Because He Lives...

When Jesus was on the cross the sun refused to shine. And since he’s been dead, even though the day’s come the light has lost its luster. Mary has watched as her oldest Child was betrayed, beaten, mocked and murdered by a blood thirsty mob. The disciples must face each other knowing that they all left Jesus in his darkest moment. John, he had to witness his Lord and teacher be misrepresented in trial in a corrupt state court and sentenced to death for a crime Jesus didn’t commit. All in all, these followers of Jesus, who had set their hope on Jesus are now without their Jesus. He is gone. It wasn’t supposed to happen this way. Why did this happen? How did this happen? There is a great misery in the heart of Israel. History has been interrupted. The cosmos has been disrupted. The resistance has been squashed. Liberation has been put on hiatus and freedom is now distant reality. Everything is lost.

Jesus the healer of the sick couldn’t heal his own wounds.

Can you imagine the pain of those people closest to Jesus? Yes, you can. Because you’ve been there before. You might be there now. In that place of hopelessness. That place of pain caused by the failure of things to go as planned. You planned of forever, but then they died. You planned on forever but then divorce. You planned on being out of debt but then car problems happened. You planned on finishing school but now you must put your kids through school. You planned on peace of mind but then trauma happened.

Somehow Jesus had to face just as we do the two extremes of life: good and bad, joy and sadness, happiness and sorrow, love and hate, freedom and oppression, admonition and condemnation, exaltation and degradation, “yes” and “no”, peace and confusion. Jesus had to deal with the reality that things change and sometimes change for the worse.

On Sunday they sang “Hosanna” on Friday the said “crucify Him.”

On Sunday received Him as King David on Friday they put a crown of thorns on His head.

On Sunday they placed their cloths on the ground for Jesus on Friday they ripped the clothes off of Jesus.

On Sunday they cried “save now” on Friday the said “free Barabbas and kill Jesus.”

On Sunday the marched Jesus from the Mt. of Olives to Jerusalem of Friday the marched Him from Jerusalem to Golgotha.

On Sunday they worshiped Him with palm branches on Friday they hung Him on a cross.

On Sunday Jesus’ life was looking up on Friday His life was taken.

Jesus knows what it feels like to have everything going just right to then have it snatched from under you. He was kill and His only crime was that He was perfect. But early Sunday morning (preach). God wants you to know on this Resurrection Sunday that Jesus is alive and that He desires intimacy with you.

1. We know He Keeps His Word (v.6)

The resurrection of Jesus is not a spontaneous event. It was not a sporadic miracle that God so happened to perform in the moment from invoked petition. The resurrection was always apart of the plan because death could never have the final say. This plan is disclosed by Jesus’s own words that, “I must go to Jerusalem...” . The planned resurrection is also the validation that Jesus is the divine Son who keeps His word.

2. He Cleansed our Wickedness (v.7&10)

Exegete the Texts.

Who are the disciples? Who these brothers that Jesus speaks of? You know who they are the remaining 11 disciples of Jesus. But these men aren’t the faithful willing-to-die Apostles of Acts. These 11 men are not the praying, prophesying, preaching, hand laying, healing, men of the book of Acts. NO. These men are faithless, they are defeated, they are depressed, they are hopeless, they are confused, they are miserable, they are in mourning, but more importantly they are all traitors. Peter, denied Jesus three times. John watched the whole thing from a distance. James was sleeping on the job. and everyone else ran for their life and Jesus took the cross alone. And it had to be that way. But even though Peter denied him and the rest forsook him he still says, to tell my brothers. Because the work he has done on Calvary now provides the means of restoration.

· “We Fix Cell Phones”

3. We’re Called to His Work (v.8)

This observation will bless you church. See, the women are given a task. The task is to go and tell the Peter and the crew that Jesus is alive and well and that the ministry is back on. This is where it gets good because these are women, if you remember that women back in those days did not have a voice as a witness in court which means that they were taking a risk testifying against the apparent crime of “His disciples stealing the body”. They risked being embarrassed, criticized, ostracized, and even arrested if the word got out to the wrong people. But their encouragement and strength in the face of opposition comes by this promise, “there you will see Him” (v7).

4. We’ve Reason to Worship (v.9)