He is Risen Indeed!

You are looking for Jesus, Who was crucified...

Today we rejoice in the fact that Jesus is not dead, but He is alive!

Last Sunday was Communion Sunday, over this last week we have taken some extra time reflecting on Jesus’ suffering and agony on the cross. Today we rejoice in His resurrection.

Let’s read

Matthew 28:1–10 NIV

1 After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. 2 There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. 4 The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. 5 The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.” 8 So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

Each gospel confirms the story of the resurrection. When we look at the New Testament, we see it as 27 books that fall into place quite nicely. The four gospels were written by four different authors to differing audiences.

In each we see a little different slant to the story of the resurrection. Some omit certain details, where others include parts that were important to them. Each are inspired by God and proclaim that Jesus is alive.

It’s been nearly 2000 years since Jesus died on the cross. We have heard the story countless times about the cross, the grave, and the resurrection. If we aren’t careful we can take this story for granted. We’ve heard, we’ve read the story over and over. I want you to contemplate when I mention the Last Supper... the Garden of Gethsemane... Jesus’ arrest... the stripes on His back... the mocking... the crown of thorns... the road to Golgotha... the nails, the cross... the tomb...

He had not hidden this from His disciples, but it must have gone over their heads.

Luke 9:21–22 NIV

21 Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. 22 And he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”

His followers had seen Him bring the dead to life: the widow of Nain’s son, Jairus’ daughter had died and Jesus told her to get up. What about Lazarus?

And yet, they saw Joseph of Arimathea take Jesus off the cross and put His body in the tomb. A large stone was rolled in front of the entrance of the tomb.

Matthew 27:62–66 NIV

62 The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. 63 “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ 64 So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.” 65 “Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” 66 So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.

Why these details when we already know the story of the resurrection? We already know that Jesus is alive, why these details?

I want you to

Put yourself in their shoes...

for a few minutes.

They had followed Jesus faithfully. They thought that Jesus would bring salvation. He would restore the hope of Israel, and yet He was dead.

Can you even begin to think of the devastation? Their leader, their Rabbi, their Lord, was dead. He was in a tomb. It was being guarded and it was sealed.

There is nobody that we can compare to Jesus as far as a great tragedy, but I wonder what the horror must have been when JFK was assassinated. For many in the US, it must have been devastating, but Jesus healed the sick, set captives free, even raised the dead, and now he was gone.

Yet when Sunday morning came, after the Sabbath,

Some women went to the tomb...

If we piece it together, we aren’t sure how many but there are four names that come up throughout the gospels.

Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, Salome, and several other women.

Mark 16:1 NIV

1 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body.

They didn’t go because they thought Jesus was alive. They went because of their deep love for Jesus. They wanted to honour their Lord and master. They wanted to preserve His body as long as they could. They had seen death before and they knew what the end result was.

If this was the end of the story, we would have no New Testament. It would be over.

Even when it seemed that there was no hope,

The women went to the tomb...

By going to the tomb, they were going to be with Jesus. This might seem a little morbid, in any case, their love, for Jesus, was so great they wanted to see Him.

Maybe there have been times in your life when all hope was gone, and when all hope is lost, we need to go to Jesus. In no way is this identical to their situation, because we know that Jesus is alive, and we know that He brings hope to hopeless situations.

Everything was about to change...

While they are walking to the tomb, they realized that the stone needed to be removed from the entrance of the tomb.

Matthew is the only one that mentions the guards, but it definitely makes sense that the chief priests would want to make sure that nobody could steal the Jesus’ body.

As the women arrive, they see that the stone has been rolled away from the tomb. An angel of the Lord sat on it. His appearance was like lightning and his clothes were as white as snow.

What do we know about the angel?

He was an angel of the Lord. We also know that he caused a great earthquake and he rolled the stone away from the tomb.

I’m not sure if you have ever had a hair raising experience or have been really terrified. Maybe you were in an accident or you were out walking after night and heard coyotes that seemed to be so close.

The guards became so terrified that they shook and became like dead men.

If we look at other encounters with angels in the Bible.

Zechariah, John the Baptist’s father had an encounter.

Luke 1:11–12 NIV

11 Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12 When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear.

Mary, Jesus’ mother encountered an angel.

Luke 1:28–29 NIV

28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.

In both these cases the angel said, “Do not be afraid.”

On Resurrection morning,

Matthew 28:5 NIV

5 The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.

Today, if people would only look for Jesus, who was crucified, it would change everything. These women didn’t come with the intention of finding the tomb empty, but the angel said,

Matthew 28:6 NIV

6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.

In Luke the angel asked, why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, He has risen!

That’s what the angel said, but

How can we know that it is true?

Let’s read what the chief priests did?

Matthew 28:11–15 NIV

11 While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. 12 When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, 13 telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ 14 If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” 15 So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.

Some may ask the question.

“Why are the accounts of the resurrection different?”

That is a fair question. The intent of each writer was to tell the story of the resurrection. The writers each declared that Jesus was alive and each emphasized the details of their story just a little differently, but each writer and the early church all proclaimed that the tomb was empty and that Jesus Christ is alive.

This what the Apostle Paul says in

1 Corinthians 15:3–8 NIV

3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

The evidence is reliable...

I shared this story last year, but I think it’s worthy repeating...

Simon Greenleaf

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)

We believe that Jesus is alive!

Why?

Because He has changed our lives. Your life is a testimony. You are a witness that Jesus is alive.

Many have made the decision that if Jesus lived, He was just a good man who set a good example of how we should live. They don’t believe that Jesus was God or that He rose from the dead.

On the other hand because we believe Jesus is alive, we believe that there is no other name given to humans by which we must be saved.

We also believe that the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead has great power.

Romans 8:5–17 NIV

5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. 9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. 12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. 14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

Because of the cross and the evidence of the resurrection, when we believe and turn from our sins, we become God’s children and are brought from spiritual death to life. We are no longer alone. God has promised He will never abandon us. In fact, He comes to live in us. God dwells in you!

That’s a story worth talking about.

Let’s pray.