The Mystery of the Resurrection

Good Morning!  He is risen!

Indeed, He is risen!  Praise God for the joy of Easter morning.  This is the day of all days.  This day is the accomplishing of all God's plans for you and for me.  All our hopes and dreams are fulfilled in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  Let's take a moment and give thanks to Him who gives us life:

Lord Jesus, what can we say that has not already been said?  You took the cup of the wrath of God and drank damnation dry.  You took all the punishment including separation from Your Father so that we might become children of God.  Thank You that we will be raised to life and not left forgotten in the grave.  In the same way, You are not forgotten as You rose out of the grave.  Praise be to Your Name.  You are worthy.  Speak now truth by Your Word, by Your Spirit.  Amen.

Last week, Carl took us through story of the arrest of Jesus up until Jesus' death on the cross.  Following his death, his body was hurriedly removed and placed in a nearby tomb due to the oncoming Sabbath.  A special Sabbath.  Passover.  That Passover day, the tomb was sealed and the guards were placed in order to prevent someone from stealing the body of Jesus.  And so it continued until Sunday morning.

 

I want to start by reading the Easter story from John 20.

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance.  So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!”

So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb.  Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.  He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in.  Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen.  Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed.  John 20:1-9

That first Easter morning started with a mystery; the mystery of the empty tomb.  What could it mean?  Mary takes the logical physical outlook.  The body is gone; therefore someone must have taken it.  Upon closer inspection by Peter and John, the evidence did not support the body being taken by someone else.  There the strips of linen were and the burial cloth that had been wrapped around his head.  They were laid separately, not strewn about the tomb, not wadded up in a pile.  Not a mess as though someone unwrapped a cumbersome lifeless corpse.

John thought resurrection, but Peter was not so sure.  It had only been a few weeks since they had seen Lazarus raised from the dead.  At that miracle John 11 records, “The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.  Jesus had [even] said to them, 'Take off the grave clothes and let him go.' ”

That was not the scene which confronted Peter and John.  No this day, the grave clothes lay there undisturbed, but empty.  The body was gone.  What could have happened?  Going on in verse 9.

(They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)  John 20:9

I was reading this passage earlier in the week, and it grabbed my attention.  Jesus had to rise from the dead.  There was no option.  Other translations say He must rise from the dead.  The verb used is one of necessity.  There is no other way.

Why did Jesus have to rise from the dead?

Well

, as the verse says, “They did not understand from Scripture.”  At that time, Scripture would have been the Old Testament.  Written centuries earlier, it was clear even then that Jesus must rise from the dead.  In the book of Job, it is written:

I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.  Job 19:25

Isaiah wrote:

Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.  Isaiah 53:10  (Acts 8:32-33 = Isaiah 53:8-9, Ethiopian eunuch)

Then, there are several passages from the Psalms which mention the resurrection of Jesus:

Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.  Psalm 16:9-10 (Acts 2:27, 13:35)

The LORD says to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet."  Psalm 110:1 (Acts 2:35, 7:49, Hebrews 1:13, 10:13)

He said to me, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father.”  Psalm 2:7  (Acts 13:33)

In addition, there are types of Christ's in the Old Testament including Abraham and Isaac (Hebrews 11:17,19) and Jonah (Matthew 12:40).  When Abraham was about to sacrifice Isaac, he believed that God was able to bring him back from the dead.  Jonah was swallowed up by the great fish for three days and yet was returned to the land of the living.

According to the Old Testament Scriptures, Jesus had to rise from the dead.  But not this alone.  The New Testament Scriptures also testify that Jesus had to rise from the dead.

Jesus himself tells us that he must and he will.

When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men.  They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.”  And the disciples were filled with grief.  Matthew 17:22-23  (Matthew 16:21, 20:19, Luke 9:22, 18:33, John 2:19)

“The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life--only to take it up again.  No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”  John 10:17-18

Not to mention that the disciples saw him following the resurrection.  We have the Gospel accounts of several of their meetings.  Paul does a convenient job of itemizing a list:

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.  After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.  Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.  I Corinthians 15:3-8

He had to have risen because there were many witnesses on several occasions.  Not only that Paul recorded them, but these witnesses testified over and over under great personal risk, persecution, torture and even execution without giving up the truth of their testimony.  Jesus Christ has to have risen from the dead.  How else could the testimony reach us?

The Old Testament testifies that Jesus had to rise from the dead.  The New Testament testifies that Jesus had to rise from the dead.  And down through the ages since, the hearts and lives of believers testify that Jesus had to rise from the dead. 

Jesus is alive today, and those children of God who know him and fellowship with him know.  Spurgeon said it this way, “You bend not over his corpse, but you sit at his feet.”  I Peter 1:8 says this:

Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,  I Peter 1:8

Continuing to quote Spurgeon, “You cannot love a dead person as a dead person.  You may love the memory of the dead; but if you love them, you regard them as living.  Love is for life; it cannot dwell with death.  We have not seen Jesus, but we love him, and this proves that to our hearts he lives.”  (Jesus Affirmed to Be Alive, C.H. Spurgeon, delivered April 1, 1888)

Those of you who are believers and truly have a relationship with Jesus Christ rejoice in the reality of the resurrection.   He lives.  Christ Jesus lives today.  Rejoice!  He had to rise from the dead.

If Christ has indeed risen, what then is left to the mystery of the resurrection?

Do you wonder about your state?  Christ may rise, but what about me?  Are you concerned about your part in the resurrection?  Will you return from death to life?

Jesus said …, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”  John 11:25-26

Did you catch that second part?  Whoever lives and believes will never die.  How about that?  Don’t Christians die?  No, we shall not die.  This mortal flesh will pass away, but the language throughout the remainder of the New Testament talks about believers falling asleep.  We may fall asleep, but we shall all be raised.  The key is clear.  Believe in Jesus.  He is the resurrection and the life.

When Jesus prayed to the Father before his arrest, he said this of his disciples:

I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.  I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.  My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.  They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.  John 17:13-16

This is powerful stuff.  Jesus says, in the present tense, that his disciples are not of the world any more than He is.  This is a consequence of the resurrection that takes place when you believe in Jesus.  If you believe in Him, if you are His disciple, your identity in Christ is so complete, that you are as separate from the world as Christ is himself.  Right now, today.

I think this has some interesting ramifications.  One I will just mention in passing.  If you are trying to figure out how to work things out in your life by the wisdom of the world, and it never seems to work out for you, this verse is telling us why.  You are no longer of this world.  The world’s schemes no longer apply to you or for you.  Don’t kick against the goads.  (Acts 26:14, Ecclesiastes 12:11)

Now then, child of God, how then shall we live?  What does the life of a resurrected sinner look like?

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.  For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.  Colossians 3:1-3

Brothers and sisters, continue to set your sights on the things of God.  Put down the distractions of the things of the world.  Your life is in Christ alone.  You will find it nowhere else.

Wouldn’t it be crazy to think about Jesus resurrected and alive, but living in the tomb outside of Jerusalem?  People could make pilgrimages and visit him there.  He defeated death, but just stopped there and decided to live forever in a hole in the ground.  It’s absurd isn’t it?

Likewise for us, we must come out from the tomb.  We are in the world, but we are no longer of the world.  God allows us a choice.  We can stay where we are, but that’s not who we are any more.  We are pilgrims, sojourners, travelers.  For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ, go to Him.  Set you hearts on things above.  Set your mind on things above.  Christ is already there.  He’s preparing a place for you.

If you have believed, you have been raised.  If you have not believed, then believe on the testimony of many witnesses.  Once you have believed, you too will be raised.  Come out from the tomb and rejoice in eternal life.

Jesus had to rise from the dead.  And he did.  Praise God!  Let’s pray.

Lord Jesus, you not only went to the cross for us.  You not only took the full penalty for us.  You destroyed the devil’s work.  It was his desire to ruin all mankind, but the father of lies could not imagine a love so dedicated, a love so pure.  We are awed by the reality of what You have done for us.  Transform our lives into Your likeness.  Allow Your Spirit to keep our eyes ever upon You.  Glorify Yourself through us.  In Jesus name.  Amen.