Resurrection Sunday (Easter)
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· 14 viewsWhose tomb is it? That is the question we must ask ourselves. Christ did not need the Tomb..... So, whose is it? We may not like the answer....
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Easter Sunday
Easter Sunday
He is risen! (He is risen indeed!)
I love Easter! It is by far my favorite holiday. Not because of egg hunts....candy…easter baskets.... I know as kids, we love those things, but..... It is a day of celebration! Amen!
This is the day that Christ rose up out of the grave! The day He finally defeated death! The day that He took worry…fear…anxiety…and death out of His world and out of our lives!
Without Easter..... I have said this before, and I believe it.... Without Easter, Christmas does not matter! This is the day that Christ’s Words on the Cross “It is Finished!” Ring truest!
This is the day that Christ set the world free!
That is something to celebrate.... Amen!
So...... Why do we seem to spend more time living in worry and fear?
I think it is because we miss something in the story.... We are guilty of getting so caught up in the celebration of the Joy of Christ’s return from the grave, that we miss something vital to our lives....
As we look at the resurrection story today, there is a question that we need to keep in the back of our minds.... It is a question that God asked me several weeks ago:
“Whose tomb is it?”
Keep this question in mind, and let’s look at Luke 24:1-12.
(Read Luke 24:1-12)
This is such an awesome part of the story.... We have the Women — Mary Magdelene, Mary the Mother of James, Saloam (or Joanna), and the others who had been traveling with Jesus — going to the tomb to “embalm” Jesus’s body with spices. As the walk together, they have a normal conversation.... “How will we move the stone so we can get into the tomb?”
That would be a normal thought for any of us… right? These women were having a normal day — under the circumstances — until they arrived at the tomb… That is when their world got turned upside down!
Where was Jesus? Who took His body? How are they suppose to mourn His death if they can’t complete the rituals?
Can you feel their confusion....their misery....their fear....even anger?
But look what happens, right in the middle of all that....
While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them.
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?
With one question, these angels turned their world upside down.....
“Why do you look for the living among the dead?”
I think…in our lives....we are guilty of missing that question.
Can I tell you.... This World is Dead!
And the world and its desire are passing away, but those who do the will of God live forever.
So, why do we attempt to find life — joy, happiness, security — among the things of this world?
Think about it..... We do this all the time!
We seek happiness in our lifestyle — in our friends, our belongings, our activities — all of which pushes us to seek better jobs, more money, higher status.... Why? So we can attain “a better life!”
Now, don’t get me wrong here.... It is not wrong to be successful in business, but when it divides us from God, we lose!
“It is no sin for a man to be diligent in business, but it is a grievous fault when diligence in business destroys fervency in Spirit.” — Spurgeon
The Church is not immune to this issue. We seek peace and equality through government regulations.... security through laws and medical advances.... we even seek to find God through traditions, ceremonies, rituals, and philosophies which all promise to bring us peace and comfort.....
Yet, in the end, they fail us.... because the World is dead!
Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to beings that by nature are not gods.
Now, however, that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elemental spirits? How can you want to be enslaved to them again?
We do not belong to this world.... We belong to God! That is the promise of Easter.
So, why do we seek life among the dead?
You see… that is the question?
The women who went to the tomb were confused, lost, broken, over the loss of Jesus. They were frightened by the appearance of the angels, but.... The message they received “turned their fear to joy and their tears to celebration!”
Why?
Because the resurrection meant something!
Let me tell you this — There is no fear in the face of the resurrection!
If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised;
and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain.
Why?
Because without the resurrection there is no atonement.
Christ said, “I am the resurrection and the life.”
In Luke 20:33-38, when answering the Pharisee’s questions, Jesus states that God is the God of the living. He has redeemed us fro death into life.
So, why do we look for life among the dead?
Have you figured out the answer to that question yet?
Whose tomb is it?
Let me tell you, it’s not Jesus’s tomb, so whose is it?
IT IS OUR TOMB!
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
The tomb is ours! And guess what that means?
The resurrection is ours as well!
The resurrection was not for Christ.... it was for us!
Let me tell you.... it is not some future thing. The resurrection is not something that is yet to come.... It has happened!
If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world—therefore the world hates you.
giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light.
He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son,
in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
The resurrection is Yours! If you have accepted Christ… you have been resurrected!
So, why do we look for life among the dead?!
Look back at Rom 6:3-4
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
That tomb is ours. It is the place where our old self is put to death. Where it is left. It is the place where we are reborn!
And that tomb is empty!
Do you see the significance?
Because of Christ, we are resurrected, we are reborn, and God remembers our sins no more. We are cleansed.... in HIM!
And because of that we have life!
But..... That only happens if we put our old self in the tomb.
(dead seed example)
Let me ask you this — Do you want life?
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
Replace “thief” with “world,” because scripture tells us that the enemy is the “prince of this world.” (read it again)
Is your life the life that you want?
Is it abundant?
Christ did not come and die so that we could live in mediocrity.... He came to give us life!
but....we have to claim it!