Easter

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0:00 I really like this Sunday. I was telling Danny that we were sitting down watching people come in. I have great memories of this day. Really great memories of this day. I have early morning memories. I have dinner memories around family. I have singing memories. I can remember singing specific hymns every year as a kid growing up. I don't know if you have memories banked for today, but whether you do or you don't, make some new ones.

0:42 Today is a day worth marking. Worth stacking good memories around. This is the sort of thing where we mark a walk towards eternity by Easter's. These are the things you build life around. When you look back on the decades past, the Easter's stand out. Along with the graduations and the marriages and the baptisms,

1:18 Easter's stand out. This is the stuff that our lives are made of. Build memories today. I'm glad that we get to do that together here. We look again at the story of the resurrection. It's one of those stories. It's like Christmas. You get to it and you look at it every year. Every year, I think, well, what are we going to say about it this year?

1:50 It still works. I keep thinking it's going to run out or dry up. It doesn't. It keeps working. I like the version that Melanie started us off with this morning, the women early in the morning with the spices going to prepare the body. I like also the Matthew version. If you want to look there with me in Matthew chapter 28, he's talking about, he's finished the story of the crucifixion.

2:20 Matthew chapter 28. Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary. I love how there's always two Marys. We went to see the tomb and behold, there was a great earthquake for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back with stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow and for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men.

2:59 But the angel said to the women, do not be afraid. I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen as he said. Come see the place where he lay. Then go quickly to tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead and behold he is giving, is going before you to Galilee and there you will see him. See I have told you.

3:30 So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to tell his disciples and behold Jesus met them and said greetings. They came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him and then Jesus said to them, don't be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee and there they will see me. The women are going early in the morning. They have waited. They haven't worked for the Sabbath.

4:01 They have observed the Sabbath and they had laid Jesus in the tomb. Remember that he died quicker than normally. We read the John's account of the crucifixion on Friday where the Jewish folk are worried. They don't want the bodies hanging on the crosses through Passover. They asked the soldiers to go break the legs of the guys on the cross so they die faster. Remember when you are crucified you actually suffocate to death.

4:32 You are in pain but what kills you is you can't keep breathing. You are hanging there by your arms and slowly you can't get your lungs to get you a breath. If they break your legs you suffocate faster. They went to go break the legs of the two criminals and then they went to break Jesus' legs and realized he had died way faster than anybody ever dies. Remember nobody took Jesus' life from him. He laid it down. He said, into your hands I commit my spirit. Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, two guys who had quietly followed Jesus but were afraid to follow him during the day,

5:07 were afraid to follow him in front of their peers, found a way to get Jesus into a tomb. It was a nice tomb, unused, not common for people who were crucified. They would just be thrown in unmarked graves. This is Joseph of Arimathea's tomb. It's not as though now he can't use it. Other people could still use it. More than one people whole family could use a tomb. This one had never been used yet. They had a big stone in front of it and they set Jesus' body in there. They would set him there and then they would wrap him in claws and be sitting on the main table

5:40 until you rolled and then he started to cave. Eventually you'd move him over to a side space in the cave and then you'd put the newest one of the family on the center table. It wasn't unreasonable for them to go in and visit, though they wanted to go before too much longer and get the spices on him so that he didn't stink real bad. He's been dead three days now. On their way there, an earthquake happens, which is a little terrifying, then a crack of lightning and then a person blindingly white light. We've talked about this before, but white in the story of Scripture always signifies the divine.

6:15 There's a connection between light and divinity. This angel has been in the presence of God and is so terrifying that Roman soldiers, professional soldiers, are look like dead. They are kind of paralyzed in fear, but the two women keep going and he tells them don't be afraid. Then he's like, you're looking for Jesus in the wrong place and this is what really got me in the story. Looking for Jesus in the wrong place, go back and tell the disciples that he's risen just as he said he would. Then they start to go back and Jesus can't stay away.

6:50 They're supposed to just go and tell the disciples that Jesus comes this season. Hey, guys. He has to tell them don't be afraid and so there's something kind of magnanimous about Jesus in the moment. They're like worshiping at his feet. They can't believe that this had happened. The women saw him die. They come around him and put their arms around him.

7:20 They can't believe it. There's another version of the story where they don't recognize him at first. They think he's the gardener. I'm thinking about why they can't believe it. Just before this, I mean, not long before this, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, remember? They've seen someone who was dead four days come back to life, but they knew Jesus was the one who did it.

7:55 They watched Jesus stand outside of Lazarus' tomb weep at the sight of death and then call Lazarus up out of the grave. Lazarus come out and at the words of Jesus the dead man gets up. He's already got grave clothes on and walks out with the grave clothes on and Jesus says take his grave clothes off. Then Lazarus sits down and they have a meal together. They've seen dead people come back to life, but they know it's at the words of Jesus, which is what makes the crucifixion so heartbreaking for them because they know that Jesus can speak death away.

8:27 They've seen him walk on water. They've seen him multiply food for people. They've seen him heal blind Bartimaeus. They've seen him raise the lame person by the pool of Siloam. They've seen him turn water into wine. They know that with Jesus all things can be set to right and nothing is yet done. When they watch him die and actually finish, it looks like mind blowing and so disheartening.

8:57 In this person Jesus of Nazareth was all the answers for them. From wine to death, all of it. They can't believe it when they see him. This is something incredible that dude raised himself out of the grave.

9:29 Over the years I've tried to think of different ways to imagine what happens there. The three days he's gone is the traditional time in the ancient Near East where it would take three days to make a trip to the underworld and back. It's why Jonah is in the belly of the fish for three days because it shows that God went all the way down into death to get him and rescue him out. The God in organizing communicating the truth in the culture of the day leaves the three days in the tomb so that he's all the way dead.

10:10 We don't get a story of what happened there but the best I can think about it is the original source of life, unmitigated, completely submitted to the church. It's submitted to the divine, moves through death and can't be contained. It falls off of him. Death falls off of him.

10:46 So he goes all the way down into death unfazed and comes out again unharmed for heaven's sake. The same flesh and bone. He still carries the wounds of the cross on his hands and his feet. He still carries the mark of the spear in his side. There is a story. Remember in one of the stories when he first appears to the disciples in the upper room, they make sure to tell you that the doors are locked.

11:31 Remember? One of my favorite little word pictures I read in C.S. Lewis somewhere and for life I can't find it anymore. I've looked to try and find it. But he built this idea of the resurrected Christ on the Hebrew word for glory, kavod, which means like weighty. So when something is glorified it's weighty and significant. And he says that Jesus in his glorified body is more weighty and significant than this world on which death has such a grip.

12:12 And so that when the glorified body, the weighty body of Jesus passes through the wooden door in the upper room like your hand passes through air. It's not as though the air isn't there. It's just your hand is that much more substantial. It's more real than the air through which it moves. And he says the glorified body of Jesus walks around in our earth, our world, so gripped by death way more real. And passes through a door as it's some figment, some shadow of reality, bringing full reality into the room.

12:50 He says, let me eat your fish, right? And show you touch my hands and my side and see that I am not an apparition, but real. This is the first point for this great day. Jesus went through death and never will again. And the life he lives now is full and complete flesh and body, heart and soul, arms and eyes, and fleshed and real forever.

13:26 He was in death. He'll never be dead again. He is risen. He is risen indeed. The next thing I like, I like that. That's good news. The next thing I like is how adamant Jesus is once he's raised of getting his crew back together.

13:58 There's that story in Luke. If you look in Luke's gospel there with me, if you want, I think it's in Luke. It is. Okay, in Luke chapter 24, they tell the resurrection story. It's the version that Melanie read with the two women and the spices. Then the very next story, in verse 12 of chapter 24, that very day, the very day of his resurrection.

14:31 So, I don't know what it takes to pass through the three days of death to inaugurate a new line of humanity in the world to establish. I don't know what it feels like to have all your enemies made your footstool to be seated at the right hand of God to have all authority in heaven and on earth given to you. I don't know if that feels good or bad. I don't know the weight of the responsibility feels like, but he has just accomplished the resurrection. The moment from which humanity has been waiting since the beginning of all time. And that very day, he does this. That very day, that very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem.

15:18 And they were talking with each other about all the things that had happened. And while they were talking and discussing together, Jesus drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, oh, what's the conversation? You guys are happy with each other as you walk. And they stood still looking sad. Then one of them named Cleopas answered him. Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?

15:53 And he said to them, what things? And they said to him, concerning Jesus of Nazareth, the man who was a prophet, mighty indeed in word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him to be condemned. Remember this story? He goes to get these two dudes who are leaving. Like Mary and the other Mary went to get him. I can see that.

16:25 In Matthew's story, the disciples come later. In John's story, they come running as soon as they find out. They come to, they're still there at least. These guys quit. You know what I mean? They're like, the game's over, we're going back. And Jesus, the very day he accomplished the resurrection, went to get those two. One of them is named Cleopas, we don't know the other guy's name. It doesn't matter. What? On the day of resurrection, they get a visit from the resurrected Jesus. He goes to get them and doesn't even reveal himself.

17:01 And as soon as they realize who he is, he's like back out of, he goes somewhere else. They turn around and go back. Of course they do, right? Jesus, on the very day he's resurrected, said, those two are going, let's go get them back. Let's get those guys back over here. I was thinking more about that. One of my favorite little stories is, when he comes to get Paul, who's named Saul at the time, Saul is not interested in following Jesus at all.

17:42 He's not just walking away like the two on the Emmaus Road. He is walking to hunt out and persecute and end the way of Jesus. And Jesus does what? Comes to get him. Saul is an enemy of Christ and of the church. And Jesus makes a special trip out of heaven to come and meet him on the road, blinding white light, sign of the divine.

18:13 Saul of Tarsus, why do you persecute me? Here I've arranged a special person to meet you. Keep going on your road. I'll keep you blind for now so you don't get overwhelmed. I'll make him come. He's going to be terrified of you. I'll make him come anyway because ananias has some sense. There's certain people that the way of Jesus is for and certain that it's not for. Right? Certainly.

18:46 At first I would think it's for the ones who get it, the ones who come. Mary, the other Mary. Peter, John. Thomas? He'll make Jesus prove it, but he'll come. But the guys on the amaious road, they're sad. They certainly don't get it.

19:18 But Paul, he's not even sad about Jesus. He's not even wishing Jesus. He's against him. And Jesus is for him. Right?

19:53 How do we know who Jesus is for? He's become an immediate problem for the church immediately. Who is Jesus for? They got the story right at the beginning because Jesus was clear. If you read the beginning of Acts, it says he had 40 days. He appeared to 500 and he taught them what it meant that his reign had come now.

20:27 Matthew doesn't tell us much. That's Luke. He tells us that Jesus spent 40 days teaching him what it meant that the kingdom of God was here now. Matthew doesn't tell us much about Jesus after the resurrection and before the ascension, but he does say that Jesus told the disciples all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. This is why we develop language that calls Jesus the king of kings. It's not just because it sounds nice, it's because there are kings here, but Jesus is the king over all the other kings.

20:59 He's the Lord of lords. It also sounds nice, but that means there are people in charge, your bosses, your coaches, your teachers, your parents, your mayors, your kings, your rulers. Above all of them, there is one more. This is why the Christians got in trouble in Rome because the Caesars wanted to be in charge and they said, you're not. Jesus is in charge. They got that right, but now they wanted to know the problem. They got that right.

21:32 Actually, they got that more right than we do usually. We figure Jesus is in charge of some spiritual things, but not the rest of our life. We can handle it from there. Thank you. The early church got really clear Jesus is in charge, but then where they had trouble is in charge of who? Who can come in to this kingdom of Jesus, this kingdom of God? Is it for the Jewish ones?

22:17 Well, he got Saul. Now, Saul was not a follower of the way, but he was Jewish. Of course, once Saul became Paul, he got enamored with the universality of Jesus, and he goes out past the Jews into the Gentiles. Everybody can come in. All Jews and Gentiles alike, but certainly not everyone.

22:47 Jews and Gentiles fair. That means I'm a Gentile. Most of us are Gentiles. We're in. How else might he decide? How did he know Saul was in? Is it the ones who are good? I mean, I imagine the guys on the road to a man's are pretty good because they were nice to the stranger they didn't know, and they told him what happened.

23:17 I imagine they were pretty good guys. That's why he went to get him. But look, Saul was not a good guy. He killed Stephen or oversaw it, first martyr of the church. And had not repented or changed his mind, and Jesus came down out of heaven to get him, Saul was not a good guy, Jesus was for him. So Jesus is not for good people.

23:47 He's not for bad people either, because he's for some good, so it's not that you must be good or you must be bad. It's not that you must be Jewish or you must be Gentile. Who is Jesus for? I started thinking, maybe it's for the ones who will believe. This is what I have been taught. He knew Paul would believe. And Paul did.

24:26 But I've probably beat this verse into your head several times, but we'll go back to it again in Matthew chapter 28. Remember Jesus, he couldn't keep himself away from the women. And so he's like, hey, come on. And he appears to them there on his feet. He's like, okay, tell the guys to meet me at the hill of Galilee. And it's a long walk to Galilee, so probably in the time that it took them to make their way to the hill of Galilee,

24:56 they had that 40 day period. By the time they're up in Galilee, he's done with his 40 days. And he appears to them a couple of places along the way. Not only that, they walk through much of the place where they walked with Jesus while he was alive. And so they're reminded of the stories of the fish, of the feeding, of the walking on the water, of the sermon on the mount. They're reminded as they're walking up to the hill in Galilee. And he's popping in and teaching them what it means that he's in charge, that the reign of God is here.

25:28 And if we look down in, let's see, 28, maybe we go verse 16. Now the 11 disciples, not Judas, remember, went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him, they worshiped him. But some doubted.

26:00 That is such a kicker to me. They walk all the way through Galilee. They get to the hill of Galilee where the King of Kings has said he'll meet them, and they see him. They see the resurrected Christ, flesh and bone, body and soul, marks in his hands and his feet and on his side. More real than anything in this dying world standing there on the hill. Some of them worship and some of them said, I don't know. This is a little crazy.

26:37 Some of them believed and some of them doubted. And what does he do next? All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. Baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit and teaching them to him. He is unfazed by their lack of faith. You still are in. Good, bad. Believing, unbelieving. Any nation all are coming.

27:09 Jesus is unfazed. He has set up a new order where leaders are servants. Where meekness is strength. Where foolishness is wisdom. He has set up a new order where death doesn't have the end. Where life begins and continues forever. Who's it for? All of us.

27:41 He's done it for all of us. He's done it for you. Whether you are good or bad. Wherever you were born. Wherever allegiance you carry. Whether you believe today or you don't. Christ is risen for you.

28:14 Let's pray. Hey, Lord, thank you for your great resurrection. Let's pray. Settle in our hearts what it means to live with you as king in the world. That you complete Lord our, the promise. The long old ancient promise of God to deliver us from ourselves, our death and our enemies.

28:50 That you have done it. Teach us how to live in light of the finished work of your resurrection. Now and forever. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.