He is Risen, Indeed!

Today is the day set apart in the Church calendar to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus the Messiah, Jesus the Christ, Jesus the Atonement of all who know they need atonement for their sins, Jesus the Redeemer of all who want to be redeemed.

But even from that first resurrection day, liars and seducers and scoffers and mockers of all that is holy have tried to refute the historical and undeniable evidence that Jesus rose from death. They’ve come up with all kinds of preposterous reasons the eyewitness accounts of Jesus’ resurrection are false. Many of you have heard some of the attempts to discredit the truth: The disciples went to the wrong tomb; Jesus never really died on the cross; The disciples stole the body of Jesus and said He’d come back to life.

Each of those absurd rationales is easily shredded when we look at both the historical and biblical evidence. I won’t spend much time examining that evidence now – perhaps at a later time, I will. But for now, just consider these simple points:

If the disciples had gone to the wrong tomb, the Pharisees and the Romans would have immediately brought everyone to the correct tomb and put to rest the resurrection story.

Second, to believe Jesus didn’t really die is really laughable. I mean, the Roman soldier stuck his spear into Jesus’ heart! That’s why blood and water seeped from the wound because the tissue surrounding the heart – called the pericardial space – is full of a clear fluid that can look like water. The fluid protects the beating heart from causing friction with each lub-dub. And, of course, the heart itself is full of blood. So, when the spear pierced Jesus’ heart, blood and what looked like water oozed from the wound – which is exactly what the biblical record tells us happened. You’ll find that account in John 19:34.

And as for the idea that the disciples stole the body – history tells us that each of the disciples – except for John who was exiled to a salt mine – each died horrible martyrs’ deaths. To choose to believe those men willingly went to their painful deaths for what they each knew was a lie is an embarrassingly pathetic thought at best.

By the way, does it not seem odd to you that those who saw the resurrected Christ only a couple of days after His merciless beating, flogging, and crucifixion – and having had a Roman spear thrust into His heart – does it not seem odd that when Mary and the others saw Him, that NO ONE thought He looked beat up, disfigured, bloodied, and tortured?

I mean, He looked pretty much NORMAL.

Mary Magdalene thought He was a simple gardener. The two on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24) thought He was your average stranger walking along the road. Those in the upper room when Jesus suddenly appeared said NOTHING about His physical appearance other to mention of the scars in His hands and side.

Now, it shouldn’t require a medical degree to realize a human body does not appear ‘normal’ after what the malicious Roman soldiers inflicted on Jesus. Their flogging left wide strips of skin hanging from His back and side and buttocks. Their scourging exposed His ribs, and probably portions of His diaphragm, intestines, and other organs. Historians tell us many people died from the flogging before they even got to the cross.

But, enough of that for now. Let’s move on to what really happened on Resurrection Sunday because what really happened is critically applicable to our own lives and our own eventual deaths. Here is how John recorded the event:

(John 20:1ff) Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb. So she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.”

“So, Peter and the other disciple went forth, and they were going to the tomb. The two were running together; and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first; and stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings lying there; but he did not go in. And so Simon Peter also came, following him, and entered the tomb; and he saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the face-cloth which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered, and he saw and believed. For as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead. So the disciples went away again to their own homes.

“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?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, “Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” (which means, Teacher). 

I’ve been walking with Jesus for 51 years. And in those 51 years I’ve heard at least 51 Easter sermons. But many of you have been walking with Christ for a lot longer than I – God bless you. And in your own 60, 70, and even 90 years, you’ve heard a lot more Easter sermons than I have.

So, what can I say today that you haven’t already heard? Probably not much. HOWEVER, just as when we read a text of scripture 100 times and the Holy Spirit highlights something new about that text for us on the 101st time, so I ask Him that He will today use something I say to sharpen your focus – and MINE – to a truth about the Resurrection of Jesus; Something we’ve forgotten, or unveil an element about His resurrection in a way we’ve never before considered.

The disciples – not just the 11, but ALL of them – were despondent. And they were frightened. It would not be wrong to say they were living through the darkest days of their lives. They believed darkness had overcome Light. But they didn’t yet know the truth of what John would later write:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:1-5, NIV)

They didn’t know on that Friday, nor the following day, Saturday – they didn’t know Sunday was coming. If they had, they’d have been able to make at least some application to themselves of the prophecy in Isaiah: “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them.” (Isaiah 9:2)

Before we move on, we need to ask ourselves if there is some personal application of that resurrection text in John’s gospel, and the prophecy of Isaiah – to OUR life today on Easter Sunday? Is some darkness overshadowing you? Some despondency? Some melancholy? Have things not turned out as we expected, and as we hoped? Are we close to despair – especially at our ages and after so many of our expectations have NOT come to fruition – are we close to despair as darkness tries to overshadow our life? Has hope dwindled to barely a dying flicker?  

Please, all of us – including I as I preach this message – listen to this word from the Holy Spirit as He reminds us of the heroes of faith listen in Hebrews 11: “All these died in faith without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.” 

To all of us here who are Christians, strangers and exiles on the earth – Listen!  Sunday’s coming. That unalterable truth is only one of the lessons inherent in the Resurrection of Christ from the dead. Darkness can never and will never overcome Light. Our sovereign God has forever ensured that to be the case.

You and I might never in this life see the fulfillment of our fervent prayers, our hopes, and our longing for the salvation of our loved ones. We might never see in this life the fulfillment of those prayers. But never forget this: The disciples were lost. And frightened. And hopeless. And desolate. But they didn’t know at the time that Sunday was coming. And neither do you and I know how it will all end, but we do know this: Satan’s darkness can never overcome Christ’s light.

Speaking of Satan – I will do that very briefly now, but this is important – the devil certainly did NOT expect Christ to rise from the dead. If he had, he never would have seduced Judas to do what he did. And he never would have incited the Sanhedrin to do what they did – because in crucifying God's Son, Satan forever lost his war over the eternal destiny of those who would turn from his spiritual Darkness to Messiah’ spiritual Light.

Do you see how God blinded even the devil to His plan? Even though the Messianic prophecies were wide open for him to see, God blinded the Prince of Darkness to those prophecies, even as Satan brought those prophecies to fulfillment. And by blinding the enemy of our souls to truth, God used his treachery to bring salvation to the world.

Oh! Isn’t it glorious and wondrous to realize that even the devil is always subordinate the full sovereignty of Almighty God – AND that our God will blind Satan, his demons, and also people to truth so that God’s plan will be brought to pass. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is just one more evidence of a plethora of evidence of God's unassailable sovereignty over all creation – the seen and the unseen, the physical and the spiritual.

The resurrection undeniably demonstrates the sovereignty of God as well as His inconceivable mercy – mercy to embrace dead and putrefying sinners to Himself.

That’s what the unregenerate man and woman is, by the way – spiritually dead and in a state of putrefaction. Listen to this word from St Paul to the Ephesian Christians: “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”

Of course, the Holy Spirit didn’t stop with those verses. Because of the atoning death and resurrection of Jesus, Paul could continue: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.”

Resurrection. Not just of Christ, but because of Christ, you and I who love Jesus will also experience physical resurrection to eternal life.

If you’ve ever smelled a dead and putrefying animal, you’ll remember the smell. It is nauseatingly unforgettable. And so, when Jesus told those gathered at Lazarus’ tomb to remove the stone, Martha objected, saying, “Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for he has been dead four days.” 

I’ll never forget years ago, as I jogged along the road, I smelled the cat before I saw it. As I rounded the corner, there it was. It’s grotesque mask of death rotting in the San Diego sun. I guessed it had been there for days, considering how badly decomposed its body was.

Like I say, I smelled the cat before I saw it. And as I passed it by, this strange thought dropped into my mind: No amount of cologne would have been able to mask that scent. We could’ve dressed it up in the finest of cat clothing, placed a gold chain around its neck – but nothing would have removed the stench of death from that poor creature.
 
Isn’t that what the scoffer, the unbeliever, the mocker of Christ – isn’t that what they try to do for themselves? As St Paul wrote, scoffers and unbelievers are all spiritually dead and rotting in their sins.

Yet, they strive to dress themselves up as best as they can. They dab perfume or cologne on themselves. If possible and according to their circumstances, they add to all their finery educational degrees, they increase their bank accounts, drive the nicest cars and live in luxurious homes . . . But there is nothing they can do to remove their stench – the smell of spiritual death that God can smell even on the other side of the universe.

And only God Himself can remove that stench of death – and that only through the cleansing blood of the resurrected Jesus. When Christ calls our names from spiritual darkness and spiritual putrefaction into His light and life, we become to God a fragrant aroma. As St Paul tells us: (2 Corinthians 2:15-16)  “For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life.”

Christians listening here to my voice, Jesus called you from Death’s stench to Life’s fragrant aroma. He called you, and you responded by confessing your need for His atoning blood sacrifice to cleanse your soul from sin’s darkest blot.

And if you are NOT a Christian – you might be religious, but you’ve never acknowledged to your Creator that your sins have made you unworthy of eternal life – if you are NOT yet a Christian, then Easter Sunday – Resurrection Sunday 2024 – is a great time to move from darkness to light, from death to eternal life.

Everyone, listen. Please. God is calling your name. He is calling MY name. He calls all of us – child of God or not-yet-a-child-of-God – He calls our name again and again.

So, will you come – again and again? Confess to Him your sins. ROUTINELY confess to Him your sins and repent. Turn from sin’s darkness to the light that follows repentance. And so I now close this message with a few lines from the hymn I am about to play. Let these words be part of your prayer:

Out of my bondage, sorrow and night, Jesus, I come; Jesus I come.
Into Thy freedom, gladness and light, Jesus, I come to Thee.
Out of my sickness into Thy health, Out of my wanting and into Thy wealth,
Out of my sin and into Thyself,  Jesus, I come to Thee.