Looking for Life Among the Dead
Easter 2020 • Sermon • Submitted
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· 51 viewsWhy do we look to find life in all of the dead things that the world has to offer, when life can only be found in Jesus Christ.
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Good morning and welcome to all of those who are tuning in!
It is Easter Sunday.
A glorious day!
A day of renewal!
A day of hope!
The day that Jesus showed the world that He is the Messiah, that he is our source of life, hope and eternal life.
Today is the day when we celebrate Christ’s victory over death.
And also celebrate the hope that we find in that.
And if you have a Bible handy, I’d like to ask you to turn to .
And if you tuned in for Sunday School, you will know that this is the same passage from the Sunday School lesson.
And that’s okay, because this morning we are going to be focusing on the point that the angels made when asking the women the question, “why are you looking for the living among the dead?”
Why are you looking for the thing that brings life, among the things that are dead and lifeless?
Which is not only a question for them but for us as well.
And I believe that in our current times, a very valid question to be asking.
The things of this world really only lead to dead ends.
The only thing in this world that leads to life is Jesus Christ.
And that life is found in His glory and His resurrection.
And I know that many are having a hard time this morning because we are not all gathered in this building.
We will not be having Easter dinner with our families today.
And all of the “normal” things that we are used to doing are no longer getting done.
Our “normal” lives have been turned upside down.
The entire way that we do Church has been turned upside down.
And we are being forced to reimagine and redefine what it means to be the Church.
In many ways, this ordeal that we are going through right now has been an opportunity for God to really get our attention.
And I am not saying that God caused any of this.
What I am saying is God is using all things for His Glory.
And for many, many years, the church has ignored God’s message through Isaiah when he said “see I do a new thing.”
God is in fact doing a new thing.
He has hit the reset button on the Church and we all are now examining what is important to us.
Is our traditions and comfortable way of doing things so important that we have got to have it our way and do things our way?
That is the question that God is asking and we are being asked to weigh things out and keep the main thing the main thing.
And the main thing is to be the Church.
The main thing is to share the hope that is found in Jesus and only Jesus.
The main thing is to love our neighbor as ourselves.
And those things have never been attached to our church buildings and face to face gatherings.
Those things are attached to our heart and our relationship with Jesus Christ.
And the fact is, the building is empty but so is the tomb.
Jesus left the tomb because the work couldn’t get done lying in a tomb.
And the work of the Church could never get done sitting in a pew.
So, I am encouraging everyone out there listening to this message to stop thinking about “when we can get back to church” and start thinking about, how can I be the Church where I am right now.
There is no such thing as “getting back to church” because the church never left.
And if your relationship with Jesus is based solely on your ability to gather in this little old building, then your relationship is with customs and traditions and not Jesus Christ.
So, as we work through this, I want us to keep that in mind because customs and traditions are wordly things that can lead us to death and life is found in Jesus and only in Jesus.
So, let’s look at , starting in verse 1, Luke writes . . .
Scripture Focus
Scripture Focus
1 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7 ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” 8 Then they remembered his words. 9 When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. 10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. 11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. 12 Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.
Luke 24:1-
1 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.
2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb,
3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them.
5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?
6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee:
7 ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ”
8 Then they remembered his words.
9 When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others.
10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles.
11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.
12 Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.
The Same Old Ways
The Same Old Ways
Now, I know that we have been here many, many times.
I looked back and since I’ve been pastoring here since 2012, most Easters we have looked at this passage, either here in Luke or one of the other Gospels.
But what amazes me is that there is something new that the Lord points out to me each and every time I look at it.
And hopefully it is the same with you as well.
But again, starting out Luke says . . .
1 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
Luke 24:1-
And the reason I want to start here is because this points out the very thing that I’ve been talking about.
These women, like all of us, were just going about normal business.
They had witnessed Jesus die, which was very traumatic for them, but in their mind it was time to move on and get back to normal life.
So, they get up early in the morning and head out, probably as early in the morning as allowed.
And their purpose was to go and prepare Jesus’ body for “burial.”
And by burial, it would have been basically to cover his body with sweet smelling oils and spices and then wrapping him with a soaked burial cloth.
All to honor the dead but also the practical purpose of keeping the stink down during decomposition.
And then after a year, they would take the bones and put them in a small coffin and place the person among the rest of their dead relatives in the tomb and that is where they would remain.
This was all tradition and all normal practice.
And these women were just going about normal practice.
They were upset but thought nothing of it.
Thought nothing of the prophecies of Jesus’ resurrection.
Thought nothing of Jesus’ own words of his resurrection.
Thought nothing of God doing a “new thing.”
And why would they.
They had never seen anyone raise themselves from the dead.
And they had watched Jesus die.
It was business as usual.
Even in the Gospel of Mark we learn that they even had a conversation about how in the world they were going to get the stone rolled away . . .
3 and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?” 4 But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away.
3 and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”
Mark
So, they were locked into their traditional way of doing things.
And couldn’t even comprehend what God was doing in their situation.
They were so focused on their task and their normal life and things getting back to normal, that they didn’t even look for God in their situation.
And we are guilty of the same thing.
Not just during this Pandemic, but God has been trying to get our attention for a long time.
God has been trying to tell us that His ways are not our ways.
That His ways are higher—better than our way.
And we have been so focused on doing things our way, that we couldn’t even hear Him or see Him.
We need to stop and hear what God is trying to tell us.
And we need to respond to God.
The old ways are done and we are not going back in time.
And we shouldn’t go back in time.
God says in Exodus to “stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.”
In other words, move forward until you can’t move forward anymore, then stop and wait for God to remove the obstacle in your way, and then move foward.
Don’t move backward.
Don’t retreat.
And don’t stay stuck in the same old ways.
Because God is about to do something new and something glorious.
Look at what happens next . . .
2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
Luke 24:2
The stone was rolled back for them already.
It was almost like somebody was expecting them and had opened things up so they could see what God was doing.
And what did they see?
Nothing—and that was the point.
They saw the tomb all right but there was no one there.
Jesus was gone.
Jesus wasn’t there.
And they were perplexed and didn’t know what was going on.
And just to make it more perplexing . . .
4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them.
The Living is Not Found Among the Dead
The Living is Not Found Among the Dead
And of course we know these two as angels.
God’s messengers sent to deliver the message.
And I would say a bit of a rebuke as well.
And the women of course were frightened.
As we all would be if two angels appeared before us.
And the Bible goes on to tell us . . . .
5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee:
Luke 24:5
And that is the point.
God did a new thing.
All of the prophecies of Jesus’ resurrection, well guess what, they were true.
Jesus’ own words about His resurrection—guess what, it was true.
And their question, their rebuke, “why do you look for the living among the dead?”
And our rebuke, why do we look for life among things that are dead?
To put it in layman’s terms, why are we looking for life in the fleshly desires of the world?
Through drugs
Through alcohol
Through money
Through fame
Through power
Through selfishness
Through all the things of the world.
And for those who are Christians, we may say, “we don’t do those things..”
Well okay then, so why are we looking for salvation and life through the world’s definition and description of what the church should be?
Through church buildings
Through certain kinds of music
Through certain types of preaching
Through the way we arrange our services
Through how people should be dressing
Through how we think people should be acting
Through all of the things that are not Jesus.
Why are WE looking for the living among the dead?
The reality is . . .
6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7 ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” 8 Then they remembered his words.
You see, Jesus is no more in our empty church building—or church parking lot—than he is in that tomb.
He is Risen!
And a Risen Savior doesn’t stick around empty places.
A Risen Savior goes forward and does the work of a Savior.
And we need to stop looking for our Risen Savior in places that are dead.
Places that are empty.
Places that are void of the Holy Spirit.
Places that are dictated and controlled solely by protocol and tradition.
Places that are stuck in the same old same old way of life.
Point 3
Point 3
Altar
Altar
Jesus is not going to be found there.
So, if He is not there, then where is He?
Well, if you are a child of God, He is in you.
He is in all of us.
He is alive and well in The Church, which is not our buildings, not our traditions, not our rules.
But us.
We are the Church.
And the Life of the Risen Savior, should be found in the Church.
Jesus should be found in all of us.
And my question this morning, Easter 2020, is Jesus found in you?
Is the life of Jesus evident in your life, in your heart?
How do you find Jesus?
Where do you place your faith, in the Risen Savior or among the dead things of the world?
Folks, our world has changed and things are not going back to the old ways.
Even when all of this has passed, the world and the Church will look different.
Where do you fit in?
Among the living or among the dead?