HE IS RISEN!

One thing to remember today: The Good News is Kingdom news!

Mark 1:14–15 ESV

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Straight from Jesus’ own mouth, the Good News is Kingdom news.

With that in mind, lets see what Luke is telling us in today’s text...

Luke 24:1–3 (ESV)

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

This is the first and ONLY place in the Gospels where the title Lord Jesus (κύριος ̓Iσοῦς) is used. (Last half of Mark 16 but that doesn’t count) We see it frequently in Acts, all of Paul’s writings, Hebrews, James, Peter, Jude and Revelation.

Why is that? What is Luke conveying? Keep that thought for a minute.

Luke 24:4–6 (ESV)

While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.

Two men, dazzling apparel? Does this ring any bells? Yes, Luke is drawing you back to the transfiguration story in Luke 9:28-36. Two men, dazzling apparel, Elijah (who would return to hearld the messiah) and Moses (looking for a great prophet like Moses)(The women didn’t know about the transfiguration, Luke tells us that Peter, John and James, “kept silent and told no one in those days anything of what they had seen.” ) So, Jesus is the Lord, the Messiah, the Great Prophet - OK, lets keep going..

Luke 24:6–9 (ESV)

Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.

Again, Luke is taking us back to chapter 9, Luke 9:22 where Jesus said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priest and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”

Son of Man… In Daniel’s visions, one like a Son of Man is presented Ancient of Days (God the Father)

Daniel 7:14 (ESV)

And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

Luke is leaving us, the reader, with no doubt about the importance of the resurrection - the resurrection is the inauguration of the Kingdom of God. In Luke 9 (again) in verse 27 we see Jesus say, “But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Kingdom of God.” Up to this point the Kingdom of God has been “at hand,” but now the Kingdom of God is here! The Prophet-Priest King has returned, as God promised, and He is Jesus.

Luke 24:10–12 ESV

Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened.

So, Luke is telling us all that through the resurrection, the Kingdom of God is now here. Ok, you may be saying, “I know, I’ve heard all this kingdom stuff before, why is this important?” Fair enough - so, lets go look at the story of the Bible and see why the resurrection and the Kingdom are important...

I’m going to try something new today (like I do). First, I ask the artsy folks in the room for mercy, I am not an artist - I’m a 5 year old in a 50 year old body with an idea, a stylus pen thing, a computer tablet, and Microsoft Paint. Judge my work accordingly. Second, this is either going to work well, or flop miserably, I have no idea at this time which it is going to be! Third, for the next 30 or 40 minutes, you are going to be hit with a fire hose of scripture...

Even if I fail at this, I hope that this will help you think through the importance of the Kingdom story of the Bible, and that by doing so, you will be a bit more comfortable talking with your neighbors, co-workers, family members, or complete strangers about the story of Jesus, because the Good News is Kingdom News.

With those caveats..

When the world thinks of God, they often have in mind an old grey-bearded tyrant in the sky who randomly metes out discipline his subjects. Bruce Almighty - “smite me oh mighty smiter!” He has two main functions - acting as a cosmic killjoy and sending people to hell. Maybe, just maybe, if you are good enough, you’ll get to hang out with some angels strumming on harps and floating on clouds.

How this plays out is like this...

The problem is, none of this is scriptural, and Jesus certainly didn’t teach any of this. So, lets think about the real story...

The Good News which is Kingdom news.

For a kingdom to exist, at a minimum, you must have 1. A sovereign (and individual with supreme authority), 2. A realm - a territory over which rule or dominion is exercised by the sovereign, 3. a subject or subjects of the rule or dominion of the sovereign, and 4. a law or laws to express the will of the sovereign to the subjects. SO, you need a sovereign, a realm, subjects and law.

Gen 1:1 “In the beginning, God...

God is good, He is eternal, self-existent, He is in need of nothing, BUT, God is love, and love is creative, caring and sharing… So,

God created the heavens and the earth. Light, atmosphere, land, vegetation, stars, fish and animals and birds - and it was all good. God was King - The Sovereign. The heavens and earth were His realm. Creation was his subject. And, all was governed by the laws of nature decreed by God. God could have stopped right there and enjoyed and ruled His good and perfect creation. He would not have been lonely, or felt unfulfilled or incomplete; He could have enjoyed his good and perfect creation for all eternity without us. BUT, our God is a sharing God... So God created us, His unique, image bearing children to share the creation...

Genesis 1:26–27 (ESV)

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

So, on the first page of your Bible, we see two realms - the Heavenly Realm of God, and the Earthly Realm of God’s perfect image bearers - us. These realms are two kingdoms, the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of Earth. Both perfect and both eternal through the power of God.

These two realms were united, they were separate, but one. God walking in His creation and with His special image bearing creatures on whom He had bestowed the right to rule over that creation under His authority. God ruled the whole, we ruled a little corner called Earth.

All is well until we see another created being (the serpent of Genesis 3) enter a realm, the Earthly kingdom, where it did not belong. The serpent enticed Adam and Eve to violate the one rule their King, God, had given - not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil (I like to call it the tree of judgment).

Adam and Eve’s rebellion against their King (sin) resulted in the loss of their perfect kingdom. They lost their sovereignty over their realm, but by their nature still “ruled” in some respects over animals, fish, birds and plants. Their inmost nature was changed, it was corrupted, and they were inclined toward destruction and death rather than creation and life. Their rebellion also opened the floodgates of imperfection into their realm.

Here is what James (Jesus’ half-brother) had to say:

James 1:14–15 ESV

But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

Thus, sin lead to separation from God and DEATH - both spiritual and physical - of these fallen image bearers - us.

This separation from God, due to sin and imperfection, is the core of what we call hell. We normally think of hell as some geographic, subterranean torture chamber where Bruce Almighty’s mighty smiter smites. This is a Dante’s Inferno / Roman-Greco view of hell and does not have its root in scripture - this is not what the Bible teaches. It’s bad, but it’s not Dante’s Inferno - actually it is far worse. Maybe in a couple of months we will do a deeper dive on the issue of hell, but, for today, I want to draw your attention again to what James has to say:

James 3:6 (ESV)

And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.

While hell does have a concept of geography, it is also something that wells up within us - our rebellion, our hate, our lust, our bitterness, our anger. Sin is hell and death.

God is Holy. God’s holiness in the presence of sin or imperfection results in the destruction of that sin or imperfection. In His love, God separated himself from us, from his creation, so as to not destroy us. When Moses asked to see God’s glory, God said to him:

Exodus 33:20–23 ESV

But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”

Our separation, and our loss of kingly authority, left a power vacuum - and as we know, power abhors a vacuum - and in our fallen realm, someone is always looking to seize power. Scripture tells us that an imposter king - Satan - filled that vacuum.

Luke 11:18 (ESV)

And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?

1 John 5:19 (ESV)

We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

So, at this point in the story, we’ve lost our kingdom, we’re separated from the source of our life, and a squatter (think of a vagrant in an abandoned house), an evil imposter king has moved into our realm and is exercising unlawful authority because we are powerless to stop him.

So, how can this mess be fixed? God still wants to dwell with us, for us to enjoy Him and his love forever. How does God remove the sin, the hell, from us and His creation without destroying us? The fix starts with a new kingdom and substitutionary sacrifice.

God starts His cure and invasion with a new people, the Israelites, and limited geography - the tabernacle. In Ex 40:35, after Moses and the people follow the building design provided by God, God once again dwelled with His special image bearers in the Earthly Realm - in a mobile building called the tabernacle.

Exodus 40:35 ESV

And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

The space where God dwelled was “cleansed” or “purified” by substitutionary sacrifice of animals. The sacrifice of animals provided a limited covering, both in geography (tabernacle) and duration (had to be repeated over and over), it was temporary, imperfect - it did not fully atone for sin - and therefore it was an incomplete sacrifice - it was simply a band-aid pointing to the reality of what needed to occur for a permanent fix for the mess we created.

Leviticus 17:11 ESV

For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.

God had come to be a personal King once again.

Exodus 15:1–18 (ESV)

Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord, saying, “I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; ... The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him. ... The Lord will reign forever and ever.”

Later in the story, the space where God dwelled with us here on earth became a permanent, fixed location in the holy of holies in the Jerusalem temple. The people ultimately reject God as king demand a human king like the other nations. God is already dwelling with them as their King - and they reject their King.

1 Samuel 8:7 (ESV)

And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.

This doesn’t go well. It starts with a king who does not trust God (Saul) followed by an adulterous and murderous king (David - but he does trust God) followed by a wise, rich and self-indulgent king (Solomon). By the 4th king, everything is a mess and the people divide into two kingdoms - Israel (north) and Judah (south). The people’s relationship with God and each other gets worse and worse - they worship false gods like Baal and Molech. They utterly abandon God and as a consequence they are exiled into captivity in Babylon where they serve a completely foreign king - Nebuchadnezzar.

2 Chronicles 36:19–20 ESV

And they burned the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem and burned all its palaces with fire and destroyed all its precious vessels. He took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia,

Despite this tragedy, a remnant of Israelites never lost sight of their hope for a renewal, for salvation, for the return of their King. In Isaiah, written in this period of exile, we see:

Isaiah 52:7–8 (ESV)

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” The voice of your watchmen—they lift up their voice; together they sing for joy; for eye to eye they see the return of the Lord to Zion.

Isaiah 52:9–10 ESV

Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

The king of Persia conquers the king of Babylon and, under the influence of God, mercifully restores the people to Jerusalem and supports them in rebuilding the city and the temple.

Ezra 1:1–3 ESV

In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem.

So, the temple is back, and God is dwelling with his people once more as King. But, nothing has changed - God still must confine Himself to the holy of holies behind the veil so that his glory, his holiness, does not destroy us and the rest of His creation. Sacrifices must be made continually to keep the temple space clear of sin and imperfection as they are only a temporary fix (as mentioned earlier) - they’re a band-aid.

So, how is this problem fixed? Remember, the Good News is Kingdom news!

The fix begins by God entering the world as one of us. Fully human, fully God. Jesus. God clothed his glory, his holiness, in humanity so that His very presence would not destroy us (remember Moses and God’s glory?) and He could once again bring life to His creation by dwelling with us once again.

Philippians 2:5–7 (ESV)

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

The King came as the opposite of a King - a servant. The upside-down kingdom - nothing we expected, but so much more than we could ever have hoped for. A King who can actually relate to us because He became one of us. The ultimate display of leading by example. The kingdom of God at hand - God with us!

So, we still have a couple problems for our King to address. God was able to dwell in the form of Jesus, with all his glory and holiness, because his earthly body was sinless - the same cannot be said for us. Something had to be done to address the sin in us, this impurity, this “hell” issue. There was also this little problem of death, and, while in His earthly body, Jesus could only ever be in one place at one time - limited geography, just like the tabernacle. Enter the crucifixion...

Remember the tabernacle, how that space was “purified?” By sacrifice - but the animal sacrifice was limited, temporary, imperfect and incomplete. God addressed this problem by becoming the perfect sacrifice - the perfect Lamb of God - God’s holy blood shed to cover the sins of all who would receive His gift. Under the OT law if you murdered, you were to be put to death - the murder’s life for the victim’s life. Here, in the upside down kingdom, we see the opposite the victim gives his life for his murders. Backwards, upside down, beautiful and perfect. God used the evil intentions of Satan, the imposter King, this vagrant squatter, to murder Jesus on the cross and thereby deliver us from sin.

Colossians 2:13–14 ESV

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

Colossians 1:13 ESV

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,

Now that sin is atoned for, there are still a couple more problems to address - death and limited geography. If death is the end, the lack of sin doesn’t matter - atonement is pointless - there is no hope. Also, if the presence of God in the earthly realm is only ever limited to Jesus, the kingdom isn’t going to make much headway.

Now we can begin to understand the importance of the resurrection!

An on the third day, Jesus rose from the grave! The inauguration of the Kingdom! Sin and death are defeated! The Kingdom of God is no longer “at hand,” the Kingdom of God is here! The imposter king is dethroned! Renewal has begun!

The Good News is Kingdom News!

As we will see in the next couple of weeks - the Son of Man, Jesus, will ascend and be seated at the right hand of the Father where “He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.”

As we see in Jn 16, Jesus told us, His ascension, His leaving, opened the way for Him to send the Holy Spirit to us, the very presence of God dwelling with us - tabernacling in us - all who repent and believe. Remember, our crimes - our sins - have been addressed, they have been removed and covered by Jesus’ blood, the age old problem of us not being able to be in the presence of God without His glory and holiness destroying us is now fixed! The problem of limited geography - fixed.

The imposter king dethroned, the rightful King ruling, all our crimes (sin) atoned for, death defeated and the door opened for us to dwell in God’s presence once again - the Kingdom of God is here! It is invading the world in every believer - wherever we go we take the Kingdom with us and, in following Jesus’ teachings and bearing fruit - love joy… - God works through us removing the hell from us and this world - kicking it out - He is renewing creation through us - through His Kingdom.

NT Wright likened the resurrection to D-Day in WWII. (explain)

But that’s not all the story because, as God tells us, the best is yet to come.

Revelation 21:1–4 ESV

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

Jesus is returning, and when He does it will be in power and authority, not as a servant, but as the Righteous Reigning Creator King of all the Universe; His patience with rebellion and evil exhausted, He is going to personally remove all remaining sin from His creation and He will reunite, permanently, the Heavenly Realm and the Earthly Realm, the Heavenly Kingdom and the Earthly Kingdom for all eternity - Eden restored - full stop - the end. AMEN!

Revelation 22:20–21 ESV

He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.

There you go - the Bible from bow to stern, from front to back, from cover to cover - Gen 1:1 to Rev 22:21 - The Good News is Kingdom News - and the heart of this story is the Resurrection. It is a beautiful, incredible, compelling story - a far cry from the bland, boring lie of the worldly narrative presenting God as a “mighty smiter” and heaven as disembodied spirits floating on clouds strumming harps.

To the contrary, it is the story of a loving Creator, a loving, sharing, caring King, who wants the best for his children - and that best is to be in His presence, to be in the Kings presence, in the world that was created for us - it is a story of the great lengths this good, loving, caring, sharing King went to in order to save us from ourselves. Amen!

If you know Jesus, if you are following Him, you are already part of this story. If you don’t know Jesus, and you want to be part of this story, Jesus tells you repent and believe because the King is standing at the door of your life and knocking - will you open the door and believe?