The Lord is Risen!
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The Lord’s greeting
The Lord’s greeting
Welcome
Welcome
Ruan Pekelharing
Call to Worship
Call to Worship
Prayer of Approach
Prayer of Approach
Sing: “Turn your eyes upon Jesus”
Sing: “Turn your eyes upon Jesus”
1 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they could go and anoint him.
2 Very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, they went to the tomb at sunrise.
3 They were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone from the entrance to the tomb for us?”
4 Looking up, they noticed that the stone—which was very large—had been rolled away.
5 When they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side; they were alarmed.
6 “Don’t be alarmed,” he told them. “You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they put him.
7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you to Galilee; you will see him there just as he told you.’ ”
8 They went out and ran from the tomb, because trembling and astonishment overwhelmed them. And they said nothing to anyone, since they were afraid. [Some of the earliest conclude with .]
It is the first day of the week!
The Sabbath, is over!
And from that morning that the women first arrived at the grave,
we have been celebrating Sunday
as our “day of Rest”
“The Lord’s day,” no less!
What does it all mean!
And are we … celebrating, today?
Today, with all of its sadness for too many in our congregation!
Rouan, Yvonee; Lyndi; Thys Roodt; Tannie Susan; And not too long ago, Tony … and the list goes on … still ...
Is today, a celebration - and a commemoration?
What happened on that Sunday, that first Lord’s Day, that first, if you will, Resurrection day, that if we understood it, will truly turn this day into a celebration?
An understanding, that would give us confidence:
1 For we know that if our earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal dwelling in the heavens, not made with hands.
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live.
16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
Do you believe that, B&S?
Well,
All of that happened on the first day of the week, and because it did, and we know that it did: every Sunday is a celebration and a commemoration of that wonderful, wondrous mystery!
1 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they could go and anoint him.
2 Very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, they went to the tomb at sunrise.
Lets sing so that our mouths will confess that which we believe!
Sing: Low in the grave He lay!
Sing: Low in the grave He lay!
Once again I ask you to employ your senses, as we join the women - and, later, the disciples, on their journey to the grave where Jesus was buried:
2 Very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, they went to the tomb at sunrise.
3 They were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone from the entrance to the tomb for us?”
Matthew makes it more specific: He says it was at the dawning of the day
1 After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to view the tomb.
What happened there that morning, from the hour’s of daybreak, and then daybreak itself, was something like this:
The women rise early, after, probably,
the previous evening, while they were still stunned with the knowledge of the death of their beloved Jesus, they planned to go to the grave,
“so that they could anoint Jesus”.
Last Friday (for them)
they had witnessed their Lord die on the cross,
breath His last,
and heard Him cry out: “It is finished!”
Soon after, as evening broke, Mark tells us what happened:
42 When it was already evening, because it was the day of preparation (that is, the day before the Sabbath),
43 Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Sanhedrin who was himself looking forward to the kingdom of God, came and boldly went to Pilate and asked for Jesus’s body.
44 Pilate was surprised that he was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he had already died.
45 When he found out from the centurion, he gave the corpse to Joseph.
46 After he bought some linen cloth, Joseph took him down and wrapped him in the linen. Then he laid him in a tomb cut out of the rock and rolled a stone against the entrance to the tomb.
47 Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses were watching where he was laid.
And now, they have returned to the grave.
It must be cold!
Remember, last Thursday we found Peter and the other Disciple “warming themselves by the fire”,
while Jesus was being interrogated, and ultimately sentenced to death!
It is still cold as the women make their way to the grave!
See the women, walking in near silence, almost certainly speaking in hushed voices, with their pockets of spices, and their linen rags!
And now they arrive at the grave!
(Friends, you know what that is like: that quiet, reverend atmosphere.
One is careful not to walk on the freshly heaped up mound of earth
// or wanting to see behind the curtain at the crematorium, as the body will soon be consumed by the grave,
or the furnace!
At some point during the Committal of the body of our loved one to the Lord
the Minister will say:
“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”
There is a whole world of theology behind these words of committal:
It is all about sin … and forgiveness … and life to the full!
It finds its origin in Genesis:
17 And he said to the man, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘Do not eat from it’: The ground is cursed because of you. You will eat from it by means of painful labor all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow until you return to the ground, since you were taken from it. For you are dust, and you will return to dust.”
That, the hardship - and death - after a life of much heartbreak on earth, was the consequence of sin!
That has to be remembered!
As it is still sin that keeps us separated from God!
It was because of sin, the rebellion against God,
that Jesus had to be born
embark on that journey to Jerusalem,
and to Golgotha!
And it was because of all that happened on Golgotha,
hat the women were on their way to the grave!
and why you and I are here, today!
It will be - for all of us -
because of what happened at Golgotha
AND what happened at that grave/cave
that first day of the week,
that we too, may sooner or later stand at an open grave,
or in the crematorium,
and understand , fully, the contrast between life everlasting // and eternal death and dying!
And it will give us hope - even confidence, that all is NOT lost!
But we need to understand and confess the whole truth, as nothing but the truth!
Life, lived in rebellion, leads to death, and mourning:
That was what the “ashes to ashes “ is all about”
It had to do with death … and mourning!
Mourning, in ancient times, was marked by people scattering ashes over themselves,
in a sign of co-compassion for someone who had lost a loved one:
We find a picture of one in deep mourning, in the book and account of Job:
We see it in Job!
After having lost all his earthly possessions, - and then his children, too,
Job is shattered, emotionally,
but his hope remains in the Lord!
20 Then Job stood up, tore his robe, and shaved his head. He fell to the ground and worshiped,
21 saying: Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will leave this life. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
22 Throughout all this Job did not sin or blame God for anything.
Job “worships” in his grief!
His friends, in a sign of their condolences, do what was the custom in those days:
11 Now when Job’s three friends—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite—heard about all this adversity that had happened to him, each of them came from his home. They met together to go and sympathize with him and comfort him.
12 When they looked from a distance, they could barely recognize him. They wept aloud, and each man tore his robe and threw dust into the air and on his head.
We find this practice of mourning also in the prophets,and in history!
Ezekiel describes what it would be like when Tyre would be destroyed,
as it was in in 322 BC about 300 years after Ezekiel’s prophecy,
after Israel’s rebellion against God:
30 Because of you, they raise their voices and cry out bitterly. They throw dust on their heads; they roll in ashes.
Asher to ashes, dust to dust: Ashes to ashes is associated with mourning!
Again, in Job ...
6 Therefore, I reject my words and am sorry for them; I am dust and ashes.
It signifies a moment of sadness, and of realising the consequence of our brokenness and helplessness!
Sylvia Plath wrote a poem (interestingly, after the separation from her husband in 1962!)
that is filled with images of the power death and sin has over those with no hope in Christ.
She writes with the horror of the Jewish holocaust - and the contemplation of suicide very much in view :
“I am your opus,
I am your valuable,
The pure gold baby
That melts to a shriek.
I turn and burn.
Do not think I underestimate your great concern.
Ash, ash—
You poke and stir.
Flesh, bone, there is nothing there——
A cake of soap,
A wedding ring,
A gold filling.
Herr God, Herr Lucifer
Beware
Beware.
Out of the ash
I rise with my red hair
And I eat men like air.”
The title of her poem is revealing!
Hopelessness,
but in Christ, one may rise,
in hope and in truth,
like Lazarus from the grave!
/////////////////////
Now the women have arrived at the grave!
3 They were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone from the entrance to the tomb for us?”
4 Looking up, they noticed that the stone—which was very large—had been rolled away.
Who would roll the stone away, indeed!
For you, brother, for you, sister, who will roll the stone away for us, so that we may stop grieving, and look forward, with hope, to a reunion with our loved ones
They were wondering who would roll the stone away!
Then, they find the grave already … open! Open, on that first day of the week!
And they go inside! What would they find?
What will you find, if you dare believe in that grave ,, and what the women found in it!
5 When they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side; they were alarmed.
They were afraid!
Wouldn’t you be?
But their fear would soon turn to joy!
They were wondering, how they would gain entrance - we may say - to their dearly departed loved one!
And they found the grave open!
A bit like it might be, I suppose, when after a loved one has died, and you get recurring dreams that that person suddenly is with you again, that it had all been a mistake, that the person hadn’t really died ...
and then one day, you wake up from your dream, to see it is true!
The person was no longer dead after all!
Like Jesus!
(I tell a little story at funerals …)
The stone had been rolled away!
And soon, they would See Jesus, alive, again!
Face to face, asking for something to eat, as a sign that He was truly alive!
Just as he had predicted
Remember ?
31 For he was teaching his disciples and telling them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after he is killed, he will rise three days later.”
And for us now, friends, it is the THIRD day!
It is the first day of the week, again!
And Jesus is alive!
And our loved ones - all those who with child-like faith have believed in Jesus - is alive!
It is the Gospel!
The Lord is risen!
(He is risen indeed!)
Amen