

The 2000 year old witness of the Church.

The transformation of the Jewish people and those first disciples, which has led to billions of people coming to faith in Jesus, is a testament to the reality of the risen Jesus.

Our faith is not in a great teacher or good leader, our faith is in a Risen Savior.

A Savior we CAN believe in.

Reasons we MUST believe He is risen.

In 1 Corinthians 15, the Apostles Paul is confronting an argument being made by some in the Corinth church that Jesus was not resurrected from the dead.

These people seem to believe that Jesus was important and that the growing Church was worth being a part of, but they were questioning whether it was really necessary to believe Jesus rose from the grave.

“Sure we can believe in Jesus, what He taught, what He did while He was here, even some of the really wild stories, but raised from the dead…nah.”

To this Paul argues:

1 Corinthians 15:17–19 CSB

17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. 18 Those, then, who have fallen asleep in Christ have also perished. 19 If we have put our hope in Christ for this life only, we should be pitied more than anyone.

The reason this day is so important in the Christian calendar is that our faith and the way we view the world hinges on the reality of a risen Lord.

If He was not raised from the dead, then we are to be pitied more and anyone else.

Our faith is worthless and what we are doing right now is a waste of time.

John wrote his Gospel to show us we CAN believe in the Risen Lord.

But he also wrote it because we MUST believe in Him.

Because if they grave is empty then...

1) ANYTHING is POSSIBLE

John shared 7 miracles Jesus performed throughout the 3 years before He died.

He calls them signs because they show us who Jesus was as the Messiah, the promised Savior.

His signs are not magic tricks to show off how cool he is, but they pointed to His power to repair a broken world.

He turns water into wine to show He will bring a Kingdom of Joy into the world.

He heals to show His power over sickness.

He casts out demons to show His power over the evil, spiritual world.

He calms storms to show His power over creation.

He feeds thousands to show that He will provide for those in need.

He raises people from the dead to show His power EVEN OVER DEATH.

And then, the greatest miracle, the greatest sign, He is killed as an innocent man on a cross, lays in a grave, and on the 3rd day His dead, decaying body is brought back to life.

In His resurrection, Jesus is declaring all the miracles He has shown the world to be the reality of His kingdom, of His victory, and of His promise that ANYTHING is POSSIBLE.

The resurrection isn’t a promise that everything in your life will be instantly repaired and that you will not face struggles and trails in this life.

It is the promise, though, that those struggles and trials are not forever, that there is hope beyond out struggles.

It is also the promise that nothing we face in this world is beyond the reach, beyond the power of our God.

He can heal, He can restore, He can calm storms, and He can bring dead things back to life.

No one is too lost to be found and nothing is too dead for His resurrection power.

2) DEATH isn’t the END

Later in 1 Corinthians 15 Paul draws his argument of the reality of the resurrection to a close with an incredible reality/promise of the resurrection of Jesus.

1 Corinthians 15:50–57 NLT

50 What I am saying, dear brothers and sisters, is that our physical bodies cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. These dying bodies cannot inherit what will last forever. 51 But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! 52 It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed. 53 For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies. 54 Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled: “Death is swallowed up in victory. 55 O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. 57 But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Before Jesus was raised, death was the enemy that none of us had any hope in conquering.

But in Christ, there is a promise that what is on the other side of death is so much greater than anything this life could have ever offered us.

The hope of Christ is this:

That for those who trust in Him, the life we have experienced this side of heaven is the worst we will ever experience.

But for those who reject Him, this life is the best you will ever experience.

For those who trust in Jesus and live in view of His resurrection, death is no longer something we need to fear, but only our gateway into glory.

“O Death where is your sting? It is has been swallowed up in victory in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

3) JESUS is the ANSWER

Our faith is based on a real, historic event.

This man Jesus really did live, and He really did die on a Roman cross a short walk from what was the Temple in Jerusalem.

And He died before that Friday night was through and was placed in a sealed and guarded tomb.

And then, early Sunday morning, the world that had only known death to be the end, was radically transformed.

Mary Magdalene found an empty tomb. He had risen from the dead and He is risen still today.

The tomb is empty friends, meaning Jesus is the answer we are all looking for:

The empty tomb means that you don’t have to continuously walk in the weight and consequence of your sin.

That Jesus alone saves us.

That Jesus alone tells us who we are.

That Jesus alone is worthy of our worship.

That Jesus alone blesses us.

That Jesus alone has empowered us to both fight and defeat the enemy.

That Jesus alone delivers us.

And that Jesus wasn’t kidding when He said, “It is finished.”

The empty tomb means you no longer have to walk in shame and condemnation.

You don’t have to walk in addiction and habits that kill you.

You don’t have to walk in unforgiveness and bitterness.

You don’t have to walk under some measuring stick of all the things you’ve done wrong in your life.

You don’t have to walk in a world that is allowed to label and identify you and tell you who you are because of your past.

My goal in this sermon has not been to convince you through a well reasoned argument that Jesus is worth believing in.

I am not that smart, nor to I believe that is how this whole things works.

There are people, maybe in this room, who could probably come up with argument to counter each one of the reasons I gave.

At the end of the day, the question is,

Do you believe Jesus is who He said He is?

Do you believe He did what we read in this book?

Do you believe He died in your place, for your sins?

Do you believe He rose from the grave, that death is defeated and salvation can be found in His name?

Do you believe the tomb is empty, that He is Risen?

We CAN believe and we MUST believe...

Will you believe today?

Pray

Lord, it is because of your empty tomb that we can pray, knowing that your resurrection shows us that ANYTHING is POSSIBLE.

That salvation is possible, that hope is possible even in the worst of circumstances; that victory over addictions and struggles.

God there are some here today who have not given there lives to you, who have trusted in you as savior and Lord.

God I ask right now that you would move in their hearts in a clear and unmistakable way, and that right now they would call in the name of Jesus for salvation.

“For anyone who calls on the name of the Lord Jesus will be saved.”

You are the answer we are looking for, that our hearts are longing for, thank you for you grace, your salvation, your love.

Amen

I want to invite anyone who trusted in Jesus this morning or whenever and have yet to tell someone about it, to do something about your decision.

There is a number on the screen behind be right now, it is a private number that only I will see.

I want to invite you to text that number.

Maybe you have trusted in Jesus and want to understand what that means.

Maybe you still have questions and just want to talk it through.

Or maybe there is something else.

I want to invite you, to challenge you, to not let the day pass without sending me a message.