The Truth: He IS Risen!
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The Reason We’re Here
The Reason We’re Here
HE is Risen!
He is Risen indeed.
The reason we’re here is the fact that He IS Risen!
Imagine the emotional rollercoaster of having lived ministry with Jesus for three years. The disciples had seen miracles, healings, demons being cast out, and even the dead being raised (a little girl, Lazarus). They’d had times where they were celebrated, and times where their master was under threat of being stoned to death.
Seven days ago they followed Jesus into Jerusalem amid incredible excitement - people had lined the streets cheering as they walked by with Him. Strangers laid their coats down on the roadway, they sang songs of praise to Him.
Three days ago the disciples were honored to be among those in attendance to celebrate the Passover with Him.
Afterwards eleven of them followed Jesus to a garden to pray.
Three of the disciples were invited to go even further into the garden to pray with Jesus. They fell asleep, Jesus wakes them, and thats when things really went down hill.
Most of us know the story perhaps without thinking about it.
Jesus is betrayed by Judas, arrested, he goes through a mock trial among the religious establishment - he’s then handed over to the civil authorities - Pilate wants to offer him his freedom, but the people call for Barabbas and call for Jesus to be crucified.
Pilate washes his hands of the whole thing and hands Jesus over to be crucified. Now the Roman soldiers mock and scourge him.
He’s led out to be crucified, and
dies on a cross for nothing he did, but for everything everyone else has done or will do.
He died - like other founders of religions, he died.
Abraham - father of Judaism, died.
Buddha - founder of Buddhism, died.
Muhammed - founder of Islam, died.
But -
“All the millions and millions of Jews, Buddhists, and [Islamists] agree that their founders never come up out of the dust of the earth in a resurrection.”
That’s what is difference about Christianity.
FACT: “The bones of Abraham and Muhammed and Buddha... are still here on earth. Jesus’ tomb is empty.”
This tomb with the heavy stone rolled in front of it and sealed by Pilate, and guarded by the Roman guards was found empty on the third day.
That is why we’re here! We’re here because Jesus wasn’t there!
If Jesus body was there, then there would be no need for us to be here today.
William Lane Craig wrote:
Without the belief in the resurrection the Christian faith could not have come into being. The disciples would have remained crushed and defeated men. Even had they continued to remember Jesus as their beloved teacher, his crucifixion would have forever silenced any hopes of his being the Messiah.
Quoted by Josh McDowell in “The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict” ©1999, p. 205
The Messiah - that’s what they’d been waiting for. These men had invested three years leaving their businesses, their families because they believed he was the Messiah.
Craig continues:
The cross would have remained the sad and shameful end of his career. The origin of Christianity hinges on the belief of the early disciples that God had raised Jesus from the dead.
Why? Why is it that the Resurrection is so central to any sort of what we call Christian faith?
If the Resurrection is not historic fact...
the power of death remains unbroken
with it the effect of sin
the significance of Christ’s Death remains uncertified
believers are yet in their sins - precisely where they were before they heard of Jesus’ name.
The truth is the resurrection is not just central to our faith, it is a historical fact.
It’s what gives us hope.
But here’s the challenge for all of us - are we living it?
Are we living in the hope of the resurrection?
You see for too many people Jesus is a good teacher. But when you ask them, “Do good teachers lie?” they will tell you, “No.”
“So what do you do with the fact that Jesus made claims to be the Son of God, co-eternal with God?”
Um....well...
Another option is that Jesus was just loony, out of his mind. That could be why he made those kinds of statements.
So his good teachings are just the random ramblings of a lunatic?
Um…well...
Then there is one other option.
Jesus is Lord.
LORD!
lôrd/
noun
1.
someone or something having power, authority, or influence; a master or ruler.
"lord of the sea"
synonyms: master, ruler, leader, chief, superior, monarch, sovereign, king, emperor, prince, governor, commander, suzerain, liege,
If we’re honest, this is a word we don’t like very much. We don’t like the idea of having anyone be LORD over us. This is more a reflection of who we are than who God is. God is good. Jesus is Good.
Our idea of Lordship though is being boss, we want to be the one in charge. We tend to chaff against rules that God has put in place for us. But listen to the words of Jesus:
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
The Jews of the time were just as proud, and rebellious as we are. In fact when Jesus made this statement, John records their response:
They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”
And then, Dr. Phil steps into the scene and says, “Well, how’s that working for ya?”
Listen to Jesus response:
Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”
This is one of those things that is a “Hard saying”. We know we all sin.
Sin, very simply is when we put ourselves in the middle. One friend of mine writes it this way:
Slide of SIN - Sin is whenever I put “me” in the middle of things. I make myself the center instead of God in the center.
What the Jews in our passage missed, and we ourselves miss is that we are not free, we are slaves.
34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.
We are slaves to our sinful ways. How often have you said or done something and then asked, “Why did I say or do that?”
It’s sin.
It’s ingrained in us and we can do nothing about it. It’s a part of who we are.
That’s why today is so important. But we can’t get to today without the cross.
But there’s no need for the cross if there wasn’t sin in the first place.
It all began back in the garden. Adam and Eve:
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
In that moment Adam and Eve both chose to trust their own wisdom and the deception rather than the truth.
That’s where the debt you and I owe was inherited from. And the wages of sin is death - they were kicked out of the garden so that they wouldn’t live in sin the rest of their lives. They were separated from God, from one another, from the place they were created to live.
And ever since those that were aware of God would try and earn the love they longed for. Not realizing that it can’t be earned. Because God already had a plan to pay it off.
We’ve all heard the question, “What can you get the person who has everything.” The answer truly is nothing, you can’t get them anything, but you can give of yourself in relationship. That’s honestly what God has desired all the time and what was broken in the garden.
Sin and death entered the world in a garden.
It was in a garden where Jesus once again gives us a glimpse of the plan - at Gethsemane.
It was in a garden where Jesus was buried, having paid the debt of sin on the cross. But what about death?
It was in a garden that Jesus rose from the dead walking out of his garden tomb. And when Mary first meets him she mistakes him for the gardener.
Jesus said,
31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
When searching for the Truth, it’s not the “what” it’s the “Who”.
When we know Jesus - when we enter into that relationship - we enter into the purpose for our creation - to live in relationship with God.
When we understand that relationship, we understand the truth -
The truth IS Jesus, and indeed the Truth has set us free.
That freedom rests in once again opening the relationship for which we were created. There is no greater life you can live than the life you were created for.
That is the truth setting us free - as long as we’re seeking to walk in that relationship.
There’s a condition in there.
31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,
It really does call for a response from us. Are we abiding in his word? Are we truly his disciples?
We can be, but it takes a bit of knowing his word. It’s recognizing that Jesus is Lord, and we’re not.
It’s seeking His Kingdom first...
If you’re wanting to go deeper and understand what it means to follow Jesus, I want to invite you on that journey. Our Tuesday night Bible Study is one way, but I’m also happy to meet with you and talk with you.
If you abide in Jesus’ word, you are truly his disciples...
32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
That’s when we can truly live free. That’s when we can live in the resurrection. That’s when we can live life to the full as Jesus promised.
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,
Jesus IS the resurrection.
Jesus IS life.
It is because Jesus died for us and IS Risen that we too can know we will live even though we die. This is why we’re here. This is why we celebrate.
He is RISEN
HE IS RISEN indeed!
