2020 Resurrection Sunday He is risen, He is not here

So I just wanted to read a hymn here. We're not going to play this hymn, but it's Christ the Lord is Risen Today. The hymn goes, Christ the Lord is risen today. Alleluia. Son of men and angels say, raise your joy and triumph high. Sing ye heavens and earth reply. So are we now where Christ had led, following our exalted head. May like him, like him we rise. Our cross, the grave, the sky. Hallelujah. It's a wonderful song. It's nice to hear that played.

And so hopefully here at some point we'll get back to a more normal situation. So let's kind of get into the message here today. I think the message here is He is risen, He is not here. And we're going to see that verse shortly here. But that's really the message of Easter or Resurrection Sunday, is that Christ, the grave was empty, the tomb is empty, He is not here.

So let's start off with It's good to start off with a definition, right? So what's the definition of resurrection? It's a pretty special definition in scripture. A rising of a physical body from the dead with a body which will never die physically again.

This resurrection has come to pass only in the case of Jesus Christ alone. But what's wonderful is Christ is called the first fruits in scripture. after those who are Christ's at His coming. So those who are His at His coming will also be resurrected to life. So at one point, interesting that last little bullet there, it says, those who are Christ's. That's one of the underlying themes here. Every believer are His. They belong to Him. And so the question is, do you belong to Him?

And we'll talk about that toward the end of the message here. But let's first kind of look at Some of the let's look at this verse that quotes this The first passage I read in Mark 6 16 and Mark 16 6 and he said to the angel And he said and that's an angel to them.

Do not be amazed. You're looking for Jesus and Azarene Who's been crucified? He is risen. He is not here. I Behold, here's a place where they laid him. Go quickly now and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead. So I'd like to look at kind of three things in this message today. I'd like to look at proofs for the resurrection of Christ.

And then secondly, what does the resurrection of Christ tell us about our Savior? And then thirdly, why is it so critical that we have a resurrected Christ. Why is that so critical to a believer's faith? And why is that critical to the whole Christian doctrine? So let's get into the first point. What proofs do we have that Jesus Christ was resurrected? I'm only going to focus here on the ones that are in Scripture. I mean, that's the ones that are the most valuable ones. So here are some that have occurred to me. I think these are probably some of the most important ones.

Uniquely enough, Pilate ordered the grave of Christ to be sealed and secured. In doing that, he actually provided a wonderful validation that Christ really rose from the dead. The stone was rolled away is another one. The evidence of an empty tomb. The evidence of grave clothes. And then lastly, Christ's appearances. He appeared over 17 times recorded in scripture. 17 separate times he appeared to sometimes only one person, sometimes groups of people. So it's a pretty amazing number of appearances after his resurrection.

So let's look at the idea about Pilate securing the grave. And this is kind of interesting. So in Mark 27, 62, it talks about what happened here. The chief priest and the Pharisee gathered together. This is after Christ had been crucified and was put in the grave. The chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together with Pilate and said, Sir, talking to Pilate, we remember that when he was still alive, that deceiver, they were calling Christ a deceiver, after three days I am to rise again. Therefore, give orders for the grave to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal him away. And so, and say to the people, he has risen from the dead.

And they went and made the grave secure. Along with the guard, they set a seal on the stone. So securing here, as Keithley points out, was two parts. A Roman guard, or plural, there were more than one. And sealing the, some kind of sealing thing. I have a little picture in the upper right hand corner of this slide. I think it's obviously a mock-up of what it looked like, but that's somewhat the idea. It was some kind of a cord with wax around it, with some kind of impression to seal the tomb.

So the tomb was sealed with the Roman guards, which is pretty important. So after the resurrection, so remember if you go back, I'm not going to totally trace back through all the verses, but some of the guards actually left the tomb and came into the city.

An earthquake had happened and they reported that an earthquake had happened, that they saw an angel, and the tomb was empty. They reported this to the chief priest. And here's a verse that kind of talks about that. In Matthew 28, 11, it says, Some of the guards came into the city and reported to the chief priest all that had happened. And when they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers and said you are to say his disciples came by night and stole them away while we were asleep so here's one of the first validations that he really wrote they had to pay off they had to pay off the Roman guards to keep them quiet because they observed that Christ was not there and that also the angels appeared there was an earthquake there was an empty tomb and they told the truth to Pilate and the rest of the Jewish leaders But they didn't like the truth, so they gave him money to be quiet and to make up a story about being... that the disciples stole his body.

So that's one of the proofs. The next one is that the stone was rolled away. A couple of points here. You know, those stones apparently... I didn't do a lot of research on this, but they were quite heavy, enormously heavy, and it would require a combination effort of several men to do that. And actually, it's interesting that the women Mary Magdalene and others, when they, in certain passages, when they came to the grave, as recorded in Mark 16, they were wondering how in the world they wanted to come and anoint the body. They assumed he was going to still be in the grave, and still, you know, not risen obviously, because they didn't understand the resurrection. That's one of the things that we kind of, as a takeaway, is that his disciples and all the women around there didn't really totally grasp the significance that he would rise physically from the dead and they would be able to see him again. They didn't actually understand that would happen.

And we're going to see how that kind of, that aha moment, if you will, kind of comes to the Apostle John here in a little bit. So in Mark 28, it says, And behold, a severe earthquake occurred, and the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it."

So that's what apparently the guards... there's a picture at the top upper right again, there's the picture. And I found these pictures, it's kind of fun, you can go out on the internet, you can find just about a picture about anything. Now you have to check out the picture to see whether you agree with it, but... So it was kind of fun to find some of these interesting pictures that depicted pieces of scripture. So this is what the guards saw, they saw an angel, Sitting on the stone. Pretty amazing. Almost like... I don't want to say in your face, but it's just kind of interesting. Well, it's no problem for God to raise God. So it's pretty amazing. We're going to talk about that too. God raising God. The stone rolled away. Some more. So why was the stone rolled away? You know, people say, oh, I know why the stone was rolled away. Jesus needed to get out. Well, not so fast.

You know, if you think about his appearance, and we'll look at the rest of the bullets here shortly, but think about his appearances after the resurrection. He appeared and just came into the room, came through walls, they were no problem. So I don't think that that's part of it. And Keithley kind of has some points here.

The stone was not rolled away so that Christ could leave, but so that people, because he had a glorified body. By divine purpose it was removed to call attention to the testimony of the empty tomb. There is great evidence to be found and there's an empty tomb here with grave clothes. Another point here is the tomb was not open to let Jesus out but let people in. God wanted people to go in and look at the empty tomb and examine that. So it's a witness of the grave clothes and a witness of the empty tomb that's the reason why the stone was rolled away. Because the stone could have been just left in place and there would have been no problem for Christ to rise in that condition.

So now, I have a series of responses here to the empty tomb. I have Mary, this is the first one, Mary Magdalene. Then I have the two apostles, Peter and John. So I have the next three or four charts kind of show their response So what what do they see when they got to the tomb they went in the tomb? They saw different things different words are used in the original language. It kind of interesting here.

So we'll start with Mary Quite a long past each year I put on here, but but let's just kind of work our way through it here Okay, so and this all is in John 20 I Recommend you know so many, you know, I recommend actually you read all the read all the Gospels especially the last part of the Gospels that talk about the resurrection, and compare them. And that's what you do when you study scripture here, you compare verses with verses. Okay, John 20, verse 1. Now on the first day of the week, this is following the crucifixion, on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the empty tomb, I'm sorry, came early to the tomb, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb. So then, I kind of gave you a little, this is verse 1, I'm going to skip down to 11, which continues the story about Mary, and then we'll pick up the intervening verses later.

But Mary was standing outside the tomb, weeping. And so, as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb, and she saw two angels, in white, sitting, one at the head, and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying. And they said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? And she said to them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.

So this is one of the points I was making earlier, that the disciples and the women accompanying them didn't really understand this idea of being resurrected. Christ said he was going to rise. He said that many times. But they didn't grasp that. They didn't understand that.

So what's interesting, following this, she's actually going to encounter the Lord directly. We'll cover that later on. So now, let's look at John's response. So here, actually, let me just kind of put some of these here. There's actually going to be... I'm just going to put all the things up here real quick. So we got John's response, and we got Peter's response.

If you remember, if you read through these passages here, John and Peter had a foot race. When Mary got back to town, so to speak, she told them the tomb was empty. The Lord has been taken. Where is he? So they couldn't believe that. So they raced each other, if you will. And John actually made it first. He outran Peter and got to the tomb first. And this is kind of the dialogue and some points about that. John stooped in and looked in and he saw the linen wrappings.

And the Greek word used here is blepo. It's the idea of... it's kind of a casual glance. It's not a... It's not an examining glance, it's just, hey, yeah, the tomb's empty, yeah, there's some clothes, that's about it. So he didn't take in much by that. Peter, who came later, he arrived, he rushed into the tomb, and he saw, and he looked at it with this word called theoreo, which is the idea to examine the thing more closely. It actually comes from the word for theater. If you imagine when you're in a theater, you're pretty engrossed in the plot. Usually you see what's happening in the plot and you're identifying with people and what's going on.

So he looked at it more intently, but still didn't get the full picture. So now, this is some more about Peter's observation. And so Simon Peter entered the tomb, and he saw Pharaoh, the linen wrappings lying there, and the face cloth, which had been at his head, Not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. You know, Peter, he saw that, he saw it was that way, but he pondered that, but he didn't really come to a conclusion about that.

On the other hand, and let me just, I'll put all these bullets in here. The picture at the top, it seemed like that, and I'm not sure that's totally accurate, that picture, but it seemed like things were pretty tidy. When the Lord was resurrected, God was pretty tidy. He just said, you're out of here. And the wrappings were just left, kind of in place, so to speak. So when it talks about John here, it says, so the other disciple, John, who had first come to the tomb and entered, he saw, and this is the third Greek word here, ado, and believed for as yet he did not understand the scriptures that he must rise again so John when John entered the tomb he looked at it and he had what we call these days an aha moment he said wait a minute didn't I and doesn't say this I'm kind of putting in filling in the blanks here so to speak but it says that he he he believed it says he saw and believed John put the pieces together and he said Yes, our Savior has risen. Peter didn't get that, but John did. So let's kind of, just kind of working through that, it's kind of neat. So the witness of the empty tomb is very crucial here. So let's go on.

So now, this is part two, not part two, this is the last of part one, I apologize here. This is going to talk about, there's 17 appearances, I'm going to go through these quickly, of Christ after the resurrection. So the first one is with Mary Magdalene, which we read down to verse 10. And this is after verse 10. So she actually sees the Lord. She thinks he's a gardener. And then she has her aha moment. She realizes, well, wait a minute. No, that isn't the gardener. That's my Savior. So that's amazing. Then some other women, they see him. Then Peter sees him here in Jerusalem. And then the disciples, two disciples see him on the road to Emmaus. This is a wonderful account where Jesus walks along in his resurrected body. He walks along with his two disciples on the road to Emmaus.

And he talks with them. He says, well, what's going on in Jerusalem? What's happening today, guys? And he says, oh yeah, haven't you heard this? You're the only one that hasn't heard about Jesus in Nazarene. And then at the end, he reveals himself to them. And they're just amazed. And then we have these two occasions with Thomas, one without Thomas, ten disciples in the room, in a closed room, and Jesus enters the room right through the walls, no problem, and he talks to those ten disciples. Thomas is not there. So they tell Thomas about that. We saw the Lord, and he doesn't believe it.

So sometime later, all eleven there with Thomas are there, and Thomas sees the Lord, and he realizes that it is the Lord. He says, My Lord and my God. And then there's a case in the Sea of Galilee with seven disciples. So I'd recommend go through these and if you want, I have hard copies of these I can email you or pass them along to you. So let me know if you want that. So then a couple places here, he saw 500 at one time.

That's just a statement in 1 Corinthians 15.6. It just states 500 people at one time. It doesn't tell any more background about that.

He also saw James, the Lord's brother. And then number 10, then the disciples on the mountain in Galilee. And then here's a special one, the disciples who were present when Christ ascended to the Father. Starting with Stephen, we have Christ ascended to the Father. So now we have his post-ascension appearances. And Stephen saw him at the right hand of God when he was being martyred. And Paul saw him on the road to Damascus when he was struck blind. And Paul again in Arabia saw him when he was being instructed by the Lord. And Paul in the temple saw him. And then Paul in prison in Caesarea. And then finally here, the Apostle John on the Isle of Patmos.

So 17 different ones. You know, Scripture doesn't bear any, you know, there are so many and so varied that I don't think You know, Vani and I were watching last night. We said, what should we watch? I finished my studies, and he said, Rog, you've got to stop studying. You've done enough. Stop.

And so we looked, and we found this movie, Risen. It was made in 2016, and it's an account of a Roman who interfaces with the Lord, and he comes to believe in Him, apparently. So what's my point here? He believes him by seeing him after the resurrection as part of it. I thought it was pretty cool. I don't think it's the best movie ever, but it's interesting. Okay, so let's go along here.

So now, so what does the resurrection prove about Christ? First of all, from this verse here, it proves that Christ is the Son of God. So let's just read the verse. Romans 1, 4 it says, Who was declared, or it could be better, or demonstrated to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead. So the fact that Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead identified or declared or demonstrated that He is the Son of God. Next point. It proves the atoning value of Christ's work on the cross.

And this verse, a couple of comments about that verse, Romans 4.25. For He was delivered over because of our transgressions, was raised because of our justification. Raised here means it proves the sufficiency of Christ's death on the cross, his payment for our sins, for our justification. It's not proving our justification, it's proving that Christ was worthy of that. It demonstrates Christ's deity.

The resurrection of Christ is unique in two ways. We were talking about this earlier today, I think. The Resurrection of Christ is unique in two ways. In Scripture we see that other people were raised from the dead, but those people went back and they lived a life and they died normally. Lazarus was one of those, Jairus' daughter, the widow's son. And then secondly, Christ is the only resurrection that takes place without any...

It was a total interaction between the Godhead, between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And just to kind of point that out, this is something I didn't actually really take in until I started studying this. All three members of the Godhead, including Christ himself, were involved in the resurrection. So I have three verses to show you here. The Father.

In Galatians 1.1, God the Father, it says, who raised Him, Jesus Christ, from the dead. So the Father's involved.

Now the Holy Spirit, Romans 8.11. But if the Spirit of Him, the Holy Spirit, who raised Jesus Christ from the dead, dwells in you, and the verse goes on. So there's the Holy Spirit being involved.

And then lastly, Christ said this of Himself in John 2.19. Jesus answered them. Destroy this temple and in three days, I will raise it up again and it goes on in verse 21 It says but he was speaking of the temple of his body so in a sense Christ raised himself. It's got a Scratch your head about that for a while you think but it makes sense so many of the attributes of The Godhead father son Holy Spirit are shared by all members of the Trinity father son and Holy Spirit and The entire Godhead was involved in raising Jesus Christ from the dead. A few more points about that. Clearly, if Christ participated in raising himself from the dead, he must be more than a man. That demonstrates his deity. And then a couple of verses that are really pretty cool here.

It says in Acts 2.24, But God raised him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for him to be held in his power. If you think about this, let me just read the next verse before I tell you my point. In John 20, verse 9, it says, For as yet he did not understand the scriptures that he must rise again from the dead. And that was speaking of John there, we saw.

So, death cannot hold God in its power. God is the creator. Actually, if you're being precise, it says that Christ created, in Colossians, Christ created all things, right? So he's the creator, he's the sustainer. It's impossible, since God is the instigator, it's impossible for him to die, really. But God became a man to die, and there's some interesting things to think about there. But death's power cannot hold God. cannot contain God.

So now let's look at my third point here. Why is the resurrection so critical to our faith? So I'm going to spend a little bit of time here on this. Okay, so in 1st Peter, we're studying 1st Peter in Sunday School, 1st Peter 1.3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope. And notice it's through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. So we're born again. Here's some points about that. Every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ has been born again, and we're born to a living hope.

Hope in scripture, the way we use it typically, I hope it doesn't rain today. I hope I get a good grade in my test. I hope my car starts. We have one that there's some doubt about the outcome. Well, when hope is used, God is the instigator, but there's no there's no uncertainty.

It's an absolute certainty So the believer who has been born again to a living hope Absolutely certain hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead Christ resurrection ensures our salvation and then first Thessalonians 4 14 for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again and He will bring those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. And that's a really neat term. I really love that phraseology.

And that's speaking of believers who have died in some time past. They've, quote, fallen asleep in Jesus. And there's going to be a day when the dead in Christ will rise at the rapture. And we'll see a verse about that in a little bit here. OK. So continue on with this.

Christ's resurrection is the first fruits from the dead. It's a guarantee of our resurrection, of the glorified body will be received at the resurrection of the saints. Thus we can see that the resurrection, man is provided with a living hope because it depends upon a living Savior. That's just so critical. You know that song, we serve a living Savior. He's in the world today. I know that he is living. Whatever man may say. We serve a living Savior. And He is unique in that fact. He is a living Savior.

Then in Romans it says, Romans 10.8, But what does it say? The word is near you, it's in your mouth and in your heart, the word of faith which we are preaching. And here's a really important part here at the last. That if you confess with your mouth, and confess is to agree, to say this, If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."

And the verse goes on, there's more to that. A couple more points about Christ's resurrection is our guarantee that we have eternal life. I have two verses that talk about that. First verse is John 11, 25, and 26. And this is when he's talking with Martha, and it's basically Her brother Lazarus. This is when Christ is going to raise him But anyway, he talks to Martha and he and he's wants to he wants to comfort her and ensure if any says these beautiful words Jesus said to her I am the resurrection and the life he who believes in me will live even if he dies and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die and And actually I left off the most important part and he asked Martha, do you believe this?

And that's a question for all of us. And many, many of us here at Holly Hills have answered that question, yes, we do believe that. That's such a comfort, that we will never die because we'll be in the presence of our Savior. And then John 17, 2 and 3.

So this starts off, it starts off about, and Christ is talking, he's praying, he has a prayer here, he's talking about the Father, and he says, even have you have given him authority over all flesh, that to all whom you have given, he may give eternal life. So the Lord Jesus desires to give everyone eternal life based upon our trust and faith in him. But now the really critical point is, verse 3 talks about that what's the definition of eternal life and it gives us in verse 3 it says this is eternal life that they may know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent so eternal life is knowing Jesus eternal life starts when you come to know him as your Savior that's when eternal life starts The world thinks eternal life is when I leave. No, eternal life starts now. It starts when you put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. So I really zipped through this. Don't forget, stay tuned. Don't turn your dial. Don't change the Zoom channel. I'm joking here with you. So final thoughts here. I have a couple of pages I want to read to you and share an experience with you.

Okay, from John 17.3 we see that knowing Jesus Christ is eternal life. The question for this Sunday, April 12, 2020, Resurrection Sunday, Easter Sunday, do you know Jesus? Do you know Jesus Christ? We've covered many wonderful facts about how we had the empty tomb. The testimony is just amazing. His appearances, just incredible. But how do I come to know him?

So I have some following verses I'd like to share with you. First, I'd like to just share about these verses. About 10 years ago, and I've told this before, so I apologize if you have heard this before. About 10 years ago, there's a gentleman at my work, and some people I work with know this gentleman.

His name is Joel Omahan, and I knew him for 30 years at my work. He was a senior scientist, a brilliant man. To my knowledge, never Never talked about and never knew Jesus Christ as his Savior. So he was diagnosed with a terminal illness. And I had a chance to visit him in his last two or three weeks of his life.

So I thought, boy, I should really have some verses to talk to him about the Savior. So I put together some verses. I like to share those verses I shared with him from about ten years ago. And I've used those verses over the years just because it's kind of, you know, you take the time to put some verses together.

And they're not, you know, Any believer can do this. But there are just certain verses that really point out what we need to do. So first of all, when you come to talk to a person about what's going to happen to him when he leaves, when he dies, first of all, he has to see that he has a need. So many people today don't really see they have a need. They think, well, I'm OK. I'm good. You've got your religion, but I'm good. Thumbs up. I got this covered.

But do they really? Do they really understand where they stand? Do they understand where they stand before a holy God? So in Romans 3.23, it tells us where man stands before God.

And it's not necessarily a pretty picture. It says, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All here, all means all. It's every single man, woman, and child. Everyone needs a Savior. They all have sinned. They have sinned. They don't have to actually do anything because they've been born with a nature, a sin nature from their birth. They don't have to do one thing. They're already sinners because of their birth.

They've missed the mark, the glory of God. They've fallen short, it says. We have fallen short. And then there's another verse that kind of closely follows with this. It says, all men are under sin. They're held down and they're subject to its power and control. You know, most men will not say that, but they'll say, well, no, I'm free to do whatever. I'm an American. I can do whatever I want. I have total freedom. This is the United States. I'm free to do whatever I want. But they're not free. They're held down by the sin nature. And until they realize that they need a Savior, that they do have a problem, it's hard to talk with them.

So what's God's view of this? Is God indifferent to this? Well, what's amazing is God, in eternity past, already took action. And it's demonstrated in this wonderful verse in John 3.16, So if you look through that, you know, God's love is extended to everyone. And God took the action. He's not waiting. Here's another fallacy. Men and women think, well, I've got to get better. I'll get a little bit better, and then I'll have time for God. I'll do this, and then I'll have time, and I'll be acceptable then. No, you're not acceptable to God from the get-go. God had to take the action to make you acceptable.

And He gave His Son to do that. He gave His Son as a sacrifice for our sins, so that everyone who believes or exercises faith or trust in Him would not perish but have eternal life and then what kind of goes along with that people will say well hey I I I've heard you Christians y'all you know Christ is good but I got I got this man or I got this man and all the religions of the world I got this leader I got that leader and he can do this and that well scripture says that Christ is unique and it says it in this way and there is salvation in no one else for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved. Jesus Christ is a one and only Savior. No other Savior has been given by God. God doesn't have a plan B. He only has plan A. And plan A is His Son who gave His life on Calvary and was resurrected on the third day.

So now we have man's condition. And I believe until a person realizes that he has a problem, he won't move to God's love because he says, I'm okay. So I would implore you, see that you have a condition. If you don't understand that you have a condition, talk to somebody that can explain it to you. Talk to Mike or I or whoever. Okay, so what do we need? What needs to be believed to be acceptable to God, to be saved?

And it's the good news. And the good news is we talked about it Multiple ways today the the good news is is given to us in first Corinthians 15 and starting in verse 3 it says For I do this is Paul speaking for I deliver to you of first importance what I also received that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and He was buried and he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures So we see three things three things happened here Christ died Christ was buried Christ was raised Christ died for our sins.

On behalf of our sins, He was our substitute. Christ was buried. You know, they buried, they truly buried Christ. They put the grave clothes, they put Him in that tomb, they sealed it. He was dead. He truly was buried. And Christ was raised. And we saw that abundant proof of His being raised. God was raised up again, for it was impossible for Him to be held in His power. So what do I do about that information, that good news?

And it's very simply, it can be stated in many other verses, but one of the best verses I've found is in Acts 16.30, and this is where Paul and Silas, they were in jail, and the Philippian jailer, there was an earthquake, and Paul and Silas could have escaped, and he could have lost his life because they escaped. And he comes to them and he says, in verse 30 he says, and he, the Philippian jailer, brought them out, and he said to Paul and Silas, what must I do to be saved? And they said to him, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved, you and your household. So my prayer this Resurrection Sunday is that you would believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, if you haven't already.