Jesus' resurrection

What makes the resurrection of Jesus astonishing, the greatest single event to occur in this reality? (OT resurrections, Lazarus, many at Jesus’ death, everyone in the end)

Please allow me to depress you before I bless you.

Quote (Legolas to Gimli): “The world is indeed full of peril... and in it there are many dark places.”

Heraclitus

“The world is nothing but a great desire to live and a great dissatisfaction with living.”

Judges 15:18 “And he was very thirsty, and he called upon the Lord and said, “You have granted this great salvation by the hand of your servant, and shall I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?””

After centuries of living, fighting, and losing people, Connor MacLeod begins to feel weary of life. The burden of immortality becomes heavy. There’s a sense that he’s stuck in a cycle that never ends.

There's no time for us There's no place for us What is this thing that builds our dreams Yet tips 'em 'way from us

There's no chance for us It's all decided for us This world has only one sweet moment Set aside for us

Who wants to live forever? Who wants to live forever?

Ecclesiastes 2:17–23 “So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind. I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun… So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun… What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest..”

Ever since Adam and Eve were sent out of Eden, human life has been lived east of Eden — in exile.

From a garden to a wilderness/desert

Genesis 3:17–18 “And to Adam he said, “...cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you...”

Judges 8:16 “...he took thorns of the wilderness and briers.”

Where everything exile implies ultimately ends in complete loss of life

Genesis 2:17 “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die [be exiled].””

“Die” - synecdoche - takes the most dramatic part of exile to name the whole.

Exile is leaving home and the place of life for the realm of darkness and death.

Exile is famine, slavery, barrenness, division, hatred, pride.

Its no accident that the second book is Exodus.

Our earliest ancestors knew their position in exile (their point of reference).

Adam and Eve were pushed east of the garden.

Cain was pushed further east.

The tower builders travel from the east.

Abraham travels from the east, going westward to the land of rest.

The tabernacle/temple face the east, travel west to get to God’s holy place.

Psalm 24:3–4 “Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.”

God set the promise of deliverance from exile upon the hearts of His people.

Genesis 50:25 “Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.””

Later prophets expanded on this expectation.

Isaiah 25:7–8 “And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.”

Isaiah 26:19 “Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead.”

Ezekiel 37:12 “Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves...”

God tied the release from exile and death to “3 days.”

(a widow’s son died)

1 Kings 17:21–22 “Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, let this child’s life come into him again.” And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived.”

(Hezekiah)

2 Kings 20:1 “In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die; you shall not recover.’ ””

2 Kings 20:5 ““Turn back, and say to Hezekiah the leader of my people, Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord,”

(Hosea)

Hosea 6:1–2 ““Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.”

(Isaac)

Genesis 22:4 “On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar.”

(Jonah)

Jonah 1:17 “And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”

(Esther)

Esther 5:1–2 “On the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king’s palace, in front of the king’s quarters, while the king was sitting on his royal throne inside the throne room opposite the entrance to the palace. And when the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, she won favor in his sight, and he held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. Then Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter.”

Jesus didn’t just escape the grave — He carried humanity on His shoulders, back into the presence of God.

Jesus’ wasn’t just a Lazarus resurrection

The son of God lived in our wilderness exile alongside us.

He got sick, struggled, hungered, wept, hurt, was injured.

He experienced our deepest exile in death, took our judgment of exile.

Perfect, he could walk up to the gate of Eden and return back to life, but he didn’t leave life to just receive it back.

The high priest of the Old Law helps us understand.

Exodus 28:15 ““You shall make a breastpiece of judgment, in skilled work. ...”

Exodus 28:21 “There shall be twelve stones with their names according to the names of the sons of Israel. They shall be like signets, each engraved with its name, for the twelve tribes.”

Exodus 28:29 “So Aaron shall bear the names of the sons of Israel in the breastpiece of judgment on his heart, when he goes into the Holy Place, to bring them to regular remembrance before the Lord.”

Jesus went to our deepest exile, picked us up, placed us on his heart, and walked us through the gates of Eden.

Ephesians 2:4–6 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,”

Romans 6:4 “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.”

Jesus is the way out of this exile and back to the Father.

John 2:19 “Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.””

John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

We can’t walk back in alone...

He covered our sins.

He dress us up like himself.

And he walked through the gates with us pressed to his chest.

Conclusion:

Lord’s Supper - we remember his death. But truly it was Death that died on that cross, to never see light again.

We talked about the three days - there is one more - the Red Sea Crossing.

After the Passover offering and meal. (the death of the firstborn)

They walked 3 days to there deliverance at the Red Sea and exodus from exile.

They remembered that.

Now we remember our deliverance from exile on the back of our Savior, resurrected Jesus.