The Empty Tomb

The Big Deal

Today at Harvest and around the world, Christians are celebrating the most important day for the church, in reality the most important day in all of time. We will be spending the bulk of our time in the book of John in our message entitled “The Empty Tomb” but for now join me as we open in a word of prayer.

Pray

Time

Charles Stanley said of this of Jesus

Jesus split time in two. His birth divided all time into B.C. before Christ and A.D. after Him.

In our lifetime there has been a push by those who don’t want to retain God in their knowledge to change the abbreviations BC or “Before Christ” and AD “Anno Domini” Latin for “In the Year of the Lord” to instead be CE and BCE, Common Era and Before Common Era,. But no matter how it is named, there was a time before the Messiah and a Time after.

The church traditionally meets on Sunday’s instead of on the Sabbath because it is the day the Lord resurrected. And understand, we don’t hold to a sabbath day of rest any longer. In the book of Hebrews at the beginning of Chapter 4 we are given a very technical explanation for this, but it comes to it’s conclusion in verse 10

Hebrews 4:10 KJV 1900

10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.

The understanding is this: God at the time of creation, made a day of rest, what would be called the Sabbath, as a day for mankind to cease from their our own works, but what we read in Hebrews is that if we have truly entered into Christ’s rest, we have ceased from our own works and there is no other day of rest needed.

Baptism

This morning we were blessed to be able to have a baptism and baptism is a picture of Christ’s work on the cross. As Christ died and was buried, a person must die to themselves to follow the Lord, and then as Christ arose from the grave so does the purpose rising out of the water show that they have been born anew.

The Lord’s Supper

We are going to close our service today with the Lord’s supper. We will share in eating the bread which pictures the breaking of Christ’s body and the wine (or grape juice in our case) which represents the shed blood or our Lord. And we do this in remembrance of all that has culminated around the day we are celebrating this day.

Today is the Day

As Christians we don’t celebrate feast days and holy days in the way that the Jewish people were instructed, but as far as events are concerned: Christmas and Easter is it. They are tied together of course. Jesus was born to die. And while our culture today may make a much bigger deal out of Christmas, the real gift is celebrated on Easter.

Raised

The Significance

To understand why it is such a big deal that Jesus was raised from the dead we have to have an understanding of what happened as he hung on the cross three days prior.

What’s in the Cup?

I heard a message years ago that gave some context to the scene in the garden. Take a look with me in Matthew 26:39

Matthew 26:39 KJV 1900

39 And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.

The question is, what is in this cup? We have the answer in scripture:

Job 21:20 KJV 1900

20 His eyes shall see his destruction, And he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

Psalm 75:8 KJV 1900

8 For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red; It is full of mixture; and he poureth out of the same: But the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them.

Jeremiah 25:15–16 KJV 1900

15 For thus saith the Lord God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it. 16 And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them.

Revelation 14:10 KJV 1900

10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:

In the cup is the wrath of God. Christian children all over the world memorize Romans 6:23 from their childhood, and here we find the wages of sin, in this cup. And on the cross the cup of the wrath of God that has been earned by you and by me, for our rebellion against God’s is poured out upon our savior.

Cross is a picture

And so, in seeing the cross of Christ, this cruel invention of the Romans. We see a death so agonizing that a latin word was invented out of it: ex meaning out of and cruc meaning cross. Excruciate, to be tormented.

And so, the spiritual reality of God’s wrath being poured out upon the son was pictured as clearly as possible as Jesus died upon a Roman cross.

Without a fight

I want you to know that Christ’s victory over sin was won without a fight.

I want to read to you something that word of faith TV preacher once said:

Jesus was born again — the first-born from the dead the Word calls Him—and He whipped the devil in his own backyard. He took everything he had away from him. He took his keys and his authority away from him.

Let me urge you this morning if this is your view on what happened after Christ died, then you are holding to a belief that is not found anywhere in scripture.

Hell isn’t the domain of Satan. He want’s no more to do with hell than you or I, hell is a place of eternal torment created for the devil and his angels and Satan does not end up there until we read about it in Revelation 20:10, turn with me if you would.

Revelation 20:10 KJV 1900

10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

You may have heard me say this before, but I will have you know that that when the time comes it’s not a great fight between Jesus and Satan as if somehow there was some possibility of that Jesus would be defeated. No, what does verse 1 say if you are sill in Revelation 20 look at verse 1?

Revelation 20:1–2 KJV 1900

1 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,

it was an angel who bound him and it was even a named archangel like Gabriel or Michael. This angel had the keys to the pit and he didn’t get them from Satan either.

Transactional

The cross was transactional, what do I mean by that? Mankind had incurred a debt and God the Father owned that debt.

The question

And there has to be this question. And it’s a question that people who object to Christianity, often ask. The Atheist philosopher Richard Dawkins asks it this way in his book ‘The God Delusion’

If God wanted to forgive our sins, why not just forgive them, without having himself tortured and executed in payment—thereby, incidentally, condemning remote future generations of Jews to pogroms and persecution as 'Christ-killers':

So why couldn’t God just forgive everyone, why did the cross have to enter the conversation. Why does there have to be death, and why does there have to be hell?

The Answer

It’s because God is a God of justice. God created everything, and he set the law in place, and his very character is the character of righteousness. When we sin, it isn’t just that we break some minor law, it is that we are showing a heart of rebellion against our creator.

And so, during our life our debt accumulates and accumulates. Understand, one violation of the law of God makes us criminals against the law. What does James 2:10-11 say?

James 2:10–11 KJV 1900

10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. 11 For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.

If you murder you are criminal; if you rob a bank, you are a criminal; if you vandalize property, you are a criminal. You are at odds with the law.

And we can say, “I haven’t don’t anything that is nearly that big of a deal, maybe told a white lie once every now and again” and I would challenge you that the only reason you can say that is that we fall so short of the Holiness of God, that we can’t even tell when we are filthy in sin.

And if God is a just God then somehow there must be a reckoning for our rebellion in sin! What kind of law is a law without consequence. Or worse, selective consequence? it’s injustice.

Our Justification

Romans 4:24-25 says this

Romans 4:24–25 KJV 1900

24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; 25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

Our bible tells us that Jesus was raised for our justification.

Keys

I don’t know if you have every bought a house before, but if you have you likely took out a mortgage to do so. We recently refinanced with Quicken Loans, and so for the privilege of owning our house a great debt was now owed to this mortgage company. But here is the thing, maybe a month after taking the loan out, our loan was sold to the mortgage investment company Fannie Mae. And when that happened we no longer owed Quicken Loans anything, we now owe Fannie Mae, Fannie Mae now has the keys to our debt.

Now look in Revelation 1:18, Jesus reveals himself to John who is writing the book. And he says this:

Revelation 1:18 KJV 1900

18 I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

The sin of all mankind, that had ever been committed, all sin that would ever be commited. The wages of that sin debt was in the cup of God’s wrath. And on the cross a transaction took place. The entire cup was poured out upon God the Son, and at that moment we were no longer debtors to the Father. Our debt was transfer to the son.

This is why Acts 12 tells us that

there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be save.

I can no more go somewhere else to pay my debt incurred to God than I could go to some other bank to pay my mortgage.

Raised

And this is where Romans 4:25 comes in.

Romans 4:25 KJV 1900

25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

He was raised for our justification. That means that by Jesus raising again from the dead, he makes proof that all of the sin debt of all mankind had been paid. The wages of sin is death, and since the entirety of it had been paid, it would no longer be just for Christ to remain in the grave. And so he was raised again.

Follow Him

In just a moment, we are going to have the Lord’s supper, it’s a reminder of Christ’s death burial and resurrection and an act of unity and fellowship for our church. I understand that there are those who are not members with us here today, Please understand that this is something that we would like you to participate in, but it is reserved for members of the church. In 1 Corinthians 11:27 Paul warns them

1 Corinthians 11:27 KJV 1900

27 Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

And so we limit the Lord’s supper to the membership of our church, and then we trust that each member examines themselves and acts according to their own conscience.

If you are not a member, or in examining your conscience you find yourself otherwise unworthy to partake. Let me conclude with this point. Christ holds the keys to the kingdom, and there is no other way in but by him. What he asks is that you make confession that he is Lord, turn away from your sins, and follow him. Please reflect on where Christ is in your life, and don’t leave here without making a decision to follow him. I would love nothing more, than for you to come talk with me after the service and to tell you more about how you can be right with God, through salvation in Christ.