The Reality of the Resurrection

It’s been a good semester and I hope that you have enjoyed some of these thought provoking questions and situations that we’ve explored and ultimately that you walk away from this series more comfortable knowing that you can trust Jesus and that the difficult questions are worth asking and worth wrestling with. This is how faith stops just being something that your family does or something that is popular in your home town and starts taking on life as you walk daily with Jesus.

Just to give you a heads up of where we are going. We will conclude our regular coming together in this setting next week with Friendsgiving. We’ll have some opportunities to come together and hang before Christmas, like our Christmas cookie/ugly sweater party. And then we’ll come back together on January 8th with a new sermon series.

And to just briefly address that. When I was planning out where we are going in our teachings on Wednesday night, something that has really struck Becca and me since we’ve been with you is truly how much heartache and difficulty you all endure at such a young age. And we know that many of you indeed battle mightily with more than just sadness. So we’re going to address that elephant in the room and we’re going to dedicate some time to talk about Anxiety and Depression. Not that I hope that you “look forward to that,” but I hope that you see that we care about you. We desire relationship with you so that we can lift you up in times of need, and I hope that we can put some tools in our toolbox so that we can address topics like this and feel safe doing so in an environment like this.

But this semester we have been asking ourselves difficult questions, about Scripture, about Jesus, about the Cross and as we wrap up this series tonight I want to put in front of you a pinnacle item. We not only come and celebrate as a church the coming of our Lord in the person of Jesus, we not only come together as a people and celebrate the life that he led, the miracles that he performed, and the sacrifice that he made on the Cross, but we come together as a people and celebrate that three days later Jesus brought into reality something that is made available to us if we put our trust in Him!

We read in starting in verse 1:

28 After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to view the tomb. 2 There was a violent earthquake, because an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and approached the tomb. He rolled back the stone and was sitting on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow. 4 The guards were so shaken by fear of him that they became like dead men.

5 The angel told the women, “Don’t be afraid, because I know you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here. For 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 indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; you will see him there.’ Listen, I have told you.”

8 So, departing quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, they ran to tell his disciples the news. 9 Just then Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” They came up, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus told them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to leave for Galilee, and they will see me there.”

We are talking about the resurrection. I said last week that the cross stands at the center of our faith and that stands true. And yes that is true but let’s consider the whole story as well. When April rolls around we’ll come together and we will gear our hearts and minds on Good Friday to focus on the crucifixion and then come the following day we will celebrate together as a people the empty tomb. That Good Friday is good because of resurrection Sunday.

So the questions stands, what sort of weight do you place on the resurrection? We’ve been building up this whole semester, walking away week after week with the knowledge that you can trust Scripture, you can trust Jesus, you can trust in the work of the cross and we’re here tonight and I want you to walk away knowing you can trust in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Many people will try and tell you that this is some sort of drawn up story. That it's a lie. That Jesus wasn’t really raised from the dead and that this Christian faith was just a power play in the first century. When in actuality as we read the Bible, we see a lot of things that fly in the face of that notion.

First of all when we read here in , we see that the first people to witness the empty tomb were not the most powerful in society. It was a couple of ladies. And if you are trying to generate a movement in this time period, you’re not going to have two ladies be the first spokespeople.

Women’s low social status meant that their testimony was not admissible evidence in court. There was no possible advantage to the church to recount that all the first witnesses were women. The only possible explanation for why women were depicted as meeting Jesus first is if they really had.

This isn’t saying anything against you ladies here and now but it in that day and age, your voice didn’t count for much.

Next you consider the resolve of the apostles, how committed they were to this reality of the resurrected Jesus.

Paul who wrote much of your New Testament was imprisoned over and over and over again. Beaten and tortured and many believe that he was beheaded under the Roman emperor Nero.

John the gospel writer and the writer of revelation was sentenced to exile on an island and was cast into a pot of boiling oil.

Peter was arrested and sentenced to crucifixion. Being told, “you follow this Jesus. How about you die like him.” To which he he says, no… I’m not worthy of that, crucify me upside down.

There were many other people during this time period who claimed to be gods, messiahs, then they were executed and those movements dispersed.

The early Christian church faced this crucifixion of Jesus, this resurrection of Jesus and in the face of their own death and persecutions the early church spread like a wildfire.

Paul would say in 1 Corinthians about the reality of the resurrection:

3 For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: 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, then to the Twelve. 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.

What Paul says here is that there are so many eyewitnesses to this resurrection. So many that not only know that the tomb was empty but saw a resurrected Jesus in bodily form, raised from the dead. Check with Cephas (Peter) Check with the apostles, check with the 500 who saw him at one time!

And many did come asking, and those many of those eyewitnesses were arrested, persecuted, and killed. And those eyewitnesses stared death in the face and said, it’s worth it, because if Jesus was really raised from the dead, and I saw him with my own two eyes, then what he said about going and dwelling with the Father must also be true.

But just like we said as we opened up this apologetics series, rarely are these questions an issue of merely understanding in the head. More often than not its an issue of the heart.

Because if Jesus was crucified, buried, and raised form the dead, just as he said he would be, then what he said about your life and my life must also be true and we are not gods over our own lives, but we will know a reality in eternity either completely in union with him, or completely separated from him for all of time.

And that notion should send a chill down your spine. It should cause you to take a step back and ask yourself. Do I believe? How has that belief changed my life?

There very well may be some of you in the room tonight who have convinced yourself that you are a believer in Jesus but there’s little in your life to prove that that’s true.

That if you sit here and you are Christ's, you get to exclaim as Paul did in ,

So all that I am asking of you tonight is to be honest with yourself. When we talk about Jesus coming here, living and dying so that we may have a personal relationship with him, I ask you, does your life bear the markers of having a relationship with him.

“54b Death has been swallowed up in victory.,

Some of you are in relationships now and if you walked the hallways of your school saying that you have a boyfriend or a girlfriend and his or her name was _______. And people went up to them and said, “Hey I heard you and so and so were in a relationship, that you were dating.”

And they responded, “Man, I’ve never even talked to that joker before.” What would that imply? That they are indeed not in a relationship.

55 Where, death, is your victory?

Where, death, is your sting?,

But if you are in a relationship with someone, something happens. You start dressing different. Boys you might actually start showering. You might start caring about things that you previously didn’t. A couple of Sundays ago, I’m sitting over here and as we are in table discussions one Jackson Kirkpatrick has the gamecast of Madison’s softball game. And at some point I’ve asked Jackson, before you dated Madison, how much softball were you watching? To which he replies, none.

Why is that so? It’s because he cares for her. He’s interested in her. He delights in the things that bring her joy.

56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

When you tie yourself closely to someone else, in friendship, in a romantic relationship, whatever, your affections change, you want to be around them, you want to spend time with them.

Do you feel like defeating death today? It’s been done away with. Come and join the Way, the Truth, and the Life in Jesus.

Have you spent time with Jesus today? Do you know Jesus like that? Personally? As your savior? As Lord of your life?

Well the point of tonight is that if you sit here and you are Christ’s, you belong to him, you get to exclaim as Paul did in ,

“54b Death has been swallowed up in victory.,

55 Where, death, is your victory?

Where, death, is your sting?,

56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

And just as we said last week, Jesus is calling out to you, daily. Just as with the first disciples he said follow me. Just as he lived out this truly revolutionary ministry healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, he says follow me as you serve. He says follow me, take up your cross, die to yourself, and follow me. And just as he climbed out that grave three days later he calls out to you and says follow me. And as he sits on His heavenly throne he calls you to you and says Follow me! Be with me!

Death has been swallowed up in victory! It has no more sting! It has no more victory!

Do you feel like defeating death today? It’s been done away with. This is my invitation to you now, come and follow Jesus.

Heavenly Father,

When we think of what it looks like to follow you, to have a relationship with you, yes I pray that we would all see the cost that must be counted as we die to self to become more like you.

But Father I pray that we would all walk away encouraged tonight that as you call out to us in obedience and sacrifice, you also call out to us and guarantee an eternity of dwelling with you for all time in a place where there are no more tears, no more pain, no more sicknesses like cancer, no more depression or anxiety, but we will know what it will be like to see you right in front of our face and we will worship you for forever and a day more.

God I pray that as we think about the resurrection that we would grow all the more encouraged that this world is not our home. That we were indeed made for a different world and that is exactly what you give us through the life, death, and resurrection of your Son Jesus, and it’s in his name we pray, Amen.