YOLO! JK! BRB

Don’t Look for the living among the dead.

A Navy Chief and his wife decided to take a trip to the Holy Land after he had retired. They had a great time, but sadly the Chief passed away. The coroner told the Chief’s wife, “You have a couple of options. I can have him buried here in Jerusalem in the Holy Land. That will only cost you $50, that’s for the coffin, space, embalming, everything. If that does not suit you, I can have him sent back to the US so you can bury him there. However, that is going to cost $5,000 and that is just to get him over there. From there you are going to have to find someone to do the rest to prep him.”

The Chief’s wife responds, “Thank you. This is all such a shock. Can I have a few days to decide?

The coroner has no problem with her taking some time. It’s a big decision. She comes back after a few days. “I’ve decided to have him sent back to the States to have him buried there.”

“Okay,” responds the coroner, “I will make the arrangements. Can I ask why you are choosing to send him back?”

“Well,” the Chief’s wife responds, “ being buried in the Holy Land would be very nice, but then I remembered a few thousand years ago, you buried someone and He came back. I just don’t want to take that chance.” bahahahahaha. Of course that is all for a good joke.

We all have eternal life. It’s a matter of location.

We have been going through our sermon series on the early church. Last week we had a beautiful Easter Cantata put on by the choir. Leading up to the cantata, we have been going over Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians and Paul’s instruction to them. I have been reading a lot of Paul, lately. The guy had a way of leading people even remotely. One issue that they were having in Corinth was that some folks were trying to say that the Resurrection did not happen. They were saying that it was not necessary for Jesus to be resurrected.

The Resurrection is essential to our faith. Our faith hinges on it!

Paul reminded them that there were others that witnessed Jesus’s resurrection. It was not just a few people that saw the resurrected Christ, it was many people that saw Him. If Jesus had not Resurrected, then it would mean that everything else He said could be called into question. That’s the problem today. People want to take away the stuff about Jesus that they do not want and only cling on to the things that they want to keep. The world wants to pick and choose. The reason they want to remove the resurrection is because it limits God. Denying the Resurrection gives them the ability to say that God doesn’t have that power. If Jesus had not been able to come back from the grave, then there was clearly something more powerful than Christ. People want to glom onto His teachings about being charitable and loving our neighbor. These are good things to do for sure. Please do not hear that I am dismissing those things. They are important. The thing about the resurrection is that it shows that Jesus is all powerful and the enemy is threatened by that. That’s why this doubt over the resurrection has been around as long as it has been. The enemy wants to dismiss that message.

Jesus came back, though. He showed His power over the grave!

YOLO! JK! BRB! You only live once! Just Kidding! Be Right Back!

That is young people speak. Younger folks will shout YOLO before doing something that they probably should not. It’s this idea that we should risk things because we only have one life to live. That is true, we have one life, but it lasts for all eternity. Jesus went to the cross knowing that He was going to die, but He also knew He was coming back. He hinted at it for the majority of His ministry on earth, but the people listening just could not understand. Makes sense, right? When someone dies, we do not expect to see them come back. There is an entire horror movie genre dealing with the dead coming back to life. They are zombie movies. Of course His followers did not know what He was talking about. The idea was too crazy for them to fathom.

On Good Friday, they saw Him taken, beaten and hung on the middle cross. They witnessed as Jesus took His last breath and called out “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” One thing I wanted to say about this question is that throughout Christ’s ministry, He often refers to God as Abba, more of a kid to father acknowledgement. When He is in the garden praying, Jesus calls God Abba. Now He is calling Him “My God”. That’s because for the first time in all of history and for the last time in all of history, the Father had to turn His back on the Son because Jesus bore all of our sins, past present and future on Himself for those few hours. Jesus was there taking the wrath that God meant for us. So Jesus, for the first time in His existence felt what it was like to be separated from God. That’s true hell. We wonder why we have hell on earth its because there are so many people out there living separated from God. The disciples and no one else was expecting Him to come back. Not even the enemy thought Jesus was coming back. Jesus’s side is pierced, they see that He is dead, and Joseph of Arimathea has Him placed in the tomb that he had purchased.

The burial was a rush job since they wanted to get Him down before the festival. They sure didn’t want the murder of an innocent man to prevent them from celebrating. Ironic when we think that they were celebrating the very One that they had just murdered. The chief priests plead with Pilate to put a guard on the tomb because they are worried the disciples will come and take His body out of the grave and then tell people that Jesus had resurrected like He said He would.

The disciples never thought Jesus would come back. They were mourning, not plotting.

So the women go to the tomb after the celebration to finish anointing Jesus’s body for His burial. They did not have embalming techniques or anything like that. Jesus was loved by them, so they go to give their respects to God Almighty. Today we are going to look at what Luke 24: 1-12. If you have your Bibles, please turn there with me.

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came to the tomb, bringing the spices they had prepared. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb. 3 They went in but did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men stood by them in dazzling clothes. 5 So the women were terrified and bowed down to the ground.

“Why are you looking for the living among the dead?” asked the men. 6 “He is not here, but he has risen! Remember how he spoke to you when he was still in Galilee, 7 saying, ‘It is necessary that the Son of Man be betrayed into the hands of sinful men, be crucified, and rise on the third day’?” 8 And they remembered his words.

9 Returning from the tomb, they reported all these things to the Eleven and to all the rest. 10 Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them were telling the apostles these things. 11 But these words seemed like nonsense to them, and they did not believe the women. 12 Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. When he stooped to look in, he saw only the linen cloths., So he went away, amazed at what had happened.

So we have these two women that went to the tomb.  We know that it was Mary Magdalene and the other Mary that had gone to anoint His body.  It makes sense that they would go into the tomb since they were not there to pay respects, but to do a job.  They are in the tomb looking for the body, but they cannot find it anywhere.  They are perplexed.  Then suddenly there are two guys show up that are dazzling and the women bow down to them.  They ask an astonishing question.  “Why are you looking for the Living among the dead?” Another translation from the Greek could be “Why are you looking for the Living One?”  I like that line of questioning.  Notice that the two do not ask why they are looking for the risen One.  Instead, they ask why they are looking for the Living One, as if it was preposterous that the LORD God Almighty would ever succumb to death. They also remind the women that Jesus told them He would be betrayed into the hands of sinners, crucified, and raised on the third day.  Jesus had delivered on His promise.  He told them from the beginning that He was going to be murdered, but He also told them He would be back.

         From there, they run to tell the 11 disciples and the rest.  It is truly amazing news.  So amazing in fact that none of the men believed them.  On the one hand, they had seen Jesus call Lazarus out of the grave just a week before in Bethany.  So they would have known of Jesus’s power. However, to be fair, it was Jesus that called Lazarus out while Jesus was still alive.  They had been there at the cross.  They watched Him die.  They watched Him cry out to the Father and take His last breath.  So I am sure that they were thinking there’s no way that these women are speaking in their right minds.  It is truly something incredible that has happened here.  However, out of the 11 disciples, Peter and John decide to go check it out. John 20: 3-10 At that, Peter and the other disciple went out, heading for the tomb.  The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and got to the tomb first. Stooping down, he saw the linen cloths lying there, yet he did not go in.  Then, following him, Simon Peter came also. He entered the tomb and saw the linen cloths lying there.  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.  The other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, then entered the tomb, saw, and believed.  For they still did not understand the Scripture that He must rise from the dead. Then the disciples went home again.

John really makes it a point to let everyone know that he made it to the tomb first.  We know that John was younger than Peter by a lot, so he was a lot faster.  I have a feeling that they were running together and when Peter couldn’t keep up, John just kept trucking. John gets to the tomb first and waits for Peter to show up.  It’s pure conjecture, but I have a feeling that John probably said something to Peter about how he showed up first and ha ha old man, I beat you, kind of friendly razzing.  To which Peter said, “So, it’s not like anyone is going to know.” So John makes sure to tell us twice in this passage that he showed up first.  Peter goes into the tomb and sees that the body is not there.  Further, the burial shroud is there, but it is empty. There’s nothing in it.  The cloth that covered Jesus’s face is interesting.  It’s not with the rest of the burial shroud.  Instead, it is placed separately and folded up.  This might seem insignificant at the initial observation, but there is a whole lot of meaning behind that face cloth being folded.

         In those days, when a Lord sat down to eat, when he was finished with his plate, he would ball up the napkin and put it on the plate.  After that, he got up from the table and walked away.  The balling up of the napkin indicated to the servants that he was done and not coming back.  However, if the important person got up from the table and folded his napkin and placed it next to the plate, that indicated to the servants that he was coming back to finish the food.  The cloth covering Jesus’s face was folded and placed elsewhere, indicating that He was going to be coming back.  Now, that is not to say that His work was not already complete as far as the salvation of mankind.  On Friday we looked at how Jesus proclaims that it is finished.  What was finished was satisfying God’s wrath so that we could be saved from our sin.  That was complete.  However, it was not the end of the story.

Both John and Peter see this and they believe.  However, they still do not understand what it all means.  They do not understand the Scripture that He must rise again.  They believe, but they don’t know what to do with that belief.  Rather than stand around, they decide to go home.  I like to think of it like the five minute rule we used to play back in school.  Remember, if the class had started, but the teacher had not shown up after five minutes, then the class would dismiss itself.  To be fair, they had not been given any express instructions on what to do with the empty tomb.  Jesus had not given any instructions, so it makes sense that they decide to leave. It makes us wonder, what did they believe?  Did they believe the women that brought this news of Jesus’s body not being there?  Or did they believe Jesus?  We don’t know.  However, whatever information they were seeking at the time has been discovered and they are ready to get out of there.

         Mary sticks around, though.  She is crying and looking into the tomb.  She is overcome with grief, looking into the tomb and she sees two angels in the tomb, one sitting where His head would be and one sitting where His feet would be.  I do find it interesting that neither Peter nor John saw these two angels, but Mary sure did. John 20: 13-14 They said to her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

       “Because they have taken away my Lord,” she told them, “and I don’t know where they’ve put Him.” Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, though she did not know it was Jesus.  

         So poor Mary is so distraught she is stooped and looking in the grave.  She thinks that someone has taken Jesus’s body.  She is so upset that when Jesus shows up and talks to her, she doesn’t even realize it is Him.  She asks what He has done with the body, thinking that He is the gardener, which makes me really curious about the duties of a gardener back then!  It’s not until Jesus says her name that she realizes it is Him.  He tells her He is ascending to His Father and her Father- to My God and your God. From there she races to tell the disciples.

         The disciples are gathered together in a locked room.  They are meeting behind lock and key because they are terrified of the Jews.  I think that we lose sight of how these people must have been feeling after that first Resurrection Sunday.  At this point, all they know is that Jesus’s body is not in the tomb anymore and that He is ascending to the Father, but that is it.

         Meanwhile, they have that pesky oppressive Roman government to worry about and the chief priests.  They watched their leader be brutally beaten and executed, so they know that the same can happen to them.  The chief priests are so adamant to keep the truth of the resurrection from getting out that they bribe the soldiers that were standing guard over the tomb. Matthew 28: 11-14 As they were on their way, some of the guards came into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened.  After the priests assembled with the elders and agreed on a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money and told them, “Say this, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole Him while we were sleeping.’ If this reaches the governor’s ears, we will deal with him and keep you out of trouble.  The guards take the money.  This was a serious gamble on their part.  They had to put their faith that these chief priests would keep their word.  Sleeping on watch was an executable offense back then.  In fact, according to the UCMJ the uniform code of military justice, it is still an offense that carries the death penalty with it.  I have not seen a person be executed for sleeping on watch, but I have seen the get into serious trouble.

         The chief priests are putting a lot of faith into their own power and their money, right?  They are putting their faith in these Roman soldiers and that they will uphold their end of the bargain.  Why wouldn’t they put their faith in Jesus?

There is a group that still has faith in Jesus.  They know the body is not there, but they still do not understand that Jesus is alive. They saw what the Jews had done to Jesus and they know they are capable of doing the same to them. They are sure they are being set up for pain and agony from their fellow countrymen.  So they are holed up behind a locked door. John 20:19-20 In the evening of that first day of the week, the disciples were gathered together with the doors locked because of their fear of the Jews.  Then Jesus came, stood among them, and said to them, “Peace be to you!”

       Having said this, He showed them His hands and His side. So the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.

         Now they have physical proof that Jesus has resurrected. They see that there are hole in His hands and His side.  This is important because it shows us that His physical body was in fact pierced. His physical body did in fact die, but Jesus is the living God, He cannot be defeated by death. Jesus is the victor, death is not!

         However, there is one disciple that is not among them. That’s Thomas.  Poor Thomas gets known forever as the doubter because of his exchange here.  John 20: 24-29 But one of the Twelve, Thomas (Called Twin) was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples kept telling him, “We have seen the Lord!”

       But he said to them, “If I don’t see the mark of the nails in His hands, put my finger into the mark of the nails, and put my hand in His side, I will never believe!” After eight days His disicples were indoors again, and Thomas was with them. Even though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them. He said, “Peace to you!”

       Then He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and observe My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side.  Don’t be an unbeliever, but a believer.”

       Thomas responded to Him, “My Lord and my God!”

       Jesus said, “Because you have seen Me, you have believed. Those who believe without seeing are blessed.

         From this time forward, Thomas has been known as the doubting Thomas.  Which is a shame.  Peter is known as “the rock” even though he denied Jesus the three times before the rooster crowed. The sons of Zebedee are known as the Sons of Thunder, not the “Sleepyhead sons” Remember they had fallen asleep while Jesus was praying in the garden.  For some reason, poor Thomas is given this monicker even though he was the only disciple to respond in faith when Jesus went to Bethany to bring Lazarus back to life.  Remember, Thomas tells them all, “Let’s go with Him so we can all die too.”  No one seems to remember that.

         Now all eleven disciples have seen Jesus. It’s not a story, it’s not made up. Earlier in the garden, Jesus asks that God not make Him drink the cup He is about to drink.  That cup contained the wrath of God.  Now these men would go out to preach a resurrected Christ. The Living God continues to live.  As a result, they are persecuted and most of them are murdered for preaching Christ.  That’s how we know that the resurrection is not something made up.  These men endured pain and hardship because they believed on Jesus.

         Chuck Colson is quoted as saying: I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Every one was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren't true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world-and they couldn't keep a lie for three weeks. You're telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible.

         God loves us so much that He sent His only Son here to earth to die a terrible death for us.  He lived a sinless life and willingly went to be the sacrifice for our sins.  He was beaten and tortured, dying a gruesome death, but three days later, He was back.  Jesus was going to die, but He was coming right back three days later.  You only live once, Just kidding, be right back.  Now there is an empty tomb that was used for just a few days and a living Savior back from death.  That’s how much God loves us.  He endured that all for us on Friday and then that glorious first resurrection Sunday, He showed His power over death.  That’s why we don’t need to fear death or condemnation, we follow the One true God that came and died in our place, gave the perfect sacrifice for our sins, and rose again to show His power over the grave.  So why would we look for the living among the dead? Christ is Risen!

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