Why Easter is Still Relevant today
Notes
Transcript
Mark 15:42 - 16:
You know if you think about it.....
the message of Easter has never been more relevant for the modern world....
than it is right now.
And the interesting thing..... is that everybody is sitting up straight.... and paying attention.
I mean the events of Easter are relevant because..... well they address our deepest and our greatest fears.
And all of our fears are pretty much front and center right now.:
Is everything gonna be all right?
Are things ever going back to “NORMAL”
Is my family gonna be all right?
Does God know about this?
Is God doing this?
Does God care about this?
Does God care about me?
Does God care about my family?
Does God hear my prayers?
Does God care about our country?
Does all this “stuff” mean we are in or near the End times?
In fact, perhaps the only time in history that the events of Easter were more relevant, was the first Easter.
Now, those of us who are Jesus followers.... have a bit of an advantage.
We have an advantage because we have something to look back on....... and to hang our hope on......
but for first century Jesus followers, it was a very different story.
And this is the part of the story that I think most of us as believers misunderstand or miss altogether.
And maybe....just maybe.......if you're not a Christian...... this is part of the story that no one ever told you.
And the reason why is pretty simple......It’s because of the way a lot of folks read their Bibles or the way a lot of folks don't read our Bibles. Or they are some of those folks who listen to some ‘man’ in a pulpit......... telling them/you the way they story goes and you believe him........ because it’s just easier than reading for yourself.
11 Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.
But here is what was so difficult for first century Jesus followers..... and this is the part…in this day and age that we miss.
When Jesus was crucified... When Jesus died, their hope died. (pause and look around)
When Jesus died, nobody believed he was the son of God.
Nobody believed he was the Messiah of God.
Nobody believed he was the Savior of the world.
Jesus was not Who He claimed to be
After Jesus was crucified, there were no Christians........ because there was no Christ.
It was lights out on everybody's faith.
You see there were several people during Jesus’ time professing to be the Christ.....They all died.....
with Jesus of Nazareth......
There was a brokenhearted mother.
There were some disillusion Galilean fishermen who thought they had wasted a season of their life.
But there were no Jesus followers. There were no Christians. There were no believers. Think about that. Let that sink in for a moment.....
So, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus go to Pilot, to ask for Jesus’ body.
They take his body down from the cross. They put him, in basically a cave. Joseph of Arimathea's family tomb.
39 Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight. 40 So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews.
They roll a stone in the front of it, and they go home. Because it was over. ....Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, all the authors of the New Testament...... they're very clear. No one, no one was planning to keep this dream alive...... and nobody was planning to keep this movement moving and here's why.
If Jesus couldn't keep himself alive. X2If Jesus couldn't keep himself alive, what was the point of trying to keep the Jesus movement alive....... because clearly Jesus was not who he claimed to be, and that was that.......
Jesus’ teaching... was not the driving force of his movement......It was actually his outrageous claims that he made about himself........ It was the outrageous claims he made about himself that kind of kept the band together.......... and kept the movement, moving.
And it was the outrageous claims about himself that drove religious leaders crazy.
It wasn't the miracles.
It wasn't his healing and
it wasn't most of his teaching or most of his parables,
most people didn't even understand most of his parables anyway
but he was relentlessly attributing to himself things that only belong to God.
That is what drove the Jewish “establishment” to murder.......
For example:
he claimed to have the power to forgive sin.... but only God could forgive sin.
He at one point he said he was greater than the temple. I mean, who would say that? He said he was greater than Moses.
He was the Lord of the Sabbath.
He claimed to be greater than Abraham.
He claimed to be greater than the prophets.
He was constantly attributing to himself names and brands and labels that only God carried. And it was their confidence that perhaps or there suspicion that perhaps Jesus was correct about himself that kept the disciples and the apostles following.
And Peter and the boys, they didn't choose to stay with Jesus because of what he taught. In fact, they chose to stay with Jesus, in some cases, in spite of what he taught.
Here’s one example of that:
1 After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. 2 And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. 3 Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. 5 Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” 6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. 7 Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.” 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9 “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” 10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number. 11 Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” 13 So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. 14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”
John tells us about this incident..... it's a famous incident..... you've heard about this before.....
where Jesus feeds all these people with loaves and a few fishes, and then the crowd is so big they want to make him king right then and there because that's what kings did, kings fed the people.
So Jesus and his disciples get in a boat, and they travel across the southern end of the Sea of Galilee just to get a break from the crowd.
When they get out of the boat the crowd has found them, and other people make their way around the southern end of the Sea of Galilee and next thing you know Jesus has another crowd on his hand, so he takes advantage of the situation and decides to teach.
And as he's teaching, he says that He is the bread of life that has come down out of heaven.
The problem is, somebody in the crowd raises their hand and says, "No you're not".
We know your dad Joseph and we know your mother and you didn't come down out of heaven", Now this was just weird.
And then Jesus continues to teach and he continues to talk about himself in terms that are very confusing...... and then he speaks of himself in terms that are actually offensive. And the crowd starts to thin out.
66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.
In fact, John says this. He says, “From this time on many of his disciples, many of the people who just followed him everywhere he went. Many of the crowd turned back”....
I mean if they were on social media they hit the unfollow button:)
they decided they were no longer gonna follow him because this particular analogy and the terminology he was using to describe himself, it was just so offensive.
Well.... Jesus sees the crowd thinning out. The Apostles see the crowd thinning out, and Jesus turns to his 12 followers and he says, "You guys aren't thinking about leaving too, are you"?
Well nobody makes eye contact with Jesus because perhaps that's what they were thinking. They turned to Peter
(because he's the spokesman),
and Peter responds. And what Peter doesn't say in this moment is as instructive as what he does say.
Here's what Peter doesn't say.
"Lord, leave you?????? are you kidding????? Where would we go? Nobody teaches as well as you do. We've learned so much. The stuff you talk about is really interesting to listen to..... and you tell a really good story....
Now granted today, wasn't one of your better outings. Okay, but one mediocre message is no reason for us to abandon you".
That's not what he said at all.
Why????? because they weren't following Jesus because of what he taught...... they were following Jesus because of who they believed he might be.
Here's what Peter actually said in that moment. You guys aren't thinking about leaving too.
68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”
And then get this.... “We have come to believe......we're convinced .....we have come to know that you are the Holy One of God".
Translated, you are the Messiah of God.
They followed Jesus because of who Jesus claimed to be and because of who they thought perhaps he was.
But now he's dead. And now he's buried. And clearly, they were wrong.
They knew they were wrong because the Holy One of God, the Messiah of God, the resurrection in the life, the bread of life. Can't be crucified, can't be executed.
I mean God would not allow the Messiah that the Jews have been waiting on for hundreds of years to be executed by a foreign power, that was impossible.
Clearly they were wrong about Jesus, and clearly Jesus wasn't telling the truth about who he was.
They watched him die.
And it's clear from the Gospels, all of them expected Jesus to do what dead people normally do...... stay dead.
No one......... we find no one standing outside the tomb, on that first Easter morning counting down backwards from 10.
And equally as interesting, nobody writes themselves into the story as a die hard believer. Nobody writes themselves into the story as... But I was the one who never lost faith. In the Gospels, they're so honest. They all stopped believing.
So, if we can pause in that extraordinary moment in history. Jesus is dead. Jesus had been buried. And what do we have?:
We have a corrupt religious system.
We have a heartless Empire.
We have a relieved Roman governor, Pilate who cannot wait to get out of Jerusalem after Passover and get back to his coastal home.
We have some sad Galileans, but there's no Savior.
There's no son of God.
There are no believers.
And there is....... no........ hope.
And then... something... happened.
Then something happened that changed everything. Because then came that morning, that sealed the promise. His buried body began to breathe, and out of the silence came the roaring lion...
*********** declared the grave has no claim. On you, and the grave has no claim on me. That's why I say, Easter has never been more significant for us, because at Easter we celebrate, not something that was written.
On Easter we celebrate the event that launched the movement, the church that eventually brought us the Bible, and this is a really important sequence of events.
And Folks, if you get this out of order it will not only be confusing,
get this out of order and your faith will become fragile.
In fact, if you're watching today or listening today, and you're not a Jesus follower any longer, or you grew up in church and lost your faith.....
my hunch is....it is because no one actually gave you this sequence of events.....or did not bother to explain this to you......
This sequence is so extraordinarily important and again without it....... faith can become so fragile.
If you lost your faith, I would say this, if you lost your faith because of something in the Bible, or about the Bible......
I have some great news for you.
The Christian faith did not begin with Genesis.
The Christian faith began with Jesus, but not the birth of Jesus and not the teaching of Jesus.....
the Christian faith began with the resurrection of Jesus,
because there were no Christians, there were no followers until after something happened.
There were no believers, until after the resurrection. The Bible did not create Christianity. Christians did not create Christianity. The resurrection actually created both, and that's why we celebrate.
Sometimes when I find myself talking with folks about this kinda stuff......They tend to say things like.........Ok.... REV Jesse, I get all that, but isn’t The Bible how we know about the resurrection?.
Actually it's not... but most folks think it is...... And the reason most folks think it is.... is because of people like me...... because the preachers…don’t always put biblical events in context....they tell the story that they are focused on at that moment....then move forward.....never tying them together.....
So listen so carefully, this is so important. The Bible was not assembled until about 350 years after the resurrection. The Bible wasn't assembled and when I say assembled I mean, the Jewish scripture, combined with Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the Apostles letters, Peter's letters, the book of Revelation, the Bible wasn't assembled until the fourth century.
So if no one knew about the resurrection until the Bible was assembled, then no one knew about the resurrection until almost 400 years after the resurrection.
We don't know about the resurrection because of the Bible.
Do you know how we know about it?
We know because:
Matthew told us about it.
And Mark told us about it.
And Mark got his information from the Apostle Peter.
And Luke told us about it.
And Luke says this, "I thoroughly investigated everything. I talked to every single eyewitness", and Luke tells us something else as well. Luke says, that many people sat down and tried to put together an orderly account of the life, and the teaching of Jesus.
because the Apostle John was an eyewitness and tells us about it.
Peter who wrote two letters that ended up in the New Testament.
And then my favorite, James.
James was the brother of Jesus. And whenever I talk about James I can't resist asking this question. What would your brother have to do to convince you that he was the son of God?
And James shows up in the New Testament book of Acts as a leader of the church. James was martyred because he believed, get this, because he believed his brother was his Lord. James was martyred because he believed his brother rose from the dead.
So no, we don't believe in the resurrection because the Bible tells us so. We believe because Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, James and the Apostle Paul, who steps onto the pages of history, trying to put the church out of business.
We don't know about the resurrection because of the Bible......
actually, we have a Bible because of the resurrection.
Without the resurrection, there would be no Bible.
And the reason we know that is because the only reason and please don't miss this.
The only reason Jesus story was worth telling, it wasn't just because of his teachings.
And it wasn't simply his claims about himself.
And it certainly wasn't his crucifixion, 10s of thousands of people were crucified.
The only reason Jesus story was worth telling... was the resurrection. And as it turns out, because of the resurrection, it was a story worth telling.
So, for over 30 years, the Apostle Peter would tell that story.....
For 30 years after the resurrection... he would travel around to villages and towns and everywhere he went...... the Christians would invite him into their homes and they would say, "Peter, tell us one more time".
So for 30 years he tells this story, and then Peter ends up in Rome..... Nero's Rome.... and he's imprisoned.
Peter doesn't know it the time but he will not leave Rome alive. And he's accompanied by Mark who had traveled with him for several years and Mark had heard him tell these stories over and over and over and Mark coaxes it out of him one more time, and Mark documents it for us and it comes to us as the Gospel of Mark.
And just imagine, Peter and Mark sitting there and they're to this part of the story, the resurrection, and Mark says, "Okay, go slow. I gotta get this down".
And here's what Peter said. He said, "Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Jewish council", basically their Supreme Court, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God", and Joseph was hoping that Jesus was going to usher in the kingdom of God, and like everyone else he lost faith because God's Messiah couldn't possibly be crucified. He went boldly to Pilate and he asked for Jesus body.
And Pilate was actually surprised to hear that Jesus was already dead. And summoning the centurion who oversaw the crucifixion, he asked him, "Has the King of the Jews already died"?
And when he learned that in fact it was so, he gave the body to Joseph, which was very unusual.
So, Joseph bought some linen cloth. He took the body of Jesus down from the cross and he wrapped it in the linen, he placed it in a tomb cut out of rock and then he rolled an enormous stone against the entrance of the tomb.
Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph, saw where Jesus had been laid. And then, when the Sabbath was over, and it was legal for them to come back out. When the Sabbath was over Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James bought spices, so that they might go to anoint Jesus body.
And why did they go to the tomb to anoint Jesus body?
Because like everybody else they expected Jesus to stay dead.
And then, very early on the first day of the week. Just after sunrise, when they were on their way to the tomb. They asked each other, "Who is gonna roll away the stone from the tomb"?
But when they looked up. They saw that the stone that was very large had already been rolled away. And then they did something that I'm not sure I would have done. They entered the tomb, and they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.
"Don't be alarmed", he said, "You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified, but he's risen. He's not here see the place where they laid him, but you go and tell his disciples", and I love this part, "but go tell his disciples and Peter", make sure Peter knows.
"Go tell his disciples and Peter he is going ahead of you into Galilee, and there you will see him just as he told you".
So the women find the disciples... Peter and John rush to the tomb,
you may know this story.
They look inside. They walk away confused.
They do not assume a resurrection. These were not superstitious men. They make their way to Galilee, just as they were instructed to do.
And Peter and the rest of the disciples get there and they meet their risen Lord. And they have... this is such an intimate setting, they had breakfast with him on the beach.
Now, if you're a Jesus follower, Peter would tell you and Andrew and James and John would assure you that your faith, your sacrifice, your compassion, your generosity, your loyalty, your love, and most importantly, your hope is not in vain.
If you're unconvinced, I think Peter would lean in and he would speak first.
He would say,"Look..... I understand. I was unconvinced myself...... I lost my faith......
I was in the back of the crowd and I saw him die.
But then... something happened. Something happened that changed everything. Something happened that changed everything for me.
Something happened that caused me to spend the rest of my life...... risking my life
so that you could know that your Savior lives. And when I saw my resurrected rabbi, it was only then that I finally understood what he had been telling us all along. The time has come. God has done something for the world in the world. The kingdom of God has come near which means you are never far. And then I finally understood what the invitation was all about. The invitation was to repent. The invitation was to turn in his direction, and embrace this kingdom value system, and to embrace this king. To repent and believe what I understand now to be 100% good... news".
Peter would tell you God has done something for you because God is for you. And he simply wants you to receive this good news, and to accept his invitation to follow. After all, Jesus introduced the kingdom of God to earth, and everyone is invited to participate in it. So, I'm convinced the message of Easter has never been more relevant. This Easter, I hope it becomes more relevant than ever for you. Let's pray together.
Heavenly Father, give us eyes to see. Give us ears to hear. Please give us courage to follow you. In Jesus' name, amen.
Communion
Communion began on the annual celebration of Passover when Jesus told his disciples to remember his sacrifice as they ate the bread and drank the wine. Just as Israel was celebrated the sacrifice of the Passover lamb when the angel of death passed over their homes, so believers in Jesus celebrate and remember his sacrifice of our sins when he died on the cross.
Holy communion uses bread as a symbol of the body of Jesus and wine as a symbol of his blood. The act of taking communion does not save us, it is an act of worship and remembrance. Many churches and denominations have different views of communion and hopefully these Bible verses about communion will help you decide for yourself how to best observe and remember Christ's sacrifice.