Easter Sunday

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0:00 I do want to talk about the story of Easter, the story of the resurrection. We've been moving through this thing called the story of Scripture and we lined it up. We decided all the way back in October how can we line it up so that we'll fall on Easter on Easter and here we are on Easter and if you're reading along in the book you read the Easter story some things work out you know so that's really great here we are. And I was telling somebody in my family growing up Easter was always a really big deal.

0:35 My dad was a pastor the only thing I can remember him doing from the time I was little. He started a church in Lake Mary and he was the biggest extrovert I know. If he was sad he just had to get around a bunch of people, if he was tired he just had to get around a bunch of people and he could suck all the energy out of everyone else and bib it in himself and give it back right just like this. So Easter he was always super jazd and so Easter was always a fun celebration and so I hope that you are encouraged today to allow the goal here is to allow the resurrection

1:11 to be good news for you. There's a lot of is very easy to get skeptical or I don't mean this in a bad way but intellectual or and talk ourselves out of the simple reality and good news of the resurrection of Christ and so I want to think through what it means for us that he has risen.

1:43 Thank you. Alleluia. So let's look first at the story. The story of the resurrection is recorded several places. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John is recorded in the gospels. The one I want to look at is in Matthew's account if you want to look there with me. I'm starting at the beginning of the chapter. Now after the Sabbath toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to the tomb. Remember that Jesus was crucified somewhere right around Passover.

2:14 John remembers it a little bit differently than Matthew, Mark and Luke but somewhere right around Passover Jesus is crucified and he dies way faster. Now the Romans are good at crucifying people. It's funny if you read the stories of the gospels and you read the story of the crucifixion. They never describe the crucifixion. They don't tell you in what way what does crucifixion mean or how is someone crucified. They just say when they crucified him. And that's because everyone who's reading the gospels knows what a crucifixion looks

2:46 like. I read a story once that the Romans crucified 6,000 people at one time outside of a town to demonstrate their authority. They were lethal and efficient and they would leave them there. This was the thing. So you could not crucify a Roman citizen because it was intended to show the supremacy of Rome over anybody else that they conquered. They'd hoist you up on a thing, sometimes an X, sometimes a T, sometimes a cross shaped like ours but they'd hoist you up on a thing and then leave you out there.

3:18 And so Jesus and normally when you were crucified you wouldn't die from the blood. You would die from suffocation. You got tired of holding yourself up there and eventually you couldn't get a breath and you would die from suffocation. So it would take a long time. And so when Jesus dies he dies way early because no one takes Jesus' life for him but he gives it up willingly. So when he says into your hands I commit my spirit and he breathes his last. He's laying down his life willfully for everybody else. And so such that when Joseph of Arimathea who sees Jesus die along with the women and

3:54 he goes to Pilate and says can we have his body? Pilate's like what? He can't be dead yet. You'll see it. And so he sends people back to make sure that he's already dead. That's why they put the spirit in his side to see if blood and water come out because then that would know that he had separated, he'd stop circulating his blood, he's actually dead. And so because he died so fast then Joseph of Arimathea, this is what I'm getting to, can get him down off the cross before the Sabbath. We don't want him hanging up there, it feels too sad to have his dead body hanging up

4:28 there outside. But on the Sabbath day they wouldn't be able to do work and so they wouldn't be able to take him down. So Joseph of Arimathea rushes to Pilate and says we don't have time to find a tomb, I've got a brand new tomb, he gets a cloth, they get him down off the cross, wrap him in the cloth and put him in the tomb but they didn't have a chance to do any of the regular burial stuff they would do. In Israelite tradition they would embalm the body with a certain set of spices so that it would not smell as quickly.

4:59 So you could come in mourn over it properly. They didn't get the chance to do that so the women are waking up early in the morning as soon as they possibly can to get and exhumed Jesus' dead body and then do the burial rites for him. I don't know why. He's already dead and rolled stones rolled in front. Oh sorry. It must be that they just really loved him.

5:35 I don't think they had any hope of finding anything other than the dead body of Jesus and giving themselves a few more minutes with him. Maybe grading such that they could have a visitation that would honor him in a way that he was due. I don't think they knew what they were coming to but this is why they come early in the morning because they wanted to have done it a day before. So now after the Sabbath you see, toward the dawn of the first day of the week Mary Magdalene

6:06 and the other Mary went to the tomb and behold there was a great earthquake for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. I love that he sits on the stone. And his appearance was like lightning. This is true always when the angels come or even when Jesus is transfigured. There's something about the presence of God that emanates light. You know it's the first thing that God made.

6:37 He made it out of his own imagination. Just spoke it into existence. And whenever Moses would go be in the presence of God then he would be reflecting this light that he had absorbed for a while and when Jesus gets transfigured on the mouth of transfiguration and revealed for who he is, light comes shining out of him such that the angels that have been in the presence of God when they come down they have this bright light coming off of them. So when John gets a vision of the heavenly city he says in the city to come we won't need a sun or a moon because the son of man sitting on the throne will be all the light

7:11 that we need. Incredible. And so the women come to the tomb and there's this being this angelic being sitting on top of a rock that's too big for them to move and he's shining bright white with light. And his clothes were white as snow. And for the force for and for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women do not be afraid for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here for he has risen as he said.

7:46 Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell us disciples that he has risen from the dead and behold he is going to before you to Galilee. Then you will see him. See I have told you. So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to tell the disciples and behold Jesus met them and said greetings and they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him and then Jesus said them do not be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee and there they will see me.

8:19 While they were going behold some of the guard went to the city and goes on and starts to tell the story. But the news of the resurrection catches them completely off guard such that they are afraid and joyful. It is a funny juxtaposition of emotions. I am trying to imagine a time when I have been both afraid and joyful. There are times when that goes together right. Like if it is like some great adventure.

8:54 The closest I can think of this is not great. If Wes and I have taken a couple of backpacking trips out into the woods where we are going to stay for a night or two in the woods. There is just enough planning in my head of how will we handle the situation if we come across a bear. But I love it. I love the feeling. I love the adventure. I love the question what will happen.

9:27 I like the feeling that I am capable of a thing. I am also a little afraid because I might not be capable. I might not be able to handle it. I do not actually know and can't control what could happen. The juxtaposition of fear and joy is a really unique space to be in. The older we get the less we encounter it because we can manage our situations more. We have experienced more so we are caught off guard less.

10:02 But you can imagine if you have been there before these women leaving the tomb everything is open-ended and possible. The laws that they thought were held secure have just come up-ended. They watched him die and put him in the tomb. They knew he was all the way dead and now actually not only do they have the empty tomb, the guy sitting on the rock but now they saw Jesus themselves and they heard his voice and they put his hands around his feet.

10:34 He is alive. The most truth for you this morning. Jesus of Nazareth, like the one born of Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. On the third day he rose again according to the scriptures. He rose again according to the scriptures. This is the kicker for me as I started to think about it. These women are caught off guard.

11:06 This morning at the sunrise we read Luke's account. Luke the women go back to tell the guys and it is conspicuous and worth noting that Jesus tells women first. I don't know why. Maybe the disciples would have made it about them. I don't know. He tells the women first and the women go back and tell the disciples in the upper room

11:37 and the disciples don't believe them. I like to give the disciples credit. I like to give them the credit that they don't believe not because it's women telling them but because the news is too good. The news is too good. They can't fathom this reality. It's outside of their, which is why you and I might get skeptical.

12:10 It's fanciful, the idea of resurrecting from the dead. But Jesus said he was going to do it. If we look back, if you're following along, if not, you can take my word for it. But it's in Matthew 16, one time Jesus starts to talk about it. Matthew 16, I made notes for myself, verse 21. Jesus said from that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem

12:42 and suffer many things from the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and on the third day raised. Peter took him aside and rebuked him saying, far be it from you Lord. Jesus told them first in chapter 16 that the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and then they would kill him and on the third day he would be raised again. And then again in chapter 17, verse 22, starting at 21, then Peter came up to him and said,

13:14 Lord, how often will our brother, synagogue? Oh, that's 18. Sorry, 17. Starting at 22. As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, the son of man is about to be delivered into the hands of men and they will kill him and he will be raised on the third day and they were greatly distressed. They didn't get it. Then he does it again in chapter 20. This is just in Matthew's gospel, Matthew chapter 20, verse 17. And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the 12 disciples aside and on the way

13:49 he said to them, see we are going up to Jerusalem and the son of man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified and he will be raised up on the third day. Jesus told them very specifically on multiple occasions exactly what would happen, not just that he would die, but who would kill him and not just that they would kill him, but that he would raise and not just that he would raise from the dead when he would

14:19 raise from the dead. I'm trying to say that the story of Easter is not some general good news. It is very specific fulfillment of a plan, an explicit hope and strategy that Jesus said this thing will happen and then this thing did happen. I mean, I think the disciples can be forgiven for not getting it right away because it's

14:58 a weird thing. But for you and I, what I want to point to is that the resurrection of Jesus wasn't an accident. It's not like when I was thinking about this, I had the little picture in my mind. You remember the first Jurassic Park, the good one, remember?

15:29 The very first one. And the scene where Jeff Goldblum is trying to convince the scientists that life will find a way. And he's like the chaos theory guy and he's like dropping the drops of water. That was the vision in my head and that phrase, life will find a way. And sometimes we might get ourselves to the notion that the resurrection of Jesus is something

16:00 benign, like new things happen in spring. And good will always win out over evil. And somehow life finds a way and Jesus comes up out of the grave. And I want to encourage you, this is more specific than that. Much more specific than this is very narrow.

16:32 This is one person set out on a specific purpose. Clear, eyed and mine, knowing full well what he's walking into. The Pharisees and the scribes and they'll persecute and kill. And on the third day, race from the dead. And he didn't make it up. There are a couple of places where the Old Testament is not as clear as Jesus on this.

17:09 But in the Psalm that Terry read for us, Psalm 16, there's one phrase that ends up coming up again in the New Testament because it implies the resurrection. It's in Psalm 16. I'm going there, don't worry. Verse 10, the psalmist is talking about how God, this is key, the psalmist is talking

17:39 about how the God of Israel has orchestrated good things to come to him. So if you go back to verse 5, Psalm 16 verse 5, the Lord is my chosen portion and my cup. You hold my lot. The lions have fallen for me in pleasant places. Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. I bless the Lord who gives me counsel. In the night also my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand. I shall not be shaken. Therefore, my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices.

18:13 My flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to sheol or let your holy one see corruption. You make known to me the path of life. Your presence there is fullness of joy at your right hand, our pleasures forevermore. This is the next truth for you, which what I told the kids, Jesus is raised from the dead miraculously heralded by the angels, announced by the women, visited for 40 days

18:44 on earth, seen by 500 people, ascends from the hill on Galilee, and lives yet. Pleasures fullness of joy, pleasures forevermore. So that Jesus ascended and left the administration of the church to his people, the faith, the perseverance of the gospel to the people, but he did not abandon them. He lives yet somewhere. Only in flesh and embodied, awaiting the point to return.

19:19 Jesus died once. He will never die again. Just too further that Jesus is not just general good news, but specific good news. There is one more passage I want you to look at. It is in Isaiah 53, one of the prophets, the greatest prophet, speaks several things that foretell the reality of Jesus, but this gets us to the point this morning, chapter 53, starting at verse 10.

19:49 He's talking about this suffering servant who will serve the people of the world at his own expense. The best way to define love is solidarity and self-sacrifice. Stand with someone else at your own expense. This is what Christ does on the cross, and Isaiah foretells this person will come, the suffering servant who stands with others at his own expense. 53, verse 10. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief.

20:21 And when his soul makes an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. The will of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous. And he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will divide him. I will divide him a portion with many.

20:51 And he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he has poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he bore the sin of many and makes transgression for the transgressors. This is what I want you to see, that the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus is not general good. It's not just like, oh, a love wins out in the end. It's very specific good. It's in the context of this whole meta-narrative that suggests that there is a God. And that God is committed to finding his way back into a symbiotic relationship with humanity.

21:27 But the problem is that humanity is determined that they know better than God, that they can be God. And in order to do that, they've made all these choices to set themselves in opposition to the God that must be set to right, but they are finite and cannot set it to right. So he starts with Israel and establishes a sacrificial system that shows them, tries to open the eyes of humanity to see the error of their ways, such that they might find their way back to God through the sacrifices. It's a poor shadow of what's to come.

22:00 But the fullness of it is in the cross, such that the death and resurrection of Christ accomplishes the plan that God laid out all the way at the very beginning. Do you see that Jesus of Nazareth is the fulfillment of this claim of the ancient Israelite people, that he says that the tribal God of ancient Israel has figured out a way to be God for everyone. So that you today, we celebrate not just the benign winning out of good over evil, but

22:32 the very specific intervention of the God of the universe on your behalf. It's incredible. Every time it's incredible. I've been thinking about how out of the blue it seems to have been for the disciples and the women. It seems like they did not get it. They just didn't see it coming.

23:03 It was too good. The hardest part of following the way of Jesus is believing that the God of the universe loves you deeply and is made away from you, that you are not defined by the sum of your worst choices and basis instincts, but that you are defined by his prerogative toward

23:33 you. I think that once they walked away from that tomb, that fear and joy next to each other, they must have thought anything could happen. If Jesus can come back from the grave, any good can happen. And this is true. In your life, you have small challenges and big evils. You have unanswerable questions and solvable problems. You have really good advocates and you have people working as enemies against you.

24:07 You have all of this stuff happening. And I want to remind you, first of all, that Easter tells you in the midst of those things, any good could happen. Move in with a bit of fear and joy, a bit of hope at the idea that he has risen so any good may happen. But this is even more important. The prerogative of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the prerogative of the God of life,

24:38 of Christ and the church is such that any good could happen, but a specific good will happen. You, just as Jesus, will not be abandoned to the grave. You according to the prerogative of God, this specific good will happen specifically for you rescued joy forevermore, the fullness of joy, life forevermore specifically for you

25:13 from the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of creation and life. As we know, he has risen. Hallelujah. Let's pray. Hey, Lord, thank you for the promise of resurrection and the evidence of your own rising from the grave. Might it buoy our hearts and minds this morning to move forward in life with fear and joy, with the sense of adventure and hope that blessing comes around the corner, all with

25:46 the realization that, Lord, your final blessing is coming for us, that you will not abandon us to the grave, but you will call us home with you, where we will know life forevermore and fullness of joy. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.