Easter Sunday 2022

M on a friday morning he hung there for six hours until about three pm when he surrendered his spirit that's why we celebrate good friday he laid down his life because no one took his life from him he laid it down willingly his body was removed from the cross and there was a rich pharisee named Joseph of arimathea who requested the body of the Lord Jesus Christ he goes to pontius pilate requests the body and pontius pilate said sure he wrapped the body with Nicodemus with spices and aloe according to the jewish custom

Of burial back in that time and this is where they laid his body here's a picture of the garden tomb you can go there today it's still empty and it's a beautiful place it was a new tomb way back when people didn't there was no bodies that had ever been laid there and so that was where the resurrection took place now you can still go there to this day remember that the jewish sabbath it's it starts from sundown to and goes all the way until the following sundown which is a new day and so this is early on a sunday morning about halfway through the third day according to jewish culture John he says that was still dark Matthew says that the sky was still lightning outside Luke says that's very early either way if you've got young kids you know what hour I'm talking about these women they were the ones that were with Jesus at the cross they were weeping over the Savior who was always good and righteous and loving they were the first ones there because of their holy love for the Lord Matthew he says that Mary magdalene is there she's a disciple of the Christ Jesus the other Mary who could have been maybe the Mary the mother of James Luke he includes a lady named joanna who was herod's household manager Mark he includes salome who was a servant woman these women they went to the tomb and on the way there there's this tremendous earthquake and Matthew says that it was because of an angel that came down or maybe it was because of the stone being rolled away and this angel he sits on top Luke says that there were two that were and these aren't contradictions these

Are compliments because there were two but Matthew he just emphasizes the one who spoke now their appearance is like lightning and Luke says that they were dazzling in their apparel by the time that the women get to the tomb the sun is finally up if you're taking notes and I hope that you are write down this first point that we have it's the first truth of the resurrection is the resurrection miracle because you have earthquakes happening well you've got this tremendous power you've got these godly women seeking to minister to the Lord by preparing his body you've got angelic appearances even the guards at the tomb it says that for fear of him talking about the angel the guards trembled and became like dead men how do we know that Jesus really did rise from the dead if you're taking notes write these things down the first thing is that Jesus is presented not as the all-powerful God but as the suffering servant yes he is God all-powerful but he did not come to display his power in its fullness he came as the suffering servant the one who would die wouldn't it make more sense if you're trying to save the world to be a superhero to be able to leap over the tallest buildings and pick up the mountains and you know we see the movies all over in the movie theaters of superheroes and those awesome works that they do wouldn't it make more sense to do something like that instead our hero

Laid down his life and he died after hanging for just a couple of hours on a tree even pontius pilate was surprised that Jesus died so quickly he's dead already secondly the apostles weaknesses if you were to start a new religion you would probably do what everyone else has done and try to boost yourself up put yourself up on a pedestal try to gain money or prestige or honor or authority and the apostles they had very little of that they went to foreign lands like india and ethiopia where there was no possibility for money or prestige or honor they just went simply declaring the Gospel and they died thirdly the salvation of Saul later on he became the apostle Paul who wrote like most of the new testament but you know what he was doing before he was saved he was murdering and persecuting Christians what on earth made him stop that is because he saw the risen Savior and it radically transformed him from persecutor to preacher fourthly the death of the apostles you know you might get one guy to die for a lie maybe even two but 12 will not every single one the apostles with the exception of John died a martyr's death holding fast to the confession that Jesus really did die and he really did rise again on the third day Thomas he was killed with a spear Philip he had iron hooks put into his heels and he was hung upside down until he died James the lesser he was thrown from the pinnacle of the temple he survived the fall and when they found out that he survived the fall they just beat him to death with clubs nathanael was skinned and crucified

Upside down and none of those men changed their story because they knew the truth of the Gospel fifthly this one's really important the different different accounts of the resurrection the Gospels they read from all these different perspectives just like real eyewitness accounts do they were trying to falsify this stuff don't you think they would have gotten together and made everything as consistent as possible instead what you find are not contradictions but compliments you got Mary magdalene who ran as soon as she saw the tomb was open she ran over to get the apostle Peter and John the other women they were there which totally and they examined the tomb which totally flies in the face of ancient times where women didn't have the rights or the clout but Jesus first appeared to women but then when he finds Mary magdalene later and he appears to her privately he says hey don't cling to me part of that was because it was improper during that time for a woman to touch a man privately it shows that Mary ran that she told the disciples that the tomb is empty and while the apostles are coming them the women who first saw Jesus they totally miss Peter and John because they're going to another location to tell the disciples and it's a confusing morning because something amazing has happened and so you've got all these different eyewitness accounts and they read exactly like you would expect them to and it's amazing how it all fits together so harmoniously so consistently even under tough scrutiny

Sixth is the non-Christian historical accounts of Christ historians like tacitus pliny the younger josephus the babylonian talmud lucian of semisota all mention Christ as a real authentic historical figure the fact remains that there was a body in the tomb and that was empty because Jesus Christ rose again by his own power and his own authority the second truth I want to point out to you today is the resurrection message look at what the angel said to the women in verse 5 he says 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 come see the place where he lay then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead and behold he is going before you to galilee there you will see him see I've told you in Mark the angel he begins with why do you seek the living among the dead and four notes I want to make about this message that he gives is that he was crucified this is the talk of the town at this time the prophet Jesus had been crucified he had been scourged he had been beaten he had been mocked and spat upon he wore a crown of thorns and he was treated like he was a blasphemer and put to death on a cross the king of the jews crucifixion often times took four days to kill someone four days they would hang there slowly suffocating but Christ died after six hours because as the Scripture says he surrendered his spirit he laid it down of his own accord secondly he is Christ Jesus he is alive he didn't just come to defeat sickness or demons or nature

He didn't just come to give us a spiritual hope he came to give us life and to have it abundantly we have a real and present hope right now in this world it doesn't matter how crazy the world gets it doesn't matter if there's war or famine or pestilences Christ he gives us hope in the midst of all of that as opposed to people who have no hope who give in to despair we as believers have hope Jesus he said in John chapter 10 verse 17 18 for this reason the father loves me because I lay down my life that I may 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 I have authority to take it up again this charge I've received from my father no one can make that claim in this room no one can say hey I'm going to willingly die and come back to life we'd look at you like you were a madman if you said that but Jesus proved it that he has authority and power over life and death even today thirdly the commission come and see go and tell the angel he invites the women to be the first ones to peer into the empty tomb and just as Christ commissioned his disciples to go and tell all the nations to make and make disciples of all the nations the angel he commissions these women he says go and tell the disciples quickly because Christianity has never been a religion that stagnates it's not what we're called to do it's a message that spreads as we go as we live our lives do you do you go do you share the message of the Gospel do you share about the power and the hope and the joy of the resurrection with people

It's what we as believers are called to do fourthly notice the consecration so they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to tell his disciples this message it's a different message that someone would rise again from the dead by their own power and modern people they are going to scoff at this you don't really believe that do you don't really believe that Jesus really came back from the dead yes I do and I believe this message I believe his message of hope and redemption a message of the impossible not only that Jesus would rise from the dead that he died for sinners to reconcile us to God what are you going to do with that if Jesus really did die for your sins if Jesus really did rise again from the grave what are you going to do with that if he really commands obedience right now if he really is the author of life and you've heard that message what are you going to do with that are you going to just take care of it later the Bible says that today is the day of salvation now is the time to be reconciled to God the third truth that I want to point out to you about the resurrection is the resurrection master look at verse 9 and behold Jesus met them and said greetings came up and they took hold of his feet and worshipped him this isn't this isn't some vision of Jesus this is really and truly Jesus of nazareth in his full divinity and his full

Humanity physically he is there and so they go and they carry this message and I want you to write down that they worship him that word worship is the greek word proscinoi proscinato perosqueneo it's used not very often in regards to like what we would think of as just kind of singing and worshiping it literally means like to bow low and almost to grovel it's a word that we actually see in the book of revelation where the angels they fall down and the elders and the saints they're all together and they sing holy is the Lord God Almighty that's the kind of worship that we experience for eternity and this is a word that's only used to describe the worship of not just a God but the true one creator God and he existed before creation Jesus did he is the begotten of the father he is co-equal in glory and worthy of our worship and our honor in our praise now at this point Mary magdalene she had left before these other women and she didn't experience the angelic presence at this point Christ exp spoke to her privately so when Christ appears to her he doesn't allow for her to cling to him and once again there's no contradictions here just compliments and it's a beautiful tapestry of experiences and perspectives and testimonies and I want to point out the work that Christ gives to these women who are worshiping him go and tell my brothers to go to galilee God he can use men he can use women in different ways in ministry to declare

The Gospel when it comes to usefulness for the Gospel God doesn't discriminate but this is another evidence that I want to bring to your attention if you're skeptical because if you're going in this culture at this time women they weren't given the rights and you know a woman's testimony didn't hold up in court or things like that but God saw that their testimony was good enough he saw what women could do yet even the disciples didn't believe the women's testimony in Luke chapter 24 verse 11 it says but these words seemed to them talking about the disciples in idle tale they did not believe them it wasn't until they saw the Lord Jesus rose again from the dead that they were convinced that he really did rise again but I also want you to notice the wrong that's done here look at verses 11 through 15. You've got this testimony of the guards everything that they've experienced these guards they were like dead men in Matthew chapter 27 verse 62 we read this is says that the next day this is late on what we would consider to be friday evening after the day of preparation the chief priests and the pharisees gathered before pilate and said sir we remember how that impostor talking about Jesus said that while he was still alive after three days I will rise therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people he has risen from the dead and the last fraud will be worse than the first pilot said to them you have a guard of soldiers go and make it as secure as you

Can so they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard so these guards these are roman soldiers these are not jewish guards the Bible says that the jewish leaders they give a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers there were more than just two soldiers given by pontius pilate this is the greek word custodia this is what you what you give when there is a high profile criminal and you want to make sure that they do not escape by any means necessary and so this is actually in reference to historical documents 16 soldiers that were put to guard that tomb there is no way that 11 disheartened followers of a teacher who was killed are going to be able to overcome 16 armored speared wielding sword-bearing battle-hardened roman soldiers much less risk the wrath of the empire much less risking being ceremonially unclean for the passover what the guards didn't expect though was that the body in the grave would actually be the one to come back to life that an earthquake would would rock their area that angels would descend and they would fall in fear like dead men and so the guards some of them they disperse they go somewhere we don't know where they go but others this is what we do know they go to the temple leaders and just as the chief priests and the elders of the people conspired to kill Jesus now they're conspiring to keep these men quiet why because why don't the leaders just believe why won't they just believe because of their hard hearts

Why didn't the guards believe it's it's important to note that these men didn't see Jesus walking out they could have passed out the Bible says that they fell down because of the angels much less the glory of the Lord but they knew something happened at the tomb but they have hard hearts there's some people today that they won't believe the resurrection account because their hearts are just too hard I watched a debate a few years ago where a Christian apologist was debating an atheist an atheist said that he would believe in God if God just did something truly astounding so the Christian said like what would it take for God to do in order for you to believe so the atheist he said if I walked outside tomorrow morning and there's a 700 foot being and he is looking down and he points down at me and he says I'm tired of you not believing in me I want you to repent and believe in me he's like I would be the first guy at church on sunday morning I'd sit right next to you and the Christian he said I don't think that's what you would do I think that you would think that's a hallucination that you would go get your head examined and that you would try to just explain it away and the atheist was actually very honest he said yeah actually that's probably what I would do some people they simply won't believe the empty tomb they will try to discount the evidences that we talked about today and this lie isn't even that great the bribe that the soldiers took it was a lot of money much more than what judas received to betray Christ and what was the lie that the soldiers were told to spread

That the disciples came and they stole the body while they were asleep firstly let me say this in first century judea grave robbing there's no historical record of it ever happening we just don't see it at all we don't have any evidence of that happening secondly you think all 16 soldiers are going to fall asleep on the job especially when it's a punishable offense there was this latin law it's called fustuarium and it's basically where if someone were to fall asleep on the job they're considered to be derelict in their duty and so their whole company would surround them and the company would take cudgels or stones and they would beat the offenders to death these men they didn't fall asleep on the job but yet they're told to lie and say that they did if it comes to pilots ears they're going to kill them and that's why those men those wicked chief priests and elders of the people they said don't worry about that if it comes to that we will bribe pilate too we will take care of that see men and women have done awful and terrible things for the sake of money Scripture says the love of money is the root of all evil and so this was the story that was spread in Matthew he's writing about 50 60 years and that's why he gives this apologetic and so my question now is what about you maybe you're here and you're wrestling with faith maybe you're here and you're convinced that the tomb is empty and I thank the

Lord for that and I ask that maybe you would take some time during worship and dedicate yourself to the Lord and say God I believe help my unbelief and I would ask you to tell a friend tell the person that you came with tell the person that invited you shake my hand at the end of service say pastor I believe and I just want you to know that get plugged into our church it's a healthy church it's a good church maybe you've been looking for an anchor all your life you haven't had a place of refuge listen to me Jesus he can be that refuge but you must be reconciled to God first you must trust in the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ to be saved he loves you he cares for you and that's why he sent his son to live the perfect life that we couldn't live and died the death that we should have and he rose again so that we might have eternal life in him and that's the anchor that you need and it's yours when you turn to him in faith head hand heart head I want you to know that there is convincing evidence that Jesus rose again we've talked about a couple here today but I would ask for you also to look around this room right now because there's hundreds of other reasons others changed lives who have had an encounter with the living God and you can ask just about any one of us and we would be glad to share with you our testimony of how we became a Christian and I want you to take time and I want you to study the different resurrection accounts this week they really do fit together and if this

Story is true then it has huge implications for you where you're at right now and heart I want you to believe that Jesus he is alive and since he rose again just like he said that he would soon very soon he will return again to establish his kingdom here on this earth and we do look forward to that amen let's all stand and let's pray together so God we do thank you [Music] for your word we thank you for the eternal hope the eternal [Music] security that we have by trusting in you [Music] God I pray that maybe there's someone here that they need that hope they need that anchor God that today would be that day where they are reconciled to you God it's about dealing with you [Music] Lord I pray for these people here who maybe it's their first time hearing the Gospel or maybe it's their 30th time and Lord they still don't trust in you God bother them let them have that little nagging voice that they need to be reconciled to God don't let us walk out of here going that was a that was a good sermon that was an all right sermon or whatever Lord we want to be reconciled to you we want your bride and your people God and for those of us who are Christians God thank you for saving us thank you that we do have that hope help us help us to live like it help us to live like we have an eternal hope

[Music] that we might be bright lights to a culture that desperately needs to see the hope of glory in us as we worship you help us to sing loud if there's anyone that just needs to talk Lord I pray that today would be the day they walk forward and say cody I need to be saved we love you in Jesus name amen let's pray earth let's sing before the throne of God head perfectly a great high priest whose name is love whoever lives my name is graven on his hands my name is [Music] me [Music] save Savior died my sinful soul is counted free for God the justice satisfied my perfect spotless righteousness the great unchanged the king of glory and of grace one with himself I cannot die my soul is with his blood my life is hid with Christ on high with Christ my Savior and my God with so God that is our confession today that we have been reconciled to you and maybe there's someone here that they can't sing that from their heart I pray that I pray that they would just continually chew and think on this message today Lord we love you and we thank you for this resurrection sunday we thank you for the hope that we have we ask that you would just help us to go

As ambassadors of yours sharing and spreading the hope of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Jesus name amen